Liberty Newspost Feb-21-2011 - docshare.tips (2024)

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- 21/02/11

http://www.LibertyNewspost.com

Former presidents Bush, Clinton team up for civility
JoAnne Allen (Front Row Washington)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:23:03 AM

Two Libyan pilots defect, say ordered to bomb protesters Reuters
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:21:56 PM

Feb 21, 2011 01:23 EST Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush are joining forces again — this time for civil discourse. Democrat Clinton and Republican Bush have agreed to serve as honorary chairmen of The National Institute for Civil Discourse which opens Monday in Tucson, The Washington Post reports. The privately-funded, nonpartisan facility at the University of Arizona will be a center for debate, research, education and policy about civility in public discourse, the Post says. The shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and constituents at a political gathering in Tucson led to debate about the sometimes

nasty tone of political discourse in the United States and calls for more civility. Arizona University Provost Meredith Hay said that although the shootings were not linked to public discourse the incident “created a space for us to think about civil discourse.” The Post says former Supreme

Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor and former Senate majority leader Thomas Daschle will serve as honorary cochairmen of the center created in the aftermath of the shootings. Six bystanders were killed, and 13 others were wounded when a gunman opened fire on the gathering outside a supermarket in

January. Authorities said Giffords, who’s recovering at a Houston rehabilitation center, was the principal target. Bush and Clinton joined forces in 2005 to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina. They also led an international effort to help the recovery from the 2004 tsunami that swept South Asia. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Donna Carson (Clinton, Bush after viewing damage from Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas, Oct 2008) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Globe and Mail Two Libyan pilots defect, say ordered to bomb protesters Reuters VALLETTA (Reuters) - Two Libyan Air Force fighter pilots defected on Monday and flew their jets to Malta where they told authorities they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said. They said the two pilots, both colonels,... Italy on alert as Libyan jet pilots flee Sydney Morning Herald Libyan pilots land in Malta, seek political asylum (2nd Roundup) Monsters and Critics.com Libyan military launches air strike on protesters: Report The Hindu KOAA Colorado Springs NewsInternational Business TimesUPI.com all 403 news articles »

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Leading party hopes for better deal on bailout (AP)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:04:53 PM

Ireland's banks borrowed heavily on bond markets and loaned the money to real estate developers D U B L I N – I r e l a n d ' s n e x t during the boom. Now the boom government wants to spread the is bust, the real estate loans are pain from the nation's bank not being repaid, leaving the collapse to investors in bank banks crippled. Outgoing Prime bonds, an ambition that could be M i n i s t e r B r i a n C o w e n ' s p o p u l a r w i t h h a r d - p r e s s e d government decided to have taxpayers — but disrupt the taxpayers backstop the bank's nation's bailout agreement and debts, a major factor in forcing worsen Europe's debt crisis. the government into seeking a There has been much talk in the bailout. campaign leading up to Friday's "I think it is an obscenity that you national election about "burning" would in every instance expect the bondholders and subjecting the taxpayer to front up for what's t h e i r i n v e s t m e n t s t o s h a r p happened in the banking system," discounts, or "haircuts." Kenny said on the campaign trail It recently happened in Denmark, last week. where senior bond holders in His party also pledged to try to re Amagerbanken stand to lose 40 -negotiate terms of the European percent of their stakes. And it Union-International Monetary already has happened to investors Fund bailout that rescued the in unsecured bonds of Anglo Irish country from bankruptcy. Bank; they lost 80 percent or 95 The details of his aims, though, percent of their investment. are more modest. He says he It's a popular idea in Ireland, but wouldn't invest any more money there are widespread doubts in Anglo Irish Bank, now 93 whether Enda Kenny — leader of percent owned by taxpayers, until the opinion poll-leading Fine Gael holders of senior bonds "share party and Ireland's likely next that burden." Investors in other leader — can go further. The banks might be spared. E u r o p e a n C o m m i s s i o n i s Fine Gael's aim in renegotiating opposed, and investment ratings the euro67.5 billion ($92 billion) agencies have fired warning shots credit line from the European t h i s m o n t h b y f u r t h e r Central Bank and the IMF is to downgrading Irish bank bonds. get a more favorable interest rate,

not to abandon the deal. The EU's economics commissioner, Olli Rehn, has ruled out any revision of the bailout this year, though he sees room for maneuver in 2012 and beyond. "I'm, of course, following the Irish debate closely, and I'm aware that in democratic politics we have freedom of speech and freedom of positions," Rehn said earlier this month. He stressed that the EU's agreement is with the Irish state, not with a political party, "and we expect continuity and respect of the memorandum." Propping up Anglo Irish Bank has been costly: taxpayers have put up euro34.3 billion, nearly 22 percent of Ireland's GDP and 60 percent of the euro57.5 billion in public money which is shoring up the banks. Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin calculates that the five banks which received state aid have euro15.4 billion in outstanding senior unsecured debt and euro6 billion in outstanding subordinated debt. Fine Gael has promised it will dissolve Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society by the end of this year. "Further losses incurred in this process will

be shared with remaining bondholders," the party manifesto says. The Labour Party, Fine Gael's potential coalition partner, also talks of bondholders sharing, while Sinn Fein, the party associated with the Irish Republican Army, has made "burn the bondholders" a part of its manifesto. Seamus Coffey, an economist at University College Cork, says the bondholders increasingly are Irish -based — a bit over half now compared to a quarter in 2008. While the identities of the holders are unknown, he said Monday, talk of "burning" bondholders "is becoming more and more ourselves." Although the European Commission is opposed hitting all investors in senior bank debt, which stands ahead of all other creditors in the line for repayment, Elizabeth Afseth, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London, said that would be expected if Anglo Irish is put out of business. In a liquidation, "you see what's left and do what's appropriate," she said. But if that is done with the implicit support of the EU, it would cause jitters for some of the shakier banks in weaker countries

such as in Portugal and Spain, she said. Just talking about haircuts for bank bonds has led the Fitch and Moody's ratings agencies to downgrade more Irish bonds to junk status. "Moody's notes that the Irish government's willingness to provide support beyond what has been committed to date has become far less certain and more difficult to predict, resulting in a significant lowering of our support assumptions for all domestic Irish banks, and the subsequent downgrades of the unguaranteed senior unsecured debt ratings," the ratings agency said. Fitch Ratings said bank debts and the government are intertwined, and a senior debt default could have "negative repercussions for the fragile euro zone bank funding markets beyond Ireland's border." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Gadhafi's hold on Libya weakens in protest wave (AP)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:12:51 PM

AP - Deep cracks opened in

Moammar Gadhafi's regime Monday, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots

defecting and a major government building ablaze after clashes in the capital of Tripoli. Protesters called for another night of

defiance against the Arab world's longest-serving leader despite a crackdown.

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Wisconsin governor calls on Democrats to come home (Reuters)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:40:37 PM

bargaining power include financial concessions. An estimated 55,000 MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) demonstrators rallied outside and – Wisconsin Governor Scott inside the Capitol building on Walker on Monday called for the Saturday. Big crowds were return of the 14 Democratic state expected again on Monday, when senators who left the state last t h e W i s c o n s i n E d u c a t i o n week to avoid voting on a bill that Association Council, representing that severely curbs state workers' some 98,000 public education bargaining rights. employees, was planning a protest " T h e y ' v e g o t t o c o m e t o rally. Wisconsin, do the job that they Monday is a mandatory furlough were elected to do, do the job that day for state workers as well as a they're paid to do," Walker said in U.S. holiday, enabling many to go an interview on ABC's "Good to Madison. Morning America." The Democratic senators have "If they want to do that, we will l e f t t h e s t a t e t o d e n y t h e sit down and talk to them. But the Wisconsin state Senate a quorum bottom line is we can't negotiate n e e d e d t o c o n s i d e r t h e over a budget because we are c o n t r o v e r s i a l p r o p o s a l . broke and we need the money." Wisconsin Democratic senate Walker said the state is trying to minority leader Mark Miller told balance its budget, projected to CBS' "The Early Show" on have a $3.6 billion deficit over the Monday that public employees next several years. "There really is h a d a g r e e d t o e c o n o m i c no room to negotiate," he said. concessions and the governor Thousands of demonstrators n e e d e d t o b e o p e n t o a gathered in and around the compromise on other matters. W i s c o n s i n s t a t e c a p i t a l o n "The governor has not done Monday morning, despite the cold anything except insist that it has weather, for a second week of to be his way, all or nothing," protests to oppose the newly Miller said. "The governor needs elected Republican governor's t o r e c o g n i z e t h a t t h i s i s a budget proposals, which in democracy and in a democracy addition to reductions in union you negotiate."

"The unions, the public employees, have agreed to the economic demands, all they ask is they be able to retain the workers' rights and we are supporting them on that," he said. Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said that while the Democrats won't want to stay away for too long, there's nothing the Republicans can do to compel them to come back if Walker is unwilling to negotiate. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of pressure from the districts for the senators to come back," Heck said. "And let's face it -- it's a budget repair bill that doesn't have to be done until June. There's no rush." 'NERVES ARE RAW' Scott Becher, a former Republican legislative aide who now works as a political and public relations consultant, agreed the polarization in the state capitol was unprecedented and might affect the legislature long after the current debate ends. "Nerves are raw," Becher said. "Both sides are dug in deep. Friendships will be changed. This is really hard." Public sector workers in West

Virginia, in support of the Wisconsin protests, also plan a rally on Monday to demand better pay and improved working conditions. Wisconsin has become the flashpoint for a U.S. struggle over efforts to roll back pay, benefits and bargaining rights of government workers. If the majority Republicans prevail, other states such as Ohio and Tennessee could be buoyed in efforts to take on the longstanding powerful unions. The Wisconsin State Assembly is due to take up the Walker proposals on Tuesday. Republicans have a large enough majority to quorum in the Assembly without the Democrats. Republican majority leader Scott Fitzgerald may convene the Senate on Tuesday with or without the Democrats, local media reported on Sunday. Fitzgerald's party holds a 19-14 majority but needs a quorum of 20 to vote on spending bills. Other bills require only a quorum of 17 members. U.S. state and local governments are struggling to balance budgets after the recession decimated their finances. Other states like Texas, Arizona and Ohio are relying

mainly on cuts in spending, while Minnesota and Illinois are raising taxes. The changes sought by Walker would make state workers contribute more to health insurance and pensions, end government collection of union dues, let workers opt out of unions and make unions hold recertification votes every year. Union and Democratic leaders say they are willing to compromise on benefits if Republicans back off the bid to weaken collective bargaining, but Walker and his allies have stood firm. (Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by James Kelleher, Jeff Mayers and David Bailey; Editing by Peter Bohan, Tim Gaynor and Eric Walsh) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Teens Posting 'Cutting' Videos on YouTube (HealthDay)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:02:43 PM

HealthDay - MONDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The YouTube videos are disturbing --

images of teens with their arms bleeding and scarred where they sliced into themselves with a

razor blade or other sharp object; poetry about pain, loneliness and hopelessness.

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Newstablet Edition

EU ministers urge Libya to end attacks on protests (AP)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:34:52 PM

comprehensive economic and trade package to help countries in Northern Africa affected by the BRUSSELS – The European turmoil. The discussions would U n i o n o n M o n d a y s h a r p l y continue in coming days and criticized Libyan authorities over weeks, she said. their crackdown against pro- "This is our neighborhood ... democracy protesters, overcoming Europe should be judged by its a split over how tough they should a b i l i t y t o a c t i n i t s o w n be in denouncing the teetering n e i g h b o r h o o d , " s h e s a i d . g o v e r n m e n t o f s t r o n g m a n During the meeting, a number of Moammar Gadhafi. foreign ministers, including those T h e E U f o r e i g n m i n i s t e r s of Britain and Germany, blasted c o n d e m n e d " t h e o n g o i n g Gadhafi's regime and demanded repression against demonstrators t o u g h m e a s u r e s a g a i n s t i t , in Libya and deplores the violence o f f i c i a l s s a i d . B u t o t h e r s , and death of civilians," said a including Italy and the Czech statement released after the Republic, called for a more regular monthly meeting of the measured tone saying Libya was bloc's 27 foreign ministers. on the verge of chaos. EU President Herman Van British Foreign Secretary Rompuy said in a separate William Hague urged Libya to statement he was "horrified by the investigate the violence and hold g r o w i n g n u m b e r o f h u m a n those responsible to account, to casualties among demonstrators." allow international human rights E U f o r e i g n p o l i c y c h i e f monitors into the country, and to Catherine Ashton called for an end restrictions on the internet immediate end to the use of force and the harassment of journalists. against protesters, adding that "The credibility of the Libyan peaceful protests must be allowed. government in these matters has "I hope the Libyan authorities will been undermined so far by their listen to that," she said. failure to protect their own people Ashton, who is traveling to Egypt and to respond to their legitimate late Monday, said the ministers grievances," Hague said. had held preliminary talks on a But Italy's Foreign Minister

Franco Frattini expressed concern about a possible civil war and breakup of Libya, saying he feared that an Islamic state could be set up in the area bordering Egypt. "I'm very concerned about the idea of dividing Libya in two, in Cyrenaica and in Tripoli. That would be really dangerous," he said. Cyrenaica is the country's eastern region, where the largest anti-government protests have taken place. Libya has seen the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country of the wave of protests sweeping the region that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. Since the six days of unrest began, more than 200 people have been killed in Libya, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents. On Sunday, Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's son went on Libyan television and offered to put forward reforms within days that he described as "historic." Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said the regime was willing to remove some restrictions and begin discussions on a constitution. He also offered to change a number of laws, including those covering

the media and the penal code. But Gadhafi's son also said Libya's armed forces are with his father, and "We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet." The government in Tripoli has threatened to discontinue cooperation with the EU in blocking immigration from the North Africa to Europe, if the bloc continues backing the protesters. Frattini, whose country is European nation to Libya, had already received thousands of Tunisian migrants after the overthrow of that country's authoritarian government last month. The EU has deployed a 35member team of customs officials and border agents to assist Italian authorities on the southernmost island of Lampedusa off the North African coastline. "We Europeans are very concerned about the migratory flows impact that would be one of the consequences of more turbulence in North Africa," Frattini said. But other ministers dismissed the Libyan threat. "The European Union should not

let itself be blackmailed (by Gadhafi)," said Werner Hoyer, Germany's state minister for foreign affairs. Meanwhile, NATO's SecretaryGeneral Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was shocked at the use of "indiscriminate violence" against peaceful demonstrators in Libya. In an unusually strong statement, Fogh Rasmussen appealed to Libyan authorities to "stop repression against unarmed civilians." "The people of Libya ... have expressed a strong desire for democratic change," Fogh Rasmussen said. "Their legitimate aspirations must be addressed. Freedom of expression and assembly are fundamental rights which cannot be denied." ____ AP writer Raf Casert contributed from Brussels. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Arrested US official is actually CIA contractor (AP)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:16:33 PM

AP - An American jailed in Pakistan for the fatal shooting of two armed men was secretly

working for the CIA and scouting a neighborhood when he was arrested, a disclosure likely to

further frustrate U.S. government efforts to free the man and strain relations between two countries

partnered in a fragile alliance in the war on terror.

Newstablet Edition

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Egypt freezes American held in Pakistan European Union condemns Libya violence; protests flare Mubarak's is CIA contractor-US in Tripoli - Los Angeles Times assets (AP) sources - Reuters
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:15:38 PM

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:21:56 PM

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Reuters American held in Pakistan is CIA contractor-US sources Reuters WASHINGTON Feb 21 (Reuters) - Raymond Davis, the American held in Pakistan on double murder charges for an incident in Lahore last month, is employed by the CIA as a

contractor, US sources closely following the case said on Monday.... Pakistan defiant in face of US pressure to free CIA agent The Guardian US official: Accused American in Pakistan a CIA contractor CNN International Accused American in Pakistan works for CIA USA Today BBC News- Fox NewsWashington Post all 2,276 news articles »

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] ABC Online European Union condemns Libya violence; protests flare in Tripoli Los Angeles Times The 27 EU foreign ministers issue a statement saying they deplore 'the violence and death of civilians.' Protests against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi rage for the first time in the capital,

Tripoli; unconfirmed reports say pro-regime snipers have... Report: Military Aircraft Bomb Libyan Protesters MyStateline.com EDITORIAL: Al Qaeda's Sputnik Moment Washington Times Libya protests: Amateur video captures violent demonstrations Telegraph.co.uk The Atlantic- myfoxny.comMyFox Chicago all 160 news articles »

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Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:38:20 PM

AP - Egypt's top prosecutor requested on Monday the freezing of the foreign assets of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family, announced state TV.

Derren Brown Reveals Secrets of Cold Reading
Jeff Pierce (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:07:55 PM

Pakistan intelligence Trying brain EU ministers urge Wisconsin governor says US gunman is pacemakers to zap psychiatric disease (AP) Libya to end attacks calls on Democrats to CIA (AFP) come home (Reuters) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) (Yahoo! News: Most Popular) on protests (AP)
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Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:34:52 PM

(Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:40:37 PM

Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:14:14 PM

AP - The European Union on Monday sharply criticized Libyan authorities over their crackdown against pro-democracy protesters, overcoming a split over how tough they should be in denouncing the teetering government of strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Reuters - Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Monday called for the return of the 14 Democratic state senators who left the state last week to avoid voting on a bill that that severely curbs state workers' bargaining rights.

AFP - A Pakistani intelligence official said Monday that an American in custody for killing two men was an undercover CIA contractor, setting off new friction in a crisis with the United States.

News of Democracy Spreads Everywhere Except...
(Epoch Times | All headlines)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:51:11 PM

If you’re not familiar with Derren Brown I highly recommend checking out some of his Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:47:26 PM programs as they are extremely interesting in pointing out how AP - Call them brain pacemakers, p e o p l e a r e m a n i p u l a t e d i n tiny implants that hold promise everyday scenarios. In this for fighting tough psychiatric interview with Richard Dawkins diseases — if scientists can figure he points out some of the methods out just where in all that gray that mediums and psychics matter to put them. use…and tells many tof their trade secrets within that industry that illustrate the deception that goes on behind the scenes. If you click on this Join the conversation about this story »

full-text content] News of Democracy Spreads Everywhere Except...

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve

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Business/ Technology/

Newstablet Edition

Advice: Integrating Social Media And IR
Inside Investor Relations (Business Insider)

ABI Calls For More Female Directors
Tim Human (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:42:39 PM

regular discussion on LinkedIn. You can then focus your efforts on these two platforms rather than Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:45:33 PM trying to cover the whole gamut By Catherine McEwing of social media. Q: I want to integrate social Next, identify suitable material to media into my IR program. What promote. You probably have lots do you advise? of excellent website content and A: First, work out your baseline: information on company events you need to know which social that can be communicated just as media are already working for well on Twitter and LinkedIn as you, where your company is being on your website. Twitter works discussed in the social media particularly well for short news space, and what is being said. pieces such as the announcement Knowing the extent of current of a new executive appointment, coverage will enable you to or the arrival of your new online prioritize your social media annual report. And with the efforts and judge their degree of facility to add URL links to take success with relevant analytics. T w e e t e r s d i r e c t l y t o y o u r It will also enable you to firm up corporate website, you can easily what it is you hope to achieve see where the spikes in traffic to from incorporating social media your website occur as a result of into your i n v e s t o r using social media to direct communications, and to articulate people to specific content. those successes that you want to Rather than rushing to produce take to the CEO. new material, our advice is to Several firms now include social work with what you already have. media monitoring to help in this We have found a lot of people regard, and there are also service reluctant to embrace social media providers that can issue you with because of concerns over how an email alert whenever your much time it will take up and company is mentioned. Let’s say uncertainty over which outlets – that in your initial research you Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – find your company is being they should use. By seeing social Tweeted about regularly, or that media as a simple extension of your industry is the subject of existing IR efforts, however, the

degree of original effort can be minimized. Rio Tinto does this well, using Twitter to release results, draw attention to media interviews and announce other news. We are also increasingly seeing the growth of social media use among commentators. A 2010 survey of financial journalists conducted by PR agency Broadgate Mainland finds 26 percent of financial journalists use social media on a daily basis as a source for story ideas and research. Increasingly, therefore, professional communicators are finding social media can be a place to connect not only with investors, but also with other key stakeholders. By exploiting the possibilities social media have to offer, you can ensure far more people are made aware of the events and activities that are most important to you and your company. Good luck with your foray into this new space. Catherine McEwing runs the European individual software division of Morningstar. Join the conversation about this story »

percent of FTSE 100 directors, while the proportion at FTSE 250 companies was even lower at only The Association of British 7 percent, according to research Insurers (ABI), the members of from Cranfield University. which control around 15 percent Later this month, Lord Davies of of the UK stock market, is to Abersoch will release a major begin scrutinizing the number of report on the issue commissioned women on boards in a move that by the UK government last year. could lead to more companies Improving diversity will help being challenged by shareholders boards avoid group think, which over board diversity. is more likely to occur if board ‘The ABI's Institutional Voting m e m b e r s h a v e s i m i l a r Information Service, which backgrounds and experiences, monitors corporate governance says Craig. standards, will this year, for the She rejects enforcing female f i r s t t i m e , m o n i t o r b o a r d s ' quotas as the way to bring about approach to diversity,’ writes change, however. ‘The skills and Maggie Craig, the acting director- experiences of the individuals general of the ABI, in a column need to be relevant and individual for the Telegraph. boards will require different ‘This will allow investors to mixes of members at different challenge boards on diversity and times,’ Craig writes. after a year we will be able to UK companies are set to avoid report back on what we have q u o t a s a f t e r L o r d D a v i e s found.’ confirmed this weekend that he The move comes amid a major did not support the practice. debate in the UK about how to Join the conversation about this tackle the low number of female story » directors at listed companies. In 2009, women made up just 12

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Upside and Downside Scenarios for NYT's Online Paywall
Trefis (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 4:00:00 PM

Bank of America Corp. (BAC): Bank on It
Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:00:00 PM

Filed under: New York Times'A' (NYT) The New York Times( NYT) competes with publications like News Corp's( NWS) Wall Street Journal as well as Yahoo( YHOO), Google( GOOG) and Aol. ( AOL)for online advertising dollars. NYT is expected to launch a new paywall for its online site in the near future. According to the report, the NYT is planning to charge around $20 for a digital bundle that includes Times online and Apple iPad app access, and less than $10 for webonly access. We estimate that NYT's most valuable business remains within its print circulation and advertising business, through which it derives an estimated 60%

of its stock value. The company derives an incremental 20% of its stock value from its online advertising business. Continue reading Upside and Downside Scenarios for NYT's Online Paywall Upside and Downside Scenarios for NYT's Online Paywall originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Filed under: Newsletters, Bank of America (BAC), Stocks to Buy, Housing "Compelling valuations and improving fundamentals mean that 2011 could be a strong year for shares of the biggest U.S. banks," suggests Elliott Gue. The editor of Personal Finance explains, "To benefit from this outlook, Bank of America ( BAC) is a new addition to the model Growth Portfolio. "Bank of America suffered mightily during the financial crisis of 2007-09. Not only were the bank's legacy loan portfolios hit hard by delinquencies and chargeoffs, but the company also

assumed additional liabilities and credit risk when it acquired Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch. Continue reading Bank of America Corp. (BAC): Bank on It Bank of America Corp. (BAC): Bank on It originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Seadrill (SDRL): Drilling for Income
Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:00:00 PM

Asian Investors Pull Back From Funds
Tim Human (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:44:26 PM

The Asian fund management industry has been dealt a blow by the release of figures that show the speed of outflows increased in the final quarter of 2010. Asian investors pulled a net

$23.3 bn from domestic funds in Q4 of last year, adding to net outflows of $17.5 bn in Q3, reports the Financial Times, quoting data from Lipper FMI. The outflows from Q3 alone had canceled out inflows in the first half of the year, adds the newspaper.

The slump in assets under management is being driven by a number of different factors, according to the FT, including: the legacy of the financial crisis, which has left investors wary of the fund management industry; new regulation (particularly in India and Hong Kong); and the

Filed under: International Markets, Newsletters, Commodities, Oil, Stocks to Buy "Seadrill ( SDRL) carries with it a unique opportunity for income investors seeking a pure play in deep water drilling outside of the post-BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico," says growth and income specialist Bryan Perry. The editor of The Cash Machine explains, "The company was formed in 2005 and owns the most state-of-the-art drilling equipment in the entire industry that commands premium day rates. Continue reading Seadrill short-term, momentum-driven (SDRL): Drilling for Income mindset of investors in the region. Seadrill (SDRL): Drilling for Source: Financial Times Income originally appeared on Join the conversation about this BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Feb story » 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

8

Business/ News Wire/ Technology/

Newstablet Edition

Potash: Well-Positioned American held in Pakistan is CIA for the Food Boom contractor: U.S. sources
Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:00:00 PM

(Reuters: Top News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:36:51 PM

A U.S. consulate employee is escorted by police and officials out of court after facing a judge in Lahore, January 28, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Tariq Saeed WASHINGTON| Mon Feb 21, aforementioned. 2011 1:36pm EST Continue reading Potash: WellWASHINGTON(Reuters) Positioned for the Food Boom Raymond Davis, the American Potash: Well-Positioned for the Food Boom originally appeared held in Pakistan on double murder on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 charges for a shooting in Lahore Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please last month, is employed by the see our terms for use of feeds. CIA as a contractor, U.S. sources Permalink| Email this| Comments closely following the case said on Monday. Davis, who is being held in a Futuristic Neon Fashion Decorative Woven Lahore jail amid a diplomatic - 'The Girl Who Fell to Neckwear - These dispute over whether he has diplomatic immunity, was Earth' Features Vibrant Julianata Knitwear working as a "protective officer," Venutian Style Accessories are the sources said. (GALLERY) Creatively Intricate U.S. officials who declined to be identified told Reuters Davis' (TREND HUNTER - The Latest (GALLERY) duties as a protective officer -Trends) (TREND HUNTER - The Latest essentially a bodyguard -- were to Trends) Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:58:01 PM provide physical security to U.S. Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:43:02 PM Embassy and consular officers, as ( TrendHunter.com) Though 'The Girl Who Fell to Earth' flaunts ( TrendHunter.com) Woven w e l l a s v i s i t i n g A m e r i c a n g a r m e n t s n o t a l i e n t o scarves can be absolutely dignitaries. contemporary terrestrial runways, beautiful and these Julianata The officials strongly denied the Simon Burstall editorial Knitwear Accessories ensure that news reports alleging Davis was exudes an air of otherworldliness. your gorgeous woolly neckwear part of a covert CIA-led team of Model Quinta Witzel was styled need not be put away in moth o p e r a t i v e s c o n d u c t i n g surveillance on militant groups in by Karina... balls for most of the year. Made Pakistan. The officials insisted of cashmere,... Davis was not part of any undercover operations team. Two U.S. sources familiar with Filed under: Stocks to Buy, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT) The impressive story continues with Potash Corp. ( POT), first discussed here on March 3, 2009, at a price of $80.81. In November, BHP Billiton ( BBL) withdrew its unsolicited proposal to acquire Potash for $130 a share. As outlined in December, Potash is worth a lot more than $130, and the recent move to above $180 confirms the

the matter confirmed to Reuters that Davis, a former member of the U.S. Special Forces, had previously worked on contract as a security officer for Xe Services, a controversial private contractor formerly known as Blackwater. Confirmation of a connection between the jailed American and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency came as President Barack Obama's administration sought to step up pressure on authorities in Pakistan to improve security for Davis. The shooting has caused outrage in Pakistan, whose help Washington relies upon to quash militants. There have been media reports citing a connection with the CIA. Davis has been held by authorities in Lahore since last month on charges of murdering two men who Davis says were trying to rob him. A U.S. source who has been following the case closely said Monday Washington is greatly concerned that Davis, for whom the U.S. government has been claiming diplomatic immunity, is facing enormous risks to his life in the jail where he is being held. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Editing by Frances Kerry and Todd Eastham) • Tweet this • Share this • Link this • Digg this

• Email • Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam, and we review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. Comments (6) Adam_Smith wrote: Perhaps the Pakistani authorities will wring a spying confession from Mr. Davis using US approved “enhanced interrogation” techniques such as sleep deprivation and stress positions. auger wrote: He doesn’t really look the part of a robbery target, unless you are a very poor robber. How will this get buried? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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9

2011 Canadian International AutoShow (Photos)
(Epoch Times | All headlines)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:32:20 PM

TORONTO, CANADA–The 2011 Canadian International AutoShow is on at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and it is open to the public from Feb. 18 to Feb. 27. On Media Day morning just before the public days, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) presented its award for various categories, including the coveted Canadian Car of the Year (COTY) award. This year GM takes the COTY honour with its Chevrolet Cruze. All three of the Detroit Big Three were singing rebound songs this year, celebrating 2010 as a year of recovery and getting back on track. Hot on the heels of winning the AJAC COTY award, GM launched an aggressive assault across the segments with the compact Sonic and the sevenpassenger Orlando utility vehicle under the Chevrolet brand, plus the Buick Verano small luxury sedan. GM also had the beautiful Camaro convertible on display. Ford had a big year in 2010 bringing the Fiesta and its new Ford body style to the North American market. Proud winner of AJAC’s Best New Small Car Under $21,000 award, in 2011 the Fiesta will see its new body design on the redesigned Focus and Escape, as well as the all-new C-Max. Ford put up a big stage performance to show off the C-

Max and Focus Electric. Story continues after the slide show Chrysler trumpeted its success with the Dodge Grand Caravan on stage, and at the same time introduced the refreshed 300 alongside its angry brother, the redesigned Dodge Charger. Chrysler is also launching the tiny Fiat 500 in North America this year. The Fiat 500 already has many car enthusiasts waiting in anticipation, and it should prove to be a tough competitor for the Mini. Overall, the Japanese sector felt somewhat low-key this year, mostly due to the lack of exciting surprises from Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, Mazda, and Mitsubishi. Lexus did bring the LFA supercar to the show floor to generate some buzz, and it certainly had admirers busy taking photos of this rare appearance. If anything, it might have kept some people preoccupied snapping pictures there while Toyota was presenting the Prius Plug-In right after. On the Honda side, the 2012 Civic Concept took the center of the show floor, while on the Acura side the main attraction was the refreshed 2012 TL. Mazda used the press conference time to present its SkyActive initiative, which promises acrossthe-board improvement to its vehicle line-up going forward. Nissan unveiled a very sharp, futuristic-looking Ellure Hybrid Concept, but the big hit of the

show was the polar bear mascot at the LEAF electric vehicle booth, a fitting remember of the concern of global warming. Several media attendees went forward to have their pictures taken with the tall but adorable furry friend. After Nissan, Infiniti introduced the M35h Hybrid. I was not expecting to see much other than the Impreza WRX and STI at the Subaru display, so I was pleasantly surprised by the snazzy stage performance for the unveiling of the Hybrid Tourer Concept. It was quite a beautiful design, and the generous use of spotlights from below made it look even more glamorous. The Europeans and Korean companies continued their strong presence from 2010. Kia showed the Ray Concept alongside the new Optima, which had been known as the Magentis in Canada until the 2011 model year. Hyundai showed off its Veloster, Sonata Blue Drive, and Blue Will Plug-In Concept while announcing the improved Elantra and Accent. Over at the Land Rover/Jaguar booth, the Range Rover Evoque made its Canadian debut with the “Hello Toronto” slogan. The Evoque is a smallish luxury utility vehicle with a very stylish exterior and a luxurious interior. BMW unveiled the 1 Series M Coupé. Unlike its bigger siblings, it is not called the M1, but rather, the 1 M Coupé. The concept behind this car is race-worthy

performance in a smaller package, so BMW threw in the 335 bhp, twin-turbo 3.0 L inline-6 engine from the 335i and Z4. The estimated price is around C$51,000, which puts it about $20,000 apart from the bigger M3. The Volkswagen conference talked about the large plant in Tennessee, then introduced the 2012 Passat with the extended version of the Darth Vader kid Super Bowl commercial. Audi unveiled the 2012 A6 and the TT RS. The new A6 has incorporated several new design cues in the front, looking very clean and elegant. With a base price of C$64,000, it will be competing against the BMW 5Series and the Mercedes-Benz EClass. The TT RS is Audi’s attempt at cementing the roadster’s perception as a real powerhouse in the $50,000-plus roadster segment. Powered by one more cylinder than the TTS, the 2.5 L 5 -cylinder engine cranks out 360 bhp and 330 lb-ft of torque. Coupled with the Quattro AWD system, this will be a serious road -rocket. In the Mercedes-Benz area, the highly acclaimed SLS AMG, which won AJAC’s Best New Design award in the morning, was being showcased on the floor. During the press conference, M-B announced the C63 AMG Affalterbach Edition and the new SLK hard-top convertible

roadster. The Affalterbach Edition, being offered exclusively in Canada, distinguishes itself from the standard C63 AMG with unique visual elements such as the Magno Allanite Grey paint, red brake calipers, black alloy wheels, and a lip spoiler. On the performance side, it is standardequipped with the AMG Performance Package. The announced price is C$81,000. Meanwhile, the exterior of the new SLK roadster has been refreshed with the bold design elements of the more recent Mercedes vehicles. In the exotics exhibit section, Montreal-based HTT Technologies unveiled the latest version of the Pléthore LC-750, the first Canadian supercar. As the name would suggest, the car packs 750 horses under the hood and sprints from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3 seconds, thanks to the light weight of 1,250 kg/2,756 lb. The interior has a three-seat arrangement (centre driver seat + 2 back seats). The announced price for this beast is C$795,000. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Battle Brewing on Union Mandates
(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:33:44 PM

The standoff in Wisconsin over the benefits and rights of public employees could for the first time in decades spur changes across the country over so-called "rightto-work" laws -- or laws that prohibit unions from forcing workers to join. For years, the country has been split practically 50-50 between states that allow employees to decide whether to join a union and states that allow unions to require membership. Most southern and central Midwestern states are right -to-work states, while the West Coast, New England and the northern Midwest comprise what critics call "forced-unionism" states. Along with requiring public employees to contribute more to pensions and health care coverage, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to put his state in the right-to-work column. His proposals have touched off an epic battle in Madison between pro-labor Democrats and Republicans who say they're just trying to balance the budget. And now that battle is spreading. Throngs of union members and supporters gathered in Indianapolis Monday for a protest against a proposed bill in the Indiana House that would restrict collective bargaining rights and make it a misdemeanor to require

any employee to join or pay dues to a union. Republican state Rep. Jerry Torr, the bill's author, described his proposal as a tool to attract business to Indiana. He told Fox59 in Indianapolis that prospective employers are avoiding the state because they're worried about its work rules. "What I'm trying to do is bring jobs to Indiana," Torr said. "We have lost manufacturing jobs in Indiana because we are not a right -to-work state." But opponents say it will lower pay and hurt workers. "This is an attack on the middle class," Allison Luthe, a community organizer with Central Indiana Jobs With Justice, told FoxNews.com. She estimated about 2,000 people were at the Indianapolis protest as of Monday morning. Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott claimed the bill would be a "political payoff to wealthy campaign donors," according to Fox59. Currently 22 states have right-towork laws, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Research by the National Conference of State Legislatures shows that several states in New England and in the northern Midwest are now considering right-to-work proposals. Minnesota state Rep. Keith Downey wants right-to-work

language enshrined in his state's constitution -- that's part of a proposal he's putting forward that would also slash the state work force and freeze pay. Michigan's Legislature is also weighing the idea of letting local jurisdictions create right-to-work zones. New Mexico, Connecticut and Alaska, among other states, have right-to-work bills currently in committee. In Wisconsin, Walker is casting every component of his plan as critical. He told "Fox News Sunday" that he's not willing to hammer out a compromise that leaves collective bargaining rights in place -- even if the state Senate Democrats who skipped town in order to prevent a vote agree on raising benefits contributions. Walker said he wants to give local governments "the tools they need to balance the budget now and in the future" by changing the collective bargaining laws. His office released a fact sheet Monday giving examples of benefits won through collective bargaining, including health insurance that covers Viagara. Plus, Walker said workers must have the "flexibility" to stay out of a union -- and in turn avoid dues payments -- if they choose. "For us, if you want to have democracy, if you want to have the American way, which is allowing people to have a choice, that's exactly what we're allowing

there," Walker said. "People see the value, they see the work, they can continue to vote to certify that union and they can continue to voluntarily have those union dues, and write the check out and give it to the union to make their case, but they shouldn't be forced to be a part of this if that's not what they want to do." But Luthe suggested the debate is about more than just giving workers a choice. She described the bills -- out of Wisconsin, Indiana and elsewhere -- as an assault on middle-class employees. She estimated wages could fall by more than $5,000 per worker if the proposal passes. "This is an organized, national agenda that they're bringing to Indiana," she told FoxNews.com. She also contested the notion that businesses are avoiding Indiana, or any non-right-to-work state, because of the union issue. "Businesses look at right-to-work as, like, number 24 out of 25 in their decision-making," she said. Asked about what the proposal could do to union membership, Luthe said it would be "devastating" but that it's not just a membership issue. "It's about quality of life," she said. Right-to-work advocates say states with those laws on the books are more conducive to economic growth. A recent report in the libertarian Cato Institute's Cato Journal written by Ohio

University economics Prof. Richard Vedder found that about 4.7 million Americans moved to right-to-work states between 2000 and 2008. The article said pay is higher in non-right-to-work states -- but, employing an economic model, Vedder estimated that right-towork states saw economic growth increase 23 percent faster between 1977 and 2007 than non-right-towork states. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, directly attributed Virginia's ease in balancing its budget to the fact that it is a rightto-work state. "We're a right-to-work state, so I don't have a lot of the challenges that (Walker) has in Wisconsin," McDonnell said. Virginia is nevertheless considering a proposal to add a right-to-work provision into the state's constitution. "Unlike in federal government, we've got to balance our budgets," McDonnell said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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11

Gaddafi under threat as revolt hits Tripoli
(Reuters: Top News)

will hit you." Two Libyan fighter jets landed in Malta, their pilots defecting after TRIPOLI| Mon Feb 21, 2011 they had been ordered to bomb 4:12pm EST protesters, Maltese government TRIPOLI(Reuters) - Libyan officials said. leader Muammar Gaddafi fought An analyst for London-based an increasingly bloody battle to consultancy Control Risks said hang on to power on Monday the reported air attacks indicated when anti-government protests the end was near for Gaddafi. against his 41-year rule struck the "These really seem to be last, capital Tripoli after days of desperate acts. If you're bombing violence in the east. your own capital, it's really hard Residents reported gunfire in to see how you can survive, " its parts of Tripoli and one political Middle East analyst Julien Barnes activist said warplanes had -Dacey said. bombed the city. "We don't know what is going on, Forces loyal to Gaddafi had all we can hear are occasional gun killed dozens of people across the shots," one Tripoli resident said. country, human rights groups and The demonstrations spread to the w i t n e s s e s s a i d , p r o m p t i n g Mediterranean Sea capital after widespread condemnation from several cities in the east, including foreign governments. Benghazi, appeared to fall to the No independent verification of opposition, according to residents' the reports was available and accounts. communications with Libya from Human Rights Watch said at least outside were difficult. 233 people had been killed in five But a picture emerged that days of violence, but opposition suggested the survival of a leader groups put the figure much who has loomed large on the higher. world stage for decades and PARLIAMENT BUILDING ON controls vast reserves of oil was in FIRE jeopardy. A coalition of Libyan Muslim "What we are witnessing today is leaders told all Muslims it was unimaginable. Warplanes and their duty to rebel against the helicopters are indiscriminately Libyan leadership because of its bombing one area after another. " b l o o d y c r i m e s a g a i n s t There are many, many dead," h u m a n i t y . " Adel Mohamed Saleh said in a The building where the General live broadcast on Al Jazeera People's Congress, or parliament, television. "Anyone who moves, meets in Tripoli was on fire on even if they are in their car they Monday, as was a police station in
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:51:23 PM

an eastern suburb, witnesses said. Al Jazeera television quoted medical sources as saying 61 people had been killed in the latest protests in Tripoli. • Share this • Link this • Digg this • Email • Reprints

change the situation for decades. or what reason ? Mostly because of economic and personal interests. Most political staff are hypocrite and won’t change the situation. The issue is that it is the population itself who can’t stand anymore to remain in poverty and this is really great that they want a brighter future. namsso wrote: Online social network are it’s really disappointing to see the definitely a trigger for a change in united nations and the united the way states are ruled. People states not doing anything about are getting wiser and are able to what’s happening to the Libyan judge the organization that is people. but they have no problem defining how they live. condemning Iranian government A world organization should even before action, I’m not a fan facilitate this change and keep the of Iranian government. united n e t w o r k (internet, states should cut all relationships communication..) as opened as with Libya and help it’s people they can. free their country from the I hope China will follow. It is not dictator. i hope they finish what a c c e p t a b l e a n y m o r e t h a t they started and the blood they individuals who have decisional spilled doesn’t go in waste. power for the economic life of hujintaosson wrote: their country sill take decisions in namsso, favor of their personal interest or Now now. You sound like one of the one of their friends. those people who want the US to This entry passed through the help out in the world but then you Full-Text RSS service — if this is will condemn us when we do. The your content and you're reading it US should do nothing at all. In on someone else's site, please read fact, considering how Anti- our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ American much of the world is, content-only/faq.php we should stop all economic aid Five Filters featured article: even in natural disasters. I am Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In tired of my government helping The Crosshairs. out in the world and then we get criticised for doing so. julienquentin wrote: Nothing was done because to

Video: CrunchGear Reviews The Wannabe -Techy Scion XB
Matt Burns (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:59:20 PM

Last week, we got a Scion xB to drive. Our initial impression was that it looked “tastefully tuner” and was very spacious inside. A quick glance over its tech and we quickly realized that Scion probably added the gear as an afterthought. A lot of the gear doesn’t work together; instead they’re all separate, like what you would get from installing different aftermarket parts. Scion says that’s the whole image it brings the younger generation, but we think it could be done better. There’s a lot to like about the xB. Slamming the door barks a thud indicative of a solid build. As much as you’d want to think it’s a cheap piece-of-junk, it really isn’t. At no point did the quality feel super-budget. Which is a good thing, because this car isn’t superbudget. Read More

12

News Wire/ Technology/

Newstablet Edition

Violent Cartels PickingUp Terror Ally in Mexico
(FOXNews.com)

organizations to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. My contacts also say they have real concern As if the threat of deadly drug that bombing techniques used in cartels in Mexico wasn't enough, the Middle East to promote terror some of them are joining forces are now also being used inside with Middle East terror groups. Mexico, as the cartels war with "Hezbollah are absolute masters at each other and anyone in their identifying existing smuggling way. infrastructures," says former DEA This comes as Mexican Chief of Operations Mike Braun, a u t h o r i t i e s b u s t e d a s e n i o r adding that the group "is Hezbollah operative who developing relations with those employed Mexicans nationals responsible for operating those with family ties to Lebanon to set smuggling operations and then up the network, designed to target forming close relations with them, Israel and the West, according to so that they can move anything multiple reports. The man's name they have an interest into virtually is Jameel Nasr and he was anywhere in the world." That a r r e s t e d a f t e r a M e x i c a n comment comes from former surveillance operation revealed DEA Chief of Operations Mike that he traveled frequently to Braun. He goes on to tell me that Lebanon to receive information the Middle East terror group is and instructions from Hezbollah "rubbing shoulders" with drug commanders and he also spent cartels around the globe. several months in Venezuela F O L L O W A D A M O N working with the terror group and TWITTER Hugo Chavez's people. My military and Department of Meantime, over this past Homeland Security contacts are weekend President Calderon of insistent...it's not if Hezbollah Mexico sent a significant number operatives have been smuggled of troops to the border regions and into the U.S....but how many? while they are there to help battle They note that drug tunnels are the cartels, they have also been b e c o m i n g m u c h m o r e sent to deal with the growing sophisticated and striking similar connection to Hezbollah. As one as tunnels being used by terror contact told me, "Mexico knows
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:33:44 PM

the seriousness of a cartel connection with Hezbollah and the threat to their national security." We also know from DHS documents that over 180,000 illegal aliens from countries Other than Mexico were apprehended from 2007 through mid-March 2010 and the State Department Country Reports on Terrorism said that "smuggling rings have been detected moving people from East Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia". I am told these people and drugs are then moved up through Central America and into the Unites States through Mexico. Congressman Connie Mack chairs the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and says, "I think the question that we all have to ask is, when the terrorist come into Latin America, when they move into Mexico, how many have come into the United States? Our government doesn't know the answer to that question. That should make all of us very fearful." The Congressman is critical of the Administrations response to this increased threat, "What are we going to do to secure our border step one and step two what

are we going to do to confront the drug cartels in Hezbollah from continuing to create a force inside Mexico that will destabilize the United States?" In response to this story, I contacted DHS and various departments within the administration. To be fair, they are obviously not going to give up information on operations or threats that they are working to eliminate, however, we didn't get much in feedback about our story, or in a way of a statement. I did have testimony forwarded to me from Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela from February 15th where he acknowledges the threat to American security and says the U.S. will continue to assist in the region's need to combat drug trafficking and transnational crime. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

25 years of Zelda: The top 12 characters
Submitted at 2/21/2011 11:27:37 AM

Today marks 25 years since Nintendo's sword and sorcery adventure title, The Legend of Zelda hit the Famicom in Japan. Since then, it's been one of gaming's most highly regarded franchises, a constant harbinger of new technologies and a guaranteed hit from instalment to instalment. In that quarter of a decade, Link and pals have touched almost every Nintendo console, and a few non-Nintendo systems too. If you're counting terrible Philips CDI spin-offs, ancient Game and Watch handhelds and downloadable SNES games, Link's adventures have appeared in over 20 games. Continue reading...

Minecraft coming to iPad and iPhone
Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:49:00 AM

The creator of cult indie hit Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson, has told Gamasutra that

iOS ports of the game are in the works. The iOS edition won't be exactly the same as the desktop version. t h a t " m a k e s e n s e " f o r a Instead, it'll only have features

touchscreen. The App Store currently has plenty of unofficial knock-offs of Minecraft, but this is the first time that the game has been officially announced for the

platform. Continue reading...

Newstablet Edition

News Wire/ Technology/

13

Residents give conflicting reports of (Founder Stories) Why David Karp Started Tumblr: Blogs Tripoli attacks Don’t Work For Most People
(Reuters: Top News)

gunshots," one resident who lives near the city's central Green Square told Reuters. Demonstrators wave flags and "I just hear gunshots sometimes. I hold banners on the roof of burnt am at home guarding my family building in this undated picture because the situation is unstable. made available on Facebook No one knows what will happen," February 20, 2011. The image another resident said. was purportedly taken recently in But Adel Mohamed Saleh, who Benghazi. called himself a political activist Credit: Reuters/Handout in Tripoli, said the aerial bombing LONDON| Mon Feb 21, 2011 had initially targeted a funeral 2:54pm EST procession. LONDON(Reuters) - Tripoli "What we are witnessing today is residents gave conflicting reports unimaginable. Warplanes and of violence Monday, with some helicopters are indiscriminately saying they could hear only bombing one area after another. gunfire in the Libyan capital and There are many, many dead," others saying warplanes were Saleh told al Jazeera television in bombing the city. a live broadcast. "I went to the shop near the house "Our people are dying. It is the and it was ok. People were buying policy of scorched earth." he said. things. There was no terror," said "Every 20 minutes they are a Reuters reporter near the central bombing." Omar al-Mokhtar street and Green Asked if the attacks were still Square. happening he said: "It is "I did not hear any firing from continuing, it is continuing. planes. I did not hear planes. Anyone who moves, even if they During the day there were some are in their car they will hit you." helicopters flying around but I do The BBC also quoted a witness not hear any guns or shots or in Tripoli as saying he could see anything," he said. people being shot by aircraft Other residents also said they did There was no independent not hear of any bombing from verification of the reports. aircraft. (Writing by Jon Hemming) "We don't know what is going on, • Tweet this all we can hear are occasional • Share this
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:54:32 PM

• • • •

TypePad—were too complicated. “These tools I just don’t think worked for most people. It’s a In the never-ending debate commitment, you need to sit We welcome comments that between blogging and micro- down for an hour and hammer out advance the story directly or with blogging, Tumblr usually gets a post.” relevant tangential information. lumped in with Twitter and He is quick to add that We try to block comments that Facebook on the micro-blogging “WordPress is the best tool in the use offensive language, all capital side. But Tumblr is actually world for that” kind of publishing. letters or appear to be spam, and somewhere in between the status But for someone like him who we review comments frequently bursts of Twitter and Facebook “doesn’t enjoy writing,” it was the to ensure they meet our standards. and the long-form publishing of wrong tool. So he created Tumblr If you see a comment that you W o r d P r e s s - s t y l e b l o g s . I f instead, which is designed to help b e l i e v e i s i r r e l e v a n t o r anything, it is more accurately people get their thoughts and inappropriate, you can flag it to described as micro-blogging than images up as quickly as possible, our editors by using the report Twitter or Facebook because you and to lower the barrier to abuse links. Views expressed in actually produce short blog posts publishing even more. the comments do not represent filled with images, links, and But don’t Twitter and Facebook those of Reuters. videos. But the key to Tumblr’s lower those barriers even further? Comments (2) gtcoastie07 wrote: incredible growth—it’s adding a They do, but they lack a strong If this report is verified, it could quarter billion pageviews a expressive identity, argues Karp. mean the start of a whole new ball week—is how easy it makes it to “They are not tools built for game. whamm wrote: post something and reblog what creative expression,” he says, Is it possible that the Reuter your friends are posting. adding: “Nobody is proud of their reporter does not hear too well? T u m b l r C E O D a v i d K a r p identity on Facebook.” Okay, This entry passed through the recently sat down with Chris he’s got a point there. Tumblr, in Full-Text RSS service — if this is Dixon for a Founder Stories contrast, is built to be a place you your content and you're reading it interview in which explains how can be proud to call your online on someone else's site, please read he started Tumblr four years ago home. It’s very design-oriented our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ as a reaction to other blogging and you can customize your content-only/faq.php tools out there. “All blogs took T u m b l r t o r e f l e c t y o u r Five Filters featured article: the same form,” he notes. “I personality, but not in a cheesy Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In wanted something much more MySpace way. For Twitter and The Crosshairs. free-form, much less verbose.” Facebook, “expression isn’t P e o p l e w a n t e d t o e x p r e s s necessarily something they care themselves and blog, but he felt about.” CrunchBase Information t h a t t h e s t a n d a r d b l o g g i n g Tumblr David Karp Chris Dixon platforms available at the I n f o r m a t i o n p r o v i d e d b y time—Wordpress, Blogger, C r u n c h B a s e
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:03:37 PM

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Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)

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Newstablet Edition

Stepmom of DismemberedGirl Charged With Murder
(FOXNews.com)

Alibaba.com executives resign amid fraud probe
(CNET News.com)

eventually found the girl's remains in different locations around Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:33:44 PM western North Carolina, and Elisa H I C K O R Y , N . C . - - T h e Baker told authorities that she had stepmother of a 10-year-old been dismembered, according to disabled Australian girl was warrants. indicted Monday on charges she But until Monday, nobody had k i l l e d t h e c h i l d a n d t h e n been charged in Zahra's death. desecrated her remains to cover Elisa Baker has been jailed for up the slaying, and authorities months, charged with obstructing said they did not have evidence to justice in the investigation by charge anyone else in her death. writing a fake ransom note that Prosecutor James Gaither Jr. said was found when the girl was Monday at a news conference that reporting missing in October. there was no credible evidence to Authorities still have not said suggest anyone else was involved how the girl died. in Zahra Baker's slaying. The The indictment cites aggravating stepmother, Elisa Baker, was factors, saying Elisa Baker had a charged earlier Monday with history of physically, verbally and second-degree murder. psychologically abusing Zahra. Hickory Police Chief Tom And it says she desecrated Zahra's Adkins, speaking at the news body to hinder detection and conference, called the murder prosecution of the killing. charge "a milestone of holding A search warrant unsealed last s o m e o n e a c c o u n t a b l e t h a t month said Elisa Baker led police members of team Zahra have been to the places where they found working toward since the first Zahra's remains. She claimed her words spoken on that (police) h u s b a n d , A d a m B a k e r , call." dismembered the body. Adam Investigators would continue to Baker has denied that. pursue leads until the trial begins, The warrant also said that cell Adkins said. phone records indicate Adam Zahra, who used a prosthetic leg Baker was not in the locations and hearing aids after being where Zahra's remains were found stricken with cancer, disappeared on the day Elisa Baker indicated, f o u r m o n t h s a g o . P o l i c e but that cell phone records

showed she was present in those locations. Attorneys for Elisa Baker did not return calls seeking comment Monday. Records show the 42-year-old led a somewhat nomadic life, with dozens of different addresses over a seven-year period. She was also married seven times and was wed to more than one man on several occasions. She met Adam Baker, seven years her junior, on a website where users create threedimensional characters to represent themselves. Adam Baker is free on bond, facing numerous charges not related to his daughter, who needed a prosthetic leg and two hearing aids because of a battle with cancer. He moved to North Carolina with Zahra from Australia after meeting Elisa online. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

staff assisted the storefronts in evading the company's verification methods, Ma said. Alibaba.com, the largest e- "Our company has determined c o m m e r c e s i t e i n C h i n a , that the vast majority of these announced today that two senior s t o r e f r o n t s w e r e s e t u p t o executives had resigned after an intentionally defraud global internal investigation found a rise buyers," Ma said. "The methods in fraudulent activity on the site. of the perpetrators suggest that Chief Executive Officer David t h e y h a v e e n g i n e e r e d a n Wei and Chief Operating Officer organized and systemic attack on Elvis Lee Shi-Huei were not the integrity of the Alibaba.com involved in the rise in fraud but platform for illegal gains." were taking responsibility for the Taking over for Wei is Jonathan "systemic breakdown" in the Lu, chief executive of sister company's "culture of integrity," company Taobao.com, an online Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said shopping Web site. in a statement (PDF). Alibaba, which has 53 million More than 2,300 fraudulent registered users worldwide, is 40 storefronts registered on the site percent owned by Yahoo and runs in 2009 and 2010 as "Gold Yahoo's Chinese search engine. Suppliers," offering inexpensive This entry passed through the electronics for sale to buyers Full-Text RSS service — if this is overseas. However, no goods your content and you're reading it were delivered after payment was on someone else's site, please read received, Ma said. The average our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ buyer claim against fraudulent content-only/faq.php sites was less the $1,200, he said. Five Filters featured article: About 100 company sales people Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In o u t o f t h e c o m p a n y ' s The Crosshairs. approximately 5,000-member
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:08:34 PM

Ebooks for PCs, Macs, Sony Readers, mobile phones ...
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A vast range of ebooks from the world's leading academic, popular and professional publishers

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15

Iran Warships to Transit Suez Canal Microsoft preps on Tuesday: Reports Windows Phones for first update
(Epoch Times | All headlines)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:35:38 PM

An aerial view taken in December 2007 shows the southern entrance of Egypt's Suez Canal. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images) Iranian navy warships are planning to make their transit through Egypt’s Suez Canal on Tuesday, multiple media reports said. Two warships plan to make the journey on Tuesday at a cost of nearly $300,000, The Associated Press reported citing unnamed canal officials. The trip would be the first time in three decades that Iran has sent military ships through the waterway that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Israel, which views Iran as a staunch enemy, considers the ships’ journey as a hostile provocation, but Tehran maintains that the warships are traveling to

Syria for a training mission. The warships will make a trip through the Suez Canal that is “routine according to international law” and will anchor in Syria “for a few days,” according to Bloomberg News citing Ahmad Mousavi, Iran’s ambassador to Syria. One ship going through the Suez Canal is a frigate warship, while

Connector software if they're on a Mac) to get the update started. Microsoft says it's rolling out the Microsoft today began sending update message to phones in out an update to Windows Phone waves, so users who have not yet 7 devices that prepares them for gotten the notification will see it the first of two software updates sometime today. that will add new features. If you have a question or "This first update for Windows comment for Josh Lowensohn, Phone is designed to improve the you can submit it here. However, software update process itself," because our editors and writers the company said on the Windows receive hundreds of requests, we Phone blog. "So while it might cannot tell you when you may not sound exciting, it's still receive a response. the other is a supply vessel, AP important because it's paving the Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in way for all future goodie-filled 2006 and now covers Microsoft. said. This entry passed through the updates to your phone, such as Before that, Josh wrote about Full-Text RSS service — if this is copy and paste or improved everything from new Web startyour content and you're reading it Marketplace search." ups, to remote-controlled robots on someone else's site, please read The software update that will that watch your house. our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ bring those new features is slated This entry passed through the for arrival in early March, with a Full-Text RSS service — if this is content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: much larger update adding things your content and you're reading it Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In like multitasking, and a much- on someone else's site, please read improved browser arriving a few our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ The Crosshairs. months later. content-only/faq.php In order to update their phones, Five Filters featured article: users need to plug them into a Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In computer with the latest version The Crosshairs. of the Zune software (or the Mac
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:01:00 PM

(CNET News.com)

TenThings.me tells your friends your secrets
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:38:00 AM

Social networking has made it possible to quantify the size and growth of one's ego. Thus, there has never been a better time to

launch a self-referential single-use website, such as ProtoBake Labs's TenThings.me-- a site for sharing 10 facts about yourself with friends. The premise of a system that

exists solely to tell others facts

about yourself is not even remotely new, of course -- rumour has it Stone Age cavemen were carving facts about themselves into rock centuries before Bronze Age upstarts made it cool and

profitable, and millennia before the blogging meme, upon which TenThings drew its inspiration, got started. Continue reading...

16

World News/

Newstablet Edition

The New Rules: U.S. Should Pursue 'Open Door,' not Primacy
(World Politics Review: Articles)
Submitted at 2/20/2011 11:05:00 PM

Cheney neocons brought us far closer to an ideological coup d'état than any previous foreign The decline of the American policy scandals of note, including "empire" has been a persistent the secret wars of Nixon and theme of the punditocracy these Reagan. America's clear and past several years, with the succinct grand strategy, first u n d e r l y i n g l o g i c b e i n g enunciated by Presidents William Washington's inability to extend, M c K i n l e y a n d T h e o d o r e a d i n f i n i t u m , t h e p r i m a c y Roosevelt when the U.S. was seemingly conferred upon it at coming of age as a great power, Cold War's end. The global h a s b e e n t h e " o p e n d o o r . " financial crisis has now further Primacy was never its prize or its revealed a suddenly -- and purpose. stunningly -- rebalanced global Instead, the goal was to end order, and as a result, Americans Europe's corrupt colonialism are supposed to dread the vast through the extension of our uncertainties of our allegedly model of multinationalism based "post-American world." on states united, economies Worse, Americans are also being integrated and security provided presented with a patently false for collectively. In this model, no binary choice: Should the U.S. do one state is allowed primacy over what is necessary to regain its the union's other members. primacy or simply let it slip C o n v e r s e l y , n o o n e s t a t e ' s away? Those who argue for economic success is viewed as a renewed primacy take for granted zero-sum loss by the others, for the American-ness of their all find ultimate benefit in the ambition, for surely only the shared economic connectivity. unpatriotic among us will accept America's revolutionary impulse anything less than no. 1 as a grand here is insidious: by empowering strategic objective. Even those individuals through trade, we diswho argue against such "insane" intermediate the dictators. These ambition subtly buy into its logic, United States are the original peer by presuming it has animated U.S. -to-peer ideology, with no false foreign policy these past several gods -- as in, monarchs -decades, with only our recent required. Facebook and Twitter "hubris" having cost us our are simply its latest technological "greatness." expressions, and they are Both viewpoints could not be exquisitely American in their further from the truth. deprimacizing impact -- the The pursuit of primacy as a grand plaintive voices of the many s t r a t e g y i s c o m p l e t e l y u n - overwhelming the self-serving American in both its conception dictates of the one. and execution. In fact, the Bush- If the "2.0 revolutions" of North

Africa tell us anything, it's that America remains firmly on the side of the transformational future, unlike China and the rest of the authoritarian ranks. More to the point, America cannot be the world's most-consistent revisionist power and, at the same time, the keeper of any empire. Indeed, when it comes to the great empires of the 20th century, America played a profound role in dismantling all of them. On this score, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong combined can't hold a candle to Franklin Roosevelt. The anti-empire crowd, which is still allergic to the Iraq War despite the emerging democracy that resulted from it, now condemns Washington's slowness in abandoning "useful" dictators. Instead, we should all regret how few true opportunities come along for truly liberating action, whether pre-emptively, through regime change, or retroactively, by supporting popular uprisings that show despots the door. If we need a standard to guide our actions, let it be the sheer connectivity that we still instinctively spread with our open -door grand strategy. Where that connectivity is generally rising among a populace trapped in tyranny, we should bide our time, waiting on the citizens themselves to schedule their decisive action. But where autocrats go to obscene lengths to deny such connectivity in all its normal forms, we should opportunistically exploit events as they arise.

But we should not pretend that any of these choices, however skillfully or rashly they are made, mark us as imperialists. The American flag adds no stars against their will. If anything, we've abandoned our open-door mindset in its most crucial form, by pulling up the drawbridge on new members to our own union, at a time when the European Union continues to add members and China actively seeks to regain its lost colonial jewels. In other words, the American brand is sitting out a historically hot market. But neither decline nor primacy accurately describes this world that we have so purposefully "flattened." First of all, there is nothing postAmerican about it. The same Hispanics, Africans and Asians who will account for the bulk of the world's future population growth have already generated the vast bulk of America's population growth these past two decades. Americans of European ancestry are no longer the majority in our nation's zero-to-five age cohort, with "power-sharing" agreements being worked out right now in preschools all across the country to avert the potential resulting clashes. That means that in the peer-to-peer environment fostered by globalization, our kids will be more than all right, because they are already ahead of the curve. Second, our alleged new masters are hampered by their own vast domestic burdens. India and

China, to the extent they can be described as budding near-peers, are at best ball-and-chain superpowers, with the "ball" being their vast interior impoverished populations -- roughly 700 million each -- and the "chain" being their political systems' pursuit of "social harmony" between city and village. Unlike in today's America, the Chinese and Indian equivalents of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton still battle it out fiercely each day. Third, we should remember that we originally got into this superpower game after World War II because we simply grew tired of all the killing. So we went, and we fought. Then we stayed until things got better. Now, for the first time in Eurasian history, a quartet of powers peacefully coexists in both the West -- the U.K., France, Germany and Russia -- and the East -- India, China, Korea and Japan -- where previously upwards of 100 million souls perished in two world wars. America did not create the most peaceful and prosperous period in world history for the mere pursuit of primacy. We did it because it was the right thing to do -- the American thing to do. Now we live with the consequences, meaning both the rewards and the challenges of this super-empowered world. Thomas P.M. Barnett is chief analyst at Wikistrat and a NEW page 18

Newstablet Edition

World News/

17

G-20 Summit Passes the Buck: Part I
(World Politics Review: Articles)
Submitted at 2/20/2011 11:14:00 PM

The divisions among member states cut across two fault lines: advanced versus emerging Editor's note: This is the first of a economies and surplus versus two-part series on the G-20. Part I deficit economies. That resulted examines efforts to rebalance the in a complex distribution of global economy. Part II will interests and a difficult bargaining a p p e a r t o m o r r o w a n d w i l l climate. examine efforts to reform the The U.S. remained focused like a global monetary system. laser on addressing persistent Over the weekend, G-20 finance global imbalances -- specifically ministers met in Paris to discuss its trade deficit with China, which steps on how to address persistent it attributes to the undervalued global current account imbalances yuan. For some time now, the that some fear could send the Americans have wanted to see the g l o b a l e c o n o m y b a c k i n t o yuan appreciate significantly. recession. From the outset, the They have also pressed for an meetings reinforced what we agreement that would identify a already know about the group: standard for limiting current Preferences among the members account surpluses and deficits. are incredibly diverse, making They have failed to achieve either progress toward cooperation objective, and U.S. patience with p a i n f u l l y s l o w . T h i s i s China appears to be growing exacerbated by the fact that no thinner by the minute. single economy is able to impose The Germans have consistently its preferences on the others, and opposed any such standard, as n o n e i s w i l l i n g t o b e a r they remain an export powerhouse disproportionate burden for the despite what some believe to be greater good. In the end, the group an overvalued euro. Unlike China, reached consensus on a list of the Germans are not benefitting legitimate "imbalance indicators" from exchange-rate manipulation, by which each economy may be so they feel that their surplus judged. Yet, as achievements go, position is rightfully earned. Yet, this agreement is about as G e r m a n o p p o s i t i o n h a s insignificant as they come. consistently provided cover for The G-20 apparently decided that China, which has also resisted any in Paris, the bar for success would s u c h a g r e e m e n t o n a n be set as low as possible. Then "appropriate" range for current again, with such an array of account imbalances. preferences and with fingers France, led by President Nicolas wagging in every direction both Sarkozy, continues to dream big before and during the summit, the for its current G-20 presidency fact that the meetings were held at with hopes of reforming the all might be considered a success. global monetary system. Driven

by a belief that an overreliance on the dollar threatens global stability, Sarkozy is pushing for a more diverse monetary order that would include a larger role for other currencies. As part of this plan, the French president made entreaties to China over the weekend for an informal summit with Chinese leaders on the global monetary order. China agreed and a meeting is set for March. Ostensibly, the agenda will include discussions regarding how the yuan might begin to take on a more international role. The U.S. isn't likely to look kindly on such discussions, as past calls for demoting the dollar have found no support in Washington. Finally, other emerging economies arrived in Paris with agendas of their own. Brazil remains displeased with the U.S. Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program, which it believes has helped to depreciate the greenback over the past five weeks. Meanwhile, low interest rates in the U.S. have led to a flood of investment in Brazil. That has driven up the value of the real, making Brazilian goods less competitive and forcing Brasilia to impose "speed bumps" to slow the inflows. Meanwhile, the weak dollar appears to be linked to a rise in global commodity and food prices, leading to fears of global inflation. Consequently, Brazil has made it clear it has no intention of joining the U.S. in pressuring China on the yuan,

since, from where it sits, Washington is just as much a part of the problem as Beijing. India is also unhappy about rising prices, especially as food inflation hurts its many vulnerable citizens. For much of the weekend, China appeared poised to block the agreement on which indicators were legitimate for measuring imbalances. Beijing specifically opposed using either foreign exchange reserves or currency exchange rates as imbalance indicators. In the end, it appears Beijing won one battle and lost the other. The final agreement noted the group will "take due consideration of exchange rate[s]" but makes no mention of evaluating reserve totals as part of the "imbalance indicator" equation. Taken together, consensus on "legitimate" imbalance indicators can hardly be spun as a victory: The G-20 can monitor and measure these things all it wants, but to what end? Without clear guidelines as to what are "appropriate" and "inappropriate" levels for each indicator, this accomplishes little. The G-20 will spin this as a necessary "first step" toward future cooperation, and while to an extent that is true, the speed at which cooperation is progressing could hardly be more sluggish. With such a diverse array of incompatible interests among the group and no single economy able to dominate the proceedings, consensus on anything substantive

is nearly impossible to achieve. The U.S. is now incapable of imposing its preferences on the likes of Europe, China, and Brazil. At the same time, with high unemployment and an influx of deficit hawks into the U.S. Congress, America is no longer willing to bear a disproportionate burden in global trade by acting as an open market to foreign goods without commensurate access to foreign markets in return. Neither is China prepared to step in and fill the void once occupied by the U.S., preferring instead to remain focused on meeting its own internal goals, even if this comes at the expense of global economic stability. In sum, the combination of an increasingly egalitarian international distribution of power and an increasingly diverse distribution of interests in the global economy means that meaningful cooperation among the world's leading economies is going to remain incredibly difficult to achieve for the foreseeable future. The buck, it seems, has once again been passed to the next summit. Daniel McDowell is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at the University of Virginia, specializing in International Political Economy. Photo: The Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy, November 2008, Washington, D.C. (White House photo by G-20 page 18

18

Technology/

Newstablet Edition

NEW
continued from page 16

contributing editor for Esquire magazine. His latest book is " Great Powers: America and the World After Bush" (2009). His weekly WPR column, The New Rules, appears every Monday. Reach him and his blog at thomaspmbarnett.com. Photo: President Barack Obama at Cairo University in Cairo, June 2009 (White House photo by Pete Souza). This entry passed through the

G-20
continued from page 17

Joyce N. Boghosian). This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php

18 Animalistic Steampunk Creations From Steampunk Mechanical Horses to Dragonfly Helicopters (CLUSTER)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:31:03 PM

( TrendHunter.com) If you thought that the insect and animal kingdoms were safe from steampunk, then you clearly h a v e n ' t s e e n a n y o f t h e s e [emailprotected] (Ad animalistic steampunk creations. ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed) Elephants are good, but steampunked elephant gas... Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4

Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ (CNET News.com) content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:25:14 PM Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In I find certainty a little dubious. The Crosshairs. Somehow, nothing has ever seemed that certain on this earth, so when people--especially scientists or green activists--claim they know everything, my skeptical muscle goes all Cirque du Soleil. So please raise an eyebrow with Five Filters featured article: me to a stimulating article in the Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In Independent newspaper. It reveals the existence of a report, The Crosshairs. commissioned by the U.K. government, that concludes that plastic bags are actually less harmful to the environment than either paper or cotton versions. I know that doesn't sound right, does it? I live the merest gust of wind away from San Francisco, where plastic bags are banned. I have always been told that paper is green, recyclable, and the finest way we can make use of the Amazon forest. So how could it be that highdensity polythene is actually greener? Well, this report, created by Chris Edwards and Jonna Meyhoff Fry

Are plastic bags actually greener than paper?
at the behest of the U.K. Environment Agency, reportedly says that ordinary plastic bags are 200 times more climate-friendly than those cotton carriers favored by so many environmentalist preachers. If that isn't exciting enough for you to question your precepts and sanity, the report also reportedly claims that these put-upon, downtrodden plastic carriers emit one-third of the carbon dioxide of paper bags. The researchers made a very simple conclusion--that plastic bags are greener because they're far lighter. Here's what I find slightly curious about this study: it hasn't been published yet. Even though it was reportedly presented a year ago. It is still being reviewed by peers, although the U.K. Environment Agency promises it will see encounter the public eye soon. The agency also created a frisson of excitement when it told the Independent that the reviewers "questioned some aspects of the original draft, although much was about emphasis and balance." I am sure there will be many emphatic, balanced, and sober scientists all over the world who will await this report with some glee. The plastic bag has been such a universally useful invention that it would be a shame to see it disappear. It can hold so much of your life in one eminently foldable item. It can even keep your possessions--especially when you've been kicked out of an apartment and are walking the streets in despair--mostly dry. To merely imagine that it might be greener than all the items barkingly suggested by the Green Police might give some curious hope for the future. I know there are many who crave the days when, after being asked "paper or plastic?" they were proud to say the latter. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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times by grant funds, and can mean the difference between life and death for hungry children.

Newstablet Edition

Technology/

19

Guest Post: How Online Work Can Save America
Guest Author (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:19:33 PM

fifty in an hour. Not long after I left, Samasource sent Paul and his co-workers a few hundred dollars On a dusty summer day in July in payment for these small tasks. 2 0 0 9 , I t a u g h t a y o u n g , And as of today, about a year impoverished refugee in Dadaab, later, we’ve paid out roughly Kenya, to earn money online. $800,000 to people living in Paul Parach (pictured left, video poverty around the world. below) had fled South Sudan at I am proud of our work abroad. age seven and lived in the camp But I am also worried about the for fifteen years, suffering lack of work at home. For twenty persistent shortages of everything months, US unemployment has from water to firewood while he remained above nine percent. struggled to learn English. People who have worked all their In a small computer center, lives in factories across America’s donated by the Danish Refugee rust belt can’t find a role for Council and hooked up to a themselves in the new economy. satellite dish, I showed Paul and Nor, for that matter, can many 15 other refugees to use Google to w h i t e - c o l l a r w o r k e r s w i t h search for phone numbers and a d v a n c e d d e g r e e s . paste them into a web form for a President Obama recently told his Silicon Valley client. staff: “I want you to come to me Several months earlier, I had with ideas that *excite* me.” founded a non-profit called Microwork pays little – it’s the Samasource to connect people d i g i t a l e q u i v a l e n t o f b a s i c living in poverty to sources of m a n u f a c t u r i n g — a n d work, via the Internet. In two encouraging Americans to work years, we’ve employed over 900 for a few dollars an hour is not people in Asia, Africa, and Haiti very exciting. But, taken as a to do small tasks, or “microwork,” wider category, Internet-enabled for companies including Ask.com working has massive potential to and Intuit. Unlike traditional both boost jobs and excite outsourcing, this work sits in the politicians. Two opportunities in cloud, requires little training, and particularly already provide work is paid per task. Big companies to hundreds of thousands of use microwork to improve and people. Scaling them up should enrich large sets of data, to train f e a t u r e p r o m i n e n t l y i n t h e computer algorithms, and to P r e s i d e n t ’ s a g e n d a . h a n d l e m a n y o t h e r r o u t i n e The first, online work, includes business processes. any type of knowledge-based task Each task Paul completed was that a person can do online — worth a few cents; an untrained from outbound calling, data entry, refugee with a secondary school and bookkeeping to transcription education can complete forty or and translation. By the end of

vocational training programs largely ignore the role of the Internet. Every jobless American should have a profile on a professional networking site like LinkedIn, or an account to complete work on a site like oDesk. Some of the largest web platforms for work were built in the United States, yet much of their growth is international because we don’t train our own people to use them. A little government support could change 2010, over one million contractors “post-recession” construction that. were registered on various online workers on their homepage. A Our economy is not the only work sites. Many of those workers s i m i l a r f i r m , R e a d y F o r c e , thing at stake — work is at the are based in the US. The sector is replaces the traditional temp core of the American dream; it’s doubling in size each year. a g e n c y w i t h a w e b - d r i v e n how we define ourselves as a nation. President Obama might American firms such as LiveOps e v a l u a t i o n s y s t e m . have pioneered a new model for W e c a n n o t r e l y o n t h e recall the words of Franklin D. call-center work that allow tens of government alone to fix our Roosevelt, who at a similar thousands of people around the employment problem. While the moment several decades ago, country to work from home, and stimulus created five million jobs, issued a grave and poignant oDesk, an online marketplace for it did so at great cost to taxpayers warning: “Not only our future small projects, has paid out over and without any guarantee that economic soundness, but the very $240M to hundreds of thousands those roles would be needed a few soundness of our democratic of freelancers since 2003. years from now. If we invested institutions depends on the A s e c o n d o p p o r t u n i t y f o r similar resources in scaling up determination of our government American workers involves using Internet-enabled work, there to give employment to idle men.” the web to make offline work would be a tidal wave of new … more efficient. Construction startups in this space. There Leila Chirayath Janah(@leila_c) workers, house-cleaners, and would be a WorkersNow or is the founder of Samasource, a other service-sector employees, ReadyForce for every industry. social enterprise that connects who depend on word-of-mouth The Obama administration should people living in poverty to work referrals and are often at risk of fund and support technology that via the Internet. Janah received abuse and underpayment, benefit reduces the cost of discovering the World Technology Award in 2010, and serves on the board of from the new reputation systems, and hiring workers. background checks, and feedback Critically, we also need to help Tech Soup Global. She lives in tools available on web-based workers understand how to make San Francisco. work channels. San Francisco- the most of the Internet. America based WorkersNow, for example, has made major investments in highlights profiles of pre-screened rural broadband connectivity, but

20

Technology/ Finance/

Newstablet Edition

Fallout and Frustrations From Apple's New Subscription Plan Continue
Audrey Watters (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:01:16 PM

Since announcing its new subscription plan last week, Apple's move to collect a 30% cut of revenue has had raised the ire of a number of developers and commentators. Mike Melanson offered a round-up on some of the initial reactions, that ranged from " greedy" to " anti-competitive" to " Brilliant, Brazen or Batsh*t Crazy. Apple's 30% fee is posing problems for a number of companies and developers - those who've built their businesses around the existing rules, for example, and those who don't have the margins to be able to hand over such a cut to Apple. Companies that have raised questions about the new policy run the gamut - music streaming services, e-book sellers, and software-as-a-service developers; big companies and startups alike. Sponsor No Margin for That 30% Cut The expletives that came from Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones last week may be one of the most colorful responses to Apple's announcement, but his analysis speaks to the core of many

developers' concerns. Jones said in an IRC chatroom that "apple just f***ed over online music subs for the iphone." Jones hinted that Apple may have plans to launch its own streaming service and is therefore attempting to squeeze out the competition. But whether that's the case or not, he contends that "many services can't survive a 30 percent loss of revenue." Jones specifically mentions Spotify, reportedly poised to make its entry in U.S. markets, arguing that he can't imagine its "margins are anywhere near 30 percent." Trouble for Alternative Funding Models Readability just announced this morning that its iOS app had been rejected by Apple as the startup wasn't running its service through the new subscription plan guidelines. Readability offers a service whereby it redesigns Web pages stripping out ads and resizing text, for example - in order to make online content more legible. Users pay a monthly subscription fee to use Readability, which in turn offers a unique funding model for publishers - the company gives them a 70% cut of the revenue from folks' reading lists. "If we implemented In App

purchasing," writes Readability in an Open Letter to Apple, "your 30% cut drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works." No Room in the Store for Big Catalogs Jim Dovey, formerly the Apple Platforms Team Lead for the ebookseller Kobo had raised another key stumbling block. As it currently stands, there's a cap on the number of items you can sell via in-app purchases. According to Dovey, Apple's "in-app purchasing system only allows 3000 or 3500 distinct items to be in your catalog (depending who you talk to). Kobo and Amazon each have around 2.5 million titles. Judging by the title of Kobo's app, 1.8 million are public domain (or otherwise free), so some 700,000 are paid titles, which they are under obligation to

the content owners to make available for sale to all their users." The dissatisfaction isn't only coming from developers or companies who've invested in the Apple third-party ecosystem. PaidContent.org reports that antitrust regulators are looking into Apple's subscription plan. But in the meantime, angry developers are looking at their own alternatives. As Readability notes in its blog post today, "To be clear, we believe you have every right to push forward such a policy. In our view, it's your hardware and your channel and you can put forth any policy you like. But to impose this course on any web service or web application that delivers any value outside of iOS will only discourage smaller ventures like ours to invest in iOS apps for our services. As far as Readability is concerned, our response is fairly straight-forward: go the other way... towards the web." It seems likely that others will follow suit - putting their development efforts into the mobile web or into alternate operating systems (namely Android). Discuss

Christian World Adoption
[emailprotected] (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)

Christian World Adoption is one of the largest international adoption agencies in the United States. Since 1991, Christian World Adoption has placed thousands of children from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. These children now enjoy the love and security of a forever family. Christian World Adoption currently offers adoption programs in Bulgaria, China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine. Explore our website to learn more about international adoption. Then, when you’re ready, call our friendly adoption counselor, toll free, at 1.888.97ADOPT.

Japanese company Kyowa Hakko Kirin to buy Prostrakan for £292m
(Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)

Scottish drug manufacturer ProStrakan saw its shares leap

after a Japanese suitor agreed to buy the company for £292m.

Newstablet Edition

Technology/

21

No More Crippled iBooks? Jailbreaking Tool's Update Claims to Fix Issues
Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:23:19 PM

8-Bit Axes - The NES Paul is a Retro Guitar Hero Tribute (VIDEO)

Last week, Apple updated its ereader app iBooks with several minor new features and one very unwelcome tweak that affected users of jailbroken phones. Jailbreakers who downloaded the update were no longer able to use iBooks on their mobile phone. "Apple deliberately crippled my device," wrote an angry blogger on Social Apples after realizing what had occurred. Today, an update to the jailbreaking tool Sn0wbreeze may have addressed this issue, according to reports from mobile bloggers and Twitter. Sponsor According to the Twitter account@iH8sn0w, which is behind the Sn0wbreeze jailbreaking tool, a new update (version 2.2.1) has been released which supposedly fixes the iBooks issue " 100%." It also addresses issues affecting Verizon iPhone jailbreakers on iOS 4.2.6,

(TREND HUNTER - The Latest issues for users of the Windows allows you to create custom, Trends) Classic theme and it adds a dragjailbroken firmware files in Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:19:02 PM and-drop feature for moving advance of the hacking attempt IPSW files (the iPhone firmware and then update your device using ( TrendHunter.com) If Guitar files used during the jailbreak that new firmware. For those who Hero had existed 25 years ago, the process). DRM Breaks iBooks on a l s o u n l o c k t h e i r p h o n e s peripherals built to play it Jailbroken Phones (unlocking, or "SIM unlocking," probably would have looked a lot The problem with iBooks, in case lets you use your phone on other like the NES Paul. The NES Paul you missed the news, has to do carriers' networks), sn0wbreeze is is a guitar-shaped NES controller with e-books protected by often the preferred method designed by modder Techni FairPlayDRM (digital rights because it won't affect the Myoko.... management). When Apple iPhone's baseband. updated iBooks last week, it also Regardless of whether or not introduced code which allowed it Fixed? Sn0wbreeze is the tool that fixes to detect jailbroken devices. The update to Sn0wbreeze the issue with iBooks, it's only a When a jailbreak is detected, a reportedly fixes the problem, matter of time before the jailbreak d i a l o g b o x a p p e a r s , although we cannot verify this community as a whole addresses reading:"There is a problem with here on our end. (Please comment the problem. Of course, we have a the configuration of your iPhone. if you've tried it!) However, simpler solution ourselves: just Please restore with iTunes and a c c o r d i n g t o s o m e f o r u m don't use iBooks. Amazon Kindle postings, there is mixed success in and a host of others provide reinstall iBooks." Apple introduced this feature using the new software. One reasonable alternatives to Apple's (err...bug?) to protect books person wrote "all is good," while iBooks e-bookstore and reader whose content was locked down another shouted "it doesn't app. You can live without it. using DRM technology. Not all e- work!!!!" In other words, proceed Update: A clarification on this. books have DRM, so the problem with caution, folks. @iH8Sn0w implemented the fix Sn0wbreeze is a different within the app Sn0wbreeze. The isn't necessarily affecting all jailbreakers at this point - only variation of jailbreaking tool that fix itself was created by @comex. those whose library includes the others we typically cover Discuss DRM-protected titles. iBooks (greenpois0n, redsn0w, etc.) as it

Chinese firm offers to install mobile network on London Underground
Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:13:00 AM

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has offered to install a free mobile phone network on the

London Underground in time for the 2012 Olympics. The offer, worth about £50 million, is being presented as a "gift" from one Olympic host to

another, according to the Sunday

Times. Huawei has offered to Continue reading... install the transmitters along the ceilings of the tunnels, earning income from the maintenance fees when it breaks down.

22

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Newstablet Edition

Android may save the day for Apple's iPad subscription policy in the EU
Kelly Hodgkins (TUAW)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:30:00 PM

There may never be an official "thank you" note sent, but Apple may be secretly grateful for the explosion of Android tablets about to hit the market. Apple is under the watchful eye of both the United States and the European Union's regulatory bodies regarding its new subscription policy for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This policy forces media companies to offer digital content for sale through its iOS application if the same content is available via another channel. The terms of this new policy have prompted some to question

whether it runs afoul of current anti-competitive regulations. These anti-competitive concerns may be allayed when the tidal wave of Android tablets lands, and both consumers and publishers can choose between Android and iOS for their media consumption and distribution needs. European Union commissioner Andris Piebalgs echoes this sentiment when he writes to a European Parliament member, saying that "alternative applications platforms exist and several companies have recently launched or are expected to launch in the near future a number of devices similar in terms of functionality to the iPad."

Though this statement was released prior to Apple's subscription changes and Google's One Pass announcement, its premise of increased competition from Android tablets and a

competing subscription service remains the same. With an influx of Android tablets slated for release and an alternative subscription service, market forces and not a single company's

policies will shape the future of digital media. Of course, this laissez-faire sentiment may change when regulators catch wind of Readability, a paid web service whose app was reportedly rejected from the App Store because it does not offer an in-app subscription option. Android may save the day for Apple's iPad subscription policy in the EU originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Turning Cell Phones into Urban Supercomputers
Klint Finley (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:30:00 PM

of this data. "Consider the processing power latent across a city of 20 million mobile One of the primary ideas behind subscribers, such as Tokyo," he IBM's Smarter Planet concept is a writes. web of sensors all over the planet, Arkenberg takes the idea further leading to a data explosion. But by suggesting that sensors could what if that web of sensors was be built into mobile phones that more directly under the public's could monitor air quality or act as c o n t r o l ? S t r a t e g i c f o r e c a s t a sort of distributed surveillance consultant Chris Arkbenberg hits system. The possibilities are on an interesting idea in a recent endless. "Consider what could be blog post. He muses on the idea of done with an API for addressing using mobile phones for grid clusters of mobile sensors," he computing, a la SETI@home, to writes. c r e a t e m a s s i v e d i s t r i b u t e d Sponsor supercomputers for processing all The idea reminds me of Open

Sailing's SwarmOS, which aims to help individuals make decisions based on the collective intelligence reported by "swarms"

of users with mobile phones. Adding sensors to that mix is a powerful notion. Arkenberg warns that such a network and API could also be exploited by insurgents, criminals or regimes. Much like the massive data sets created by surveillance, there's a lot of potential for unsavory uses of this sort of data. But the mind boggles at the possibilities. Although there's a clear possibility for abuse by authorities, a decentralized approach to measuring air quality could help check authorities. For

example, The Economist reported last week that the mayor of Madrid has been accused of moving air pollution monitoring systems from the city's streets to parks, where the sensors would detect less pollution. Other, more centralized attempts at creating an urban operating system include IBM's work in Rio and PlanIT in Portugal. Photo by Daryl Mitchell Discuss

Newstablet Edition

Technology/

23

Alibaba.com CEO And COO Out Because Of Vendor Fraud
Alexia Tsotsis (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:58:30 PM

Alibaba.com CEO David Wei and COO Elvis Lee have resigned this morning after an internal probe found that more than 2000 sellers on the e-commerce site were committing fraud, in some cases to the knowledge of Alibaba staff. The Hanzhou, China-based Alibaba told the WSJ that more than 100 sales staff (out of 5,000) were allowing fraudulent suppliers to fake the business registration papers needed to set up shop on the site. In some cases buyers never received items already paid for. To Alibaba’s credit, it embarked

site. Jonathan Lu, who runs the Alibaba Group-owned partner site Taobao.com has been named as a upon the internal investigations in replacement. order to preserve customer trust Yahoo owns about 40% of the after one of its employees tipped Alibaba Group, which doesn’t the board off on suspicious expect it’s financial results to activity. The average value of the c h a n g e b e c a u s e o f t h e fraud claims was $1,200 and management issues. One of the Alibaba says that buyers who most rapidly growing e-commerce experienced fraud might be sites in China, Alibaba.com’s e l i g i b l e f o r a “ g o o d - f a i t h ” third quarter net profit rose 55% to $366.1 million yuan ($55.7 payment. While Wei and Lee were not million) in 2010. Alibaba.com p e r s o n a l l y i n v o l v e d i n t h e shares fell 3.5% today to $16.68 activities that led to buyer yaun ($2.54) a share before the complaints, they left their posts in a n n o u n c e m e n t . C r u n c h B a s e order to take responsibility for Information Alibaba Information the“systematic breakdown” at the provided by CrunchBase

Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I restore a Mac App Store purchase?
Erica Sadun (TUAW)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:00:00 PM

Dear Aunt TUAW, Hi! How can one restore applications purchased through the Mac App Store after an OS X reinstall? I couldn't find any related info. Thanks in advance, @Fellowweb Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I restore a Mac App Store purchase? Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I restore a Mac App Store purchase? originally appeared on

TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Flipboard, Now Rocking with Rolling Stone Magazine
Audrey Watters (ReadWriteWeb)

Rolling Stone subscriber. A long time. It's the one magazine I still receive in the mail. Go ahead and Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:00:19 PM judge me. It's okay. I read it for One of our favorite iPad apps the articles. Or something. here at ReadWriteWeb just got a Sponsor little more awesome today, as No, I read it for the photos. I Flipboard now includes a special read it for the gossip. I read it for version of Rolling Stone. You the reviews. I read it for the can add the music magazine to list experience of paging through a of other publications, blogs, magazine (which, for those of you photos and feeds you can view via who haven't picked up a copy in a the Flipboard app. while, is now smaller and A confession: I am a long-time glossier). And, no doubt, I read it

because I snagged one of those insanely cheap "5 year renewal" sorts of deals.

As it stands, some of my favorite features of the magazine are missing: the page at the back with the charts, the collection of snapshots from various parties. And with all the praises heaped upon the iPad and Flipboard reading experiences, it's hard not to look at the pages recreated here and miss the striking photography that accompanies the print version of the magazine. I'll probably resubscribe - don't worry Rolling Stone. Just stick Johnny Depp's

face on one of your little subscription renewal postcards. That gets me every time. Hey, I'm a fan. So I'm pleased to see Rolling Stone on Flipboard. If nothing else, its inclusion in the iPad app will give a better reading experience for the magazine's breaking news and interviews, particularly since the print version won't show up for weeks. Discuss

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Newstablet Edition

Rare official Apple playing cards up for auction on eBay
David Quilty (TUAW)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:45:00 PM

Samsung Unveils Five New NX Lenses
Rue Liu (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:40:18 PM

The ultra-bright 85mm F1.4 CSC lens is a professional portrait lens and aslo features Super Sonic Samsung has just unleashed five Actuator and full-time manual new lenses for their NX line of focus. digital cameras giving the lineup a The final lens is the 16-80mm total of 10 lenses. Lenses of the advanced standard zoom lens that series all feature Samsung’s i- also comes with silent auto-focus Function system that allows users and Optical Image Stabilization. to adjust camera settings directly [ via Samsung Hub] from the lens. Relevant Entries on SlashGear The first of the new lenses is a • Official Apple Playing Cards multi-purpose 18-200 mm Long Show Up on Ebay Zoom lens that features fast and • Apple threatens guy who tried silent auto-focus and Optical to sell 5th Ave store step on eBay Image Stabilization. with legal action The 16mm F2.4 ultra-wide • Palm Pre 2 for Verizon Shown pancake lens features a bright O f f i n e B a y A u c t i o n , (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) aperture for capturing good S u b s e q u e n t l y P u l l e d Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:00:56 AM images in low-light situations. • Massive Transformers An employee of Samsung The 60mm Macro lens features c o l l e c t i o n o n e B a y Electronics shows a 32-Gigabyte Super Sonic Actuator technology • NeXT Computer Cube Hits NAND memory card and chip. that makes auto focusing faster Ebay Memory cards are typically found and quieter. It comes with fullin devices such as digital cameras time manual focus and Optical Image Stabilization.

If your Apple collectibles case has an empty slot in it for something new, you may just want to check out these very rare Apple Computer Playing Cards up for auction on eBay. Brought to our attention by MacStories, this official Apple-branded set of OS 7 icon playing cards was purchased at an Apple campus store back in 1997 and is still in brand-new and unused condition. The cards come as a full deck of 52 cards plus two Jokers, and the icons are of OS 7 Bombs, Clocks, Mac Face and Trash Cans rather than the standard card illustrations of clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades. Bidding is now up to £205 with 6 days remaining in the auction. These sets were available only to Apple employees back in the day, so those of you looking for a rare Apple collectible may want to check them out.

If £205 ( and still climbing) seems like a little much dough to pull out of your wallet right now for these Apple cards, maybe something like a collectible iPad Cutting Board for US $19.95 is more your speed. Better yet, for the absolute low price of $0.00, Apple fans who are also playing card fanatics may want to check out Full Deck Solitaire, reviewed

earlier today here on TUAW. [via MacStories and The Next Web] Rare official Apple playing cards up for auction on eBay originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Computer Memory Pictures
while memory chips can hold RAM and ROM in computers. Next, see a computer memory wafer. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Newstablet Edition

Technology/ Economy/ Culture/

25

TUAW Tip: Generate iTunes Store RSS feeds
Michael Gray (TUAW)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 4:00:00 PM

iTunes obviously has a great deal of data about its sales; Apple is quite aware of the top sellers among its music, apps, movies, and podcasts. They also make that information available through RSS feeds. If you want to share that data on your website, or even if you just want it in your RSS reader, then you can use the official iTunes RSS Generator to get the right feed. You can refine the RSS feed created by Country, Media Type, Feed Type, Size, and whether to allow explicit content. The Media Robert Evans (SlashGear) assume that most of the Verizon Types available include Music, iPhone sales have been users P o d c a s t s , A u d i o b o o k s , T V Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:29:15 PM switching over from AT&T. This Shows, Music Videos, Movies, The Verizon iPhone hasn’t been isn’t a bad thing, at least not for Mac Apps, and Apps. There are quite the wild success we’d Verizon and Apple, but it may obviously many options under expected. Not only is the Big Red point towards a better Q1 for each media type, so you should iPhone not moving fast, it is also Android handset manufacturers check it out and see what's selling primarily to people who than any of them had dared hope. available. Just punch in the already own iPhones. So far, [ Via Marco] there’s little evidence of a great Relevant Entries on SlashGear Android flight. • Verizon iPhone 4 Lower Than This information comes from the Expected Sales Numbers Leaked app Instapaper. They tend to have • Verizon iPhone 4 in stores now Brandon Keim (Wired Top a stable ranking- between #2 and • Verizon offers some customers Stories) # 5 i n t h e A p p S t o r e n e w s a $200 gift card for iPhone 4 Submitted at 2/21/2011 6:00:00 AM category, and thus their sales may upgrades act as a decent gauge for iPhone • Sprint iPhone 4 Now Possible? sales. Rather than seeing a huge • Verizon Tweets from Twitter [ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Near the end of influx of totally new customers for iPhone his life, the great mathematician due to the CDMA iPhone, the Alan Turing wrote his first and numbers remain stable. From this, it seems reasonable to

Oil, Silver, And Gold All Making Huge Moves Today Thanks To Mideast Chaos
Joe Weisenthal (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:19:02 AM

The Verizon iPhone: Mostly Bought by AT&T iPhone Owners?

criteria you want to follow, hit "Generate," and then hook up that feed to an RSS reader, and you'll be kept up to date on the latest changes in the iTunes stores. TUAW Tip: Generate iTunes Store RSS feeds originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Gallery: Alan Turing's Patterns in Nature, and Beyond
last paper on biology and chemistry, about how a certain type of chemical reaction ought to produce many patterns seen in nature. Take a tour of Turing's most striking patterns with Wired.com.

The thing is, even if the stock market were open today, we'd probably be just talking about what's happening in the oil, silver, and gold markets, so it's really like nothing has changed one bit due to the holiday. All three commodities are ripping face today. Crude is zooming back towards $90, gold has broken back above $1400 to $1404, and silver -- silver! -- is closing in on $34. Just last night it broke $33. And it's in large part due to the events transpiring in Libya, which is really the first serious oil producer that's likely to go down. There are already reports, totally unverified, that Gaddafi has left the building. Join the conversation about this story »

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Newstablet Edition

Official Apple Playing Cards Show Up on Ebay
Robert Evans (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:47:00 PM

Apple fanatics, get ready to search your souls and throw some serious money at eBay. A rare set of playing cards themed after OS 7 have just hit the online auction site. These cards were never available for purchase outside of the Apple campus store. They were released in 1997, which means this deck may be among

the last surviving. You know you want them. Unfortunately, everyone else does too. A few hours ago, the cards were up to a mere £28. That price didn’t last. With 5 days and 22 hours left on the bid, these cards are currently up to £225. Somewhere out there is a geek who will spend more on this pack of playing cards than he did on his [ Via Mac Stories] iPad. Which, by the way, has a Relevant Entries on SlashGear pretty damn good solitaire app. • iPhones are fetching over

$1,000 on eBay • Umbra Waterproof Playing Cards • Apple gift cards can’t be used to purchase iPhones either • eBay adds QR Code scanning to RedLaser Barcode-Scanning iPhone App • Pink accessories to make your iPhone chick-friendly

AdVirtus Is a GridBased To-Do Manager That Helps You Break Bad Habits [Webapps]
Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 11:30:00 AM

Nomad Capacitive Brush for iPad Unveiled
Robert Evans (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:15:44 PM

The iPad got a little more creative today, with the launch of the Nomad Brush. This weird new “stylus” is made from capacitive fibers that actually register on the touchscreen like real brush strokes. While the iPad is the most obvious device for the Nomad, it will work on any

capacitive touchscreen. Each brush is hand-made. Cost per-unit is just $24. Now, all we need is a “grain of rice” application and a “detail” capacitive brush. Campy fairground gimmicks and hastily drawn caricatures have never been so accessible to the common man! purchased by current Apple [ Via TUAW] owners Relevant Entries on SlashGear • i P a d m o r e l i k e l y t o b e • Griffin offers new Cabinet

Mount for iPad perfect for the kitchen • Apple iPad A4 CPU detailed • Sonicare you DSLR image sensor with DDPro • Booq Boa folio case for iPad reminds me of grade school

AdVirtus is a neat little webapp to help you manage your recurring to-dos, letting you organize them in a grid and mark them off as you complete them each day. Additionally, it provides a social aspect so you can complete your tasks with others, making it an effective tool for beating bad habits and achieving long-terms goals like regular exercise and weight loss. More »

10 Amazing Car Security Systems
(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:00:56 AM

Everywhere else, it's a good idea to arm yourself -- and your car -with some security. Cars are expensive. Other than a On the bright side, car thefts have house, perhaps, few purchases we been steadily decreasing in recent make will compare to a new car. years; fewer than 1 million cars And just like any other expensive were stolen in the United States in asset, a car brings with it a 2009 [source: NICB]. That's the secondary cost -- the risk of theft. lowest number in two decades, In some laid-back parts of the and car security has come a long world, locking the doors may be way during that time period. For enough to ward off the threat. instance, more than 30 car models

from General Motors come equipped with OnStar, a car safety device that provides everything from turn-by-turn navigation to stolen vehicle tracking and remote ignition blocking [source: OnStar]. Technological marvel that it is, OnStar's just the tip of the iceberg-- a bevy of high-tech car security systems track cars via GPS or radio, and can even kill the ignition from afar.

Modern security systems run the gamut from pre-installed helpful components like OnStar to top-ofthe-line options like LoJack. Read on to learn about 10 amazing car security systems, including affordable everyday solutions, military Smartrucks and DNArecognition systems straight out of the future. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is

your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Newstablet Edition

Economy/

27

A Deep Dive Into The Huge Gap Between WTI And Brent Crude
Gail E. Tverberg (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:38:00 PM

We have all heard at least a partial explanation as to why West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent prices are so far apart. We have been told that the Midwest is oversupplied because of all of the Canadian imports, and the crude oil cannot get down as far as the Gulf Coast, because while there is pipeline capacity to the Midwest, there isn’t adequate pipeline capacity to the Gulf Coast. I have done a little research and tried to add some more context and details. For example, the opening of two pipelines from Canada (one on April 1, 2010 and one on February 8, 2011) seems to be contributing to the problem, as is rising North Dakota oil production. There are two pipelines ( Seaway– 430,000 barrels a day capacity and Capline– 1.2 million barrels a day capacity) bringing oil up from the Gulf to the Midwest. It is really the conflict between the oil coming up from the Gulf and the oil from the North that is leading to excessive crude oil supply for Midwest refineries and the resulting lower price for WTI crude oil at Cushing. Demand for output from the refineries remains high though, so prices for refined products remains high, even as

prices for crude oil are low. This mismatch provides an opportunity for refiners to make high profits. There are various ways of fixing the problem. Bringing less oil up from the Gulf would seem to be part of the solution. Conoco Phillips, one of the owners of the Seaway pipeline (and an owner of Midwest refineries), says it is not interested in reversing it. But lower prices by themselves would seem to result in less oil being shipped through the pipelines up from the Gulf, and may at least partially fix the problem. Trucking and rail transportation of oil to the Gulf Coast may also

be part of the solution, but arranging this may take some time, because of the large quantities involved. If shipping by train or truck is worked out, I would expect that the price of WTI will move closer to Brent, to reflect the additional shipping cost involved, perhaps $10 or $15 a barrel. The availability of this solution should help to cap the spread between West Texas Intermediate and Brent. Figure 1. Comparison of Brent and West Texas Intermediate spot prices, based on data of the US Energy Information Agency. nspection of Figure 1 indicates

Figure 2 shows the oil imported into PADD2 from Canada. While imports have been rising since 1990, there has been no spectacular recent rise in the amount of oil coming into the US from Canada. A closer look at the last eight months (shown in Figure 3, below) shows that there have been ups and downs, which I will later show correspond to the timing of pipeline closures and operation at reduced pressure because of spills. Figure 3. Crude oil imports since July 2010 into PADD2, based on EIA data. The production that appears to be increasing rapidly is production from the Bakken region in North Dakota. Figure 4. Production for PADD2, through November 2010, based on EIA data. that the gap between Brent and This graph includes all of WTI prices started in December PADD2. North Dakota is about 2010, and has widened in 2011. half of the total, and the only Below the fold, I show some rapidly growing portion. The more details about what is graph shows production only happening and the prospects for through November 2010, but it is getting the gap fixed. Rising no doubt higher in December, Production in North Dakota and January, and February. (For more Canada on the Bakken, see my recent post Underlying all of this is rising oil Is Shale Oil the Answer to Peak production in “PADD2 (the EIA’s Oil.) designation for the Midwest, Thus, it appears that US PADD2 which includes the Bakken in production has recently increased North Dakota) and also rising by a high percentage, but relative imports into PADD2 of crude oil to a low base, while imports from from western Canada. Figure 2. Imports from Canada DEEP page 28 into PADD2. Graph by EIA.

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DEEP
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Canada are generally rising, although not necessarily by very much recently. Both would tend to put pressure on Midwest refinery capacity, if the area were already up against limits, but probably not otherwise. Midwest Refinery Capacity We have all heard that these Midwest refining capacity is inadequate. EIA doesn’t give much history of refinery capacity by region, but apparently, the Midwest at one time had more capacity than it does now. Figure 5. Current distribution of US refinery capacity, based on EIA data. Currently, the Midwest has about 18% of US refining capacity, amounting to about 3.3 million barrels a day. Imports from Canada from Figure 2 or 3 would appear to be about 1.3 million barrels a day, and PADD 2 production would appear to be about 800,000 barrels a day, making a total of roughly 2.1 million barrels a day. This is not enough oil to supply Midwest refineries, and the reason for pipelines from the Gulf. Consumption of oil products in the Midwest is about 4.9 million barrels a day, considerably more than it refines, so the Midwest also depends on imports of oil products from other parts of the country for its needs. There are two crude pipelines from the Gulf to the Midwest. The Seaway Pipeline with a capacity of 430,000 barrels a day brings oil up from the Gulf coast to Cushing, while the Capline

pipeline, with a capacity of 1,200,000 barrels a day, brings crude from Louisiana to Southern Illinois. It is the conflict of the crude oil coming from the North with the crude oil coming from the South that is causing the oversupply of crude oil to Midwest refineries. It should be noted that some refineries have been set up to handle very heavy oil from Canada, and others have not. There are also other differences in refineries that make some better for some types of crude oil than for other types. Because of this, even if the total amount of crude oil were to match up precisely with the available Midwest capacity, there might still be refineries with not enough crude and others with too much. Figure 6. PADD2 and US percent utilization of refinery capacity According to EIA data, PADD2 (Midwest) refineries are running at 95% of capacity, while other refineries are running at much lower percentages of capacity. Some of the other “PADDs” are running at 75% of refinery capacity–too low to make a profit. The level of refinery utilization tends to vary by the time of year–this is an unusual time for utilization to be so high. If utilization is high now, a “normal” summer rise in utilization would not really be possible. So effectively “maxing out” at refinery utilization seems to be part of the problem. Since the buyers of crude oil are generally refineries, if they have

all the oil they can take, they are not going to bid very much for more crude oil, except perhaps out in the future, when they aren’t so overbooked, and this seems to be the pattern we are seeing for West Texas Intermediate. Figure 7. US Percent Utilization fo Refinery Operable Capacity (EIA graph) Figure 7 shows that it is not all that unusual for the industry to run at 95% utilization of operable capacity. US overall utilization of US refineries is down considerably since the 1995 to 2005 period. There is clearly plenty of capacity in the US, outside of PADD2, if oil could get transported to the right location. Pipeline Issues Part of the problem seems to be pipeline issues–particularly new pipelines that don’t go to the Gulf. There are really two new pipelines. The first is Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper Line. It opened in April 2010 and carries up to 450,000 barrels a day from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. From there, it is added to existing US pipelines. Figure 8. Map by Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, showing pipeline status as of July 2010. The Enbridge Alberta Clipper is the red line (labeled with a “1), connecting up with Superior, Wisconsin. This pipeline no doubt accounts for whatever increase in PADD2 imports occurred since early 2010, which from Figure 2 above, doesn’t appear to be much. One reason that the Alberta

Clipper doesn’t seem to actually be doing very much to increase US imports is the fact that it appears to have been built for a bigger increase in Canadian production than actually took place, so is running under capacity. The other reason for the lack of increase is because of leak-related shut downs and reductions in capacity in US pipelines. First, on July 8, 2010, there was a spill in Michigan on the Line 6B (built to carry 290,000 barrels a day, but carrying 190,000 barrels a day). Then, on September 9, there was a leak discovered outside of Chicago in Line 6A (built to carry 670,000 barrels a day, but carrying 459,000 barrels a day before the leak). Both of these leaks were repaired, but Enbridge was ordered to run the pipelines at lower pressure afterward. One report said the reduction in pressure had the potential to reduce deliveries of Line 6A by 300,000 barrels a day. The long and short of this is that while the April 1 increase in pipeline capacity theoretically had the potential to increase deliveries, the closures and reduced pipeline pressures (which reduced the flow rate) prevented much of an actual increase in deliveries. I would not be surprised if we continue to have problems with leaks. There seem to be real issues with putting heavy crude through very old US pipelines–see my post on this issue. Since the Alberta Clipper didn’t

actually increase deliveries very much, crude has been accumulating in Canada. On January 24 Reuters said, “Capacity on Canadian oil pipelines has been tight since this summer, when two of Enbridge’s lines in the Midwest ruptured, backing up crude supplies in Alberta. Oil producers have since been trying to winnow down Alberta stockpiles, routinely requesting more space than available on the lines leaving the province.” A second new pipeline, Trans Canada’s Keystone Pipeline with a capacity of 590,000 barrels of crude oil a day, was added in February 8. It is labeled with a numeral “2 on Figure 8. Since it opened so recently, the effects would not yet appear in Figure 3 amounts. The new section brings oil from Steele City Nebraska to Cushing, and raises capacity on the line by 145,000 barrels per day. The addition of this line appears to have the potential to bring more oil into the Midwest, where refining capacity is already “maxed out”. It seems to me that the opening of this line is a major part of what is scaring refineries, since they already have as much crude oil as they can handle from other sources. They are offering low prices for additional oil, recognizing they cannot really handle more. Storage Maxed Out? A graph of recent PADD2 storage (the entire amount, not just Cushing) is shown in Figure DEEP page 32

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Libya Faces Civil War; Qaddafi's Son Says Rivers of Blood Will Flow; Chaos in Morocco; Oil Spikes
[emailprotected] (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 5:58:00 AM

The playbook in Libya looks nothing like what recently transpired in Tunisia and Egypt. As Libyan protests escalate, Qaddafi’s Son Warns of Civil War. A five-day-old uprising in Libya took control of its second-largest city of Benghazi and spread for the first time to the capital of Tripoli late on Sunday as the heirapparent son of its strongman, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, warned Libyans in a televised speech that their oil-rich country would fall into civil war and even renewed Western “colonization” if they threw off his father’s 40year-long rule. Witnesses in Tripoli interviewed by telephone on Sunday night said protesters were converging on the capital’s central Green Square and clashing with the heavily armed riot police. Young men armed themselves with chains around their knuckles, steel pipes and machetes. The police had retreated from some neighborhoods, and protesters were seen armed with police batons, helmets and rifles commandeered from riot squads. “The state has disappeared from the streets,” said Mansour Abu Shenaf, a writer living in Tripoli, “and the people, the youth, have

practically taken over.” The younger Mr. Qaddafi blamed Islamic radicals and Libyans in exile for the uprising. He offered a vague package of reforms in his televised speech, potentially including a new flag, national anthem and confederate structure. But his main theme was to threaten Libyans with the prospect of civil war over its oil resources that would break up the country, deprive residents of food and education, and even invite a Western takeover. “Libya is made up of tribes and clans and loyalties,” he said. “There will be civil war.” The whereabouts of Colonel Qaddafi himself remained unclear on Sunday. Over the last three days his security forces have killed at least 173 people, according to a tally by the group Human Rights Watch. Several people in Benghazi hospitals, reached by telephone, said they believed that as many as 200 had been killed and more than 800 wounded there on Saturday alone, with many of the deaths from machine gun fire. And after protesters marched in a funeral procession on Sunday morning, the security forces opened fire again, killing at least 50 more, Human Rights Watch said. Under Colonel Qaddafi’s idiosyncratic rule, tribal bonds remain primary even within the ranks of the military, and both

protesters and the security forces have reason to believe that backing down will likely mean their ultimate death or imprisonment. But in a break with the Qaddafi government, the powerful alWarfalla and al-Zuwayya tribes came out against Colonel Qaddafi on Sunday. “We tell him to leave the country,” a spokesman for the al-Warfalla told the pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera. The Libyan government has tried to impose a blackout on the country. Foreign journalists cannot enter. Internet access has been almost totally severed, with only occasional access, though some protesters appear to be using satellite connections or phoning information to services outside the country. Qaddafi's Son Says Rivers of Blood Will Flow Bloomberg has some interesting details in Qaddafi's Son Warns of Libyan Civil War, Offers Dialogue “Instead of weeping over 84 dead people, we will weep over hundreds of thousands of dead,” Saif al-Islam Qaddafi said on state television. “Rivers of blood will flow.” Qaddafi said some demonstrators had captured military equipment, and warned that the conflict may halt the flow of oil. BP Plc halted exploration work in the Libyan desert. Libya, holder of Africa’s largest

oil reserves, is the latest country in the region to be rocked by protests ignited by the ouster of Tunisia’s president last month and energized by the fall of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. Violence has flared in Yemen, Djibouti and Bahrain as governments sought to crack down on demands for change. “The speed of the whole thing in Libya has surprised most of the specialists because Colonel Qaddafi established a very special repressive system of his own,” Amin Saikal, director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at Australian National University, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Probably the casualties will be extremely high and therefore Qaddafi will be left with very little credibility to really go on and govern the country for much longer.” In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference in the capital, Sanaa, to rule out meeting all the demands of protesters demanding his ouster. Demonstrators took to the streets for an 11th day as Saleh said their calls for regime change are “not logical.” In Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, seven opposition groups were drawing up demands to put to the government as they discussed the government’s call for dialogue, said Ebrahim Sharif, head of the

National Democratic Action Society. Protests have been led by the Shiite Muslim majority, which says it is discriminated against by Sunni rulers. Thousands of Bahrainis yesterday poured back into the central square that has become the focus of protest in the Bahraini capital, Manama, after tanks, armored personnel carriers and riot police withdrew on the orders of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Unions called off a general strike planned for today in response. Demonstrations also were reported yesterday in Iran and Morocco. One protester was shot dead in Tehran as thousands gathered in main squares in the Iranian capital and clashed with government supporters, Dubaibased Al Arabiya television said. Security forces also clashed with demonstrators in the city of Shiraz, it reported. There were clashes last week between protesters and security forces in Djibouti, the Horn of Africa nation that hosts the only U.S. military base on the continent. Chaos in Morocco Please consider Fears of Chaos Temper Calls for Change in Morocco For Morocco, a kingdom on the western edge of North Africa, the calls for change sweeping the LIBYA page 34

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Warplanes, Militia Fire on Libyan Protesters; Libya’s U.N. Diplomats Break With Qaddafi, Call Leader "Genocidal War Criminal"; Gaddafi Flees Libya?
[emailprotected] (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

as the militiamen, still shooting, chased after the protesters. The escalation of the conflict came after Colonel Qaddafi’s Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:40:00 PM In what may be best describes as security forces had earlier in the the start of a civil war, Warplanes day retreated to a few buildings in and Militia Fire on Protesters in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, fires Libyan Capital The faltering burned unchecked, and senior government of the Libyan government officials and strongman Col. Muammar el- diplomats announced defections. Qaddafi struck back at mounting The country’s second-largest city protests against his 40-year rule, remained under the control of as helicopters and warplanes rebels. besieged parts of the capital Security forces loyal to Mr. Monday, according to witnesses Qaddafi defended a handful of and news reports from Tripoli. strategic locations, including the By Monday afternoon, a witness state television headquarters and saw armed militiamen firing on the presidential palace, witnesses protesters who were clashing with reported from Tripoli. Fires from r i o t p o l i c e . A s a g r o u p o f the previous night’s rioting protesters and the police faced off burned at many intersections, in a neighborhood near Green most stores were shuttered, and Square, in the center of the long lines were forming for a capital, ten or so Toyota pickup chance to buy bread or gas. trucks carrying more than 20 men Libya’s U.N. Diplomats Call — many of them apparently from Q a d d a f i " G e n o c i d a l W a r other African countries in C r i m i n a l " mismatched fatigues — arrived at The New York Times reports the scene. Libya’s U.N. Diplomats Break Holding small automatic With Qaddafi Members of weapons, they started firing in the Libya’s mission to the United air, and then started firing at Nations publicly repudiated Col. protesters, who scattered, the Muammar el-Qaddafi on Monday, witness said. “It was an obscene calling him a genocidal war amount of gunfire,” said the criminal responsible for mass witness. “They were strafing these s h o o t i n g s o f d e m o n s t r a t o r s people. People were running in protesting against his four decades every direction.” The police stood in power. They called upon him to by and watched, the witness said, resign.

The repudiation, led by Libya’s deputy permanent representative at a news conference at the mission’s headquarters in New York, amounted to the most highprofile defection of Libyan diplomats in the anti-Qaddafi uprising that has convulsed Libya over the past week. “We are sure that what is going on now in Libya is crimes against humanity and crimes of war,” the deputy permanent representative, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told reporters in the ground-floor lobby of the Libyan mission on Manhattan’s East Side, adorned by a large portrait of Colonel Qaddafi in tribal dress atop a white horse. About a dozen of Mr. Dabbashi’s colleagues stood behind him as he spoke, looking tense and nervous. “We state clearly that the Libyan mission is a mission for the Libyan people,” he said. “It is not for the regime. The regime of Qaddafi has already started the genocide against the Libyan people.” He called upon Colonel Qaddafi to step down and leave the country “as soon as possible.” British Foreign Secretary says Gaddafi Heads for Venezuela British Foreign Secretary William Hague claims Information Gaddafi on way to Venezuela Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday

he had seen some information to suggest Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi had fled the country and was on his way to Venezuela. "You asked me earlier about whether Colonel Gaddafi is in Venezuela," he told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. "I have no information that says he is, but I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there at the moment." Diplomats said Hague was not referring to rumours circulating in the media about Gaddafi's whereabouts, but to separate sources for the information. Venezuela denies reports Gaddafi's on his way The first casualty of war is the truth, so it's hard to know what to believe. However, Venezuela denies reports Gaddafi's on his way Venezuela's Communications and Information Minister Andres Izarra told the Latin American television network Telesur denied reports that Gaddafi's may be headed for Venezuela. Other government sources rejected his imminent arrival as well, following suggestions by British Foreign Secretary William Hague that Gaddafi could be on his way to Venezuela. 'I have no information that says he

is (already there), although I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there at the moment,' Hague said in Brussels earlier Monday. The Venezuela of left-wing populist President Hugo Chavez has held friendly ties with Gaddafi's fellow-oil producing Libya. Gaddafi visited the South American country in September 2009, while Chavez reciprocated in October 2010. One has to wonder if calls by the Libyan delegates for Qaddafi to leave someone got twisted into "Qaddafi has already fled". Given numerous intelligence failures in the past several weeks, there is no reason to give strong credence to much of anything except live coverage or actual eyewitness accounts from reputable sources. Al Jazeera Live Blog Inquiring minds may be interested in the Al Jazeera Libya Live Blog Here are some items of note ... Leading Sunni Cleric issues fatwa encouraging the assassination of Gaddafi. 10:40pm: Yusuf Al Qardawi, a leading Sunni cleric, has just issued a fatwa on Al Jazeera Arabic, encouraging the assassination of Gaddafi. WARPLANES, page 34

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Iceland Once Again Tells IMF, UK, Netherlands "Go to Hell"; "Ice Torture" Repayment Scheme Collapses
[emailprotected] (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

failed. The new deal carries substantially better terms—Iceland has until 2046 to Submitted at 2/20/2011 10:47:00 PM Hats off to Iceland for a second repay, at an interest rate of about time for telling the IMF, the UK, 3%—but Mr. Grímsson said in a and Netherlands to "Go to Hell" statement issued Sunday that the over the most recent Icesave Icesave issue is so weighty and so proposal, better thought of as Ice contested that it wasn't up to Torture. Parliament to decide. P l e a s e c o n s i d e r I c e l a n d ' s "There is support for the view that President Vetoes Icesave Deal For the people should once again, as t h e s e c o n d t i m e , I c e l a n d ' s before, act together with the president vetoed a bid by the Althingi as the legislator in this island nation's Parliament to repay matter," Mr. Grímsson said, using the U.K. and the Netherlands the local name for Iceland's more than $5 billion lost by thousand-year-old Parliament. depositors in Iceland's epic 2008 The presidential veto is rare. It banking collapse—sending the has now been used just three matter to a referendum by a t i m e s s i n c e I c e l a n d ' s deeply skeptical public and independence from Denmark in c o m p l i c a t i n g t h e c o u n t r y ' s 1944. The Icelandic president application to join the European approves nearly all bills passed by Union. Parliament; under the constitution, The dispute over Icesave—the he may only approve or call a online arm of a failed Iceland referendum. bank that took deposits from If history is a guide, the deal once British and Dutch savers—has again faces nearly certain defeat. percolated for more than two In the first plebiscite, 93.2% of years, reflecting the Icelandic voters, or 134,392, rejected the people's dissatisfaction with bill. Just 2,599 picked "yes," paying the price for what is badly trailing even the 6,744 who almost universally regarded as the left their ballots blank. hubris of a few bankers. The British and the Dutch A first attempt at a repayment governments stepped in in 2008 to deal in 2009 faced stiff opposition compensate depositors in their in the Icelandic parliament. A countries who had placed money modified bill passed later that with Icesave, since Iceland's tiny year, but President Ólafur Ragnar deposit-insurance program was Grímsson vetoed it in early 2010, woefully short of cash. The two triggering a referendum, which nations soon demanded their

money back—about £2.35 billion ($3.8 billion) for the U.K. and €1.32 billion ($1.8 billion) for the Netherlands. The total amounts to about half a year's economic output. Iceland repayment talks collapse The BBC Reports Iceland repayment talks collapse Talks on how Iceland will repay more than 3.8bn euros (£3.3bn) of debt it owes to the UK and the Netherlands have broken down without agreement. The collapse of the Iceland-based Icesave online bank in October 2008 hit savers in both countries. The UK and Dutch governments are seeking repayments from Iceland after they compensated savers themselves. However, the three governments have been unable to agree on revised payment terms after a week of negotiations. "We had hoped to be able to reach a consensual resolution of this issue on improved terms, but this has not yet been possible," said Iceland's finance minister Steingrimur Sigfusson. In a statement, the UK and Dutch governments said they were "very disappointed that despite all the efforts over the past year and a half, Iceland is still unable to accept our best offer on the Icesave loan". Iceland plans to hold a referendum on the Icesave repayment on 6 March, but the

government is hopeful it can reach a different deal ahead of that. Opinion polls suggest that a majority of Icelandic voters would reject the repayment plan. The dispute has delayed International Monetary Fund help for Iceland, which Reykjavik needs to shore up its stricken economy. The country's parliament voted for a referendum on the Icesave bill after President Olaf Ragnar Grimsson vetoed the repayment to the UK and the Netherlands. Opponents say the repayment plan forces Icelandic taxpayers to pay for bankers' mistakes. The dispute has also overshadowed Iceland's application to join the EU, which was submitted in July. Iceland's economic crisis persuaded many of its politicians that it would be better off inside the 27-nation bloc. Arrogance of UK, Netherlands Note the arrogance of the UK and Netherlands issuing a statement "Iceland is still unable to accept our best offer on the Icesave loan". It is up to Iceland to make its best offer not for the UK and Ducth governments to make demands of 100% repayment. Why should Iceland crucify its taxpayers with a "loan" when the correct procedure is a massive haircut. Iceland should immediately

counter with its "best offer" of one cent on the dollar. That will set the tone for reasonable expectations. Somehow the Icelandic Parliament does not get it. Fortunately the president does. Commending Iceland's President I commend the decision of the president to send this to the people to vote. Moreover I encourage Icelandic voters to vote the same way they did last time. Here's the deal. When you make stupid investments, don't expect to be bailed out. There is no reason the people of Iceland should have to pay for the stupidity of others. If the UK and Dutch governments were dumb enough to guarantee those deposits, then the UK and Dutch governments should pay the price, not Icelandic citizens. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ ICELAND page 34

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9. Figure 9. PADD crude oil storage inventory. Graph made by EIA. Clearly, crude oil in storage was already on an upward trend before the Alberta Clipper pipeline opened on April 1, 2010. If we compare the recent changes in inventory to what has happened with PADD2 imports (Figure 3), we see that there seems to be a close correlation. Between the opening of the pipeline and the day of the first spill (July 26, 2010), inventory increased from 85.0 million barrels to 97.7 million barrels. This was an increase of 12.7 million barrels in about 116 days, indicating that PADD 2 was accumulating inventory at a rate of about 109,000 barrels a day. Once the first outage began, inventory was drawn down, reaching about 90.7 million barrels when Line 6B was finally put back on at a reduced rate on September 27, 2010. Figure 3 shows piped oil imports began increasing about November 1, 2010. Between November 1 and February 11, inventories increased from 90.7 million barrels to 99.2 million barrels, an increase of 8.5 million barrels in 102 days, or 83,000 barrels a day of inventory accumulation. So it looks as if PADD2 was not able to handle the additional crude oil added by the Alberta Clipper during the times it increased flow

from Canada. It is not surprising that refineries are worried about the Trans Canada’s Keystone pipeline expansion coming on line February 8, adding even more potential crude oil supply. Are the new low crude oil prices reducing PADD2 gasoline prices? This is a graph comparing PADD2 gasoline prices to US average gasoline prices. Figure 10. PADD2 average gasoline price compared to US average gasoline price, based on EIA data. The lower prices that refineries have been paying for crude in PADD2 do not seem to be translating to lower gasoline prices. There would seem to be three reasons for this. First, demand for products, like gasoline, remains high in the Midwest. It is crude oil that is oversupplied, because of pipeline issues and other factors. Second, it is not clear whether refineries actually paid the reduced prices that we have been seeing recently. They may have had long -term contracts or have hedged their costs, so that they did not benefit from the reduced price for WTI. Third, since PADD2 consumes more oil products than it produces, it is importing oil products refined elsewhere, and must pay the “going rate” for them. How will all of this resolve? Some have suggested that

TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline (labeled as “3 on Figure 8 ) will help solve the problem, when it is completed in 2013. I am not so sure. For one thing, the pipeline hasn’t been approved yet, and it has substantial opposition in the US. Furthermore, unless Canadian production really ramps up, it is not clear that there will be enough crude oil to fill another pipeline. There are already two recent pipelines bringing more oil into PADD2, and they are likely nowhere near full. Canada also has options for sending its crude elsewhere–see pipelines to the West Coast, labeled “4, “5, and “6 on Figure 8. To handle our current problems, what seems to be needed is a pipeline specifically from Cushing to the Gulf coast. Even this piece of the Keystone XL pipeline has substantial opposition, and won’t be available until 2013, assuming it is approved and moves ahead as planned. If the portion of Keystone XL from Canada is added as well, it will also be bring more crude from Canada, adding to the amount of oil that needs to be transported to the Gulf Coast. The new segment to the Gulf Coast may not add much more capacity than what is being brought south by the new line. As mentioned in the introduction, there is a 430,000 barrel a day

crude oil pipeline that brings crude oil up from the Gulf Coast to Cushing, called the Seaway Pipeline. If it were reversed, it theoretically might solve the problem, assuming that each refinery could still get the type of crude it needs. ConocoPhillips, a partial owner of Seaway, has said it is not interested in reversing the pipeline. Conoco Phillips operates refineries in the Midwest, and stands to make money if there is a large gap between crude oil prices and the selling prices of products (in other words, crack spread). But there may be other reasons for wanting the pipeline to continue flowing in toward Cushing. A 860,000 change in capacity (from +430,000 to 430,000) would a big change to digest, even for a PADD that is oversupplied. If the selling price of crude oil in the Midwest remains depressed long enough, sellers will find other markets for their crude oil, and the Seaway and Capline pipelines bringing oil up from the Gulf will operate at reduced capacities. That would be one solution to the PADD2 crunch. If the situation is bad enough, long enough, it is possible that the Seaway Pipeline owners will relent and turn the pipeline direction around, so it pumps oil toward the Gulf, instead of up to Cushing. Another option is railroad or

truck shipping of oil from the Midwest down to the Gulf Coast. According to Dennis Gartman, the cost of shipping crude from Cushing to the coast is $10 barrel by truck and $6 barrel by train. If there really is sufficient train and trucking capacity, this would seem to be the approach to use. A person would think the price differential would then be reduced to the additional transit cost, or the additional transit cost, plus a small margin. The price differential between Brent and WTI would then go back to $10 or $15 barrel. One way or another, the gap between WTI and Brent prices seems unlikely to continue growing, and I would expect the differential to eventually start dropping. It nothing else, as the total supply of oil drops, there will be less oil to fill pipelines from the Gulf to the Midwest, making more opportunity for locally produced oil to use the local refineries. -------------This post previously appeared at The Oil Drum > Join the conversation about this story »

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Nomura On "The Irish Question" And What's At Stake In Friday's Huge Election
Joe Weisenthal (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:48:31 AM

This past week emergency overnight borrowing at the ECB surged to record highs, and it was learned that it was Irish banks were at the trough. Ireland, after a period of calm, is clearly back at the fore, and big elections set for this Friday should mean that Ireland will dominate the news all week. The election is crucial since the opposition parties -- which are likely to dominate -- are not so keen on the IMF bailout/austerity deal agreed to by the current ruling Fianna Fail party. Nomura's Dimitris Drakopoulos and Peter Westaway size up what's at stake in their note on "The Irish Question." With a general election to be held on 25 February, there has been uncertainty on the likely winners’ intentions on renegotiating the EU /IMF packages and in particular on the possibility of haircuts to the debt of Irish banks. Based on current opinion polls, the main opposition party, Fine Gael looks set to overhaul the ruling Fianna Fail party and hold the balance of power, probably in coalition with the Labour party. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are committed to the

ongoing austerity measures, with nuanced differences (by contrast, Sinn Fein is opposed to IMF/EU austerity measures but, despite market worries, we believe it is unlikely to gain any influence). But Fine Gael has made it clear (as explained in its manifesto) that it wishes to renegotiate the terms of the loans from the IMF/EU. Among other things, it wants the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to buy debt and equity in AIB and Bank of Ireland; it also wants the US regulators to allow it to secure funding of up to $50bn from the Federal Reserve using the dollar assets of Irish banks; and more interestingly it wants Ireland to be allowed to buy “insurance” from the EU against further losses in its banks. Without a renegotiation along these lines, Fine Gael has warned that it will unilaterally restructure the debt of Irish banks in greatest need of recapitalisation. The Labour party, a potential coalition partner, is also arguing for such haircuts (as well as for less aggressive austerity measures). In its most recent statements, Fine Gael’s rhetoric has been slightly more nuanced, saying it will impose losses only on senior bondholders as part of a Europewide framework. Even so, this

uncertainty about what lies in wait after the general election has undermined confidence in the Irish banking sector. CDS spreads have remained elevated and Irish bank deposits have continued to flow out. December data showed that there was a €35bn (21%) month-on-month decline in nonresident deposits, which followed outflows of €20bn in November and €10bn in October. Irish resident deposits also declined by €5bn in December and €6bn in

November. To boot, the explicit discussions on senior defaults by the government and opposition statements led Moody's and Fitch to cut the rating of unguaranteed senior unsecured bank debt in the last two weeks, reducing further the ECB eligible collateral of Irish banks. The analysts also take a look at the matter of haircuts, and one powerful point they make is that ultimately haircuts for bond holders would have little impact

on the sovereign's overall debt sustainability (conspiracy theorists might note that OF COURSE someone writing from a bank would be a opposted to haircuts). There would be no significant gains in terms of debt sustainability. As we argued, the amount of outstanding unsecured senior debt in unviable institutions is small. The debt reductioneven with a 40% haircut would not bring any considerable gains in terms of debt sustainability. We project the debt dynamics to remain unfavourable until at least 2015 (see Figure 1). The main negative contributions come from the primary deficit (12.6% of GDP on the debt ratio in 201114), which might take until 2015 to return to surplus from around 9% in 2010 and an unfavourable interest rate growth differential (contributing around 7% of GDP). show the challenge ahead: under our baseline scenario if Ireland returns to its 2011 debt to GDP of 113% by 2020 it would have to run primary surpluses of at least 3% of GDP after 2015. Join the conversation about this story »

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WARPLANES,
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region are muted by a fear of chaos, a prevalent security apparatus and genuine respect for the king, Mohammed VI. Since he took the throne in 1999, the king, who is only 47, has done much to soften the harsh and often brutal rule of his father, Hassan II. On Sunday, in response to a “February 20 Movement for Change” that began on Facebook, more than 10,000 people turned out in cities across the country to call for democratic change, lower food prices, freedom for Islamist prisoners, rights for Berbers and a variety of causes, including panArab nationalism. “This is a start,” said Imane Safi, 18, who was at the demonstration in Casablanca. “The Arab world is changing and the Moroccan people need a change in the Constitution for more democracy. We want a country like Britain, with a constitutional monarchy and a strong Parliament that is not corrupt.” Oil Rises as Libya Violence Prompts Middle East Supply Concern Bloomberg reports Oil Rises as Libya Violence Prompts Middle East Supply Concern Oil for April delivery rose for a fourth day in New York as violence escalated in Libya, bolstering concern supplies will

be disrupted as turmoil spreads through the Middle East and North Africa. “Libya is producing 1.5 million to 1.6 million barrels a day, so any unrest is concerning,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital, said by phone from London. “Until things settle there, prices are underpinned.” Libya, the eighth-largest oil producer among those with quotas in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has become the focal point of region-wide protests ignited by the ouster of Tunisia’s president last month and energized by the fall of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak last week. Violence has flared in Yemen, Djibouti and Bahrain as governments sought to crack down on calls for reform. Demonstrations also were reported yesterday in Iran and Morocco. “There is also the continued risk that this contagion will spread into Iran or another country in the region that is more important to the global oil market,” Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd., said by phone from Melbourne. Contagion List • Libya

• • • • •

10:25pm: More on the resignation of the two diplomats from the embassy in Washington DC. Counsels Saleh Ali Al Majbari and Jumaa Faris denounced Gaddafi, saying he T u n i s i a , a n d E g y p t w e r e "bears responsibility for genocide relatively peaceful, what will the against the Libyan people in rest bring? which he has used mercenaries". Mike "Mish" Shedlock They said they had nothing to do h t t p : / / with the events and they no longer globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. represent Gaddafi’s regime - but com that they represent the Libyan Click Here To Scroll Thru My people. The pair also called on Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Barack Obama to "work urgently S h e d l o c k i s a r e g i s t e r e d with the international community investment advisor representative t o p r e s s f o r a n i m m e d i a t e f o r S i t k a P a c i f i c C a p i t a l cessation of the massacres of the Management. Sitka Pacific is an Libyan people", and they are asset management firm whose asking the United Nations to goal is strong performance and impose a no-fly zone imposed on low volatility, regardless of Libya to prevent the arrival of market direction. Visit http:// mercenaries to Libya. www.sitkapacific.com/ 9:41pm: Egyptian foreign account_management.html to ministry spokesman Hosam Zaki l e a r n m o r e a b o u t w e a l t h says the Egyptian army has been management and capital ordered to facilitate the preservation strategies of Sitka evacuation of all Egyptians from Pacific. Libya. Some 100 buses, full of Egyptians, are on their way to the Libya-Egypt border - where the army has set up relief tents.

Yemen Djibouti Bahrain Iran Morocco

The ministry is "deeply concerned" by Saif Gaddafi's speech last night, which they say accused Egyptians of being behind Libya's violence Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

200 years of world history in 4 minutes [video]
(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:59:00 PM

ICELAND
continued from page 31

account_management.html to Pacific. learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka

Take a minute (or four) to regain that grip on world history with famed lecturer Hans Rosling that

you may or may not have been awake for the first time around. Full story at Buzzfeed. Joyride through history. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Newstablet Edition

Economy/ Culture/

35

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN LIBYA AS JETS BOMB PROTESTERS
Henry Blodget (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:07:00 PM

5 Awesome New Inventions You'll Never Hear About
(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:00:56 AM

All hell appears to be breaking loose in Libya. According to Al Jazeera, military jets have bombed protesters in Tripoli. Other military jets have reportedly refused orders to bomb protesters and have instead flown to Malta. The pilots of these planes, "senior colonels" in the Libyan military, have reportedly defected to Malta. The US and Europe have warned Gaddafi that the violence must stop. Gaddafi is said to be using "mercenaries" to attack protesters. Italy vehemently denies rumors that its fighter jets are being used in such attacks. Brent Crude (oil) has soared above $105 a barrel. Egypt is telling Egyptians to leave Libya. Italy is telling Italians to leave. Ongoing shooting of protesters is

preventing relatives of dead protesters from retrieving their bodies in the streets. "Whoever is in the streets, they are getting killed." "People are grabbing whatever they can from their houses." At least 7 Libyan ambassadors have resigned, refusing to serve the Gaddafi regime. Events are happening so quickly that they're hard to keep up with. Key links for latest below:

Al Jazeera's live-blog has the latest here > Watch Al Jazeera's English stream here > EARLIER: Libyan Protesters Take Control Of Cities, Oil Wells Shut Down, Gaddafi Faces Mass Defections Join the conversation about this story »

USPTO and 191,927 patents granted [source: USPTO]. Clearly, not every invention is S o m e i n v e n t i o n s a r e s o destined to become a part of the ubiquitous that it's difficult to common vernacular. imagine they started as an idea On the next few pages, we'll look scribbled on paper and then a at five fresh-from-the-bench patent application submitted to, i n v e n t i o n s t h a t p u s h t h e s a y , t h e U . S . P a t e n t a n d boundaries of innovation, yet are Trademark Office (USPTO). unlikely to gain widespread use or Aluminum foil, adhesive acceptance. For some, the bandages, the ballpoint pen, the challenge will be cost. For others, computer mouse, microwave it will be controversy. And for ovens-- these are just a few one or two, it will be a battle examples of great ideas that against esoterica. became indispensable products This entry passed through the we now take for granted. Full-Text RSS service — if this is But for every household name -- your content and you're reading it BIC, Macintosh, Band-Aid -- on someone else's site, please read there are scores of inventions our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ doomed to remain in the shadows content-only/faq.php of history. Some of it is a simple Five Filters featured article: numbers game. In 2009 alone, Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In t h e r e w e r e 4 8 2 , 8 7 1 p a t e n t The Crosshairs. applications submitted to the

Video: George Clooney's GF Does Splits, Gives Lap Dance During Sexy Performance!
PopSugar (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:35:00 PM

George Clooney's girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis showed off her

dance moves at the Italian Music Festival on Saturday. She performed to Ciara's "Like a Boy" and stripped off her tuxedo jacket Check it out, plus a look back at to reveal a very skimpy bodysuit.

some of her other risque television appearances - whoa, Elisabetta!

36

Culture/

Newstablet Edition

BMW Wants to Be the Ultimate Green Machine
Chuck Squatriglia (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:13:00 PM

The company that claims to build the ultimate driving machines wants to build the ultimate green machines and is launching a brand dedicated specifically to cars with cords. BMW announced the “i” — yep, just like Apple— brand today, promising to deliver an electric vehicle and a plug-in hybrid by 2013 while also branching out into “mobility services.” The company promised to offer a “seamless network” of services, including intelligent navigation, vehicle connectivity and even parking solutions. “The products and services have been conceived around a revolutionary approach: purpose designed and purpose built for sustainable, premium mobility,” company board member Ian Robertson, who is responsible for sales and marketing, said in a statement. “It’s a new day in our industry; a new era for individual mobility. This is BMW i – Born Electric.” The i brand was born of Project i, a team BMW created three years ago to explore the future of transportation. It is the centerpiece of the company campaign to develop alternative drivetrains and eco-friendlier cars. The i3, left, is an all-electric city car. The i8 is a high-performance plug-in hybrid. As the Financial Times notes,

“mobility” is the hot buzzword in the auto industry as automakers scramble to develop cleaner, greener vehicles. In addition to developing electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, many automakers hope to capitalize on new technology like batteries and vehicle charging infrastructure. To that end, BMW also is launching the i Venture venture capital division and bankrolling it to the tune of $100 million. General Motors, for example, has done the same thing, investing in

battery technology firms, EV startups and other companies through General Motors Ventures. To offer another example, both Daimler and Toyota have invested tens of millions of dollars in Tesla Motors. BMW has been experimenting with electric vehicles, rolling out the Mini E and, more recently, the Concept Active E electric 1Series. Both vehicles are being leased in limited numbers in what amounts to a real-world R&D program.

The i8 will be based on the wild Vision Efficient Dynamics concept unveiled last year. But the automaker will offer two vehicles through the i brand — the BMW i3 and the BMW i8. The i3, previously known as the Megacity Vehicle, will be an allelectric city car. The i8 is based on the Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car, which is essentially a plug-in hybrid M6. BMW didn’t offer any specs for the vehicles but said both will use “LifeDrive” architecture, “a

revolutionary construction concept.” The cars will ride on an aluminum chassis with carbon fiber-reinforced plastic safety cells. BMW says using those materials offsets the high weight of the vehicle. “For our customers this means superior driving dynamics combined with significantly increased range using electric power,” board member Klaus Draeger, who oversees vehicle BMW page 37

Newstablet Edition

Culture/

37

Datamining Hip-Hop's History
Duncan Geere (Wired Top Stories)

“haters,” or which is the most popular champagne/sneakers/p*rn star to rap about? The database Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:47:00 AM can also be used to determine the An artist named Tahir Hemphill a n s w e r s t o m o r e c o m p l e x wants to datamine 30 years of hip- questions, such as which rapper hop lyrics to provide a searchable has the smartest songs, or which index of the genre’s lexicon. city spawns the most The project analyzes the lyrics of m o n o s y l l a b i c r a p ? over 40,000 songs for metaphors, Hemphill says on the Kickstarter similes, cultural references, page: “The idea to build the Hipphrases, memes and socio- Hop Word Count came out of political ideas. For each, it having hundreds of heated & registers a date and a geographical passionate discussions. Tired of location. Hemphill has raised having the answers left up to more than $8,000 in funding for conjecture or whoever had the the project on Kickstarter, from loudest voice, I decided to build a 349 people. tool that would help give answers The idea is so that important by charting the culture described questions can be answered, like within Hip-Hop music.” who was the first to mention He’s already put together a proof-

of-concept prototype, a “ Rap Data Pack” for Jay Z. He’s also started releasing visualisations of the careers of different artists. “The response has been incredible,” added Hemphill. “At

last count 2,500+ people have accessed/downloaded the Rap Data Pack. I’ve received quite a few mentions from data visualization artists, academics and Hip-Hop enthusiasts who I’ve

been wanting to collaborate with, Harvard’s Hip-Hop Archive being one of them.” As the project is now completely funded, any additional contributions will be used to add extra functionality to the search tool and shorten the amount of time before the data becomes available to the public. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

BMW
continued from page 36

development, said in a statement. According to the Wall Street Journal, SB LiMotive, a joint venture between Samsung SDI and Robert Bosch GmbH, will supply the batteries. BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk told Auto Express the i cars will feature styling touches that will distinguish them from other models, including a bluerimmed version of the trademark kidney grille, large but narrow wheels for better aerodynamics and sleeker C-pillars. Both cars will be built at BMW’s factory in Leipzig, Germany;

BMW will invest €400 ($546 million) in the operation. The company says the two vehicles will use essentially the same components — motors, electronics and batteries — to keep costs down. BMW’s venture capital arm has made it’s first investment, plowing an undisclosed sum into New York-based My City Way. It’s a smartphone app that provides info on public transit, parking availability and local entertainment in more than 40 cities. Photos: BMW

See Also: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ Adam Dachis (Lifehacker) content-only/faq.php Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:30:00 AM Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In Mac OS X: iTunes backs up your iOS device's settings each time The Crosshairs. you sync, but it doesn't even come close to backing up the device in the wonderful command-line its entirety. If you want a utility rsync. More » complete backup of your device, you can do it easily with an application called PhoneDisk and

How to Backup Everything on Your iOS Device Without Jailbreaking [Video]

38

Culture/ Products/

Newstablet Edition

Twilight's Renesmee Arrives in Vancouver to Shoot Breaking Dawn!
Molly Goodson (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:32:00 PM

10 tricks for Microsoft Word
(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:40:00 PM

Sure, you’ve been using Word for forever, and sometimes it’s tough for an old – well, “mature” - dog to learn new tricks, but here are few tricks from the guys over at Maximum PC that will wow the groupies gathered around your cubicle. Be selective with how you select You already know that doubleclicking selects a single word, and you probably figured out that triple-clicking selects an entire

paragraph. But if you just want to select a single sentence, hold down Ctrl and click on any word. To select an entire table, hold down Alt and double-click. Add a comment When a friend or family member sends you a document to proofread, don't waste your time writing a lengthy email detailing all the horrendous mistakes you found; mark up their Word file instead. Highlight a portion of text, click the Review tab in the Ribbon bar, and select New Comment.

Use the built-in thesaurus You don't need to hop online to use a thesaurus, the folks in Redmond had the good sense to bundle one in Word. To use it, highlight an entry and press Shift+F7. Pretty simple, right? Or maybe we should say it's troublefree, straightforward, effortless, uncomplicated, or painless. More tips at Maximum PC via Gizmodo. Maximizing Microsoft Word. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

Mackenzie Foy, the actress who will play Edward and Bella's child Renesmee in Breaking Dawn, arrived in Vancouver to continue shooting the saga yesterday. She stopped to sign autographs for fans as she headed to check out the Canadian city where her older Twilight costars shot New Moon and Eclipse. Taylor Lautner is still hanging out in LA before reporting to work in Canada, while Ashley Greene took advantage of a weekend off to celebrate her birthday in Las Vegas with boyfriend Joe Jonas. As for Mackenzie's onscreen parents, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the sexy twosome has yet to be spotted north of the border. Kristen is

apparently nursing a wrist injury, which may have come from her action on set. The whole cast is working hard on Breaking Dawn: Parts I and II, and on Valentine's we got a sneak peek at Edward and Bella's honeymoon getaway on Isle Esme where little Renesmee is conceived. View Slideshow ›

Another Branch On The Poetry
(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 11:00:00 AM

How embarrassing. It's almost March, and we haven't even kept to our resolution about finding more poetry. So here's a poem from Kate Light, entitled And Then There Is That Incredible Moment, published in 1997. As often seems to happen, we don't

have permission to reprint her work, so we're just linking to somewhere else. Let stranger be sued if such beauty be stolen! Pretty good stanza, right? Yeah, we're expecting to get a Pulitzer any day now. But we don't let it go to our head. Also, for those of you who don't care about poetry, we offer this.

Newstablet Edition

Culture/

39

Link Time - See Britney Spears Fly Fishing With Her Boys in Kentwood
PopSugar (PopSugar)

• Teresa Palmer and Topher Grace stop by the Playboy Mansion- JustJared • Why do stars tend to overshare • Britney Spears and Jason in Rolling Stone?- PopEater Trawick go fishing with family- • Kim Kardashian goes au naturel Us Weekly - Hollywood Tuna • Watch Katy Perry sing Rihanna, • Go wedding dress shopping Jay-Z, and Willow Smith songs with Hugh Hefner's fiance!- Pink on stage- Huffington Post Is the New Blog • Charlie Sheen parties with the • W h a t h a p p e n e d t o J o h n SF Giants' Brian Wilson- TMZ Travolta's hair?- The Superficial • Can Rihanna and Drake just • Halle Berry has apparently cut start dating already?- Lainey ties with her family- Hollywood Gossip Rag • Sean Penn shares PDA with a new woman at dinner- D-Listed
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:04:00 PM

Hot Model Gisele Bundchen Hits the Gym Ahead of Her French Vogue Cover

Medical beam works like a guide star
(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:28:00 PM

Lauren Turner (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:40:00 PM

Check Your Credit Report Quarterly to Catch Identity Theft Early [Security]

The biomedical equivalent of the astronomers’ guide star is an ultrasound beam that tags light that passes through it. When it emerges from tissue, the tagged light, together with a reference beam, creates a hologram. Adam Dachis (Lifehacker) A new technique, called timeSubmitted at 2/21/2011 11:00:00 AM reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) optical focusing, allows You get a free credit report every scientists to focus light to a year, but that may not be enough. controllable position within If your identity is stolen, a year is a long time to be unaware of the best to check it more frequently. tissue. ways your credit is being used More » without your knowledge, so it's

Gisele Bundchen was in all black as she finished a workout in “Focusing light into a scattering Beverly Hills this morning. She's medium such as tissue has been a back to hitting the gym in LA dream for years and years, since after traveling to Brazil where she the beginning of biomedical walked the runway for Colcci optics,” says Lihong Wang, during Sao Paolo Fashion Week. p r o f e s s o r o f b i o m e d i c a l Gisele let loose with fellow model e n g i n e e r i n g a t W a s h i n g t o n Ashton Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore during a night out University in St. Louis. overseas, but she also had fun Full story at Futurity. More research news from top solo as she showed off her singing skills on her way to work. Her universities. P h o t o c r e d i t : W i k i m e d i a next modeling gig will apparently be the cover of Emmanuelle Alt's Commons first issue of French Vogue, Permalink| Leave a comment » though we don't have to wait to get a glimpse of her in front of the camera in her new ads for H&M's Spring line. View Slideshow ›

40

Culture/ Politics-Left/ Products/

Newstablet Edition

Mortgage hitch costs Lloyds £500m
Jill Treanor (The Guardian World News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:37:37 PM

How to Get a Job That's Out of Your League [Advice]
Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:00:00 PM

We've looked at applying for a job when you have no relevant experience, but what about when your experience is relevant but the job is just way out of your league? Here are a few strategies to help. More »

Travels With Woot: Toy Fair 2011
Woot (Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:06:06 AM

What are the odds of...? [infographic]
(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:40:00 PM

Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center? Scott Lydon knows. Take his clammy hand and let him guide you through the weird, wonderful world of Toy Fair 2011.

Via Cheese9 Like infographics? So do we. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Halifax did not write to all affaected customers telling them it was changing the cap on its standard variable rate mortgage from 2% to 3% above the base rate Confusion caused by the wording of a popular mortgage deal is costing Lloyds £500m as the bank is being forced to write to 600,000 customers and repay up to 300,000 of them. Payments will range from a few to potentially thousands of pounds per customer. Just days before it publishes 2010 figures that are expected to show £2bn of profits, the bank admitted it had reached a voluntary agreement with the Financial Services Authority about the Halifax mortgages. Lloyds rescued Halifax's parent company, HBOS, at the height of the banking crisis in September 2008 and has already been saddled with billions of pounds of bad debts caused by poor lending decisions in HBOS's corporate banking arm. Lloyds shares were among the largest fallers in the FTSE 100 on Monday. The latest problem related to 600,000 Halifax customers who were sent a mortgage offer between 20 September 2004 and 16 September 2007 which contained information about the bank's standard variable rate

(SVR). Halifax, the country's biggest mortgage lender, was capping the SVR to customers who were also being locked into the mortgages through early repayment charges. The cap was originally set at 2% above the Bank of England base rate but in October 2008 this was lifted to 3%. However, the bank did not write to all its customers at the time to tell them of the change, only contacting those who were locked in on mortgage deals. Halifax hit a problem in January 2009 when the Bank of England cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 1.5%– at the time their lowest level – although they have since been reduced to 0.5%. As a result of this interest rate cut, Halifax's SVR was more than 2% above the Bank of England's rate – leaving some customers confused, as they still believed the rate was capped at 2% not 3%. In reality, the cap may not have applied to them at all if they were not locked in through one of the bank's early redemption charges. Lloyds is now agreeing to made a "goodwill payment" to some 300,000 customers, regardless of whether or not the deal had applied to them. Those who were warned of the change in the cap – customers facing redemption charges – will receive a flat payment of £250, while the others will receive payments based on the difference in repayments

caused by the change in the rate. After discussions with the FSA, the bank conceded that the wording in the mortgage documents had "the potential to cause confusion". The FSA is not taking enforcement action against the bank to fine or force compensation payments to consumers and is instead using what is known as voluntary variation of permission to enable the bank – technically Bank of Scotland – to carry out the customer review for the products. The bank said: "The group is committed to running its business with the highest levels of integrity and treating its customers fairly and therefore believes that a proactive co-ordinated programme to identify affected customers and make goodwill payments is the appropriate course of action." The £500m cost of writing to customers and making the payments will be treated as a provision in the 2010 figures. • Lloyds Banking Group • Mortgages • Banking • Banks and building societies Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Newstablet Edition

Politics-Left/

41

Libyans take flight from crumbling regime
Ben Quinn (The Guardian World News)

can no longer deal with". 8.26pm: The Guardian's Middle East Editor, Ian Black, has put Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:57:46 PM together this piece about • Two Libyan fighter land in Muammar Gaddafi's "famously Malta seeking political asylum fractious" family based on the • Libya denies reports Gaddafi is insights provided by the US on way to Venezuela diplomatic cables released by • Ambassadors resign in China, Wikileaks. India, Indonesia and Poland They include US assessments of • UN sec gen Ban Ki Moon says his son Saif al-Islam, who vowed violence 'must stop immediately' in a television address last night to • Read a summary of events here "eradicate enemies" and warned • Are you in Libya or have a that the regime would fight on comment on the situation there? until the last bullet. C o n t a c t 8.15pm: BBC news have been b e n . q u i n n @ g u a r d i a n . c o . u k carrying an interview with Libya's or@BenQuinn75 deputy ambassador to the UN. 8.49pm: On Twitter, Sultan Ibrahim Omar Al Dabashi said Sooud Al Qassemi is continuing G a d d a f i ' s g o v e r n m e n t w a s to emerge as one of the 'must c a r r y i n g o u t a g e n o c i d e : follow' tweeters on the Libyan The regime is killing whoever uprising. gets out to the street. He A great monitor and interpreter of (Gaddafi) has his mercenaries the Arab world's media, he's been everywhere on the streets and tweeting here about reports that whenever any demonstrator the regime has been stopping appears they just kill them. citizens in Tripoli from donating 8.05pm: And now to some blood to injured demonstrators. comments on Libya from another After the apparent defections political leader facing problems of earlier in the day of two jet figher his own, Silvio Berlusconi. pilots who landed in Malta, he has The Italian president has enjoyed also picked up on reports that a c l o s e r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h military pilots have landed in the Muammar Gaddafi and was the Libyan city of Benghazi after subject of intense criticism over refusing orders to bomb it. the weekend for failing to 8.31pm: There is also more on condemn violence in Libya, when Saif, whose LSE education and he said he had not called the links to the UK have come under Libyan leader because he did not the spotlight, elsewhere on want to "disturb" him during the guardian.co.uk. revolt. Ian Cobain, Amelia Hill and Now, Reuters reports that Kartik Mehta have put together Berlusconi appears to be changing this portrait of "the man the west his tune:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday condemned violence by Libyan forces against civilians as "unacceptable" and said he was "alarmed" over the situation in the North African state. The statement by Berlusconi, who has cultivated close ties with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, comes after he was criticised widely for not speaking up earlier on Libya and saying that he did not want to "disturb" Gaddafi during the crisis. Berlusconi also called on the European Union and the international community to do everything to prevent the situation in Libya from degenerating into a civil war. 7.59pm: We've heard about European countries who have sent planes and ferries to Libya to evacuate their citizens, including many employees of international oil companies. However, other foreigners awaiting evacuation from Libya include thousands of Turkish workers who have taken refuge inside a football stadium in the eastern city of Benghazi from where they heard gunfire and explosions through the night, according to reports. Speaking in Ankara earlier today, Turkey's Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan said looters had attacked Turkish companies, which have projects in Libya worth more than $15 billion, and officials estimated there were 25,000 Turks working there.

Reuters also carried quotes from Hidir Yentur, a logistics manager with a construction company in Al Bayda, eastern Libya, who said workers were forced to move to a safer place after their site was stormed by looters. "A group attacked our construction site and took computers, but they didn't do anything to us. Our water is running low," Yentur told the news agency by telephone from Libya. 7.55pm: Through contacts, I've just talked on the phone with one of the organisers in Cairo of a convoy of medical supplies destined for the eastern part of Libya. He told me that the convoy, which was organised in conjunction with the Arab doctor's syndicate, the Red Crescent and Libyans living in Egypt, has just departed in the last couple of hours carrying antibiotics, needles and other supplies. It is made up of five ambulance and 30 doctors, according to the man, an engineer with relatives in Libya, who told me: "The hospital system in the east of Libya and in other parts is collapsing." He added: "The Egyptian government have been very good and have done everything to help facilitate us but we are worried that it is proving difficult to get across the border on the western side of Libya from Tunisia." 7.38pm: The BBC have just carried an interview with Libyans in Manchester who have taken to

the streets there, as in Liverpool and other parts of the north of England, in solidarity with those opposing the regime in Libya. "There are no other words to describe what is happening in Libya but genocide," said one. "What we are witnessing is genocide and it will be recorded in history as that." Another man, identified as Mohamed Abdul Malek, said many Libyans in the UK were looking forward to going home in order to help "build democracy". Further protests are planned in the UK for Tuesday, according to the BBC, with many Libyans planning to travel down to London from the north. 7.24pm: A friend of the Libyan novelist Hisham Matar has passed on some details to the Guardian of what he has been seeing and hearing in Tripoli in the last few hours. He tells us that eight large carrier helicopters were spotted dropping ammunition from the south of Tripoli to Khamis Military facility in the North East side of Tripoli and passed on unconfirmed rumours that two helicopters had actually been brought down after coming under fire elsewhere. The man, who will just refer to as 'Ahmed', added: Though interrupted and random; gunfire remains to be heard in Tripoli with the occasional loud sound of what could be bomb sounds. LIBYANS page 42

42

Newstablet Edition

LIBYANS
continued from page 41

Around residential areas (understandably) the city roads are completely absent of civilians – everyone is huddled at home or just in front of their houses to avoid possible confrontation with the regime. Shops are shut and mosques are hardly attended during prayer times. 7.16pm: It remains very difficult to get a sense of what is happening on the ground in Libya, but many reports suggest that the violence is intensifying. Reuters has filed this report about claims that anti-government activists and others in Tripoli are being hit from the air: Tripoli residents gave conflicting reports on Monday, with some saying they could hear gunfire in the Libyan capital and a political activist telling Al Jazeera warplanes were bombing the city. "We don't know what is going on, all we can hear are occasional gunshots," one resident who lives near the city's central Green Square told Reuters. "I just hear gunshots sometimes. I am at home guarding my family because the situation is unstable. No one knows what will happen," another resident said. But Adel Mohamed Saleh, who called himself a political activist in Tripoli, said the aerial bombing had initially targeted a funeral procession. "What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead,"

Saleh told al Jazeera television in a live broadcast. "Our people are dying. It is the policy of scorched earth." he said. "Every 20 minutes they are bombing." Asked if the attacks were still happening he said: "It is continuing, it is continuing. Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car they will hit you." There was no independent verification of the report but Fathi al-Warfali, the Libyan activist who heads the Swiss-based Libyan Committee for Truth and Justice, who was taking part in a protest outside U.N. European headquarters in Geneva said he had heard the same reports. "Military planes are attacking civilians, protesters in Tripoli now. The civilians are frightened," al-Warfali told Reuters. 7.04pm: An interesting development in London. Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 news has just tweeted that the Libyan embassy in London has replaced the official national flag with the pre-Gaddafi era version, favoured by many of those involved in the current uprising. However, my colleague Amelia Hill spoke earlier to the Libyan ambassador, who insisted that he still held the post. While he made no mention of Gaddafi, Omar Jelbam told her: "I am still the ambassador. I am still in control. There have been no defections from the Embassy. It is a lie started by the BBC, by a woman who used to work here."

6.53pm: The two Libyan Air Force fighter pilots who apparently defected earlier with their jets to Malta have told Maltese government officials that they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Reuters reports. 6.38pm: After William Hague said earlier that he had seen information suggesting that Muammar Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela, Libyan state television has carried a denial that he has fled. The Libyan deputy foreign minister, Khalid Kayem, said: "This news is groundless. It has no basis." 6.33pm: The Associated Press news agency has filed some further interesting detail about an apparent defection by the pilots of Libyan airforce jets, which landed earlier in Malta. Two Libyan air force jets have arrived in Malta and military officials say their pilots have asked for political asylum amid a bloody crackdown on antigovernment protesters in Libya. The two Mirage jets arrived Monday shortly after two civilian helicopters landed at the airport carrying seven people who said they were French. A military source familiar with the situation said the jet pilots, Libyan air force colonels, were allowed to land after they communicated from the air that they wanted asylum. They had left from a base near Tripoli and had flown low over Libyan airspace to avoid detection. The aircraft remain at Malta's

airport while the pilots and helicopter passengers are being questioned by airport immigration officials. 6.27pm: Signs that the Gaddafi regime is being abandoned by key officials are growing. They include Libya's entire delegation at the United Nations. The Associated Press news agency reported: Libya's ambassadors at the United Nations are calling for leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down as the country's ruler. Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said Monday that if Gaddafi does not relinquish power, "the Libyan people will get rid of him." Dabbashi urged the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent mercenaries, weapons and other supplies from reaching Gaddafi and his security forces. Dabbashi also said he was not resigning. The diplomat says the Libyan delegation is also urging the International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed against the Libyan people during the current protests. 6.19pm: Libya dominated the headlines on the BBC six o'clock news, which reported: "Libya is burning, and the fire has spread". In the absence of a team on the ground, like other news organisations, the BBC showed footage from Youtube of the uprising on streets of Tripoli and in other cities.

Reporting from Tunisia, the BBC's Ian Pannell said that Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif, had made a "bizarre and rambling" speech in the early hours of the morning on state television "blaming drug addicts and even the BBC." The channel also carried a segment from a short interview in Cairo with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, in which he said that condemned the violence of the Libyan regime and said that aspirations for greater rights should be met with reform. 6.17pm: Reuters is reporting that 160 people have died in Tripoli, citing a television channel in the Gulf, although the figure has not yet been independently verified. Clashes in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday have left 160 people dead, Arabiya television quoted eyewitnesses as saying. The Arab satellite channel gave the number in a newsflash, without providing further details. 6.08pm: Reuters says the UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon held talks with Muammar Gaddafi on Monday, during which he condemned the escalating violence in Libya and told him it "must stop immediately," A UN spokesman said: The secretary general expressed deep concern at the escalating scale of violence and emphasised that it must stop immediately. He reiterated his call for respect for basic freedoms and human rights, including peaceful assembly and LIBYANS page 44

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David Cameron arrives in Kuwait
Nicholas Watt, Robert Booth (The Guardian World News)

military and police buyers was backed by a 15-strong delegation from UKTI, the trade promotion Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:38:14 PM wing of the department for Long-scheduled trade mission business which is co-hosting a with eight leading UK defence British pavilion with ADS, the c o m p a n i e s t o G u l f s t a t e s UK arms trade association. undermines democracy message Critics rounded on Cameron for David Cameron's efforts to continuing with his trip despite promote democracy in the Middle the crackdown on protesters East by becoming the first foreign across the region. Kevan Jones, l e a d e r t o v i s i t C a i r o w e r e the shadow defence minister, said: overshadowed as it emerged that "The defence industry is crucially he will spend the next three days important to Britain but many touring undemocratic Gulf states people will be surprised that the with eight of Britain's leading prime minister in this week of all defence manufacturers. weeks may be considering After a hastily convened stopover bolstering arms sales to the in Egypt, where he spoke of being Middle East." "inspired" by protesters, the PM Denis Macshane MP, a former began a long-scheduled trade foreign office minister, added: "It mission by landing in Kuwait, a shows insensitivity and crassness key military ally. Britain has of a high order for the prime approved 1,155 arms export minister to take arms salesmen licences for Kuwait since 2003, with him on his Middle East trip." w o r t h a t o t a l o f £ 1 0 2 . 3 m , Britain faced embarrassment over according the Campaign Against the weekend when it was forced the Arms Trade. to revoke arms export licences to Key deals on the table this week Bahrain and Libya amid fears that include the sale of Eurofighters to British arms may have been used the Gulf. in the violent crackdown on Meanwhile Gerald Howarth, a protesters. Cameron, who is British defence minister, was also seeking assurances that no British attending the region's largest arms arms were used against protesters, fair, in Abu Dhabi, where a insisted that Britain has some of further 93 British companies are the toughest rules on arms exports promoting their wares. They in the world. But he admitted that included companies selling rubber the system had failed in Libya and bullets and CS gas for crowd Bahrain. c o n t r o l a s w e l l a s h e a v i l y "In some cases those assessments armoured riot vans. you will get right and in other The marketing drive aimed at cases you have to revoke export

licences as we have done very rapidly." The prime minister will start his Gulf visit on Tuesday by attending ceremonies in Kuwait marking the 20th anniversary of the end of the first Gulf war. Ian King, chief executive of BAE Systems, will be the most senior figure on the trade delegation that also includes Victor Chavez of Thales UK and Alastair Bisset of Qinetiq. The 36-strong business delegation, nearly a quarter of whom come from the defence and aerospace sectors, will attend some, but not all, of the prime minister's three-day visit to the Gulf. Other defence and aerospace manufacturers accompanying Cameron include Rob Watson, regional director of Rolls Royce; Charles Hughes, vice president marketing of the Cobham Group; Douglas Caster, the chief executive of Ultra Electronics; Andy Pearson, managing director of Babco*ck International Group; and Richard Barrett, regional director of Atkins. Amid fears in Downing Street that a traditional trade visit would have looked out of place, as protests sweep across the Arab world, the PM hastily added a sixhour stopover in Cairo, including a walkabout in Tahrir Square. Cameron met Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, head of the supreme council of the armed forces which assumed

power on 11 February, and Ahmed Shafik, the prime minister. Cameron told Tantawi to show he is presiding over a "credible transition" to civilian rule. "The state of emergency should be lifted, all other political prisoners should be released, they need to have opposition members in their government so that it is a credible transition," he said. The prime minister spoke of being inspired when he met some of the protesters, though he did not meet members of the Muslim Brotherhood. "Meeting the young people and the representatives of the groups in Tahrir Square was genuinely inspiring. These are people who have risked a huge amount for what they believe in." But the original purpose of the trip – to cement ties with long standing allies in the Gulf and to promote trade – will come to the fore when Cameron signs business deals with the Kuwaiti government. The prime minister, who declared soon after his arrival in Downing Street last year that promoting trade would be one of his main foreign policy priorities, was unapologetic about taking defence manufacturers to the Gulf. "I have got a range of business people on the aeroplane, people involved in infrastructure and people involved in the arts and cultural exchanges. Yes, we have defence manufacturers as well. Britain does have a range of

defence relationships with countries in the region. I seem to remember that we spent a lot of effort and indeed life in helping to defend Kuwait. So it is quite right to have defence relationships with some of these countries." The prime minister acknowledged that people have reservations about promoting the defence industry. "There is an argument to be had about whether it is right to be involved in the defence trade," he said. "My view is that you cannot expect every country in the world to provide for its own defence and so it is perfectly logical and sensible that there should be a trade in defence. Kuwait is a good example of a country that has been moving in an open and participatory direction." • David Cameron • Foreign policy • Labour • Kuwait • Egypt • Bahrain • Libya • Middle East • Arms trade • Manufacturing sector Nicholas Watt Robert Booth guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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information The secretary general underlined the need to ensure the protection of the civilian population under any circ*mstances. He urged all parties to exercise restraint and called upon the authorities to engage in broad-based dialogue to address legitimate concerns of the population. 6.04pm: Our Middle East editor Ian Black has been looking at reports that Libyan diplomats are deserting the regime. We are preparing it for publication now, but here's an extract Libyan diplomats are voting with their feet as the country's crisis deepens, with ambassadors resigning their positions in China, India, Indonesia, Poland as well as from the Arab League in Cairo. But Omar Jelban, head of the London People's Bureau, on Monday flatly denied an alJazeera report that he had quit. Jelban was earlier called into the Foreign Office to hear what William Hague called "our absolute condemnation of the use of lethal force against demonstrators." Australia also summoned the Libyan envoy to protest at the bloodshed. Libya's deputy UN ambassador

told the BBC that "all the Libyan people want Gaddafi to go." Other members of Libya's UN mission said they were quitting to support anti-government protesters. "We are aware that this will put our families back home in danger, but they are in danger anyway," said Adam Tarbah. In New Delhi Ali al-Essawi accused his own government of deploying foreign mercenaries against the protesters. Three local employees of the Libyan embassy in Stockholm, Sweden said they had quit in protest. "It would be hypocritical to assist the Libyan government while we see them attacking people in the streets," said Sayed Jalabi. 5.59pm: Salem Gnan, a Londonbased spokesman for the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, says eyewitnesses in Tripoli have told him the navy has opened fire on parts of the capital. We have just heard that the military ships are bombing an area in Tripoli and many people have been killed although we don't know how many at the moment because people have just called to tell us it is happening. Gnan said the navy appeared to be bombing a residential area

outside the city centre as part of a desperate crackdown by Gaddafi's troops. He is even turning the ships on his people now. His plan is to use absolutely everything he can to stop what is happening. Gnan said he had had also had reports of ongoing shooting around Gaddafi's residence in Tripoli and said more people were taking to the capital's streets as darkness fell. "This is going on because if it stops that means it is finished. This will be the last act." He said people were travelling to Tripoli from across the west of Libya for a "final showdown." I have had calls from people in towns and cities all across Libya. Those in the east can not get out but those in towns and cities in western Libya, everybody is saying: "We are going to Tripoli." The plan is to come from everywhere and go to Tripoli to sack the city, for the finish. 5.55pm: Here is a summary of events today: • The crisis in Libya has deepened with reports that Muammar Gaddafi ordered fighter jets to attack parts of the capital, Tripoli. Salem Gnan, a London-based spokesman for the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, says

We're going to try Talkshoe
(Scripting News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:46:17 AM

Today's a special Rebooting the News show for a few reasons. 1. It's a holiday.

2. NYU is closed. 3. Jay is out. 4. We have a guest. 5. I'm the engineer. 6. It's at 10AM not noon. 7. We're using Talkshoe.

Filed under: Reality-Free, Celebrity Interviews, Stay Tuned'Torchwood,' which follows the adventures of a tight-knit team fighting alien threats, has gone through a lot of changes over the years, but two things have remained constant: Captain Jack Ben Quinn Harkness and Gwen Cooper. guardian.co.uk© Guardian News The new season of the & Media Limited 2011 | Use of compelling sci-fi drama, which this content is subject to our arrives this summer on Starz, may Terms & Conditions| More Feeds be the biggest departure yet. Much of the show's fourth season is being shot in the United States, and the events of 'Torchwood: Miracle Day' will transpire in various locations worldwide. Gwen and Captain Jack will both be back, but their lives will be different. Gwen, for one thing, is a "mum" now, as actress Eve With any luck up to 250 people Now I'm still looking for a Myles explains in the video will be able to listen live. checklist for hosting a show. below. Permalink| Email this| Linking Rex Hammock, a pioneering Blogs| Comments blogger and magazine publishder, and a longtime friend, will be my guest today.

eyewitnesses in Tripoli have told him the navy has opened fire on parts of the capital. • Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, "may have gone to Venezuela", British foreign secretary William Hague has said. But sources in the Venezuelan government denied the reports. • Two Libyan fighter jets and two civilian helicopters have landed in Malta. • Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Bahrain grand prix has been cancelled because of antigovernment protests there. And five people are dead after riots in Morocco. Follow this live blog for continuing coverage into the evening. • Arab and Middle East protests • Libya • Bahrain

'Torchwood's' Eve Myles Talks Gwen, Motherhood and 'Miracle Day' (VIDEO)
Maureen Ryan (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:30:00 AM

Newstablet Edition

Politics-Left/ TV/ Health/

45

Ivory Coast protesters shot dead
(The Guardian World News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:18:32 PM

preparatory talks on Sunday said the African panel would insist that Gbagbo stand down in return for Security forces react violently in guarantees, to allow Ouattara to support of loser of last election take charge of the west African who will not cede power, as country in accordance with to UN African leaders form a panel to try -certified results. to broker peace There was no statement from the Ivorian troops have killed at least leaders. Gbagbo has previously six protesters who were calling on rejected similar proposals. Laurent Gbagbo to step down as The two rivals have formed leader, witnesses say, as African opposing, parallel governments, presidents charged with resolving a l t h o u g h O u a t t a r a r e m a i n s Ivory Coast's crisis arrived in restricted to a lagoon-side hotel Abidjan. protected by a ring of UN A dispute over the presidential peacekeepers. election in November paralysed Ouattara's government has called the country and led to the deaths for an Egyptian-style revolution to of about 300 people. remove Gbagbo, but attempts to The election, meant to bring demonstrate have been thwarted s t a b i l i t y a f t e r a d e c a d e o f by security forces. Residents economic and political stagnation reported gunfire all morning in in the world's biggest cocoa- pro-Ouattara neighbourhoods of producing country, instead left it A b i d j a n , a s s o l d i e r s a n d a s d i v i d e d a s e v e r a n d i t s paramilitaries broke up attempted economy in disarray. demonstrations. Alassane Ouattara is recognised Residents of the Koumassi internationally as the victor, but district said soldiers fired on Gbagbo has refused to cede protesters from machineguns power. mounted on military vehicles. Cocoa exports have dried up, Djate Traore, a local resident, said driving prices to new highs. at least three demonstrators were International banks have shut killed, and reported seeing the down operations. bodies. A source who had access to An official at the mayor's office

who asked not to be identified said three people were killed and 14 wounded in the city's Treichville neighbourhood, adding that he saw the dead and helped evacuate the wounded to a clinic. There was no immediate comment from the military. Similar attempts to demonstrate at the weekend were crushed by pro-Gbagbo forces, who witnesses said killed at least five people when they opened fire on attempted gatherings. Army spokesman Babri Gohourou told state television at least four soldiers or police officers had been lynched by protesters on Sunday, three of them killed by having their throats cut. In agreement The leaders of South Africa, Mauritania, Chad, Burkina Faso and Tanzania met in Mauritania on Sunday to discuss proposals drafted by African Union experts. "We could not go back on the previous decision made by the AU commission" which recognised Ouattara as winner of the election, said the source familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified.

"It was considered that the two candidates could not co-exist, so a transfer of power with guarantees to the losing party was favoured ... The high-level panel agreed on the path to be chosen but there are still many details to work out." Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Compaore, did not travel to Ivory Coast, but the remaining four began their visit in the country by meeting Gbagbo before they were due to see Ouattara later. Financial deterioration Citing the "rapid deterioration of the financial sector", SIB, which is part of the Moroccan Attijariwafa Group, has become the latest international bank to suspend operations in the country. Finance ministry sources said Gbagbo officials were due to meet pro-Gbagbo staff in the Ivorian branches of Société Générale and BNP Paribas, with a view to reopening them as nationalised banks on Tuesday. • Ivory Coast guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Julie Benz Dishes on 'No Ordinary Family' Guest Stars Anthony Michael Hall, Tricia Helfer (VIDEO)
Aimee Deeken (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 6:15:00 AM

requested page not found - Men's Fitness
(requested page not found Men's Fitness)

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

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content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Filed under: TV Replay Julie Benz, the matriarch of the superpowered Powells, shared a few spoilers about'No Ordinary Family' when she appeared o n ' G o o d M o r n i n g America'(weekdays, 7AM ET on ABC). But she didn't divulge every secret. In tomorrow's episode, Anthony Michael Hall"plays a man who's stronger and more invincible than Jim Powell ( Michael Chiklis)," she said. And the following week, Tricia Helfer plays "a villain with the power of love." But will viewers ever know exactly how the Powells' plane crashing in the Amazon led to their unique abilities? "You will find out how it happened and why -- [but] I can't tell you!" Benz said. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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The Chicago Code's Jennifer Beals: Superwoman Hasn't Come to Chicago
Adam Bryant (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 11:29:00 AM

Jennifer Beals On the other end of the phone, Jennifer Beals is reading a Carl Sandburg poem titled "Chicago." Scratch that — she's performing it. The poem celebrates Chicago's blue-collar work ethic as what trumps portrayals of the city as a corrupt, dangerous place to live. It's the best way for Beals, a Windy City native and star of Fox's The Chicago Code, to explain how she — and her character, Police Superintendent Teresa Colvin — feel about the place they call home. Check out photos of The Chicago Code's cast "I have such a fierce love for my hometown and always have," Beals tells TVGuide.com. "The Sandburg poem is really helpful in understanding Chicago. It still holds true. That is Chicago, except for now there are amazing skyscrapers amidst it all. "There is still that sort of fierce pride and that fierce love is reflected in a code of behavior," she continues. "People are very, very proud of their city despite the fact that there's corruption." That corruption is exactly what Teresa, the first female police superintendent in the city's

history, is trying to squash. But before she can take down dirty politicians of The Chicago Code world, like Alderman Ronin Gibbons ( Delroy Lindo), who is keeping the city under his thumb, Teresa has to find a way to lead the predominantly male police force. Roush Review: Chicago Code's mean streets "She's trying to understand what that leadership looks like," Beals says. "I think that she's definitely given over her entire life to this job, for better or for worse, and it's really interesting playing somebody who's struggling to create the template. There are times when she struggles with her leadership style. One moment, she's pretty authoritarian and isn't really sharing information, and there are other moments where she wants to be inclusive, but to do so might be perceived as being weak or incompetent. She really wants those men and women to be safe. And she knows that she can't really attack the bigger picture without having her own backyard in order." Beals' hardened portrayal of Teresa Colvin is a far cry from the 47-year-old actress' star-making turn as the off-the-shouldersweatshirt-wearing lead in Flashdance. In Monday's episode Teresa's toughness will be on full display, as her cat-and-mouse

Get more of today's news Assisting Teresa in her mission is her former partner, Detective Jarek Wysocki ( Jason Clarke). But his history with and loyalty to the new boss literally puts him under fire with his fellow officers in Monday's episode. But is there more to that relationship? "They have a very profound, deep relationship with one another that is really based on respect and a mutual regard for one another," Beals says. "So often the base of a romantic relationship will be those very things of respect and admiration for someone, but for them, it's different. There's that game with Gibbons reaches a energy that goes between them whole new level. While Gibbons that's very palpable. proves just how powerful and "He's probably one of the few manipulative he can be, Beals people who can tell her the truth says Teresa proves she won't be and he does go out of his way to d e t e r r e d b y t h e s h i f t s i n [do so]," she continues. "He's really her best friend as far as we momentum. "It jockeys back and forth," Beals can see so far." says. "Alderman Gibbons is such Beals says it's nice to see a pair an expert at it that Teresa's at the of cops like Colvin and Wysocki losing end quite a bit because in today's antihero-obsessed TV she's not as astute as he is yet. landscape. ( Chicago Code She's obviously got game, but she executive producer Shawn Ryan doesn't have the kind of created one of TV's most experience nor the contacts that memorable antiheroes in The he has. So it's really a David-and- Shield's Vic Mackey.) But she Goliath situation. But she's not teases that Teresa's motivations going to give up. The real struggle run deeper than being just a truetoo is: How do you fight the blue hero. c o r r u p t o r w i t h o u t y o u r s e l f Watch full episodes and video clips of Chicago Code becoming corrupt?" "It's not as if Superwoman has

come to the Chicago Police Department," she says with a laugh. "She's got a lot of personal problems that start to be revealed later on as the season goes. There is such a thing as the 'white shadow.' Why is somebody so determined to do good?" "You have to ask yourself, 'Why do I do it?'" Beals continues. "Do I do it to benefit all mankind, or do I do it because I have such a wound inside me that I feel will only be healed by doing good for others? Either way is valid and helpful for the rest of the world, but there will be a time when you will be called to heal yourself on your own. And I think at one point, Teresa Colvin is going to have to address the wounds that are inside her that cannot be healed even if she had the entire city planting daisies and dancing hand-in-hand." The Chicago Code airs Mondays at 9/8c on Fox. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Phaedra Pregnant Before Marriage, Kandi Hurt Over “Tardy” and Other Atlanta Reunion Reveals
Denise Martin (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 11:09:00 AM

The Real Housewives of Atlanta In the second part of The Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, Phaedra was grilled about the date of her baby's conception and love of strippers, Kandi broke down twice, Kim admitted she owed Kandi money, NeNe admitted to nothing and Sheree, at long last, brought the words "She by Sheree" back to the show. The five biggest burning questions from part 1 of the Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion Here's your breakdown: Phaedra was pregnant when she got married. After a season of talking in circles, Atlanta's Southern Belle delivered some straight talk. Sort of. "I might have been a month to a month-and -a-half pregnant when I got married," she said, but only after being drilled by viewer questions about it. She said, in fact, she always knew her official due date, but that she had a problematic pregnancy and "at no point in time did anyone care about me as a person," only "the gossiping." Persistent viewers who wrote in to the reunion also wanted Phaedra to spell out what her husband Apollo had gone to prison for.

That would be racketeering, "a white collar crime," she said. And by the way, Phaedra wouldn't talk about sugaring up her vajayjay at "the local pub." When asked by host Andy Cohen if she thought talking about such things was "classy," Phaedra said she wouldn't do it at the local pub. (Just with her girlfriends. With reality TV cameras around.) And yes, she's had the "pleasure" of representing people who work in adult entertainment. And no, that pickle shoot wasn't the "perversion" people made it out to be. "It was just because people relate pregnancy with pickles." ( She didn't even buy those photos, people!) What you didn't see during Real Housewives of Atlanta's bus blow -up Kandi received only $3,0004,000 for her producing "Tardy for the Party." Kandi estimated that the song has "at least" earned Kim a (may we say shocking) $80,000 to $100,000. But what really got to Kandi was that Kim hadn't done anything to correct the situation despite their friendship. It's one of the only ones on Atlanta that appears genuine, too; earlier in the hour, Kandi explained that she and Kim bonded over being single moms, a side to their relationship viewers

language during a photo shoot.) When Andy asked if she felt that she, too, "hit below the belt," NeNe said no. "I will hit when you hit, but I hate that I have to stoop to a trash level to get my point across," she said. Kim said their friendship was "null and void." Real Housewives of Atlanta's Cynthia Bailey: I Always Feel Like I'm Being Set Up for Sabotage Future projects include a funeral home for Phaedra. She's in the process of purchasing one. "Well, those clients don't complain," she said. (We're going to miss her don't see on the show. reached out to her after the b e t w e e n s e a s o n s . ) S h e r e e ' s "I don't like to argue about money reunion was filmed, but no money revamping her clothing line She with friends, but what irritated me has yet been exchanged. Their by Sheree, and recently did a was... you know good and well second collaboration, "The Ring cameo on The Game. Kandi's you didn't put up no money, you Didn't Mean A Thing" has still working on a line of sex toys. didn't put up anything" for "Tardy not been released.) Cynthia wants to open a modeling for the Party" in the beginning, NeNe refuses to say that she, too, school. Kim says her wig line is Kandi said through tears. When hits below the belt. The two-part about to come out. NeNe will next pressed by Andy for a reaction, reunion was filled with clips of all b e o n N B C ' s C e l e b r i t y Kim said, "Kandi, you could have the Housewives talking trash, but A p p r e n t i c e . taken all the money... I will be NeNe will not own up to any of it. This entry passed through the forever grateful to you for letting When the bus incident was Full-Text RSS service — if this is me live my dream... I don't want brought up for a second time, she your content and you're reading it to see her look like this... Yes, I and Kim got into it again. NeNe on someone else's site, please read owe her money. To me, it's not repeated that she didn't like our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ about money. You can't put a listening to the "verbal abuse" content-only/faq.php price on friendship with Kandi. going on between Kim and her Five Filters featured article: She can have all the money." (On assistant Sweetie. (Kim brought Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In the Watch What Happens: Live up that NeNe had ordered Sweetie The Crosshairs. after-show, Kandi said that Kim around using similarly salty

48

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Jason Isaacs Joins NBC's REM
Robyn Ross (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:16:00 AM

What's On Tonight: 'Chuck,' 'Pretty Little Liars,' 'Mike & Molly,' 'Cake Boss'
Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 6:30:00 AM

Jason Isaacs Jason Isaacs has been cast in the NBC pilot, REM, according to The Hollywood Reporter. NBC in bed with Inception-style pilot The project, from Lone Star creator Kyle Killen, is a twist on the typical crime procedural and centers on a police detective who's involved in a traumatic car accident and then wakes up in two fractured realities. The story follows his simultaneous and parallel lives with his broken family. REM will be run by 24 showrunner Howard Gordon. Isaacs' most recently starred in Showtime's Brotherhood. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is

your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Filed under: Reality-Free, TV Previews Here's what's on TV tonight (all times Eastern). Check your local TV listings for the full schedule. 8PM ABC:'The Bachelor' CBS:'How I Met Your Mother' NBC:'Chuck' FOX:'House' The CW:'90210' PBS:'Antiques Roadshow' ABC Family:'Pretty Little Liars' Nickelodeon:'Big Time Rush' 8:15 Cartoon Network:'MAD'

Duke Back at No. 1 in Men's AP Top 25 Poll
FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:26:00 PM

'The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business' Season Premiere Recap
Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 7:00:00 AM

Filed under: Recaps['The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business' - 'Head Down and Hold On (Australia)'] Going into an "all stars" season

of any reality competition show, we expect some familiarity with the contestants. So, we can hope some have matured (Luke) or others don't make really foolish mistakes again (bathroom break, who have previously run 'The Jen?). What we don't expect are teams Amazing Race' to be worse at it

Filed under: Duke, Kansas, ACC Duke is No. 1 again after a rare After the jump, the rest of the week in which the top four teams schedule and the late-night talk in The Associated Press' college shows. basketball poll all lost. Permalink| Email this| Linking The Blue Devils jumped from Blogs| Comments fifth place. They had been No. 1 in the preseason poll and for the first eight weeks of the season. Duke received 35 first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media panel. Ohio State stays at No. 2 with 10 first-place votes. Kansas drops from No. 1 to third with five firstplace votes. Pittsburgh was No. 1 on 12 ballots and stayed fourth. Texas drew one first-place vote and fell two spots to fifth. San Diego State, BYU, Purdue, Notre the second time than the first. Dame and Arizona round out the Heck, they're supposed to be top 10. BYU had two first-place wiser and tougher, right? votes. Permalink| Email this| Linking St. John's is No. 23, its first poll Blogs| Comments appearance since November 2000.

Newstablet Edition

Products/

49

Presidents' Day deals on some of our top-rated products
Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 5:14:59 AM

Presidents' Day deals on some of our top-rated products Home Depot is enticing people to “renew and redo your bath for less,” Sears has knocked 30 percent off the price of Kenmore appliances and hhgregg promises sales on “everything $99 and up.” This is how we celebrate our presidents? Apparently so. Coming on the third Monday of February, Presidents' Day has become as famous for deals as it has for George and Abe. (Check the car deals.) And with warmer weather in the offing -- or so we hope -- it’s a good time to plan ahead for spring. We took a look at retailer websites and circulars and found sales on some appliances and other products that have done well in our tests. Home Depot Website I Facebook I Twitter Home Depot is offering a “Buy 3, Get 1 Free” promo on one- and five-gallon buckets of Behr Premium Plus Ultra, Behr Ultra, Glidden, and Martha Stewart Living paints. (See our new paint Ratings.) Home Depot is also offering 10 percent off all appliances $398 or more, along with free delivery and haul-away. • LG Waveforce WT5001C[W] top-loading washer and DLE5001C[W] dryer for $719 each;

• Maytag MHWE200W[X] frontloading washer and MEDE200W[X] dryer for $998 each; • Maytag Maxima MHW6000X[W] front-loading washer for $799; • GE GHW01000MWW toploading washer and GTDX100EMQQ dryer for $598 each; • GE Profile PSHS6PGZSS sideby-side refrigerator for $1,358; • GE FUF14DVR[WW] 13.7cubic-foot upright freezer for $494.

13AN77SS099 17.5 hp 42-inch lawn tractor for $999.

stainless steel microwave for $279.99. hhgregg Website I Facebook I Twitter All items over $99 are being discounted, and the retailer is offering free delivery and haulaway on appliances over $499 with a printable coupon from the website • Samung RF267AEWP 25.5cubic-foot French-door refrigerator for $1,919; • Whirlpool Duet Steam WFW9750WW[W] front-loading washer for $899; • Whirlpool Duet Steam WED9750WW electric dryer for $899; • LG Kompressor Plus LUV300B vacuum for $329; • Whirlpool DU1030XTXQ dishwasher for $279. • Tepur Ergo Collection mattresses for $400. —Gian Trotta Find ratings: Ratings and recommendations of all the home products we test can be found on the Appliance and Home & Garden pages. 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

Amazon.com Website I Facebook I Twitter So far, Amazon is not promoting Presidents Day sales, but the online retailer has its usual good prices on vacuums as well as a • Bissell ProHeat 2X9200 carpet space heater that scored well in our tests. There's free delivery on cleaner for $199. some items. Sears Website I Facebook I • Hoover Platinum S3865 bagless canister vacuum for $321; Twitter In addition to the 30 percent off • Hoover Wind Tunnel S3670 its Kenmore appliances, Sears if bagged canister vacuum for $231; offering 15 percent off other • Dyson DC28 Animal bagless Lowe’s Website I Facebook I brands. All Craftsman power, upright vacuum for $469; Twitter lawn and garden tools, and • Soleusair HM2-15R-32 flatLowe’s is offering 15 percent off outdoor storage items will be 20 panel space heater with remote for Energy Star-qualified appliances percent off in stores starting $60. a n d 1 0 p e r c e n t o f f o t h e r Sunday. Free in-store pickup is appliances priced over $397; free available for many appliances Best Buy Website I Facebook I next-day delivery and haul away ordered online, and Sears will Twitter is available on some items. h a u l a w a y a n d r e c y c l e o l d Best Buy is offering 20 percent • Samsung RF217AB[WP] 19.7- a p p l i a n c e s f o r $ 1 0 . off Frigidaire appliances, 10-15 c u b i c - f o o t F r e n c h - d o o r • Kenmore Intuition 28014 percent off Electrolux appliances r e f r i g e r a t o r f o r $ 1 , 0 1 9 ; canister vacuum for $399, with and 15 percent off other brands. • Samsung RF263AE 17.7-cubic coupon in weekly print circular Free delivery and haul-away is -foot French-door refrigerator for • Kenmore 1692[2] 8.8 cubic- available for appliances over $599 $1,274 in white and $1,529 in foot manual defrost chest freezer ordered online. stainless steel; • Frigidaire 2844L 27.8-cubicfor $244; • Whirlpool WFW94HEXW • Kenmore 71602 25 cubic-foot foot French-door refrigerator in front-loading washer for $849; French door refrigerator for $999; white for $1,519 and stainless for • Maytag MHWE9500WW front- • Kenmore 1389 dishwasher for $1,639; loading washer for $679; • Frigidaire Gallery $412; • Whirlpool Cabrio WED7300X • GE GeoSpring hybrid electric F G G F 3 0 3 1 K [ W ] 3 0 - i n c h dryer for $647; heat pump water heater for freestanding gas range for $599; • W h i r l p o o l W F E 3 7 1 L V B $1,399; • Frigidaire FGBD2431K[W] smoothtop electric range for $584; • Kenmore 71602 25 cubic-foot dishwasher, $280; • GE JB700DN[WW] smoothtop French door refrigerator for $999; • Frigidaire FGMV174KM 1.7electric range for $719; • C r a f t s m a n m o d e l cubic-foot over-the-range

50

Products/ Sports/ Food/

Newstablet Edition

Blue Microphones Eyeball 2.0 Webcam
(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:00:21 AM

very restaurant may hold the key to America’s past – and its future. Or maybe reanimated presidents Live Homeless Zombie President really crave day-old gnocchi and Cam half-eaten bruschetta. Either way, I know how it sounds, but look at we’ve got a situation here. the footage: those guys messing Still not convinced? Just listen to with our Dumpsters are George the HD-quality audio in this W a s h i n g t o n a n d A b r a h a m segment right here. Hear it? Lincoln. Yep. The words are Don’t give me any BS about unmistakable: “four score.” “lens flare” or “shadows” or The padlocks have been enough “signal interference.” That black to keep them out so far. But if t h i n g , r i g h t t h e r e : t h a t ’ s a we’re serious about keeping stovepipe hat if I’ve ever seen undead Washington and Lincoln one. And if that white blur isn’t a out of our garbage, there’s only powdered wig, then I guess I one way to stop them. First, we learned nothing from starring in need to find out where John my tenth-grade production of Wilkes Booth is buried. 1776. Warranty: 2 Year Blue Gentlemen, we have no choice M i c r o p h o n e but to face the awful truth. Condition: New Somehow, America’s two most Features: beloved presidents have come • Webcam with HD-quality audio back to life. And for reasons and two megapixel video known only to them and possibly • Retractable camera lens p o p u l a r h i s t o r i a n M i c h a e l preserves your privacy and Beschloss, they’re intent on ensures it is turned off when you breaking into our Dumpsters. aren’t broadcasting It’s all there in 2MP digital video, • Custom-design monitor adapter c a p t u r e d b y t h e B l u e makes it simple to position it on M i c r o p h o n e s E y e b a l l H D virtually any laptop or desktop Webcam. Its high-quality digital monitor as well as the option to images provide damning evidence place it on any flat surface near that the grease trap behind this your computer

• Includes Blue’s pro-quality condenser capsule gives it better sound than any webcam in the market • Compatible with Mac and PC • No drivers to install, just connect to your computer through a USB port • Works automatically with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac • Works with Skype, iChat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk and more • Rugged travel case with compartment for USB cable • User Manual (click here)

• Two Megapixel Super HD Video Resolution • Blue’s Superior Condenser Capsule for High Quality Sound • Super HD video: highdefinition video resolution (up to 1600 x 1200), performance up to 30 FPS • Retractable Lens for Privacy • Integrated Stand and Case • Driverless Installation on Windows & Mac • Adapter for Optimal Positioning on any Monitor • USB Cable Included

Kansas Suspends Tyshawn Taylor
Evan Hilbert (FanHouse Main)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 11:43:00 AM

Additional Photos: • Blue Microphones Eyeball 2MP HD Webcam • Back Profile (USB Port) Specifications: • Retracted • S y s t e m R e q u i r e m e n t s : • Positioned on Laptop Windows 7, Windows Vista, XP • Package Contents Professional; XP Home Edition, • Packaging 64MB RAM(min); Mac OSX(10.4.11 or higher), 64MB In the box: RAM(min) • Blue Microphones Eyeball 2.0 • Transducer Type: Condenser, 2MP HD Webcam Pressure Gradient w/ USB Digital • USB Cable Output • Monitor Adapter • Polar Patterns: Cardioid • Quick Start Guide • Sample/Word Rate: 44.1 kHz/ 16 bit Discuss this product • Frequency Response: 35Hz – Price: $19.99 I want one! 20 kHz

Filed under: Kansas, Big 12 Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor has been suspended indefinitely, coach Bill Self announced Monday. The junior is being disciplined for a violation of team rules. "Although we are disappointed in Tyshawn, he will remain a member of our team and practice with our team until he is reinstated for competition," Self said. Taylor has started all but one game for the No. 1 Jayhawks, and he leads the team in assists and ranks third in the Big 12 in that category. In addition, Taylor is averaging over eight points a game and two rebounds. Kansas will play Oklahoma State Monday night in Lawrence.

Best Banana Breads
(Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

One of our most basic banana breads, this recipe lives up to its name; it's a classic. Choose very ripe fruitthe browner the betterfor

the most intense flavor and a soft texture that mashes and blends easily. The Classic is a favorite of Food Editor Ann Taylor Pittman. "It's pure banana flavor," she says.

"You can't go wrong with this one." View Recipe: Classic Banana Bread Next Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread This entry passed through the

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Products/ Food/ Finance/

51

What would Honest Abe say about these product claims?
Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

Investors lose taste for Ocado as FTSE falls
(Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:17:32 PM

coffeemaker Claim:"With its voice-activated technology, consumers are guided Submitted at 2/21/2011 4:59:59 AM through the step-by-step process What would Honest Abe say of programming the appliance." about these product claims? Check: Male and female testers Was Honest Abe honest? That's addressed the java machine. the rhetorical question being Honest enough for Abe? A posed in a popular Geico ad in mumbled no. which Mary Todd Lincoln asks Valspar's ultimate hiding formula the president if her dress makes Claim: Valspar Signature Colors "my backside look big?" and with Hi-Def Advanced Color Lincoln replies, "perhaps a ..." System is "paint and primer in before she bustles off. one product." On Presidents' Day we celebrate Check: We compared Valspar's Lincoln's 202 birthday as well as red paint with three competitors. his reputation for veracity. (Truth Honest enough for Abe? Depends be told, his actual birthday is Feb. what you're painting. 12.) So in the spirit of frank Duracell myGrid recharger pad discussion, we took another look Claim:“Easily charge up to four at 10 products in our labs whose mobile devices at the same time.” claims we've checked recently. Check: Testers used it to recharge Lint Alert a variety of portable devices. Claim: An add-on that lets you Honest enough for Abe? "monitor and detect lint buildup in Recharging was not so easy. your dryer duct." Sunchips compostable bag Check: We installed one and Claim:"World's first 100% c o m p a r e d r e a d i n g s w i t h a compostable chip package." pressure gauge. Check: We kept a compostable Honest enough for Abe? An bag in a well-attended home attention-getting yes. compost pile for 13 weeks. Hamilton Beach voice-activated Honest enough for Abe? To our

dismay, little sign of decay. Masterbuilt Butterball indoor electric turkey fryer Claim: Makes “the best turkey you’ve ever tasted,” the box notes, and is “great for frying, boiling and steaming all foods.” Check: We deep-fried turkeys weighing almost 12 pounds as well as a whole chicken, chicken parts, and pizza dough. Honest enough for Abe? Consider gobbling one up. Forearm forklift Claim: The two adjustable straps are "the best moving tool ever," and "employ leverage, making the pieces you carry feel lighter." Check: Pairs of testers used the straps to move a bookcase, a gas range and a refrigerator. Honest enough for Abe? A moving experience. Mister Steamy Claim: The sponge-filled, vented rubber ball, "is the fastest way to get wrinkles out without getting the iron out." Check: Using men's cotton shirts, we compared results to other wrinkle-removal methods. Honest enough for Abe? Not a

smooth operator. Pledge fabric sweeper for pet hair Claim: That the two lintcollecting, fabric-covered rollers work together to "grab, lift, and trap hair inside." Check: With the help of a dog and two cats, compared the sweeper to three other devices. Honest enough for Abe? Take the pledge. Samsung washer with PowerFoam Claim: At the start of the cycle water, air, and detergent combine to form a deep-cleaning foam, which increases cleaning power. Check: We washed loads of stained laundry at various cycles and temperatures. Honest enough for Abe? A washout. —Mary HJ Farrell 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

Ocado has been put in many a trader's shopping basket of late, surging more than 21pc since the beginning of the year after it finally broke into profit in the last quarter and investors became increasingly optimistic about its growth prospects.

Srichand Hinduja calls for amnesty on India's offshore accounts
(Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:05:23 PM

Srichand Hinduja, one of the UK's most influential businessmen, has called on India to offer an amnesty to residents holding one trillion dollars in 'black money' in offshore accounts.

10 Foods & Drinks for Exercising
(Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

You know exercise is key if you want to stay fit. But did you know that what you eat and drink can

help you reach your fitness goals faster? By feeding your body the right nutrients you can ensure it’s getting the raw materials it needs to help you power through your

workout and build and repair muscle afterward. Jumpstart your exercise program with these 10 essential food and drinks. Next Oatmeal

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52

Products/ Food/

Newstablet Edition

Comcast launches Xfinity 3D channel
James Willcox (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:25:58 AM

100 Healthy Soups
(Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

Comcast launches Xfinity 3D channel Yesterday, cable operator Comcast launched Xfinity 3D, a new full-time 3D television channel that will mix music and sports with movies and original programming. The launch of Xfinfity 3D, which joins ESPN 3D, n3D, and 3net as 24/7 3D channels, kicked off with an NHL hockey match between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. That game was followed by a Kings of Leon rock concert from Germany. Xfinity 3D isn't Comcast's first

foray into the world of 3D, however. The nation's largest cable operator has broadcast a few sports events in 3D, such as the 2010 Masters Golf Tournament and the FIFA World Cup soccer matches, and more recently has offered 3D movies including Monsters vs. Aliens and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs as videoon-demand selections. It also offers ESPN 3D in some markets. Much like it did when highdefinition TV launched, DirecTV—which created the n3D channel with Panasonic—has

your hands? Most of our selections taste even better the T h o u g h n o t h i n g c a n b e a t second day. t a k e n t h e l e a d w i t h 3 D cuddling up with a warm bowlful View Recipe: Chili-Spiced programming, offering n3D, on a chilly night, soups aren't only Chicken Soup with Stoplight ESPN 3D, 3net plus several on- game for the winter months. Peppers and Avocado Relish Next demand 3D movies and shows. If These healthy recipes will become Avocado-Buttermilk Soup with you own a 3D TV set, let us know staples all year long. The best Crab Salad if 3D programming will influence part? We have included selections This entry passed through the your choice of a TV service that take advantage of each Full-Text RSS service — if this is provider, and how happy you are season's bountiful produce and your content and you're reading it with the 3D programs being seasonal spices. on someone else's site, please read offered. Fresh, high-impact flavors like our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ —James K. Willcox Subscribe those in our Chili-Spiced Soup content-only/faq.php now! with Stoplight Peppers and Five Filters featured article: S u b s c r i b e t o Avocado Relish, will give your Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In ConsumerReports.org for expert soup a made-from-scratch taste The Crosshairs. Ratings, buying advice and that cannot be beat. Have time on reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

Tax break central: Save when deducting health insurance premiums
Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 5:59:59 AM

Tax break central: Save when deducting health insurance premiums As you prepare to file your 2010 income tax return, there are some new rules that might help you minimize the amount you owe. If you qualify, be sure to take

advantage of this opportunity. If you are self-employed, any premiums you pay for health insurance are fully tax-deductible, and have been for several years. But in previous years that deduction didn’t affect the tax you pay for Medicare and Social Security. Under a new federal law, the self-employed can reduce returns by subtracting their healthearned income subject to self- insurance premiums first. employment taxes on their 2010 So, for example, if your 2010

income was $80,000 and you paid $10,000 in healthinsurance premiums, you’ll owe Medicare and Social Security tax on only $70,000. “Deductible premiums include those paid for coverage of a spouse and for children who had not attained age 27 by year-end 2010,” notes Genevia Gee Fulbright, a CPA in Durham, N.C. This tip is from an article that appeared in the February 2011

Consumer Reports Money Adviser. 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

Newstablet Edition

Sports/ Gaming/

53

Sources: If New York Knicks get Carmelo Anthony, New Jersey Nets may get 2 Knicks
Chris Broussard (ESPN.com)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:36:47 PM

they can acquire Anthony before the deadline, but if he instead is obtained by the Knicks, they see Updated: February 21, 2011, 3:36 this trade as an alternative way to PM ET By Chris Broussard strengthen their team, the sources ESPN The Magazine said. Archive The move could also burn the Even if the New Jersey Nets do Knicks, who are reluctant to part not acquire Carmelo Anthony, with so many of their coveted they still might pull off a trade young prospects, even for a player with the Denver Nuggets, one that of Anthony's ability. To see a would likely be a sore spot for couple of them opening the Nets their cross-river rivals in New new arena in Brooklyn could York, according to high-ranking certainly be bothersome to the league officials. Scott Van Pelt K n i c k s f r a n c h i s e . P h o t o s : ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan talks C a r m e l o A n t h o n y ' s c a r e e r about where negotiations are Stay in Denver? Go to N.Y. or between the Nuggets and Knicks L.A.? As MeloDrama plays out, for Carmelo Anthony. Plus, enjoy photos of comments on Isiah Thomas a star's career: Carmelo Anthony consulting for the Knicks. Although league rules generally More Podcasts » preclude packaging players for If the New York Knicks send t w o m o n t h s a f t e r t h e y a r e D a n i l o G a l l i n a r i , R a y m o n d acquired via trade, Denver can Felton, Wilson Chandler and package players acquired from Timofey Mozgov to Denver for New York in a subsequent trade A n t h o n y , t h e N e t s a r e i n with New Jersey if the players discussions to then acquire either involved are sent to the Nets in Gallinari, Felton or Chandler plus separate but simultaneous smaller Mozgov for two first-round draft deals before Thursday's 3 p.m. ET picks. trade deadline. That deal is obviously contingent One example: New Jersey could upon the Knicks trading all those trade Troy Murphy to the Nuggets players to Denver for a package as a trade exception that Denver h e a d l i n e d b y A n t h o n y a n d would generate by the trade of Chauncey Billups. Billups to New York. The Nets, The Nets remain confident that then, would accept multiple

players from Denver whose aggregated salaries are less than Murphy's. There are other combinations possible for the Nuggets and Nets to make two separate trades to satisfy league rules and convey the former Knicks to New Jersey. Sources confirmed to ESPN.com a Friday report from the Bergen (N.J.) Record that New Jersey has agreed in principle to send prized rookie Derrick Favors, former All -Star guard Devin Harris, Murphy (and his expiring contract), Ben Uzoh and four first-round picks to Denver for Anthony, Billups, Shelden Williams, Melvin Ely and Renaldo Balkman. As ESPN.com reported Thursday night, Denver would then use at least one of those future firstround picks to package with Murphy -- either in this trade or in a separate deal -- to a third team yet to be determined. That deal is contingent on Anthony signing a three-year, $65 million extension to remain in New Jersey long-term. But the Nuggets are currently embroiled in talks with New York, Anthony's preferred destination. The Knicks are willing to send Gallinari, Chandler, Felton and a first-round pick to Denver, but the Nuggets

are pushing for Mozgov, a 7-foot center, to be included in the package. Landing Mozgov (and then trading him to New Jersey) would be a huge coup for Denver, since it would enable it to get the draft picks it desires, along with some of the Knicks' young talent, along with a savings of roughly $20 million this season. Felton (2005, No. 5 by Bobcats), Chandler (2007, 23rd by Knicks) and Gallinari (2008, sixth by Knicks) are all former first-round picks. Mozgov, a former six-year pro in his native Russia, was signed as a free agent in July. Chris Broussard is a senior NBA writer for ESPN The Magazine. Information from ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein was included. Follow Chris Broussard on Twitter:@chris_broussard This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Atlus toning down Catherine's difficulty with upcoming patch
JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 4:15:00 PM

Apparently, Vincent's "nightmares" in Catherine are a bit too scary. In a post on the official Catherine blog, director Katsura Hashino noted that fans have been complaining about excessive difficulty in the "Nightmare" climbing puzzle segments, even when playing on the easiest difficulty setting. Hashino and the team wanted the climbing segments to convey the "thrill of a nightmare" and leave the player with a "clear sense of accomplishment," admitting that perhaps the staff had become too well-versed in the game to realize that it had become too hard for the people who didn't make it. A patch is currently in development at Atlus, aimed at balancing out this difficulty, so people can follow the story instead of merely falling from illusory block towers. Atlus toning down Catherine's difficulty with upcoming patch originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

54

Sports/ Gaming/

Newstablet Edition

Duke returns to No. 1 in ESPN/USA Today Top 25; St. John's back in poll
ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:18:15 PM

Updated: February 21, 2011, 2:18 PM ET Duke returned to the top spot in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll on Monday, while the latest big win for St. John's vaulted the Red Storm into the Top 25 for the first time in more than a decade. ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll The top five teams in the ESPN/ USA Today coaches' poll: The Blue Devils (25-2, 12-1 ACC) were fifth in last week's poll, but the four teams ahead of them all lost -- the first time the top four teams in the poll all lost since the week of Nov. 25, 2003. Kansas fell one spot to No. 2, followed by Ohio State, San Diego State and Texas. Pitt, BYU, Purdue, Notre Dame and Arizona round out the top 10. Duke received 19 of 31 possible first-place votes in the poll, voted on by a panel of 31 Division I coaches. Also receiving votes were Ohio State (four), Pittsburgh (four), San Diego State (three) and Kansas (one). Duke also was No. 1 in The Associated Press media poll. The loss of the top spot in the poll isn't the only issue facing Kansas. The school announced

Monday that junior guard Tyshawn Taylor, a starter, has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. The rough week for the highly ranked started Monday when Kansas lost 84-68 at Kansas State. Saturday was the rough day for former No. 2 Texas, which lost 70 -67 at Nebraska, and former No. 4 Pittsburgh, which lost 60-59 to St. John's at Madison Square Garden. Top Four Teams Lost Teams No. 1-4 in the ESPN/USA Today poll all lost this week. The last time the top four teams in the coaches' poll all lost in the same week of the regular season was in November 2003. Top teams results, week of Nov. 24, 2003 Highly ranked team Lost to 1 Connecticut 15 Georgia Tech 2 Duke Purdue 3 Arizona Florida 4 Michigan State 14 Kansas -- ESPN Stats & Information Third-ranked Ohio State completed the quartet on Sunday becoming the only one to lose to a fellow ranked team, 76-63 to then -No. 11 Purdue. The Boilermarkers moved up three spots to No. 8 in this week's poll. The week of Nov. 25, 2003 saw No. 1 Connecticut, No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Michigan State and No. 4 Arizona all lose. St. John's is ranked 25th this week. A Big East and national

power in the 1980s, the Red Storm haven't reached the NCAA tournament since 2002. The last time they were ranked in the coaches' poll was the final poll of the 1999-2000 season, when they were 18th. This year, the Red Storm (17-9, 9 -5 Big East) have made a habit out of knocking off highly ranked teams, with wins over Duke, Notre Dame, No. 15 Connecticut and No. 11 Georgetown in addition to last week's upset of Pitt. Following Georgetown in the poll is No. 12 Wisconsin, followed by Florida, Villanova, Connecticut, Louisville, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, North Carolina and Syracuse. Missouri, Kentucky, Utah State, Temple and St. John's round out the Top 25. Former No. 23 Saint Mary's dropped out of the poll. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

David O. Russell responds to Uncharted movie fan concerns
Andrew Yoon (Joystiq)

Russell argues that "there's not a bunch of movies you can point to that are made from games that are David O. Russell is currently amazing movies, that stand up to making headlines as the Academy t i m e a s a f r a n c h i s e o r a s Award-nominated director of The [individual films]." By focusing Fighter. But gamers are probably on "what I think is going to be an more interested in one of his next amazing movie," Russell says that projects: a silver screen adaptation "it's going to be real, it's going to of the Uncharted series. The be raw, it's going to be intense, it's numerous changes made to the going to be original, and it's going c o r e s t o r y h a v e s o m e f a n s to be propulsive." concerned that Russell simply (And he apparently doesn't know doesn't get it. Responding to those who Nathan Fillion is.) a c c u s a t i o n s , R u s s e l l t o l d David O. Russell responds to SlashFilm that he's "played the Uncharted movie fan concerns game a bunch of times" and has originally appeared on Joystiq on even met Naughty Dog's Amy Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:45:00 EST. Hennig. "As far as I'm concerned, Please see our terms for use of I'm very respectful as far as the feeds. core content and spirit of the Permalink| Email this| Comments game."
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:45:00 PM

Newstablet Edition

Sports/ Gaming/ Finance/

55

WWE Elimination Chamber 2011 Recap: John Cena, Edge Survive Chamber
Brian Fritz (FanHouse Main)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 8:24:00 AM

In the other chamber match, Edge defeated Wade Barrett, Rey Mysterio, Kane, Drew McIntyre Filed under: Pro Wrestling John and Big Show to remain the C e n a a n d E d g e e m e r g e d World Heavyweight Champion. v i c t o r i o u s a t t h e W W E Big Show was a last minute Elimination Chamber pay-per- replacement for Dolph Ziggler view on Sunday night to move on who, in the current storyline, was t o m a i n e v e n t m a t c h e s a t fired earlier in the week. WrestleMania 27, wrestling's It turned out to be a very good biggest event of the year. match which really picked up Cena survived in his Elimination about twenty minutes in when Chamber match against CM Punk, Barrett was pinned and then both Randy Orton, Sheamus, John Big Show and Kane eliminated a Morrison and R-Truth. After few minutes later. battling for over half an hour, the The match came down to Edge match came down to Cena, and Mysterio who squared off for Morrison, and Punk. Morrison nearly ten minutes. Mysterio had been selling a knee injury and nearly had the match won after missed a split legged moonsault hitting the 619. He then went to out of the corner onto Punk who the top rope for a splash but Edge quickly capitalized for the pin. recovered and drilled him with a Cena then tried his Attitude speak in mid air for the win. Adjustment on Punk who held on Following the match, Alberto Del to the ropes to block the move. Rio attacked Edge but Christian But Cena muscled him off and made his return after a five month connected with the move over the absence from a torn pectoral top rope and onto the steel grating muscle to make the save. Del Rio for the victory. will challenge Edge at With the win, Cena earned a WrestleMania after earning the match against WWE Champion title shot by winning the Royal The Miz at WrestleMania 27 on Rumble match in January. April 3. The Miz retained the WWE

and scored the win. Del Rio won the opening match at the Elimination Chamber payper-view, defeating Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston in a non-title match. It was a back and forth match between the two with Kingston landing some high flying moves before Del Rio was able to apply his cross arm breaker and forcing him to submit. Also on the show, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater defeated Vladimir Kozlov and Santino Marella to become the WWE Tag Team Champion. There was another surprise as Trish Stratus made her return to the company and was announced as one of the trainers on the upcoming "Tough Enough" reality Championship by beating WWE television show along with Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Booker T. Later in the show, Lawler. It looked like Lawler Stratus ran to the ring and helped would finally win his first WWE Kelly Kelly who was being championship after connecting attacked by Layla and Michelle with his signature fist drop off the McCool. second rope. But The Miz was Stratus left the WWE in able to get his foot on the ropes to September 2006 and has made a break the pin at the last second. f e w a p p e a r a n c e s w i t h t h e The champion came right back c o m p a n y s i n c e t h e n . with his Skull Crushing Finale

Bizarre Creations lead Gareth Wilson now Sumo Digital lead designer
JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:45:00 PM

Spotify valued at $1bn by Russian Facebook backer Yuri Milner
(Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:03:45 PM

Spotify, the online jukebox, is led by a Russian Facebook raising $100m (£61.7m) of fresh backer. investment that would value the two-year-old company at $1bn,

Bizarre Creations was a UK studio well-known for its street racing games, the first of which was on a Sega console. So if there's anywhere else design manager Gareth Wilson would feel at home, it's at Sumo Digital, the British studio responsible for developing the modern OutRun games and Sonic & Sega AllStars Racing for Sega. Wilson is the first known Bizarre staffer to announce a new position after the sad closure of that company. He is now the lead designer at the Foundation 9owned Sumo, and will no doubt be in charge of a great many racing games. Bizarre Creations lead Gareth Wilson now Sumo Digital lead designer originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

56

Sports/ Gaming/ Daily Word/

Newstablet Edition

Kansas Jayhawks suspend Tyshawn Taylor indefinitely
ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:11:31 PM

Updated: February 21, 2011, 2:11 PM ET LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Kansas junior guard Tyshawn Taylor has been suspended indefinitely from the team for violating team rules, coach Bill Self announced Monday. The school did not specify the violation.[+] Enlarge Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images Kansas is not specifying why guard Tyshawn Taylor, left, has been suspended from the team. Taylor has started all but one game for the 25-2 Jayhawks, who are ranked second in the latest ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll (No. 3 AP). They play host to Oklahoma State on Monday night (ESPN, 9 ET). "Although we are disappointed in Tyshawn, he will remain a member of our team and practice with our team until he is

A couple weeks after he picks up his lifetime achievement award at GDC 2011, Peter Molyneux will continue his award tour by picking up a similar accolade with the British Academy of Film and Televisions Arts' (BAFTA) Fellowship. He'll just have to swing by this year's GAME (Verse of the Day) wonderful God we serve!" More not only God Almighty; he is also British Academy Video Games than just the words of a song, Immanuel, God with us! My Awards on March 16 -- or, they Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:00:00 AM these words are true beyond our Prayer... Thank you, dear God, for can surely just mail it to him if We give thanks to you, O God, understanding. For God to be so being mighty, for being gracious, he's tired of being praised by that we give thanks, for your Name is powerful, vast, and marvelous and and for being near. Most of all, point. near; men tell of your wonderful yet still know us and bless us with Father, thank you for being you! The Fellowship is awarded for deeds. his personal attention and care is In Jesus name I ask you to receive outstanding achievement and — Psalm 75:1(NIV) Thoughts on beyond understanding. Yet God my thanks and praise. Amen. T o d a y ' s V e r s e . . . " W h a t a sent Jesus to remind us that he is

reinstated for competition," Self said in a statement. The loss of Taylor comes at a critical juncture for the Jayhawks (10-2 Big 12), who are chasing Texas (11-1 Big 12, 23-4) for the conference title. There are four games remaining in the regular season. Taylor has struggled replacing

Sherron Collins at point guard, averaging 8.8 points per game for Kansas and ranking third in the Big 12 in in assists per game (4.7). Freshman Josh Selby and sophom*ore Elijah Johnson are the other point guards who are available. Earlier this season, senior forward Mario Little was suspended for six games in connection with his arrest in a domestic disturbance. He was reinstated after receiving a diversion agreement on two misdemeanor battery charges. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Peter Molyneux receiving BAFTA Fellowship
Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:15:00 PM

Psalm 75:1 (02-21-11)

contribution to the industry through an individual's body of work. With series like Fable, Populous and Dungeon Keeper attached to his CV, it's not hard to see why the organization wants to give Molyneux another trinket for his collection. According to a BAFTA rep, previous winners include Will Wright, Nolan Bushnell, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchco*ck and, last year's recipient, Shigeru Miyamoto. Peter Molyneux receiving BAFTA Fellowship originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Newstablet Edition

Sports/ Politics/

57

Democrat Joe Courtney Won't Run for Sen. Joe Lieberman's Seat
to remain in the House and focus on efforts to boost the economy. In November, Courtney easily Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:15:00 PM won re-election to a third term Correspondent Rep. Joe Courtney from the 2 n d Congressional has been named as a possible District. candidate with a good shot at Last month, Lieberman, an winning Sen. Joe Lieberman's independent who caucuses with s e a t , b u t t h e p r o m i n e n t Democrats, announced he will not Connecticut Democrat says he has seek another term in 2012. no intention of running for the Democrat Susan Bysiewicz, Senate. Connecticut's former secretary of In a written statement released s t a t e , s a i d s h e w i l l s e e k Monday morning, Courtney said Lieberman's seek, as did U.S. h e w a s g r a t e f u l f o r t h e Rep. Chris Murphy. Other "tremendous encouragement and p o s s i b l e S e n a t e c a n d i d a t e s enthusiastic support" he has i n c l u d e R e p u b l i c a n L i n d a received from those who'd hoped McMahon, who lost her Senate he would run. bid in 2010 to Richard Clay Travis (FanHouse Main) report on the insanity of your I'd watch every minute. Who "I look forward to working with Blumenthal, and Tom Foley, a state's football obsession on a does Updyke call as character all of those who reached out to former U.S. ambassador to Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:36:00 AM national news broadcast, it's not a witnesses? His children, and I'm create a strong future for our Ireland, the Courant said. Filed under: Alabama, Auburn, good sign. not making this up, who are state," Courtney said in the This entry passed through the All That and a Bag of Mail The latest absurdity in the named Crimson and Bear? Greg s t a t e m e n t o b t a i n e d b y t h e Full-Text RSS service — if this is If you gave me 50 guesses which Alabama-Auburn rivalry comes M c E l r o y ? P a u l F i n e b a u m ? Hartford Courant and WTNH-TV. your content and you're reading it state would feature a pair of via Harvey Updyke, a 62-year-old Certainly not Nick Saban who "After careful deliberation, on someone else's site, please read historic campus trees being retired Texas state trooper who issued a statement condemning however, I have decided to focus our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ intentionally poisoned by a rival allegedly poisoned the trees at the act. The entire trial would be a on my work as a Congressman content-only/faq.php fan base, I would guess Alabama Toomer's Corner. Now that he's circus. And I think you'll probably and will decline to enter the race Five Filters featured article: every time. Nothing in that state free on bail and in need of a need a trial because I don't know for the Democratic nomination for Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In surprises me. lawyer -- I volunteered to be his if the local district attorney would the U.S. Senate." The Crosshairs. Granted, Alabama and Auburn is attorney, pro bono, on Twitter -- be able to plea this case down. Courtney, 57, said he decided the the best rivalry in all of sports, but can you imagine the insanity that Not if he wants to keep his job best way to serve Connecticut was it also has a toxic fan hate that would come from a jury trial? anyway. Local residents are going produces pure insanity. When This would have to be televised, to demand zero leniency. NBC news travels to Auburn to right?
Christopher Weber (Politics Daily)

All That and a Bag of Mail: Treeson Takes Center Stage

58

Politics/ Technology/

Newstablet Edition

Dublin Archbishop Washes Feet of Sex Abuse Victims
David Gibson (Politics Daily)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:46:00 PM

Religion Reporter Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has been seen as a rare champion of reform and repentance in the Catholic hierarchy as the clergy sex abuse crisis has pushed the Irish church to the abyss, and he reinforced that reputation on Sunday by washing the feet of eight abuse victims during a service in the cathedral in the Irish capital. Martin was joined by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, who has been spending time in Dublin as part of a Vatican team sent to assess the state of Catholicism in Ireland, which O'Malley reportedly planned to tell Pope Benedict XVI was"on the edge of collapse." At the start of the 90-minute liturgy "of lament and repentance" Archbishop Martin and Cardinal O'Malley both prostrated themselves in silent prayer before the altar, the Irish Times reported. The service was largely prepared by the victims and included readings from a damning 2009 Irish government report on widespread child abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese between 1975 and 2004. The report said the church in Ireland had "obsessively" concealed the

abuse. "For covering up crimes of abuse, and by so doing actually causing the sexual abuse of more children...we ask God's forgiveness," Archbishop Martin told the congregation in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral. "The archdiocese of Dublin will never be the same again. It will always bear this wound within it." Martin knelt as he washed the feet of five men and three women who had been abused by priests as children. O'Malley then dried their feet in a ritual that is seen as a classic gesture of penance and humility. The service recalls the passage in the Gospel in which Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, a scene that priests and bishops reenact each Holy Thursday evening before Good

Friday and the celebration of Easter the following Sunday. "For them to get down on their knees, it was humbling," Darren McGavin, 39, who was abused as a child, told Reuters. "I've found it hard to forgive, but today I found a small bit of closure." "Today was a day of liberation for me," said another of the eight victims, a 63-year-old. "I never thought I'd live to see this day when the church gave full recognition for the horror that was there." O'Malley said that the washing of the feet was a gesture of atonement that victims wanted and deserved. "The wounds carried in Ireland as a result of this evil are deep and remind us of the wounds of the body of Christ. We think of Jesus

in the Garden of Gethsemane as he experienced his own crisis," he said. "He, too, was overwhelmed with sorrow, betrayed and abandoned. Not only survivors of abuse and their family members, but many of the faithful and clergy throughout Ireland can echo our Lord's plaintive cry, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' " "But today, through the saving power of the cross, we come together to share in each other's sorrows as well as our collective hope for the future." A woman victim also read from Matthew's gospel about Jesus and children, and his words that "anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones...would be better drowned in the depths of the sea." At the end of the liturgy a "Candle of Protection" was blessed by Archbishop Martin and lit from the Paschal Candle before it was carried in procession to nearby St Joseph's altar. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Microsoft to release Kinect for Windows SDK this spring
Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:11:00 PM

Looks like we're not the only ones enjoying all those Kinect hacks being dreamed up and implemented by hardworking enthusiasts the world o'er. That's right: it was rumored early this year, and now it's been confirmed -- Microsoft will be releasing the Kinect for Windows SDK. According to Microsoft, "It will be available this spring as a free download, and will give academic researchers and enthusiasts access to key pieces of the Kinect system -such as the audio technology, system application programming interfaces and direct control of the Kinect sensor itself." Commercial licensing details will be made available at some point thereafter. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Microsoft to release Kinect for Windows SDK this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Microsoft| Email this| Comments

Newstablet Edition

Politics/ Travel/

59

RNC Raises $5.7 Million in January Obama Invite Goes Under New Chairman Reince Direct to Spam Priebus
(Newsmax - Inside Cover)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 7:43:15 AM

Christopher Weber (Politics Daily)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:55:00 PM

Correspondent When Reince Priebus was elected to head the Republican National Committee last month, he vowed to boost fundraising, especially from wealthy donors, and so far he's done exactly that. The RNC pulled in $5.7 million in January, and its new chairman said $3.5 million of that came in after his election Jan. 14, Roll Call reported. "We owe a lot of our success to major donors who helped us reach 180 percent of our monthly major donor goal, and we were able to accomplish that in the last two weeks of January," Priebus (pictured) said in a statement, adding that the committee still has "a lot of work to do." Indeed, the RNC remains deep in the red, disclosing to the Federal Election Commission that it's

carrying nearly $22 million in debt. It has $2.1 million cash on hand. The Democratic National Committee is also struggling with debt as the 2012 election cycle looms. The DNC reported it is nearly $17 million in the red, with about $9 million in the bank, according to CNN. But the DNC also had a

Monday, 21 Feb 2011 01:43 PM The Obama White House likes to pride itself on its technological savvy. But it goofed up in sending Email invitation to dozens of businesses in Northeast Ohio for a meeting with President Barack Obama next week in Cleveland, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Several of the Emails went directly into the business’ spam folders. One problem was the sender identification: “FN-WHOOPERSVP” for the Office of profitable start to 2011, raising Public Engagement. The subject line read: "IMPORTANT RSVP $7.2 million last month. This entry passed through the Information for Small Business Full-Text RSS service — if this is Forum." your content and you're reading it But even some businesses which on someone else's site, please read received the Email in their regular our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ in-boxes were suspicious, as the Email began "Dear Friend" and content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: requested information including a Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In Social Security number. When Gladys Benitez-Reilly, The Crosshairs.

president of Viva Spanish!, a Spanish-teaching service, received her invitation, her son told her it must be spam, The Plain Dealer reports. "The White House would have sent you a registered letter," the high school student told his mother. © Newsmax. All rights reserved. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Stress-Busting Vacations
(CONCIERGE.COM: LATEST TRAVEL FEATURES)
Submitted at 2/20/2011 4:23:39 PM

Put the punching bag aside--it's time to blow off some serious steam. Whether you want to get it

all out at a gladiator school in Rome or fire away your

frustration at a shooting range in Cambodiago ahead, unleash! Check out our list of the world's most aggressive trips to see where you can vent and vacation.

Eden Rock Hotel, St. Barths
(CONCIERGE.COM: LATEST TRAVEL FEATURES)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:26:21 PM

Get the feel of the French Riviera in the Caribbean: At this St. Barths hot spot, stay in a suite,

house, or private villa on top of Eden Rock hill and enjoy a breathtaking view of one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

60

Politics/ Technology/ Talk/

Newstablet Edition

GOP Won't Vote on Union Bill without Democrats
(Newsmax - Inside Cover)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 7:56:08 AM

Scott Brown: GOP Won't Shut Down Gov't
(Newsmax - Inside Cover)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 7:52:28 AM

TEDTalks : Noreena Hertz: How to use experts -- and when not to - Noreena Hertz (2010)
(TEDTalks (video))
Submitted at 2/21/2011 9:53:09 AM

Monday, 21 Feb 2011 01:56 PM MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican leader of the Wisconsin state Senate says there will be no vote on a bill taking away union rights for government workers until Democrats return. Fourteen Democrats skipped town on Thursday, delaying indefinitely action on the proposal that has led to protests drawing as many as 68,000 people over the past week. One of those Democrats suggested Monday that Republicans might try to pass the restrictions on collective bargaining as part of another bill on Tuesday. But Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he

will not attempt to pass any portions of the bill without Democrats present. The Senate is meeting Tuesday to take up other measures, such as a resolution commending the Green Bay Packers on winning the Super Bowl. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Monday, 21 Feb 2011 01:52 PM By Dan Weil Much of the mainstream media portrays Republicans as eager to force a government shutdown over spending issues. That’s not the case, says Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass, according to The Hill. He says Congress needs to work in a bipartisan manner to tackle the exploding budget deficit. “I'm hopeful that everyone will kind of get in a room and just hammer things out and look at the budget and say, ‘Yes, we can keep this; we can't keep that,’ and send a very important message to the people of the country and the world that we're serious,” Brown said in an interview on NBC’s

“Today.” House Republicans have passed $60 billion in spending cuts, but the Democratic-controlled Senate has balked at the idea. © Newsmax. All rights reserved. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

We make important decisions every day -- and we often rely on experts to help us decide. But, says economist Noreena Hertz, relying too much on experts can be limiting and even dangerous. She calls for us to start democratizing expertise -- to listen not only to "surgeons and CEOs, but also to shop staff."

PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth's rotation
Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:50:00 PM

sending data to a Linux PC via Bluetooth, this bad boy will measure the Earth's rotation, find The above pictured contraption, geographic north, and determine called Copernitron, features a altitude. Apparently, this is PlayStation Move controller, a a c h i e v e d b y m e a s u r i n g t h e t u r n t a b l e , a n d a h o m e b r e w controller's subtle movements as it Helmholtz coil (you know, for spins around at 45 RPM. And canceling out interference caused while the PS Move gyros are by our planet's magnetic field). By much more accurate than those of

any other controller on the market, they're not too accurate: if

they were, the designer points out, "ITAR might classify them as missile components. That's why we can't have nice motion tracking." See it in action after the break. Continue reading PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth's rotation PlayStation Move, turntable used

to track the Earth's rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Hack-A-Day| pabr.org| Email this| Comments

Newstablet Edition

Politics-Right/

61

Gone, Wisconsin
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:00:02 AM

T he dirtiest words in a liberal’s lexicon -- besides “judgmental,” “intolerant,” “unfair,” and “Constitution” -- are “revanchism” and “irredentism.” For years, I had no idea what these words actually meant, although like a good red-diaper baby, I threw them around a lot. But to men of a certain age, and I’m talking about men even older than my father, the sainted “Che” Kahane, they’re terms that get our side frothing at the mouth, foaming from their nostrils, and stamping their feet against the imaginary, Stalingrad-like cold of Hallandale, Fla. Recently, I’ve learned -- and I researched this directly on Wikipedia, so it must be true -that revanchism means revenge (apparently it’s French or something) and a burning desire to get back territory you’ve lost. To put it in terms we can all understand, think of the Crusaders heading back to the Holy Land, the Germans re-occupying the Saarland, the foodies safely marching up Amsterdam Avenue in the wake of the fascist Giuliani administration. It’s the yelp of the loser planning a comeback, the bluster of the defeated bully, and now, the cri de coeur of some Wisconsin pol defying the clear wishes of His Serene Majesty, the Emperor Barack Hussein Obama II, Lord of the Flies, Keeper of the Hoops, and Protector of the Holy Cities of Honolulu and Chicago.

How dare he? #ad#After all, didn’t the great and powerful BO2 win the 2008 election? Didn’t that entitle him to rule as he sees fit, without the meddlesome priests you wingnuts call “red-state governors”? Wasn’t it a clear sign from Gaia that a person of no talent or accomplishment, a poor extemporary speaker, a man with apparently no friends from his youth in Indonesia, his school days at Punahou, his sheep-dip year at Occidental, his mystery stint at my alma mater, Columbia, and his undistinguished tenure as editor of the Harvard Law Review, could be elected president of the United States? So who are these pissant politicians and pundits and midwestern peons to defy Hussein’s imperial will? Who are they to rebel against the infinite enlargement of the union/welfare state he embodies, the very Cloward-Piven word made Alinskian political flesh, leading the Party of Take to fulfill its destiny and finally devour the Party of Give? I guess what I’m trying to say is: Stop it. You’re scaring us. You see, we haven’t planned for this. We have a form of the Brezhnev Doctrine, which is named after one of our great role models, Leonid Brezhnev, and which clearly states that once a country goes Communist, it can never go back. And while we don’t exactly embrace the retro term “Communist” -- we prefer

socialist, progressive, or, in a pinch, Democrat -- we give ol’ Leo a sly tip of the hat whenever we bring down our AFL-CIO hammer and our SEIU sickle. We see every conflict between looters and moochers -- excuse me! I mean “public servants” -- and taxpaying suckers the way the Soviets looked at the Prague Spring, and it’s just a matter of time before the tanks roll, and the cries of “Dubek! Dubek!” are replaced once more with “Yes, we did!” As you seem to be learning at last, we have two modes of operation, depending on how civil we’re feeling at the moment. The first is our usual, unlovely, snarling viciousness, our relentless mockery of everything you clowns hold dear, our sapperlike devotion to undermining the “Enlightenment” ground you stand on even as, like heroic members of the Résistance, we sometimes have to blend into the population and pretend to be patriotic college professors, lawyers, and U.S. senators whenever we’ve got the short end of the stick. #page#The other is our whiny, dog’s-belly approach to fauxsurrender, in which we become as pathetic as a helpless, whipped cur offering his tender nether regions to the Big Dog, all the while figuring out how we can make common cause with the roving band of coyotes just over the next canyon, to tear the sonofabitch apart the next time we

catch him alone in a dark alley. And that’s what we’re trying to figure out now: to flip or to flop? As I thrill to the noble sacrifices of our selfless public servants, confronting the Man in Madison directly, I personally am as proud as “Che” was, watching Morningside Heights burn while he smoked a Cuban cigar to show his solidarity with la Revolución and put his feet up on the dean’s desk. On the other hand, though, I worry that we might be overplaying our hand here, that the forces of revanchism might be too strong, and that the Battle of Mad Town will turn out about as badly for us as the Battle of the Ebro did for the heroic proles of la República. #ad#Which is why I’m inclining toward the belly strategy. We gave our standard human-shield ploy a shot when the Wisconsin teachers “got sick” and then showed up en masse, kidlets in tow, to scream about the unfairness of changing a status quo that required you to support them in the style to which they’d become accustomed, and required them only to keep breathing for as long as possible. But it’s a tough sell when your adorable moppets tell reporters they’re at the capitol because they’re “trying to stop whatever this dude is doing.” So forget all this confrontational hoo-hah. Far better to make our arguments on the basis of their factual correctness, their emotional correctness, and their political correctness.

Think of “public service” for what it really is, a secondary form of welfare, in which “workers” pretend to work and the government pretends to “pay” them -- just like in the old Soviet Union! I mean, if it weren’t for government jobs, all of these “non -essential” personnel would be lounging around on their porches, drinking beer and firing unregulated handguns into the air or at each other -- or, even worse, at us -- unable to deal with the vicissitudes of life and therefore deserving of our public charity. Without public service, politicians such as Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd would have been just another couple of Irish barroom horndogs; Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown, another Buddhist moonbat; and Robert Byrd a humble white-sheeted follower of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Public service gave these men jobs -- real jobs -- and meaning to their lives. And you malevolent capitalists want to take it all away. So go ahead and unleash your racist hordes of teabaggers on a bunch of doe-eyed third-graders; all they’re asking for is a few years of “employment,” followed by a lifetime of free health care and a lavish pension. How can you in good conscience try to break up a perfect racket, in which public-employee unions “negotiate” with the politicians for ever-more-generous pay packages, and then kick back a GONE, page 63

62

Politics-Right/

Newstablet Edition

Claremont McKenna’s Pro-Islamist Professor
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:00:45 AM

C laremont McKenna College is a nationally recognized leader in training Defense Department officials and State Department personnel (including numerous ambassadors). Professor Bassam Frangieh is head of Claremont McKenna’s Arabic Department and Middle East Studies program, where he teaches tomorrow’s diplomats about the Middle East, plans study-abroad programs -and supports recognized terrorist groups, namely, Hezbollah and Hamas. In the wake of Hamas’s election victory in 2006, Frangieh told an interviewer that he looks to Hamas with “great joy” and supports violence against Israel. Hamas’s control, he said, “might be able to produce the beginning of salvation. . . . I wonder what else would the Arabs have without Hamas and Hezbollah? Nothing. Except humiliation. I congratulate Hamas on its victory.” Meanwhile, in his academic work, he has written in favor of suicide bombing and martyrdom. In a speech at the University of Bridgeport in 2007, he said that Islam is “very democratic,” and he praised Saddam Hussein as a model leader who “wasn’t a thief” and who “really did something for his country.” #ad#Frangieh has also made his views known through petitions, which, he says, “stem from the heart and are cast onto paper.” In

2006 he signed a pro-Hezbollah petition that was circulated along with a flyer encouraging its signatories to “Boycott Israel. . . . We are all Hizbullah now.” The petition, promoted by prominent anti-Israel, anti-American activists like Tariq Ali, Omar Barghouri, and Norman Finkelstein, demanded a boycott of Israel and encouraged Israeli academics to stop the “Zionist killing machine.” It called Hezbollah the “Lebanese Resistance” and a “legitimate” army, and praised its “heroic operations” against Israel. A 2007 petition blamed a “Zionist conspiracy” for then-senator Biden’s plan to divide Iraq into three separate autonomous regions. In 2009, Frangieh brought the Syrian ambassador, Imad Moustapha, to speak as an honored guest of the college; he had earlier instructed his students to warmly serenade Moustapha with singings from the Koran. (One student even asked, in all earnestness, what students could do to help Syria promote peace.) Syria, designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, has been governed for 40 years by a brutal dictatorial dynasty. Along with the Muslim Student Association (MSA), Frangieh also brought to campus Imam Zaid Shakir, who blamed the Fort Hood massacre on America’s easy access to guns. Yet another major guest was PLO member Sari Nusseinbeh, who during the first intifada helped terrorists avoid arrest and secure funding.

Frangieh’s radicalism is shared by his wife, Aleta Wenger. A former State Department official who worked on the Middle Eastern desk, Ms. Wenger is currently director of Claremont’s Center for Global Education and, as such, is the public face of the college overseas. Like her husband, she takes a conspiratorial view of Israel’s military, accusing it, without evidence, of bombing universities and hospitals. She also supports the Hamas-linked Gaza flotilla movement. In a posting on the New York Times website, she wrote, I now have a good cause to support financially, and am very happy that my fellow Americans are interested in joining the blockade movement. Now to see if I can get on that boat. As a retired U.S. foreign service officer now unleashed, I can do and say what I want. Now let’s hear all of your readers tell me how naive I am . . . but I’m telling you, I’ve truly been there and seen it all . . . go Gaza flotilla ships go!!! #page#Repeated requests from alumni, students, parents, and faculty for comment from the college about the allegations against Bassam Frangieh have been consistently ignored. Worse, the college trots Frangieh out for fundraising; CMC Magazine Winter 2011 listed him as reason No. 33 to donate to Claremont McKenna. This was months after his views on Hamas and Hezbollah were established. The

college’s PR chief, Richard Rodner, scrubbed all mention of Frangieh’s views from Wikipedia. Dean of Faculty Greg Hess emailed the faculty saying that it was only “a student writer’s opinion” that Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations -- ignoring the fact that it was the State Department, where many of Frangieh’s students hope to work, that designated them as such. #ad#In March 2010, Claremont McKenna President Pamela Gann traveled with Frangieh and Wenger to the Middle East, where she compared Frangieh’s advocacy for Hezbollah and Hamas to another professor’s testimony in the Proposition 8 case last year. Gann hopes to get funding for Frangieh’s Arabic program from the Kuwaiti royal family, several members of which attended Claremont McKenna College. According to one member of the board of trustees, President Gann recently sent out a memo that essentially copied Dean Hess’s. The trustee noted that this was the first time Gann had sent all the trustees a memo since the famous Kerri Dunn incident in 2004, in which a professor of psychology faked a hate crime against herself. The circ*mstances of Frangieh’s tenure hearing three years ago were rife with procedural misconduct. No one reviewing Frangieh’s work spoke Arabic or, according to one faculty source, even Googled his name. Nevertheless, President Gann

moved to grant Frangieh automatic tenure -- the first time ever that this was done at Claremont McKenna. By way of comparison, Dean Hess took an opposite tenure decision a year later and denied Professor Christopher Lynch a tenure-track position for “lacking substantive publications” -- despite the enthusiastic support for him from the Government Department and a significant publication record. Hess refused to comment on this manifest double standard. At Yale, Frangieh, as a language instructor, was denied consideration for tenure because, in the words of the provost, he lacked “substantive original research.” At Claremont, despite his lack of credentials, he has free range to create classes that teach his interpretation of the Middle East. He has a Ph.D. in Arabic literature -- not history -- and yet he teaches the required course for Middle East Studies majors, “Trends and Movements in the Middle East,” which promises to expose students to the “major themes in Arab society, culture, and tradition.” Islamist-motivated terrorism, anti-Semitism, and suicide-bombing are indeed major themes in modern Arab society -and Frangieh supports all of them. Hezbollah has killed more Americans than any other terrorist organization except al-Qaeda. We wouldn’t tolerate a professor who supported al-Qaeda, so why do we CLAREMONT page 63

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The Governors Storm D.C.
Leviathan state” and “the slippage of the United States into a gray A s congressional Republicans parity with the other nations of mull whether to address the this earth.” government’s long-term fiscal The response, he said, must be problems -- House Republican “the creation of new Social leaders are being pushed by the 87 Security and Medicare compacts” freshmen to do so, while some that “reserve their funds for those Senate Republicans are seeking most in need of them.” And “our some bipartisan accords with m o r b i d l y o b e s e f e d e r a l Democratic colleagues -- two g o v e r n m e n t n e e d s n o t j u s t Republican governors barreled b e h a v i o r m o d i f i c a t i o n b u t into Washington with the message b a r i a t r i c s u r g e r y . ” that the lawmakers better get Daniels also called for changes in moving. And that congressional taxes, regulation, and energy Republicans might do just fine policy, and he roiled some politically if they do. conservatives by saying that The two Republican governors defense shouldn’t get a free pass. are Mitch Daniels of Indiana, who He roiled others by ignoring the spoke to a Conservative Political cultural issues on which he A c t i o n C o m m i t t e e d i n n e r suggested last June we should February 11, and Chris Christie of have a “truce.” N e w J e r s e y , w h o s p o k e a t But his central message was that American Enterprise Institute R e p u b l i c a n s m u s t a d d r e s s (where I am a resident fellow) on entitlements -- Social Security, February 16. Medicare, Medicaid. Which #ad#In style, they’re a contrast. Barack Obama conspicuously Daniels is slight and balding, and failed to do in the budget plan he spoke quietly from a carefully r e l e a s e d a f e w d a y s a f t e r prepared text. Christie is large and D a n i e l s ’ s s p e e c h . spoke bombastically without Christie was less elegant and notes. But in substance, they were even more blunt than his Hoosier much the same. colleague. Drawing on his T h e y w e r e b o t h m i g h t i l y struggles with New Jersey’s concerned with what Daniels public-employee unions over called “the red menace” -- “the pensions and benefits, he turned debts our nation has amassed for to national issues. i t s e l f o v e r d e c a d e s o f “My children’s future and your indulgence.” He warned that c h i l d r e n ’ s f u t u r e a r e m o r e “federal spending commitments important than political strategy,” now in place will bring about the he began. “You’re going to have
Submitted at 2/20/2011 11:00:40 PM

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to raise the retirement age for Social Security. Whoa, I just said it, and I’m still standing here. I did not vaporize. “We have to reform Medicare, because it costs too much and it is going to bankrupt us,” he said. “Once again, lightning did not come through the windows and strike me dead. And we have to fix Medicaid, because it’s not only bankrupting the federal government, it’s bankrupting every state government.” Obama, he said, was offering “the candy of American politics” - high-speed rail, plug-in cars -and congressional Republicans so far haven’t offered much more. If those he campaigned for don’t, he said, “the next time they’ll see me in their district is with my arm around their primary opponent.” Washington insiders and oldtimers tend to think Republicans would be foolish to heed Daniels’s and Christie’s advice. Talking about entitlements is supposed to be the third rail of American politics. “I don’t think it’s fatal,” Christie said. “You just have to have the spine to take the lead,” and if you ask for shared sacrifice and don’t let people game the system, voters will respond. #page#Daniels and Christie both said that in traveling around their states they get the sense that voters support their major policy changes and are ready for more.

The political numbers tend to back them up. Daniels was elected to a second term in 2008 by a 58 percent–to–40 percent margin, even as Barack Obama was carrying the state. In 2010, Republicans transformed the Indiana House from 52–48 Democratic to 60–40 Republican, and their margin in the state Senate is 37–13. #ad#In the popular vote for U.S. House of Representatives, a good proxy for national partisan sentiment, Republicans in Indiana led 56 percent to 39 percent in 2010, up 10 points from 2008. New Jersey’s House popular vote was 51 percent to 47 percent Republican in 2010, the best Republican performance there since 1994. It’s a bit lower than Christie’s current job approval of 54 percent and a bit higher than the 49 percent plurality he won in the 2009 election. Daniels and Christie have been in the trenches, facing opposition legislatures, addressing fundamental issues, and getting results voters like. Are congressional Republicans listening? — Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.

substantial percentage of the swag in the form of perfectly legal “campaign contributions” to help get their benefactors re-elected? And all at your expense! So cool the confrontation, fellow lefties. At the moment, we can’t stop the dude from doing something. The dude abides. Live with it. Just don’t ask me about “irredentism.” --- Everything David Kahane has learned about life, he’s learned from Che, his teachers at Columbia, and The Big Lebowski. You can discuss these life lessons w i t h h i m a t [emailprotected] or on Facebook, but you have to read Rules for Radical Conservatives first. Proof of purchase or the first round at Tom Bergin’s on Fairfax required.

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tolerate one who supports Hezbollah? — Charles C. Johnson is a senior at Claremont McKenna College. He can be reached at [emailprotected].

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Foreshadowing 2012
Arnold Ahlert (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage)
Submitted at 2/20/2011 10:35:44 PM

As most Americans are now well aware, the confrontation in Wisconsin has become a “line in the sand” moment reverberating throughout the entire nation. The sides are clearly defined: Wisconsin’s public employee unions, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Barack Obama’s Organizing for America, national labor leaders, and the president of the United States, versus Wisconsin Republicans, Tea Party activists, and taxpayers fed up with runaway government spending. Yet what Americans might not know is this: the animus Democrats and their allies are confronting has been substantially created by Democrats themselves: welcome to a “stimulus generated” confrontation. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the Stimulus Bill, was ostensibly supposed to fund “shovel-ready” jobs and keep unemployment at 8%. Since unemployment is at 9% officially (and close to 17% in reality), and president Obama himself admitted there was “no such thing as shovel ready projects” last October, one might be forgiven for wondering where a $787 billion package, which

quickly increased to $862 billion in federal subsidies, ended up. Where a substantial portion of it ended it up was in state coffers, where it was used to shore up budget shortfalls. “There’s no doubt that the stimulus has helped maintain state and local government employment…it was a lot of money for two years that was largely fiscal relief [to the states], meaning that they had some flexibility. If it hadn’t been for that, they would have been making major cuts,” said Donald Boyd, a senior fellow at The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany. Now that the stimulus spending is decreasing, “[states] face really severe choices and clear voter sentiment largely against any tax increases. So that leads you to the spending side of the budget,” he added. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while private sector employees were bearing the brunt of the recession, government workers were largely spared: between June 2008 and June 2010, “the number of privatesector employees fell by six percent, but the number of s t a t e a n d l o c a l government workers declined by less than one percent.” And that was only the first stimulus package. Last June, the

bargaining limitations. All of the above is accompanied by a promise not to lay off any workers. If the measure fails, up to 12,000 of the state’s 300,000 public sector employees could lose their jobs. ”I don’t want a single person laid off in the public nor in the private sector and that’s why this is a much better alternative than losing jobs,” Governor Walker told “Fox News Sunday.” The changes resonate with a majority of the Wisconsin electorate. Walker and Republican legislative candidates then-Democratically-controlled breach with a plan that calls for ran on a platform of fiscal C o n g r e s s a n d t h e O b a m a Wisconsin state employees to austerity in the 2010 election, and administration ponied up an contribute 5.8% of their salary to in a state where Democrats additional $50 billion of deficit their own pensions, up from zero controlled both houses of the spending in “emergency aid” for most employees; a 6% legislature and the governorship, (read: more stimulus) to state and increase to 12% for their own v o t e r s h a n d e d a l l t h r e e t o local governments. They claimed health care (the national average R e p u b l i c a n s – b y s u b s t a n t i a l the money was needed to avoid is 29%); the elimination of margins. For the first three days, “massive layoffs of teachers, collective bargaining for such d e m o n s t r a t i o n s h a d b e e n p o l i c e a n d f i r e f i g h t e r s . ” items as benefits and vacation dominated by angry public sector Republicans viewed it as nothing t i m e ; t h e p e g g i n g o f w a g e e m p l o y e e s , g i v i n g m a n y more than an attempt to “buy” the negotiations to the Consumer Americans the (media-fueled) 2010 election. Regardless, it was Price Index, raises exceeding impression that this was a onea one-time payout and the money which would have to be approved s i d e d f i g h t . O n S a t u r d a y , is gone. b y a p u b l i c however, thousands of pro-bill Thus, reality has intruded. In referendum; eliminating currently Tea Party protesters showed up. Wisconsin, Republican Governor -required union dues for state Many held signs saying they Scott Walker is faced with a $137 employees; requiring annual votes couldn’t get there earlier because, million budget shortfall for the f o r u n i o n s t o r e m a i n unlike the state workers who had current fiscal year, and a deficit of organized; and exempting police, abandoned their job obligations to more than $3.6 billion over the firefighters and state patrol protest, they were working. next two. He has stepped into the o f f i c e r s f r o m c o l l e c t i v e

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Ronald Reagan and the African American
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:00:02 AM

R onald Reagan, who narrowly lost the Republican party’s presidential nomination in 1976, realized that his party needed to broaden its base into a durable coalition that would help its members win and maintain office at the local, state, and national levels. Speaking before a gathering of conservatives in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 15, 1977, just five days before Jimmy Carter took the oath of office, Reagan emphasized this point, stating: The New Republican party I envision is still going to be the party of Lincoln and that means we are going to have to come to grips with what I consider to be a major failing of the party: its failure to attract the majority of black voters. It’s time black America and the New Republican party move toward each other and create a situation in which no black vote can be taken for granted. Throughout the late 1970s, Reagan continued to exhort fellow Republicans to face this problem, and he worked to win the black vote after he won his party’s presidential nomination in 1980. Speaking at the Urban League

convention in New York on Aug. 5, 1980, he proclaimed, “I am committed to the protection and enforcement of the civil rights of black Americans. This commitment is interwoven into every phase of the programs I will propose.” #ad#Two days earlier, Reagan had given a speech at the Neshoba County Fair in the town of Philadelphia, Miss., where civilrights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner had been murdered in 1964. His statement that “I believe in states’ rights” concerned Rev. Andrew Young, who said, “Code words like ‘states’ rights’ and symbolic places like Philadelphia, Miss., leave me cold.” Young asked, “Is Reagan saying that he intends to do everything he can to turn the clock back to the Mississippi justice of 1964?” For decades, Reagan had discussed the tenets he considered to be fundamental to the constitutional functioning of the United States. Instead of using code words in his speeches, Reagan expressed his deeply held principles in straightforward language. Did these words hurt him as he was attempting to extend his

reach? Not with the majority of voters. On Election Day 1980, Reagan outperformed Carter among most categories of U.S. citizens, winning 51 percent of the popular vote to Carter’s 41 percent. In 1976, Jewish voters had supported Carter two-to-one; in 1980, only 45 percent of them backed Carter, with 39 percent voting for Reagan. Carter’s support from Protestants diminished from 46 percent in 1976 to 39 percent in 1980; 54 percent of Protestants voted for Reagan. In 1976, 57 percent of Catholics voted for Carter, but in 1980, Carter’s portion of the Catholic vote was 46 percent while Reagan’s was 47 percent. In the 1980 race, Reagan was backed by 26 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of independents, and 86 percent of Republicans, and he was popular with many other categories of voters -- except for nonwhites, who remained loyal to the incumbent. In 1976, 85 percent of nonwhites voted for Carter; in 1980, he won 86 percent of the nonwhite vote. In 1980, Reagan received 10 percent of the nonwhite vote while John Anderson, the third-party candidate, won 2 percent.

No Republican president or presidential candidate has successfully ascertained an effective way to extend the party’s reach to black voters. Discussing principles such as the rights of states outside of a larger political context has the sound of code language and does not broaden one’s base. Reagan understood that fact and his fall 1980 campaign focused sharply on the economy and defense. Though it was too late to sway the black vote, Reagan was building upon his vision of a Republican party organized around conservative principles as a means of broadening the tent. It was a vision he talked about frequently as he assumed leadership of his party and the conservative movement in the late 1970s. Reagan established the rhetorical base for a broader tent. It is time for the party to realize his vision. --- Kiron K. Skinner is the coauthor of Reagan, in His Own Hand and other books. She is on the advisory board of the George W. Bush Oral History Project, teaches international relations at Carnegie Mellon University, and is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Morning Bell: Gov. Scott Walker Sits Down With Heritage and Answers the Tough Questions
Tina Korbe (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 8:00:41 AM

Posted February 21st, 2011 at 9:00am in Enterprise and Free Markets Print This Post MADISON, Wis. — Teachers’ unions and representatives of every liberal interest group in the country may have taken over the streets of Madison for demonstrations, marches and speeches, but inside the Wisconsin governor’s mansion its chief tenant remains calm and resolute. The Badger State’s budget will be balanced, Gov. Scott Walker (R) assured The Heritage Foundation in a one-onone interview. The stakes in Wisconsin are high not just here, but across America. “I’ve said all along the protesters have every right to be there, but I’m not going to let tens of thousands overload or overshadow the millions of people in Wisconsin, the taxpayers of the state, who want us to do the right thing and balance the budget,” Gov. Walker told us. ( Click here to watch the interview.) Fourteen state Senate Democrats fled to Illinois last week, preventing a quorum and blocking passage of Walker’s budget repair bill. But that doesn’t dissuade MORNING page 68

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As Wisconsin Goes…
Rich Trzupek (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage)
Submitted at 2/20/2011 10:40:16 PM

The clash between the state’s teachers union and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker raged on through the weekend, with both sides digging in their heels. Madison has become the symbolic focal point of a national conflict between conservatives who want to reduce the size and expense of government and leftists who want to retain all of the tools necessary to continue the expansion of big government into the future. Thus, Wisconsin’s capital increasingly seems be turning into America’s ideological battleground, as troops and leaders from both sides pour into the city. The longer it goes on, the more is at stake for taxpayers and government employees throughout America. There is poetic justice in the fact that this debate is taking place in the middle of Wisconsin. The Dairy State is the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the nation’s most powerful government employee unions, and it was in Madison that government employees first won collective bargaining rights back in 1959. The state’s AWOL Democratic state senators remain in hiding at an undisclosed location in Illinois,

the Battle of Wisconsin could very well represent the tipping point that results in a cascade of similar dominoes in legislatures throughout America. It would be an important step on the road to restoring fiscal sanity, in other words. For government-employee unions, and for the Democratic Party they invariably support, that very real possibility is dangerous indeed. It’s not surprising that the rhetoric went far beyond what would be expected of a budget issue being debated in a medium sized Midwestern state. “Go out in the street, all you have to do is look out there,” national AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka told demonstrators. effectively preventing a vote on streets of Madison this weekend, “People are tired. People are fed Walker’s budget reform bill. led by the Tea Party activists who up. People are saying, ‘Enough is They’ve told the media that they u n d e r s t a n d t h e n a t i o n a l enough.’ You’re beyond the limit want the governor to negotiate importance of this debate. “Sorry of what’s decent. If you want to with the union, and fleeing the we took so long Scott – we have negotiate, we’ll help you. This is state is the only card they have to jobs,” read one sign carried by a all about union-busting.” play in order to make that happen. supporter. Local media described “ T h i s i s h i s t o r y , ” A n d r e w Walker is adamant that he will not the size of the pro-Walker crowd Breitbart declared in a speech to enter in negotiations over the bill, as substantial, but much smaller the pro-Walker faction. “We are even though the union now says t h a n t h e p r o - u n i o n f o r c e s . going to let the American people that it will agree to the financial Hundreds of police kept the two know, in every single state, that aspects of the proposal. “We are sides separate and although there we have every governor and every willing to take this as long as it was much shouting and debate legislator’s back. We are the takes,” Walker told Fox News among competing protesters, no modern-day peace movement. Sunday. “We are doing the right violent incidents were reported. This is the peace movement.” He thing. My hope is that cooler National leaders and media pointed across the square to where minds will prevail. Democracy is personalities continued to flock union supporters marched and not about hiding out in other into Madison to show support for concluded: “that is where the states.” their favored side. For smaller- anarchists are.” Pro-Walker demonstrators hit the government advocates, winning

Celebrate Washington’s Birthday
Julia Shaw (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 7:21:24 AM

Posted February 21st, 2011 at 8:21am in First Principles Print This Post The third Monday in February has come to be known—wrongly—as President’s Day. But, this is not a day to celebrate every president in our Nation’s history. The president who fails to wear a coat in cold weather should not be honored as much as the one who defeats the British’s Hessian mercenaries during a blizzard. This is the day that we celebrate the man who led America to victory in the War for Independence, who was instrumental in the creation of our Constitution, and whose character forever shaped the executive branch. We celebrate George Washington. That’s why the holiday is Washington’s Birthday—not President’s day. What makes George Washington a great president, worthy of such CELEBRATE page 69

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Unions at It Again: D.C. Being Made to Hire Back Fired Teachers
Rachel Sheffield (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 10:00:17 AM

Posted February 21st, 2011 at 11:00am in Education Print This Post “ Will the unions help keep poor teachers from returning to the classroom?” asked Saturday’s Washington Post, reminding us that union intransigience stretches from Madison,WI to Washington, D.C. An independent arbitrator recently ruled that D.C. Public Schools will be required to hire back 75 teachers fired during Michelle Rhee’s tenure. On top of this, D.C. will also be required to pay two years in back wages, costing the city approximately $7.5 million. Although the dismissed teachers were still in their probationary period, arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum claims that they were improperly let go because the district failed to comply with proper dismissal procedures. As Feigenbaum noted in his ruling, according to the school district’s union agreement, if a probationary teacher receives negative reviews after both years of his or her trial period, the school district can dismiss that teacher. While the 75 dismissed teachers received negative

reviews during their first year, and principal reports from the second year indicate poor performance– tardiness, unprofessional behavior, “rude and aggressive” demeanor, and so forth–because the teachers did not receive sufficient written explanations for their tardiness, D.C. Public Schools are being faulted. D.C.’s situation is a prime example of the struggles leaders face today–as a result of collective bargaining agreements and entrenched policies– that make it nearly impossible to ensure the quality of teachers in their schools. This is not only bad for students, but it also makes it difficult for other teachers. Said Rhee:

hence decrease a child’s chance for a good education. Governors and mayors from New York to Nevada, and most recently Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel, are promoting policies to ensure that students have the best opportunity to be taught by a quality teacher. Meanwhile, leaders like Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin are beginning to tackle the fiscal problems associated with union demands that will unfairly burden future generations with massive debt. It is promising to see so many state leaders standing up and It drives effective teachers crazy when there is somebody working saying no to bad policies and next to them that is not pulling union demands and saying yes to their own weight and when they the best interests of children and inherit a group of kids… several teachers alike. Protecting poor grade levels behind because teachers at the expense of a somebody didn’t do their job. child’s future is unacceptable. Rhee also noted a study“that Policies that put students first are concluded the United States crucial to increasing educational would rise to the top among achievement in the United States. nations in student achievement if This entry passed through the the lowest performing 5 percent to Full-Text RSS service — if this is 8 percent of teachers were your content and you're reading it replaced with those who are on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ average.” But there is hope. At present, content-only/faq.php several governors and mayors Five Filters featured article: across the nation are promoting Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In p o l i c i e s t o r e f o r m s u c h The Crosshairs. laws–teacher tenure laws–that protect ineffective teachers and

China Crushes Internal Dissent
Stephen Brown (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage)
Submitted at 2/20/2011 10:15:39 PM

As Egypt and Tunisia have shown, authoritarian regimes are not especially suited for the Internet age. And China’s tyrants are the latest hard-line despots dealing with this disturbing truth, as they reacted on Sunday to a web campaign calling for a Middle Eastern-style “Jasmine Revolution” with a massive show of force countrywide. Fearing Tunisia’s and Egypt’s Internetguided uprisings were about to emerge within their borders, Chinese security agencies arrested dozens of anti-government activists and human rights advocates. “Many human rights defenders have disappeared in recent days, others are under house arrest and their mobile phones are blocked,” a human rights lawyer said. The security officials’ quick and CHINA page 68

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Gov. Walker. He told Heritage he would prefer to see the stalemate last indefinitely rather than compromise on his principles. For the strength to stand so firmly, Gov. Walker said he draws on his past experience as Milwaukee County executive—a fiscal conservative leading a county that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in 2008 by a margin of 67% to 32%. The political role model Gov. Walker looks up to is also important, as it is none other than President Ronald Reagan. Of Reagan, Gov. Walker said, “He knew who he was, he knew where he was going and he did what he had to do to get there.” Reagan was no stranger to bold and difficult decisions, and Gov. Walker said he was prepared to follow in the former president’s footsteps for as long as he served in office. In 1981, about six months after taking office, Reagan defined the tenor of his administration with his own bold decision to fire more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who ignored the president’s orders to return to work. Reagan emerged victorious, his presidency emboldened by the

conflict. The stakes were high for Reagan then—he risked an enormous public backlash by disrupting commercial air travel—and they’re high for Gov. Walker now. In many ways, Wisconsin will be the prototype for other deficit-laden states whose leaders attempt to balance their budgets. Gov. Walker is aware of just what Wisconsin—and the rest of the country—stands to gain or lose with the ultimate outcome of this debate. That’s precisely why he insists the outcome be a balanced budget. For that, he’ll endure personal insults, the comparisons to deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. He’ll face days of chanting outside his window and threats to his safety. In fact, Gov. Walker is not merely enduring—he’s “feeling good,” he said. He’s even found something in common with the protesters: They share the same taste in music. The songs blaring over the loudspeaker take him back to his college and high school days. The music’s not the only aspect of the protests Gov. Walker appreciates. He’s also grateful

they’ve remained peaceful—even this weekend, when his supporters turned up to counter the protesters. Maybe that’s why Gov. Walker seems so grounded even in the midst of the churning: He’s appreciative of, rather than worried about, what the protests signify—that the people of Madison, those on both sides of the issue, care enough to come to the Capitol to debate. But that’s where he draws the line, promising to remain committed to his principles in the face of adversity. “We have to be clear and realistic about our challenges,” he said, “but optimistic about our solutions.” Quick Hits: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

overwhelming response to the website call for anti-government protests proves that despite all its substantial efforts to control the Internet, the Chinese government has not succeeded in its goal. But more importantly, the regime’s immediate crackdown and the scale of its response demonstrate that the danger of unrest in China and the country’s internal weakness (despite its outward economic strength) must be greater than imagined, making future disturbances almost a certainty. According to the New York Times, the organizers of Sunday’s protest campaign are unknown. But the messages calling for demonstrations in China first appeared “on a Chinese-language website based in the United States,” which named 13 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and sites where protesters should gather. Demonstrators were also urged to yell out: ‘We want work. We want food to eat. We want housing.” as well as “Long live freedom!” and “Long live democracy!” However, police showed up in such large numbers at all the designated areas, it was impossible for the events to go forward. Unrest is growing in China due to corrupt officials, rising food prices and lack of suitable housing. Although the Party vigorously attacks corruption, ordinary Chinese still feel victimised by an uncaring and

often cruel and exploitative bureaucracy and police force. One analyst, Robert Hartmann, writes that it is no secret some Chinese officials often buy their posts, knowing the bribes they pocket will far exceed the money they paid. Those Chinese who cannot afford to pay bribes to such officials would naturally suffer. “A notorious example is Xu Zongheng, the mayor of Shenzhen between 2005 and 2009,” Hartmann relates. “He has been charged with buying his position and taking bribes adding up to two billion yuan (US $300 million).” Another major complaint against the regime comes from people who have been turned out of their homes or forced off their land with little compensation by officials who intend to put the property to more profitable use. An indication of the extent of the frustration felt by such unfair treatment at the hands of Chinese bureaucrats manifested itself in a well-known and horrifying incident in Henan province in 2009. A worker seeking compensation from his employer, Hartmann writes, cut his chest open to prove he had a “workrelated lung illness.”

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celebration, an example to all other presidents? In short, he was committed to the principles of the American Founding: Liberty, Natural Rights, Equality, Religious Liberty, Economic Opportunity, the Rule of Law, Constitutionalism, Selfgovernment, National Independence. For nearly two centuries, Washington was celebrated every February 22 nd. According to Al Felzenberg, Washington’s troops set aside that day during the War for Independence to honor him, especially for his surprise victories over Hessian mercenaries at Trenton and British troops at Princeton. Yearly celebrations continued during and after Washington’s presidency, but Congress did not officially recognize Washington’s birthday as a national holiday until 1870. Congress made Monday the official day to commemorate national figures and events with the Monday Holiday Law in 1968 (Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July are exceptions to the Monday

China calling on the entire diplomatic staff to resign and the army to intervene. He also Submitted at 2/20/2011 10:45:22 PM claimed that Qaddafi had fled the The Libyan dictator Muammar country, adding fuel to the rumors Qaddafi’s rule may be coming to o f h i s d e p a r t u r e . N o t a b l y , an end as an uprising spreads Qaddafi’s son was the one to across the country. There are address the country Sunday night. unconfirmed reports that he has Saif al-Islam admitted that QADDAFI’S already fled to Venezuela, leaving “mistakes” had been made and continued from page 69 his son, Saif al-Islam, to run the pledged sweeping reforms. He 200 were killed by Sunday, and blame on the shoulders of the days.” Her prediction appears to c o u n t r y , a n d c l a s h e s a r e denied that his father had left the number is rising very quickly. regime’s opponents. “We will be coming true. The uprising has escalating in the capital of Tripoli. Libya but did not explain why he Saif al-Islam claimed that the fight to the last minute, until the now spread to Tripoli, with The regime seems certain to fall wasn’t the one making the speech. protestors attacked the army first, last bullet,” he said. This speech clashes occurring around Green soon unless Qaddafi’s security He called the deaths of protesters a n d h e t h e n a c c u s e d t h e will do nothing to satisfy the Square that involved gunfire. At forces are loyal enough to brutally a “tragedy” but then downplayed the losses, claiming that only 14 opposition of trying to create an p r o t e s t e r s a n d w i l l o n l y least 2,000 have begun protesting massacre their fellow citizens. “Islamic emirate” in Benghazi and a n t a g o n i z e t h e m . there, and at least four have been The Libyan ambassadors to the had been killed and that the death others of trying to secede from The CEO of the Gerard Group, killed by the security forces. Arab League, India and China toll has been exaggerated by the Libya. He warned that the unrest I l a n a F r e e d m a n , w r o t e o n Nearby in Al-Zawia, protesters have resigned in the wake of the media. It is estimated that at least widespread violence against the was bringing the country to the Saturday that she expected QADDAFI’S page 70 QADDAFI’S page 69 protesters, with the ambassador to verge of civil war, and placed the Qaddafi to “fall within a matter of

rule). Observance of Washington’s birthday was moved from February 22 to the third Monday in February. Contrary to popular opinion, no action by Congress or order by any president has changed “Washington’s Birthday” to “President’s Day.” Section 6103 of Title 5, United States Code, still designates the legal federal holiday as “Washington’s Birthday.” It would be easy to for the president to issue an executive order that would enforce the law and remind all Americans that George Washington ought not to be lumped in with every other president: good, bad, and the ugly (yes, James Buchanan we are talking about you). If anyone in American history (let alone a president) deserves to have a day celebrated in his honor, it’s George Washington. Henry Lee summed up Washington the best when he said: “ First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and enduring

scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding; his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting…. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues…. Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.” Such was the man for whom our nation celebrates this weekend. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In Ryan Mauro (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage) The Crosshairs.

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are heading towards Qaddafi’s palace. There have been defections of police and soldiers, and the tribes are now getting Christina Warren (Mashable!) involved on the side of the Submitted at 2/21/2011 12:53:47 PM opposition.

Xoom Debuts Sans Flash: What’s Going On, Adobe?

opportunity. With the discussion finally brought to the forefront, the company was given an chance More than a year after Apple to prove Flash’s worth on the next drew critical fire for its decision generation of computing devices. to forego Flash on the iPad, the More than a year after the debate first “real” Android tablet, the kicked off, that window is closing Motorola Xoom, will also be — and fast. This isn’t to say Flash making its Flash-free debut. as a tool can’t be used to create Motorola promises that Flash mobile and tablet applications, but support will be coming to the consumers and content creators device in spring 2011, presumably are acclimating to a life without with the Honeycomb-only release Flash. of Adobe Flash 10.2 for mobile, For years, Adobe has promised but that doesn’t change the fact the next release of Flash that that the first flagship Android would be just perfect for [insert tablet is shipping without Flash not actively targeting mobile means that even unoptimized product name here] was just Readability’s App Store support. platforms with their Flash content. Flash content should work better around the corner. We saw this In the ten months since Steve Where Is the Mobile Flash on the latest wave of devices, but with the lead-up to Flash 10.1, Rejection Portends a J o b s p e n n e d h i s f a m o u s “ Content? battery issues still remain a and we’re seeing it again with Cloudy Future For Thoughts on Flash” letter, much Flash 10.2. Something needs to I n s t e a d , v i d e o p u b l i s h e r s problem. Developers has been written about the continue to migrate to HTML5 Increasingly the trend is that new ship — and soon. Manufacturers suitability of Flash on mobile video solutions. Apple relented on content is created using HTML5, might be willing to play the “full Christina Warren (Mashable!) devices. Adobe says that in the its cross-compiler developer rule, CSS3 and JavaScript; and legacy Flash” advertising game now, but Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:47:00 PM last six months, Android Market which has made porting existing content is what remains in Flash. if nothing is available in a few A new App Store rejection sheds downloads of Flash Player topped Flash content to iOS devices less Moreover, that legacy content is months, that’s going to dry up too. s o m e l i g h t o n t h e r e a l 6 million and that 20 million painful and also opened up more not getting optimized for the More About: android, android tablets, Flash, motorola xoom, implications behind Apple’s new smartphones were “shipped or cross-platform development mobile experience. upgraded with Flash Player 10.1 opportunities. in-app subscription policies, and Demonstrations of Adobe Air tablets software.” For more Tech & Gadgets the results aren’t pretty. Adobe has shown us some applications running on a tablet The iOS app for Arc90s recently The reality, however, is Flash i m p r e s s i v e m o b i l e F l a s h are great — but where is the coverage: re-launched Readability service performance on smartphones and demonstrations — especially content users can use today? • Follow Mashable Tech & was rejected on Friday for tablets is still very much a mixed u s i n g t h e s t i l l - u n r e l e a s e d W i n d o w o f O p p o r t u n i t y i s Gadgets on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook “utilizing a system other than the experience. When content is BlackBerry PlayBook— but few, C l o s i n g In App Purchase (IAP) API to specifically targeted for mobile if any, of these demos have Last spring’s disingenuous debate • Subscribe to the Tech & purchase content, functionality, or devices, performance and battery actually hit the market. over “open” with regard to Gadgets channel services.” This is significant life can be quite good. The It’s true that the promise of multi HTML5 and Flash afforded • Download our free apps for because unlike companies like problem thus far has been that -core tablets and smartphones Adobe an important window of Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad Rhapsody(who are already on the most major content producers are READABILITY’S page 71

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record as being firmly against the new policies), Readability is not a a traditional content provider. As Readability creator and Arc90 founding partner Richard Ziade says in his “ Open Letter to Apple” blog post, “Readability’s model is unique in that 70% of our service fees go directly to writers and publishers.” He continues, “if we implemented In App purchasing, your 30% cut drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works.” We spoke with Ziade after he posted his letter and he offered us this additional insight: A big problem with this isn’t just the model (which is a big problem on its own). It’s the additional hoops we’d have to jump through just to make all this work. Imagine two payment distribution systems — one for iOS subscribers and another for web — that would have to exist. It’s just a big obstacle on our roadmap if we decided to do it. We’d rather put our energy towards making Readability better. About Readability Readability started as a bookmarklet that provided users with a better-formatted reading experience. Ideally suited for long -form content, Readability cuts out the clutter of modern web writing and presents text in a clean, focused way. The original proof of concept was so popular that Apple even based its Safari Reader feature on Readability. Last month, Readability evolved into a total reading platform.

While the basic bookmarklet remains free, users can subscribe to the Readability service (starting at $5 a month) and add articles, Instapaper-style, to a reading queue accessible from any web browser. What sets Readability apart is that publishers of the content that users choose to read get a percentage of the profits. In fact, 70% of a user’s subscription goes directly to the content writers. The iOS app, which was developed by Instapaper’s Marco Arment, was supposed to be a special bonus for paid subscribers. It’s based on Instapaper and offers and optimized, offline reading and queuing experience. Apple’s decision to reject the app doesn’t change the fact that the Readability is still usable within iOS. As a Readability subscriber, I’ve added “Read Now” and “Read Later” bookmarks to Mobile Safari on both my iPhone and iPad and am fully satisfied with the experience. Instead, the decision very clearly sets the tone for what the rules for subscription-based service apps are going forward. iOS Adverse Implications The iOS platform is no stranger to criticism. Even before the official iPhone SDK made its debut in March 2008, developers were complaining about Apple’s policies in keeping the platform locked down, closed off and under a stringent set of guidelines. Through the years, some restrictions have lifted, rules have been better explained and more

service offerings have opened up. Still, this is Apple’s show, and anyone who develops for the platform knows it. For most developers, it’s worth the trouble. Despite Android’s tremendous gains in adoption, developers make more money on iOS and are more likely to cultivate repeat customers. New features tend to appear in the iPhone version of an app first; the iPhone and iPad get more exclusive titles; and the overall app experience tends to be more cohesive and complete. Major brands and larger development houses target iOS and Android, but there are far more independent developers and smaller software shops that make their living entirely off of the iOS ecosystem than from Android. If Apple isn’t careful, it could start to push some of those indie developers away. First launched with The Daily, Apple’s new subscription purchasing policy seems largely targeted at print publishers of magazines and newspapers. In that context, we have a hard time finding fault with Apple’s decision to take a 30% cut of all subscriptions obtained through the application download. Newspaper and magazine publishers might not be happy with the arrangement (though they can still offer subscribers the ability to subscribe outside the app), but in the grand scheme of things, 30% is likely on the low side of subscriber acquisition costs. Even for streaming content

services like Rdio, MOG or Rhapsody, we can understand Apple asking for a cut of a subscription rate — if only because those companies typically charge much higher rates for subscriptions that include mobile device support. Plus, for consumers, the benefits of an in-app subscription system for magazines or music services is to their advangate. Not only is canceling a subscription faster (no having to wait on hold with an operator), but user privacy is better protected, too. Furthermore, at least in the case of published content, most content is going to be consumed on the device. If I subscribe to an iPad magazine, I am going to be consuming that content on the iPad. This isn’t the case with web apps and cloud-based web services like Readability. Readability is an app built for the web browser. Having an iOS app is great — but fundamentally, the app and the service are designed to be platform agnostic and the desktop browser is definitely a major target. How Far Does This Go? The frustrating aspect of the Readability rejection is that this makes the road for apps that tie into cloud-based services in the future much less clear. As Dan Benjamin and I discuss on a near-weekly basis, the line between web apps and native mobile apps is starting to become less and less distinguishable. A recent Appcelerator study showed that cloud connectivity is one of the top requirements for

developers when building a mobile application. Cloud connectivity can often mean plugging into subscription ecosystems. What worries us is what this means for native clients for web services. Does 37signals now have to offer an in-app Campfire subscription in its Campfire for iPhone app? What about Evernote? Moreover, what about third-party apps that plug into the API for systems like Evernote or Campfire or Basecamp — are they also subject to this new subscription pricing policy? If so, how can that be enforced if the API doesn’t designate a payment or subscription option? At the end of the day, we think Ziade summs it up best in his letter: To be clear, we believe [Apple has] every right to push forward such a policy… But to impose this course on any web service or web application that delivers any value outside of iOS will only discourage smaller ventures like ours to invest in iOS apps for our services. More About: app store, apple, Inapp subscriptions, Instapaper, iOS, readability For more Dev & Design coverage: • Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel • Download our free apps for READABILITY’S page 73

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Middle East Unrest Continues: Morocco & Libya As Seen Via YouTube
Jolie O'Dell (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 1:28:20 PM

Today, our attention turns to North Africa, where protests staged yesterday in Morocco turned violent and fatal for some and unrest continues in beleaguered Libya. As pro-democracy protests spread like a virus through many parts of the Middle East, social media is still providing both a tool for organizers and a valuable window for the outside world into the volatile and intricate political situations in many countries. Unrest in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Bahrain and elsewhere has taken center stage in world news for the past several weeks. In many of these countries, the government has completely or partially cut off Internet access during protests, especially since protesters have been using sites such as Twitter and Facebook to organize and gather support. But the situation in Morocco, a constitutional monarchy with a notably pro-democracy king, is quite different from what we’ve seen in countries where decadeslong dictatorships have predictably brewed strong and angry dissent. The Kingdom of Morocco’s current ruler, King Mohammed VI, has reigned since July 1999. The dual-house parliament is led by Prime Minister Abbas el-Fassi,

who came into office in September 2007. Protesters are asking the king to relinquish some of his powers and dismiss the current government, in addition to other constitutional reform demands. Before the weekend, a government spokesperson noted that the administration was not too worried about the protests, saying the country “for a long time has been engaged in an irreversible process towards democracy and widening public liberties.” The protests were not expected to escalate into lootings and arson, but that’s exactly what happened yesterday. While most protesters were peaceful at the outset, some youth and “troublemakers” began committing acts of vandalism and theft, accorrding to Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui, who spoke in a press conference today. Currently, approximately 128 people, mostly security officers, are reported injured, 120 people have been arrested, and five are reported dead, the latter specifically due to a bank that was set on fire. It is estimated that more than 37,000 Moroccans showed up to protest in dozens of cities around the country. Historically, Morocco has been known to censor websites that might allow for certain freedoms of expression or that facilitate or encourage negative portrayals of the government. The usual roster

Morocco campaign #feb20 Tangier Morocco Riots Some of the violence that happened after peaceful protests Tangier Morocco Riots Pt.2 Tangier Morocco Riots Pt. 3 Police are attacked Libya must avoid 'descent into civil war' Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif alIslam calls on his fellow countrymen to work with the regime to "create a new Libya". Follow us on twitter at http:// twitter.com/itn Hague called Gaddafi's son to of social networks have been used governments called for the end of demand end to violence in Libya to coordinate protests in thr the use of lethal force by the Arriving at today's meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels, UK country over the weekend; in Libyan government. particular, several Facebook Here are a few YouTube videos Foreign Minister William Hague groups have been formed, and that will get you up-to-date on told journalists he has called Twitter users are employing the happenings in both countries, Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif alhashtag #feb20. However, we are including on-the-ground footage Islam al-Gaddafi, in Libya on not aware that any censorship is of both peaceful protests and Sunday to demand an end to the currently occurring in Morocco. rioting as well as important clips violence against protestors.Hague More peaceful protests are slated on exactly why Moroccans are roundly criticised the regime's current actions, and appealled for to continue today in Morocco. protesting. Meanwhile, in Libya, the Internet Thousands demand change in international observers to be permitted access to the country. was shut down for six hours Morocco during violent protests against Thousands staged rallies in More About: libya, middle east, longtime dictator Muammar al- Moroccan cities on Sunday morocco, youtube Gaddafi. When the country’s demanding political reform and For more Social Media coverage: Internet access was returned, limits on the powers of King • Follow Mashable Social Media users immediately began turning Mohammed VI. Duration: 00:57 on Twitter to Twitter and Google maps to 20 Février autoroute de inzegan à • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Social Media spread news and alert the world of agadir channel known fatalities. 20 Yesterday, Gaddafi’s son Saif alA k h b a r o n a P r e s s : h t t p : / / • Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad Islam made a video statement, www.akhbarona.com 20 even as violence continued in the Morocco campaign #feb20 MIDDLE page 73 troubled country and foreign #morocco

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BMW Launches New, Green SubBrand & Tech Venture Fund
Jolie O'Dell (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 2:35:40 PM

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Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

BMW is establishing a new, sustainability-focused sub-brand, and along with it, a venture capital fund for finding and helping the best and brightest tech startups in the fields of mobility and travel. The sub-brand, called BMW i, is designed to integrate the not-sodisparate concepts of luxury and sustainability and has launched with the tagline “Born electric.” The brand will include concepts the company has worked on since 2007, including alternative drive trains that feature electric and hybrid power. And of course, the brand will continue to focus on driving performance, a core tenet of its history and provenance. For example, the company says of its electric engines, which can easy spin up to 12,000 RPMs “without strain… the entire torque of the electric motor is available from a standing start, and you can accelerate right up to maximum speed without any interruption. This makes vehicles with electric engines extremely agile and a joy to drive.” Additionally, the informationdriven side of BMW cars, such as ConnectedDrive, is expected to

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by Readability today any less pointed. As you may be aware, Readability's technology is used the Reader feature recently added to Safari, and the company also provides a subscription-based service of its own that allows you to pay for the convenience of reading articles that have been stripped down to nothing but text READABILITY: page 74

see significant improvements in the i brand. Look out for parking spot finders, local information and premium car-sharing tools. The first two i cars, the electric, city-driving i3 and the sporty, hybrid i8, should enter production in 2013. Here’s a deliberately vague look at the concepts for both cars, courtesy of BWM i: Meanwhile, BMW i Ventures, a VC fund with $100 million to spread around among early- and mid-stage mobility and travel tech startups, has already launched in New York City. The fund will help supplement the BMW Group’s current mobility offerings with new tech from new companies. The fund’s first investment target

was MyCityWay, a suite of location-aware apps for urban navigation. The terms of the deal are unknown. BMW i Ventures is currently seeking other startups with great ideas about mobile, location, and travel technologies; the fund is accepting applications now. More About: BMW, electric cars, hybrid, startups, venture capital For more Business & Marketing coverage: • Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel • Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Readability: Apple's new subscription policy 'smacks of greed'
Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:32:00 PM

criticism-- not to mention the eye of the FTC and DOJ- but that doesn't make the missive issued READABILITY: page 73

Apple's new subscription policy has already drawn plenty of

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Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus displays dispense of maligned PenTile pixel configuration
Chris Ziegler (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/21/2011 3:54:00 PM

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As crisp and vibrant as AMOLED and Super AMOLED smartphone displays are, they roll off the assembly lines with a pretty big design compromise: most of the components in the marketplace right now make use of a little visual trickery called PenTile whereby green subpixels are shared amongst multiple whole RGB pixels. Meanwhile, traditional displays (CRT, LCD, plasma, you name it) typically use one red, one green, and one blue subpixel per pixel, and the end result is that AMOLEDs tend to be a little grainier by comparison at a given resolution. OLED-Info points out that Sammy's new Super AMOLED Plus displays appear to have solved the PenTile problem, instead using something called Real-Stripe -- effectively meaning honest-to-goodness RGB pixels, which explains the company's claim back at CES of a

-- something they're able to get away with because they pay 70 percent of that subscription fee back to the publishers. Not surprisingly, Readability recently decided to expand with an iOS app, and that's where things got dicey. Apple rejected the app on the grounds that it relies on a separate subscription -- one where Apple doesn't get a 30 percent cut. In a post on its blog, the company says that 30 percent "drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works," and that, frankly, Apple's new subscription policy as a whole "smacks of greed." Obviously, that leaves Readability in something of a bind at the moment, as the nature of its business doesn't give it the leeway to agree to Apple's terms,

but it does have a suggestion. It says it'll gladly deliver a Readability app for iOS with inapp purchasing if Apple agrees to pay 70 percent of the 30 percent fee it collects to writers and publishers, just like it does. Hit up the source link below for the company's complete letter. Readability: Apple's new subscription policy 'smacks of greed' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Readability| Email this| Comments

50 percent boost in subpixel count. Interestingly, Real-Stripe requires more space per pixel, which could be why the Galaxy S II and Infuse 4G are 4.3 and 4.5 inches, respectively, a pretty healthy hike from the 4-inch mark they'd settled on with last year's original Galaxy S models. 'Course, none of this puts us close to the 7 or 10 inches we'd need to make a tablet work -- but we

know they're cranking on that already. Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus displays dispense of maligned PenTile pixel configuration originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| OLED-Info| Email this| Comments