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- 13/02/12

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New Jersey Senate OKs gay marriage bill


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China, EU leaders to discuss eurozone in key summit - AFP


(china - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:15:00 PM

when Gov. Christine Gregoire signs legislation legalizing sameSubmitted at 2/13/2012 4:21:29 PM sex marriage Monday. TRENTON, N.J. (AP) New New Jersey's governor, a Jersey lawmakers gave their Republican, announced his veto b l e s s i n g t o l e g a l i z i n g g a y intentions last month. He has said marriage for the first time he does not believe marriage laws Monday as the state Senate passed should be changed, but he does a bill that would allow nuptials for support New Jersey's civil union same-sex couples. Gov. Chris law, which grants gay couples the Christie has said he will veto such legal protections of marriage. legislation. Christie said he wants to put a By David Gard, AP change in the definition of Members of Garden State marriage to a public vote. E q u a l i t y a p p l a u d f r o m t h e But gay rights groups oppose a balcony after the New Jersey r e f e r e n d u m . T h e y s e e g a y State Senate passed a bill Monday marriage as a civil rights matter recognizing same-sex marriages. and argue that it should not be up The Senate's vote sends the bill to to the masses to protect the rights the Assembly, which is expected of a minority group. to pass it Thursday. Five years ago, New Jersey's Six states and Washington, D.C., state Supreme Court ruled that a l l o w g a y m a r r i a g e , a n d gay couples should have the same Washington state will join that list rights as married heterosexual

couples. In response, the Legislature created civil unions. Gay rights advocates say that because the civil union designation is hard to understand and still treats committed gays differently from married couples, the courts should eliminate civil unions and recognize gay marriage. A lawsuit seeking to do that is in the state court system. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include

name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

euronews China, EU leaders to discuss eurozone in key summit AFP BEIJING Chinese and European Union leaders will gather Tuesday for a summit likely to be dominated by Europe's debt crisis, as Beijing considers stepping in to help resolve the continent's financial woes. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will meet EU... Chinese Official Brushes Aside Calls to Buy European Debt New York Times ' China does not want to buy up Europe' Firstpost Close-up: Debt crisis and airline tax to top EU- China summit euronews all 80 news articles

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Whitney Houston's toxicology report may take weeks


(USATODAY.com Feed)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:00:35 PM

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY Updated An autopsy was performed on Whitney Houston's body Sunday, but it will be weeks before investigators know the cause of her death. Until the Los Angeles County coroner's office has toxicology results, nothing can be known for certain, and those tests will take weeks. By Mark J. Terrill, AP A coroner's van leaves the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday. Whitney Houston was found under water and unconscious a day earlier in the bathtub of her room at the hotel. Why does it take 30 days to perform simple lab tests? In part, because they're not so simple, says Michael Fishbein, chief of the autopsy service at UCLA and a deputy medical examiner who consults for Los Angeles County on some cases, though not homicides or suicides. It's not like on TV, he says. "When you watch Law and Order, in 20 minutes,

they already have the toxicology results. That's not realistic." An autopsy is an examination of a body to determine the cause of death. In addition to looking for obvious signs of foul play, the person performing the autopsy will take fluid and tissue samples to test for drugs and other chemicals that might explain the person's death, says James Klaunig, a professor of toxicology and environmental health at Indiana University in Bloomington. That generally includes blood and urine, and many times a piece of the liver and samples of the vitreous humor, the fluid in the eyeball. Kidney and brain tissue samples are also possible, Klaunig says. Tissue samples can be especially important if the person was dead a long time and the blood is coagulated, making testing on it difficult or impossible. If the bladder emptied at death, urine can be difficult to retrieve as well. The first task is to screen the blood and urine to determine whether specific groups of chemicals are present. Most

you, it just tells you which haystack to look under," he says. With those results in hand, investigators do a more precise test called "gas chromatographymass spectrometry." That typically takes two to three days and shows concentrations of the chemicals. Then investigators know whether there was enough of a given drug, s c r e e n s c h e c k f o r a l c o h o l , or combination of drugs, to be barbiturates, amphetamines, deadly. opiates and common prescription "If you take alcohol and a drugs, Klaunig says. The most barbiturate, when you put the two commonly used test is called together, they may depress your "enzyme-linked immunosorbent respiratory system so much that assay," or ELISA. The samples you stop breathing," Klaunig says. are given a numerical code, so The month-to-six-weeks timeline they can't be traced back to an for results often given by police individual, which generally takes builds in time for retests and a day. Then it takes an additional a n a l y s i s . " I t ' s a l s o m o r e a day or two to run the test and workload issue than the actual perhaps a final day to interpret the time it takes to do the tests," results, Klaunig says. Fishbein says. By Jason Merritt, Getty Images A busy lab isn't going to stop Whitney Houston arrives at a everything to run samples on one 2011 pre-Grammy gala on Feb 12, case, no matter how high-profile, 2011, in Beverly Hills. Klaunig says. "They will be put in The ELISA screen says only the queue like everyone else to whether a chemical compound is w a i t t h e i r t u r n . " F o r m o r e present, not how much of it there information about reprints & was. "It doesn't find the needle for permissions, visit our FAQ's. To

report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Rain delays search for more serial victims


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Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:27:00 PM

China's Xi Arrives in Washington Wall Street Journal


(china - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:41:48 PM

Rain forced searchers today to postpone more digging at an old well in Northern California where a death row inmate says there are remains of 10 or more victims from a 15-year murder spree by the "Speed Freak Killers." After two days of searching the site, investigators, public works employees and volunteers have found more than 300 human bones, San Joaquin County sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia said in a statement, the Associated Press reports. On Sunday, authorities said the search near Linden, Calif., found a pair of sandals, tennis shoes, engraved jewelry and a woman's purse. Searchers are going by a map drawn by death-row inmate Wesley Shermantine, who claims that the well holds remains of victims killed in the 1980s and 1990s by him and a childhood friend, Lorenz Herzog. The pair were arrested in 1999, but the killings may have spanned more than 15 years, the AP reports. In letters and interviews, Shermantine has said there could be 10 to 20 bodies in the wells.

AFP China's Xi Arrives in Washington Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE, LAURA MECKLER and BRIAN SPEGELE WASHINGTON Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington Monday afternoon at the start of a four-day US visit that will take him from

the White House to the Midwest and California as he... China's Xi Begins US Visit Voice of America China leader-in-waiting on key US visit AFP What the White House should do when China's Xi Jinping visits Washington Fox News Washington Post- Financial Times all 823 news articles

But, the Los Angeles Times reports, he also is said to have bragged about killings as far away as Utah. "They basically hunted people," Rob Dick, a private investigator who for more than a decade has been compiling a list of possible victims, tells the newspaper. Herzog was convicted of three murders and sentenced to 77 years to life in prison, though that was later reduced to 14 years. An appeals court threw out his firstdegree murder convictions after ruling that his confession had been illegally obtained. He was paroled in 2010, but committed suicide last month

after a bounty hunter told him Shermantine was disclosing the location of the well along with two other sites. The killings were spread over such a large area and years that it wasn't until the pair were arrested 13 years ago that authorities realized there was a connection between the victims. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Our love-hate relationship with China - CNN


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has a date with China's Vice President Xi Jinping on Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:12:07 PM Valentine's Day, and despite The Fiscal Times tensions between the world's two Our love-hate relationship with largest economies, they're both China likely... CNN The Silent Victims of the U.S.B y A n n a l y n C e n s k y China Currency War U.S. News @CNNMoney February 13, 2012: & World Report (blog) 5 : 0 9 P M E T N E W Y O R K all 6 news articles (CNNMoney) -- President Obama

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Prescription drugs may factor in Whitney Houston's death - USA TODAY


(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:03:54 PM

LOS ANGELES Singer Whitney Houston's body has been released by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office to her family for burial arrangements, Lt. Fred Corral of the coroner's investigations division said today. By Bertrand Guay, AFP/Getty Images Whitney Houston performs in Paris Oct. 1, 1991. The pop legend died Feb. 11, 2012, at the age of 48. By Bertrand Guay, AFP/Getty Images Whitney Houston performs in Paris Oct. 1, 1991. The pop legend died Feb. 11, 2012, at the age of 48. He said a "pending" certificate of death was issued, allowing burial of the body. That certificate will be updated with an official cause of death once all toxicology testing is completed and analyzed, he said. The test results will take eight to 10 weeks, Corral said. He called the tests, and the time period, "normal procedure."' "It takes time to do these tests," Corral said. Until then, the coroner's office will not release any information on the autopsy completed Sunday. Various news outlets reported that

Houston appeared disheveled and erratic in the hours before her death and may have died from a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol. By Mark J. Terrill, AP A coroner's van leaves the Beverly Hilton Hotel Feb. 12, where Whitney Houston was found dead the day before. Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen confirmed Monday that the singer was found Saturday by a member of her personal staff at approximately 3:30 pm in the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Rosen said Houston was underwater and unconscious. She was pulled from the tub by members of her staff, and hotel security was promptly notified. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter earlier declined to say anything more about the room's condition or any evidence investigators recovered. "We do not know yet, and when we find out, we will be in contact with Beverly Hills PD," Winter said Monday. "But first we'll be in contact with the family and give them our findings." The queen of pop music, until her majestic voice and image were ravaged by drug use and erratic behavior, has died. There were conflicting reports about where Houston's body was Monday.

CNN says the funeral will be Friday or Saturday. NBC's Today show reported Monday that Houston was in the bathroom while members of her entourage hung out on the other side of the door and one of them finally went in and discovered her in the bathtub. " T h e f a m i l y i s m a k i n g TMZ reported that Houston's arrangements," Winter said. "I body was discovered by her aunt, don't know when the family is Mary Jones, who had laid out the going to have her body picked up. star's dress for the evening on the B u t t h e y a r e m a k i n g bed, then left the hotel room for arrangements, and sometimes it about a half-hour. When she didn't come out of the bathroom, Jones takes a couple days." NBC reported that the singer's entered, pulled Houston out of the body may be flown back to tub and began administering CPR, Newark Monday evening and that TMZ reported. TMZ also reported that the the Whigham Funeral Home is family was told by coroner handling the arrangements. Whigham handled the funeral for officials that Houston did not die Houston's father in 2003, as well from drowning but rather from as the funeral for Lee Warrick, the what appears to be a combination mother of Dionne Warwick, of Xanax and other prescription Houston's cousin; and Ann drugs mixed with alcohol. The Drinkard Moss, a legend in the outlet had earlier reported that gospel community and Cissy Houston had some water in her lungs. Houston's sister. New Hope Baptist Church will Both TMZ and CBS reported that host the funeral, according to The Houston's death could have been Christian Post. Houston grew up from a heart attack. in New Jersey and sang in the Houston, 48, battled drug and church choir before becoming a alcohol addictions that sparked years of sordid tabloid headlines star. Houston's mother, Cissy, was beginning in the mid-1990s about also a gospel singer and in charge her health, marital woes and of the choir. Warwick also sang in finances. She had been to rehab three times. the choir.

Friends say she seemed to be good spirits on Thursday night, one of her last public moments before her Saturday death. She got up on stage at a preGrammy event at TRU Hollywood, joining Kelly Price to sing a little, although it was hard to hear her because of all the cheers and shout-outs to her. When asked what Houston was like that night, Price told Today, "My impression was that she was there, she was happy, she was celebrating it was a preGrammy celebration. I saw nothing other than someone who was happy, moving forward and having a good time. Her daughter was there with her. She was singing, dancing and talking about her movie coming out. There's no condition I noticed other than celebration and wanting to have a good time." Photos show something dripping down her legs when she left the club. She had scratches on her arm and leg, she was sweating profusely and her clothes were mismatched. Price said it was because Houston, like many others at the club, had been "standing all night long into the wee hours of the morning" and dancing to the music. PRESCRIPTION page 13

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Obama's Budget Shifts Burden of Deficit Reduction - Fox News


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Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:17:28 PM

about the nation's welfare." In a message that repeated populist themes Obama also sounded in his State of the Union Senate Budget Committee address, the president defended Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D- his proposed tax increases on the N.D., center, and Rep. Chris Van wealthy, saying it was important Hollen, D-Md., the ranking that the burden of getting deficits Democrat on House Budget u n d e r c o n t r o l b e a s h a r e d Committee, gestures during a r e s p o n s i b i l i t y . news conference on Capitol Hill "This is about making fair choices in Washington, Monday, Feb. 13, that benefit not just the people 2012, to discuss President Barack who have done fantastically well Obama's fiscal 2013 federal over the last few decades but that budget. (AP Photo/J. Scott also benefit the middle class, Applewhite) those fighting to get into the middle class and the economy as a Seeking to highlight certain whole," Obama said. differences with GOP opposition, Obama used an appearance President Barack Obama unveiled before students at Northern a $3.8 trillion spending plan for Virginia Community College to 2013 that shifts the tax burden to unveil the budget and highlight a w e a l t h i e r A m e r i c a n s i n i t s $8 billion proposal that aims at attempts to achieve $4 trillion in boosting the ability of the nation's deficit reduction over the next community colleges to train decade --$1.5 trillion of the deficit students for the jobs of the future. reductions in tax increases on the He told the students his budget wealthy and by removing certain was a "reflection of shared corporate tax breaks. responsibility." The budget was immediately While administration officials attacked by Republicans and the defended the overall plan as a budget battle is likely to be a balanced approach, Republicans major component of the 2012 attacked it as failing to enough to Presidential election campaign. restrain the deficit, which Obama In presenting his budget on had promised in 2009 to cut in Monday, Obama rejected GOP half by the end of his first term. charges of class warfare. In his "This isn't really a budget at all. budget message, he said, "This is It's a campaign document," said not about class warfare. This is Senate Republican Leader Mitch

McConnell of Kentucky. "The president is shirking his responsibility to lead and using this budget to divide." Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said that Obama had ducked "the responsibility to tackle this country's real fiscal problems. Obama Races to Save First Family from Bi-Lingual Zombies in Latin American Game Ryan is preparing an alternative to Obama's budget that will be similar to a measure that the House approved last year but failed in the Senate where many lawmakers objected to a major overhaul to Medicare. "We do not intend on backing off on anything," Ryan said in an interview. "We intend on giving the country an alternative and a solution to our biggest problems." Republicans challenged the math underlying Obama's budget, saying it double-counted deficit reductions already approved in an August budget deal and also claimed $848 billion in savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even though this money would not have been spent. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked Obama's spending plan for failing to "take any meaningful steps toward

solving our entitlement crisis." This year's budget debate is expected to dominate the presidential contest and congressional elections with the issue not finally resolved probably until a lame-duck session of Congress after the November election, when lawmakers will have to decide what to do with expiring Bush-era tax cuts and looming across-the-board spending cuts. Obama's new spending plan projects a deficit for the current budget year of $1.33 trillion, marking the fourth straight year that the deficit would top $1 trillion. The spending plan projects the deficit would decrease to $901 billion in the 2013 budget year, which begins Oct. 1. That reflects $3.8 trillion in spending next year, an increase of 0.2 percent over this year's expected outlays, and a 17.5 percent increase in revenues. The deficits are projected to gradually go down to $575 billion in 2018, which would still be higher in dollar terms than any deficits run up before Obama took office. It would be below 3 percent of the total economy, however, and thus at a level economists generally consider sustainable. Obama's budget hewed closely to the approach he outlined in

September in a submission to the congressional "supercommittee" that failed to agree on at least $1.2 trillion in additional spending cuts to keep across-the-board cuts from taking effect next January. The Rise of the Latino Super Pac The Obama budget stuck to the caps on annual appropriations approved in August that are designed to save $1 trillion over the next decade. It also put forward $1.5 trillion in higher taxes, primarily by allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of this year for families making $250,000 or more per year. Obama, as he has in the past, also proposed eliminating tax deductions the wealthy receive and would also put in place a rule named for billionaire Warren Buffett that would seek to make sure that households making more than $1 million annually pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. Obama would also impose a new $61 billion tax over 10 years on big banks aimed at recovering the costs of the financial bailout and providing money to help homeowners facing foreclosure on their homes. The proposal also would raise $41 billion over 10 years by eliminating tax breaks OBAMA'S page 12

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What Obama's Budget (And A Second Term) Would Do For U.S. Innovation
Kit Eaton (Fast Company)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:09:22 PM

If Barack Obama is reelected, what would it mean for innovation, startups and science in America? His newly proposed budget--as well as past actions-offer clues. Barack Hussein Obama--POTUS to you and me--is the man in control of what's arguably the world's only current superpower. At 50, he's looking for a second go at the country's top job. In order to get there Obama's relying, in part, on his Net-savvy staffers to whip up a storm of interest on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even Instagram. Obama's campaign proved successful last time around, running on a pro-tech ticket. Let's look at what a second term would mean for innovation--and for us. Rocket Boosts For Startups Startups and entrepreneurship really do seem to be close to the President's heart, and Facebook's looming IPO, at $100 billion of value, makes a loud and positive statement for the Silicon Valley system. Immediately after his State of the Union address, Obama sent out a proposal for the Startup America Legislative Agenda--an outline plan that would fix small business taxes, enable new ways

for startups to seek funding, and attempt to tackle the issues of science and tech immigration that the H1-B visa arguments are all snarled up in. It's safe to say Obama is going to keep pushing for startups--although he'll have to push tricky tax rulings and visa proposals through Congress to do

so, and that's not exactly a frictionless process. Shooting For Something Other Than The Moon Bipartisanship may not be very popular in Congress these days-but it is here! We've previously looked at what the administrations of Mitt Romney and Newt

Gingrich would mean for innovation in America. Would President Romney Be Good For Tech, Science, And Space Innovation In The U.S.? Gravitational Pol: What President Gingrich And His Moon Base Would Mean For U.S. Innovation Obama's future as President is

intimately tied up with the budget his administration proposes, as its outcomes will be played out over a second term. A lot of fuss has been centered on his plans for the future of space, with opponent Newt throwing harsh criticisms WHAT page 9

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Washington state makes 7: Governor signs gay-marriage law - Los Angeles Times
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Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:13:01 PM

"My friends, welcome to the other side of the rainbow!" state Sen. Ed Murray declared Monday as Washington became the seventh state in the nation to legalize same -sex marriage. In a boisterous ceremony at the state Capitol in Olympia, Gov. Christine Gregoire -- a Catholic who weathered strong opposition, including a last-minute " action alert" from the state's Catholic Church leadership -- signed legislation to give same-sex couples the same right to a marriage license as anyone else. "Look into your hearts and ask yourselves: 'Isn't it time?'" said Gregoire, as cheering supporters chanted "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" "We did what was just. We did what was fair. We stood for equality, and we did it together, Republicans and Democrats, gay and straight, young and old, and a number of our faith organizations. I'm proud of who and what we are as a state," the governor said. There was a decidedly festive mood at the statehouse, where the debate in the state Legislature -which approved the bill on split votes in both houses -- had been characterizes the issue. The legislation exempts measured, lacking the namechurches, religious institutions calling and fireworks that often and members of the clergy from

participating in same-sex marriages if it goes against their beliefs -- a compromise aimed at hundreds of churches whose

members phoned and emailed lawmakers in an attempt to defeat the bill. Several faith organizations signed on in support

of the measure, however, Gregoire noted. WASHINGTON page 11

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Fair Labor Association Inspecting Foxconn, Yahoo Partners With Qatar For Arabic Content, Samsung Announces Galaxy Tab 2
Nidhi Subbaraman (Fast Company)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:01:57 PM

Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day. Fair Labor Association Inspects Foxconn Factories. Apple has asked the Fair Labor Association to conduct a round of audits on several suppliers including Foxconn in China. Fair Labor officials will interview employees and visit factory sites to check on working conditions in the area. As Apple noted in a press release, "suppliers have pledged full cooperation with the FLA, offering unrestricted access to their operations." --NS --Updated 10:50 a.m. EST Yahoo And Qatar Government Sign Content Creation Deal. Struggling Internet company Yahoo is teaming up with ictQATAR, the emirate's official telecom regulator, to embark on a massive Arabic-language content creation project. ictQATAR will help develop digital content, multiplatform applications, and digital advertising for Yahoo's Middle Eastern market. In comparison to other Yahoo operations, Middle Eastern

affiliate Yahoo Maktoob saw massively increased growth in 2011. Although closely linked to the royal family, ictQATAR has no relation to Al Jazeera, the

emirate's best-known media export. --NU --Updated 10:25 a.m. EST Apple's Share Price Tops $500. For the first time, Apple's share

price has risen over $500. As well as clearly establishing it as the number one firm, above Exxon Mobil, it means a single share in the technology firm now costs

you more than the entry-level iPad does. --KE --Updated 10:00 a.m. EST FAIR page 12

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WHAT
continued from page 6

around, and a lot of confusion about the future of NASA in general, and the new budget is stirring up more noise--at about the same time the European space effort is doing pretty well. So, news that the Prez is recommending a deeper cut for NASA's finances, one that would reduce it to the lowest levels in four years, strikes a curious note. The cut is slight, down to $17.7 billion from a $17.8 billion figure Congress approved in November, but compared to last year's fiveyear budget it's a 5% slide. Ouch. What'll it mean for NASA's mighty rockets, moonman, marsmen, and exciting missions to the moons of far-flung planets? Nobody really knows, so we guess "confusion" is the first result. It does seem like one casualty will be ties for EU cooperation in the impressive ExoMars mission, and Mars missions overall look glum. So Obama's future for space involves sending humans to...generic space, to do...stuff. And probably hitching a ride on some impressive (but definitely not interplanetary) commercial space

endeavors. Not exactly the right stuff to inspire generations of schoolkids! Smarts In Science Last week Obama threw a party at the White House for... schoolkids. It was the second annual White House science fair, and as well as mingling with the young crowd, Obama got in a few words about the future of science under his power: "It's young people like you that make me so confident that America's best days are still to come." He mentioned things like winning the future, the best and smartest workers in the world, and future jobs and industries. Good stuff, Mr. President--it tallies with your original pre-election calls, and reminds us that you're aware that science and engineering underpin man future industrial successes in our techno-centric world. Sure, plenty of the most successful tech entrepreneurs right now were school and university dropouts...but hey, any education is good (which is why he wants to invest millions more into it. Maybe Apple can help? After all, we know the Commander in Chief

likes the iPad). The State of the Union address was more positive for scientists currently working, because it was very pro-science with the President urging no cuts in basic science research, begging for foreign science students to come and earn citizenship, and suggesting tax cuts for high-tech manufacturing firms. It all sounds good, though the last bit is a bit of a pipe dream: Can you imagine how many tax cuts would be needed to make manufacturing as cheap in the U.S. as it is in China? Investing In Innovation And Immigration? A good chunk of the 2012 State of the Union speech centered on Obama's ideas on innovation--he even mentioned he wanted to inspire entrepreneurship so the next Steve Jobs would be grown in America, and wanted to push the same kind of innovation that led to the computer chip. Then he moved on to one of the biggest goals for innovation, which was to create American-produced energy...not just oil (the stinky global-warming criminal) but American-made energy that is

"cheaper, cleaner, and leads to new jobs." A shame that in the words about clean energy that followed there was another emphasis on natural gas, a resource that does require innovative work to access, as it's yet another greenhouse criminal. But still, way to go Obama, at least you're no warming skeptic! Late in 2011, Obama set out the future goals for his health care plan--including a $1 billion spending initiative for innovation in the health care world that would lead to better treatments, cures, and new drugs. And "innovation" is a word he keeps saying (even if it runs counter to some of his spending cut ideas)-so it's something he'll focus on in term two. But maybe his speech writers need to innovate to prevent the message from getting tired, eh? [Image: Flickr user j-No] Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Housing Agency's Reserves at Risk - Wall Street Journal


(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:12:09 PM

RisMedia.com Housing Agency's Reserves at Risk Wall Street Journal By NICK TIMIRAOS The Federal Housing Administration will exhaust its reserves over the coming year, according to budget projections released Monday, which would require a Treasury infusion for the first time in its 78 -year history. Federal Housing Administration could run out of money in 2012, according to... Washington Post all 79 news articles

How to invest in the coming housing market rebound - The Associated Press
(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:34:00 PM

How to invest in the coming

housing market rebound The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) The housing market recovery hasn't taken off

yet, but a rally in its stocks sure has. The Standard & Poor's homebuilders index is up 60 percent since October. Given that

stock prices tend to anticipate business trends, does that mean a... and more

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Here's What Google (Plus Microsoft And Amazon) Will Sell At Their Stores
Austin Carr (Fast Company)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:05:03 PM

Apple's foray into retail was supposed to be a disaster. "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," one critic infamously said in 2001, a comment that would prove slightly prescient considering the number of brickand-mortar stores that would shutter in the years to come-Gateway, Circuit City, CompUSA. But not Apple. Its hundreds of stores generate billions of dollars in sales annually--more sales than any U.S. retailer by square foot. Now Apple's competitors are hoping to repeat Apple's success in the retail space. This past week we saw a slew of tech giants indicating they might test the retail waters: Microsoft will reportedly open up two stores in the New York area this year; Amazon is said to be launching a store in Seattle; and Google revealed that it's in the planning stages of a retail store in Dublin. What are all these digital market leaders trying to sell in the physical world? The answer isn't primarily physical products. Yes, these companies hope to sell a lot of products, but that's only a by-

product of a more important item they want to sell: their brands. Take Apple. It made sense for the hardware maker to open up its own shops to sell its own hardware. But Steve Jobs and Ron Johnson designed the stores not around products but around lifestyles. Consumers could go check out the various ways to listen to music or watch movies with Apple products--and through this design, Apple would sell iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Additionally, Apple used the

opportunity to show off its software and services (OS X, iTunes, iCloud), accessories (Jawbone speakers, Beats by Dre), and slick customer experience (gorgeous stores, streamlined checkout, the Genius Bar). The whole experience embodied the Apple brand--and now its stores see more foot traffic than Disney Parks. Software companies have far fewer reasons to open a retail store--or at least fewer items to fill their shelves. After all, Google

doesn't make much. Sure, it will likely to sell smartphones and tablets running Android, or Chromebooks running Chrome OS, or flat screens running Google TV (or whatever mysterious entertainment devices it might have planned with Motorola Mobility). But it's not just trying to open another RadioShack. Google prides itself on being a web company. Some of its biggest products--search, YouTube--are web apps that can't be manifested

in any obvious physical way. (We mocked up a few "products" it could sell, seen from top to bottom: Google Wallet, copies of Zagat, airline tickets through a store-based ITA, Google Maps, and Android's ice cream sandwich.) Built on top are even more web apps--Gmail, Google Docs, Maps, Books. And the product it's been pushing most lately, Google+, can't be sold either. Imagine if Facebook opened a shop to hawk Timeline, or Netflix started a video store, or Amazon a bookstore? The point here for Google is to bolster its brand, regardless of whether it's selling products or just using its retail space as a giant billboard to advertise for its services. Microsoft, for example, isn't necessarily using its stores to sell Office, traditionally one of its best-selling products. But it will use the opportunity to show off Windows 7, Mango on Windows Phones, Microsoft Surface tables, Xbox 360 and Kinect, and soon, Windows 8. It's the same reason Amazon might start a brick-and-mortar store--not to sell books but to sell an experience. When Amazon launched the Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch touted the chain's store-based HERE'S page 11

Curated News Edition

Business/ Technology/

11

WASHINGTON
continued from page 7

"Years from now, our kids will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about, but those of us who lived through the last 20 years appreciate how challenging this has been," said state Sen. Jamie Pedersen, who sponsored the bill through its contentious charge through the Legislature. On Monday, he introduced onlookers to his "future husband," a former high school administrator who stood on the sidelines cradling one of the couple's four children. The issue is far from over, however. Conservative and religious leaders have vowed to begin collecting signatures on a referendum to overturn the new law. The statute, slated to take effect on June 7, would be held in abeyance if referendum proponents succeed in placing it on the November ballot. "Much hangs in the balance over the next few months. This is a time for people of faith to work together," Gary Randall, president of the Faith & Freedom Network, said in an appeal to supporters. He added in another statement: "This is a dark day for people of faith

and those who honor natural, traditional marriage. It is a tipping point for the state." A separate initiative proposal to define marriage as occurring between one man and one woman is also pending before a judge in Thurston County, and could also make its way to the ballot. "Right now, the condition of marriage is an unmitigated disaster and needs a lot of reform, but we need to begin that reform with an accurate definition," the proponent of that measure, Stephen Pidgeon, said in an interview. Opponents of the new law were scheduled to meet with presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who was traveling to Washington on Monday as part of his presidential campaign. Santorum was planning a public address later in Tacoma in which samesex marriage opponents hoped he would discuss the new Washington law. But Gregoire and other supporters of the measure expressed confidence that Washington voters, who backed domestic partnerships on a 53%-

47% vote in a 2009 referendum, will support the new law as well. "We know that it's going to be a hard campaign, and we're going to have to fight really hard to protect this victory, but we believe we can be victorious in November," Zach Silk, spokesman for Washington United for Marriage, told the Los Angeles Times. Washington joins six other states- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont -- plus the District of Columbia in legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples. An additional eight states, including California, provide same-sex couples with access to state benefits and responsibilities offered married couples, through either civil unions or domestic partnerships. The New Jersey state Senate passed a same-sex marriage bill on Monday, but the ultimate outcome in that state was expected to be much different. Although the Assembly is expected to approve the measure, Gov. Chris Christie has vowed to veto the bill should it reach his desk.

ALSO: 'Lonely old widow' becomes voice for same-sex marriage Jerry Sandusky can visit grandchildren, step outside, judge rules Funeral for Josh Powell's boys draws more than 1,000 people in Tacoma -- Kim Murphy in Seattle Photo: Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, center, signs the state's new law legalizing same-sex marriage. State Rep. Jamie Pedersen, a proponent of the legislation, is shown at left. Credit: Stephen Brashear/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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

City Governments and the Great Housing Beyond - Forbes


(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:27:32 PM

Forbes City Governments and the Great Housing Beyond Forbes At the beginning of the month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency took the first official step in a plan circulating since the fall: allowing investors to buy pools of foreclosed homes backed by the government and turn them into rental units. and more

HERE'S
continued from page 10

approach. "If you bought a Kindle But soon, Amazon could be just Fire, had a question, wanted to around the corner. talk an expert in person for help, where would you go? Amazon's headquarters in Seattle?" Lynch quipped.

17 Eco Street Light Concepts - From Compost-Powered Lamps to Flowering Fluorescent Lighting (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:23:03 PM

( TrendHunter.com) The future of Streetlights are a necessary evil in public lighting is looking greener even the smallest of towns. They every day thanks in part to all of help to ward off... these eco streetlight concepts.

12

Technology/

Curated News Edition

FAIR
continued from page 8

OBAMA'S
continued from page 5

Samsung Announces Galaxy Tab 2. Samsung's just announced a new tablet, the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0). It's Samsung's first tablet to run Google's latest OS, Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, right away. Outfitted thus, it's set to compete in just the sweet spot the Kindle Fire occupies. A dealbreaker could be the price, which Samsung has yet to announce.-NS --Updated 8:00 a.m. EST European Rocket Vega Takes Flight. European-made satellite launcher rocket Vega completed her first flight today. It's an important step for Europe, whose member countries now have more control over certain space-based operations. Vega is designed to carry satellites under 2.5 tonnes, which, the BBC points out, are increasingly important these days. --NS --Updated 7:35 a.m. EST Google Defends Google Wallet. After two security hacks on its Google Wallet application were demonstrated last week, Google has responded, saying (as we did) that their NFC system is still safer than credit card payments. --NS RIM To Double India Sales Presence. RIM is being bruised

daily by falling sales across the globe, and perhaps to recover, the company making big plans to grow in India. The company intends to expand its existing presence in 80 cities to 160 cities, and is also planning product launches and the release of their new OS 10 in the country this year. Nokia, who like RIM is lagging on the innovation front, is planning a similar line of attack with big hopes riding on its new line of feature phones. --NS --Updated 7:15 a.m. EST Google Updates YouTube App For Google TV. Google has announced an update to the YouTube app for Google TV, due to show up ready to download from the Android Market in the next few days. New features include a discover feature which lets you browse through channels. That's consistent with the channels feature Google introduced in their early December YouTube redesign, a step toward a unified YouTube experience on Google TV and the web. --NS Apple Expands Patent Fight To Include Galaxy Nexus. Apple is extending their legal attack on Samsung over patent infringement

issues, and the Galaxy Nexus and its Ice Cream Sandwich Android OS are the focus of this new round. The contested features on the phone which Apple considers iOS-y include a slide-to-unlock image and a voice search feature. --NS Hackers Breach Microsoft India Online Store. India's Microsoft online store was hacked by a Chinese group calling themselves the Chinese EvilShadow team. The group made off with the usernames and passwords of store customers, which were stored as plain text. The site, the Verge points out, is maintained and operated by Quasar Media, appointed by Microsoft. --NS --Updated 6:15 a.m. EST [Image: Flickr user dailylifeofmojo] Friday's Fast Feed: Amazon Gets Green Light From India Govt, Iran Blocks Gmail, Google, All SSL Sites, Twitter Partners With Satellite Providers For Tweets By Text, and more!

for oil, gas and coal companies and it claims significant savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would save $25 billion over 11 years through cutting costs in the U.S. Postal Service, including eliminating Saturday mail delivery. Among the areas targeted for increases, Obama proposed $476 billion in increased spending on transportation projects including efforts to expand inner-city rail services. To spur job creation in the shortterm, Obama is proposing a $50 billion "upfront" investment for transportation, $30 billion to modernize at least 35,000 schools and $30 billion to help states hire teachers and police, rescue and fire department workers. Republicans in Congress, opposed to further stimulus spending, have blocked these proposals in the past. The Obama budget seeks $360 billion in savings in Medicare and Medicaid mainly through reduced payments to health care providers, avoiding tougher measures, advocated by House Republicans and the deficit commissions, which supporters said were critical to the cause of restraining

health care costs. The projections in Obama's budget show that he is doing little to restrain the surge in these programs expected in coming years with the retirement of baby boomers. Obama's budget projects that Medicare spending will double over the coming decade from $478 billion this year to almost $1 trillion in 2022. Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor and disabled, would more than double from $255 billion this year to $589 billion by 2022. Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Kimberly Hefling and Ben Feller contributed to this report. Follow us on twitter.com/ foxnewslatino Like us at facebook.com/ foxnewslatino 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Donate to World Vision


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Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4

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

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PRESCRIPTION
continued from page 4

"We all left we all looked like we had just walked through a car wash," Price said. "We were sweaty, we were dancing, we were celebrating. We were worn out at the end of the evening." Earlier on Thursday, Houston dropped by rehearsals for Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party. Several members of the media were there doing a junket. Though Houston greeted people with a warm smile, she "appeared disheveled in mismatched clothes and hair that was dripping wet with either sweat or water," reports the Los Angeles Times. Describing her as "visibly bloated," the Times says Houston "displayed erratic behavior throughout the afternoon flailing her hands frenetically as she spoke to Brandy and Monica, skipping around the ballroom in a child-like fashion and wandering aimlessly about the lobby. It was mentioned by a Grammy staffer that security personnel received calls of the singer doing handstands by the pool." Friday, TMZ reported that Houston "partied heavily" at the Beverly Hilton, "drinking and chatting loudly" with friends in

the bar. Saturday, a reporter for the Daily Beast was taping a segment for VH1's Behind the Music about the rapper Akon. VH1 was supposed to interview Houston about her upcoming movie, Sparkle. Reporter Allison Samuels wrote, "Someone kept banging on the door as we taped, so we stopped. The woman at the door, who it turned out was Houston's personal assistant, Lynn Volkman, said, 'Whitney's not coming, Whitney's not coming.' And then finally said, 'She's dead.' Volkman was in a daze." Even though the autopsy for Houston is complete, results will not be released, pending toxicology reports, which could take up to six to eight weeks. "I know there are reports that she maybe was drowned, or did she overdose, but we won't make a final determination until all the tests are in," Winter said Sunday. He said, "There are no signs of foul play." Her cause of death is "deferred." Bishop T.D. Jakes, a Texas minister and producer on Houston's final film project, said he saw no signs she was having

any substance issues. He said Houston was a complete professional and moved the cast and crew to tears two months ago when she sang the gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow for a scene shot in Detroit. "There was no evidence in working with her on Sparkle that there was any struggle in her life," Jakes said Sunday. "She just left a deep impression on everybody." Simon Cowell told Piers Morgan over the weekend that an X Factor meeting was planned for today to discuss filling empty judges seats. Houston was "one of the names we were going to be talking about," he said. Contributing: Carolyn Pesce in McLean, Va.; the Associated Press 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

U.S. clears Google -Motorola deal, Nortel patent sale


(Reuters: Top News)

The department also said on Monday that it would not hesitate to take enforcement action to S i g n a g e f o r M o t o r o l a i s ensure that essential patents -displayed outside their office patents needed to ensure that building in Tempe, Arizona d e v i c e s s o l d b y d i f f e r e n t October 29, 2009. companies are interoperable -Credit: Reuters/Joshua Lott were licensed fairly. WASHINGTON| Mon Feb 13, (Reporting By Diane Bartz and 2012 5:27pm EST Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by (Reuters) - Google Inc received Bernard Orr) U.S. antitrust approval to buy This entry passed through the Motorola Mobility, a deal aimed Full-Text RSS service if this is at building up an arsenal of your content and you're reading it p a t e n t s , a n d a n A p p l e - l e d on someone else's site, please read consortium also received the go- the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentahead to purchase a trove of only/faq.php#publishers. Five patents from bankrupt Canadian Filters recommends: Donate to company Nortel Networks, the Wikileaks. Justice Department said.
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:27:57 PM

Nike develops soles for amputee blade runners


Olivia Solon
Submitted at 2/13/2012 10:41:00 AM

Nike has developed a removable rubber sole specifically for use on the bottom of the carbon fibre running blades used by amputee

athletes. Nike has been working with onelegged triathlete Sarah Reinertsen to create the equivalent of a shoe that could be used to give the blades additional grip. Reinertsen was born with a bone-growth

disorder which meant she became

an above-the-knee amputee at triathlons using the ssur Flexseven years old. She started to run Run prosthetic carbon fibre blade. shortly after the amputation, By: Olivia Solon, Continue breaking the 100-metre record for reading... female above-the-knee amputees at the age of 13. She now competes in marathons and

14

Business/ News Wire/ Technology/

Curated News Edition

POLL: Berkshire Hathaway's Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Reputation Has Seriously Entertainment News Plummeted In The Last Year
Lisa Du (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:41:07 PM

(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)

Berkshire Hathaway saw a huge drop in perception of its corporate image in Harris Interactive's annual reputation quotient poll, which evaluates the reputation of 60 "most visible" companies in the world. Warren Buffett's investment firm fell 20 spots, from 4th place to 24th place, in the 2012 poll. Harris evaluates six aspects of a companysocial responsibility, emotional appeal, financial performance, products and services, vision and leadership, and workplace environmentto come up with a quantitative "reputation quotient" score. Bloomberg attributes the drop in Berkshire Hathaway's score to the scandal former Berkshire portfolio manager David Sokol resigned in March 2011 because he had allegedly violated one of Berkshire's insider trading rules. But this year, the top five firms that that saw the most significant declines in reputation were all financial firms, with some pretty familiar names among them. This isn't too surprisingly, with the

Petitioners at the Apple Store in Grand Central on Thursday may love the iPhone, but they decry the way they say it is Top Stories manufactured. The shock in Chinese political The Department of Justice and 49 circles triggered by Chongqing's state attorneys general have police chief Wang Lijuns arrest reached a $25 billion settlement has just begun with the country's five largest US pop singer Whitney Houston, m o r t g a g e l e n d e r s : B a n k o f known for hit songs such as I A m e r i c a , J P M o r g a n [ . . . ] will always Love You, and This entry passed through the movies such as The Bodyguard, Full-Text RSS service if this is has died at 48. your content and you're reading it Greeces political leaders on on someone else's site, please read Thursday have come to an the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentagreement on austerity cuts to only/faq.php#publishers. Five secure a $170 billion bailout from Filters recommends: Donate to the eurozone and the International Wikileaks. Monetary Fund.

proliferation of the Occupy Wall Street protests throughout the latter half of 2011. The most significant declines in reputation quotient from 2011 vs. 2012, from Harris Interactive: 1. Bank of America-9.08 2. Berkshire Hathaway -7.28 3. Wells Fargo& Co. -6.65 4. Goldman Sachs-6.33 5. JPMorgan Chase -6.3 SEE ALSO: The 11 Most Infamous Companies In The World

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: Credit Suisse Reports A Big Q4 Loss, Will Cut Bonuses By 41% Dick Bove Goes Ballistic Over The 'Mortgage Deal From Hell' There's A Provision In This Mortgage Deal That's Just For Bank Of America And It Sounds Sweet

Neon-Popping Accessories - The Pixielated Etsy Shop Rocks You with Color (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)

gonna rock the next seasons and these Pixielated jewels and embellishments are riding the Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:33:02 PM wave of this trend! Oversized ( TrendHunter.com) Pop, rad, necklaces,... neon -- call it whatever you like but one thing is sure: colours are

Curated News Edition

Business/ World News/ Sports/

15

The Price Of Chicken The New Rules: Wings Could Go Through The Coming War The Roof With Iran
Noelia de la Cruz (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:41:44 PM

(World Politics Review: Articles)

Sports lovers might want to rethink their game day snacks as chicken wings are soaring in price, reports Time Moneyland's Brad Tuttle. Last month, wings peaked at $1.99 per pound, up from $1.47 three years ago and 99 cents last year. And despite the copious amount of wings consumed on Super Bowl Sunday, the National Chicken Council estimates more than 25 billion wings3 million poundswill be sold the rest of the year in the U.S. Some chain restaurants locked in low prices for wings in their contracts last year, reports Mark Brandau of Nation's Restaurant News, but as those contracts expire, restaurants may be forced to hike the price of the food. According to the NCC, wing prices go up when companies can't produce the wings without

the whole chicken, and when demand for wings exceeds demand for other parts of the chicken. In related news, police arrested a man in Melbourne, Fla. this morning for stealing$200 worth of wing grease, reports the Miami Herald. Now see 12 ways to save serious cash on eating out > Please follow Your Money on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story See Also: 4 Tasty Tricks To Kick Your Diet Soda Habit Here's An Idea: Ditch The Fridge And Leave Your Groceries Out In The Open Americans Plan To Spend $118 On Their Super Bowl Bash

strategic priority following America's post-Sept. 11 regimeSubmitted at 2/13/2012 8:03:00 AM toppling invasions of Iran's two While the debate over whether next-door neighbors, Afghanistan Israel will strike Iran ebbs and and Iraq. But the course of the flows on an almost weekly basis Arab Spring, and especially now, a larger collision-course N A T O ' s s u c c e s s f u l L i b y a n trajectory is undeniably emerging. intervention, has dramatically To put it most succinctly, Iran ratcheted up its sense of urgency. won't back down, while Israel Even more unsettling is the won't back off, and America will increasingly likely prospect that back up its two regional allies -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israel and Saudi Arabia -- when a key ally, will fall from power the shooting finally starts. There sometime over the next several are no other credible paths in months, limiting Tehran's ability sight: There will be no diplomatic to resupply Hezbollah and Hamas miracles, and Iran will not be in the event they need to be permitted to achieve a genuine u n l e a s h e d u p o n I s r a e l i n nuclear deterrence. But let us also retaliation for any military strikes be clear about what this coming on Iran's nuclear installations. ... war will ultimately target: regime This entry passed through the change in Tehran, because that is Full-Text RSS service if this is the only plausible solution. your content and you're reading it Tehran had plenty of reasons to on someone else's site, please read make mastering the uranium- the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentenrichment cycle and other only/faq.php#publishers. Five technical capabilities necessary to Filters recommends: Donate to achieving a nuclear deterrent a Wikileaks.

Mountain West, C-USA to form new league


(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)

Members of Conference USA and current and future members of the Mountain West are on their

way to forming a new league that will begin in 2013.

16

Business/ World News/ Technology/

Curated News Edition

LATEST RUMOR: The Syria's Kurds Could Big iPad 3 Announcement Lose Out in PostAssad Scenario Will Be March 7 (AAPL)
(World Politics Review: Articles)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 8:03:00 AM

Steve Kovach (Business Insider)

Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:40:00 PM

Apple will hold its big iPad 3 announcement on March 7, according to iMore, citing someone who they say has been a reliable source in the past. This does back up All Things D's report that the event will be during the first week of March. iMore's source also backs up a lot of other rumored iPad 3 specs we've been hearing lately, including a Retina Display, faster processor, and connection to 4G LTE networks. Of course nothing is official until Apple starts sending out press invites, but you can bet we're pretty close. John Dairymple of The Loop, who is well-sourced when it comes to Apple news, seems to

agree with the March 7 date. In response to iMore's report, he had this to say: "Yep." Click here for more iPad 3 rumors > Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: A HUGE Hint That The iPad 3

Will Launch In Early March LEAKED: An Alleged iPad 3 Part Hints At A Giant Battery Suddenly, A Bunch Of iPad 3 Parts Are Leaking And They All Hint At A Big Boost In Performance

Although Syrias Kurds have a long history of opposing the central government in Damascus, they have so far refrained from widespread, proactive participation in the ongoing rebellion against President Bashar al-Assads Baathist regime. However, if they continue to limit themselves to being mere spectators to the unfolding drama, they may well find themselves deprived of any long-term political gains in a post-Assad Syria. The Kurds forbearance to date does not signal a fear of government repression or an unwillingness to make sacrifices. They have demonstrated such willingness on numerous

occasions, most recently in 20042005, when clashes between civilian protesters and state paramilitary forces left many dead and injured(.pdf). Nor is their inaction premised on a cynical calculation of letting Syrias Sunni Arabs bear the brunt of the rebellion while taking advantage of an eventual regime change. Rather, three other factors account for why the Kurds have not joined the Sunni majority in the bloody effort to bring down Assad. ... 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Samsung announces 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2


Dan Smith
Submitted at 2/13/2012 11:52:00 AM

Samsung has announced its first seven-inch(1024x600-pixel) Android tablet of 2012, fittingly named Galaxy Tab 2.

The new device will ship with 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich), and has a 1GHz dual core processor -- just like it's bigger brother, the Galaxy Tab 10.1. With its UK release-date penned

in for March and a worldwide roll-out to follow, the Tab 2 will

be available in Wi-Fi and 3G guises. Buyers will be able to opt for either 8GB, 1 6GB or 32GB of internal storage, plus there's room for a microSD -- giving a potential for additional 32GB of space.

By: Dan Smith, Edited by: Nate Lanxon Continue reading...

Curated News Edition

News Wire/

17

Source: Lethal Combo ofRx, Alcohol Killed Houston


(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:18:09 PM

The Beverly Hills police department said Monday that Whitney Houston was 'unconscious and unresponsive' when she was pulled out of her bathtub by a member of her staff Saturday afternoon. In a press conference Monday, the BHPD said they had concluded their preliminary investigation and cleared out of the Beverly Hilton. They declined to comment on any specifics, including the conditions of the body or the room, and said no additional information would be released until the Los Angeles County Coroner had completed their investigation. That investigation remains ongoing, and the source of prescription drugs found in Houston's room could be a target. Earlier Monday, a law enforcement official told FoxNews.com that Houston, 48, may have died after consuming a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol. "It looks like it was a lethal combination of prescription drugs and alcohol, but it's still to early to rule out other causes. That's just what it's looking like now," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told FoxNews.com.

The official said bottles of different prescription drugs, including anti-anxiety medication, were found in the singer's hotel room. Initial reports claimed the family had learned of the details surrounding her death from the Los Angeles County Coroner, but

the office has denied that they told the family that her cause of death was related to drowning or prescription medication. Deputy Coroner Ed Winter said he was unable to release any details surrounding the cause of her death because the city of Beverly Hills placed a security

hold on the case and testing was still going on. Winter reportedly said she could have died from a heart attack from a heart attack or embolism, but that it was too early to speculate. The autopsy reports have not been released and could take up to eight weeks before going public.

"There will be no cause of death at this time, as it is awaiting toxicology," Los Angeles deputy coroner Ed Winter said Sunday at a news conference. "I know there were reports of did she drown or was it an overdose, but I will not SOURCE: page 22

18

News Wire/

Curated News Edition

Greece still to convince Europe over rescue deal


(Reuters: Top News)

are expected to meet, to specify how 325 million euros of the 3.3 billion euros demanded in budget By Renee Maltezou and Robin savings will be achieved. Emmott By the same deadline, Greek ATHENS/BRUSSELS| Mon Feb political leaders must give a 13, 2012 2:31pm EST written commitment to implement (Reuters) - Europe gave Greece the terms of the deal, a Greek until Wednesday to convince government spokesman said, skeptical international creditors reflecting fatigue among EU t h a t i t w o u l d s t i c k t o t h e leaders who say they have heard punishing terms of a multi-billion- enough broken promises. euro rescue package, endorsed by The spokesman said Greece parliament as rioters torched would hold an election in April, downtown Athens. when deep public anger over the Lawmakers backed drastic cuts in second round of austerity could wages, pensions and jobs on drive voters further to the left and Sunday as the price of a 130 r i g h t a n d t e s t G r e e c e ' s billion euro ($170 billion) bailout commitment to the programme. by the European Union and Euro zone paymaster Germany International Monetary Fund to said ahead of the vote that it was avert a messy default that would losing patience with throwing send shockwaves through the euro money into the "bottomless pit" of zone. Greece's debt crisis. Official S c e n e s o f r u n n i n g b a t t l e s reaction from Berlin on Monday between police and rioters and was muted. flames engulfing cinemas, shops "Now we need to wait and see and banks underscored a sense of what comes after the legislation," deepening turmoil in the country Economy Minister and deputy after more than four years of Prime Minister Philipp Roesler recession and two of punishing said on German television. austerity. "We have taken one step in the The EU warned on Monday that right direction but we are still far the consequences of failure would from the goal," he said. be "devastating." Greece needs the international It gave the fragile ruling coalition funds before March 20 to meet o f P r i m e M i n i s t e r L u c a s debt repayments of 14.5 billion Papademos until Wednesday, euros. when euro zone finance ministers EU Economic and Monetary
Submitted at 2/13/2012 1:31:02 PM

Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said a disorderly default would have devastating consequences for Greek society. "I am quite confident that the other conditions, including the identification of concrete measures of 325 million euros, will be completed by the next meeting of the Eurogroup, which would then decide on the adoption of the programme," he said. "SOCIAL EXPLOSION" The deal provides for a bond swap to ease Greece's debt burden by cutting the real value of private -sector investors' bond holdings by some 70 percent. Sources familiar with the private sector debt talks said the terms would be announced after euro zone finance ministers meet on Wednesday, assuming there are no further setbacks. They will include a new average interest rate of 3.5 percent for bondholders and an additional warrant linked to Greek growth, one of the sources said. "It will be concluded in March," Greek government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said of the debt swap deal. Asian shares and the euro gained modestly on Monday and bank shares led European stocks higher. Papademos is likely this week to replace one minister and five

deputies who quit over the rescue bill. He had warned of a "social explosion" if lawmakers rejected the deal and Greece defaulted. But the unrest in the streets, and a voting rebellion by 43 parliamentarians of the ruling coalition, suggested Athens might already be on the brink. The riots spread to Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, towns across the country and the islands of Crete and Corfu. In all, 150 shops were looted in the capital and 93 buildings set ablaze, wrecked or seriously damaged. About 100 people - including 68 police - were wounded and 130 detained. Athens city authorities said some of the wrecked buildings were of particular cultural, historic and architectural value. The Attikon cinema, housed in a neo-classical building dating from 1870, was left a blackened shell. "The people yesterday sent a message: Enough is enough! They can't take it anymore," said Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of public sector union ADEDY. GROUNDSWELL OF ANGER The cuts include a 22 percent reduction in the minimum wage and 150,000 jobs from the public sector workforce by 2015. Critics on Monday said more austerity would only condemn the

economy to an ever-deepening downward spiral, but Greek political leaders have offered few alternatives. Conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras says the country should focus more on stimulating growth with tax cuts and privatization. Some ordinary Greeks say they have heard enough threats of economic armaggedon, and that a messy default can be no worse than the painful medicine they are currently being made to swallow. "Yesterday's vote in the parliament may have saved the country temporarily from default, but the Greek economy is going bankrupt and the country's political system is failing," the head of the Greek Commerce Confederation, Vassilis Korkidis, said. The rioters were a minority, but spoke to the groundswell of anger among Greeks who say their living standards are already collapsing and more austerity will only deepen their misery. Unemployment in Greece reached 20.9 percent in November, and half of young Greeks are jobless. Samaras is the frontrunner to be the next prime minister, but will likely have to bargain with other GREECE page 22

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Obama election-year budget aims to spur hiring


(Reuters: Top News)

responsibilities," the Democratic president said at a campaign-style event in Annandale, Virginia, President Barack Obama delivers r e f e r r i n g t o h i s c a l l f o r a his State of the Union address to a minimum 30 percent tax on joint session of Congress on millionaires. Capitol Hill in Washington, Obama would like to use revenue January 24, 2012. from the so-called "Buffet Rule," Credit: Reuters/Saul Loeb/Pool named after billionaire investor By Alister Bull and Laura Warren Buffett, to replace the MacInnis Alternative Minimum Tax, which WASHINGTON| Mon Feb 13, is aimed at ensuring the wealthy 2012 5:42pm EST pay at least some tax but is now (Reuters) - President Barack catching many middle class Obama called on Monday for new taxpayers. spending to boost growth and In one of his best platforms to lay higher taxes on the rich, laying out his economic priorities before out an election-year vision for the November 6 election, Obama America in a budget that drew called for more than $800 billion heavy fire from Republicans for for job creation and infrastructure failing to curb huge deficits. investment, including billions of Obama's 2013 spending proposal dollars for roads, railways and is expected to go nowhere in a schools. Analysts were skeptical divided Congress and is widely of the proposals. seen as more of a campaign "This is all politics; there is no d o c u m e n t t h a t f r a m e s h i s fundamental strategy. This does economic pitch to voters and not answer any of the warnings seeks to shift the focus from we saw from S&P," said William deficits to economic growth. Larkin, fixed income portfolio It fleshed out a major theme of m a n a g e r a t C a b o t M o n e y his re-election campaign: M a n a g e m e n t i n S a l e m , "economic fairness." Obama M a s s a c h u s e t t s . wants wealthier Americans to Standard & Poor's ratings agency bear more of the burden of last year cut the United States' top slashing a federal deficit that was -notch AAA credit rating, citing a trillion plus dollars for a fourth concerns that Washington lacked year in a row. the political will to tackle rising The $3.8 trillion budget proposal debt levels. i s a " r e f l e c t i o n o f s h a r e d The annual budget deficit was
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:17:45 PM

projected at $1.33 trillion in fiscal 2012, or 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, falling to $901 billion in 2013, or 5.5 percent of GDP. "The president's budget is a gloomy reflection of his failed policies of the past, not a bold plan for America's future. It is bad for job creation, our economy, and America's seniors," said House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress. Republicans also highlighted Obama's pledge in 2009 to halve the deficit by 2013, a target that he has failed to meet. The White House argues the depth of the recession he faced when he took office demanded emergency spending, and that it was more important to protect growth than impose austerity measures to trim the deficit. Obama's plan sets aside money to hire more teachers, police and firefighters and invest in manufacturing, while extending tax breaks to spur hiring, in an appeal to voters who remain worried about the economic recovery. "At a time when our economy is growing and creating jobs at a faster clip, we've got to do everything in our power to keep this recovery on track," Obama said.

Republicans paint the president as a tax and spend liberal while Obama, who will take his plan on the road later this week in a trip to Wisconsin, California and Washington state, casts them as the party of the rich. The budget projects deficits remaining high this year and next before starting to decline, meaning more borrowing that will add well over $7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. DEAD ON ARRIVAL Congress is free to ignore the plan and Republicans, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, have made clear that it will be dead on arrival as their party prepares an election battle over taxes, spending and the size of the government. Presidents' budgets are frequently ignored by Congress, which writes the laws that appropriate the funds to keep the government running, and his last budget was also not passed. Many of the ideas have been outlined in Obama's' previous budgets or laid out by him in September. These include tax increases to raise $1.5 trillion and spending cuts that together would lower the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years. "Obama's budget is an insult to the American taxpayer," said Mitt

Romney, frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face Obama in the November presidential election and one of the richest men to ever run for the White House. Obama urged that George W. Bush-era tax breaks for families earning over $250,000 a year be allowed to expire at the end of 2012, while capping deductions these wealthier Americans are allowed to make for things like mortgage interest payments. He also proposed raising the tax they pay on dividends to the level of their income tax, which would advance to almost 40 percent from 35 percent if the tax break expires, instead of the capital gains rate that is currently 15 percent. That is roughly the tax rate Romney will pay this year, because most of his income is from investments. Obama also reiterated his plan to end a socalled carried interest loophole that allows fund managers' earnings to be taxed at that level. Obama plans slashing $487 billion from defense spending, the first cuts since 1998, and outlined $800 million to aid transformation in the Middle East and north Africa after last year's Arab Spring uprisings. OBAMA page 23

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Curated News Edition

White House in Lockstep With 'Media Matters' Chief


(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:18:09 PM

The head of Media Matters for America -- now out coordinating a new super PAC to help President Obama get reelected -is operating his nonprofit organization in close coordination with the Obama White House, a new investigative report out Monday says. David Brock, according to the Daily Caller, has collected a $250,000 annual salary for his work at MMFA, which includes daily screeds against Fox News Channel and other media outlets that allow conservative perspectives in their reporting. Brock's group, founded in 2004, is spending $20 million this year in a campaign to influence news coverage that sheds a positive image on the current administration as well as progressives and lawmakers in Congress. And the campaign is going well, according to a former employee who told the DC that "virtually all the mainstream media" has used Media Matters' research. "We were pretty much writing their prime time," the exemployee was quoted saying of MSNBC. Brock is also the head of American Bridge 21st Century,

the political action committee that he has boasted would become a rival to Karl Rove's American Crossroads GPS. Last week, the Obama reelection team dropped its objections to the use of super PACs, saying that the organizations are needed to compete against groups that are

supporting Republican candidates. American Bridge 21st Century and Media Matters share many of the same donors, according to Roll Call, which reported on Monday that the PAC raised $3.7 million from fewer than 50 individual donors and unions last year. Its sister nonprofit group,

American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, raised an additional $2.7 million last year, and gave $223,000 of that money, which is not required to be reported, to the super PAC. Roll Call added that Media Matters, which is classified as a nonprofit organization, raised

$13.2 million in 2010, up from $6.7 million the year before, as reported in its most recent IRS filings. While MMFA raises millions, the DC reports that the organization is in "regular contact with political WHITE page 23

Curated News Edition

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21

To Infinity and Beyond No More?


(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:18:09 PM

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet

Related Video Report: NASA budget will scrap proposed Mars missions Related Slideshow Mars Like You've Never Seen It From the Edge of a Crater, Amazing New Pics of Mars Related Stories Are you ready for mind-control warfare? Myspace announces more than 1M new users Iranian nuclear facilities immune to cyberattack, country says Pinterest: Facebook for women? NASA plans to drop nearly $310 million from the budget for its Planetary Science division in 2013, a 20 percent cut that affects future missions to Mars, lunar science, and the study of the outer planets. The cuts are part of a $17.7 billion budget request NASA unveiled Monday a mere 0.3 percent cut from the 17.8 billion Congress approved in November for 2012. But it represents a 5 percent cut from the $18.7 billion President Barack Obama penciled

in for 2013 in the five-year budget he sent to Congress this time last year. And it leaves NASA funded at its lowest level in four years, forcing the space agency to juggle priorities and "devastating planetary science," said Bill Nye, CEO of space exploration group The Planetary Society. Science is the part of NASA thats actually conducting interesting and scientifically

important missions," Nye said in a statement about the 2013 budgetary figures. "Spacecraft sent to Mars, Saturn, Mercury, the Moon, comets, and asteroids have been making incredible discoveries, with more to come from recent launches to Jupiter, the Moon, and Mars." "The country needs more of these robotic space exploration missions, not less. NASA administrator Charles

Bolden defended the restructuring in a statement accompanying the new budget. NASA's Fiscal Year 2013 budget moves the Agency forward strongly on a path that will maintain America's preeminence in space exploration, he wrote. Itll just have to do that with less money. The Planetary Science division took the biggest hit, falling to about $1.2 billion in 2013 from

$1.5 billion in 2012. That means Mars exploration will suffer. After an already mostly built Mars mission in 2013, future journeys to the Red Planet are eliminated, put on hold or restructured. In NASAs explanation, the proposed budget restructures future long-term Mars missions to better integrate our science and INFINITY page 24

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SOURCE:
continued from page 17

GREECE
continued from page 18

be commenting on that." The Coroner's office said Monday that there was no security hold on Houston's body and therefore the family could pick it up. Two people who have spoken with Houston's family said the singer's body will be taken home to New Jersey late Monday for a funeral to be held at week's end. "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Whitney," Houston's family said in a statement through the singer's publicist, thanking fans for their outpouring of support. "This is an unimaginable tragedy, and we will miss her terribly." Houston's death comes after widespread reports of boozing and erratic behavior in the week leading up to the Grammys. FoxNews.com learned that Houston was a mess when she showed up to Hollywood hotspot Playhouse on Feb. 2 around 10.30pm to support her on again/ off again boyfriend Ray J, who took over the turntables as guest DJ. "She was a total wreck. She drank cognac and champagne, and seemed completely out of it from the moment she arrived until the moment she left," an insider told FoxNews.com. "Yet at the same time she seemed like she was enjoying herself with her friends. She went to the smoking patio a few times throughout the night and was also seen roaming around throughout the club and even ventured walking upstairs to the

smaller room." In the days before her death, similar scenes were reported. People.com reported that Houston raised eyebrows after checking into the Beverly Hills Hilton on Wednesday, and appeared "out of it." Over the course of the next few days, the pop diva was spotted looking noticeably disheveled with wet hair and mismatched clothes, waving her arms around frantically and wandering aimlessly through the hotel, all while smelling of alcohol and cigarettes. And in what turned out to be her last ever performance on Thursday night, Houston was seen acting erratically, looking worse for wear with blood dripping down her leg, at a pre-Grammy bash for Kelly Price at the club Tru Hollywood. Multiple reports suggested she got into a tequilafueled confrontation with former "X-Factor" star Stacy Francis after finding Ray J chatting with Francis. Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina was with her at Tru Hollywood, and has been having her own troubles since her mother's death. Brown, 18, was taken on a stretcher out of the Beverly Hills Hilton on Sunday, the same hotel her mother died in on Saturday. It was Brown's second visit to the hospital since her mother died, People.com reported. The first time was late Saturday night when a source told the website she was

"having a complete breakdown." Brown was treated and released both times. TMZ also reported that the day before Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub, Brown fell asleep in a bathtub in the exact same hotel. According to TMZ sources, friends of Brown tried knocking on her door repeatedly Friday night, but she didn't answer. They then called security to get them to unlock the door and help them get Bobbi out of the tub. This year had been expected to be the year that Houston got it together, finally reviving the movie career that made her a multi-platform star back in 1992 with her starring role in The Bodyguard. The 48-year old recently wrapped, as both star and executive producer, the movie "Sparkle," a remake of the 1976 Motown-era drama of the same name. It was slated to be released in August. "Based on her music alone people lost the faith but there was speculation that when she came back to the big screen she would regain the momentum in her career, said Billboad.com editor M. Tye Comer. Howard Rosenman, an executive producer on the film told The Hollywood Reporter: This would have been a big, big comeback, she is so brilliant in it. Like fellow superstar, Michael Jackson, Houstons comeback

may be post-mortem. Sony pictures has announced they will still release Sparkle on August 17th. Billboard reported that the singers final recordings will be in the film. - FoxNews.com's Jana Winter, Newscore and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Related Slideshow Whitney Houston: 1963-2012 Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday in Beverly Hills. She was 48. Related Video The real affect of Whitney Houston's death Casey Stegall and Harris Faulkner share their thoughts Related Stories Why did Tony Bennett link Whitney Houston's death to illegal drugs? Whitney Houston's funeral set for hometown of Newark, NJ, report says Whitney Houston's erratic behavior had been building over a week, source says 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

parties to form a coalition after the April election. In comments that could further sow doubt in Brussels, he indicated that Athens might yet try to renegotiate the deal. "I am calling on you to vote for the new loan agreement because I want to avoid falling into the abyss, to restore stability," he told Sunday's parliamentary debate, "so that we can have the possibility tomorrow to negotiate and change the policy that is being imposed upon us today." ($1 = 0.7582 euros) (Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris, Dina Kyriakidou, Ingrid Melander and Tatiana Fragou; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood) 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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WHITE
continued from page 20

OBAMA
continued from page 19

operatives" in the Obama administration like senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, whom MMFA President Eric Burns and Brock met with in June 2010 at the White House. The DC also claims Media Matters held weekly strategy calls with former White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki and other groups like the Center for American Progress. Psaki left the administration in October 2011. Speaking at University of Pennsylvania last week, wellknown Israel supporter and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz reportedly warned the press about MMFA's operations. "I have, and let me tell you, Max Blumenthal and Media Matters will be singlehandedly responsible for (Obama) losing this election," he is reported saying. The Democrats "cannot win the election and keep this affiliation with them." It reported that Media Matters is also part of the Common Purpose Project, which meets weekly nearby the White House and is often attended by a representative from the Obama White House. Media Matters is well-known for several campaigns against

broadcasters and commentators. It is credited with getting Don Imus fired from his morning show on CNBC for a comment he made about the Rutgers' women's basketball team. Brock played a central role in that effort, the DC reports. It also launched the "Drop Dobbs" campaign against thenCNN host Lou Dobbs, who now has a show on the Fox Business Network, over Dobbs' commentaries against illegal immigration. "Media Matters produced and was prepared to run an advertisement against Ford Motor Company on Spanish language stations in Houston, San Antonio and other cities targeting its top selling product, pick-up trucks, in its top truck buying markets," an internal memo obtained by the DC reveals. Ford dropped its advertising from Dobbs' program before that happened. The group is also responsible for the pressure placed on advertisers on Glenn Beck's former show on Fox News Channel. The DC reports that Media Matters worked with Color of Change, cofounded by former White House green jobs czar Van Jones. MMFA gave Color of Change's

parent company $200,000 for a "campaign to expose Glenn Beck's racist rhetoric." At the same time, Media Matters was working closely with MSNBC president Phil Griffin as well as with bloggers, reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, Politico and Washington Post reporter Greg Sargent, among others, to write Media Matters-directed stories, the DC reported. "If you can't get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent's always game," a source reportedly with firsthand knowledge told the DC. While commanding considerable influence in Washington media and political corners, the DC report describes Brock as "volatile," "erratic" and struggling with mania, a mental illness that manifests itself in grandiose behavior. He has reportedly admitted to drug use, specifically cocaine, and has previously discussed entering the psych ward at Sibley Hospital in Northwest Washington. Those troubles may be the cause of what is perceived as paranoia on Brock's part, according to the DC, which reported that Brock maintained a phalange of

bodyguards. "He had more security than a Third World dictator," a Media Matters employee told the DC. The need for personal security, including an assistant who carried a concealed weapon in Washington, D.C., despite very strict gun laws in the city, left Brock "terrified" that he would anger George Soros, a big source of funding for MMFA and a gun control advocate, a source told the Daily Caller. Click here to read the entire report from The Daily Caller. Related Video Media Matters manipulating headlines? Daily Caller online editor Vince Coglianese on investigation 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Republicans complained Obama was taking credit for $1 trillion in deficit reductions that were already in place from a bipartisan deal last year to raise the U.S. debt limit. They also dismissed as a "gimmick" $800 billion in savings from ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that meant counting money that was never going to be spent. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Susan Heavey, Caren Bohan, David Lawder and Kim Dixon in Washington, Chris Reese in New York; Editing by Ross Colvin and Cynthia Osterman) 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

"Game of Thrones" Valentine's Day cards


(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:44:00 PM

chocolate, and now, thanks to illustrator Chris Bishop, the holiday celebrating all things Valentine's Day has flowers, lovey-dovey, smoochie-woochie

also has the Seven Kingdoms of

Westeros. Full, printable collection at Chris Bishop's blog. Celebrate love.

Permalink| Leave a comment

24

World News/ Technology/ Culture/

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INFINITY
continued from page 21

human Mars exploration efforts. The Planetary Society sees it differently, stating that the new budget will force NASA "to walk away from planned missions to Mars, delay for decades any flagship missions to the outer planets, and radically slow the pace of scientific discovery, including the search for life on other worlds." The proposal would also cut $309 million for studying planets this year, with more cuts in future years. That said, NASAs overall budget for space exploration is about $4.1 billion. Much of the cuts resulted from increases and cost overruns on the ambitious but expensive James Webb Space Telescope, which will increase by 21 percent. The telescope, which may cost $8 billion in the long run, is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and would peer further into the universe and back in time than ever. The budget would double the amount of money spent to help private firms develop their own spaceships that could eventually carry astronauts and others to the

International Space Station as taxis. This would replace the now retired space shuttle program and the dependence on Russia for rides into orbit. The president wants to spend $829.7 million to help these companies, but Congress has regularly cut his commercial space proposals. The budget includes the last bit of spending on the retired space shuttles: $71 million. Much of the spending continues a trend shifting from current space missions to developing the next generation of rockets and capsules for flights out of Earth's orbit to an asteroid or even to Mars. The president proposes an extra $345 million in spending on developing new rocketry and space technology. That overall proposal includes $1.8 billion for a congressionally mandated large rocket that could carry bigger loads further into space and $1 billion for the Orion crew capsule to take astronauts to new places. A first test flight of the spaceships -- without astronauts -could be as early as 2017, with astronauts flying in them no earlier than 2021.

The agency also announced it would trim its workforce by 250 employees, right-sizing the space agency at 18,000 full time employees. I encourage whoever made this decision to ask around; everyone on Earth wants to know if there is life on other worlds, Nye said. When you cut NASAs budget in this way, youre losing sight of why we explore space in the first place. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Sun journalists vent anger at corruption probe - Financial Times


(Nation - Google News)

public on Monday, ahead of a visit by... Rupert Murdoch hit by feud over USA TODAY Sun arrests The Guardian Sun journalists vent anger at Murdoch facing battle with staff corruption probe in Sun showdown Reuters UK Financial Times The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh By Tim Bradshaw, Andrew attacks journalists' arrests BBC Edgecliffe-Johnson and Jim News Pickard Frustration among many Herald Sun- Telegraph.co.ukjournalists at The Sun over their The Press Association perceived persecution by police, all 2,833 news articles politicians and their own parent company News Corp spilt over in
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:27:24 PM

Daily App Deals: Get Tapatalk Forum App for Android for Only 99 in Today's App Deals [Deals]
Jeremy Hoag (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:30:00 PM

The Daily App Deals post is a round-up of the best app discounts of the day, as well as some

notable mentions for ones that are on sale. More

Acta protests spread across Europe


Duncan Geere
Submitted at 2/13/2012 12:21:00 PM

While some have been warning of the dangers of the AntiCounterfeiting Trade Agreement

(Acta) for years, wider opposition is mounting to the proposals with protests occurring throughout Europe. Freezing temperatures failed to dissuade protestors from

gathering in defence of freedom

on the web on 11 February, 2012. There were large marches in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, and around 200 people gathered in front of British Music House in London, led by

Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye, and supported by the Open Rights Group. By: Duncan Geere, Edited by: Nate Lanxon Continue reading...

Curated News Edition

World News/

25

Abu Qatada release from Long Lartin jail sparks furore - BBC News
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:46:30 PM

Abduction still a Funny girl Magda expected to concern, says come out in support of gay marriage - Sydney Morning Herald Pillai - Calcutta
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:27:04 PM

BBC News Abu Qatada release from Long Lartin jail sparks furore BBC News Abu Qatada, accused of being one of the UK's most dangerous extremist preachers, has been released from Long Lartin topsecurity jail in Evesham. The 51year-old was seen hiding his face in the back of a van which left the

ATS knocks at Taquee Decision on SIT report on door and faces ire, rescued Narendra Modi tomorrow by cops - Times of India - Economic Times
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:37:45 PM

Worcester jail at around... Abu Qatada released under strict bail conditions Telegraph.co.uk Abu Qatada To Be Released Imminently Sky News On day hate preacher Abu Qatada is freed, a remarkable confession... Even his... Daily Mail Mirror.co.uk- Reuters UKWalesOnline all 826 news articles

Sydney Morning Herald Funny girl Magda expected to come out in support of gay marriage Sydney Morning Herald One of Australia's most popular comedians is expected to come out as a lesbian today as she joins the campaign for same-sex marriage. Magda Szubanski, star

of Kath & Kim, Fast Forward and the film Babe, will join other celebrities including Hugh... Szubanski comes out, calls for gay marriage Ninemsn Gays send pollies Valentine's Day roses NEWS.com.au Magda Szubanski comes out for gay marriage TVNZ Adelaide Now- The AustralianThe Daily Telegraph all 410 news articles

Telegraph

(Nation - Google News)


Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:35:45 PM

(Nation - Google News)


Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:06:34 PM

The Hindu Decision on SIT report on Narendra Modi tomorrow Economic Times NEW DELHI: The suspense over the special investigation team's report on chief minister Narendra Modi's role in the Gulbarg Society massacre during the post-Godhra riots persisted on Monday, with

an Ahmedabad metropolitan court deferring to Wednesday... Gujarat riots: SIT says no to sharing report Indian Express Conflicting SIT, amicus curiae reports raise questions: Cong Hindustan Times SIT opposes parting with probe report Daily Bhaskar The Hindu- Daily News & Analysis- IBNLive.com all 62 news articles

News24online ATS knocks at Taquee door and faces ire, rescued by cops Times of India New Delhi: There was highvoltage drama at Abul Fazl Enclave near Shaheen Bagh on Monday. This time, the target of sleuths was the house of 13/7 blast accused Mohammad

The Hindu Abduction still a concern, says Pillai Calcutta Telegraph Guwahati, Feb. 13: There has been no let-up in extortion and kidnappings in Assam although militancy is ebbing in the state. Delivering the keynote address at a seminar here today, former Union home secretary GK Pillai said in Assam, the number of... 'Need public's help, police alone can't tackle Maoists' Rediff Paresh desperate for funds: GK Pillai Times of India Pillai wants Assam to nip Naquee, whom Delhi Police claim Maoists in the bud The Hindu a r e i n f o r m e r s , b u t t h e i r IBNLive.com- The Day AfterM a h a r a s h t r a c o u n t e r p a r t s . . . The Asian Age ATS probes links to German all 17 news articles Bakery blast Indian Express Delhi detains Maharashtra ATS officers Hindustan Times 13/7 blasts: Police detains three ATS sleuths Economic Times Deccan Herald- TwoCircles.net all 26 news articles

26

World News/ Technology/ Sports/

Curated News Edition

Julia Gillard jumped the Egypt frees gun before Kevin Rudd Australian journalist was knifed - Herald Sun
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:35:37 PM

Banana Joe the affen wins early at Westminster


(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:35:34 PM

The Age Julia Gillard jumped the gun before Kevin Rudd was knifed Herald Sun Video Image Gillard speech drafted before Rudd out The ABC reports that events leading to Kevin Rudd's ouster in 2010 were set in train two weeks earlier. Andrew Bolt's blog: Gillard's

deceit exposed JULIA Gillard's staff were working on a "victory... Gillard sidesteps victory speech questions ABC Online Julia Gillard insists challenge decision was on the day Courier Mail Gillard's coup 'plan' The Canberra Times Sky News Australia all 503 news articles

- Herald Sun
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:43:55 PM

Sydney Morning Herald Egypt frees Australian journalist Herald Sun AN AUSTRALIAN journalist, a US student and their Egyptian translator were freed on Monday after two days in detention on suspicion of paying Egyptians to stage protests against authorities, a security official said. Freelance

reporter Austin Mackell,... Media rights group tells Egypt to free American journalist Times of India Media rights group tells Egypt to free journalist Newsday Australian journalist freed: Egyptian security official ABC Online CPJ Press Freedom Online all 326 news articles

Perched on his hind legs, peering over the top rail of his pen, Banana Joe was right in the middle of the backstage circus at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.

IPCC updates trial Google-Motorola Deal documents probe Approved By U.S. - Ilkeston Today Department Of Justice
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:48:55 PM

BBC News IPCC updates trial documents probe Ilkeston Today The police watchdog is to investigate whether officers ordered the destruction of

documents which caused the collapse of a multimillion-pound police corruption trial. Ten defendants, including eight former officers, were acquitted of fabricating a case... IPCC details Lynette White inquiry area BBC News all 106 news articles

Chris Velazco (TechCrunch)


Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:19:14 PM

Just hours after the European Commission announced their approval of Googles $12.5 billion Motorola purchase, the United States Department of Justice has announced that they too have given the deal their blessing. With this, Google is one step

closer to closing the deal, although theyre still waiting on approval from China, Taiwan, and Israel before the transaction can officially be completed. According to the DoJs Antitrust Division, who conducted the investigation, the purchase was not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics. That isnt to say that they didnt have their concerns though like

the European Commission, the Justice Department will continue to keep their eyes on Google for any signs of patent abuse. Reuters reports that the DoJ would not hesitate to take enforcement action in the case that Google were to manipulate the licensing of standard essential patents. Developing

Curated News Edition

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27

[Updated] E.U. Commission & U.S. DOJ Approve Google's Acquisition of Motorola
Dan Rowinski (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:18:00 PM

Google has taken an important first step towards finalizing its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Today the European Commission, the European Union's version of the Federal Trade Commission, approved the merger. The commission granted the approval, "mainly because it would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents for these devices." The rest of the regulatory chips should fall in line for Google and Motorola after E.U. approval. The merger still needs to be approved in the U.S., China, Israel and Taiwan, but the logic of the European Commission is sound. Motorola only took 2% of profits from the entire mobile industry last year. From an anti-trust perspective, Google could buy Sony Ericsson and LG and still not come anywhere near the combined market share of Samsung and Apple. Update: The U.S. Department of Justice has also approved the acquisition. See below for details. Sponsor Update: Just hours after the European Commission approved the acquisition, the U.S. Department of Justice has

weighed in as well. In addition to approving the Motorola/Google acquisition, the DOJ approved the two other major patent acquisitions from 2011. That includes Apple, Research In Motion and Microsoft purchase of Nortel's mobile patents as well as Apple's purchase of Novell patents. Here is the statement from the DOJ: The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division issued the following statement today after announcing the closing of its investigations into Google Inc.'s acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the acquisitions by Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) of certain Nortel Networks Corporation patents, and the acquisition by Apple of certain Novell Inc. patents: "After a thorough review of the proposed transactions, the Antitrust Division has determined that each acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition and has closed these three investigations. In all of the transactions, the division conducted an in-depth analysis into the potential ability and incentives of the acquiring firms to use the patents they proposed acquiring to foreclose competitors. In particular, the division focused on standard essential patents (SEPs) that

"We have approved the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues. Of course, the Commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behaviour of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents," said Joaquin Almunia, VP in charge of competition policy at the European Motorola Mobility and Nortel had C o m m i s s i o n i n a r e l e a s e . committed to license to industry What Almunia is really saying is, p a r t i c i p a n t s t h r o u g h t h e i r "everybody is suing the hell out of participation in standard-setting everybody else and we will keep organizations (SSOs). The track of Google to make sure it division's investigations focused does not abuse these patents." on whether the acquiring firms One snag that Google could face could use these patents to raise outside of the E.U. is the fact that r i v a l s ' c o s t s o r f o r e c l o s e Motorola has a small presence in competition. Europe. The commission notes "The division concluded that the that in its statement saying, specific transactions at issue are "Google would restrict the use of not likely to significantly change Android solely to Motorola, a existing market dynamics." minor player in the European Ostensibly, Google is buying Economic Area, as compared to Motorola Mobility for its 17,000 operators such as Samsung and p a t e n t s . U n l i k e T a i w a n e s e HTC." s m a r t p h o n e m a k e r H T C , When Google announced the Motorola has faired well in the acquisition, CEO Larry Page said patent wars, winning battles it was intended to defend and against Apple in courts around the "supercharge" Android. Many world in recent weeks. Motorola A n d r o i d O E M s p a y p a t e n t lost the most recent battle over licensing fees to Microsoft and "3G" technology in Germany but are hounded by Apple in courts. overall has faired better than other Google's primary mission with Android device makers like Android is to drive mobile Samsung.

advertising and adoption of Google apps (like Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Music etc.) on smartphones. The commission said that Google's acquisition of Motorola would not enhance or inhibit the search giant's ability to push users toward those services. "The Commission also examined whether Google would be in a position to use Motorola's standard essential patents to obtain preferential treatment for its services, including search and advertising. The Commission found that Google already had many ways in which to incentivise customers to take up its services and that the acquisition of Motorola would not materially change this," the report stated. The commission also stated that it "cooperated with a number of competition authorities and in particular with the U.S. Department of Justice." That last line could be very telling in how the U.S. treats the proposed merger. If the U.S. DOJ consulted the European Commission then it is more likely that the two entities share the same ideas on the merger. Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola should not affect the ecosystem at large, considering [UPDATED] page 30

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Curated News Edition

Firefox Roadmap for 2012 Calls for Chrome Catch-up and Better Privacy Tools
Joe Brockmeier (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:38:00 PM

Catching up to Chrome is just part of the Firefox roadmap for 2012. Mozilla's Asa Dotzler has updated the strategy and roadmap for desktop Firefox in 2012. While the Mozilla folks have several original ideas and goals, there's a lot in the first half of the 2012 roadmap that looks very familiar to Chrome users as well. The really interesting features come in the second half of 2012, and relate to user privacy and account management. Third party cookie management and tracking could be a killer feature for Firefox later this year. If you have a look at the desktop feature roadmap, you'll see that Q1 and Q2 have quite a few features that are either already in Google Chrome. For example, there's sync for add-ons, assuming add-ons work across releases, silent update and a redesigned new tab page. Sponsor If you're running the Aurora builds, you should be able to see the new tab page now. It's basically a take on the Speed Dial concept that was initially in Opera 9.2, and has analogs in Google

Chrome and Safari. It doesn't allow you to create buttons manually, they're pulled from the most frequently visited pages. You can zap pages that you don't want displayed, or hide the page alttogether. The Mozilla folks are also planning to add a migration tool from Chrome, so they can move users from Google Chrome to Firefox. Firefox is also targeting inline PDF view and in-browser translation for the second half of the year. Did somebody say Apps? Firefox could also have a Web App integration in place by the release of Firefox 13. (That's the targeted release, but the feature page is not fully spec'ed out yet.) Mozilla is aiming for a app store launcher in the Home Tab that would make it easy to see new Web apps on offer. User Privacy and "Log into Firefox" The second half of the Mozilla roadmap is where it really gets interesting, at least for folks concerned about privacy, security and control of their data. While Mozilla has been championing the Do Not Track (DNT) stuff, I'm less than convinced that DNT is a good answer to privacy concerns given that it's voluntary for sites to implement.

permissions on a site-by-site basis less confusing than doing so on a per-feature basis. However, it's not entirely clear what Mozilla has in mind here because the sitebased permissions manager feature is also without a feature page. Firefox is also concerned about search hijacking. Basically this is a set of techniques that are "used to circumvent browser search defaults to funnel search revenues One of the ideas that's on the to third parties." Obviously, this is r o a d m a p , b u t w i t h o u t a n a big deal for Firefox not only accompanying feature page, is because it undermines user tracking map and 3rd party cookie choice, but also because much of management. According to the Mozilla's revenue comes from its roadmap, this would let users search deal with Google. "visualize how they are tracked as Another feature slated for later in they move around the web and be the year is the sign in to Firefox, empowered to easily block that which would provide the ability to tracking." I'd really like to see this sign into Firefox with BrowserID one implemented, sooner rather c r e d e n t i a l s ( a n d c r e a t e a than later. BrowserID account if the user Users could also be seeing a site- doesn't have one). That would based permissions manager. The open up the identity features that roadmap says "users manage their Mozilla is targeting with Sync and permissions on a per-feature B r o w s e r I D . P e r f o r m a n c e , basis: cookies, passwords, history, P e r f o r m a n c e , P e r f o r m a n c e etc. This is confusing. A site- According to the 2012 roadmap, based permission manager will Mozilla is planning on paying a empower people to edit all of the lot of attention to performance. permissions associated with any According to the strategy section, particular site." "In 2012 strengthened and For the record, I'm not sure that dedicated teams will wipe out any u s e r s w i l l f i n d m a n a g i n g and all Firefox responsiveness

issues users face and guarantee the rock solid stability at low memory costs that developers demand for their apps." This includes performance improvements for tabs, start-up improvements, and work to improve Firefox's page caching. Firefox is also going to be introducing a new Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler for JavaScript called IonMonkey. Concerned that add-ons are harming performance? There's a proposal for a new policy about add-on performance and tools to detect add-ons that hamper performance. A Bright 2012 If the Mozilla team can hit most of the features on the roadmap for 2012, they might be able to reverse the trend of losing users to Google Chrome. I'd really love to see the tracking map and third party cookie management in Firefox. That has a lot more potential than the DNT efforts. What do you think of the roadmap for 2012? If you're a Firefox user now, does this look like a good direction for Firefox? If you're not, do you think you'd be likely to switch? Discuss

Curated News Edition

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29

AT&T Becomes One of the Larger vCloud Participants


Scott M. Fulton, III (ReadWriteWeb)

management service" called USi. That company had been working on cloud infrastructure initiatives. Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:00:00 PM In August 2008, AT&T began L a s t w e e k , a f t e r V M w a r e rolling out the first cloud services introduced businesses to the idea based on those initiatives, under of an automated cloud service the Synaptic banner. At the time, portal called vCloud Integration the company claimed Synaptic Manager (vCIM) that could give would effectively invent the genre private cloud consumers a way to of cloud computing. When asked become public cloud providers, to differentiate Synaptic from the question was: How many other cloud services offered by small-to-medium enterprises Amazon and others, the company w o u l d j u m p o n b o a r d ? told my reporter at the time that, Interrupting the answer to that unlike its competition, AT&T q u e s t i o n t o d a y i s A T & T - would be offering hosting and arguably still one of the world's storage on an unprecedented kind largest public corporations - o f " p a y - a s - y o u - g o " m o d e l , which has itself become a vCloud something like an on-demand customer in a retooling of its cable TV program. Synaptic cloud services to include What became painfully obvious VPN access. was that a golden opportunity It's a move that could not only circa 2006 had become an alsohelp AT&T gain parity, or ran play when extended into 2008. s o m e t h i n g a p p r o a c h i n g i t , The following year, Amazon compared to cloud giant Amazon, introduced its first VPN service, but could also help even the which when you look at it from a stakes between VMware and wider-angle lens was actually its Citrix in the one field where the portal into a hybrid cloud. Not latter's Xen has a market share really a VPN by the original advantage: the private cloud. definition, but perhaps a "virtual Sponsor VPN," its premise was to enable The story of AT&T's cloud customers to determine how much rollout begins in 2006, with the compute and storage resources acquisition of what was then should reside on-premise, and c o n s i d e r e d a " b u s i n e s s how much may be extended into

described how customers who already utilize vCloud Director for managing private cloud infrastructures (released in 2010) would be able to provision cloudbased services offered by a vCloud-participating data center, bringing their compute, storage, and network power into their service pools. Today's announcement effectively puts AT&T Synaptic in that category. The hope is that this enables an the public cloud, and vary that homogenous platform between ratio as necessary. the public and private clouds that This morning, AT&T announced can effectively be managed what it's calling a "VPN-based through a single portal. cloud," which actually refers to We asked Lodge last week the remote access portal enabled whether vCIM would be capable t h r o u g h t h e i n t e g r a t i o n o f of effectively aggregating service VMware's vCloud. It is vCloud pools from multiple vCloud which will open a path for participants. Such a feature might e x i s t i n g V M w a r e v S p h e r e give AT&T's new service at least customers to migrate their a t o e h o l d i n t o h y b r i d resources quantitatively into e n v i r o n m e n t s w h e r e o t h e r AT&T's space without having to providers already have a head re-design their data centers. start. Lodge responded no, not In this diagram provided last with this current version, though week by VMware of vCloud such functionality is being Integration Manager, the top row considered for a future release. contains components that may VMware is a ReadWriteWeb now be provided by AT&T, sponsor. Discuss among others. During an interview last week, VMware Senior Director for Cloud Services Matthew Lodge

Christian World Adoption


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Technology/ Culture/ Sports/

Curated News Edition

Reddit, Police Thyself


Devin Coldewey (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:28:02 PM

[UPDATED]
continued from page 27

Tools cannot judge of their own use. The hammer does not rebel at striking pavement, the brush recoil at distasteful composition. This is true of the internet and its tools as well. What is bittorrent? A way to easily transfer large files between peers. Used by many people in legitimate ways, by pirates for illicit purposes. Bittorrent cant choose to allow one and deny the other. If it could, it would no longer be a tool. What is Reddit? A way for millions of people to collaboratively promote links and discuss them more or less anonymously. Used by many people in legitimate ways, and by pedophiles for illicit purposes. Reddit has decided to be more proactive in their policing of the site. If Reddit ever was truly a tool, it isnt any longer. Not that this is a bad thing, exactly. Its just not going to

work. To paraphrase Churchill, this was the worst thing Reddit could do, except for every thing they could have done. Some people are worried that its a slippery slope thing. First, they came for the pedophiles, that kind of thing. Or a free speech thing. Where can I safely discuss the superiority of the Aryan race with a community of like-minded bigots? Really, though, the practical changes are minimal. Reddit is banning and more carefully enforcing existing bans on child pornography. Thats more or less the entire thing. Reddit is unlikely to break its appeal by ban creep, looking for more and more reasons to mow down their community. Theyre not like that. Theyll play whack-a-mole with kiddie porn subreddits until either the bad guys stop coming to Reddit or they find some way to exist without being shut down. In either case well stop hearing about it, and in either case its just

a drop removed from the bucket. Their other options arent any better. Just do the minimum legal required? The world will look at Reddit as a cesspool instead of the vibrant community of communities that it truly is. And they cant mess with the basic idea of the site by restricting the creation of subreddits or other changes to the mechanics. The danger to Reddit is a little more subtle than these immediate, practical concerns. The danger is that they will no longer be viewed as a tool, a machine through which people can trade things. Now there is a ghost in the machine, and the ghost is watching. What if the creators of Bittorrent altered the protocol irreversibly so that it would detect child porn being transferred? Youd say good, Im not a pedophile and this isnt a problem for me, so no worries. But youd also view Bittorrent differently, not the organization, but the tool. It would, like Reddit, have

changed its aspect in a fundamental way. In the meantime, the world is not changing. Its a terrible world and a terrible internet, and no matter what you do, create, or promote, someone will find a way to use it for something awful and hateful. People are like that. And the better the tools, the better with which to commit misdeeds. The greater the edifice, the greater the shadow it casts and the internet is the greatest edifice of our time. But the world was built, and will continue to be built, by tools that dont question their use. It doesnt mean that something like Reddit (or Twitter, or Facebook, or Flickr) cant be useful, powerful, and popular. But its important to recognize the difference between tools and things that are useful. Its useful to have a permit, rubber-stamped and recognized by the powers that be, when youre building a house, but you dont build a house with a permit. Jeff Northrop (Lifehacker) For that, you need a hammer. Submitted at 2/13/2012 1:30:00 PM

that Apple and Samsung own 95% of mobile phone profits worldwide. Page may see Apple's profits and want to get in on the device game but the idea is to use Motorola to protect Android. Discuss

Salary Negotiations: Don't be Tough, be Honest [Salary Negotiations]


Unless you were born with a peculiar penchant for arguing over your livelihood, salary negotiations are stressful and difficult. We're often told that these negotiations require an iron constitution and a willingness to play the "game", but if that approach has never worked for you, guest writer Jeff Northrop offers an alternative that works for him: Be honest. More

Suctioned Smartphone Stands - Barnacle by Monocomplex is a Conveniently Clingy Mobile Companion (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:43:03 PM

Steelers GM says no decision made on Hines Ward


(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:50:58 PM

( TrendHunter.com) There is a

simple, affordable and effective solution to sticking your smartphone to the windshield of your car, and it doesn't even involve duct tape! For less than

five dollars, you can get a handy Barnacle...

The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't ready to part ways with Hines Ward just yet.

Curated News Edition

Technology/

31

Motorola, You Screwed Up. The Justice Department Droid 4 Alienates (And Pisses OKs Google's bid Off) Your Core Demographic. for Motorola
Matt Burns (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:02:57 PM

thinner phones will result in more sales and/or street cred. I dont know. But its silly. Phones are Droid 4 reviews are popping up already thin enough I know everywhere. Were doing ours a how that sounds. But think about little different. Instead of posting it: The Droid 3 is 12.9mm thick a review after spending just 24 where the Droid 4 is 12.7mm hours with the phone like other thick. Even the Droid RAZR sites, were living with it for a MAXX, with its extra-large week, publishing several articles battery, is still a slim phone in my on it and then concluding with a opinion. Its 9mm thick verses full review after actually living 7.1mm of the standard RAZR. with the phone for a while. But T h e d i f f e r e n c e i s h a r d l y one thing was clear even before noticeable even when the phones the phone launched: Motorola are sitting next to each other. messed up forgoing a removable Youll never notice it when its in b a t t e r y f o r a m e a n i n g l e s s your pocket. reduction in thickness. The Droid 4 does feature a larger The original Droid started the battery than its older counterpart. Android revolution. It was the anti The phone is also more powerful -iPhone: an open OS, sliding and packs a slightly larger screen. QWERTY keyboard, available on But none of those things counter Verizon and featured a removable the mistake of not including a battery and expandable memory. removable battery even if the Now many of those advantages Droid 4 is a marvelous piece of are moot points. Android is no hardware. The new keypad is longer viewed as open, most fantastic and so is the updated p e o p l e a r e s o l d o n v i r t u a l sliding action. Its completely keyboards, the iPhone is available possible that Moto engineers everywhere, and now, thanks to decided to permanently affix the Motorola, the Droid 4 features a battery to allow for the improved built-in battery. Sorry, power sliding mechanism or something users. else critical to the redesigned You see, Motorola, like every phone. But in doing so, the phone other phone maker is racing to loses a major selling point even if produce the thinnest phone its an under-utilized feature. possible. Apparently they feel Id venture to say that the vast

majority of users never buy extended batteries for their phones. But its likely a large portion of owners like the idea, and its certainly a nice option to have. There are light users who will probably coast along with the non-removable battery and never experience a problem, while people who lean on their devices more than others could be left in the lurch. I dont think Motorola made the decision lightly, but the move almost feels like Motorola is trading their power users for wider adoption. The Android landscape is filled with copycats. Motorola (and others) need to do something to make their phones stand apart. So what are the Droid 4s selling points? Just the QWERTY keypad and thats not enough to compete. Sadly the days of the swappable battery are probably numbered. Id bet my dog Ferrari that the Samsung Galaxy S III and most of 2012s flagship phones will not have a removable battery. Bring back the swappable battery for the next Droid, Motorola. A millimeter or two is well worth having a legitimate selling point over the iPhone and other Android phones.

Marguerite Reardon (CNET News)


Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:19:51 PM

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. The news today comes on the same day that the European Union concluded its antitrust investigation into the merger and approved the deal without any conditions. The Justice Department said in a statement that it had closed the investigations it had open regarding the merger, stating that the acquisition would be "unlikely to substantially lessen competition." The main reason Google is buying Motorola is to get access to the company's big patent portfolio. And the Justice Department concluded in its investigations that it was unlikely that Google would use these patents to "raise rivals' costs or

foreclose competition." "The division concluded that the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics," the Justice Department said in its statement. Now that regulators have approved the merger, Google will be able to move forward to close the transaction. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

32

Technology/ Featured/

Curated News Edition

The PS Vita Will Be Sonys Last Portable


Don Reisinger (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:27:57 PM

Sonys PlayStation Vita will be launching soon. The portable will come with dual thumbsticks, a nice, big display, and a design that puts Nintendos 3DS to shame. And at a starting price of $249.99, its in the sweet spot for serious gamers who want a solid portable. But just because the PlayStation Vita seems attractive, it doesnt mean that itll be a winner. In fact, Im a firm believer that the Vita will be Sonys last portable, and the device that could very well put an end to the companys entire mobile-gaming division. Believe it or not, that anticipated decline has nothing to do with Sonys own strategy. The company is doing just what it should delivering a top-notch portable that serious gamers can enjoy. However, that serious gamer is changing his or her mind on what theyre looking for in portables. There was a time when only companies like Nintendo or Sony could deliver what they wanted. But with iPhones and Androidbased smartphones becoming increasingly popular, and

developers creating high-quality games for those platforms, the need for a standalone portable has declined significantly. Its also not a good idea on any companys part nowadays to focus solely on the so-called hardcore gamer. The hardcore segment once drove much of the game revenue the industry generated, but its now a small portion of the entire market. In order for a console or portable device to become popular, itll

need the mainstreams help. And right now, the mainstream has no interest in buying a portable gaming device."$250 is the sweet spot, but only for devices that do much, much more than Sonys portable" Im also concerned about the PlayStation Vitas price. Yes, $250 is the sweet spot in the mobile space right now, but thats only for devices that do much, much more than Sonys portable. Worst of all, the most popular

smartphone on the market Apples iPhone comes in at just $199 to start, making just about anyone wonder why they should be spending $50 more to get a device that does less than their smartphone. Sony also hasnt made a convincing argument for getting consumers to opt for the PlayStation Vita over the Nintendo 3DS. For years now, Sony has been trying to catch up to Nintendo, and so far, the

company hasnt been able to do so. Remember the mainstream I was talking about? It loves Nintendo. And based on PlayStation Portable sales, it appears it wasnt as fond of Sonys device over the years. At the end of the day, I think the PlayStation Vita will be Sonys last portable. The company was late to understand the mainstream, its new device cant compete against smartphones, and eventually its incoming CEO Kaz Hirai will realize that focusing solely on consoles is the way to go. For major game companies, portable gaming is a toxic market. Microsoft knows it. Nintendo is realizing it. And Sony will soon be a victim to it. The PS Vita Will Be Sonys Last Portable is written by Don Reisinger& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ten Things President Obama Needs to Hear From Chinas New Leader
Joseph A. Bosco (The Weekly Standard)

Chinese leaders announced that Vice President Xi Jinping, the Communist Partys designated

successor to Chinese president Hu Jintao, will try to correct the trust deficit when he visits

Washington this week.

Curated News Edition

Technology/ Finance/

33

Engineered carbon gives batteries, ultracaps a boost


Martin LaMonica (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:30:00 PM

An ultracapacitor in action. Ultracapacitors store energy like batteries do but do it in a different way. They hold electrical charge within the pores of carbon electrodes. By making a material with more surface area, EnerG2 says it can boost the performance of ultracapacitors and batteries, too. To build a better energy storage device, startup EnerG2 is making better carbon. The company today flipped the switch on a factory in Albany, Ore., that will turn out a resin used in the manufacture of batteries and ultracapacitors. Its engineered carbon material improves the performance of existing energy storage devices, promising lower prices for hybrid vehicles or grid storage. The first customers for EnerG2's product are ultracapacitor makers who can expect 25 percent to 30 percent better energy storage capacity, said company COO and CFO Chris Wheaton. Lithium ion and lead acid batteries can get a three times increase in power

output, he added. Ultracapacitors are used in vehicles to provide a quick boost of power or to save energy from regenerative braking. They charge faster and last longer than batteries, but can't store as much energy per weight as batteries. EnerG2's "activated carbon," a very porous form of carbon, will be used in the electrodes of ultracapacitors for storing charge. In batteries, the carbon will be an

additive to improve the performance and life of battery electrodes, Wheaton said. Typically, activated carbon is made by processing coconut husks or other natural materials. EnerG2 is commercializing a process developed at the University of Washington to make activated carbon from a polymer. The company designs its own polymer, made by a third-party chemical company, and has a

method for producing an activated carbon with a more uniform surface than one from natural sources, Wheaton explained. That allows ultracapacitors to handle and store more electric charge, he said. "Our material is more robust because it's more pure. Materials with more contaminants cause break downs at higher voltages," he said. The company's new plant in Albany, Ore.

The plant in Oregon will start producing engineered carbon for energy device manufacturers which could start showing up in products in six months to 18 months, Wheaton added. In 2009, the plant was awarded a $21.3 million grant to partially fund the facility. Nearly all activated carbon is made in Japan now, Wheaton said. Auto companies are considering different energy storage methods for hybrids, including start-stop hybrids which improve mileage by about 5 percent for a relatively low incremental cost. Some automakers are considering ultracapacitors for start-stop hybrids. Wheaton said improvements to lead acid batteries could make them more competitive for start-stop hybrids. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Fibre networks are the jewel in Cable & Wireless Worldwide's crown
Katherine Rushton (Finance News - Business news from the

Mobile phone giant Vodafone confirmed it is considering

making a takeover offer for Cable & Wireless Worldwide.

34

Technology/ Featured/

Curated News Edition

Google Motorola sale approved by US Department of Justice


Chris Burns (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:48:32 PM

Today both the European Union and the United States Department of Justice have approved the to Google Inc. of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., this sale hot on the heels of another big patent bid Novell and Nortel. All at once did the USDoJ announce their approval of both the Motorola deal with Google and a set of other acquisitions, the first being a sale of Nortel Networks Corporations patents to Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Research in motion Ltd. (RIM). The third approval was similar, it surrounding Novell Inc. patent sales to Apple as well. The approval was given after an Antitrust Division investigation by the department, each acquisition being found unlikely to substantially lessen competition in the markets these businesses operate in. One point of order though was the continued watching of how the groups handle their newly purchased SEPs that is, standard essential patents. These patents are the ones

injunctions in disputes involving SEPs. Googles commitments were more ambiguous and do not provide the same direct confirmation of its SEP licensing policies. USDoJ So well see how this pans out in the months to come Google still needs a few approvals around the world before the purchase can be completed. One at a time! Story Timeline Google's Motorola Mobility acquisition set for approval this month on Feb 9th 2012 Google's Motorola deal expects EU approval next week on Feb 10th 2012 Google Motorola buy approved by EU on Feb 13th 2012 that would allow any group owning them to seek legal battles against those who they found infringing on said patents. In light of the importance of this industry to consumers and the complex issues raised by the intersection of the intellectual property rights and antitrust law at issue here, as well as uncertainty as to the exercise of the acquired rights, the division continues to monitor the use of SEPs in the wireless device industry, particularly in the smartphone and computer tablet markets. The division will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anticompetitive use of SEP rights. USDoJ You hear that, companies? No taking these patents and putting your competitors out of business thats not just mean, its anticompetitive in this case and its illegal. Each of these groups agreed to a noncompete of sorts once the deals took place, each of them also outlined in brief by the USDoJ. Have a look at what these groups agreed to: The divisions concerns about the potential anticompetitive use of SEPs was lessened by the clear commitments by Apple and Microsoft to license SEPs on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, as well as their commitments not to seek [ via Justice.gov] Google Motorola sale approved by US Department of Justice is written by Chris Burns& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Santorum Is Within 2 Points of Romney in California


Jeffrey H. Anderson (The Weekly Standard)

The first GOP presidential poll taken in California in 2012 shows Mitt Romney leading Rick

Santorum by just 2 percentage points, which is well within the surveys 4.6-point margin of

error.

Curated News Edition

Technology/ Culture/

35

MacBooks benefit students in Mooresville, N.C.


Kelly Hodgkins (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:00:00 PM

Schools are adopting technology in the classroom, handing out Macs and iPads to students as young as kindergarten. Its not the devices, but their usage in the classroom that's important says a recent New York Times article. The report chronicles the success of the Mooresville, N.C. school system. Three years ago, five Mooresville schools issued laptops to over 4,000 students in grades 4 and above. Since that time, the district's graduation rate rose 11 percent from a low of 80 percent in 2008 to its current level of 91 percent. Proficiency standards in math, science and reading also rose from 73 percent to 88 percent in those three years. The school credits the teachers who abandoned their written lecture notes in favor of a computer-driven curriculum. "This is not about the technology," says Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, "It's not about the box. It's about changing the culture of instruction preparing students for their future,

Fact or Fiction: Hollywood vs. History


(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 8:15:56 AM

It's time to step into the time machine and travel back through history. Of course, if you hope to survive, you're going to want to not our past." teachers let go were reluctant to program in action. Their current separate what you actually learned This success has not come embrace this new way of learning tour schedule is booked all the in history class from all the historical inaccuracies in the without a cost both in money and says Edwards. They also did away way through April. movies. Think you can do it? personnel, though. The school w i t h c o s t l y c o m p u t e r l a b s . [Via Fortune's Apple 2.0] district leases MacBook Air Overall, the school spends a mere MacBooks benefit students in Well, before you pull the lever, notebooks with a warranty from $7,415.89 a year per student, Mooresville, N.C. originally let's do a little travel planning and Apple for US$215 per year. which makes them number 100 a p p e a r e d o n T U A W - T h e see what you really know. Hardware costs the district $1 out of 115 school districts. Unofficial Apple Weblog on Earn a point for every right million each year and software Mooresville now serves as a Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. answer! Save your score at the costs another $100,000. Parents model for the next-generation Please see our terms for use of end of the quiz. This entry passed through the also pay $50 each year to finance classroom. The school has been feeds. repairs. singled-out by the US Department Source| Permalink| Email this| Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it To make ends meet, the district of Education as a success. It even Comments on someone else's site, please read h a d t o c u t s i x t y - f i v e j o b s , offers monthly tours so other the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentincluding 37 teachers. Most of the school districts can see their only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Curated News Edition

NPD: Apple generates a Mushroom kit has fifth of all US electronics roots in used coffee grounds (video) revenue
CNET News staff (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:38:32 PM

Chris Rawson (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)


Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:30:00 PM

The NPD's analysis of 2011's trends in electronics sales shows that Apple now accounts for nearly one fifth of all US revenue in consumer electronics. HP is in a distant second place, having generated only about half as much revenue as Apple during 2011. Overall, 2011's NPD results show shifting trends in the consumer electronics landscape. The share of overall sales revenue for PCs declined by 0.5 percent year-overyear -- a decline that is likely a percentage point or two steeper if Mac sales (which were actually up in 2011) aren't bundled in with overall PC sales. The overall share of TV and video game hardware sales also declined yearover-year. Out of the top five highestrevenue categories, only "tablets" and mobile phones showed gains in revenue share during 2011. The revenue increase for mobile phones was slight -- barely 0.3

percent -- but "tablet" sales exploded in 2011, with their share of overall revenue doubling compared to 2010. I keep putting "tablet" in quotation marks because it's clear the overwhelming majority of this increase is directly attributable to the iPad; although last quarter's sales of Amazon's new Kindles probably made a small contribution to the revenue increase, the iPad is dominating revenue share in the tablet category. Among the top 5 consumer electronics manufacturers based on revenue, only Apple showed

revenue gains in 2011, and those gains were huge: sales grew by 36 percent in 2011. HP, Samsung, Sony, and Dell all experienced sales declines, with Sony and Dell showing sales declines in the double digits. NPD's data shows a stunning rise in revenue share for "tablets" in 2011, Apple as the only company amongst the top five who gained revenue last year, and declines in PC sales and tanking revenues for some PC manufacturers. Taking all of this into account, the data suggests that the iPad is sending ripples throughout the entire consumer electronics industry. [via Electronista] NPD: Apple generates a fifth of all US electronics revenue originally appeared on TUAW The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

importance that packaging played in its success. This video originally appeared on If you're a city dweller who SmartPlanet with the headline " d r e a m s o f m o v i n g b e y o n d Growing mushrooms from food growing mint on your kitchen waste." windowsill, you can impress your More SmartPlanet links friends with something more: Modern, net-zero energy homes oyster mushrooms. made more affordable with As UC Berkeley students, the co- modular design founders of "Back to the Roots" Future Of...Composting discovered they could grow Passive House: A new metric mushrooms using recycled coffee for 'green' homes grounds. Now their DIY mushroom kit sells at grocery This entry passed through the stores across the country. Full-Text RSS service if this is The pair developed a "grow it at your content and you're reading it home" kit where the soil is made on someone else's site, please read from used coffee grounds and the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentmushroom spawn, or seed, gets only/faq.php#publishers. Five mixed in. Co-founder Nikhil Filters recommends: Donate to Arora tells SmartPlanet how the Wikileaks. idea grew and about the

Cable & Wireless Worldwide tieup with Vodafone looks beneficial from both ends of the line
Alistair Osborne (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:18:12 PM

stop there? Number four could just be a phone call away assuming Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao picks up his handset.

Now Cable & Wireless Worldwide is on to its third chief executive in eight months, why

Curated News Edition

Technology/ Culture/ Obituaries

37

Monsters Ate My Condo Review


Chris Burns (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:16:19 PM

The game known as Monsters Ate My Condo is a $0.99 masterpiece from both developers PikPok and the fine folks at Adult Swim Games. If youre prone to seizures, I must warn you to steer clear of this beast, but if youre a lover of games whose creators clearly spent thousands of sleepless nights perfecting in both form and aesthetic grace, youve got a winner on your hands. Its all monsters and keeping your tower afloat by feeding pieces of it to the monsters from here on out, folks, have fun! What youve got to do in this game available for both the iPad 1/2 and the iPhone note that

were reviewing it on an iPhone 4S here is keep yourself in the game. In the hands-on video I compare this game to the greatest schoolyard game you might never have played: Spread the Eagle. This game from your middleschool days was one in which you didnt necessarily have to do anything at all in order to stay in the game, but because you want to have fun, you go nuts with action. The same is true here, to a degree, as the monsters surrounding your building want to have a great time, and if you give them condos to eat, they most certainly will! If you give them the wrong color condos to eat youll notice theyre color-coded youll find that they are prone to getting angry. There are so many symbols

and markers, graphics thatll blow your mind, and animations that youll be surprised are sitting pretty here on a game that costs less than a buck, and its all controlled with one of two actions: swipe left, or swipe right!

Feed the right colors to the right monsters, then try to match up three of the same color condo to switch your monsters out and drum up additional points. There are several modes of play, but the game concept remains the same

through the whole of them: keep the monsters happy, and keep your tower straight. This game is a must-buy for those of you wishing to see the full graphics capabilities of your iPad or iPhone but dont let your grandmother play it, shell likely freak out. Monsters Ate My Condo is available on the iTunes App Store right this minute for $0.99 cheap! Monsters Ate My Condo Review is written by Chris Burns& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

5 Challenging Math Games


John Kelly (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 8:15:56 AM

You might think math games are just for kids. After all, hundreds of games have been invented to get children interested in arithmetic, and game-based math exercises are popular in many schools. For example, the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, taught in 220,000

U.S. classrooms, uses progressively harder games to supplement math drills. The games have proven effective at helping students permanently improve their math skills. And even simple board games like Chutes and Ladders can help young children learn to count. Other math games, however, can be enjoyed by players of any age. Many adults, for example, play challenging math games in order

to keep their minds sharp as they grow older. Most just like them because they're fun. And they offer keen competition and social interaction, too. Games involving math force you to use your brain's full power, and some have been challenging people for centuries -- an Egyptian papyrus from 1850 B.C., for example, contained a form of mathematical game. The math games on this list may test your

agility at using numbers, or teach math ideas and functions as you play. Either way, get ready to use your noggin. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Former head of Algeria's military dies (AP)


(Yahoo! News: Obituaries)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 12:26:28 PM

AP - Gen. Mohammed Lamari, who led Algeria's military during a decade of civil war that crushed the nation's Islamic rebel groups, died Monday. He was 73.

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Curated News Edition

Apple forcing Pegatron to stop production of MacBook Air lookalike Zenbook


Steven Sande (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:00:00 PM

Sometimes having a manufacturing relationship with Apple can have unexpected repercussions. Asia-based Pegatron, which makes iPhones for Apple at this time, is reportedly being asked to cease production of Ultrabook laptops for Asus or face the consequences of losing orders from Apple. Ultrabooks are the Wintel world's answer to the MacBook Air, and a number of PC manufacturers showed off their products at this year's CES. According to an article in the Chinese-language Commercial Times, Apple believed the MacBook Air and Asus Zenbook designs to be so similar that they asked Pegatron to stop building the Asustek devices. Pegatron stands to suffer a lot if it

The Space Station Workspace [Featured Workspace]


Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:00:00 PM

loses Apple contracts. Not only does the company assemble iPhones for Apple, but they're also rumored to be producing the nextgeneration iPads that are expected to ship next month. A blogger at 9to5Mac also wonders about how Ultrabook production could affect another Apple contractor. Quanta Computer is the largest manufacturer of notebook

computers in the world, and they assemble Mac notebooks for Apple. The company reportedly purchased a number of computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines for building unibody frames for Ultrabooks. Apple could theoretically threaten Quanta to stop using the unibody manufacturing process that the Cupertino company pioneered. Apple forcing Pegatron to stop

Correction: Obit-Hartman story (AP)


(Yahoo! News: Obituaries)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:39:28 PM

Although it's obviously not actually in outer space, this gently lit workspace by Flickr user skorpion24 utilizes imagery to set the theme. But what makes this setup particularly nice is the production of MacBook Air arrangement of self-made shelves lookalike Zenbook originally with plants, books, and gadgets in a p p e a r e d o n T U A W - T h e organized coexistence. In addition Unofficial Apple Weblog on to the shelves, skorpion24 also Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. made the desk. According to the Please see our terms for use of original post, he's happy to offer up details if you contact him on feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Flickr if you'd like to make something similar. This is just Comments another example of the additional control you get over the look of your workspace when you take the time to do things yourself. More

AP - In a Feb. 10 story about the death of longtime Associated Press foreign correspondent Carl

Hartman, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Hartman served as chief of the AP bureau in Frankfurt, Germany. Hartman served in the bureau but was not the chief of bureau. The story also

reported incorrectly that the AP dates from 1847. The news cooperative began operations in 1846.

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Save Us from the Liberal Hawks - By David Rieff


DAVID RIEFF (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:43:02 PM

Syria's a tragedy. But it's not our problem. BY DAVID RIEFF| FEBRUARY 13, 2012 Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of (humanitarian) war. That, at least, is what much of the U.S. policy elite seems to be pushing for these days in Syria. That many of the "permahawks," like Fouad Ajami, Max Boot, and Elliott Abrams, who championed the George W. Bush administration's decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein, are now calling for supporting the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship should come as no surprise to anyone. Nor should similar calls from most of the liberal writers and editors associated with the New Republic magazine come as a shock. They, too, have been remarkably consistent, and the magazine's current symposium on what needs to be done next in Syria is eerily reminiscent of the one it ran the year after the invasion of Iraq, which tilted so lopsidedly toward justifying the war, though not the way the Bush administration was prosecuting it. What is surprising, though, is that despite the disaster of Iraq, looming withdrawal in what will amount to defeat in Afghanistan, and, to put it charitably, the

ambiguous result of the U.N.sanctioned, NATO-led, and Qatari -financed intervention that brought down Muammar alQaddafi's regime, is how nearly

complete the consensus for strong action has been even among less hawkish liberals, whether what is done takes the form of the United States and its NATO allies arming

the Free Syrian Army, opening so -called humanitarian corridors, or encouraging Turkey and a coalition of the willing within the Arab League to do so. British

columnist Jonathan Freedland summed up this view when he wrote recently in the Guardian SAVE page 40

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that the West must not "make the people of Homs pay the price for the mistake we made in Baghdad." In reality, though, liberal interventionists were never as shaken by the lessons of Iraq as was commonly supposed. Anyone doubting this need only look at the extraordinary mobilization for some sort of humanitarian and human rights-based intervention in Darfur in 2005 and 2006. This movement included a number of figures who now occupy important positions in Barack Obama's administration, notably Susan Rice, now U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, and Samantha Power, now senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, and who are generally assumed to have played an important role(if not quite the central one sometimes attributed to them) in persuading Obama to intervene in Libya. Nothing is wrong with intervention, it seems (just as there is nothing wrong with drone strikes), just as long as it is done by good U.N.-loving, multilateralism-oriented Democrats from the coasts, rather than by ignorant, warworshipping, vulgarly nationalistic Republicans from flyover country. If anything, liberal interventionists now seem to feel they have the wind at their backs because of the acceptance by the United Nations of the so-called "responsibility to protect" (R2P) doctrine, which has been widely

touted -- including by many of the most important human rights organizations that are often at odds with U.S. government policy (notably Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and some of their most important funders, notably George Soros's Open Society Foundations network) -- as resolving many of the ethical and operational problems that accompanied previous iterations of humanitarian intervention. In the words of Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University, who, until last year, was head of policy planning at the U.S. State Department, "R2P is a foundation for increased peace and respect for human rights over the long term, [and] each time it is invoked successfully to authorize the prevention of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave and systematic war crimes, and ethnic cleansing as much as the protection of civilians from such atrocities once they are occurring, it becomes a stronger deterrent against the commission of those acts in the first place." Like so many of the fundamental assumptions of the human rights movement, there is something quasi-religious about all this. Writing recently on this site, Gareth Evans, the former Australian foreign minister who is one of the principal intellectual and institutional architects of R2P, argued that over the past decade there is "universal agreement that state sovereignty is not a license to kill." He concedes

that the Russian and Chinese veto of the Security Council's Syria resolution demonstrates that "for every two steps forward on R2P there is usually a step back" -- but Evans quickly dispenses with this caveat. He quotes U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon, noting that henceforth the global debate will be about "how, not whether, to implement the responsibility to protect." Welcome to the " End of History," human-rights style. Like Francis Fukuyama's famous argument, there is simply no basis other than our hopes and our preferences to make us think that though the road toward this radiant future, to use the old Soviet expression, will be neither straight nor smooth, nevertheless it only goes one way, and that is in the direction of progress, peace, justice, and rights. It is this religious quality to the support for R2P that helps account for the odd reaction among those who believe that something must be done to stop the Assad regime's war against much of its own people despite the Russian and Chinese vetoes. Obviously, some of this is purely political posturing. But it is not only spin. The moral outrage, however misplaced, is real enough. In her contribution to the New Republic symposium, Suzanne Nossel -- formerly Richard Holbrooke's deputy when he was the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, founder of DemocracyArsenal.org, former

chief operating officer of Human Rights Watch, and now executive director of the U.S. branch of Amnesty International -illustrated this faith-based ethical triumphalism perfectly when she insisted that though the Russian and Chinese vetoes of the Security Council resolution had been "a sharp political defeat," it had also represented a "potent moral victory" and a "tectonic shift" in the advancement of a global human rights regime whose victory is now inevitable, no matter what kind of sovereigntist rear-guard actions the Russians and Chinese may continue to mount. The implication is clear. Three years after the adoption of R2P by the U.N. General Assembly and more than a year after the beginning of the Arab Spring, not only is the Assad regime on the wrong side of history, but the Russians and Chinese are as well. In her New Republic piece, Nossel even goes so far as to imply that the Russians and the Chinese know this themselves. They cast their votes out of fear of this human rights-based future, she writes, claiming that the "bell of international condemnation and isolation tolling now for Damascus sounds an uneasy note in Beijing and Moscow." Even by the hubristic standards of the human rights movement, these are extraordinary claims. One doubts, however, that they will cause either Vladimir Putin or Hu Jintao to quake in his boots as this owl of Minerva flies by, presumably

with a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held in its beak. Beneath all the incantatory bluster, however, a certain nervousness shows through. To judge by the fevered, angry response of U.S., French, and British officials, it seems as if they genuinely believed the Russians and Chinese would be obliged to truckle before the historic inevitability of the human rights revolution. How else to account for the spectacle of Ambassador Rice storming out of the Security Council chamber in fine, old, Khrushchev-era Soviet style once the vetoes had been cast, or her declaration shortly after that Russia and China had held the council " hostage" (one can only wonder how long until those words are thrown back at her the next time the United States vetoes a Security Council resolution on Israel-Palestine, as it has so often in the past). Safely out of government, Slaughter was able to go further, demanding that the United States and its allies do something to bring the carnage in Syria to an end. Otherwise, she wrote, R2P would be exposed as a "convenient fiction for power politics or oil politics." So convinced is she of the positive value of the responsibility to protect as a force for peace and international security that she seems perfectly willing to envisage an end run around that SAVE page 45

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The Counterterrorism Consensus - By Michael A. Cohen


MICHAEL A. COHEN (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 12:49:32 PM

How did liberals end up supporting the Obama administrations continuation of George W. Bush's secret war on terror? BY MICHAEL A. COHEN| FEBRUARY 13, 2012 There are few areas of greater disappointment for liberal supporters of President Barack Obama than his policies on civil liberties. From the failure to close Guantanamo Bay and his ramped up drone war to the continued reliance on indefinite detention, military commissions for accused terrorists, and the recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that potentially allows for the killing of American citizens without due process, Obama's presidency, or so the argument goes, has been one broken promise after another. Yet, none of this seems to be having any effect on Obama's political standing -- even among Democrats. The results of a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll provide compelling evidence of how little a price Obama has paid for these policies. According to the poll, 70 percent of respondents support the president's decision to keep Guantanamo Bay open. Indeed, backing for Gitmo is

actually higher today than it was in 2003. Among the president's political base, 53 percent who self -identify as liberal Democrats -and 67 percent of moderate or

conservative Democrats -- are also supportive. What about drone strikes? In total, 83 percent of Americans are on-board with the use of drones --

a mere 4 percent are strongly opposed. Even more shocking, when asked if they still back the policy if American citizens are being killed without due process

(like Anwar al-Awliki), 65 percent approve and only 26 percent disapprove. Among COUNTERTERRORISM page 42

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Democrats, the policy has broad, majority support. What is one to conclude from these numbers? Are progressives, as Glenn Greenwald suggests, "repulsive hypocrites" who have shifted their position on civil liberties simply out of political expediency? Well, perhaps. After all, in December 2008, 52 percent of Democrats were in support of closing Guantanamo Bay -- in February 2009 just after Obama took office and promised to close the facility the number jumped to 64 percent. It's not hard to draw the conclusion that Democrats who strongly opposed Bush-era policies on civil liberties are a tad less outraged today at the same decision because their party's president is in the White House. Still base partisanship may not fully capture what is happening here. Rather, the more likely conclusion is that no matter who is sitting in the White House there will be strong support for policies that are seen to be thwarting terrorists and keeping Americans safe -- no matter the legality or moral probity. First of all, Guantanamo has generally had majority support among Americans since 2003. The biggest exception was in 2008 and 2009-- but that was also a time when both Obama and his opponent Sen. John McCain wanted to close down the facility. As a result, support for keeping Gitmo open became something of an outlier in U.S. political debates. So it would not be surprising if Americans were

taking their cues on the issue directly from their political leaders. Second, opposition to Gitmo has never necessarily been about Gitmo, per se. The detention facility became, during the Bush years, a stand-in for opposition to the president's policies in fighting the war on terrorism. It was a short-hand symbol for torture, for warrantless wiretapping, for secret prisons, for the failed war in Iraq, for Abu Ghraib, and indeed for every shady or nefarious act perpetrated or allowed by the Bush administration in the name of fighting the war on terrorism. Gitmo became the symbol for the short-sighted decisions that diminished America's image in the world. Today, the worst excesses of the Bush years have, for the most part, been ended or at the very least are no longer front and center in public debates. As the most disturbing public elements of the war on terror have been eliminated, it is understandable that there is less reason to be opposed to Guantanamo's continued presence. Yet, all of that changed in the spring of 2009 when Obama's plan to close the facility and transfer its inmates to prisons in the United States met with fierce political opposition in Congress. Shutting down Gitmo might have elicited polite applause on the campaign trail or a nod of the head, but that was before it meant terrorists would be shipped from Cuba to prisons in Illinois or for

trials in New York City. And this, says political pollster and former Clinton administration National Security Council official Jeremy Rosner, activated the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) effect. Suddenly closing Gitmo didn't seem like such a hot idea. The fears of costs and security risks from such transfers were mightily overstated, but when key Democrats like Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and independents like Mike Bloomberg (not to mention practically the entire Republican Party) were complaining about allowing terrorists to be tried in American courts, it's not hard to imagine that public support for keeping Gitmo open quickly rose. But what about drones? I asked Alex Cole, a political communications strategist, about this issue and he said to me that some of the early research on public attitudes toward the war on terrorism revolved around the analogy of the United States as a hunter and terrorists as the huntee. The key takeaway is that Americans generally prefer a more discrete method for killing terrorists rather than an allconsuming approach -- and the drone war fits that bill. One might say that Americans are both pragmatic and a bit ruthless on the subject of killing terrorists. Today, with U.S. engagement over in Iraq and winding down in Afghanistan, the drone war looks like the single best means for keeping potential terrorists at bay -- and, more important, keeping

U.S. troops out of harm's way. Indeed, at the same time that Americans want to maintain current policies on drones and detention they are also strongly supportive of returning troops home from Afghanistan. This almost certainly is how the Obama administration is approaching the issue. Over the past nine months or so, the White House has taken crucial steps toward ending the legacy of the war on terrorism. Obama killed Osama bin Laden, pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq, and has began ending the war in Afghanistan. But maintaining the current policies on detention and drones is a nice back-up strategy: not only is it an effective way to fight the dwindling groups of jihadist terrorists, but it limits the administration's political exposure if something terrible does happen. None of this should come as a huge surprise if one looks closely at Obama's rhetoric from the 2008 campaign. Many of the administration's liberal critics on the left have strong memories of Obama blasting the Bush's civil liberties record. They recall Obama's pledge to close Gitmo, extend habeus corpus to terrorists, end torture and, in general, turn the page from the worst excesses of U.S. foreign policy during the Bush years. But they have a slightly selective memory. Indeed, one is hard pressed to find many examples of candidate Obama pledging to close Guantanamo (though that was clearly and unequivocally his

position). He didn't mention it, for example, at the acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008. Instead he said this: " I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. You know, John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell -- but he won't even go to the cave where he lives." Not quite so touchy, feely there. Indeed, when Obama gave his major foreign-policy speech in July 2008 he said this, "We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights." During 2008, even after the frustration of the Bush years, Obama's loudest public pledge when it came to terrorism was not to do less, but rather more. As a Democrat seeking the White House at a time of war this could hardly have come as a surprise; and now as a president seeking reelection it is even less surprising that he has continued this approach. But for those looking to Obama for leadership on this issue -- well, that would likely have to wait until after Election COUNTERTERRORISM page 44

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Empty Suit - By Yu Jie


YU JIE (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:47:47 PM

Xi Jinping is just another Communist Party hack. BY YU JIE| FEBRUARY 13, 2012 Ten years ago, China's "crown prince," Hu Jintao, visited the United States and was treated with the highest respect. Back then the Chinese people, not to mention a large portion of Western political elites and China experts, held extremely high hopes for his tenure. The U.S. government wanted to win over Hu so it could press him to start political reform as soon as possible. Now, with Hu's reign coming to an end, the Chinese people have realized that after Mao Zedong, no Chinese leader has been as hostile to the West as President Hu. Instead of launching political reforms, he tried to use the Chinese model of "crony capitalism" to compete with the Western democratic system. And the state of human rights in China took a huge step backward. My own experience serves as proof. During the Jiang Zemin era from 1997 to 2002, I participated in many human rights activities, such as running the Independent Chinese Pen Center with Liu Xiaobo and sending out open letters, including one suggesting changing Mao's mausoleum into a museum about the Cultural Revolution. Secret police trailed me and tapped my phone, but they

did so quietly, and with a sense of integrity. In 2009, during the Hu era, I published a book about Premier Wen Jiabao, claiming he wasn't a real reformer. That year, on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, police used a table to block my door and wouldn't let me leave my

apartment. They acted brazenly and without a sense of shame. In October 2010, after Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, they put me under house arrest and then kidnapped and tortured me. One of the secret police warned me: "We could bury you alive within half an hour." I

believed him. In the Hu era, China has taken a big step toward fascism. We all fall in the same place we have fallen in the past. Now that Xi Jinping is visiting the United States as the successor to the throne, people are reprojecting the ardent hopes they had for Hu onto

Xi. Will Xi become China's Mikhail Gorbachev or its Boris Yeltsin? Optimism pervades everywhere. Most surprising is the view of Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, who met EMPTY page 44

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with Xi in 2007 and concluded: "I would put him in the Nelson Mandela class of persons. A person with enormous emotional stability who does not allow his personal misfortunes or sufferings affect his judgment." "Personal misfortunes?" That stunned me. Xi isn't any more like Mandela than Adolf Hitler is like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mandela spent 27 years in a dark prison for the cause of freedom and human rights. Those are Mandela's "personal misfortunes." After getting out of jail, in the spirit of forgiveness and benevolence, he transformed South Africa's society into one where different ethnicities could settle their differences. He was a man worthy of the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize. Xi, the offspring of a high leader who temporarily fell from power, was engulfed by one of Mao's political campaigns and sent to a poor village in western China. Xi has never publicly questioned or criticized that period. He said that period of "eating bitterness" only increased his loyalty to the Communist Party. Ever since the 1989 suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, the Chinese people no longer believe in the legality of the Communist Party. Its ability to grow the economy has become

the party's only selling point. Even so, the growth we've seen hasn't been the "common prosperity" that is the goal of communism, but rather a group of highly corrupt bureaucrats monopolizing China's wealth and resources. The daughter of former Premier Li Peng runs a major subsidy of China Power; his son is vice governor of Shanxi, one of China's major coal-producing provinces. Examples abound. Many high leaders' families do real estate development: Xi sister Xi Qiaoqiao and her husband Deng Jiagui own a major real estate company named Beijing Central People's Trust Real Estate Development Corporation Ltd. They have the easiest method of doing business: Many local government officials offer the company the best land in order to improve their relationship with Xi Jinping. People say Hu and Xi belong to different political factions. They say Hu comes from the Communist Youth League and is therefore more populist, whereas Xi, because he represents the "princelings" -- sons and daughters of high officials -works in service of the wealthier coastal provinces. I think they're not that dissimilar. No matter if it's Hu or Xi, they're still only representative of the few-hundred

families who make up the Chinese aristocracy. They are not in office thanks to a Western-style election, but are the products of a blackbox operation. They didn't rise because they're clever and capable, but precisely because they're mediocre. They are where they are today because they are harmless to the special interest groups that run China. Like Hu, if Xi has any special ability, it's his ability to balance himself on a steel wire. Xi served in Hubei, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, among other places. Nowhere does he have any political accomplishments worth praising, or any offenses worth condemning. No one knows his real thoughts: He hides them even deeper than Hu did before he became chairman. Unlike Bo Xilai, a fellow princeling who has been conducting Mao-style politics in Chongqing, the city that he runs, Xi has no edges or corners. Xi's family background appeases China's senior statesmen: He's "their man." Xi was in the army; the military and other powerful departments all support him. Xi's father was a liberal, so the groups with reformist aspirations preserve that fantasy in their hearts. In today's China, where vested interests have solidified like

concrete, at most Xi is the country's "chief maintenance officer." As the Communist Party's crisis of rule grows more serious by the day, China needs a charismatic and farsighted leader. Xi is neither. The party's talentselection mechanism has already rotted -- they're no longer able to produce people like Zhao Ziyang or Hu Yaobang, the type of excellent leaders China had in the 1980s (both were deposed by former leader Deng Xiaoping because they wanted to change the system). They say Xi will rule us for a decade, but can this outwardly strong but inwardly weak regime maintain itself for another 10 years? Economic development cannot continue at this same speed. When Hu passes the power to Xi, he will finally be able to breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that he won't be the last king of a dynasty. Will Xi be able to say the same? 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Day, if even then (a fact that was brought into stark relief by Obama's retreat on the NDAA debate). In fairness, Obama -- even if he wanted to -- likely wouldn't be able to shut down Guantanamo (though he remains in support of closing the facility) or hold civilian trials for alleged terrorists in the United States. As for the drones, that policy isn't likely to stop unless the United States runs out of terrorists to kill. With more than 70 percent of the American people on his side there is little impetus for him to shift course -no matter how much it might upset his liberal base of supporters (or the constitutional lawyer within him). 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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45

SAVE
continued from page 40

pesky Security Council veto the Russians and the Chinese had the gall to invoke. To be legitimate, she writes, all that would be required from the United Nations would be the "authorization of a majority of the members of the [Security Council]," as an exercise of R2P, "with clear limits to how and against whom force could be used built into the resolution." Like the iconic U.S. officer in Vietnam who told a reporter that his troops had been obliged to burn the village in order to save it, Slaughter seems to be willing to undermine the structural foundations of international order, which, for better or worse, is based in large measure on the Security Council, in order to further it. Peace is war; war is peace. George Orwell, call your office. Meanwhile, despite the astonishing propaganda barrage in the media (for once, CNN, the BBC, and Al Jazeera were all on the same page!) that for all intents and purposes endorsed the claims about dead and wounded made by the anti-Assad insurgents (the disclaimers tended to come at paragraph three or four of a print piece, or the tail end of a video segment), the reality on the ground in Syria was far more complicated. A McClatchy news

story quoted U.S. government sources as confirming that the recent attack against a Syrian government building in Aleppo had probably been the work of al Qaeda, thus confirming at least to some extent the claims the Assad regime has made about the role of jihadists in the rebellion. Qaddafi made the same claim; it was dismissed at the time, but now appears to have had at least some foundation. In the Syrian case, though, there is no need to trust either Assad or anonymous sources in the U.S. intelligence world, because al Qaeda's support for the uprising has been confirmed publicly by Osama bin Laden's successor, Ayman alZawahiri, who, in a recent video, praised the "lions of Syria" for their rebellion. And even if al Qaeda's role is overstated, the degree to which what is going on today in Syria pits Sunnis against Assad's Alawite base was underscored by the early January testimony to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by Israeli army chief of staff Benny Gantz, who said the Israel Defense Forces was already making contingency plans to cope with the thousands of Alawites likely to try to flee to Israel should Assad be driven from power.

These nightmare scenarios are anything but far-fetched. What is taking place in Syria may have begun in part as a democratic insurrection, but it has become a low-level (at least for the moment) interconfessional civil war. The last time we got involved in one of those was in Iraq, whose principal legacies, however unintended, are almost certain to be increasing Iranian power and influence -- and setting the stage for the disappearance of Christianity in one of its most ancient homelands. There is simply no reason to believe that things in Syria will turn out any better and at least some reason to assume that the result will be even worse. But in the brave new world of R2P, this does not seem to matter very much to a born-again liberal interventionism eager to flex its muscles. During the Bush administration, Democrats often boasted that -unlike the president and his aides, who were consumed by millenarian dreams of remaking the Middle East in the image of American democracy -- they were part of the "reality-based community." In fact, the neoconservatives were paragons of modesty compared with the liberal interventionists and R2P supporters who saw in Libya and

now see in Syria the chance to move one step closer to remaking the world in the image of the human rights movement. Infatuated by their own good intentions -- and persuaded that their interventionist views incarnate a higher morality -those who view Libya as a triumph and Syria as an opportunity to cement the practice of humanitarian intervention are in full crusading mode. If the looming victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the failure of the democratic project in Iraq, and the fact that the most significant political outcomes of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Yemen, and Libya have been instability and the victory of political Islam have not chastened them -- and clearly they haven't -- nothing will. Welcome to the second decade in a row of humanitarian war. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Generation screwed: It's not easy being a Millennial


(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:16:00 PM

Via Online Grad Programs. (H/T @gvoakes) Screwed? Help yourself with life tips and tricks. Permalink| Leave a comment

46

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Curated News Edition

Cracks in Agreement in Greece, Finland, Germany, France; Of Duct Tape, Glue, Rubber Bands
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

prime minister, and Evangelos Venizelos, finance minister and one of Pasoks senior figures, are both pledged to the austerity plan Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:42:00 PM T h e l a t e s t G r e e k d e a l i s dictated by Greeces European unraveling in multiple places and International Monetary Fund already. The EMU wants to hold c r e d i t o r s . B u t M r S a m a r a s it together but can't. Cracks are appeared to put his personal wide, deep, and widening. commitment in doubt when, Greek Party Leader Might Seek before the vote, he suggested to to Renegotiate Terms his party faithful that he might Social unrest harms hopes of seek to renegotiate the plans Greek reform terms if he became prime Sundays explosion of street minister. Unless and until all violence in Athens underlines the political parties agree to the terms danger that political disorder may Germany will not OK the plan. undercut Greeces attempt to Yet, how can anyone agree to implement the economic reforms w h a t t h e y c a n n o t c o n t r o l ? required to avert a debt default, Election outcomes are not cast in according to Greek politicians and stone. economists. The Guardian says the same thing Although parliament passed the in Eurozone Crisis Live: " New measures, the rebellion and the Democracy wouldn't confirm urban violence raise the prospect today that their leader, Antonis that the next Greek government, Samaras, would sign the pledge. which will take office after Without his signature, Greece still elections set for April, will lack wouldn't get the bailout package." the authority and determination to Finland Seeks Collateral hold firm to the austerity course. Athens, Helsinki to sign According to opinion polls, the c o l l a t e r a l d e a l elections most likely outcome is Finland may sign a deal on a victory for the centre-right New securing collateral in exchange for Democracy, but without an its commitment to Greeces overall majority. second bailout in the next few Antonis Samaras, leader of New days, Finance Minister Jutta Democracy and the likely next Urpilainen said on Monday.

A vote in parliament on Finlands participation in the bailout could follow next week, she told reporters in Helsinki. Euro-area finance ministers share a very strong common stance in their view on what Greece must do, namely act on its pledges of austerity before more aid can be released, she said. Finland, one of four AAA-rated euro members, last year became the only nation in the currency bloc to secure extra assurances that its commitments to a second Greek rescue be repaid by insisting on collateral. This battle was fought once before and approved, but if there really is collateral, it places Finland first in line should Greece default. However, the previous collateral proposal was so watered down as to be meaningless. What happens this time, may or may not be the same story. German Head of CSU Party Seeks Referendum on Euro Seehofer calls for people's vote on euro Horst Seehofer, the head of the Christian Social Union party, wants Germans to vote on whether the euro should be saved or not and is calling for a change to Germanys Basic Law, or

Constitution, to allow that to happen. The CSU is for a peoples vote in Germany over the basic questions about Europe. Thats a good path to bring the European idea closer to citizens, Seehofer told the paper. The instrument of a peoples referendum should be anchored in the German constitution, he told the paper. A week ago the Ferdinand Kirchof, the vice president of the Federal Constitutional Court, told the paper that Germany finally needs a direct democracy in the EU, saying Brussels had distanced itself from European Union citizens and from the home regions comprising the EU. French Candidate Hollande Intends to Reopen Treaty Discussions Hollande insists on fiscal treaty move The main opposition candidate for the French presidency has spelt out his intention to reopen discussions on the new European treaty with all signatory countries if he wins the election, a move that would throw into doubt the results of months of negotiations by his opponent Nicolas Sarkozy and the German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Franois Hollande, the Socialist candidate currently leading the polls in Frances presidential election campaign, brushed aside stern warnings from Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel that the treaty due to be signed by 25 European Union countries in early March would have to be respected by any new president. The opposed positions of Mr Hollande and Ms Merkel who has pledged to campaign for Mr Sarkozy suggest a difficult relationship if he is elected. So far she has declined to meet him ahead of the vote. He said he would travel to Berlin for such a meeting, but added: I wont knock at the door if she doesnt want to open it. Thats unpleasant for me. He said the treaty would not have been ratified in France and several other countries before the election, which will be held over two rounds on April 22 and May 6. In France the treaty is ratified by parliament, not the head of state ... We have a window of opportunity [to renegotiate], he said. Of Duct Tape, Glue, Rubber Bands Does anyone seriously believe CRACKS page 49

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Americans Still View China As World's Leading Economic Power


Jeffrey M. Jones (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:49:00 PM

This post originally appeared at Gallup. Americans believe China is the leading economic power in the world today, by a significant margin over the United States. This is the second consecutive year the majority of Americans have viewed China as economically dominant; previously, China held a smaller lead. By contrast, in 2000, Americans overwhelmingly believed the U.S. was the leading economic power. The U.S. economic downturn and the continued expansion of the Chinese economy are the likely factors behind Americans' belief that China is the world's top economic power. Still, the vast majority of Americans name either the U.S. or China as the world's leading economic power. Relatively few Americans regard Japan (7%), the European Union (3%), India (2%), or Russia (less than 1%) in those terms. Japan has ranked third in recent years, but finished ahead of China in 2000. China Also Viewed as Likely Power in the Future Looking ahead, Americans still expect China to be the leading

economic power in 20 years, but by a slightly smaller margin over the United States, 46% to 38%. These opinions, though similar to last year's, have shifted in the past. In 2000, when the U.S. economy was strong, and in 2009, shortly after Barack Obama took office, more Americans believed the U.S. rather than China would be the top economic power in the future. In 2008, just as the recession was beginning, and in

the last two years as the economy has continued to stagnate, a plurality of Americans have thought China would be the top power in the future. Seniors View U.S. as Leading Economic Power At least a plurality of Americans in all key subgroups believe China is the leading economic power today, with one notable exception -- senior citizens. Among Americans aged 65 and

older, 50% say the United States is the leading economic power and 41% say China. Americans under 50 are particularly likely to believe China is the leading economic power. Seniors, as well as those aged 50 and older, are also less inclined than younger Americans to believe China will be the leading economic power in the future. Democrats, independents, and Republicans hold similar views as

to which country is the leading economic power today. However, they differ with respect to the future -- independents believe China will be the leading power, while Democrats and Republicans are divided as to whether China or the United States will be. Implications Officially, the United States still has a larger economy, based on gross domestic product, than China. However, if China sustains its current economic growth rate, it will surpass the United States' economy as the largest in the coming decades. Americans clearly acknowledge the growing influence China has on the world economy, and believe it is already the leading economic power in the world. That view likely has been affected by the economic downturn in the United States in recent years, which means opinions could change if the U.S. economy starts to recover. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 2-5, 2012, with a random sample of 1,029 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can AMERICANS page 52

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Obama Proposes Massive Tax Hikes, Still Comes Up With $1.33 Trillion Deficit; Obama's "Race to the Bottom" Education Proposal; Dysfunctional Congress
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

Would the president have gone along? Probably not. But either way it would have been a win-win for Republicans. They would have Submitted at 2/13/2012 12:17:00 PM President Obama made a pledge shown willingness to compromise to cut the deficit in half by the end by making such an offer. of his first term. Instead it Republicans failed to put the exceeded a trillion dollars for four It takes all that just to hold the president to the task. No one straight years. deficit to $1.33 Trillion. Chance made any hard choices, not the Indeed, the president could not of passage would appear to be president, not Democrats, and not even make a pledge made in about zero percent. Republicans. September to reduce the deficit to R e p u b l i c a n s M i s s G o l d e n More Misguided Stimulus $956 billion. Finally, just to keep Opportunities on "Hard Choices" Obama proposes blowing a $476 the deficit at $1.33 Trillion, look To be fair, the budget mess is not billion in stimulus proposals to at the tax hikes Obama proposes. e n t i r e l y O b a m a ' s f a u l t . create construction jobs, another Details below summarized from Warmongers from both parties $121 billion on clean-energy the Bloomberg article Obama refuse to make serious cuts in the vehicles, and another $350 billion Sends $3.8T Budget to Congress defense budget. in short-term jobs measures. Obama Proposed Tax Hikes Moreover, President Obama said Unless something is done to rein that he was willing to make " hard in costs (hint: pass national right Expiration of Bush-era tax cuts choices". to work laws, scrap collective for couples earning $250,000 or Republicans missed a golden bargaining of public unions, end more a year opportunity to put Obama to the Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage Limiting the value of itemized test with a plan to accept some tax laws) taxpayers will overpay for deductions to 28 percent couples hikes in return for scrapping services rendered (assuming the earning $250,000 or more a year Davis Bacon prevailing wage services rendered are needed at Imposing a minimum tax for laws and ending collective all, as opposed to makeshift work) individuals with annual incomes bargaining for public unions. Freeze On War-Mongering of at least $1 million One of the best things that could When it comes to war Raise taxes on dividends possibly happen for the nation mongering, the best the president received by the wealthy to 39.6 would be to get rid of union can do is freeze the budget at percent from the current 15 collective bargaining and initiate $525 billion. percent national Right-to-Work laws. Proving that he is on Mars,

$61 billion "Financial Responsibility Fee" imposed on banks Increase in the terrorismsecurity fee charged to airline passengers

Republican Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on ABCs This Week that Obamas proposal hollows out spending for defense and national security. How holding spending flat at $525 billion while winding down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan "hollows out" defense spending certainly needs to be explained. No Chance of Senate Passage This is a pathetic attempt by the president, and it has no reasonable chance of passage in the Senate. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said no, when asked on CBSs Face the Nation yesterday if Obamas budget had any chance of passage in that chamber. "Race to the Bottom" Obama wants toss another $69.8 billion at a misnamed "Race to the Top" education program. I propose something vastly different. For details, please seeStudent Loan Debt Bomb"; Obama's Misguided Proposal and Mish's Two-Point Alternative Proposal

Dysfunctional President, Congress As noted in Obama Seeks to Prove He is More Like Romney; Obama vs. Romney - What's the Difference? don't expect Mitt Romney to be much if any better than the president. Both parties are dysfunctional and the nation rots in the wake. 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.

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49

PSI, TROIKA, And TIC-TAC-TOE


Tyler Durden
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:27:45 PM

CRACKS
continued from page 46

Via Peter Tchir of TF Market Advisors, I have been struggling with two issues that I just can't make sense of. At the risk of coming across as a bigger geek than usual, I feel like the darn computer in war games trying to win at tic tac toe (was tic tac toe ever fun again after that movie?) two things make even less sense to me, and the more I think about them, the more convinced I am that someone somewhere is missing something and the level of disorganization in Europe is higher than I thought. Why is the March 20th date still in play? Why talk about needing the bailout by then for bond payments when there should be no payments due. In theory PSI will have been successful and pushed off all private holding into the distant future. If PSI isn't successful then they will do a retroactive CAC clause to ensure it gets pushed off (has anyone checked if a retroactive CAC clause would really be upheld by the Greek courts without even a temporary injunction?) Is it concern that if they do that, UK law bonds will be able to accelerate and the payout of all

holdouts in those bonds is accelerated? The March bonds trade meaningfully higher than other bonds. I can't help but feel I am missing something, or they are missing something. Have they properly accounted for PSI in their calculations of timing and size of bailout money? I am very confused. I wrote some thoughts down on the march bond trading price earlier today, but I feel I am running around in circles trying to figure out the angles. If it is as simple as the ECB owning a lot of these bonds, then why not let them extend the maturity by a year for all "public sector" holders? The ECB could probably book it as a par payment and book a big juicy profit on the Greek portion of their SMP. Then last Monday the Greeks flew excitedly to Brussels with news that they were close, only to be told to go to hades. Well, technically they were told to go back and "prove" their commitment. Now they are returning to their masters with a "successful" vote. Barely 2/3 rds of the politicians agreed - and that is without a moment having been spent on an actual alternative. They had not planned for anything other than getting the bailout so they agreed with a weak majority. Leaders gave

party members who disagreed, the boot - can they actually do that? Some members avoided the voiding. The puppet has no clothes now - he had a job to do scare the Greek people into submission, and he did it. His chances in the April election seem low (maybe he will declare himself empower for life before then and avoid those pesky elections). Samaras is openly questioning the deal post the April elections and quite frankly the rioting and scenes from Athens were shocking. But yes, the EU will thank Greece for a string demonstration of their commitment because they too have not done anything to prepare for Greece saying no (Draghi, to his credit, has done a lot to prepare for potential fallout from a Greece not getting the bailout money). Do the EU politicians really think what happened over the weekend was an endorsement of the measures adopted? They can't, yet they don't seem prepared to say it wasn't enough, so why bother? Why play the tough guy if it's a role you won't follow through on? Why the midnight vote which only made the deal seem more backhanded? What are any of them trying to accomplish other than "win" the negotiating stance they took?

I think that is it, they took a stance and are trying to "win" based on that stance with no assessment of what it means to "win". I can't remember the message out of Wargames, but I think it was saying that if you play the game, there is no way to win, yet here we have so many politicians and lobbyists eager to play. The deeper I have gotten into the process, the more clear there is very little thought and the people trying to do develop these plans don't have the background, dont have the resources, are overworked and stressed, and even the finance ministers are politicians first and foremost. Truly scary and just like tic tac toe, the only way to win his to have the other side make a mistake. Or for your kid brother to get angry, rip up the paper, and whip the pencils across the room. Picture Athens last night. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 1 vote) 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

this penned agreement is worth the paper it's printed on. Actually, what makes anyone think there is an agreement in the first place? This agreement is similar to the effect one would get attempting to use use duct tape, glue, and rubber band, to hold together blue cheese. 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.

50

Economy/ Culture/

Curated News Edition

EURUSD Unch As Stocks Win But Major Financials Lose Intraday


Tyler Durden

early morning high yields, bounced after the European close and then rallied into the day [unable to retrieve full-text session close in the US (ignored content] by stocks) to end mixed with the As we noted earlier, volumes in short-end higher by 1-2bps and equity(cash and futures) were the long-end lower in yield by 1dismal today and yet we managed 2bps as the flattening dragged an to close at the highs of the day earlier ebullient CONTEXT(broad after gapping up to open last risk asset proxy) back down to night, sliding into Europe's close earth again. Oil dominated chatter (as they derisked broadly) only to as the halt gapped up ETFs only limp above VWAP and close just to slide back after it reopened under 1350 in ES (the e-mini S&P though ending +1.9% from Friday futures contract) - right around the and above $100.5 at the close. level of the open at the day- Gold tracked the USD almost session - though we note that perfectly (ending unch) while while financials outperformed, the Silver outperformed its precious majors all lost considerable friend modestly and Copper ground from the open. Credit(HY underperformed. and IG) tracked pretty well all day Credit has rallied off Friday's w i t h s t o c k s ( a n d w e h e a r d opening lows (and is well synced liquidity was even worse over with stocks from that point) but t h e r e ) b u t m a i n t a i n s i t s remains a notable underperformer underperforming stance post-NFP from the NFP print gap up (left of (especially high-yield credit). chart). Stocks (blue) remain the EURUSD was the standout today clear outperformer for now on though as it leaked all the way lower and lower volumes. back from a positive morning to Major financials underperformed close unchanged from Friday - from their opening levels today. just under 1.32 and at its worst Utilities underperformed and levels of the day. Among FX I n d u s t r i a l s a n d F i n a n c i a l s majors, AUD outperformed but outperformed (making us suspect JPY's push after the European s o m e U S - E U f i n a n c i a l close held FX carry swings in decompression trades being laid check and provided little fillip for out given our earlier comments). ES. Treasuries rallied well off Interestingly the major banks in
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:10:45 PM

the US saw quite weak performances. BofA ended down 0.36% from where it opened in stock trading, MS opened nicely higher and did nothing but sell-off all day (off 2.5% from its open) and ended the day -0.5%, GS slid all the way from its gap up open to fill the gap (off 1% from its open highs), JPM outperformed, and Citi lost 2% from its open. Of course AAPL traded over $500, lost it during the middle of the day but then reaccelerated and is trading near its all-time highs again after-hours up at $503.70 (for now). In FX, AUD held on to some gains but USD strength against EUR's slow bleed from 1.3285 peaks intraday moved most FX back close to unchanged. JPY's overnight weakness on a big macro miss was ignored as Europe got going and then came back into the close of the US day session as EURUSD closed under 1.32 practically unch. With Treasuries mixed (after a relatively volatile day), FX flat, and commodities diverging, risk assets in general ended up reverting back to ES once again in this narrow post-NFP print range that ES has traded in. A longerterm CONTEXT that tracked preand immediately post-NFP very

well has shown the relative exuberance in CONTEXT at the sniff of a rally (perhaps as equity volumes are dead then Treasuries or FX are being more levered?) but again and again we have seen CONTEXT (risk asset proxy) pull back to some sense of reality from stocks (though we note that highyield credit is once again suggesting market-neutrality is perhaps the more reasonable approach to a long-only book right now - i.e. hedge your beta though we are very close to fair either way). All-in-all- a blah day but the European financial (and now US financial) action is worrisome (given its supposed leadership) and the credit weakness needs to correct higher if we are to see decent new leg higher in stocks from here. The volatility in CONTEXT is interesting in that it has been able to support an extended run in stocks during the last week - if we see one of the major risk drivers start to lose ground (EURUSD, Treasury curve, Oil?) then we suspect we will see stocks happily track it back down in a hurry. Charts: Bloomberg and Capital Context

The digital classroom [infographic]


(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:44:00 PM

Via Online Universities. (H/T Muhammad Saleem) The scoop on education. Permalink| Leave a comment

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51

Germany Speaks: Not So Fast On The Greek "Deal"


Tyler Durden
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:57:05 PM

Europe's now painfully transparent policy of demanding that Greece decide to default on its own is becoming so glaringly obvious, we truly fear for the intellectual capacity of everyone who ramps the EURUSD on any incremental "europe is saved"

rumor. As a reminder, yesterday we said, in parallel with the Greek irrelevant MoU vote: "The only real questions are i) what the Greek population may do in response to this latest selling out of a population "led" by an unelected banker, which if history is any precedent, the answer is not much, and ii) how Germany will subvert this latest event, and put

the bail [sic] back in Greece's court once again." We documented on i) earlier today- a couple of burned down buildings, a few vandalized store fronts, lots of tear gas and that's about it, as people still either don't believe or can't grasp the seriousness of the situation. As for ii) we now get the first indication that not all may be well on Wednesday. From the

FT: "European officials rushed to finalise details of a 130bn Greek bail-out on Monday amid signs Germany and its eurozone allies may not be prepared to approve the deal at a finance minsters meeting on Wednesday, despite Athens backing new austerity measures." And so the bail [sic] is once again back in Greece's court, where however since the last such

occurrence, the parliament has 43 MPs less. Quite soon, the only person left in "charge" of the country will be the ECB apparatchick and unelected banker Lucas Papademos. Germany's ulterior motives are so bright, we gotta wear shares: One eurozone official said the GERMANY page 52

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GERMANY
continued from page 51

AMERICANS
continued from page 47

group had come up with a list of at least a half-dozen items that Greece must accept before the deal will be moved to finance ministers for final approval on Wednesday. The items on the list include, according to several officials, proof of the 325m in cuts, clarification on how Greece intends to reduce labour costs 15 per cent, and reassurance that all Greek leaders will back the deal especially after Antonis Samaras, head of the centre-right New Democracy party and Greeces presumptive next prime minister, indicated that he may try to renegotiate the pact after April elections. But the biggest weakness? The very item we noted earlier this morning, namely that " Samaras Pledges To "Renegotiate" Bailout Pact After April Elections" The parliamentary vote is important, but its not the be all and end all, said another eurozone official. Samarass explanations are shifty. So what is next up on deck: a

"conditional" bailout of Greece. If the German-led group of creditor countries emerges unconvinced, officials said lenders may turn to a plan B, where the bail-out is given conditional approval and is reassessed at the next scheduled meeting of eurozone finance ministers next week. In that case, ministers would only give the go-ahead for a critical part of the new bail-out, a 200bn restructuring of privately held debt which must begin in a matter of days in order to be completed before Greeces next bond comes due a 14.5bn redemption on March 20. To complete the voluntary restructuring, where private debt holders have agreed to cut their bonds in half, eurozone lenders must approve 30bn in new cash to serve as a sweetener for bondholders to participate. So even as the fallback plan continues to be "baffle them with bullshit" literally every day, and delay, delay, delay, while America's seasonal adjustments

somehow make it a self-contained economy in its own right, which no longer needs the benefit of the world's largest economy (and judging by the EURUSD traders out there, this just may pass), while slowly but surely everyone becomes convinced that it will be in everyone best interest just to let Greece go, and that everyone is sufficiently prepared for just that "contingency." As was the case with Lehman... At least, until the Fed had to step in with a $20 trillion bailout to preserve the Western way of life of course. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 1 vote) 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400 cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents by region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed telephone numbers. Cell phone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday. Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, and phone status (cell phone only/landline only/both, cell phone mostly, and having an unlisted landline number). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2011 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-

institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. View methodology, full question results, and trend data. For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: The United States Vs China: A Duel To The Debt The Logical Outcome Of Keynesian Economics Is A Spiral Of Decline Fun With Economic Confidence, State By State Edition

Romney Super PAC Spending Nearly Half a Million in Michigan


Michael Warren (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:49:00 PM

The New York Times reports that the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, is spending a l m o s t $ 5 0 0 , 0 0 0 o n n e w television ads in Michigan. The

ads will focus on Romney's GOP rival Newt Gingrich, even though Rick Santorum looks to be a bigger threat to Romney in

Michigan's February 28 primary. Here's more from the Times:

Curated News Edition

Economy/ Culture/ Politics-Right/

53

Jeremy Siegel Explains The #1 Reason To Be Bullish Right Now


Julia La Roche (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:07:42 PM

Angelina Jolie Focuses on Philanthropy and Hits a Berlin Red Carpet With Brad
Lindsay Miller (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:41:51 PM

When you picked up your copy of Barron's this weekend you were probably shocked to see the cover story "DOW 15,000." That bold call comes from Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel who examined 141 years of stock performance data concluding the market is due for an upswing. Siegel, the author of Stocks For the Long Run, foresees the Dow going to 15,000 and possibly even 17,000 within the next two years. What's more is he doesn't think those numbers are outlandish. "Well, believe it or not, we're not that far off...I think we're about 16% below, which means we only

do have to do about 8% a year for the remainder of this year," Siegel said this afternoon in an interview with Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television. "So I think it's actually very modest gains. I think -- I would not be shocked if we were there by the end of this year," he added. The fundamental indicator that he's been looking at is valuation of earnings. "By far I think the most persuasive bullish factor is valuation of earnings. Not only are now at a 12 or 13 or 14 -depending how you look at it -- P/ E ratio, which is below the longrun average, but I think even more importantly in an extraordinarily low interest rate environment and it does matter what your

alternatives are when you invest. And yes, I've seen stocks cheaper than this, but I've never seen stocks cheaper than this relative to bonds and I think that's a real positive factor for the market." Watch the video clip below. Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: Credit Suisse Reports A Big Q4 Loss, Will Cut Bonuses By 41% Dick Bove Goes Ballistic Over The 'Mortgage Deal From Hell' There's A Provision In This Mortgage Deal That's Just For Bank Of America And It Sounds Sweet

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt continued doing press in Berlin today after he made a quick pit stop in London over the weekend to attend the BAFTAs. He was nominated for best actor at the British film celebration, which aired yesterday evening, though The Artist star Jean Dujardin ended up taking home the honor. Brad and Angelina first flew to Germany last week for the Berlin Film Festival, where Angelina hosted a premiere of her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey. Angelina's film and her philanthropic ties are closely related, and today, she joined the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for a workshop on sexual violence and child soldiers at a Berlin hotel. After the meeting, she reunited with Brad at the Cinema for Peace gala, where she was given an

award for her film's message against genocide and war. Before accepting the honor this evening, Angelina told reporters she hopes the movie is actually difficult for audiences to see. She said, Its a strange thing to say as a director and a filmmaker, but I want people to be very uncomfortable when they watch it, and they should be upset and they should want some intervention, and they should want it to stop and they should be angry." View Slideshow

Science: Eat Cake for Breakfast


(The Feed)

study suggests. In the study, obese participants who ate a breakfast high in Via NBC Today Show: protein and carbohydrates that Good news for the kid in you: included a dessert were better able Not only can you eat cake for to stick to their diet and keep the breakfast, doing so may actually p o u n d s o f f l o n g e r t h a n help you keep weight off, a new participants who ate a low-carb,
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:59:02 AM

low-calorie breakfast that did not include sweets. The findings suggest that both meal timing and meal composition play a role in weight loss. Carbs and protein eaten at breakfast may keep us full throughout the day, plus allowing

ourselves some sweets helps to stem cravings for these foods, said study researcher Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, of Tel Aviv University in Israel. . . Its science so it must be true. . . Greg Pollowitz 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Economy/ Culture/

Curated News Edition

The Many Reasons You Should Keep An Eye On Serbia


Adam Taylor (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:34:21 PM

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux Show PDA at Her Exclusive Birthday Bash
Lauren Turner (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:42:09 PM

Serbia hasn't had the best time in the last few years. Regional strife with Kosovo refuses to die down, while this winter it took the brunt of Europe's deadly cold snap. However, a fascinating article from the Economist points out that hidden beneath these attention-grabbing problems, it looks like the very economic core of Serbia could well be rotten. Unemployment last November hit 23.7%, while the much-touted privatization of a major steel factory failed and the plant had to be "re-nationalized". Ivana Prica, an economist at Belgrade University, tells the Economist that another problem is a high trade deficit that is leading to huge amounts of foreign debt a path familiar to the Greeks. The result seems to be a political swing to the nationalist right, a familiar sight for much of Europe. An offshoot of an extremist party, the Serbian Progressive Party

(SNS), seems to have around 30% of the vote in an upcoming election. The problem is, of course, that Serbia sits in the middle of a geopolitical and recent historical context that means this swing to the right could have far more consequence. Read more at The Economist > Please follow Europe on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story See Also: The Most Dangerous Cities In Europe Europe Is Full Of 'Ticking Time Bombs' Of Toxic Red Sludge BRUISINGS, BURNINGS AND BEATINGS: Europe's Worst Soccer Hooligans

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux embraced on the balcony of the Chateau Marmont in LA during Jennifer's 43rd birthday party on Saturday. The couple kissed and hugged when they weren't chatting with friends or sitting down to eat. We're used to seeing Jennifer in a bikini around this time of year, but it looks like she's making new traditions with her man Justin. There was no shortage of pals on hand to toast Jennifer, though, since Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Christine Taylor, and Courteney Cox were among the guests spotted at the event. The celebratory weekend kicked off on Friday, when Jennifer and Justin met a friend for dinner. Their fun will continue on

Valentine's Day tomorrow since Jennifer and Justin are set to premiere their new movie, Wanderlust, in LA. The comedy doesn't hit theaters until next week, but Jennifer is already apparently lining up her next big screen project with rumors that she'll star in the best friend drama Miss You Already. View Slideshow

Curated News Edition

Culture/

55

Apple's Foxconn Auditing Group 'Surrounded With Controversy' Critics Say


Christina Bonnington (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:00:00 PM

Staff members work on the production line at the Foxconn complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Southern city in China. Photo: Kin Cheung/AP Following ongoing public outcry and organized protests at Apple stores last week, Apple has announced that an organization called the Fair Labor Association is conducting independent assessments of worker conditions inside the factories of Foxconn, its manufacturing partner in China. The FLA audit began this morning in Shenzens Foxconn City. In the inspections, FLA representatives will interview thousands of factory employees about their living and working conditions, delving into topics such as compensation, health and safety, working hours, and the workerss communication with management. The results of the inspections will be posted on the FLAs website in early March. We were hoping for a quick response, but I dont know if we were actually expecting such a fast response from Apple, said Sarah Ryan, a human rights organizer at Change.org, one of two groups that orchestrated last Its especially exciting that these weeks protests at Apple stores. audits are going to transparent and public.

Notably, however, another key advocate of the Foxconn workers wasnt so impressed with Apples

a n n o u n c e m e n t . T a r e n SumOfUs.org, told Wired, Were Stinebrickner-Kauffman, APPLE'S page 58 executive director of

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Culture/

Curated News Edition

Whitney Houston Mourned at Her Home Church


(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)

(Photo: REUTERS/Adam Hunger) Flowers and a card are seen left as a memorial to deceased singer Whitney Houston, in front of the New Hope Baptist Church, where she sang in the choir, in Newark, New Jersey February 12, 2012. Houston, whose soaring voice lifted her to the top of the pop music world but whose personal decline was fueled by years of drug use, died on Saturday afternoon in a Beverly Hills hotel room. She was 48. (Photo: REUTERS/Adam Hunger) Parishioners of The New Hope Baptist Church where Whitney Houston sang in the choir leave after a morning service in Newark, New Jersey February 12, 2012. Houston, whose soaring voice lifted her to the top of the pop music world but whose personal decline was fueled by years of drug use, died on Saturday afternoon in a Beverly Hills hotel room. She was 48. (Photo: REUTERS/Adam Hunger) Flowers and a card are seen at a makeshift memorial in front of The New Hope Baptist Church, where Whitney Houston sang in the choir, to mourn the

death of the singer in Newark, New Jersey February 12, 2012. Houston, whose soaring voice lifted her to the top of the pop music world but whose personal decline was fueled by years of drug use, died on Saturday afternoon in a Beverly Hills hotel room. She was 48. February 13, 2012| 8:29 am "The family shared Whitney with the world, but Whitney was a mother, a daughter, and a sister, and that's the focus we want to keep in front of everyone today," Pastor Joe Carter told reporters who had gathered at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., early Sunday morning as the first and only-for-members service was about to begin. The 48-year-old singer and actor reportedly died in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Calif., Saturday. The cause of her death may not be known until weeks later as toxicology results are awaited and an investigation is pending. But relatives of the singer told TMZ.com that prescription drugs and alcohol might have been the cause. Shawn Cooper, a 32-year-old member of the New Hope church, told The Associated Press that although he hadn't been coming to church regularly, he felt "I should be here today because this is a

time for the community to come together." "The Houston family means a lot to this community, they have done a lot for this community, and being there for them is the best thing we can do as a community today." Charice Crawford, a fan of the six-time Grammy winner, also came to the church from Irvington although she is not a member. "This is where I needed to be this morning," she said. "I understand why I couldn't attend the service, but being here helps ease the grief of her passing." Houston would have performed at a pre-Grammy party at the hotel had she not died Saturday. Like us on Facebook Later on Sunday, civil rights activist and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson came to the church, and said Houston's death "traumatized" him. "Before we could adjust to ["Soul Train" show host Don Cornelius' death], the news broke last night about Whitney," he said. "The two announcements had a devastating impact." Jackson also recalled that Houston performed and grew up "in this wonderful church," which was involved in America's civil rights struggle. By the age of 11, Houston started performing in the junior gospel choir at the New

Hope church, and amazed the congregation with her first solo performance which was a rendition of "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." Bishop T.D. Jakes also mourned Houston's death during the worship service at the Potter's House megachurch in Dallas, Texas, Sunday. "Many of you have heard the shocking news about Whitney Houston. I share the shock and was deeply stunned. I'm going to ask the church to reach out in prayer for her family," he said, according to the Examiner. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also expressed shock, saying, "Her terribly premature death is an awful loss for her family and the incredible New Jersey musical family. Her soaring talent put her in the pantheon of great New Jersey musical talents like Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Bruce Springsteen. Our prayers are with her family." Houston was born in a neighborhood of Newark, and was the third and youngest child of entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr., and gospel singer Cissy Houston. She was raised a Baptist, but also attended a Pentecostal church during a period of her growing up. Houston was cited in the Guinness World Records in 2009

as the most-awarded female artist of all time. Among the 415 career awards she won were two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards. Some of her best known hits include: "How Will I Know," "Saving All My Love for You" and "I Will Always Love You." Houston, whose career peaked in the 1980s and the 1990s, suffered from drug abuse and her career declined dramatically following years of success and number 1 hits. SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S CHURCH MOURNING HER DEATH SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S FINAL PERFORMANCE BEFORE DEATH SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON & BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN PERFORMING "MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE" SEE VIDEO OF LL COOL J'S PRAYER FOR WHITNEY HOUSTON ON GRAMMYS 2012 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentWHITNEY page 58

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Culture/

57

Michelle Obama Visits Fla. Megachurch; Urges Religious Groups to Fight Obesity
(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)

(Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque) U.S. first lady Michelle Obama speaks during a "Let's Move" faith and communities event at Northland Church in Longwood, Florida February 11, 2012. The first lady is on a three-day trip to mark the two-year anniversary of her "Let's Move" initiative. February 12, 2012| 9:36 am "Sometimes folks won't do it if it wasn't said right here," she said, speaking to about 3,000 people from more than 120 congregations and organizations, representing over 15 faiths and denomination s, at Northland, A Church Distributed in central Florida. The Rev. Joel Hunter, a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and who serves as senior pastor of the Northland church, introduced Mrs. Obama as a "talented, caring, a very physically fit first lady" who is most proud of being "Malia and Sasha's mom." She was in Orlando on the last day of her three-day tour to mark the second anniversary of her "Let's Move!" initiative to fight childhood obesity. "You serve as a beacon for those

who are lost, a refuge for those who've been forgotten," she told religious individuals and groups. "And our faith communities don't tend only to folks' spiritual health but to their emotional and their physical health as well," she said. "Think for a moment about the scripture that tells us that your bodies are temples given to you by God. That is a core teaching of so many of our faiths a teaching that calls us to honor and nourish the bodies we've been blessed with, and to help others do the same." She said one-third of children in America are overweight or obese and therefore at risk for serious conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease "that undermine their health, that diminish their prospects, and they cost our economy billions of dollars each year." While Michelle Obama might like to keep her campaign separate from politics, her tour, which comes months before the presidential election, boosts the president's image. Reporters asked her about her husband's reelection bid while she was touring in Dallas on Friday, to which she replied, "I want him to be my president for another four years." She added that her approach to campaigning is, "This is the time that I have to give to the

campaign and whatever you do with that time is up to you, but when it's over, don't even look at me... No calls. No anything." Like us on Facebook While Obama's talk at the church on Saturday drew a lot of cheering and laughter, her arrival at the church campus was marked by anti-abortion protests. Activists held up placards declaring abortion as murder, but didn't mention her husband's administration by name. The first lady praised Pastor Hunter's megachurch, which has a congregation of 15,000. It's no accident, she said, that the Northland church hosts classes to "help folks lead healthier lives." "It's no accident that, long before we ever started 'Let's Move,' so many congregations were already sponsoring health ministries and fitness classes, hosting food pantries and summer nutrition programs for our kids." Obama also mentioned the National Council of Churches, which she said had joined with Ample Harvest, an organization that helps gardeners donate fresh produce to 4,700 of their local food pantries. "The National Baptist Convention is aiming to have health ambassadors at all of their nearly 10,000 churches by September," she added. "And some of their churches have

already created "no fry" zones in their congregations." She said all faith communities were promoting a healthy lifestyle. "Muslim community leaders are hosting sports tournaments to encourage young people to get active," she said. "The Jewish Community Centers Association is working with JCCs around the country to grow gardens, and to get fresh food into underserved areas, and they're [creating] early child wellness programs." She told the crowd that members of Let's Move Faith and Communities, which was created to partner with faith-based groups, had sponsored more than 1,000 summer nutrition sites providing millions of healthy meals for children in need. "So just imagine what we could achieve if every single organization and every single congregation in America got involved in this way Imagine how many children we could feed Imagine how many lives would be transformed." The first lady recalled the days when she was growing up, saying, "You might not even understand how life was back then. Most of us led reasonably healthy lives. We walked to and from school every day rain or shine." But the times have changed. "How many of us find ourselves looking

forward to that fried chicken and mac and cheese, pound cake, after church on Sunday?" she asked. "Some people come to church just for the fried chicken." She also underlined the need to revive the tradition of cooking and eating in the kitchen. "We still do that at the White House. It's a little, bitty kitchen big, old house, everybody sitting in the kitchen. No matter where you're sitting in the kitchen. I'm not cooking, but but we still like the kitchen. Dirtying every pot, cooking everyone's favorite dishes, talking, laughing, sharing stories late into the night. That's family." Obama said the government doesn't have all the answers. "There's no one-size-fits-all program or policy that will solve this problem. Every family and every community is different. Each of us needs to make the changes that fit with our budgets, our beliefs, and our tastes." 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Politics-Right/

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APPLE'S
continued from page 55

WHITNEY
continued from page 56

hopeful that this is a step towards the solution, but its not even close to the solution itself. The FLA does not have a great track record of conducting effective investigations. SumOfUs and Change.org cosponsored a petition asking Apple to respond to allegations of Foxconn worker abuse, and to commit to developing ethical products. More than 250,000 people signed the petition, which was hand-delivered to Apple Stores across the globe on Thursday morning. A second petition, from Hong Kong group SACOM, takes last weeks protest one step further by outlining five specific areas in which Apple needs to improve, including ending the use of student workers and providing a living wage for factory employees. Although knowledge of poor working conditions inside Foxconn has existed for years, after Apples record earnings in 2011, the issue struck a big nerve with much of the public. A New York Times piece that highlighted some of the dire conditions inside Apples Chinese factories motivated people to start taking action against the status quo. The new FLA investigations, detailed in an Apple press release, appear to be direct a response to this outcry. Apple has conducted more than 40 supply chain audits of Foxconn since 2006 and over 500 audits of its factories total.

We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why weve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers, Tim Cook, Apples CEO, said in the release. As an Apple consumer, Im relieved to hear that Tim Cook is taking this seriously and is breaking ground in the industry with Fair Labor Association auditing, said Mark Shields, the consumer who originally launched the Change.org petition, in a statement. But Apple still needs to use some of their trademark creativity and problem solving to create a worker protection plan for new products especially the upcoming iPad 3 so that theyre proactively taking care of their workers. But for those looking for Apple (as well as other tech companies) to really change their ways, the FLA may not be the best company to perform these assessments, if its history is anything to go by. Stinebrickner-Kauffman pointed out a site called FLA Watch thats dedicated to monitoring the companys well-publicized audits. It calls the FLA a public relations mouthpiece for corporations (particularly the apparel industry). The FLA was created in response to student protests around the sweatshop issue in the late 90s, specifically to monitor

garment shops, with NIKE as a founding member, Teresa Cheng, international campaigns coordinator with United Students Against Sweatshops (the organization behind FLA Watch), told Wired. Ten years later, we see little to no reform of sweatshop conditions in NIKEs supply chain, and no positive changes can be attributed to the FLA. Another veteran of the garment industry backs up Chengs opinion of audits. Reading that Apple has been auditing their vendors since 2006 does not mean anything, says Sindy Sagastume, production manager for a fashion company called Aimee Lynn, which imports clothing for distribution to companies like Walmart, Target, and Sears. Audits are truly a tool used by retailers in the US to make themselves seem to be socially compliant, but in fact does nothing to ensure factories are acting appropriately, Sagastume told Wired. So how much teeth does the FLA really have behind its audits? The organization has developed a code of conduct with which it judges workplace conditions, but all it does is investigate and report on working conditions; it doesnt actually instigate any change itself. According to the organizations website: The FLA is a brand accountability system that places the onus on companies

to voluntarily achieve the FLAs labor standards in the factories manufacturing their products. In other words: The FLA is a reporting agency, not a policing agency. Any real change for Foxconn workers will come from either Foxconn itself, or pressure from the Chinese government or Apple. Ryan of Change.org, while encouraged by todays Apple announcement, also conceded the FLA is surrounded with controversy in terms of effectiveness and objectiveness. Nonetheless, Change.org recognizes that Apple has an existing relationship with the FLA, and as long as its findings are open and transparent, thats a good thing. This is at best a decent first step, echoed StinebricknerKauffman of SumOfUs.org. At worst, the beginning of a whitewashing campaign. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Israeli Envoys Targeted in India, Georgia; Iran Blamed


(The Feed)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 8:24:33 AM

Via BBC: An explosion hit an embassy car in Delhi, injuring one diplomat. Police said there had been an incident but could not confirm an attack. Israeli and Georgian officials said a bomb had been found beneath a diplomats car in Tbilisi but was found and defused before it could go off. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was behind the two incidents. The War with Iran continues. Greg Pollowitz 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Culture/ Gaming/

59

Avoid Amazon Cloud Bill Shock with uptimeCloud


Mike Barton (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:12:00 PM

Uptime Software on Monday began offering its uptimeCloud online monitoring and forecasting tool for Amazon Web Services (AWS), offering to help users avoid bill shock by letting them monitor usage throughout a given month. The new service, priced based on a percentage of a customers AWS bill, calculates existing charges then projects them through the month. The service allows budget to be set, and alarms can be set for when the bill is exceeding the given target range. A screenshot of the uptimeCloud forecast dashboard. The service introduces economic cloud intelligence, providing dashboards to monitor and measure the cost of cloud deployments in real-time, predict future cloud costs based on actual workloads, provide automated cloud cost-saving recommendations, and help IT

easily break out cloud cost and usage by department, line-ofbusiness, application, SLA, location, user, internal budget code and more, the company said in a release Monday. Cost is the key driver in moving the cloud and, at the same time, cost uncertainty is the clouds biggest barrier and risk for companies. uptimeCloud completely removes that risk, Alex Bewley, CTO of uptime software, said in a statement. uptimeCloud is the first solution to offer this type of service with this level of graphical visualization and simplicity. UptimeCloud, which allows for bill handling if you are inclined to provide it with login details, is said to understand AWSs EC2 billing tiers and can analyze a bill and recommend ways to save money. But the service does not require login details for monitoring, instead using AWS read-only monitoring API, which allows it to collect 400 data points on running virtual machines, the c o m p a n y t o l d

came up with a different number than the tech sites comparison did: These analyses are always tricky to do and you always need to make apples-to-apples cost comparisons and the benefits associated with each approach. Were always happy to work with InformationWeek (IW). those wanting to get in to the There are many scenarios that the details of these analyses; we service might help with. Uptimes continue to focus on lowering marketing director, Nick Johnson, infrastructure costs and were far gave IW one example: from being done. Uptime has used its product to With uptimeCloud, AWS detect when a sales support customers can go beyond taking engineer ramped up a lot of big Amazons word for it, and make machines, then accidentally left sure they are getting the most them on for two months. An bang for their buck. The more you expected $27 charge grew into a s a v e t h e l e s s y o u p a y $4,000 bill, and our CFO hates it u p t i m e S o f w t w a r e , a n y w a y . when that happens, he added. The company put together a short They hadnt expected an alert was video on the service: needed, so none was set, but at This entry passed through the least IT could track down the Full-Text RSS service if this is source of the overage and prevent your content and you're reading it another occurrence. on someone else's site, please read M e a n w h i l e , A m a z o n t o o k the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentGigOm to task over the weekend only/faq.php#publishers. Five for a recent cost comparison it did Filters recommends: Donate to on self-hosting versus using Wikileaks. Amazon. AWS Jeff Bar writes

Online Pass makes it into North American Vita titles


Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:49:00 PM

Last month, word came out that the Japanese version of Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for the PlayStation Vita included an online pass. With the embargo on North American Vita coverage lifted, we can now confirm that the American version does indeed feature an online pass. Of the Vita games we've acquired so far, Wipeout 2048 is the only other title to feature an online pass. Those are currently the only titles with passes available on the US PlayStation Store, so it would seem that the rest of the launch lineup is free of the online pass's ten-dollar grip -- for now. Online Pass makes it into North American Vita titles originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Culture/

Curated News Edition

Privacy Tool Lets Users Quickly Rank Websites on Privacy Policies


Kim Zetter (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:01:00 PM

Website privacy policies, like end -user agreements, have become a morass of confusion that offer little in the way of clarity about what sites are and arent tracking. A new tool and website launched today purports to clear some of the fog around this issue. PrivacyChoice has analyzed more than a thousand of the most trafficked web sites to score them on a scale of 1 to 100 in their collection and use of personal data, as well as the collection and use practices of the third-party companies that they allow to track users on their sites. The tools algorithm gives points to sites for various activities such as 30 points if the site does not share personal data such as names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers, 10 points if the site deletes data promptly when a user closes an account and 5 points if the site notifies users when government agencies request user data from them. Third-party companies such as advertisers receive 20 points if they dont associate identification data with your web activity, 5 points if they dont collect data on sensitive areas such as health history and financial records. Users can visit privacyscore.com

and search for specific websites to see their scores. They can also install a free browser plug-in that provides a real-time privacy score at the top of each website they visit based on what the site is collecting when they visit it. Users can opt in to share that information with PrivacyChoice to allow the service to expand and improve its algorithm. Jim Brock, the founder of PrivacyChoice, said the system does not store user information. Weve engineered our system so we cannot go back and retrace your [online] steps, he said. We

dont save IP address information at all. We dont plant cookies that could track the user. Weve been very careful to make sure theres no way we can go in and figure out what your browser history is. The average score for sites is 71, which The New York Times received. Fox News received a higher score of 84, along with Amazon.com, while The Washington Post got 82. CNN, however, has a score of 43, while Wired.com received only a score of 42. Brock said the service is as much for website owners as for

consumers, since it allows web sites to see what third parties are doing on their sites and then pressure their ad and widget servers to change their policies so the website can increase its score. We show this to websites and the first question they ask is how do I get my score up, Brock said. We tell them you have to talk to the people who track on your site and tell them, We need you to delete data, to be more explicit about what you do with data. Were hoping this whole feedback loop between the websites and the tracking

companies will cause these scores to go up. PrivacyChoice plans to launch another service within a few weeks that will use an algorithm to analyze privacy policies that users submit, using keyword searches and other parameters, in order to categorize the policies quickly for users. Homepage art: Wiertz Sbastien/ Flickr This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it PRIVACY page 62

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61

Whitney Houston Dead: Troubled Singer Dies Aged 48 (VIDEO)


(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)

declined dramatically following years of success. She will be heralded by some as February 11, 2012| 8:32 pm one of the greatest voices of all P u b l i c i s t K r i s t e n F o s t e r time, and will be recorded as one announced the singer's death, of the world's bestselling solo however, she did not mention the artists of all time. cause and the location of her Some of her best known hits death. But it now appears as include: "How Will I Know," though her body was found at the "Saving All My Love for You" Beverly Hilton hotel. and "I Will Always Love You." (Photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni) Houston won a number of Whitney Houston bows after Grammy awards including best performing "I Didn't Know My album and record of the year, and Own Strength" at the 2009 became recognized for her role in American Music Awards in Los "The Bodyguard," starring Kevin Angeles, California November 22, Costner. 2009. Like us on Facebook Houston, whose career peaked in READ MORE: WAS WHITNEY the 1980s and 90s, suffered from HOUSTON CHRISTIAN? STAR d r u g a b u s e a n d h e r c a r e e r TRAGICALLY DIES AGED 48

However, her amazing success came at a price and years of drug abuse saw her looks and her voice suffer significantly. But despite her decline the music world and her fans will be left

stunned at her sudden death. SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S HIT SONG "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU" SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S HIT "THE

GREATEST LOVE OF ALL" HERE SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S HIT "I'M EVERY WOMAN" HERE SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S HIT "I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY" HERE SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON'S HIT "IT'S NOT RIGHT BUT IT'S OK" HERE 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

See All the Pictures From the Grammys Red Carpet, Show, and More
Allie Merriam (PopSugar)

donned by some of music's biggest names like Fergie, Nicki Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:42:27 PM Minaj, and Rihanna. The fun The Grammy Awards took place continued during the show, thanks in LA last night! The action to host LL Cool J. In addition to started right away on the star- p a y i n g h o m a g e t o t h e l a t e studded Grammys red carpet, Whitney Houston, there were where outlandish fashions were l i g h t e r m o m e n t s t h a n k s t o

performances from Rihanna and Coldplay, Katy Perry, Paul

McCartney, and even the Beach here in one place, so click through B o y s . T h e n i g h t , t h o u g h , to see any images you may have belonged to Adele with six wins missed! View Slideshow for her song "Someone Like You" and her album 21. The Foo Fighters were a close second with five new statues. We've rounded up ALL the Grammys pictures

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on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

'House' Gets An End Date


Crystal Bell (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:21:27 PM

Sara Ramirez Previews 'Grey's Anatomy' And 'Private Practice' Crossover


Alex Moaba (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)

Mark your calendars " House" fans. The Fox medical drama will officially end its eight-season run on May 21. In February Fox and executive producers David Shore, Katie Jacobs and Hugh Laurie announced that after much deliberation it was decided that Season 8 will be the show's last. "While it's with much regret, and a lump in our throats, we respect the decision Hugh, David and Katie have made," Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment at Fox, said in a statement. "A true original, on the page and amazingly brought to life by Hugh Laurie, there is only one Dr. House. For eight seasons, the entire 'House' team has given us -and fans around the world -- some

of the most compelling characters and affecting stories ever seen on television... For all the above, we wholeheartedly thank them, and the fans who have supported the show." The end doesn't come as much of a surprise. Series star Laurie was only contracted through Season 8, which was renewed amidst budget cuts. Additionally, Lisa Edelstein left the show between Season 7 and Season 8. Laurie has also said he'll retire from TV after "House" ends. "House" isn't the only show that may have overstayed it's welcome on TV. From another longrunning medical drama to the current teen favorite that just won't quit, click through the slideshow below to see which shows overstayed their welcome on the small screen.

involves a meat grinder," Ramirez reported to gasps from the panel. Whoopi Goldberg went on to Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:55:26 PM compliment Ramirez on "Grey's" Two weeks after the"Grey's recent "If/Then" episode. "I A n a t o m y " a l t e r n a t e r e a l i t y thought it was really beautifully episode, series creator Shonda done," she said, prompting Rhimes has another special Ramirez to discuss it further. "Grey's" episode planned for "Kate Walsh came back, and Thursday night: a crossover some of us were paired up with episode with her other medical different people," the actress drama, " Private Practice." explained. "Kelly was with Owen "Grey's" star Sara Ramirez with children. The actors, we have s t o p p e d b y " T h e V i e w " fun when we get to do different (weekdays on ABC) to preview hair and makeup and clothes. In a the crossover. "Amelia Shepherd, sense, you're almost playing a Derek's sister, is going to be different character." coming over to enlist Derek to TV Replay scours the vast help save a life. Cristina and television landscape to find the Owen enter couples' therapy, so most interesting, amusing, and, on that's going to be very interesting. a good day, amazing moments, The oral boards are coming up for and delivers them right to your the residents, so Meredith and browser. Kelly work together on a case that

Goodbye to Russia as Barrick to exit Roman Abramovich gold venture


Emma Rowley (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:14:38 PM

Barrick Gold, the world's biggest

gold producer, has put its stake in a Russian miner backed by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich up for sale - a move seen as marking its exit from the

region.

Curated News Edition

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63

Greece calls for elections after debt riots


(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 2/13/2012 10:09:36 AM

Referring to European Union demands led by Germany for written pledges by party leaders to G r e e c e w i l l h o l d g e n e r a l carry out the reforms demanded, elections in April, the government Kapsis said they "must be given has said, hours after parliament by Wednesday". voted through tough new austerity Kapsis admitted that measures aimed at saving the W e d n e s d a y ' s m e e t i n g w i t h country from bankruptcy. European leaders to decide "This government has one to one- whether to release the new bailout and-a-half months left," Pantelis "is going to be a difficult one". Kapsis, a government spokesman, Athens aftermath told journalists on Monday. "We Meanwhile, firefighters doused will finish up in March, and smouldering buildings in the elections will be held in April." G r e e k c a p i t a l , w i t h c r e w s Lucas Papademos, the Greek s w e e p i n g r u b b l e f r o m t h e prime minister who formed a streets after rioting sparked by the coalition government in n e w harsh austerity November after the fall of George measures approved on Sunday by P a p a n d r e o u ' s s o c i a l i s t legislators. administration, had indicated that The cleanup started on Monday he did not intend to serve the full after at least 45 buildings were t w o y e a r s r e m a i n i n g o f burned, including one of Athens' parliament's mandate. oldest cinemas. Dozens of stores He said that his only aim was to and cafes were also smashed and negotiate the write-down of part looted in Sunday's rioting. of Athens' debt and ensure that it The stench of tear gas still hung qualified for a new European in the air on Monday morning, bailout of $171bn. choking passers-by, according While he managed to push to the Associated Press. through the latest austerity More than 170 people were hurt measures, the two main parties in the rioting which also broke out each saw more than 20 of their in other Greek cities. MPs rebel, while the extreme- The authorities said 106 police r i g h t L A O S p a r t y q u i t t h e needed medical care after being coalition before the vote. injured by petrol bombs, rocks "The government believes that and other objects hurled at them. yesterday's vote expressed our At least 70 protesters were also determination to go forward," hospitalised. Kapsis said. "The Greek people Police arrested at least 74 people want us to stay in the euro, and and detained a further 92, while in we will do whatever it takes to several cases they had to escort stay in the euro." fire crews to burning buildings

after protesters prevented access. Rescue package The drastic cuts debated in parliament include axing one in five civil service jobs over the next three years and slashing the minimum wage by more than a fifth. Legislators approved the bill in a 199-74 vote - to the relief of investors who pushed the Athens stock index up 5 per cent on Monday. The vote paves the way for Greece's international creditors to release $72bn in new rescue loans. Analysts say bankruptcy could push Greece out of Europe's euro currency union, drag down other troubled eurozone countries and further roil global markets. As flames still burn in some parts of the city, the Greek people continued to express their anger. "We should have left nothing

standing. Not a stone, not the parliament. Because they are traitors. Tell me one of them who is not a traitor," former naval officer Petros Dogas told the Reuters news agency. Architect Nikos Markou too expressed his disappointment in the nation's law-makers. "This is not the fault of the people. This is the fault of those people in there. Everything started with them, and it's been years now" he said. MPs expelled The front pages of the nation's newspapers echoed those sentiments of anger and dissatisfaction. "Night of terror" hollered the Tipos newspaper while Ta Nea said "they said yes under fire and tears", juxtaposing the late-night parliamentary decision with the tear gas wafting in the air. The coalition government of

Papademos expelled 43 MPs from its ranks in parliament, over dissent in the debt vote. IN PICTURES: Greeks protest The Socialists and conservatives expelled 22 and 21 MPs, respectively, from their parliamentary groups early on Monday, reducing their majority in the 300-seat parliament from 236 to 193. A third coalition partner, the rightist LAOS party, effectively withdrew from the government on Friday after its leader publicly opposed the deal. Al Jazeera's John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens said the sizable majority had established clear support for the prime minister as the details of the cuts are pushed through parliament in coming weeks. "It is a very important majority for the government it helps legitimise the measures," he said. Papademos told legislators shortly before they voted that they would be gravely mistaken if they rejected the package that demands deep pay, pension and job cuts, as this would threaten Greece's place in the European mainstream. "It would be a huge historical injustice if the country from which European culture sprang ... reached bankruptcy and was led, due to one more mistake, to national isolation and national despair," he said. The chaos outside parliament GREECE page 66

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Curated News Edition

Israeli envoys targeted in India and Georgia


(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:07:21 PM

harm Israelis and Jews in recent months, in places such as Thailand and Azerbaijan, in a Israeli diplomats have been series of attacks co-ordinated by targeted by car bombs in India Tehran and Lebanon's Shia and Georgia, leaving four injured movement, Hezbollah. and Israel's foreign minister "In all these incidents, those promising a response. responsible were Iran and its Police in New Delhi said a bomb protege Hezbollah," he said. wrecked a car belonging to the Israel would continue to act "with Israeli embassy in the Indian a firm hand" to stamp out capital carrying the wife of the "international terror coming from Israeli defence attache as she was Iran," he said. going to pick up her children from Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's school on Monday. foreign minister, told reporters in She needed surgery to remove Jerusalem he knows "exactly who shrapnel but her life was not in is responsible for the attack and danger, officials said. who planned it". "She was able to drag herself from "We're not going to take it lying t h e c a r a n d i s n o w a t t h e down" American hospital (in New Al Jazeera's Cal Perry, reporting Delhi), where two Israeli doctors from Jerusalem, said the attacks are treating her," an Israeli were "near simultaneous". defence ministry spokesman said. "That is going to lend weight to Three others suffered lesser those who will point the finger at injuries in the same blast. a larger organisation, maybe even Another Israeli embassy vehicle a country like Iran, maybe was targeted in Tbilisi, the capital Hezbollah," Perry said. of Georgia, where the car's driver Iran rejected the accusations as found a package attached to the "sheer lies", the official IRNA u n d e r c a r r i a g e a n d p o l i c e news agency quoted the Islamic discovered and defused a grenade. Republic's ambassador to New Iran accused Delhi as saying. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli " A n y t e r r o r i s t a t t a c k i s prime minister, blamed Iran for condemned (by Iran) and we the attacks on the Israeli embassy s t r o n g l y r e j e c t t h e u n t r u e staff. comments by an Israeli official," "[Iran] is the biggest exporter of Mehdi Nabizadeh was quoted as terror in the world," Netanyahu saying by IRNA. told members of his rightwing "These accusations are untrue and Likud party. sheer lies, like previous times." The Israeli leader said there had High-security area been a number of attempts to Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri,

embassies had already been on high-alert for potential attacks. "It was four years ago, almost to the day, on February 12 that Imad Mughniyah, the military leader of Hezbollah was assassinated in Damascus and Hezbollah has been warning that they will retaliate for this assassination and has always pointed the finger at Israel," Perry said. "All of Israel's embassies were on high alert starting on the 12th as a normal course of security every year. But this is the first year that we have seen simultaneous attacks on foreign soil, which was reporting from New Delhi, said David Goldfarb, Israeli embassy also something that Hezbollah the targeted vehicle there was spokesman, said that one of the said it would do." parked down the street from the occupants in the car was an Israeli US Secretary of State Hillary Israeli embassy in a high security diplomat, but declined to identify Clinton condemned the attacks as "cowardly" and offered US area, about a kilometre away from him. the prime minister's residence. A photograph on NDTV showed assistance in any investigation. "Witnesses discribed how the car t h e T o y o t a s t a t i o n w a g o n "I condemn in the strongest exploded in flames. One side of engulfed in flames in the middle possible terms the bombing of an the car had been completely of the road. Later television Israeli diplomatic vehicle in India charred. The bonnet had been flug footage showed the vehicle burnt and the attempted attack on Israeli open and exploded in flames. out and the area cordoned off by Embassy personnel in Georgia," Clinton said in a statement. I s r a e l ' s P r i m e M i n i s t e r police. Netanyahu accused Iran and its "There was an explosion in an "The scourge of terrorism is an ally Hezbollah of involvement in Israeli diplomat's car but we don't affront to the entire international the attacks [Reuters] know how it happened, Goldfarb community," she added. "Other witnesses discribed two said. "We are in constant contact "The United States places a high priority on the safety and security people on motor bikes throwing with the local authorities." some kind of device [at the car], Shota Uitashvili, spokesman for of diplomatic personnel around and police are trying to find out the Georgian Interior Ministry, the world and we stand ready to what kind of device that was. said the car in Tbilisi was in a car assist with any investigation of Indian forensic teams as well as park about 200 metres from the these cowardly actions," Clinton Israeli embassy staff are at the embassy, where the driver had said. scene of the incident, trying to parked it in the morning after This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is piece together what exactly has coming from his home. happened," our correspondent 'Retaliation' ISRAELI page 66 said. As Perry points out, Israeli

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65

UN rights chief condemns Syria violence


(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 2/13/2012 12:29:47 PM

attacking the central city with a barrage of tank shells, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled The UN Security Council's grenades. inability to pass a resolution on The assault on Homs began on S y r i a h a s e n c o u r a g e d t h e the same day Russia and China government to step up its assault vetoed a second UN Security on the opposition and launch an Council resolution on Syria. " i n d i s c r i m i n a t e a t t a c k " o n That move prompted the Arab civilians in the city of Homs, the League to ask the United Nations UN human rights chief has said. for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping "The failure of the Security mission to the strife-torn country. C o u n c i l t o a g r e e o n f i r m Syria has however ignored the collective action appears to have latest Arab initiative to end the emboldened the Syrian bloodshed, with tanks and government to launch an all-out artillery continuing to pound assault in an effort to crush Homs. dissent with overwhelming force," "The risk of a humanitarian crisis N a v i P i l l a y , t h e H i g h throughout Syria is rising," Commissioner for Human Rights warned Pillay in the UN address. told the UN General Assembly on Russia balks Monday. Earlier on Monday, Russia's Pillay added that crimes against foreign minister made it clear that h u m a n i t y h a v e l i k e l y b e e n Moscow would not support a plan committed in the bloody to send United Nations c r a c k d o w n o n d i s s i d e n t s . peacekeepers to Syria unless there "The nature and scale of abuses was a halt to violence by both committed by Syrian forces government forces and their indicate that crimes against armed opponents. humanity are likely to have been Sergei Lavrov said on Monday committed since March 2011," that Russia was studying the s h e s a i d , s p e a k i n g o f t h e proposal for a joint UN-Arab crackdown in which an estimated peacekeeping force in Syria, 6,000 people have died in less announced on Sunday at an Arab than a year. League meeting in Cairo, and Activists say President Bashar al- wanted more details. Assad's forces have killed at least But his remarks suggested his 500 people in Homs just since country, which has veto power at February 4 when they began the UN Security Council, would

the Syrian government, though they did not demand the expulsion of Syrian ambassadors from member states. Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi foreign minister, conveyed the 22-nation league's deep frustration with Syria, telling delegates that it was no longer appropriate to stand by and watch the bloodshed. "Until when will we remain spectators?'' he said. The bloodshed in Syria, "is a disgrace for us as Muslims and Arabs to accept". The Arab League suspended an observer mission in Syria last use the proposal to Russia joined China in a double month, and on Sunday that underscore its own argument that veto to block a UN Security Elaraby accepted the resignation t h e g o v e r n m e n t ' s a r m e d Council resolution supporting an of Sudanese General Mohammed opponents are no less of an Arab League call for Assad to al-Dabi, who led the troubled obstacle to peace than Assad's quit, provoking strong criticism mission. forces. from the Western and Arab sates Elaraby recommended appointing former Jordanian foreign minister UN peacekeeping missions "need that supported the draft. and UN envoy to Libya Abdel to first have a peace to support," Bloodshed denounced Lavrov told a news conference On Sunday, the Arab League I l a h a l - K h a t i b a s D a b i ' s after talks with Sheikh Abdullah called on the UN Security Council r e p l a c e m e n t . bin Zayed al-Nahyan, foreign to create a joint peacekeeping This entry passed through the minister of the United Arab force for Syria and urged Arab Full-Text RSS service if this is Emirates Foreign Minister. states to sever all diplomatic your content and you're reading it "In other words, it is necessary to contact with Assad's government. on someone else's site, please read a g r e e t o s o m e t h i n g l i k e a Syria immediately rejected the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentceasefire, but the tragedy is that move, spelled out in a resolution only/faq.php#publishers. Five the armed groups that are adopted by the league's foreign Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks. confronting the forces of the ministers meeting in Cairo. regime are not subordinate to Arab foreign ministers also a n y o n e a n d a r e n o t u n d e r decided to halt all diplomatic control," Lavrov said in Moscow. dealings with representatives of

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showed how tough it will be to implement the measures. "We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning; the centre of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our c o u n t r y d o w n , " conservative politician Costis Hatzidakis told parliament. This entry passed through the

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Music Monday: Rest In Peace, Whitney Houston


(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 9:00:00 AM

ISRAELI
continued from page 64

your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

TED: Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer: The toxic baby? Tyrone Hayes / Penelope Jagessar Chaffer (2010)
TEDTalks (TEDTalks (video))
Submitted at 2/13/2012 10:31:48 AM

Filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer was curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant: Could they affect her unborn child? So she asked scientist Tyrone Hayes to brief

dare question a guy as connected as the great Bill Laswell? In a very short time, Whitney You've already heard plenty of managed to be the voice of the Whitney Houston this weekend, Olympics, a gentle balladeer and, so we'll leave if up to you if you once upon a time, would regularly want to follow these links or not. make a cover song her own. She But those who loved her voice (of lost some of that voice doing which Scott is one) can join us crazy things as she aged, sure, but after the jump. We're not going do the music she left behind is worth a lot of biography or dig up new so much more than all the rumors dirt, but in her prime, Whitney and heartbreak. As an example, Houston had a voice as clear as a play the next song and see what though, because you've probably bell... hits you the strongest. Is it the U2 can't name her siblings at all. and it's just a shame that it sample? Or is it how the vocals What made her a star was her faded away so fast. Our little from the very talented Whitneytalent. Even if you don't care for tribute to her passing is inside. As alike just slightly miss the mark? her music, you gotta admit the always, click on the image to be Whitney Houston had a great woman could sing: linked to the song. voice and she did great work and And don't forget, she still paid Middle class, New Jerseyite, today I'm sorry she passed on. I her dues. Whitney Houston Catholic schoolgirl, fashion can't say I know what album she started out singing gospel in model, and connected to major did last, but I certainly know what church, and then worked as industry figures. Normally you'd came before. And with seven backup singer before she was expect this pedigree to create number one hits, what came even old enough to drink. When some pop princess with a vocoder before seems like enough to call her hits were still far off, she even her on one he studied closely: strapped to her microphone. But did a little work with underground her a superstar. atrazine, a herbicide used on corn. t h a t w a s a c t u a l l y W h i t n e y jazz/dub/everything legend Bill Whitney Houston, rest in peace. (Hayes, an expert on amphibians, Houston's early life, growing up Laswell, as part of his early Once you're done listening here, is a critic of atrazine, which as the cousin of Dionne and Dee Material project. The song below come join us in our regular Music displays a disturbing effect on D e e W a r w i c k a n d t h e might sound a little "of its time" Monday Turntable FM room and frog development.) Onstage goddaughter of Aretha Franklin but it's still awful pretty, and what we'll cheer you up with some fun. together at TEDWomen, Hayes herself. It wasn't just her family judgmental hipster would ever connections that sealed the deal, and Chaffer tell their story.

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TV/

67

Marsha Bemko: Famous Fakes: Tips on How Not to Get Ripped Off
Marsha Bemko (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)

true. Then there's what some might call the Roadshow nightmare: Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:11:03 PM Discovering you own a fake! As the executive producer of Fakes are tricky. History is Antiques Roadshow, I get asked littered with stories of esteemed to peek in underwear drawers. experts being fooled, one of the Well, sometimes I do. If you're most famous a holding in the not interested in showing me Vatican Library: "The Donation something precious that's been of Constantine," a manuscript tucked in between your silkies, supposedly written in the 4th then it's some dusty corner of the century which is like a "deed" house: do other people go to giving the Church much of the dinner parties and wind up getting land in Italy and western Europe. dirty in the attic? Hundreds of years after its As we climb the stairs I tell my acceptance, it was discovered to h o p e f u l h o s t s , " I ' m n o t a n be a forgery. Or more recently, appraiser, I just sound like one." Han van Meegeren, an infamous Or, "Producing a show about Dutch forger of 17th century antiques doesn't give me the painter Johannes Vermeer, selling background I need to evaluate "Vermeers" for 7-figure prices your object." And when we and earning millions before being f i n a l l y r e a c h t h e t r e a s u r e caught. (Fakes can skew the destination, I prep them with this future: the deeded land stayed little tidbit: "If you think you have with the Church, and can we ever a six-figure object in your house be sure all those "Vermeers" were that you don't know about... you discovered?) don't." Really. In every city we visit, Roadshow Ah, but one in ten thousand confronts fakes. My favorite from times, it does happens. You see it this season's tapings is a story every Monday on PBS as millions from Atlanta. Kim came to us watch Roadshow dreams come with a stunning Faberg egg for

which she paid quite a bit: $15,000 at auction. As the interview unfolded, appraiser Sebastian Clarke of Doyle New York didn't keep her in suspense: Kim had unintentionally bought a fake, or what some in the industry call "Fauxberg." Sebastian details some of the offending issues: the decoration is punched out instead of being chased (engraved) the egg isn't a known Faberg form, the enameling is off. As a matter of fact, our experts needed less than 30 seconds to make the judgment. To a trained eye, it's obvious. But to an untrained eye, and that includes this Roadshow producer, not so apparent. After we returned from the Atlanta taping I stayed in contact with Kim. She just couldn't believe her egg wasn't right. I did the double check and shared the footage with the country's top experts who confirmed what we learned: the egg is a fake. Watch for this segment coming up on April 16th in Hour 1 from Atlanta: Kim handles the bad news with aplomb responding,

"So, I can put my husband's ashes in there one day." There are lessons to be learned from Kim's expensive mistake whether you're buying precious eggs or art glass: First and foremost, be like an appraiser, assume the object isn't right and let the quality tell you what you've got -- not the signature! Secondly, when buying at auction pay attention to the listing's details: does it say Faberg or Faberg-style? You don't want "style." If buying from a dealer will she guarantee the piece? Unlike buying from a pawnshop most dealers will stand behind the items they sell. And always pay attention to the provenance, the item's story, because those trails really do matter. What else did Kim learn that fateful day in Atlanta? Her Fauxberg is worth $3,000 to $4,000 at auction. Authentic Faberg eggs sell in hundreds of thousands of dollars: the $15,000 purchase price was a warning in and of itself. The ultimate lesson in all categories of collecting: Do your

homework by seeing and touching authenticated works. As the Barbizon painter, Theodore Rousseau pointed out, "We should all realize that we can only talk about the bad forgeries, the ones that have been detected; the good ones are still hanging on the walls." So this Valentine's Day, remember the lesson the Vermeer forger taught the world: In art, as in love, skepticism is your friend. Follow your heart, but trust your instincts. If you're going to spend a substantial amount of money, first find a reputable expert who knows a lot more than you do. Then if it still feels right, go for it. Even if you get a little dirty. Watch Preview: 20th-C. Fake Faberge Enamel Egg on PBS. See more from Antiques Roadshow. 'Antiques Roadshow' is on TONIGHT at 8 p.m. on PBS. Go to pbs.org/antiques for behind-the -scenes and web exclusive content.

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Curated News Edition

Best Of Toy Fair: Part One


(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 11:00:00 AM

Over the weekend Scott visited the 2012 Toy Fair in New York City. Since the rest of the world was freaking out over little purple skrulls, Scott decided to find something more worthwhile. And he did! This week he'll be recapping the high points from his wandering. Be sure to keep one eye here and the other on our kids.woot blog so you can enjoy all the posts in full. See that huge crowd? That's all that was standing between me and the very latest toys of the year. I enjoyed the good, endured the bad, and now I'm ready to award The Best Of Toy Fair 2012! Join me after the jump to see okay, fine, here's a little preview: Best Four Dimensional Puzzle The 4D Cityscape Time Puzzle could be the perfect thing for a never-ending rainy day. First you slap the outline into place, then you start putting down buildings, then you consult the included chart to replace the buildings over time. Miss the skyline of Manhattan in the 1970s? Want to see how Tokyo evolved from the 80s to today? Just feel like playing Doctor Who and jumping from age to age? Just want a little diorama of the '50s? These puzzles have you covered no matter which way you play it. Want more toys? Come inside! There were plenty of things at

Toy Far you just wouldn't care about. And then there were the creme de la creme s, the toys that made me wish I could buy a one right then and there. I'm pretty sure that most of you will understand why, especially after you see... Best Indirect Homage Spartacus fan? Schleich's battle rhinoceros is probably as close as you'll ever get to a Doctore action figure. Designed to make your inner twelve year old scream "Mommy, buy me that!" at the top of his or her lungs, this well-

we were told TheO's website will soon launch a downloadable software suite so programmers can design their own ball throwing games for fun. The potential for real world violence and open source? Sign. Us. Up. Best Executive Desk Toy CHH takes it to the rim with this wooden basketball game (with manual score-counter!) that will add a little class to your cubicle. Even if you never play it, it'll still mark you as a fan. We're just hoping it'll be out before March Madness begins. Best Stuffed Animal For GrownUps Up-and-coming company Aroma Home has this happy little puppy pillow for cold, cold nights. Microwave him for about a minute and you'll be snuggling into a bedtime friend who'll hold his heat for a few hours. Also, see that ladybug to the right? If you're sculpted toy really captures the Best College Dorm Toy looking for a place to keep the f e e l i n g o f , w e l l , a t t a c k i n g TheO is a snazzy orange ball in remote control, that bug's for you. someone with your rhinoceros. which your iPhone gets stuffed. Toys aren't just for kids these Here's a slightly closer version if Then you throw your iPhone days, you know. you want to see the face. Good across the room. Before you say Scott's got more to come all this stuff, right? "Not in a million years!" take our week, including more "Best Of" Best Flat-Out Swipe word for it: your iPhone is never winners and a look at the annual "No," Playmobil said when I ever ever popping out. The TheO mascot parade. Let us know what asked them about this familiar is well designed and tough and you think in the comments below! face, "It's just a singer! You'd will keep your technology safe. Oh, and sorry if we spoiled the never have to license a random Check out this eighteen year old skrull thing for you. But, in our singer!" And yet, check out that kid trying to wreck it by bowling: hearts, we all knew they'd show convict in the foreground. Dare Use the software to connect to a up eventually. we call it a Freudian slip? Deep in computer or a smart TV and his heart, the set-up guy knows you've got a whole new way to the truth. play your games. And even better,

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Products/ News Photos

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NHTSA investigates the power window switches of 2006-07 Chevrolet Trailblazer SUVs
Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 8:29:59 AM

Citibank Closes My Credit Card Due To Security Breach, Doesn't Tell Me Until I Sign In Online
Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)

NHTSA investigates the power window switches of 2006-07 Chevrolet Trailblazer SUVs The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into 2006 and 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazers SUVs. The safety agency has received consumer complaints of the power windows switches on the driver's door melting or burning. According to NHTSA's Office of Defect Investigations, there have been 12 consumer complaints and other reports from General Motors of the master window switch on the Chevy Trailblazer melting. Several of the consumer complaints report the master power window switches have led

to fires in the driver's door. The door fires occurred while the SUVs were running as well when vehicles were left unintended and "key off," according to the NHTSA. Separately, the NHTSA's ODI recently opened an investigation of 2007 Toyota RAV4 SUVs and Toyota Camry sedans for similar consumer complaints of door fires, also possibly due to power window switches. Engineers with the ODI and GM will investigate the issue further

data breach via email at the very least but the CS rep had nothing to say other than to offer her Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:00:00 PM apologies. If I hadn't logged on, I and determine if an official recall It's great that Citibank went wouldn't have known about a for 2006 and 2007 model year ahead and closed Sylvia's account potential risk until I received my Chevrolet Trailblazer SUVs is after it was breached, thus saving new card in the mail. warranted. her from thievery and other This is not the first time this has Consumers can file a vehicle unpleasant security concerns. One happened with Citi in my years safety complaint with the thing that would've been even with them. Using snail mail to NHTSA's website, better, though, would be to let inform customers of potential www.SaferCar.gov. Sylvia know they'd gone ahead identity risks is a ridiculous way For more information, check out and done that. of doing business in a digital age our post: How to write a NHTSA Sylvia says she had no clue she and just poor customer service. complaint - and make it useful. wouldn't be able to use her One might think that if your ODI Investigation: 2006-7 Citicard until she happened to log customer is savvy enough to be Chevrolet Trailblazer - Electrical in online. That's when she found enrolled in the online service System Action #: out her account had closed and aspect of the card, that they also PE12003[NHTSA] Subscribe she'd be receiving a new card. use and read email. now! There was no email heads up, no This entry passed through the S u b s c r i b e t o details on who/what/when/where/ Full-Text RSS service if this is ConsumerReports.org for expert how said breach happened. She your content and you're reading it Ratings, buying advice and writes that she called customer on someone else's site, please read reliability on hundreds of service and they were all like, the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentproducts. Update your feed shrug! only/faq.php#publishers. Five preferences I complained that I should have Filters recommends: Donate to been notified immediately of any Wikileaks.

PHOTOS: Gwen Stefani's fall L.A.M.B line - 9NEWS.com


(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 1:20:32 PM

9NEWS.com

PHOTOS: Gwen Stefani's fall L.A.M.B line 9NEWS.com ( Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Getty

Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week) NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 11: A model poses on the runway at the LAMB Fall

2012 Presentation during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week The Box at Lincoln Center on February 11,...

and more

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FDA recalls RegenArouse herbal pills for containing tadalafil


Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 9:59:59 AM

McDonald's Ditching Cruel Pig Pens In An Attempt To Be Nicer To Porky


Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)

FDA recalls RegenArouse herbal pills for containing tadalafil A recall of RegenArouse, a "natural female intimacy enhancement" supplement, is being conducted by its maker, Regeneca, Inc., said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today. The herbal pills actually contain, tadalafil, the drug found in Cialis and other pills used to treat erectile dysfunction in males. Tadalafil is an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of ED, however, it interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs (such as nitroglycerin) and may lower blood pressure to dangerous

November 29, 2011 and February 10, 2012. Consumers with the recalled RegenArouse pills are urged to call Regeneca's toll-free customer support line (800-690-6958) for instructions on how to return the pills for a full refund. Regeneca, Inc. Issues A levels. And because it is an Voluntary Nationwide Recall Of u n l i s t e d i n g r e d i e n t i n t h e A Specific Lot Of RegenArouse RegenArouse herbal supplement, Because Of Potential Health the FDA and Regeneca have Risks[FDA] Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o announced the voluntary recall. The recalled affects one lot (Lot ConsumerReports.org for expert N u m b e r : 1 3 0 1 0 0 ) o f t h e Ratings, buying advice and RegenArouse drug with an reliability on hundreds of expiration date of 12/5/2013 and a products. Update your feed UPC code of 816860010079. The preferences packages of pink pills were sold online directly to consumers in the U.S and Puerto Rico from

Gestation pens are about 2 feet by 7 feet, which is too small for a full -sized sow to turn around. The Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:00:00 PM Humane Society says pigs in For those little piggies staying those types of pens are more home, where home in this case is likely to contract diseases and fall a pig pen, there's some good news ill, and suffer psychologically. McDonald's has announced McDonald's is kind of slow to the they're going to require their park game, as Chipotle put the kibosh suppliers to get rid of gestation on small cages 11 years ago. They pens, long decried as cruel by require their suppliers to raise animal-rights groups. Joyful oinks pigs outside or in bigger cages. all around! This is the latest in a spate of "There are alternatives that we recent attempts by McDonald's to think are better for the welfare of polish up their image, including sows," Dan Gorsky, McDonald's the announcement that they won't senior vice president of North use pink slime in food anymore. A m e r i c a s u p p l y - c h a i n McDonald's to Phase Out Pigmanagement, said in a statement Cruel Pens[Bloomberg] today, released with the Humane This entry passed through the Society of the United States, Full-Text RSS service if this is according to Bloomberg News. your content and you're reading it T h e c h a n g e o v e r w o n ' t b e on someone else's site, please read immediate, as McD's is asking the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contenttheir suppliers to submit plans by only/faq.php#publishers. Five May as to how they'll phase out Filters recommends: Donate to the metal cages eventually. Wikileaks.

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71

Looking For Love In All The New photos show Electronic Places: Older People Now Whitney Houston's last Really Getting Into Online Dating meal - New York Post
Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)

people are also latching onto online dating as a way to meet new partners, they're not looking Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:00:00 PM for the same things as the younger It wouldn't be Valentine's Day generations. week without the prerequisite For example, researchers found r o m a n c e a n d d a t i n g n e w s that those later in life are more crawling out to remind everyone likely to market themselves that yes, there are single people in h o n e s t l y a n d s e e k t r u e the world, and they're looking for c o m p a t i b i l i t y , r a t h e r t h a n love. And guess what? It's not just advertising their "sexual prowess you young kids surfing the net for and nightlife." a match, as a new study says the To those in the online dating fastest growing age group in business seeking to attract seniors online dating are those over 60. to their sites, the researchers A study out of Bowling Green suggest using areas to describe State University in Ohio (via personal characteristics like Jezebel) says that while older " a f f e c t i o n , i n t e l l i g e n c e ,

independence, purpose and goals, religion and spirituality, political beliefs, health and status." A common sentiment among the women, especially, seems to be "Don't waste my time." Amen, sisters. Finding love has no expiration date[BGSU] 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

(news photos - Google News)


Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:16:38 PM

New York Post New photos show Whitney Houston's last meal New York Post New photos offer clues about what Whitney Houston was doing before she died, with one showing that may have had beer and Champagne. TMZ obtained the two photos, one of which shows a room service table with two plates, a Heineken can and an

empty... Whitney Houston's Final Meal -Photos of Alcohol in Hotel Room TMZ.com Photos, story: Troubled music, movie star Whitney Houston dies at 48 Appleton Post Crescent Photos, story: Troubled pop singer, film star Whitney Houston dies at 48 Green Bay Press Gazette Pioneer Press- StandardNetChristian Post all 21,338 news articles

Zynga's Dream Heights ready to build tiny towers on App Store


Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:00:00 PM

There's been plenty of controversy regarding the visual similarities between NimbleBit's popular Tiny Tower and Zynga's Dream Heights, but now the public can check out the full monty. Zynga announced that

Dream Heights, which "surely isn't the first of many great games already in this category" according to the publisher, is now widely available. Zynga describes Dream Heights as the "most social" game of its kind, allowing players to invite their Facebook friends to the mobile title. As of this writing there are two

polar reviews: 1 star: "Simply awful and

shameful attempt to capitalize on the success of Tiny Tower." 5 stars: "Dream Heights is beautiful, fun and polished. Another must-play from Zynga." Check out Dream Heights and let us know what you think. Gallery: NimbleBit Letter to Zynga Zynga's Dream Heights ready to

build tiny towers on App Store originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

72

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Curated News Edition

Builders' Show: Dimmers that work with any lightbulb


Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 8:59:59 AM

Sen. Blunt Vows to Keep Pressure on Obama Over Anti-Conscience Mandate


Rob Bluey (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)

Builders' Show: Dimmers that work with any lightbulb Up to now, if you wanted to dim CFL or LED bulbs, you would have to buy the right dimmer for that type of bulbor live with flickering and other issues. Levitons Universal Dimmer, on display at the International Builders Show, is the first thats claimed to work with practically any dimmable compact fluorescent, LED, or incandescent bulb and even with halogenfluorescent hybrid bulbs. Consumer Reports' lightbulb tests have shown that using a dimmer

made for incandescent bulbs often means not being able to activate dimmable CFLs or LEDs on their lowest-light setting. According to Leviton, the Universal Dimmer solves that problem. An adjustment on the dimmer lets you set it for the type of bulb youre poweringCFL, LED, or incandescentregardless of who made it. While Leviton suggests using bulbs from the same

manufacturer for consistent performance, the dimmer will work with multiple brands at once provided the bulbs are the same type and wattage. Levitons Universal Dimmer should be available in March and will cost under $25 at lighting stores and other retailers. Well see how well this dimmer delivers a full range of light, from bright to mood lighting. --Bob Markovich 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

longer offends me because I dont have to pay for it, I guess youre concern is financial all the time and not faith-based. Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:27:43 PM S e n . R o y B l u n t ( R - M O ) Blunt introduced the Respect for introduced legislation to protect Rights of Conscience Act last religious organizations from August. It would allow employers Obamacares overreach last to decline coverage of services in summer. Now, as President conflict with religious beliefs. He Obama presses forward with his tried to offer it as an amendment anti-conscience mandate, Blunt is last week, but was blocked by prepared to keep the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry the White House. Reid (D-NV). This is a genuine assault on First We want to be sure weve Amendment freedoms, Blunt established the principle here that said in an exclusive interview the Constitution establishes with Heritage following a speech t h a t P r e s i d e n t W a s h i n g t o n here Monday. understood and President Obamas controversial mandate, Jefferson understood, and my a result of Obamacare, requires guess is, every president between religious institutions to provide them and right now understood for contraceptives, abortion- and that is respect for conscience inducing drugs and sterilization in is respect for religious freedom, their health coverage even if it Blunt said. violates the beliefs of those This entry passed through the institutions Full-Text RSS service if this is B l u n t d i s m i s s e d O b a m a s your content and you're reading it accommodation announcement on someone else's site, please read last week as an accounting the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentgimmick. He said its not an only/faq.php#publishers. Five i s s u e o f m o n e y a s O b a m a Filters recommends: Donate to portrayed it Friday. Wikileaks. This is not about cost. Its about the Constitution, Blunt said. And if you can decide this no

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Sports/

73

Exclusive: Jeremy Lin says 'Lin-sanity' was triggered by a leap of faith - San Jose Mercury News
(- Bing News)

Mountain View, has been his guide since he was young. But Submitted at 2/13/2012 1:52:21 PM Lin admits these last few months When you see Bay Area product were a test unlike anything he had Jeremy Lin smiling on the court, seen before. tongue wagging, it's not just Sucker punched by the cold because his New York Knicks business of the NBA -- playing have won five in a row. It's not for his third team in a year -- Lin just because he's become a suffered in silence. Before he was national sensation, putting up big the talk of the sports world, before numbers night after night. he was crowned star of the Lin is smiling, primarily, because Knicks, Lin was ridden with h e f e e l s l i k e h e h a s b e e n doubt and anxiety. So he doubled delivered. down on his commitment to God. "Sometimes you come up against Without that, he believes, there a mountain and you end up would be no Lin-sanity. making the mountain seem bigger What the country sees is a than God," said Lin, who spoke Cinderella story, Lin's meteoric via phone Sunday night on the rise from the NBA Development condition that questions be limited League to unstoppable star. But to the issue of his spirituality. for Lin, it's a story of faith, the "Last year, I was on pins and beautiful struggle he's now needles. I was putting all this convinced he can win. Most unnecessary pressure on myself. importantly, it's a story of how Now, I feel like I'm free out he'll be completely fine if he there." doesn't. He can no longer stroll down the "I'm not playing to prove anything streets of New York, but Lin has to anybody," Lin said. "That f i n a l l y f o u n d p e a c e . H e ' s affected my game last year and b o m b a r d e d w i t h i n t e r v i e w my joy last year. With all the requests (he even turned down media attention, all the love from David Letterman), yet Lin is the fans (in the Bay Area), I felt I experiencing a sense of ease he's needed to prove myself. Prove never felt before. that I'm not a marketing tool, I'm His devout Christianity, bred at not a ploy to improve attendance. the Chinese Church in Christ in Prove I can play in this league.

But I've surrendered that to God. I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore." It took some time, some rough nights, long prayers and countless Bible studies. Blow No. 1 came Dec. 9. Disappointed in his rookie campaign, which saw him average 2.6 points on 38.9 percent shooting in 9.8 minutes with the Warriors, Lin said he went all out during the offseason. The hardest he's worked in his life. But before he ran a drill under new coach Mark Jackson, he was pulled from practice. General manager Larry Riley told Lin he was being waived. They gave him the song and dance about how they wanted to get him back if he cleared waivers. And Lin even understood, if not agreed, with the logic -- the Warriors were making a play for the center they desperately needed and were forced to clear salary space. That didn't take away the sting. Two days later, Lin hopped a plane to Houston with a heavy heart. Part of him was hoping to re-sign with the Warriors, his childhood team. That hope died when the Rockets claimed him off waivers. The fresh start didn't do much to

help Lin's anguish. The Rockets had so many guards on the roster, Lin said he couldn't get reps in practice. In two preseason games with Houston, he totaled 7 minutes, 51 seconds. "At the time, I was thinking if this doesn't work out, I maybe needed to take a break from basketball," Lin said. "I put in four months of training. I felt like I worked harder than anyone else. And now I was fighting for a chance to practice. I was questioning everything." Eventually, Lin started to settle in. He was developing relationships with coaches, getting good feedback. He was grasping the system and could envision a role on the team. Even the state of Texas was growing on him. But on Christmas Eve, it happened again. Lin was waived. Same deal -- the team needed to release him so they could throw big money at a big man. "I was just starting to think that was a great situation for me," Lin said. Deja vu, he thought. Only this time, the disappointment was multiple times worse. It was at that point Lin said he gave up. As he headed back to the Bay Area, he gave up trying to control

everything. He gave up worrying. Or at least he tried like crazy. He started every morning with a devotional before heading to the gym to work out. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with his family and friends, his way of keeping his mind occupied. Whenever the anxiety tried to creep in, he whispered a Bible verse to himself: And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 Three days after being waived by the Rockets, Lin was picked up by the Knicks, just in time for him to join the team in the Bay Area. He suited up and made his Knicks debut at Oracle Arena, playing 1 minute, 27 seconds, missing his only shot. No immediate signs of the Linsanity to come. "I was playing garbage minutes the first two to three weeks," Lin said. "On top of that, I had no idea what the system was and what we were doing. We couldn't practice, so I had no opportunity to prove myself. There was definitely a little bit of "what's going on?" in EXCLUSIVE: page 75

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Pebble Beach shows Tiger has a long way to go - YAHOO!


(- Bing News)

green and then bogeyed the next three holes. The two biggest names in golf B y D O U G F E R G U S O N | played together in the second-toAssociated Press last group, both feeling as though PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.(AP) they were close to breaking Tiger Woods keeps saying his through, both needed a dramatic game is close. charge at Pebble Beach. Standing on the 18th green at That player turned out to be Pebble Beach, he never looked so Mickelson. far away. In a big way. With the red sleeves from his "To put it together this week, and shirt sticking out from a black especially the final round, just vest, Woods could only watch feels terrific," Mickelson said. Sunday as Phil Mickelson made " A n d i t g i v e s m e a l o t o f one more birdie putt for an 8- confidence, but also inspires me. under 64, the final touch of a six- Because I believe now that what shot comeback to win the Pebble I'm doing is correct, and that I'm Beach National Pro-Am. able to play some of my best The white scoreboard behind the golf." 18th green was telling. Woods attributed this mess to The first stunner was seeing only one club in his bag the Mickelson go from a six-shot putter. deficit to a two-shot lead in just The putting carried him to a 67 at six holes. Then he poured it on Pebble Beach in the third round, with a magnificent shot into 2 feet giving him a chance to win for the for birdie on the 13th and an first time since Sept. 13, 2009 on aggressive play on the 14th for the PGA Tour. It let him down another one. Sunday, when he missed five Equally shocking was Woods. putts from under 5 feet. He three-putted for par and a 75, "I could not get comfortable a whopping 11 shots worse than where I could see my lines," Mickelson. Only four other Woods said. "I couldn't get the players had a higher score than putter to swing. I just could not Woods in the final round, none of g e t c o m f o r t a b l e . I t w a s whom started the day within frustrating, because I was looking range of the leader. to somehow getting off to 2- or 3Woods was two shots out of the under par through six. Phil got off lead when he walked off the sixth to that start. I had a chance to pick
Submitted at 2/13/2012 12:33:37 PM

it up through the middle part of the round. Instead, it went the other way." Lost in all this was Charlie Wi, who started the final round with a three-shot lead. Wi four-putted for double bogey on the opening hole, dropped another shot on the fifth, then three-putted from 15 feet for bogey on the sixth. Only a late rally gave him a 72 to finish two shots behind Mickelson for his fifth career runner-up finish. The win gave Mickelson his 40th career victory his goal is to get to 50, and this will help. He also became the third straight winner on the PGA Tour to start the final round at least six shots behind. And to do it with Woods as a mere bystander? "I just feel very inspired when I play with him," said Mickelson, who has posted the better score the past five times he has played alongside Woods in the final round. "I love playing with him, and he brings out some of my best golf. I hope that he continues to play better and better, and I hope that he and I have a chance to play together more in the final rounds." Mickelson took more satisfaction over having his wife, still recovering from breast cancer, come up for the weekend and even give him a pep talk when Mickelson was going nowhere in

the second round. "I was moping. It was terrible," Mickelson said. "And she said, 'Come on, now, cheer up. Let's go make some birdies.' And she was so positive, and it just changed my attitude." He became a four-time winner at Pebble Beach, where his grandfather used to caddie. It's more about the momentum he hopes this will give him going into the rest of the year. Mickelson had not won since the Houston Open last year and had fallen out of the top 10 in the world. He started this season believing his game was about to turn the corner, only to miss the cut at Torrey Pines and finish out of the top 25 in two other tournaments. "It's one of the more emotional victories for me than I've had, and the reason is I've had some doubt these last couple of weeks, given the scores I've shot," Mickelson said. "Having these great practice sessions, I started to wonder if I'm going to be able to bring it to the golf course. So this gives me a lot of confidence and erases the doubt." Despite the six-shot deficit, Mickelson drew optimism from recent history not only his record playing alongside Woods, but the nature of Pebble Beach. He was tied for the 54-hole lead

in 2001 when Davis Love erased a seven-shot deficit in seven holes, shot 63 and won. As for the confidence he gets playing with Woods? "I just seem more focused," Mickelson said. "I know that his level of play is so much greater when he's playing his best that it just forces me to focus on my game more intently, and hit more precise shots." That's what he did. After picking up birdies on Nos. 2 and 4, Mickelson got a bonus with an 8-iron that plopped down 2 feet from the cup for a tap-in birdie at the par-3 fifth. His approach to the par-5 sixth hopped onto the green and then came another break. He knew the putt broke to the right and had a line picked out. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo Woods' partner went first from a similar line. "I saw that it broke more right than I thought, so I adjusted by a couple of inches," Mickelson said. The ball curled in from the right side of the cup, giving Mickelson the outright lead. Woods had to make a 6-footer for a two-putt birdie his first but that didn't last long. He threeputted the seventh from 18 feet, missed a 5-foot par putt on the PEBBLE page 75

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continued from page 73

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my prayers. "It's a constant battle. My flesh was constantly pulling at me. Whine. Complain. Whine. Complain. But the other side of me was thinking, 'My God is all powerful.' ... That's the sad part. When I look back, there are so many times in my life where I've questioned God. Why do I even doubt God? At the same time, it's a growing process." Lin was eventually sent back to the NBA's hinterlands -- the DLeague -- for the fourth time in his career. But he wouldn't stay long. The Knicks brought him back after he logged a tripledouble in his first game. Then, on Feb. 4, at halftime of a home game against New Jersey, injured Knicks star Carmelo Anthony suggested to coach Mike D'Antoni tat he play Lin more in the second half. Many would say that is a sign of divine intervention on its own, the team's mega-star going to bat for the guy at the far end of the bench. If that wasn't enough of a revelation, Lin responded by finishing with 25 points and seven

assists. He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter to lift the Knicks to victory. After that first big game, Lin became a starter. After the second one, he became the buzz of the nation. After the third one, he was a Hall of Famer in the making. Now, the Knicks are 5-0 with Lin running the show. He's gone from having a non-guaranteed minimum contract and sleeping on his brother's couch to having America's biggest market now concerned the Knicks can't pay him enough to keep him. "There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now," Lin said. "To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that's not how I want to do things anymore. I'm thinking about how can I trust God more. How can I surrender more? How can I bring him more glory? It's a fight. But it's one I'm going to keep fighting." There is so much now that Lin could be concerned about. Can he keep this up? What will the media do to him if he fizzles out and returns to being a back-up

point guard? What happens when Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire return to the lineup? Lin is focused on ignoring those concerns. He said he's not even worried about the pressure that comes with being a man of faith. "It's a platform I've been given," Lin said. "I want to be real. I don't want to have a false image. I want people to see who I am and what God has done in my life. "If people don't like me or are waiting for me to fail, that's on them. I don't want to offend anybody. I don't want to be overbearing. But I've got to be who I am." 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

eighth badly to the right, failed to save par from the bunker on the ninth. He headed home with another close call. Two weeks ago in his 2012 debut, Woods was tied for the 54-hole lead with Robert Rock in Abu Dhabi, couldn't break par and tied for third. He knew he would need a round of 66 at Pebble Beach to have a chance and wound up watching his old nemesis get the job done. Woods sounds insulted when asked about not winning on tour. He considers the Chevron World

Challenge against an 18-man field last December just as significant. Still, he is raising more doubts than answering questions. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Red Wings Streak Not as Impressive as that of 1975-76 Flyers: A Fans View - YAHOO!
(- Bing News)

game ends with the score tied after one overtime period a shootout takes place. The Red B y M a r k P a u l , Y a h o o ! Wings have had the luxury of Contributor Network winning three games by shootout The Philadelphia Flyers lost to during this streak. If all things the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, were equal with the old Flyers February 12. The fact that the that would have meant that the Flyers lost for the fifth time in six winning streak would have ended games is bad enough. But there on three different occasions. Just was also a little insult to add to as with different eras of any sport, the pain of losing. Detroit won comparing records is a tricky their 20 th consecutive home science. game. That ties with them with This isn't to say that Detroit's the 1975-76 Flyers for the most streak isn't impressive. Flyers fans consecutive homes wins in the are well aware of how difficult it modern era. With one more is to win a shootout. Detroit's victory at home the Flyers will be three shootout wins during the officially bumped from the record stretch are significant given the books. However, as a Flyers fan I pressure. They deserve credit for don't think that should happen. that. But at the end of the day one Detroit can thank a significant thing is true. Assuming the Red rule change for allowing them to Wings win their 21 st straight at match this streak. home it won't mean that their See, the 1975-76 Flyers never streak is better than the Flyers. Of had the luxury of a shootout. course it doesn't mean it is worse When a game ended with the either. scored tied, it was tied. That There will be arguments made for would have ended any winning both streaks. But the record books streak right there. But in today's will only indicate one if the Red NHL there are no ties. When a Wings get that 21 st win. That is a
Submitted at 2/13/2012 11:50:40 AM

shame and we can thank the NHL for it. The decision to get rid of ties in implement the shootout was never a good one. It was done to rebuild excitement after the 2004-05 season was lost. Now that enough time has gone by it might be time to revisit the rule. The idea of getting a point for a game you lose has always rubbed me the wrong way. The nature of this winning streak is just another reminder of that. * - Mark Paul is a Philadelphia Flyers fan. Follow him on Twitter here. Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Corrupt officer Dizaei jailed again


(Evening Standard - News)

Justice Saunders, said Dizaei used his position and power to arrest Submitted at 2/13/2012 9:36:35 AM Mr al-Baghdadi over a private 13 Feb 2012 dispute. The career of Britain's most He told the policeman: "You are controversial police chief has a very senior officer. The breach been ended after he was jailed for of trust that the public has placed corruption for a second time - but in you is the more serious because he could be freed in three months. of your senior appointment. Scotland Yard commander Ali "You have been a role model to Dizaei, 49, will never wear police many other people as a result of uniform again following his your achievements as a police c o n v i c t i o n a t a r e t r i a l f o r officer." misconduct and perverting the Iranian-born Dizaei, from Acton, course of justice. west London, was jailed for four Dizaei was first found guilty in years after being convicted of the 2 0 1 0 o f f r a m i n g y o u n g same offences in February 2010. businessman Waad al-Baghdadi Dizaei's solicitor Imran Khan, of in a street row. But he walked out M a n c h e s t e r - b a s e d l a w f i r m of Leyhill open prison a year later Lewis, Hymanson and Small, said after the Court of Appeal quashed he planned to challenge his the conviction. conviction. Guilty verdicts for a second time This entry passed through the mean there is now no way back Full-Text RSS service if this is for the senior officer, who created your content and you're reading it a web of lies to cover his tracks. on someone else's site, please read He received a three-year prison the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentsentence at London's Southwark only/faq.php#publishers. Five Crown Court, although this will Filters recommends: Donate to be reduced by the 15 months he Wikileaks. has already spent behind bars. Passing sentence, the judge, Mr

Curated News Edition

Gaming/ News Photos Featured/

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Halo 4's Master Chief steps boldly into the physical realm
Jessica Conditt (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:30:00 PM

How industries react to crises


(Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 7:50:26 AM

We first got a look at Halo 4's Master Chief with this epic picture of him being born from an exploding robot womb, and the physical version made by McFarlane Toys stays true to that rendition, right down to the placement of the chink in his armor. If Microsoft approves this prototype, Halo 4 will mark a departure from previous armor designs, which have generally offered more coverage around Master Chief's vital organs, and more mobility around the neck and shoulders. Because that's what armor should do. For example, the Halo 4 version offers a squishy black bullseye

over Master Chief's heart, while in Halo 3 that area was covered in sturdy green armor. The bicep patches in the above design look large enough to carry your emblem of choice (unicorn), but not to stop advanced-technology bullets from piercing your skin as

the fall as part of McFarlane's Halo 4 lineup, which will include brand new weapons, characters and vehicles. This year McFarlane also plans to drop two new product lines based in the Halo universe: Micro Ops, which offers classic figures at 1:100 standard size, and Halo Avatars, 2.5-inch physical renditions of Xbox Live avatars. Halo 4's Master Chief steps boldly into the physical realm originally appeared on Joystiq on previous armor versions do. Also, Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST. he's fighting a galactic war, not Please see our terms for use of practicing advanced yoga -- there feeds. is no reason for that much Permalink| Email this| Comments uncovered space on his hips. Microsoft will decide if this prototype is close enough to ingame reality before it launches in

The idea of companies reacting to crises about product quality issues is not new. The first time I personally encountered it, on the other side of the equation -- as a vendor -was with copy protection in the 80s. We were doing it like "everyone else" was. Kind of like the address book scandal that's breaking out now. My company wasn't the main target of the outrage, Lotus Development was. That doesn't mean we didn't get punished by our customers, we did. And we HOW page 78

Photos: 136th Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show - Denver Post
(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:34:21 PM

Gothamist Photos: 136th Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show

Denver Post Photos from the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show held at Madison Square Garden. February in New York, 2012. A dog named Giorgio

Armani has taken its first winning steps at the Westminster Kennel Club show. Photos: The New Yorkie Dog Fashion Show Gothamist Westminster Dog Show 2012:

The best photos from day one National Post Westminster Dog Show 2012: Behind-the-Scenes Grooming of Competitors [ PHOTOS] International Business Times

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deserved it, and like everyone else, eventually we gave the customers what they wanted. But it took too long. And I learned an important lesson here. It totally influenced my thinking about the role of vendors in relation to customers, and who's really doing the innovating. The first tech crisis that came about after the birth of the blogosphere was the controversy about floating point math errors in Intel chips. A professor in Virginia had discovered that under some circumstances the math processor in an Intel chip would return the wrong answer! You could demo it in an Excel spreadsheet. The company responded at first with a technical answer, explaining how unlikely it is that anyone would ever see an incorrect result. As an engineer and mathematician and computer guy, I understood what they were saying, and was willing, personally, to take them at their word. But this did not go over at all with users and the press. Computers are supposed to be perfect. No bugs allowed. They didn't care how unlikely it is -- fix it! That seemed to be what people were saying. Intel tried to wait it out. They tried to stonewall it. I

don't remember if they ever attacked the critics personally as we're seeing in the industry response to AddressBookGate, but if they had it wouldn't have gotten the results they were hoping for. Eventually Intel had to relent and offered to replace anyone's CPU with one that didn't have the bug. The cost of the exchange was huge. Not just in dollars spent on fixing the problem, but in reputation and trust lost. People found out that computer chips were fallable. This is not something they wanted to know. And had Intel responded initially with the response they eventually had to implement, the cost would have been much lower. It cost them a lot to try to douse the flames, and it didn't work. The classic textbook example of a crisis perfectly handled was the Tylenol tampering incident in 1982. Some unknown person had put cyanide poison in a few bottles of Tylenol in Chicago, and seven users died as a result. This was not something, in the opinion of Johnson & Johnson, the owners of the product, they could brush off, or explain. They immediately, with no hesitation, took responsibility. They emptied store

shelves of their product, even though the vast majority of them were not poisoned. They did not re-introduce the product until they had a process in place that would guarantee not that it was unlikely their product would be tampered with (Intel's defense) but guaranteed that it was impossible. All the double-security packaging you see on medical and food products these days is a result of that incident in 1982. That industry went from being innocent about possible security issues to passionate about it. It could have been the death, not only of seven customers, but of the brand. Tylenol quickly came back to the top, and trust in their product and the company went up as a result of the incident. And when Tylenol communicated about the incident, they validated people's concerns, they did not dismiss them, or minimize them. They have families too! No one wants to take a pain reliever thinking it might be poison. They understood. They are humans, like we are. This is what the tech industry should be learning. Will the adults in the industry get with the CEOs, behind closed doors, and coach them on this process. You simply

can't win by trying to intimidate people who ask serious questions about the security of your products. The truth is that repressive, murderous governments have been caught hacking into commercial vendors servers to get information about people they want to repress or murder. They use social networks to find out who they are associating with. This is a problem that is recognized by all serious security experts. It's not something you can or should want to brush aside. Here's a chance for your companies to shine. Instead the response has been even more sequestered than Intel's response to a much more benign issue, 18 years ago. It's time to make this change in tech, once and for all. Your products are not toys, they are used seriously by real people. You need to show respect for your product, and that means respect for your users.

Frozen Fruit Flies Come Back to Life


Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:21:46 PM

Drosophila Melanogaster Mr.checker via Wikimedia Feeding flies a "cryoprotectant" can save them from the cold A larval fruit fly is hatched in the year 2011 and frozen while still pupating, half its body water solidified in frigid temperatures. After spending many generations in a state of suspended animation, the wee Drosophila melanogaster awakens and is allowed to grow up. One day, it wonders if it will ever be able to mate - but should it bring new larvae into this dystopian future? As it turns out, the fly can successfully mate after all, and its offspring are perfectly healthy new larvae. Too bad for the fly, it dies in the lab so scientists can find out exactly how it survived FROZEN page 79

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this cryopreservation. Vladimr Kotl and fellow researchers in the Czech Republic did this very experiment and they say fruit flies can survive being frozen at 23 degrees F, so long as they are fed a special pre-freeze diet containing an amino acid from their Arctic cousins. Freeze tolerance is thought to be a highly complicated process in animals - only a few insects can do it at all, while the accumulation of ice crystals in most vertebrates' bodies is either very harmful or fatal. Kotl and colleagues wanted to find out how complex it would be to help D. melanogaster, one of the most important model organisms in modern biology, survive freezing temperatures. Pretty easy, actually, as long as they were fed a cocktail of cryopreservative before entering the big chill. An Arctic fruit fly relative called Chymomyza costata can survive

being submerged in liquid nitrogen - that's -320 degrees F and in previous research, Kotl et. al figured out they do this by accumulating an amino acid called L-proline in their bodies. In this new study, the Czech researchers fed fruit fly larvae a diet containing L-proline and glycerol, another cryoprotectant, and cooled them down. Treated larvae were able to survive after half their body water froze, which happened at 23 F (-5C). The flies were frozen for 75 minutes before being slowly warmed. "Upon melting, these larvae were able to continue development, metamorphosed into adults, and produced viable offspring," the researchers say. Other researchers have been trying to make freezable fruit flies to better understand the genes underlying susceptibility to cold. Figuring out how organisms flourish in cold could help

researchers understand how humans could, too - not necessarily to cryogenically preserve us, though that would be awesome, but to help organs survive on ice for longer periods so they can be transplanted. This research could have implications along those same lines, but it could also just be a handy solution for biologists working with flies their unique genetic lines could be preserved in a deep chill, instead of requiring large and costly gene pools of live flies. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

US gives its blessing to Google's Moto purchase


Terrence O'Brien (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:31:00 PM

patent) rights." The concern is an understandable once since all the major players in the mobile space, When it rains, it pours. Just hours Motorola included, have been at after European regulators gave the each other's legal throats for some green light to Google to snatch up time now. There are still a few Motorola Mobility, the US Justice more interested parties who will Department gave the couple it's have to give their own consent to own blessing. The $12.5 billion the combination including China, purchase has drawn serious Israel and Taiwan. But, with two scrutiny from both regulators and of the biggest potential blockades Big G's own partners, though, giving Google the thumbs up, it's consensus seems to be that looking more and more likely that Mountain View is more interested the purchase will go through. in Moto's patents than in entering Developing... the hardware business. Though US gives its blessing to Google's the Justice Department doesn't see M o t o p u r c h a s e o r i g i n a l l y the merger as an immediate threat appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 to competition, it did issue a stern Feb 2012 17:31:00 EDT. Please warning that it "will not hesitate see our terms for use of feeds. to take appropriate enforcement Permalink Reuters| Department of action to stop any anticompetitive Justice| Email this| Comments use of SEP (standard essential

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Today's NASA Budget: 'Irrational' Cuts to Planetary Science Mean Mars Missions Get the Axe
Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:31:02 PM

The James Webb Space Telescope NASA NASA's new budget is slated to land on Capitol Hill today, and it's not quite what the space agency was hoping for. President Obama is asking Congress for $17.7 billion for NASA in 2013, funding it at its lowest level in four years and a full billion dollars less than the President mapped out for the agency in the five-year budget he sent Congress last year. Perhaps hardest hit: future Mars missions. The planetary science division will lose $300 million (down to $1.2 billion, or a 20 percent cut), and Mars exploration will take the brunt of that reduction. Two scientists already briefed on

the 2013 budget have said that two joint NASA/ESA missions to explore Mars in 2016 and 2018 are getting the axe, saving NASA $1.4 billion but robbing NASA scientists of at least two more opportunities to put equipment down on the red planet. Edward Weiler, NASA's former

science? One major reason is Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is now running more than twice over budget. The $3.5 billion telescope turned $8 billion telescope has already been considered for scuttling before being saved by pledges to cut corners elsewhere. "Irrational" or not, NASA has made its decision: in the decade to come, we're (hopefully) going to see a huge bump in our deep space science capabilities via JWST, but it's going to come at the expense of planetary science. a s s o c i a t e a d m i n i s t r a t o r f o r NASA will lay out the whole science, tells PNJ: "To me, it's budget publicly in a televised totally irrational and unjustified. briefing at 2 p.m. EST. We are the only country on this [ SPACE, PNJ] planet that has the demonstrated ability to land on another planet, namely Mars. It is a national prestige issue." Why the cuts to planetary

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81

How to Pump Half a Million Gallons of Fuel From a Listing Cruise Liner
Clay Dillow and Paul Adams (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:29:00 PM

The Costa Concordia Rvongher via Wikimedia And just how much fuel is that? It's been nearly a full month since the Costa Concordia ran aground just off the Tuscan island of Giglio, and after two weeks of delays salvage workers yesterday began pumping operations aimed at recovering most of the half million gallons of fuel aboard the badly listing Italian cruise liner. Roughly 84 percent of that fuel is stuck in 15 large tanks, and pumping that volume out of the ship will likely take another month--and that's with the pumps running around the clock. Pumping fuel from a capsized and largely unstable vessel the

size of the Costa Concordia isn't going to be a simple chore. First, valves must be fixed to the tops and bottoms of each of the tanks beforehand--much of this preparation has been underway for weeks--and hoses attached to each. Then, the fuel must be heated to reduce its viscosity and

get it to flow easier. Fuel then goes out via the top valve, and seawater is piped in the bottom to fill the vacuum left by the exiting fuel. That's only half the battle. From there, salvage workers have to figure out how to deal with 500,000 gallons of potentially

hazardous petroleum fuel. 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel. How much is that? 11,905 barrels full. About 72 standard tanker cars. 10,000 bathtubs of diesel. 32,258 beer kegs full. An Olympic-sized pool holds 660,000 US gallons, so just 76 percent of that. A volume equivalent to the blood of 380,000 average adult humans. Or the capacity of a 50-footdiameter globe, like this one: At $4.16 per gallon today in New York, that's a bit over $2 million worth of fuel. With that, if your diesel car gets 20 miles per gallon, you could drive around the Earth 400 times.

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6 Gluten-Free Foods That Make You Fat


David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding (Eat This, Not That)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 1:05:50 PM

Imagine that an old high school friend of yours recently started sporting crazy neon wigs, push-up bras, and 8-inch heels to workand within a year, shed become a millionaire. Maybe you should try doing the same, right? Okay, but what if the friend in question was Nicki Minaj, while you were, well, a hardworking . . . accountant, paralegal, bus driver, or what have you. Chances are, the neon wigs and extra wiggle wouldnt exactly help in your place of business, right? Something just like that is happening right now in the world of nutrition: the gluten-free craze. People who have a sensitivity to glutena protein found in cereal grains, especially wheathave special needs (just like Nicki does), and eating gluten-free has a lot of benefits. But trying to copy that method when youre not, in fact, gluten-sensitive can have plenty of downsides. Now, cutting down on gluten means cutting down on carbs, and thats generally a good thing. The fewer muffins, bagels, and breadsticks youre scarfing up, the healthier and leaner youre going to beas long as youre replacing those carbs with nutritious foods like vegetables and lean meats. But as the number of gluten-free dieters has grown beyond those who simply can't digest gluten,

we've also seen a spike in the number of foods marketed as "gluten free." Some of these foods are okay, but many others are simply new versions of the same old problemsessentially carbloaded junk foods. Theyre the equivalent of wearing a pink beehive into a law office; cant help, probably hurts, maybe a lot. So while the jury is still out on the effectiveness of gluten-free diets, one thing is certain: The six foods on this list arent going to do youor your bellyany favors. Banish them from your diet now and you'll have less nutritional closet-cleaning to do later. MELT FAT EVERY DAY! To stay on top of the latest and greatest weight loss trends, sign up for the FREE Eat This, Not That newsletter and be sure to follow me on Twitter! Youll flatten your belly and improve your healthwithout ever dieting. 6. Worst Gluten-Free Cookie Glow Gluten-Free Gingersnap Cookies (2 cookies) 220 calories 12 g fat (5 g saturated) 16 g sugars I f youre looking to indulge without too much remorse, gingersnaps are often the way to go. Ginger naturally packs a flavorful punch without tacking on the caloric heft of chocolate chips, nuts, or candy pieces. Unfortunately, just two of Glows cookies contain as much saturated fat as 10 McDonalds Chicken

McNuggets and more calories than seven Nabisco Ginger Snaps! Enjoy Life uses fruit juices, dates, and applesauce to help sweeten and soften its cookies while keeping fat and calories to a minimum. Dont be duped by these shocking diet destroyers, either: 25 Healthy Foods That Aren't. Eat This Instead! Enjoy Life Eat Freely Soft Baked

Gingerbread Spice Nut & GlutenFree Cookies (2 cookies) 120 calories 4 g fat (0 g saturated) 10 g sugars 5. Worst Gluten-Free Bread Aleias Gluten-Free Farmhouse White Bread (2 slices) 240 calories 8 g fat (0 g saturated) 36 g carbohydrate 4 g fiber

Aleia relies on a combination of eggs and canola oil to bind its loaves, which means more fat and calories per slice. Build a sandwich on this bread, and youll be on your way to a belt-busting lunch before youve even added toppings. Instead, Udis bread cuts calories by a full third, and it's bolstered by a substantial 6 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. Eat This Instead! Udis Gluten-Free Millet-Chia Ancient Bread (2 slices) 160 calories 5 g fat (0.5 g saturated) 28 g carbohydrate 6 g fiber LOSE THE STRESS, LOSE THE WEIGHT: New research reveals how a frazzled mind leads to a fatter belly. Learn how to get your skinny on, and your stress off, with the Slim Calm Sexy Diet! 4. Worst Gluten-Free Breakfast Glutino Sesame Seed New York Style Bagel (1 bagel) 440 calories 16 g fat (3 g saturated) 620 mg sodium Bagels are notoriously caloriedenseeven those without gluten. The listed serving size may be half a bagel, but dont be fooledfew people will stop at half (be sure to check out 9 Serving Size Rip-Offs for similarly skewed servings). To add further insult, Glutinos also GLUTEN-FREE page 83

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manages to pack in more fat per bagel than three scoops of Breyers Original Strawberry ice cream. Kinnikinnicks is the most moderate bagel around. Make this your morning go-to instead, and youll save 12 pounds over six months! Eat This Instead! Kinnikinnick Foods Tapioca Rice Sesame Bagels (1 bagel) 210 calories 7 g fat (2.5 g saturated) 390 mg sodium 3. Worst GlutenFree Dessert Tias Scrumptious & Totally Healthy Gluten-Free Grandmas Chocolate Cake (1 individual sized cake) 510 calories 33 g fat (9 g saturated) 31 g sugars This Totally Healthy cake contains as many calories as 8.5 Fudgesicles, as much fat as 3.5 McDonalds Hamburgers, and more sugar than 10 feet of Fruit by the Foot candy. Splurge on one of these cakes just twice a week and youll pack on 15 extra pounds by the end of the year! Satisfy your sweet tooth with Amys deceptively decadent loaf cake; because it comes frozen, you can defrost it a single slice at a time and save the rest for later.

Eat This Instead! Amys Gluten-Free Organic Cakes, Chocolate (1 slice, 1/6 of cake) 180 calories 7 g fat (1 g saturated) 17 g sugars THE WORST DRESSED LIST: Check out the 1,500-calorie saladand 19 other restaurant meals you MUST avoidin the 20 Worst Foods In America! 2. Worst Gluten-Free Snack Udis Gluten-Free Original Granola (1 cup) 520 calories 20 g fat (2 g saturated) 20 g sugars With 20 grams each of both fat and sugar, Udis granola resembles a dessert far more than it does a breakfast food. In fact, more honey and canola oil go into this granola than do fruit or nuts. Bakery on Mains granola is still too calorie-dense to scarf down like cereal, but a judicious sprinkling over yogurt makes for a solid snack. Eat This Instead! Bakery on Main Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Cashew Granola (1 cup) 320 calories 15 g fat (1 g saturated fat) 16 g sugars

SNACK SMARTER: Check out The 50 Best Snacks in America to gauge how your favorite betweenmeal boosters stack up. 1. Worst Gluten-Free Frozen Dinner Amys Kitchen Gluten-Free Dairy Free Rice Macaroni & Cheeze (227 g) 520 calories 22 g fat (5 g saturated) 740 mg sodium Amys removes the gluten and the dairy from this dish, but leaves plenty of oil-derived fats. This diminutive tray packs as much fat as 9 Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies and fulfills 25 percent of your days saturated fat allowance. But in a rare, impressive feat, Glutino manages to create a decent Alfredo pasta. The key? A cream-free, milkbased cheese sauce and enough lean chicken to supply 15 grams of protein. Eat This Instead! Glutino Gluten-Free Chicken Penne Alfredo (260 g) 340 calories 8 g fat (3.5 g saturated) 830 mg sodium DIRTY SUPERMARKET SECRETS: You won't believe the disgusting ingredients lurking on your grocery store's shelvescheck out The 15

Grossest Things Youre Eating. -----------40 Age-Erasing Superfoods... Today's Top Food & Nutrition News... 125 Healthiest Supermarket Foods in America IMPROVE YOUR LIFEWITH YOUR iPAD! Check out the allnew interactive iPad edition of Men's Health!, now available by subscription. BUILD YOUR BEST BODY FAST! Find your plan here: The Men's Health Big Book of 15Minute Workouts and The Women's Health Big Book of 15Minute Workouts Get more nutrition, health, and fitness secrets from Men's Health: Subscribe today with this special offer and save 50% off the cover price. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

How Much Should Kids Sleep? Nobody Knows For Sure


(Shots - Health Blog)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:36:00 PM

iStockphoto.com However much he's sleeping, it's not enough. Right? Like most parents, I worry that my child isn't getting enough sleep. Now it turns out doctors have been warning that kids don't get enough sleep for over a century long before iPads, texting, and YouTube robbed children of peaceful slumber. What's more, there's no solid scientific basis for pediatricians' recommendations on the amount of time children need to sleep. That's the word from researchers in Australia, who combed the literature to find out how children's sleep time and doctors' sleep recommendations have changed over decades. It turns out that children are sleeping less than in days of old. The researchers, at the University of South Australia's Health and Use of Time Group, found that HOW page 84

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kids' nightly sleep time declined by about three-quarters of a minute each year for the period they studied. That means my daughter is sleeping about 50 minutes a night less than her grandfather. He had to get up to milk the cows at 5:30 a.m. But he also has fond memories of staying up to listen to Jack Benny on the radio. My daughter is more likely to beg for a few more minutes of Angry Birds before bedtime. What hasn't changed is the dire predictions from health professionals on the consequences of shirking sleep. "This is a sleepless age and more and more ... we are turning night into day," one expert moaned in 1905. Back then, sleep was seen as a way to restore "wearied brain tissue." "Nervous" children and "clever" children were thought to be most at risk, and most in need of energy-restoring sleep. The

words may be different today, but the threats are pretty much the same. Parents are told that children risk cognitive and behavioral problems, and even obesity, if they don't get enough shuteye. So the Australians looked to see how much sleep kids do need. The answer is the biggest surprise of this study no one really knows. "There is almost no empirical evidence for the optimal sleep duration for children," the authors write. Their work was published in the journal Pediatrics. It turns out that sleep duration is in some ways discretionary. If researchers were to let children sleep as long as they thought necessary, some would leap out of bed at dawn, while others would loll under the covers until noon. "Sleeping longer does not indicate a need for more sleep," the authors wrote, "in the same way

that eating more does not indicate a need for more food." Thus the National Sleep Foundation's recommendation that my child sleeps 10 to 11 hours a night is probably more of a social norm than a medical one. But I am not about to let word of that slip out to the under-12 set. Everyone knows that a sleepdeprived child is a cranky child. And children's brains need their rest. So off to bed with you! 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Cosmetic Surgery Rebounds, A Little, After Dip


(Shots - Health Blog)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 1:38:00 PM

iStockphoto.com Plastic surgeons say they're getting busier lately. If you're looking for signs that the U.S. economy might be getting a little better, check out the latest stats on cosmetic plastic surgery. The number of surgical procedures rose 2 percent to 1.58 million in 2011, according to data from the American Society of

Plastic Surgeons. It's the second year in a row that cosmetic operations increased by 2 percent. Breast augmentation is still No. 1: 307,180 procedures were performed last year. Nose jobs (rhinoplasty) came in second at 243,772 procedures. Liposuction was No. 3 performed 204,702 times. Still, the number of surgical procedures performed is down quite a bit from 1.84 million in COSMETIC page 85

Curated News Edition

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85

Why Catholic Groups' Health Plans Say No To Contraceptives, Yes To Viagra


Julie Rovner (Shots - Health Blog)

Attack on Israeli Diplomat Pressures India to Curtail Iran Ties


Lisa Curtis (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:20:58 PM

universities and charities sponsored by religious groups to opt out of covering birth control if Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:41:00 PM the institutions' insurance Joe Raedle/ Getty Images companies offer it instead. Covered? Usually. The answer on Viagra coverage If health insurance plans offered is usually yes, Catholic leaders by Catholic-sponsored entities say. And they argue that's neither refuse to cover contraceptives for hypocritical nor sexist. women because of the religion's Procreation is something the moral teachings banning artificial Catholic church encourages. And birth control, do they cover V i a g r a a n d o t h e r e r e c t i l e Viagra for men? dysfunction drugs can be of help. I got several emails asking that Still, Richard Doerflinger of the question after my recent report on U.S. Conference of Catholic the Obama administration's Bishops tells me that many change on a rule mandating Catholic-based health plans are prevent wide abuse." coverage of contraceptives. After now adding caveats that such Vasectomies, on the other hand, the change, the administration drugs "should be prescribed for a are banned by Catholic-sponsored w o u l d a l l o w h o s p i t a l s , medically identifiable problem to health insurance. "We have the

same objection to male sterilization as to the female variety," Doerflinger says. The Catholic bishops group, by the way, first suggested that it might be OK with the revised birth control policy offered by President Obama on Friday. However, the bishops have since decided that it isn't acceptable after all. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

An attack on an Israeli diplomatic vehicle today in New Delhi injured four, including the wife of an Israeli defense representative working at the embassy. The perpetrator reportedly used the s a m e m e t h o d o f attackdetonating an explosive device that had been attached magnetically to the vehiclethat was used to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran last month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly blamed Iran for the attack, which raises the question of whether Israeli officials will increase pressure on ATTACK page 87

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continued from page 84

2007, just as the Great Recession was hitting. Turn back the clock to 2000, and things have sagged even more. The latest numbers on surgeries are down 17 percent from the 1.90 million done at the start of the new millennium. People pay out of their own pocket for this sort of medical care. So when times get tough, cosmetic procedures tend to

decline. Now, they're picking up. "While the rate of economic recovery in the U.S. is still uncertain, 2011 proved to be a good year for plastic surgery," ASPS President Dr Malcolm Z. Roth, said in a statement. "Consumer confidence was up, auto sales rose 10 percent, so it is not surprising that we would also see increased demand for plastic

surgery procedures." Cosmetic procedures that don't involve a scalpel have fared better lately. How many times was Botox injected for cosmetic purposes last year? Try 5.67 million, up 5 percent from 2010. Back in 2000, Botox was used about threequarter of a million times. Then there's the No. 2 category: "

soft tissue fillers" (fat, collagen and a bunch of other products) to plump up lips, cheeks and fill creases and lines. Those procedures were up 7 percent to 1.89 million. Chemical peels were No. 3 with 1.11 million uses, down 3 percent from the year before. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

86

Politics-Right/

Curated News Edition

Rich People Win, Poor Kids Lose, in Obamas America


Mike Brownfield (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)

buy electric cars, most consumers dont want them. But whether they like it or not, those consumers are subsidizing the Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:47:55 PM Want a clear indication of buyers who do. President Barack Obamas The Losers: priorities? Take a look at the While the rich are riding in their spending decisions emerging from taxpayer-subsidized electric cars, his Administration today. In the the losers in President Obamas battle between $40,000 dollarAmerica are at-risk kids electric-car-buying yuppies and at languishing in under-performing -risk kids in the DC Opportunity schools in Washington, D.C. As Scholarship Program, rich people part of his FY 2013 budget, won, and they have President President Obama eliminates Obama to thank for it. funding for the D.C. Opportunity The Winners: Scholarship Program, which Today, President Obama put the throws a school choice lifeline to taxpayers money where his children who would otherwise be allegiances lie. The Daily Caller left hopeless in Washingtons reports that the White House public school system. intends to increase taxpayerThanks to the program, more funded subsidies for those who than 1,600 low-income children in purchase new-technology the nations Capital are using vehicles, including the Chevy vouchers this school year to Volt, to $10,000 per buyer, up attend a school that they choose. from $7,500. The program has been a stunning In case you havent been success. Heritages Lindsey Burke Its no big mystery. Despite the the vehicles well short of its writes: shopping for a Volt and odds rich yuppies. are, you havent the vehicle The Daily Caller reports that the slick marketing, high-gas mileage, target of 10,000. According to federally-mandated carries a hefty $41,000 price tag. subsidy would cost taxpayers and environmentally friendly Automakers, of course, have a lot evaluations of the program, So what kind of person benefits $100 million each year if it is cachet that comes along with riding on the vehicles but so s t u d e n t a c h i e v e m e n t h a s from that tax credit? General approved by Congress, presuming them, the cars just arent selling. does President Obama. His increased, and graduation rates of Motors says the average income only 10,000 new-technology autos In January, General Motors sold A d m i n i s t r a t i o n h a s b a n k e d voucher students have increased of a Volt buyer is $175,000 per are sold each year. And if the 603 Volts almost twice as heavily on the vehicles being an significantly. While graduation year. And according to Bill President reaches his goal of many as in January 2010, but less important part of his energy rates in D.C. Public Schools hover V i s n i c , s e n i o r e d i t o r f o r putting 1 million of those kinds of than half of its total sales in policy and the new green around 55 percent, students who Edmunds.com, The Volt appeals cars on the road by 2015, the December. And in 2011, GM economy. That strategy, though, used a voucher to attend private t o a n a f f l u e n t , p r o g r e s s i v e subsidy could cost $10 billion. missed its projected sales volume is failing. No matter how much RICH page 87 demographic. In other words: Why is the subsidy necessary? for the vehicle, shipping 7,671 of the President wants consumers to

Curated News Edition

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ATTACK
continued from page 85

India to curtail its ties with Iran. Despite toughening international sanctions against Iran for its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons, New Delhi is increasing oil imports from Iran and announced last week its plans to send a large trade delegation there. The IndoIsraeli relationship has blossomed in recent years, mainly in the fields of defense trade and intelligence sharing. Israel has thus far avoided publicly questioning New Delhi over its ties with Tehran, even as Members of the U.S. Congress voiced numerous concerns about IranianIndian defense contacts, particularly during the height of the U.S.India civil nuclear negotiations. India relies on Iran for 1215 percent of its oil needs and uses the Iranian port at Chahbahar to move its goods into Afghanistan, since Pakistan does not allow India to transit its territory. India and Iran worked closely in Afghanistan to counter the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, and India likely calculates that it will need

to reinstitute similar cooperation to protect its interests in the region when the U.S. withdraws its forces. India has worked hard to try to balance its burgeoning strategic partnership with the U.S. with its traditionally close relations with Iran. India has voted against Iran in three crucial votes at International Atomic Energy Agency meetings over the past six years. It also snapped negotiations over an IranPakistanIndia energy pipeline under pressure from the U.S. More recently, however, India has been reluctant to reduce trade ties to Iran and appears to be trying to recoup some of the ground it lost in its diplomatic relations with Iran over the last several years. Indeed, New Delhi increased its imports of Iranian oil from December to January by over 37 percent. India is also negotiating barter-type oil arrangements with Iran to skirt international sanctions, including using an Indian bank to provide rupee payments to Indian companies exporting goods to Iran. Iran is apparently willing to

accept rupees instead of dollars for nearly half of the $11 billion worth of oil that India buys from Iran annually. India will find it increasingly difficult to placate both Iran on the one hand and the U.S. and Israel on the other. Now that Israeli diplomats have been targeted in New Delhi, it will be increasingly difficult for Indian officials to sweep under the carpet their growing trade relations with Tehran. India will have to seriously factor the costs of oil trade with Iran to its rapidly growing defense partnership with Israel. In the coming months, India and Israel are expected to sign a number of military contracts involving co-production and sophisticated Israeli technologies. The skills of Indian strategists who seek to balance Indias role as a growing global power with its need to guard against the prospect of rising regional instability will be tested in coming months as the international confrontation with Iran intensifies. While the U.S. should continue to press India to stay in step with the

international sanctions regime against Iran, U.S. officials should also be more sensitive to Indias concerns about Afghanistan. U.S. officials should reassure their Indian counterparts that Washington will remain engaged with Afghanistan diplomatically, financially, and even militarily to some degree long after 2014, when the U.S. combat mission is set to expire. Washington should also quell any suspicions that it is getting ready to strike a deal with the Taliban that would embolden extremists in the region and sacrifice the hard-won social gains made over the last decade. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

How to Launch Your App in an International Market


Edith Yeung (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:56:47 PM

RICH
continued from page 86

school had a 91 percent graduation rate. How much does this kind of success cost? A mere $8,000 per student, compared to the estimated $18,000 spent per child by D.C. Public Schools. To be clear: $10,000 in taxpayer funds to subsidize the purchase of

an electric car versus $8,000 to only/faq.php#publishers. Five give a child a choice in education. Filters recommends: Donate to We know what the President Wikileaks. chose. Which would you pick? 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-

Edith Yeung is the head of marketing of Dolphin Browser, the worlds first Gesture, Webzine and Add-on-enabled mobile browser. She is also the founding partner of RightVentures, which focuses on cloud and mobile investments. You can find out more about Dolphin on Twitter, Facebook or via the Dolphin blog. Many developers create smart, innovative mobile apps that have near-universal appeal, but how broad is too broad? For instance, developing apps only in English prevents your star power from reaching a global stage. Its totally fine to start building your mobile app in one language, but if you want to tap the huge international market, you cant stop there. How should developers go about taking their apps international? For starters, try this handy guide. What Countries Should You Aim HOW page 88

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for First? In 2011, Apples App Store and Googles Android Market achieved a combined 20 billion downloads. Although China leads the worlds smartphone market, 41% of cellphones bought in the U.S. are smartphones. However, eight out of the top 10 largest iPhone and Android markets are not English-speaking, according to Flurry Analytics. Not only that, Flurry also reveals that there are tons of mobile users around the globe who dont yet have a smartphone, but could easily afford one, which makes for a huge untapped growth potential. Leading foreign countries in this category are China with 122 million potential smartphone users, India with 75 million, Japan (61 million) and Brazil (34 million). Taking your app international is no longer just another nice-tohave strategy, but a must-do. Localize your app by adding languages such Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Hindi as a critical part of your marketing strategy. As an independent developer, what are the specific steps you will need to take to set the stage for your global success? Level 1: Start Small, Then Take a Giant International Leap Forward You dont have to start by fully committing all your resources to

support an international audience. Kick things off at the most basic level: Simply translating your app market description can be a quick and dirty way to test the water. Its possible your potential users in Japan dont know your app exists because they simply dont perform searches in English. Also, keep in mind that you need to optimize your app title, market description as well as change log and search keywords based on local language and cultural requirements. Level 2: Localization Translating Your App As soon as you localize your app description, you should start closely monitoring downloads statistics in the associated languages and countries. If you notice a significant increase in downloads, its time for you to start thinking about localizing the app itself. Offering your app descriptions in French will likely drive additional downloads, but localization will drive the next level of engagement. The W3C defines localization as the adaptation of mobile application content to meet the language and cultural requirements of a specific target market. This includes numeric, date, time and currency formats, symbols, icons, colors, text and graphics. Keep in mind that localization is not just about translating into

different languages. You cant just plug the app into Google Translate; your audience wont understand what you want them to do with the app. Specifically, target these areas when localizing to a new language. Text string Metadata Launch tips Push notifications Help tips Privacy policy End user license agreement Level 3: Internationalization Building a Local Team Youve finished localizing your app into Chinese and are seeing amazing uptake in China. Now its time to go even further and start building a team there. Youll need to dedicate resources to make sure all the elements surrounding your app are fully accessible to an international audience. In other words, youll need to internationalize. Internationalization is the design and development of a mobile app that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region or language. Were no longer talking about source code or app content; were talking about everything that surrounds the app. Ideally, local language alternatives for the website, social media and so forth are available for users. In order to do this successfully, you need a dedicated

team that can operate at a local level. Building a team overseas is definitely not a walk in the park. Its a big commitment and it can take vital resources, but when done right, the returns can be immense. Here is what you need to do to go fully international. Localize your company website or blog. Localize social media marketing strategy. Localize user acquisition strategy. Hire local marketing support. Hire local public relations support. Hire local customer service Sam Laird (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:41:32 PM support. Hire local legal support. The United States Department of Apply for local patent. Justice (DOJ) approved Googles proposed acquisition of Motorola Checklist: Going Global To-Dos To summarize, check off the Mobility Monday afternoon. Earlier on Monday, Google following items for the three announced via its corporate blog levels of going global. What other advice can you offer that the European Union had for taking an app or startup to an approved the $12.5 billion deal as international level? Share your well. thoughts and experiences in the The two major milestones make Googles acquisition of Motorola comments below. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, all but certain. The deal will enable Google to produce its own labsas More About: brand management, line of smartphones to go with its Business, contributor, features, immensely popular Android platform. Motorola is one of the international, mobile apps leading producers of Androidbased phones, and holds one of the mobile industrys largest collections of patents. Googles Vice President and Deputy Council Don Harrison

U.S. Department of Justice Approves Google Purchase of Motorola Mobility

U.S. page 89

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We Didnt Warn Apple Off iTV Name, Says UK Broadcaster [VIDEO]

U.S.
continued from page 88

said in his blog post announcing the EU approval that, the combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android. It will also enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice and wonderful user experiences. Peter Pachal (Mashable!) rumors brought up the name The DOJs Antitrust Division announced its approval of the again. Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:35:51 PM The rumor began when The Since the label Apple TV is G o o g l e - M o t o r o l a d e a l i n a The rumored name for the London Telegraph claimed that being used by the hockey-puck statement that also announced television set that Apple is ITV CEO Adam Crozier had box that Apple sells, the company approval for acquisitions by supposedly working on is iTV. raised the naming issue with will need a differentiating name if Apple of certain Novell patents, Trouble is, thats also the name of Apple in early 2010. ever comes to market with a TV. a n d a c q u i s i t i o n s b y A p p l e , one Britains biggest broadcasters Apple had just unveiled the iPad, Given the naming of its other Microsoft and RIM of certain I T V , o r I n d e p e n d e n t and as rumors began circulating products, iTV is the natural Nortel Networks patents. After a thorough review of the Television, the main ad-driven that the company might soon choice. branch into making TVs, Crozier Apples run into local trouble of p r o p o s e d t r a n s a c t i o n s , t h e alternative to the BBC. ITV has been around since 1955; wanted to head off any dilution of the names of other products, most Antitrust Division has determined it hosts the nations most popular his companys brand. The report recently the iPad in China. A that each acquisition is unlikely to and long-running soap opera says Apple made assurances that Taiwan-based company claims to substantially lessen competition Coronation Street, among other it wouldnt market anything called have the right to the name iPad and has closed these three iTV at least, not in the U.K. shows. name, and some iPads were i n v e s t i g a t i o n s , t h e D O J Clearly, worldwide demand for SEE ALSO: Will Apple iTV reportedly seized to enforce the s t a t e m e n t r e a d . an iTV would be something of a Trade the Remote for Kinect-Like rights holder. That could lead to The divisions investigations Control? problem for ITV. Apple marketing the tablet under focused on whether the acquiring But the channel is denying a Now ITV says the report is a different name in that country. firms could use these patents to British newspaper report that it entirely speculative, denying If something similar happens raise rivals costs or foreclose tried to warn Apple away from the any exchange took place. It with the iTV, what do you think competition, the DOJ said later. name. In a statement sent to seemed believable that the two Apple should call it in the U.K.? Like the EU earlier Monday, the Mashable, ITV says it never might be talking; after all, iTV Shout out your suggestions in the DOJs antitrust regulators did not impose any restrictions on the wagged its finger at Apple, and has been a suspected name for comments. that theres been no recent Apples device ever since the More About: apple, Apple TV, a c q u i s i t i o n . B u t E u r o p e s competition commissioner d i a l o g u e b e t w e e n I T V a n d original Apple TV set-top box ipad, itv came on the scene. More recent Apple.

Joaqun Almunia said in a statement that the blessing does not mean that the merger clearance blesses all actions by Motorola in the past or all future action by Google. The Motorola acquisition would be Googles first expansion into the technology hardware business. The search giant has seen waves of antitrust criticism in recent years as it moved into other online sectors, including daily deals and shopping. Do you think Google should be allowed to acquire Motorola and move into the hardware business? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments. See the DOJs full announcement here. More About: Google, Motorola, trending For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

90

Daily World/ Politics/

Curated News Edition

Rangers to go into administration


(Evening Standard - News)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 9:57:00 AM

13 Feb 2012 The owner of embattled Scottish football giant Rangers has said he took the first step towards administration to ensure the club did not die altogether under the potential burden of a "shocking" 75 million tax bill. The club has lodged legal papers signalling their intention to enter administration with the Court of Session in Edinburgh. The Scottish champions are awaiting the verdict of a tax tribunal which it was thought could cost the club around 49 million if the judgment went against them, but Whyte revealed that figure was substantially out. The HMRC case centres around the use of employee benefits trusts (EBTs) which were in place before Whyte took over from Sir David Murray last May.

Whyte said it was necessary to look at administration. He said: "If we hadn't done that then liquidation could have been a possibility. This secures the longterm future of the club. "The 49 million often quoted is the tax bill and interest but they can charge you a penalty on the tax bill so we could have been up at 75 million. It is a shocking figure and there is no way we could pay it." Whyte was heckled by some Rangers fans when he emerged outside Ibrox after 6pm to read a statement outlining his intentions. The Motherwell-born businessman admitted it had been a "tough day" but insists he has no intentions of leaving the club. "I can understand how the fans feel," he said. "But I came in to sort out the financial situation and that's what I will do. It has been a tough day. No one likes it but I am doing what has to be done.

"I would say to the fans to stick with (manager) Ally McCoist and the team, they need you more than ever. I have not gone through what I have gone through in the last year to walk away. I am here to stay." Administration would bring an automatic 10-point deduction and would likely lead to the sale of players. Rangers also face a race to prove to the Scottish Football Association that their finances are in shape before March 31 or face expulsion from Europe next season. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

CRUMBLE:
continued from page 90

Crumble: Santorum passes Romney nationally in Pew, within two points in Gallup
Allahpundit (Hot Air Top Picks)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:15:31 PM

enough to snuff Santorums momentum in time. Santorum had been planning a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race plod through the primaries, but according to Politico, hes now thinking about knockout blows: A potential path to breaking open the race against Romney, they say, could run through Michigans

Feb. 28 election and Ohios Super Tuesday vote on March 6 two Rust Belt primaries in which they believe Santorums working-class background and manufacturingheavy message will resonate. (Arizonas winner-take-all primary, also on Feb. 28, looks less inviting.) The privately held hope in the

Santorum camp is that beating Romney in his native state of Michigan or in the ultimate general election battleground of Ohio would discredit, on a grand scale, the on-and-off Republican front-runner and make the other candidates in the race irrelevant in CRUMBLE: page 93

posted at 4:15 pm on February 13, 2012 by Allahpundit Remember way back when Romney led Santorum by 16 points in Gallups national tracking poll? That was four days ago. Today: Romney 32,

Santorum 30, Gingrich 16. Mitts lucky that theres a nice long break between Santorums three wins in the midwest last week and the next key primaries in Arizona and Michigan. If there wasnt, I dont know if even a flurry of negative ads from the Romney Super PAC death star would be CRUMBLE: page 90

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Video: Archbishop Cardinal Wuerl denounces contraception accommodation on Americas Newsroom


Tina Korbe (Hot Air Top Picks)

-insured. They have no insurance provider onto whom they can push the cost of contraception Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:25:56 PM insurance. posted at 5:25 pm on February More importantly, the presidents 13, 2012 by Tina Korbe accommodation doesnt address W h i l e t h e a d m i n i s t r a t i o n the fundamental objection to his continues to play cute with its so- administrations original decision called contraception mandate anyway: It still leaves the power a c c o m m o d a t i o n , t h e U . S . to define what constitutes ministry C a t h o l i c b i s h o p s r e m a i n in the hands of the federal unimpressed. (For that matter, so government. Thats the real does the faculty of Notre Dame problem, Wuerl said. law school, as Ed reported It isnt the prerogative of the earlier.) His Eminence, Donald government to announce who Cardinal Wuerl, the archbishop of does what ministries, what Washington, joined Martha qualifies for ministry and what M a c C a l l u m o n A m e r i c a s really defines a church, he said. N e w s r o o m t h i s m o r n i n g t o Supporters of the presidents explain why. mandate love to toss out statistics T h e p r e s i d e n t s a y s h i s that reveal just how many accommodation ensures that no Catholics are in disobedience to religious employer will have to the Church on this as though pay for or provide insurance thats an excuse to trample for contraception; instead, those religious liberty. Wuerl had a costs will be shifted to insurers. s i m p l e r e s p o n s e t o t h o s e Ed has already thoroughly supporters. d i s m a n t l e d t h e p r e s i d e n t s The teachings of the Church are insurers-must-cover-contraception never determined by the polls, he -at-no-cost-to-anyone idiocy, but said. That isnt the norm for Wuerl brought up another point: Catholic Church teaching: The Many religious employers are self Gospel is. Revelation is, not the

polls. Indeed. In 1968, when Pope Paul VI first delivered the encyclical Humanae Vitae, onlookers were already shocked at the steadfastness of the Church, which secular forces fully expected to conform to the world on contraception. In that letter, the pope predicted that it would be a difficult teaching to accept. It is to be anticipated that perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching, Pope Paul VI wrote. There is too much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church that she, no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a sign of contradiction. She does not, because of this, evade the duty imposed on her of proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical. The pope reminded skeptical members of his flock that following this teaching would be an unexpected source of freedom

for them and he presciently warned that its abandonment would make it easier for national governments to impose their will upon the people. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? the pope asked. Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife. Given the popes prescience, perhaps now would be a good

time for Catholics to review the why of the Churchs seemingly archaic prohibition of the pill and other artificial forms of contraception not solely out of a sense of obedience to the magisterium, but also out of a desire to reclaim for themselves their freedom and to proclaim their dignity by self-discipline. Contrary to popular perception, Rome doesnt ban contraception out of a primitive desire to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. The Church seeks instead to affirm the fullness of the meaning of marriage. Its a teaching worth exploring even just as a matter of cultural literacy and theres no better place to start than Humanae Vitae itself. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Politics/

Curated News Edition

National Review to Newt Gingrich: Please Drop Out


Conor Friedersdorf (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 2:44:57 PM

Its editors want a Romney-versus -Santorum race. Its readers are still unhappy with their options. The flagship publication of the conservative movement is urging Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race for the GOP nomination. "It would be a grave mistake for the party to make someone with such poor judgment and persistent unpopularity its presidential nominee," National Review's editorial board opined Monday. "It is not clear whether Gingrich remains in the race because he still believes he could become president next year or because he wants to avenge his wounded pride." They go on to note that "when he led... he urged the Pennsylvanian to leave the race. On his own arguments the proper course for him now is to endorse Santorum and exit." The comments section is what one would expect from a rank-and -file without a champion. Everyone is attuned to the myriad weaknesses of their choices and therefore unable to argue for anyone very persuasively. For example, here's the beginning of a comment by a Gingrich supporter. " Yes, Gingrich is arrogant and full of himself. Yes, he has an

unpleasant past. Yes, he has too many ideas instead of being Reaganesque and concentrating on the few big ones that matter. Yes, he can't seem to run a good organization," the former House speaker's fan admits. "But he is the only one who tells it like it is. He is the only one to call Obama a Saul Alinsky radical." Wrote another commenter: Our choices still stink: Romney He is clearly uncomfortable with

his wealth, which Obama will exploit. Obama will hammer him as a "rich white guy". Organization alone won't win the Presidency.... Just ask Hillary. His passionate defenses of abortion rights are seared into my memory. Gingrich - His attacks on Romney over Bain were very disconcerting. When he gets down or defensive he seems childish in his attacks. Gingrich's debating strength will be completely

nullified by Obama who will heavily control the debate rules. There will only be two instead of 17. I won't forget the Pelosi commercial either, because global warming is such a fraud and Gingrich bought into it. The divorces: if he can't keep a vow before God to his wife, what makes us think he'll keep a campaign promise!? Santorum - More than just the left have viewed his as a social

issues candidate. His economic messages are government involvement, not of tea-party laissez-faire. I'm certainly not confident he'll drastically cut gov't spending. We'll hear how his plan will reduce the deficit to $500 B in 2020. Also haven't seen how he reacts when he is under intense fire. Paul - Why oh why do you have NATIONAL page 95

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CRUMBLE:
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the remaining contests. If we can get it to a two-person race, I feel very confident that we will be the nominee, said Santorum strategist John Brabender, who explained that the campaign is assessing where to play based on the number of delegates at stake and the cost of competing in each state. They hadnt made any decisions on what to do as of this morning but those new ARG and PPP polls out of Michigan will likely force their hand. Truth be told, though, I think this is less a story about the Santorum surge than the Romney collapse. Feast your eyes on these national numbers from Pew, which has Santorum suddenly up by two after trailing by double digits a month ago: Three months ago, a slim majority (53%) of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said Mitt Romney was a strong conservative. Today, 42% see him this way, while the number who say he is not a strong conservative has jumped from 33% to 50% Fewer Republican voters today think Romney has been consistent as well. By a 48% to 39% margin, more Republicans say Romney does not take consistent positions

on the issues. In November, 47% felt he was consistent and just 33% said he was not Barack Obama now holds an eight-point lead over Mitt Romney in a general election matchup, and he has gained significant ground among independent voters. A month ago, 40% of independents said they would back Obama over Romney today 51% say they would, while the number expressing support for Romney has slipped from 50% to 42%. Romneys downturn among indies is simply brutal: Head to head, Obama now leads Santorum by 10 points and Romney by eight, leading David Frum to wonder whats left of Mitts electability argument to the base. Now you see why Santorums thinking about going all in on Michigan and Ohio: In theory he could knock Romney into a death spiral where each new swing-state defeat erodes a little bit more of the bases confidence in his electability, which in turn makes future swing-state defeats more likely. Given that Romneys gotten off lightly so far in terms of attack ads aimed at him, though, Im not sure how to

account for his downturn among independents. Some of it must be due to the debates remember how effective Santorums RomneyCare attacks were? but the debates didnt stop Mitt from a landslide win in Florida. Some of it must be from conservative talk radio talking up Santorum and talking down Romney, but Id expect to see more movement among grassroots conservatives in that case than among independents. I wonder, actually, if Gingrichs Bain attacks, coupled with Romneys gaffes about how he likes being able to fire people and isnt concerned with the very poor, were more effective with middle-class independents than we thought. Note the last line in that Pew graphic I posted above; his net on the question of whether he understands the needs of people like you more than doubled from 14 to a disastrous -29. I dont know how he turns that around, especially against a candidate with blue-collar appeal like Santorum. Presumably hell just attack, attack, attack until hes once again the most electable candidate in the field, even if increasingly he isnt very

electable at all. Update: Annnnnnnd here we go. The death star prepares to fire: Mitt Romney is getting some heavy air support in Michigan the state where he was born and raised as the super PAC supporting him invests almost $500,000 on television ads there. According to someone who tracks Republican media spending, Restore Our Future has committed just over $470,000 for commercials starting Tuesday and set to run through Feb. 20. That marks the groups largest purchase yet in Michigan, where it has already spent more than $700,000 on ads. Supposedly their first ad buys will target Gingrich. Why? 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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GOP candidates commence the world and head west


Tina Korbe (Hot Air Top Picks)

powerful office in the world, theyre taking Greeleys advice: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:50:44 PM Newt Gingrich all headed West posted at 4:50 pm on February today. WaPo provides the round13, 2012 by Tina Korbe up: Who knows who actually said, Mitt Romney is holding an Go west, young man? The evening rally in Mesa, Ariz., quote is sometimes attributed to ahead of the Feb. 28 primary Horace Greeley, who did write there. Four years ago, Romney something similar in an 1838 lost the state to Sen. John McCain edition of the newspaper New (R-Ariz.), who took 47 percent to Yorker.If any young man is Romneys 35 percent. But this about to commence the world, we time around, the Romney camp is say to him, publicly and privately, confident about the state, which Go to the West, Greeley awards 29 delegates. penned. Newt Gingrich is campaigning Whether the GOP candidates Monday in California, holding qualify as young men is another events in South El Monte and subject for debate, but, by running Pasadena. The Golden State, for president, theyre certainly which has 172 delegates, doesnt s e e k i n g t o c o m m e n c e t h e hold its primary until June, which world, albeit in a different sense might make one wonder why than Greeley meant it. The Gingrich is spending time there presidency is as real as the real now when the Super Tuesday world gets. Theres no escaping races loom. (His camp is likely the problems of the planet as smarting over a National Review president, thats for sure, even editorial out Monday morning though our present president tries. urging Gingrich to step aside to In their quest to capture the most make way for a Romney- Rick

Santorum contest.) Santorum, who on Sunday called Romneys attacks on his record desperate, is spending the day out in Tacoma, Wash. He plans an evening rally in the state, which holds its caucuses on March 3 and awards 43 delegates. Romney does look to be strong in Arizona, where Santorum has little organization. The primary is still a couple weeks away, so perhaps that will change, but the Santorum campaign hasnt given much indication the former Pennsylvania senator intends to compete there. Instead, Santorum said after last weeks trifecta that his next push would be in Ohio and Michigan. His efforts in Michigan already appear to be paying off. Santorum might be smart to skip Arizona. The primary is winner-take-all and, in the most recent Rasmussen poll in the state, Santorum is running a very distant third. Twenty-nine delegates are quite a few to give up without any fight at all but it might be better to sacrifice

those 29 rather than waste resources in the state only to lose the delegates to Romney anyway. Washington is a better fit for Santorum. Voters there have demonstrated their willingness to support socially conservative candidates. In the 2008 Washington caucuses, they boosted the socially conservative Mike Huckabee to a close second place finish although John McCain ultimately swept the later primary. Meanwhile, Gingrichs seemingly strategically strange decision to focus on California actually makes the most sense of all: He needs money and hes hitting up the Golden State to get some. 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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The Great James Rowe Memo

NATIONAL
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to fall off the deep end on foriegn issues? Going on Iranian TV to bash Israel? A lot of other things he says are so great. If my state's primary (Texas) was held today, I'm not sure who I would vote for. James Fallows (Politics : The Financial Protection Bureau). Right now, I'm an anyone but Atlantic) Rowe also included a handy list Gingrich guy. of presidents who had to contend Submitted at 2/13/2012 3:22:12 PM Other folks attacked Romney with one or more houses of over his time at Bain Capital in There is enough self-referential Congress in the hands of the comments of a sort I never content to this post to justify the opposite party. One thing I thought I'd see at National Review apposite Escher illustration. But noticed almost immediately was Online. not enough to keep me from doing that of the three presidents most For example: it at all! often named as America's greatest If NRO wanted to contribute My friend Timothy Noah has an (Washington, Lincoln, FDR), only something positive they would excellent item at TNR today, one--Washington--ever had to about the options ahead for confronting an opposition-held deal with this problem, and I'm stop treating Mitt Romney as the B a r a c k O b a m a . T h e s e l f - Congress is so surprisingly up-to- not sure he should even be "Father of Capitalism" and referential part is that he is date. Rowe told Truman that the included because, though he recognize predatory capitalism responding to my own cover story Republicans who had taken leaned Federalist, our first that takes the remaining value of about Obama. The payoff is how control of the Congress in 1946 president never actually belonged companies and ships it overseas leaving destitution behind is NOT far he advances the argument would claim they wanted to to any political party. about Obama's political choices, cooperate with him. "The purpose Worth reading -- Noah's item, a VIRTUE. Any outside the beltway past and future -- and extra insight o f t h i s m e m o r a n d u m i s t o Rowe's memo, Popkin's book. conservative who has friends, h e p r o v i d e s o n a n i t e m I e x a m i n e w h e t h e r s u c h And, what the hell, our current m e n t i o n e d i n m y s t o r y , a 'cooperation' is feasible." As Noah issue, which is full of interesting family, and business partners who have suffered from predatory fascinating memo written by s a y s a b o u t t h e r e s u l t i n g stuff. capitalism can attest to that. prescription: James H. Rowe Jr. This article available online at: It includes a list of Don'ts. http://www.theatlantic.com/ Romney is not a creator like Bill You don't often see the phrase "a must-read 66-year old memo," but Among these are "The creation of politics/archive/2012/02/the-great Gates or Steve Jobs or Andrew Carnegie. He is a destroyer and is it applies in this case. As I said in j o i n t o r b i p a r t i s a n p o l i c y -james-rowe-memo/253022/ my article, I learned about the c o m m i t t e e s " ( c a n y o u s a y This entry passed through the memo from Samuel Popkin of "supercommittee"?) and "The Full-Text RSS service if this is UCSD, who discusses it in his i n c r e a s e i n C o n g r e s s i o n a l your content and you're reading it forthcoming book The Candidate. supervision of the President's on someone else's site, please read Tim Noah has a link to the text of managerial agencies, or the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentthis long memorandum, from the transfer of their functions to a only/faq.php#publishers. Five Truman Library's site, and he C o n g r e s s i o n a l a g e n c y " Filters recommends: Donate to explains both why Rowe deserves (translation: Don't even think Wikileaks. more attention in general and why about letting Congress get its h i s a d v i c e f o r a p r e s i d e n t mitts all over the Consumer

perceived that way - not because he re-capitalize companies - a virtue; but because his deals left more destitution in their wake than improved livlihoods except for Mitt and his friends. And Romneybots, Bain accomplished this predatory capitalism with the help of government bailouts and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) - the Fannie Mae of Pensions. In the past, the GOP has always managed to rally around its eventual nominee. I wonder if that longstanding pattern will hold. Image credit: Reuters 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 the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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A Romney That's Bred to Follow


Molly Ball (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:10:18 PM

Its namesake political candidate may have hit a rough patch, but woolly, adaptable American Romney sheep are gaining in popularity. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has sometimes been accused of being sheeplike -more of a follower than a leader. But to the 100-year-old American Romney Breeders Association, a Romney is a sheep -- literally. Its namesake political candidate may be experiencing some turbulence, but these are good days for the American Romney. It is gaining in popularity nationwide, thanks to its docile temperament and adaptable nature -- the furthest thing from a Demon Sheep, you might say. "The future is indeed bright for Romneys," the

association proclaims. Here are some fun facts about the versatile Romney, which can be bred for both its meat and its wool, courtesy of the association's website. * "In the last three decades, the popularity of Romneys has spread from the West Coast across the nation. With much recent growth

temperament and readily bond to a youth who spends time with them, they are easily trained for the show ring." * "The Romney's ability to mature on pasture, without putting on excessive fat, is helping to meet demand. The future is indeed bright for Romneys." This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/02/a-romney -thats-bred-to-follow/253030/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it coming in the middle and eastern high yielding and easily spun." states, the Romney has become a * "The Romney is truly a versatile on someone else's site, please read national breed." b r e e d . T h i s b r e e d ' s q u i e t the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content* "Romney meat is known for its d i s p o s i t i o n , u n i q u e f l e e c e only/faq.php#publishers. Five delicate taste even in older lambs. characteristics, the flavor and Filters recommends: Donate to * The Romney fleece...combines quality of its meat and its lambing Wikileaks. several important traits. The percentage make it an excellent fleece is lustrous; it hangs in choice for purebred, commercial, separate locks, with minimal cross or crossbred programs." fibers between the locks. It is also * "Because Romneys are of quiet

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Tesla's Model X struts its stuff on video, gets serenaded by Elon Musk
Dante Cesa (Engadget)

to see. In the video above you'll catch a glimpse of the interior, which features the same 17-inch We may have attended the Model touchscreen as in the Model S. In X premiere, but despite us addition, a Tesla employee muses pleading for a ride-along, Tesla about the advantages of its dual PR insisted only those who'd motor AWD system and low plunked cash for a pre-order that center of gravity as he sashays the evening would get the chauffeur crossover through a slalom course treatment. Thankfully there's outside Tesla's design HQ. Our YouTube user TheSpeedRead, friends at Autoblog Green also who either threw down enough culled a video from SmartPlanet cash or was swift enough to evade featuring the company's CEO, security, slipping into a Model X Elon Musk, reflecting on the and gratuitously posting it for all advantages of the Model X's
Submitted at 2/13/2012 4:50:00 PM

sales pitch from the entrepreneur extraordinaire after the break. Continue reading Tesla's Model X struts its stuff on video, gets serenaded by Elon Musk Tesla's Model X struts its stuff on video, gets serenaded by Elon Musk originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our unique "Falcon Wing" rear doors enabling the front trunk, or Frunk, terms for use of feeds. Permalink and touting the advantages of not to serve as a crumple zone "two to Autoblog Green| | Email this| h a v i n g a s p a c e - h o g g i n g three times greater" than in Comments combustion engine in its front -- competing vehicles. Get the full

VLC hits version 2.0: brings presents to all the platforms


Mat Smith (Engadget)

version will include a new 64-bit edition, while Mac OS X users will get a new iTunes-esque look, Open-source friend to all the playback for Blu-ray and a new video codecs, VLC media player, native full screen mode for Lion. has hit version 2.0, bringing with There's also a new subtitle it a raft of new features across manager and support for multiple Mac OS, Windows and Unix videos inside RAR files. There's v e r s i o n s . V i d e o L A N ' s a l s o also two extra surprises; an iOS brought the player kicking and version makes a return to the fold, first release a try? The files are screaming into this decade with a with the development of an available for your platform of better (read; less Windows 98- Android version appearing in the choice at the source link below. Update: This is the release looking) makeover. The PC change log. Willing to give the
Submitted at 2/13/2012 5:22:00 PM

candidate version, so you won't be able to update your existing version. And it looks like 64-bit Windows users will have to wait a

little longer. Image credit: Felix Khne VLC hits version 2.0: brings presents to all the platforms originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink 9to5Mac| VideoLAN, VLC Change log| Email this| Comments

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