Liberty Newspost Dec-23-2011

Curated News Edition
- 23/12/11
http://www.LibertyNewspost.com
7 states win federal education competition

(USATODAY.com News)
Submitted at 12/22/2011 11:04:45 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) Seven states won a share of $200 million in federal "Race to the Top" money to improve K-12 education programs, the Education Department announced Thursday. By Wilfredo Lee, AP Federal officials are monitoring states to ensure that they follow through on their plans to improve schools with Race to the Top money. The winners are Arizona, $25.1 million; Colorado, $17.9 million; Illinois, $42.8 million; Kentucky, $17 million; Louisiana, $17.5 million; Pennsylvania, $41.3 million; and New Jersey, $37.9 million. The Obama administration has awarded billions of dollars in such competitions to encourage
changes in education that it favors. The seven states competing in this round were all runners-up last year, and the Education Department has said it wants to encourage them to finish and carry out many of the changes proposed in their earlier applications. Competing states committed to make changes such as improving principal and teacher evaluation systems and turning around under -performing schools. They also were asked to show specifically how they would improve science, technology, engineering and math instruction. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the money was driving dramatic improvements. "We've had broken teacherevaluation systems in many places, unfortunately for five, or six or seven decades," Duncan
said. "You've seen more effort there and more movement in a short amount of time than in a long time prior to that, and many states are using Race to the Top resources to do that." Two other states, South Carolina and California, were also eligible. South Carolina opted not to compete, while California submitted an incomplete application, the Education Department said. Last week, nine states were announced as winners of a share of $500 million in grants under a similar competition focused on improving early learning programs. Duncan also said federal officials are monitoring states to ensure that they follow through on their plans to improve schools with Race to the Top money. For example, he said he has warned
Hawaii that it's in danger of losing funding. "We're going to look for some pretty significant improvements early in the new year," Duncan said. "There's not a hard-and-fast date. If we see things turning around, that would be fantastic. If we don't see things turning around, then we've got some tough decisions to make." Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and [unable to retrieve full-text content] [unable to retrieve full-text content]
state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Donate to World Vision

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Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4
times by grant funds, and can mean the difference between life and death for hungry children.
Headline/
Charities give Christmas gift of water

(USATODAY.com News)
in a way that it can compete for urgent attention with hunger, malaria, HIV/AIDS and refugee Christmas is all wet. Not all wet aid. as in humbug and Scrooge. All The water cause has ridden three wet as in water. major currents in the past decade: Living Water International A a boom in ordinary churchgoers mother and her child in Andhra taking short mission trips to the Pradesh, India, enjoy clean T h i r d W o r l d t o s e e n e e d s drinking water from a well drilled firsthand; the explosion of social by Living Water International. media multiplying vivid images of the needs; and a raft of celebrities Living Water International attaching their names and energies A mother and her child in Andhra to it. Pradesh, India, enjoy clean "Access to water will be one of drinking water from a well drilled the most critical challenges of our by Living Water International. time," actor Matt Damon says in a Clean, accessible water for the statement to USA TODAY. world's poor is one of the hottest "There are a lot of ways to tackle causes of the season. it, but for me, ensuring that every December donors who open their human being has access to safe hearts and wallets will send drinking water and the dignity of millions of dollars flowing to a toilet is one of the most villages and urban slums in urgent and pressing causes in the Africa, South Asia and Central world today." America. Damon founded a water charity, And, drop by drop, lives are t h e n l i n k e d u p w i t h o n e changed. Countless children are established by engineer Gary spared killer waterborne diseases. White to form Water.org with a Countless women are spared transformative goal. backbreaking hours fetching White says, "It's not just about water in 40-pound, 5-gallon drilling a gazillion wells, it's about plastic jugs. tapping into the inherent power of There are dozens of water- people at the bottom. We have to focused charities touted on help them find their own voice websites, in Christmas-themed and leverage their power as catalogs and at social events such customers and citizens." as a sold-out, celebrity-packed Important time of year Manhattan charity ball last week. December is critical to charity They've honed the message fund-raising goals. Several water is critical to health and charities report that this month social and economic development accounts for 20% to 30% of their for nearly 900 million people annual income from individual
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:50:51 AM
water sources, determines where to dig and how deep. Most rural villages don't have electricity, so the well can't be deeper than 300 feet if villagers are going to use a hand pump to bring it to the surface. World Vision World Vision drills a new donors. Without such signs of borehole at Kandine village in widespread interest, the major Zinder, Niger. foundations won't send the big Next come the drilling rigs, usually staffed or contracted by a money. To get donors' attention, water l o c a l n o n - g o v e r n m e n t a l c h a r i t i e s p r o m i s e e v e n t h e organization (NGO), the foot humblest purchase a $10 water s o l d i e r s o f T h i r d W o r l d bottle hawked by Damon, a $25 d e v e l o p m e n t w o r k . bag of cement from Christian Costs are higher in land-locked band Jars of Clay's Blood:Water countries such as the Central Mission or a $100 share in the African Republic, where Jim cost of a deep well offered by Hocking, founder of Integrated World Vision, a leading Community Development evangelical charity will International, says his highest cost for well digging is fuel. The ICDI transform lives. The most sophisticated charities just spent $1.5 million drilling 60 offer financial transparency and wells and rehabilitating an high-tech proofs that let donors additional 150 wells there to serve track their gifts and even look at the Ba'Aka pygmies. the wells they funded on satellite Once the dig hits water, a pump mapping from the techno-savvy is installed the $600 Afrodev is charity called simply charity: a low-maintenance favorite and water quality is tested for 24 water. The whole process starts in the hours before technical success is villages when the people who declared. need the water show proof of their The average life expectancy of a commitment. The top groups all well that should last decades is require beneficiaries to buy in only 11 months, usually because a with some of their own meager pump breaks down. So charities dollars. Only then will the charity build maintenance training into commit $12,000 to $25,000 to a their cost structure, since a project, about $15 to $25 per paycheck for a pump mechanic is not a sexy Christmas catalog item. person, for a well. Then, a hydro-geologist hunts for Also mandatory: training in
simple hygiene such as washing hands and cleaning water containers, White says. White, who worked for Catholic Relief Services before launching Water Partners in 1990, is like most charity founders: He waxes poetic about the power of water "spiritually, socially, medically, and as the building block of every economy since the Roman aqueducts." In 2008, White met Damon, who had started his own water charity, H2O Africa, after seeing the desperate needs of Africans while filming a documentary, Running the Sahara. They merged in 2009 to form Water.org. One unique aspect of their charity, White says, is their model of leveraging donations into "water credits" micro-loans for obtaining water, He says water credits have enabled 300,000 people to buy in for a well or obtain a utility hookup or a home filter. Beginning in 2012, Water.org will use a new $8 million, five-year grant from the PepsiCo Foundation to generate $27 million in commercial capital for water credits. Twenty-percent of the group's $11 million budget comes from grass-roots donations of less than $1,000 each. A third of these funds come in December. White and Damon have written a manifesto, "In Our Lifetime," on CHARITIES page 3
Featured/
CHARITIES
continued from page 2
solving the global water crisis. Damon is on the Water.org website starring in a goofy Christmas video as a Santa who talks tots into giving up their wishes for toys and choosing a water bottle instead. He's not the only celebrity caught up by this cause. Looktothestars.org, a website that tracks famous folks and their charity choices, lists 186 famous names from film stars to singers such as Katy Perry to models to tech millionaires who give to 36 global water charities. One that particularly relies on big -name donors is charity: water, launched in 2005. Founder Scott Harrison, a former night club promoter turned social activist, started commandeering D.J. booths at Manhattan clubs to show patrons his slide show of African children drinking scummy green water. This year, Harrison says he expects to raise $30 million. A big boost came this month when 2,000 people, double last year's total, paid $300 to $1,000 a ticket to attend a splashy ball in Manhattan, hobnobbing with stars such as Jessica Biel, tech kings such as Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and industry titans. The philanthropic group charity: water looks at the global water crisis:
1 in 8 people, nearly 900 million worldwide, lack safe drinking water. 80% of diseases stem from unsafe water and insufficient sanitation. 3,575 million people die each year from a lack of safe drinking water, latrines and hand-washing stations. 4,100 of those deaths are children, 90% of them under age 5. 40 billion hours a year are spent by African people, usually women, walking to fetch water. $20 can provide clean water for one person. $1 invested in improved water access and sanitation can lead to an average of $12 in economic returns. Source: World Health Organization, charity: water. Harrison, 36, designed charity: water to target Millennials and, he claims, "to reinvent charity for my generation." Five years ago, he says, his peers were oblivious to the global health crisis and they thought "most charities were a black hole. They didn't know where the money went." Harrison rounded up private donors to fund staff, administrative costs, even credit card fees, so he could promise every drop of any ordinary individual's donation would go to
water. The charity: water website allows tracking funds and projects down to the water sources. Harrison's major outlet is social media. Nearly a million Twitter followers are exposed to the charity's photo-of-the-day, highlighting needy people and successful projects. Blood:Water Mission, the charity founded by the band Jars of Clay, also used social media as the primary way to raise enough in seven years to build 1,000 wells serving 600,000 people. The money comes in through creative campaigns such as Blood:Water Mission's pitch to purchase $25 bags of cement for projects in five African countries. Cement is the single most common and expensive material used in all the group's projects, says Jena Lee Nardella, executive director of the charity. One donor raised funds for 3,000 bags with a matching grant this month. Nearly a fourth of the group's $2 million operating budget comes in December, most in the last weeks, from the Christmas-gift and tax-deduction minded. Personal experiences The Christian connection is a strong component for most of the U.S.-based water charities. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which accredits 1,600 para-church organizations
for financial integrity, says giving to water causes rose 36% from 2009 to 2010. Christians root their ties to water in Jesus' life and words, says theologian and writer Collin Hansen. "Water is imbued with powerful spiritual significance" from Jesus' baptism to biblical teaching that Christ himself is the water of life. Many of the checks in charity stockings are prompted by personal experiences on mission trips. Jane Kapenga of Holland, Mich., retired from a nursing career and took one of those life-changing trips with her church three years ago. Now she volunteers for a branch office of Living Water International and has donated more than $10,000. Living Water's CEO, Mike Mantel, says water "is the most fundamental step in international development. It produces health. It frees time. It gets children to school and women to work." His charity has completed more than 10,000 water projects in 26 countries since 1990 and more in 2011 than any year before. The evangelical charity World Vision takes potential donors on a virtual visit through its videoladen website and 36-page Christmas catalog. This year's catalog features five water-related projects among hundreds of
advertised choices, from $13,700 for a whole well and pump to $50 for water-purifying tablets. World Vision reeled in about $2.6 million last Christmas season, 8% of the catalog's total, says Randy Strash, who coordinates U.S. fundraising efforts for the group's water and sanitation projects worldwide. Since 1986, the charity has provided clean water to about 11 million people, primarily in Africa. This Christmas, its website invites people to change the life of a woman in Kenya called Sabina and describes how her need for water permeates her day: To get it, Sabina takes an arduous 4-mile round-trip trek down a thorny path to a dirty river twice a day and returns with 70 pounds of water on her back. Sabina's dream: an education for her children and, for herself, a bath at her own house. 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.
Special Report Panel on Iraq

Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)
Steve Hayes, with A. B. Stoddard and Charles Krauthammer, last
night on Fox News:
Headline/
Strong earthquakes rattle NZ's Christchurch

(USATODAY.com News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:21:51 AM
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) A series of strong earthquakes struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday, rattling buildings, sending goods tumbling from shelves and prompting terrified holiday shoppers to flee into the streets. There was no tsunami alert issued and the city appeared to have been spared major damage. By Geoff Sloan, AP Residents help a driver free his car, which was stuck in a sinkhole after a 5.8 -magnitude quake struck north of Christchurch, New Zealand. By Geoff Sloan, AP Residents help a driver free his car, which was stuck in a sinkhole after a 5.8-magnitude quake struck north of Christchurch, New Zealand. One person was injured at a city mall and was taken to a hospital, and four people had to be rescued after being trapped by a rock fall, Christchurch police said in a statement. But there were no immediate reports of serious injuries or widespread damage in the city, which is still recovering from a devastating February earthquake that killed 182 people and destroyed much of the downtown area. The first 5.8-magnitude quake
struck Friday afternoon, 16 miles north of Christchurch and 2.5 miles deep, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Minutes later, a 5.3magnitude aftershock hit. About an hour after that, the city was shaken by another 5.8-magnitude temblor, the U.S.G.S. said, though New Zealand's geological agency GNS Science recorded that aftershock as a magnitude-6.0. Both aftershocks were less than 3 miles deep. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert. The city's airport was evacuated after the first quake and all city malls shut down as a precaution. About 60 people were treated for minor injuries, including fractures, injuries sustained in falls and people with "emotional difficulties," Christchurch St. John Ambulance operations manager Tony Dowell told The Associated Press. "We have had no significant injuries reported as a result of the earthquakes today," he said. Warwick Isaacs, demolitions manager for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, said most buildings had been evacuated "as an emergency measure." The area has recorded more than 7,000 earthquakes since a magnitude-7.0 quake rocked the city on Sept. 4, 2010. That quake did not cause any deaths.
Rock falls had occurred in one area and there was liquefaction when an earthquake forces underground water up through loose soil in several places, Isaacs told New Zealand's National Radio. "There has been quite a lot of stuff falling out of cupboards, off shelves in shops and that sort of thing, again," he said. Isaacs said his immediate concern was for demolition workers involved in tearing down buildings wrecked in previous quakes. "It started slow then really got going. It was a big swaying one but not as jolting or as violent as in February," Christchurch resident Rita Langley said. "Everyone seems fairly chilled, though the traffic buildup sounds like a beehive that has just been kicked as everyone leaves (the) town (center)." The shaking was severe in the nearby port town of Lyttelton, the epicenter of the Feb. 22 quake. "We stayed inside until the
shaking stopped. Then most people went out into the street outside," resident Andrew Turner said. "People are emotionally shocked by what happened this afternoon." Around 26,000 homes were without power in Christchurch, after the shaking tripped switches that cut supplies, Orion energy company CEO Rob Jamieson said. "We don't seem to have damage to our equipment," he said. "We hope to have power back on to those customers by nightfall." Hundreds of miles of sewer and fresh water lines have been repaired in the city since the February quake. One partly demolished building and a vacant house collapsed after Friday's quakes, police said. Central City Business Association manager Paul Lonsdale said the quakes came at the worst possible time for retailers, with people rushing to finish their Christmas shopping. Despite the sizable quakes, there was no visible damage in the central business district, where 28 stores have reopened in shipping containers after their buildings were wrecked by the February quake, he said. "Hopefully tomorrow we'll be feeling a little bit better again and restoring our faith in the will to live and to stay in Christchurch,"
the city's deputy mayor, Ngaire Button, told National Radio. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Top News/
Can A Startup Store Change The Retail Business?

David D. Burstein (Fast Company)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 7:19:18 AM
Rachel Shechtman just launched her new venture, A Startup Store, in New York's Chelsea neighborhood. The store, still in "beta," currently features a rotating selection of startups and their products in a physical retail space, including: Artspace, Birchbox, Baublebar, Joor, and Quirky. But A Startup Store will be ever-changing and evermorphing. Today it features merchandise from startups; come back in February and it will look totally different and feature products centered around the theme "Love." In fact, the store will change products and physical design every 4-6 weeks. Shechtman wants her store to be a living, breathing community. Here, Shechtman explains why, although A Startup Store is a small space, it might be a big idea in the long-troubled business of physical retail outlets. Fast Company: Where did the idea for the store come from? Rachel Shechtman: It really started when I was 12 years old. I was at a gift sale with my mom shopping for wholesale bar mitzvah favors and I was like "Oh, my god, you can have a job where you shop for a living? I
want a job like that!" Ever since, I've been in training for this. I've been a consultant for nine years. I took a six-month job at Bliss Spa,
which turned into nine years consulting first at Bliss Spa, and then with TOMS Shoes, Gilt Groupe, and other brands. I've
always been really excited about new business models and mashing them up. I've been talking about this idea for more than seven
years. And one day I was driving with Blake Mycoskie from TOMS CAN page 8
Top News/
Christmas At Peace
(The Front Page)
was eventually re-crucified, dismantled by someone else, and crucified again. Every Christmas brings a fresh Meanwhile, in Athens, Texas, an round of cultural skirmishes. This a t h e i s t g r o u p b a s e d o u t o f years most garish image was a Wisconsin declared itself the skeleton Santa Claus mounted on champion of an anonymous local a crucifix outside the Loudoun resident who was disturbed by a County courthouse in Virginia. courthouse nativity scene, which The creator of this display did not have any terrifying undead described it as a depiction of monsters, but did feature a lovely societys materialistic obsessions red-headed angel. Freedom From and addictions, and how it is Religion Foundation co-founder killing the peace, love, joy, and Annie Laurie Gaylor explained kindness that is supposed to be that the nativity scene sends a prevalent during the holiday message of intimidation and season. exclusion to non-Christians and A Christian woman named Mary non-believers this time of year. C z a r n e c k i d r o v e p a s t t h e Specifically, according to Gaylor, courthouse, saw the jauntily posed that message would be: Hmmm. sacrilege, and figured there was a This is a Christian government mistake, as related by the building. Im not welcomed here Washington Post. When no one if Im not Christian. This is corrected this mistake, Czarnecki curious, because militant atheists stepped forward to deal with it normally love to pretend theyre herself, since she was offended smarter than everyone else. as a Christian at the use of the Callously disregarding the cross, it did not seem funny, and possibility that some blithering t h e i m p l i e d m e s s a g e o f idiot might look at a Yuletide Christmas commercialized to nativity scene and conclude they death seemed insignificant. had arrived at the Vatican instead C z a r n e c k i a n n o u n c e d h e r of the local courthouse, thousands i n t e n t i o n t o d i s m a n t l e t h e of supporters gathered in the town crucified zombie Santa to a square, singing Christmas carols nearby county employee, who a n d r e c i t i n g p r a y e r s . T h e promptly skedaddled, leaving her protesters are still there, living in to carefully pluck Saint Nick from tent cities, fighting with the the cross and lay his bones upon police, and destroying public the grass. A sheriffs deputy property with mountains of eventually wandered by and sewage. Wait, sorry, I got my asked local news reporters to stop protests confused. These folks filming Czarneckis kinetic art were polite, and went home when criticism action. The skeleton they were finished.
Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:01:00 AM
As reported by The Blaze, the militant atheists responded by hanging a banner at the courthouse that said, At this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but a myth & superstition that hardens hearts & enslaves minds. Dang, thats a lot to cram on a banner! The Henderson County Courthouse must be huge if they were able to hang all that verbiage in front of it. Or perhaps militant atheists write smaller as they get angrier. Since the FFRF didnt apply for the proper permits, the banner was removed. As of this writing, the nativity scene endures, and the Texas Attorney General says the county is not legally obligated to take it down. In Santa Monica, California, a lottery was held to allocate city park space for nativity scenes. For the better part of sixty years, the oceanfront park was noted for beautiful dioramas of the Annunciation, Mary and Joseph being turned away at the inn, and of course, the manger, as a New York Times report wistfully relates. Only three of the twenty-one available spaces were won by Christians this year. The rest went to angry atheists, who put up tasteful and charming displays, such as a chain-link cage containing a sign that reads, Religions are all alike founded
on fables and mythologies. Many of the spaces have been left blank, in order to avoid pushing the issue too hard and sparking a backlash that could prompt the city to cancel the December tradition altogether, according to the proud creator of the beautiful sign in a cage display. In Washington D.C., the House Franking Commission, which oversees the franked (taxpayerfunded) sending of mail by representatives, declared this year that official mail can no longer wish a Merry Christmas upon the populace. You may make reference to the season as a whole using language along the lines of Have a safe and happy holiday season, the Commission advised, but even at that, it may only be incidental to the piece rather than the primary purpose of the communication. By official decree, Happy Holidays was declared borderline acceptable, but Merry Christmas was off the table. As far as I know, there has been no official ruling on mentioning the Winter Solstice, or providing constituents with advice on the best way to fend off an attacking skeleton Santa. This stuff keeps happening because Christmas is a prominent target for malcontents. Aggressive attacks on Christmas traditions are a great way to grab headlines, which in turn spice up those fundraising letters for militant atheist organizations. No
other moment in the year provides a comparable spotlight. No other religious observance draws this kind of fire. Obviously, no one capable of operating a motor vehicle, or tying their own shoes, is going to spot a nativity display and conclude that only devout Christians are welcome at the local courthouse or city park. Nothing about the Christmas tradition is domineering or aggressive. It contains no trace of menace or judgment. Its a celebration of the gift of unconditional love, expressed through charity to strangers, and generosity to friends and family. Salvation Army bell-ringers dont hit you with a hard sell for Jesus when you throw money in the pot. Nativity scenes are not, in conception or practice, recruiting stations or symbols of oppression. What cultural weakness it requires, to view a baby surrounded by animals in a ramshackle barn as a symbol of oppression! If fealty, submission, or anything else were demanded in exchange for the cheerful gifts of Christmas, it would be contrary to the memory of the great and eternal gift that Christians revere. Militant atheists are willing to embarrass themselves with this line of reasoning because they are intolerant. That word is thrown around a lot in our society, but CHRISTMAS page 14
Top News/
House, Senate Clear Payroll-Tax Accord Wall Street Journal

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:47:20 AM
at odds with Senate Republicans and party elders who feared a backlash in the 2012 elections if By SIOBHAN HUGHES the tax break was allowed to Congressional leaders agreed to expire. temporarily extend a payroll-tax The agreement is essentially the cut by two months and begin same package negotiated by the n e g o t i a t i o n s o n a y e a r l o n g Democratic-controlled Senate that extension. Janet Hook has details Mr. Boehner's House rejected o n T h e N e w s H u b f r o m earlier this week. Washington. One difference in the new WASHINGTONThe House agreement is the elimination of a and Senate on Friday approved a S e n a t e - c r a f t e d p r o v i s i o n two-month extension of the businesses believed would be payroll-tax cut, averting an burdensome. That provision increase that would have left would have changed the way workers with less take-home pay payroll taxes would have been next year. deducted for higher-paid workers, Passage came after a nearly a move that would have meant weeklong impasse that ended changing payroll systems. EPA w h e n H o u s e S p e a k e r J o h n House Speaker John Boehner Boehner (R, Ohio) bowed to walked from the House chamber increasing pressure from within Friday after representatives his own party and agreed to the passed a two-month extension of short-term extension. the payroll-tax cut. The $33 billion package also Mr. Boehner changed course a p r o v i d e s e x t e n d e d f e d e r a l few hours after Senate Minority unemployment benefits for two Leader Mitch McConnell (R., months, avoids a cut in payments Ky.) stepped into the debate and to doctors who treat Medicare urged House Republicans to pass patients and compels the Obama t h e t w o - m o n t h e x t e n s i o n administration to act within 60 approved by the Senate last days on a permit for TransCanada Saturday in an 89-10 vote. As part Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL o f t h e n e w d e a l , a l l s i d e s pipeline expansion. committed to negotiating early The deal, which forestalls a Jan. next year on a full-year extension 1 tax increase on 160 million of the tax break. workers, represents a retreat for The impasse was a rare split the House GOP, which had been between the two Republican
leaders, who for most of this year have worked hand in glove to battle President Barack Obama. The split reflects, in part, the pressure Mr. Boehner faces from the GOP's tea-party faction, compared with Mr. McConnell, who is more willing to accept tactical victories. Mr. Boehner's leadership within his own caucus may suffer new strains from the retreat, the latest in a string of tussles he has had with rank-and-file members this year on issues ranging from government funding to the debt ceiling. When he announced his decision to compromise in a 10minute conference call with Republicans around the country Thursday evening, Mr. Boehner took no questions. The House GOP, in appearing to risk allowing the tax break to lapse Jan. 1, did some damage to the party's reputation of holding the line on tax increases. The standoff also threatened what had been a major victory for Republicans: including a provision in the original tax agreement to force Mr. Obama to make a quicker decision on building the Keystone XL pipeline, which the president had previously punted until after the 2012 elections. That provision remains in the new agreement. So topsy-turvy were the politics
Thursday that it brought the spectacle of Mr. Obama endorsing the words of Mr. McConnell, the man who began 2011 pledging to do all he could to prevent the president's re-election. "Democrats agree with the Republican leader of the Senate," said Mr. Obama. "This is an issue where an overwhelming number of people in both parties agree. Has this place gotten so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things, we can't do it?" Announcing the pact on his Twitter feed, Mr. Boehner said the agreement was designed to "ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators." At issue is extending the current 4.2% payroll tax levied to fund Social Security, rather than allowing it to return to 6.2% on Jan. 1, its rate before this year. House Republicans, in pushing for a full-year extension of the tax break, have cast their position as one of principle over politics. They conceded Thursday that they were losing the public-relations battle by their fighting. "We're not doing this for the politics," Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.) told reporters. "You all have
pointed this out pretty clearly." Speaking to reporters Thursday evening, Mr. Boehner acknowledged that his party might suffer from picking this fight. "It might not have been politically the smartest thing in the world," he said. "Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing and sometimes it's politically difficult to do the right thing." A growing number of Republicans urged the House this week to cut their political losses and pass the short-term extension. Those making that push, including GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, made their case even louder on Thursday. "At this point, the House should pass the Senate's short-term extension to ensure 160 million hard-working Americans won't lose important tax relief at the end of this year,'' said Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine). No voice was more important than that of Mr. McConnell, who had been silent as the storm brewed. He had considered the Senate deal a big Republican victory because it included language on the Keystone pipeline. Instead of seen as backtracking HOUSE, page 14
CAN
and he said to me, "Shechtman: enough of this 'someday' stuff, you just have to do it!" So I did. The basic concept is that A Startup Store is a store in a retail environment, a space that has the point of view of a magazine but it changes every 4-6 weeks--like a gallery--and yet it sells things like a store. A Startup Store is our first exhibition. We're in beta because I don't think it's fair that digital companies are the only ones who get to be in beta. We have our official launch February 1, with our next exhibit, "The Love Store." How will "The Love Store" be different than a Valentine's Day section at any big retail store or specialty shop? What makes Vogue different than Harper's Bazaar is the point of view of the editor in chief. We see ourselves as editors and buyers and merchandisers. What's different is the type of products we source and how we source them. We also have a strategic relationship with Architizer, so every month we'll not only have different products, but we'll also have different architects reinvent the space. [Architizer is a web community enabling new ways for architects to interact, show their work, and find clients. It describes itself as "an open community created by architects for architects."] We'll be telling stories through hanging signage and wall installations. This is transactional storytelling. No iteration of the store is ever repetitive, whereas if you go into
a Valentine's Day section of a department store, they're using fixtures that month that they use all year round. It seems like your model requires you to have a product mix that is just there long enough to be successful, and then you are tossing everything out and starting all over again a few weeks later. Is that model sustainable? We'll be profitable very early in our first year. I think the untapped frontier of advertising is retail engagement. We're selling sponsorship of the store for anywhere from $50,000 on the low end to $175,000 on the high end. In the same way you might have "MoMA" put on an Andy Warhol show made possible by Procter and Gamble, we will have sponsorship within the store. In February, you'll have "The Store" presents "Love" made possible by a dating site or some company that is relevant to the theme. Later in the year we'll be rolling out an e-commerce platform which will continue to sell some of the more popular products from individual exhibits. It's rare to find a new business today where online is secondary to physical, but it sounds like the online component is secondary in your vision ... It is. For us, it was really important to have a physical place for people to come. Today there are so many ways for people to communicate, so many devices, so many networks ... there's been a huge focus on digital innovation but not as much innovation has
taken place in the human experience. We live and thrive off being with other people. The physical has been the forgotten child for a while. Tactile human experiences are incredibly important. There's plenty of content and community online ... but there aren't a whole lot of physical environments that bring together content, community, and commerce. But don't people come to expect they can get certain things at a store? How do you get people to understand and accept that it's a changing store and they can never step in the same river twice--even if they liked the river the first time? People know where they can go for things that they know that they want. They don't need another GAP or Apple Store. They need an environment where you can discover something new. 75% of the people who have come into the store in the past week have given us their email addresses because they want to know about the next theme. They look at the store like a journey and they want to come along with us. People are saying "Oh, my god! I've never heard of something like this." People know about pop-up stores, but the idea of a constant pop-up, or a retailer acting like a gallery and talking like a magazine, that's new. You're also going to close down regularly ... We'll go down for 3-4 days to change over. We have to because we will be completely rebuilding
the space for each exhibit. But as we're building, our windows will become our version of a billboard. So even when the store is down there will still be a purpose. Some months we might invite people in during the building process, and there might also be months where the windows are uncovered and people watch us build up. Magazines usually have an editorial point of view. Is there an additional perspective you're trying to communicate? I want to tell a compelling story through merchandise and events. I believe in the concept of giving people 70% of what they understand and the other 30% should be surprise and delight. So in February, when you come into "The Love Store," the 70% might be flowers and chocolates but the 30% might be a video booth where you record a video of your first date, then we might have an event where we screen a short film of those videos. Every single month you can come in and buy something for $20 or for $2,000. Every month you can buy something for a 20-year-old or a 60-year-old. The only way that you can have such a broad appeal and still tell a cohesive story is to curate a really interesting collection of brands and products. Everything here has a description next to it, explaining where it came from. It gives it personality and allows the product to become less of a thing and more of a story. We want everything here to be a story first and a thing second. I think the future of retail will
always be about consumption. Consumption's not going anywhere. But it will start to change; retail spaces will become more about content and community. People don't just want to go in and buy something, they want to hear a story, they want to learn something. So when we're coming up with a theme or a concept like "startups," we're not only having an exhibit but talks, book signings, film screenings, and other events that complement the theme. What do you think it will take for retail to look more like that? I think it's already happening in some ways. Certain mass brands are catching on slowly. For instance, I really admire that Bloomingdales has Clarins skincare on the second floor with fashion and contemporary, which is unheard of--so they're making a statement by editorializing skincare in a fashion context. Or by putting Magnolia Bakery in their men's floor, which they also do. What does success look like for you? One goal is to be successful with this first store and then to open five stores around the country in the next three years. But ultimately success to me is proving this new business model for retail. I'd much prefer to walk into a department store and instead of someone attacking me by spraying perfume at me, have someone tell me a story or give CAN page 10
Top News/
Bomb Blasts Hit 2 Security Facilities in Syrian Capital - New York Times
KAREEM FAHIM (Top Stories Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:21:33 AM
Sana/Reuters A damaged car at the site of a car bomb attack in Damascus on Friday. BEIRUT, Lebanon Two powerful bombs exploded outside government offices in Damascus on Friday, in what appeared to be the most brazen and deadly attacks against the government since the start of the uprising in Syria in March. SANA, the government news agency, reported that dozens of people were killed, blaming suicide car bombers. The news agency said that while some soldiers were among the dead, most were civilians. Faisal Mekdad, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that 30 people were killed and 100 wounded in the attacks, coordinated within minutes of each other. In a statement, SANA said an initial investigation showed the attacks carried the blueprints of Al Qaeda, though it did not provide any further detail. It appeared to be the first use of car bombs a frequent and deadly means of attack in neighboring Iraq in the Syrian conflict.
For months, Syrian officials have consistently portrayed their opponents peaceful demonstrators and armed rebels alike as terrorists and thugs,
orchestrated by foreign opponents of the Syrian government. In a news conference after the attacks, Mr. Mekdad quickly suggested that the attack vindicated the
governments view, as it released this is terrorism, he said, an unusual number of graphic according to The A.P. They are photographs and video of the killing the army and civilians. carnage. BOMB page 10 We said it from the beginning,
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BOMB
Paul Ryan: The Jack Kemp of His Generation

CAN
Just as quickly, government opponents raised questions about whether the government itself might have played a part in the attacks, noting that the buildings, in the capitals upscale Kafar (The Front Page) Sousah district, were heavily Submitted at 12/23/2011 4:01:00 AM guarded. How can Qaeda launch such an Jack Kemp persuaded Ronald operation to a very tight security Reagan in heartily embrace place? said an antigovernment supply-side economics, helping to activist named Moaz, who lives in inspire him and the Reagan Damascus. Its really a play. be Revolution. But if that is to Residents said a true revolution remembered as the explosions, at about n10:15 sa.m.,e were eheard and ot a th R agan miles away andduringfollowed by interruption, were Americas gunfire. Video left, Paul Ryan march toward the broadcast by Syrian televisionto his generation may have to be showed rescuers carrying Kemp was to Reagans. what Jack mangled bodies on blankets, bloody debris and a When Jack Kemp passed away largeyears in one of the buildings. two hole ago, it was natural for The state news Ryan as the Jack many to see Paul agency posted photos of severed limbs and Kemp of his generation. burned-out cars. Jack is the reason I ran for Capping Ryan said at the Kemp Congress, one of the deadliest weeks in Syria in months, the Foundations inaugural event in bombings on Friday occurred 2010. I was motivated by h o u r s b e f o r e but u s a n d s by Ronald Reagan, t h o inspired o f protesters were set to demonstrate Jack Kemp. against anRyan asLeague peace In hiring Arab a 23 year-old plann tomend a n a l y s t f o r h i s e c o o i c the violence. The day America think tank and Empower before, delegates from the Arab speechwriter, Kemp, later as a League traveled to Damascusnto start monitoring a w a c c o r d i g t o R y a n , s the governments promise toI end its something in me that didnt violent suppressionHe taught me even know existed. of the ninemonth-old uprising. The with an how to approach people visit is intended to set the ground rules infectious optimism, reminding us for a mission that nothing more all that there is is supposed to bring thundredsnoft h e i d e a o f observers to uplif ing tha Syriar in athe coming weeks. Ame ic . Human rights activists said the HUMAN EVENTS wrote about government after continuing its Kemp soon was he arrived in assault onin 1971 and continued Congress the Jebel al-Zawiyah to publish Kemps speeches and many articles about him. Because HUMAN EVENTS was Ronald
area of northwestern Syria, near Turkeys border, where at least 160 people have reportedly been killed this week. The assault, using helicopters and tanks, appeared aimed at army defectors trying to create a rebel stronghold, with supply routes across the Turkish border. The highest toll was reported in the village of Kafr Oweid. A video posted on the Internet on Thursday was said by activists to show the bodies of dozens of men killed in the village, many with badly mangled faces. The video, posted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, showed at least 43 bodies. Opposition figures said the government was trying to silence pockets of resistance before the observers visit. They expressed growing concern about the Arab League mission, questioning whether it would be robust enough to detect what they said was a campaign of deadly violence by President Bashar alAssads security forces. Turkey added strong criticism on Thursday to the international condemnation of Syrias latest crackdown. A statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry urged Syria to end its policy of oppression. The United Nations says that at least 5,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict. On Thursday, Avaaz, a human rights group that helps document protests, released a higher estimate, saying that it
had collected the names of 6,237 people who had been killed, including more than 800 women and children and 917 members of the government forces. Casualty figures in Syria have been nearly impossible to confirm. Journalists and human rights groups are not free to move around the country, and there are wide disparities between the claims of the government and those of opposition groups, and between the claims of different networks of human rights activists. The Arab League observers are supposed to monitor Mr. Assads compliance with a plan for him to withdraw his forces from residential areas and release political prisoners. The head of the delegation, Samir Seif elYazal, said it would work with Syrian officials to decide where to send the observers, The A.P. reported. A team of military and human rights experts is scheduled to arrive in a few days. But human rights activists said there was still no final list of observers and no clear rules for the mission. Wissam Tarif, the Arab world campaigner for Avaaz, who said he was a candidate for an observer post, said the delegation was still working out details, including whether observers would travel with their own security. Opposition groups have also criticized the decision to name a Sudanese general to lead the mission Lt. Gen. Muhammad
Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, a former head of military intelligence who served as a coordinator among the Sudanese government, the United Nations and African Union peacekeepers in Darfur. Ammar al-Wawi, a former colonel in the Syrian Army who defected to the rebels, said: We are suspicious about these observers. Do you send a veterinarian to do a Caesarean section? General Dabi told Reuters that the observers would work with complete transparency. Across Syria on Thursday, at least 35 people were killed, including 25 in the city of Homs and 7 in Idlib, near Jebel alZawiyah, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition umbrella group. A militia of army defectors, the Free Syrian Army, said that at least 70 recent defectors were killed this week, and that groups of defectors were hiding in the mountains, surrounded by government forces. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting. 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.
formulator of that cyclethe
came into office, the top marginal
share of the tax burden.
me something that I don't expect. I want every store to do this, so go knock us off, bring it on! [twistage 76523a1ac9c47] Note: This interview has been edited for content, clarity, and and we are challenged as never length. before to strengthen the traditional [Top photo by Daniele Teodoro; family as the key to a free and portrait by Drew Innis; other prosperous society. photos by Julie O'Connor; video Two and a half years later, Ryan by Mike Rossi] seems more prescient. President Read more Fast Talk Barack Obama has run up the David D. Burstein is a young countrys credit card bill on entrepreneur, having completed government programs, such as his first documentary 18 in '08. ObamaCare, that the country can He is also the Founder & not afford. The Republican Executive director of the youth presidential candidates all have voter engagement not for profit, plans to simplify or flatten the tax Generation18. His book about the code and opposition to big millennial generation will be government crony capitalism is published by Beacon Press in a major theme as well, 2012. exemplified by green jobs boondoggles such as Solyndra that the Obama Administration negligently mismanaged. Ryan often concedes that he does not have Kemps charisma. Just as Kemp could have been a better politician had he had Ryans discipline and wonkish attention to details and numbers, Ryans star on the national stage could get brighter if he were able to Telegraph Staff of the zestful, project more (Finance News - Business news side of UK happy warrior from the Kemp. and world) I wish I could say I had Jacks natural at 12/23/2011 11:39:37 AM Submitted charisma his infectious La Senza is preparing for enthusiasm his quarterbacks administration the latest retailer skill at leading -people his gift to turning opponents into friends forseek protection from creditors after tough trading allies, Ryan and sometimes even on the high street. said while speaking at the Kemp Foundation. These were personal qualities to envy, but they probably dont describe this Wisconsinite. When Americas morale was low
La Senza prepares for administration
Top News/
11
Congress Approves 2-Month Payroll Tax Cut Extension

(Christianpost.com > Politics)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:46:15 AM
China film stirs passions anew before Japan PM visit - Reuters

(china - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:25:47 AM
Congress passed on Friday a twomonth extension of the payroll tax cut. The bill, which prevents a 2 percent increase in the payroll tax, now heads to President Obama for his signature. [ This is a breaking news update. Check CP's earlier story below.] Congress agreed to vote on the Senates payroll tax cut extension Friday after Republican leaders and GOP presidential candidates worried about negative sentiment. Aides alerted The Wall Street Journal that House Speaker John Boehner agreed Thursday evening to allow a vote on the Senates plan to extend the payroll tax cut for two months. Under the deal, the tax rate will remain at 4.2 percent on the first $110,100 in wages. The news is likely a relief for Republicans concerned that Boehner's insistence for a yearlong deal would draw voters' ire. Like us on Facebook Boehner insisted in a Wednesday phone call with President Barack Obama that both bodies should pass a one-year extension before Christmas and refused the president's suggestion to pass the two-month deal as a temporary fix. The move caused some
presidential candidates to worry that House Republicans had allowed Obama to gain the upper hand in the media. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich said at a Wednesday campaign stop, He (Obama) has all the advantages of being one person. He has all the advantages of the White House as a backdrop, and my experience is presidents routinely win. Fellow contender Jon Huntsman said in a Fox News interview, "I think we are losing the high ground on tax cuts, and I think that's a bad place for the Republican Party to be." Gingrich advised Boehner to defuse the situation with bipartisanship. I think what Republicans ought to do is whats right for America. They ought to do it calmly and pleasantly and happily, he said. However, House Republicans continued to hold out on the Senates two-month extension until as late as 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon, explaining that the short-term deal leaves Americans with uncertainty. Boehner responded to Republicans fears, stating, Sometimes its hard to do the right thing, but were doing the right thing. President Obama took Republicans continued resistance as an opportunity to harp on the partys failures during a Thursday
noontime press conference. Entering the conference room with a crowd of people, Obama told reporters, This about the people. Its not about a contest between politicians. While traveling across the country in recent months, Obama criticized Republicans who signed a pledge not to increase taxes but were refusing to pass a tax cut. Although the presidents approval rating is currently below 50 percent (at 49 percent), the congressional approval rating is far worse (11 percent). The fear is that Obama will use a weak Congress to disparage Republicans and bolster his own image in the media ahead of his re -election bid. Gingrich acknowledged this possibility Wednesday, saying, Incumbent presidents have enormous advantages. However, Republican candidate Michele Bachmann argued that continuing the payroll tax cut is a disadvantage for the president because the Senate and House have not agreed on how to pay for the cut. Additionally, the Senate's two-month plan pays for the tax cut with a cut in Social Security benefits. There isnt one shred of evidence that that [the payroll tax cut] created jobs," Bachmann said Sunday on NBC's Meet the
Press. "It defeated its purpose, plus it put senior citizens at risk by denying the $111 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund. All its doing is adding to the debt. Mitt Romney said the president was once again not being a leader in this situation. He also expressed some support of the Houses efforts. Two months is not very long," he told MSNBC. "You'd like to get as much done as possible; you'd like to see it go a full year." Gingrich, meanwhile, urged Republicans to make a deal. When House Republicans refused to do so, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged them to consider the two-month extension in exchange for immediate Senate negotiations on a one-year tax cut deal. Boehner's aides confirmed that he accepted the compromise. The House plan will also include a provision that will allow business owners to process the two-month tax cut without upgrading their current accounting systems. 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.
News24online China film stirs passions anew before Japan PM visit Reuters By Sally Huang and Ben Blanchard | BEIJING (Reuters) When Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda arrives in China Sunday, a new blockbuster movie will ensure that the foremost image of the Japanese in many Chinese people's minds will once again be of... Japan Premier to Focus on North Korea in China Visit Wall Street Journal For amiable China-Japan ties China Daily North Korea to loom large in Japan- China summit Channel News Asia all 76 news articles
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Top News/
Turkish PM cites French 'genocide' in Algeria - CNN

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:38:19 AM
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatens to end cooperation if French senate passes genocide law. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Erdogan brings up French activity last century in Algeria Turkey is incensed over the National Assembly bill Sarkozy says ,"France alone determines its politics" Istanbul (CNN)-- Turkey's leader accused France of "genocide" last century during the war in Algeria, a ratcheting up of rhetoric over controversial French legislation that would criminalize any public denial of what the bill calls the Armenian genocide last century in Ottoman Turkey. "In Algeria, an estimated 15 percent of the population had been subjected to the massacre of French from 1945 on. This is genocide," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a conference in Istanbul on Friday. "Algerians were burnt en masse in ovens. They were martyred mercilessly. If French President Mr. (Nicolas) Sarkozy does not know about this genocide, he should ask his father Paul Sarkozy. His father Paul Sarkozy served as a soldier in the French
legion in Algeria in 1940s." Once a French colony, guerrillas in the North African nation fought a bloody war against French rule from 1954 to 1962. Turkey is angered over the bill, passed by the French National Assembly on Thursday and now under review by the French
Senate. Immediately after the vote, Erdogan announced that Turkey is reviewing its ties with France. He said Turkey is recalling its Paris ambassador to Ankara for consultations, is canceling bilateral visits, and won't cooperate with France in joint
projects within the European Union. It is also halting "political consultations" with France, stopping bilateral military activities and joint exercises, and canceling permission granted annually for all military overflights, landings and take-
offs. Erdogan hopes the Senate fails to pass the so-called Armenian genocide bill but he warns that if it does, Turkey will initiate more measures toward France. The Turkish-Armenian TURKISH page 14
Top News/ Technology/
13
Analysis: Could Republicans Have a Brokered Convention?

(Christianpost.com > Politics)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:34:46 AM
Governor Jeb Bush, could emerge as the nominee. That is not very likely, though, There is currently no clear according to Marjorie Hershey, frontrunner in the GOP race. professor of political science at Former Massachusetts Governor Indiana University, in a Thursday Mitt Romney has remained at a interview with The Christian Post. steady 20 to 25 percent, while Hershey specializes in the study other candidates have risen and of political parties and elections. f a l l e n t h r o u g h o u t t h e r a c e . While the early primary states Moreover, the Republican switched, or stayed, with National Committee now requires proportional representation, there state with primaries before April 1 are still many states that have t o a s s i g n t h e i r d e l e g a t e s winner-take-all primaries after p r o p o r t i o n a l l y , r a t h e r t h a n April 1. through a winner-take-all system. Like us on Facebook Combined, these two factors have If things are muddled in the early led some to speculate that no primaries ... by April, the winnersingle candidate will have a take-all primaries should probably majority of delegates after all the make the difference one way or states have voted. This would another, Hershey pointed out. mean that the delegates would Winner-take-all primaries tend to have to pick a candidate at the build momentum very fast. In convention. 2008, for example ... in Missouri, If no candidate has a majority John McCain had won a plurality after the first vote, delegates in the primary, maybe one percent who are assigned to vote for a more than [Mitt] Romney and two particular candidate on the first p e r c e n t m o r e t h a n [ M i k e ] ballot would be free to vote for Huckabee and, given that it was anyone. Some have speculated winner-take-all, he got all the that, due to dissatisfaction with delegates in Missouri. the current field, someone who That really has a profound effect, has not even campaigned for the when Huckabee and Romney position, such as former Florida come out with zero, having come
real close in the popular vote. That's pretty devastating. It has a negative effect on volunteers. It has a negative effect on people who are likely to donate money, and, the process speeds up considerably. The media, Hershey pointed out, also encourages the quick selection of a candidate. Reporters are just driven by the nature of their own profession to want to predict who is gonna win, because that generates career rewards and that means that there will be bandwagons. This bandwagon effect, in which the media suggests who the eventual nominee will be, impacts candidates ability to raise money, and thus remain in the race. The people who want to give money and are trying to figure out who is going to win, because they would rather give money to who is going to win ... then the money totals will be reported by reporters, there's a big increase in funding for so-and-so, and things start to build. Delegates and party leaders are not even interested in having a brokered convention, Hershey argues, because it would be
damaging to the party. Brokered conventions present to the public an image that the party is controlled by elites. Brokered conventions appear party leader driven and so-called 'boss driven' and feeds into an image that, although it's completely inaccurate, has been so long lasting in the American public. We're all so convinced that there are party bosses out there, even though there aren't. It's really easy to trigger that image and that's the last thing that the parties want, to have their party appear to be a boss party. C o n t a c t : napp.nazworth@christianpost.co m Be the first of thousands of iPosters by sharing your news, views, and analysis. 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.
UN Experts Denounce China's Secret Detention of Human-Rights Lawyer - Voice of America

(china - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:07:11 PM
AFP UN Experts Denounce China's Secret Detention of HumanRights Lawyer Voice of America December 23, 2011 UN Experts Denounce China's Secret Detention of Human-Rights Lawyer Lisa Schlein | Geneva UN human-rights experts are denouncing the continued secret detention of Gao Zhisheng, a prominent Chinese lawyer who was arrested in 2006.... UN officials urge China to free activist Herald Sun UN rights body denounces detention of China lawyer Jerusalem Post EU calls for release of China rights lawyer AFP all 33 news articles
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14
TURKISH
CHRISTMAS
controversy over the massacres of last century has reverberated wherever diaspora communities representing both groups exist. Armenian groups and many scholars argue that starting in 1915, Turks committed genocide, when more than a million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Armenia has hailed the French move. But modern-day Turkey officially denies that a genocide took place, arguing instead that hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians and Muslim Turks died in intercommunal violence around the bloody battlefields of World War I. Sarkozy, speaking on TV from the Czech Republic capital of Prague, explained that his country doesn't need an okay from another nation to develop its policies. He was attending the funeral of late
Czech leader Vaclav Havel. "In every circumstance we must remain cool headed and calm. France alone determines its politics. France does not ask for authorization. France has convictions: human rights, the respect for history. Every country must make the effort to revisit its past. France does not give lessons to anyone nor does it receive lessons from anyone," Sarkozy said. Saying that five million Muslims in live in France, Erdogan noted the "dangerous dimensions that racism, discrimination and animosity against Muslims reached in France and Europe. French President Sarkozy got the ambition to win the elections with animosity against Turks and Muslims and unfortunately he doesn't refrain from playing such dangerous games." Turkey and France are NATO allies, and, according to official
Turkish statistics, the volume of trade between Turkey and France from January to the end of October this year was more than $13.5 billion. The genocide debate is an annual source of tension between Turkey and the United States, also two NATO allies. The White House, for example, annually beats back efforts in Congress to pass a resolution which would formally recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide. 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.
almost never used to describe this perfect example of pure intolerance. The very existence of the religious tradition of Christmas is considered inherently aggressive, and offensive, by those who are determined to purge every lamb and manger from not only public ground, but public space. Perhaps secular forces would be less eager to hijack Christmas if it didnt happen to fall at the end of the year, which is naturally a time for introspection: years in review, Top Ten lists, predictions for the coming year, and all the rest. There is valuable intellectual billboard space being taken up by those nativity scenes. Many of those who assault Christmas want to take its special significance and bend it to other purposes. They are behaving cruelly, on a holiday that is meant to be the antidote to cruelty. Thats why a tradition that existed long before America is treated as some kind of invasive force. For many, power must
always be coercive and aggressive. Thats why they sense the power of this season, and conclude it must be an act of aggression or exclusion to say Merry Christmas. But those words, and the emotion behind them, contain not the slightest trace of obligation. They are a wish, not a command; a gift, not a contract. They issue sweetly from any pair of lips, and rest gently upon any ear. No particular faith is necessary to give them wings but the tiniest breath of hope will make them soar. Merry Christmas, 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.
HOUSE,
on the oil pipeline and his demand for a one-year extension, President Obama this week became the defender of a twomonth tax cut. The White House mounted a daily public-relations effort to advocate extending the tax cut, but in the end, White House officials believed Mr. McConnell's statement Thursday was key to expediting the drama's conclusion.
Before agreeing to the new deal, Republicans insisted on language to address a problem businesses face in the two-month extension, aides said. The Senate bill imposed a cap on how much salary would be subject to the lower tax rate. That was dropped in an effort to be sure businesses can process payroll taxes under the accounting structure now in place, a House GOP aide said.
The bill's $33 billion cost is expected to be covered by an increase in fees charged to mortgage lenders by government housing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That has been criticized by the firms' regulator and industry analysts, who say it will complicate the task of revamping the mortgage giants. The fee increase, expected to raise about $35.7 billion in
revenue over 10 years, likely would be passed on to new-home buyers, raising their monthly mortgage payments by as much as $15 on mortgages of $210,000.Janet Hook, Laura Meckler and Kristina Peterson contributed to this article. Write to Janet Hook at janet.hook@wsj.com and Laura M e c k l e r a t laura.meckler@wsj.com
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Uncommon Knowledge China's top diplomat arrives With James Delingpole in Pakistan amid strained US ties - The Hindu (Part Five)
(china - Google News) (The Front Page)
against the backdrop renewed strains in Islamabad's ties with interviewing political leaders, Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:31:09 AM Washington.... distinguished scholars, and Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:01:00 AM The Hindu Pakistan and China sign currency leading journalists. by Uncommon Knowledge This entry passed through the China's top diplomat arrives in swap agreement DAWN.com Pak- China partnership conducive 12/23/2011 Full-Text RSS service if this is Pakistan amid strained US ties to peace, stability of Asia: PM ...the size of the state increased your content and you're reading it The Hindu dramatically under Tony Blair. on someone else's site, please read China's top diplomat travelled to Associated Press of Pakistan And once the state has increased, the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- Pakistan on Friday on a visit China assures Pak of support as youre going to find in America only/faq.php#publishers. Five officials said was aimed at taking amid row with US IBNLive.com too, it is very hard to dismantle. Filters recommends: Donate to t h e a l l - w e a t h e r a l l i e s ' all 37 news articles relationship to a new high, Uncommon Knowledge features Wikileaks. Hoover fellow Peter Robinson
BRILLIANT: Stephen Colbert Wants To Pay For The South Carolina Primary
Glynnis MacNicol (Business Insider)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:55:00 AM
Stephen Colbert's Super PAC is at it again. Yesterday, Colbert penned an editorial in South Carolina's The BRILLIANT: page 16
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Lethal Power Of Pepper Spray
Dina Spector (Business Insider)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:56:50 AM
Stephen Pollock died at a friend's house after suffering a single gunshot ... - stv.tv
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:04:04 PM
Pepper spray has been making its way into the news a lot more recently. In November, a video of university police at UC Davis pepper-spraying student protestors sparked international outrage. Today, cops at a Seattle mall had to mist a rowdy group of shoppers fighting over the new Air Jordan sneakers.
So just how serious is the socalled "non-lethal" chemical agent? According to this infographic by onlinecriminaljusticedegree, police-grade pepper spray is 1000x stronger than jalapeno peppers and has killed nearly 70 people since 1990. Read on to learn how pepper spray works and what to do if your find yourself on the receiving end of an aerosol can: Please follow Business Insider on
Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: The Next Billion Dollar Wireless Industry Has Officially Launched JACK BOGLE: 'Our Markets Have Gone Crazy' Kobe Bryant Allegedly Had Affairs With More Than 100 Women
stv.tv Stephen Pollock died at a friend's house after suffering a single gunshot... stv.tv Detectives investigating the murder of a 21-year-old man have told STV News his killing may have been a case of mistaken identity. The development comes on the day Stephen Pollock's family made an emotional appeal
for information about the shooting.... Mother in plea over son's gun death The Press Association Paisley shooting: Family of man gunned down outside his home make emotional... Scottish Daily Record Shooting victim Stephen Pollock's mother begs for help BBC News The Paisley Daily ExpressGlasgow Evening Times all 119 news articles
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Business/ World News/
BRILLIANT:
State newspaper offering to foot the bill for next year's South Carolina primary in exchange for permission to rename the primary and add a non-binding referendum to the ballot. We hammered out a contract over barbecue. Colbert Super PAC would pay up to $400,000 directly to the state and counties to defray the cost of the election. In return, the primarys official name would be The Colbert Super PAC South Carolina Republican Primary. This name would appear on all press releases, official notices and signage, including the debates. We would finally raise democracy to the same level as the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and Kardashian weddings. Most importantly, the following non-binding referendum would appear on the ballot: In order to address the issue of Corporate Personhood, the enfranchised People of the Sovereign State of South Carolina declare that: ( ) Corporations are people.
( ) Only people are people. The GOP agreed to everything. This is not entirely a joke. The South Carolina 'First in the South' primary is $500,000 short of the $1.5 million need to hold the primary. This financial shortfall is the result of state GOP officials refusing to foot the bill beyond the candidates filing fees leaving the state to pick up the slack, something that could put it in debt. Here's the kicker: GOP officials have confirmed that the did in fact meet with Colbert to discuss allowing him to pay in exchange for naming rights before turning him down. This isn't stopping Colbert, who ended his op-ed thusly: The counties need the money, and Colbert Super PAC wants to give it to you; call it a Christmas Miracle. Ive already filled out the check, and to prove its no joke, Ive written No Joke in the memo line. Im going to be home in South Carolina over the holidays, so just give me a call.
Both state parties have my contact info. Based on the state of the GOP primary thus far, having a fake comedian sponsor a primary election in exchange for naming rights seems like the logical next step. Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: PENSION SHOCKER: Rick Perry Is 'Double Dipping' Into The Texas State Coffers SPOILER ALERT: Gary Johnson Drops Out Of GOP, Will Run As Libertarian Party Candidate The GOP Line-Up Is SO Bad Sarah Palin Is Toying With The Idea Of Jumping Back In
The Strangest Things Athletes Did In 2011

Leah Goldman (Business Insider)
Peace. But this probably isn't even the weirdest thing he's ever done... Mark Cuban peed, trophy in Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:54:00 AM hand. Athletes are always in the news. Dennis Rodman did this. Sometimes for what they've done Yeah. in their sports, but most of the See the rest of the story at time for something stupid or Business Insider strange they've done. Please follow Sports Page on From legally changing their Twitter and Facebook. names, to getting drunk and See Also: peeing on airplanes, athletes had The Most Expensive Divorces their fair share of fun this year. In Sports History Ron Artest changed his name to The 10 Worst NFL Coaches In Metta World Peace Modern Football History Artest, sorry, World Peace, is a Dallas Cowboy DeMarcus strange dude. Ware Is Selling His Home In This year, he decided to legally Dallas For $2.2 Million change his name to Metta World
Court's 'no' to Team Anna on venue plea The Hindu

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:42:28 AM
The Hindu Court's 'no' to Team Anna on venue plea
The Hindu The Bombay High Court on Friday did not give any relief to Team Anna in hiring the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
(MMRDA) grounds on the Bandra-Kurla Complex here free of cost for Anna Hazare's threeday fast beginning on December 27.... Anna's fast may not be
satyagraha for all: Bombay HC IBNLive.com Anna Hazare to fast at Mumbai ground, Arvind Kejriwal says he has little faith... Times of India Team Anna launches online
campaign for 'jail bharo' agitation Economic Times Hindustan Times- Times Now.tvIndian Express all 448 news articles
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17
Twin suicide bombings kill 40 in Damascus: Syria

(Reuters: Top News)
has killed 5,000 people. "It's a new phase. We're getting militarized here," said Joshua By Erika Solomon Landis, a Syria expert at the BEIRUT| Fri Dec 23, 2011 University of Oklahoma who felt 12:51pm EST Friday's bombs were a "small (Reuters) - Suicide car bombers premonition" of what may come struck Damascus on Friday, in a country that some analysts officials said, killing 40 people, see slipping towards civil war. gutting buildings and sending " T h i s i s w h e n t h e S y r i a n h u m a n l i m b s f l y i n g i n t h e opposition is beginning to realize bloodiest violence seen in Syria's they are on their own," he added, capital since a revolt against referring to Western reluctance to President Bashar al-Assad began intervene militarily in Syria. nine months ago. "We're getting into a cycle of The attacks, which state media revenge. An eye for an eye." blamed on al Qaeda, targeted two State television said over 150 security compounds and came a people were wounded by the day after the arrival of Arab explosions. It broadcast footage of League officials to prepare for a mangled bodies being carried in monitoring team that will check blankets and stretchers into whether Assad is implementing a ambulances with sirens wailing. plan to end the bloodshed. The footage also showed Assad has unleashed tanks and bloodied streets littered with troops to try to crush a wave of human remains, blackened hulks street protest inspired by other of cars and other debris, as well as Arab uprisings this year. Mainly a row of corpses wrapped in p e a c e f u l r a l l i e s a r e n o w sheets laid along a street. increasingly eclipsed by an armed The television said the bombers insurgency against his military zeroed in on a state security and security apparatus. administration building and a But Friday's blasts in central local security branch. Damascus signaled a dramatic Syria has generally barred escalation in violence which foreign media from the country, Syrian authorities blame on armed making it hard to verify accounts groups they say have killed 2,000 of events from either side. soldiers and security force Foreign Ministry spokesman members this year. The United Jihad Makdesi said the attacks Nations says Assad's crackdown were carried out by "terrorists
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:51:15 AM
(trying) to sabotage the will for change" in Syria, and followed warnings from Lebanon that al Qaeda fighters had infiltrated Syria from Lebanese territory. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al Qaeda are Sunni Muslim militants. Assad and Syria's power elite belong to the Alawite branch of Shi'ite Islam while the majority of Syrians, including protesters and insurgents, are Sunnis. Assad's opponents said the attack could have been staged to drive home the government's argument. "We have all sorts of suspicions that this could be organized by the regime itself," said Basma Qadmani, spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council. "WAR IN SYRIA" But analysts said authorities were unlikely to have staged an attack that only serves to highlight their vulnerability. "There is a war going on in Syria now," said Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute in Beirut, saying various armed rebel or Islamist groups could have staged the bombings. The last serious attack of its kind in the tightly controlled Syrian capital was three years ago when a car bomb went off near a security complex, killing 17 civilians. That attack, for which Syrian
authorities blamed an Islamist suicide bomber using a car brought in from a unnamed neighboring Arab country the day before, was one of the biggest in Damascus since an Islamist militant campaign in the 1980s against Hafez al-Assad, late father of the current president. Hilal Khashan, a political scientist at the American University in Beirut, said neither the government nor al Qaeda were likely to have been responsible for Friday's attack. "When it comes to security in Damascus...the government does not play games," he said. "I think this is the symptom of desperation after so many Syrians have seen blood and death in the crushing of protests." The United Nations says Assad's forces have killed more than 5,000 people in their crackdown on the protests, which erupted in March instigated by uprisings that toppled autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya over the course of the year. The intensifying violence on both sides in Syria has raised fears that the country is drifting towards civil war. Downtown Damascus and Syria's second city Aleppo hitherto had largely escaped the turmoil now common in many other cities and towns. "First I heard an explosion and
then, all of a sudden, I saw human limbs flying everywhere," said one man interviewed by Syrian television near the site of the attack in Kafr Sousa. His head and face were covered in bandages. State media said the Arab League delegation, which will be seeking assurances of free movement for 150 monitors due to arrive in Syria by the end of the month, had visited the sites of the explosions to inspect the damage. The monitors are supposed to verify Syria's implementation of an Arab League peace plan it agreed six weeks ago, which stipulates a withdrawal of tanks and troops from the streets of protest-hit cities and towns and their surroundings, release of prisoners and reform-minded dialogue with the opposition. Arab League sources have said the advance team, led by top League official Samir Seif alYazal, comprises a dozen people, including financial, administrative and legal experts. Activists say Assad, 46, is still trying to suppress public dissent with military force despite being hit with European Union and Arab League sanctions, and his avowed commitment to the peace plan. TWIN page 23
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News Wire/
Time for Politics of Faith To Carry Message of Hope

(FOXNews.com)
undoubtedly helping to sustain millions of Americans this Christmas. With so many people feeling vulnerable and relying on FNC Fox News Political their faith heres a question: Why Analyst Juan Williams dont politicians treat personal faith as more than just another hot The Christmas season is a time to button to be pushed to get out reflect on the many blessings we votes and bring in money. are fortunate enough to enjoy in As a political reporter I have seen this great country. Like millions politicians take advantage of of Americans, I count my faith in people of faith by confusing God, my family and my country personal faith with a religious as blessings. groups political agenda. History Faith is a comfort as well as a is full of American politicians source of strength, a stabilizing who profess personal faith but run force in our lives especially ads full of lies about their during these hard economic times opponents, make racist appeals, when anxiety, debt, high rates of cheat on their wives, handout poverty [most tragically among public money to their political children] and unemployment allies [including some church abound. leaders] and make holding power According to a survey on religion into a false god. published by Baylor University in They take to the pulpit with September of this year, a clear cynical appeals to stop abortion, m a j o r i t y o f A m e r i c a n s , 7 3 end gay rights, and even claims to percent, agreed or strongly agreed be running because of a message with the statement God has a from God. plan for me. Of those who But that cynical, manipulative agreed that God has a plan for behavior by politicians has never them, 88 percent also agreed with caused me to lose faith. I am not t h e s t a t e m e n t a n y t h i n g i s embarrassed to say I believe in possible for those who work hard God. I believe in Jesus as Gods and 96 percent said they felt that son. I also believe in the Holy government was doing too much Spirit. And Christmas, Passover to interfere in peoples lives. or July 4th, I believe God loves The personal faith that God has a the world and is watching over us. plan and, no matter how bad If I am a sucker to be so full of things get it will all work out, is faith in God at least I am not
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:36:32 AM
qualifications, asking how can you have judgment if you dont have faith and how can I trust you with power if you dont pray? And organized religion as opposed to expressions of personal faith is playing a key role in the GOP presidential primary as we speak. Are Christian conservative activists skeptical of Mitt Romney because of his Mormon faith? Will evangelicals in Iowa overlook Newt Gingrichs previous marriages when they cast their alone. According to the most God (71 percent and 17 percent, vote in the Caucuses in three recent Gallup poll on faith respectively). Americans are the weeks? Will the Baptists help to published in 2010 80 percent of most religious people of any deliver an upset victory for Americans say their religion is population in the western world. Santorum or Bachmann in South either very important or fairly Yet, a dramatic 70 percent, in the Carolina? important in their own life. The Gallup poll, say religion is losing This year, I wrote a best-selling same survey found that 30 percent its influence in American life - [I book called Muzzled The of Americans reported going to suspect most of those people are Assault on Honest Debate about religious services at least once a seniors who are also likely the culture of runaway political week. voters]. correctness which has made The Pew Forum on Religion on And politicians have been honest debate about the most Public Life reports that 82 percent shaping messages to appeal to this pressing national issues all the of Americans say religion is either worry. more difficult. Organized religion very important or somewhat Rick Perry, in Iowa, has been use of political correct thinking is important in their children (56 calling on them to resist the part of that story because the p e r c e n t a n d 2 6 p e r c e n t , politically correct police and Constitution, not any religious respectively). Pew estimates that bring their faith into public book, including the Bible, is the 79% of the American people are arena. Perry held a prayer right document for political Christians. Within that majority, meeting in a Texas stadium before guidance in a nation founded on 26% are Evangelical Protestant, he started his campaign. That t h e p r i n c i p l e o f r e l i g i o u s 24% are Catholic and 18% are does not look like a man who is diversity. And personal faith is Mainline Protestants. Pew also afraid to bring prayer into the more than just another political s a y s t h a t 8 8 % p e r c e n t o f public arena. Newt Gingrich is Americans are either absolutely declaring religion to be a central TIME page 23 or fairly certain that there is a part of a presidential candidates
News Wire/
19
In ad for newsletter, Ron Paul forecast "race war"

(Reuters: Top News)
president, is under fire over reports that his newsletters contained racist, anti-homosexual Ron Paul sits in his vehicle after and anti-Israel rants. speaking during a town hall Reports of the newsletters' meeting in Mount Pleasant, Iowa contents have Paul's campaign December 21, 2011. scrambling to deny that he wrote Credit: Reuters/Joshua Lott the inflammatory articles. By Mark Hosenball and Samuel Among other things, the articles P. Jacobs called the Rev. Martin Luther WASHINGTON| Fri Dec 23, K i n g J r . a " w o r l d - c l a s s 2011 8:56am EST philanderer," criticized the U.S. ( R e u t e r s ) - A d i r e c t - m a i l holiday bearing King's name as s o l i c i t a t i o n f o r R o n P a u l ' s "Hate Whitey Day," and said that p o l i t i c a l a n d i n v e s t m e n t AIDS sufferers "enjoy the newsletters two decades ago attention and pity that comes with warned of a "coming race war in being sick." our big cities" and of a "federal- As Paul made a campaign stop in homosexual cover-up" to play Manchester, Iowa, on Thursday, down the impact of AIDS. his Iowa chairman, Drew Ivers, The eight-page letter, which repeated Paul's assertions that he appears to carry Paul's signature did not write the articles that at the end, also warns that the resurfaced this week in a report in U.S. government's redesign of the Weekly Standard magazine. currency to include different Paul has said that he is not sure c o l o r s - a m o v e a i m e d a t who wrote the articles that were thwarting counterfeiters - actually published under his name. He has was part of a plot to allow the said the articles do not reflect his government to track Americans views, and noted that his public using the "new money." stances - supporting gays in the The letter urges readers to military for example - have run subscribe to Paul's newsletters so c o u n t e r t o t h e i n c e n d i a r y that he could "tell you how you statements in the newsletters. can save yourself and your In an interview with CNN's family" from an overbearing Gloria Borger on Wednesday, government. Paul said of the newsletter's The letter's details emerge at a articles: "I didn't write them. I time when Paul, now a contender didn't read them at the time and I for the Republican nomination for disavow them."
Submitted at 12/23/2011 7:56:31 AM
When Borger continued to pursue the subject, Paul removed his microphone and walked out of the interview. "It is ridiculous to imply that Ron Paul is a bigot, racist, or unethical," Ivers said. However, Ivers said, Paul does not deny or retract material that Paul has written under his own signature, such as the letter promoting Paul's newsletters. When asked whether that meant Paul believed there was a government conspiracy to cover up the impact of AIDS, Ivers said, "I don't think he embraces that." Paul's newsletters "showed good factual information and investment information," Ivers said. "It was a public service, helping people understand and equip them to avoid an unsound monetary policy." "EXTRAORDINARY SOURCES" The letter promoting Paul's newsletters was written about 1993. It was during a period in which Paul - who left Congress in 1985 after serving about eight years - returned to Washington after a decade's absence. (For a PDF of the solicitation letter see link.reuters.com/vud75s) The letter was provided to Reuters by James Kirchick, a contributing editor for The New Republic magazine. He says he
found the letter in archives of political literature maintained by the University of Kansas and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Early in the 2008 presidential campaign - in which Paul was a candidate - Kirchick published an article in The New Republic in which he described Paul as "not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing - but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics." The letter promoting Paul's newsletters claims that Paul through what he describes as a network of "extraordinary sources" in Congress, the White House, the Treasury and Justice departments, the Federal Reserve and the Internal Revenue Service - had acquired unique insider information that would his subscribers to "neutralize" the plans of "powerbrokers." Paul's letter went on to describe various plots and schemes that he had "unmasked," including a "plot for world government, world money and world central banking." He also claimed to have exposed a plan by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to "suspend the Constitution" in a falsely declared national emergency. Despite being "told not to talk,"
Paul wrote that his newsletters also "laid bare" the "Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica," and a "federalhomosexual cover-up on AIDS." Paul claimed that his "training as a physician" helped him "see through" this alleged cover-up. Paul also suggested that a planned U.S. currency with new notes designed to curb counterfeiting and money laundering would result in the distribution of "totalitarian bills" that "were tinted pink and blue and brown, and blighted with holograms, diffraction gratings, metal and plastic threads and chemical alarms." Paul said the money was designed to allow authorities to "keep track of American cash and American citizens." He urged the letter's readers to send in $99, which would buy subscriptions to his monthly political and investment newsletters, a copy of his book "Surviving the New Money," an investment manual and access to the "unlisted phone number of my Financial Hotline for fast breaking news." (Additional reporting by Samuel P. Jacobs in Manchester, Iowa; Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Walsh) FOR page 20
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News Wire/
Congress passes payroll tax deal

(Reuters: Top News)
inconclusive truce in a fiscal policy debate set to rage straight through the 2012 election season House Speaker John Boehner and beyond. departs after announcing an Minutes after the bipartisan deal agreement on the extension of the was passed by Congress, the payroll tax holiday during a news bickering that has come to conference at the U.S. Capitol, dominate Capitol Hill resumed. December 22, 2011. Republican Representative Tom Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Price, a leader of House By Richard Cowan and Rachelle c o n s e r v a t i v e s , i m m e d i a t e l y Younglai criticized the short-term WASHINGTON| Fri Dec 23, extension, calling it a "two-month 2011 12:30pm EST punt" and saying it would not (Reuters) - Congress approved a have been needed if Senate t w o - m o n t h p a y r o l l t a x c u t Majority Leader Harry Reid, a extension on Friday, capping an Democrat, and President Barack exhausting year of partisan Obama had "been willing to do warfare over taxes and spending their job today." that will resume in January, with Democratic and Republican the economy barely scratching out leaders are expected to begin a recovery and elections on the negotiating a full-year deal in horizon. January. Both parties remain The Senate and the House of deeply divided over how to pay Representatives, by swift voice for it votes in chambers nearly emptied In a sign that the battle is far for the holidays, passed a $33 from over, Reid signaled that billion measure to keep the Democrats could renew their push payroll tax rate at 4.2 percent f o r a s u r t a x o n w e a l t h i e r through February. It had been Americans to cover the cost of the slated to increase on January 1 to e x t e n s i o n . D e m o c r a t s h a d 6.2 percent. dropped that demand during the The temporary fix lets lawmakers y e a r - e n d n e g o t i a t i o n s t h a t lower the curtain, for now, on produced the two-month deal. weeks of partisan deadlock that in "There is nothing off the table," the end produced only another he said when asked about the tax
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:30:19 AM
on millionaires. "There should be a fair tax on rich people," he added. Republicans overwhelmingly oppose raising tax rates for anyone, including the wealthy, and want to pay for the extension with deeper spending cuts. The temporary payroll tax cut extension gave Obama and the Democrats a political win over House Republicans. They had dug in their heels against the shortterm deal on the insistence of Tea Party-aligned fiscally conservative members, but in the end they had to back down. Any edge conferred on Democrats by the victory might be short-lived, with the 2012 election cycle set to kick off with the Iowa Republican presidential caucus on January 3. There is a long road ahead until voters go to polls in November. The $33 billion needed to pay for the two-month extension will be raised by increasing fees charged by housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing mortgages. Analysts said the fee hike, which investors will likely pass along to borrowers, could raise financing costs for mortgages, but probably not enough to slow a housing
market recovery. Unemployment benefits that had been set to expire soon were extended as well, while cuts in payments to doctors who treat patients in the government-backed Medicare health insurance program for the elderly were postponed, under the measures. Also included was a Republican initiative aiming to force the Obama administration into fast approval of an oil pipeline opposed by environmentalists and many Democrats. The provision gives Obama 60 days to either approve TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline running from Canada to Gulf of Mexico facilities in Texas, or declare it not in the national interest. Obama wants more time to evaluate the environmental impact of routing the pipeline through sensitive areas of Nebraska. The White House has said that if pushed to make a decision within 60 days, the administration would be forced to reject the project. An increase in the payroll tax would have hit the wallets of 160 million U.S. workers at a time of high unemployment and deep voter dissatisfaction with the tax system, the shape of the economy
and the way Congress conducts itself. Analysts had warned that not renewing the tax cut could jeopardize the recovery, perhaps even risking another recession. But the modest two-month fix drew fire from some businesses for complicating their payroll processing and tax planning, while critics said it was bad tax policy that causes uncertainty. The two-month deal came after lawmakers were unable to agree on ways to offset the costs of a full-year payroll tax cut extension. The temporary extension legislation was expected to be sent to Obama to sign into law before December 31. (Reporting by Richard Cowan, Rachelle Younglai, Patrick Temple-West and Ayesha Raschoe. Writing By Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Ross Colvin and Eric Beech) 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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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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21
Mom Says School Stuffed Autistic Son in Duffle Bag

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:36:32 AM
AP December 22, 2011: Kentucky mother Sandra Baker, left, sits with her son, Christopher, and husband, Scottie at Sandras home, in Harrodsburg, Ky. LOUISVILLE, Ky. A 9-yearold autistic boy who misbehaved at school was stuffed into a duffel bag and the drawstring pulled tight, according to his mother, who said she found him wiggling inside as a teacher's aide stood by. The mother of fourth-grader Christopher Baker said her son called out to her when she walked up to him in the bag Dec. 14. The case has spurred an online petition calling for the firing of school employees responsible. "He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway," Chris' mother, Sandra Baker, said Thursday. She did not know how exactly how long he had been in the bag, but probably not more than 20 minutes. Mercer County schools Interim Superintendent Dennis Davis said confidentiality laws forbid him from commenting. "The employees of the Mercer County Public Schools are qualified professionals who treat
students with respect and dignity while providing a safe and nurturing learning environment," Davis said in a statement. State education officials said they were investigating. Chris is a student at Mercer County Intermediate School in Harrodsburg in central Kentucky. The day had barely begun when his family was called to the school because Chris was acting up. He is enrolled in a program for students with special needs. Walking toward his classroom, Baker's mother saw the gym bag. There was a small hole at the top, she said, and she heard a familiar voice. "Momma, is that you?" Chris said, according to his mother. A teacher's aide was there, and Baker demanded that her son be released. At first, the aide struggled to undo the drawstring, but the boy was pulled out of the bag, which had some small balls inside and resembled a green Army duffel bag, Baker said. "When I got him out of the bag, his poor little eyes were as big as half dollars and he was sweating," Baker said. "I tried to talk to him and get his side of the reason they put him in there, and he said it was because he wouldn't do his work." Baker said when school officials
accounts about her son's behavior that day. Baker stopped short of calling for the dismissal of school employees, but she said they should be suspended. They also need more training, she said. In Kentucky, there are no laws on using restraint or seclusion in public schools, according to documents on the state Department of Education's website. A July letter from the state agency to special education called the family to pick him up, change.org. Lydia Brown, an directors said the state had they were told he was "jumping autistic 18-year-old Georgetown i n v e s t i g a t e d t w o i n f o r m a l off the walls." Days later, at a University freshman from Boston, c o m p l a i n t s t h i s y e a r . meeting with school officials, said she started it after reading a In one, "a student (was) nearly Baker said she was told the boy story about Chris. asphyxiated while being had smirked at the teacher when "That would not be wrong just for restrained," and in the other, a he was told to put down a an autistic student. That would be student vomited from panic basketball, then threw it across the wrong to do to anyone," Brown attacks after spending most of an room. said. academic year "confined to a At a meeting with school district Advocates for the autistic were closet, with no ventilation or officials, the bag was described as outraged. outside source of light," according a "therapy bag," Baker said, Landon Bryce of San Jose, Calif., to the letter. though she wasn't clear exactly a former teacher who blogs about Baker's case was first reported by what that meant. She said her son issues related to autism, said the WLEX and WKYT. would sometimes be asked to roll school's treatment of Chris was This entry passed through the over a bag filled with balls as a "careless and disrespectful." Full-Text RSS service if this is form of therapy, but she didn't "A lot of the damage that we do to your content and you're reading it know her son was being placed in s t u d e n t s w i t h a l l k i n d s o f on someone else's site, please read the bag. She said school officials disabilities is by treating them as the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contenttold her it was not the first time though they deserve to be treated only/faq.php#publishers. Five they had put him in the bag. in a way that's different from Filters recommends: Donate to So far, almost 700 people have other people," Bryce said. Wikileaks. signed a petition on the website Baker said she heard different
22
News Wire/
House OKs Two-Month Extension Of Payroll Tax Cut, Jobless Benefits

(FOXNews.com)
began last Saturday when House Republicans refused to take up the Senate's two-month extension. Despite continued grumbling AP Shown here are House among rank-and-file House Speaker John Boehner, left, and Republicans, nobody from the Senate Democratic Leader Harry caucus formally objected to the Reid. bill when it was brought up Friday morning. Boehner was able to win Congress on Friday approved a a couple minor concessions -two-month extension of the namely, the assurance to start payroll tax cut, averting a tax hike n e g o t i a t i o n s o n a y e a r l o n g with a no-drama vote following a package and a provision to help week of partisan deadlock. small businesses deal with the The House and Senate, taking up mechanics of a short-term tax the tax cut deal struck by party holiday without much fuss. leaders the day before, each Still, the outcome was swiftly approved the package in a matter cast as a victory for Democrats, of minutes, sending it to the who were adamant that the House president's desk. The bill keeps pass the two-month extension the payroll tax rate at 4.2 percent, now and leave the broader meaning a family making $50,000 n e g o t i a t i o n s o n a y e a r l o n g would be spared an increase of p a c k a g e f o r l a t e r . roughly $40 per paycheck. The President Obama and others said package also extends long-term this was the only way to ensure unemployment insurance and taxes don't go up on Jan. 1. prevents a deep cut in payments to "This is good news, just in time d o c t o r s w h o s e e M e d i c a r e for the holidays," Obama said in a patients. written statement Thursday night. Under the terms of the agreement "This is real money that will make struck between House Speaker a real difference in people's lives." J o h n B o e h n e r a n d S e n a t e As Democrats got their way, Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Republicans in the House were both chambers will next send n o t s h y a b o u t e x p r e s s i n g negotiators to hammer out a disappointment with the way yearlong package in early 2012. things played out. Republicans The deal ends the standoff that had wanted to discard the Senate's
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:36:32 AM
two-month extension -- describing it as a stopgap measure that only fuels uncertainty in the economy - and work overtime over the holidays to come up with a yearlong extension. At least one lawmaker said Boehner's speakership could be at risk over his handling of the standoff. Another said Republican members "never would have gone along" with the deal. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., slammed the agreement. "I cannot support this, but it seems the politics of demagoguery have won over policy and principle with the concession to enact tax policy on two-month basis," he said on his Facebook page.
West and other opponents, though, did not formally object to the House vote. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., another critic of the deal, suggested in a statement that he was looking to focus his energy on the upcoming debate over the yearlong deal. "Tonight I share the same feeling of frustration that constituents from throughout the Third District have expressed to me over the past several months," he said. "However, it has strengthened my resolve to go back into session in January to fight even harder to reform Washington's reckless fiscal policies and advance an economic growth agenda that will benefit all Americans." Looking ahead to the next stage in the process, Reid named his
side's negotiators Friday -- Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Jack Reed, DR.I.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa. "They're going to work expeditiously to come up with a long-term arrangement," Reid said Friday. House Democrats also named their negotiators -- Reps. Sander Levin, D-Mich.; Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; and Xavier Becerra, DCalif. Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report. Related Stories Congress Approves Payroll Tax Cut Related Video House GOP Agrees to Extend Payroll Tax Cut Bill expected to pass by unanimous consent Related Video Betrayed by Boehner? Some Republicans feel 'like Charlie Brown with a football' after the last-minute compromise on the payroll tax cut extension 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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TIME
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Assad's forces carried out major assaults in the northern and southern provinces this week, apparently trying to quell serious opposition to strengthen his hand before the monitors settle in. Syrian troops surrounded and killed 111 people on Tuesday in the northern province of Idlib, in the deadliest single assault since the uprising erupted, according to the Observatory. France called Tuesday's killings in Idlib an "unprecedented massacre." The United States said Syrian authorities had "flagrantly violated their commitment to end violence" while Assad's former ally Turkey condemned Syria's policy of "oppression which has
turned the country into a bloodbath." Damascus says more than 1,000 prisoners have been freed since the Arab plan was agreed and the army has pulled out of cities. Anti -Assad activists deny any such pullout has occurred. The government has promised a parliamentary election early next year as well as constitutional reform that might loosen the Baath Party's 48-year grip on power. Syrian pro-democracy activists are deeply skeptical about Assad's commitment to the plan. If implemented, it could embolden demonstrators demanding an end to his 11-year rule, which followed three decades of domination by his father.
The British-based Avaaz rights group said on Thursday it had evidence of more than 6,237 deaths of civilians and security forces in the conflict, 617 of them under torture. At least 400 of the dead were children, it said. (Additional reporting and writing by Dominic Evans) 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.
football to be kicked around in the game of politics. It is too important. Calls for Christian compassion, forgiveness and understanding can never be forced on all Americans as a matter of federal or state law. As we prepare for the rough and tumble of politics during next years presidential election, we could all stand to learn something from the teachings of the one whose birth we celebrate this time of year. I wish all of the wonderful readers of FoxNews.com a very merry Christmas and a happy, new year. Ill close with a passage from Romans, 15:13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Juan Williams is a writer, author and Fox News political analyst. His latest book "Muzzled: The Assault On Honest Debate" (Crown/Random House) was released in July. 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 The deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers during U.S. airstrike late last month was the result of communications failures by both camps, concluded a Pentagon investigation into the matter published Thursday. The
Pakistani troops were killed in a NATO airstrike near [...] Khmer Rouge soldiers, ordered to execute without wasting bullets, forced tortured captives to dig their own mass graves, hoping to wrest the last shimmer of life from their [...] Annoyed with the way protests in Wukan attracted international attention and forced concessions from the regime, the responsible
Party secretary has responded angrily. In an effort to stand up to local Communist Party officials, a group of young activists have harnessed the Internet and initiated innovative, peaceful protests in the small [...] Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was at his wit's end. He felt he had nobody to turn to, nobody who would listen, and
nobody who would accept him. It was in this [...] 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.
Filming the Lincoln MKS Launch at the LA Auto Show (SPONSORED) (TrendHunter.com)
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Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:58:30 PM
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Amid Political Turmoil, The Realist Prism: South Korea Faces Kim Toward a Color Revolution in Russia? Jong Il's Death
(World Politics Review: Articles)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:38:00 AM
Wind farms still to win over fans Newcastle Herald

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:31:28 AM
(World Politics Review: Articles)
Azerbaijan and Belarus. While Russian Prime Minister Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:38:00 AM Vladimir Putin and other Russian Another round of protests is government officials have darkly scheduled for Russia on Saturday, warned about Western efforts to raising the question of whether a fund protest movements, the color revolution, this one reality, as events in Egypt have c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y t h e shown over the past year, is that demonstrators white ribbons, outside assistance has an impact c a p a b l e o f t o p p l i n g t h e only at the margins. For a major government is in the cards. Media political shift to take place in attention invariably focuses on Russia over the next several mass demonstrations, banner- months, several preconditions waving crowds and Twitter-savvy must be in place. ... organizers, yet what happens This entry passed through the behind the scenes is usually much Full-Text RSS service if this is more important to the outcome of your content and you're reading it such movements. Protests are not on someone else's site, please read enough, and for all the color the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentrevolutions that succeeded over only/faq.php#publishers. Five the past decade -- in Serbia, Filters recommends: Donate to Georgia and Ukraine -- there were Wikileaks. also some glaring failures, as in
Though the South Korean media often refers to Lee as a lame duck president, he is still in Kim Jong Ils death and apparent charge and is unlikely to make replacement by his 20-something any changes to how the North is son, Kim Jong Un, has introduced dealt with. His first decision in a potentially potent new variable this new era was whether or not to into South Korean politics at a offer condolences on Kim Jong time when the Souths traditional Ils passing. He decided not to political parties are dissolving. send official condolences to the This vulnerability may tempt the regime, though he did make a North to engage in aggressive statement of sympathy to the provocation, while making it North Korean people. ... difficult for the South to respond This entry passed through the cohesively. Full-Text RSS service if this is For the time being, both capitals your content and you're reading it are likely to maintain the status on someone else's site, please read quo. South Koreas policy toward the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentthe North is set by its executive, only/faq.php#publishers. Five composed of South Korean Filters recommends: Donate to President Lee Myung-bak and Wikileaks. Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik.
Telegraph.co.uk Wind farms still to win over fans Newcastle Herald BY MATTHEW KELLY, ENVIRONMENT REPORTER UPPER Hunter residents are more likely to support energy produced from coal than wind farms, government research shows. A survey of 30000 Upper Hunter residents found more than half expressed concern about... Australian state launches world's toughest wind turbine laws Telegraph.co.uk NSW gets world's toughest wind farm rules Sydney Morning Herald NSW unveils tough new wind farm guidelines ABC Online The Australian- Herald Sun- The Daily Telegraph all 53 news articles
Fugitive Naden may be looking for guns - Newcastle Herald

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:31:32 AM
Brisbane Times Fugitive Naden may be looking for guns Newcastle Herald
POLICE are worried the state's most wanted man Malcolm Naden may try to re-arm himself as he tries to stay on the run through dense bushland in the Barrington Tops. Assistant Commissioner Carlene York yesterday urged all
gun owners in Northern NSW to... Police warn bush fugitive Malcolm Naden is on the hunt for firepower NEWS.com.au We'll catch up with Mitchell Naden, say police The Australian Manhunters ready to give up the
ghost in the hunt for fugitive Malcolm Naden The Daily Telegraph Herald Sun- Sydney Morning Herald- ABC Online all 197 news articles
World News/ Technology/
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Primary school teachers resign after Facebook insults about pupils - The Guardian
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:02:53 PM
Summons to Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Youtube for hosting objectionable content - Economic Times
The Guardian Primary school teachers resign after Facebook insults about pupils The Guardian Two teachers have left a primary school at the centre of a Facebook row in which derogatory remarks about pupils were posted, Hull council said on Friday. Former head Debbie Johnson and teacher
Nyanza Roberts left Westcott primary school after an... Teachers resign after Facebook row The Press Association Hull head teacher quits after school brands locals 'thick' on Facebook' Yorkshire Post Hull primary school teachers resign after Facebook comments BBC News Hull Daily Mail all 133 news articles
allegedly webcasting objectionable contents.... Objectionable content: Google, NDTV Facebook, Yahoo get court Summons to Facebook, Google, summons Times of India Yahoo and Youtube for hosting Court summons executives of 19 objectionable content social networking sites for Economic Times webcasting... NDTV NEW DELHI: In yet another Local Indian court summons blow to 21 social networking sites Google, Yahoo!: report AFP including Facebook, Microsoft, India Today- Reuters Google, Yahoo and Youtube, a all 86 news articles Delhi court today issued summons to them for facing trial for
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:27:55 AM
Ex-councillor Robert Payne jailed for killing kittens - BBC News

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:57:03 AM
Mind your comments, All-clear on Jack deal PM tells India Inc. - can't be taken seriously - Stock Journal The Hindu
shropshirestar.com Ex-councillor Robert Payne jailed for killing kittens BBC News A former city councillor who killed four kittens in scenes "unimaginable cruelty" has been jailed. Robert Payne, 36, who represented the Keighley West ward of Bradford Council, West Yorkshire, swung the four-monthold cats round his house.... Ex-councillor jailed for cat deaths The Press Association Cruel cat killer jailed The Sun all 150 news articles
comments only added to the uncertainty and emboldened those Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:33:37 AM who had no... The Hindu PM strikes back at industry Mind your comments, PM tells critics Hindustan Times India Inc. PM to India Inc: Negative The Hindu comments disappointing NDTV Prime Minister Manmohan Singh India PM says growth hurt by slammed India Inc. for making 'negative comments' BBC News unwanted and hasty negative Economic Times- IBNLive.comremarks on government policies, Times of India reforms agenda and economic all 111 news articles situation and warned that such
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:58:16 AM
Sydney Morning Herald All-clear on Jack deal can't be taken seriously Stock Journal LATE on Thursday, the AFL issued a media release giving the all-clear to the abnormal recruitment by Sydney, in late
2005, of Kieren Jack. Jack had been a non-participant in the 2005 national draft, a fact that - under normal circumstances - would have... Jack, Swans cleared by League AFL.com AFL happy with rookie drafting of Jack The Roar all 16 news articles
Selena Gomez talks tech with TUAW page 26 only Before SELENA probably 2011, you
knew who Selena Gomez was if
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SELENA
you had teenagers or younger children. But this year the young woman who plays Alex on Disney's Emmy Award-winning Wizards of Waverly Place has made her way into the mainstream spotlight. In the last twelve months she's starred in her second feature film, been hounded endlessly by paparazzi because she's dating one of music's biggest stars, was active in her role as a UNICEF ambassador, released (with her band) her third studio album while touring around the globe with them, and hosted the EMAs. And almost as if she's trying to squeeze everything possible into this year, she'll be working until the stroke of midnight on December 31st in New York where she'll be performing at MTV's live New Year's Eve special. Disney has also announced that the series finale of Wizards of Waverly Place will air in early January. All that would be a lot for anyone, yet there's still one more thing that Selena has done this year. This past November the 19year-old pop star from Texas also became a tech venture capitalist. Along with CrossCut Ventures and a group of ten other seasoned investors, she took part in a first round of funding for the iPhone and Android app Postcard on the Run. The app, which I reviewed a few days ago, lets users turn any digital image on their iPhone into a physical postcard that can be instantly sent to anyone in the world.
I've recently been finishing up a book on the cult of celebrity in America (and for research, reading way more Daily Mail gossip than could possibly be considered healthy), so when I saw Selena Gomez's name pop up on one of my tech news feeds instead my celebrity news feeds, I was taken aback. The November announcement said that Selena had become an investor in an iPhone app. But for the life of me I couldn't figure out why a nineteen year old who has so much other stuff going for her right now felt the need to do something so -- well, compared to all she's done -- so relatively small; not to mention something most others in the tech industry don't do until their late 20s or early 30s. Don't get me wrong, Postcard on the Run is a very good app. It's actually one of my favorites. But that's all it is -- a single app. And if you're doing it for the money, why not invest in a bigger app, or a developer who has lots of apps? I mean, Ashton Kutcher I get. He's another celebrity who is also a prominent tech VC. But his strategy is fairly obvious. Lots of investments (not to mention endorsement deals with techfriendly companies like Nikon). Big portfolio. Big profits. But a single app with a first time developer? And at 19? So I contacted Selena's representatives and she agreed to an interview with me early last week. What I found out was something all of us reading this
are familiar with. It's why some of us are developers and all of us are users. You get into it because you love the product. Because you can't stop talking about it and you want to be part of it -- any way you can. That's exactly what happened to Selena. In September she was stuck on her tour bus between performances; she came across Postcard on the Run in the App Store and started sending postcards with it. "I have my iPhone with my all the time that's why I think Postcard on the Run is such a great concept. The one thing people have with them at all times is their phone and the app makes it so easy to send cards and keep in touch with people in a more personal way," she tells me. "I got excited about something and wanted to be a part of it." At first I think "what's wrong with email?" but then, perhaps channeling a bit of my mother, I do have to admit a physical note is more personal than an electronic one. I ask Selena if she thinks there's room for both traditional and electronic greetings in the future? Does one mean more to her than another? "I really think it can be a combination of both," she says. "There's something really nice and special about sending and receiving mail the old fashioned way. Who doesn't like getting things in the mail?" A Twitter fan base of 9 million. Check. 25 million "Likes" on Facebook. Check. Likes to wait for something in the mail? Uh, check.
Who knew? After deciding she wanted to get involved it was time to contact the app's creator, Josh Brooks. I ask her if Josh thought someone was playing a prank on him at first. I mean, if I got an email from "Selena Gomez" saying she wanted to help any way she could on my next book project, I wouldn't take it too seriously. She laughs at my question, but shrugs off the suggestion. "I actually talked to my stepdad about it and he and I reached out to Josh directly," she says. "But yeah, Josh was pretty excited." For his part, Josh tells me that he didn't disbelieve the email, but he did admit to using Google for what it does best. "And so I checked it out and everything made sense. It was way interesting and we had a couple more emails and then hopped on the phone." When asked how long it took from that first email to the time she officially came on board Selena says, "Not very long at all. I guess it took three or four weeks." But the timing turned out to be serendipitous. Before Selena contacted Josh, he already had a number of angel investors committed along with CrossCut Ventures, and they were looking to finish up the financing so he could take the app further. Though Selena nor Josh are releasing individual investment numbers, the closing round that Selena invested in was $750,000. I asked Selena why so many
celebrities seem to be getting into tech investing. From an app developer's standpoint, it's good press. But besides financial incentive, is there any other reason for the celebrity to do it? "I can't speak for others but for me, having grown up in the 'digital age' it feels like a natural," she says. "I'm always on the go, and the one thing always with me is my phone and I'm excited about being part of a technology that helps people stay in touch in a real way. Postcard on the Run's technology has the added benefit of working in conjunction with projects or initiatives I'm working on directly." As she tells me about the features of the app, you can tell her love for Postcard on the Run is clear. "I genuinely like [POTR's] approach to the online/offline space. It's super simple -- that's key." Like anyone else, I understand liking a product and wanting to get involved, but I ask Selena what an actress and singer could bring to an iPhone app? Especially one that had it's territory invaded by Apple and its Cards app. I mean, she's already conquered television, movies, and music. Did she really feel like she needed another challenge? But this is where she gets back to that something no one can argue with: "I don't think it's as much about taking on Cupertino, but creating a product that people will use, love and share." SELENA page 32
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What You Need to Know About SOPA in 2012

Dan Rowinski (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:43:00 AM
infringing on intellectual property. The bill is tailored towards the entertainment industry to protect The Internet is in an uproar over movie studios, TV networks and the Stop Online Piracy Act. The record labels from having foreign battles lines are drawn. Big Media websites illegally copying and (the record labels, movie studios distributing copyrighted works. and TV networks) support the bill Along with the Protect IP Act of while Big Tech (search engines, 2011, here are the ways the U.S. open source platforms, social government can enforce the networks) oppose it. The bill, proposed laws. 1. Force ISPs to i n t r o d u c e d t o C o n g r e s s b y block access to Domain Name Representative Lamar Smith, is System servers to infringing ostensibly supposed to give the foreign sites. Here is the pertinent Attorney General the ability to portion of Section 102 of SOPA: eliminate Internet piracy and to A service provider shall take "protect U.S. customers and t e c h n i c a l l y f e a s i b l e a n d prevent U.S. support of infringing reasonable measures designed to sites." prevent access by its subscribers There is a lot that may be wrong located within the United States to with SOPA, but putting the power the foreign infringing site (or to censor the Internet into the portion thereof) that is subject to hands of the government is chief the order, including measures among citizens' concerns. The law designed to prevent the domain would force Internet Service name of the foreign infringing site Providers and search engines to ( o r p o r t i o n t h e r e o f ) f r o m cut off access to infringing sites as resolving to that domain name's well as give the government the Internet Protocol address. ability to stop payment to those 2. Force search providers to make sites. How would SOPA work? such sites that have been flagged What do you need to know about as infringing undiscoverable. the bill heading into 2012? We Prevent the foreign infringing site take a deep dive into everything that is subject to the order, or a you need to know below. portion of such site specified in Sponsor the order, from being served as a How SOPA Would Work direct hypertext link. SOPA(bill text) sets up a variety 3. Force payments processors to of ways for the U.S. government s h u t d o w n t h e a b i l i t y f o r to block sites that are seen to be infringing sites to make money.
PayPal would also have to comply with notices to cease payments. As would VISA, MasterCard, American Express and other payment processors. Both Visa and MasterCard are on record for supporting SOPA. Most of the ISPs are onboard with SOPA, including ComCast. That creates an interesting scenario as ComCast also owns NBC. If the power to block infringing sites is left with the S u s p e n d i t s s e r v i c e f r o m ISPs, who is to tell them that they completing payment transactions cannot block content that is involving customers located perceived to be competing with its within the United States or subject own? Who Supports SOPA? to the jurisdiction of the United Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of States and the payment account. the House Judiciary Committee: 4. Force Internet advertisers to Smith's office wrote the bill and cease doing business with an he is the primary sponsor. infringing site. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of P r e v e n t i t s s e r v i c e f r o m the subcommittee on intellectual providing advertisements to or property, competition and the relating to the foreign infringing Internet of the House judiciary site that is subject to the order or a committee. portion of such site specified in Rep. Mel Watts, ranking member the order. of the subcommittee on Who would be affected by these intellectual property, competition mandates from the Attorney and the Internet of the House General? Foremost, Google. Items judiciary committee. Watts was 2-4 would directly relate to the congressman that made the properties owned or maintained c o m m e n t s a b o u t n o t by the search giant. Google is the understanding how the Internet largest search provider on the works. planet and has the largest Internet Rep. Howard Berman, member advertising business. It also acts subcommittee on intellectual in conjunction with payment property, competition and the p r o c e s s o r s f o r i t s G o o g l e Internet of the House judiciary Checkout application.
committee. In addition to those four members of the House Judiciary, the Recording Industry Association of America, Most Picture Association of America, most of Hollywood and its various labor organizations (like the Directors Guild), support SOPA. Gizmodo published the full list of companies that have signed on for support of SOPA. GoDaddy.com is a prominent name as it is a company with its fundamental nature tied to DNS. Prominent names include: Comcast, ABC, ESPN, CBS, Teamsters, Major League Baseball, Sony, Time Warner, Viacom and Warner Music. Who Is Against SOPA? Almost all of the major tech corporations are against SOPA. TechCrunch came up with a list of 40 companies that are opposing the bill and the companies that we would think would oppose it are present. That includes: Facebook, Google, eBay/ PayPal, Foursquare, Kaspersky, Reddit, Mozilla, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo, Scribd, Quora, Github, Square, AOL. In terms of politicos, the only major GOP presidential candidate to touch on the issue is Rep. Michelle Bachmann. WHAT page 30
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VMware's Gaetan Castelein: Transitioning to Disaster Avoidance

Scott M. Fulton, III (ReadWriteWeb)
backup, and backup to tape - and the problem when you do that is, your recovery times are really Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:00:00 AM long. You can lose a day's worth The evolution of VMware's of data, and it can take you a disaster recovery guidance for week to recover your application customers is taking it in a in the event of a disaster." direction that is actually less In other words, larger enterprises focused on the disaster itself, and use larger data (of course). But more on business continuity. tape, which is still in use in T h a t ' s c h a n g i n g t h e v e r y financial institutions everywhere, economics of disaster recovery is tape. When you're measuring (DR) software itself, according to backup times with something VMware infrastructure product bigger than an egg timer, the size manager Gaetan Castelein. of the job typically forces I n a n i n t e r v i e w w i t h administrators to do the job less ReadWriteWeb, Castelein said often. As a result, a business that DR used to be a common impact analysis would reveal that process mainly for big enterprises. the impact of a disaster would be But as businesses everywhere are greater, on account of the fact that learning that disaster avoidance the amount of data lost would be processes cut down on costs, the proportional to the increased time subsequent cost of implementing between backups. DR comes down as well - and that Redesigning data centers for brings more businesses into the closer proximity between storage mix. points, and using storage-based Sponsor applications to manage those Thinking ahead about thinking points, Castelein says, creates ahead situations where a power outage "Disaster recovery is absolutely might result in only an hour's b e c o m i n g m u c h m o r e worth of immediate data loss, ubiquitous," Castelein tells RWW. which might only take that long to "It used to be that organizations recover. would apply disaster recovery just "When you talk about the need to to a small percentage of their have more resilience, what we're applications, and mostly deployed seeing is, people now want to go by bigger organizations because beyond just disaster recovery to of the costs involved. A lot of get also into the field of disaster organizations just relied on avoidance," he explains. The
instigator of this change has been the growing number of occurrences when companies have seen a hurricane coming in on the radar, and rolled the dice. They may even have had DR plans in place, but without having conducted an impact analysis beforehand, they may not have been prepared for which stage of the plan to implement. That leads some customers to conclude that, with a little more skill in observing weather events, they could have spent less time arguing with themselves over whether the hurricane would hit, and more time implementing disaster avoidance contingencies that would have zero impact on the business if the hurricane missed. "With disaster avoidance, simply, we [see that] organizations that are looking for now a solution that enables them to move applications between data centers with no downtime and no data loss," the
product manager tells us, reminding us that vMotion live migration capability is one of the growing features of its vSphere suite. "There's a really strong analogy to be made between what's been happening within the data centers and what's going to happen across data centers in the future," explains Castelein. "If you look at ten years ago, before virtualization, people deployed applications in hardware silos. Each application had its own system, and in many cases, its own storage within the data center. Once virtualization came along, people started pulling those hardware resources and moving applications between machines, for all sorts of reasons - planned maintenance, load balancing, failure of the system. By now, you do have that extensive mobility within the data center." The distance problem As bandwidth increases between data centers, Castelein believes businesses will start doing live migrations as a matter of principle, including simply for load balancing, replication, and disaster avoidance. "We're going to have that extensive mobility between data centers is going to become a possibility. We're not quite there today, though; we can't do what you suggested, that move
on Monday morning of two data centers, because now with the downtime, you can't do it on Monday morning." Distance continues to play a role in the equation of mobility between data centers, because even the smallest degree of latency multiplied by a few terabytes becomes an unmanageable quantum of time. And the bigger your enterprise is, the broader the roadblock becomes. It's counter-intuitive to the growth formula, enabling smaller businesses to take advantage of cloud conveniences that disappear for bigger IT shops. Castelein concedes that this problem is not solvable for big businesses right this moment. "We're going to get there; it's something that we're focused on as an organization at VMware, solving and enabling that use case. There are some specific solutions that allow it in specific circumstances, but it's not ubiquitous yet." For example, one of vSphere's key technologies for high availability failover is synchronous replication. Here is where VMware runs smack-dad into the laws of physics: "Once you have synchronous replication, data is available on both sites, but VMWARE'S page 31
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AT&T's bid for T-Mobile turns to lump of coal

Steven Musil (CNET News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:08:10 AM
expected to be paid by the end of the year. It also includes a large package of mobile week in review Bowing to the communications spectrum and a objections of federal regulators, long-term agreement on UMTS AT&T withdrew its $39 billion roaming within the U.S. for Tbid to acquire T-Mobile. Mobile USA, all of which is In August, the U.S. Department worth about $1 billion. of Justice sued to block the Even with the additional $3 merger. And in November the billion in cash, which can be used F e d e r a l C o m m u n i c a t i o n s to help pay down T-Mobile's debt, Commission indicated it opposed and the additional spectrum that the merger as well. In both cases, will fill some holes in T-Mobile's the Justice Department and the network, there is no question the FCC said that the merger between carrier is still in trouble. While the second largest and fourth other major carriers have been largest wireless phone companies adding customers over the past i n t h e U . S w o u l d h a r m year, T-Mobile has been losing competition. The FCC went as far them. as to say in its report of the A T & T d i t c h e s T - M o b i l e merger that the deal would result merger: So what's it mean for in massive layoffs and would not you? be in the public interest. AT&T/T-Mobile merger While the dissolution of the deal f l o p p e d d e s p i t e g o v e r n o r , seemed to leave AT&T without a d v o c a c y s u p p o r t much-needed spectrum to keep up So, no AT&T and T-Mobile. with demand for wireless data How about AT&T and Dish? services -- at least until late So with AT&T deal dead, what yesterday, when the FCC gave the does T-Mobile do? green light to AT&T's acquisition More headlines of 700MHz spectrum licenses Apple wins patent victory over from Qualcomm -- it will provide HTC, which faces looming import T-Mobile with the fruits of one of ban In a limited victory for Apple, the largest breakup fees associated International Trade Commission with any merger. The fee includes rules against HTC on 1 of 10 a cash payment to Deutsche counts of patent infringement. Telekom of $3 billion, which is Now HTC faces an April 2012
deadline to invent a work-around. HTC loses key patent battle: How does it affect you? HTC says Apple patent workaround ready Google renews search deal for Firefox The new three-year deal is a big win for Mozilla, the nonprofit software maker behind Firefox, which is charged with defending openness of the Web. What's Firefox worth to Google? Nearly $1 billion Microsoft to drop CES after 2012 show The keynote address scheduled for January will be the company's last. The software giant is the latest company to drop or avoid the conference. Microsoft's CES exodus: Nonevent or major moment? Interested in buying RIM? Think again Research In Motion may look cheap and offer a lot of assets, but CNET argues that an acquisition isn't worth the trouble for many companies, and explains what we would do. Amazon and RIM? It could have happened Microsoft, Nokia considered joint bid for RIM, report says RIM CEOs lied about BlackBerry 10 delay, report says Senators call for FTC probe of Google's results Senate antitrust committee members ask
regulators to investigate whether Google unfairly promotes its own properties in search results. Google adds Google+ brand pages to search results Google activating 700K Android devices every day Announcement by Android chief Andy Rubin comes a month after Google said that the mobile operating system was logging 550,000 new users every day. Facebook to plop sponsored story ads into your news feed The social network plans to include sponsored stories directly in the news feed, mixing ads for items liked by you and your friends, with your regular posts and updates. Facebook can be sued over use of ads liked by friends, rules court Also of note Microsoft, Nokia linked to comments on negative Lumia review Steve Jobs to be awarded Grammy 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.
Apple offers Boxing Week, other sales

Megan Lavey-Heaton (TUAW The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:00:00 PM
Boxing Day is celebrated in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Apple has taken advantage of this holiday by launching Boxing Week. iPodNN says that Canada is the only country participating to date, with albums discounted to $6 to $8. In the U.S., there also is a sale going on with this year's chart toppers with albums dropped to $7.99, and most regions have a Beatles sale going on with the band's studio albums dropped to $9.99. They're a great way to maximize any iTunes gift card received during the holiday season. Apple offers Boxing Week, other sales originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
30
Technology/
WHAT
Here are the other major opponents: Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman on Oversight and Government reform and also on the House Judiciary Committee. He is the most prominent opponent and frequently tweets about SOPA/ PIPA on his Twitter account. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, member House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, member subcommittee on intellectual property, competition and the Internet of the House judiciary committee. Rep. Jared Polis, the new "champion of the Internet." Polis is the Judiciary Committee member who made several proposed changes to SOPA to make a court order necessary to take down a website. Rep. Mike Honda, aligned himself with Bachmann on SOPA and has been involved in technology legislation for more than a decade. The top four representatives listed were the individuals responsible for the markups in the SOPA bill that brought two days of debate to the committee.
Essentially, the proposed amendments acted as a filibuster (an intentional delay of vote caused by prolonged political debate) that caused the Judiciary Committee to postpone the debate until the next Congressional session. Prominent think tank, The Heritage Foundation has come out against SOPA. This is significant as it has deep ties to the GOP and most of the representatives pushing for SOPA are Republicans. What Are The Next Steps? SOPA needs to make it out of the Congressional committee. This is likely to happen, according to Government 2.0 correspondent Alex Howard of O'Reilly Media (and sometimes ReadWriteWeb contributor). The next step will be on the House floor where all it needs is majority to make it through to the Senate. That will likely take until the middle of the spring and will give people a chance to complain to their Senators about the bill. The key for SOPA will be to see if the Senate passes it with a 6040 majority. If the Senate does
pass SOPA by that majority, President Obama cannot veto the bill, which he would likely do in an election year where much of his campaign will be Internet focused. PIPA comes up for debate on the Senate floor on the first day of the 2012 session, January 24th. The battle lines for PIPA will determine much of what subsequently happens to SOPA. Senator Harry Reid is going to introduce the bill to the Senate. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has promised to block it and filibuster the bill when it reaches debate. The reaction of the major tech companies. As Howard points out, Google, Facebook and Wikipedia have not put any messages against SOPA on their homepages. As three of the top 10 websites in the world, that message would reach nearly 100% of all Internet users. On the other hand, there are the major networks. All of the TV networks are supporters of the bill. How will they choose to cover the bill? Will they give it the same due diligence as other bills? Who To Follow? We will do our best at
ReadWriteWeb to stay abreast as to what is happening with SOPA and PIPA. The tech news team at Politico(@ morningtech) is probably the best sourced in the industry. CNET and The Hill are both on top of SOPA as well. Howard (@ digiphile) at O'Reilly has published one of the best primers of SOPA on the Web and is always in touch with what is happening in government technology circles. We will be monitoring SOPA and deconstructing its consequences for the next several months. For instance, there are significant costs to SOPA, both for the startup ecosystem, the entertainment industry, regulatory bodies and individual citizens. There are significant cybersecurity risks to be considered as well. Stay tuned at ReadWriteWeb as we follow what could be one of the biggest stories that affects the Web in the last 10 years. Discuss
New Startups Pitch In Berlin At HackFwd Build Event [TCTV]

Mike Butcher (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:45:02 AM
HackFwd, the pan-European accelerator created by Lars Hinrichs, the founder of LinkedIn competitor XING, recently held its open PitchInBerlin session, where startups are invited to enter the programme. Its a sign that HackFwd, one of the few accelerators in Europe to stress the need for technical cofounders, is opening up to new teams. I went to the event in Berlin and interviewed all the startups pitching on the day, as youll see in the below video.
Christian World Adoption

Christian World Adoption is one of the largest international adoption agencies in the United
States. Since 1991, Christian World Adoption has placed thousands of children from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. These children now enjoy the love and security of
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adoption. Then, when youre ready, call our friendly adoption counselor, toll free, at 1.888.97ADOPT.
Technology/
31
Republic Wireless now unlimited--for real!

Rick Broida (CNET News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:47:29 AM
VMWARE'S
networks whenever possible. And why not? Wi-Fi works perfectly well for VoIP calls, and it allows The Republic Wireless LG Republic to offer 3G service (via Optimus S uses Wi-Fi whenever Sprint's network) for considerably possible, even for phone less than anyone else. calls.(Credit: Republic Wireless) Of course, because the service is Earlier this month I took the still in beta, it remains to be seen Republic Wireless smartphone whether that $19/month rate will and service for a test-drive. last. I wouldn't be surprised to see Quick refresher: You pay $199 it jump to, say, $24.99 or even for an LG Optimus S (a small but $29.99. On the other hand, maybe sweet Android 2.3 phone), then I'm just jaded by the big carriers $19 per month for "unlimited" and their seemingly endless rate voice, texting, and data. increases. Why the quotation marks? For the moment, I'm seriously Republic tweaked the Optimus to policy, we've decided not to have jazzed by what Republic Wireless use Wi-Fi whenever possible for one at all. There will simply be no has to offer. The Optimus S is a calls and data, thereby keeping 3G thresholds, and no risk of losing perfect little phone for someone usage to a minimum. It was still service. We're doing away with all like my daughter, who doesn't available, of course, but users of that to keep all of the focus need anything fancy but does like who tapped the network too often instead on where it really belongs: to text and play Angry Birds. And could be subject to warnings and, Creating a new wireless future she can afford to pay for the with continued excessive usage, together. A future that is simple to service (which suggests her understand, unfettered to use, and termination of service. allowance might be too high, but In other words, you could indeed an amazing value for all. That's still). enjoy unlimited everything, what we started down this path to What are your thoughts on provided the bulk of it was on Wi- do. That's where the power of this Republic now that it's truly vibrant community, dynamic WiFi networks. unlimited instead of merely Fi ecosystem and revolutionary That's over. "unlimited"? Yesterday afternoon, Republic technology should be invested. This entry passed through the W i r e l e s s a n n o u n c e d t h e We're all-in. Full-Text RSS service if this is e l i m i n a t i o n o f a l l u s a g e It's interesting that Republic your content and you're reading it thresholds, effectively removing made this decision while still in on someone else's site, please read t h e q u o t a t i o n s m a r k s f r o m beta, and not as part of its official the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content"unlimited." Here's a snippet from launch. In any case, the one thing only/faq.php#publishers. Five that won't change is the phone's Republic's Brian Dally: Filters recommends: Donate to Rather than revising our fair use propensity to leverage Wi-Fi Wikileaks.
it has distance limitations," says Castelein. "You can only do it for about 50 miles. If you go out for longer distances, you can't use synchronous replication." He's not shrugging his shoulders or sloughing off the problem to Intel; he asserts that software can solved the problems of distance and bandwidth. But once VMware accomplishes this, only then, he says, can it begin to tackle the problem of live migration over very long distances with zero downtime. While Castelein remains hopeful that these issues will be solved (in our lifetimes), he cautions that the organizational bottlenecks that keep businesses from implementing the policies that make administering high availability systems easier may only be addressable in the context of present-day solutions once those solutions have made their way to the present day. Right now, for some, it's all conjecture. "I don't think hardware is the
issue," he tells us. "I think it's more a question of developing these solutions from a software standpoint. We already have really solid applications, we have synchronous replication available already today. As an organization, what VMware needs to really focus on is, how do we enable that movement of storage? We need to cultivate that, make sure that the VM on the other side gets integrated... that we're able to move the memory state of the VM. It's more of a software issue at this point. It's not that the hardware needs to evolve, it's that we need more powerful systems, we need to have that software solution on top... It's not a problem that VMware alone can solve, but I don't see a blocking factor there. I don't see something that's going to make it impossible to solve." Discuss
Androgynous Luxe Velvet Looks The Emporio Armani Pre-Fall 2012 Collection Features Rich Fabrics (TrendHunter.com)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:55:03 AM
( TrendHunter.com) Pre-Fall collections are not about incorporating a shock factor or
producing an awe-inspiring show, but rather, are about showcasing what's to come during Fall Fashion Week in a subdued and sophisticated...
32
Technology/ Policy/
SELENA
In other words, worry about the product, not the competition. As for what she can contribute, Selena doesn't pretend to be a Silicon Valley wiz or tech titan. She openly admits that -- at least in the app world -- she's still a fresh face. "This world is somewhat new to me, but Josh and I have a really comfortable relationship. We're constantly in touch regarding everything from product updates to looking at new ways to incorporate Postcard on the Run into other projects and campaigns. More than anything, at least for now, our main goal is build the profile of the company." And with star power like Selena's, building the profile of the company shouldn't be much of a problem. I ask her how her name recognition has affected download numbers, to which she modestly replies, "There's been a jump." When I asked others who know Selena what she is really like I got answers of "great person," "super sweet," "family oriented," and "She's one of the most warm individuals at her level that I've ever met." Add "humble" to that list too.
So I ask Josh how much Selena's involvement has helped. "Selena's strength is not only her ability to reach a younger audience, but it's also to speak to just a different culture that is so digitally friendly. I almost look at her as an ambassador to Postcard on the Run as she can help carry our voice to a different audience," he tells me. "When she makes an announcement about Postcard on the Run you see [download] spikes that are ridiculous. It's out of control. It's tens of thousands of downloads as a result of her supporting or pushing out something cool that's happening with Postcard on the Run. People really want to engage with her and she has fun doing it." There's the boastfulness I was looking for. But Josh, who has a deep history in the talent and music industry, is also earnest in his reply about Selena's role as a creative advisor as well. "If you're between the ages of 16 and 22 your skill sets are just different than ours. She personifies this really interesting, multi-thread of a talent like no other. She's extremely real and genuine about how she sees this stuff working."
For now, Selena is happy working to help make Postcard on the Run a success and told me she has no other plans for any other app investments at the moment. She'll be busy performing and promoting well into 2012. However, if you're hoping to get her attention with your app she did tell me generally likes word games and photo apps. Just make sure those apps are built out of a passion and not solely for profits. Note: Love Selena? Love postcards? Check back the Monday after Christmas for a sweet promotion and giveaway from Selena, Postcard on the Run, and TUAW! Selena Gomez talks tech with TUAW originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Samsung Galaxy S, Tab: No Android 4.0 for you

Josh Lowensohn (CNET News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:10:45 AM
recently-released Galaxy Nexus-at least on paper. That phone ships with Android 4.0, known Owners of Samsung's Galaxy S more readily as Ice Cream smartphone and the 7-inch Galaxy Sandwich. Tab won't be getting the latest and Announced in October, Ice greatest version of Android. Cream Sandwich adds a number In a blog posting on a Korean of new features to devices on the promotional site run by Samsung, platform, the main one being the the company noted that the two unification of the OS for both devices would not receive the tablets and smartphones, as well update to Android 4.0, the most as the addition of software-based up to date version of Google's buttons that replace the ones that mobile operating system. have been physical buttons. As The reason for that, as The Verge with other major releases of e x p l a i n s , c e n t e r s a r o u n d Android, it carries with it Samsung's use of additional particular hardware requirements, software features on those phones, leaving a number of older devices including TouchWiz, widgets, s t u c k o n c e r t a i n v e r s i o n s video calling and carrier software i n d e f i n i t e l y . pack-ins. These suck up hardware This entry passed through the resources to the point of giving Full-Text RSS service if this is users a less than desirable your content and you're reading it Android experience, Samsung on someone else's site, please read says. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentSure to make things a bit only/faq.php#publishers. Five complicated is that the Galaxy S Filters recommends: Donate to is a close sibling of Samsung's Wikileaks.
The World in Photos This Week - An FP Slide Show

(Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:17:58 AM
Holiday celebrations, mourning for Kim Jong Il and Vaclav
Havel, and the end of an acrimonious year in Washington. DECEMBER 23, 2011 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/ Culture/
33
How Best Buy Stole Christmas

Matt Burns (TechCrunch)
1,275 BlackBerry Porsche P9981 Will Launch In U.K. By Years End

Chris Velazco (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:49:55 AM
risky even in 2011. Consumers just do not know for a 100% fact Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:32:25 AM that they will get their product. I wouldnt touch you with a Sure, receipts are issued and thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole. shipping estimates are given, but Theres a bit of inherent risk there are just too many variables when shopping online. Youre involved for complete trust. handing over your credit card to a Shipping companies can also retailer that promises to ship you break the chain, too. You just something in return. Most of the never know if the FedEx man is time transactions are completed going to chuck your LCD monitor without issue and orders are over a gate. fulfilled as promised. Sometimes Generally though, the bigger the things go awry, though. And r e t a i l e r , t h e m o r e s a f e t h e sometimes Best Buy ruins transaction feels. Amazon, Christmas. Walmart, Newegg and, to a lesser Best Buy started reaching out to extent now, Best Buy should be customers earlier this week considered trusted retailers. These you know, mere days before massive companies should be able Christmas that the retailer was to fulfill online orders with unable to fulfill orders placed as minimum exceptions. But issues far back as November. Big Blue d o a r i s e . C u s t o m e r s a r e was sorry but they were canceling sometimes left without their the affected orders. Happy order, feeling used and abused. holidays! Signed, your merry Dont worry about Best Buy, friends at Best Buy! though. The retailer isnt hurting Consumers traded the safety of its bottom line by canceling buying an object from a brick and orders en mass. The Wall Street mortar store for the convenience Journal quotes an analyst stating and often lower prices found Its a hiccup for the company online. As Best Buy proves here, and It probably wont make a big buying items online is still a bit difference for Best Buys holiday
sales. Oh good. Because Best Buys earnings were the first things I thought of when this story broke. Screw the customers. They dont matter anyway. Apparently if those with canceled orders whine enough, Best Buy will issue them a gift card for the inconvenience. Of course those that suck it up and move on get nothing. Theres no way of knowing how many of these canceled orders were to be holiday presents. Reportedly many of the canceled items were sold on Black Friday. But even without Christmas looming, Best Buy held these orders hostage for nearly a month. They violated the trust of their customers. The retailer essentially cast a wide net, collecting just as many orders as they could, likely knowing it would be unable to fulfill them all. Its greedy, unacceptable and just plain wrong. Merry Christmas. Oh, and just in case you need help, the CEO of Best Buy posted a tip to his Facebook page.
buy both an iPhone 4S and a Galaxy Nexus with enough left over to swing round Tesco and Pop quiz, phone fans: what buy a few boxes of Jaffa Cakes. device will you soon be able to Tell me, UK readers, which buy in the U.K. that costs nearly would you rather do? twice as much as a Galaxy Nexus The Porsche P9981, if you and looks three (maybe four!) recall, is a limited edition times stranger? Well, if youve B l a c k B e r r y d e s i g n e d i n read the headline, you already conjunction with the style mavens k n o w t h e a n s w e r : i t s t h e at Porsche Design. While the BlackBerry Porsche P9981. P9981s looks are striking, the T3 reports that high-end retailer internals (1GHz processor, a 5Harrods will be carrying the love megapixel camera with 720p HD -it-or-hate-it device in store by the video, and an NFC chip) dont do end of the year. What really gets much to differentiate it from its me is the price tag for it: the less-gaudy brethren. Id be Porsche will sell for 1,275 surprised if Harrods managed to ($1,662, or 1,021). sell more than three of these Wow. Lets take a step back and things, but alas, I am but a poor consider that for a moment. For writer and have no appreciation the same price you could spend on for the finer things in life. a BlackBerry Porsche, you could
The Muppets for Google+ [video]

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:30:00 AM
Google enlists the help of the
Muppets to promote Google+ Hangouts. Beaker even offered this glowing review of the fledgling social network: Mee-
mee-meep meep Scoble mee-
meep. All that's happening at Google. Permalink| Leave a comment
34
Technology/
Kia shows off Ray EV

Shane McGlaun (SlashGear)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:44:29 AM
Without that fast charge option, you will need six hours to charge the battery using 220V. The The Kia Ray may well be the electric motor is a 50kW unit ugliest EV I have seen in a long powering the front wheels. The time. Its boxy and square and beast will rocket from 0-62mph in makes the Prius look good if you 15.9 seconds. a s k m e . A s i d e f r o m t h e The EV Ray has 123 lb-ft of questionable looks of the car, it torque, which as is common with has some interesting features that electric cars is more torque than make it stand out among the EV the 1.0L combustion engine crowd. The coolest feature is the powered flavor offers. Kia plans optional fast charge system that to build 2,500 of these little EVs. would charge the battery cells in The catch is that they are all slated only 25 minutes. for government use in Korea so The boxy EV has a range of 84 you wont be able to get one. miles, which will obviously [ via Autoblog] depend on the driving conditions. Relevant Entries on
Apple in talks to lower TV show price for iPad AT&T U-Verse Mobile App Now Available For Infuse 4G, HTC HD7S, And More Comcast Xfinity TV iOS App Gets Updated With More Shows, Features ABC and Sprint team up to bring you TV shows on demand Kia shows off Ray EV is written by Shane McGlaun& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2011, SlashGear. All right reserved.
SlashGear.com iTunes now offers HD shows from major networks HBO puts its premium programs on the PS3 and PSP for
purchase Hulu might be getting ABC shows CBS pulling some Showtime content from Netflix
Ferrari-powered death machine is the way to go

Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:11:53 AM
Oh hell yea, this may be the most awesome bit of death machine engineering in history of things sure to kill or maim. What you are looking at here is a 250hp, Ferrari -powered quad with slicks all around. This little beast is called the Lazareth Wazuma V8F. The beastie gets a 3.0L Ferrari V8 engine hiding underneath that thin bodywork. The power from that V8 hits the street through a 6-speed transmission that comes out of a
BMW M3. The brakes to stop the thing once you are up to ludicrous speed are a set of 12.8-inch Brembo brakes all around. The quad weighs in at 1,433 pounds and with the power on tab, it is sure to destroy some underpants. The contraption will set you back right at $261,000, but man it looks good. I wonder if it is even street legal. You might wonder how it is that a 3.0L Ferrari V8 is only putting down 250hp, that is about what the V8 of the same displacement offered in some Ferrari cars like the Mondial back in the day.
Edition $12k for a fancy paint job Latest Ferrari is a hair dryer? Thrustmaster unveils exclusive Ferrari gamepads Becker Traffic Assist Pro Gets Ferrari Red Vertu Ascent Ferrari 60 Limited Edition Phone Ferrari-powered death machine is the way to go is written by Shane McGlaun& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2011, SlashGear. All right reserved.
[ via Autoblog] Relevant Entries on SlashGear.com Acer unveils Ferrari One notebook
Sick Ferrari roller coaster puts Disneyland to shame Limited Edition Ferrari Motorola Z8 dropped Segway PT i2 Ferrari Limited
35
Yamaha outs retro THR5 and THR10 amps

Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:05:30 AM
I like products that look really old, but have modern insides. Yamaha has a new amplifier for musicians that look like something out of the 50s to me. The amps come in two versions including the THR5 pictured and the THR10. These are small amps reports Wired looking like the head unit of a stack. Ive got so little music talent in me I have no idea what size that would be. The amps are aimed for use off the stage for practicing apparently and both have stereo sound. The circuitry inside models tubes for warm sound and the have VCM effects. The effects mimic five different amp types along with
Meh! Yamaha YSP-3050 Digital Sound Projector Yamaha neoHD Media Controllers promise simple AV control Yamaha A-S2000 amp and CDS2000 CD player The Karlsson Spider Clock USB Retro Microphone is a computer mic of the past Corded phone-Whats that? Yamaha Japan about to roll out more electric bikes various pedal effects, and the THR10 has a tuner built-in. The devices will run off either AA batteries of or AC power. There is no indication of how much these will cost, but they arent going to be cheap. Both of the models will launch in January. I wonder if we will see them at CES. [ via Wired] Relevant Entries on SlashGear.com The Retro straightening ironYamaha outs retro THR5 and THR10 amps is written by Shane McGlaun& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2011, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The joy of giving presents [video]

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:08:00 AM
Animator Kirsten Lepore highlights the delight of gift giving in sweet stop-motion short created for Yo Gabba Gabbas holiday special. Via Colossal. Do some good. Permalink| Leave a comment
32 Hot Harley Davidson Designs From Metallic Antique Motorbikes to Customized Heavenly Hogs (TrendHunter.com)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:35:02 AM
Sh*t Black Girls Say

AskMen Editors (AskMen Latest Articles)
( TrendHunter.com) You don't necessarily have to be a hog buff
to appreciate all of the dynamic Harley Davidson designs, because the iconic brand that has mastered the art of the motorcycle are sure to captivate you whether...
Billy Sorrells" /> We're skeptical when parodies, knockoffs and sequels come out. I almost undid the power of the mean, the Christmas edition of original. But there are some that Bed Intruder was so bad that it
manage to pull it off.Case it point: "Sh*t Black Girls Say," a parody of " Sh*t Girls Say." And if you think the original was better, we've also include the second episode of Sh*t Girls Say. Happy Tuesday, y'all. Continue Reading
36
Remix & WIN with Olivia Broadfield, Propellerhead, SoundCloud and TUAW
Matt Tinsley (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 1:00:00 PM
Facebook Games Will Start Appearing In The Mobile News Feed

Alicia Eler (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:00:00 PM
Calling all producers, mixers and music-making enthusiasts. We've teamed up with UK singersongwriter Olivia Broadfield( who we recently interviewed here), Propellerhead and SoundCloud to offer you the chance to win Propellerhead's brand new Balance audio interface, a copy of their latest DAW, Reason 6, a SoundCloud premium membership and a singed copy of Olivia's latest album,"This Beautiful War", and some TUAW merchandise, too! In order to be in the running for this fantastic prize, you're required to remix (the best way you see fit) Olivia's song, "Say" off her album, "This Beautiful War" (we'll provide you with the audio stems). The competition closes and entries must be in by
the end of January 31st, 2012. Entries will be judged by Olivia and TUAW, with the winning remix announced in February, 2012. To enter, simply email olivia@propellerheads.se and she'll provide you with all the info and links to get started. That's it. Let the remixing begin. Any questions? Let us know in the
Facebook has announced that it is testing game stories in the mobile news feed. Now everyone will see which games their friends are playing the most. Every week the news feed is becoming increasingly cluttered, prompting Facebook engineers to tweak the news feed algorithm. The fact that games will show up in the mobile news feed seems like great news for gamers, but what about everyone else? Sponsor Facebook has also updated the bookmarks counter on the left rail. comments below. Once a user clicks on the Remix & WIN with Olivia n o t i f i c a t i o n , i t w i l l c l e a r . B r o a d f i e l d , P r o p e l l e r h e a d , Previously, these counters would S o u n d C l o u d a n d T U A W only clear after the request originally appeared on TUAW - expired or the developer deleted The Unofficial Apple Weblog on it. Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. The current iteration of the Please see our terms for use of Facebook news feed gives users feeds. two options: sort by highlighted Permalink| Email this| Comments stories first or sort by recent
stories first. Among the other news feed noise, Facebook recently added sponsored stories to the news ticker. Earlier this week, Facebook told us that come 2012, sponsored stories would start showing up in the news feed. Gamers who care about what their friends are playing will welcome this new information in the news feed. For everyone else, it'll just be another story to hide. Discuss
Watch, Pass, or Rent Video Review: We Bought a Zoo

Becky Kirsch (PopSugar)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:00:00 AM
Matt Damon gets the help of some four-legged costars in this week's feel-good family flick, We
Bought a Zoo. But is it a return to form for director Cameron Crowe? Watch our video review
to see if this one is worth heading to the theater for.
Policy/
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This Week at War: Preparing for the Next Korean War - By Robert Haddick
ROBERT HADDICK (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:32:51 AM
Kim Jong Un's forces could test the South soon. But don't expect it to look like 1950. BY ROBERT HADDICK| DECEMBER 23, 2011 South Korea needs to brace for asymmetric warfare The sudden death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and the presumptive elevation of his son Kim Jong Un, has cast a pall of uncertainty over the region and in Washington. Last year, two military incidents, the torpedoing of a South Korean navy corvette and North Korea's shelling of an island village in the south, killed 50 South Koreans. The concern in the south and in Washington is that Kim Jong Un -- or perhaps one of his rivals for the throne -may see an advantage in more such incidents as a means of creating a crisis and rallying support. For decades, South Korea and the United States have prepared for a big war on the peninsula. Does Seoul need to do more to prepare for more exotic and asymmetric attacks like those that occurred last year? Kim Duk-ki, a captain in South Korea's navy and previously an believes the south needs to shift adviser to South Korea's president its focus away from preparing for and chief of naval operations, t h e B i g W a r a n d t o w a r d countering a variety of
asymmetric attacks to which the south has become especially vulnerable. Kim's essay in the latest edition of Naval War
College Review, published before Kim Jong Il's death, is not only timely but is also good advice for U.S. policymakers.
The 1950-53 war, which saw Seoul overrun twice by enemy THIS page 38
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armies, is the harsh historical memory which understandably forms the focus of war planning at the U.S.-South Korean military headquarters. Seoul remains in the center of the logical invasion route from the North and much of the city is exposed to artillery and rockets. It should thus be no surprise that preparing for a conventional 1950-style invasion has been the number one task for U.S. and South Korean planners. This imperative has also guided South Korea's heavy defense investment in conventional forces such as tanks, artillery, mechanized infantry, and attack aircraft. Captain Kim believes that it is time for the south to steer a new course for its military investments anyway from preparing for conventional war and toward countering asymmetric and nonconventional threats. In his essay, Kim discusses the north's well-known interest in ballistic missiles, which, he asserts, the North could use in one-off raids, similar to last year's artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island. Kim mentions the north's interest in special operations raiding, a technique it has used against the South in the past, and its development of small coastal submarines, one of which very likely sank the Cheonan corvette last year. S o u t h K o r e a ' s telecommunications and computer infrastructure is one of the most developed in the world, creating a vulnerability to the North's
cyberwarfare capabilities. Perhaps most ominously, Kim notes that as a nuclear and ballistic missile state, the north has the capability of delivering an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the south. Nuisance attacks on the south, like those inflicted last year, have been a part of Pyongyang's behavior for decades. Yet deterrence by retaliation has never been a page in the South Korean playbook; with a much more developed economy and thus much more to lose, the South has always been on the losing side of the "escalation dominance" calculation. The South is similarly disadvantaged concerning its vulnerability to cyber, EMP, missile, and special operations raiding. Kim recommends rebalancing South Korean military investments away from conventional war and toward active defensive measures such as missile defense, improved coastal anti-submarine defense, and better cyber defenses. Reducing funding for the tanks, artillery, and infantry defending Seoul is a risk. But Kim observes that the North's interest in unconventional tactics is an adaptation to which the south should respond. Kim's description of South Korea's changing defense problems resembles in many ways the changes to which the Pentagon must now adapt. Kim Jong Il's death may end up sharpening Washington's focus on these changes. Has the Air Force already lost the
battle for Taiwan? In a recent town hall meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told airmen to prepare for a shift toward the Pacific. That should hardly come as a surprise, given the Obama administration's repeated declarations of a "pivot" toward the region. But if it is Dempsey's task as the nation's top military officer to make sure that plans are in place to defend the United States and its allies in the region, the "pivot" may have come too late for Taiwan. A recent detailed study concludes that the Chinese air force will badly outgun the U.S. Air Force in the skies over Taiwan and that the only hope for preventing Chinese air superiority over the island during a conflict is through the threat of heavy bombardment of the mainland, with all of the danger that implies. The study also demonstrates that the Air Force and Navy lack some of the proper tools for fighting in the Pacific's vast expanses. In a Ph.D. dissertation written for the Pardee RAND Graduate School, Eric Stephen Gons provides an exhaustive analysis of a simulated battle between the U.S. and Chinese air forces for the airspace over Taiwan. Gons's analysis takes into account the air bases available to both sides, their aircraft parking capacity, air base vulnerability and hardening, air defense systems, sortie generation rates, aircraft maintenance requirements, crew fatigue, probable weapons effectiveness,
time and distance considerations, and other factors. Even though the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor is far superior to its Chinese opponents, Gons concludes that the "tyranny of distance" will prevent the U.S. Air Force from winning a shootout over Taiwan. The Air Force's base on Guam, a three-hour flight to Taiwan, is the only viable U.S. base for the island's air defense. Although the U.S. has high quality air bases on Okinawa and Japan's home islands, these bases are very close to China and are thus vulnerable to China's massive arsenal of land-attack cruise and ballistic missiles. In addition, Gons asserts the Air Force would not operate its expensive and limited tanker and early warning support aircraft from these Japanese bases since they would be highly vulnerable to Chinese attack. This would preclude F-22 operations to Taiwan from these bases. That leaves Andersen Air Base on Guam, which even when stuffed to capacity with F-22s and required support aircraft could only provide a continuous combat air patrol over Taiwan of just six fighters. The Chinese attackers, by contrast, operating from at least a dozen hardened and heavily defended air bases in southeast China, could sorties dozens or even hundreds of fighters over Taiwan at will. Six F -22s simply do not carry enough missiles to prevent Chinese fighters from breaking through and shooting down the Air Force
tanker and early-warning aircraft supporting the F-22s east of Taiwan. In this case, the F-22s would be lost to fuel exhaustion and the United States would be forced to retreat, at least for the moment. Nor does Gons expect much help from the Navy. He estimates that the relatively short range of the Navy's aircraft carrier -based fighters, combined with the growing Chinese anti-ship missile threat, would dissuade the admirals from risking air operations over Taiwan. Gons's most effective suggestion for leveling the balance over Taiwan is to use the Air Force's bombers and the Navy's cruise missiles to attack China's air bases. Most of these bases have hardened aircraft shelters, a few have underground aircraft parking, and all are defended by surface-to-air missiles and cannons. A sustained and costly bombing campaign would be required to beat down the Chinese air threat to Taiwan. Whether this requirement to bomb mainland China could deter Chinese action or would instead be an escalator to a much more costly war is up for debate. If future Chinese leaders don't consider this bombing requirement to be either a credible deterrent or something the United States would carry out, the apparent ease with which China could establish air superiority over Taiwan may be an invitation for China to attempt to reunify Taiwan by force. THIS page 39
Economy/ Culture/
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Gons's study shows how difficult it is to project air and naval power against a capable opponent operating from continental bases. It also shows that the Air Force's short-range fighters, conceived during the 1980s for the confined European theater during the Cold War, will struggle to be useful in the Pacific's vast spaces. The Obama administration has pivoted to the Asia-Pacific. The Air Force and Navy need to adapt if they are to effectively support the new
strategy. 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.
Video: How Robert Pattinson, Matt Damon, and More Stars Are Celebrating the Holidays
Karli Bulnes (PopSugar)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:00:00 AM
Whether they're logging low-key family time or racking up frequent many celebrities are taking a flier miles for a fabulous vacation,
break from Hollywood to celebrate the holidays. Hear from Robert Pattinson, Rachel Zoe, Matt Damon, and more stars to find out how they're getting in the spirit this season.
ECB Holds Off Bond Purchases, Italian 10Year Yield Back Over 7 Percent
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
the bank has for now almost ceased the controversial program which has helped keep borrowing costs down for Italy and Spain. Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:56:00 AM The ECB has held off purchasing It bought a minimal 3.36 million sovereign debt bonds in Europe last week. That makes two weeks the past two weeks and the results of near-negligible purchases, were easily predictable. Yield on following 635 million the week 10-Year Italian debt is back over ending Dec. 9 and 3.66 billion 7%. the week ending Dec. 2. Italy 10-Year Government Bond The program has helped keep Yield Italy and Spain from financial ECB Buys Mere $25 Million in disaster from high borrowing Bonds costs. But the ECB says it is of Yahoo!Finance reports ECB buys limited amount and duration and few bonds for second week that it is up to governments to cut The European Central Bank held their deficits and not wait for a its bond purchases to a bare 19 central bank bailout. million ($24.8 million) this week. Portugal 10-Year Government The scant amount indicates that Bond Yield
I expect Portugal to blow sky time before this blows. high at any time, but the yield Mike "Mish" Shedlock stubbornly remains at or near an h t t p : / / u n s u s t a i n a b l e 1 3 p e r c e n t . globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. Nonetheless, the upward trend is com clear and it is only a matter of Click Here To Scroll Thru My
Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.
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Economy/
Quotes Of The Day - Ron Paul Edition

Tyler Durden
government has no authority to hold states accountable for their education performanceIn the Submitted by Jim Quinn of The free society envisioned by the Burning Platform founders, schools are held THOSE IN POWER FEAR RON accountable to parents, not federal PAUL AND HIS MESSAGE OF bureaucrats. LIBERTY, FREEDOM, AND - Ron Paul R E S P O S I B I L I T Y . T H E Im convinced that you never QUOTES BELOW ARE THE have to give up liberties to be TRUE REFLECTION OF THE safe. I think youre less safe when MAN AND HIS IDEAS. IDEAS you give up your liberties. CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. - Ron Paul DO YOUR PART TO FIGHT Freedom is not defined by safety. T H E M I S I N F O R M A T I O N Freedom is defined by the ability CAMPAIGN BEING WAGED o f c i t i z e n s t o l i v e w i t h o u t BY THE CORPORATE MEDIA g o v e r n m e n t i n t e r f e r e n c e . A N D T H E I R P O L I T I C A L Government cannot create a world HACKS BY SENDING THIS without risks, nor would we really L I S T O F Q U O T E S T O wish to live in such a fictional EVERYONE IN YOUR EMAIL place. Only a totalitarian society ADDRESS BOOK. would even claim absolute safety Quotes Of The Day - Ron Paul as a worthy ideal, because it Edition would require total state control Ideas are very important to the over its citizens lives. Liberty has shaping of society. In fact, they meaning only if we still believe in are more powerful than bombings it when terrible things happen and or armies or guns. And this is a false government security because ideas are capable of blanket beckons. spreading without limit. They are - Ron Paul behind all the choices we make. Truth is treason in the empire of They can transform the world in a lies. way that governments and armies - Ron Paul, The Revolution: A cannot. Fighting for liberty with Manifesto ideas makes more sense to me Mr. Speaker, I once again find than fighting with guns or politics myself compelled to vote against or political power. With ideas, we the annual budget resolution for a can make real change that lasts. very simple reason: it makes - Ron Paul, Liberty Defined: The government bigger. 50 Urgent Issues That Affect Our - Ron Paul Freedom The most basic principle to being U n d e r t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s a free American is the notion that C o n s t i t u t i o n , t h e f e d e r a l we as individuals are responsible
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:51:41 AM
for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we arent infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free. - Ron Paul Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long. - Ron Paul Failure of government programs prompts more determined effort, while the loss of liberty is ignored or rationalized awaywhether is it is the war on poverty, drugs, terrorismor the current Hitler of the day, an appeal to patriotism is used to convince the people that a little sacrifice of liberty, here or there, is a small price to payThe results, though, are frightening and will soon become even more so. QUOTES page 44
Economy/
41
Brand New Datapoints On The Chinese Real Estate Downturn

Patrick Chovanec (Money Game)
debt to buy a unfinished apartment at the peak of the market. Events in Sanya and Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:49:54 AM Qingdao reinforce my point that Im working on the promised Chinas property bubble and next installment of data points on its consequences is really a the Chinese economy as it enters nationwide phenomenon, by no 2012, but in the meantime, I means limited to Beijing and wanted to quickly share a couple Shanghai. of interesting new property- Caixin offers this report on the related data points which have huge stress that plummeting land come my way since my last post: s a l e s a r e p u t t i n g o n l o c a l First, two on-the-ground reports government finances. As one about the property bubble bursting expert declares, The land market in 2nd-tier cities. Bloomberg is basically deadlocked as offers this report on Sanya(on developers enter winter mode Chinas southern island province and stop buying land for new of Hainan) where the frenzy to c o n s t r u c t i o n p r o j e c t s a pick up vacation villas has taken a description eerily reminiscent of nosedive, with home prices m y o w n w a r n i n g , a t T h e dropping 28% year-on-year in Economist China Summit last November and sales volume off month, that winter is coming. 52%. Steve Dickinson, based in Again, the problem is even more Qingdao (in the northeast coastal serious in 2nd and 3rd-tier cities province on Shandong) reports on (Dalians revenue down 50%, C h i n a L a w B l o g . c o m t h a t Wuxis by 34%, Nanjing by 29%, developers there are regularly Wuhan by 21%) than in Beijing offering 30-50% discounts and (down 14.4%)and Shanghai that construction on uncompleted (down 13%). The revenue projects has slowed. He says the shortfall is making it hard for collapse in the real estate market some cities to pay for basic has already occurred and the services like police and hospitals, only remaining question is how much less repay the massive the government will pick up the amount of debt they borrowed for pieces. In a related post, he s t i m u l u s p r o j e c t s w h i c h , relates the story of a Qingdao according to this report from couple who now find themselves Bloomberg, may be much larger deep underwater after going into than official statistics suggest.
Interestingly, Caixin reports that some city governments are forcing local developers to continue buying land whether they want to or not which makes local efforts to loosen up lending look less like real economic stimulus and more like a dangerous game of pass-thebuck. Anne Stevenson-Yang of J Capital Research here in Beijing sent me one of their reports, which outlines various ways developers are offering hidden discounts such as group discounts, no-fault returns, buyone get one free deals, and gifts (like luxury cars or bars of gold) that dont show up in official price statistics, which means the real price collapse may be even worse than those figures indicate. Again, discounting was actually more severe in 2nd and 3rd-tier cities like Chengdu, Hefei, and Kunming than in Beijing and Shanghai. I was reading through a recent report by Pivot Capital when I came across the following factoid, which set me back a bit. It turns out that the average home price in Guiyang the capital of Guizhou, the poorest province in China is now nearly the same as in Phoenix, Arizona, a city roughly the same size (4 million people)
but with a per capita GDP about 10x Guiyangs.
and applauded when statistics showed real estate investment continuing to grow at 25-30% Finally, I just have to remark that year-on-year until this Fall, I find it a real hoot when I read when the growing need to roll officials claiming and credible over bad debt while keeping media reports repeating the inflation in check made it wellclaim that plummeting property nigh impossible to keep throwing prices across China are evidence money at this boom. Thats when that the governments top-down developers ran out of money and cooling measures are taking had to start liquidating, and the effect and working. Keep in bottom finally fell out of the mind, the central government market. For officials to claim that started putting its most prominent their policies are working, in administrative controls, such as some kind of reliable fashion, is purchase restrictions, into effect like a doctor standing over the in April 2010 nearly two years stone-cold corpse of his patient ago and began trumpeting their claiming that he cured the man of success a mere two weeks later. his fever. No more fever, right? The reason we are where we are Please follow Money Game on n o w i s b e c a u s e p r o p e r t y Twitter and Facebook. d e v e l o p e r s i g n o r e d t h o s e Join the conversation about this measures and piled up unsold story inventory for nearly two years in See Also: the not-unreasonable belief they Why China's Rate Cut Was could call the governments bluff. Different From Other Rate Cuts (I said as much at the time, on Around The World Chinese TV see interview on CHINA: The Hard Landing Is May 18, 2010, beginning at point Still In Sight 23:50). Even when rapid credit 50 Economic Numbers From expansion caused inflation to 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy balloon, forcing the central bank To Believe not exactly to tighten, but at least rein in the pace of that expansion, authorities turned a blind eye to an explosion in off-the-books shadow credit that kept funding land purchases and construction,
42
Economy/
Market Snapshot: Mixed Market And Correlations Low

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:22:11 AM
Europe closed uneventfully with equities mildly outperforming credit(diverging for much of the day) as sovereign spreads were mixed with BTPs higher in yield (and spread), Belgium lower in yield/spread, and Spain unch. Volumes were obviously very light and bond markets went dead in the afternoon - especially gappy post BTP's break of 7% as bid-offer spreads cracked wider. Interestingly, cable (GBPUSD) slid relatively significantly into the close(GBP weaker, USD stronger) - losing around 100 pips from its earlier highs to close at pre-LTRO levels extending losses from the earlier weak data print. US markets have traded quietly all morning with most risk assets in line(credit and equities in sync) but TSYs are completely divergent on the day (from the start of the US day session). Stocks managed to pull back to CONTEXT but amid low volumes they are oscillating around VWAP and jumping a few pts on any flow. Credit looks to be simply reracked on ES moves - as we hear very little actual flow. Much is being made of the drop in VIX today but we suspect this is much
more simply explained by vol steepeners across the holiday period- a very seasonal pattern that benefits from normally lower realized vols across the year-end perhaps Greece's bond maturities next week will upset that plan this year? European sub financials (light blue) underperformed all day. The rest of credit complex leaked wider from their gappy tight open. Equities(dark blue) and credit diverged from the middle of the
European day. Cable has stalled out from its earlier macro print weakness losing almost 100pips on the day and holding at the gap higher levels from pre-LTRO. TSYs are totally diverging from Equities and the USD today so far. Admittedly there is little flow away from stocks (and low volumes there also) but broadly speaking credit is in line with stocks and risk assets in general are lower but leaking very gently
higher. ES (the e-mini S&P 500 futures contract) has pulled back intraday to a more supportive braod risk asset level ( CONTEXT) but a look in the lower right hand quadrant shows that the correlation between risk assets broadly and the equity market are dropping rapidly intraday (as is anecdotally evident from the TSY vs ES vs DXY chart above). In general risk ETFs (upper left quadrant) are tracking each other
well for now with HYG behaving for once (this is comparing SPY with HYG-VXX-TLT). Much is being made - as always of the at-best contemporaneous risk index VIX drop today (and note from the chart above this one that we see VIX as notably below expectations given empirical relationships to HY credit markets - lower left quadrant). One look at the seasonals for the short-end term structure of Vol (above in light blue dotted line for average over last ten years) shows a very clear pattern of vol curve steepening into the year-end. Actually the steepening tends to be to the Christmas holiday and then flattens/decompresses into the new year. This year's steepening (selling very shortdated Vol and buying slightly further out Vol) is more notable than average but is also reacting from a much more significant flattening mid-year. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 1 vote) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Economy/ Finance/
43
The Difference Between The Chinese And Indian Consumer In 2012

Mamta Badkar (Money Game)
Mid-December Hedge Fund Performance Update Bloodbath

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:59:04 AM
reforms which include steadily increasing minimum wages and Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:49:53 AM lowering taxes. Morgan Stanley With developed markets slowing, analysts cite three main reasons emerging markets are trying to for this change: boost domestic demand to drive C o n s u m p t i o n g r o w t h i s growth. For a while, the U.S. has expected to be driven by wage encouraged China to turn away growth - "The government aims to from its export-oriented economy. g r o w h o u s e h o l d d i s p o s a b l e In a new report, Morgan Stanley incomes (wages) at a pace that at analysts Chetan Ahya, Derrick least matches nominal GDP Kam and Jenny Zhang write that growth." they expect consumption to show resilience in China, while Indian consumption moderates. The government is pushing for China affordable social housing which In China, private consumption's w i l l e v e n t u a l l y d r i v e share of GDP fell to 34% in 2010, consumption, as consumers begin from 45% in 2001. In the past to feel more secure about their year, discretionary spending was homes. checked by tighter monetary policy and higher inflation. Lower growth and inflationary Disposable income is expected woes will continue to impact the to free up as the government Chinese consumer for the next improves social security and few months. But these pressures works towards extending social are expected to ease in the second services like public education, half of 2012, as the Chinese healthcare, and housing for more government implements structural residents.
reports (Business Standard), India companies reported a slowdown Meanwhile, Indian domestic in the rural sales of fast- moving consumption is expected to consumer goods and household moderate. After the credit crisis, a p p l i a n c e s i n N o v e m b e r , the Indian government increased traditionally a good month for its expenditure to GDP by 4 rural sales." percentage points and most of it Don't Miss: 200 People In China went towards boosting household Reveal What's Really Going On consumption. It also increased In The Economy > rural wages, which have posted a Please follow Money Game on 27% compound annual growth Twitter and Facebook. rate (CAGR) over the last three Join the conversation about this years. From Morgan Stanley: story "We believe that fiscal transfers See Also: have boosted rural household China Just Cut Railway i n c o m e s a n d a l l o w e d r u r a l Construction Plans Again As Debt c o n s u m e r s t o r a i s e t h e i r Continues To Pile Up consumption levels. However, the Q3 GDP Revised Downward macro feedback in terms of high To 1.8% and persistent inflation suggests The Worst Part About The Big that the boost to consumption GDP Miss growth will not be sustainable. Moreover, we expect the fiscal Presented By: Win New support to rural consumption to be C u s t o m e r s gradually withdrawn. Ads by Pheedo Signs of weaker rural consumption growth have already emerged. According to media
Asia growth downgrade hits recovery hopes

Philip Aldrick (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
We already know 2011 was horrible for hedge funds, for Wall Street bonuses, and soon, for luxury retailers. So before we write off 2011 for good, here is the penultimate HSBC report (#52) showing HF performance through mid-December. Some notable mid month numbers: Moore - 0.05%; Caxton:-0.09%; Clive:-1.22%; York:-1.20%; Third Point:-1.80%; Pershing Square:-0.70%; Perry:-2.94%; Owl Creek:-1.70%; Highbridge:2.11%; Landsdowne:-0.89%; Viking:-0.57%; Maverick: 3.08%; Kingdon:-0.77%; Marshall Wace:-0.23%; Odey:5.34%; Canyon:-0.30%; As for Paulson... oh well. HedgeWeekly2011_No52 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.
Hopes that the emerging economies of Asia will come to the West's rescue next year have been dealt a blow after Fitch
Ratings downgraded its growth forecasts for the region in 2012 from 7.4pc to 6.8pc.
44
Economy/ Culture/
QUOTES
- Ron Paul When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans. - Ron Paul A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. - Ron Paul Let it not be said that no one cared, that no one objected once its realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy. - Ron Paul The original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to resist with force the oppressive power of King GeorgePatriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security.
- Ron Paul As many frustrated Americans who have joined the Tea Party realize, we cannot stand against big government at home while supporting it abroad. We cannot talk about fiscal responsibility while spending trillions on occupying and bullying the rest of the world. We cannot talk about the budget deficit and spiraling domestic spending without looking at the costs of maintaining an American empire of more than 700 military bases in more than 120 foreign countries. We cannot pat ourselves on the back for cutting a few thousand dollars from a nature preserve or an inner-city swimming pool at home while turning a blind eye to a Pentagon budget that nearly equals those of the rest of the world combined. - Ron Paul It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking. - Ron Paul, End the Fed A citizen walking through the
airport today is bombarded with 1984-style propaganda messages that are designed to make us fear some amorphous threat and also be suspicious of others. The government designs these messages to make us feel dependent and heavily lorded over in every aspect of our lives. These messages are becoming ever more pervasive, hitting us even in grocery stores when we are shopping. - Ron Paul, Liberty Defined: The 50 Urgent Issues That Affect Our Freedom Average: Your rating: None Average: 4.5( 27 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.
These 16 Overseas Stock Markets Got Destroyed In 2011

Eric Platt (Money Game)
Down 28.1% Source: Bloomberg See the rest of the story at 2011 was not an easy year to Business Insider stomach for global investors. Please follow Money Game on Over 80% of markets remain in Twitter and Facebook. negative territory year-to-date, See Also: and some have ratcheted up GUIDANCE: 16 Of Wall declines of 40% or greater. Street's Sharpest Minds Predict We calculated returns of 100 Where Stocks Are Headed In indices and culled the ones that 2012 lost 25% or more in value over The 16 Sectors That Dominated the year. In 2011 In total, there were 16 exchanges UH-OH: Chinese And that made the list, compared to Australian Stock Markets Are just four that posted gains of 25% Diving, Shanghai Composite or greater. Italy FTSE MIB, Down 1.3% Down 26.5% Source: Bloomberg Presented By: Strengthen Lithuania OMX Vilnius Index, C u s t o m e r R e l a t i o n s h i p s Down 27.6% Ads by Pheedo Source: Bloomberg Prague Stock Exchange Index,
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:10:49 AM
Hoarding: Deadly Mice Dangers

(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:00:56 AM
var getChannel = function(subDomain) { return subDomain; } var validChannels Playlist | Compulsive Hoarders = n e w A r r a y ( " a d v e n t u r e " , Videos There are 4 videos tagged "auto","computer","electronics"," "Compulsive Hoarders"' + ''; entertainment","food","health","h $('#googleAdRightRail').html(rt); ome","mobiltravelguide","money" } function getValidChannel() { ,"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.
Culture/
45
Berkeley Explains Why Google Trumps Microsoft

Caleb Garling (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:46:00 AM
The University of California at Berkeley has chosen Google over Microsoft for its campus-wide email and calendar services, and it will tell you why in great detail. Google and Microsoft are locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of businesses, government agencies, and schools across the globe, each touting its own suite of business applications as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sometimes, Google wins, and sometimes Microsoft. But Berkeleys choice is worth noting because the university so carefully explained why it picked one over the other. Though both Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 are billed as cloud services, they are very different things. Google is built to operate entirely on the web, while Microsofts suite still leans on local software. Berkeley plumped for Gmail and Google Calendar in part because theyre cheap Google offers its Apps to schools and colleges for free but the university looked at far more than just price. This week, it laid out a detailed want to be transparent about the c o m p a r i s o n o f G o o g l e a n d decision, Shelton Waggener, the Microsoft on its public website. UC Berkeley CIO, tells Wired. Were a public university so we While Google came out ahead in
a large majority of Berkeleys email-related evaluations, Waggener said that the decision was not as easy as it may look on
paper. With the schools roughly 70,000 students and staff already using so many web and software tools on their own, he said, the IT
department must consider not only its own preferences but the BERKELEY page 48
46
Culture/
How IBM Saw 2012 in 2007: Where's My Mind Reading Cell Phone?
Robert McMillan (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:53:00 AM
Five years ago IBM predicted that "our mobile phones will start to read our minds." Now Big Blue says that they do, sort of. The brainiacs at IBM made some pretty far out predictions this week: In five years, they say, you wont need passwords, there will be no more digital divide, and mind reading will no longer be science fiction. Forgive us if we take issue with the last one. Five years ago, in a similar list of predictions, IBM said that by the dawn of 2012, mobile phones will start to read our minds. IBM has been doing these predictions for decades. Back in the 80s, they looked ten years out, calling their prognostications Ten Year Outlooks. But nowadays, things move at Internet speed, so in 2006, IBM started publishing Five in Five lists of the five innovations their researchers believe will change the world in the next five years. Theyre fun, and they give the company some concrete goals. These are things you can actually hold our feet to the fire over, to be honest, says Bernie Meyerson, an IBM fellow and vice president of innovation.
Wired asked Meyerson, the guy HOW page 47
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HOW
who helped put IBMs Power chips in nearly every gaming console out there, what he thought of his companys January 2007 predictions. The following are IBMs five predictions of what the world would be like in 2012 along with Meyersons comments and a ranking of the prediction on a scale of one to five stars. 1) We will be able to access healthcare remotely, from just about anywhere in the world. Meyersons score: Five stars The healthcare one we nailed. Its astounding. Theres an entire factory near Mayo clinic where people fly biological samples in every day and essentially just make use of the fact that the globe is flat to be able to transport precious samples for diagnostics. Apart from that you also now have people who do remote robosurgery. Its not just telemedicine, but literally you could have a remotely accessed robot where the surgery could be performed by a remote location this is something that simply came to pass. Wireds score: Three and a half stars IBM did call it right when it came to remote medical treatment. But if you read their predictions, they also talk about disease monitoring and virtual doctor
check-ups at home. Remote disease monitoring is starting to happen, but how many of you have had a virtual checkup? 2) Real-Time speech translation once a vision only in science fiction will become the norm. Meyersons score: Three stars Real time speech translation has arrived, but its limited deployment. I would give that a three only because [while] the underlying science and technology showed up it is possible, weve done it and demoed it its simply not pervasive. Wireds Score: Two stars It may be possible, but its not the norm. If you want to see a Universal Translator in action, youd best to tune into Star Trek. 3) There will be a 3-D Internet Meyersons score: Three and a half stars 3D Internet depends on how you want to look at it. 3D per se has shown up. If youre playing a game thats in 3D and youre playing it on your TV, guess what, its in 3D and its being played in shared player technology across the Internet. It hasnt permeated, but here we were a little more careful. In the previous one we said it would be the norm. Its not. Im not going to say this is five out of five. Its probably three and a half.
Wireds score: Three and a half stars. Well give this one to Meyerson. IBM definitely saw the potential of 3D gaming, even if they did go a little nuts, incorrectly predicting a Snow Crash-like interactive education, remote medicine and consumer experiences, on the 3D Internet. 4) Technologies the size of a few atoms will address areas of environmental importance. Meyersons score: Five stars If its a one to five scale, thats about an eight. We just nailed that. Nanotechnology has just become absolutely pervasive. Even the devices, the transistors themselves, that you use. the critical device elements in those are typically now 1 to 5 atoms thick. Sensors themselves are now one molecule thick.You cover a surface with a molecular layer of material that is sensitive to a particular chemical and then you have that act as a trigger to an electrical device. What happens is that mono-layer is chemically specific to what youre looking for and when that stuff shows up it sets off an alarm. It turns out that those kinds of capabilities have just become incredibly important. Wireds score: Five stars. OK smartypants, lets see how you do with the mind-reading cell
phone. 5) Our mobile phones will start to read our minds Meyersons score: Four stars This one, honestly, eeeeh, its getting there, but uhhh, let me explain. I dont think the title actually represents well what were talking about. This is not about reading minds. Youll forgive us, were not always perfect with he labels. Remember back then were very few GPS, for instance, capable systems. Now not only is every system GPS capable, but in addition to hat even if GPS is unavailable because youre indoors, it triangulates off two or three of the nearest cell towers and gives you a location within a few hundred meters, which is fantastic. I would give it a four out of five, only because the label isnt great. But quite honestly it really is very well established. If the label had said there will be location-based services and theyll be dominating, then Id give it a five. Wireds score: Four stars Theyre not reading our minds, but we keep learning that these location based services know more about us than were previously estimated. If you read IBMs fine-print from back in 2007, they were really talking
about the advent of location-based services, which, five years later, are everywhere. They called it, but they lose a star for jazzing it up with that mind-reading stuff. All told, IBM really didnt do so badly with its 2007 predictions. Meyerson is certainly happy with the results. There supposed to be hard and were supposed to fail, he says. In IBM we spend, roughly speaking between $6 billion and $7 billion a year in R&D, he says. If we cant predict these things with some reasonable level of accuracy, even though their stretches, that actually doesnt bode well for us. The flip side is every one of them is right, then youre not trying hard enough. (Jumbo phone image: Garry Knight/Flickr) 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.
Thin festive trading as FTSE 100 rises

Rachel Cooper (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
Jingle bells were ringing across the London exchange on Friday as the benchmark index made a
concerted effort at maintaining its "Santa rally", although dealing was thin during the half-day's
business before traders left for the Christmas break.
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BERKELEY
preferences of so many others. We recognize that whatever choice we make, well have to continually re-evaluate, he says. These arent permanent decisions anymore. The school started looking for new services in part because of recent outages on its existing email system, CalMail. Googles ability to move the school from CalMail to Gmail in an estimated six to ten weeks was an important consideration, according to Berkeleys report. A UC Berkeley migration to Google can start faster and with less infrastructure investment, the report says. Googles solution is optimized for web-based interaction. It is designed to be quickly provisioned and a migration to Google could begin more quickly than one to Office 365. Office 365, the report says, would require the installation and configuration of local software before any migration could begin and a significant change the companys mail routing infrastructure. Office 365 offers an integrated experience for onpremise and cloud users, it reads. This comes at a greater ongoing, operational expense and complexity of maintaining central infrastructure. The report also cites recent news that the University of Nebraska still hasnt completed its migration to Office 365 despite being one of the first universitys to sign-up for the service after its debut this past summer.
All that said, Berkeley liked that Microsoft would allow the company to better straddle the line between local software and services in the proverbial cloud. The university also liked Gmail because its already used by a large swath of students and faculty. The report notes that a significant percentage of UC Berkeleys student body is familiar with Gmail and that a large number of students are already forwarding their existing school email to a Gmail address. After the move to Gmail, the report says, it would be easy for users to retain multiple, separate email accounts. By contrast, theres not a consumer version of Office 365 comparable to Gmail, the report says, and Microsofts solution would force users to consolidate separate accounts into one. But Googles victory wasnt completely one-sided. Microsoft scored well on calendar tools, with the University arguing that a move to Office 365 would cause fewer problems for calendar power users those who may schedule dozens of meetings a day for several administrators and keep track of one to two dozen calendars minute by minute. The report says that only about 5 percent of the people on campus are power users, but they account for about fifty percent of calendar use. The lessened functionality in Google would be a detriment to these power users productivity going forward, the report says. Microsoft also came out ahead on
security. After examining such security issues as authentication, encryption of stored email, and guarantee on where data will be stored, the university fells that Microsoft has a clear edge. Google is inferior on all fronts, the report says, but only by a small margin. Asked to comment on Berkeley report, Microsoft pointed to Berkeley recent decision to some of its other software on campus, including Windows. Productivity is in our DNA, reads a statement from Microsoft. This is a market we understand well and care about deeply. Were delivering the power and familiarity of Office as part of easily consumer cloud solutions that non competitor can match. But behind the scenes, according to Berkeleys Shelton Waggener, Microsoft has contacted the university to take issue with its report, requesting certain changes be made. He also said that several other universities have phoned to thank him for laying out the universitys thinking in such detail. Berkeleys very public report spotlights yet another clash of the tech titans. But when you consider the universitys efforts to accomodate what students and faculty are already using and its ultimate choice of Google it raises a larger question. Why do schools even provide an email account anyway? Gmail and most web-based clients are free. Schools especially state school strapped for funding could
save on huge infrastructure costs by cutting the email systems and just letting student use their own accounts. An email address would just be one more data point gathered during registration, like a phone or social security number. Waggeners office is considering the question, and he notes that campus surveys find that many students prefer to receive information via text messages and Facebook rather than email. Its fair to say that email is for old people, he says with a laugh. But Waggener is also serving the universitys entire staff and faculty. The university still believes in a unified infrastructure, and all things considered, email and calendars are still a very important part of that. Waggener says that if Berkeley changed technologies with the arrival of each new thing, it would still be using MySpace. You have to be prepared to move, but you cant be schizophrenic about it, he says. I would rather build the tools to let students choose. Photo: John-Morgan/Flickr 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.
Walk This Way: How can we green our byways and highways?
(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:00:56 AM
Whether it's being able to hop on your bike, stroll to the store, or take a subway or bus to work, there are many different versions of green transportation. There are even ways to make our existing transportation infrastructure more eco-friendly. Take our quiz and learn about different ways to get around that are easy on the planet. Earn a point for every right answer! Save your score at the end of the quiz. 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.
Culture/
49
Party Etiquette
Crab Turner (AskMen Latest Articles)
10 Great Lowriders
Jamie Page Deaton (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
My favorite meal on god's green earth is surf and turf. Strip steak and a lobster tail if my wallet's fat, but I'll settle for a burger and a goddamn fillet of cod, know what I mean? Some thick-cut fries? Damn it, that's a fine meal. Holiday parties are like surf and turf: You could have two on the same night, back to back, but they need to be handled differently. The Surf: Office parties, family gatherings, anywhere with parents and children. Handle delicately. The Turf: Parties with friends. Don't be afraid to put a little char on it. Some basic rules of etiquette abide. Follow them, and we'll all be living like kings this holiday season. How Many Guests Can You Bring? Guest Policy (Surf): Unless otherwise noted, you may typically bring one guest to a holiday party. It is in the spirit of the holiday season to be welcoming, after all. At a family gathering or other respectable party, I like to bring a guest whose attendance I consider an honor: an old friend, a cousin, a partner only if she's got a ring on her finger. These are people of good stock who won't break down and reveal some mortifying character flaw after a few drinks. Guest Policy (Turf): For a holiday rager or any party where you've been warned to go easy on
the punch, consider the guest policy loose. Your options: the most beautiful girl you can find, calling in a favor if you have to; the craziest, most gregarious guy you know; the strangest, most unsettling guy you know. Create a little mystery with your guest. Just remember to bring booze and food on behalf of your guests. What Do You Get For Gifts? Host Gift (Surf): The days when you could pick up any cheap bottle of red wine from the neighborhood liquor store and think you'd done your due diligence are over. Enough with the f*cking Chianti already. For the host who welcomes you into his home for a holiday party, get a nice bottle of Scotch, cognac or something funky like Benedictine. Don't expect it to be served that night. Host Gift (Turf): Something extravagant and showy. Garish. If you can afford it, get a jeroboam of champagne. Carry it in on your
shoulder like an RPG. Proceed to the next step right away. Drink Policy Drinks (Surf): A civilized host who wasn't raised in a guppy tank will offer you a drink immediately or direct you to the bar. I've actually been to a party where I wasn't offered a drink or given a glass to serve myself until halfway through dinner. I could have asked, but I was fascinated by the inattention to detail and wanted to see how long it would last. It was perverse, like picking a scab. This is rare because most people who host parties are providers; a scene like this would be a nightmare to them. So, in general, wait until you're offered, or ask politely if you should serve yourself. And for the friendly gathering? That's next... Continue Reading
and banging sound systems. Lowrider style evolved out of Chicano culture in California in Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:00:56 AM the 1930s. At the time, When most people think about immigrants began to buy and customizing a car, they think customize older cars -- usually about improving the car's C h e v r o l e t s . S e e k i n g t o performance. Cars with extra- differentiate themselves from the large engines stuffed under the dominant hot-rod culture of the h o o d , t r u c k s w i t h a l i f t e d era, early lowriders (who called suspension to better crawl over themselves pachucos), didn't rocks and massive superchargers customize their cars for nights at are common at most car shows. the drag strip. Instead, they But there's a special brand of wanted cars that would look good customization that doesn't have and be comfortable as they anything to do with making the cruised the streets, hoping to meet car go faster. When it comes to girls. this type of customization, it's all From that urge to impress girls about making it bajito y suavecito has grown an enduring custom car (low and slow). style that's even influenced some Lowriders are a type of car production cars. To learn more customization where the goal of about lowrider style, check out the customization is not increased these 10 great lowriders. performance. Instead, lowriders This entry passed through the try to make their cars as sleek, Full-Text RSS service if this is stylish and sexy as possible, your content and you're reading it usually by dramatically lowering on someone else's site, please read the car's suspension, adding body the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentwork like fender skirts, lowering only/faq.php#publishers. Five the roof line and applying a flashy Filters recommends: Donate to coat of paint. Inside, lowriders are Wikileaks. all about comfort, with plush seats
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Culture/
Watch Gifts
Watch Snob (AskMen Latest Articles)
Its the holidays again, a time of year that most adults use as an excuse to act like children, and I dont mean that in the youthful, innocent, sweet way. I typically like to spend these weeks holed up at some sleepy Alpine ski station practicing my Christie turns by day and reacquainting myself with some good single malts by night. Anything but partaking in the thinly veiled gluttony and madness that passes for Christmas. New Year's is only marginally better since Ive learned to avoid the establishments that cater to the slobbering Euro trash who show their true colors after a half-bottle of champagne. Alas, I have been dragged into the morass by a deluge of questions related to gift giving this week, and so I will set aside my disdain long enough to act as if I care. The questions have ranged from the half-witted to the downright moronic (you know who you are), so rather than answer each one individually,
See the GarnerAfflecks' Happiest Moments of 2011!

Katie Henry (PopSugar)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:10:57 AM
Ive decided to present my version of a gift guide based on the most commonly asked questions. Guides and lists seem to be what readers with short attention spans demand these days, and, frankly, its something I can knock out before my Macallan breathes too much. So without further delay, here is the Watch Snobs guide to Christmas watches -- or at least a few of them. Father Moody, distant father who ruled from the head of a silent dinner table? Dont get him the watch he expects ( Rolex); get him the watch he deserves. Nothing says Thanks
This year is winding down, and it was another happy year full of red carpets, family outings, and new roles for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Along with their for nothing, old man, like a daughters, Violet and Seraphina, Hamilton, a once proud brand Ben and Jen kicked things off thats been living off its name and with a January getaway to Hawaii l i t t l e m o r e f o r d e c a d e s . and continued their fun-loving Benevolent father who patiently ways through the Spring. The corrected your golf swing and put Summer brought along a new you through college? Its time to project for Ben with Argo, while show him your appreciation with Jen focused on her upcoming a proper timepiece. A Glashtte Butter. There was one more Original Senator Sixties is the surprise for Jen and Ben's fans perfect blend of classic elegance, the couple announced that they real substance and a hint of are expecting their third child! timeless panache. And for your We've rounded up the cutest wife? Son? The Watch Snob continues, next... Continue Reading
pictures of their amazing 12 months, so click through to see their happiest moments! Here's to a happy and healthy 2012 for one of our favorite celebrity families. View Slideshow
A simple, powerful resolution for 2012

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:14:00 AM
Ale Paul offers a humble
suggestion for your New Year's resolution. Via We Love Typography. Find the inspiration to be happy.
Permalink| Leave a comment
Culture/ Products/
51
The Scientific Way to Sew Up Your Christmas Turkey

ScienceNow (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:30:00 AM
By Helen Fields, ScienceNOW If youre having turkey for Christmas dinner, be sure to invite a veterinarian. A group of European vets has figured out the best way to sew up a deboned bird. After taking the major bones out of a handful of turkeys and filling them with stuffing, the group tried out four different stitch patternsarrangements that they use professionally to fix a
horses intestines or sew up a cat after surgery. A fifth turkey got skin staples (shown). The turkey sewed with the simple stitch, akin to that a home cook might try (poking the needle into the skin on one side, then up through the other side) had the most torn skin before cooking. The other three stitch patterns still looked decent after cooking, but when the sutures were removed, a lot of skin and meat came with them. The best-looking turkey, it turned out, was the one that had been stapled. You will finally be
able to impress family and friends with your surgical skills at a Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, the authors conclude in a paper published online today in
Veterinary Record. Although they also warn that, while absorbable sutures will be digested if you accidentally leave one behind, a forgotten skin staple could cause
problems for your guests teeth or innards. Source: ScienceNOW Image: Dennis Verwilghen 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.
Test and Fix Your Posture with This Head -to-Toe Guide [Health]
Melanie Pinola (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:00:00 AM
Dropbox 2.0 for Android Brings Bulk Uploading, Offline Access to Favorite Files, More [Dropbox]
Melanie Pinola (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:45:00 AM
Posture problems are rampant, especially among those of us who work hunched over our keyboards from Men's Health is for you. all day. If you're not sure if your More posture needs fixing or are sure Laura Northrup (The Consumerist) and want some help, this guide
Android: Just a couple of days ago, the latest version of Dropbox for Android showed up as a preview build. Now it's here
officially and you can grab it from the Android Market. More
Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:30:00 AM
[unable to retrieve full-text content] FedEx Thinks This Is An Appropriate Place To Leave A
Package Is This Normal? Cracker Barrel Gives Me A Free Meal To Make Up For A Short Wait Perhaps This FedEx Delivery Man Is Preparing For A MonitorThrowing Contest Parking Attendant Thinks $2 Bills Aren't
Real, Returns My Perfectly Good Money How An Attempt To Return TV To Best Buy Left Man With No TV And No Refund
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Culture/ Politics-Left/ Featured/
France to pay for breast implant removals

reason to take similar action. Questions remain about the logistics and final costs of the "/>"/> removals. Tens of thousands of women with Francois Godineau, a top official r i s k y , F r e n c h - m a d e b r e a s t in the French national health implants should have them service, estimated it could deplete removed at the state's expense, French government coffers by France's health minister has $78m at a time when the country r e c o m m e n d e d , i n a n is teetering on a brink of a new Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) unprecedented move that could recession and struggling to tame Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:30:00 AM have implications across Europe state debt. and South America. Drastic measure Whether you're stuck at work or Xavier Bertrand said on Friday Investigators say the company already on your holiday vacation, t h e m a s s r e m o v a l s w e r e Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) used kick back and chat about your last "preventive'' and not urgent,and cheaper industrial silicone for the minute gifts and weekend plans in French health officials said implants instead of medical today's open thread. More analyses so far have found no link silicone to save money. between the pre-filled silicone gel The implants were pulled from implants and nine cases of cancer the market last year and the among women implanted with company is being liquidated. them. "As a preventive measure not of But Bertrand, in a statement, a n u r g e n t n a t u r e , [ F r e n c h cited an unusually high risk that authorities] recommend that the the implants could rupture and removal of these implants, even leak a questionable type of those not showing signs of silicone gel into the wearer's deterioration, be proposed," the body. statement said. Health authorities in Britain, It added that the costs of removal where even more women have the would be footed by France's implants than in France, said national health care system, Friday that for now they see no presumably only for French
We're Spreading Holiday Cheer in This Week's Open Thread [Open Thread]
(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:36:21 AM
patients. One reason for the drastic measure is the uncertainty about the contents of the silicone gel used and the risks it poses to internal organs. Also,standard mammograms and ultrasounds do not always indicate that an implant has ruptured, and many women may be walking around unknowingly with burst implants. 'Particular fragility' Some 30,000 of women in France, and tens of thousands more in Britain,Italy, Spain, Portugal and other countries in Europe and South America have had implants made by PIP. The implants in question were not sold in the US. All breast implants are subject to rupture, especially as they get older,and patients are meant to be informed of the risks before getting them put in. But "these implants have a particular fragility" and appear to pose risks of rupture earlier in their life spans than other implants, Jean-Claude Ghislain of French health agency AFSSAPS,
told a news conference on Friday. Removal of the implants can require general anesthesia and other risks associated with major surgery. The government recommendations say women who don't want to get them removed should be examined every six months. Annie Mesnil, who had a PIP implant to replace a breast removed after cancer in 1999, said: "It's not enough. They will pay for the removal of the implants, but they will not pay for the replacements.'' France's state health care system normally pays for implants for medical reasons, but not for cosmetic implants. About 80 per cent of those with the PIP silicone implants have them for aesthetic reasons. 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.
Another Bad Christmas in China

Ellen Bork (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:47:00 AM
For Chinas communist leaders, Christmas is a time for repression. Liu Xiaobo, the writer, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sentenced to 11 years for
incitement to subversion of state the Charter 08 initiative, as the power on December 25, 2009. basis for the charges. The indictment listed several of his essays, as well as his role in
Politics-Left/
53
Car bombs kill dozens in Damascus

Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:35:29 AM
the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. She described Friday's attacks as a A Syrian government official "very serious escalation". says at least 40 people, mostly "The capital has been relatively civilians, have been killed by two quiet. If the government is trying suicide car bombs in Damascus t o s a y t h i s i s t h e w o r k o f ahead of calls by anti-government protesters or even al-Qaeda activists for fresh protests across sympathisers, the attack is in the the country. heart of the capital and that makes At least 100 other people were t h e g o v e r n m e n t l o o k v e r y wounded in Friday's attack on two v u l n e r a b l e , " A m i n s a i d . security facilities in the Kfar In another part of Syria, activists Sousa district, Faisal Mukdad, reported the death of eight people Syria's deputy foreign minister, in the central city of Homs, where said. they said government forces fired State media reported that initial a t p r o t e s t e r s l e a v i n g O m a r investigations indicated that an al- M o s q u e in Jandali Qaeda group may have been n e i g h b o u r h o o d . responsible for the attack. 'Protocol of death' "Several soldiers and a large The latest violence came a day number of civilians were killed in after the first wave of an Arab the two attacks carried out by League monitoring mission suicide bombers in vehicles arrived in Damascus to check on packed with explosives against Syria's progress in implementing a bases of State Security and peace plan to halt the months of another branch of the security unrest. s e r v i c e s , " S y r i a ' s s t a t e - r u n Al Jazeera's Amin said: "What television said. the government wants to say is The station aired footage of that the people who did these damaged buildings and dead blasts are the same people they bodies being transferred to are fighting ... The say they are ambulances. battling terrorists and [this is how] Syria has portrayed the nine- they justify their use of violence." month uprising in the country as The observer mission visited the the work of "terrorist" extremists s i t e s o f t w o e x p l o s i o n s i n and armed gangs. Damascus, state media said. Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting Using the slogan "Protocol of from neighbouring Lebanon, said death, a licence to kill", activists the blasts marked the first such c a l l e d o n F a c e b o o k f o r attack in the Syrian capital since nationwide protests against the
Arab League mission after midday prayers on Friday. Opposition leaders have charged that Syria's agreement to the mission was a mere "ploy" to head off a threat by the Arab League to go to the UN Security Council. "We call on the Arab League to refer the matter of the crisis in Syria to the UN Security Council," Omar Edelbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees activist network, said. He called the observer mission "another attempt by the regime to bypass the Arab initiative and empty it of its contents". The observer mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that also calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to the violence and the release of detainees. The advance team consists of a dozen security, legal and administrative staff from the Arab League's secretariat who will make the logistical preparations for the arrival on Sunday.
killed in the governments crackdown since mid-March. As violence continued across the country, the UN Security Council remained deadlocked over a resolution to condemn the violence in Syria. In New York, France said "significant progress" had been Between 30 to 50 officials were made at a UN Security Council expected to be part of the first meeting on Syria. mission, which is headed by There were tensions at the Samir Saif al-Yazal, one of the meeting, however, with Russia Arab League's assistant secretary- renewing demands for an inquiry generals. into NATO air strikes in Libya in Once all the officials arrive, they a move US ambassador Susan will indicate cities they will be Rice called "a cheap stunt" to visiting in accordance with the divert attention from the Syria peace plan. crisis. Nabil el-Araby, the Arab League Russia and China have already chief, has stated that protecting vetoed one resolution proposed by members of this mission is the European countries condemning S y r i a n g o v e r n m e n t ' s Syria. responsibility. Russia, which accuses the West Violence continues of seeking "regime change" in In the run-up to the advance Syria, last week proposed a new t e a m ' s a r r i v a l , text, which the European however, the Syrian National countries say is not tough enough C o u n c i l , on Assad. Syria's main opposition bloc, said This entry passed through the on Wednesday that government Full-Text RSS service if this is forces had killed 250 people in 48 your content and you're reading it hours. on someone else's site, please read A day later, Syrias state news the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentagency said on Thursday that only/faq.php#publishers. Five more than 2,000 members of the Filters recommends: Donate to security forces had been killed Wikileaks. since anti-government protests erupted in March. The UN, however, estimates that more than 5,000 people have been
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Politics-Left/
Egyptians stage mass rally against army

Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:01:53 AM
Protesters want the ruling military council to cede power more swiftly than planned [EPA] Egyptian activists have gathered in Cairo for a mass protest against the ruling military and its handling of a series of clashes between security forces and demonstrators that killed 17 people and drew international criticism. Several thousands protested in the capital's Tahrir Square, the focal point of protests against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) after Friday prayers. Students have called for Egyptians to join Friday's protest with a march from Ain Shams University to Tahrir Square. Two students were among those killed in the latest clashes. "The current predicament we have reached is a result of the army council's reluctance to play its role, its intentional foot-dragging, breaking its obligations and failing over the economy and security, putting the whole country on the edge of a huge crisis," said a statement signed by two dozen parties, youth movements and others calling for Friday's protest. Violence 'unacceptable'| Al Jazeeras Sherine Tadros, reporting from Tahrir Square, said the crowd had been swelling since after the Friday prayers.
There are also protests in other cities, in Suez and Alexanderia. Lots of different demonstrations, but one clear message: that the SCAF needs to hand over power to civilians," she said. "They are also saying the recent violent crackdown, specially the violence soldiers used against women, is unacceptable." The now iconic pictures and videos of a woman protester being dragged and stripped by military forces during bloody clashes that erupted last Friday dominated the
media and heightened criticism against the SCAF. A competing rally of several hundred people gathered in support of the military in another part of Cairo on Friday. Al Jazeeras Jamal el-Shayal, reporting from Abbasiya, said the protesters believe that it is only through the military establishment that some sense of stability can be restored. "What will be interesting will be to see how the security forces deal with these protesters in
comparison to those in Tahrir. Many people point to how there is a double standard." Civilian rule Protesters want the ruling military council to cede power more swiftly than planned. Some who are sceptical of the military's commitment to democratic change want a presidential vote as early as January 25, the first anniversary of the start of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, or at least much earlier than the
mid-2012 handover now scheduled. The April 6 movement, which played a lead role in galvanising Egyptians to rise up against Mubarak, said the army's handling of the latest street protests showed it was seeking to "protect the previous regime". The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), leading in Egypt's staggered parliamentary election and wary EGYPTIANS page 55
TV/ Featured/
55
EGYPTIANS
of derailing the vote that will secure its place in mainstream politics, said it would not join the rally. The ultraconservative Salafi alNour Party said on its Facebook page, however, that it would take part. Many activists accuse the Brotherhood and other Islamists of betraying the protest movement in order to secure their own positions in the emerging new power structure. The FJP said on its Facebook page it would not participate although it said it was "the right of the Egyptian people to protest and demonstrate peacefully". The party emphasises the need for the handover of power to
civilians according to the will of the Egyptian people through free and fair elections ... in a stable environment," said Mohamed alKatatni, a senior member of the FJP. The Brotherhood has said bringing the vote forward could "create chaos". 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.
Helen Mirren: First Female Doctor Who?

Jordan Zakarin (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
role of the planet-hopping, TARDIS riding Doctor. "I would like to play the new Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:45:30 AM female Doctor Who. I don't want Helen Mirren has always been a to just be his sidekick," she said. t r a i l b l a z e r i n t h e w o r l d o f Currently, Matt Smith plays the showbusiness. Now, she wants to role, but as was hinted in the blaze a trail through the galaxy episode "The Doctor's Wife," it is itself. possible for a regeneration of the The Oscar-winning actress and Time Lord to come back as a British treasure recently, who has woman. played Cleopatra and both Queen Mirren certainly has the chops. Elizabeths, told the Daily Star that Beyond the obvious theatrical she has another iconic role in her accomplishments, she's done sites: Doctor Who. The British sci plenty of action. Just this fall, in -fi series, which has run since the fact, she starred as a Massoud 60s (with a break during the 90s), agent in "The Debt," playing the has always featured a man in the older version of Jessica Chastain's
character. Last week, it was revealed the Karen Gillian, who plays the Doctor's companion Amy Pond, will be leaving the show in a "heartbreaking" storyline. Her replacement is being lined up, though no name has been revealed. Smith will stay Doctor, for now. Whether Mirren is actually interested or was just answering a hypothetical question is unclear. That being said, it'd certainly make for a very interesting -- and exciting -- change.
Hollywood For Ugly People: 2011's Top Fights

Jordan Zakarin (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:12:15 PM
Romney, His Wealth, and His Tax Returns

Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:22:00 AM
While it's been said that Washington is Hollywood for ugly people, it's the beautiful people who have found themselves -- with increasing frequency -- crashing the parties in DC. For a non-election year, 2011 has been a banner time for the
intermingling of politics and celebrity. From publicly smacking down of GOP candidates and supporting Occupy Wall Street to takedowns of former darling President Obama, big stars have gone beyond the usual moneygiving and quiet advocacy to become forces in the news cycle. Progressives such as Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin have drawn headlines, as have archconservatives such as former
"SNL" star Victoria Jackson. Whether that means entertainers are getting smarter, or politics is becoming entertainment, it's hard to say, but it's certainly drawn attention to issues both left and right. Here are some of the top Hollywood Politics stories of 2011; suggest others in the comments.
NBC journalist Chuck Todd reportedly asked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney whether hed release his tax returns this election cycle. I never say never, Romney responded, according to the New
York Times. I don't intend to do so.
56
TV/
Sophia A. McClennen: Merry Christmas From Colbert: Satire's Special Gift

Sophia A. McClennen (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
wordplays, etc. -- to encourage his audience to think critically. We all remember the incredible Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:33:09 PM impact his neologism " truthiness" As Stephen Colbert signed off for had on the public. "Truthiness," the holiday season on December the term that he used to open his 15 his fans, no doubt, felt the let- very first show on "The Wrd" down of upcoming reruns. With segment, later became the Word the Republican primary in full of the Year in 2005 for the swing, The Colbert Report has American Dialect Society and in been one of the premier sources of 2006 by Merriam-Webster. Even insight into the primary race and more importantly, it became a part Colbert's spin on the political of everyday speech. scene will be sorely missed. But The term was a direct reference fans of Colbert should take heart to George W. Bush's claim that he because even in reruns his show learned his truth from his gut. keeps on giving. And while many of us were aware We have recently watched o f t h e w a y s t h e B u s h Colbert defend Christmas. While administration manipulated the in character as a Bill O'Reilly-like truth, Colbert's naming of such p u n d i t , h e h a s w a g e d a " practices as "truthiness" gave us Blitzkreig on Grinchitude" and all a common vocabulary through has applauded the idea of a " Gun which to talk about such practices Filled Christmas." He has also that was both biting and witty. m o c k e d R i c k P e r r y ' s P r o - That was only the beginning. Christmas ad where Perry states Since his first show one of that "there is something wrong Colbert's signature elements of his with America when gays can satire has been his smart, witty, openly serve in the military but playful, and incisive use of words. kids can't openly celebrate While there is a range to the ways Christmas." But his in-character that he uses words in his comedy, defense of Christmas is not the each wordplay works to combine gift I have in mind. comedy and critique. This past What is Colbert's greatest gift this May, he gave us a "The Wrd" holiday season? It's his satire -- s e g m e n t o n " E n h a n c e d and especially his way of using rejustification" in reference to words -- puns, neologisms, arguments that torture led to the
death of Bin Laden. The segment deconstructed the rhetoric of protorture Republicans, showing the fallacies in their logic and the flaws in their arguments. And then more recently he went after the "lexicowards" at The American Heritage Dictionary for revising their definition of "anchor baby" to describe it as an "offensive, disparaging term." Mocking the way that the rightwing has claimed that it is not the term, but the practice of non-U.S. citizens having babies on U.S. soil that is offensive, Colbert comes up with his own term: "grappling baby," which refers to "the all too
common occurrence of a pregnant woman in Mexico aiming her birth canal at America to launch her baby over the border so that she can climb in using the umbilical cord." Watch the clip here: The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes, Political Humor & Satire Blog, Video Archive These are only a few examples of a practice that is at the heart of Colbert's satire. He watches the ways that those in power abuse language -- as in the case with his critiques of politicians, pundits, and members of the mainstream
media. But his attention to words is not simply negative critique. He also offers new words and plays on words that expose flaws in the ways that those in power communicate to the public. Since his show aired in 2005 he has offered his audience the gift of a uniquely powerful use of satirical language -- one that allows his audience to reflect on social injustice while also having a laugh. Ask a Colbert fan and they will undoubtedly have a series of favorite Colbertisms. These are words that we have used to identify issues important to us, but they are also words that we remember because of the way that they helped us to feel part of a wider community and because of the fun we had when sharing the word with a friend, relative, or colleague. Colbert's wordplays offer new ways of thinking about pressing social issues. And they're fun. That means they make us smarter and happier. It's a gift that keeps on giving. So while you're waiting for the reruns to pass, consider celebrating a Colbert Lexi-Christmas by sharing a favorite Colbertism with a friend.
Products/
57
Yamaha 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System with Powered Subwoofer

(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:00:11 AM
I smelled fried potatoes and that seemed real cool. His kids were nearby, theyd the G-d Rest Ye Merry Gentile Men day off from school. Tis well into Hanukkah (see, we Daniel reached in a bowl and my didnt forget!)/And weve got a eyes grew so wide! Yamaha 5.1 Speaker Set For the coin that he gave me had Twas the very last Friday before chocolate inside! Christmas time We sat on his couch for the rest And the stockings were hung, or of the day, at least, hung were mine And we just hung around, and we But others had special beliefs of watched his kids play. their own, He put on a record of seasonal Which I only learned because I beats left my home! Knew none of the tracks but they I learned this from meeting my sounded real neat. neighbor, next door, And maybe because of those Who had stockings all rolled up Yamaha Speakers, and put in a drawer. With the natural sound and a 3/4 I said Hey there, Daniel, not silk dome tweeter having a tree? And the 5.1 channel and 100w And he said Not my thing, man. sub, Come in and youll see! But this holiday seemed really On top of the mantel, a menorah easy to love. quite nice. And my buddy could see it! He The stereo played something thought it was great! quiet and light. He had some leftovers and made I couldnt help but notice the me a plate speakers were classy, And he told me the history The lows nice and low and the behind the eight days brass was real brassy Explained about the oil and that The Main one, the Center, the part with the caves Sub, the Surround; And I understood better what he Put me right in the middle of all was upholding of the sound. And why he could shrug off all He had on the football game like the teasing and scolding youd expect, Yes, he knew about Santa, and Waved me down to a chair, and I reindeer, and Christ said What the heck? But felt his peoples ideas were
equally nice. Now, dont get me wrong, because Im not converting. And when it comes to Christmas, my apartments not hurting. Ill put up a tree and a manger and lights, And play Christmas carols long into the night, But Daniel thinks different, so respect it I shall. I might not be spot on with the facts, but oh well. Whats important is not that I get details right, But that he knows Im okay with how he spends his nights. So when I hear (through the wall) his Yamaha 5.1s Pumping out Hebrew words amidst laughing and fun I wont wonder what witcherys happening inside. Ill be smiling! Cause my buddys having a great time! And later this weekend, when we pass in the hall Ill say Hey, there, Daniel! I sure hope that yall Have a fantastic Hanukkah this year, once again. He just might reply Merry Christmas, my friend. Authorized for SquareTrade Extended Warranty Warranty: 2 Year Yamaha Condition: New Features: Ideal for dynamic digital movie
tracks and concert quality music reproduction in a cosmetically pleasing cabinet size designed to blend into any home dcor Natural Sound 5.1-channel speaker package with five acoustically matched speakers (Mains, Center and Surround speakers) and a 100W powered subwoofer, for a seamless surround sound performance 2-Way, dual woofer speakers with silk dome tweeter Wall-mountable speakers Magnetic shielding (all speakers) Removable grille [front, center and surround] 8 100W subwoofer with Advanced Yamaha Active Servo Technology II for deep, powerful bass Advanced Yamaha Active Servo Technology (Advanced YST):- This is a unique system in which the speaker and amplifier work together to cancel out impedance so the speaker unit has a perfectly linear motionAdvanced YST helps to ensure the highest levels of sound pressure and overall performance Comparison Chart of NS-SP3800 & NS-SP1800(Advantages in Red) Specifications Speakers Type: 2-Way Acoustic Suspension Speakers: 2-1/2 woofer x 2, 3/4 silk dome
tweeter Frequency Range: 100Hz 35kHz Impedance: 6 ohms Nominal Input: 30 W Maximum Input: 100 W Sensitivity: 82dB/ 2.83 V/m Crossover Frequency: 4 kHz Removable Grills: Yes Magnetic Shielding: Yes Dimensions: Main and Surround Speakers:10.25W x 3.625H x 4.375D Center Speaker: 3.625W x 10.125H x 4.375D Weight: Main and Surround Speakers: 3.09 lbs. Center Speaker: 2.98 lbs. Specifications Subwoofer Type: Advanced Yamaha Active Servo Technology II Driver: 8 cone woofer (Magnetically shielded type) Output Power: 50 W Dynamic Power: 100 W Frequency Response: 28 Hz 200 Hz Input Sensitivity: 50 mV (50 Hz, 50 W/5ohms) Power Consumption: 45 W Dimensions: 11.375W x 11.375H x 12.875D Weight: 18.75 lbs. Additional Photos: Main Speaker with Grill Removed Back of Powered Subwoofer Package Contents Packaging In the box: (1) Yamaha NS-SP3800 5.1 Ch YAMAHA page 58
58
Products/ News Photos
Guaranteed Christmas Delivery At Zales Leads To Panicked Boyfriend

Laura Northrup (The Consumerist)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:30:00 AM
YAMAHA
Speaker Set includes: (4) Main/Surround Speakers (1) Center Speaker (1) Subwoofer Discuss this product Price: $149.99 I want one!
Maybe Derek shouldn't have waited until last week to order a bracelet for his girlfriend as a Christmas gift, or maybe he should have gone to a brick-andmortar Zales store to buy it. But he didn't, and their site guaranteed delivery by Christmas if he ordered at that point. It turns out that "guaranteed Christmas delivery" actually means "we might get around to shipping it by the 22nd." I want to share a recent (and ongoing) problem I have had with Zales, in the hopes that others are warned about the kind of business they run. I ordered a bracelet for my girlfriend for Christmas last week (December 16th). The particular bracelet I ordered was a special order item, but the page guaranteed delivery by Christmas if ordered before the 17th. I
placed my order for the item at that time. I realize that ordering so late before Christmas is a gamble, but have never had an issue (especially with Amazon, who seems the be amazing about meeting their Christmas shipping deadlines) For the next few days, I checked on the order, which remained at "item located in stock". Thinking that the item was located "in their warehouse", I figured my item would be shipping out any day. Come Wendsday this week, I started to get a bit nervous and gave them a call. Only then did I find out the about customer service at Zales. The customer service like is absolutely horrendous. After getting hung up on by the automated system, and an endless list of options, I finally figured out one option that allowed me to talk to a customer service representative. This is when I learned that my item was being processed by a "custom
jeweler" and would be delivered by Friday. Asking what that meant, it was evident the customer service person had no idea where my item was or if my order would actually ship on time. It was quite clear that their online order status was a complete lie. As I started getting a bit more nervous, I started looking online and read tons of horror stories about Zales terrible shipping/ customer service. One look at their Facebook page and you can see that there are numerous other complaints just like mine, where people were promised delivery and their items are still not shipped. In fact, many people also had the same complaints about being hung up on by their automated customer service line, as well as getting no email responses back. Their Facebook page seems to be the only place to get a meaningful response from their customer service team, and even then it is a your item should
ship soon response. As for mine, my item still is listed as not shipped, and it is just about the day I am supposed to receive it. It is quite clear that Zales does not care but their customers, and I will never do business with them again. I realize this may be somewhat my fault for procrastinating, but when a company guarantees something for a certain date, they should deliver by that date and only have exceptions in very rare circumstances. Otherwise, what is the point of having a "guarantee." I would like for others to see this so they don't make the same mistake. 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.
Photos: Amazing Christmas tree car - WCNC

(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:04:13 PM
Photos: Amazing Christmas tree car WCNC by NewsChannel 36 We welcome your comments on this story's topic. Off-topic comments, personal attacks, and inappropriate language may be flagged and removed, and comment privileges blocked, per our Terms of Service. Thanks for keeping the comments... and more
Flash In The Brain Pan: Jingle Balls 2011

(Woot! - One Day, One Deal)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:00:00 AM
You get one click. That's it. Anywhere on the screen you like. Once. Jingle Balls 2011 is the perfect Your click will trigger an low impact pre-Christmas game e x p a n d i n g s n o w f l a k e t h a t for anyone stuck at work today. explodes each holiday ball. Each time a ball disappears, that will
trigger a new snowflake, and the new snowflake will also expand until it hits a ball at which point the whole process continues, hopefully across infinity. It's perfectly possible to clear the
whole screen with a single wellplaced click, but are you Santa enough to find the sweet spot? You've got all weekend to figure it out.
Products/
59
Choosing a cordless drill from our Ratings just got easier

Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Report: Apple looking into Macbooks powered by fuel cells

Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:29:59 AM
indicator. And the Craftsman 17310, selling at Sears for $90, is a CR Best Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:42:59 AM Buy. This 19.2-volt drill delivers Choosing a cordless drill from nearly as much speed power as far our Ratings just got easier pricier models. At just 3.8 pounds, Procrastinators are still holding it's also light, well-balanced, and out hope that theyll get a good easy to hold. Features include two gift at a good price by Sunday. speeds, the usual 1/2-inch chuck, Retailers are slashing prices on an LED work light. We also a smart charger with 30-minute everything from clothes to toys to found its handle especially recharge time, and a built-in LED tools including some of the comfortable. While recharges take light. Pressing a button shows the cordless drills recommended in some 10 minutes longer than the charge status. And the battery is Consumer Reports tests. If that optimal 30 minutes or less, they're lithium-ionthough this drill sounds like the perfect present for still reasonably fast. A gripe at comes with just one. the handyman or woman on your this price: The battery doesn't There are 31 cordless drills on list, check out our new model show the time remaining until it's our recommended list and each pages, which give our testers' take depleted. has its pluses and minuses. But a on each drill as well as the highs The Ridgid R86008K is selling real plus is finding a great drill at and lows of every model. f o r $ 1 4 9 a t H o m e D e p o t . a great price in time for the Take the Hitachi DS18DSAL, for Consider this 18-volt, two-speed holiday. Subscribe now! example. Its one of our top- drill if you're willing to trade a S u b s c r i b e t o scoring drills and can be found for little power for long run time. At ConsumerReports.org for expert as little as $149 at Lowes. This four pounds, it's still relatively Ratings, buying advice and top-scoring 18-volt drill is nearly easy to handle. And recharges r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f as fast and powerful as heavy- happen in just 25 minutes. products. Update your feed duty models yet weighs just 3.4 Features include the usual 1/2- preferences pounds. Pluses include a 1/2-inch inch chuck, two lithium-ion chuck, two speeds, two lithium- batteries, a smart charger, an LED ion batteries, a smart charger, and work, andyesa battery-charge
Report: Apple looking into Macbooks powered by fuel cells Could your next Apple MacBook laptop be powered by hydrogen? The AppleInsider website recently uncovered two patent applications filed by the Apple Company with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: "Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device" and "Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device." Hydrogen-based fuel cell technology isn't new. But rising consumer interest in renewable energy sourceas exemplified by the demand for alternative-fuel cars, such as the all-electric Nissan Leaf and gas-electric Chevy Voltis also spurring Apple apparently. In both patent applications, Apple states: As a consequence of increased consumer awareness, electronics manufacturers have become very interested in renewable energy sources for their products, and they have been exploring a number of promising renewable energy sources such as hydrogen fuel which is used in hydrogen fuel cells.
Apple proposes in its patent applications that fuel cell systems could power a portable computer "for days or even weeks without refueling." But cost and weight of the mobile fuel cell systems are obstacles that still need to be overcome, Apple acknowledged. Apple investigating fuel-cellpowered MacBooks[Apple Insider] Apple is researching fuel cell p o w e r e d computers[ExtremeTech] Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device[Free Patents Online] Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computer Device[Free Patents Online] 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
60
Products/ Talk/
Colorful Hearts Teddy Bears recalled for choking hazard

Submitted at 12/23/2011 8:59:59 AM
Before You Return Gifts, Check Out Return Policy Tweaks

Phil Villarreal (The Consumerist)
Colorful Hearts Teddy Bears recalled for choking hazard Build-A-Bear Workshops is recalling more than 297,000 Colorful Hearts Teddy Bears today. According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission and Health Canada, the teddy bears' eyes can loosen and fall out, posing a choking hazard to children. Both safety agencies report there have been no reports of injuries or deaths from the recalled Build-ABear toys. However, it is estimated the company sold about 284,000 of the teddy bears in the U.S. and 13,200 in Canada. The Colorful Hearts Teddy is about 16 inches high and made
with a covering of multi-colored hearts and black plastic eyes. The stuffed animal toy was sold at Build-A-Bear Workshops nationwide and online at www.buildabear.com from April 2011 to December 2011 for about $18 in the U.S. and $23 in Canada. Consumers should immediately take the recalled teddy bear away from children and return it to any Build-A-Bear store to receive a coupon for any available stuffed
* Walmart is only accepting cameras returned within 15 days of purchase instead of 30. Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:15:00 AM animal from Build-A-Bear. Purchases after Nov. 1 fall under For more information, consumers Retailers are always tweaking its more lenient holiday return can contact Build-A-Bear (tollf r e e : 8 6 6 - 2 3 6 - 5 6 8 3 e - m a i l : their return policies, weighing the policy. colorfulhearts 'at' buildabear.com) d e l i c a t e b a l a n c e b e t w e e n . or visit the company website: protecting their bottom lines and * Sports Authority does not treating customers with fairness. accept returns of items bought www.BuildABear.com. Build-A-Bear Recalls Colorful No two return policies ever seem online. Be sure to check with your Hearts Teddy Bears Due to to be the same, and even if they are, changes come along soon specific location before hauling in Choking Hazard[CPSC] Recall: Colorful Hearts Teddy enough to differentiate them once items to be returned. Bring receipts whenever possible, and if B e a r f r o m B u i l d - A - B e a r again. Consumer World rounds up you know you're going to return a Workshops[Health Canada] Product Safety Recalls[Build-A- return policy adjustments from gift as soon as you get it, don't Bear Workshops] Subscribe now! several different stores. Here are open the box. S u b s c r i b e t o some highlights (bear in mind that Some Retailers Naughty, Most ConsumerReports.org for expert policies can vary in different Nice[Consumer World] This entry passed through the Ratings, buying advice and regions): * Target has now cut computer Full-Text RSS service if this is reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed hardware returns to 45 days from your content and you're reading it 90 and dropped its restocking fee, on someone else's site, please read preferences as has Best Buy. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content* S e a r s n o w o n l y a c c e p t s only/faq.php#publishers. Five computers returned within 30 Filters recommends: Donate to days, rather than 60. Wikileaks.
TED: Alberto Cairo: There are no scraps of men - Alberto Cairo (2011)
TEDTalks (TEDTalks (video))
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:02:17 AM
Alberto Cairo's clinics in Afghanistan used to close down
during active fighting. Now, they stay open. At TEDxRC2 (the RC stands for Red Cross/Red Crescent), Cairo tells the powerful story of why -- and how he found
humanity and dignity in the midst of war.
Sports/
61
SF mayor, utility say equipment will be installed to prevent repeat of Candlestick blackouts - Minneapolis Star Tribune
(- Bing News)
; jQuery.post("/mail/", { "sender_name": yourName, Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:17:35 AM " s e n d e r _ e m a i l " : yourEmail,"recipient_email":recip Article by: ientsEmail,"comment":comment," domain":domain,"path":path,"con tentId":contentId } ,function(data) { Associated jQuery(".shareLayer").hide("slow Press "); alert("your mail has been Updated: December 23, 2011 - jQuery("#senderMail2").removeC sent"); }); } } 9:11 AM lass("fc-field-error"); SAN FRANCISCO - San jQuery("#errorMail2").remove(); Francisco and Pacific Gas & "); check=true; Electric Co. officials plan to } } install equipment to help prevent check=false; if(!recipientsEmail.match("[a- a repeat of Monday's blackouts at } zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~- Candlestick Park, which happened else ]+(?:\.[a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/ during a nationally televised game { =?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[a-zA-Z0- between the San Francisco 49ers 9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0- and Pittsburgh Steelers. jQuery("#senderName2").remove 9])?\.)+[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9 Mayor Ed Lee says the city will Class("fc-field-error"); -]*[a-zA-Z0-9])")) install additional backup power to { the computer that partially jQuery("#errorName2").remove(); controls the stadium's power check=true; jQuery("#recipientsEmail2").add system by Friday. } Class("fc-field-error"); PG&E President Anthony Earley if(!yourEmail.match("[a-zA-Z0- if(jQuery("#errorRMail2").length says the utility will install 9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a- Please enter recipient valid email equipment that will provide realzA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~- address."); } check=false; } else time data on the power lines going ]+)*@(?:[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0- { into the stadium, as well as 9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])?\.)+[a-zA-Z0- jQuery("#recipientsEmail2").remo perform a test to ensure the lights 9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0- v e C l a s s ( " f c - f i e l d - e r r o r " ) ; s t a y o n w h e n t h e s t a d i u m 9])")) jQuery("#errorRMail2").remove() s w i t c h e s t o b a c k u p p o w e r . { ; check=true; } if(check==true) The power went out twice { Monday once before kickoff jQuery("#senderMail2").addClass jQuery(".shareLayer").append("") and a second time during the
("fc-field-error"); if(jQuery("#errorMail2").length Please enter your valid email address."); } check=false; } else {
game. Officials say a malfunctioning switch caused the backup power system to fail the second time. That switch will be replaced."); } check=false; } else { jQuery("#senderName3").remove Class("fc-field-error"); jQuery("#errorName3").remove(); check=true; } if(!yourEmail.match("[a-zA-Z09!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[azA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+)*@(?:[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z09-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])?\.)+[a-zA-Z09](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z09])")) { jQuery("#senderMail3").addClass ("fc-field-error"); if(jQuery("#errorMail3").length Please enter your valid email address."); } check=false; } else {
jQuery("#senderMail3").removeC lass("fc-field-error"); jQuery("#errorMail3").remove(); check=true; } if(!recipientsEmail.match("[azA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]+(?:\.[a-zA-Z0-9!#$%&'*+/ =?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[a-zA-Z09](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z09])?\.)+[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9 -]*[a-zA-Z0-9])")) { jQuery("#recipientsEmail3").add Class("fc-field-error"); if(jQuery("#errorRMail3").length Please enter recipient valid email address."); } check=false; } else { jQuery("#recipientsEmail3").remo veClass("fc-field-error"); jQuery("#errorRMail3").remove() ; check=true; } if(check==true) { jQuery(".shareLayer").append("") ; jQuery.post("/mail/", { "sender_name": yourName, " s e n d e r _ e m a i l " : yourEmail,"recipient_email":recip ientsEmail,"comment":comment," domain":domain,"path":path,"con tentId":contentId } ,function(data) MAYOR, page 62
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Sports/ Daily World/ News Photos
Brook Lopez, NJ Nets center, has stress fracture in right foot, will have surgery Friday - New York Daily News
(- Bing News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:56:30 AM
MAYOR,
With one small displaced bone in Brook Lopezs foot, the Nets were dealt a large blow to their playoff aspirations and their pursuit of Dwight Howard. Lopez suffered a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his right foot during Wednesday night's preseason loss to the Knicks, an injury that requires surgery and has sidelined players for entire seasons. The Nets wont give a timeline on Lopezs recovery until after he goes under the knife at the Hospital for Special Surgery on Friday, three days before the season opener in Washington. But in a fashion typical of GM Billy King, the Nets landed a capable center replacement out of nowhere Mehmet Okur, a 31year-old former All-Star on an expiring contract. The Nets gave up their 2015 second-round pick
Thursday to the Utah Jazz, a team in rebuilding mode that was looking to shed Okur's $10.8 million salary. Kings friendship with Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor again paid off. The two orchestrated the 11thhour deal that brought Deron Williams to New Jersey in February. Despite the evening save from King, Lopezs injury was detrimental to the goals of the present and future. Not only are the Nets losing their top scorer for an extended period in a shortened season, their pursuit of Howard is in jeopardy because Lopez is their trade chip. By using the rest of their cap space to sign Okur, the Nets can no longer offer to absorb Orlandos bad contracts. Definitely devastating, Williams said. Brooks a big part of our team. But theres one thing you learn in this business is you
cant control injuries. Lopez, 23, has played every game in his three seasons with the Nets and had been a model of durability, but somehow suffered the stress fracture in the first half Wednesday and didnt notice anything was amiss until getting X-rayed after the game. The trade deadline is March 15, and its unclear if the Magic or any other team would take a chance on Lopez without him proving himself on a surgically repaired foot. The recovery time from such an injury is unpredictable. 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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John 1:1 (12-2311)

(Verse of the Day)
earth until he was born in Bethlehem, but he has always Submitted at 12/23/2011 2:00:00 AM been there. He is God with us, as In the beginning was the Word, Matthew puts it (Matthew 1:23). and the Word was with God, and He is God come to visit us as the Word was God. Luke tells us (Luke 7:16). He is John 1:1(NIV) Thoughts on the Son of God as Mark reminds Today's Verse... God's Message of (Mark 1:1). He is God's ultimate s a l v a t i o n w a s w i t h h i m a t and final Word (Hebrews 1:1-2)! creation. In fact, by nature, the My Prayer... Father, help me one who was the Message was better know your Message, both God himself. John wants us to in print and in life. Please teach know that Jesus, God's Word and me more about Jesus and his heart ultimate Message, was with God for people and his love for you. from the very beginning. The one May he be my Lord in word, who turns water to wine, feeds the deed, and motivation. In Jesus' 5000, and raises Lazarus didn't name I pray. Amen. make his human appearance on
Photos: Deck the House Contest in Wheaton Patch.com

Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:54:21 AM
Photos: Deck the House Contest
in Wheaton Patch.com Encourage your neighbors to submit photos of their decorated
houses for a chance to win $100000 for Montgomery County Public Schools. By Esther French Encourage your neighbor to
submit a photo of their decorated home. Did you spend hours stringing... and more
Gaming/ News Photos
63
San Francisco Fire Leaves 60 Homeless, 2 Injured [PHOTOS] International Business Times
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:34:18 AM
OnLive updated for Xperia Play (meaning: leave the external gamepad at home)
Christopher Grant (Joystiq)
PS3 and Vita game 'Malicious' classified in Australia

Ludwig Kietzmann (Joystiq)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:30:00 PM
virtualized buttons, a formula that OnLive knows doesn't work, and Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:45:00 AM instead of carrying your You may have greeted the news smartphone and the not-sothat OnLive was playable on convenient OnLive controller, you tablets with a certain amount of can bust out your gamepadapprehension. "But how am I enabled phone for that consolesupposed to control complicated gaming experience on the go. console games with a Continue reading OnLive touchscreen," you bemoaned. "I u p d a t e d f o r X p e r i a P l a y know I could use the external (meaning: leave the external gamepad at home but what about gamepad at home) when I'm on the go? I'm a busy, OnLive updated for Xperia Play important person." (meaning: leave the external We understand your frustration, gamepad at home) originally but the OnLive wizards have appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 concocted a solution, enabling full Dec 2011 11:45:00 EST. Please slide-out gamepad controls for the see our terms for use of feeds. Sony Ericsson Xperia Play or, as Permalink| Email this| Comments you may prefer to call it, the PlayStation Phone. So instead of
upcoming Vita port, which was announced in August after the original launched on PlayStation Malicious, a PSN-exclusive boss 3. We've yet to hear any official rush action game (genre: "I'd like d e t a i l s a b o u t a M a l i c i o u s to speak to the manager, and then localization, but we've already s t a b h i m . " ) , m a y b r i n g i t s started begging Sony to change c o n c e n t r a t e d q u e s t a n d the name and prevent confusion weaponized cloak to territories with our homoerotic "Firefly" fan beyond Japan. The Alvion- novel. developed project has been PS3 and Vita game 'Malicious' c l a s s i f i e d i n A u s t r a l i a a n d classified in Australia originally attached to publisher Sony appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Computer Entertainment, making Dec 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please a localized version likely. see our terms for use of feeds. The game's move to other Permalink| Email this| Comments markets could coincide with the
International Business Times San Francisco Fire Leaves 60 Homeless, 2 Injured [ PHOTOS] International Business Times It took about half of San Francisco's fire department to put out the fire that started on Thursday, which has left as many as 60 people homeless and two injured, according to reports. San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, told allvoices.com that... and more
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Gaming/ Science/ LENR
E-Cat Weekly -December 22, 2011 - Pure Energy Systems News

(Andrea Rossi - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:27:27 AM
A Car Seat That Authenticates the Driver PSA: 'Gun-like' Avatar With Butt Recognition items disappearing from XBLM on Jan. 1
Dan Nosowitz (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
terms I just used, or will use, have been approved or sanctioned by the researchers) is a pretty decent way to identify people. The seat is Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:58:41 AM Buttprint Security Advanced comprised of a system of 360 Institute of Industrial Technology separate sensors, which measure Biometric security is often p r e s s u r e . T h o s e s e n s o r s Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) appear that this is just the latest addition to the list of things focused on the more boring communicate with a laptop to put Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:00:00 AM anatomical parts, like the pads of together a precise map of the Avatars can't have or do. An official post on the Epic We've contacted Microsoft to the fingers (ehhh) or the eyes seated person. The researchers say Games forums states that the receive a comprehensive list of (who cares). So little attention has the seat can correctly identify Lancer and Hammerbust items for "gun-like" items being removed. b e e n p a i d t o t h e s e c u r i t y people with 98% accuracy--not possibilities of the butt. Well, not bad at all. X b o x A v a t a r s w i l l n o t b e [Thanks, Steven] available starting January 1, 2012. PSA: 'Gun-like' Avatar items anymore: researchers at the The team is hoping to work with Those who have purchased the disappearing from XBLM on Jan. Advanced Institute of Industrial Japanese car manufacturers to items prior to the new year are in 1 originally appeared on Joystiq Technology in Tokyo have come implement the system as an added the clear and can keep them. on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:00:00 up with a car seat that measures security measure, possibly in as The post notes that the removal EST. Please see our terms for use the precise contours and pressures few as two or three years. left by your posterior. [ TechCrunch] of the Lancer and Hammerburst of feeds. are part of a new policy going into Permalink| Email this| Comments Apparently measuring buttprints, or rear-pressure (none of the effect for "gun-like avatar items" on the Marketplace. It would
Pure Energy Systems News E-Cat Weekly -- December 22, 2011 Pure Energy Systems News The past week saw around 30 unique stories posted about Andrea Rossi's E-Cat, including from at least 2 mainstream sources. The main highlights include talk about crowd funding of a 1 MW purchase; and reports of the Coherence 2011 conference in Rome...
Science/ LENR
65
FYI: Can Snakes Really Be Charmed By Music?

Ryan Bradley (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:01:30 AM
Blame It On Rio: Things Aren't All Lovey Dovi With Vale SuperbikePlanet.com
(Andrea Rossi - Google News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:05:18 AM
Snake Charmer John Downer/ Getty Images No. The charm has nothing to do with the music and everything to do with the charmer waving a pungi, a reed instrument carved out of a gourd, in the snake's face. Snakes don't have external ears and can perceive little more than low-frequency rumbles. But when they see something threatening, they rise up in a defensive pose. "The movement of the snake is completely keyed in on the guy playing the toodley thing," says Robert Drewes, chairman of the department of herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles) at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. "He sways, the snake sways." Drewes studies how animals respond to their own calls; his specialty is frogs. Frogs have very good ears, which makes sense, since airborne sound is vital to their procreation: A croaking male calls out to a female. Every call of every frog species is distinct, and Drewes can walk blindfolded into a patch of Kenya's ArabukoSokoke forest and identify 15 different species by listening to their calls. Female frogs have
inner ears that are attuned only to the call of their species. He likes a deep, rich pitch, and when he plays the saxophone, he prefers his alto and tenor to his soprano. Although when he travels to Africa, he brings a soprano. "I hate the damn thing, but it fits in my bag," he says. What do the frogs think of his playing? "I can't answer that," he says. "The guy who really knows this stuff is Bernie Krause."
Krause is a musician and "soundscape ecologist" who has recorded with Stevie Wonder, the Doors and George Harrison (Krause worked on Harrison's album Electronic Sound, which credits Harrison's cat for performing on one side). "Some musicians have played music to killer whales or dolphins," he says, "and what happens is initially the critters that are being subjected to this appear to be
curious and want to know what it is, where it's coming from." In 1985 he was part of a team that coaxed a lost humpback whale out of the Sacramento River delta with field recordings of other humpbacks feeding. Krause says that although animals seem to respond to what we call music, how can we know what they think? "Birds bob their heads to beats, bonobos played keyboard with Peter Gabriel," he says, "but we're ascribing our attributes to animals. Show me animals appearing to enjoy music that aren't captive, that aren't looking for something to alleviate the boredom." Krause says that we learned our music from the natural world, and in a few small pockets of the globe, groups of humans still sing with nature rather than to it. The Kaluli in Papua New Guinea, he says, "mix their voices in with the sounds of the forest, which is how we first learned polyphony"-singing with more than one voice. Snake charming also may have begun this way, singing and dancing with the snake. But that was thousands of years ago, before we knew snakes couldn't even hear that toodley thing.
Blame It On Rio: Things Aren't All Lovey Dovi With Vale SuperbikePlanet.com by staff Italian MotoGP rivals Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso aren't feeling holiday cheer toward each other. Dovizioso flew to Argentina last week to participate in ceremonies announcing the return of the World Championship to that country...
Add Some Veterinary Apparatus To Your High-Tech Cooking Toolkit

Paul Adams (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:37:02 AM
ADD page 66
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ADD
The Stapled Bird Denis Verwilghen via Science A simple surgical solution to neater meat A team of veterinarians have taken time away from helping fluffy animals to focus on what's really important: dinner. Specifically, what's the best way to sew your holiday bird back up after you've deboned and stuffed it? The group tried four different surgical suture patterns to secure the bird, but all of them resulted in torn skin and a sadly scarred main course. The solution? A fifth bird, which was closed up with
metal surgical staples instead of stitches, was by far the fittest for presentation at the holiday table. Ever willing to buy in to useful culinary technology, I think I better pick up one of these quick, before the bird goes in the oven. Less than $10 and preloaded with stainless steel staples. Oops! And one of these. [ Science]
China May Gain Base in Seychelles

Dean Cheng (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
What's Sharing An Egg (Or Sperm) Among Friends?

(Shots - Health Blog)
Gwadar, Chinese officials firmly denied that such a topic had even been raised. This makes the discussion of a Chinese naval Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:21:30 AM Chinese officials have recently facility in the Seychelles all the been discussing the possibility of more surprising, as it marks the establishing a naval facility in the first time that the Chinese have Seychelles Islands in the Indian officially indicated interest in Ocean. Unlike the comments establishing a naval foothold in made by Chinese Rear Admiral the Indian Ocean region. Yin Zhuo last year when he raised At this time, these discussions the prospect of China establishing s e e m t o i n v o l v e o n l y t h e overseas naval bases, however, reprovisioning of Chinas antithese comments appear to be piracy patrol. Now in the midst of a p p r o v e d b y t h e C h i n e s e its tenth rotation, this is the most leadership. extended Chinese overseas Chinas expanding presence in military presence in PLA history. the Indian Ocean region, often Given the distance from Chinese referred to as the string of ports, it is not surprising that pearls, has raised concerns from Beijing would like to have New Delhi to Washington. As someplace closer where it could Chinese companies have built port refuel, take on fresh water and facilities in Burma, Bangladesh, fresh food, undertake basic Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, the fear repairs, and perhaps allow its has been that this was the crews some shore leave. precursor to an enlarged Peoples Yet, any permanent Chinese Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) access to Seychelles facilities will presence in the region. Yet, until undoubtedly arouse concern in now, all of those facilities were New Delhi, especially as China is commercial. When Pakistani modernizing its forces and officials claimed that their country i n f r a s t r u c t u r e a l o n g t h e was offering China a naval, as SinoIndian border (where tens of opposed to commercial, facility at thousands of square miles remain
in dispute).As the recent crash of a U.S. Predator drone highlighted, the U.S., too, has an interest in the Seychelles. The latest Chinese move should also be seen in light of expanding Chinese presence at the two ends of the Indian Ocean basin. Recent revelations of Chinese access to Australian space telemetry facilities, as well as longstanding access to space facilities in Malindi, Kenya, for example, suggest that Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean are not solely naval in nature. Chinas interest in the Seychelles does not necessarily presage a military surge into the Indian Ocean region. Nonetheless, it marks a definite shift for Beijing, from purely commercial to a much more mixed status. 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.
WHAT'S page 67
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iStockPhoto.com Should she know that this moment was made possible by an egg donor? Though there are more ways today to create a baby than ever before with help from a friend or stranger's sperm, egg, embryo or womb, just to name a fewquestions continue to swirl about what and when to tell the resulting children about how they're related to whom. Even plans that seem firm before conception can go awry once the child is born, according to a study published this month in Reproductive BioMedicine Online. Samantha Yee, a doctoral student and social worker at the Centre for Fertility and Reproductive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, interviewed 15 women who donated eggs to friends or family members, and 18 women who received eggs from pals and relatives. No cash was exchanged in these "altruistic" arrangements, Yee says. But there were strings, and that became even more apparent as the infants got older. "These women are typically close," Yee says. "During the pregnancy, they see themselves as part of the same project, driving
each other to clinic appointments and so forth." Egg donor and recipient often know each other's friends and extended families, some of whom may not know about the arrangement. Initially, everybody involved is so focused on getting pregnant, Yee says, they may not compare notes about what they're going to tell the child and others down the road. She interviewed the women after the babies were born. "In some cases there was a mismatch in expectations of how they'd handle [the discussion of how the children were conceived]," Yee says. Typically the egg donor wanted to eventually tell the child about the arrangement, but sometimes the recipient didn't. That sort of mismatch seemed especially complicated, Yee says, when the egg donor had children of her own genetic half-siblings of the recipient's child. "Suddenly you have a situation where these women see each other all the time, and their children are close in age and good playmates, but there's a secret nobody's talking about." As one donor put it, "In 25 years, what if [my own child] fell in love with [my donor egg offspring] ...I would never want my child to go
through that." In September, NPR's Jennifer Ludden reported on the trend towards telling children if they were conceived with donor egg or sperm, and on the desire on the part of some children to find their donors. There are fewer online resources than you'd expect on the issue. Resolve, the nonprofit that advises on infertility options, lists issues to consider when talking to children. And the Donor Sibling Registry addresses what to tell as part of its page on donor family issues. "This type of egg donation can work beautifully," Yee says. "But it's really important that the people involved talk and think through ahead of time what they'll tell all the children. It's not just a one-time discussion." . 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.
Bomb Blasts Target Govt. Offices in Damascus

(The Feed)
portrayed their opponents peaceful demonstrators and armed rebels alike as terrorists and Via NYT: thugs, orchestrated by foreign BEIRUT, Lebanon Suicide o p p o n e n t s o f t h e S y r i a n attackers detonated two powerful government. In a news conference car bombs outside government f o l l o w i n g t h e a t t a c k s , M r . offices in Damascus on Friday, in Mekdad quickly suggested the what appeared to be the most a t t a c k v i n d i c a t e d t h e brazen and deadly attacks against governments view, as it released the government since the start of an unusual number of graphic the uprising in Syria in March. photographs and video of the Dozens were killed at the State carnage. We said it from the Security Directorate headquarters beginning, this is terrorism, he and another security installation, said, according to The A.P. They SANA, the government news a r e k i l l i n g t h e a r m y a n d agency, reported. The news c i v i l i a n s . . . . agency said that while some 1. Were these really suicide soldiers were killed, most of the attacks? 2. The skeptic in me victims were civilians. Faisal thinks this is Assad bombing his Mekdad, the deputy foreign own people to make the case that minister, was quoted by The h e s fighting al Associated Press as saying that 30 Q a e d a . G r e g P o l l o w i t z people were killed and 100 This entry passed through the w o u n d e d i n t h e a t t a c k s , Full-Text RSS service if this is coordinated within minutes of your content and you're reading it each other. In a statement, SANA on someone else's site, please read said an initial investigation the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentshowed the car bombings carried only/faq.php#publishers. Five the blueprints of Al Qaeda, Filters recommends: Donate to though it did not provide any Wikileaks. further detail. For months, Syrian officials have consistently
Submitted at 12/23/2011 7:36:53 AM
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Health/
Americans Say Security Checks Are A Bigger Health Concern Than Flights
(Shots - Health Blog)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 7:55:00 AM
Scott Olson/ Getty Images A Transportation Security Administration volunteer demonstrates a full-body scanner at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in March 2010. If you're heading for the airport humming I'll Be Home For
Christmas, all of us at Shots hope your trip goes without a hitch. With all the comings and goings of the holiday season on our minds, we recently asked Americans a few questions and air travel and health. And the latest NPR-Thomson Reuters Health Poll finds that when it comes to flying, the vast majority of American don't have a
care about health once they're in the air. Only 8 percent said they had any health worries about traveling by plane; 92 percent don't think twice. What's the biggest personal risk from being airborne? Twenty-one percent cited the ultimate health risk: a crash. Sixteen percent said it was catching a cold or the flu. About 7 percent said it was
anxiety. Only 5 percent said developing a blood clot, which has been recognized as a problem for sedentary travelers on long-haul flights. We wondered if anyone thought flying had ever led them to become ill, and 11 percent said they thought it had. Now what about the security
screening that goes on before the plane takes off? More than 1 in 5 respondents (23 percent) said they would refuse to be examined in one of the whole-body scanners now in many airports. A third of people under 35 said they would decline the scans. About 23 percent of poll AMERICANS page 69
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respondents said they were concerned about radiation exposure from the scans. Invasion of privacy bothered 17 percent, and 13 percent object to the scans because they consider them to be an unreasonable search. The risk from radiation exposure from the security checks is scant, said Dr. Ray Fabius, chief medical officer for the health care unit of Thomson Reuters. "The much more serious health concerns associated with flying are exposure to communicable illnesses and blood clots during long air excursions," he said. "By avoiding traveling when sick and exercising in your seat, these risks can be minimized." The telephone poll of more than 3,000 adults across the country
was conducted during the first half of November. The margin for error is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. Click here to read the questions and complete results. You can find the previous polls here, or by clicking on the NPR-Thomson Reuters Health Poll tag below. 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.
Rep. Bob Turner at Restoration Weekend

Frontpagemag.com (FrontPage Magazine FrontPage)
Submitted at 12/22/2011 10:34:56 PM
REP.
Rick Perrys Little Trick
very proud to introduce Congressman Turner. Im not going to spend a lot of time on his bio; Id rather talk about his election and what happened, and how important it was, and the significance of it. I talked a little bit about it yesterday. Well, let me just its in the biographical information. Congressman Turner lived his whole life in the district he represents, in Queens and Brooklyn. He for 40 years was in the business of news media and worked on developing talk shows, with Phil Donahue, Jerry Springer and others, and was an executive. And I read, in my stupor last
night, as I was looking at things for those of you who were up late, too I found that one of the reasons and Id love to hear the congressmans comment on this was that he had gotten upset watching a segment on Bill OReilly about healthcare with the incumbent in the district this was prior to the 2010 election Anthony Weiner, someone you may have heard of in that district, in which he was, you know, talking about healthcare in ways that the congressman Bob Turner at that time found offensive. And so he did what all good REP. page 70
The following talk recently took place at David Horowitzs Restoration Weekend in West Palm Beach, Florida (Nov. 17-20, 2011). The transcript follows with introductory remarks given by Pat David Frum (FrumForum see there? A smiling Mike Caddell and the Freedom Centers David Frum) Huckabee, winner of the 2008 Michael Finch. Michael Finch: Ladies and caucuses, standing next to Rick Submitted at 12/23/2011 7:59:17 AM gentlemen, if I can have your Perry himself. It goes by so fast Mike Huckabee has not endorsed y o u a l m o s t d o n t s e e i t . attention, we want to go ahead Rick Perry for president. On the Somebody must however be and get the program started. Thank you. contrary, theres a long, rich hoping youll absorb it. record of Huckabee jabs at Perry. For an aspiring president of To introduce this mornings Yet take a look at the new Rick honor, it seems kind of a cheap s p e a k e r , C o n g r e s s m a n B o b Turner from New York, the new Perry ad, President of Honor, trick. aimed at the Iowa caucus-voters. This entry passed through the congressman from New York, is The ad montages endorsements Full-Text RSS service if this is going to be a longtime friend, and testimonials from winners of your content and you're reading it political analyst, great friend of the congressional medal of honor, on someone else's site, please read t h e F r e e d o m C e n t e r . S o I artfully edited in ways to make the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- introduce Pat Caddell, who will you think that Gov. Perry must be only/faq.php#publishers. Five introduce our speaker. Thank almost sort of a war hero himself. Filters recommends: Donate to you. (Applause) Hit pause at second 55. Whaddya Wikileaks. Pat Caddell: Well, this is interesting, isnt it? Actually, Im REP. page 69
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REP.
Americans should do started running for office. And what enough Americans dont do is run for office. And so he took on a seat, and started running in a district thats three-to-one Democratic registration. And he ran in 2010 and did not have a lot of money Anthony Weiner had a lot of money, and the machinery of the Democratic Party in New York City and got 40 percent of the vote, which is quite a respectable showing for someone not been in politics. And he started running again, so that when Mr. Weiners really, its Sunday, morning, I shouldnt (Laughter) Theres a thought in my mind, but Im leaving it alone. You can figure it out. But when he got into his difficulties, and the special election was called, everyone said that seat is still going to be safe for the Democrats. Now, one of the issues was it was heavily theres a substantial Jewish population, and an orthodox Jewish population. And they were unhappy with the President on Israel. But at the same time, as its said, its still a three-to-one Democratic district. And the Democrats nominated an just to show you how we get over ethnicity thisll be a surprise to some of my former some of my erstwhile associates on the left sometimes we overcome things, like ethnicity and so forth. The Democratic nominee was an orthodox Jewish voter. He would lose orthodox Jews four-to-one to
Bob turner in the election. Because issues matter a lot more. I was interested in it because I believed that the race was winnable. The Republicans had just lost the 26th District in New York, the Jack Kemp seat near Buffalo, which is if you were there yesterday, I commented was a district that could not be lost, if you put a glass up, or a cup, named Republican. And they managed to do it. And millions of dollars were spent by all of these organized groups. Bob Turners election was a real counterpoint to that. The President in the polling, from the very beginning, was in trouble in that district, because of the economy, and because of Israel, and because of, in general, his policies on national security including terrorism, interestingly enough, as well as what this New York State Senate had done on gay marriage. But when it all came down to it, Bob Turner made his campaign. And with some suggestions, his pollster was John McLaughlin who, as you know, is a colleague of mine from Secure America. And so as these things work out, ideas pass around. The campaign not only challenged the question of Israel and challenged the question Bob really ran a campaign, to voters one-on-one, talking to them about what was happening in their lives and what the party was not doing for them. And he was very fortunate. A number of Democrats endorsed him. I was one of them, proudly
to say. And the argument that he was able to make and former Mayor Koch and others was that this election was really important that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid needed to be sent a message about both the economy, and what was happening with their economic policies; and Israel, before it was too late. And they responded. It is interesting John and I did a post-election survey. And I dont want to take up a lot of time, but I just want to tell you some of the highlights. That campaign worked. The vast majority of it was pretty even about 80 percent of people who said theyd voted for Turner. By the way, a quarter of them had never voted for a Republican for Congress in their life. Thats an interesting point. The President overall in that district had an unfavorable rating that was disapproval rating that was in the high 50s, had a negative favorability rating. Bob Turner was the most popular person, at 51-32, in the district. But his opponent wasnt high negatives; he was slightly positive. Anthony Weiner was less positive, although they were about 38 percent [or] favorable to Weiner, which I still found interesting. And that only could happen, I suppose, in New York. But what was also interesting was the repudiation of the issue that drew him into the fray to begin with, which was healthcare. A whopping majority of people wanted it repealed and replaced.
The feeling that the Presidents policies were endangering Israel you know what was interesting about that? Catholics were even higher than Jews in believing that. But Jews are heavily Democratic. But a majority of them believed it, and substantial numbers voted, and I suspect also looking at the turnout didnt vote. And one of the questions that was interesting to me was the question do President Obamas policies endanger the security of the state of Israel? And that was 44 yes and 36 no, in a district where Jewish voters are the secondlargest group religiously, and which is a three-to-one remember, a three-to-one Democratic registration district. Most important thing was, it was clear that President Obama was in trouble. From that moment on, two things have happened. And perhaps Congressman Turner could comment on this. One is the Obama Administration realized how deeply they were in trouble. And theres an important last point I want to make. His opponent, David Weprin, outspent him two to one. And in the last week of the campaign, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent one half million dollars in the last seven days trying to hold that seat. The Republican establishment basically gave Bob Turner the back of their hand. I mean, he cant say that, Im sure, because he has to get along. But
Ill just flat out tell you, they gave him nothing. The groups, who will go nameless, but you can imagine some of them start with initials like K and R but those groups, which poured millions into the 26th, would not help Bob Turner. This was won on the basis of a terrific candidate, as youll see; and a powerful message in a powerful moment. So what happened is the Obama Administration immediately panicked. And from that moment on, they have been trying to reconnect with their base and with Democratic voters. Because they realize how dangerous it is. And the Republican Party and I will not, because this is not my speech wont characterize them as I often do have decided, at that moment have learned none of the lessons and not apply them, and just sit there; and have not taken up what was a clear path that I believe pointing the way to unseating President Obama, and unseating him among the voters who will make a difference the independents and the Democrats. I think Bob Turner is one of most fantastic candidates, the most and, you know, candidates who run Ill tell you from personal experience who run from conviction, but also because they feel its a responsibility, have a certain lightness about them, unlike the people who are running because my God, I need this. And well, actually, some of them REP. page 72
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Morning Bell: Our Christmas Wish The Gift of Gratitude

Jennifer Marshall (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
characterized much of 2011. Its been fueled by an entitlement mentality that threatens not only the spirit of Christmas but the Submitted at 12/23/2011 7:53:44 AM Gratitude, its been observed, is a v e r y f a b r i c o f a j u s t a n d hallmark conservative virtue. prosperous society, Messmore We prize the heritage passed says. d o w n t o u s t h r o u g h t h e Thats because the entitlement generations. We look beyond m e n t a l i t y m a k e s a n e v e r ourselves to the wisdom of the increasing list of claims that ages to shape our outlook and to government must fulfill, from t h e e n d u r i n g p r i n c i p l e s o f jobs to health care to freedom Americas founding to ground our f r o m c o l l e g e d e b t . T h i s decisions today. government-owes-me attitude G r a t i t u d e f o r w h a t w e v e abandons principles of personal received makes us respond by r e s p o n s i b i l i t y a n d m u t u a l giving, especially at this season. responsibility through civil This year, the season of gifts is society, that is, through the particularly poignant, as Heritage relationships forged in family, research fellow Ryan Messmore congregation, and community. writes in an op-ed this week: But the more Americans look to Christmastime is a season of government to provide for our gratitude. Whether its because welfare, the more it weakens these we reflect upon the birth of the civil society bonds. Thats bad Christ child or the blessings of the news for good governance, and past year, the holiday often bad news for our welfare. As the prompts a sense of appreciation d a t a on Heritages and thankfulness as well as the FamilyFacts.org site shows, tradition of gift-giving. family and religious practice And this year, the season of s e c u r e o u r i n d i v i d u a l a n d giving and receiving gifts comes common good as no government in sharp contrast to a succession program can do. of months pervaded with a sense Christmas is a season that calls us of entitlement. back to these permanent things. The politics of resentment has Its music and traditions appeal to
us to restore our commitment to family and faith. Perhaps theres no better example than the shared musical experience of Handels Messiah, which continues to draw our attention 270 years after it was written. Why do we continue to stop and listen after almost three centuries? As I wrote in an op-ed this week: Together, the music and subject of Handels Messiah reach the sublime status of great art that speaks to what is permanent in the human soul, as the 19thcentury poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold wrote. Master artists and authors create a unity and profoundness of moral impression, Arnold wrote, which constitutes the grandeur of their works, and which makes them immortal. That kind of moral impression is grounded in the conviction that human nature persists, truth exists and life has meaning and purpose. Such courage of conviction has been waning for some time. Instead, relativism has crept into education and other cultural forums, undermining confidence in standards that transcend our own frame of reference. Among
other negative results, this cheats young people of the gratitude that appropriately respects the wisdom of the past, the very gratitude that would inoculate against developing an entitlement mentality. As we seek to renew America, that makes the lessons of Christmas all the more important. Messmore sums up our Christmas wish: As we celebrate the holidays, lets give thanks forand diligently protectour God-given rights. But lets also pay attention to the dynamics that play out with the giving and receiving of presents. This is a season for reflecting especially on gifts of graceblessings to which we arent necessarily entitled. May gratitude move us to give freely and generously to others in the New Year. - Jennifer Marshall is the Director of Domestic Policy Studies in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. Quick Hits: House Republican leaders agreed last night to pass a twomonth extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.
The Obama Administrations attempts to negotiate with the Taliban have broken down, though an Administration official says they are to resume next year. Two suicide car bombs struck Damascus, Syria, outside government offices early Friday killing 40 people as the uprising against Bashar al-Assads regime continues. World leaders are gathering in Prague today to honor Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic. Havel passed away on Sunday. When it comes to creating jobs, North Dakota has found the right formula. The state has the largest percentage increase in employment over the past year. Find out why on Scribe. 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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REP.
use it as a psychiatrists couch. But they run so desperately for their ambition. And the more he was attacked, the better candidate he was. Nothing bothered him. He was funny, he was tough, and he was really strong. And with that, I would like to introduce the congressman, who I endorsed first time I ever endorsed a Republican congressman Bob Turner. (Applause) Bob Turner: Thank you. And good morning. And before I begin, I want to acknowledge my wife, Peggy (Applause) who is responsible for all this. It is true I was yelling at the television set during OReilly. And she said do something. (Laughter) So its on your head. Im new to politics. My career in this business is about 18 months, both as a candidate and a congressman. So this is on-thejob training. And Ive made a lot of observations. And it would be wise that I keep most of them to myself, which I will. I want to talk to you a bit about the 9th Congressional District, which borders Brooklyn and Queens. It in some ways reflects a lot of the entire nation in its mood. I know youre probably, after listening to Mark Steyn and others, pretty bummed out. Well, I can give you a little glimmer of
hope. But lets not get carried away, its a glimmer. This district went with Obama in the last election, 56-44. It is a very diverse district. It is about 35 percent Jewish and split between what I would call practicing and orthodox. Ed Koch, who was a big factor in this campaign, said I will help you with that secular Jewish vote. They are hardened Democrats, half of which are not affiliated with any synagogue, shul, anything. Their religion is socialism. But theres one thing that will get them back in the tent its Israel. So remember that. And that was his message throughout the campaign. And he did a great job blunting the Democratic forces there and giving us the credibility that we needed. The district is about 14 percent Hispanic very low turnout. 10 percent Asian various turnout. The rest Irish, Italian, Polish and whatever; and a rather large Russian presence. Full extent of that is unknown, but an important factor in the race. Most of these people, singlefamily two-family homeowners, two jobs. Husband and wife working at least two jobs. These are the people that do the heavy lifting, pay the taxes, bear the brunt of government policies; and less beneficiaries than most. And there is, and I felt, a resentment and a feeling of
disempowerment and abandonment by the government. These are the same people that went for hope and change just a short while ago. That discontent now, I think, is palatable. When they were told theres a healthcare crisis even though its largely manufactured by our own government the governments response was Obamacare. When there was a housing crisis and a banking crisis, the response was Dodd-Frank. When there was economic stagnation, their response was stimulus one and two. And the debt and the deficit keeps mounting. This district and I think throughout the country neednt be economists to know that when you spend borrow 40 cents on every dollar you spend, you cant do that indefinitely. Theyre being told that well, sure you can. Just get us through this next election, and then well deal with it. This growing sense of unease in everything we do they can even look internationally. We hear a threat to our great ally, Israel, and the government or the Obama Administrations response is moral equivalency, and a condemnation and criticism of Israel one-sided. All of this is playing very badly, I think, for the Democrats. Furthermore, our President says our economy and our malaise is because America has gotten soft.
And weve gotten a little lazy. Well, tell that to those working families. Theyre not buying it. I think there is a continuing anger at this administration. Between the lines, they can see the socialistic attitudes of this administration and are being bombarded with the words the capitalist 1 percent. At the core here, they seem to know whats really happening. Myself, I greatly object to the term capitalism to describe our system. That term, by the way, was coined by Karl Marx. Our system is free enterprise. Its a natural extension of our unalienable rights. And our free enterprise system is more than capital. It begins with people who have a dream and a hope and an idea its intellectual capital. And it doesnt work until you put in the sweat equity that makes things happen. And then last, its those that are ready to risk their fortune and money to do what has to be done to pursue a dream, to make themselves prosperous, independent they never have to say may I please to any man. They know this. They dont have to be told.
Iraq Under Seige
Arnold Ahlert (FrontPage Magazine FrontPage)

Submitted at 12/22/2011 10:36:19 PM
A coordinated wave of bomb attacks has rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At least 69 people have been killed and more than 185 injured in a series of 14 explosions, consisting of four carbombs and 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs). This is the worst violence to besiege Iraq in months, and it puts an exclamation point on the daunting reality that America may have prematurely left a nation whose government remains ruptured by sectarian divisions. Divisions that may ultimately undermine the enormous sacrifices made by American troops, and plunge the country into sectarian turmoil. Although it was not immediately IRAQ page 73
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clear who was behind the attacks, analysts speculate that the level of coordination reflects a capability only available to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is primarily a Sunnidominated organization. Furthermore, the bombings were aimed at soft targets, another alQaeda trademark. They targeted childrens schools, day workers and the anti-corruption agency, said security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta. The children were scared and crying, said Raghad Khalid, a kindergarten teacher at a school in Karrada. Some parts of the car bomb are inside our building. The car bomb was actually an ambulance driven by a suicide bomber, who killed 18 people when he detonated the vehicle. Most of the districts targeted were Shiite neighborhoods, and the attacks were apparently timed to coincide with the mornings rush hour. They may also be the first reprisals directed at Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose move to sideline two Sunni rivals has caused turmoil within the fragile coalition that forms the current government. Earlier this week, Maliki demanded the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-
Hashemi, claiming he organized assassinations and bombings. Hashemi denies the accusations, and has taken refuge in Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is being given protection by the regional government. The Kurds, who represent Iraqs third major political faction, are unlikely to hand him over to Malikis Shiiteled government in Baghdad. Adding to the tension is another demand by Maliki, who asked parliament to fire his Sunni deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq, for comparing Maliki to Saddam Hussein. On Wednesday alMutlaq was granted leave until the Iraqi House of Representatives can make a decision regarding his fate. Yet al-Mutlaq was not alone in making such a comparison. Sunni tribesman Ali Hatem Suleiman, the leader of powerful Dulaimi tribe, also told the BBC Maliki was becoming like Hussein. Maliki will drive Iraq towards separation and will create a new dictatorship and take on Saddams mantle, he contended. Unfortunately this was all agreed upon by Americato hand over Iraq to a new dictator, and so Iraq will implode again.
Suleiman joins a growing list of disaffected Sunnis, all convinced Iraq is disintegrating into sectarian factions. This disaffection is highlighted by a government boycott precipitated by the al-Iraqiyya group, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament. They are protesting the warrant for Hashemis arrest, and accuse Maliki of trying to monopolize power. Al-Iraqiyyas disaffection may be critical. They are led by secular Shiite Muslim Ayad Allawi, who had convinced many of the same Sunni tribes responsible for driving the bloody insurgency from 2004-2007 that he would help them reclaim some of the power theyve lost in a post -Saddam Iraq. Yet those hopes have now been dashed. Thats all finished, said an unnamed senior diplomat in Baghdad. The office they created for Allawi [a strategic policy ministry] isnt even functioning anymore. No one turns up for work.
Introducing the gdgt databox!

Tim Stevens (Engadget)
cover on here. Its contents are pulled from the massive library of hardware and software maintained Have you ever been reading a over at gdgt, tirelessly updated post about, say, the Samsung and maintained around the clock. Galaxy Tab 10.1, and caught With a few clicks you'll have all yourself thinking "What were the info you need and, should you those dimensions again?" Or, desire more, you can quickly ask maybe it's something about the a question to someone who iPad 2 and you can't recall the actually owns one. Check out a thing's release date, or exactly few example devices in the box how many different variations below -- or just keep on reading. Apple has on offer? How about You'll be seeing a lot of it around which of those two devices is these parts. heavier? You could go digging Introducing the gdgt databox! back for their respective reviews originally appeared on Engadget and find out, but now we have a on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:44:00 better solution: the gdgt databox! EDT. Please see our terms for use It's a comprehensive, clickable, of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| interactive database containing all Comments the specs for all the devices we
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:44:00 PM
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Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and the Cyber Threat

Ryan Mauro (FrontPage Magazine FrontPage)
Submitted at 12/22/2011 10:35:42 PM
Cuban, Iranian and Venezuelan officials have been caught actively considering cyber attacks on the U.S., including ones that would be worse than the World Trade Center. In the frightening documentary, the U.S.-based Spanish language Univision also exposes subversive operations by Iran in Latin America. The undercover operation began after a former computers instructor at Mexicos National Autonomous University was recruited by another professor in 2006 for a cyber terror plot requested by the Cuban embassy in Mexico City. The instructor, Juan Carlos Munoz Ledo, turned the tables on the Cuban government and later, its Iranian and Venezuelan allies. He said hed go along with the plot and get some students involved to carry it out. In reality, he and his partners were starting a sevenmonth investigation that would expose the evils contemplated by these governments against the U.S. Ledo and his team approached
Mohamed Hassan Ghadiri in 2007, who was then Irans ambassador to Mexico. They discussed a plot to hack into American computer systems at nuclear power plants, the White House, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and other critical sites from Mexico. A digital bomb would be implanted that would be worse than the World Trade Center. The footage of Ghadiri shows his excitement over the plot. He emphasized that the hackers should retrieve classified information because Iran needed
computers of nuclear power plants, specifically Floridas Turkey Point and Arkansas Nuclear One. The documentary also revealed covert Iranian activities in Latin America. The journalists obtained footage from a failed terrorist attack against New Yorks JFK Airport in 2007. It is widely known that Al-Qaeda was tied to the plot, but the involvement of Iran and Venezuela is less known. The film reveals that the Iranian regime is still using Edgardo Ruben Assad, an operative involved in the 1992 bombing of Israels embassy in Argentina that killed 29 and the 1994 bombing of to know if the U.S. was planning a Jewish cultural center in an attack. Ghadiri admits to Argentina that killed 85. Ghadiri having met with the students but worked to try to get this terrorist claims that the Iranian regime operative into Mexico. One team rejected their offer to attack the member was recruited by Ghadiri U.S. to go to Iran to study Islam for In 2008, the team approached two months so he could come Livia Acosta, the cultural attach back and preach the regimes of the Venezuelan embassy in ideology. He bravely went there Mexico City. Like Ghadiri, she and he met Muslim converts from was interested in the cyber plot. Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina She promised to put any and Bolivia who all arrived for the information they provide into the same reason. hands of Hugo Chavez. She was particularly pleased when the team claimed it could access the
Family Fact of the Week: Parents Greatest Present Is Their Presence

Collette Caprara (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:00:38 AM
As Christmas approaches, malls and big-box stores are packed with parents seeking that special gift that will bring a smile to their childrens faces. Yet the greatest gift they can give will not be found in a store, though it does require substantial investment. The best present that parents can give is their presence: Its a gift that will have far-reaching and long-term benefits for their childrens well-being. As research briefs on Heritages FamilyFacts.org demonstrate, children whose parents are present at key times in the daywhen they wake up, go to school, and FAMILY page 75
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return home from schoolare less likely to experience emotional distress. Likewise, those whose parents are more involved and responsive tend to have higher self-esteem and to be less susceptible to negative peer pressure, and those who live with both parents are less likely to exhibit hyperactivity or depression. Parental presence and involvement is also linked to significantly decreased likelihood of behavioral risks. Adolescents whose parents talk with them about standards of sexual behavior and monitor their activities are less likely to become sexually active. And teens living in households with both parents
are less likely to engage in sexual activity or to give birth when they are in high school. In addition, youths with both parents in the home are less likely to exhibit anti-social behavior or to be involved in property crimes or acts of violence and delinquency. Teens in two-parent families are also less likely to engage in substance abuse, including smoking, drinking alcohol, and using illicit drugs. Living with both parents, likewise, increases childrens likelihood of academic success, ranging from higher levels of cognitive development as preschoolers to a greater likelihood of graduating from high school and college.
Parents greatest gift to their children will not be found under the tree, but it will keep on giving when the Christmas tree is but a memory. 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.
Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 hands-on impressions (video)

Joseph Volpe (Engadget)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 1:00:00 PM
Don't call it a comeback, it's a Xyboard-- Motorola's rebranded (for the US, anyway) 10.1-inch attempt at sidestepping the Xoom's notoriety. With baked-in LTE of the Verizon variety, a slimmer waistline and a distinctive design, this Android
3.2 tablet could very well inject a dose of excitement back into the company's flagging category appeal. But with the spotlightstealing ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime already on the map and dazzling consumers with its notebook-like functionality, will anyone even notice Moto's silhouette enough to lure wayward second swing at Honeycomb? Are users back into the company's LTE speeds and an improved
willing embrace? Does anyone even care about non-Ice Cream Sandwich tablets? Read on as we explore the odd ends and angles of this curiously-shaped slate. Gallery: Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 vs Xoom LTE... fight! Continue reading Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 hands-on impressions (video) Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1
hands-on impressions (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments
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Top 10 Space Stories of 2011

Peter Pachal (Mashable!)
International Space Station. The shuttles themselves, however, were notoriously more 1. The Space Shuttle Era Ends complex and expensive than they When Space Shuttle Atlantis were ever intended to be. They landed at Kennedy Space Center also unfortunately suffered from just before dawn on July 21, 2011, reliability issues, leading to the it marked the end of NASA's tragic destruction of two shuttles, Space Shuttle program. The Challenger and Columbia. shuttle was the space agency's No. Despite its issues, the shuttle 1 space vehicle for 30 years, with continued to serve well past its numerous successes under its belt sell-by date, becoming a pop-- notably the deployment and culture icon along the way. In its repair of the Hubble Space last year of operation, the shuttle Telescope and construction of the also finished one of its key tasks:
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:44:33 AM
complete assembly of the International Space Station. It's certainly earned its retirement, which the orbiters spend in numerous museums throughout the country. Click here to view this gallery. 2011 will go down as a landmark year for space exploration, for a multitude of reasons. From end-of -an-era missions to incredible milestones to breathtaking discoveries, human civilization is reaching out further and more often than ever before from our
pale blue dot in the universe. The vast interstellar distances suddenly looked a lot smaller this year as we were captivated with discovery after discovery of planets in other solar systems, while man-made vehicles took their first steps exiting ours. We took a moment to celebrate a halfcentury of manned space flight just as its torch was being passed from public to private enterprise here in the States. Through it all, NASA and others cleverly used the Web and social media to keep
is informed and enthralled. There were space stumbles, too. The promising and innovative successor to the Hubble Space Telescope was in danger of being scrapped amid budget cutbacks. For a few months there, it felt like satellites were constantly falling from the sky, a new danger the planet didnt need. The sun entering a particularly active cycle meant renewed threats of solar flares to anything in orbit. TOP page 77
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Best Buy Runs Out of Goods, Cancels Some Online Orders [VIDEO]
Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:56:04 AM
the incident is bound to end up in some bad publicity. Best Buy forums are already swarmed with Best Buy will not be able to fill c o m p l a i n t s f r o m a f f e c t e d all of its customers online orders c u s t o m e r s . before the holidays, the company A similar thing happened to me has announced. () the payment was complete Due to overwhelming demand of and everything and three days h o t p r o d u c t o f f e r i n g s o n later we received an e-mail from B e s t B u y . c o m d u r i n g t h e Best Buy that the item is not November and December time available. What kind of business period, we have encountered a are you running?, asked one s i t u a t i o n t h a t h a s a f f e c t e d customer. redemption of some of our While the company issued a customers online orders. We are public apology, it will hardly very sorry for the inconvenience satisfy disgruntled customers. Not this has caused, and we have getting that Christmas present notified the affected customers, youve ordered isnt exactly the said Best Buy in a statement. nicest ways to start the holidays. Best Buy didnt specify exactly [via AP] Bonus: Last Minute Gift how many orders are affected, but Ideas You Can Send via E-mail
Best Buy left you high and dry? You can order any one of these gifts right now and they can arrive in any recipients inbox almost instantly. 1. iTunes gift card
iTunes gift card" src="http:// 9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/gallery /tktk-last-minute-gifts-you-cans e n d - b y - e m a i l / 1_iTunes%20gift%20card.jpeg" / >
A good ol' standby, an iTunes gift card is always appreciated. Your recipient can download any music from Justin Bieber to Michael Bubl to her iTunes and subsequent mobile devices. Click here to view this gallery. More About: best buy, Christmas, mashable video, orders, shopping, trending 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
TOP
Although humankinds problems in space are real and need solutions, they also serve as an encouraging reminder that were there. Those issues are only issues because we dare to brave the final frontier regularly in our quest to better ourselves and expand our knowledge of the universe. The deeper we venture into space, the more out civilization will be
affected by it. Here are Mashables picks for the top space stories of 2011. More About: Hubble, ISS, James Webb, Mars rover, NASA, orion, space, Space Flight, space shuttle
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New Xbox Dashboard Glitch Still Preventing Some From Going Online
Samantha Murphy (Mashable!)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:21:19 AM
profiles. We have recently identified an Xbox Live profile data error that The release of Microsofts hotly results in Error Code 801540B7 anticipated Xbox 360 dashboard for a small number of Xbox Live update earlier this month is members, an Xbox spokesperson causing a bit of a problem for told Joystiq. The error instructs some Xbox Live members: They users to attempt to re-download still cant get their consoles their Xbox Live profile and online. directs them to customer service Microsoft recently rolled out a support for further assistance. We big dashboard update to the Xbox apologize for the inconvenience 360 in addition to new voice this has caused to our loyal Xbox and gesture controls, Bing search, Live members and are working to television and social options resolve the issue as soon as but a glitch is keeping some possible. consoles offline by not being able This means that Xbox Live to sign into their Xbox Live members are currently stripped of
accessing multi-player games and buying new content through the service. The latest setback comes after a bumpy debut for Microsofts
update. The systems video player has been experiencing problems with its color levels, with some shots looking washed out. The update was also initially
delayed it was supposed to go live around 10 a.m. EST on Dec. 6 and as of 3 p.m. that day, the update had still not been offered. It finally made its debut around 6:30 p.m. that night, but many still reported problems signing on to Xbox Live. Xbox said it is working on fixing the issue as soon as possible. An Example of a Media Splash Page Media is front and center with the new Xbox 360 interface, as seen with the HuluPlus app. Click here to view this gallery. More About: microsoft, xbox, Xbox 360, XBox live
Can work, will work: Ainsley beats TV rivals with 'fail-safe' Christmas recipe
Jonathan Prynn and William Turvill (Evening Standard News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 4:23:46 AM
Jonathan Prynn and William Turvill 23 Dec 2011 Celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott's "failsafe" Christmas dinner recipe has been judged the least likely to end in disaster on the big day. The Can't Cook Won't Cook presenter's strategy for a stress-
free festive meal was the easiest to follow among those offered by all the big names of the kitchen. Gordon Ramsay is even demonstrating his recipe over four hours of live TV on Channel 4 on Christmas Day morning. Recipes from Heston Blumenthal, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Phil Vickery, John Burton Race, as well as Ramsay and Harriott were assessed for their "foul-up" factor by food
expert Ben McCormack, editor of the Square Meal magazine and website. The most simple recipes were Jamie Oliver's - praised as "really straight forward with good tips to make things go smoothly" - and easiest of all was Harriott's. Mr McCormack said: "Ainsley is brilliant for the busy, time-pressed home cook - he knows that cooks don't want to be stuck sweating in the kitchen all day."
Two Michelin-starred chef John Burton Race, star of French Leave and I'm A Celebrity, was judged guilty of serving up the most complex guide to cooking Christmas dinner. In the introduction to his 12-stage recipe for turkey and stuffing, Burton Race claims it "allows you to prepare calmly in advance". But Mr McCormack said: "Overall, it's very chefy, and the sort of thing you would go to a restaurant
to pay for rather than make yourself - straining, for instance, is a very chefy technique. "Also, these are two recipes in one - one for the legs, one for the crown. Boning turkey legs is very technical, it requires a special knife, otherwise what you make could end up looking like a dog's dinner - which could be this recipe's ultimate destination if CAN page 80
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'Cruel' food sold under the counter as Selfridges flouts its foie gras ban
John Geoghegan and Jonathan Prynn (Evening Standard News)
Clegg 'to set the agenda' at next Euro summit

Joe Murphy, Political Editor (Evening Standard - News)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 4:16:07 AM
of foie gras costing 39.40, which we were told was imported directly from Paris. During the sale on Wednesday, Submitted at 12/23/2011 4:18:41 AM John Geoghegan and Jonathan one of the staff at the butcher's Prynn counter admitted it was against 23 Dec 2011 Selfridges' policy to sell the Selfridges has been accused of a prized delicacy following a "shocking betrayal" after flouting campaign led by former James its self-imposed ban on selling Bond actor Sir Roger Moore. foie gras. With the store full of Christmas The Oxford Street department shoppers, the man said: "I'll keep store was secretly filmed offering my voice low because there's a the fattened goose liver "under the camera behind me. And there are counter" - two years after saying it storewalkers about. w o u l d n o l o n g e r s t o c k t h e "You know it's illegal to make in product. this country. We're not allowed to But customers at its Jack O'Shea sell it here. The shop don't know butchers in the Food Hall can still about it. buy foie gras if they ask for it "It's after Roger Moore and all using the codeword "French fillet" that came through here protesting at about it. We only get it in at the counter. The revelation has Christmas time." i n f u r i a t e d a n i m a l r i g h t s The sizeable chunk was taken campaigners, who believe that from a room behind the counter production of foie gras is cruel and briefly shown before it was because it involves force-feeding wrapped up to be sold. On the grain to fatten the birds artificially receipt, it was falsely labelled as and enlarge their livers. They Chateaubriand. have accused Selfridges of being Selfridges decided to stop "deceptive". stocking foie gras in November Following a tip-off from a 2009 after a two-year campaign disgruntled customer who by People for the Ethical witnessed the sale of the product, Treatment of Animals, which the Standard was sold a 795g pack involved demonstrations outside
the store by activists and celebrities including Sir Roger. A spokesman for Peta said: "Sir Roger Moore was personally assured by Selfridges' chief executive Paul Kelly in 2009 that foie gras was being removed from its shelves and that it would never be stocked again. "If Selfridges is illicitly selling this vile and inhumane product, it would be a shocking betrayal of trust and hugely deceptive to British consumers." Jack O'Shea runs a concession in the food hall and is not directly employed by Selfridges. However, he signed up to the store pledge not to sell foie gras. Mr O'Shea is not likely to be ejected but will be very closely scrutinised in future, according to insiders. The Irishman, who also runs a store in Brussels, is regarded as one of the best butchers in the British Isles, supplying meat to top restaurants including Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck at Bray, Berkshire, and Richard Corrigan's eponymous Mayfair restaurant. Another leading London store that has run into trouble for selling foie gras is Fortnum &
Mason. The Piccadilly emporium was criticised this week by Westminster trading standards officials, who said stocking the product was a breach of the store's corporate social responsibility policy which could leave it liable to legal action. A spokeswoman for Selfridges said: "Our strict policy since 2009 is not to sell foie gras across all our food halls and restaurants. "Regrettably Jack O'Shea, our butcher, has been selling foie gras without our knowledge to selected customers on request. Jack O'Shea has apologised to us for contravening the Selfridges ban. "Action has been taken and this practice has been stopped immediately." 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.
Nick Clegg will step up a Liberal Democrat fightback over Europe in the new year and may even join David Cameron at the next EU summit, the Evening Standard has learned. Sources say the Deputy Prime Minister, who was dismayed when Mr Cameron used the British veto at the last summit, aims to "set the agenda" at the next EU gathering at the end of next month. He will start by hosting a meeting of liberal-minded ministers from other European states in London on January 9 to build common ground. Up to 25 ministers from eight or more countries will gather in Whitehall, including senior Lib-Dem ministers Vince Cable, Danny Alexander and Chris Huhne. Mr Clegg may attend an eve-ofsummit gathering of liberal sister parties before an informal summit called to discuss growth and competition issues, with the aim of getting "a head of steam" behind pro-growth ideas that Britain favours. More controversially, sources say he is considering going to the summit itself, due to start on January 27. Such a move would CLEGG page 80
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you're not a restaurant chef yourself." Nigella's guide to "the perfect turkey" relies heavily on soaking it in brine for two days. But according to Mr McCormack: "It's great if you're a food fanatic ... It needs a lot of prep and planning a complete faff if you're not that into cooking." Blumenthal's recipe had "lots of components to juggle so you'll need to plan carefully and ensure you have a big oven with lots of hobs, plus lots of pans". Vickery was praised for "a fuss free take" but with the warning that "the recipe might not be explained in enough detail to prevent chaos". Ramsay's formula would make for "a very classy Christmas lunch" but is complex with "loads of ingredients". Harriott's easy-tocook turkey with stuffing Ingredients For 6kg turkey: 100g butter, four rindless streaky bacon rashers, 150g pitted prunes, 450g cocktail sausages, 1tbsp flour, 3tbsp ruby red port or red wine, 600ml turkey
or chicken stock. For sage, apricot and pine nut stuffing: 50g pine nuts, 75g butter, large onion, 175g white breadcrumbs, 1tbsp chopped fresh parsley, 1tsp fresh sage, four dried apricots, salt and pepper, fresh herbs. Preheat oven to 190C (375F) Make stuffing. Heat frying pan, roast pine nuts and tip into a bowl. Melt butter into same pan and fry onion until soft. Place breadcrumbs into bowl and add pine nuts and onion/butter mixture, parsley, sage and apricots. Find the neck cavity and pack the stuffing in. Wrap prunes in small strips of bacon, arrange on a plate with cocktail sausages. Allow to cool. Generously smear turkey in butter and seasoning, tie drumsticks with string and wrap bird in two buttered sheets of foil before placing on baking tray. For 6kg bird, cooking time is 4hrs 20 mins.
Carefully unwrap and baste every 40 mins. Unwrap turkey for final hour, leaving drumsticks covered to prevent burning, and add baconprunes and sausages for 30 minutes. When cooked, remove turkey from oven and tray, and leave to stand for 10-30 minutes. For gravy, place baking tray over hob and simmer juices, adding flour, stock and port or red wine for 10 mins. Garnish turkey with herbs and serve with gravy and trimmings. 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.
alarm Conservative MPs who were thrilled when Mr Cameron vetoed a new EU treaty this month while Mr Clegg was at home in Britain. Tensions over the use of the veto were continuing this morning. It was hailed as a diplomatic coup by a group of 20 leading business figures, including the Tory donor Sir Anthony Bamford, in a letter to the FT. A separate survey of senior members of the Institute of Directors claimed 77 per cent backed Mr Cameron's stand. However, Energy Secretary Mr Huhne warned that Tory Eurosceptics could make Britain "semi-detached" from Europe. "It is not in the national interest to be in a purely passive relationship, where our interests are being determined by other people," he said, adding: "The phrase in Brussels is clear - if you are not at the table, you are on the menu." A source close to Mr Clegg said the Coalition had not yet discussed whether he would take part in the summit. In the Commons this week he hinted that he wanted to take part.
"We, as a coalition Government, will come to that summit with some bold ideas about how we can increase growth, increase competitiveness and increase employment across the European Union," he said. In a jibe at Mr Cameron's veto, he added: "And yes - we will stay until the end." "Nick's key concerns are competitiveness, long term growth and jobs in the EU," said a source. "That is an agenda that the coalition as a whole wants to pursue." Meanwhile, French foreign minister Alain Juppe last night called for "calm" in AngloFrench relations after the criticisms of each other's economies. "I don't think the bridges are broken," he said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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81
Behind the GOP's Payroll Tax Surrender

Major Garrett (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:35:00 AM
Republicans now must lick their gaping, self-inflicted political wounds and plan for the coming debate over how to pay for the remaining 10-months of a payrolltax extension Reuters There was no formal cease-fire. Speaker John Boehner didn't even call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to offer up his payrolltax sword of surrender. The great Christmas conflict over tax cuts ended at the staff level. Boehner's chief of staff, Barry Jackson, cut the deal with Reid's chief of staff, David Krone. If the weeklong tussle over a two-month or one-year extension of payroll taxes was over principle, the principal antagonist, Boehner, in the end, had neither the will nor the stomach to directly sue for peace. Preordained since at least Tuesday, the only variable on the eventual House GOP retreat was timing. When. Not if. Republicans within leadership circles and those who used to be but now prowl K Street could smell defeat almost from the start. It reeked like reindeer road kill. House Republicans tried for two days to shift public opinion but were met by the Obama megaphone, which grew louder and more visually emphatic by the day. The mechanics of the endgame
commenced, in fact, right after President Obama stood with dozens of middle-class Americans who stood to lose -- on average -$83 a month if the 2 percent payroll-tax cut expired on Jan. 1. Mere hours after a press event where they looked implacable and entrenched, Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met with the eight Republicans appointed to a nonexistent conference committee on the
payroll-tax issue. They swiftly told Boehner to seek a deal with Reid. MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL Romney Stays Busy in New Hampshire For McConnell, A Victory of Sorts U.S. Admits 'Mistakes' in Pakistan Airstrike, But Report Unlikely to Ease Tensions
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., then called Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, to negotiate new language to smooth out implementation of the two-month payroll-tax-cut extension. The language was not controversial. Senate Democratic aides said if the issue had been raised by Senate Republicans, it would have
been addressed when the bill was first drafted. At roughly 2 p.m., Boehner set up a conference call with his leadership team and told them he would accept Reid's demand for a two-month deal, with the new payroll-tax language. They agreed without complaint. Jackson then called Krone, who readily accepted the contours of BEHIND page 84
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Occupy Wall Street's Legacy: Now Up to the Voters

Alesh Houdek (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:40:59 AM
The movement's been quiet since the November evictions, but the 2012 elections will give it a chance to have a lasting impact. It's been more than a month since the Occupy Wall Street protesters were evicted from their encampments in New York, Oakland, and other key cities. At the time, the evictions were seen a a tactical boon for the movement - a huge media story and a good way to end the encampments that would otherwise have surely fizzled out with the onset of winter. The argument was that this would be an opportunity for the protesters to launch phase two to their movement. But since then, there has been little activity on the Occupy front, and the protests that have happened have been underwhelming. An attempt in mid-December to shut down ports in several West Coast cities was largely unsuccessful. Shipping was slowed in a couple of cities, but only temporarily. In Oakland, where protesters had successfully closed the port in a previous demonstration on November 2, the turnout was much smaller. Key support from the unions represented in the ports was
lacking, and coverage by the national media was underwhelming. There have also been efforts to take the fight to Washington, D.C. And while delegations from various Occupy movements around the country have made trips to the capital, there has not been a large rally that would capture the national imagination -or even national attention. Such an event is now set for the start of
the 2012 legislative season, on January 17, but protesters' promises to set up one million tents in Washington, D.C., on that date have created an unrealistic expectation that promises to turn the protest into another disappointment. In the meantime, Zuccotti Park has become home to meta-events like an episode of Law & Order featuring actors portraying Occupy protesters (the filming
was briefly occupied by real protesters) and the "Occupy a Desk" job fair. So, were the November evictions from Zuccotti and other enclaves the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end for the Occupy movement? Well, if the movement's deliberate lack of leadership and constantly stated objectives were an attempt to create a groundswell of support by provoking public
curiosity, then the recent lack of activity in the news is a definitive setback for the movement. But the loss of momentum is an opportunity to start thinking about the legacy of Occupy. As recently as a couple of weeks ago you could have been forgiven for saying that there would be no legacy -- that bad strategy and the lack of leadership had blocked the OCCUPY page 86
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Politico: Ron Paul really has to explain these six statements

Ed Morrissey (Hot Air Top Picks)
Ill bullet-point the statements Gibson identifies: The disaster of Ronald Submitted at 12/23/2011 10:40:47 AM Reagans conservative agenda posted at 11:40 am on December Social Security, Medicare and 23, 2011 by Ed Morrissey Medicaid are unconstitutional No, this isnt another post about American drug laws are the newsletters, which Politico to d e s i g n e d t o f u n d r o g u e their credit has covered and does governments, CIA programs mention in this piece. Instead, U.S. foreign policy Ginger Gibson identifies six significantly contributed to 9/11 political statements from Paul attacks over the years that she believes Returning white supremacist Paul will need to explain to donation is pandering maintain his credibility in this The Civil Rights Act violated race: the Constitution The storyline dogging Ron Paul as his numbers continue to rise in Before I address the statements Iowa the racist content in themselves, Ill question the newsletters published in the 1990s premise of the article itself. under his name poses a When has Ron Paul ever had to significant impediment to his give a rational explanation to campaigns momentum. anything hes done in the past to But thats not his only problem. maintain his base of support? E v e n a s h e d i s a v o w s t h e Granted, Pauls support has n e w s l e t t e r s t h e T e x a s temporarily expanded outside of congressman asserts he didnt that base in Iowa and New write them and never even read Hampshire, and if he wants to them Pauls got a collection of maintain that momentum, these other statements that hell likely statements would eventually have need to explain in greater detail if to get reconciled. I doubt, h e e x p e c t s t o c a p t u r e t h e however, that Paul or his team see Republican Party nomination. the need to explain these
statements, and not just because they might still believe all of this. In politics, explaining is losing. There are only really two statements here that havent been baked into the Paul cake and could hurt him. When running for President on the Libertarian ticket in 1987, Paul credited Reagan for pointing out the fallacies of the Democratic liberal agenda in 1980, but then castigated him for doing a good job on following up to show the disaster of the conservative agenda as well. As Gibson points out, Republicans still consider the Age of Ronaldus Maximus as a golden era for conservatism, and this attack wont wear well with the base. Paul made that statement almost a quarter-century ago, though, and he can certainly say that in retrospect, Reagan accomplished much while still leaving much unaccomplished. The other is the donation from the Florida white supremacist and Pauls refusal to return it, saying, I think it is pandering. I think it is playing the political correctness. Without the
newsletters, this wouldnt be a huge issue, but with the newsletters it looks as though the real pandering involving Paul was pandering to the fringe-bigot crowd. That didnt come from 24 years ago, but from his presidential run four years ago. It only would have cost Paul $500 to resolve this issue at the time, but if the media decides to pick it up, it could reinforce the newsletter story and provide a clear narrative of Paul as a fringe-element kook. The other statements are, for better or worse, standard Paul fare. The argument that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional has been voiced by other Republican presidential candidates besides Paul. Paul has long criticized the Civil Rights Act as a constitutional overreach of the federal government, a position with which his more-politicallyadept son flirted in his Senate campaign before hitting reverse and affirming it as a positive development. The other positions that the US foreign policy significantly contributed to the [9 /11] attacks and that the drug war
is intended to fund some terrorist government someplace or to fund CIA programs are part of Pauls rather paranoid view of the world, which is his tie to the Alex Jones base and why he makes so many appearances on Prison Planet. In fact, as this poorlyproduced web ad (the voice-over is hysterical and the recording is warbly) from the Paul campaign from a couple of weeks ago reminds us, Paul didnt win his legion of devotees by taking a rational, thinking approach to American security: That doesnt sound as if Team Paul thinks they have anything to explain, even if they really, really do. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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the GOP retreat. Krone checked with the Baucus staff and ran the deal past Reid. The majority leader accepted without hesitation, as his aides celebrated what they described as a "total cave." Krone called Jackson back, and it was over. Interestingly, it was the first time Jackson and Krone -- who negotiated their way around nearmiss government shutdowns and debt defaults -- had spoken since Saturday. Previously, Jackson and Krone had inched their way through tough negotiations. This time, the retreat went from zero to 60 mph. Boehner went through the motions of a conference call to "consult" House GOP lawmakers. But no one could speak up. It was a directive, not a conversation. That's because at least 75 percent of the GOP conference had already surrendered back home, or were in the process of doing so. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., switched from full-fight to fullflee in roughly 48 hours. Another freshman, Rep. Sean Duffy, RWis., who came to Congress after
starting on MTV's Real World Boston in 1997, also pleaded with Boehner to end the misery. When Republicans lose rural Arkansas the MTV generation on the same day, you know it's over. What's next? Boehner might say ruefully, an end to two-way conference calls with House Republicans (on Saturday, Boehner gingerly embraced the Senate bill expecting some favorable response -- he got nothing but hotheaded denunciations). In truth, Republicans now must lick their gaping, self-inflicted political wounds and plan for the coming debate over how to pay for the remaining 10-months of a payroll-tax extension, jobless benefits, and the so-called Medicare doc fix. The two-month package cost $31 billion, a 10year price tag offset by new fines assessed to government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It will take other offsets to cover 10 months of the benefits Congress is about to improve. Amid the ruins of this tactical
debacle on Thursday, stouthearted Republicans hoped the debate over paying for the payroll -tax cut, jobless benefits, and doc fix with budget cuts might give them the high ground. Republicans say that Democrats have already given up on the millionaires' surtax and with the two-month deal accepted the idea of assessing fees or finding other offsets to pay for these benefits. If past is prologue, Democrats might find this a tricky debate. But Democrats may revive the millionaires' surtax -- and nothing from this debate would discourage them -- and force Republicans back onto the terrain they found so politically uncomfortable. In either case, Republicans better gird themselves for another battle over the payroll-tax cut and the prospect of inflicting higher taxes on 160 million taxpayers. That's exactly the debate they didn't want to repeat in February when they balked at the Senate deal in the first place. Horrible politics, they screamed at Boehner. House Republicans have horrible politics squared. Now and two
months from now -- unless they figure out a way to balance the desire of taxpayers for a continuation of their payroll-tax cut against their desire to reduce the size and scope of government. That failed once and visibly so. Unless House Republicans reverse that trend, February could look like Groundhog Day. Except it won't be nearly as funny as Bill Murray's version. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2011/12/behindthe-gops-payroll-tax-surrender/ 250447/ 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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Democrats, Republicans losing ground on voter affiliation

affiliation. Usually that requirement relates to access to primary ballots, although not Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:40:20 AM always; only 12 states have closed posted at 12:40 pm on December primaries now. Under those 23, 2011 by Ed Morrissey circumstances, one might expect You know that Democrats and to see an increase in party Republicans have a problem when affiliation, especially for the party the question becomes: Which of whose primaries are meaningful the two major political parties has in the presidential election, as the turned off more voters since the GOP has right now. Instead, both 2008 elections? As it turns out, parties are losing ground, which its the Democrats, but that USA Today reasonably analyzes doesnt mean the Republicans as deep dissatisfaction with the have gained: political status quo. More than 2.5 million voters In the swing states, though, its have left the Democratic and Democrats who are losing more Republican parties since the 2008 ground, by more than a 2-1 ratio: elections, while the number of The trend is acute in states that independent voters continues to are key to next years presidential grow. race. In the eight swing states that A USA TODAY analysis of state r e g i s t e r v o t e r s b y p a r t y , voter registration statistics shows Democrats registration is down registered Democrats declined in by 800,000 and Republicans by 25 of the 28 states that register 350,000. Independents have voters by party. Republicans gained 325,000. d i p p e d i n 2 1 s t a t e s , w h i l e USA Today calls this part of a independents increased in 18 decades-long trend, which is states. almost certainly true, and that the That seems unusual, especially in trend has given independents s t a t e s t h a t r e q u i r e p a r t y more stature in national elections,
which is almost certainly not true. Richard Wold cites Ralph Nader and Ross Perot as examples, but neither won a single electoral vote as an independent, although both had an impact on the outcome of their elections. George Wallace ran as an independent long before this migration became a trend, and in 1968 Wallace actually carried a few states and won some votes in the Electoral College in the race between Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat Hubert Humphrey. Perot self-financed his 1992 and 1996 campaigns and won a lot of popular support, but he didnt organize independents and centrists in any lasting way; his campaign was more personality driven than a realigning ideological call. Nader ended up being a fringe candidate even among independents. The trend seems to parallel the decline of the closed-primary system rather than any particular political migration towards a center, in which people had to declare an affiliation to cast a
primary vote, as I mentioned earlier. That calls into question how closely affiliated most voters have ever felt to one of the two major parties, and this realignment might just demonstrate a bit more accuracy about true political inclinations in the electorate. In terms of acute enthusiasm, though, the pattern over the last three years disfavors Democrats more than Republicans, at least, making it mildly good news for the GOP. Its certainly an opportunity for Republicans to reclaim support lost in the 2006 and 2008 elections, but first theyll have to stop the bleeding themselves. 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.
Breaking: House passes Senate payroll-tax holiday extension on unanimous consent

Submitted at 12/23/2011 9:43:53 AM
posted at 10:43 am on December 23, 2011 by Ed Morrissey House Republicans managed to end their week-long facepalm moment not with a bang, or even a whimper. Speaker John Boehner passed the Senate 60-day payroll-tax holiday extension by unanimous consent after a facesaving deal was reached yesterday: The House on Friday morning approved a bill extending the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance for two months, and also prevents a planned cut to reimbursements for Medicare physicians. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) asked for unanimous consent, which was declared approved by House Speaker John Boehner (ROhio). The bill is H.R. 3765. After having to front a publicrelations disaster courtesy of a rebellion in his ranks, Boehner reasserted control rather forcefully in the end. Any member of the GOP caucus could have forced a roll-call vote on the Senate bill, BREAKING: page 86
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but in the end none did. Perhaps the realization that they had handed Barack Obama a golden opportunity to paint Republicans as opposing middle-class tax cuts, no matter what the reality of the convoluted opposition to the bipartisan Senate compromise might be, kept them silent on the floor this morning. Or perhaps they finally recognized that Senate Republicans had actually negotiated a pretty good deal in the end, and left room for even more gains in the next 60 days: Optics aside, the bill in many ways represents a policy victory for Republicans, as it does not pay for the payroll tax extension through higher taxes, as Democrats had first proposed. It also includes language that requires the Obama administration to make a decision on the Keystone oil sands pipeline extension within 60 days, something President Obama initially said he would veto. The bill also gives a nod to
Republican concerns that a twomonth payroll tax extension would create a new accounting burden for companies. Republicans said they were worried that a two-month extension would complicate the effort of employers to implement the tax holiday with their employees. Both Boehner and Reid announced Democratic conferees that will negotiate a final one-year extension after the first of the year, although the Republicans have yet to announce theirs. They come from the committees most involved in tax and spending policy in both chambers, with no real surprises. Hopefully, the holidays and the Iowa caucuses will soon make this week a dim memory for most Americans, but you can bet the Democrats will do their best to remind voters of this all during 2012. Update: A couple of commenters say that the conference committee could reverse the Keystone language, but that would have to
get Republican support; the conferees know that the House wont pass a bill without it. Besides, Senate Democrats voted overwhelming for the bill that included that language, even after Obama threatened to veto the bill if it survived in final form; they couldnt muster enough votes to filibuster the amendment that added it. Theres very little risk that the conference committee will reverse that language, and the 60-day limit means that Obama has to make the Keystone decision by the time the extension expires. 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.
movement from making a lasting impact on the national discourse. Contrast that with the Tea Party. By embracing clearly articulated goals and strong leaders from the beginning, it was able to create visible political change, electing candidates to Congress and skewing the entire Republican Party towards its goals. And its members did all this with the support of an arguably smaller percentage of the voting public, because they arrayed themselves more strategically. But aside from studies showing that stories in the national media about income inequality are way up year over year, Occupy has had no comparable successes so far. But something interesting happened in December: President Obama gave a speech that was seen as setting the tone and agenda for his coming re-election campaign. In it, he talked repeatedly about income inequality. He mentioned the middle class 21 times. He explicitly cited the 1 percent and the 99 percent. And he did it with a passion that some say represents a shift in priorities. The language of the speech seems at least in part a reaction to the Occupy movement. But what if it's something more? What if it's truly an indication of a shift in direction? If he's re-elected, the speech might one day be seen as a herald of a new focus on income inequality, just as alleviating the recession and health-care reform were the major goals in his first term.
If the protesters have given the president political capital to shift focus, that will have been a very real victory. And with a president who is ostensibly on its side preparing to seek re-election, the Occupy movement is in a position to leverage its remaining muscle into shifts in policy priorities. For this, it's arguably better for it to be a movement that has moved off the streets: the protesters have already made their highly visible signs of unfocused dissatisfaction, and the voting public has spoken, with large percentages voicing support for the movement. Now, without protesters actively occupying public spaces, President Obama and other politicians can cite support for the movement's objectives without seeming to be swayed by politically problematic ongoing demonstrations. Image: Andrew Burton / Reuters This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2011/12/occupywall-streets-legacy-now-up-to-the -voters/250069/ 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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87
Moving Away From False Equivalence? The Morning After

James Fallows (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 11:31:56 AM
I mentioned last night that the Washington Post's online report of the payroll-tax denouement avoided calling it "dysfunction" or "logjam" and instead reported it as an all-out Republican gamble on obstruction, which failed. How would it play in the print editions this morning? In a very interesting way: Washington Post: "House GOP surrenders on payroll tax cut" Exactly so. NYT: "House Republicans Agree to Extend Payroll Tax Cut" OK WSJ: "Agreement Reached to Extend Tax Break ????? Agreement "reached" ? The WSJ's
news page is not where I would have guessed the falseequivalency note to be struck. On the other hand, we have the WSJ's editorial page. A reader says that I missed the importance of its denunciation of the House Republicans for taking their doomed stand: I believe you missed a key note... The Wall Street Journal editorial is itself a reason--perhaps the reason--that the WaPo could run an article as forthright about this being a Republican crisis and Republican capitulation. The greatest tragedy of modern American news is deeper than the "false equivalence", though that is indeed a terrible thing; it's that the GOP Noise Machine frames almost all news discourse. Often,
it's the case that if the Republican aren't talking about something, it doesn't get discussed at all; but almost always, anything that gets talked about gets presented in the terms that are set by the Noise
Machine. The Journal editorial made it clear that "this is a crisis of the Republicans" was the permitted narrative, so that's how the WaPo allowed itself to present the issue.
Interesting. And perhaps it was a learned reflex of reacting against whatever their paper's editorial page is saying that led the Journal's usually excellent news judgment astray with this headline. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2011/12/movingaway-from-false-equivalence-themorning-after/250457/ 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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Technology/
RIM gets kicked while down, sued over BBM trademark

Brad Molen (Engadget)
Submitted at 12/23/2011 12:19:00 PM
It's been a long December for RIM, and there's reason to believe this year won't be any better than the last. This month, the company was sued for its use of the BBX trademark and was forced to change its name to BlackBerry 10; then, it all hit the fan when coCEO Mike Lazaridis broke the news that phones running the aforementioned OS won't arrive until late in 2012. And let's not even get started on the quarterly earnings report. Sadly, it's not over: BBM Canada, a Torontobased broadcast industry group that has used the BBM moniker in one way or another for six decades, wants to reclaim its name -- used and made popular by RIM's BlackBerry Messenger service -- and has filed a lawsuit against the phone maker for trademark infringement. BBM Canada CEO Jim MacLeod says he's made several attempts to resolve the matter with them in hopes of avoiding the courtroom -
- even to the extent of offering to rebrand his own company as long as RIM footed the bill -- to no success. MacLeod told The Globe and Mail that "I find it kind of amazing that this wouldn't have been thought about before they decided to use the name -- the same thing goes for BBX." And according to court documents, it actually was: in February 2010, RIM attempted to apply for the BBM trademark with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, was told that it wasn't registerable, and still went ahead and used it for its BlackBerry Messenger service anyways. We'll
see what kind of explanation the company has for going ahead and using the three-letter acronym in a couple weeks, since a hearing has been scheduled for January 11th. Continue reading RIM gets kicked while down, sued over BBM trademark RIM gets kicked while down, sued over BBM trademark originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink MobileBurn| The Globe and Mail| Email this| Comments

Liberty Newspost Dec-23-2011

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