Liberty Newspost Feb-10-2012

Curated News Edition
- 10/02/12
http://www.LibertyNewspost.com
Romney touts conservative record

(USATODAY.com Feed)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:24:00 PM
By Jackie Kucinich and Catalina Camia USA TODAY Updated 2:19 p.m. ET Mitt Romney may have lost three GOP contests this week, but he showed no hint of weakness in his speech today at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Romney delivered what sounded like a front-runner's address to a full ballroom at a Washington hotel, emphasizing the conservative actions he took as Massachusetts governor. They are a contrast to what he called the failure of President Obama. BLOG: Santorum at CPAC BLOG: McDonnell at CPAC "I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor," he said. "I have been on the front lines and I expect to be on the front lines again."
He touted his record as governor, saying he cut taxes 19 times, balanced the budget all four years of his term and cast more than 800 vetoes. Romney is trying to recharge his campaign after losing contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado to Rick Santorum. He has long made the case that he is the best Republican to take on Obama in the fall, but he's not been able to seal the deal with some GOP voters who view his past positions suspiciously. "I know conservatism because I have lived conservatism," Romney said. In recent days, Romney has been more forceful in taking on Santorum -- as he has in the past with Newt Gingrich. Romney and his supporters have criticized Santorum's support for congressional "earmarks" -- the government-funded pet projects of lawmakers -- and his votes to raise the debt ceiling without
It's about sharing credit when times are good and taking responsibility for failure." Santorum, meanwhile, took issue with Romney and Obama in his remarks to CPAC. The former senator noted his rival "supported the step-child of Obamacare" when he signed the Massachusetts getting concessions to cut federal health care law. spending. He told the crowd that the GOP In his remarks, Romney made r i s k s l o s i n g t h e N o v e m b e r subtle digs at Santorum and election if their party's nominee Gingrich as he outlined his would "give away" the issue of achievements in the private sector health care and has tepid support and the Olympics that serve as from within the party. contrast to the political careers of "Why would an undecided voter his rivals. vote for a candidate of a party "I was the chief executive," who the party isn't excited about?" Romney said, as he noted he is the Santorum asked. only GOP candidate in either This entry passed through the party "who has never worked a Full-Text RSS service if this is day in Washington." your content and you're reading it "Leadership as a chief executive on someone else's site, please read isn't about getting a bill out of the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentsubcommittee or giving a speech - only/faq.php#publishers. Five - it's about setting clear goals and Filters recommends: Donate to overcoming constant adversity. Wikileaks.
China cuts Iranian oil imports, says IEA - Financial Times

(china - Google News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:24:32 AM
The Guardian China cuts Iranian oil imports, says IEA Financial Times By Guy Chazan and Javier Blas China is buying roughly 50 per cent less Iranian oil than it did last year, as international sanctions strengthen its bargaining position with Iran's national oil company, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. Chinese imports dip shakes markets The Guardian China's Oil Slurping Elephant in the Room Wall Street Journal (blog) China to Complete Two Oil Reserve Sites This Quarter, IEA Says BusinessWeek Bloomberg- Reuters all 1,422 news articles
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Headline/
Powell had 'incestuous' images

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by asking for the visits to be in a public place. Instead, Downing said he didn't learn until Thursday SEATTLE (AP) Before Josh morning four days after Powell Powell was going to try to win killed himself and the boys in a back custody of his children last house fire that he was allowed w e e k , W a s h i n g t o n s t a t e to see them. authorities received materials "That would have absolutely from Utah police that had been given me the opportunity to discovered on a computer in submit a declaration about our Powell's home two years ago. deep concern. I was approved Authorities say the images to view those pictures and I was depicted "incestuous" sex and never notified," Downing said. "I were disconcerting enough that could have gone into all the they prompted a psychologist to reasons why the visitation could recommend that Powell undergo h a v e o r s h o u l d h a v e b e e n an intensive psychosexual restricted." evaluation. Pierce County Sheriff's Detective By Rick Egan, The Salt Lake Ed Troyer told The Associated Tribune via AP Josh Powell plays Press on Thursday night that the with his son Braden in a park near images collected by investigators his home, in Puyallup, Wash., in from Powell's home computer in May 2011. Utah two years ago were realistic computer-generated depictions of By Rick Egan, The Salt Lake " i n c e s t u o u s " p a r e n t - c h i l d Tribune via AP relations. Josh Powell plays with his son "It's family-oriented in nature," Braden in a park near his home, in Troyer said. "It is incestuous." Puyallup, Wash., in May 2011. Troyer said the images couldn't But a lawyer for Powell's in-laws, be legally defined as pornography who had custody of the boys, because they don't involve real wasn't invited to see the computer people. Troyer said the judge in -generated materials before the last week's custody hearing was custody hearing even though a apprised of the images at the Utah judge had specified in a proceeding. sealed court order that he was one Powell was the only person of of the few people allowed to see interest in the disappearance of them. his wife, Susan Powell, from their Had he seen the images, attorney home in West Valley City, Utah, Steve Downing said, he might in 2009. He was never arrested or have asked the court to change the charged in the case, and a month terms of Powell's supervised after she vanished, he moved with visitation with the boys, such as his boys back to his father Steve's
Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:53:59 AM
When the psychologist saw them, he added an addendum to his report recommending the psychosexual evaluation of Josh Powell an exam that can include a polygraph as well as more intrusive measures to determine the body's response to child pornography or other home in Puyallup, Wash., south of stimuli. On Jan. 30, the sheriff's office Seattle. arranged a viewing of the Last year, authorities searched Steve Powell's home, computer materials, said Sherry Hill, a and cars for evidence in Susan spokeswoman for the Department Powell's disappearance and of Social and Health Services. instead said they found thousands Among the attendees were Long of voyeuristic pictures and videos, and a Child Protective Services including child pornography social worker. Downing said he recorded by Steve Powell. The wasn't notified of the viewing. state took custody of the boys and Long confirmed Downing had turned them over to Susan's been listed as one of those parents, Chuck and Judy Cox. allowed to see the images. Josh Powell repeatedly tried to However, Downing was not regain custody of the boys. At one technically a party to the Feb. 1 point late last year, he underwent hearing, which was between a court-ordered psychological Powell and the state, so there was evaluation. The psychologist held no rush to make sure Downing off on finalizing his report for saw the materials beforehand. some time, anticipating that he Josh Powell's attorney, Jeffrey would be able to review materials Bassett, also did not attend. He that West Valley City police had said in an email Thursday that discovered on Josh Powell's t h e r e h a d b e e n s o m e computer, said Washington state "miscommunication," and he assistant attorney general John didn't learn about the viewing Long, who represented the state in until after the fact. He wasn't able to immediately schedule another the custody case. But as the Feb. 1 custody hearing viewing. neared, the materials hadn't Two days later, Pierce County arrived from Utah, Long said. It Superior Court Judge Kathryn wasn't until after the psychologist Nelson heard arguments from finalized the report that the Josh Powell seeking to regain materials arrived at the Pierce custody of his children. Long County Sheriff's Department. opposed that, noting only that
"concerning" images from his computer had been provided by the police in Utah. After considering Long's arguments and the recommendation for the psychosexual evaluation, Nelson denied Powell's request. She said she wouldn't consider granting Powell custody unless he underwent the exam. She didn't make any changes in the visitation schedule, which allowed Powell to see his boys, 5 and 7, at his house twice a week while supervised by a social worker. On Sunday, the social worker brought the boys to see their dad at his rental home outside Puyallup. After the boys rushed inside, he slammed the door in her face, locking her out. He attacked the boys with a hatchet, then torched the home in a gas-fueled inferno. Chuck Cox, Susan Powell's father, said the images were just another indicator of problems with Josh Powell. Cox said he did not know the details of the images. He believed the kids should have been fully taken away from Powell long ago and that they raised concerns about allowing him continued contact. "How much does it take for them to figure out that he should not have the children?" he said. "It's just wrong. They needed to be taken out of that environment." Copyright 2012 The Associated POWELL page 3
Headline/ Top News/ World News/
Obama budget to miss deficit goal

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Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:43:00 PM
POWELL
continued from page 2
President Obama's proposed 2013 budget will forecast a $901 billion deficit for next year, falling far short of his goal to halve the deficit in four years. A few details of the budget, scheduled for release Monday, were confirmed by two administration sources Friday after they were reported by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. The budget will show a higher deficit this year than in 2011, up from $1.3 trillion to $1.33 trillion. And the projected decline to $901 billion in 2013 is dependent on enactment of the president's policies, including spending reductions agreed to last summer and ending George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy at the end of this year. For weeks, White House officials have said the budget would make
new revenue, much of it by ending Bush's tax cuts for families with income above $250,000. Republicans who control the House have previously blocked that proposal. Earlier this week, the White House announced that its little news because many of its unemployment projections elements were well known: About $1 trillion in spending included in the budget -- 8.9% in cuts agreed to with Congress and 2012 and 8.6% in 2013 -- already are outdated. If the actual jobless signed into law in August Obama's goal of slashing rates are a full percentage point another $3 trillion from annual lower, that could mean a $95 deficits over 10 years, including billion reduction in the deficit, about $1.2 trillion mandated by according to a previous estimate from the non-partisan the August agreement Obama's key priorities, outlined Congressional Budget Office. in his State of the Union address This entry passed through the last month and in the American Full-Text RSS service if this is J o b s A c t h e p r o p o s e d i n your content and you're reading it S e p t e m b e r . T h o s e i n c l u d e on someone else's site, please read i n i t i a t i v e s i n c l e a n e n e r g y the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentp r o d u c t i o n , e d u c a t i o n a n d only/faq.php#publishers. Five training, and infrastructure repair. Filters recommends: Donate to His desire to add $1.5 trillion in Wikileaks.
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read
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China Premier Meets Govt-Installed Tibetan Cleric - ABC News

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:05:03 PM
Telegraph.co.uk China Premier Meets GovtInstalled Tibetan Cleric ABC News Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a government-installed Tibetan cleric Friday to uphold national unity in a meeting amid recurring anti-government unrest in Tibetan communities. The government's
account of Wen's meeting with the Panchen Lama did not... Chinese Premier Urges Unity, Patriotism in Tibetan Region Voice of America Chinese police shoot dead two as Tibetan New Year approaches Telegraph.co.uk China officials asked to prepare for war in Tibet Hindustan Times BBC News all 431 news articles
It's Pinarayi once again - The Hindu

(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:16:18 PM
The Hindu It's Pinarayi once again The Hindu As was widely expected, Pinarayi
Vijayan has been picked for the fifth time in a row to head the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala. Mr. Vijayan was re-elected to the post unanimously by the first meeting of the reconstituted State
committee... City Journal.in- Deccan HeraldPinarayi re-elected as CPM's Times of India Kerala chief Daily Pioneer all 42 news articles No place for women in CPM: senior leader Hindustan Times Pinarayi re-elected Kerala CPM secy Indian Express
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Syria says suicide bombers kill 28 in Aleppo - The Associated Press

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:56:00 PM
nationwide. At least 27 civilians were killed, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory Syria says suicide bombers kill for Human Rights. 28 in Aleppo The morning blasts in Aleppo, By ALBERT AJI, Associated Syria's most populous city, ripped Press 7 minutes ago apart the facades of the local ALEPPO, Syria (AP) Two headquarters of the Military suicide car bombers struck Intelligence Directorate and a security compounds in Aleppo on b a r r a c k s o f t h e S e c u r i t y Friday, killing 28 people, Syrian P r e s e r v a t i o n f o r c e s . officials said, bringing significant At the Directorate, windows were violence for the first time to an shattered and a large crater was industrial center that has largely torn into the pavement outside the stood by President Bashar Assad e n t r a n c e . A w e e p i n g during the 11-month uprising correspondent on state-run TV against his rule. showed graphic footage of at least Anti-Assad activists denied any five corpses, collected in sacks involvement and accused the and under blankets by the side of regime of setting off the blasts to the road. s m e a r t h e o p p o s i t i o n a s Security officials said suicide government forces pummel rebels bombers in explosives-packed in one of their main strongholds, vehicles tried to smash through Homs. State media touted the the entrances of both sites. At the bombings as proof the regime barracks, Brig. Firas Abbas told faces a campaign by terrorists, not an Associated Press reporter on a a popular uprising. government-guided visit to the The military stepped up its siege scene that the vehicle made it of Homs, where hundreds have through one roadblock before reportedly been killed over the detonating near the gates. A head past week. Soldiers who have lay on the ground and security been bombarding the central city officials said it belonged to a made their first ground move, suicide attacker. storming into one of the most State television cited the Health restive neighborhoods. Ministry as saying 28 people were Troops and security forces killed in the two blasts and 235 opened fire on anti-regime wounded. The dead included 11 protesters who streamed out of security personnel killed at the mosques after Friday prayers barracks, 13 military personnel
killed at the military intelligence building and four civilians, security officials said. State TV blamed "terrorists." But anti-government activists accused the regime of setting off the blasts to discredit the opposition and avert protests that had been planned in the city on Friday. Capt. Ammar al-Wawi of the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group that wants to bring down the regime by force, denied involvement. He said fighters from his group had a short gunbattle with troops several hundred yards (meters) from the Directorate about an hour before the explosion but did not carry out the bombings. "This explosion is the work of the regime to divert world attention from the crimes it is committing against the people of Homs," he said. The blasts were the fourth such dramatic suicide attack since late December. All occurred on Friday mornings against various security headquarters and prompted the same exchange of accusations. The earlier attacks, in the capital Damascus, killed dozens of security forces and civilians, according to Syrian officials. Nobody has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks. Friday's bombings were the first
significant violence in Aleppo, a northern city of some 2 million people that is home to a prosperous business community and merchant class whose continued backing for Assad has been crucial in bolstering his regime. The city has seen only occasional protests. Assad's opponents have had little success in galvanizing support there, in part because business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges. Also, the city has a large population of Kurds, who have mostly stayed on the sidelines of the uprising since Assad's regime began giving them long-denied citizenship as a gesture to win support. Still, hours after the explosions, hundreds of protesters marched in several Aleppo neighborhoods after Friday prayers, part of nationwide demonstrations labeled "Friday of 'Russia is killing our children'" a denunciation of Russia's veto of a U.N. attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown. Regime forces opened fire on the Aleppo protesters, killing at least seven, according to the Observatory. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees put the Aleppo toll at 12 and said 22 others had been killed nationwide. The figures
could not be independently confirmed due to restrictions the Syrian government has put on journalists. Assad's crackdown has killed well over 5,400 people since the uprising began in March, according to U.N. estimates. The regime's crackdown on dissent has left it almost completely isolated internationally except for key support from Russia and China, which delivered a double veto to block a U.N. resolution calling on Assad to leave power. The king of Saudi Arabia, which has led Arab efforts against Assad, made his first public comments on Syria's crisis Friday. He denounced the Russian and Chinese vetoes, saying "the confidence of the world in the U.N. has undoubtedly been shaken." "These countries don't rule the world, never. The world is ruled by wisdom, fairness, morals, and standing up to the aggressor," King Abdullah said in a televised speech. "We are living scary, scary days." Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov signaled Friday that Moscow would use its veto again to block any resolution aimed at ousting Assad. SYRIA page 11
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Romney defends conservative record, but Santorum says a Romney win this fall ... Washington Post
ideologically pure than to oust Obama, Santorum may have to Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:37:16 PM explain more fully in the days W A S H I N G T O N G O P ahead. p r e s i d e n t i a l r i v a l s m a d e Romney, speaking a few hours c o n t r a s t i n g a p p e a l s t o later, said his four-year record in conservatives Friday, with Mitt Massachusetts proved that he will Romney saying he proved his fight for conservative values mettle as Massachusetts governor against the toughest odds. I know a n d R i c k S a n t o r u m s a y i n g conservatism because I have lived Romney is so moderate that conservatism, he said. Veering electing him would be a hollow briefly from his written text, he victory. called himself severely Their speeches to the conservative. Conservative Political Action But Romney skated past details Conference came as Santorum of his administration that trouble tries to convert his surprising s o m e r i g h t - l e a n i n g g r o u p s , caucus wins this week into a including requiring state residents resilient, muscular campaign and to obtain health insurance. R o m n e y s e e k s t o p e r s u a d e Without saying Romneys name, conservatives that he wont S a n t o r u m s a i d t h e f o r m e r disappoint them. governors health care record Santorums tack was unorthodox, would make it impossible for him a n d p e r h a p s r i s k y . F a c i n g to draw needed contrasts with Republicans who desperately Obama. He said Romney had want to replace President Barack c r e a t e d t h e s t e p c h i l d o f Obama, Santorum said its even O b a m a c a r e . more vital to put a conservative Saying the Obama-backed 2010 crusader into the White House. health care law will crush We will no longer abandon and economic freedom, Santorum apologize for the policies and u r g e d R e p u b l i c a n s n o t t o principles that made this country nominate someone who would great for a hollow victory in simply give that issue away in the November, he said. fall. If voters see that as a hint that its Santorum warned Republicans m o r e i m p o r t a n t t o b e against a premature emphasis on
moderate voters, who could decide the presidential election in swing states. We always talk about, Oh, how are we going to get the moderates? Santorum said. Why would an undecided voter vote for a candidate of a party who the party is not excited about? Romney alluded to his rivals obliquely, never saying their names. Presidential leadership isnt about getting a bill out of subcommittee or giving a speech, he said. I am the only candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat, who has never worked a day in Washington. His remarks appeared aimed at former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul, all of whom spent years in Congress. Gingrich was scheduled to address CPAC later Friday. Paul was not scheduled to address the conference. Romney tried to reassure the audience that antipathy to Obama will energize millions of voters this fall, an indirect way of saying the lukewarm reception he gets from some conservatives isnt crucial. Obama is the conservative
movements top recruiter, he said. Romney said he would cut federal spending like he cut state spending in Massachusetts, although he vowed not to touch military budgets. I was a conservative governor, he said. I fought against long odds in a deep blue state. I understand the battles that we, as conservatives, must fight because I have been on the front lines. Santorum and Romney criticized the Obama administrations bid to require Catholic-affiliated employers to cover birth control in their health insurance plans. After Santorums morning speech and before Romneys afternoon address, Obama announced an update. He said religiousaffiliated employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees. Instead, the government will demand that insurance companies be directly responsible for providing contraception. Santorum, a Catholic with a strong record of fighting legalized abortion, said Obama is telling the Catholic Church that they are forced to pay for things that are against their basic tenets and teachings.
Its not about contraception, its about economic liberty, he said. Romney, a Mormon who once supported legalized abortion, vowed to reverse every single Obama regulation that attacks our religious liberty and threatens innocent life. His critics cite a 2005 interview in which Romney said rape victims deserved either access to or information about so-called morning after pills that some say are a form of abortion. Both men restated their standard criticisms of Obama. Romney called him the poster child for the arrogance of government. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Top News/ Technology/
Timothy Dolan: Birth control tweak a "first step" - CBS News

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:27:18 PM
Archbishop Timothy Dolan and President Obama.(Credit: Getty Images ) Updated 3:56 p.m. Eastern Time The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has been harshly critical of a federal requirement that church-linked organizations provide contraceptive coverage to their employees, said Friday that it was reserving judgment on the administration's decision to tweak the policy. After uproar, Obama tweaks birth control rule Under the policy announced Friday, employees of religiouslylinked schools, hospitals and charities would still have access to free contraceptive coverage but those organizations would not have to pay for it. Instead, health insurance companies would be required to provide it free of charge, though it remains unclear exactly how that would work. The Conference said in a statement that it sees "initial opportunities" in the policy
change, but that it still had concerns. "While there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them," Cardinal-designate and Conference president Timothy Dolan said. "Today's decision to revise how individuals obtain services that are morally objectionable to religious entities and people of faith is a first step in the right direction," he added. "We hope to work with the Administration to guarantee that Americans' consciences and our religious freedom are not harmed by these regulations." Appearing on CBS This Morning on Thursday, Dolan called the initial decision "a terribly misguided judgment." He said Wednesday that "the federal government should do what it's traditionally done since July 4, 1776, namely back out of intruding into the internal life of a church." A White House official told CBS News that Mr. Obama called Dolan to tell him about the change
which has become a talking point for the Republican presidential candidates on the campaign trail. Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat who was critical of the initial decision, said he still needs to "review the details of today's announcement to determine whether it strikes the in policy before his Friday right balance." "I appreciate the Administration's announcement. Speaking in the White House attempt to find a solution to b r i e f i n g r o o m F r i d a y , t h e protect religious liberty," he said. president said the policy change "I also appreciate those who have protects religious liberty while proposed other remedies." A spokesperson for House ensuring that "women will still Speaker John Boehner, who have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive called the initial decision "an services no matter where they unambiguous attack on religious work." (See his remarks at left.) freedom," said the Republican-led "This is an issue where people of House will continue efforts to good will on both sides of the " w o r k t o w a r d a l e g i s l a t i v e debate have been sorting through solution" to the issue despite the some very complicated questions announcement. to find a solution that works for Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, a potential everyone," Mr. Obama added. Planned Parenthood and many on vice presidential nominee who put the left have already responded forth a bill in the Senate to reverse positively to the policy change. A the initial decision, said in a handful of Democrats joined the statement that he approved of the majority of Republicans in fact that Mr. Obama "reaffirmed criticizing the initial decision, that the Federal government cannot force faith-based
institutions to provide services that they teach are wrong." But he added: "Unfortunately, as more of these rules are written, our Constitutional rights will continue to be threatened by the Administration's policy goals. This issue exemplifies the problem with putting the Federal government in charge of health care, and shows why we must fully repeal ObamaCare." A recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that a slim majority of Americans - including Catholics - believe that "employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost." 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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Staying Competitive In A Customer-Centric World

Kaihan Krippendorff (Fast Company)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:11:22 PM
I stopped asking my students to write essays years ago. When I required them, I was shocked to find nearly half of the papers had been plagiarized! These young college undergrads, studying entrepreneurship, could not understand why copying text from a Google search and pasting it into a paper as your own is wrong. I was so put off I decided simply to never ask students to write papers again. Excel models, survey results, analyses--yes. But anything that might tempt them to copy others work--no. Now I fear I may be wrong. My perspective may be outdated. Am I falling behind? What prompted my self-doubt was a call I had recently with Louis Ttu, the CEO of a fascinating tech company called Coveo. Ttu explained the common misconception that knowledge is information when actually, he argues, knowledge is is the human capacity to take action facing uncertainty. I know this sounds like a philosophers ramblings, but stick with me. Let me tell you why you want to listen to what Ttu has to say. First, Ttu is not a philosopher;
he is an entrepreneur. Before joining Coveo, Ttu founded and was CEO and chairman of Taleo Corporation [NASDAQ: TLEO], now the largest global provider of software as a service (SaaS) for human capital management. In 2004, Taleo was recognized as the 11th fastest growing tech company in the U.S. within the
Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Today the company has a market cap of $1.6 billion and is growing by more than 20% per year. Second, Ttus view of knowledge has important implications for your company and your career. In the old world, what mattered was the information you stored in your
head. Our academic grades were based on whether we could accurately regurgitate in an exam what we were told in class. But today, with knowledge universally and instantaneously accessible, your ability to remember facts gives you no advantage over the person sitting in the next cubicle. What matters is your ability to
bridge the gap between your current knowledge and knowledge needed to take action. In other words, when you face a problem at work, how quickly and efficiently can you find and use the knowledge you need to solve it? STAYING page 11
Top News/
YouTube And Shiva Rajaraman Bring Intelligent Channel Picks To Online Video
Christina Chaey (Fast Company)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:28:13 PM
How do you create technology to recommend new channels to users? And when does a person need to step in to curate these recommendations? In this extended version of the conversation from our latest issue, we chat with Shiva Rajaraman, Group Product Manager for YouTube. "On YouTube, our top queries are 'funny videos,' 'LOL,' and 'make me laugh,'" YouTube group project manager Shiva Rajaraman told us recently. "They fall into this vague land of 'Entertain me!' So based on that, how do we help people discover fresh, fun content --without just sifting through the 48 hours of video that are uploaded every minute? We're still trying to figure that out fully, but we're starting by building out our channels. When users search for something broad, we want a more curated experience to appear, so 'funny videos' would bring up a landing page with humor clips from BuzzFeed, Fail Blog, Funny Or Die, and more. That way, they can fill a steady 15, 20, 30 minutes with us, instead of making new decisions every two minutes." Below is the extended version of
our recent Fast Talk. How do you go about finding great content on a site as trafficheavy as YouTube? It's truly a problem of finding the diamond in the rough. We have 48 hours of video uploaded every minute. If you step back and try to put some context around that, that's the equivalent of having 200,000 full-length movies released a week. You've got so much information that mining it becomes a challenge. So we ask, "How are people finding those great videos today?" They blog about it, or they share it on a social network or email and they write a great headline for it, and that's often how you're discovering YouTube videos. Think back to things like the Hudson River plane landing. In our logs we saw a huge surge in searches for the official plane landing video, but also that every news site on the web was embedding it. It's important for us to be able to say, hey, someone's found a video that's attracted an audience. That's one way we kind of dig out a diamond and make sure we surface it across the site. Could you give me an example? There's a video I love called "Three Big Pigs," and it's this Angry-Birds-meets-Libya video. When I go look at "Three Big Pigs," it's clear I've got this
nuanced sense of humor, probably like everyone else through Angry Birds, but I also like political humor. If I just looked at keywords for a video and took "three big pigs" and did a search on YouTube, I'll probably find a bunch of videos on three actual big pigs. Collaborative filtering allows you to look at the crowd who watched that video and look
at what else they've watched. And we step back even further from that to look at a blog that blogged about that video and see what else they've blogged about. So what we're doing is using the crowd to think about what we might offer to someone else who watches a particular video. And channels could link up all those related videos.
Imagine a world in which we have related channels. Right now you switch from video to video, but imagine a world in which you're switching from channel to channel, more like TV. That's the thing we need to move towards. Right now, we recommend channels on the home page for users on our site, not just individual videos, but you're going to see us do more there. We're on 300 million devices. On most of those devices, clicking and querying and hunting just isn't fun. When we launch on Xbox this year and I'm sitting in front of Xbox, I want to be able to use Kinect to say something like "Lego Animation" and have that channel start playing. So what's more important to the curation process, man or machine? It depends what you're into. When there's stuff that's not easy to bake into the video itself, I would like much more of an intro around that stuff. Rebecca Black is a good example of this. It's a really bad music video, but what's better than that is the story. I need someone to tell that story, and no machine can do that as effectively as a person today. That's where human curators come in. But sometimes, the content speaks for YOUTUBE page 11
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8 Reasons Your Social Initiative Will Fail

David Lavenda (Fast Company)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:36:34 PM
Social is one of the hottest trends in enterprise software, and many companies are considering rolling out products and services that make it easier for employees to share information with each other and communicate with customers and suppliers. Social software covers a lot of ground, but in general, products in this field enable people to share ideas and documents, find expertise and connect with colleagues, and communicate interactively with others. Gartner reports that social software technologies as a whole are among the most hyped in the industry at the moment, but is quick to warn companies that different social software technologies are at different levels of maturity. Meanwhile, Forrester predicts that social software will grow to a $6.4 billion industry by 2016. There is definitely something going on here. The reason so many companies are looking at social initiatives is simple: When people work together, they accomplish much more, without reinventing the wheel or duplicating work efforts. But social initiatives are expensive and are potentially disruptive to the business. So it behooves smart executives to avoid the pitfalls uniquely inherent in social initiatives. Here
are eight missteps that can sink more than your social initiative. While these points relate primarily to internal, employeefacing social initiatives, many of them are equally relevant to customer-facing initiatives as well. No interest from key users: Analysts estimate that approximately a third of workers will download and share new technology, with or without corporate approval. Suppressing or ignoring these folks and heading straight for IT creates unnecessary and often
insurmountable resistance. In fact, ignoring them squanders your biggest advantage. Reach out to technology seekers and embrace them; they are your greatest allies. Too many tools: Technology silos are a reality, but you need a road map for creating a single collaboration platform. We are in the midst of an adoption cycle that mirrors that of email in the early '90s. Then, it took time before disparate corporate emails systems worked together. But could you imagine working with two email systems
today, one to communicate with internal colleagues and one for external contacts? The same will be true for collaboration tools going forward. Unclear business objectives: Technology-driven projects are a sure recipe for failure. Not paying attention to key stakeholders: If your project manager is a bulldozer type who tells key stakeholders that he "knows better" because he has already done five such projects, you're headed for trouble, big time. IT and the business are at loggerheads: With the advent of
SaaS (software as a service) solutions, business units now have viable alternatives to central IT. Smart IT organizations realize they have to support the business to make initiatives, such as social business work. ITs alternative is the (slow) decline of budgets and eventual demise. No culture of technology grassroots adoption: Collaboration and social initiatives must have eager champions at the business-user level. A top-down approach to a REASONS page 10
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Top News/
Obama Says Contraception Compromise Protects Religious Liberty

(Christianpost.com > Politics)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:49:07 AM
REASONS
(Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing) U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement next to Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius about contraceptive care in the press room of the White House in Washington, February 10, 2012. Featured Posts Opinion Gay by Choice? Are all homosexuals "born that way"? Not if you believe the testimony of a ... February 10, 2012| 12:49 pm Under the new plan, religious organizations such as hospitals and charities will not be required to pay for or provide contraceptive services to employees if they object to it. But women who work for such institutions will still have access to those services directly through the insurance company at no extra cost. Obama said at a White House press briefing that this new rule
would both protect religious liberty and ensure every woman has access to the care she needs. "Every woman should be in control of the decisions that affect her health. Period," Obama asserted. But he added, "We've been mindful that there's another principle at stake here and that's the principle of religious liberty, an inalienable right that is enshrined in our Constitution." "As a citizen and as a Christian, I cherish this right," he affirmed. Like us on Facebook The compromise comes amid uproar over the Obama administration's decision to mandate coverage of contraceptive, abortifacient and sterilization services without an exemption for all religious institutions. That mandate was reaffirmed last month, prompting Catholics and evangelicals to cry foul over what they viewed as an egregious religious freedom violation. Evangelical leaders Chuck Colson and Timothy George expressed their concerns in an
open letter to fellow believers on Wednesday. "We do not exaggerate when we say that this is the greatest threat to religious freedom in our lifetime," they stressed. Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church also made his objection clear, tweeting earlier this week, "I'd go to jail rather than cave in to a govement mandate that violates what God commands us to do. Would you? Acts 5:29." The original plan included an exemption for churches but not for faith-based institutions such as hospitals, universities and charities. While faith-based groups were given an additional year to comply with the rule, Catholic and evangelical leaders were outraged and said they would not violate their conscience now or a year later. Obama explained on Friday that his administration planned to spend that one year hammering out a solution with religious groups. But he acknowledged that amid
social initiative makes it difficult to pump up workers interest in being part of the project. It is much easier to leverage the excitement of existing users by getting them to be social at departmental or division levels, first. Project is not aligned with other business initiatives: A social uproar these past few weeks, "It initiative without business goals became clear spending months will die on the vine. Business hammering out a solution was not users need to understand why being active in a social initiative going to be an option." He thus directed the Department brings value to their everyday of Health and Human Services work responsibilities. Taking the last week to speed up the process wrong approach: Introducing "rip and spend a week or two on a and replace" technology that ignores daily work habits is solution rather than a year. They reached a decision today, probably the biggest failure factor in the list. The fact that people he said. "I've been confident from the start a r e c h a n g e - a v e r s e i s w e l l that we can work out a sensible documented. A recent blog post approach here," Obama stated. talks more about why "rip and "This is an issue where people of replace" doesnt work. good will on both sides of the If you have experienced a failed debate have been sorting through (or failing) initiative, weigh in s o m e v e r y c o m p l i c a t e d with your own reasons in the comments. questions." The president said confidently Email author David Lavenda or that the new rule "works for follow him on Twitter@dlavenda. [Image: Flickr user hans.gerwitz] everyone." 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.
Technology/
11
SYRIA
STAYING
"If our foreign partners don't understand that, we will have to use strong means again and again to call them back to reality," he was quoted as saying by the ITAR -Tass news agency. Moscow's stance is motivated in part by its strategic and defense ties, including weapons sales, with Syria. Russia also rejects what it sees as a world order dominated by the U.S. Last month, Russia reportedly signed a $550 million deal to sell combat jets to Syria. Across Syria on Friday, thousands held protests denouncing the Russian position, from the northwestern province of Idlib, to the suburbs of Damascus, the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia and the eastern town of Deir al-Zour. A week ago, security forces launched a major assault on Homs after unconfirmed reports that army defectors and other armed opponents of Assad were setting up their own checkpoints and
taking control of the most restive neighborhoods. Days of bombardment of the neighborhoods with artillery, heavy machine guns and mortars continued Friday, as troops on the ground backed by tanks for the first time pushed into one of the districts, Inshaat, activists said. The Observatory said troops were going house to house detaining people. Inshaat is next to Baba Amr, a neighborhood that has been under rebel control for months. "They are punishing the residents," said the Observatory's chief Rami Abdul-Rahman, who added that food supplies were dwindling in the area. Mohammed Saleh, a Syria-based activist, said the regime appears to be trying to take over rebel-held areas in Homs and Idlib before Feb. 17, when Assad's ruling Baath party is scheduled to hold its first general conference since 2005. The conference is expected to
move on reforms that Assad has promised in a bid to calm the uprising. During the conference, Baath party leaders are expected to call for national dialogue and announce they will open the way for other political parties to play a bigger role in Syria's politics. The opposition has rejected such promises as insincere and said it will not accept anything less than Assad's departure. Keath reported from Beirut. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
YOUTUBE
itself and I don't really care so much about the person who created it, I just want to see this awesome video. In that case, the machine is useful. Read more Fast Talk
The Open Approach - Andrea Poli Discusses the Importance of Liberal Sourcing in Healthcare (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:00:02 PM
( TrendHunter.com) Andrea Poli is a biomedical and clinical engineer. Poli is an expert in
interoperability rules and open source technologies. He became the spokesperson for O3 Consortium Project. The company's goal is...
Layer onto this that, in Ttus opinion, the world is moving 180 degrees away from Henry Fords product-centric business model to a customer-centric one, and we start to see the immense power of being able to find the right information quickly. In a productcentric world, you could take weeks and months to research. In a customer-centric world, you only get a minute, even less if the customer on the other end of the phone is frustrated. Your companys competitiveness increasing depends on your peoples ability to rapidly find and consolidate the information they need to take action. John Boyd, a fighter pilot and, I believe, our most overlooked modern-day strategic genius, pointed out that a fighter pilot must have the ability to synthesize many pieces of disparate data more quickly than the enemy. Your company is like a jet fighter. The more quickly your people can mash together the information they need to make good decisions, the more competitive you will be. Coveo helps companies do this by assembling together a mashable unified index of both external and internal information. Their software crawls through your SAP or other enterprise
systems, but also through Twitter and other external sources, and puts everything in one place. That way when your customer next calls, your customer service representative will know instantly if they have called before, how regularly they pay their bills, whether they have visited an external chat room to solve their problem, and whether they have shared anything on Twitter about their issue. By having a fuller picture of the customer, they can make more intelligent choices about how to serve them. And the Coveo solution seems to be working, judging by clients who are signing up, including Lockheed Martin, PepsiCo, and Verizon. Coveo is one of a breed of companies I am coming across that is ushering in a new, fasterpaced, more fluid, informationbased form of competition. They key to making the pieces work together is to arm your people with the knowledge they need to help you win. For more leadership coverage, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. [Image: Flickr user Spreng Ben]
12
Top News/ Business/ Sports/
China jails dissident Fraud claims over E-Cat ahead of vice president's 'cold fusion' machine US trip - Reuters India heating up - msnbc.com
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:21:31 PM
AFP China jails dissident ahead of vice president's US trip Reuters India By Chris Buckley | BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court jailed a veteran dissident to seven years in jail on Friday, his son said, in
the latest blow to challengers of the Communist Party's rule before its presumed next leader, Xi Jinping,... China jails dissident Zhu Yufu over poem sent on Skype The Guardian China jails prominent activist ahead of Xi's US visit AFP all 213 news articles
(andrea rossi e-cat - Google News)

Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:16:25 AM
msnbc.com Fraud claims over E-Cat'cold fusion' machine heating up msnbc.com A power meter measuring the current flowing through the active (brown) wire into the E-Cat
Fraud claims over E-Cat Lexington, Thomasville housing authorities receive 'cold fusion' machine heating up - msnbc.com grants - Lexington Dispatch
(Andrea Rossi - Google News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:16:25 AM
msnbc.com Fraud claims over E-Cat 'cold fusion' machine heating up msnbc.com By Natalie Wolchover If Italian inventor Andrea Rossi's cold
(housing - Google News) fusion machine, called the E-Cat, Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:59:29 PM really works, then the world's energy problems are all but KEPR 19 solved. Rossi claims that a small Lexington, Thomasville housing amount of input energy drives a authorities receive grants f u s i o n r e a c t i o n b e t w e e n Lexington Dispatch The Lexington and Thomasville hydrogen... housing authorities received more and more than $300000 each as part of more than $48.1 million the US Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded in North Carolina. The money will
during a recent demo. The yellowgreen earth lead is not monitored. By Natalie Wolchover If Italian inventor Andrea Rossi's cold (housing - Google News) fusion machine, called the E-Cat... Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:33:07 PM E-Cat'Cold Fusion' Machine: Claims of Fraud Heating Up Bloomberg Bernanke Says Housing Holds LiveScience.com Back Fed Efforts to Boost all 2 news articles Economy Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank's efforts to spur economic growth are being blunted by impediments to mortgage lending, and he called for further steps to heal the housing market. We have helped lower mortgage rates to... be used to make major large- Bernanke Says Housing Restrains Fed Efforts to Boost Growth scale... $7.5 Million Awarded by HUD to BusinessWeek Fight Housing Discrimination Bernanke: Weak housing has hurt consumer spending Boston.com LoanSafe Housing authorities get $52 Bernanke urges action to heal million Boston Business Journal housing markets Reuters Housing Authority to use grant to all 243 news articles replace generator New Jersey Herald Elmira Star-Gazette- Patch.comThe Republic all 130 news articles
Bernanke Says Housing Holds Back Fed Efforts to Boost Economy Bloomberg
Ali among hundreds attending Dundee funeral

(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Boxing trainer Angelo Dundee was remembered Friday as a master motivator and a man who
left a legacy of kindness during a funeral service attended by Muhammad Ali.
Business/ Technology/
13
These 6 Common Things Show Your Boss You're Awful At Your Job
SavvySugar (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:56:25 PM
We've talked about qualities that will impress your boss, but sometimes the ones that don't impress her are just as important. The fate of your career rests in your boss's hands, so tread carefully, and read on for six things she doesn't want to hear. Discussing Your Co-Workers' Salaries Finding out a co-worker makes more than you never feels good, even if there are valid reasons behind the discrepancy. But no matter how you found out or how it makes you feel, bringing up your co-workers' pay to your boss is definitely off-limits its unprofessional and will put your boss in an awkward position. If you want to use that information to negotiate a higher salary, use Salary.com or a similar site to find out the industry standard and present that to your boss instead. Claiming a Task Is Impossible Its important to let your boss know if your workload or a project is seeming unmanageable,
but approach it carefully. In one office where I worked, the administrative assistant told our boss that her job was impossible and unreasonable. The problem was, several other people had already held that exact position, and had performed it with no problem. So instead of getting support and a lightened workload, the assistant got replaced with someone who could get the job done. Implying You Have One Foot Out the Door It's courteous to give your boss plenty of notice when youre looking for a new job, but theres a fine line. If youre actively interviewing and your departure is imminent, by all means, fill her in. If youve just decided you want to move on and are starting to check out job listings, stay quiet. Your job search may take longer than you think or you might change your mind, and once you tell your boss youre on your way out, she wont view you or your commitment to the job the same way again. Listing Things the Company Should Be Doing Differently
the details of your personal life is a wise decision it makes for a more comfortable work environment and may make her more understanding of your personal commitments. But dont overdo it; your boss doesnt need to know that youre exhausted because you were up late fighting with your boyfriend, or that your hangover is making you unproductive. Too much information is unprofessional, and can start to sound like made-up excuses. This post originally appeared at SavvySugar. Please follow Careers on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story If your boss asks for this kind of Threatening to leave if you dont feedback, by all means give it to get that raise or promotion may See Also: h e r t a c t f u l l y a n d seem like a great bargaining chip, The Worst Cities For Old constructively, of course. And but this move is more likely to People To Find Work scheduling a meeting with your backfire than not. Your boss may REVEALED: The Real Reason boss to discuss concerns is valid, tell you that what youre asking You Won't Quit Your Job too. But offhanded criticisms of for simply isnt possible, in which 11 Incredible Weapons That t h e c o m p a n y w i t h n o r e a l case youre forced to either follow Only America Has solutions behind them will only through with your threat or eat s e r v e t o m a k e y o u l o o k crow. Oversharing About Your unprofessional and uncommitted. Personal Life Giving an Ultimatum Letting your boss in on some of
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14
Business/ Culture/
Here Are The Striking Images That Won The 2012 World Press Photo Contest
Matthew Kassel (Business Insider)
relative in her arms inside a mosque, converted to a field hospital, during protests in Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:54:00 PM Yemen. Despite the pain it 2011 was, by any measure, a captures, the photograph, like tumultuous year. every stark portrayal of animal L o o k i n g a t t h e r e c e n t l y and human life here, is quite announced winners of the 55th beautiful. annual World Press Photo contest, World Press Photo has shared it becomes clear how photogenic some of the winning photos with the year was, too. us--which range in category from The first place press photo of the daily life to contemporary issues year, by Samuel Aranda, pictures to nature to sports, among others-a woman holding a wounded and we've rounded them up here
Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook. See Also: PHOTOS: Inside A Quirky New York Park Where Flowers Bloom In The Middle Of Winter Big, Beautiful Pictures From The Huge Chinese New Year Celebration In New York City Chinese Tourists Are Almost for you to see. Samuel Aranda; Rob Hornstra; The Sochi Project: Single-Handedly Propping Up Sanaa, Yemen (winner) Sochi Singers (Sochi, Russia) Europe's Luxury Goods Market Vincent Boisot; Dakar Fashion See the rest of the story at Week (Senegal) Business Insider
You've Got To See Rickie Fowler's Latest Outlandish Outfit

Cork Gaines (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:59:00 PM
Rickie Fowler is well-known among golf enthusiasts for his wardrobe that pushes the limits of what is typically seen on the PGA Tour. To some it is a blight on the sport. To others, he is a welcome addition to a sport that often struggles to reach a young
audience. Well, in today's second-round at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he has taken it to an entirely new level, dressing as a yellow highlighter... Of course, while that is hard on the eyes, it is not nearly as ugly as the pants being worn by stand-up Twitter and Facebook. comic Jackie Flynn and his Join the conversation about this caddie... story Please follow Sports Page on
As Early Next Season Moneyball's Billy Beane To Sign 5-Year Extension, Still Makes Less Than Brad Pitt WATCH: Jeremy Lin Does It Again With Another Huge Night And This Nasty Dunk See Also: Seattle Is Hoping To Poach An NBA Team From Another City
Watch, Pass, or Rent Video Movie Review: The Vow

Shannon Vestal (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:07:28 PM
Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams take aim straight at your heart with this weekend's
romance The Vow, but is the
drama worth taking a trip to the theater? Watch the video movie review to find out.
Business/ News Wire/ World News/
15
St. Paul withdraws SCOTUS petition in housing discrimination case - Minnesota Lawyer (blog)
(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:52:17 PM
St. Paul withdraws SCOTUS petition in housing discrimination case Minnesota Lawyer (blog) The City of St. Paul has withdrawn its petition to the US Supreme Court in a case of discrimination in housing code
enforcement, less than three weeks before the oral argument. (Nation - Google News) The case is Magner v. Gallagher. Seven years ago about 20 private Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:54:50 PM landlords... Sky News National Fair Housing Alliance Argentina Takes Falklands Case Applauds the City of St. Paul for To UN Removing Key... MarketWatch Sky News (press release) Argentina's foreign minister has all 7 news articles spoken at the United Nations to
Argentina Takes Falklands Case To UN - Sky News

officially protest Britain's "militarisation" of the seas around the disputed Falkland Islands. Hector Timerman attacked the UK, saying that the Falklands represent "the last refuge of a... Argentina protests to UN over Falklands Financial Times UK and Argentina must stop 'escalating' conflict over Falklands, says Ban Ki-moon Telegraph.co.uk Head of UN calls on Britain and Argentina to avoid escalation of row over... Daily Mail The Guardian- AFP- The Press Association all 1,840 news articles
Marine Veteran Found After Surviving 2 Days in Snow

(FOXNews.com)
He was taken to a Roseburg hospital and transferred to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland Feb. 9, 2012: Senior Trooper Don where nursing supervisor Phyllis Frerichs lends a hand to Jason D. Riggs said he's listed in critical C o o p e r , 3 7 , a f t e r h e w a s condition but stable condition and discovered beneath pine boughs in likely to be upgraded Friday. an attempt to keep warm in Cooper had been driving Monday remote area of Oregon's Douglas when he was involved in a lowCounty. speed rear-end collision on ROSEBURG, Ore. A former H i g h w a y 1 3 8 D , w h i c h r u n s Marine sniper who suffers from through the Umpqua National panic attacks and fled on foot Forest. following a minor traffic accident The other driver was surprised to in Oregon was found after two see Cooper, wearing shorts and days in the snow. sandals, run off through the snow J a s o n D . C o o p e r , 3 7 , o f into the woods, The Oregonian Temecula, Calif., was found reported Friday. Wednesday in a remote wooded Police followed tracks through area lying on tree branches, trying snow 2-feet deep but had to stop to keep warm, Oregon State at dark. Police said. They became more concerned
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:12:15 PM
when they discovered he has posttraumatic stress disorder and had run-ins with law enforcement. "I found out that he had panic attacks during stressful situations and sometimes just had to run away," said Sgt. Dave Randall, also an ex-Marine. Randall and Senior Trooper Don Frerichs of the Fish and Wildlife Division returned to the crash scene and followed the tracks for more than five miles on snowmobiles. When they came upon Cooper, obviously suffering from hypothermia, Randall addressed him as Staff Sgt. Cooper and asked him how he was doing. "He asked me how I knew he was a Marine and I said, `Hey, a Marine always knows a fellow
Marine.' After that, we were fast friends." Cooper told the troopers that at one point he removed his sandals because the straps were cutting his feet. He walked several miles through deep, crusty snow in his bare feet until the ice slashed into his skin, so he put the sandals back on. He told them that he was so cold he could not stand up. When Randall asked him if he was scared being out in the woods alone for two days, Cooper replied, "Of what?" After Randall and Frerichs gave Cooper a sandwich and extra clothing, they bundled him onto a snowmobile and took him back to the highway. "The amazing thing is he will not
have any long-lasting effects from the hypothermia or frostbite," Randall said. "He's a tough, tough guy, physically and mentally tough. The real deal." Related Stories Military jury finds Marine sergeant not guilty in hazing case Marine Corps says snipers posted with Nazi SS symbol in Afghanistan 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.
16
News Wire/
Greece must back bailout or face catastrophe: Papademos

(Reuters: Top News)
A former central banker, Papademos tried to raise Greeks' spirits as the nation enters its fifth By Harry Papachristou and Dina y e a r o f r e c e s s i o n , s a y i n g Kyriakidou economic growth would return in ATHENS| Fri Feb 10, 2012 2013 despite accusations that the 3:34pm EST austerity is merely driving Greece (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister into a downward spiral. L u c a s P a p a d e m o s t o l d h i s Any alternative to the rescue turbulent coalition government on would be much worse, he said in F r i d a y t o a c c e p t a h a r s h opening remarks using the word international bailout deal or "catastrophe" four times. c o n d e m n t h e n a t i o n t o "The social cost that the program catastrophe. entails will be limited, compared "We cannot allow Greece to go with the economic and social bankrupt," he told a cabinet catastrophe which would follow if meeting. "Our priority is to do we don't adopt it," he said. whatever it takes to approve the Earlier, far-right leader George new economic program and Karatzaferis said he could not proceed with the new loan back the tough terms attached to a agreement." 130 billion euro bailout and all Papademos, the sole technocrat in four cabinet members of his a coalition of feuding politicians, LAOS party submitted their tried to assert his authority after resignations, along with two from six cabinet members resigned the socialist PASOK party. over EU and IMF demands for yet However, Papademos was not more pay, pension and job cuts in expected to react immediately to return for the financial rescue. the loss of his transport minister "It goes without saying that and five deputy ministers. whoever disagrees and does not "There will be no reshuffle vote for the new program cannot today," said a government official remain in the government," he who declined to be named. said in televised remarks. Adding to the confusion, Greek Greece faces bankruptcy unless it media said that two of the LAOS gets the funds from the IMF and cabinet members had resigned European Union by March 20 o n l y u n d e r o r d e r s f r o m when it has to repay 14.5 billion Karatzaferis and would support euros ($19 billion) in maturing the deeply unpopular package bonds. when parliament votes, possibly
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:34:13 PM
on Sunday or Monday. The Socialist PASOK party, one of three in the "national unity" government called on its lawmakers to vote for the bailout, and analysts said they still thought parliament would pass the deeply unpopular package. UNSTABLE POLITICS But Greek politics remained highly unstable and unpredictable in the run up to the parliamentary vote. Outside parliament, police fired tear gas at black-masked protesters who threw petrol bombs, stones and bottles at the start of a 48-hour general strike against the cuts ordered by the "troika" of international lenders. But the street protests were relatively small compared to last year's mass rallies. A group of 35 lawmakers from PASOK, whose public support has collapsed, protested against pressure applied by euro zone ministers, who have told Athens it will get no aid unless it accepts the austerity conditions. "Our lenders are once again presenting the dilemma: either you take the measures or you lead the country to a default," they said in a protest letter. The biggest police trade union said it would issue arrest warrants for Greece's international lenders for subverting democracy, and
refused to "fight against our brothers." A daily newspaper depicted German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a swastika armband. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos made clear Greece has little choice but to accept the harsh conditions attached to the bailout, and a plan to halve its huge debt to private bondholders, to avoid a chaotic default next month. "It's time for us to make up our minds," he said after euro zone finance ministers refused to give immediate approval to the bailout plan. "Unfortunately, we have to choose between sacrifices and even bigger sacrifices." LAOS leader Karatzaferis begged to differ. "Greeks cannot be hostages and serfs," he thundered. "We were robbed of our dignity, we were humiliated. I can't take this. I won't allow it, no matter how hungry I am. Karatzaferis turned his anger on Germany, which will fund much of any bailout and has lectured Greeks on the need to tighten their belts. "Germany decides for Europe because it has a fat wallet and with that fat wallet it rules over the lives of all the southern countries," he told a news conference. His party has 15 deputies in the
300-seat parliament, dominated by the socialist PASOK and conservative New Democracy parties, which both support the Papademos government. The EU and IMF have been exasperated by a series of broken promises and weeks of disagreement over the terms of the bailout, which would be Greece's second since 2010, with time running out to avoid a default. The ministers gave Athens six days to prove its commitment by passing key legislation, finding an extra 325 million euros in savings, and providing assurances that the program will remain in force after any election. Summing up their deep mistrust, Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of euro zone finance ministers, said: "In short, no disbursement before implementation." The euro and European shares fell, reflecting concern that the Greek bailout and debt swap could fail. "RESIST!" The austerity plan includes lowering the minimum wage by 22 percent, axing 150,000 public sector jobs and reducing pensions. Some protesters compared Greece's plight, facing bankruptcy unless it accedes to the demands GREECE page 20
News Wire/
17
Santorum Surge Puts Him Near Head of GOP Pack

(FOXNews.com)
In interviews conducted on Wednesday and Thursday nights - after his wins -- Santorums Feb. 9, 2012: Rick Santorum support nearly doubled, which put listens to a student's question at him tied at the top with Romney Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, for those two days at 30 percent. Okla. Thats an increase of 13 Rick Santorum has surged percentage points. Over the last nationally in the race for the 2012 two nights, Romney also received Republican nomination after his 30 percent, a drop of 5 points. three-state sweep this week, while Gingrich came in at 16 percent, Mitt Romney has lost ground down 10 points. Pauls support among GOP primary voters. In held steady at 15 percent. addition, most GOP voters say the Looking at the results from all nomination race isnt over -- f o u r n i g h t s o f t h i s w e e k s someone other than Romney interviewing, Romney retains his could still win. Thats according frontrunner spot with 33 percent, to a Fox News poll released followed by Santorum at 23 Friday. percent, Gingrich at 22 percent The new poll was conducted over and Paul at 15 percent. four nights this week -- Monday The previous Fox News poll was through Thursday -- so it provides conducted in mid-January, and a unique opportunity to compare since then Rick Perry and Jon Santorums support before and Huntsman dropped out of the after his wins in Colorado, race. Romneys support is down 7 Minnesota and Missouri. And the percentage points since the results are striking. January poll, while Santorum is Click here to view full Fox News up 8 points, Gingrich is up 8 poll results. points and Paul is up 2 points. In interviews conducted on For the four nights of polling, Monday and Tuesday nights -- voters who are part of the Tea immediately before the news of Party movement back Gingrich his victories -- Santorum received (34 percent) over Santorum (28 the backing of 17 percent of GOP p e r c e n t ) a n d R o m n e y ( 2 5 primary voters. That was well percent). Paul receives the support behind Romney (35 percent) and of 9 percent of Tea Partiers. Newt Gingrich(26 percent), and White evangelical Christians slightly ahead of Ron Paul(14 break for Santorum (31 percent) percent). over Romney (24 percent) and
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:12:14 PM
Gingrich (23 percent). Most GOP primary voters -- 80 percent -- think someone other than frequent frontrunner Romney could still win the Republican nomination, and over half say its too soon for any of the current contenders to drop out (54 percent). Moreover, nearly half would still like to see someone else jump in the race (49 percent). Forty-eight percent of GOP primary voters are satisfied with their field of candidates. Thats far fewer than the 81 percent of Democratic voters who are happy with Barack Obama as their nominee. Romney (32 percent) and Gingrich (25 percent) are most likely to be seen as the Republicans who make the best case against Obama. Santorum (13 percent) and Paul (11 percent) trail on this measure.
Santorum (36 percent) is seen by GOP primary voters as the candidate most in touch with everyday Americans. Thats more than twice as many as any other Republican contender: Paul (16 percent), Romney (16 percent) and Gingrich (12 percent). Eight percent say none of the Republican candidates are in touch with voters. The poll asked GOP primary voters about their conversations with friends and neighbors and the first thing that comes up about the candidates. For Romney, its that hes extremely wealthy (21 percent), followed by his business background (14 percent), and that hes a flipflopper (13 percent). Fewer say its that hes Mormon (11 percent) or that hes the most electable (11 percent). When talking about Gingrich, the
first thing that comes up in conversation is that hes been married multiple times (17 percent), that he has big, sometimes unrealistic ideas (14 percent), and he was speaker of the House (14 percent). Smaller percentages say the first thing is Gingrichs consulting work for Fannie & Freddie (9 percent) or his debate skills (9 percent). By a 50-35 percent margin, voters overall say a Washington outsider could do a better job than an insider of making things work in Washington. Among Republican primary voters, the preference for an outsider is even greater -- 59-28 percent. GOP primary voters are about ten times more likely to describe former Speaker Gingrich as a Washington insider than any of the other Republican contenders. And who is seen as a political outsider? Some 25 percent say Romney and 14 percent say Santorum. Topping the outsider list is Paul -- who has served for more than two decades in Congress -- at 30 percent. The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,110 randomly-chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins SANTORUM page 18
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News Wire/
Teacher Accused of Abuse Got $40G for Being Fired
SANTORUM
Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from February 6 to February 9. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. For the (FOXNews.com) h a v e a n y e v i d e n c e a n d w e teachers were being "tarred and the cash-strapped district $5.7 subgroup of 407 GOP primary couldn't put on any witnesses. We stigmatized for no reason" and million, said district spokesman Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:12:14 PM voters (242 interviews were d i d n ' t h a v e a n y t h i n g t o that grievances would be filed Thomas Waldman. The new FILE: This undated police successfully defend a challenge." against the district on behalf of staffers were recently laid off and conducted in the first two nights of interviewing and 165 were booking photo released by the Los The 61-year-old recently was some 85 reassigned teachers. were on a rehiring list. Angeles Sheriff's Department charged with 23 counts of lewd Superintendent John Deasy said The district also faces potentially conducted the second two nights) s h o w s f o r m e r L o s A n g e l e s acts upon children, ages 6 to 10, the makeover was needed to clear millions of dollars in legal costs it is plus or minus 5 percentage teacher Mark Berndt, 61, who was accused of feeding his semen to the school from a cloud of distrust as lawsuits are filed. Three points. Related Stories Fox News arrested for felony molestation of some students during "tasting and suspicion stemming from the lawsuits were filed on Tuesday, Poll: Obama holds edge over Republicans in matchups 23 kids. games" in his classroom from arrest of former third-grade and claim notices have been filed This entry passed through the LOS ANGELES The former 2005 to 2010. teacher Mark Berndt. for at least four other lawsuits. Full-Text RSS service if this is third-grade teacher charged with A second Miramonte teacher, 49- Parents attended a meeting with A number of parents have opted committing lewd acts on students year-old Martin Springer, was the new principal, but many to file lawsuits instead of going to your content and you're reading it was paid $40,000 to drop an fired this week and has pleaded emerged dissatisfied, saying the sheriff's detectives because they on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentappeal of his firing, a newspaper not guilty to committing three district went overboard. are illegal immigrants and are only/faq.php#publishers. Five reported Friday. lewd acts on one girl in class in "My son liked his teacher," said afraid they'll be deported. Filters recommends: Donate to The Los Angeles Unified School 2009. He was freed on bail early Jose Vargas, shaking his head. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano District settled with Mark Berndt Friday, though the Los Angeles Whether any of the previous staff said he will reintroduce a bill this Wikileaks. because it couldn't defend his County sheriff's department said will return to Miramonte will be month that will protect children February 2011 firing, district he was fitted with a court-ordered determined after the district and domestic violence victims general counsel David Holmquist electronic ankle monitor. completes its investigation into from deportation. Related Stories told the Los Angeles Times. At Miramonte, students returned how Berndt's alleged activities 8 California school workers on Berndt was removed from the to class for the first time Thursday went undetected for so long, leave during abuse probe classroom in January 2011 and since the entire 120-member staff Deasy said. This entry passed through the dismissed as the Los Angeles was replaced in an unprecedented In the classrooms they left Full-Text RSS service if this is County Sheriff's Department was move by the Los Angeles Unified behind, children and teachers your content and you're reading it investigating him. He appealed School District. were adjusting. on someone else's site, please read but resigned in June after the The day got off to a rough start In Martha Cedeno's first-grade the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentdistrict agreed to pay him four with the teachers union president class, pupils told her where to find only/faq.php#publishers. Five months of back salary and assailing the reassignment of the gym schedule and explained Filters recommends: Donate to reimburse his health benefit costs. teachers as a stunt and about 100 they were to play volleyball, Wikileaks. "We were told we could not do parents and students blasting the according to a pool report. any investigation" to avoid move. The new hires, which include a interfering with the criminal United Teachers Los Angeles retired principal, 81 teachers and probe, Holmquist said. "We didn't President Warren Fletcher said dozens of support staff, will cost
News Wire/
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Obama budget to Obama shift seeks to defuse birth-control fight forecast $901 billion
(Reuters: Top News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:32:44 PM
President Barack Obama talks about providing states flexibility under reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, February 9, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing By Stephanie Simon and Caren Bohan Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:32pm EST (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, in an abrupt policy shift aimed at quelling an election-year firestorm, announced on Friday that religious employers would not be required to offer free birth control to workers and the onus would instead be put on insurers. But Catholic Church leaders and Obama's Republican opponents, who had railed against the Democratic president's new rule on contraceptives as a violation of religious freedom, signaled that divisions remain over the hotbutton social issue. The compromise by the Obama administration sought to accommodate religious organizations, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, outraged by a new rule that would have required them to offer free contraceptive coverage to women employees.
Instead, the new approach puts the burden on insurance companies, ordering them to provide workers at religiousaffiliated institutions with free family planning if they request it, without involving their employer at all, the White House said. "Religious liberty will be protected, and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women," Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room as he sought to put the political furor to rest. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called Obama's move a "first step in the right direction" but said it was still concerned about the issue and would reserve judgment. Weighing in publicly on the issue for the first time, Obama acknowledged that religious groups had "genuine concerns" about the birth control rule, but he accused some of his opponents of a cynical effort to turn the issue into a "political football." "The result will be that religious organizations won't have to pay for these services," Obama said. "But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptives just like other women." The rule had sparked an outcry not only from Catholic leaders but
from social conservatives, including Republican presidential hopefuls on the campaign trail, and had also sown dissent among some of Obama's top advisers. Health insurance giant Aetna Inc said it would comply with the policy but needed "to study the mechanics of this unprecedented decision before we can understand how it will be implemented and how it will impact our customers." Republicans seized on the issue, seeing a chance to paint Obama as anti-religion and put him on the defensive as signs of economic recovery appear to have reenergized his re-election bid. The policy shift was aimed at preventing the issue from becoming a liability for Obama with Catholic voters, while at the same time trying not to anger his liberal base. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Laura MacInnis, Thomas Ferraro; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Mary Milliken and Todd Eastham) 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.
deficit in 2013
(Reuters: Top News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:54:29 PM
end of 2012. The budget will also earmark $476 billion for infrastructure President Obama pauses while he spending and $350 billion to jump speaks about contraceptive care -start job creation, the official funding in the press room of the said. These plans were announced White House, February 10, 2012. in Obama's State of the Union Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing address last month, in which he WASHINGTON| Fri Feb 10, called for more action to improve 2012 2:54pm EST economic fairness in American. (Reuters) - President Barack Spending has already been Obama will project a $901 billion capped for 2013 in a deal between deficit for fiscal 2013 in his Obama and Republicans last upcoming budget proposal, a summer to raise the U.S. debt sharp drop from the funding gap ceiling, and Obama last month this year, a White House official announced defense spending cuts said on Friday. of $487 billion over 10 years. Obama's proposal to Congress on The budget must still spell out Monday represents a budget where the ax falls on domestic deficit forecast in 2013 equivalent spending, with $360 billion to 5.5 percent of gross domestic e x p e c t e d t o b e s a v e d b y product (GDP), down from 8.5 controlling growth in the costs of percent of GDP in 2012 when the Medicare and Medicaid, federal deficit is seen hitting $1.33 healthcare programs for elderly trillion. and poor Americans. Obama in September outlined the (Reporting by Alister Bull and broad details of his $3 trillion- Caren Bohan; Editing by Jackie plus deficit reduction plan, which Frank) his Republican rivals slammed for This entry passed through the raising taxes on the rich. Full-Text RSS service if this is H e i s e x p e c t e d t o r e p e a t your content and you're reading it proposals to raise $1.6 trillion on someone else's site, please read over a decade through higher the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contenttaxes, included $886 billion raised only/faq.php#publishers. Five by allowing tax breaks for Filters recommends: Donate to families earning more than Wikileaks. $250,000 a year to expire at the
20
News Wire/ World News/
GREECE
of international lenders, to its seven years under military dictatorship. On Syntagma Square in central Athens, songs from the struggle in the 1960s and 1970 against a junta of colonels boomed out over loudspeakers. Police said three policemen and two protesters were slightly injured in clashes. Five people were detained. With Greece probably at its lowest ebb since the junta was overthrown in 1974 and democracy restored, protesters denounced the "troika" of lenders - the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. "Do not bow your heads! Resist!" They chanted. "No to layoffs! No to salary cuts! No to pension cuts! Analysts say only a breakdown of party discipline can sink the
package in parliament, where the coalition has a huge majority. "There will most likely be a string of defections and abstentions but I don't believe that the measures will fall short of the majority required," political analyst George Sefertzis told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris in Athens, Stephen Brown in Berlin; Writing David Stamp; Editing by Louise Ireland) 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.
Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News

(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)
Top Stories Greeces political leaders on Thursday have come to an agreement on austerity cuts to secure a $170 billion bailout from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. I just came from the field hospital. There are three large rooms full of corpses. Ive seen over 100 corpses today, said a witness named Karim, detailing the shelling [...] Chinas totalitarian regime will be able to sue Canada over lost profits resulting from stricter environmental controls or other regulatory changes under a
foreign investor [...] The Department of Justice and 49 state attorneys general have reached a $25 billion settlement with the country's five largest mortgage lenders: Bank of America, JP Morgan [...] While jobs and the economy are headliner issues for most Americansespecially during this years presidential raceeducation will likely play a significant role in [...] 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.
There is an understanding between CongNCP, Sena: Raj Hindustan Times

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:17:31 PM
Church and state: the waning power of prayer - The Guardian

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:32:58 PM
The Hindu There is an understanding between Cong-NCP, Sena: Raj Hindustan Times There is an understanding between the Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray alleged at his first public meeting for the civic polls in Thane on Friday. Referring to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's comment... Chavan inept,ineffective: Saamna Indian Express Sharad Pawar calls for probe into irregularities by Shiv Sena in BMC Daily News & Analysis Congress MLA sends defamation notice against Saamna The Hindu Zee News- Day & Night NewsThe Asian Age all 22 news articles
BBC News Church and state: the waning power of prayer The Guardian
David Hockney may disagree, given the place's importance as a pioneering New World tobacco trade port, but the quiet and pleasing north Devon town of Bideford seems to have played only a modest role thus far in the
long march of English freedom. Councils are BANNED from saying prayers before meetings sparking fury of... Daily Mail Bideford council prayer case prompts delight and dismay BBC News
Council prayers outlawed Financial Times The Press Association- Channel 4 News- Telegraph.co.uk all 437 news articles
World News/ Technology/
21
The Realist Prism: Resetting the U.S.-Russia Reset
Central Europe and the EU Fiscal Compact: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
(World Politics Review: Articles)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 7:29:00 AM
states, with the notable exception of Hungary, have vibrant economies, are active in Europes At last weeks summit, European E a s t e r n a n d S o u t h e r n (World Politics Review: Articles) Russian presidency after next Security Council resolution U n i o n l e a d e r s f i n a l i z e d neighborhoods, and have made months election, and he has not authorizing a no-fly zone for negotiations and adopted the latest s u b s t a n t i a l a n d p o s i t i v e Submitted at 2/10/2012 7:17:00 AM forgotten or forgiven the Obama Libya. But these produced no real chapter of Europes paper trail: contributions to the EU. The After a period of healthier ties team's public relations effort back q u i d p r o q u o s f o r R u s s i a n t h e T r e a t y o n S t a b i l i t y , Eastern Partnership Initiative and following the much-heralded in 2009 to categorize President interests. Given the skepticism Coordination and Governance in a r e v a m p e d E u r o p e a n reset, U.S.-Russia relations appear Dmitry Medvedev as the wave of with which Putin is viewed in the the Economic and Monetary Neighborhood Policy are two to be deteriorating. Whether it the future and America's preferred U.S., not only by President Union (.pdf), or in short, the new notable examples. But Europes was the war of words between interlocutor. At the same time, Barack Obama but also by all the fiscal compact. While French latest trend toward a fiscally U.S. Secretary of State Hillary P u t i n a n d m e m b e r s o f h i s Republican challengers, there is President Nicolas Sarkozy and united core, embodied in the new Clinton and Russian Prime i m m e d i a t e c i r c l e , w h o little chance that, after March, G e r m a n C h a n c e l l o r A n g e l a treaty, juxtaposes two competing Minister Vladimir Putin last consistently expressed concerns there will be particularly warm Merkel breathe a sigh of relief and impulses in the region: the desire December over the flaws in the about the "reset," feel that their and strong personal relations declare success, few in the West to invest in more integration to Russian Duma elections, or the doubts have been justified. In between the U.S. and Russian are focused on what this compact ensure a common home in a harsh language used by U.N. their narrative, Russia made many presidents. ... means for the EUs 10 newest strong Europe and the fear of Ambassador Susan Rice after c o m p r o m i s e s t o A m e r i c a n This entry passed through the member states in Central Europe being marginalized and relegated Russia vetoed a draft Security preferences over the past few Full-Text RSS service if this is (CE-10), the majority of which to yet another waiting room. ... Council resolution last week y e a r s , i n c l u d i n g r e l e g a t i n g your content and you're reading it are not in the eurozone. For these This entry passed through the calling on Syrian President Bashar concerns about missile defense to on someone else's site, please read countries, the roller coaster ride Full-Text RSS service if this is al-Assad to step down, the a nonbinding preamble in the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- ahead will be bumpy. your content and you're reading it optimism engendered by the New START agreement; agreeing only/faq.php#publishers. Five As demonstrated by Poland on someone else's site, please read Obama administration's reset with to much stronger sanctions on Filters recommends: Donate to during its EU Presidency last the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentRussia has dissipated. year, CE-10 states increasingly only/faq.php#publishers. Five Iran and suspending a lucrative Wikileaks. Nor does the immediate future contract to provide Tehran with play a constructive role in Filters recommends: Donate to bode well for "resetting the reset." an advanced air defense system; Brussels. Today most CE-10 Wikileaks. Putin is expected to reclaim the and acquiescing to the U.N.
140-character interview with the UK's oldest couple

Olivia Solon
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:13:00 PM
Here at Wired.co.uk we don't tend to fall for the sugar-coated guff that erupts from the bottoms
of PR companies around the 14 February. For the record, a pink, crystal-covered iPhone case is not the perfect gift for every female partner. However, our robotic hearts aren't completely unbeating. So when I was given
the opportunity to interview Britain's longest-lasting couple -Lionel and Ellen Buxton, aged 99 and 100 respectively -- over Twitter, I jumped at the chance. After all, they might not have
long left. They've been an item for 82 years, having got together in 1930 and married in 1936. By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Nate Lanxon Continue reading...
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World News/ Sports/
Should the private health insurance rebate be meanstested? - Sydney Morning Herald
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:31:51 PM
Sydney Morning Herald Should the private health insurance rebate be means-tested? Sydney Morning Herald LAST year private health insurance providers made a $1.2 billion profit, before tax. Yet the private insurance rebate is the fastest-growing component of Australian government health
expenditure. While government funding for health must prioritise... Will means testing rebate help or harm healthcare? ABC Online Cover for surplus as health reform rescued The Australian End to medical rebate will cost $1300 a year Brisbane Times NEWS.com.au- Herald SunCourier Mail all 389 news articles
Afghan soldier boasts about shooting Australians - ABC Online

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:12:41 PM
Preparations underway ahead of Rahul's visit Times of India

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:36:33 PM
Afghan soldier boasts about shooting Australians ABC Online A former member of the Afghan army who seriously wounded three Australian troops last year has boasted about the attack in a video posted online. Muhammed
Rozi shot the diggers along with two Afghans at a patrol base in Uruzgan province in November. Afghan boasts of shooting Aussie Diggers Sky News Australia Afghan rogue's rant: Why I shot Diggers The Age Video boast - how I shot the Diggers Blacktown Sun all 14 news articles
Thief's voice captured Suicide rate jump among Aboriginal during Whitnash burglary - BBC News girls - The Australian
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:43:30 PM
Preparations underway ahead of Rahul's visit Times of India ALLAHABAD: Hectic preparations have begun for the two day visit of Congress leader and Amethi MP, Rahul Gandhi to the city where he is slated to campaign extensively for the Congress candidates from Saturday. Giving this information, UPCC spokesperson,... and more
expressandstar.com Thief's voice captured during Whitnash burglary BBC News A knife-wielding thief has left an unusual clue in Warwickshire - a recording of his voice captured by his elderly victim's security alarm.
He broke into the home of a 96- (Nation - Google News) year-old woman in Whitnash, Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:56:30 PM Leamington Spa, at 20:00 GMT Brisbane Times on Friday 16 December. Suicide rate jump among Burglar leaves his voice behind Aboriginal girls The Press Association Voice captured during Whitnash The Australian SUICIDE rates among burglary Kenilworth Today Aboriginal girls have jumped all 129 news articles since the Northern Territory
intervention was introduced five years ago. The territory's Children's Commissioner, (Sports News Headlines Howard Bath, said girls now Yahoo! News) account for 40 per cent of all suicides of children under the... Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:53:16 PM Suicide among children as young John Isner shocked Roger as 11 at alarming levels The Age Federer 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2, all 37 news articles giving the United States a 2-0 lead against Switzerland in their Davis Cup first-round series on Friday.
Isner shocks Federer in Davis Cup; US leads 20
Kerber stuns Sharapova to reach Paris semifinals

(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Top-seeded Maria Sharapova was ousted from the Open GDF Suez on Friday, beaten by Angelique
Kerber 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
Technology/
23
A Proposal to Fix Online Identity

Jon Mitchell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:53:00 PM
Facebook's social graph of you isn't you. It's an approximation and an extrapolation based on little clues you've left lying around the Web. Using your Facebook or Google identity gives those services more data points about what you do, but that doesn't mean it substitutes for whom you are. The central thing wrong with the social Web is that users don't own their identities. Users share themselves with identity services like Facebook and Google - that then act as representatives of the people using them. Facebook and Google allow other sites to rent those identities. But when you log in to a new service using Facebook Connect, you are actually constraining your identity to the Facebook version of it, though you're expanding Facebook itself. Do you want to be the same version of yourself everywhere else as you are on Facebook? Or Google? Sponsor Facebook & Google Act on Our Behalf By doing things this way, Facebook, Google et al. can lend your name to things without really asking you, like ads and promotions of various kinds. You have implied your permission by "liking" things or "checking in" to places. But you didn't create the ad. You
just initiated an action that triggered it. Social applications that speak for us this way are using our identities without us. Identity Is Prismatic Our Facebook and Google identities are like constellations. The stars are our actions on the
Web. Facebook and Google are on the ground, staring up at the sky with a bunch of marketers and advertisers. They're the know-italls pointing at abstract shapes and confidently labeling them with names. But the actual user, not the vague
constellation of her online actions, is a multi-faceted person. "Identity is prismatic," as Chris Poole says, and "Facebook and Google do identity wrong." "It's not 'who you share with,' it's 'who you share as,'" Poole says. In other words, we're only presenting
one, Facebook-facing aspect of ourselves when we share online via Facebook. The advertisers who make Facebook possible don't have a full picture; they have a Facebook caricature. PROPOSAL page 25
24
Technology/
For And Against The iPad Mini

Jordan Crook (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:30:01 PM
entertainment activities on a tablet, beating out watching video and listening to music, with 67 Rumors of a 7- to 7.85-inch iPad percent of owners gaming at least have been swirling around for a once a month, and 23 percent long while now. Weve seen playing daily. reports get killed moments after That said, Apples 9.7-inch iPad they initially break, only to be isnt what Id call the best for sneakily resurrected weeks or gaming. Graphics and display months later. The rumor simply quality are top-notch, to be sure, wont die. but holding the device for very The problem, however, is that long especially stretching that this one in particular is a tough thumb around the edge can be nut to crack. When you take all incredibly tiring. Despite the fact the evidence both for and against that it has failed me considerably, a little iPad, youre still left with I still prefer playing games on my no real conclusion. 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook, So conclusion aside, here are even if there arent many games some of the reasons Apple may, to choose from. or may not, introduce the little Most smaller Android tablets use iPad: For: a widescreen aspect ratio, leaving The greatest threat to Apples a dead zone in the middle of the iPad is the 7-inch Amazon Kindle screen thats mostly untouchable. Fire. It retails at about $300 less The iPad 2 sports a 4:3 screen, than the iPad, sports a solid which makes even the 10-inch browser, has access to plenty of model full touchable. A 7-incher Android apps, and is a great hub would only be that much better, for any and all of Amazons with greater pixel density and a media content. It also happens to lighter, easier feel in the hand. be a 7-inch tablet. Should Apple Apple is kind of obsessive when choose to offer a smaller iPad at a it comes to thin and light, and a lower price (which the market smaller iPad would also mean a would most certainly demand), it thinner iPad. See, if Apple were to could snatch back the market build a smaller iPad, chances are share Amazons stolen in the past itd be built using the normal few months. screen assembly technology that Gaming on tablets is big, but too allows for the iPad 2s incredibly b i g a t a b l e t r u i n s t h e f u n . thin profile. According to numbers out of However, a smaller iPad/screen comScore in November, 2011, means a smaller battery, which g a m i n g t o p p e d t h e l i s t o f usually takes up a solid chunk of
space under the hood. Less screen means less power needed for backlighting it, which inevitably takes us back to a smaller battery. Thin and light! Thin and light! Thin and light! Amazon may release a 9-inch Fire Why not fight Fire with fire? The word right now is that Amazon has plans to release a 9inch Fire to compete with the iPad. While, like the 7-inch Fire, it probably wont have all the capabilities of the iPad, a larger Fire will still retail at a (much?) lower price point than its competitor. For people who mostly browse the web, read, email, and Facebook/Twitter, a lower price point will be more than enough incentive to venture away from the iPad. To be clear, its not like Apples in some dire position. Cupertino still dominates the market with a 58 percent share as of January, 2012. But thats down 10 percent from the previous quarter, while analysts claim that 40 percent of Androids 39 percent share in the tablet market are attributable to the Nook Tablet and the Fire. Its undeniable: Apple is slowly but steadily losing share to Android, most notably the Fire, and what better way to steal it back then by launching a 7-incher right in Amazons face? Against The most notable and evidential reason why Apple wouldnt release a little iPad is because
Steve Jobs said so. In an earnings call in October of 2010, Jobs said that 7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad. These are among the reasons that the current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA dead on arrival. Jim Dalrymple points out that Apple made both a 7- and a 9.7inch iPad right at the beginning and chose to go with the bigger version, which at a first glance would indicate that its not going to happen. At the same time, that was a long time ago if were counting in tech years and it wouldnt be the first time Jobs obliterated a product category only to announce something similar to it shortly after. Anyone remember iBooks? Why release a product to compete in a market you already own? Though its market share has fallen since its debut, Apple still absolutely dominates the tablet market right now. A 58 percent share of a market, with not one of its competitors anywhere near that share, leaves Apple with no real reason to put anything smaller in stores. Im sure some of you will say I made an entirely contradictory point up there with Amazon grabbing share, but its all about perspective. Perhaps one person thinks that now is the time to plug up any leaky market share
dribbling into Amazons hands, while someone else may think that Apple should wait until it absolutely has to throw a lowerpriced option into the ring. Too many choices can be a bad thing, and Apples well aware of this. Look at iPhone releases: one model at a time. Apples all about making one absolutely stellar, blow-your-mind, make-youbelieve-in-magic product and selling it well. Design, sell, repeat. Tablets are meant to be simple, easy-to-use products. Its not like a PC, where users have to review list after list of specs and configurations before figuring out what fits. Some companies, like Samsung, want to stretch across every category of the tablet market with different specd and sized models under a shared brand. One of the iPads greatest advantages is being the iPad, rather than an iPad Lite, or an iPad Air, or whatever. It would be a deviation from Apples current strategy and overarching mission statement of Keep it simple, stupid if they were to start switching things up now. So Will Apple release a 7-inch iPad? Truth be told, your guess is as good as mine, but it would seem that there are advantages in either case.
Technology/ Featured/
25
PROPOSAL
Today's Social Web Is a Performance The more about ourselves we share with Facebook, the more stars you can see in the night sky, the clearer the constellation appears. Hence, Facebook rolls out Timeline and asks us to share our entire life story. But what Facebook has to acknowledge is that this is still a performance. It's a make-believe Facebook self. And Facebook's (and Google's) business consists of spinning that self on our behalf, mapping it and stereotyping it and selling it. It's not wrong of Facebook or Google to do that, per se. But I have a feeling that better products, better ads, and a better Web would be possible if users owned their identities, showing as many (or as few) facets as they want to show. A Proposal: Online Identity as a Fingerprint Users should have signatures that are truly theirs, instead of their Facebook and Google guardians signing on their behalf. Identity on the Internet should be embedded by the user like a fingerprint. It should be written into the digital material we make using hardware we have
authorized. We should also be able to withhold it whenever we choose and make the content anonymous. We should also be able to sign multiple and pseudonymous identities, but we'll have to hash that out later, as a political issue, once this is even technically possible. The first step is to create a protocol that lets us sign off the bits we've written as being of us, so that they remain identifiable no matter where the content is repackaged or republished. Why Do We Want This? We want this because it would delineate a difference between something we made or we said and something an outside service extrapolated about us. We want this because it would simplify problems of attribution and copyright on the Web. If we didn't sign something we created, it would default to the other ways we deal with unsigned content. But content that is signed would have an unmistakable origin. "There would be a layer of protection between who we declare we are and who companies assume we are." We want this because it will make identity services like Google, Facebook and the rest compete
honestly for our attention instead of boxing us into their worlds. Facebook and Google can only make enough money from their profiles of us by tracking our activity and extrapolating who we are and what we do. But that would still be possible on top of a layer of authentic identity that those services didn't own. They would be able to compete based on whose recommendations were more accurate, but there would be a layer of protection between who we declare we are and who companies assume we are. We would no longer be tied to just one of those identity constellations. OpenID is not what I'm talking about, either. It's more than just logging in to websites. This is something we write in. It's not a handle and a password. It's like one of those wax seals on a letter, except with Information Age security measures. The Nave Things About My Idea Many things about my above proposal are nave. Here are just a few: I am not well-versed enough in the longstanding projects of this nature that already exist, like GnuPG signing or Mozilla's BrowserID, to know what the
challenges are. But I'm working on it. I haven't specified at which layer of the user interface this identity signature should take place, whether at the device level, the browser level, or what. Again, that's because I am not wellversed enough in the technical requirements of such a project. And yes, the inertia of moving away from siloed Web identities (Google/Facebook) towards this is unconscionably humongous. So I know there are experts on these problems out there. Talk to me. What's right and what's wrong about this idea? Who's working on it? How is it going? Is it impossible? Is it unnecessary? Is it hopeless? In the interest of a better Web, let's talk about this. See also: Scott M. Fulton, III's year-end post,"Issues for 2012 #3: Who Gets to Define Your Online Identity?" Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Discuss
The Wired.co.uk Podcast 62: 3Dprinted jaws, teledildonics, Kinetica explored

Nate Lanxon
Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:08:38 AM
Evitable, After All

William Kristol (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:20:00 PM
elements of the punditocracy, Republican primary voters are not eager to close down the race. Rick Santorum surging nationally: Unlike GOP elites and large
Here's another interesting finding from the Fox News poll showing
If you've never listened to the Wired.co.uk Podcast before, this is a great episode to start with. On the show this week an 83-yearold lady gets a new lower jaw produced on a 3D-printer (generally we mean, not live on the show), a British firm has built a 32-megajoule Electromagnetic Railgun for the US Navy, and how do you feel about kissing an overseas lover using a pair of networked electronic lips fashioned into the shape of a small plastic pig? We also discuss the appeal to have Alan Turing posthumously pardoned, and delve into an audible tour of the Kinetica art fair -- you won't want to miss it! Catch that in the second half of the show. By: Nate Lanxon, Continue reading...
26
Technology/
Zuck Voting for Mitt? How Facebook "Like" Makes Things Ambiguous
Alicia Eler (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:30:00 PM
German court has dismissed Motorola's patent lawsuit against Apple

Steven Sande (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:00:00 PM
Sometimes the "Like" button is not as clear cut as it seems. Even Zuck would agree. ZDNet reports that a Facebook design flaw has accidentally convinced some readers that Zuckerberg is endorsing Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The awkward "Liking" took place earlier this week. Zuck "liked" a story by Salon.com's Farhad Manjoo, who posted the following status along with a link to mittromney.com: "Try, just looking at the Romney logo without seeing the word MONEY." When that image shows up on users' news feeds, however, it appears as if Zuck "liked" the Mitt Romney link rather than Manjoo's comment, coupled with a link to the Romney website. Whatever happened to the "Like" button making things simple? Sponsor On Manjoo's Facebook profile, however, it's pretty clear that Zuckerberg "liked" his status update joke. Check it out. Facebook prominently displays Zuckerberg's name as one of the
has real value, rather than the mundane activities of other Facebook users, "like" ambiguities might happen a lot less. But back to the whole Manjoo/ Zuckerberg/Romney "like" thing. On Manjoo's side, the status update could have been clearer and more poignant if he just wrote that joke as a status update, and included an image of Romney's name-as-logo. (Switch two letters 526 people who, as of right now, a r o u n d a n d R o m n e y s p e l l s "like" this post. "money"!) Seeing this out of context in the Still, the Zuckerberg "like" would main news feed might lead some have come up the same in the to believe otherwise. It looks like main news feed. It just would Zuck is endorsing Romney. Here's have looked like Zuck "liked" an the screengrab of the news feed image of Romney's logo, which view that ZDNet posted: could also be misconstrued. This sort of screw-up is just a So to completely avoid any byproduct of Facebook's annoying Facebook false endorsement oversharing features that clutter snafus like this one, Manjoo up users' news feed. should have posted this as a Do Facebook users really need to Twitter-like, witty one-liner status know what their friends "like" in update. Of course, that would as prominent a spot as the main have been too simple, even by news feed? The same goes for the Facebook standards. news ticker, which brings a micro A Facebook spokesperson -view to what every single one of d e c l i n e d t o c o m m e n t . a user's Facebook friends likes Images courtesy of Shutterstock. and comments on. Discuss Just think: If Facebook tweaked both the news feed and the news ticker to show users content that
In the slugfest between Apple and Motorola Mobility, the Cupertino company has won a round in the German courts. A judge in the Mannheim Regional Court dismissed the Motorola Mobility (MMI) lawsuit against Apple over a patent considered essential to the 3G/UMTS standard. In a typically well-written and extremely detailed look at the case by FOSS Patents, intellectual property analyst and blogger Florian Mueller noted that MMI didn't present conclusive evidence for its contention that Apple was infringing on a key 3G/UMTS patent. MMI's argument has been that "any implementation of 3G/ UMTS must inevitably infringe this patent claim," rather than demonstrating that Apple's infringing products actually use the invention. MMI didn't show that Apple was using any actual implementation of the patent; instead, they argued on the basis of the specifications of the standard. MMI declared the patent to be essential, while the court found it to not be essential, meaning that the judge thinks that Apple could be able to implement the standard without infringing on the patent.
MMI isn't worrying too much about this specific patent lawsuit, though. They have other similar lawsuits that are still making their way through the court system, and have won other patent claims. Mueller notes that "it takes only one bullet to kill," and that winning a key patent infringement lawsuit could still force Apple and other manufacturers to pay the 2.25% of net selling price "ransom" that will fatten MMI owner Google's pockets over time. To see more detail about today's win and the complex set of lawsuits that are churning through courtrooms around the world, check out the original FOSS Patents post here. German court has dismissed Motorola's patent lawsuit against Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Technology/
27
New 'Star Wars' app: These are the Droids you're looking for
Rick Broida (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:17:51 PM
proper destination. Simple premise, challenging execution. Each level consists of a Star Wars Pit Droids. tiled grid, and to earn the At first blush, Star Wars Pit maximum number of stars, you Droids might seem like a hasty have to create the shortest route attempt to cash in on the theatrical from A to B, using the fewest re-release of "Star Wars Episode number of tiles. I: The Phantom Menace." It's easygoing for the first couple I n s t e a d , i t ' s m e r e l y t h e levels, but before long you're appropriately timed app version of having to direct different-color a Windows game that debuted droids to different destinations almost 13 years ago. And you using specialized arrows, all while know what? It's as terrific now as avoiding obstacles and preventing it was then. collisions. The droids in Pit Droids are the The games has 75 levels (about a saucer-headed ones you saw quarter of what the original game clanking around Tatooine before offered--maybe level packs are the Pod Race. Owing to some imminent?) spread across four shoddy programming, all they can locales: a transport ship, Watto's do is march single-file in one shop, Hutt Flats, and Mos Espa. direction. Watto (remember him?) To move past the first locale, you assigns you to deploy directional need to earn a certain number of arrows to get the droids to their stars--meaning just finishing each
level might not be enough. If you don't find the shortest routes, you may not have enough stars. Surprisingly, Pit Droids eschews John Williams' familiar score in favor of a rather jazzy, upbeat soundtrack. To me it seems an
odd fit for the game, but at least you're treated to the occasional high-quality "Star Wars" cut scene. Ultimately, this is a cute little puzzle game, one that's more likely to appeal to younger
players, but still a good diversion for any fan. If you decide to go see "The Phantom Menace" in 3D, it'll give you something to do whenever Jar-Jar Binks appears. (I kid, I kid. I'll take heat for this, but I didn't hate Jar-Jar. In fact, I thought "The Phantom Menace" was the best of the three prequels. But that's faint praise, because they were all soul-crushingly bad.) Pit Droids costs $1.99. 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.
Christian World Adoption

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28
Technology/ Finance/
Spark Linux tablet given video rundown

Chris Burns (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:57:07 PM
The device you will soon be looking at is a $256 7-inch tablet running on a basic mobile version of Linux, and its name is Spark. The software user interface goes by the name Plasma Active and has been in the works for some months, ramping up to this point at which this tablet can bring the lovely functionality to the market with what we hope is a beta version of the Spark tablet. Youll find that the software experience looks familiar if youre used to using a Linux environment on your computer now, but that the tablet itself isnt all that impressive when it comes to hardware. The tablet were looking at here is essentially a rebranded Zenithink C71, a device which in that iteration ran Google Android. In this Spark release, the tablet will be packaged with the ability to run Mer as well as Plasma Active. Youll see more than just a little bit of lag here and there, as even though the tablet has a 1
Kinetica 2012: The best, the weirdest, the most impressive

Philippa Warr
Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:12:00 AM
GHz AMLogic ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Mali 400 graphics, were still seeing less than suitable power for even this relatively small screen. The display here is a mere 800 x 600 pixels for the entirety of its 7inches, and inside youll find 4GB storage, 802.11 b/g Wifi, and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. Whats being marketed here is not just the mediocre tablet specs or the software, but the fact that this is the first truly open
tablet on the market. It has open source software, an unlocked bootloader, and a content store based on the same open sourced platform the OS is on the store itself can be created and distributed by anyone. Well watch how this project develops and see if the idea spreads to the rest of the tablet / smartphone world. Likely itll remain in the wings and underground for some time to come. Also check out this
demonstration of the Plasma Active interface on a slightly nicer piece of hardware to see its true potential: [ via Liliputing] Spark Linux tablet given video rundown is written by Chris Burns& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
With so much whirring, clunking, tapping, thrumming and pulsing, it's easy to feel a little overwhemed at Kinetica Art Fair. When you're not being offered a transcendent light experience you're being instructed to spin handles and press buttons on mysterious-looking contraptions. In order to ease you in and flag up some fabulously inventive artworks which caught our eye, here's Wired.co.uk's hitlist for Kinetica attendees. By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Dan Smith Continue reading...
Debt crisis: live

Szu Ping Chan (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:44:01 PM
The Greek Government heads for a reshuffle as five cabinet members resign and cast doubt over the implementation of tough
austerity measures required to "uncontrolled chaos". secure a 130bn bailout package, while PM Lucas Papademos warns default would be
Technology/
29
SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up: February 10, 2012

Chris Burns (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:22:50 PM
It seems almost certified at this point that Apple will be releasing and/or announcing their iPad 3 in the month of March, and the tips are flowing in. Early this morning we heard that showcase app makers for the iPad 3 were being chosen, and iPad twin-tier pricing has been suggested to topple all the Androids. Meanwhile Google is busy preparing anext-gen personal communication device while Iran blocks the internet. Before noon we had two products already reviewed in full, one of
them the Three Web Cube for transportable internet in a niche market, the other being the Motorola DROID 4 from Verizon. The DROID 4 is also on sale starting today across the nation. As far as the rest of the Android world goes, all eyes are on Samsung Galaxy S II for its Ice Cream Sandwich updates starting in March. Of course HTCs leaksters wouldnt want all the attention in one place, so they dropped a White Incredible with Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box! Theres also an LG Mango device out there and Acer
CloudMobile is the smartphone we never knew existed until it won an award across the sea itll have Ice Cream Sandwich too! Diablo III has been postponed
again(until Q2 2012) and water has been reported to be wet. The ultimately awesome Tesla vehicle known as the Model X has been revealed with a touchscreen dash
interface and Falcon-Wing doors CEO Elon Musk is also readying plans to offer his SpaceX program for IPO. WolframAlpha Pro is no longer Beta, entering into its real live full release for all you knowledge seekers. Finally, there is a Wolly Mammoth living in Siberia or so a trickster with a camera claims. SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up: February 10, 2012 is written by Chris Burns& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Air Force Could Buy Thousands Of iPads And Android Tablets

Devin Coldewey (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:41:18 PM
The Air Forces Air Mobility Command will be putting in a request for the purchase of a number of tablets soon in an effort to lighten their pilotsloads. Many commercial airlines are already taking this step, and American Airlines has already gotten FAA approval. The Air Force is feeling
the sting of jealousy, and in consequence may be requesting as many as 18,000 devices. The number could also be as low as 63; the Command was not forthcoming on this point. The lower number would probably indicate a pilot program, so to speak, for a few devices, to determine which should get the big order. Which tablet would actually be
ordered is also not specified. Bloomberg cannily plays up the iPad angle in its report ( U.S. Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple IPad 2s), but the spokesperson they talked to, Captain Ferrero, said the request might also be for Playbooks, Galaxy Tabs, Xooms, or Nooks. If these were to be generalpurpose tablets, this little menagerie would be hard to
winnow down. But the fact is they are going to be used as virtual flight bags, and the iPad is the only one that has the thousands of hours in the air that the Air Force will require. In a year, maybe, Android tablets will have a little more experience under their belts, but for now its probably safe to say that any tablets purchased by the government for the purpose of being electronic flight bags are
going to be iPads. Eventually, these platform issues will have to be settled, though: if part of the military is going with Android for security purposes, and others are going with iOS for EFB and, say, general communication, theres going to be a reckoning sooner or later.
30
Technology/ Featured/
iPads and iPhones Make Up More Web Traffic Than Mac Desktops
John Paul Titlow (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:15:15 PM
The tablet revolution. The postPC era. The smartphone explosion. Whatever label you want to apply to it, personal computing is changing. People are spending more time with smaller devices like tablets and smartphones and less time on desktops and laptops. This been evident for awhile, but the trend is still relatively young and the data points are only just beginning to trickle in. For evidence of this shift, look no further than Apple. The company just reported an absolutely bonkers financial quarter, in which it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads. The two products now make up 72% of Apple's quarterly revenue and the
consumer demand shows no sign of letting up. Sponsor As iOS devices sell like crazy, it only makes sense that the amount of Web traffic coming from these gadgets would increase. But by how much? Well, that traffic is now greater than the traffic that comes from Mac OS X, according to data from advertising analytics firm Chikita.
This month, iOS edged past Mac OS X for the first time, accounting for 8.15% of all Web traffic, compared to the 7.96% coming from Mac desktops. Of course, this data does include Android, which probably constitutes a share of Web traffic that's roughly comparable to iOS. Even so, the combined mobile operating systems likely do not even begin to outnumber desktops overall, as there are still plenty of Windows machines out there. Indeed, it will be some time before tablets and smartphones truly outnumber desktops and laptops. For now, most consumers are not replacing their computers with smaller devices, but rather supplementing them. Discuss
MacBook Pro 2012 refresh set for Air-like thinness, next-gen specs
Rue Liu (SlashGear)
drives and traditional hard drives, replacing them with solid-state drives. They will rely heavily on Apple will radically revamp its Thunderbolt for data transfer as MacBook Pro line of notebooks well as digitally distributed this year, according to sources software and media, such as familiar with the companys plans downloads from the Mac App for 2012. The new MacBook Pros Store are expected to feature an ultraThe notebooks will feature thin unibody design modeled after extended battery life, instant-on the MacBook Air and get a spec capabilities, and Intels upcoming boost to Intels next-gen Ivy Ivy Bridge chips that are set to Bridge chips. ship in April. However, its not Citing a source familiar with the clear whether the new Apple n e w M a c B o o k P r o d e s i g n , notebooks will be branded as AppleInsider reveals that the new MacBook Airs or MacBook Pros. Air-like MacBook Pros will be [ via AppleInsider] phased in over the course of this MacBook Pro 2012 refresh set year. The revamped version of the for Air-like thinness, next-gen more popular 15-inch model will specs is written by Rue Liu& be introduced first, followed by originally posted on SlashGear. the 17-inch model later. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All For the new notebooks, Apple is right reserved. expected to eliminate optical disk
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:48:59 PM
Al Qaedas Unsurprising Merger

Thomas Joscelyn (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:12:00 PM
Several years ago, I was having drinks at an Irish bar with an
intelligence official. (Al Qaeda is always best discussed while drinking Guinness.) He had brought with him several pages of publicly available statements made by leaders within Shabaab, a terrorist-insurgency organization
that now controls large parts of Somalia. Shabaabs leaders offered effusive praise for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, he explained, but some of his colleagues refused to believe that
Shabaab was closely allied with al Qaeda. Why shouldnt we take their own statements seriously? he asked.
Technology/
31
European regulators reported set to OK Google-Motorola deal

Jay Greene (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:15:33 PM
matter," reported that the European Union's approval would be "unconditional." Rivals had European regulators are set to been pushing for restrictions to approve Google's plans to acquire prevent Google from unfairly Motorola Mobility Monday, promoting its products. according to Reuters. Last month, European regulators That could coincide with the set next Monday as the date that it timing of U.S. regulators okaying would decide the matter. The date the deal. On Wednesday, the Wall i s a m o n t h l a t e r t h a n t h e Street Journal reported that the c o m m i s s i o n h a d o r i g i n a l l y Justice Department would likely planned, a delay caused by a p p r o v e t h e $ 1 2 . 5 b i l l i o n regulators seeking more time to acquisition next week. review additional documents that The Reuter's article, citing "two Google had submitted to support people with knowledge of the the deal.
Google announced its plans to buy Motorola last August. While Google makes Android, the mobile operating system used on Motorola's phones, the company
had never before been in the hardware business. The deal was driven in large part by Google's interest in beefing up its relatively meager patent portfolio with
Motorola's trove of intellectual property. Google intends to run Motorola as a separate company. Motorola has said that it expects the deal to close early this year. 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.
Lego robotic arm is grabby--in a good way

Amanda Kooser (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:28:52 PM
Admittedly, this isn't the first Lego arm on the planet, but it does show off a high level of This is way more useful than the sophistication. Lego pizza parlor I made when I Shepherd went in with the lofty was 7. goal of accurately mimicking the My greatest Lego triumph was full range of motion of a normal the creation of a miniature human arm and hand. monorail that required pushing the The result is pretty successful. car down a little Lego track. Lego pneumatics power the YouTube user sumthinelse5790 c o m p l e x h a n d a n d w r i s t (real name Max Shepherd) has movements. The hand can even blown my childhood creation out spread its fingers out to the sides. of the water with a Lego robotic Each digit is independently arm. controlled.
Shepherd's creation in action. (Via Make) 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. The Lego arm is designed as an above-the-elbow prosthesis, but don't expect to see it out in the wild anytime soon. The model can't lift more than a couple pounds and it requires a cluster of switches and joysticks, as well as an air compressor or hand pumps, to operate. Check out the video below to see
32
Technology/ Finance/
I Wanna Be On The StartupBusSo FreakinBad (Video)

Sarah Perez (TechCrunch)
Facebook nabs former Apple exec Rebecca Van Dyck as head of global marketing
Steven Sande (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:00:00 PM
because it is. Heres the source. The video was also Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:14:23 PM blasted on a big screen in the Just a little candy to kick off your middle of downtown Baton weekend: Rouge. Looking to get its state on the StartupBus, for those of you StartupBus radar, a group of u n f a m i l i a r , i s t h e c o m b o Lousianas innovators met with hackathon/road trip started by founder Elias Bizannes this week Elias Bizannes nearly three years f o r t h e B a t o n R o u g e A r e a ago which heads out to SXSW. Chambers February Innovation The group doubled the number of T a k e - O u t . A f t e r events its running in 2012. This Bizannespresentation (which he year, there will be a maximum of concluded by announcing the first twelve buses, including those that Louisiana StartupBus!), the run from San Francisco, New members of the local tech York, L.A., Cleveland and community unveiled this parody Tampa, plus whichever others get video:I Wanna Be On The voted in here. Startup Bus. Can someone transcribe those And yeah, its pretty cute, guys. lyrics, by the way? Because that Plus, its always good to see the part about TechCrunch sounds excitement for building startups pretty weird to me. outside NY and the Valley. If the song sounds familiar, thats
Facebook's Initial Public Offering (IPO) filing brought surprising information: the company has hired former Apple marketing executive Rebecca Van Dyck. Van Dyck served in a similar role at Levi's after leaving Apple. She started working at Apple in January of 2007, and was involved in the marketing of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. AdAge talked with Van Dyck last year about what she learned at Apple, noting that with the iPhone, "It was first and foremost about the user experience. And that's how I approach marketing, that theme of focusing on the user experience and what's important to the customer." No one is quite sure what Van Dyck will be doing at Facebook.
The company, which has well over 800 million users (as of September 22, 2011), doesn't seem to need that much help to continue growing. Perhaps Van Dyck will help promote new features or woo advertisers. Whatever her new role will be, it's exciting to see former Apple employees spread the "Apple way" around the globe. Facebook nabs former Apple exec Rebecca Van Dyck as head of global marketing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Grimy Gallery Exhibits - The 'Swept Away: Dust, Ashes and Dirt' Show Focuses on Time and Decay (TrendHunter.com)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:45:03 PM
( TrendHunter.com) Not many people can tolerate dirt and grime long enough to appreciate its artistic potential, but those in New York City will be given a rare chance to do just that thanks to the 'Swept Away: Dust, Ashes...
Emotion-Teaching Playthings - Plan Investors press Glencore to Toys' Build-A-Robot Targets Children pay more for Xstrata with Autism (TrendHunter.com)
Emma Rowley (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:26:16 PM

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:30:02 PM
( TrendHunter.com) Build-A-
Robot is a wooden toy that teaches emotions to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Unlike other playthings that target those with special
needs, this toy is not obvious about its purpose....
management behind the planned 54bn merger of miner Xstrata and commodity trader Glencore to revise the terms of the deal.
A leading investor has added its voice to the chorus calling for
Technology/ Culture/
33
5 Monopoly House Rules You Should Ditch

several airmen were able to use the board game's secret tools for their own benefit [source: Submitted at 2/10/2012 8:15:56 AM Mikkelson]. Beads of sweat form on your Although you probably haven't brow. Your shoulders ache from rolled the dice under such dire hours spent hunched over in circumstances, we're betting concentration. And even though you've bent a few Monopoly your throat is dry and your belly r u l e s , t o o . M o n o p o l y w a s empty, you refuse to take a break. originally designed to teach For many Monopoly enthusiasts lessons about building -- and bent on creating an economic losing -- wealth, a process that empire, the fun of this board game s e e m s t o e n c o u r a g e is serious business. improvisational tactics. Since 1935, Monopoly has While there are some house rules offered hours of entertainment to that make game play more many players, but during World challenging or competitive, there War II, this game went from can be downsides, too. Unless being a fun (if highly competitive) you're willing to embark on a way to pass the time to a real life- marathon Monopoly game, or one Mike Schramm (TUAW - The hardcore driving elements to set loves racing games. It's currently saver. British airmen held as that'll earn the winner bitter glares Unofficial Apple Weblog) your expectations. US$4.99 for a universal version, prisoners of war by the German from family and friends for the Career mode lets you climb the which might be more than you're Submitted at 2/10/2012 4:00:00 PM army received care packages next few days, there are some competitive ladder, upgrade parts willing to spend. Fortunately, Gaming company Polarbit is the a n d a d v a n c e i n t h e t h e Polarbit is generous with the through the International Red house rules you'll want to ditch. grandfather of iPhone racers. Performance Index. The driving is sales, so keep an eye out for a Cross that included innocuous- This entry passed through the looking Monopoly games -- Full-Text RSS service if this is Raging Thunder was among the more traditional than Reckless price drop. first racers to hit the iPhone. R a c i n g . Y o u ' l l s t i l l m a k e Daily iPad App: Reckless Racing which actually contained escape your content and you're reading it Reckless Racing was released powerslides and jumps, but you 2 originally appeared on TUAW - maps, compasses, metal files and on someone else's site, please read soon after and now it's back as can also follow the driving lines The Unofficial Apple Weblog on real money provided by the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentReckless Racing 2. This is a full closely and advance technically. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. British Secret Service. Although only/faq.php#publishers. Five update to the isometric driving Online and offline multiplayer Please see our terms for use of there's no record of how many Filters recommends: Donate to soldiers used the rigged games to Wikileaks. title. The gameplay is similar to modes are available, as are ghost feeds. escape, the people who were other top-down titles like Death runs and leaderboards. Source| Permalink| Email this| involved in the project believe Rally, though more realistic. Reckless Racing 2 is an excellent Comments Think of a fun game with a update from a developer who
Laurie L. Dove (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Daily iPad App: Reckless Racing 2
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The World's Baby Factory - By Anuj Chopra

ANUJ CHOPRA (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:23:22 AM
It's already the world's secondmost populous country. So why is India turning grandmothers into mothers? BY ANUJ CHOPRA| FEBRUARY 10, 2012 KOLHAPUR, India Four years ago, when she was expecting her first baby, Kisabai Biranje wanted desperately to be invisible. She tried for as long as she could to keep her pregnancy hidden behind the crumpled pleats of her floral printed cotton saris. But as the months passed, it became impossible to keep her bulging belly a secret. Becoming a mother was Kisabai's greatest joy. But pregnancy in the sixth decade of her life was also her greatest shame. As her stomach began to show, it set off a trail of tarnishing gossip and innuendo in this agrarian town in India's western sugar belt: How did she get pregnant in her post-menopausal years? Was the egg her own? Was the sperm her husband's? Why would she want to become a mother at the age of a grandmother? But her unremitting quest for motherhood, however risky -- or risqu -- at her age, kept her going. "We had nearly given up after more than two decades of marriage," explains Kisabai, who does not have a birth certificate, but says she was born just after British colonial rule in India
ended in 1947. "We went to doctors, shamans, god men -nothing worked." "Then we discovered a clinic that made childbearing at our age a reality," chimes in her husband Mahadev Biranje, a 68-year-old sugarcane farmer. "When we told
the doctor we were thinking about adoption, he said, Why do you want to raise someone else's child when you can have your own?' We looked at him incredulously and said, Can we really do that at our age?'" The Biranjes discovered that in
vitro fertilization (IVF) -- a procreation technique that involves harvesting a woman's egg from the ovary and fertilizing it artificially with a healthy sperm -- could circumvent, if not undo, the deleterious influences of aging on female fecundity, making
pregnancy possible even at an advanced reproductive age. For Mahadev, the procedure was akin to being plopped on a biological time machine that miraculously rolled back the years. WORLD'S page 35
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In recent years, thousands of fertility clinics have cropped up around India, spawning a new industry of "fertility tourism" for reproductively challenged couples from around the world. They are the medical equivalent of dollar stores, offering IVF treatment at a fraction of the cost in developed economies, and often without the strict regulations and waiting periods that elsewhere make the procedure a logistical nightmare. IVF -- along with other reproductive specialties like surrogacy (the world-famous "womb-for-rent" business), hormone therapy, and gamete (egg or sperm) donation -- are part of India's flourishing fertility treatment business, on track to blossom into a $2.3 billion enterprise in 2012 according to the lobby group Confederation of Indian Industry. The sector, described as a "pot of gold" in a report by the Indian Law Commission, has earned India the dubious reputation of being the world's baby factory. Fertility clinics aren't just serving the international market, they're increasingly serving the domestic market as well. And regulation has not kept pace with the proliferation of clinics as India emerges as the Wild West of fertility. In recent years, facilities have been accused of a litany of shocking abuses -- from exploiting impoverished women who became surrogate mothers to prescribing unapproved fertility drugs to delivering " stateless babies" who are refused
citizenship by both their mother's country and their Indian birthplace. The Indian government is gearing up to pass a new law to regulate the fertility business, prepared by a 12-member committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research and expected to be tabled in parliament in the coming months. It mandates that all fertility clinics be registered with the government; spells out specific guidelines for the sourcing, purchase and storage of gametes; and also explicitly enumerates the health and legal rights of surrogate mothers and babies delivered by them. But one pressing issue has remained beyond the purview of regulation: How old is too old to get pregnant? In 2008, Rajo Devi Lohan, an Indian woman from a tiny village in the northern state of Haryana, became the world's oldest mother at the age of 70. About a year and a half later, Bhateri Devi, a 66year-old from the same state, became the world's oldest woman to give birth to triplets. In India, as in many other countries, medically assisted procreation techniques have long been the preserve of the upperclass elite. But in recent years, with proliferating clinics hawking cheap treatment, it is fast becoming the trend du jour among middle- and working-middle class couples, including the elderly. Bearing children at an old age is considered anathema to cultural norms in India, as the Biranjes
have learned, but it often does not overshadow the social pressure to reproduce. After about five decades of a childless marriage, both of the Haryana women were impregnated by fertilized eggs implanted to their postmenopausal uteruses by Dr. Anurag Bishnoi, who runs a private fertility clinic in the city of Hisar. Lohan's health rapidly deteriorated after her caesarean delivery and she suffered internal bleeding. In various media interviews, she said she is still surviving on pain killers and wasn't forewarned by Bishnoi about the dangers of giving birth at her age. Critics say Lohan's predicament is not an isolated case. Fertility clinics generally don't offer patients reliable information about IVF's low rate of success and high probability of health complications and fetal abnormalities. Women over the age of 50 who undergo IVF are known to be prone to a high incidence of gestational diabetes and pregnancy-associated hypertension. With an older uterus being less capable of effecting normal labor and vaginal delivery, the chances of cesarean delivery in women of this age group are significantly higher after IVF than with natural conception. There is also a high probability of twins or triplets -which increase the chances of maternal and neonatal morbidity. Bishnoi, the doctor in Haryana, has publicly denied that Lohan's
ill health was linked to her delivery and appears to glorify women who take the plunge despite the risks involved in such pregnancies. "Becoming pregnant at advanced age has its own hazards," he acknowledges on his website. But "procreation is considered a basic civil right of man. We salute those women who endanger their lives when opting for IVF for becoming mother and getting rid of the stigma of infertility." The website lists a number of cases of advanced-age pregnancies, including Lohan's case, under a separate header titled "our achievements." Leading the list is a 75-year-old man who got married twice, apparently in the quest of a baby, but to "no avail". Then in 2007, he brought one of the wives, a 60year-old woman, to Bishnoi and was "blessed with a son and a daughter" in the same year. The reason for the woman's infertility is unknown, the website says, but her case highlights that "if a lady has uterus," nothing -- not even age -- can stop her from becoming a mother. India's draft fertility law will mandate that a surrogate mother should not be over 35 and cannot produce more than five children, including her own. But it defines no upper age limit for other women looking to get pregnant through fertility treatments. In the United States, as in India, there are no restrictions on advancedage pregnancies. Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology
Authority officially lifted age restrictions on pregnancies in 2005. France is one of the world's few countries that has sought to outlaw artificial insemination of post-menopausal women, arguing that the practice is "immoral" and "dangerous to the health of mother and child." In India, where fertility treatment is significantly cheaper, regulation weaker, and childlessness is considered a curse, the recent high profile cases have highlighted how women -- even across small towns and villages where health facilities are scarce -- are taking extraordinary risks to conceive babies. "Medically it is now possible to impregnate a 60-year-old. But medically, it is also possible to impregnate a pre-pubescent girl. Does that mean we should allow it?" says Imrana Qadeer, a retired professor from the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. "The misguided emphasis on genetics -It has to be my baby, my blood' - has overshadowed safer and more progressive options such as adoption." But Dr. Pushpa Bhargava, one of the chief architects of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, says deciding whether an upper age limit should be fixed is a "non -question." "Procreation is a basic right, and we cannot deny it to anyone," he says, adding that the draft law WORLD'S page 39
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Votes Versus Rights - By Charles Kurzman

CHARLES KURZMAN (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:34:05 AM
The debate that's shaping the outcome of the Arab Spring. BY CHARLES KURZMAN| FEBRUARY 10, 2012 Elections in Egypt, and throughout the Arab Spring, pose a classic dilemma of political theory: Do you support democracy, even if it means sacrificing some civil rights? Or do you support rights, even if it means stifling democracy? The largest Islamic parties in the region insist that they stand for both democracy and rights, and these assurances have been sufficient to win a plurality of votes in Tunisia and Egypt, the first countries of the Arab Spring to hold free elections. But political opponents, and many foreign observers, worry that governments led by these parties will suppress the rights of women and minorities, restrict freedom of expression, and potentially abandon democratic accountability altogether. Suppose that these concerns are valid. Should people have the right to vote against rights? For more than two centuries, democracies have struggled to identify which rights are so important that voters should not be allowed to violate them. The list of protections has varied from country to country and from era to era, but democracy and rights
have always been at odds. Democracy empowers the will of the majority; rights set limits on these powers. More from Democracy Lab It's man versus machine for Venezuela's opposition Will Ugandan lawmakers move ahead with death penalty for
gays? Embarrassment of Riches The founders of the United States of America obsessed over this problem. Just one year after the constitution was ratified, they went back and amended it to tweak the balance between
democracy and rights. The first change they made was to protect freedom of religion, an issue as volatile in the 1780s as it is now. Even if a religion is unpopular, the First Amendment stipulates, the majority may not prohibit the free exercise thereof. That's why opponents of mosques in America
appeal to traffic and parking regulations: Many voters and legislators may feel distressed by the religious implications of mosque construction, but they are constitutionally prohibited from blocking it on religious grounds. VOTES page 38
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A Loss We Can Live With - By James Traub

JAMES TRAUB (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:23:05 PM
The endgame in Afghanistan isnt 2013 or 2014; its already happened. The only thing now is to make sure that the retreat is not a total disaster for those we leave behind. BY JAMES TRAUB| FEBRUARY 10, 2012 "It was Leon being Leon." This is the take you get when you ask Obama administration officials exactly what it was that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta meant when he said last week that the administration wanted to move troops in Afghanistan from "a combat role to a training, advise and assist rolehopefully by mid - to the latter part of 2013." Panetta, that is, was just blurting something out, as is his wont. The administration didn't so much walk back Panetta's remark as frog-march it. CIA director David Petraeus complained in congressional testimony that Panetta's comments had been "over-analyzed." White House spokesman Jay Carney explained that the Pentagon chief was speaking of what "could happen," not what had been decided. A senior NATO official told me that Panetta's comments should be understood in an "aspirational" light. And so on. It's true that NATO's decision at the Lisbon Conference last year to turn over all combat operations to the Afghan army by the end of 2014 did not stipulate the pace of
that transition; that was to be decided according to facts on the ground. The transition began last year when the Afghan military took the lead in several of the country's most peaceful provinces. And as Petraeus helpfully pointed out, if you're going to be done by the end of 2014, "Obviously
somewhere in 2013 you have had to initiate that in all of the different locations." But Panetta announced that the transition would end(or perhaps that he hoped they would end) 12 to 18 months before the terminal date. Have the facts on the ground changed for the better? I asked an
administration official privy to intelligence on Afghanistan if he had any reason to believe that the much-maligned Afghanistan National Security Force had made big gains in professionalism. "No," he said, flatly. So what's going on? Nothing, possibly. But it's likely that the
administration is sending a signal. The chief audience for that signal is the American public, which has had it up to here with the grandiose foreign ventures that Obama inherited from George W. Bush. This process began last LOSS page 40
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The founders of the new democratic order in North Africa are also struggling with the balance between democracy and rights. Most Arab countries have had constitutions for more than a century, with increasing guarantees (at least on paper) for both popular sovereignty and a growing list of rights, including freedom of religion. Soon after the uprisings of early 2011, however, these constitutions were scrapped. Egypt's military junta drew up a constitutional declaration in March without waiting for new elections to be held, promising a robust set of rights. In Tunisia, elections were held first, and the provisional document recently approved by the country's constituent assembly offers only a vague reference to human rights and public freedoms. Many of those calling for a more forceful defense of rights against the threat of majority rule are secularists. They are trying to shape the debate as the process of drafting permanent constitutions continues in both countries. Last summer Mohamed El Baradei, a presidential candidate in Egypt, proposed a bill of rights that was based in part on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights made a similar proposal on December 10, the day the country's "miniconstitution" was approved, which also happened to be International Human Rights Day (December 10).
Still, secularists are not the only ones demanding the protection of rights. Some Islamic organizations have sounded similar themes, albeit couched in religious language that makes some secularists nervous. AlAzhar, Egypt's leading seminary, proposed a long list of protected constitutional rights, including a ban on religious discrimination and the exemption of nonMuslims from Islamic personal law, which it justified with reference to Quranic principles. Egypt's leading Islamic movement, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, issued an electoral platform that describes rights as a fundamental Islamic principle, including "non-discrimination among citizens in rights and duties on the basis of religion, sex, or color," and "freedoms of belief, commerce, property, opinion, expression, movement, assembly, the formation of parties and associations, and the publication of newspapers." Tunisia's main Islamic movement, the Renaissance Party, which won 40 percent of the vote in October's election, pledged "respect for human rights without discrimination on the basis of sex, color, belief or wealth, and the affirmation of women's rights to equality, education, employment and participation in public life." This Islamic discourse of rights is not a recent invention. Over the course of the 19th century, a modernist Islamic movement developed Quranic justifications
for elections, parliaments, and political parties, as well as natural law and sharia defenses for individual freedoms. In the early 20th century, this movement began to mobilize on a large scale, forcing constitutions on reluctant monarchs and defying colonial authorities. Tahrir (Liberation) Square in Cairo, which the world came to know for its sit-ins in 2011, is named for one of these episodes, the Egyptian independence movement of 1919 that forced out the British. Few post-colonial governments in the Middle East have lived up to ideals of human and civil rights, however, and there is no guarantee that the Arab Spring will either, even where dictators have been ousted. One threat to rights comes from military juntas claiming emergency powers, as in Egypt. Other threats to rights come from civil war, as in Yemen, and from unchecked militias, as in Libya. Another comes from revolutionary groups such as al-Qaeda and its affiliates, who reject democracy and human rights as usurpations of divine sovereignty and have targeted Islamic groups that participate in elections. (The photo above shows a young Yemeni woman sporting the flags of the Arab Spring countries on her fist during an anti-government protest.) Yet another challenge to rights comes from the democratic process itself, namely from leaders who are elected with a mandate to subordinate rights to
other priorities, such as religious principles. In Egypt, for example, Islamic parties advertised their intention to submit rights to religious review, and voters supported them anyway. The platform of the Freedom and Justice Party, which won 45 percent of the votes in elections over the past two months, qualified its endorsement of international human rights conventions with the phrase "so long as they are not contrary to the principles of Islamic law." The platform of the main Salafi party in Egypt, the Nour ("Divine Light") Party, also endorsed rights (including the freedom of expression, publication, and association), but only "within a framework of Islamic law." As a result, democraticallyelected Islamist governments might not adopt the full set of rights that many Americans have come to consider an indivisible package. For example, the new provisional constitution in Tunisia bars non-Muslims from serving as president. Non-Muslims constitute only 1 percent of the population, but the provision seems like a throwback to an older era when citizenship was bound up with religion. (My home state of North Carolina, for instance, limited government office to Christians until 1868.) Today, such restrictions strike many of us as an egregious violation of the norm of equal citizenship rights for all. But in Tunisia, the voters' representatives have adopted this restriction,
democratically. As democracy advances in the wake of the Arab Spring, we will no doubt witness further restrictions on rights. At what point might our objection, as outsiders, be so intense that we abandon our support for democracy? If a democraticallyelected government began to slaughter a minority group? If a democratically-elected government rounded up a minority group on reservations? If a democratically-elected government outlawed the practice of a minority group's religion? Fortunately, egregious rights violations such as these do not appear imminent in the Arab Spring. But Islamist governments might conceivably require men to wear beards and women to cover their hair. They might change divorce and custody and labor laws to favor men over women. They might strengthen longstanding restrictions in the region on proselytizing and religious conversion. In other words, they might adopt policies that outsiders would not adopt. Of course, that is the nature of democracy. Egyptians make laws for Egyptians, Tunisians make laws for Tunisians, and outsiders have no vote. Those of us cheering the advance of democracy around the world should expect countries to forge their own legislative paths, even if we are uncomfortable with the results. VOTES page 41
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includes a provision to "discourage" medically unfit women from seeking fertility treatment by requiring clinics to provide professional counseling about its health implications, the low rate of success, the costs involved, and also advice on the possibility of adoption. Bhargava says a fertility counselor's role would be analogous to that of a marriage counselor. "The counselor will offer advice, but in the end, to do or not to do is entirely your decision." But given the intense social pressure that surrounds childbirth in many parts of India, prospective mothers often don't see it as a choice. Infertility is rarely countenanced as just another random happenstance of birth. A victim of nature's caprice you may well be, but childlessness in many corners around India epitomizes a grave sexual defect, eliciting guilt and shame. "No baby? Is something wrong? Is it you or your husband?'" Kisabai Biranje describes it. "That's the general thinking. A married couple must reproduce to be venerable in society." Before their marriage, Mr. Biranje was wedded to Kisabai's elder sister, Akatai, but he left her after she was diagnosed with a uterine fibroid -- a non-cancerous tumor lining the muscles of her uterus -- which challenged her ability to conceive. The current legal status of their marriage is unclear. The two women and Mr. Biranje live together in the same
house. IVF was tried on Akatai once, but it failed. Kisabai has undergone numerous IVF cycles in the past half-decade -- each more physically daunting and emotionally nerve wracking than the other. "After every failed cycle, you cry and cry for days," she says. "Then you wipe off your tears and get yourself ready for more needle pricks." Mr. Biranje says the medical bills have cost him more than 200,000 rupees ($4,000). He is not comfortable sharing where the egg or sperm came from, but the source was vetted from their own caste. The Biranjes say they were warned by their doctor of the low success rate, but they still revere him as "god" for holding out hope that they "won't die barren." Hope does eclipse realism at Dr. Satish Patki's clinic, spread over three floors in a boxy building that stands out in a sedate neighborhood in Kolhapur's leafy suburbia only because of the crowds it attracts. On a typical weekday, the clinic's slender corridors are packed with patients, clutching scans and medical reports, many from faraway places -- a nurse from Pune city -145 miles away -- whose husband has threatened to dump her if she did not produce an heir; a municipal employee from Hubli in neighboring Karnataka state whose wife has been declared "normal" by gynecologists and is troubled by whispers among relatives that he maybe impotent; a Moscow-based Indian businessman visiting with
photographs of his teenage daughter delivered in Patki's clinic in 1997 after his Russian wife underwent 19 failed IVF attempts elsewhere. Patki, a diminutive man with an amiable boy-like charm and receding hairline, has delivered more than 1,000 IVF babies in over two decades. His private chamber is festooned with a rack full of awards and trophies and photographs of him hobnobbing with influential politicians. But he spends much of his time inside his laboratory, a compact cleanroom accessed through a hygiene sluice with an air shower system. Inside, Patki, dressed in surgical scrubs and squinting into a microscope, makes babies in a petri dish. Outside, white-clad nurses explain the technique to bewildered couples watching the magnified image on a large plasma television. On one afternoon, a waiting middle-aged couple gazed with amazement at shoals of sperm bobbing around like jumpy tadpoles as they were plucked and pierced into egg cells. Minutes later, Patki emerged from the lab, wearing a triumphant smile as he took off his scrubs and reassured the wonderstruck couple that the embryos would soon be ripe for implantation. Young and middle-aged couples form the bulk of his patients, he said later, sinking into the overstuffed swivel chair in his office. His clients comprise poor peasants -- who are lured to his small-town clinic, which is significantly cheaper than fertility
clinics in cities -- as well as wealthy tycoons who are assured fully discreet personal service if they so wish. With some patients, he often feels compelled to explain that medically it is not possible to manipulate the gender of babies -- at least not yet -- a stark indicator of the cultural preference for male children in India, which has dangerously distorted the country's sex ratio. He says he does not carry out requests for sex-determination tests either. "Disclosure of sex of fetus is prohibited under law," reads a placard tacked on his cabin wall. Unlike the controversial Bishnoi, he does not advertise advancedage pregnancies as a specialty, but he does not discourage them either. "The uterus is the only organ that can be rejuvenated" post menopause, he beams, as if declaring a prophecy. Patki says he has had only a "handful" of such cases, the most memorable of which was that of a 50-plus woman from a nearby village who became a surrogate for her own daughter in 2006. The daughter suffered from Rockitansky syndrome -- a rare congenital disorder which causes the uterus to be absent. Too ashamed to publicly reveal that she was pregnant with her grandchild, the woman was given a private room in the clinic after her abdomen started to bulge. The local press had a field day with the sensational story. "Granny delivers grandson," read a headline in the best-selling
Times of India -- the clipping is part of Patki's glossy clinic literature. But she had no desire to be celebrated. Just hours after her caesarian delivery, she sidled out of the clinic with the baby, becoming the only patient who, Patki regretfully says, lost all contact with him. The Biranjes had no desire to be celebrated either. For them, undergoing IVF was like taking a blind leap, knowing fully well there may be no redemption in the end. But many failed cycles -- and a million tears -- later, a miracle happened. "Parenthood, however late in life, makes you feel complete," Mr. Biranje says, as Madhura, his tiny and underweight daughter, lolls on the floor near his feet. The wives, coy and reserved, nod in agreement. As he lifts her in his arms, Kisabai speaks, almost as an afterthought: "Yes, but we might not be around when she grows up." Her eyes brim, but don't well over. After she had Madhura, Kisabai got lucky a second time in 2010, but suffered a miscarriage in the third month. The Biranjes recently sent Patki a stack of freshly peeled sugarcane from their farm through a messenger, requesting another appointment. They are hoping he will give them a boy. 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/contentWORLD'S page 41
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June when Obama announced that "the tide of war is receding," and thus that he was accelerating the timetable for the withdrawal of troops. But politics matters too: In the aftermath of Panetta's statement, the White House made it clear that it would be delighted to pick a fight with the hawkish Mitt Romney on the subject. Panetta was probably also signaling his own generals, who objected to the accelerated withdrawal last year and want to keep carrying the fight to the Taliban, including in the east, which NATO has largely vacated. Panetta appears to be telling his commanders: We are making the transition now. This policy swerve was almost eerily prefigured by " The Next Fight," a report issued last December by the Center for a New American Security. After extensive battlefield interviews, the authors wrote, "We are not confident that most U.S. and NATO commanders have come to grips with the reality of the impending U.S. and allied transition." (Not true, insists my NATO source; "We're pretty well synched up and we want to get that transition down.") Field commanders were taking the fight to the Taliban and leaving their Afghan counterparts to mop up afterwards, the report noted. Many Afghan units had no embedded U.S. or NATO advisors; few were remotely prepared to lead the fight in fiercely contested provinces like Helmand or Kandahar. This almost guaranteed that whatever
gains the American military made would prove unsustainable. The report recommended an immediate change of mission from combat to "security force assistance." That appears to be what Panetta was talking about, though in order to become formal policy the change would have to be endorsed at the NATO conference this May in Chicago. And it makes a great deal of sense: Commanders have to be prepared to sacrifice some tactical gains in order to prepare Afghan forces to take over at the end of 2014. But "makes sense" is very different from "will work." The premise of the ambitious counterinsurgency strategy that Obama agreed to adopt in 2009, at the urging of Petraeus, then the overall commander for the region, was that U.S. forces would clear out the Taliban from Afghan territory, train Afghan forces to take over, and help build a sufficiently effective government that would encourage the Afghan people to choose the state over the insurgents. That enterprise has largely failed; and since the White House knows very well that it has failed, officials cannot expect that even adequately trained Afghan forces will be able to sustain the fight against the Taliban. The "transition" is thus an exercise in kabuki as much as it is in counterinsurgency doctrine. Leaks from two classified reports have confirmed what is already obvious. A January National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan drawn up by the CIA
and other intelligence agencies concluded that the incompetence and corruption of the Afghan government, along with the resilience of an insurgency sheltering across the border, could make it impossible for the Afghan state to survive on its own after U.S. and NATO support dwindles after 2014. And a NATO report based on the interrogation of some 4,000 Taliban prisoners asserted that Afghan security forces are collaborating extensively with the Taliban, and that Afghan civilians "frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government." (Critics have noted that Taliban prisoners may not be the most reliable sources.) Still, senior military officials appear to be sincerely convinced that the battle is tipping towards the NATO alliance and away from the Taliban. Perhaps they'll be proved right; but based on current trends, the Taliban is all too likely to fill the vacuum created by the departure of U.S. and NATO forces. The best chance to avoid such a debacle is not a successful hand-off to the Afghan military but a successful negotiation which persuades the Taliban to lay down its arms in exchange for a significant role in the Afghan government. The White House is increasingly focused on that goal. The effort, based in Doha, is being led by Marc Grossman, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. But so far, Pakistan's intelligence service --
which, the NATO report noted, exercises almost total control over the Taliban -- has opposed the talks. Even Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, has spurned the effort, preferring to conduct his own alleged negotiations in Saudi Arabia. The boys at Ladbrokes are probably laying long odds on this outcome, too. And this brings us to the endgame of the endgame. Afghanistan is a relic -- though one that keeps reaching out from the crypt. We've already moved on. The Pentagon's " strategic guidance" issued last month stated that "U.S. forces will no longer be sized to conduct large-scale, prolonged stability operations" -read, Iraq and Afghanistan. And while the United States will not be leaving the Middle East, it "will of necessity rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific region." Washington is pivoting from the Middle East to Asia, and from an immensely frustrating decade of regime change, occupation, nationbuilding, and counterinsurgency to a much more familiar and, dare we say, rational era of greatpower deterrence. The president, and the American people, would like to see the back of Afghanistan. And the harsh truth is that the West can afford to fail in Afghanistan. The real threat was al Qaeda; and al Qaeda forces in the region were seriously degraded even before the killing of Osama bin Laden. National security officials worry less than
they used to that the Taliban would invite jihadists back into Afghanistan. Vice President Joe Biden, who has long argued that the threat was overblown, recently reiterated that, "The Taliban per se is not our enemy." At this point, the greatest threat that Afghanistan poses to the West is probably not a renascent al Qaeda but a civil war that would reduce the country to howling chaos. That's what a negotiated settlement would seek to avoid. So, if all goes well, Afghanistan will be a mess, but not a mess that threatens U.S. national security. That turned out, in the end, to be the story of Vietnam. I would just say one thing, and I think it is something that anyone who has spent time in that woebegone country would feel: The Afghan people deserve better. We invaded their country and we raised their expectations. Perhaps we were wrong to do so; we couldn't make their government better than it was. But we have an obligation to do what we can -- not, chiefly, anymore with soldiers but with aid, trade, diplomacy, and all the other tools of American power. Let us not, in a fit of imperial forgetfulness, abandon Afghanistan as we execute our grateful pivot to Asia. 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 LOSS page 41
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VOTES
WORLD'S
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TED: Erik Johansson: Impossible photography - Erik Johannson (2011)

TEDTalks (TEDTalks (video))
Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:01:27 AM
Erik Johansson creates realistic
photos of impossible scenes -capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he
uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping them visually plausible.
LOSS
This Is Africa's Chance To Leapfrog The Declining West

Harvard Business Review (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:53:00 PM
Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
You've heard about the African Renaissance, right? The Aid Bosses, once the unquestioned successors in Africa to the joint heirloom of Mother Teresa and Lord Clive of Chennai, are finding it harder and harder to get face time with the political grandees in our wheeling and dealing capitals. The Chinese are Emily Gosden (Finance News Business news from the UK and fawning all over our oil and copper, forcing once-aloof world) Westerners to write treatises about Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:25:26 PM why China's engagement with the Cove Energy gave oil and gas continent isn't all marshmallow punters something to smile about candy. These concerns get polite on an otherwise lacklustre day as nods here and there but, mostly, the explorer put itself up for sale, serious Africans ignore them and prompting speculation as to who firmly redirect the conversation could snap up the Aim-listed b a c k t o p r i v a t e e q u i t y , o r business. franchise deals, or something along those lines. Bottom line: Are you game or are you out? And have you heard that we have
Cable & Wireless Communications feels strain from rivals in Panama
more mobile phones than any other continent besides Asia? The curious thing, though, is that Africans aren't basking in a perpetual high. The fact that the continent is tired of being lectured to and treated as a curiosity to sate the intellectual pretensions of Westerners doesn't mean that
gloom compete for the prize of most pessimistic outlook all morning, noon and dusk on local radio, Facebook and where such media has been cordoned off by overzealous political police in the backseats of tightly packed mini-buses. Read the rest of the article at Harvard Business Review > This post originally appeared at Harvard Business Review. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: Africa Is Quickly Becoming The Greatest Investing Africans are blind to the Opportunity The World Has Ever challenges they perceive as Seen obstructing every aspect of their Here's What Mark Mobius continent's development. Observed On His Tour Of A Take any newspaper printed in Russian Oil Rig Africa any day. Whether you are MARK MOBIUS: Thailand Is in Dakar or Asmara, the wailing An Attractive Place To Invest, and ranting brims over; Despite The Disastrous Flood doomsayers and purveyors of
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Economy/
LIVE: The Greek Government Is Falling Apart

Simone Foxman (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:59:43 PM
sponsored by the country's two large umbrella unions. UPDATE (8:33 AM): Greek Although hopes for a positive cabinet members will meet at 1 outcome in Greece were buoyed PM EST on whether to endorse by news that Greek politicians those measures. Despite fissures had come to an agreement on in the ruling coalition, they are austerity measures yesterday, that likely to go through with this enthusiasm has quickly vanished. UPDATE (8:41 AM): This photo Eurozone finance ministers from Associated Press shows rejected the deal in its current petrol bombs exploding outside form, saying that it still didn't go the Finance Ministry today. far enough in cutting down UPDATE (8:53 AM): LAOS Greece's unsustainable public party leader George Karatzaferis debts. said he can't agree to the new G e r m a n F i n a n c e M i n i s t e r austerity agreement. According to Wolfgang Schaeuble estimated AMNA news, ministers from that that Greece's public debt could p a r t y h a v e s u b m i t t e d t h e i r remain as high as 136 percent of r e s i g n a t i o n s t o t h e p r i m e GDP in 2020 according to minister's office. B l o o m b e r g , d e s p i t e s t r i c t UPDATE (9:02 AM): Reuters stipulations that Greece bring its reports that Greece's police union public debts down to 120 percent wants to arrest EU and IMF by that year. officials for their austerity Markets are sour, the euro is demands. It obtained a copy of a diving, and suddenly the picture letter from the Federation of no longer looks rosy in Greece. Greek Police outlining this anger: We'll keep you up to speed "Since you are continuing this throughout the day right here with destructive policy, we warn you all the latest news coming out of that you cannot make us fight Greece. against our brothers. We refuse to SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM stand against our parents, our FOR THE LATEST UPDATES brothers, our children or any U P D A T E ( 8 : 2 5 A M E T ) : citizen who protests and demands Violence has broken out again, a change of policy... We warn you with hooded youths throwing that as legal representatives of stones and police firing grenades Greek policemen, we will issue in Syntagma square. This comes arrest warrants for a series of legal as workers begin a 48-hour strike violations ... such as blackmail,
Kathimerini: Three Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) MPs have resigned from the Cabinet but two have said they will go against their party leaders wishes and vote in favor of Greeces new loan agreement. Transport Minister Makis Voridis, Deputy Merchant Marine Minister Adonis Georgiadis and Deputy Agriculture Minister Asterios Rondoulis tendered their resignation after LAOS leader Giorgos Karatzaferis said that he would not support the loan agreement following lengthy negotiations this week. However, in their resignation letters, Voridis and Georgiadis, covertly abolishing or eroding available on the Guardian's said they would vote for the new bailout on Sunday. d e m o c r a c y a n d n a t i o n a l website. sovereignty." UPDATE (11:15): The Greek UPDATE (11:45 AM): European The threat is more symbolic than government is falling apart. Not markets closed a few minutes ago, realistic, the report says, since a only has Bloomberg confirmed and it wasn't pretty. The Athens j u d g e w o u l d h a v e t o f i r s t the resignation of the farm deputy, Stock Exchange fell the most, but authorize any warrants. now it reports that the Greek stock markets closed negative UPDATE (10:30 AM): This AP foreign minister just resigned as across the board. UPDATE (12:15 PM): In a p h o t o h a s g a r n e r e d s o m e well. conference today in Singapore, attention, as it demonstrates State broadcaster ANA is saying G r e e k a n g e r t o w a r d s n e w that Greek PM Lucas Papademos Fitch managing director Tony austerity demands from the will announce a cabinet reshuffle. Stringer said that if Greece doesn't German-led troika. That could jeopardize the bill on get its act together soon, it U P D A T E ( 1 0 : 4 0 A M ) : a u s t e r i t y m e a s u r e s a n d probably won't have enough time According to the Guardian, there consequently disbursement of the to avoid disorderly default. From Capital.gr: are rumors now that another next bailout. Greek minister has quitthis time UPDATE (11:24 AM): A few They must get this deal agreed Deputy farm minister Asterios more details about some of those really within the next few days to Rodoulis. Some video of the resignations, from the EnglishLIVE: page 47 protests and today's events is language arm of Greek newspaper
Economy/
43
Investors Take Note: A Seismic Shift Has Begun in China

Phoenix Capital Research
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:59:41 PM
Grahams note: this is an excerpt from a recent client note I sent out regarding the situation in China. The impact of the coming change will be dramatic both in terms of its impact on Europe (Chinas single largest trade partner) and the US with whom China is fast developing a trade war. Most of the rally in Chinas markets over the last few months stemmed from the belief that China was going to begin monetary easing again in order to soften its economic slowdown. Risk Of Hard Landing Rises As China Begins Monetary Easing (From Forbes 11/18/11) Chinese policymakers have begun to selectively ease macroeconomic policy to support growth, according to Barclays analysts. While full on easing wont come until 2012, China will face a significant economic slowdown as the export sector feels the impact of a fragile global economy, and residential investment, which makes up 12% of GDP, falls drastically as the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) seeks to control a real estate bubble. In their attempt to execute a soft landing, Chinas leaders have
engineered a slowdown by tightening policy over the last several quarters. This was a response to unwanted consequences of prior stimulative policy. Read the Rest of the Story Note the effect this view had on FXI's action: China cannot risk a severe economic slowdown. There are already over 30 million Chinese who have lost their jobs, left the coastal cities, and are moving back to the countryside.
Moreover, during times of economic turmoil, civil unrest grows. Since 2006, China has averaged 90,000+ "mass incidents" (riots and protests) per year. In 1993, during the boom years, this number was less than 10,000. Suffice to say, an economic slowdown is a MAJOR problem for China's Government. This is most recently clear in the village of Wukan, which in September began a series of protests based on the fact that the
idea of just how tenuous the Chinese Government's control over the general population is. However, while unemployment is a big problem for the Chinese Government, inflation is a HUGE problem. Over one third of China's population lives off less than $2 a day. If the price of food rises in China... those "mass incidents" will explode into outright widespread rioting and civil unrest. Well, thanks to China's aggressive easing since November, inflation is back in a big way (it had been in decline since July 2011 before this). Chinas inflation rebounds in January, renewing pressure to control living costs (From Washington Post 2/8/12) Chinas inflation rebounded in January as food prices soared, Government took away the villagers' farmland and fishing renewing pressure on Beijing to rights (thereby removing their control surging living costs as it primary means of earning a tries to boost slowing growth in the worlds second-largest living). Wukan began a mass sit-in/ economy amid warnings of a protest. The tiny village of 13,000 global downturn. has since become such a headache Consumer prices rose by an (thanks to the international press) unexpectedly strong 4.5 percent that China's Government actually over a year earlier, up from let the villagers vote on who Decembers 4.1 percent, data should be their local officials. showed Thursday. Food prices This is absolutely unbelievable. jumped 10.5 percent, accelerating China...letting a village vote on its INVESTORS page 47 leadership. And it gives us some
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Economy/
UBS Answers: Who Are The Fittest Countries In Europe?

Mamta Badkar (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:58:00 PM
pointed out, to give us a sense of which countries are in the best shape. Remember, the European As Europe begins another year of Commission has said it plans on its sovereign debt crisis, many taking full advantage of the sixcore and peripheral European pack rules and countries that countries are still in poor financial consistently breach them risk shape. Italy is showing worrisome facing sanctions and fines. Click signs, Portugal is in shambles, and here to see which European Spanish banks and real estate are countries are the fittest > a mess. Not all countries are scored out To help deal with the crisis and of 10 as data on some of the 10 encourage economic and fiscal criteria were unavailable. The integration, the EU, back in scoreboard gives a sense of how December announced a set of c o m p e t i t i v e a n d f i s c a l l y measures dubbed the 'six-pack'. disciplined these countries are. The'six-pack' is made up of five Here are the specific criteria for regulations and one directive, the scoreboard: with a focus on government debt 1. A 3-year backward-moving and deficits. average of the current account UBS analyst Amit Kara says the balance as a percentage of GDP, six-pack is a step in the right with thresholds of +6% of GDP direction, but the focus is on fiscal and -4% of GDP. problems: 2. A net international investment "The fundamental worry is that position as a percentage of GDP, the crisis we're suffering from with a threshold of -35%. now is not going to be helped by 3. A 5-year percentage change of these six pack measures. The export market shares measured in focus is very largely on fiscal value, with a threshold of -6%. issues, excessive credit expansion 4. A 3-year percentage change in and asset bubbles, but parts of the nominal unit labor cost, with euro area face prolonged periods thresholds of +9% for euro-area of stagnation, possible deflation countries and +12% for non-euro and in some cases, such as area countries. Greece, there is risk of complete 5. A 3-year percentage change in collapse - these measures are not the real effective exchange rate designed to address that." based on HICP/CPI deflators, Kara looked through the '10 early relative to 35 other industrial warning indicators' that the EU countries, with thresholds of -/
+5% for euro-area countries and -/ +11% for non-euro area countries. 6. Private sector debt as a percentage of GDP with a threshold of 160%. 7. Private sector credit flow as a percentage of GDP with a threshold of 15%. 8. Year-on-year changes in house prices relative to a Eurostat consumption deflator, with a threshold of 6%. 9. General government sector debt as a percentage of GDP with a threshold of 60%. 10. A 3-year backward-moving average unemployment rate, with a threshold of 10%. Austria Total score: 8/10
Belgium resolved its governance problem late last year and they have made progress on debt over the years. It is currently benefiting from the strength in the German economy. Source: UBS Cyprus Total score: 4/8 Cyprus scores fairly low on the six-pack scoreboard. It needs to boost its current account balance and improve its net international investment position (NIIP) as a percent of GDP. It also scores poorly on export share and general government debt. Cyprus' banking exposure to Greece is significant, but Austria fares well on the six-pack domestic banks are trying to write scoreboard, compared to other EU off their Greek government bond -17 countries, but scores poorly in holdings. The government has terms of export share and general also lost access to international debt markets. government debt. As the eurozone is set to enter a Note: Cyprus' private sector debt recession this year, the Austrian and house prices are not available. economy is expected to stagnate Source: UBS / Fitch See the rest of the story at in the first quarter, and labor Business Insider conditions are expected to Please follow Money Game on deteriorate. Twitter and Facebook. Source: UBS / Friedl News See Also: Belgium Here's Who Gets Clobbered If Total score: 7/10 Belgium fares well on the six- Greece Defaults pack scoreboard, but scores A Guide To The Horrible Youth poorly in terms of export share, Unemployment Mess In Europe private sector debt, and general The 12 Crucial Issues Haunting The Eurozone Right Now government debt.
Economy/
45
The Epic Farce Continues - US Attorneys General "Robosigned" A Foreclosure Settlement Which Does Not Exist
Tyler Durden
dear taxpayers, in the form of bank bailout cash, of which the Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:03:38 PM banks still owe over $10 billion in It is only appropriate, and so some capacity, was merely a ironic, that a politically motivated political ploy to get taxpayers to settlement whose purpose is to f u n d O b a m a ' s r e e l e c t i o n squash any claims of pervasive campaign by subsidizing squatters defective document fraud (and with $2,000 per vote in the contract law but just ask GM presidential race come November, bondholders about that - it's using banks as intermediaries to hardly news) is itself found to make the administration seem oh be... defective. American Banker so powerful and daring to take on reports that the reason why the the banks, who in fact are the only terms of the so-called historic ones benefiting from this farce, by (just ask the Teleprompter in holding a gun to the head of the Chief) foreclosure settlement deal hold out AGs forcing them to sign are not public yet, is " because a a piece of paper that does not fully authorized, legally binding even exist, this should put all deal has not been inked yet." those doubts to rest. Wait, so America's cohort of AGs American Banker has the story: j u s t a l l , p a r d o n t h e p u n , The implication of this is hard to robosigned a piece of paper that say. Spokespersons for both the does not exist? What next: there is Iowa attorney general's office and a different Linda Green signature the Department of Justice both on every page of this yet to be told American Banker that the produced document making a actual settlement will not be made complete mockery of the rule of public until it is submitted to a law? court. A representative for the Oh and anyone who had doubts North Carolina attorney general t h a t t h e s e t t l e m e n t , w h i c h downplayed the significance of incidentally is paid for by you, the document's non-final status,
saying that the terms were already fixed. Other sources who spoke with American Banker raised doubts that everything is yet in place. A person familiar with the mortgage servicing pact says that a settlement term sheet does not yet exist. Instead, there are a series of nearly-complete documents that will be attached to a consent judgment eventually filed with the court. That truly final version will include things such as servicing standards, consumer relief options, legal releases, and enforcement terms. There will likely be separate state and a federal versions of the release. Some who talked to American Banker said that the political pressure to announce the settlement drove the timing, in effect putting the press release cart in front of the settlement horse. Whatever the reason for the document's continued nonappearance, the lack of a public final settlement is already the cause for disgruntlement among
those who closely follow the banking industry. Quite simply, the actual terms of a settlement matter. "The devil's in the details," says Ron Glancz, chairman of law firm Venable LLP's Financial Services Group. "Until you see the document you're never quite sure what your rights are." "It's frustrating," agrees Stern Agee analyst John Nadel. "But it's not unlike anything else that's been going on in financial reform generally, is it?" That's about right - ever since America became a centrally planned, communist, banana republic with occasional fascist overtones, financial reform in the US is all about frustration: primarily frustrating one out of the will to continue living in a country that would make Stalin green with envy. American Banker asked The Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the offices of Attorneys General in Iowa, North Carolina and
Colorado for a copy of the settlement last night. Only Iowa, North Carolina and the Department of Justice have responded, saying that the document would not be available until it is filed with the court on a yet-undetermined date. Koking aside, can the bankers who are getting "punished" as part of this deal, please advise the public and the AGs who punished them, just when they plan on releasing the final draft? All we can say is: Linda Green. Average: Your rating: None Average: 4.9( 13 votes) 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.
46
Economy/
Petroleum 3-Month Rolling Average Turns Sharply Lower; Negative Shipping Rates; Collapse in Global Trade
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
will post the "Petroleum Rolling Three-Month Average Index". Hopefully we can get a derivative of that first chart, "Percent Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:36:00 AM On February 6, I noted (with Change From a Year Ago". huge thanks to reader Tim At the end of February the Wallace) a Huge Plunge In comparison will be December Petroleum and Gasoline Usage. January - February vs. the same Tim used weekly numbers, which three months in prior years. s h o w , m u c h w e e k - t o - w e e k Negative Shipping Rents volatility. Instead, I proposed Amazingly, shipping rates have u s i n g r o l l i n g t h r e e - m o n t h dropped so low, shippers will pay averages, compared to the same you to ship, just to get the cargo three months in prior years. vessels to better locations. Today I received some updated Bloomberg reports Charter Rates charts that are much easier to see Go Negative precisely what is happening. Glencore International Plc paid Gasoline Usage Last Three nothing to hire a dry-bulk ship Months vs. Last Three Months with the vessels operator paying Prior Years $2,000 a day of the traders fuel click on any chart for sharper costs after freight rates plunged to image all-time lows. Gasoline Usage by Quarter The vessel will haul a cargo of Ending December 2011 grains to Europe, putting the Petroleum Usage by Quarter carrier in a better position for its Ending December 2011 next shipment, he said. Wallace writes " Gasoline and Our other option was to stay in petroleum demand recently has the Pacific and earn poor revenues plunged more than at any time in or ballast to the Atlantic and pay the recession. When you see the fuel ourselves, Rodley said. petroleum usage back to numbers Ballasting refers to sailing without in the 1990's, you know there is a cargo. Charles Watenphul, a serious economic trouble no spokesman for Glencore, declined matter what the talking heads to comment in an e-mailed say." response to questions. Wallace willing, each month I Charters for the so-called
backhaul routes that reposition ships to the Atlantic Ocean region from the Pacific are falling to the lowest since indexes started, exchange data show. Rents for Capesize ships that haul ore and grain on backhaul routes were at minus $7,342 a day, the lowest since that index began in 1999, exchange data show. D/S Norden A/S, Europes biggest publicly trading commodity shipping company, said Feb. 3 it hired a Supramax
vessel at no cost other than fuel charges, its first such transaction in a quarter century. Baltic Dry Index - $BDI The Baltic Dry shipping index (a measure of shipping costs) was down 32 days in a row before turning up on Tuesday. The Harper-Peterson Shipping Index is also in dismal shape. Many ships came online in the last couple years but a plunge this deep cannot be blamed entirely on new ships added.
Rather, the huge dropoff in gasoline and petroleum usage in the US, coupled with falling shipping rates, a drop in Japanese Exports Three Consecutive Months, and a European Recession poised to get much worse, makes a strong case that a collapse in global trade is underway. 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.
Culture/
47
LIVE:
INVESTORS
enable them sufficient time to do the paperwork and have the new bailout money disbursed before that bond is due, Tony Stringer, a managing director at Fitch, said in a conference in Singapore today. If they dont manage to achieve that, then it could be in the realms of a disorderly default." ...The manner of the default and whether Greece can stay in the euro zone are critically important too, to the future of the single currency, Stringer said today. If there is a negotiated agreement then we dont think thats going to be a particularly negative development for markets, it would be a positive development. UPDATE (12:33 PM): According to Athens News, PM Papademos arrived at parliament to begin a crucial cabinet meeting. There were reports that this meeting would be broadcast live, but it looks like we might just get highlights at the end of it. UPDATE (12:46-12:57 PM): PM Papademos has emailed a statement from the meeting, and it has been obtained by Bloomberg. Papademos has apparently ordered government ministers to approve the austerity plan, saying "whoever opposes the bailout does not belong in government." However, he wrote that he was
certain cabinet ministers would do their duty. He adds that the loan plan will secure Greece's place in the euro, and that a disorderly default would cause social and economic chaos. Papademos noted that the troika plan accounts for a recovery in 2013 after another year of recession, and growth of 2.5% in 2014 and 2015. Even more than that, he says that the eurozone's finance ministers held up a decision on the loan agreement because of political uncertainty. (Funny, but we didn't think that was the reason they gave...) UPDATE (1:53 PM): The New Democracy and PASOK parties pushed meetings on the new austerity measures scheduled for today to tomorrow as the government struggles to deal with cabinet resignations, public angst, and EU leaders' latest demands, Athens News reports. Elswhere in the eurozone, Standard & Poor's just cut the ratings of 34 Italian banks. UPDATE (2:48 PM): It's unclear when exactly those austerity measures will be put to a vote in front of paraliament, but a number of prominent international and Greek news organizations are saying "Sunday or Monday."
Protests, too, will continue into the weekend, as the 48-hour general strike continues. Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports that there will also be a rally in front of parliament beginning at 5 PM local time (10 AM ET). According to the same report, there were six people arrested and two people injured today in clashes between "self-styled anarchists" (not your typical protesters) and the police. NOW READ: Here's How Greece Would Leave The Euro > Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: LIVE: Violence Breaks Out In Greece, Police Union Threatens To Issue Warrants For EU/IMF Officials FINALLY: A Draft Of The Greek Agreement With The Troika Is Out Here's What It Means For The ECB To Take A Hit On The Greek Restructuring
from the previous months 9.1 percent. Read the Rest of the Story This is a major development. China's Government will ABSOLUTELY have to put the brakes on monetary easing and possibly even tighten if it doesn't want to have the whole country begin to go up in flames. Investors take note, there is a seismic change taking place in China. As inflation spreads throughout China there will be dramatic social, political, and monetary changes. And these will ripple throughout both the Asian region as well as the global financial system. Those investors who wish to outperform in the coming months will need to keep these trends in mind.
Swing by#0000ff;"> www.gainspainscapital.com for more market commentary, investment strategies, and several FREE reports devoted to help you navigate the coming economic and capital market changes safely. Best Regards, Graham Summers Average: Your rating: None 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 the TSA's Newly-Expanded Expedited Travel Program Works (and If You Should Sign Up) [Air Travel]
Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:00:00 PM
The U.S. Transport Safety Administration (TSA) has been testing a program called TSA Pre that allows you to supply the TSA with a handful of personal details in exchange for skipping the long lines at security checkpoints. Depending on how you feel about the TSA, this may sound really great or really terrible. Now that the program is
expanding the many more airports, we're taking a look at how the program works and whether or not it's worth your time. More
48
Economy/ Culture/
Finance For Adult Dummies

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:56:22 PM
In guys, women pick healthy over manly

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:54:00 PM
For the last thirty years economic policy makers have been in the business of promoting asset prices higher through easy credit. Global policy makers are meddling in markets so that the economies they feel responsible for can achieve what seems to be a consensus objective of muddling through. A policy of meddling to muddle, if you will. QBAMCO's critical 'inflation' insights, and Tourette's-ridden ranting, reflect the simple realities of what realworld consequences occur when policy makers succumb to the perceived political imperatives of perverting economic data. In this combined note, Brodsky and Quaintance scrub away at the misconceptions related to inflation, raise doubts as to the incentives of central banks to share the true loss of their currencies' purchasing power with the public, and extend this to try and get a truer sense of money, inflation, and real value today - all of which seem grossly misunderstood, despite our best efforts, in the marketplace. Simply put, they point out that, " It should not be considered acceptable to be in a profession as a political economist, policy maker or investor in which selfdelusion has become a necessary requirement for success and perpetuating that delusion is
harmful to the broad economy over time. Yes, but the public good you say? Ah, but for how long?" Excerpt: Given: 1) the exorbitant leverage currently in the global banking system, 2) current negative real output growth in developed economies, 3) current negative real interest rates, 4) uniformly poor monetary, fiscal and demographic conditions across most developed economies, and 5) already wary populations beginning to get restless; we have difficulty imagining that global banks, labor, savers, politicians and investors will be able to endure current conditions much
longer before demanding the financial reset button be pressed to complete bank de-levering. We provide the graph below merely to make it easier to conceptualize the nature of such a de-levering, as we see it. (This is not necessarily a prediction of timing or magnitude.) The takeaway is that base money (in the form of physical currency in circulation) and bank deposits will have to rise at a much steeper rate than bank assets until the banking system is more fully reserved. (At some point we think bank animal spirits will once again take over and we will have a new leveraging cycle.) Please see below the combined
articles - An Adult Approach I and II. QBAMCO - An Adult Approach I and II Average: Your rating: None 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.
Having a healthy skin color is more important in determining how attractive a man is to women than how manly he looks. Researchers in the Face Perception Group at University of Nottingham took photographs of 34 Caucasian and 41 black African mens faces in carefully controlled conditions and measured the skin color of the faces. The team found that in both the African and Caucasian populations the attractiveness ratings given by the women was closely related to the amount of golden color in the skin. Our study shows that being healthy may be the best way for men to look attractive. We know that you can achieve a more healthy looking skin color by eating more fruit and vegetables, so that would be a good start, says lead author Dr. Ian Stephen. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink| Leave a comment
Culture/
49
Meet Vincent Morisset, the Interactive Filmmaker Behind Arcade Fire's Latest Video
Andy Cush (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:16:00 PM
Vincent Morisset created the interactive video for Arcade Fire's &#8220Sprawl II.&#8221 Screengrab: Evolver.fm Vincent Morisset bills himself as a web-friendly director, which is a fitting distinction. Where most films progress in a linear fashion, Morisset takes things a step further, or maybe sideways. Through simple interactions like scrolling a mouse across a computer screen, or complicated ones like dancing in front of a webcam, Morissets films ask the audience to participate in an unfolding narrative. His approach is tailor-made for web 2.0. Just as Facebook and Twitter are only worthwhile when users get involved, Morissets work truly comes alive only with audience input. Readers may know Morissets work through his involvement with the Grammy-winning band Arcade Fire, with whom he has worked since their 2004 breakout album, Funeral. Since then, hes created music videos, interactive web content and the 2009 documentary Mirroir Noir alongside the band.
Most recently, he directed the beautifully unsettling video for The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Arcade Fires latest single. The video presents characters whose behaviors mimic that of the viewer. Dance quickly to the music, and the characters will do the same; slow down and theyll follow suit. If you stop dancing altogether, the characters stop progressing, their movements
stuck in an endless loop. Morisset has also worked with Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Rs, directing that bands concert film, Inni, which may be a traditional non-interactive film, though the methods of its creation were anything but. He shot and edited the movie in digital HD, then transferred it to black-and-white film by projecting it onto a screen and recording that projection with
16mm cameras. The 16mm version of the movie was then itself projected, as Morisset and his collaborators improvised manipulations using prisms and other found objects. Then they filmed and edited that version using digital HD equipment. The result was uncanny; promotional materials accurately describe it as spare and near-monochromatic in its
tunnel vision [inviting] both intimacy and claustrophobia. We recently spoke with Morisset about the ideas behind his work, collaborating with musicians, and his complicated relationship with technology. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.) Evolver.fm: I wanted to start by MEET page 50
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MEET
asking you about your background, especially the interactive side of your art. How did you come to work in this particular format? Vincent Morisset: When I was younger, I wanted to go into cinema, so I went to school in that direction. When I was in university, I was in this communication program. You had to decide whether to go into TV, cinema or radio. The year I had to choose my profile, they opened up this new program called multimedia, and it just fit with my personality. Im a guy who can touch every aspect of it, and so I jumped in that program. This was in the late 90s, so my path kind of changed at that point. For a couple of years, Id been mainly developing graphic-based websites, because at that time, that was the limitation of the medium. In the beginning of the 00s, the bandwidth allowed us to play more and more with video, so at that point, my two loves, if I may say, joined back together. I started to do more and more video -based projects. I was part of a team with other people, and I was the guy that was more comfortable with technology. I dont consider myself a geek. I dont love programming, but I learned how to code in Lingo and in ActionScript to make projects happen. So, I have this kind of self-taught programming background, but at the same time I studied cinema. At some point, those two backgrounds collided and I started doing what we now
call interactive video. Evolver.fm: Do you see the technology as worth pursuing on its own making something with the most high-tech tools available? Or is it more of a means to achieve an artistic vision? Morisset: Im not a geek. Im not really excited about the technology [for its own sake]. I think it offers amazing possibilities, but Im not one of those guys who get excited just because of it. Ideas always drive my projects, and I use the tools that are around me to achieve them. I think its important that we understand the possibilities and the limitations of those tools, but for me, its important that the projects are driven by ideas so that they dont become technology demos or whatever. Evolver.fm: A lot of your work, though technologically impressive, manages to feel very handmade and human the animations in the interactive film Bla Bla, for instance, or the homespun quality of this newest Arcade Fire video ["Sprawl II"]. Morisset: Thanks. I think theres a paradox about my relationship with technology. In a way, I love it. One of my mottos is, The web is fun. I love this platform, I love this medium, but the way we connect with images on our laptop is really different from the way we relate to images on a TV screen. Since I want to trigger emotions through my projects, I work hard so that we kind of forget that
were in front of a computer. We forget about the technology and it just feels like a kind of weird, magical thing, reacting to what you do. Evolver.fm: Would you talk a little bit about the Sprawl II video your processes behind it, and how it came to be? Morisset: Ive been working with the band forever, back since Funeral, so we have this ongoing creative collaboration going on. When they were recording The Suburbs, I was working as artistic director on the whole visual aspect of the artwork, juggling different ideas for various projects. For a while, I wanted to develop an interactive video project that would be free of any interface just this thing thats really spontaneous and primitive. I showed this really basic little demo to Regine [Chassagne, Arcade Fire's singer/multiinstrumentalist], where you just waved your hand at the webcam and it triggered sounds and flickered the screen. She said she thought theyd have a song that was a little more pop, the kind of song you could dance to, and that shed play it for me when it was done. At the end, it ended up being The Sprawl II. It was kind of disco-ish, and for me, it fit perfectly with the concept. So time passed, I worked on other projects, and at the end of the album cycle, I was like, Hey, we should really do this. The band was totally into doing a
dance-activated video but they wanted to make sure people without a webcam or a good computer would still be able to have a sense of the world we were creating, so we decided to do a kind of hybrid project. We would have a traditional film that could be seen on YouTube or on TV, and parallel to that would be this interactive video. That was kind of a challenge, because out of the same shoot, I had to do two parallel projects for two totally different mediums. A still from Morisset's interactive video for "The Sprawl II" Screengrab: Evolver.fm Evolver.fm: Thematically, the album seems conflicted about the state of modern life as we know it, and your video dovetails nicely with that. You created these images that, at times, almost feel like home video, and presented them in a new, confusing context. Morisset: We wanted to have something that would be really simple and straightforward, but not boring. So we asked ourselves what we like about music videos, and decided to make something that felt spontaneous and fun, with a bit of strangeness added. Its always funny when I first show the project to different kinds of people. When they start to understand the cause and effect of their gestures, and the echo in the choreography, theres this moment when theyre like, Whoa. They get a bit freaked out. And then when you pass this moment, you kind of assimilate it and make the video your own.
Its funny how different people interact with it depending on their personality or their cultural background. Some people are more analytical about it, some people just let loose. Its funny to see how people connect with a piece like that. Evolver.fm: The interactivity makes it just as much about whatever baggage youre bringing to the table as a spectator, as it is about what the artist put into it. Morisset: It also connects to what the song is about. Theres this character, alienated by her environment, who wants to get loose and escape from that alienating environment. The fact that you dance in front of your computer is also a bit liberating and kind of weird, because youre not in a context where you normally dance. Youre at your work computer, or in your living room, and theres this moment where you cross a tiny boundary. Evolver.fm: One of the criticisms you often hear about internet culture is that it causes people to have short attention spans about the media they consume. Because your interactive work is mostly experienced online, by its nature, theres a good chance some people wont give it their full attention and others will perceive it as frivolous. Does that bother you at all? Morisset: No, not at all. I like this gray area about music-video culture. Theres something really exciting about that niche because MEET page 51
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youre juggling between two worlds. You connect to a broad audience but youre able to propose things that are unusual and sometimes a bit challenging. Its OK if people see it one way or another. Its part of the process, part of the game. I quite like the fact that we are able to reach all kinds of people and present it in different contexts. At some point, you dont have control over what contexts the piece will be represented in, so you dont know how people will look at it. And I think thats kind of cool. Evolver.fm: Yeah, that must be pretty exciting. Just releasing it into the wild. Morisset: You need to embrace that. Its part of what the web is. Evolver.fm: There seems to be a connection with music in a lot of your work, even the stuff that isnt commissioned by a band. When you began your career as an artist, did you know that youd have this close relationship with music? Or is that something that evolved on its own? Morisset: Your life is about accidents, happy accidents. The fact that I started to work with Arcade Fire, something like eight years ago it led me to doing projects that bounced into other projects, and other projects, and other people asking me to work with them. In the last years, Ive just been lucky enough to work with amazing artists. I would say its been this kind of theory of encounters. I didnt look to do just musicrelated projects, it just kind of
happened like that. And I must say, I decided that in the next year Id like to explore other things. But I love music, and I think theres a strong connection between music and image, especially for interactive stuff. When youre playing with nonlinear editing, the music gives the thing a kind of emotional spine. It gives it a structure. Even if youre playing with something thats really reactive, at least you have this backbone to keep the tension and dramatic crescendos of a piece. So its something really useful for me as an artist working with interactive material, but I dont way to be pigeonholed to do music stuff. Like I said before, I like to touch all kinds of things. Evolver.fm: Something that attracted me to Inni was the hands -on, analog manipulation of the film that you guys were doing. Youre taking something that was originally filmed digitally in HD and working with it, like you would with clay or paint as a physical artistic object. Could you explain that process? Morisset: I see that as a traditional film. Its linear and about an hour long, but I took a lot of the expertise that I developed with web projects into that process. Im always trying to destroy the slick, perfect, a bit soulless look of computer-ish imagery. In Bla Bla it was the same. I did some old-school stop motion with a puppet, then rotoscoped the face in 3-D so that I could map the
mouth and the eyes in real time. So again I was working with something that was really fragile and imperfect, but using sophisticated technology along with it. With Inni its kind of the other way around. We took advantage of these really light-sensitive cameras and were able to edit the film in a straightforward, efficient way. But there was this too-crisp feel to it it was almost like watching the news on TV. It kind of killed all the magic and the aura of what Sigur Rs is. So I thought wed try a more spontaneous approach with the post-production. When I pitched the idea to Sigur Rs, I was comparing it to when Neil Young did the Dead Man soundtrack. He sat in front of the Jim Jarmusch film with his guitar, looking at it for the first time, and just jammed over it. Theres this really volatile, imperfect thing about it that makes it so alive and beautiful. Again, computers can do amazing things, but theres something about organic, handmade stuff. You cant fake it. You just need to put your hands in the dirt and do it. Evolver.fm: Tell me about your synchronized artwork for The Suburbs. Morisset: Well, I think theres a lot of potential in this really straightforward way of presenting digital content synchronized with the song. It struck me that more people havent embraced this path. I was like, Damn! I
thought it was such a cool idea. Why arent other people doing it? Its kind of a no-brainer. It makes no sense that in 2012 were still stuck with a JPEG for the whole album. Its bizarre. Its been blocked by Apple in a way. It couldnt be sold in their store, because its not standard MP3s, but its not exactly an app either. Evolver.fm: It reminds me a little bit of Bjrks Biophilia suite of apps. Obviously theyre very different, but they seem of a piece, in a way, because both are looking at the album format and asking, What could we be doing differently in 2012? Morisset: With the Bjrk thing, you need to get into the app to listen to the song. Youre kind of forced to be involved in it. For me, listening to music is something that can go both ways. I can remember sitting on the couch when I was younger, and opening the vinyl sleeve and reading the lyrics. But when Im on the bus, I dont want to have to hold the record sleeve. I want to put it on sleep, put it in my pocket, and still be able to listen to it. I still want to put it on random with other songs; I still want to be able to put those tracks in a playlist. The Bjrk thing is cool in itself, but I would love it if it could be embedded in your listening environment. If youre in that, you cant do anything else. If you listen to the app album, youre in that, so you have your virtual booklet open at all times.
Evolver.fm: Have you seen any interactive work for bands that other people are doing that inspires you? Morisset: Its not interactive, but I do like Radio Soulwax. Its a set of mixtapes with evolving artwork. Evolver.fm: Is there anything happening in the world of more mainstream narrative film thats got you excited? Is that a world that you would ever consider trying to work in? Morisset: Im embracing traditional linear films. Ive done two films, so its not a world Im totally unfamiliar with. One thing I think is exciting is how those films get around now. I think were on the verge of changing distribution and how we consume films, so films that are a bit more niche are able to reach an audience more easily. I think Mirroir Noir, the Arcade Fire documentary, was one of the first feature films to be originally distributed online. When it first came out, the only way you could see it was to buy it online and download the HD video. It was a bit peculiar no film festivals, no theater screenings. At the end, I think it was successful because we were able to reach, in a single day, the whole fan community. And people just wanted to see that film. I think if we had gone down the traditional path, people would have found a torrent of it not because they wanted to pirate, they just wanted to see it so badly. MEET page 53
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Amazon's Prime Directive: No Standalone Subscription Video For Now

Tim Carmody (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:00:00 PM
Image courtesy Amazon Amazon wont be offering a standalone or premium subscription video service that isnt bundled with Amazon Primes two-day shipping of retail goods from Amazon.com. Not now, not in the near future maybe not ever. The integration Prime offers across Amazons product lines is simply too important to the companys whole business. Thats what Brad Beale, Head of Digital Video Content Acquisition at Amazon, tells GigaOMs Ryan Lawler. The bundle of benefits that come with Amazon Prime make perfect sense to offer to customers, Beale said. The way that Prime Instant Video is offered today were going to continue that approach at least into the near future. Rumors of an imminent launch of a standalone streaming video service from Amazon, to compete directly with Netflix and Hulu Plus, have been swirling for weeks. But Wednesdays licensing agreement with Viacom came and went without a change to Amazons model. This prompted Beales conversation with GigaOM.
In January, I reported on rumors from industry sources and remarks from Netflixs Reed Hastings that Amazon was trying to secure exclusive content to launch a premium or standalone service. I argued then (and still believe) that this would make sense if Amazon were trying to lock-in premium video from a pay channel like Starz, Showtime or HBO that insisted on having their content paid for separately from Amazon Prime per-subscriber, not as a lump sum like it is through cable providers and like Starz insisted in September when renegotiating its deal with Netflix. So we can probably also assume
from Beales statement that no such blockbuster deals are on Amazons horizon. That is, unless the retailer is willing to eat Starzs (or whomevers) per-customer fee, and the premium channel is willing to accept Amazon giving it away with prime. Its unlikely, but not unthinkable after all, Amazon has been willing to treat loaned books as sales in situations where it didnt have rights for its Amazon Prime lending library for Kindle. Ultimately, Amazon has an interest in bundling these services, whether streaming video, lending libraries or two-day shipping, trumps its need to make a profit
on every deal. Its about promoting the full range of its wildly diverse ecosystem as a single product. Amazon has exactly as much interest in securing regular shoppers as Target, monthly active users as Facebook, devoted superfans as Apple, and complimentary services as Google. Remember Amazons long play with the Kindle Fire: The Kindle isnt a book. Its a bookstore. The Kindle tablet extends that principle further, by making it a retail portal and showcase for everything Amazon sells, whether physical or virtual.
Amazon could try to blow away Netflix on content, by making a deal with Starz or HBO. Instead, theyll try to blow them away on price, offering mostly identical streaming content plus additional value-added services for a lower annual cost. The more you stream television shows from Amazon Prime, the more tempted you are to buy and download movies from Amazon Instant Video that arent on Prime. The more lending library books you read on a Kindle, the more books you buy on the Kindle. The more you use one AMAZON'S page 57
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Former Megachurch Pastor Goes Church Hopping as a Newcomer

(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)
this; they're not." For example, though most churches thought they were a Featured Posts friendly and welcoming group, in Opinion Gay by Choice? actuality, they had minimal Are all homosexuals "born that contact with newcomers outside way"? Not if you believe the of the front door greeting. testimony of a ... From an outsider's perspective, a February 9, 2012| 9:01 am church could come off cold and Having no current pastoral unwelcoming because more often obligations, Geoff and Sherry than not their greetings were Surratt, who have both served never extended beyond the initial extensively at churches like exchange. Seacoast and Saddleback, visited Like us on Facebook over the past few months nine The only interaction newcomers different churches, attending as would get after their first step anonymous visitors. through the door would be during "It has been an eye-opening the "forced greeting time," when experience," Geoff Surratt shared neighbors only acknowledged o n C h u r c h L e a d e r s . c o m . their presence whe D i s c o v e r i n g f i r s t h a n d t h e n they were directed by their obstacles of connecting with a leaders to do so. new church, the former Seacoast "Feeling alone and disconnected Church executive pastor shared a is the one experience we've had at few pointers on how to "make a l m o s t e v e r y c h u r c h w e ' v e your church stickier" and retain attended," Surratt shared, also visitors. stating that his wife, an extrovert, "None of these ideas are new or felt the same way. revolutionary, but I bet you think In order to extend the welcome your church is a lot better at each and "friendliness" of the church, one than you really are," the h e s u g g e s t e d t e a c h i n g o n father of two noted. "Trust me on h o s p i t a l i t y , d i v i d i n g t h e
congregation into sections with chosen leaders responsible for the people who sat in their section, and creating things like a "gorilla greeter" team, made up of people who purposefully sought to find those who were disconnected and connect with them. Many people seek connection and relationships when they come to church, but are often left alone and desperate for a friend. "People want to connect, you want people to connect; let's put significant time and energy into making this happen," the Denver resident advised. Although he was not pushing "consumer Christianity," he felt that churches should be more like car lots, not in an overbearing or forceful way, but with the mentality of "How can I put you in this car today?" "If the main reason people are showing up at church is to find relationships, there has to be a way to help them connect today. Not next month, not at the pancake breakfast on Saturday, but today." While friendliness and
maintaining relationships are important, clear signs and directions are just as vital for firsttimers, Surratt stated. Marking where the parking lots, worship rooms, restrooms, and other places are located while also detailing programs for guests are things that help visitors navigate the church better. Though regular churchgoers have ingrained the layout and worship schedule into their memories, no longer even needing to think about where to go and what to do, visitors are usually lost from beginning to end without guidance. "The bottom line is we should do everything we can to make our church at least as easy to navigate as the local Target." Additional ways Surratt felt churches could be made "stickier" included better applicable and practical Gospel-centered preaching and more readily accessible volunteer opportunities and resources for newcomers as well. All in all, Geoff and Sherry Surratt's reflection on their
personal experience with the church today is aimed at creating a warmer environment for the first -time visitor, guest, and attendee who feels lonely, needs comfort, or is discovering God for the first time. Surratt not only seeks to help newcomers but the church as a whole as well to function in love and unity. Geoff Surratt is currently a freelance Church Catalyst and Encourager and has written three books including Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing. His wife, Sherry, was recently named the new president and CEO of MOPS International beginning January. SEE VIDEO OF GEOFF SURRATT 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.
MEET
So in a way, we short-circuited the threat, and in a way, that was good. After that, the film got screened at some theaters and
some film events. So, the films life was inverted, but in a good way. 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-
only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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Stunning New 3-D Moon Map Made From Lunar Data

Dave Mosher (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:37:00 PM
Thanks to a new 3-D map of the moon, earthbound viewers can see its landscape with a clarity that only Apollos astronauts have previously enjoyed. NASA put out some amazing digital elevation data of the moon
late last year, but nobody had released it in true 3-D. So I decided I would, said Jeffrey Ambroziak, the maps creator. Ambroziak recently launched a Kickstarter project to fund the printing of a full-resolution, twosided National Geographicstyle 3-D moon map. The image above is a section of that full map. (No 3-D glasses? Follow Wireds
How-To Wiki article on creating a custom pair, which in a pinch can be done with just a CD jewel box and some markers.) Traditional 3-D images create the illusion of depth by tricking your brain into merging two slightly different images. Red-blue anaglyphs that superimpose separate images use this technique, as do 3-D movies that
alternate perspective in every second frame. Ambroziak doesnt consider these kinds of images to be truly 3 -D, as viewers must look at them from a specific distance and angle. Glancing from the sides, or walking toward or away from the image, distorts or destroys the illusion. If you watch Avatar in 3-D and
move toward the screen, it becomes so distorted you cant watch it. With maps, a single perspective doesnt cut it. You want to stick your nose right up there, said Ambroziak. Frustrated by these limitations, Ambroziak and his father, Russell Ambroziak, developed an STUNNING page 55
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Crystal Cathedral to See Name Change, New Design
STUNNING
algorithm to give 3-D maps a broader perspective. The trick works by both altering the brightness of pixels and stretching or compressing them, based on where theyre supposed to appear relative to a predetermined perspective. In 1999 they filed a patent for (Christianpost.com > Most suggested name should refer to of Jesus Christ of Current-Day t h e i r c r e a t i o n , c a l l e d t h e Popular) Christ or to his activities as Aint's" in a recent blog post. The Ambroziak Infinite Perspective illustrated by the Gospels and can a l w a y s - c r e a t i v e T w i t t e r Projection(or AIPP). At the time, be submitted through the diocese's community also immediately however, there wasnt enough (Photo: Reuters/Alex Gallardo) website. Following a review of all picked up the challenge, though data to make a moon map. A view of Crystal Cathedral, the suggestions, Bishop Brown will a p p a r e n t l y m i s s i n g t h e Twelve years ago, when I glass-walled megachurch in determine the cathedral's name. instructions about the new name invented the format, I was Garden Grove, Calif., is seen this The deadline for suggestions is pertaining to the Gospels. One scratching the bottom of the barrel Aug. 10, 2011 photo. Feb. 20, the diocese said in a suggested pitch on Twitter was " to get any data at all. Now theres statement. Window Washer's Nightmare so much free data out there just waiting to be transformed, said Featured Posts "It is our goal to make the new Building." Opinion Gay by Choice? cathedral a gathering place for Meanwhile, as the Crystal Ambroziak, who used NASAs Are all homosexuals "born that Catholics and other people of Cathedral congregation is coming latest Lunar Reconnaissance way"? Not if you believe the faith. By asking for naming to terms with the prospect of Orbiter Camera data to create the testimony of a ... suggestions we begin the process having to move to a new location, new map. February 8, 2012| 11:01 am of connecting this wonderful the church's senior pastor, Sheila The map allows for 3-D viewing The diocese finalized the $57 structure and its future to our faith Coleman, reminded the heart- from nearly any angle or distance. million purchase of the iconic and the larger community," broken congregation recently that The moon map, along with his 3p r o p e r t y , c o m p l e t e w i t h a Brown said. a church can never lose its D m a p s o f A n t a r c t i c a a n d stunning glass church building, on The diocese also suggested that it "house" underscoring the idea Mars, have been displayed at the Friday. The ministry has been m i g h t s e e k t o m a k e s o m e that Christians should not attach U n d e r l i n e a r t g a l l e r y i n struggling financially for years, architectural changes to the themselves to a church building, Manhattan. Theyve also captured a n d f i l e d f o r C h a p t e r 1 1 landmark building. but bear in mind "God's house" as the interest of the U.S. military, which could use such maps to bankruptcy protection in Oct. "Before the building may be used their ultimate home. 2010. The diocese will allow the as a Catholic cathedral several Luiza.o@christianpost.com; train pilots over realistic terrain. If enough people are interested in Crystal Cathedral congregation to design and other changes must be @Luiza_CP (Twitter) stay on the campus for the next made," the diocese's statement, This entry passed through the the full version of his new lunar three years before moving in. published on its website, reads. Full-Text RSS service if this is map, which covers about 8 However, that is not stopping the Like us on Facebook your content and you're reading it new owners from making public The opening for a new name is on someone else's site, please read some of its intended changes. already drawing interest. OC the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentThis week, Bishop Tod Brown Weekly mocked the ministry's only/faq.php#publishers. Five announced that the diocese is bankruptcy by offering names Filters recommends: Donate to looking for suggestions for a new such as "Poor Palace," "Sell What Wikileaks. name for the building. The you Own Place" or "The Church
percent of the moons surface, hell look into crafting the remaining 92 percent of NASAs lunar elevation data into 3-D maps. Until recently Ive resisted licensing [AIPP], he said. But I loved the idea of using Kickstarter to gauge peoples interest. Well have to see what happens. Image: This AIPP image is a 1000-by-666-pixel section of the full-resolution 3-D map, which will be a 5398-by-7000-pixel graphic. The perspective is set about 10,500 feet above the bottom of the Heinsius crater, a three-crater formation just below center. The topological elevation tops out at 3,940 feet on piles of ejected rock at the lip of Capuanus crater at top left. (Jeffrey Ambroziak) 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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Tim Keller Condemns Ban on Worship at NY Schools

(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)
5 Ways Birth Control Can Trip Up Your Love Life

Cristen Conger (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 8:15:56 AM
(Photo: The Gospel Coalition) Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York delivers the message "Getting Out" at the 2011 Gospel Coalition national conference in Chicago on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Featured Posts Opinion Gay by Choice? Are all homosexuals "born that way"? Not if you believe the testimony of a ... February 8, 2012| 8:14 am "Grieved" that more than 60 churches will be forced out of public schools this month, Keller called the city's ban "unwise" and is hoping for a reversal. "It is my conviction that those churches housed in schools are invaluable assets to the neighborhoods that they serve," the senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church said in a statement Tuesday. "Churches
have long been seen as positive additions to communities. Family stability, resources for those in need, and compassion for the marginalized are all positive influences that neighborhood churches provide." "Let them be those good neighbors." DAILY INSPIRATION: WATCH CHARMING 90 YEAR OLD COUPLE PLAY PIANO DUET Another well-known megachurch pastor, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, also voiced his opposition to the ban, tweeting on Tuesday, "Please tweet @MikeBloomberg to reverse the ban #discriminating against churches in NYC! INFO http:// bit.ly/xI4ZNO Please RT." Like us on Facebook Both pastors' appeals were made amid accusations that megachurches have been silent on the issue. Pastor Bill Devlin of Manhattan Bible Church told The Christian Post earlier that many church leaders involved in protests
against the ban have been asking, "Where are these pastors who have these huge churches?" "We need your help," Devlin has told megachurch pastors, including Keller. Redeemer had denied requests for an interview and instead issued a statement to CP earlier this week, saying, "Redeemer has been actively engaged with the pastors who have been directly affected by the school decision. We have hosted daily prayer meetings for them and are providing support as we can." "Therefore, we should all mourn if disagreement with certain beliefs of the church is allowed to unduly influence the formation of just policy and practice." 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.
When Enovid, the first birth control pill approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, hit the market in 1960, American women were eager for the option. Previously cleared as a treatment for menstrual disorders in 1957, Enovid was already making the rounds among gynecological practices, with half a million prescriptions doled out ostensibly to regulate periods [source: PBS]. When the pill turned 40 in 2010, an estimated 100 million women around the world were using oral contraceptives, primarily to prevent pregnancies [source: TIME]. Birth control pills prevent pregnancy by inhibiting a woman's ovaries from releasing a mature egg into the fallopian tubes during monthly ovulation [source: Planned Parenthood]. Typically, oral contraceptives combine the hormones estrogen and progestin to maintain a routine menstrual cycle, sans ovulation. In doing so, birth
control has granted women greater agency over their bodies and their reproductive systems, allowing them to better manage if and when motherhood happens. As a side effect of reducing the pregnancy risk, the pill also opened the door to greater sexual freedom. But eliminating ovulation may also affect women's sex lives in more subtle ways, recent studies are starting to show. In the process of tricking a female body into thinking it's pregnant, oral contraceptives may discretely alter heterosexual women's attraction to men and vice versa. Although none of the following five birth control-related reactions pose any direct risk to women, they're fascinating examples of how a single, tiny egg can make a monthly difference. 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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AMAZON'S
Kindle, the more tempted you are to buy another Kindle device if not for yourself, then for the rest of your family. And if Amazon finally really does sell a 9-inch Kindle Fire, then youll do even more reading and watching and shopping on that. Finally, youre an Amazon customer in an Amazon household especially if all of those services help encourage you to buy more goods shipped in two days or less. Convenience is king, writes The Motley Fools Amanda Buchanan, and if history is any indicator of consumer shopping habits, Prime is the future. Amazon is our
Sears Roebuck, our Walmart. And as Buchanan points out, one major reason Amazon wants to double down on Prime is that it has plenty of hungry competitors, from technology companies like Google to brick-and-mortar retailers, whod like to break Amazons stranglehold on twoday nationwide shipping. But still, Buchanan writes, Amazon has the advantage: [W]ith the 17 new fulfillment centers Amazon opened last quarter, bringing its current total to 69, I dont see that happening. These fulfillment centers not only mean faster shipping for Amazon, but also lower shipping costs,
making this an even more sustainable business model for Amazon in the long run, and an easy thumbs-up CAPScall for me. The fulfillment centers are just one piece to Primes puzzle. And all the pieces matter. 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.
The Illuminati: The (Conspiratorial) Future

(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 8:15:56 AM
Angelina Jolie Wears White For an Important Tea in Germany a 58 Angelina Jolie had meeting ANGELINA page
with German Foreign Minister
World Press Photo winners of 2012

(Holy Kaw!)
year-old Iranian-born actress Mellica Mehraban grew up in Denmark, but debuted as an actor RHINO WARS: Nature, 1st in Iran in 2011. Taking the prize stories, Brent Stirton. A four leading role as a villain in the spy man anti-poaching team drama 'Fox Hunting', she learned permanently guards a Northern firsthand about the culture of her White Rhino on Ol Pejeta native country: following a Conservancy in Kenya. July 13th, regime-approved script, she was 2011. required to wear a head scarf in A simple quote on the homepage all scenes, forbidden from of the World Press Photo website swearing, and learned to show says it all: We exist to inspire that she was in love with a man the 55th year of the competition. the rule of President Ali Abdullah understanding of the world without telling him or touching PHOTO OF THE YEAR: Samuel Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, through quality photojournalism, him. May 4th, 2011. A r a n d a . A w o m a n h o l d s a Yemen. October 15th, 2011. and what a year it was through Full story at World Press Photo wounded relative in her arms, DANISH AND IRANIAN those lenses. via Buzzfeed. inside a mosque used as a field CULTURE: Portraits, 1st prize Heres just a sampling of the Capturing the real story. hospital by demonstrators against singles, Laerke Posselt. The 27winners of various categories in Permalink| Leave a comment
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:54:00 PM
Playlist | Illuminati Videos There are 3 videos tagged "Illuminati"' + ''; $('#googleAdRightRail').html(rt); } function getValidChannel() { var getChannel = function(subDomain) { return subDomain; } var validChannels = new Array("adventure", "auto","computer","electronics"," entertainment","food","health","h ome","mobiltravelguide","money" ,"people","recipes","science","trav el","www","reference","maps","vi deos","history","geography","ani m a l s " ) ; v a r subDomain=document.domain.spl it(".")[0]; if (subDomain) { var x; for (var x = 0; x 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/
See Birthday Girl Jennifer Aniston's Sweetest Pictures With Justin Theroux
Katie Henry (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:52:16 PM
ANGELINA
Jennifer Aniston turns 43 tomorrow, and we're getting a jump on the celebration by sharing her cutest photos with boyfriend Justin Theroux. The pair met while filming Wanderlust in 2010, which finally hits theaters Feb. 24, and sparked up a relationship in the Spring of 2011. By Summer, they were officially stepping out together, looking glowing and happy at events. Their relationship blossomed in the Fall when they were spotted enjoying many romantic strolls around NYC's West Village. Jennifer has introduced Justin to her friends and family, and she
Guido Westerwelle in Berlin today. She and Guido sat down for tea to discuss Angelina's role with the UNHCR. Angelina made time for the important chat before getting ready to hit the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival tomorrow. Her In the Land of Blood and Honey is in the running for best feature along with Diane Kruger's Farewell, My Queen and 16 others. Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the festival's judges, and he helped kick things off at
yesterday's opening ceremony. The overseas trip hasn't been all about work for Angelina, since she took Maddox, Pax, and Shiloh to Legoland. The Jolie-Pitts will soon return to the US, since Angelina is set to be a presenter at the Oscars on Feb. 26. View Slideshow
Make a Mirrored Popup Flash Bouncer for Your Camera Out of a Snack Box [DIY]
Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:30:00 PM
reportedly just purchased a new multimillion-dollar Bel Air mansion that they'll share. Happy birthday to Jen, and click through to see their most loved-up photos. Getty, WireImage, FameFly View Slideshow
We've offered up a number of DIY products to make your flash photography look a bit better, but Flickr user synthetic_meat managed to find another one in a box of candy. He refolded that box, which had a silver lining, to create a mirrored popup flash bouncer for his camera: More
Ask and Answer Questions About Exercising [Help Yourself]

(Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:30:00 AM
Every day we're on the lookout for ways to make your work easier and your life better, but
Lifehacker readers are smart, life hacks, and whatever else you insightful folks with all kinds of need help with. More expertise to share, and we want to give everyone regular access to that exceptional hive mind. Help readers can ask and answer Yourself is a daily thread where questions about tech, productivity,
Culture/ Politics-Left/
59
Ex-president threatens Maldives protests

(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:20:05 PM
Where do you stack up against current college football players? [infographic]

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:03:00 PM
The former president of the Maldives has demanded new elections and called for mass street protests if the new government does not relent, raising the prospect of a protracted political crisis on the Indian Ocean islands. Mohamed Nasheed, who says his resignation earlier in the week was forced by a coup, remained free on Friday despite an arrest warrant against him as diplomats, including a UN envoy, worked to forestall renewed violence. He demanded his successor and former vice president, Mohamed Waheed, step down and hand power to the speaker of the parliament for two months, until a new presidential poll can be called. Before Nasheed resigned his presidency, the next election had been scheduled for October 2013. "Fresh elections are our bottom line and we are not relying on the international community for that,
we are relying on the people of the Maldives," Nasheed told reporters. "The medicine here is on the streets, in strength." But in an interview on Friday, Waheed told Al Jazeera that Nasheed's approach could become dangerous. "I cannot protect him if he continues to do this kind of thing," Waheed told Al Jazeera's Steve Chao. The new president also said that Nasheed had been acting "autocratic in so many ways". A warrant was issued on Thursday for Nasheed's arrest, but the warrant's charges were not made public, and the former president told reporters from his home on Thursday that he expected to be in jail by Friday. Abdul Mannan Yusuf, a police spokesperson, told the AFP news agency that authorities would be "tactical" about when they would use the warrant. "We can arrest him when we feel the need for it," he said. Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, UN assistant secretary general for
political affairs, who arrived with a delegation on Thursday night, said he was concerned about the security of the former president. "It is extremely important that he be treated fully within the rule of law and that his rights, like those of all Maldivians, need to be protected and respected," said Fernandez-Taranco. Clashes in Addu Nasheed said on Friday that police and military were ransacking Addu atoll, a bastion of his supporters, and were dragging people out of their homes and beating those who belonged to his party, with rival party members helping to identify them. "We are losing a country as we speak," he said, describing the attack as retaliation. Police said his supporters razed at least 20 government buildings on Wednesday night. While Nasheed has repeatedly called for foreign support, no government has yet backed him. The United States dealt him a blow on Thursday by announcing
its recognition of the new regime as legitimate, but it backtracked on Friday. "The circumstances of the transfer of power need to be clarified," said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Regional power India has declined to intervene, calling it an "internal matter" and congratulating Waheed as the new head of state. Video footage distributed by Nasheed's office emerged on Friday apparently showing him pleading with security forces in vain to help quell a police mutiny and violent demonstrations on the morning of his resignation. 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.
Need the defensive stats? Theyve got those, too. Via Athnet. Sporting infographics. Permalink| Leave a comment
60
Politics-Left/
Greek PM: Country on brink of chaos

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:31:25 PM
Papademos was appointed in November last year, succeeding George Papandreou [Reuters] Greece's prime minister has warned that the country faces "economic chaos and a social explosion" unless it accepts new austerity measures, as his government faced a national strike, street protests and ministerial resignations. Lucas Papademos, the unelected leader who was appointed in November to steer Greece through its financial crisis, told his cabinet on Friday that it could not allow Greece to go bankrupt, even as several members of the coalition government quit their posts or said they could not support the reforms. "Our priority is to do whatever it takes to approve the new economic programme and proceed with the new loan agreement," said Papademos. "It goes without saying that whoever disagrees and does not vote for the new programme cannot remain in the government." European finance ministers have called on Greece to make further cuts in return for payment of a bailout loan which Athens needs to avoid defaulting on bonds repayments next month. At least three cabinet members from the right-wing LAOS party resigned, after their party leader
had earlier announced that his bloc would not be voting for the proposed budget cuts. Marilisa Xenogiannakolpoulou, the country's deputy foreign minister and a member of the Socialist PASOK party, also resigned in protest, state
television reported. But Xenogiannakolopoulou's party said it would stand by the government in a parliamentary vote. "In the crucial parliamentary votes ahead, the national interest requires a responsible stance and
positive vote by all lawmakers so that the country can safely get out of the crisis," PASOK party spokesman Panos Beglitis said in a statement. Eurozone's demands mounting The Greek coalition government had hoped the country's crisis
would ease after leaders agreed to austerity measures they hoped would pave the way for the $173 billion (130 billion euro) bailout package. However, finance ministers from GREEK page 62
Politics-Left/
61
Deadly blasts in Aleppo as tanks mass in Homs

Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:57:15 PM
Explosions have rocked Syria's commercial capital, Aleppo, with state media reporting attacks on a military intelligence building and a security forces headquarters. Syrian state television said two explosions had taken place on Friday morning and blamed the attack on "armed terrorist gangs." The broadcaster quoted the health ministry as saying that 28 people were killed and more than 200 others wounded, including soldiers and civilians. "The number of casualties from the two car bombs in Aleppo has risen to 28 dead and 235 wounded," the ministry said. Mangled, bloodied bodies as well as severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the targeted buildings, as shown in live footage on Syrian television Arif al-Hummoud, a commander of the Free Syrian Army, a name used by various armed groups, told Al Jazeera that opposition fighters had carried out an attack but were not responsible for the bombings. "A group from the Free Syrian Army attacked a branch of the military security and a security unit in Aleppo with only RPGs
and light weapons," he said. 'Heavily guarded' Abdul Rahman Abu Hothyfa, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian Revolution Co-ordinators Union, told Al Jazeera that it was "absolutely the regime" that carried out the attack. He said the security buildings were heavily guarded by security forces and that it would be "impossible" to launch attacks such as Friday's blasts. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 people had been killed in explosions in the neighbourhoods of Sakhur and Marjeh and the Dawar el-Basel roundabout. Three deadly bombings aimed at security targets occurred in the capital, Damascus, in December and January. The government blamed al-Qaeda, while the opposition accused the authorities of carrying out the attacks. Friday's bombings were the first significant violence in Aleppo, a city of about two million people that is home to a prosperous business community which has stayed largely loyal to the government. The city has seen only occasional protests. Still, hours after the explosions, hundreds of protesters marched in several Aleppo
neighbourhoods after Friday prayers. Security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least six people, according to the Local Co -ordination Committees. The activist network said 12 people were killed in the province and at least 23 more in other parts of the country. Demonstrations were held in cities across Syria on what activists called, "Russia is killing our children" Friday, in response to Russia and China vetoing a UN Security Council resolution last week. Homs 'besieged' In the flashpoint city of Homs, activists reported that tanks were massing outside opposition neighbourhoods, a week after government forces started continuously shelling the city. Troops were reportedly also entering the neighbourhood if Inshaat, detaining several residents. Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting
Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday that makeshift hospitals in besieged opposition areas were overflowing with dead and wounded from government bombardments and snipers. The US-based rights watchdog said more than 300 people had been killed since the from neighbouring Lebanon, offensive against opposition said activists feared a major neighbourhoods was launched last assault. Friday. "The army seems determined to In the latest example of how the c o n q u e r t h e o p p o s i t i o n cricis in Syria is affecting neighbourhoods - the Free Syrian neighbouring Lebanon, at least Army and some other armed o n e p e r s o n w a s r e p o r t e d l y opposition groups have been in wounded in gunfire and grenade control of those streets for some blasts in the Lebanese city of weeks now," she said. Tripoli, where Sunni Muslim and Amin said that while shelling Alawite communities are divided stopped on Friday morning, the over the Syrian issue. areas were "besieged by the army Armed men have deployed and people are calling for blood h e a v i l y i n t w o r i v a l and bread". neighbourhoods, one group "Very little food is left and little supporting and the other opposed medical aid is being provided to to President Bashar al-Assad's them". leadership in Syria. An activist in Homs giving her This entry passed through the name as Salam al-Homsi said it Full-Text RSS service if this is was getting more difficult to save your content and you're reading it those injured. on someone else's site, please read "We can't even get them out of the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentrubble because the snipers won't only/faq.php#publishers. Five let people help the wounded," she Filters recommends: Donate to said. "There are no medical Wikileaks. supplies and people are dying in the field hospitals. It's getting worse and worse."
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GREEK
the other 16 eurozone states insisted that Greece save an extra $430 million (325 million euros), pass the cuts through parliament and guarantee in writing that they would be implemented even after planned elections in April. Many Greeks, already suffering from five consecutive years of recession, are increasingly angry about the measures, which are unlikely to quickly help an economy where one in five is unemployed, businesses are failing and household incomes are falling. Papademos and the heads of the three parties backing his government have already agreed to deep private sector wage cuts, civil service layoffs, and significant reductions in health, social security and military spending. But Al Jazeera's John Psaropoulous reported from Athens that several members of the ruling coalition seemed to have signed off on the deal, only to renege on their commitment before an actual vote. "The country seems to be descending into some form of political schizophrenia," he said. Clashes in Athens Greek unions began a two-day national strike on Friday, with transport networks halted and
ships docked in the country's main ports, not long after another nationwide action on Tuesday. Doctors, bank employees and teachers also walked off the job, although flights were not affected by the strike, an airport official said. "The measures included in the new memorandum ... are the 'tombstone' of the Greek society," the civil servants' union ADEDY said in statement. "It's time for the people to speak up." Clashes erupted outside parliament in Athens, as dozens of hooded youths threw fire bombs and stones at police, who responded with tear gas, but the violence was not prolonged, our correspondent said. Police said about 7,000 people took part in the demonstration, while another 10,000 supporters of the country's Communist party held a separate, peaceful march. The square earlier echoed with loudspeaker calls to rally against the measures: "No to layoffs! No to salary cuts! No to pension cuts! Do not bow your heads! Resist!" Still, the EU Commission's president said he expected a deal to go through. "I am confident that a solution will be reached next week as this is critically important for Greece and the Greek citizens first and
foremost but also for the whole euro area,'' Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday during a visit to India. I therefore call on the responsibility and the leadership of the Greek leaders and all members of the eurozone so that we can obtain this goal that is important for the euro area and indeed for the global economy.'' Some Greek newspapers seemed to support the demands. "Greece's credibility is zero. That is why the troika (of officials from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank) is asking for written assurances and the voting of the implementation laws," financial daily Imerisia wrote in an editorial. "Let us decide ... if we want to continue being part of the eurozone or if we wish to walk down a dark path." 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.
Vanessa Williams Hopes Her 'Desperate Housewives' Character Doesn't Get Killed Off
Alex Moaba (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
think a couple 'Housewives' should die. I think it would be good." Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:45:53 PM When Wendy's mom Sheryl, who It was a meeting of the Williams was sitting in on the interview, Friday on " The Wendy Williams asked Vanessa about the mood on Show" (weekdays on Fox) as the set, she reported it hadn't Vanessa Williams stopped by to gotten too emotional yet. "There talk about the final season of " were no tears yet," she said, Desperate Housewives." because they'll be shooting until Wendy started the interview by April. asking Vanessa about rumors that The conversation then turned to there will be a shocking character Williams' plans after the show's death during the show's stretch end, she reminded the audience run, and joked that she all but j u s t h o w m u l t i - f a c e t e d a assumed it would be "the black performer she is. "I've got the person." Vanessa couldn't say book that I wrote with my mom either way; the show still has coming out in April, so we'll be seven more episodes left to shoot, out on the circuit for that. And she reported, and even the cast then, back in the studio, want to isn't given the scripts until the day make some music, maybe the before shooting."We have no idea, theatre, then I hope to be back on I just hope I'm alive," she quipped another show." about her character Renee Perry. TV Replay scours the vast Felicity Huffman, on the other television landscape to find the hand, seems to be rooting for most interesting, amusing, and, on multiple characters to be killed a good day, amazing moments, off. In a January interview with and delivers them right to your The Huffington Post, she said, "I browser.
TV/
63
'Castle' Scoop: Jennifer Beals On Playing Castle's Former Muse

Maggie Furlong (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
TV full-time. First off, I miss "Chicago Code." Gone too soon ... Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:06:58 PM I miss it, too. I love that Jennifer Beals is returning to TV character. She was such a badass. for a two-episode arc on " Castle," And I loved working with the and her CIA agent character CPD, and we had a great cast. I Sophia Turner will be stirring up was just excited about it. emotions between Castle and For this two-parter on "Castle," Beckett. Could her history with you're playing CIA Agent Sophia Castle finally inspire Beckett to Turner, who at least feels a bit share her true feelings for him like "Chicago Code's" Teresa once and for all and maybe return Colvin. Are there any similarities? those three little words? Teresa is much more practical, I n t h e u p c o m i n g e p i s o d e , and I think, tougher. On the "Pandora" (Mon., Feb. 13, 10 outside, Teresa's much tougher. p.m. EST on ABC), and its follow Sofia, on the inside, is steel. She -up on Feb. 20, "Linchpin," the has an intellectual capacity that's stakes have never been higher for pretty intense at times. You know, Castle and Beckett as they work Teresa's like Chicago ... what with Sophia and the CIA to solve would be the word for it? Not an international conspiracy that muscular in the sense of the body, could have a massive effect on the but muscular in the sense that like U.S. Carl Sandburg would've used the I caught up with Beals, who was word. She's much more ready to cagey about whether or not her get in and get things done herself past with Castle was romantic at if she needs to. But it's funny, I all, but she did reveal that he hadn't thought about that! shadowed Sophia years ago and How did this part come about? modeled his character Clara Strike First, I wasn't sure if I would do after her ... meaning Beckett isn't it. I wasn't very familiar with the his first muse. She also talked show. I have friends who love the about Nathan Fillion and Stana show, and who were really K a t i c ' s o n s c r e e n c h e m i s t r y excited about the possibility. I (calling it "magical"), whether or went in and met with Andrew not this could spark a "Castle" [Marlowe] and David [Amann] spinoff for her character and, and they were really lovely and knowing that we begged for it, had interesting ideas, but I didn't what it'll take to get her back on have a script. So I just had to go
on good faith and instinct, and I'm really glad I did. Not to make more out of it before these two episodes have even aired, but knowing that it's a twoparter and that she has such history with Castle, this seems primed to be a spinoff. Well, um ... yeah, I mean ... I don't know that that's really possible. But, yes, I think it's a deeper relationship because he partially based his Clara Strike character on her. So the audience gets that little tidbit. Yes, and with Beckett inspiring Nikki Heat, I'd imagine she's not too thrilled to meet one of Castle's former muses. Your character ruffles some feathers, doesn't she? Whose? Whose feathers would she be ruffling? [Laughs.] Beckett would have to speak to that herself, but I think it certainly complicates things a bit, because it's another person that she didn't know about. And I think it's probably a more important person because there was enough about this person that was interesting that he decided to put it into a character. So that might be problematic in some ways. Was it a romantic relationship? You'll get to find out. Did you have fun shooting these episodes? I love that set. I had so much fun working with those guys. I had fun playing her,
but I really had fun on the set. It's like the hardest working crew I think I've ever seen. The longest hours ... and still so professional and lovely. Nathan is really fun to hang out with, and he just made me laugh all the time. And he's very Mr. Techno Guy. I am not involved with any social media whatsoever, and I'm just really proud that I have a phone with which I can text. [Laughs.] I have an iPad! I feel pretty red hot that I have an iPad, not that I really know how to work it to its fullest capacity. [Laughs.] So he introduced me to some different apps that were really fun. And Stana was really lovely, and they were both very welcoming. They're just so great together, onscreen. It's very, very interesting, because they're very different people, and then when they're onscreen together, it's just magical. So Nathan hasn't convinced you to get on Twitter? He's kind of the gateway drug to Twitter. Well, you know, he is the king of Twitter. He got a prize for twittering. I didn't even know that there was a prize for twittering! If I twittered, I don't know what the hell I would say. He comes up with very funny, interesting things ... I don't have those kind of synapses happening. It's serendipitous that we're
talking today because I actually just included you in our list of 13 stars we want to see back on TV. Oh, that's so sweet! Thank you. I appreciate that. Would you consider doing a show again so soon? Yes, I would consider doing a show again so soon, but it would have to be really, really good. I've been so spoiled. I was so spoiled with "The L Word," I was so spoiled with "Chicago Code." I just said to my agents and manager yesterday, "It has to be really special." We're in the renaissance of television right now -- I don't want to go and do something that doesn't have any meaning to me. It's either got to be really fun or it's got to be meaningful to me, and hopefully it's both. What do you watch on TV? You know what I do love? I love " Enlightened." My god, Laura Dern is a genius -- just a stinking genius! I laugh really hard, and then in the middle of laughing, I'm crying. I love her character, I love the way she plays the character and I love the show. "Castle" airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.
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White House Tweaks Rule Phil Cooke, Ph.D.: What Leaders Could Learn From Clint Eastwood's Requiring Employers To "Halftime in America" Commercial Cover Birth Control
Phil Cooke, Ph.D. (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
to "halftime in America" gave it context. Leaders don't lead in a vacuum, they speak during Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:58:51 PM specific times of challenge, One of the big hits of Sunday's d i f f i c u l t y , o r s u c c e s s . T i e Superbowl was Chrysler's two aspiration to physical reality and minute TV spot,"It's Halftime in it becomes focused, timely, and America," featuring actor and memorable. director Clint Eastwood. While 2. Admit the current situation. it's taken some heat politically, the T h e s p o t o p e n e d w i t h t h e spot, created by agency Wieden + challenge America is going Kennedy, generated such an through right now. No sugar outpouring of emotion across all coating or obfuscation. If your c u l t u r a l , d e m o g r a p h i c , a n d organization is suffering or your political lines, I thought it was people struggling, don't pretend it worth noting why. Right now, i s n ' t h a p p e n i n g . D o n ' t u s e this country is plagued by far too statistics to stretch the truth, or many leaders who can't lead. distract from what's really going Leaders across the political, on. Be real. People aren't stupid. business, and even nonprofit 3. Stop blaming. The spot never spectrum who arrogantly assert directly mentioned the economy, themselves, but who can't inspire politicians, or culture wars. Too those around them. Leaders who many leaders are so focused on look for someone to blame rather blaming people or situations, they than taking responsibility. So never provide any answers. We're what could these guys learn from in a bad situation, and we get that. C l i n t ' s s p o t ? H e r e ' s a f e w We're not looking for a blamer, thoughts: we're looking for a leader. Help 1. Timing matters. The fact that get us out, or get out of the way. the spot played during the Super 4. Speak the Truth. The script Bowl halftime and correlated that called us to "rally around what
was right." Leaders today are often so afraid of offending someone, they either ignore the truth or side step it. Sensitivity is critical. Political correctness is suicide. 5. It's about aspiration. Ultimately, the spot wasn't created to assign blame, wallow in our troubles, or discuss what did or didn't work. It wasn't a high minded lecture. Its purpose was to inspire us to be great again. Great leaders are unifiers, not dividers. They call people to a higher vision that's achievable and specific. On the screen, Eastwood plays characters who are tough, grizzly and not afraid to do what's right. We could use a little of that in executive suites, boardrooms, and government buildings across America right now. After all, when was the last time you heard a press conference, CEO address, or political speech that inspired you like "Halftime in America" did Sunday night?
Chris Morran (The Consumerist)
required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:15:00 PM without hassles. Late last month, the Obama The result will be that religious administration angered some organizations won't have to pay people when it announced that all f o r t h e s e s e r v i c e s , a n d n o employers regardless of their religious institution will have to stance on birth control would provide these services directly. need to provide insurance that Let me repeat: These employers covers female preventative care. will not have to pay for, or Today, the President said his provide, contraceptive services. people had come up with a But women who work at these compromise that he believes will institutions will have access to provide birth control while free contraceptive services, just allowing businesses to not be like other women, and they'll no directly responsible for providing longer have to pay hundreds of it. dollars a year that could go Speaking earlier today at the towards paying the rent or buying White House, Pres. Obama said: groceries. Under the rule, women will still Remarks by the President on have access to free preventive Preventive Care[WhiteHouse.gov] care that includes contraceptive This entry passed through the services no matter where they Full-Text RSS service if this is work. So that core principle your content and you're reading it r e m a i n s . B u t i f a w o m a n ' s on someone else's site, please read employer is a charity or a hospital the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentthat has a religious objection to only/faq.php#publishers. Five providing contraceptive services Filters recommends: Donate to as part of their health plan, the Wikileaks. insurance company not the hospital, not the charity will be
Products/
65
Groupon Figures It's Not Important To Use A Photographer's Actual Pictures To Advertise Photo Deal
Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)
investigated further, and say the rest of the images on the photographer's site were swiped Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:00:00 PM from others some even with What started as casual curiosity the original watermark still in about a Groupon deal for a place. photographer in the Dallas area Of course, the other offering boudoir photo sessions photographers were angry, and turned into a full-fledged fight emailed the woman who was when a group of photographers u s i n g t h e i r i m a g e s . S h e realized the company had stolen immediately took down the an image from one of them. boudoir photos. But Groupon was Because of course, don't you want another story. to see an example of a product Groupon told us that they were that you won't actually get if you aware of the situation. In fact, a buy the deal? Groupon customer service rep Even worse, writes Stacy after even told us that they had verified the photographers complained to t h e m s e l v e s t h a t t h e p h o t o s Groupon about stealing an image, b e l o n g e d t o a d i f f e r e n t they replaced it with a stock photographer, and even provided photo. Which of course, is just the URL of the photographer she another picture that doesn't at all stole from. portray the photographer's work So, to be clear, Groupon knew customers would be buying into. t h a t t h e p h o t o g r a p h e r w a s Stacy writes the proof is here, in involved in false advertising and the cached Groupon deal, which copyright infringement. uses an image that is also seen on They promised those of us who another photographer's Facebook were calling in that they would page for her business. They remove the offer and stop selling
it. Hours went by, and the offer was still up. We started tweeting Groupon, and they promised to look into it and remove the offer. Again, hours went by and it was still up. Finally they removed the stolen photo that they were using to promote Noell and replaced it with a stock photo: When we called Groupon out on this via Twitter, they said it is their policy to use stock images for Groupons if the vendor doesn't provide one - even for PHOTOGRAPHERS!!! What's next? Showing a picture of a Renoir for sale when really you're just offering stick drawings drawn by your cat? 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.
Non-sterile eye and nasal sprays recalled

rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:29:59 AM
Non-sterile eye and nasal sprays recalled Wholistic Herbs Inc. of Dallas, Texas, announced that it has recalled all quantities of one fluidounce Koff & Kold spray with herbal extract and Kold Sore spray with liquid sea mineral distributed from March 2009 through February 2012 because they are not sterile and pose a possible health risk. Consumers who have purchased the products should discontinue use and return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Products intended for use in the eye that are non-sterile have the potential to cause eye infections, which may be sight threatening, according to the companys press release. Nasal solutions that are not sterile could lead to a respiratory infection. Koff & Kold and Kold Sore were distributed throughout the Unites States to retail stores in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas,
Virginia, and Washington. The products were also distributed through acupuncture clinics and the firms website at www.naturalapothecary.com. The recall was the result of a routine FDA inspection. These products are not tested properly as to assure their safety, according to the press release. No illnesses have been reported to date. Source Wholistic Herbs, Inc. Recalls "Koff & Kold" and "Kold Sore" Because Of Possible Health Risk[FDA-posted company press release] Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
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Products/
Tesla unveils electric Model X SUV, opens orders today

Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigators recalled for weak head restraints
Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:29:59 AM
The Model X will also use the 17 -inch flat-panel control screen from the Model S, along with its Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:44:59 AM digital instrument cluster, creating Tesla unveils electric Model X a screen-intensive dash. SUV, opens orders today Prices are said to mirror those of Last night in Los Angeles, Tesla the Model S, which starts at unveiled its new Model X $57,400, and steps up to more concept. The seven-passenger than $80,000 with its largest SUV is based on the Model S give the car a range we estimate battery pack and options. Both sedan, with giant doors that open to be about 150 miles. The larger, cars will be eligible for the federal upwards over the forward-facing 85-kWh battery pack, should $7,500 tax credit. rear seats. Tesla will begin taking amount to just over 200 miles, The most distinguishing feature, depending on the motors. reservations today at noon Pacific the so-called falcon doors hinge T h r e e d r i v e t r a i n s w i l l b e Time, with a $5,000 deposit. The in the middle to enable them to available. The base model will be car is scheduled to go into open in a snug parking space. rear-wheel-drive with a motor on production at the former General D i m e n s i o n s h a v e n o t b e e n the axle. All-wheel drive models M o t o r s - T o y o t a f a c t o r y i n released, but assuming the wheels will have an additional motor on Fremont, Calif., at the end of are about 22 inches, it appears the the front axle. The fastest version 2013. Model X rides on a similar 117- will be all-wheel drive and use Subscribe now! inch wheelbase as the Model S. It more powerful motors to achieve S u b s c r i b e t o therefore stands roughly 62 inches 0-60 mph acceleration in less than ConsumerReports.org for expert tall and the doors extend to about 5 seconds, Tesla claims. Ratings, buying advice and 82 inches. The flat chassis and electric r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f Like the Model S, the Model X drivetrain will allow space for a products. Update your feed has a large, flat battery pack under trunk in the front, in addition to preferences the floor. It comes in two sizes: limited cargo space behind the The base, 60-kWh battery should third row of seats.
Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigators recalled for weak head restraints Ford Motor Company is recalling a small number of 2012 Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. Both large sport utility vehicles have rear seat head restraints that fail to meet federal safety standards for protecting passengers during a collision. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 569 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators were manufactured last November and December with inadequate welds on the head restraint support brackets of the second row, right-hand seat. In the event of a crash, the substandard restraints increase the risk of injury to rear seat riders. Ford is expected to notify owners of affected Expedition and Navigator SUVs on Feb. 20. They will be instructed to bring their SUVs to dealerships where the
head restraints will be replaced free of charge. For more information, consumers can call Ford's toll-free customer relationship center (866-4367332) and refer to Ford Recall Campaign Number 12C22 or visit the NHTSA website: www.SaferCar.gov. Recall: 2012 Ford Expedition/ Lincoln Navigator - Seats C a m p a i g n I D # : 12V034000[NHTSA] 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
Products/ Gaming/ Featured/
67
Flash In The Brain Pan: Kung-Fu Grandpa

(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:00:00 AM
Did you play any fighting game before Street Fighter II? Or have you ever played a Nintendo? If you answered yes, then you know what you have to do with KungFu Grandpa. Like an elderly Shinobi, he's gonna clear the streets and you've gotta help him. That old man is you, and youthful butt is what you're gonna be kicking. They'll come from the right AND the left and they'll be enjoyably multicultural when they do. Because this Grandpa isn't a racist, no siree. He only discriminates based on age. You'll fight your way through common thugs, sometimes in a group and sometimes mano-ymano. Occasionally they'll drop
sodas and money that offer you power and cash. Spend that cash on skill boosts and you'll find it easier to kill the level bosses when they show up. We'll warn you now they're tough. But even if you lose at first, don't give up! In later levels the Kung-
Fu Grandpa gets weapons, and the first time you beat some young so -and-so with what looks like a golf club, you're gonna understand the elderly a little better. There's a great joy in smackin' down a young and disrespectful fool, and today
you're gonna get to feel it! Follow the way of the grey warrior and impose your will on the disorder that is modern life with Kung-Fu Grandpa. But please, hit the mute button. Nobody wants to hear that noise they're calling music these days. It's not like it used to be, boy, people used to know what quality was all about! Did we ever tell you about the street where we grew up? Oh, everyone was so respectful and wore hats, and then one day, when the ice man was making a delivery... hey, did you stop paying attention? How disrespectful! You're what's wrong with the current generation, you are.
Free Advice for Mitt Romney

Mark Hemingway (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:45:00 PM
Alan Wake's second dev diary for his American Nightmare

Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:15:00 PM
This time around, the game takes on a "pulp action" feel with elements of B-movies, sci-fi and The latest developer diary for urban legends, according to Alan Wake's American Nightmare Remedy's Sam Lake. See for s h e d s a l i t t l e l i g h t o n t h e yourself in the video above. downloadable title's new tone. Alan Wake's second dev diary for
Mitt Romney's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference today was a step in the right direction for the candidate on many levels. He tacitly acknowledged that he wasn't steeped in conservative ideology at the same time he paid homage to it, noting that growing up he would have mistaken Burke and Hayek for members of the Detroit Tigers lineup. He all but micturated on the grave of compassionate conservatism by proclaiming that he was a "severely conservative" governor Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:15:00 EST. of Massachussetts. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
his American Nightmare originally appeared on Joystiq on
68
Products/ Gaming/ Science/ News Photos
Going To The Movies Is The Most Expensive It's Ever Been

Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)
rising admission toll could be why less people are going to movies, but theater owners say it's the Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:00:00 PM fault of Hollywood for making the All the whizbang 3-D hoopla movies they made last year. IMAX excitement at movie Quick, someone write seven theaters is coming at a hefty price, more Harry Potter books and as the National Association of t h r e e a d d i t i o n a l s e q u e l s t o Theatre Owners says the average Twilight. Or, not, and we'll all ticket price was at a record high in stay home and catch up on 2011. Breaking Bad. The average price for a movie Average movie-ticket price edges ticket in the United States hit up to a record $7.93[L.A. Times] $7.93 last year, four cents up from This entry passed through the the year before, says the L.A. Full-Text RSS service if this is T i m e s . W e c a n b l a m e t h e your content and you're reading it premiums moviegoers are forking on someone else's site, please read over to see flicks in 3-D or at the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentIMAX theaters, says the president only/faq.php#publishers. Five of the association. Filters recommends: Donate to Even with higher ticket prices, Wikileaks. box office earnings sank 4% and attendance was down 5%. The
Photos: Diet Pepsi Style Studio fashion Show - Denver Post

(news photos - Google News)
Gabe Newell on the Steam hack: 'Probable' that credit card info at risk
Jessica Conditt (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:45:00 PM
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:02:38 PM
The Steam forums and database was hacked in November, and Valve is still investigating the breach. In a new note to Steam users, Valve head Gabe Newell announced that "it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008." The file contained user names and email addresses, and encrypted billing addresses and credit-card information, but it did not include passwords, Newell said. So far there has been no evidence
Just Jared Photos: Diet Pepsi Style Studio fashion Show Denver Post ( Photo by Gustavo Caballero/ Getty Images for Diet Pepsi) that credit cards or billing D e s i g n e r s E l i s a B e r g m a n , addresses have been compromised Genoveva Christoff, Rachel Hurst from the attack, but Steam users and Shirin Askari attend Diet should pay close attention to their Pepsi x Christian Cota Capsule accounts and keep Steam Guard Collection Preview at Diet Pepsi on, Newell said. Read Gabe's full Refresh Lounge at Lincoln Center update below, which has been on... sent to all Steam gamers as well. Simon Doonan Brings The Stars Continue reading Gabe Newell Out For The Diet Pepsi Style on the Steam hack: 'Probable' that Studio Fashion Show... Global credit card info at risk Grind Gabe Newell on the Steam hack: all 5 news articles 'Probable' that credit card info at risk originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Six Inventors Visualize the Ultimate Toy

(Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:32:57 PM
The Ultimate Toy Ollie Bland Some of the most brilliant and
successful toy creators ever talk about their ultimate toy--setting aside money, safety, and the very laws of physics What would the creators of some of the most beloved and
if given a completely blank slate? up with some craziness. We asked the driving forces Click to launch the Ultimate Toy behind toys like K'Nex, LEGO, gallery. Tickle Me Elmo, and Nerf to really explore their craziest widespread American toys make, impulses--and man, did they come
Sports/
69
Redknapp would consider ultimate England job - YAHOO!

(- Bing News)
Tottenham's training ground on Friday if managing England was the "ultimate" job, replied: "It has AFP Redknapp said it wouldn't to be. be easy to leave Spurs "But you also have to understand Carl Court, AFP/Getty Images what a tough job it is. AdChoices Harry Redknapp said Friday he "No-one has a magic wand and w o u l d c o n s i d e r t a k i n g t h e the list of top-class managers who England manager's post if offered have all gone in full of hope, the chance to succeeed Fabio people like Kevin Keegan, who Capello in the "ultimate" job in did a fantastic job at Newcastle, football. and they all found it very, very Redknapp, currently in charge of difficult."He is the right choice" Premier League high-flyers S i r A l e x F e r g u s o n s a i d o f Tottenham Hotspur, said: "It R e d k n a p p wouldn't be easy (leaving Spurs). Franck Fife, AFP/Getty Images It would be very difficult. "It's certainly not an easy job. "I'm happy, but if the opportunity Whoever takes that job has a real comes, and I get asked, I'll have to job on their hands," Redknapp consider it." said. The 64-year-old Englishman is Capello's resignation left the FA the odds-on favourite to succeed looking for a new manager just C a p e l l o , w h o r e s i g n e d o n four months before England Wednesday in protest at the compete at Euro 2012 in Poland Football Association's decision to and Ukraine. strip John Terry of the England The Italian's decision was captaincy. announced just hours after No manager has won a major Redknapp was cleared of tax trophy with England since Sir Alf evasion charges. The verdict Ramsey guided the team to their removed what many believed was lone World Cup title, on home the last remaining obstacle to the soil in 1966. Englishman taking charge of his Nevertheless Redknapp, asked at country.
Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:11:16 AM
Carl Court, AFP/Getty Images Redknapp was backed as the "best man" for the England job by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, British football's most successful boss. "He has good experience, the personality and knowledge of the FA officials have suggested they game," said Ferguson. "It's the could opt for a caretaker coach for right choice." Euro 2012, allowing whoever was Ferguson, Scotland manager at then in charge to combine the the 1986 World Cup after the England post with a club role. death of Jock Stein while still However, Redknappwho has Aberdeen boss, warned against g u i d e d T o t t e n h a m t o a n doing two jobs at once. impressive third in the Premier "I tried it myself with Scotland in Leaguewas wary of doubling Mexico. I found it very difficult." Capello resigned after the FA up. "It is hard enough managing a stripped Terry of the England league club let alone managing captaincy without consulting him your country, it's two very as the Chelsea defender prepares to contest a charge of racially difficult jobs," he said. "I can't take my eye off the ball at abusing QPR defender Anton Tottenham at the moment because Ferdinand at a trial which will we're looking to get Champions take place in Julyafter Euro League football, we're still in the 2012. FA Cup and I owe it to them to In his first public comment since continue to keep completely issuing a brief statement on focused on the job I'm doing here. Wednesday, Capello told an Capello's resignation left England Italian TV show Friday: "I didn't looking for a new manager four flee, I left because there was a misunderstanding. months before Euro 2012 "I felt great but sometimes you
decide to leave." Former England defender Stuart Pearce, the current Under-21 coach, will manage England in a friendly against the Netherlands at Wembley on February 29. There have been suggestions that Redknapp could manage England at Euro 2012 before making way if he chose to stay with Tottenham. "That is a possibility," FA chairman David Bernstein said Thursday when asked if a caretaker coach could lead England in Poland and Ukraine "It might not be the case, but all options are open. I'm only talking common sensewe're not prepared to restrict ourselves at this stage." 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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Gaming/ Featured/ Politics-Right/
Facebook didn't do what Path does

Namco spins off internal dev studios into 'Namco Bandai Studio'
Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:45:00 PM
#Occupy Miami Has a New Home

(The Feed)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 8:43:28 AM
Much like Prince becoming the "Love Symbol" back in better times (the mid-'90s), Namco Bandai Holdings announced plans to spin off its existing internal development teams into a separate company (that is also still totally part of Namco, by the way). The new company will be named "Namco Bandai Studio" and will comprise the the approximately 1,000 employees who are already part of Namco. The organizational change was spurred by Namco's interest in
BTW, when I quote a programmer like this, it's because I know him, and trust him. Joe Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:10:50 PM and I may disagree on some I've heard people say it privately, things, but I would never question and in random comments here and his ability as a developer or his there, that Facebook was already honor. This came up the other day doing what Path was caught on Twitter when I quoted Brent doing. Because it hadn't been said Simmons on something he told publicly, I didn't have anything I me about iOS. I feel the same way felt I could respond to. But now about Brent as I do about Joe. there's an article at PC World that Both are first class pros, and their at least leans toward saying that word is beyond questioning. what Path is doing with address Brent says that as an iOS books on the iPhone is nothing developer he wouldn't read a speedier dev times and tighter more than what Facebook did user's address book without asking first, and he doesn't know cohesion between disparate dev with their iPhone app. teams. The changeover won't go I checked with Joe Hewitt, the any iOS developers who would into effect until April 2, so you've guy who wrote the iPhone app for either. So if we condone what still got at least a month to snag Facebook and asked if they did Path has done, we're giving them some classic Namco Bandai what Path is doing. He said no. It a n a d v a n t a g e t h a t o t h e r developers are not willing to take. Holdings collectibles* while you was unequivocal. Since Joe left Facebook a few In other words, we've bet on the still can! (*Note: Those don't actually exist. months ago, he asked me to make wrong horse. Unless you're a crazy person, of it clear that he can't vouch for what they're doing now. course.) Namco spins off internal dev studios into 'Namco Bandai Studio' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
(Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog)
Via Miami New Times: On Tuesday, January 31, hundreds of cops forcibly shut down Occupy Miamis tent city at Government Center, ending nearly four months of protests. But instead of heading home, dozens of protesters mysteriously migrated to a half-empty apartment building in Overtown. Apparently with the permission of the buildings owner an enigmatic Occupy Miami member who has changed his name to Sr. Paz, or Mr. Peace they have taken the doors off of 26 units, spray-painted Anarchy signs on walls, and re-established Peace City. Rent-paying tenants, however, claim the protesters have only brought noise, drugs, and filth. They poop on the walls! says Sharene Odho. Its like we live in a huge crack house now.. . . Over to you Sr. Paz. . . 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.
Featured/ Politics-Right/
71
What you think matters

(Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 8:26:37 AM
Julie Posetti, on Twitter, asks if you could write a letter to your 15 -year-old self, what would you say. It took about five minutes to remember that I had an answer ready. And I would send the message to all 15-year-olds, not just me. It's really simple. What you think matters. At age 56, I wish someone would send me a letter, today, that says that. I'm always having to remind myself, when someone says something challenging. Dave, what you think matters. For example, Dave Morin of Path sent me a message yesterday saying it wasn't cool for me to "call him a liar." How to respond. To say I didn't call him a liar, even though I did say he had lied. Slight distinction. He also called me by my last name, something that makes me uncomfortable. When I typed his name into the response, Android changed it to "moron" -- which gave me a laugh (I corrected its correction). So other people have awkard names too! Heh. But what I said to him actually made me feel good. I said "It looks as if you lied." That's an important statement because it reasserts what I said, and it also says that it matters how it looks to
me. It's true. I'm not 100 percent sure of anything (I'm a programmer, that's my training). In 2010 he said his software wasn't retaining the contents of iPhone users' address books. In 2012 he said he was deleting the info he said he had not retained. Come on, if he wasn't lying -what was he doing?? If I got it wrong, I will retract and apologize. But when someone is bullshitting you, and you know it, you can say "That's bullshit." If they ask you to prove it, you can if you want, or you could just leave it there. "I know bullshit when I see it." That's a corollary to "What you think matters." There are people who are born knowing that what they think matters. I think it's a very small minority. And they push the rest of us around. Kids who throw tantrums know that what they think matters. Most self-made billionaires get it too, probably from a very young age. We're always trying to convince them that they're missing something important, if they would just listen they would see how it really is. But WYTM tells us that it isn't essential that they agree. As long as you know what you think, it doesn't always matter what the other person thinks (sometimes it does, if you need their approval or
cooperation for something you want to do). And just because they think one thing doesn't mean you can't believe something else. And vice versa, of course. If you accept WYTM you should also accept that WTTM -- What They Think Matters. The world can get along just fine if we don't all agree all the time. I need to be reminded of WYTM because when I grew up what I thought absolutely did not matter. Adults often put words in my mouth. They would infer intent that wasn't there. They would call me names based on how my body looked to them. When I objected they screamed as if I were hurting them. I kept thinking how unfair this was, but I accepted their judgment. They have no idea who I am. But they've decided what I think. The problem for 15-yearolds is that to a large extent we had to accept the adult vision of who we are. They were our whole world then. At 15 you look a lot like an adult, but you're still very much a child. And these people you trust are very confused about you, but you don't see it that way because They Know and You Don't. They aren't telling you that WYTM, quite the opposite. What You Think Counts For Shit. In all that confusion it's easy to forget that you matter. You get lost in trying to be who they say you are,
and in more ways you're trying to not be who they say you are. It takes a lot of years to dig out of this hole. Then, just a few years ago it dawned on me that my opinion mattered. That sometimes I could stop trying to persuade people of things. If someone hangs up on me, I don't have to call them back. If they don't like me that's fine. That's when things really started flipping around, in a nice way. That little switch in perspective eliminates a lot of the conflict and confusion, wasted energy and time. And gives you a chance at feeling happy most of the time. One more thing. A few of the comments in response to Julie's query are negative about men. So I thought I'd add, as part of the ongoing battle of the sexes, with much love, a message to my 15year-old self. 1. Women aren't always right. 2. Sometimes you are right. 3. Women have much better PR than we do. 4. Women can be assholes, just like men. My poor 15-year-old self was raised by women to think they all are saints. That's not a very nice way to prepare a young man for a world with women in it. And women are still raising their children to believe this, btw.
Colorado Dems Fires Romney 'Glitter-bomber'

(The Feed)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:18:04 AM
Via Associated Press: The Colorado Senate has fired an unpaid intern accused of glitter bombing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney after the Colorado caucuses. College student Peter Smith, 20, was fired Thursday afternoon. Police say Smith threw glitter at Romney as the candidate greeted supporters in Denver Tuesday night. Smith is a student at the University of Colorado Denver who was interning in the Democratic Senate as part of a college course. Smiths boss, Senate majority office chief of staff John Cevette, says that Smith was terminated after a staffer alerted him to the incident. . . From Dem intern to convict. I like it. . . 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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Science/
PopSci Primer: The German-Style Board Game Revolution

Dan Nosowitz (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:39:56 PM
These are the anti- Monopoly s German- or Euro-style board games--the best-known of which is probably Settlers of Catan, at least here in the States--are a revolution in analog gaming. They're everything Monopoly is not: often simple but fiendishly clever, designed with a minimum of boring down-time and a maximum of player interaction, without the indignity of getting eliminated or the any semblance of luck. (Dice are pretty much verboten in these games.) A Euro-style game fan I spoke to referred to Monopoly, Life, and the like as "Amero-trash games." Settlers of Catan originated in Germany, as did most of the rest of its ilk; Germans are famously crazy about board games, and mainstream German magazines often review games along with new movies and music releases. It's rare for Americans to seek out new games; we tend to have our mainstays, our Trivial Pursuit and our Scrabble and our Risk, but Germans are always experimenting, creating, and trying new games. There's even an award for games, the muchcoveted annual Spiel des Jahres. The games themselves are totally
different, too: they're tightly designed (these games are also sometimes called "designer games"), and the designers become minor celebrities. Game creators like Reiner Knizia, Klaus Teuber, and Wolfgang Kramer create dozens or even hundreds of games, and their names are stamped on the box in the same way a movie might have the director's name in large type. In the past five or ten years, these games have started to take hold in the States, and they're causing Americans to see board games in a totally new light. They're not just for family game night anymore; these are difficult, interactive, strategic, and super fun games, and there are always more to discover. I spoke to Daniel R. Nelon, from Seattle's famed Card Kingdom-it's housed in a former BMW showroom, hosts tournaments, has a cafe and bar attached, and is stubbornly located on the opposite coast from us at PopSci headquarters in New York City-to get an expert's point of view on the history of the games. He was also nice enough to provide a primer for beginning, intermediate, and expert players. PopSci: So what makes a German -style board game? Daniel R. Nelon: A Euro-game has little to nothing in the way of
chance mechanisms, so there's very little luck involved. They tend to stick to wooden pieces over plastic, it's their preference. There's very little text on the board; only the rules have text on them, so you can actually play with people who speak other languages as long as you both already know how to play. They tend to value economics [themes] over military, and one of the most interesting things about [this style] is that there's no player elimination, so when people are playing the game, everyone is in it until the game is finally over. So nobody's sitting around waiting for the game to end. Another really nice thing about Euro-style games is there's usually a nice catch-up mechanic, where if you are falling behind, there are other ways to catch up. So there's not necessarily always a runaway player. PS: A friend of mine told me about playing in a Settlers of Catan tournament in which he pulled way ahead and got embargoed by the other players-they all stopped trading with him. DRN: Yeah, that's what's interesting about Settlers of Catan, there's that trading aspect which allows everyone to be interactive during everyone else's turn, which a lot of Euro-style games focus on. So there's not a
lot of down-time waiting for your turn. Also in games like Catan, a lot of the more popular Euro games, they tend to be historical and based around worker placements, politics, and/or worker placements, and resource management. It's interesting that those subjects are not inherently appealing to too many people, but these games are so popular. DRN: Oh, definitely. I get that a lot from customers who come in and aren't traditionally gamers. There are games that we at the store consider "gateway games," and Settlers of Catan is definitely one of them. [ Catan] was published in 1995, and it spread like wildfire, and now we're starting to get to the point where Settlers is replacing the normal household games, replacing Monopoly of Life. You can find it on peoples' shelves who aren't really gamers. PS: When did you first start to see German- or Euro-style games pop up? DRN: Euro games started getting popular around the '80s, that was when the rest of the world started to take notice of them. But one of the things that really helped open the world up to German- and Euro -style gaming was the internet. Before the internet, people didn't
really know what other countries were playing or what kinds of games there were. One of the things people were really trying to do in the '80s was import games over here. Then there were publications like Mike Siggins' SUMO, a quarterly publication focused on reviews and English translations of German games. Games at the time were mostly appealing to wargamers and strategy gamers, things like Advanced Squad Leader. At that time, a lot of the American games were kind of falling short--they were too light for war and RPG fans, and a little too dense to be family games. So when people started learning about other games [thanks to the internet], certain games started coming to light, like Scotland Yard, Metropolis, and Die Macher. PS: Are those games still around? DRN: Yes, those are still in print, which is surprising because in the board game world, most games don't actually stay in print all that long. DANIEL'S MOST UNDERRATED GAMES Ra:"It's a Reiner Knizia game," says Daniel. "Reiner Knizia is probably the most famous board POPSCI page 73
Politics/ News Photos
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POPSCI
game designer from Germany, he's published over 300 games. It's a really cool, interesting bidding game. It's a pretty tough game, because you have to guess what your opponents are going to bid on. Hansa Teutonica:"It's a store favorite here, but overlooked in the States a lot," says Daniel. Dungeon Lords:"Not a lot of people know about this game. It's definitely a 'Euro-game,' in the way it plays mechanically, but the theme is something that not a lot of Euro-gamers are used to--it's not the typical medieval, agriculture theme."
suggest those games, they come back for expansions or they want something similar to those games." Something "similar, but a little overlooked," says Daniel, "is a game called Cartagena. It's based a famous escape from an impenetrable prison in I think the 1600s [ed. note: it was the 1672 pirate-led prison break]." Daniel also mentioned Ticket to Ride more than once--it's a game in which you try to navigate a complicated train system. Like almost all of this style of game, Daniel promised that it's much more fun than it sounds. For the intermediate:"I would DANIEL'S PRIMER TO EURO- usually go with a game like Blue STYLE GAMES Moon City, which is a beautiful For the beginner:"I usually send g a m e , c o m p o n e n t - w i s e - - t h e them to the more popular games, artwork is really great--and it's not because it's popular, but actually a Reiner Knizia game because they're easy to learn and t o o . " I t ' s k i n d o f a p o s t they get non-gamers into gaming, apocalyptic game in which you basically. The three I usually rely try to rebuild a city according to on are Carcassonne, Settlers of the guidelines of the dragon Catan, and Dominion. Those are overlords. "I haven't had anybody the three best-selling games in the dislike that game," says Daniel. store. Most of the time when I Dungeon Petz is another one
Daniel likes. "It's a worker placement game, it takes a little while to learn and about two, twoand-a-half hours to play, but it's very, very entertaining. But what's fun is that you're dealing with entities on the board that behave on their own." You have to raise the pets on the board, keeping them entertained and fed and contained (they can be destructive if allowed to break out of their cages). Kingdom Builder, from the same designer as the wildly popular Dominion, is another good one. "The cool thing about it is that it's very easy to play. It is strategic, but it's not going to be too confusing for people. A family could play it, and a game lasts about 20 minutes, and it has very high replayability." For the expert:"I'd recommend a game called Mage Knight: The Board Game. It's based on an old tabletop miniature game but it has really nothing to do with it aside from theme. This game is fantastic. I'm a little biased towards it because I think it's one
of the best games to come out in the past five years. It's not very popular yet, and it's a little more difficult to find, but they're about to do a reprinting in the next few months." "The board is modular; it has tiles you lay out as you explore. So the more you explore and wander, the bigger the board will get. It has a similar mechanic to Fable, so you basically get to decide if you want to be a bad-ass, really evil, or if you want to be good and noble. But you're not punished for being evil or rewarded for being good, necessarily." It's a deck-building game, in which your deck is determined by your behavior. It's also not for the faint of heart; Daniel describes the rulebook as "basically a short novel," but says it's also the game he currently plays the most.
Photos: Greek Ministers Quit As Violence Flares In Athens on Friday - Denver Post
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:01:18 PM
Photos: Greek Ministers Quit As Violence Flares In Athens on Friday Denver Post AFP PHOTO/ MAX GYSELINCK Riot police deploys during a 48-hour general strike in front of the Parliament in Athens on February 10, 2012. Greek protesters threw stones and firebombs at riot police who responded with tear gas in Athens on February 10 as... and more
The Most Awesome Swag at CPAC

Molly Ball (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:14:27 PM
Attendees at the annual conservative confab who want to take home more than just memories have plenty of ways to
accessorize. If you're one of the thousands of conservatives assembled in Washington this week for the Conservative Political Action Conference, you're going to have some great memories. But what about more tangible souvenirs?
For that, you'll want to hit the exhibition hall in the basement, where dozens of conservative groups are offering party favors at their booths. From rubber fetuses to Santorum sweater vests, you'll go home proudly accessorized with the hottest right-wing gear.
Please use a JavaScript-enabled device to view this slideshow This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/02/the-mostawesome-swag-at-cpac/252920/ 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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Science/ Social Media/ Health/
A Smartphone That Detects Whether Its User Is Depressed

Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:25:55 PM
An App for That DanielZanetti via Wikimedia "Siri, how do I feel right now?" Apple's automated assistant might not be so perceptive as to know, but your smartphone may soon be able to assess your mood and determine if you are suffering from symptoms of depression. Researchers at Northwestern University are creating a kind of virtual therapist called Mobilyze to help people that tend to ignore symptoms of their depression realize that they need to take measures to deal with their
moods. The algorithm-based Mobilyze would rely on a bevy of data-location, social activity, physical activity, what a user is doing, etc.-to determine behavior patterns and recognize if they are behaving
gyros, accelerometers, and Wi-Fi. If the phone determines that a person is acting in a depressed manner, it can provide automated texts to the users' friends and families or to users themselves, prompting them to call someone or simply to get out of the house and do something. The technology has already been trialled on eight patients, who all showed improvement in dealing with their depression at the end of normally or seem to be deviating the treatment. More testing is from their normal behavior, slated for this summer. particularly in ways that suggest [ CNET] depression. That data will come from sensors and technology already present in most smartphones, like Bluetooth, GPS,
White House Bends On Birth Control Requirement For Religious Groups

Julie Rovner (Shots - Health Blog)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:49:00 AM
Under increasing pressure, the White House has offered what it's calling an "accommodation" to religious groups on a requirement to cover birth control free of charge. Even some Democrats, who generally support the policy of requiring most employers to offer no-cost contraception, were unhappy with the rule's reach. But the change unveiled by the WHITE page 75
The White MacBook Is Dead [VIDEO]

Peter Pachal (Mashable!)
refreshed and took over the honors as Apples entry-level Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:46:51 PM notebook. However, the company If you own a white MacBook, its kept the white MacBook around now vintage. Apple officially in its education channel, offering ended its waning existence, it to students and schools. reports say, pronouncing the All of that is over now. We product as End of Life. havent heard back from Apple as For consumers, this is kind of to why the white MacBook is no d j v u . A p p l e a c t u a l l y longer available, but MacRumors, discontinued the white MacBook which originally reported the from its lineup last summer, when missing Mac, speculates that the MacBook Air line was production of the white model
Apples bottom line, with the company posting big gains in probably ceased some time ago, laptop sales since the new Airs and Apple chose to slowly sell off were launched in July 2011. the remaining inventory in its The white MacBook was the first education channel. model in the MacBook consumer SEE ALSO: Gold and Diamond line, introduced in July 2006. MacBook Pro Will Make You Although it was preceded by the Apple Royalty MacBook Pro a few months Now if you want an Apple earlier, the white MacBook design laptop, its all aluminum, all the w a s n o t a b l e f o r m a k i n g time. The move to a purely Air widescreen displays and chiclet and Pro product line hasnt hurt style keys the norm for Apples
consumer laptops, features absent on it predecessor, the iBook. It was also the first consumer Apple notebook to use Intel processors. Do you own a white MacBook? How do you feel about Apple fully discontinuing it? Let us know in the comments. More About: apple, laptops, macbook, macbook air, Macbook Pro
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White House isn't expected to completely quell the uproar raised by Catholics and others who say the policy violates their freedom of religion. The change would allow employers that have religious objections to offering contraception as part of their health plans to turn the responsibility over to insurance companies instead. As a result, "nurses, teachers, janitors and others" who work for religious-based hospitals, universities and social service agencies "will still have access" to contraception without having to pay a copay or deductible, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Friday morning. But at the same time, he said, "religious liberty will be fully protected." Women's groups were cautiously pleased with the change. "We believe the compliance mechanism does not compromise a woman's ability to access these critical birth control benefits," said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. "However, we will be vigilant in holding the administration and the institutions accountable for a rigorous, fair and consistent implementation of the policy, which does not compromise the essential principles of access to care." Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, which oversees more than 600
Catholic hospitals, praised the change in a statement. "We are pleased and grateful that the religious liberty and conscience protection needs of so many ministries that serve our country were appreciated enough that an early resolution of this issue was accomplished," she said. "The unity of Catholic organizations in addressing this concern was a sign of its importance." Before the change, the Rev. Tom Reese of Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center told NPR there was no reason for Catholic bishops to settle on the issue, because they've been winning the public relations battle. "They're getting support from progressive Catholics and conservative Catholics," Reese says, "so the bishops are on a roll." The White House just released a summary of what's in the works. Here's the statement in its entirety. FACT SHEET: Women's Preventive Services and Religious Institutions Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, most health insurance plans will cover women's preventive services, including contraception, without charging a co-pay or deductible beginning in August, 2012. This new law will save money for millions of Americans and ensure Americans nationwide get the high-quality care they need to stay healthy. Today, President Obama will announce that his Administration
will implement a policy that accommodates religious liberty while protecting the health of women. Today, nearly 99 percent of all women have used contraception at some point in their lives, but more than half of all women between the ages of 18 -34 struggle to afford it. Under the new policy to be announced today, women will have free preventive care that includes contraceptive services no matter where she works. The policy also ensures that if a woman works for religious employers with objections to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, the religious employer will not be required to provide contraception coverage, but her insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive care free of charge. The new policy ensures women can get contraception without paying a co-pay and addresses important concerns raised by religious groups by ensuring that objecting religious employers will not have to provide contraceptive coverage or refer women to organizations that provide contraception. Background on this policy is included below: Section 2713 of the Affordable Care Act, the Administration adopted new guidelines that will require most private health plans to cover preventive services for women without charging a co-pay starting on August 1, 2012. These preventive services include well women visits, domestic violence
screening, and contraception, and all were recommended to the Secretary of Health and Human Services by the independent Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science.
be required to subsidize the cost of contraception.
Contraception coverage will be offered to women by their employers' insurance companies T o d a y , t h e O b a m a directly, with no role for religious Administration will publish final e m p l o y e r s w h o o p p o s e rules in the Federal Register that: c o n t r a c e p t i o n . Exempts churches, other houses of worship, and similar organizations from covering Insurance companies will be contraception on the basis of their required to provide contraception religious objections. coverage to these women free of charge. Establishes a one year transition period for religious organizations while this policy is being implemented. Covering contraception saves money for insurance companies by keeping women healthy and preventing spending on other health services. For example, The President will also announce t h e r e w a s n o i n c r e a s e i n that his Administration will premiums when contraception propose and finalize a new w a s a d d e d t o t h e F e d e r a l regulation during this transition Employees Health Benefit System year to address the religious and required of non-religious objections of the non-exempted employers in Hawaii. One study religious organizations. The new found that covering contraception regulation will require insurance lowered premiums by 10 percent companies to cover contraception or more. if the non-exempted religious This entry passed through the organization chooses not to. Full-Text RSS service if this is Under the policy: your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content Religious organizations will not only/faq.php#publishers. Five have to provide contraceptive Filters recommends: Donate to coverage or refer their employees Wikileaks. to organizations that provide contraception. Religious organizations will not
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Health/
How My Voice Went Silent

Richard Harris (Shots - Health Blog)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 9:06:00 AM
Courtesy of Richard Harris/ NPR Everything looked fine on my CT scan, but I didn't sound even close to right. There's an old joke around newsrooms: News is something that happens to your editor. If you'll pardon the selfindulgence, I'm going to take this truism one step further: News is what happened to me. I was laid low the week before New Year's Day by a mysterious headache and a blazing sore throat. A few days later I lost my voice. My doctors eventually pinpointed the cause by snaking a small camera down my nose. My left vocal fold (or vocal cord if you prefer) had stopped working. It was essentially paralyzed, other than the occasional twitch. Being a science reporter, of course I dived into the medical literature to see what was up. It turns out that good statistics are hard to come by on how frequently Americans suffer from this condition, unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Dr. Thomas Carroll, a voice specialist at Tufts Medical Center, told me he sees about 100 cases a year. The same is true for Dr. Lee Akst, who ultimately treated me at the Voice Center at Johns Hopkins. So, given that there are about 150
voice specialists in the U.S., that means there are probably something like 15,000 cases a year that come to their attention. Other research suggests that about 1 percent of the population may have only one working vocal cord, but the effect on the voice is slight enough that it can go undetected. It may take two to tango, but one vocal fold vibrating next to a silent partner is good enough for a soliloquy. The disruptive cases, like mine,
are often caused by a surgeon who accidentally nicks the nerve that controls the left vocal cord. That nerve actually travels down into the chest, so it's potentially in harm's way during heart surgeries. That kind of medical boo-boo is known in the trade as "iatrogenic," which I guess is what the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates would have said when he meant "oops." I hadn't had chest surgery over winter break, and a CT scan
revealed no obvious cause. So doctors call my kind of case "idiopathic." That word has the same Greek root as "idiot," but in this case it applies to medical ignorance. So they half-heartedly blame a virus, the typical medical fall guy. Whatever the cause, unilateral vocal fold paralysis is not particularly salutary for someone who makes a living on the radio. To give you an idea of what I mean, here's a snippet of a report I
did back in October, when my voice was hearty and hale: This feature requires version 9 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player. Get the latest Flash Player. A healthy Richard Harris. And here's what I sounded like in mid-January: This feature requires version 9 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player. Get the latest Flash Player. Richard Harris down a vocal HOW page 77
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fold. One doctor said the easiest course of action was simply to wait it out. Sure, it could take a few months for my voice to return, but what's the rush? But waiting isn't the only option. It turns out this disorder is common enough that there's a line of medical products to address it. My specialist at Johns Hopkins showed me a box of the stuff. Inside was a vial containing water, gelatin and sodium carboxymethylcellulose. Yes, cellulose as in the indigestible fiber that tree trunks and paper are made of.
I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say the doctor injected that gelatinous stuff next to my paralyzed vocal fold, and pushed it over so it was lined up next to the one that's still working fine. That closed the yawning gap that made my voice so breathy. And the result isn't bad, as you can hear: This feature requires version 9 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player. Get the latest Flash Player. Richard Harris recovering. Over the next six to 10 weeks, the carboxymethylcellulose will degrade in my gullet. That will buy time for the nerve to heal,
which it often does. And in the meantime, I'm back on the air. It may sound a bit like I'm suddenly smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. But don't look for me outside by the ashtray. 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.
15 Best Super Bowl Memes You Sent Us

Brian Anthony Hernandez (Mashable!)
challenged you to turn Patriots coach Bill Belichick into a meme using the cropped image of him Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:57:26 PM we provided. "Patriot or not ... " Yall responded in full force, F o r t h e S u p e r B o w l , w e sending us impressive creations challenged you to turn Patriots that include zombie Belichick, coach Bill Belichick into a meme Project Runway Belichick and using the cropped image of him Casually Pepper Spray Everything we provided. Belichick. And how about This photobomb featuring U.S. B e l i c h i c k p h o t o b o m b i n g President Barack Obama is our Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore, favorite submission. Congrats to U.S. President Barack Obama, James Valentine, who will receive Sad Keanu and Tebow fanatics? some sweet Mashable swag. Yup, got those, too. Everyone else, thanks for We distributed your hilarious participating! Flip through this submissions throughout our gallery to see our other favorite newsroom and put them up for a creations. vote. The gallery above reveals Click here to view this gallery. the ones we liked best. To see the F o r t h e S u p e r B o w l , w e memes that didnt make our Best
Of list, click here. SEE ALSO: 20 Best (or Most Annoying) Animated Super Bowl GIFs| Every Super Bowl Ad Congrats to James Valentine, who whipped together the witty
Belichick photobomb involving Obama. He wins sweet Mashable swag. Also, hat tip to Reuters photographer Jim Young, whose image of Belichick we used. Which meme is your favorite?
Do you think we picked the right winner? Sound off in the comments. More About: football, humor, memes, nfl, sports, Super Bowl, trending For more Entertainment coverage: Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Entertainment channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
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Politics-Right/
Is the U.S. Economy in a Liquidity Trap?

David Weinberger (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:00:53 PM
Popular economics suggests that economic activity results from a circular flow of money in the economy: One persons spending is a second persons income, and the second persons spending is a third persons income, and so on. According to this theory, recessions occur because psychological factors cause individuals to increase savings, which interrupts the circular flow of money, leading to a vicious downward cycle. When this happens, the central bankthe Federal Reserveis supposed to increase the amount of money in the economy by lowering interest rates. Once people have more money to hold, their confidence will increase, and theyll resume spending. John Maynard Keynes, the father of this theory of economics, asserted that there could theoretically be a situation (he knew of no such example) in which the central bank could lower interest rates no further, as they would approach zero (known as the zero lower-bound), yet consumers would remain unwilling to spenda condition known as a liquidity trap. If this were to happen, the central bank would be severely limited in its ability to spur economic activity,
and government should step in to deficit spend. Many in the economics community believe we confront this situation today: Interest rates cannot go lower, and consumer spending and business investment remain depressed. Despite these indicators, however, there is reason to question the liquidity trap proposition. First, the proposition itself is built on a broader framework that assumes savings interrupt the circular flow of money. But savings is simply income unused on products or services. What goes unspent does not just sit in a bank account, halting the flow of money. Savings are lent out for others to spend and invest, or at the very least invested in T-bills for government to spend, meaning that both consumption and savings continue the flow of money in the economy. Proof is in observing how hard financial markets work to earn interest on every dollar at every moment, meaning that no dollarssavings or otherwisesit idle. However, even if we grant that savings leaks out of the circular flow of income, would the liquidity trap be a viable explanation for our current economic malaise? Answering yes requires one to believe that government can neatly target those savings and break the trap. But how does
businesses to consider expansion without clearly delineated rules for doing so? Keynes himself worried as much: Even wise and necessary Reform may, in some respects, impede and complicate Recovery. For it will upset the confidence of the business world and weaken their existing motives to action. The notion of a liquidity trap not only depends on a highly questionable framework regarding the role of saving in economic activity, but it also depends on suspending the normal purpose of saving, which serves individuals anyone know who will and will restock the initial hedge of and businesses as a protective not lend his or her savings to the savings that the government hedge against risk. In light of government in exchange for a T- depleted. In other words, any these realities, its difficult to bond? Furthermore, it requires increased economic activity make a convincing case that were one to suspend the normal brought about by government in a liquidity trap. purpose of saving. deficit spending is likely offset by A more sound explanation is that Saving serves as a hedge against an increase in savings, resulting in a profligate government has f u t u r e r i s k a n d a f u n d f o r no net new economic activity. exhausted resources that would anticipated future consumption This is known as the broken otherwise have been employed by the private sector, and that its and investment. Businesses that window fallacy. are building up savings are A better explanation for our continued profligacy has dumped protecting themselves from what persistently depressed economy, a bucket of cold water on business they perceive as future risks (just then, is that loose monetary and activity, freezing the very free as households are doing), not fiscal policies have misallocated m a r k e t i t s a t t e m p t i n g t o sitting on excess cash reserves for economic resources, resulting in r e j u v e n a t e . n o r e a s o n . T h u s , e v e n i f less productive economic activity This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is government could soak up those overall. savings in order to deficit spend, On top of that, onerous laws such your content and you're reading it it is equally soaking up the as Obamacare and DoddFrank on someone else's site, please read protective hedge that these contain thousands of pages of new the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentbusinesses have amassed. So, rules affecting the conduct of only/faq.php#publishers. Five rather than inducing more private businesses. Many rules are still Filters recommends: Donate to s p e n d i n g , d e f i c i t s p e n d i n g unknown; indeed, new ones are Wikileaks. encourages more saving, to being discovered daily. How are
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President Obamas Unworkable NonSolution on Conscience

Edmund Haislmaier (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:19:42 PM
Today, President Obama unsuccessfully attempted to extricate himself from a political crisis of his own making. The issue is Obamacares requirement that health insurers and employer-sponsored health plans cover federally mandated preventive services in their benefit packageswith no copays for enrolleesand the Administrations subsequent regulatory requirement that those mandated preventive services include contraceptive products and servicesincluding abortioninducing drugs. The compromise the President announced today is that contraception coverage will be offered to women by their employers insurance companies directly, with no role for religious employers who oppose contraception. Insurance companies will be required to provide contraception coverage to these women free of charge. There are only two problems with the Administrations so-called compromise: (1) It doesnt remedy the moral and religious liberty objections to this mandate, and
(2) As a practical matter, it simply doesnt work. On the first point, the Administration says that an employer wont have to offer contraceptive coverage, but the employers insurer will have to offer it free of charge. What it doesnt say is who will pay the premium for those free benefitsthe employer or the
worker? If the insurer simply adds the cost of those benefits to the employers total premium, then nothing changes, and the employer is still paying for those services. On the second point, under the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), employers can design their own self-insured or self-funded
health benefit plans for their workers and dont need to buy coverage from an insurer. So an employer with a self-insured plan has no insurer to provide the required coverage under the Presidents compromise formulation. Yet Obamacares preventive services mandate applies (by amending ERISA) to both health insurers and employer
-sponsored health plans, including self-insured ones. Currently, 60 percent of workers covered by employer-sponsored health plans are in self-funded plans, some of which are religiously affiliated. For example, most universities, regardless of their religious affiliation arelike most other large employersprobably selfinsured. So, how will this apply to selfinsured employer health plans? Will a self-insured employer be exempt because it doesnt buy coverage from an insurance company? Or will a self-insured employer have to go buy separate, supplemental coverage for contraception from a commercial insurer (as many now do for dental and vision care plans)? Furthermore, to dismiss a possible red herring before it is raised: Yes, many employers with self-insured plans do contract with health insurers to administer their plans for them (that is, to handle enrollment, claims, etc.), but that is both legally and financially a different arrangement. Moreover, there are also many other employers with self-insured plans who contract with a third-party administrator (TPA) that is not an insurer. Because those entities PRESIDENT page 80
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Heritage Reacts to White House Accommodation to Religious Liberty

Jennifer Marshall (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
Instead, the White House maintains its goal-overriding objections of conscience to mandate insurance coverage for Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:14:12 PM After two weeks of increasingly birth control, abortion-inducing i n t e n s e c r i t i c i s m o v e r drugs and sterilizationwhile O b a m a c a r e s d i s r e g a r d f o r slightly shifting how to get there. religious liberty, the White House Under the Presidents proposal, woke up this morning in a mood employers and employees will to accommodate its critics. still bear the cost of paying for Perhaps White House officials c o v e r a g e o f c o n t r a c e p t i o n , should have signaled that to abortion-inducing drugs, and Senate Democrats yesterday sterilization because insurance before Senate Majority Leader companies will simply pass on the H a r r y R e i d b l o c k e d a n cost of this free service with amendment sponsored by Sen. higher premiums to the employer. Roy Blunt (R-MO) to preserve Its clear that this route does not faith-based groups religious veer off President Obamas liberty and not force them to take current collision course with the actions contrary to their beliefs religious liberty of faith-based and teachings. groups. Those organizations
provide vital services and ministries-from hospitals to religious schools to work with prisoners-across the country. Problems like these will be with us for as long as Obamacare is the
law of the land they dont go away with the Presidents announcement. We will continue to react to the Presidents announcement in the coming hours and days.
On Monday, Feb. 13, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) will speak at The Heritage Foundation at 11:30 about how Obamacare tramples on religious liberty and freedom generally, and what can be done about it. Join us live or tune in to watch online. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
PRESIDENT
are not licensed or regulated as risk-bearing entities, they are legally prevented from offering insurance plans without first obtaining regulatory approval as an insurance company. So if the Administration tries to say that, in the case of self-insured plans, the responsibility to provide contraception will fall on the TPA instead, that wont work either. Even before the Administration has filled in these crucial details, its so-called compromise appears
to be an unworkable nonsolutionjust like the rest of Obamacare. On Monday, Feb. 13, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) will speak at The Heritage Foundation at 11:30 about how Obamacare tramples on religious liberty and freedom generally, and what can be done about it. Join us live or tune in to watch online. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it
on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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8 Powerful Tips for Marketing Your Business With Ebooks

Scott Gerber (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:36:29 PM
Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes youth entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment and underemployment. The YEC provides young entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a businesss development and growth. Your companys Twitter handle has a healthy amount of interaction, your status on Skype is set to chat with customers, and your email marketing strategies are always segmented and splittested. Though you adopted every niche social media platform early and your websites editorial calendar is full, you still may be missing out on a huge opportunity to expand your audience and rake in revenue. Make room on virtual bookshelves for your next ebook those (often free) PDFs a few dozen pages long that people from all over the world are reading from their iPads and Kindles. The file has a low production cost and a high conversion rate and can quickly turn passive clickers into paying customers, and retain them in the long run as well. I asked a panel of successful
young entrepreneurs how to seize the ebook opportunity to not only grow your business, but also to establish yourself and your company as an up-and-coming industry authority. 1. Dangle the
Bait They should just be the bait: Ebooks provide a lot of value up front, but also entice customers to want more from you. Position your ebook in a way that it builds
value and desire for your backend products/services. Seventypercent of your revenue will come from back-end sales after a customer purchases an ebook from you. Treat it like a worma
big, juicy worm. - Trevor Mauch, Automize, LLC. 2. Answer Your Audience What does your audience need POWERFUL page 82
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help with? What topics do they most often ask about? Take these pain points and turn them into a useful piece of content to share as an incentive for Liking your Facebook page, signing up for your e-newsletter, etc. Its a winwin for both parties you receive new leads and/or contact information, and your audience receives the information they need. - Heather Huhman, Come Recommended. 3. Build a Database Use an ebook as a very easy and inexpensive way to build your database. An ebook can be very easy to produce and very easy to get out to many people. Consider writing one to give to people for free or for a very low fee in order to get your message out to people and introduce them to your services. The ebook can be passed around and posted all over the Internet. - Louis Lautman, Young Entrepreneur Society. 4. Boost
Awareness through Bookstores There are ways to code any digital publication for the many ebook marketplaces online. Having your ebook listed in these marketplaces creates a great deal of opportunities when readers are looking for information in your field. The goal with this tactic isnt necessarily more sales, but rather more awareness of you, your name and your business. - Logan Lenz, Endagon. 5. Trigger a Domino Effect The purpose of one media is to get them interested in the next, while delivering the value, resources and answers they expected. If your goal is to use ebooks to increase your consulting business, then your book should build the case that they need a consultant. Everything you do is marketing. Use callouts, make references to clients throughout the text and always have a call-to-action. - Greg Rollett, The ProductPros. 6. Establish an Authority
Building a business is the same as building a following. Growth revolves around content. Share a solid ebook with useful information, covering the area in which your business lies with your audience. Your audience can begin to recognize you as the categorical authority (depending on the quality of the content) and, subsequently, as the go-to company when they need a product or service. - Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk. 7. Enter New Economies Since there are no printing or shipping costs to publish an ebook, price your ebook at a low enough cost so that customers worldwide can purchase them. As a result, youll have a wider and more engaged potential audience of customers who will already know you and your products. - Warren Jolly, Affiliate Media Inc.. 8. Adapt to All Screens These days, its extremely easy to publish an ebook in PDF, ePub or
Kindle formats. Your goal is to get your ideas and message in as many hands as possible, and by adapting your ebook for all digital screens, you have the potential to get more eyes on it. This also increases the possibility for sharing, and leads to more profitable ebooks or products in the future. - Sean Ogle, Location 180, LLC. Image courtesy of Flickr, tim_d More About: ebooks, entrepreneurship, features, Marketing For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Shocking photos of teacher accused in California molestation horror surface New York Daily News
Submitted at 2/10/2012 12:40:57 PM
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Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:50:00 PM
originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments Listen to the Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET!
New York Daily News Shocking photos of teacher accused in California molestation horror surface New York Daily News Shocking photos of accused pedophile Mark Berndt offer a glimpse into his disturbing behavior at scandal-rocked Miramonte Elementary School in South Los Angeles. In the newlysurfaced pictures, the 61-year-old is seen wearing a bizarre costume clearly... Investigators find 200 more photos allegedly taken by LA teacher in abuse case CBS News More photos found in Calif. teacher abuse case Albany Times Union LA investigators discover 200 more bondage-style photos of children in school... Fox News Radar Online- Los Angeles Times all 590 news articles
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Damilola killer recalled to Who can stop an Israeli attack on Iran? prison Only one person.
(Evening Standard - News)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 6:15:55 AM
London on January 25. Gary Trowsdale, a spokesman for the trust, said Damilola's killers 10 Feb 2012 had never shown any remorse or The father of schoolboy Damilola signs of reform and answers were Taylor has called for a public needed about the handling of their inquiry after one of his son's case. killers was recalled to prison for a "The Taylor family, society at second time. large and also the boys Richard Taylor is writing to themselves have been failed by Prime Minister David Cameron to the system and the academics that ask for the inquiry into "how the run it," he said. "Now we are system has failed so badly in this demanding answers and believe a case", said the Damilola Taylor public inquiry is the only way of Trust. getting them." It comes as Ricky Preddie, one of He went on: "Richard Taylor, the 10-year-old boy's killers, was supported by the Damilola Taylor recalled to jail for a second time Trust and other victim families, is just 16 days after being released. writing to the Prime Minister Preddie, who was jailed for eight calling for a public inquiry into y e a r s i n 2 0 0 6 f o r t h e how the system has failed so manslaughter of the 10-year-old, badly in this case. For the second w a s r e c a l l e d t o p r i s o n o n time in 18 months, the boy has Thursday night for breaching the been recalled due to breaking the terms of his licence after he terms of his licence." entered an exclusion zone in Mr Trowsdale said: "Once again, Southwark, south London, and Richard was informed by the might have met former gang media before the probation members. He had been free freed service let him know." from Pentonville Prison in north Preddie, 24, was originally
released in September 2010 but sent back to jail last March for breaking the conditions of his licence. After being released again two weeks ago, he was arrested at an address in London on Thursday night. Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo, said: "He was recalled yesterday following information received from the police that he had entered the exclusion zone and may have been in contact with banned persons - former gang members. This is his second recall for the same breach of trust. It will be treated seriously by the authorities and he could now serve as much as another 14 months in custody." 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.
Jazz Shaw (Hot Air Top Picks)
Tel Aviv on May 29. The group, simply and directly enough, is named: Bibi dont Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:05:47 PM start a war with Iran until after posted at 3:05 pm on February Madonnas show on May 29. 10, 2012 by Jazz Shaw Say they could be on to There seems to be a growing something here. Maybe Madonna sentiment, not only in America, could be appointed as the new but around the world that Israel is A m b a s s a d o r o f P e a c e o r going to attack Iran if somebody something. I mean, we already cant provide verifiable proof that had Angelina Jolie tackling their nuclear weapons program international relations, so maybe has been dismantled. This, of this is the start of a trend. course, is distressing to many and Whenever we see two countries voices are rising up against the gearing up to go to war, we just idea from inside of Israel. But have Madonna schedule a series why? Because they like Iran? of shows in each nations biggest Because theyre opposed to cities and the citizens will rise up warfare in general? No but they in opposition to the conflict. If she dont want it to postpone the big keeps it up long enough theyll Madonna concert. eventually lose interest in fighting Recent verbal exchanges and and the problem is solved. remarks concerning alleged Israeli Bonus: We could get Madonna plans to attack Irans nuclear out of the United States for years program later this year has Israelis at a time. scared, and not for the obvious This entry passed through the reasons. Full-Text RSS service if this is In a newly launched Facebook your content and you're reading it page, Israeli fans of U.S. pop on someone else's site, please read megastar Madonna are pleading the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentP r i m e M i n i s t e r B e n j a m i n only/faq.php#publishers. Five Netanyahu to hold off any such Filters recommends: Donate to plans to strike Iran until the Wikileaks. Queen of Pops planned show in
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Politics/
Santorum could be the trial by fire the GOP needs

Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:40:04 PM
posted at 3:40 pm on February 10, 2012 by Jazz Shaw As we sit back and watch the looming CPAC showdown between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, I have a column up at PJ media which was difficult to craft, but has me seeing another side to the idea of having Rick Santorum as the GOP nominee for President of the United States in 2012. This is a conclusion Ed Morrissey reached earlier, though for far different reasons. While it is a bit lengthy and sure to draw criticism, I would appreciate it if you gave it a read once we finish with this discussion, which I could only describe as part two and a conclusion to the process. We have a number of candidates who are each, in their own way, problematic for various conservatives and members of the Republican Party. Its a combative process by design, built to eliminate the weaker members of the herd and produce the strongest candidate in the fall, as it should be. But if we are to look through the long lens of days to come, I have arrived at the conclusion that winning one race may not be as important as boiling down this balancing act which
goes on between various conservative factions when fashioning a national election strategy. The fact is that I feel the coming presidential election will be anything but a cakewalk for the Republican nominee. Thats not to say that we should begin composing a eulogy for conservatism by any means. The domestic agenda of Barack Obama, particularly in terms of regulatory overreach, energy policy and taxation are nothing short of disastrous, and should give pause to enough voters to make a Republican victory possible. But it is not assured, given recent improvements in the jobs numbers and the Presidents personal appeal. At best, this will be a tight race which depends in large part upon the political skills and messaging of the teams arrayed on each side. But victory or defeat will not, as I see it, settle the larger challenge facing the Republican Party. As I noted in the aforementioned column, the real battle is being waged inside the tent, not on the front lines, and it involves how heavily the social conservative wing of the party (the Socons) influence the selection of the eventual nominee. One of the chief sources of internecine scrapping and
grumbling among Republicans has come from the ranks of the social conservatives, or Socons as they are frequently known. We have already spent time speculating what would happen if Mitt Romney becomes the nominee. If he loses to Obama in November, the Socons will once again say that it was because cowardly, establishment party leaders failed to push forward a sufficiently conservative warrior who would fire up the base as a champion of socially conservative principles. If he wins, the Socons could quietly grumble that hed simply gotten lucky against a deeply flawed President running on a failed record and bide their time until the next open seat in the Oval Office came up for grabs. Similarly, if Newt Gingrich were to lose to Obama, the blame could be heaped on his own shortcomings and extensive, frequently controversial biography. After all, his three marriages and complicated history didnt exactly make him a darling among evangelical Christians. The same excuses could be applied with slight modifications. But Rick Santorum is a horse of an entirely different color who could serve as the ultimate test of this theory and put the question to rest once and for all. Is the secret
to electoral success truly found in a take no prisoners, hard core, rock ribbed conservative? Is this truly what America is pining for? As I go on to point out, I dont think thats where America stands today. I cite a number of positions which Santorum takes which are near and dear to the hearts of Socons around the country, replete with archived video clips of quotes he repeated on these subjects. These include filmed statements where Santorum comes out in favor of incarcerating doctors who perform abortions on women diagnosed with ectopic pregnancies, claims that the legal availability of birth control technology is dangerous and should be outlawed by the states, and proclamations that biological evolution is not only inferior to creationism or intelligent design, but is essentially bunk. These, along with other comments about gays and such are the feature reel items which I predict Team Obama will use to shift the electoral battle from an indictment of the Presidents failed policies to a referendum on Rick Santorums radical social conservative agenda. This could be precisely what the Republican Party of the 21st century needs. Either these are the true set of values which represent
a winning combination for national electoral success or they are an anchor which will hamper the ambitions of fiscal, small government conservatives for years to come. The problem, as noted in the PJ Media column, is that we have never had the opportunity to perform this experiment in real time. Mitt Romney may win in the fall if he is nominated, but that wont satisfy the social conservatives. They will simply say that nearly anyone could have snuck by when running against a crippled incumbent with a failed domestic agenda, and we could have had much better. And if he loses, they will loudly proclaim, yet again, that the candidate lacked the certifiable, social conservative bona fides required to win over the nation. No what is needed is a tsunami of social conservative awesomeness. Socons have been complaining for ages about the propensity of the establishment GOP to back social conservative geckos when they seek a Komodo dragon. With Rick Santorum we could, at last, put forward the social conservative Godzilla, destroyer of worlds. And when the dust settles in November we would finally have the answer to the SANTORUM page 86
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White House Announces 'Accommodation' on Birth-Control Issue

Meghan McCarthy (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 11:23:27 AM
The newly announced plan still mandates coverage of contraception, but will shift the provision to insurers, rather than employers. The White House said on Friday that it will require insurance companies to pick up the tab for women's contraceptives, exempting religious employers from the rule, in what it called an "accommodation" on the hotly contested issue of paying for birth control. The White House said it would post a proposed rule that requires insurance companies to offer contraception coverage directly to women. The much-awaited compromise is meant to appease religious institutions that say federal rules on contraception violate their religious beliefs. "Insurance companies will be required to provide contraception coverage to these women free of charge," the White House said in a statement. "Religious organizations will not have to provide contraceptive coverage or refer their employees to organizations that provide contraception," it added. "Religious organizations will not
be required to subsidize the cost of contraception." MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL The Real Welfare Queens Are the Middle Class Winning Without Money Santorum Donor in the Spotlight
"We have been working on this policy for some time." Republicans in Congress have been piling on the administration for days, denouncing the plan to ensure that women get health insurance coverage for contraception free of charge. The administration had offered an exemption to purely religious A senior administration official employers and gave religioussaid that the plan was not a affiliated groups, such as Catholic c o m p r o m i s e . " T h i s i s a n hospitals, a year to come up with accommodation," the official said. ways to provide the coverage to
employees. The administration official said that Friday's announcement was one way for these employers to do this. The official said the administration had consulted stakeholders but did not give details of who these stakeholders were. The proposed rule may put pressure on insurance companies. Senior administration officials argued that because contraceptives can prevent costly,
unwanted pregnancies -- one birth alone can cost $12,000, said a White House staffer -- that having insurance companies pick up the tab would be cost-neutral. Insurance companies are sure to complain about the new rule, however, especially during the comment period to the Health and Human Services Department. But most voters don't love their insurance companies, and those WHITE page 87
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Politics/
Laying the blame before anything is lost

SANTORUM
will see more of him in the fall, in Obama ads. What a swan song for someone who once led the Submitted at 2/10/2012 1:30:50 PM conservative movement! posted at 2:30 pm on February And then, Jacobson. 10, 2012 by Jazz Shaw None of the people engaged in There have been some disturbing Romneys strategy of crazy cared t r e n d s p o p p i n g u p a m o n g a bit about how the attacks would p r o m i n e n t ( a n d n o r m a l l y hurt Newt if Newt became the cheerful) conservatives lately, nominee. Now they complain that with a couple of notable examples Newt hurt the party by attacking cropping up right in the middle of Romneys Bain record; and by so CPAC. I noted the following d o i n g t h e y h a v e c o n f l a t e d piece by William Jacobson, titled capitalism, free markets, and the laying the blame. In it, he appears Party with the Bain model, which to take exception with an equally will do far more damage than dismal outlook coming from anything Newt ever did. Powerline. First, Hinderaker. Even Peggy Noonan gets it: Nevertheless, if you are a The Romney campaign is better Republican, the vibes are very at dismantling than mantling. bad. The presidential primary Theyre better at taking opponents season has turned into a disaster, apart than building a compelling in my view. Mitt Romney has candidate of their own. shown a discouraging inability to Im not ready to write off the appeal to the partys base, while general election, regardless of the race has damaged both who the nominee is. Romney and the party. Newt But if you are looking for blame, Gingrich, in particular, sacrificed look straight at the Romney the party to his own ego by campaign. launching left-wing attacks On the plus side, he does allow against Romney. Gingrich is gone that hes not writing the election as a Republican contender, but we off. Ive said on any number of
occasions that this election isnt going to be a walk in the park, and yes, the reality is that Obama may wind up winning. This will depend on many factors, some of which are simply beyond anyones control. The economy, employment numbers and how much money the Presidents team is able to raise will all play a part, as well as the GOPs ability to field the best ticket possible. But his record is absolutely nothing to brag about, and if his approval numbers dont reliably climb back above fifty and stay there through the summer, Obamas prospects are anything but certain. So, hey buck up soldiers! Lets take a moment and get some inspiration from Brother Bluto. (NSFW language warning) 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.
question once and for all. So this is it. Perhaps the time has come. We could settle the big tent issue once and for all. If the Socons are correct and this is what America wants, then Republicans should continue to cleave to the banner of Leonidas, standing steadfast against the Persian hordes. (Or the RINOs, at least.) A clear, resounding victory by Santorum in November would prove the naysayers right and show us where the GOPs priorities should lie going forward. But if they are not as I personally suspect and Santorum is utterly destroyed in the general election, then the alternate answer will be made clear. It will be time for the social conservative leg of the stool to be kicked out from under the seat, (specifically speaking in terms of presidential elections) converting it into a two-legged walker. This would still allow Socons to focus on winning local elections and single district races, building support of their views for the future, but ceding some ground in the presidential nomination process in the present so that more big tent interests can take the helm for national battles. If Rick Santorum is nominated, it could finally be the end of this debate, and rather than bandying
it about in the empty halls of social media we will have put it to the test at the ballot box. Then and only then would we have the hard data to help us find the right fuel mixture when building a winning presidential ticket. Yes, the cost wwould be high if it turns out that America is not ready for that social conservative Godzilla. I have no wish to see four more years of Barack Obamas destructive and dysfunctional energy and regulatory policies, nor his visions of fair taxation. But in the long view of history, were only talking about 48 months in a nation which has thus far survived for centuries. We would still endure. And with the knowledge we gain from either a horrific beating or a spectacular victory, we could be better equipped to make high percentage selections in the future. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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WHITE
complaints might fall on deaf ears. It is unclear how religious organizations will accept the news. Under the proposed rule, they will still be paying a piece of employee premiums to an insurance plan that does in fact cover contraception. It's just that their premium dollars cannot be used to cover the cost of the birth control. The ACLU and some women's groups immediately approved the plan. "We know that Catholics in the pews support this position, as 98 percent of Catholic women use contraception and 58 percent of Catholics support insurance coverage for contraception," the ACLU's Louise Melling said in a statement. "The ACLU will defend the health and religious liberty needs of employees and
hopes the intense recent debate is now be behind us." Judy Waxman, the vice president for health and reproductive rights at the National Women's Law Center, said that her organization is pleased with the outcome. "There are a number of open questions, but we are very hopeful," she said. Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan emitted the first blowback against the new contraception rule, signaling that Republicans will not find the changes acceptable. "This 'Obamacare' rule still tramples on Americans' First Amendment right to freedom of religion. It's a fig leaf, not a compromise. Whether they are affiliated with a church or not, employers will still be forced to pay an insurance company for coverage that
includes abortion-inducing drugs," Jordan said in a statement. Margot Sanger-Katz contributed Image: Shutterstock This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/02/whitehouse-announces-accommodation -on-birth-control-issue/252910/ 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.
Master Moves Mickey hands-on: challenges Bieber and TOSY to dance-off (video)
Terrence O'Brien (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 2:59:00 PM
under its garb that kicks out the jams while this mechanical mouse break dances its little Disney B e e t h o v e n ' s F i f t h o r trademarked heart out. He's got 15 Michelangelo's Piet it's not but, d i f f e r e n t s i g n a t u r e m o v e s , while Master Moves Mickey can't carefully choreographed to eight s t a n d a s a c o r n e r s t o n e o f different built-in tunes and loads civilization, it can certainly throw o f p e r s o n a l i t y t h a n k s t o a down on the dance floor. The b- collection of self-depreciating one balance. And all this legendary boy bot has a speaker hidden -liners ready in case he loses his performer needs to keep earning
his urban cred is a six AA batteries, oh, and your money -$70 of it to be specific. Master Moves Mickey should be hitting shelves in August. Check out the video after the break. Continue reading Master Moves Mickey hands-on: challenges Bieber and TOSY to dance-off (video)
Master Moves Mickey hands-on: challenges Bieber and TOSY to dance-off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments
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Politics/ Technology/
Chart of the Day: GOP Primary Results in Every County

David A. Graham (Politics : The Atlantic)
takeaway: Mitt Romney might be the frontrunner, but there's mostly green for Santorum all over the Submitted at 2/10/2012 10:55:37 AM map. Mapping returns on a county-by- The map gives a view of voter county basis offers a different demographics in a way that pure view of the Republican electorate. percentages can't. In South If just seeing which Republican Carolina, for example, Mitt contender won what state isn't Romney got pummeled by Newt enough, this is the graphic for Gingrich, but he did well in more you. Ken Gross of Rustbelt urban, wealthy, moderate areas. Cartography created this map, So in the Palmetto State sea of which color-codes every county in lime green, you can pick out the nation and is being updated as Columbia, the capital, and the results from the GOP primaries coastal area around Charleston, and caucuses come in. One clear which has attracted northern in-
migration. There's an even starker contrast between Florida Republicans who broke for Romney in the main part of Florida, and the more
conservative, "southern" ones who pulled the lever for Gingrich in the panhandle. Image: Ken Gross / Rustbelt Cartography
This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/02/chart-ofthe-day-gop-primary-results-inevery-county/252904/ 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.
Eurocom Panther 4.0 is the mirror universe's version of an Ultrabook

Daniel Cooper (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/10/2012 3:27:00 PM
Eurocom, like its chassisbrethren Maingear and Clevo, just lives to jam over-sized Sandy Bridge E hardware into mumpsy laptops. Find yourself in front of the Panther 4.0 and you'll be staring into a 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 display (you can choose between matte, glossy and 3D) as you work or game away on a
choice of GeForce GTX 580M, Quadro 5010M or Radeon HD 6990M graphics kit. There's space for four terabytes of SATA 3.0 storage and 32GB of RAM. It's weighing in at 12.1lbs, so a quick warning to anyone whose muscles have atrophied with excessive Ultrabook usage: it's wise to do some reps down at the gym. When it arrives in March, it'll cost as your wallet / procurement you $2649 for the base model -- budget will allow. from there, you can upgrade as far Gallery: Eurocom Panther 4.0
Press Images Continue reading Eurocom Panther 4.0 is the mirror universe's version of an Ultrabook Eurocom Panther 4.0 is the mirror universe's version of an Ultrabook originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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