Liberty Newspost Feb-26-2011

Curated News Edition
- 27/02/12
http://www.LibertyNewspost.com
Academy Awards: Billy Crystal opens Oscars show with a splash - Los Angeles Times
(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:59:22 PM
scene in which Crystal was forced to take on the role as host. That catapulted him into scenes from Hes back. some of the top nominated movies Billy Crystal returned as host for of the year and a lip lock with the ninth time Sunday evening at George Clooney and a chance the 84th Academy Awards after meeting with Tom Cruise. far too long of an absence. That followed with a song-andCrystal hasnt hosted since 2004 dance medley poking gentle fun and he wasn't even supposed to of all the best picture nominees host this year. It was supposed to as well as a jab at the show itself: be Eddie Murphy. But he quit, Nothing takes the sting out of following producer-director Brett these tough economic times like Ratner out the door. Ratner had watching a bunch of millionaires been tapped to produce the Oscars giving golden statues to each along with Don Mischer but other. Ratner was ousted after he was Only one other person has hosted caught using a gay slur. Hollywood's biggest night more PHOTOS: Red carpet arrivals| time than Crystal Bob Hope. Quotes| Billy Crystal at the Oscars Hope did it 18 times, so Crystal The show opener played off this has a ways to go to break that riff, starting with a mock torture record. Oscars: Cheat Sheet| Key [unable to retrieve full-text content] [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Scenes| Pundit's picks| Ballot| Timeline The first awards were presented by Tom Hanks, and both went to Hugo. One was for cinematography for Robert Richardson, and the other was for art direction, which went to the husband and wife team of production designer Dante Ferretti and set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo. Other winners were Mark Bridges, who won for custom design for The Artist, and Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland for makeup for transforming Meryl Streep into former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for The Iron Lady. The most heavily nominated film of the night is Hugo, Martin [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Scorseses valentine to the early days of cinema, with 11 nod. It's up against "The Artist," French filmmakers Michel Hazanavicius silent black-andwhite charmer about the transition to "talkies." It has 10 nods and is considered the shoo-in for best picture and director. There are other tight races to watch for. Will Streep take her third Oscar, for playing Thatcher in The Iron Lady? Or will Viola Davis become just the second African American performer to win the lead actress Oscar, for her role as a 1950s-era domestic in The Help? And will Jean Dujardin become the first French performer win the lead actor Oscar, for The Artist? Or will Clooney soar ahead and
earn his second Academy Award, as the distant father of two daughters whose wife is in a coma in The Descendants? The scheduled-three-hour ceremony is being broadcast live on ABC from the Hollywood & Highland Center. LIST: And the winner is... FULL COVERAGE: The 84th Academy Awards susan.king@latimes.com rene.lynch@latimes.com 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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Swing states poll: Health care law hurts Obama in 2012

(USATODAY.com Feed)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:23:28 PM
was the right thing to do. "Mandating that you have to buy the insurance rubs me the wrong WASHINGTON The health way altogether," says Fred care overhaul that President Harrison, 62, a horse trainer from O b a m a i n t e n d e d t o b e t h e York County, Pa., who was signature achievement of his first a m o n g t h o s e s u r v e y e d a n d term instead has become a supports repeal even though he significant problem in his bid for likes some provisions of the law. a second one, uniting Republicans "It should be my own choice." in opposition and eroding his "It seems like it forces you to take standing among independents. health care (coverage), and you By Grant T Morris, for USA don't really have a say in the T O D A Y L y n n W e s t o f matter," says Beth Leffew, 26, a Boscawen, New Hampshire is a college student from Cincinnati. big fan of President Obama's She says the president "didn't health care law. really listen to people" when they objected to the proposed bill. "It By Grant T Morris, for USA seems like he just shoved it right TODAY through Congress." Lynn West of Boscawen, New Though the law has avid H a m p s h i r e i s a b i g f a n o f supporters, especially in the President Obama's health care president's Democratic base, the law. net effect among middle-of-theIn a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of road voters is negative for him. t h e n a t i o n ' s d o z e n t o p What's more, the issue unites the battleground states, a clear GOP when the party is fractured majority of registered voters call among competing presidential the bill's passage "a bad thing" contenders. and support its repeal if a In the poll, Obama lags the two Republican wins the White House leading Republican rivals in the in November. Two years after he 12 states likely to determine the signed the Patient Protection and outcome of a close race in Affordable Care Act and as the November: Supreme Court prepares to hear Former Pennsylvania senator a r g u m e n t s a b o u t i t s Rick Santorum tops Obama 50%constitutionality next month 4 5 % i n t h e s w i n g s t a t e s . the president has failed to Nationwide, Santorum's lead convince most Americans that it narrows to 49%-46%.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney edges Obama 48%46% in the swing states. Nationwide, they are tied at 47% each. Romney also has a health care problem: Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in the battleground states, 27% say they are less likely to support him because he signed a Massachusetts law that required residents to have coverage. Just 7% say it makes them more likely to back him. "If they used Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care program as a guideline for the Obamacare thing, what's the difference?" says Robert Hargrove, 37, of Sanford, N.C., rejecting Romney's explanation of differences between the state and federal laws. Hargrove, a truck driver for a propane company, scoffs: "It's just a bigger version. They put it on steroids." The swing states poll of 1,137 registered voters was taken Feb. 14-21. In addition, a national
survey of 881 registered voters was taken Feb. 20-21. The margin of error for each is +/-4 percentage points. The battleground states surveyed include Michigan where Tuesday's primary has become a critical showdown between Romney and Santorum as well as Ohio and Virginia, which vote next week on Super Tuesday. The other swing states are Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Health care ranks near the top of a list of concerns for advocates and critics of the law. Nationwide, it trails only the economy and the deficit as being the most critical issues facing the nation, rating a bit higher than unemployment and terrorism. Lynn West, 58, a retired state education official from Boscawen, N.H., is exasperated that a law she says has been "fabulous" for her family continues to draw so much heat. Under its provisions, her 24year-old son has been able to stay on his father's health insurance plan after graduating from the University of New Hampshire two years ago. Her 77-year-old mother, who lives in nearby Concord, has seen her prescription costs decline. "If you say the word 'Obamacare'
Republicans have made that a dirty word," says West, who was among those surveyed. "If I had to fault President Obama or the people that help him put out his message, I think they need to be simpler. A lot of times it's the catch phrases that catch fire, like when he said, 'Yes we can' " in the 2008 campaign. "That's why the term 'Obamacare' has worked a simple phrase, and they've been able to put a negative connotation to it. In fact, they ought to be saying, 'Obamacare! Let's rejoice!' " Bragging and basketballs Thursday night at the mansion of Dallas Mavericks star Vince Carter in Orlando, Obama bragged about the law to a crowd of about 70 campaign contributors who had paid $30,000 each to attend. "We were able to pass a health care bill that is already providing 2.5 million young people insurance who didn't have it before, and by the time it's fully implemented, will give 30 million people health insurance," the president told the audience gathered in Carter's indoor basketball court. Although touting the Affordable Care Act is part of Obama's standard pitch at political events SWING page 3
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such as that one, at larger presidential events, he is more likely to be focused on proposals to foster jobs or promote education. In the State of the Union address in January, he referred to the health care law in only two sentences, almost in passing. The Republicans seeking the presidential nomination hammer the law at every opening at times targeting not only Obama but also Romney. "Romneycare was the model for Obamacare and the government takeover of health care," Santorum declared at last Wednesday's debate in Mesa, Ariz. "It would be a difficult task for someone who had the model for Obamacare, which is the biggest issue in this race of government in control of your lives, to be the nominee of our party." Romney replied that the Massachusetts plan differed in fundamental ways from the federal one. Then he tried to turn Santorum's charge back on him. "The reason we have Obamacare is because Arlen Specter, the pro-choice senator of Pennsylvania that you supported and endorsed in a race over Pat Toomey he voted for Obamacare. If you had not supported him, if we had said 'no' to Arlen Specter, we would not have Obamacare. So don't look at me. Take a look in the mirror." Opposition to the federal law is
nearly uniform among Republican voters. In the battleground states, eight in 10 say passage of the law was "a bad thing." Nearly six in 10 want it repealed. Nine in 10 say the law's provision requiring Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine is unconstitutional the centerpiece of a challenge before the Supreme Court. The issue is whether Congress can force people to buy health insurance or pay a fine, a mandate that the law's architects say is critical for the goal of expanding coverage and one that has divided judges on federal appeals courts. Arguments before the high court are scheduled to begin March 26, three days after the second anniversary of the law's signing. Voters in swing states stand overwhelmingly on one side of the debate: Three of four voters, including a majority of Democrats and of liberals, say the law is unconstitutional. That reaction is almost instinctual, says Stuart Altman, a professor of national health policy at Brandeis University who has joined two briefs supporting the law. "People say, 'The government should not mandate that I have to do anything.' " He faults the Obama team for not responding effectively enough to what he calls a "torrent" of opposition and misinformation. "You have this drumbeat of negative comments and almost no positive," he says. "You're relying
on the president to do the selling, and he's moved on to other things. The congressional people on the Democratic side are not supporting it. They're either being very quiet or running away from it themselves because they're afraid of getting tarnished." "That debate will be had," says Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager. When the public is engaged in the general election, "there will be an intensive effort to ensure that families understand how they're already benefiting from the law and what would be taken away from them if Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum has their way. The American people do not want to go back to the days of insurance companies discriminating against you if you have a pre-existing condition or dropping your coverage if you get sick." That will be a hard sale to make to Hargrove, the North Carolina truck driver. He acknowledges there are provisions in the law he calls "good and needed." His 4year-old son, Matthew, was born with a hole in his heart, requiring expensive surgery. Hargrove notes that the law's bar on insurers refusing coverage to those with pre-existing conditions could protect kids such as his. "But the way it was done, passed before it was read and all this other stuff, that's underhanded," he says. "You've got to have it or pay a penalty? That's not the way the country was set up."
Wariness about the future Gail Wilensky, a top health care policymaker for President George W. Bush and critic of the law, says Americans remain wary of the long-term impact of its provisions, which don't go fully into effect until 2014. At this point, she says, "they are not seeing much in the way of positives, and they are concerned about the negatives it might have." Eleven percent of voters in battleground states say the law has helped their families; 15% say it has hurt. Looking ahead, they predict by 42%-20% that the law will make things worse rather than better for their families. A pocket of support: those under 30, a critical age group for Obama in 2008. They are inclined to call the law's enactment "a good thing." Even among them, the share of supporters falls just short of 50%. The older the age group, the more opposition emerges. Opposition to the law is eroding Obama's support among the middle-of-the-road voters both nominees will court this fall. Among independents, 35% say the law makes them less likely to support Obama, more than double the 16% who say it makes them more likely. The intensity of feeling among potential swing voters also favors opponents. Among independents who lean to the GOP, 54% say they are much less likely to support Obama as a result.
Among independents who lean to the Democrats, 18% say they are much more likely to support him. Jason Carr, 40, a federal public defender in Las Vegas who describes himself as a moderate, credits the Obama administration with addressing a problem people had been talking about for decades. "You may not like what they did, but they did something," he said in a follow-up interview after being polled. He is likely to vote for Obama in November but would consider Romney if he was the Republican nominee. Vivian Robertson, 65, a retired nurse from Bangor, Wis., hasn't decided whom to support in the state's Republican primary on April 3, but she knows she won't vote for the author of Obamacare in November. "I think it's terrible," she says of the law. "It's going to take our medical system, and it's going to go right down the drain." 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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Under siege, Syrians flee to Lebanon

(USATODAY.com Feed)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:26:20 PM
TRIPOLI, Lebanon Maher Mohamed balances a laptop on his wasted legs so that he can browse Facebook. On his laptop there is a video. It shows the peaceful demonstration he was at when Syrian security forces opened fire on the crowds. By Portia Walker, for USA TODAY Maher Mohamed, was shot in April during an anti-Assad demonstration in his home village near Homs, Syria. On his back there are six holes from where he was shot. By Portia Walker, for USA TODAY Maher Mohamed, was shot in April during an anti-Assad demonstration in his home village near Homs, Syria. On his back there are six holes from where he was shot. On the teen's back there are six holes from where he was shot. On his feet there are two more. He can't feel the wounds because Maher is paralyzed from the waist down. "The Assad regime says we are terrorists," he says. "Do I look like a terrorist to you? If I was a terrorist, would I stand in front of a tank? I'm a civilian; I'm a protester." Maher is among thousands of
Syrians who have fled their hometowns to escape a military bombardment ordered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad has said he is cracking down on an uprising of terrorists and thugs. The Syrians here say the people have risen up against a brutal dictatorship and want their freedom. Representatives from more than 50 countries met Friday in Tunis, calling for a cease-fire and Assad to step down. Even so, Syrian activists say more forcefulness is needed. "There is no language of force; there are no teeth behind the words they are uttering. Sanctions? (Assad) won't become hungry, let's put it that way," says London-based Syrian activist Abdul Omar. Omar and others say that more than 7,000 people have been killed since the uprising against the Assad regime began in March. 'Consider him a dead man' Maher was 15 on April 29 when Assad's security forces attacked the demonstration he was attending in a village near the besieged city of Homs. He says he saw 15 or 20 people die around him that day. He escaped when opposition activists smuggled him across the heavily mined border between Syria and Lebanon, sometimes on motorcycles, sometimes simply
on the backs of men. In Homs, residents of some neighborhoods are unable to leave their homes because of constant shelling by government forces. Food supplies are running out, and the Syrian army is targeting water tanks and any civilians spotted out in the open, residents of Homs told USA TODAY via telephone. Many have slipped over the border to Lebanon. Here in one apartment in Tripoli, 25 people are crowded into a squalid unit in a rundown neighborhood. The people here say they left Homs 2 months ago as the siege became unbearable. "If someone wanted to pick up a loaf of bread, you can consider him a dead man," says Abu Mohammed, one of the men staying there with his two young daughters. "You can't even take your trash out of the house." As the days wore on, the smell of garbage was overwhelming. When Abu Mohammed opened the door to toss out the trash,
snipers fired at him, he says. Communications are down so it is impossible for Abu Mohammed to reach the relatives who remain in Homs as the bombardment intensifies. His 60-year-old father, Abu Ahmed, wheezes under a blanket in the main room of the family's temporary home. A tube runs from his nose to an oxygen tank. He can barely afford the drugs he needs to allow him to breathe, the family says. Abu Ahmed says the small sum of money he smuggled out of Homs in a pouch hidden beneath his shirt has been exhausted paying the rent and buying food for the 15 children living there. 'We need the mercy of God' In a Tripoli hospital run by a Syrian opposition group called the High Commission for Syrian Relief (HCFSR), workers tell of a growing exodus. The head of the HCFSR in Tripoli is Abu Ra'id, a former lawyer from Homs. He estimates that there are 14,000 Syrians taking refuge in Lebanon. In the past 20 days, 113 Syrian families had fled to Lebanon. In one hospital room, three Syrians lay wounded, one too weary to lift himself from his bed. Hamza arrived in Lebanon four days ago, crossing the border illegally on a motorcycle. He had been shot in the eye. His wife and
young daughter are still in Homs; he is unable to contact them. "I want to be done with the recovery so I can return," says Hamza, who asked his full name not be used because he was afraid of reprisals from the Syrian military. "To be killed there is better than to stay here." Hamza was despondent about the prospects for international intervention. "Nobody is doing anything, and I think the international community wont do anything until everybody is killed," he says. "We need the mercy of God." Like many other Syrians, Burhan Abu Tala, 26, an activist in Tripoli, questions why the international community came to the aid of the Libyan revolutionaries last year and not the Syrians. Then he answers his own question. "Because they have oil and Syria does not. Does that mean that Syrian blood is cheap?" he asks. "Where is the U.N.?" 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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Chicago's Pullman District could become a national park site

(USATODAY.com Feed)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:57:10 PM
architecturally significant," says Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., sponsor of a bill that would By Judy Keen, USA TODAY authorize an NPS study. Making it Updated part of the national park system CHICAGO A neighborhood "would go a long way toward that played key roles in the putting us on the map and development of the African- create jobs" where they are badly American labor movement, the needed, he says. railroad industry and urban Lynn McClure of the non-profit planning is the focus of efforts to National Parks Conservation create Illinois' second national Association says the study would park site. determine the suitability and By Seth Perlman, 2008 AP feasibility of making Pullman a photo The landmark Pullman national park site. Having such a Works administration building s i t e i n C h i c a g o w o u l d b e and its 12-story clock tower are "incredible," she says. "It is the seen at left from the row houses in only big city in the country that Chicago's Pullman District. just has zero national park presence." By Seth Perlman, 2008 AP photo The Pullman District is an The landmark Pullman Works industrial and residential complex administration building and its 12- built in the 1880s by George story clock tower are seen at left Pullman to build the famous from the row houses in Chicago's Pullman sleeping car and house Pullman District. workers in a company-owned Legislation pending in Congress community with homes, a church, would start the process of placing hotel, market and recreational t h e P u l l m a n D i s t r i c t u n d e r facilities. National Park Service ( NPS) A strike in 1894 by Pullman control, ensuring that its historic workers and the formation of the structures and museums remain first all-African-American union intact and attracting more visitors in 1925 helped shape the black and economic development, labor movement. advocates of the plan say. The The African Americans hired to A b r a h a m L i n c o l n N a t i o n a l work in the factory and as porters Historic Site in Springfield is the allowed many to move into the state's only NPS destination. middle class, and porters helped "Pullman is historically and spark the historic migration of
blacks from the South to northern cities by spreading the word about jobs in the North, says Lionel Kimble, who teaches history at Chicago State University. The porters' "impact on history can't be seen in a negative light," he says. Jeff Soule, outreach director for the American Planning Association, says Pullman was "the first industrial city designed with the inhabitants' welfare in mind" and included nice, if modest, homes for workers and proximity to the goods and services they needed. Planners "are trying to re-create the community that Pullman already is," he says. A Pullman national park site could be modeled after Massachusetts' Lowell National Historical Park, which highlights the early textile industry, says Patrick Brannon, president of the Pullman Civic Organization and a resident. "It could have a lot of tourist draw," he says, although
some residents worry about being inundated by visitors. Michael Shymanski, a Pullman resident and president of the Historic Pullman Foundation, says the district was the birthplace of many "significant ideas in the experiment of America. It's an international icon." 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.
Fabio Borini placed on Italy squad for 1st time for US game; Mario Balotelli ... - Washington Post
(Andrea Rossi - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 2:28:45 PM
ESPN Fabio Borini placed on Italy squad for 1st time for US game; Mario Balotelli... Washington Post Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi(Roma), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Thiago Motta (Paris Saint-Germain), Antonio Nocerino (AC Milan), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus). Forwards: Fabio Borini (Roma), Sebastian Giovinco (Parma),... Balotelli overlooked by Italy for 'ethics breach' AFP Borini lands first Italy call-up for US friendly SuperSport.com all 49 news articles
Top News/
Some Syrians Vote, as Others Are Attacked - Wall Street Journal

Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:09:59 PM
By NOUR MALAS BEIRUTSyrians voted in a referendum on a new constitution, as Homs city remained under artillery attack, in a stark display of the divide between President Bashar al-Assad's support base and his opponents. Sunday's vote came as Mr. Assad rejected a new round of international pressure to yield power, simultaneously pursuing political overhaulswhich the opposition has long rejected as insufficientand a deadly crackdown on dissidents. Activists on Sunday boycotted the vote on the draft constitution, one in a series of steps Mr. Assad has pledged to open up a political system dominated by the ruling Baath Party since 1963 and his own family since 1970. Amid a four-week bombardment of Homs with heavy artillery, activists hardly heeded the voteexcept with rage and humor. In a neighborhood just outside the capital Damascus, they burned tires and set up roadblocks to protest the referendum. In the southern cities around Deraa, they called a general strike that shut down shops and schools. And in towns across the country, they filmed video skits mocking
the process and what they portrayed as a government attempt to overshadow its violent crackdown with gestures at a political overhaul. "From what I can hear from my bunker, I think the only thing dropping into the ballot boxes, if they're there, are bombs," said an activist in Homs. He spoke by Skype via a satellite connection amid an electricity blackout and what he said was shelling across Homs, including the city center for the first time on Sunday. But in Damascus and Aleppo, the country's two largest cities and strongholds of support for the president, many young Syrians said they took part in the vote. Syrian state media broadcast scenes of a large rally in the capital supporting the new constitution, and of Syrians voting at polling stations across the country. State TV also showed Mr. Assad and his wife voting at a station after making their way through a crowd of cheering people, who flung their arms at the president and snapped pictures of him with their cellphones. A Syrian woman shows a referendum pamphlet explaining the changes to be made to the constitution at a polling station in Damascus on Sunday. Amir Bitar, a 29-year-old
calling on Mr. Assad to cede power, and pledged to prepare to deliver emergency humanitarian aid into Syria. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clintonwho joined foreign ministers from the Arab League, France, the U.K., and others at graduate student who voted in Friday's meeting on Syriaurged D a m a s c u s , s a i d t h e n e w Syrians in the military and constitution "is a good step business community still backing forward, even with the many Mr. Assad to turn against him. mishaps it has.""I think this "The longer you support the constitution provides the basis for regime's campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, constructive debate later." Others described a good turnout the more it will stain your honor," at polling stations in Damascus, she told reporters in Morocco on where one voter said "it felt like a Sunday, the Associated Press reported. "If you refuse, however, loyalist demonstration." "Everyone was smiling and to prop up the regime or take part holding pictures of the president," in attacksyour countrymen and women will hail you as heroes." the voter said. The draft constitution would Western officials at the meeting loosen the ruling Baath Party's in Tunis said they still sought a grip on political power and pave negotiated, political solution on the way for multiparty elections, S y r i a t o a v o i d a b l o o d y , w h i l e a l s o c a p p i n g S y r i a ' s protracted civil warthat could executive term for the first time in engulf the region.Across the country, at least 40 people were decades. Opposition activists say the killed by government forces on document is flawed, as it bans Sunday, according to activist most traditional opposition groups groups. Even the leading Syrian and dissidents from taking part in opposition coalition dropped its both parliamentary and total refusal to negotiate with presidential elections. The vote came after a "Friends of regime officials, as long as Syria" contact group of more than negotiations start after a cease-fire 60 nations meeting in Tunis on and with the strict goal of regime Friday backed an Arab plan change.
In a statement in Tunis, the Syrian National Council said political negotiation "is still possible and is likely the best way to achieve the desired goal of regime change." A senior council member on Sunday said many in the opposition, and among their Western backers, acknowledge that Russia holds considerably political sway over the Assad regime and had to be courted to help move along a transition in Syria. "We know we can't do anything without them," the council member said. In Homs, activists pleaded for emergency aid and the International Committee of the Red Crosswhich is negotiating for a cease-fire in Syriasaid its team couldn't enter the besieged city over the weekend to help evacuate the injured. "Just water and medicineforget food," one Homs resident said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights separately said 23 members of the military or security forces were killed in clashes with, or in targeted attacks by, opposition fighters. The right's group's local affiliate, the Syrian Red Crescent, on Friday evacuated 27 people from SOME page 7
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Santorum: Romney uses teleprompters, I don't CBS News

SOME
private sector when you're out there working on your own and Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:55:53 PM then government bailouts when Republican presidential you're in public policy. Not saying candidate, former Pennsylvania that you believe in conservative Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks at a economics and then supporting Tea Party rally in St. Clair Shores, government takeover of the Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012.(Credit: healthcare system." AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Santorum was particularly TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - in front of me to take questions." sarcastic about Romney's defense Many Republican candidates Special Section: Campaign 2012 of the Massachusetts health care m a k e b a r b e d j o k e s a b o u t Both men were on television law which he signed as governor. President Obama's use of a i n t e r v i e w s h o w s a n s w e r i n g Romney says it is appropriate for teleprompter. But Rick Santorum questions Sunday, but Romney states to pass their own laws but seemed to repurpose the jab holds few press availabilities he'd repeal the federal health Sunday to target rival Mitt compared to Santorum. The reform law that puts in place a Romney, who sometimes uses a former Pennsylvania senator often national system similar to the one teleprompter for speeches on seems unable to resist a news in Massachusetts. "Wow, that's a e l e c t i o n n i g h t s a n d o t h e r camera in his face, no matter what big difference," Santorum said occasions. mockingly, summing up the question. "I never have to worry about what With less than two days until the Romney's position as "I'm for I say because I will say what's on Michigan primary on Tuesday, government running your life only my heart. I might not say it the Santorum unleashed not just the in the state capitol, not at the most articulate sometimes and I teleprompter allusion but a whole nation's capitol." understand that, but I have no series of attacks taking off from This entry passed through the t e l e p r o m p t e r s . I a n s w e r Romney's description of himself Full-Text RSS service if this is questions," Santorum told an as "resolute" at a debate last week your content and you're reading it audience at a nightclub here. "I in Arizona. "Maybe he doesn't on someone else's site, please read answer questions from the public understand what the term resolute the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentin front of cameras. I answer means. But it means that you're only/faq.php#publishers. Five questions from the press every supposed to have sort of a resolve, Filters recommends: Donate to day. I don't hide. I don't hide from a consistent pattern of beliefs," Wikileaks. the public. I don't have structured Santorum said. "Not be for the events where only my friends are
Homs. Activists said two injured foreign journalists trapped in the Baba Amr neighborhood refused to leave with the Syrian organization and were waiting for a rescue team. "We are attempting to go in the affected area again today," said Hicham Hassan, the Syrian Observatory's spokesman for the Middle East. "Needs are very urgent and it is absolutely crucial that we are able to enter." Write to Nour Malas at
nour.malas@dowjones.com 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.
China's Stocks Extend SixWeek Advance on Speculation of Policy Support - Bloomberg

(china - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:06:08 PM
China's Stocks Extend Six-Week Advance on Speculation of Policy Support Bloomberg China's stocks rose, extending a six-week rally, on expectations the government will further ease
monetary policies to spur growth. China Construction Bank Corp. climbed 0.6 percent after a newspaper reported suggestions from a former central bank... Yuan Forwards Snap ThreeWeek Loss on Global Growth Optimism BusinessWeek all 2 news articles
Sleek Sci-Fi Silhouettes - The Ellery Fall 2012 Lookbook Showcases a Variety of Rich Textures (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:20:02 PM
( TrendHunter.com) The Ellery Fall 2012 lookbook features sleek
styles, showcased in a number of sci-fi-inspired silhouettes. A contemporary take on classic tailoring, this sharply dressed collection takes fashion risks,...
Top News/ Business/ Policy/
China local governments China Gets A Pass from may dodge debt G-20 on Yuan - Wall deadlines - MarketWatch Street Journal (blog)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:39:17 PM
Married soldiers in housing wrangle WalesOnline

(housing - Google News)
China local governments may dodge debt deadlines MarketWatch In addition, they say, bankers willing to restructure loans can help provinces, cities and other
communities complete infrastructure projects launched with borrowed money as part of China's stimulus response to the 2008 global financial crisis. How Will China Pay Off Its Debt? Forbes all 2 news articles

Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:07:36 PM
China Gets A Pass from G-20 on Yuan Wall Street Journal (blog) China's exchange-rate policy had long been a regular source of
Sacha Kljestan & Brek Shea added to US roster for Italy friendly; Landon ... - Washington Post (blog)
(Andrea Rossi - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:54:25 PM
Sacha Kljestan & Brek Shea added to US roster for Italy friendly; Landon... Washington Post (blog) Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi(Roma), Claudio Marchisio
(Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Thiago Motta (Paris S a i n t - G e r m a i n ) , A n t o n i o (Andrea Rossi - Google News) Nocerino (AC Milan), Andrea Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:35:15 PM Pirlo (Juventus). Forwards: Fabio B o r i n i ( R o m a ) , S e b a s t i a n Daily Mail Manchester City's Mario Balotelli Giovinco (Parma),... dropped from Italy squad and more Daily Mail Prandelli, who is still without the
Manchester City's Mario Balotelli dropped from Italy squad - Daily Mail Mongolia vs.
services of injured strikers Antonio Cassano and Giuseppe Rossi, has instead named Roma's Fabio Borini in his 23-man squad for the Stadio Luigi Ferraris encounter. The call-up is the first for the 20-year-old Borini,...
contention at meetings of the Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:27:51 PM world's leading advanced and Married soldiers in housing developing economies. But this time the yuan got a pass and, wrangle i n s t e a d , G e r m a n y f a c e d a WalesOnline mounted campaign for it to bulk Married soldiers living in Army accommodation could be forced up Europe's... to leave their homes if proposals and more being considered to reduce services housing are adopted, it has been reported. The move would force serving members of the Armed Forces onto the commercial... and more
eBay
(Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:42:10 PM
Aspettando la prova Hyperion, le ultime sull'E-Cat - Tam Tam

(andrea rossi e-cat - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:16:52 PM
Aspettando la prova Hyperion, le
ultime sull' E-Cat Tam Tam Novit sull' E-Cat di Andrea Rossi vengono da una sintesi di una intervista telefonica
pubblicata sul sito apposito. La novit forse pi importante che a Bologna ha avuto luogo un incontro con la Siemens AG. la quale, a detta di Rossi, ha
dimostrato...
How countries stack up against global corporations. FEBRUARY 27, 2012 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Business/ Technology/ Sports/
JEREMY GRANTHAM: The 10 Shakespearean Rules Of Investing

Sam Ro (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:27:00 PM
Jeremy Grantham's latest quarterly letter to GMO clients came out on Friday. His letters are loaded with brilliant investment wisdom, expert analysis on the economy, and prescient calls on the markets. The first section of the three-part letter is titled Investment Advice From Your Uncle Polonius. Grantham channels this Shakespearean character to communicate 10 investing insights that should be taken very seriously. Click Here For Investment Advice From Uncle Polonius > Here's an explanatory footnote from the GMO letter: Polonius, a character in Hamlet, a verbose, self-important advisor to the King, was clearly intended to be a real loser, but curiously in the end Shakespeare couldnt resist making most of his ponderous advice actually useful and memorable. His famous speech to his son Laertes who is embarking on a dangerous sea voyage to France (from Denmark) is
can. Leverage reduces the investors critical asset: patience." Source: GMO Don't put all your treasure in one boat "Several different investments, the more the merrier, will give your portfolio resilience, the ability to withstand shocks. Clearly, the more investments you have and the more different they are, the more likely you are to survive those critical periods when your big bets move against you." Source: GMO See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. See Also: reproduced as an Appendix. inefficient and wanders far from Jeremy Grantham: The Fed Is (Hamlet makes genocidal if rather fair price but eventually, after Creating Its LAST Bubble unintentional war on the Polonius breaking your heart and your New Jeremy Grantham Letter family, accounting for Laertes, his patience (and, for professionals, Warns That "Pavlovs Bulls" Are sister Ophelia, and poor Polonius those of their clients too), it will "Living On Borrowed Time" himself: a clean sweep.) go back to fair value. Your task is Grantham: Yes, Stocks Are We pulled the key quotes and to survive until that happens." Overvalued, But You Have To digested the lengthy sections of Source: GMO Buy Them Because Bond Prices his letter for you. But we Neither lender nor borrower be Are Ridiculous recommend reading the full- "If you borrow to invest, it will length version on GMO's website. interfere with your survivability. Believe in history Unleveraged portfolios cannot be " T h e m a r k e t i s g l o r i o u s l y stopped out, leveraged portfolios
Firms linked to housing crisis could face more court time in 2012 - Ithaca Journal
Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:01:21 PM
Firms linked to housing crisis could face more court time in 2012 Ithaca Journal WASHINGTON -- Further legal action is likely before the end of the year against firms involved in the origins of the housing bubble, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said. A working group of federal agencies and state attorneys... and more
American Mahan upsets McIlroy to win Match Play Reuters

(- Bing News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:44:45 PM
BUY WITH ME!

noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)
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10
Business/ Featured/
The Top 3 Questions That Investors Are Asking Right Now

Joe Weisenthal (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:49:00 PM
From SocGen's UK economist Brian Hilliard come the top 3 questions that big clients are asking. They are: IS THE GROWTH MOMENTUM GENUINE? WHAT IS DRIVING THE HIGHER OIL PRICE AND HOW MUCH DAMAGE COULD IT INFLICT? WHEN WILL THE GREEK PSI PROCESS BE CONCLUDED?
This New Comment From Mitt Romney On NASCAR Must Be A Joke

Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: Look What Happened The Last Time Retail Investors Behaved Like This... CITI: These Two Charts Say Not To Chase The Rally Gold Jumps To A 2-Week High
Joe Weisenthal (Business Insider)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:50:00 PM
of the year. It seems to have little doubt that the recent run of good On the top one, Hilliard answers: data will solidify into a durable With real economy data in the upturn. It is thus becoming US continuing to improve, more i n c r e a s i n g l y s e n s i t i v e t o and more clients are discussing disappointment. As we discuss in t h e p o s s i b i l i t y t h a t t h e our Economic News 24 February i m p r o v e m e n t c o u l d p e r s i s t . the durable goods data could MARKET ISSUES: The US provide a reality check which equity market has risen in a might hurt the markets. straight line since the beginning Please follow Money Game on
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Endorses Romney

Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 9:28:00 AM
Arizona governor Jan Brewer endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this morning on NBC's Meet the
Press.
Oh come on, really! Via Buzzfeed, the AP catches this quote from Romney on NASCAR: Romney was at Daytona last year and said he also has been to the track in New Hampshire. Does he follow the sport? "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans," he said. "But I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners." He's just pulling our chain at this
point. He has to be. Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: Mitt Romney's Campaign Could Be In Serious Trouble Here Are The Juicy Details From The Gay Sex Scandal That's Rocking Mitt Romney's Campaign The Republican Field Is Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts
Business/ News Wire/ World News/ Featured/
11
MONDAY LIVE COVERAGE In the Pipeline: Senior Housing Construction Projects Julia Gillard defeats Kevin Rudd in leadership ballot - NEWS.com.au - Senior Housing News (Nation - Google News) Politics, we've written the history
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:41:18 PM
In the Pipeline: Senior Housing Construction Projects Senior Housing News Bronzeville Associates Senior Apartments LP will undertake an
Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News

(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)
$ 1 8 . 2 m i l l i o n p r o j e c t t o Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:04:06 PM rehabilitate 97 units of senior housing in Chicago, Ill. The city's The Guardian m a y o r , R a h m E m a n u e l , MONDAY LIVE COVERAGE introduced a proposal to the City Julia Gillard defeats Kevin Rudd Council for Chicago to provide up in leadership ballot to $10... NEWS.com.au and more JULIA Gillard will remain as Prime Minister after she comfortably defeated the challenge of Kevin Rudd in a contested ballot for the Labor leadership. "We are on the progressive side of Australian
National News Federal Guidelines Sharpen Focus for Distracted Drivers With cell phones, navigation equipment, music, and even Web browsing, drivers enjoy more entertainment options than ever
beforebut officials want to bring the focus back to [...] 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.
Aerial Syrian Blockade?

Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:33:00 PM
Ynet reports on the possibility of a U.S.-backed "aerial blockade on Syria": The Pentagon is readying for the
possibility of intervention in Syria, aiming to halt Syrian President Bashsar Assad's violent crackdown on protesters, the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Saturday, citing a US military offical.
Telegraph.co.uk Fishermen's killing: Seized weapons from Italian vessel to be taken to Kollam... Times of India KOCHI: At quarter to three on Sunday morning, four iron boxes containing seven weapons of the Italian naval guards were unloaded from Enrica Lexie marking the end of a 15-hour search for killer guns. The (Nation - Google News) Department for Work and weapons, including those Pensions within 48... allegedly used by the... Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:08:18 PM A4e fraud allegations known Coastal security to be stepped up: Daily Mail before David Cameron picked AK Antony IBNLive.com Ministers were told of fraud ' f a m i l i e s c h a m p i o n ' Italian crew to be tried under claims a month BEFORE back-to- T e l e g r a p h . c o . u k Indian law: Antony Hindustan work tsar got job Harrison hired despite A4e fraud Times Daily Mail warning The Independent Italy pins hopes on result of By Daniel Martin Iain Duncan Labour pushes for cabinet ballistic test of weapons The Smith's department was told about disclosure on A4e Financial Hindu f r a u d a l l e g a t i o n s a t E m m a Times Economic Times- Daily News & Harrison's company a month The Press Association- The Analysis- Zee News before she was appointed as back- Guardian- Mirror.co.uk all 722 news articles to-work tsar by David Cameron. all 1,542 news articles Her firm, A4e, informed the
of this nation,... PM Julia Gillard wins ballot but faces challenge of rebuilding Labor Herald Sun Kevin Rudd says he bears no grudges against those who opposed him in... The Australian Julia Gillard still PM, beats Kevin Rudd 71-31 in leadership ballot Courier Mail Sydney Morning Herald- ABC Online- The Daily Telegraph all 1,163 news articles
Fishermen's killing: Seized weapons from Italian vessel to be taken to Kollam ... Times of India
(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:38:44 PM
Ministers were told of fraud claims a month BEFORE backto-work tsar got job - Daily Mail
12
News Wire/
Opposition Calls Syria's New Constitution a 'Sham'

(FOXNews.com)
urgent." Activist groups said at least 29 people were killed on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012: In this photo mostly in Homs. At least 89 were released by the Syrian official reported killed on Saturday alone, news agency SANA, Syrian one day before the referendum. President Bashar Assad casts his Activists estimate close to 7,500 ballot next to his wife Asma at a people have been killed in the 11 p o l l i n g s t a t i o n d u r i n g a months since the Assad regime's r e f e r e n d u m o n t h e n e w brutal crackdown on dissent constitution, in Damascus, Syria. began. DAMASCUS, Syria Syria's Secretary of State Hillary authoritarian regime held a Rodham Clinton called Sunday's referendum on a new constitution vote "a cynical ploy." Sunday, a gesture by embattled "It's a phony referendum, and it is President Bashar Assad to placate going to be used by Assad to those seeking his ouster. But the justify what he's doing to other opposition deemed it an empty Syrian citizens," she said in an gesture and the West immediately interview with CBS News in dismissed the vote as a "sham." Rabat, Morocco. Even as some cast ballots for Speaking to reporters in Rabat, what the government has tried to Clinton called on Syrians in portray as reform, the military business and the military who still kept up shelling of the opposition support Assad to turn against him. stronghold of Homs, which has "The longer you support the been under attack for more than regime's campaign of violence three weeks after rebels took against your brothers and sisters, control of some neighborhoods the more it will stain your honor," there. Activists and residents she said. "If you refuse, however, report that hundreds have been to prop up the regime or take part killed in Homs in the past few in attacks ... your countrymen and weeks, including two Western women will hail you as heroes." journalists. Other countries also lambasted The Red Cross spokesman said the vote. the humanitarian group had been "The referendum in Syria is unable to enter the besieged Homs nothing more than a farce," neighborhood of Baba Amr since German Foreign Minister Guido F r i d a y , d e s c r i b i n g t h e Westerwelle said. "Sham votes humanitarian needs there as "very cannot be a contribution to a
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:00:06 PM
resolution of the crisis. Assad must finally end the violence and clear the way for a political transition." U.S., European and Arab officials met Friday at a major international conference on the Syrian crisis in Tunisia, trying to forge a unified strategy to push Assad from power. They began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after the regime falls. "It is time for that regime to move on," President Barack Obama said Friday of Assad's rule. For his part, Assad said Sunday that Syria is subject to a "media attack." He often blames the uprising on Islamist extremists and "armed gangs." "They may be stronger on the airwaves but we are stronger on the ground, and we aspire to win both on the ground and on the
Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, have called for a boycott. Other groups have called for a general strike. "I am boycotting the vote," Syriabased activist Mustafa Osso told The Associated Press by phone. He added that previous "reforms" have made little difference. Assad's government revoked the country's official state of emergency in April, but the crackdown on dissent has only intensified. The referendum on the new airwaves," he said in footage constitution allows at least in broadcast on Syrian state TV. theory for opening the country's Cheering supporters surrounded political system. It would create a him and his wife, Asma, as they multiparty system in Syria, which voted at the capital's state has been ruled by the Baath party broadcasting headquarters. since it took power in a coup in T h e B r i t a i n - b a s e d S y r i a n 1963. Assad's father, Hafez, took Observatory for Human Rights power in another coup in 1970. reported intense clashes between It also imposes a limit of two troops and army defectors in the seven-year terms on the president, villages of Dael and Hirak in the though Syrian legal expert Omran province of Daraa, where the Zoubi said Assad's time in office uprising started. The group also so far wouldn't count. That means said explosions were heard in the he could serve two more terms village of Khirbet Ghazaleh and after his current one ends 2014, Naima as well as the provincial keeping him in office until 2028. capital, Daraa. Such changes would be The Observatory and other unthinkable a year ago, but since activist groups reported violence Assad's security forces have killed in several areas including Idlib, thousands in their effort to end the Homs and the eastern province of uprising, most opposition groups Deir el-Zour. say they'll accept nothing short of The two main umbrella opposition groups, the Syrian OPPOSITION page 18 National Council and the National
News Wire/
13
G20 to Europe: show us the money

(Reuters: Top News)
region's war chest. It faces political hurdles at home. German lawmakers, who vote on By Gernot Heller and Glenn Monday on a second Greek Somerville bailout package, have argued that MEXICO CITY| Sun Feb 26, imposing fiscal discipline on 2012 9:03pm EST indebted countries is far more (Reuters) - Leading economies i m p o r t a n t t o r e g a i n i n g t h e told Europe it must put up extra c o n f i d e n c e o f m a r k e t s a n d money to fight its debt crisis if it reviving economic growth than wants more help from the rest of bigger rescue funds. the world, piling pressure on Geithner disagreed. While Germany to drop its opposition to Europe's actions so far have a bigger European bailout fund. reduced the risks of a Euro zone countries pledged on "catastrophic" financial crisis, Sunday, at a meeting of finance more must be done, he said. leaders from the Group of 20 British finance minister George economic powers, to reassess next Osborne was even sharper. month the strength of their bailout "We have to see the color of the fund. euro zone's money first - and, This would be "essential input" q u i t e f r a n k l y , t h a t h a s n ' t when it comes for the G20 happened. Until it does, there's no countries to consider putting more question of extra IMF money money into the International from Britain or probably anyone Monetary Fund's crisis war chest, else," he said. G20 finance ministers and central The G20 is racing to line up b a n k e r s s a i d i n t h e i r f i n a l massive international resources communiqu after two days of w o r t h n e a r l y $ 2 t r i l l i o n meetings here. including existing and new funds "There is broad agreement that the - possibly by late April. That IMF cannot substitute for the would help to draw a line under absence of a stronger European the financial crisis that erupted in firewall and the IMF cannot move 2008 when Lehman Brothers forward without more clarity on collapsed, spawned the deepest E u r o p e ' s o w n p l a n s , " U . S . U.S. recession since the 1930s Treasury Secretary Timothy and now has engulfed Europe's Geithner said. deeply indebted countries. Germany, as Europe's largest It would mark their boldest move economy, has sent conflicting since they ploughed $1 trillion signals over whether it is ready to into their economies three years soften its position, and it came ago to combat recession. Many under intense pressure this advanced economies are still weekend to support enlarging the flooding markets with cheap
Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:03:08 PM
money to fuel growth and prevent financial contagion. STRONG FIREWALL Yet the world economic recovery remains patchy and risks are still high that it could stumble, the G20 finance officials said in their communiqu. They also noted risks to growth from rising oil prices, which vaulted to a nearly 10-month high above $125 a barrel on Friday. The G20 welcomed pledges by oil producers to ensure adequate supply. A larger firewall would better equip officials to contain financial turbulence that could return, Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, said. "We should not delay this further since one of the crucial lessons of this crisis has been that ... the longer we wait the more costly it tends to get," he said. Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble promised to make a decision some time in March. The proposal is to merge Europe's temporary and permanent bailout funds to create a 750 billion euro ($1 trillion) war chest. This would open the door for other G20 countries, like Japan and China, to meet the IMF's request for $500-$600 billion in new resources, on top of its current $385 billion in funds. Put together, this would total almost $2 trillion in firepower. The G20 finance chiefs next meet
in Washington in late April, where they plan to discuss extra IMF funds. GERMANY ISOLATED Germany's Schaeuble said there were no diverging views on the best path forward to stabilise Europe, and behind closed doors he appeared conciliatory. Margrethe Vestager, economy minister of current EU president Denmark, said on Saturday that "even Germany" was reasonably happy to strengthen the bailout fund. But then Germany fought in vain for weaker language in the G20 communiqu, wanting to say that re-assessing Europe's financial firepower was "important" for getting more IMF funds, not "essential" as was finally agreed upon, G20 officials said. And from Berlin, a government official close to Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted on Sunday there is already enough money pledged for the euro-zone's rescue fund. The United States and some emerging countries struggled to understand Germany's position, another G20 official said. "They find it difficult to understand the German obsession with fiscal discipline, so Germans were a bit isolated in the meeting and putting the blame on Merkel and on the Bundestag was a way for the German delegation to fight the criticism coming from non-EU countries," one G20 official said. Lawmakers in the Bundestag
lower house were expected to approve the second Greek bailout with opposition support when it comes for a vote on Monday. IMF REFORMS Some developing economies have conditions of their own for giving more money to the IMF. Brazil's finance minister said that, on top of a bigger European rescue vehicle, emerging economies would want implementation of a 2010 reform giving them more say at the Fund In another sign of emerging economies trying to flex their muscles, they said they might put up their own candidate for the soon-to-be-open job running the World Bank which is traditionally goes to the United States. In the communiqu, the G20 reaffirmed it would stick to its pledge for IMF reforms by an annual IMF meeting in September. (Additional reporting Francesca Landini, Dan Flynn, Dave Graham, Alonso Soto, Glenn Somerville and the G20 team; Writing by Stella Dawson; Editing by William Schomberg and Kieran Murray) 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.
14
News Wire/
Corporations vs. Rights Groups in High Court Case

(FOXNews.com)
took part in abuses and, more recently, against companies that do business in places where Corporations and human rights abuses occur and in the United groups are squaring off in a States. Supreme Court fight over whether "The corporations have a lot of foreign victims of war crimes, money and are very attractive killings and other atrocities can targets," said Northwestern haul multinational companies into University law professor Eugene American courts and try to prove K o n t o r o v i c h , a n e x p e r t i n they were complicit in the abuses international law. "The idea is that and should pay damages. they were in bed with the The rights groups say a 223-year- c o u n t r i e s . " old law gives foreigners such as But the federal appeals court in Nigerian-born Charles Wiwa the New York stopped a class-action right to try to hold businesses suit against oil giant Royal Dutch accountable for the roles they play Shell, saying the Alien Tort in atrocities. Energy and mining Statute does not allow suits companies have been among the against corporations. most frequent targets of these Business interests argue that the lawsuits in recent years following legal tactic also will discourage efforts by the military in investment in developing Indonesia, Nigeria and elsewhere countries and they point out that to clamp down on protests against they uniformly condemn human oil and gas exploration and rights violations. development. Wiwa, 44, fled Nigeria in 1996 The justices will hear arguments following a crackdown on protests Tuesday over the reach of the against Shell's oil operations in Alien Tort Statute and a 20-year- the Niger Delta. Wiwa and other old law that allows victims of natives of the oil-rich Ogoni torture to pursue civil lawsuits region claim Shell was eager to a g a i n s t t h e r e s p o n s i b l e stop protests in the area and was individuals. complicit in Nigerian government The Alien Tort Statute lay unused a c t i o n s t h a t i n c l u d e d f a t a l for most of American history until shootings, rapes, beatings, arrests rights lawyers dusted it off and property destruction. beginning in the late 1970s. He said an American court is the Lawsuits have been brought only place the Ogonis can seek against individuals who allegedly accountability.
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:00:06 PM
potential to wipe out almost all lawsuits under the 1789 law. Rio Tinto has an appeal pending with the court that argues that the law never was intended to apply to conduct by a foreign government against its own citizens within its own borders. It is not clear whether the court will deal with that issue in the Nigeria case. The federal government has warned about serious foreign policy concerns over the broad application of the Alien Tort Statute. Then-South African "Nigeria gets so much money passes through the area. President Thabo Mbeki said a from oil. There is no way the Other cases pending in U.S. lower court ruling in the United company will be held liable for courts seek to hold accountable States in the lawsuit concerning anything in courts in Nigeria," Chiquita Brands International for apartheid smacked of "judicial Wiwa said. He now lives in its relationship with paramilitary imperialism." Chicago, having been allowed groups in Colombia; Exxon and In this case, however, the Obama into the United States as a Chevron for abuses in Indonesia administration is on the side of the political refugee. and Nigeria, respectively; Britain- Ogonis. In the most notorious incident of based mining concern Rio Tinto In a second case being argued the crackdown, Nigeria's military for allegedly aiding the Papua Tuesday, the justices will consider dictatorship hanged author Ken New Guinea government in a civil whether the Torture Victims Saro-Wiwa and eight other war; and several companies for Protection Act of 1992 can only activists, sparking international their role in old racial apartheid be invoked against individuals, outrage. system in South Africa. not organizations or corporations. In 2009, Shell paid $15.5 million Those companies, other than The sons and widow of Azzam to settle a separate lawsuit filed in C h i q u i t a , a r e a m o n g 1 5 Rahim have filed a civil lawsuit New York under the Alien Tort multinational businesses that are against the Palestinian Authority Statute and alleging that the oil supporting Shell in the Supreme and the Palestine Liberation g i a n t w a s c o m p l i c i t i n t h e Court. Organization. The Palestinianexecutions of Saro-Wiwa and the In 2004, the high court warily born Rahim was a naturalized others. The company did not endorsed some use of the Alien U.S. citizen who was beaten and admit it did anything wrong. Tort Statute, saying the door "is died in the custody of Palestinian Shell's Nigerian subsidiary ended still ajar subject to vigilant door its operations in the Ogoni region keeping." CORPORATIONS page 18 in 1993, although a pipeline still Another lurking issue has the
News Wire/
15
Romney defends wealth, Santorum touts conservatism

(Reuters: Top News)
comment, in a Rust Belt state where unemployment is high. "We have a car that we have in Rick Santorum waves before the California. And we got a car that s t a r t o f t h e R e p u b l i c a n we have back in Boston, where presidential candidates debate in our other home is. That's just the Mesa, Arizona, February 22, way it is," the former private 2012. equity executive said. Credit: Reuters/Laura Segall "If people think there's something By Steve Holland and Sam wrong with being successful in Youngman America, then they better vote for TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan| the other guy. Because I've been Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:57pm EST extraordinarily successful, and I (Reuters) - In a tight race to win want to use that success and that the Michigan primary, Republican know-how to help the American p r e s i d e n t i a l c a n d i d a t e M i t t people." Romney strongly defended his Romney tried to draw a wealth on Sunday and challenged connection with blue-collar voters to support someone else if America by showing up at the they did not like his success. Daytona 500 car race in Florida. Questions about Romney's high "This is kind of a fun thing for me earnings and taxes have dogged to do," Romney told Sirius XM's him throughout the primary NASCAR radio. elections and came up again in the Just as Romney strolled out onto run-up to Tuesday's vote in t h e t r a c k f o r p h o t o s a n d Michigan, where main rival Rick handshakes, the number 26 car, Santorum has presented himself emblazoned with 'Santorum 2012' as a blue-collar Republican. moved slowly past him into the Worth an estimated $250 million, pit lane. Romney has been accused of Romney grew up in Michigan but being out of touch with most faces a tough fight after opposing Americans' economic struggles President Barack Obama's bailout and did himself no favors in of the U.S. auto industry. Michigan on Friday when he said In Traverse City, Santorum his wife drives "a couple of blasted Romney as he tries to halt Cadillacs." a slide in Michigan polls and "I'm not perfect. I just am who I score an upset in the state. He am," Romney said on "Fox News raised questions about Romney's Sunday," when asked about the opposition to auto bailouts while
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:57:08 PM
supporting bank bailouts during the 2008-09 financial crisis. "Then why were you for not letting the market work on Wall Street? Why is Wall Street different? Either you believe in markets or you don't. Well I do," Santorum said at an unusual venue for the straight-laced candidate: Streeters nightclub. An average of polling data by RealClearPolitics showed Romney with just a 2-point lead over Santorum in Michigan, where Romney's father was governor in the 1960s. Richard Marr of Traverse City said he was still deciding whom he'd support. He did not like Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts, especially his healthcare law, but said Santorum's stress on social issues "would be a distraction." "He (Romney) has a great business record, but when he was governor, he was ... not conservative at all," Marr said. "I'm looking at Santorum as an alternative to that predicament." Romney is projected to beat Santorum handily in Arizona, which also holds a primary on Tuesday. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer endorsed Romney. Santorum and Romney are near even in national polls, but surveys also show a majority of Republicans give Romney a better
chance of defeating Obama in the general election on November 6 than the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, best known for his strong socially conservative positions like opposing gay marriage. SANTORUM ATTACKS KENNEDY Santorum kept up his tough social conservative message, with attacks on Obama and former President John F. Kennedy. Santorum called Obama a "snob" on Friday for wanting to send Americans to college - where he said they would be indoctrinated by liberal professors. Santorum also said Obama's goal "devalues the tremendous work" of those who do not attend universities. "We have some real problems at our college campuses with political correctness, with an ideology that is forced upon people who, you know, who may not agree with the politically correct left doctrine," Santorum said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "And one of the things that I've spoken out on - and will continue to speak out - is to make sure that conservative and more mainstream, common-sense conservative principles that have made this country great are reflected in our college courses and with college professors. And
at many, many, and I would argue most institutions in this country, that simply isn't the case." Santorum, who hopes to become the second Roman Catholic U.S. president, also said a 1960 speech on religion by Kennedy, the first, had made him want to throw up. Kennedy said religion and politics should be kept separate, which Santorum called an "absolutist doctrine" that he rejected. "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," he said on ABC. "To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up," Santorum said. The two other Republican candidates, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, who trail Santorum and Romney in polls, were campaigning in Georgia and Michigan. (Additional reporting by Simon Evans in Daytona Beach, Tom Ferraro, Will Dunham and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell and Christopher Wilson) 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 ROMNEY page 18
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News Wire/
Afghan NATO base attacked, seven U.S. soldiers wounded

(Reuters: Top News)
we are done here. We have got to redouble our efforts. We've got to create a situation that al Qaeda is By Fraidoon Elhaam and Hamid not coming back," he said. Shalizi Under an international KUNDUZ/KABUL, Afghanistan| agreement, foreign combat forces Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:46pm EST are due to leave Afghanistan by (Reuters) - Seven U.S. military the end of 2014. trainers were wounded on Sunday The groundswell of anger over when a grenade was thrown at the burning of the Koran, which t h e i r b a s e i n n o r t h e r n Muslims revere as the literal word A f g h a n i s t a n , p o l i c e s a i d , of God, has highlighted the underscoring the depth of anti- challenges ahead as Western Western fury over the inadvertent forces try to quell violence and burning of copies of the Koran at b r i n g a b o u t s o m e f o r m o f a NATO base. reconciliation with the Taliban. Despite an apology from That anger has been President Barack Obama, riots demonstrated by attacks against raged across the country for a NATO forces in recent days. sixth day against the desecration One civilian was killed and 18 of the Muslim holy book last w o u n d e d , i n c l u d i n g t h r e e week at the biggest NATO base in policemen, in riots near the Afghanistan. Some protesters NATO base in northern Kunduz hoisted the white Taliban flag. province, where the blast that With few signs of the crisis wounded the Americans took abating, the U.S. ambassador to place, regional police chief Afghanistan said the United States Samihullah Qatra told reporters. should resist the urge to pull NATO confirmed there had been troops out of Afghanistan ahead an explosion outside one of its of schedule. bases in northern Afghanistan, but "Tensions are running very high d e c l i n e d t o c o m m e n t o n here. I think we need to let things c a s u a l t i e s . calm down, return to a more The protests have killed 30 normal atmosphere, and then get p e o p l e a n d w o u n d e d 2 0 0 , on with business," Ambassador including two U.S. troops who Ryan Crocker told CNN's "State were shot dead by an Afghan of the Union" in an interview soldier who joined rallies in the from Kabul. country's east. "This is not the time to decide that In an interview from Rabat, U.S.
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:46:26 PM
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the violence "is out of hand and it needs to stop." FATAL SHOOTING Also on Sunday, the Afghan Interior Ministry identified one of its employees as a suspect in the fatal shooting of two U.S. officers in its headquarters a day earlier, an attack that prompted NATO to recall its staff from ministries. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for the burning of the Korans. The Islamist group often exaggerates claims involving attacks against Western forces in Afghanistan. Afghan security sources identified Abdul Saboor, a 25year-old police intelligence officer, as a suspect in the shooting of the Americans at close range inside the interior ministry. In a statement to media, the ministry said: "An employee has been identified as a suspect and he has now fled. The Interior Ministry is trying to arrest the suspected individual." The attack inside the heavilyguarded interior ministry illustrates the dilemma faced by NATO forces as they move away from a combat role to an adviseand-assist mission, which will require them to place more staff in Kabul's ministries.
CCTV footage showed that Saboor had access to the Command and Control Centre, tucked deep inside the ministry, where the slain Americans were found, security officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeated his plea for calm and restraint. "It is time to regain and preserve our calm, and not allow our enemies to misuse it," he told reporters, referring to the nationwide violence. In Washington, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the Afghan defence and interior ministers were postponing scheduled trips to the United States this week to consult with other Afghan leaders about how to protect allied forces and quell the violence. The United States is by far the largest contributor to the NATOled force in Afghanistan, which is gradually ceding security responsibility to Afghans. Under an agreement reached at an international conference in Lisbon in December 2010, the NATO force is to wind down its combat operations by the end of 2014, although there are signs that process may be hastened. Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested the United States could end its
combat role as early as next year, remarks that surprised allies in Europe and Kabul. With the 2014 timetable unfolding, pressure is growing for an earlier pullout, especially among Washington's allies in Europe, where the bloody and expensive war is deeply unpopular. Similar incidents of desecration of the Koran in the past have also sparked violence, although not as widespread and persistent as the riots and protests over the past week. Last April, seven foreign U.N. staff were killed when protesters over-ran a base in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after a pastor from a fringe church in the United States deliberately burnt a copy of the Koran. (Additional reporting by Jackie Frank in WASHINGTON; and Amie Ferris-Rotman in KABUL; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Ed Lane) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
News Wire/
17
Romney, Santorum Defend Tax Plans

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:00:06 PM
Mitt Romney defended his economic policy on Sunday from criticisms on both the right and left, saying he is not using the language of class warfare in defending the progressive tax code and he is not destroying the poor's safety net by cutting federal programs driving up the deficit. Romney's plan, introduced in detail during a speech in Detroit last week, would cut individual marginal tax rates by 20 percent 'across the board,' eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends for families making less than $200,000, cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent and slowly raise eligibility requirements on wealthier Americans to receive Medicare and Social Security. Though praised by "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board, Romney's opponent Rick Santorum said the Massachusetts governor's approach is the same class warfare supported by President Obama. Santorum accused Romney of using the language of Occupy Wall Street to make life more difficult and to change the rules on the top income earners. "Whatever choice of language I have to use, I want to make sure to get across to the American people, I'm cutting rates across the board by 20 percent," the Republican presidential candidate
told "Fox News Sunday." But Romney, who acknowledged that the plan does eliminate deductions and and exemptions for high-income earners, said he is not trying to pit one group against another or give a better deal to certain taxpayers over others. "I want to get these rates down so we get American workers back into jobs again," he said, adding that he wants to maintain the progressivity of the tax code
while lowering the marginal rate across the board. "What I'm trying to do is to make sure that under no circumstances is the middle class going to end up with a larger share of the tax burden," he said. Santorum too has had to fight off charges that he is picking winners and losers in his economic plan, which calls for eliminating taxes on manufacturers that return to the U.S. from abroad and cutting
the corporate tax for all other industries in half. Santorum denied that's he's stacking the deck in favor of one industry. "What we have to realize is that manufacturers have to compete not against just other manufacturers in this country, they have to compete internationally, directly internationally for the jobs to stay in America. And so the problem is
the government -- and our tax and regulatory policy -- the government's policy is making manufacturers in this country uncompetitive, and as a result, manufacturing jobs are moving offshore," Santorum told NBC's "Meet the Press." "So if the government is causing the problem, then government has a responsibility to fix the problem. ROMNEY, page 19
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OPPOSITION
ROMNEY
his ouster. In the capital Damascus, a regime stronghold where many in the business class and religious minorities support Assad, the Information Ministry took foreign reporters to visit polling stations. Many said they were eager to vote, though the proximity of government minders who accompanied journalists could have prevented them from speaking freely. "This is a good constitution. It calls for party pluralism and the president can only hold the post for two terms. These did not exist in the past," said civil servant Mohammed Diab, 40, who waited with four others to vote in the posh Abu Rummaneh neighborhood. Jaafar Naami, 28, who works for a private insurance company, said: "I am here to say yes for the new constitution. This is not the time to say no. People should unite." Fewer voters turned out in the areas of Rukneddine and Barzeh, where anti-government protesters have recently demonstrated. In Barzeh, about 20 percent of
shops were closed, apparently in compliance with the calls for a strike. Turnout was very low at a polling station in the area, with individuals trickling in to vote every few minutes. One man said he had come to vote at a center away from the district's center, where he said there was "pressure not to vote ... intimidation and calls for public disobedience." He did not give his name for fear of reprisal. In Rukneddine, turnout in the morning was low, but picked up in the afternoon. Still, people cast ballots as they arrived with no need to stand in line. A Syrian-American voter who only gave her first name, Diana, said after voting yes: "My friends attacked me for voting. They said, 'Don't you see people are dying?' But for me, voting is my right. The president is on the right track. When someone hits you, you have to hit back." She added: "Syria is under attack." Another woman refused to talk to the AP because it is an American agency. She attacked Obama over his call Friday for Assad's regime to "move on."
"Tell Obama I hope he dies, like he is killing Syrian people," she said. One woman emerged from the station and said she voted "no" without elaborating, and walked away quickly. Posters around the capital Damascus urged people to cast ballots. "Don't turn your back on voting," one said. Another showing the red, black and white Syrian flag touted the new constitution. "Syria's constitution: Freedom of belief," it said, referring to clauses protecting religious minorities. Turnout is expected to be minimal in opposition strongholds such as Homs, the northwestern province Idlib and the southern region of Daraa where armed rebels frequently clash with security forces. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hicham Hassan, said the group's local chapter had not been able to reach the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr since Friday, when it evacuated 27 people. "Needs are very urgent," he said.
"It is absolutely crucial that we are able to enter in order to evacuate people and to bring in vital assistance." The repercussions of the Syrian conflict are rapidly spilling over borders. More than 80,000 Syrian refugees have sought refuge in neighboring Jordan, officials there have said. Turkey and Lebanon also are harboring many Syrian refugees. In this Feb. 24, 2012 citizen journalism image provided by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and accessed on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012, antiSyrian regime demonstrators carry a large Syrian revolution flag during a demonstration, in Damascus, Syria. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Scott leads Miami past No. 15 Florida State 7862

(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:54:13 PM
Durand Scott scored 17 points and Miami beat No. 15 Florida State 78-62 on Sunday night, snapping a six-game losing streak to the rival Seminoles with a victory that enhances its NCAA tournament resume.
CORPORATIONS
intelligence officers in Jericho in 1995. Three officers were jailed for their role in the case, according to a State Department report. But when Rahim's relatives sought money damages for his death, the federal appeals court in Washington said they could not
use the 1992 law to go after the Palestinian organizations. The law may be applied only to "natural persons," the appeals court said. Some supporters of the lawsuits have drawn a link to the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which said corporations have the same rights
as people to speak and spend freely to influence elections. But if the court sides with businesses in these cases, it would be saying "corporations are not persons for the purpose of enforcing human rights violations. It's really a weird paradox," said Peter Weiss, vice president of the
Center for Constitutional Rights and the first lawyer to win an appeals court ruling backing the use of the Alien Tort Statute to sue over human rights violations. 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
World News/
19
ROMNEY,
... It's about creating a level playing field. I am for equality of opportunity," he said, adding that his ideas are far more dramatic than the "warmed over" and "timid" plans of an "institutional insider being designed by a whole bunch of Washington lobbyists who are basically running his campaign." Aside from Santorum, Romney's plan has also been criticized on the left for being revenue neutral, in other words, not doing enough to close the deficit through the tax code. Instead, Romney's plan calls for eliminating a lot of federal programs, including poverty programs, and sending them to the states to manage. His plan calls for $500 billion in spending cuts in 2016. Romney said his tax plan is similar to President Obama's own bipartisan commission, which was ultimately rejected by the president, and added that he believes in smaller government.
"This is a classic pitting of two very different philosophies," he said. "If this is an argument about President Obama saying hey, look, don't cut back on federal, keep on growing this deficit, I think that's a battle I'm going to win because I am planning on cutting the deficit down to zero. I'm planning to get the balanced budget and at the same time getting this economy going again." Both men talked policy just two days before Republican primary voters in Michigan and Arizona go to the polls. Romney has seen his poll numbers go up in the state even as his favorability rating drops. "If people think that there is something wrong with being successful in America, then they better vote for the other guy because I've been extraordinarily successful and I want to use that success and that know-how to help the American people," he
said. On the other hand, Santorum has seen his poll numbers go down since a critical debate last week in Arizona. He chalked it up to negative campaigning by Romney and his surrogates in Michigan. "We've been under assault now for about three weeks, of course, you know that's going to drive up -- drive up our negatives a little bit," he said. The two are statistically tied in polling in Michigan with Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul far behind in the field of GOP candidates. 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.
UP writes to Centre, seeks CBI probe Indian Express

Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:31:06 PM
India Today UP writes to Centre, seeks CBI probe Indian Express Days before Lakhimpur Kheri goes to the polls, the Mayawati government on Sunday recommended a CBI probe into the death of Health department junior clerk Mahendra Sharma whose decomposed body was
found in his flat at the Pasgawan community health... UP recommends CBI probe into accountant death Hindustan Times UP clears CBI probe into health dept clerk's death Times of India Health dept clerk's murder: CBI probe recommended Daily Pioneer All India Radio- Parda PhashThe Asian Age all 23 news articles
Stephen Glover: A new dawn for Rupert Murdoch. But did The Sun shine on Sunday? - The Independent
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:14:02 PM
Cleanup begins in Gympie - ABC Online

Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:04:21 PM
The West Australian Cleanup begins in Gympie ABC Online By Ross Kay The Mary river peak of 15.44 meters has come
and gone in Gympie, and the cleanup is well underway. Gympie Regional Council Mayor Ron Dyne said businesses that were affected by water are open for business, and in the process of tidying up. Sunshine Coast residents
mopping up Sky News Australia Bruce Highway reopens at Gympie but cut further north Brisbane Times Wet weather cuts Bruce Highway Mackay Daily Mercury Sydney Morning Herald all 122 news articles
Sydney Morning Herald Stephen Glover: A new dawn for Rupert Murdoch. But did The Sun shine on Sunday? The Independent As anyone who reads my blog will be well aware, I'm primarily into music that is DJ-based. From the ... Ezra Miller is the 19-yearold star of We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay's
film adaptation o... Yesterday saw a backlash against high street... Murdoch: Sun on Sunday sells 3m The Press Association Rupert Murdoch oversees first edition of Sun on Sunday BBC News Sun on Sunday wins advertisers' confidence Financial Times Reuters UK- The GuardianTelegraph.co.uk all 1,256 news articles
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World News/ Technology/
Parties fume as Kejriwal repeats: Childcare bills that are more Murderers, corrupt, those who than a mortgage: Parents paying watch porn can ... - Indian Express up to 2000 a ... - Daily Mail
However, Kejriwal stood his ground, saying he hadn't... 'Rapists' Arvind rails, rivals Daily Mail lunge Calcutta Telegraph Parties fume as Kejriwal repeats: Ramdev backs Kejriwal over Murderers, corrupt, those who c o m m e n t s a g a i n s t M P s watch porn can... IBNLive.com Indian Express Parties slam Kejriwal on remark Team Anna today found itself in against MPs Hindustan Times the midst of another controversy Times of India- Economic Times as political parties reacted angrily - Rediff to Arvind Kejriwal's statement all 77 news articles that robbers, murderers and rapists have entered Parliament.
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:31:41 PM
childcare costs have risen faster than inflation for the tenth successive year,... Daily Mail Childcare Costs Hit By InflationChildcare bills that are more than Busting Rise Sky News a mortgage: Parents paying up to Childcare costs rise by nearly 6% 2000 a... The Guardian Daily Mail Scottish childcare among the By Laura Clark, Education UK's costliest Scotsman Correspondent Childcare bills are Mirror.co.uk- The Press outstripping mortgage payments A s s o c i a t i o n - B B C N e w s for growing numbers of families, all 71 news articles a survey has revealed. It found
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:34:18 PM
TC@MWC: Hands-On Four injured following tram-stop With The Sony Xperia U crash - ABC Online
Jay Donovan (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:29:40 PM
stop at the corner of Bell Street and Gilbert Road. Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:02:58 PM car careers into tram, pedestrians Four injured following tram-stop The Age crash Four injured as car ploughs into ABC Online tram in Preston Herald Sun Four people have been injured Four hurt in Preston tram, car while waiting for a tram at collision Leader News Preston in Melbourne's north. SmartPlanet.com (blog) Police say three school girls were all 9 news articles among the group who were hit by a car when it veered into a tram
Besides a fear of imminent conjunctivitis from handling the same phone as hundreds of others at the Sony Xperia Press Event at the GSMA Mobile World Congresswhat else comes to mind? This phone a model marketed mostly toward a younger segment is, to me, reminiscent in some minuscule way of the old Sony W series phones I loved so much
(way back in the day). I think its the thickness that reminds me of its Cro-Magnon predecessor. It is a tad thicker than than its bigger brothers, the Xperia S and P, however it still feels like part of the same family of phones, due to the nice feel of the custom Android shell it runs. Its thicker yes but not too thick. It felt solid and not toy-like which unfortunately is the case with so many Android phones these days. One feature that I am not so sure I find necessary, is the
colorful and removable bottom plates. They are there for self expression. Clearly, I am not the target segment for this phone, as I find that unnecessary. But for a 16 -year-old kid, this could make total sense. Its ironic that the model they gave me to handle had a pink bottom plate to go along with the pink eye theme running through my head. Regardless, it felt good in my hands for the brief period of time I was able to handle it.
Technology/
21
HTC Mobile for Mac 4.1.3: A close look Wirecast Pro World Congress wrap-up at a powerful webcasting tool
Michael Crider (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:16:35 PM
handsets. With a Super LCD and a 9.24mm profile, its definitely a step below the One X and One S, LG and Samsung have been but that solid construction is hard Steven Sande (TUAW - The to beto like in They case. The dropping pre- Mobile World not excellent. any provide an Unofficial Apple all of last week, online tutorial for learning the Congress hints Weblog) processor is downgraded to 1Ghz basics of Wirecast,of RAM forum but it at 2/26/2012 hard to argue Submitted would be 2:00:00 PM with just 512MB there's a and a that featuresof storage, with a against the fact that HTC has paltry 4GB good input from Over the past few weeks, I've Wirecast support personnel, and owned the opening night of smaller 5MP camera sensor been getting up to speed on Their most of the keeps the that I've had Mobile World Congress. using (though it questions F/2.0 lens). Telestream's HTC One line isnt have been answered by the three-pronged Wirecast Pro for Unlike the other two One models, Maca to broadcast phones, its a materials in NFCFAQ sectionbut just new series of the weekly the V lacks the capability, of TUAW TV Live show. In this dividing line for the the company, access and the ability to shoot full theres no MicroSD card slot. The amazing for HTCs usually the website. When I first started makes up for it with an empty review, I'll describe some of the signifying the beginning of a -resolution stills and HD video at rear camera is a full 8 megapixels, chunky designers. Processor is a using Wirecast, I was having MicroSD card slot. features of the latest version difficulty using a Logitech C910 more centralized strategy and the same time. Theres no pricing or availability and combines with an F/2.0 lens dual-core 1.5Ghz model, likely HD webcam as an input -- it (4.1.3) of Wirecast Pro, andfrom how (hopefully) a clean break info for the HTC One V, though and BSI sensor, should take some the same Qualcomm S4 that the would work, but the video was it will be disappointing second HTC One X their rather streamlining the The flagship model, made with great stills. US One X is getting, and its its likely Ito ship unlocked in production Theyre hitting the distorted. had the same issue half of 2011. of the show. the intention of winning the hearts The HTC One X is coming to paired to 1GB of RAM. 32GB of Europe very soon. Boinx TV. For middle and low end watch high,those of you who don't of the of gadget hounds everywhere. America but not in the same storage and a lack of MicroSD using that camerahave it: HTCs And there you with the show either live or with three in recorded The latest version of Wirecast smartphone market hero phone strategy for the first form, let's start with a description Like LG, HTCs built their form that we saw today. AT&T card is present again, with a ( 4 . 1 .of) 2012, oande very likely extremely targeted models, all h i g h e s t - e n d d e v i c e a r o u n d will add LTE capability but swap slightly smaller 1620mAh battery half 3 r e s p n d d t o u s e r of how itthe samebe done. DNA. complaints aboutthe fall as well. sharing used to design In the Nvidias Tegra 3 processor in its t h e N v i d i a T e g r a 3 f o r a also non-removable. extending into not being able to past, I launched LineIn(sound), Naturally, SlashGear was there to new 5-Plus-1 configuration, with Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, a T-Mobile is getting the HTC One use this popular (and fairly One While variants of the three low Soundflower(sound), cost) webcam, and the Logitech cover it all. s first in the United States, and as models will probably be made for B o ithree T V ( v featureo the, the extra core designed to run 1.5ghz dual-core processor. ) C910 HD now works flawlessly All n x phones i d e far as we know, its the same various markets (beginning with CamTwist(video), Adobe Flash when the phone is idling or at a HTC One S unibody all-in-one aluminum low load. Thats hardly the only The One S is the workhorse of H S P A + m o d e l w e s a w i n withOne X in the US) these are the the app. Live Media Encoder(video), and a One to be the bread and those design introduced with the HTC thing to be excited about, though: HTCs new royal family, taking Barcelona today. Theres no word likelyother cool feature, forbutter numberdof aother o b i l ethat were Legen t M apps W o r l d the 4.7-inch 720p screen is as big roughly the same market position on when it will arrive or for how of us who want acompany use for the Taiwanese way to for used g r ecapture1video n d s oother multiple cameras What Wirecast, C o n to s s 2 0 0 , a from r e l y as anything this side of the Galaxy as the Sensation last year. Itll much. the near future. with say you, devices. from a large built-in is the ability to see exactly what missing I used the part of Note, and though its an LCD keep the same anodized aluminum HTC One V readers? Are you convinced that FaceTime camera on then. Thats my iMac for bus your USB cameras are HTCs lineup since HTCs designs have turned over a face the only thing they P2V low panel, HTC assures us that the theme, but shrink the screen down The One V is the budget model attached to. Using this tool,of was not shots and an IPEVO have in Super LCD tech is just as good. to 4.3 inches, which seems to of the One line, though frankly, it new leaf, or is it a case I too -resolution cam forphones of iPad common: the three shots will be That unibody design has a few have become the median for could hold its own against almost able totoo late? little, see a conflict between two and first to come to When I have the iPhone screens. market with drawbacks, though: a generous Android these days. On the plus any of the high-end Android cameras that was causing issues; I HTC Mobile World Congress guests, Sense UI 4.0 running over HTCs they'd join me via a Skype 1 8 0 0 m A h b a t t e r y c a n t b e side, you get a true AMOLED phones in the earlier part of 2011. moved the second camera to a wrap-up is written by Michael video call and were brought into Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, removed, and the phone requires a screen, though the resolution is A 3.7-inch screen running at different USB port that appeared Crider& originally posted on the video mixwill be using Beats and all three through CamTwist. pin, iPhone-style, to access the just 960540. The One S is the 800480 makes for a much tighter to change the bus the camera was SlashGear. Once the showadvantage of was audio, taking went live, it the sliding SIM card tray. 32GB of slinkiest of HTCs new phones, package, though it still uses the on,2005it- resolved the problem. and 2012, SlashGear. All streamed through Ustream.tv What's missing partnership between the two storage should be enough for with a body that tapers to just same unibody construction. HTC right reserved. from Wirecast? using Live And all Encoder and companies. Media three have a almost everyone, but those who 7.9mm at its thinnest point not a is also reviving the chin I ' d l o v e t o s e e a w a y t o recorded locally to disk foron the focus (ba-dum tish) upload need more are out of luck, since record breaker, but downright element seen on its early Android automatically assign Skype video to our CDN (Castfire) and to calls as video sources, a title camera, with a F/2.0 lens, fast YouTube. The YouTube upload "designer" feature would be gives the show a wider lovely for creating custom title distribution, while Castfire is used integrated scoreboards for people appear on screen regardless of Flash stream to Ustream. To start overlays, and as far as I'm to feed the podcast of the show. who are livestreaming sports what else is currently showing -- up TUAW TV Live, I used to concerned there can never be too
22
Technology/
[Review] God's Jury: The Inquisition, IT & Privacy

Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 2:06:00 PM
constantly, they needed records from the past that they could access quickly. Had some If you were hunting for a book d e f e n d a n t c o m e b e f o r e t h e most ReadWriteWeb readers Inquisition previously - even 10 would, based on the title, find or 20 years earlier? Had any irrelevant to their pursuits, you immediate family members been could do worse than " God's Jury: identified as heretics - or anyone The Inquisition and the Making of in the extended family? ... the Modern World" by Cullen Information on all these matters Murphy. But, as Murphy adeptly was essential, and the inquisitors shows, both information designed record-keeping technology and the institutional procedures to meet their needs. corruption of privacy would not They created, in effect, the have assumed their current forms equivalent in parchment of search without the Inquisition. engines.""The mere idea that The first thing Murphy does is to information can be centralized disabuse us of the notion of "the" and made widely available, the Inquisition; there were in fact practice of modifying or creating three, the medieval (late 12th, technology to do so, as well as early 13th centuries), the Spanish some of the enduring methods for (beginning in the 15th ) and the sharing data, come to us directly Roman (16th-17th centuries). But from an organization that is best despite the fact that this part of known for burning people alive." E u r o p e a n h i s t o r y i s l e s s - Cullen Murphy In organizing monolithic than common wisdom information, members of the usually portrays it, the Inquisition Inquisition, it could be argued, was a turning-point in information created information technology. c e n t r a l i z a t i o n , a n d t h a t Aspects of organization we still information was centralized with use - even on this page - began new technologies. then, including taxonomy and Sponsor tagging. (Among other methods, The Medieval Sysadmin each record had a boxed synopsis Inquisitors were the first group of in the margin that allowed transnational actors to need a officials to identify relevant great deal of information at their documents at a glance.) f i n g e r t i p s . A s M u r p h y The Inquisition was accompanied s a y s : " C o n d u c t i n g c o u n t l e s s by an information explosion, i n t e r r o g a t i o n s a n d w o r k i n g analogous to the 20th century's, if
the typical peasant might spend an entire lifetime with a tight radius around his birthplace - the radical character of these aggressively itinerant agents, wielding transcendent power, proved highly advantageous.""He wanted detail: names, dates, numbers, locations, relationships. To exert control you must nail people down: identify them, count them, deep track of them put them in context." - Cullen Murphy One of more prolonged. To give one the example he outlines is that of example, Pope Innocent III (who the French village of Montaillou, died in the early 13th century) a d j a c e n t t o t h e P y r e n e e s sent out 300 official Church mountains. The village was the letters in a given year. Less than a last, alleged holdout of the century later, Boniface VIII sent heretical Cathars and the target of out 50,000. the Inquisition's Jacques Fornier, The mere idea that information the bishop of Pamiers, and later can be centralized and made Pope. The perpetual motion widely available, the practice of m a c h i n e o f F o u r n i e r ' s modifying or creating technology investigation sounds like a to do so, as well as some of the description of the Web itself, an enduring methods for sharing infinitely-detailed, constantlydata, come to us directly from an forking sump of detail, some organization that is best known sordid, much personal. for burning people alive. The "Over a period of years (Fournier) Dominican Web probed into the smallest The religious order most closely intimacies of (the villagers') associated with the Inquisition personal lives - not only their was the Dominican. It arose at the beliefs but also their tastes and same time as the Franciscan order. habits, whom they liked and What it provided to the Church disliked, their sexual practices, the was the interface to the data, the village gossip. He wanted detail: Web to the Inquisition's Internet. names, dates, numbers, locations, The change the order represented relationships. To exert control you is hard to overestimate, Murphy must nail people down: identify wrote."In a largely static society -
them, count them, deep track of them put them in context." This extreme, but by not terribly unusual, example of the Inquisitions' activities, and of the informational artifacts it produced, prefigured the shape and consequences of online social network. Like the captured information and activity of a group of Facebook users, say, this data means everything and nothing but can be used for social control. Imagine the village as a village in China, for instance, full of Falun Gong practitioners. Imagine the Inquisition as the Communist Party and an electronic enforcement chief standing in for Fournier. It doesn't take much effort to do so. The Inquisition, Murphy maintains, provided a model for the gathering and exploitation of information in the service of social control under a small group, a model that persists to this day. The Sanctity of Private Conscience The aggregation of information seems to result, almost as a function of its constitution, in an institutional offense at the existence of privacy. Privacy, after all, is a block to complete aggregation and bureaucracy is like a virus: it exists to reproduce [REVIEW] page 27
Technology/
23
Can OpenGeocoder Fill the Platform Gap Left by Google Maps?

Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:32:59 PM
How do machines understand what place you're talking about when you say the name of a city, a street or a neighborhood? With geocoding technology, that's how. Every location-based service available uses a geocoder to translate the name of a place into a location on a map. But there isn't a really good, big, stable, public domain geocoder available on the market. Steve Coast, the man who lead the creation of Open Street Map, has launched a new project to create what he believes is just what the world of location-based services needs in order to grow to meet its potential. It's called OpenGeocoder and it's not like other systems that translate and normalize data. Sponsor Google Maps says you can only use its geocoder to display data on maps but sometimes developers want to use geo data for other purposes, like content filtering. Yahoo has great geocoding technology but no one trusts it will be around for long. Open Street Map (OSM) is under a particular Creative Commons license and "exists for the ideological minority," says Coast
himself in a Tweet this week. And so Coast, who now works at Microsoft, has decided to solve the problem himself. This has been tried before, see for example GeoCommons, but the OpenGeocoder approach is different. It is, as one geo hacker put it, "either madness or genius." The way OpenGeocoder works is that users can search for any place they like, by any name they like. If the site knows where that place is, it will be shown on a big Bing map. If it doesn't, then the user is encouraged to draw that place on the map themselves and save it to the global database being built by OpenGeocoder. Above: The river of my childhood, which I just added to the map. Every single different way a place can be described must be drawn on the map or added as a synonym, before OpenGeocoder will understand what that string of letters and numbers means with reference to place. Anyone can redraw a place on the map, too. Then developers of locationbased services can hit a JSON API or download a dump of all the place names and locations for use in understanding place searches in their own apps. It appears that just under 1,000 places have been added so far. It will take a serious barn-raising to
quickly. I searched for the neighborhood I live in: Cully in Portland, Oregon. There was no entry for it, so I added one. But there are no street names on the map so I got lost. I had to open a Google Map in the next tab and switch back and forth between them in order to find my neighborhood on the OpenGeocoder map. Then, the neighborhood isn't a perfect rectangle, so drawing the build out a map of the world this bounding box felt frustratingly way. It wouldn't be the first time inexact. I did it anyway, saved, something a little like this has then tried recalling my search. I been done before though. found that Cully,Portland,Oregon "If only it was that simple :(" said (without spaces) was undefined, map-loving investor Steven even though I'd just defined Cully, Feldman on Twitter. "Maybe it Portland, Oregon with spaces. I is?" pulled up the defined area, then The approach is focused largely searched for the undefined string, on simplicity. Coast said in his then hit the save button, and the blog post announcing the project: bounding box snapped back to the "OpenGeocoder starts with a default size, requiring me to blank database. Any geocodes redraw it again, on a map with no that fail are saved so that anybody street names. Later, I learned how can fix them. Dumps of the data to find the synonym adding tool to are available. solve that problem. "There is much to add. Behind the In other words, the user scenes any data changes are experience is a challenge. That's wikified but not all of that the case with Wikipedia too, and functionality is exposed. It lacks OpenGeocoder just launched, but the ability to point out which I expect it will need some strings are not geocodable (things meaningful UX tweaks before it like "a") and much more. But it's a can get a lot of traction. decent start at what a modern, I hope it does. crowd-sourced, geocoder might That's just my experience so far, look like." though. Not everyone feels that Testing the site, I grew frustrated
way. GIS geek Paul Wither calls it "addictive." There are certainly high hopes for the project, too. "I'm obsessed with the need for an open-source geocoder, and this is a fascinating take on the problem," says data hacker Pete Warden about OpenGeocoder. "By doing a simple string match, rather than trying to decompose and normalize the words, a lot of the complexity is removed. This is either madness or genius, but I'm hoping the latter. The tradeoff will be completely worthwhile if it makes it more likely that people will contribute." Coast will certainly be able to gather the attention of the geo community for the project. As we wrote when he joined the Bing team 18 months ago: Coast is a giant figure in the mapping world. In 2009, readers of leading geo publication Directions Magazine voted him the 2nd most influential person in the geospatial world, ahead of the Google Maps leadership and behind only Jack Dangermond, the dynamic founder of 41-year old $2 billion GIS company ESRI. Coast will turn 30 years old next month. The more I play with OpenGeocoder, the more it grows CAN page 26
24
Technology/
Has HTC redeemed itself?

Chris Davies (SlashGear)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:00:35 PM
HTC had a lot to prove at Mobile World Congress, and the first signs are promising. The HTC One X, One S and One V are each distinctive and thoughtful designs, with none of the embarrassed me too shuffling many of the companys 2011 phones suffered. Its a new HTC UK head of marketing James Atkins told us in a pre-MWC briefing with the new One Series handsets last week. We asked ourselves, what can we do to engage with consumers? Ironically, actually listening to what they want seems to have done the trick. According to HTCs research, the camera is the biggest single thing consumers look at when picking a phone, hence the companys current photography focus. A new, Backside-Illuminated (BSI) sensor, light-loving f2.0 lens and custom HTC Image Chip promise to deliver on the hardware side, while reworked software that puts the best functionality at the top level of the UI should bypass usability issues. Most notable, perhaps, these new abilities arent being reserved solely for the top-spec models: all three of the new One Series get them all. Weve been vocal critics of HTCs approach to ecosystems and services in the past year. The company struggled to compete on
competitive. In some ways, HTCs Quietly Brilliant approach has backfired over the past 18 months. The company hasnt shouted about its software contributions to Windows Phone, for instance, or indeed other services enjoyed by users of multiple platforms. HTC helped OnLive reduce response lag in touchscreen controls, Wheeler pointed out, with the two companies collaborative work on the Flyer. Youd never know about it, though, as unlike the companys rivals, HTC hasnt been talking about much beyond their hardware launches in 2011. Perhaps thats down to wariness over leaks, something HTC obviously still needs to address by the evidence of the past month or too. Most importantly, HTC isnt hanging around when it comes to getting products out the door, and nor has it carried out its usual sin of neglecting the North American hardware alone against rivals like journey. Sense 4.0 is the first step, wedded to Android, despite all of market with its headline-grabbing Samsung and Apple, but failed to H T C director o f its Mobile World Congress and European flagships. The HTC successfully leverage or even c o m m e r c i a l i s a t i o n p r o d u c t indeed any recent devices all One X, One S and One V are all remind most customers of the management Graham Wheeler, a r u n n i n g G o o g l e s O S . T h e expected to hit European shelves existence of services and apps c o n s c i o u s e f f o r t t o r e d u c e introduction of a Tegra 3 based within sixty days of todays like HTC Watch, OnLive and needless visual gloss and corral device after a few years of unveil, and AT&T and T-Mobile HTCSense.com. Meanwhile the together services both first- and Qualcomm loyalty is, Wheeler USA have already confirmed Sense UI became bloated and third-party: the Music Hub, for says, an example of how HTC theyll be offering their own over-animated, concentrating too instance, brings local music, radio isnt wedded to any single versions of the One X and One S. much on looking different rather and streaming services like platform or hardware provider. Its early days for HTC; we need than delivering actual improved Spotify under a single roof, rather We can expect Windows Phone to spend more time with the three usability. than demanding the user hop One Series handsets, for instance, new phones to know whether HTC is moving away from that, between apps."HTC isnt entirely as well as HTC picking and theyre truly competitive against though the company is clearly is wedded to Android" choosing from a broader range of HAS page 25 still at the beginning of that Nonetheless, HTC isnt entirely hardware so as to keep its phones
Technology/
25
WikiLeaks plans to release e-mails from security think tank

Steven Musil (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:35:28 PM
Embattled document-sharing sites says the trove of documents "reveal the inner workings" of Strategic Forecasting, which suffered a hack late last year. WikiLeaks announced today it would begin publishing more than 5 million confidential e-mails on Monday obtained from an influential security think tank. The e-mails, which date from July 2004 to December 2011, "reveal the inner workings" of Strategic Forecasting (Strafor), an Austin, Texas-based that provides security analysis to the U.S. Army, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the embattled document-sharing site said in a statement. "The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques, and psychological methods," the organization said. The trove also purportedly contains more than 4,000 e-mails mentioning WikiLeaks or its
founder, Julian Assange. "Here we have a private intelligence firm, relying on informants from the US government, foreign intelligence agencies with questionable reputations, and journalists," Assange told Reuters. "What is of grave concern is that the targets of this scrutiny are, among others, activist organizations fighting for a just cause." The source of the e-mails was not revealed, but Stratfor disclosed in December that its Web site had been hacked and information about its corporate subscribers was compromised. AntiSec, an Anonymous-affiliated hacktivist group, quickly claimed responsibility and promised "mayhem" with plans to release even more documents. Strafor founder George Friedman said in January that the attack was "clearly designed to silence us by destroying our records and the Web site" but that no classified data was obtained during the hack. Related stories WikiLeaks buying boat to move
world, as you might expect." WikiLeaks and Assange incurred the wrath of the U.S. government in 2010 by posting online a vast repository of classified and sensitive documents from military and diplomatic sources. A U.S. soldier, Bradley Manning, has been charged with supplying a large portion of that haul to servers offshore? WikiLeaks' Julian Assange to Assange and WikiLeaks. If Manning is eventually found host own TV show Second judge gives DOJ access guilty, he could face life in prison. to WikiLeaks-related Twitter Separately, Assange, who has been living in the U.K. under bail, accounts Court: WikiLeaks' Assange to is awaiting extradition to Sweden on charges that he sexually be extradited Want more secrets? We need assaulted two women in 2010, charges that he has vehemently cash, WikiLeaks says denied. "God knows what a hundred This entry passed through the employees writing endless emails Full-Text RSS service if this is might say that is embarrassing, your content and you're reading it s t u p i d o r s u b j e c t t o on someone else's site, please read misinterpretation," Friedman said. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content"What will not appear is classified only/faq.php#publishers. Five intelligence from corporations or Filters recommends: Donate to governments. They may find, Wikileaks. depending on what they took, that we have sources around the
Christian World Adoption

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handsets from Samsung and others. Nonetheless, HTC execs are certainly making the right noises about the direction the company needs to take to reclaim at least part of its earlier
momentum. Has HTC redeemed itself? is written by Chris Davies& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
26
Technology/
U.S. wants Kim DotCom back in jail

Greg Sandoval (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:58:39 PM
the Kiwi legal system and this much is clear: their wheels of justice grind just as slowly or News reports from New Zealand s l o w e r t h a n o u r s . T h e say authorities will appeal the MegaUpload piracy case will see decision last week to release the at least its fourth hearing in a MegaUpload founder on bail. month and we haven't even Kim DotCom, MegaUpload's finalized the issue of bail. Not founder, just prior to being only that, but some of the papers released on bail last week. Click down there are reporting the on the photo to see a video report. extradition hearing to see if M e g a U p l o a d f o u n d e r K i m DotCom will be handed over to DotCom could be headed back to U.S. officials for trial won't get jail. under way until August. Authorities in New Zealand are A spokesman for the U.S. expected to appeal last week's Attorney's Office for the Eastern decision to release DotCom on District of Virginia, which issued bail, according to TVNZ. The the indictment against DotCom U.S. government alleges that (born Kim Schmitz) and six D o t C o m w a s o p e r a t i n g others connected to MegaUpload, MegaUpload as one of the Web's c o u l d n o t b e r e a c h e d f o r biggest criminal copyright comment. operations and indicted him last DotCom's request for bail was month. He was arrested on rejected twice before last week's January 19 and since then has proceedings when a judge ruled remained in police custody. that the state hadn't sufficiently We're certainly getting a lesson in proven DotCom was a flight risk.
Now, after releasing DotCom, the New Zealand government will have another go. DotCom's lawyers have argued that all of the 38-year-old's assets have been seized and he no longer has the kind of money it would take to flee New Zealand. The
U.S. government alleges that it's possible he has money hidden and has tried to evade prosecution before. MegaUpload was used by millions across the globe to store and share pirated media. DotCom said the service was used mainly
to store legitimate content. The U.S. government, however, alleged recently that a search of the company's servers showed more than 90 percent of those signed up at MegaUpload never stored files there. That suggests most people were using the service to access someone else's locker, presumably to obtain unauthorized moves, TV shows, and music. DotCom's lawyers have said that even if he committed the acts he is accused of, contributory copyright infringement is not a crime. It is a civil matter. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Embracing Uncomfortableness - Dr. Gary Bradt Encourages Individuals to Learn From Discomfort (TrendHunter.com)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:50:03 PM
Milk Ball-Infused Cupcakes - These Malted Rocky Road Brownie Cupcakes are a Sinful Sugary Snack (TrendHunter.com)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:50:02 PM
CAN
on me. I hope Coast and others are able to put in the time it will take to make it as great as it could be. Discuss
( TrendHunter.com) Dr. Gary Bradt encourages individuals to get comfortable while being
uncomfortable. The speaker recalls his prior seminars stressing how many fail to embrace awkward situations. If put in an uncomfortable...
( TrendHunter.com) If you're seeking a chocolate pleasure overload, then look no further
than these evil Malted Rocky Road Brownie Cupcakes. These petite towers of confectionery bliss were crafted by blogger Kristan from...
Technology/
27
TC@MWC: Hands-On With The HTC One X
[REVIEW]
itself at the expense of any competitor. Murphy, however, makes the case that the invasion and destruction of privacy is a result not of information centralization Chris Velazco (TechCrunch) feeling that I havent felt since I get by with (and possibly even itself but of the certainty first laid eyes on the iPhone 4. enjoy) Sense 4.0 just fine. Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:07:52 PM powering those behind it."In a Kudos to HTCs design team for As far as performance goes, I world of moral certainty, the Ah yes, the One X. Its been this one. once again couldnt notice any shrouded by rumors and half- Of course, youd be hard-pressed slowdown while perusing through unthinkable becomes permissable. truths for so long now that its to look at a One X and not menus, playing with widgets, and The sanctity of private conscience quite a thrill to get one in my comment on the screen. I was firing up apps. The only hiccup I was no longer deemed inviolate, and techniques for ensnaring the hands. worried that the 4.7-inch display noticed was a bit of an odd stutter While I like the One Ss build would make the One X feel too when trying to open HTCs innocent in scenarious of scripted quality quite a bit, I found myself unwieldy, but I was pleasantly classic Teeter app, and Im not g u i l t b e c a m e i n c r e a s i n g l y taking a shine to the One Xs surprised how well the phone fit entirely sure what to blame it on. sophisticated and systemic... 'The i n d u s t r i a l d e s i g n a l m o s t in my hand. Maybe you could Still, the issue cleared up very medieval inquisitors had perfected immediately. Its 9.7mm waistline chalk it up to my near-constant quickly, so only the most ardent tecniquest by which the very is remarkably thin considering all use of a Galaxy Nexus, but the Teeter fans have cause to worry f a b r i c o f r e a l i t y c o u l d b e altered.'""In a world of moral that HTC managed to jam into it O n e X w a s r e m a r k a b l y for now. (Tegra 3 chipset, 1GB of RAM, c o m f o r t a b l e t o h o l d . A n d Ive long been a fan of HTC c e r t a i n t y , t h e u n t h i n k a b l e killer camera, etc.), and the use of speaking of the display, the One phones, especially when it comes b e c o m e s p e r m i s s a b l e . T h e m u l t i p l e m a t e r i a l s a d d s a Xs Super LCD 2 panel looked to their build quality. That said, sanctity of private conscience was welcome bit of sensory contrast. absolutely gorgeous. I thought the the One X brings something new no longer deemed inviolate, and The devices back is made of a One Ss display was solid, but this to the table, something HTC has techniques for ensnaring the solid polycarbonate shell that thing is really worth taking a look been sorely lacking these past few innocent in scenarious of scripted guilt became increasingly becomes glossier along the at. years: sex appeal. The One X is a devices edges, while a glass plate I wont go into the Sense 4.0 bits gorgeous phone, just as a flagship sophisticated and systemic." stretches nearly from edge to edge too much since I explored my should be. Ive havent had the Cullen Murphy Look at the nature of privacy violation today and at on the One Xs face. feelings in my One S hands-on, chance to play with the One V yet Though Im sure many more will but suffice it to say that isnt the s o I c a n t s a y a n y t h i n g i t s a g e n t s . I n v a r i a b l y , t h e enjoy the One Ss slim metallic same headache-inducing Sense conclusively, but HTC should be justification for it is service to a frame, theres just something very that some users have struggled awfully proud of the work they higher ideal and the higher beings who represent it (and in reality, alluring about the way the One X with in recent years. Rather than did with the One series. benefit from it). has been put together. Strange as swap the UI for a custom launcher Politicians in the United States it sounds, its a sort of visceral as I usually do, I feel like I could have directed their representatives to torture human beings (the ultimate in privacy violation) because "America" is more important than twee sensibility; noreply@blogger.com (Ad times by grant funds, and can ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed) mean the difference between life and death for hungry children. Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4
media companies are attempting to force the closure of websites, in a push for guilt-by-association, in the name of intellectual property rights; and in Saudi Arabia, authorities are calling for the murder of a young man because he aired his religious doubts on Twitter. The agency behind these present violations is the same "moral certitude" that Murphy describes as powering the transgressions of the Inquisition. We have the Inquisition to thank for the example we follow in connecting the True Believer to the war on privacy; this despite doubt being as integral to the progress of technology, economics and government as it is to the exaltation of faith. What "God's Jury" reminds us is that this unprecedented centralization and proliferation of information we are currently experiencing, and the liabilities that have resulted from it, do indeed have precedents. If we're attentive and critical, and full of doubt, we may prove able to mitigate its worst excesses and most egregious transgressions. " Auto da f? What's an auto da f?" "It's what you oughtn't to do but you do anyway!" Discuss
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28
Technology/ Culture/
Cartoon: We Are One with the Trunk

Rob Cottingham (ReadWriteWeb)
paper-come-from. (All of which inspired this at one point.) But I'm back on the productivity Submitted at 2/26/2012 2:31:00 PM straight-and-narrow these days. There's always the risk when you I'm using OneTask to remind me first step into the world of that what I'm doing right now isn't productivity that you lose yourself tracking down interesting that you spend far more time hashtags on Twitter; WriteRoom immersed in productivity books, to bang out text without lectures, podcasts, videos and distraction; and a few OmniGroup apps than you do actually being and 37Signals products to figure productive. That instead of out what comes next. And Getting Things Done, you'll Get efficiency of efficiencies - I 7 Habits of Highly Effective managed to marry not only the Productivity Books Read. I got into productivity kind of People. It achieved the absolute most interesting and amazing sideways. I read Susan RoAne's sweet spot for any author hoping person I know, but Earth's best How to Work a Room out of t o s e l l s e q u e l s , i n t h a t i t early warning system for lifedesperation shortly after leaving c o m p l e t e l y c h a n g e d m y altering productivity tools. (She's university; I offered to stand as a p e r s p e c t i v e o n p e r s o n a l the one who first clued me into little-to-no-hope candidate for a productivity while in no way the tool that sparked this cartoon.) political party, and I urgently altering my behaviour. Again, not What productivity gems have you needed a crash course in how to a productivity book as such... but uncovered? Or are you one of walk into a room full of strangers it teed me up to read Getting those amazing people who keeps and actually talk to some of them. Things Done. lists of tasks, priorities, I was nervous, because the title Like 7 Habits, GTD changed my dependencies and deadlines in sounded like the kind of icky outlook but also started me down some hyperdeveloped lobe of insincerity I'd hate to embrace - the road to some degree of your brain? but to my happy shock, her advice organization. Anyone who's seen If you've been productive enough was excellent. True, that wasn't a my desk since then can tell you today, spend some leisure time productivity book as such. But it that hasn't been a road without browsing through the rest of Rob's was the gateway drug that led me d e t o u r s , h a i r p i n t u r n s , cartoons at Noise to Signal. to try out the Day-Timer system. switchbacks and at least one head- Discuss on collision with the 18-wheeler Sponsor And then I read Stephen Covey's of my-god-where-did-all-this-
Talkcast reminder: Dreaming of a new iPad, 10pm ET tonight

Michael Rose (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:00:00 PM
Whether it's impending iPad refreshes, don't-be-evil cookie workarounds, or misrepresenting the Law of Large Numbers, there's one place you can go to talk about all of it: the weekly shmoozefest we all know as the TUAW Talkcast. Sore throat or no, I'll be there tonight for the full hour; hope you will, too. Tonight's special guest: iMore editor Rene Ritchie. Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cellphone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444
and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy (you know those headphones that came with your iPhone?), you can connect via the free Zoiper, X-Lite or Blink SIP clients; and basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight! Talkcast reminder: Dreaming of a new iPad, 10pm ET tonight originally appeared on TUAW The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Draw like youve never been taught [comic]

(Holy Kaw!)
Full story at Incidental Comics. Drawing comics.
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Technology/ Culture/ Sports/
29
TC@MWC: Hands-On With The HTC One S

Chris Velazco (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:01:03 PM
was nary a hiccup to be seen, thanks in large part to its 1GB of RAM and its 1.5GHz Snapdragon The HTC One X is clearly the S4 processor. While it may seem device everyone wants to see, on paper like a step down from which is why I decided to give its the quad-core savagery of the One little brother a bit of spotlight Xs Tegra 3 SoC, there was (to first. me at least) very little difference The One S is sort of a puzzle to in performance between the two. me. Though its meant to be more T h i s i s h a r d l y a s c i e n t i f i c of a mid-range device than the determination: there were no powerhouse that is the HTC One Quadrant scores or benchmarks X, the One S sports an arguably involved, but the flipping through handsomer exterior. Unlike its menus and playing with apps polycarbonate-clad counterpart, d i d n t l e a v e m e w i t h t h e the One S sports a frame made impression that the One S would from single piece of aluminum, easily be flummoxed. which imbues it with a more The Super AMOLED qHD robust, premium feel despite its screen weighs in at 4.3 inches light weight and slim (7.9mm!) diagonal, which actually made me frame. Much as I like the One X, I c h u c k l e w h e n I h e a r d i t . think theres a very real chance Remember the days when the Evo that the One S will ultimately be 4G seemed like overkill? I can be the real leader of the pack when it picky when it comes to my comes to popularity. screens, but with solid viewing It felt rather zippy too there angles and vivid colors, the One S
didnt leave me with much fodder to work with. Sense 4.0 is a strangely welcome addition to the One S, and believe me I never thought Id be saying that. Though I much prefer stock Ice Cream Sandwich, Sense 4.0 seems much more tasteful, and far less of a headache than it was in years past. That isnt to say that HTCs classic eye candy has been axed completely, but you can tell while using it that HTC took efforts to remove a lot of Senses cruft. Sense 4.0 has been tweaked with a handful of new additions like the updated camera, but one of my favorite new bits is the Music Hub, which aggregates all of a users music and music apps into one central location. All things considered its a much more mature take on Sense than Im used to seeing, and HTC is far, far better off with it.
Turkey's 1500-YearOld, $28M Bible Linked to Gospel of Barnabas?

(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)
Westwood showdown takes its toll on McIlroy

Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:32:26 PM
MARANA, Arizona (Reuters) For Rory McIlroy, his much anticipated duel with Lee
Westwood in the last four of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship on Sunday ultimately cost him the chance of making a fast start to the final. Soon after beating world number three Westwood 3&1 in a
pulsating semi-final that lived up to expectations, the Northern Irishman set off in the title match against Hunter Mahan at Dove Mountain. ...
does not include things they would like to see and it might have no relation with the content February 23, 2012| 3:05 pm of the Gospel of Barnabas." Photocopies of the holy book's The Turkish government gained pages are reportedly worth about possession of the Bible back in $1.7 million, but the relic isn't so 2000 when they caught a band of extremely valuable just because of thieves and smugglers cutting its age, but also because of its through Turkey with the bible as construction and its contents. The well as other antiques, illegal Bible is handwritten in gold excavations, and explosives. l e t t e r i n g o n l o o s e l y s t r u n g The tome has been kept at the together animal hide and written courthouse until recently, and is in Syriac. Syriac is a dialect of set to make its way, under heavy Aramaic Jesus' native language. security, to Turkey's Ankara Aramaic itself is rarely present in Ethnography Museum. But before today's society, as it is now only it settles there, the Vatican is spoken in a small village near hoping to get a chance to study Damascus. and investigate the extremely The Gospel of Barnabas is not valuable book. included in the New Testament Like us on Facebook alongside Matthew, Mark, Luke An image of the ancient and John, and in fact Barnabas manuscript can be found on opposes the New Testament and National Turk Newspaper's rather has clear similarities to the website. Muslim interpretation of Jesus. This entry passed through the Barnabas even contains a story in Full-Text RSS service if this is which Jesus predicts the coming your content and you're reading it of Prophet Muhammad. Muslims on someone else's site, please read believe this original gospel has the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentbeen suppressed. only/faq.php#publishers. Five However, theology professor Filters recommends: Donate to mer Faruk Harman told Today Wikileaks. Zaman, "Muslims may be disappointed to see that this copy
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Technology/ Featured/
LG rumored to make next Nexus device

Mark Raby (SlashGear)
went to Samsung. When it comes to Android, LG was a late entrant to the party. It As it tries to steam forward and hasnt really made its mark yet. enter its mark in the Android Samsung has the Galaxy brand, community, LG is apparently HTC has made gold with Evo and gunning to be the manufacturer other brands, and Motorola has for Googles next Nexus phone. made huge revenue with its Droid The Nexus brand is, of course, the devices. LG, though, has no one series of Android phones that d e f i n i n g p o s i t i o n i n t h i s Google is heavily involved with competitive field. It was the the kind of splash it needs to. and is always on the bleeding manufacturer of the flagship 3D Recently, though, LG has edge when it comes to support phone the Optimus 3D, and it is announced new smartphones that and software updates. Previously, trying to pimp out that Optimus will really push the limits in terms the honors of Nexus manufacturer moniker, but so far it hasnt made
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:51:30 PM
of processing power and functionality. It will be a tough sell to get the rights to the next Nexus phone, which will ensure
huge sales numbers. Of course, anything could happen and Google has said it doesnt want any specific manufacturer to feel like its the preferred Android phone maker. So well see what happens. [ via ZDNet] LG rumored to make next Nexus device is written by Mark Raby& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Pegasus statue fashioned from 3,500 phones

Tim Hornyak (CNET News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:47:03 PM
Huawei tries to make a splash at MWC with a Pegasus sculpture made of thousands of smartphones. In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse that was very handy when it came to slaying monsters. Huawei is hoping its Pegasus smartphone sculpture at Mobile World Congress 2012 will help slay some competitors. As the Chinese manufacturer pulled the wraps off what it calls the world's fastest smartphone, the Ascend D Quad, it also unveiled this striking statue outside the
MWC venue in Spain. Crafted by London's Machine Shop, this likeness of Pegasus consists of 3,500 Huawei handsets and many supporting rods. Creating the sculpture involved
CGI by visual effects firm Framestore in the vid below shows Pegasus in flight. Indeed, the sculpture's forelegs are uplifted and its wings are outstretched, as if the fantastic creature will take to the skies above Barcelona. I wonder what monsters Greek hero Bellerophon would see fit to slay in today's world. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is much cutting and soldering of your content and you're reading it iron rods (more than 650 yards), on someone else's site, please read unpacking of phones, and sticky the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentpads. It took 720 man-hours to only/faq.php#publishers. Five make Pegasus, which is nearly 19 Filters recommends: Donate to feet tall with a 16-foot wingspan. Wikileaks.
The Battle of Valmy

Submitted at 2/26/2012 11:57:00 AM
Emmanuel Navon thoughtfully considers Europe, Israel, and the Battle of Valmy:
Technology/ Economy/ Finance/
31
Best Buy offers $50 discount on iPad 2 models

Michael Rose (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 3:45:00 PM
Mexico City G20 Communiqu: full text

Telegraph Staff (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:58:09 PM
Reader Alexander Wright dropped us a line this afternoon to point out that Best Buy is now selling all variants of the iPad 2 for $50 off the usual list price. Given that the Apple-authorized big box electronics retailer usually sticks to the regular pricing, this is a bit atypical. The first reported discounting of the iPad 2 was
during last year's Black Friday sales, when Best Buy customers could get $45 off. A sale is always nice, but a sale that shows up in the fortnight
iPad 3, iPad 2S, or something else entirely), Best Buy's return period for tablet computers is 14 days from date of purchase. Best Buy offers $50 discount on iPad 2 models originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:45:00 EST. Please see our b e f o r e a r u m o r e d p r o d u c t terms for use of feeds. i n t r o d u c t i o n i s n i c e a n d Source| Permalink| Email this| suspicious. Just remember, if you Comments have your heart set on the newest and shiniest iPad (whether it be
The world's leading economic powers have said they will not stump up more cash to fight Europe's debt crisis until the eurozone members increase their own contributions. Here is the G20 communique text in full.
The Top 3 Questions That Investors Are Asking Right Now

Joe Weisenthal (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:49:00 PM
WHEN WILL THE GREEK PSI PROCESS BE CONCLUDED? On the top one, Hilliard answers: With real economy data in the US continuing to improve, more and more clients are discussing the possibility that the improvement could persist. MARKET ISSUES: The US equity market has risen in a straight line since the beginning of the year. It seems to have little
From SocGen's UK economist Brian Hilliard come the top 3 questions that big clients are asking. They are: IS THE GROWTH MOMENTUM GENUINE? WHAT IS DRIVING THE HIGHER OIL PRICE AND HOW MUCH DAMAGE COULD IT INFLICT?
doubt that the recent run of good data will solidify into a durable upturn. It is thus becoming increasingly sensitive to
disappointment. As we discuss in our Economic News 24 February the durable goods data could provide a reality check which
might hurt the markets. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story See Also: Look What Happened The Last Time Retail Investors Behaved Like This... CITI: These Two Charts Say Not To Chase The Rally Gold Jumps To A 2-Week High
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Policy/
My Drone War - By Pir Zubair Shah

PIR ZUBAIR SHAH (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:45:10 PM
American drones have changed everything for al Qaeda and its local allies in Pakistan, becoming a fact of life in a secret war that is far from over. BY PIR ZUBAIR SHAH| MARCH/APRIL 2012 "We don't even sit together to chat anymore," the Taliban fighter told me, his voice hoarse as he combed his beard with his fingers. We were talking in a safe house in Peshawar as the fighter and one of his comrades sketched a picture of life on the run in the borderlands of Waziristan. The deadly American drones buzzing overhead, the two men said, had changed everything for al Qaeda and its local allies. The whitewashed two-story villa bristled with activity. Down the hall from my Taliban sources sat an aggrieved tribal elder and his son in one room and two officers from Pakistan's powerful InterServices Intelligence (ISI) Directorate in another. I had gathered them all there to make sense of what had become the signature incident of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan: an American drone strike, one of the first ordered on the watch of the new U.S. president, Barack Obama. The early 2009 strike had killed a local elder, along with his son, two nephews, and a guest in me the family was innocent, with the South Waziristan town of no connections to the Taliban or Wana. Several sources had told a l Q a e d a . B u t t r a v e l i n g t o
Waziristan had become too dangerous even for me, a reporter who had grown up there. So
instead I had brought Waziristan to Peshawar, renting rooms for my sources in the guesthouse. I
had just one night to try to figure DRONE page 33
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out what had happened. I spent the night running from room to room, assembling the story in pieces. On the first floor sat the dead elder's brother and nephew, who told me what little they knew of the incident. On the second floor, the ISI officers, over whiskey and lamb tikka, described their work helping U.S. intelligence agents sort out targets from among the images relayed back from the drones. Then there were the two Taliban fighters, whom I had first met in Waziristan in 2007. One had been a fixer for the Haqqani network, skilled at smuggling men and materiel from Pakistan into Afghanistan. The other drew a government salary as an employee of Pakistan's agriculture department but worked across the border as an explosives expert; he had lost a finger fighting the allied forces in Afghanistan. None of the men in the house knew the others were there. The two fighters described how the militants were adapting to this new kind of warfare. The Taliban and al Qaeda had stopped using electronic devices, they told me. They would no longer gather in huge numbers, even in mosques to pray, and spent their nights outside for safety, a life that was wearing thin. "We can't sleep in the jungle the whole of our lives," one told me. Gradually, a picture of a rare incident came into focus: a deadly strike that had mistakenly taken out a man with no connection to al Qaeda or the Taliban.
This is how it has gone with the drone war, a beat I have covered for six years, first for Newsday and then the New York Times. By the time I left Pakistan in the summer of 2010, the job had become nearly impossible, though it had always been a dauntingly difficult story to tell. The drone campaign is one of the U.S. government's most secret programs. Although the most authoritative study on the subject, by the New America Foundation last year, calculated that 283 drone strikes had occurred in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region since 2004, Obama never even publicly acknowledged them until this past January. Making matters still more difficult, the targets are in one of the world's most inaccessible areas, one that has traditionally been out of bounds for outsiders and where the state of Pakistan has nominal or no governing authority. It is an environment in which accurate reporting is an often unattainable goal, where confusion, controversies, and myths proliferate. Although the drone campaign has become the linchpin of the bama administration's counterterrorism strategy in Central Asia -- and one it is increasingly exporting to places such as Yemen and the Horn of Africa -- we know virtually nothing about it. I spent more than half a decade tracking this most secret of wars across northern Pakistan, taking latenight calls from intelligence agents, sorting through missile
fragments at attack sites, counting bodies and graves, interviewing militants and victims. I dodged bullets and, once, an improvised explosive device. At various times I found myself imprisoned by the Taliban and detained by the Pakistani military. Yet even I can say very little for certain about what has happened. THE EVENING OF JUNE 18, 2004, was a sweltering one in South Waziristan, and the 27-year -old local Taliban leader, Nek Muhammad Wazir, had decided to eat dinner in the courtyard of his house in the village of Kari Kot, along with his two brothers and two bodyguards. Muhammad's satellite phone rang, and he picked it up. Moments later, a missile streaked through the compound and exploded, killing all five men. At the time, no one in the Pakistani public or media knew that it was a drone. The government would say nothing, and everyone else attributed Muhammad's killing either to a Pakistani military operation -after all, soldiers had gone looking for him without success on six occasions -- or to the work of U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan. A Taliban fighter who was within earshot of the explosion told me later that the militants were totally taken by surprise. "There was a noise in the air before, and then we heard the explosion," he recalled. The villagers, however, supplied the explanation: They collected the fragments of the missile, on which
was printed in black, "Made in USA." Then, in late 2005, a similarly mysterious explosion killed Abu Hamza Rabia, a high-ranking Egyptian member of al Qaeda, outside North Waziristan's capital city, Miram Shah. President Pervez Musharraf refused to explain what had happened, saying only that he was " 200 percent" sure Rabia was dead. But a local reporter named Hayatullah Khan, who lived in the next village over from where Rabia was killed, had gone to the site to sift through the rubble. Amid the debris were pieces of a Hellfire missile. He took pictures, which swiftly appeared in newspapers around the world. The photographs directly contradicted the statements of Musharraf's government, which had variously claimed that Pakistani forces killed Rabia or that the militants blew themselves up by accident. The following month, Khan was abducted by gunmen. His body was found six months later near the Afghan border with handcuffs on his wrists; he had been shot in the back, apparently while trying to escape. When I visited his family in North Waziristan a year later, Khan's brother told me he blamed the ISI. In January 2006, shortly after Khan's disappearance, I got an early-morning phone call at my home in Islamabad from a colleague at Newsday, where I was then working as a fixer and bureau manager. There had been
another drone strike in the Bajaur tribal area, he told me; could I go investigate? I picked up a friend who worked for the BBC and drove north to Bajaur to see my first drone strike. It would be the first newspaper story to appear under my own byline -- and my first experience covering the drone war. As we drove into Damadola, a farming village sprawled across a wide valley, I spotted the bodies of a cow and a calf, splayed out underneath a tree with their eyes wide open. Nearby were the fresh ruins of three houses. The drone's presumed target had been Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had been rumored to be in the area. I arrived on the scene ahead of most other reporters, and the families of the victims took me to see their newly dug graves. "All those killed, including women and children, are from this village," a villager told me as he showed me the burial site. "There were no foreigners here." Then I noticed something odd: Although I counted 13 graves, the locals would only tell me the names of seven women and children who had been killed. When it came to the men, they were silent. Later, a Pakistani official told me foreigners had indeed been present, including Zawahiri, though he had left some time before the missile hit. Drones were not yet common, but the fugitive al Qaeda No. 2 had long DRONE page 34
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since become accustomed to moving quickly from place to place. IT WAS IN SEPTEMBER 2006 that I heard a drone for the first time, flying over the mud-walled village of Ali Khel, a couple of miles west of Miram Shah. It was a hot summer night, too hot in the house of the building-contractor friend with whom I was staying, so I had gone out to sleep in the open along with several laborers who worked for him. The men were telling me about their travels in Afghanistan, how they would cross the border to fight for the Taliban and then return after a week or two to North Waziristan to work and make some money. Then I heard the buzzing, far above our heads -- like a bee, but heavier and unceasing, drifting in and out of earshot. The laborers said nothing. On the other side of the Tochi River, in the village of Khatai, lived a famous Taliban commander whom the Pakistani military had once tried to kill. The operation had been a debacle; the military lost at least two senior officers, and hundreds of soldiers found themselves besieged not only by Taliban fighters but by the local villagers. But the small, lethal machine flying far overhead had accomplished what the Pakistani soldiers could not. "Nowadays he doesn't live here all the time," my host that night said as he pointed toward the commander's nearby compound. "There are drones in the air now." Taliban fighters speaking a
Waziri dialect of Pashto call the drones bhungana -- "the one that produces a bee-like sound." Their local adversaries call them ababeel-- the name of a bird mentioned in the Quran, sent by God to defend the holy city of Mecca from an invading army by hurling small stones from its mouth. Over the several days I spent in Ali Khel I became accustomed to their sound. It was there all the time. During the day it was mostly absorbed into the hum of daily life, but in the calm of the night the buzzing was all you heard. This kind of reporting trip, risky as it was, had become increasingly necessary, given the cagey and outright confusing response by the Pakistani government to the escalating air war over its territory. When news of the early attacks got out, officials were evasive, suggesting that the militants had been killed while making explosives in their compounds. Then, after a drone strike took out a madrasa in the Bajaur tribal area in October 2006, killing more than 80 people, the government claimed that Pakistani bombers had done the job. Militants responded that November with a suicide bombing of a military barracks in the Dargai area of Malakand district, killing 42 soldiers and wounding dozens more. The government learned its lesson, retreating back into ambiguity. From that moment on, only the residents of the areas targeted by the drones would have
a clear understanding of what was happening -- but those areas were mostly beyond the reach of the media. IF THE CONDUCT OF THE DRONE war is mysterious, the terrain over which it is fought is not, at least to me -- I have known it all my life. I was born in South Waziristan, to parents from two different Pashtun tribes, in a town that had been famous in the British colonial era for its gun and knife factories. My ancestors had come from Afghanistan as preachers, and I had taken my first steps as a child in the Afghan city of Khost, just across the border, where my maternal grandfather lived. After graduating from university in Islamabad in 2001, I had returned to the tribal regions to prepare for my civil service exam. As unthinkable as it seems now, it was then the most peaceful, tranquil place I knew, and I spent my evenings in Bajaur studying with a college professor in preparation for a career in Pakistan's foreign service. During the days I would travel with my uncle, a government irrigation engineer, to villages in the area, meeting the residents and elders. As the media poured into Afghanistan and Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, someone with my background and English-language skills was suddenly very much in demand, and I got my first job in Newsday's Islamabad bureau. On my trips back to Waziristan, I saw the landscape of my childhood transforming into a war zone. By
2004, people I had known there in my youth were on all sides of the region's worsening conflict, in the Taliban and al Qaeda, as well as the Pakistani military and intelligence services. As the Pakistani military operations started to expand from one tribal area to the next, reporting on the ground went from difficult to impossible. I found myself working more and more over the phone, canvassing the contacts I had made during my travels in the region. When it came to the drone attacks, some of my sources would have access to the site of the strike and would tell me what really happened. I soon learned that the official version of the story was usually the least reliable. The military often had the same access problem I did and was itself relying on secondary sources. The Taliban started adapting, too. The militants had come to realize that the increasingly effective drone strikes made them look weak, and they began getting rid of the evidence as fast as they could. After every attack they would cordon off the area and remove the bodies of the dead, making it difficult to verify who and how many people had been killed. Going to the site of a drone attack became a futile exercise; only a very few local reporters known for their deference to the Taliban were given any meaningful access. I made my last visit to Waziristan in June 2007. By then, people there knew I worked for an
American newspaper; fearing for my safety, my family discouraged me from going. The military was turning away representatives of foreign news organizations, and the Taliban had grown increasingly paranoid -- a fact I learned the hard way a year later. It was a hot, sunny day in July 2008, and I had set out from Peshawar with a photographer to report on the Taliban in the Mohmand tribal area, where the group had taken over a series of marble quarries. After meeting up with a local guide, we arrived in the village of Ziarat and headed toward the local Taliban checkpoint. We had dressed in the traditional salwar kameez and had worn hats in an effort to blend in. My photographer was from Karachi, though, and I worried that his presence would mark us as outsiders. I asked him to stay near the car while I ventured out to the checkpoint, where I interviewed a contractor working in the mines. As I was about to finish my interview, I saw my photographer approaching, so I wrapped up the conversation and hustled him back to the car. But it was too late. A bearded man shouted at us -- he had seen the photographer's camera bag. We were escorted away from the main road in our car, a Talib riding alongside us with a rifle. The Taliban held us in a prison in the base of a mountain, guarded by young volunteers from a nearby village. When we arrived, DRONE page 36
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10 Things You Didn't Know About Drones By Micah Zenko

MICAH ZENKO (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:46:20 PM
When drones were created, how they're used, and what their future looks like. BY MICAH ZENKO| MARCH/APRIL 2012 1. The first armed drones were created to get Osama bin Laden. In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration shut down an operation to kill the al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan with cruise missiles, given collateral damage estimates of 300 casualties and only 50 percent confidence in the intelligence. As the 9/11 Commission noted, "After this episode Pentagon planners intensified efforts to find a more precise alternative." In 2000 and 2001, the U.S. Air Force struggled to reconfigure a Hellfire anti-tank missile to fit onto a Predator surveillance drone. Meeting one week before the 9/11 attacks, the National Security Council agreed that the armed Predator was not ready to be operationally deployed. The first known killing by armed drones occurred in November 2001, when a Predator targeted Mohammed Atef, a top al Qaeda military commander, in Afghanistan. 2. So far, drones tend to crash. On Dec. 4, an RQ-170 Sentinel surveillance drone crashed in Iran;
a U.S. official involved in the program blamed a lost data link and another unspecific malfunction. Two weeks later, an unarmed Reaper drone crashed at
the end of a runway in the Seychelles. "This should not be a surprise," a defense official told Aviation Week & Space Technology, saying the United
States had already lost more than 50 drones. As of July 2010, the Air Force had identified 79 drone accidents costing at least $1 million each. The primary reasons
for the crashes: bad weather, loss or disruption of communications links, and "human error factors," THINGS page 37
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all our belongings, including our cell phones and money, were confiscated. But we were treated well -- better, at any rate, than the prisoners we saw chained up in the neighboring rooms. In the evening two Taliban came to our room. "Who is the Waziristani?" one of them asked. I said it was me, and I followed them into a half-destroyed room elsewhere in the compound. "Tell us who really you are," one of them said. They looked through the contacts in my cell phone, demanding to know why they included the commander of the Frontier Corps, the regional U.S.trained paramilitary force the Taliban were fighting. The questioning went on for three days. I told them I was a reporter. My Waziristan connections were of some help, but they posed a risk too: I knew the local Taliban had recently attacked my family's village in the nearby district of Tank, killing more than a dozen of my relatives. I didn't want them to know that I knew. Finally, Abdul Wali, the local Taliban leader, arrived and, satisfied that we were who we said we were, ordered our release. They had to be vigilant, he told us. "People come here under the guise of journalists and photographers, and they either take pictures of our locations and pass them on to the authorities or drop a SIM [card] to facilitate a drone strike," he said. "You never know who is a reporter and who is a spy." AMONG WAZIRISTAN'S
RESIDENTS, "I will drone you" has by now entered the vocabulary of day-to-day conversation as a morbid joke. The mysterious machines buzzing far overhead have become part of the local folklore. "I am looking for you like a drone, my love," goes a romantic Pashto verse I've often heard the locals recite. "You have become Osama; no one knows your whereabouts." But it was only when WikiLeaks released its cache of U.S. State Department cables beginning in late 2010 that Pakistanis learned just how complicit their government has been in the drone campaign. A February 2008 cable from the embassy in Islamabad reported that Pakistan's Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, met with the U.S. Centcom commander, Adm. William Fallon, and asked the U.S. military for "continuous Predator coverage of the conflict area" in South Waziristan, where the Pakistani Army was fighting the militants at the time. "Kayani knows full well that the strikes have been precise (creating few civilian casualties) and targeted primarily at foreign fighters" in Waziristan, asserted a February 2009 cable signed by Anne Patterson, then the U.S. ambassador. In an August 2008 meeting with Patterson, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani -- the same man who, after Navy SEALs dropped into Pakistan to raid bin Laden's compound last year, warned that "Pakistan reserves the right to
retaliate with full force" -- gave Patterson his go-ahead for a drone campaign in Pakistan's tribal regions. "I don't care if they do it as long as they get the right people," he told her, according to a U.S. cable. "We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it." Eventually, the disclosures prompted a response: In March of last year, Pakistani Maj. Gen. Ghayur Mehmood, the commander in North Waziristan, appeared before reporters in Miram Shah and told them, "Myths and rumors about U.S. Predator strikes and the casualty figures are many, but it's a reality that many of those being killed in these strikes are hardcore elements, a sizable number of them foreigners. Yes, there are a few civilian casualties in such precision strikes, but a majority of those eliminated are terrorists, including foreign terrorist elements." It was an unusually candid public statement on the drone strikes from a high-ranking Pakistani official. Mehmood also provided something else that had until then been missing: official numbers. According to the government's figures, he said, 164 drone strikes had taken place since 2007, killing 964 terrorists: 793 locals and 171 foreigners. The dead included Arabs, Chechens, Filipinos, Moroccans, Tajiks, and Uzbeks. The figures also confirmed the dramatic escalation of the drone war. In 2007, the government said, a single drone strike had killed a
single militant. In 2010, the strikes had killed 423. Some such admission was probably inevitable; the revelations in the WikiLeaks cables and Pakistan's obvious inability to stop the attacks put the government in a position where it had to say something. Arguing that the drones were killing real terrorists was the best option available (though a military spokesman still tried to distance the Army from Mehmood's statements, saying they reflected only the general's opinion). But it was also an acknowledgment of defeat: The secret war has become a lot less secret. At first, the tribal areas of Pakistan had seemed to present the perfect testing ground for a remote-controlled military strategy; it is a land set apart from its own country and mostly inaccessible to the international media and human rights groups, a place where violations of international law and civilian casualties go mostly uninvestigated. It is, in short, a black hole. But even as the Obama administration was increasingly embracing the drones as an alternative to the boots-onthe-ground military actions it inherited from its predecessor, its secret war was becoming as much a political liability as a precision weapon. As the strikes have continued, they have given rise to a narrative that explains away the country's worsening radicalization and extremist violence as a product of
the drones -- a narrative that has served as a bargaining chip for Pakistani leaders in their dealings with the United States as they once again raise the price of Pakistan's cooperation in the war. (After a November 2011 incident in Mohmand district in which NATO forces mistakenly killed Pakistani soldiers, the first thing Pakistan demanded was the evacuation of the Shamsi air base in Baluchistan province, which had been used by the Americans for launching drones over the tribal areas; pictures of the emptied base immediately flashed across the Pakistani media.) In reality, the country's worsening anti-Americanism is driven more by the portrayal of the drones in the Pakistani media, which paints them as a scourge targeting innocent civilians, than by the drones themselves. Few Pakistanis have actually visited the tribal areas or even know much about them. Until the United States and Pakistan come clean about the program, though, it is an image that will persist, worsening the frictions within Pakistan's already divided society and between the United States and Pakistan. That's too bad, because in reality Pakistanis are deeply torn about the drones. For every antiAmerican rant they inspire-the recent meteoric rise of Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician, owes a great deal to his strong opposition to the drone DRONE page 38
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THINGS
according to the Air Force. As Lt. Gen. David Deptula, former Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, has noted with refreshing honesty, "Some of the [drones] that we have today, you put in a high-threat environment, and they'll start falling from the sky like rain." 3. Drones are coming to America. Worried about the militarization of U.S. airspace by unmanned aerial vehicles? As of October, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had reportedly issued 285 active certificates for 85 users, covering 82 drone types. The FAA has refused to say who received the clearances, but it was estimated over a year ago that 35 percent were held by the Pentagon, 11 percent by NASA, and 5 percent by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And it's growing. U.S. Customs and Border Protection already operates eight Predator drones. Under pressure from the congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus-- yes, there's already a drone lobby, with 50 members -two additional Predators were sent to Texas in the fall, though a DHS official noted: "We didn't ask for them." Last June, a Predator drone intended to patrol the U.S.Canada border helped locate three suspected cattle rustlers in North Dakota in what was the first reported use of a drone to arrest U.S. citizens. 4. The scope of U.S. military drone missions is expanding Drones have come a long way in little more than a decade of
military use in strike operations. Five-pound backpack drones are now used by infantry soldiers for tactical surveillance and will soon be deployed for what their manufacturer calls "magic bullet" kamikaze missions. Special operations forces have developed a warhead fired from a Predator drone that can knock down doors. K-Max helicopter drones transport supplies to troops at forward operating bases in Afghanistan. Balloons unleash Tempest drones, which then send out smaller surveillance drones -called Cicadas -- that glide to the ground to collect data. And now the U.S. State Department is flying a small fleet of surveillance drones over Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy there. Bottom line: More and more drones have been rushed into service, and their use and application by the U.S. military is seemingly infinite. 5. But not as fast as civilian uses. Safety inspectors used drones at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to survey the damage after last year's tsunami. Archaeologists in Russia are using small drones with infrared cameras to construct a 3D model of ancient burial mounds. Environmental activists use the Osprey drone to track and monitor Japanese whaling ships. Photographers are developing a celebrity-seeking paparazzi drone. GALE drones will soon fly into hurricanes to more accurately monitor a storm's strength. And Boeing engineers have joined
force s with MIT students to build an iPhone app that can control a drone from up to 3,000 miles away. Last summer, using a laser 3-D printer, University of Southampton engineers built a nearly silent drone that can be assembled by hand in minutes. 6. Most military drones don't bomb. Although decapitation strikes may get all the headlines, the vast majority of the time, drones are used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance -- what the military calls ISR. The U.S. Navy's first high-altitude drone can relay black-and-white photos covering roughly half the Persian Gulf; the Global Hawk's advanced radars make detailed images of the Earth and attempt to sniff out chemical or biological agents for telltale signs of weapons of mass destruction. Soon, the Gorgon Stare drone will "be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we're looking at, and we can see everything," according to Maj. Gen. James O. Poss. 7. Attack drones require more boots on the ground. Most unmanned aircraft flown by the U.S. military require not just a ground-based "pilot," but also a platoon of surveillance analysts (approximately 19 per drone), sensor operators, and a maintenance crew. Some 168 people are required to keep a Predator drone aloft -- and 180 for its larger cousin, the Reaper -compared with roughly 100 people for an F-16 fighter jet. To
keep up with the demand, the Air Force has trained more drone operators than pilots for the past two years. The upside is that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, drones "are usually less expensive than manned aircraft" ($15 million for a Global Hawk versus about $55 million for a new F-16), though costly sensors and excessive crashes can negate the difference. 8. Drones are becoming a lethal weapon of choice, but nobody's in charge. Over the past decade, there have been some 300 drone strikes outside the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Of these attacks, 95 percent occurred in Pakistan, with the rest in Yemen and Somalia; cumulatively, they have killed more than 2,000 suspected militants and an unknown number of civilians. Although U.S. President Barack Obama recently acknowledged that "a lot of these strikes" have been in Pakistan's tribal areas, who can be targeted and under what authority can only be guessed from a few speeches and statements by anonymous U.S. officials. There are believed to be multiple drone-target " kill lists" among government agencies. The 2011 book Top Secret America revealed " three separate'kill lists' of individuals" kept by the National Security Council, the CIA, and the military's Joint Special Operations Command. In Yemen, the Pentagon is the lead executive authority for some drone strikes (which are reported
to the congressional armed services committees), while the CIA is in charge for others (reported to the intelligence committees). As for the Obama administration's claimed power to assassinate U.S. citizens, such as Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the Justice Department refuses to declassify the memo that provided the legal authority to kill him with a drone. So, although 85 percent of nonbattlefield drone strikes have occurred under Obama, we have little understanding of their use. 9. Other countries are catching up to the United States. As with most military programs, the United States is far and away the leader in developing drone technology, and the country is projected to account for 77 percent of drone R&D and 69 percent of procurement in the coming decade. Nevertheless, estimates of how many other countries have at least some drone capability now range from 44 to 70, for an estimated 680 drone programs around the world, up greatly from 195 in 2005. China is escalating its drone program, with at least 25 types of systems in development. Iran has also touted its program, including the armed "Ambassador of Death" drone, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled by declaring: "Its main message is peace and friendship." 10. The drone future is already here. THINGS page 38
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strikes -- there is also a recognition that these strikes from the sky have their purpose. At times, they have outright benefited the Pakistani state, as in the summer of 2009, when a drone attack killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of a militant alliance in Waziristan who was suspected of masterminding former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's 2007 assassination -Pakistan's Enemy No. 1, but a villain of less consequence to the United States. Residents of the tribal areas are similarly conflicted. Many favor the drone strikes over the alternatives, such as military
operations or less selective bombardments by Pakistani bombers and helicopter gunships. Better a few houses get vaporized than an entire village turned into refugees. Even the brother of the elder I brought to the Peshawar guesthouse said as much, allowing that "in our case, it might be faulty intelligence or mischief by someone" that had caused the strike that killed his brother. Regardless, he said, "I would always go for the drones." Either way, they are now a fact of life in a secret war that is far from over. Once I called a source -- a Taliban commander in one of the tribal areas. His brother picked up
the phone and told me that the commander was asleep. It was noon, and I remarked that it was an odd time for a nap. "There are drones in the sky," the brother laughingly replied, "so he is not feeling well." 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 Pentagon now boasts a fleet of approximately 7,500 drones, up from just 50 a decade ago. According to a congressional report, "manned aircraft have gone from 95% of all [Defense Department] aircraft in 2005 to 69% today." Over the next decade, the Pentagon expects the number of "multirole" drones -ones that can both spy and strike - to nearly quadruple, to 536. In 2011, the Teal Group consulting firm estimated that worldwide spending on unmanned aerial vehicles will nearly double over the next decade from $5.9 billion to $11.3 billion annually. In the future, drones are projected to: hover just behind infantry soldiers to watch their backs; carry airborne laser s to intercept ballistic missiles; perform aerial
refueling; and conduct long-range strategic bombing missions. Given that drones will become cheaper, smaller, faster, stealthier, more lethal, and more autonomous, it is harder to imagine what they won't do than what they will. Whatever limits drones face will be imposed by us humans -- not technology. 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.
"Does anyone have any recommendations for watching a video with a friend over the web?" G20 leaders insist [Ask The Commenters Roundup] it on (Lifehacker) turn itself off. Will leaving 24/7 significantly reduce the life no more IMF of the drive? cash unless How can I make Gmail display D o e s a n y o n e h a v e a n y more contacts online for chatting? eurozone boosts recommendations for watching a Has anyone found a good ROM a friend over the financial firewall video withnew video cardthe web? forI'm Galaxy Nexus? user I need a and I'm a long-time iPhone
Submitted at 2/26/2012 2:00:00 PM
Richard Blackden (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:30:45 PM
The world's leading economies will not stump up more cash to fight Europe's debt crisis until the eurozone members increase their own contributions, in a move that piles pressure on this week's Brussels summit.
interested in the GeForce 560 or 560 Ti. Is the price difference justified? Is there a better way to pull info from a Google Docs spreadsheet into Excel than downloading the GDoc spreadsheet and pasting it into my more advanced Excel spreadsheet? I have an external hard drive that will spin down but doesn't
who just got their first Android. What apps should I get? What motivates you? How do you feel about private messages at Lifehacker? My dog was skunked. What methods have you successfully used to get the stink out? More
Economy/
39
Stratfor Email Leak Reveals Insider Views On Obama, Emanuel & Romney
Tyler Durden
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:56:03 PM
Earlier today, Wikileaks made its latest startling release on Twitter, telling the media world to standby for a 'major announcement'. Alas, in keeping with the recent tradition from Wikileaks, the "release" was a dud and is merely the collected dump of all the emails previously hacked from Stratfor by Anonymous, as was noted here previously. Alas a quick perusal through the emails so far reveals absolutely nothing exciting, except for the communiques of a paid intelligence provider, which may at times have had a few delusions of grandure and a mistaken and rather overblown sense of selfimportance (hardly unique). Yet one exchange that is rather interesting is the following email thread from 2009 which goes from discussing how the billionaires behind ACORN have lost all respect for Obama and Biden (" The billionaire (who also funds ACORN) is greatly disappointed over Obama's "weakness and wimpyness" towards China... She believes Biden is weasel and Obama is a pussy... The liberal factions in DC think Obama is being a pussy."), views on Rahm Emanuel ("I don't disagree that Biden is a weasel. I
think Emanuel is emasculating Obama by selling him on clever Clintonesque tactics"), views on how Obama may get back into the thick of things: ("Obama needs to get in a fight and do something really mean and unfair to the right."), on Obama and the banks: ("he could also tell the banks to go screw themselves.") and from there going to analyzing the GOP field: ("The GOP folks I talk to are pushing Jeb Bush. I think that is a mistake. Who else is out there?") and culminating with the GOP frontrunning Mitt Romney " Romney can't make it. Mormons are viewed as Voo Doo." Much more in the full email thread inside. From Wikileaks Re: Insight - China/Tibet/Obama Email-ID 391555 Date 2009-11-06 23:08:21 From Anya.Alfano@stratfor.com To burton@stratfor.com, mongoven@stratfor.com Maybe, but he's choked on the national stage a few times now. I can't get past his smile...makes him look sleazy. burton@stratfor.com wrote: Bobby Jindel? He's some sort of Indian. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Anya Alfano Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:58:58
-0500 To: Cc: Bartholomew Mongoven Subject: Re: Insight - China/Tibet /Obama Tim Pawlenty is about as close as the GOP gets to a sharp, young and eligible governor. burton@stratfor.com wrote: Romney can't make it. Mormons are viewed as Voo Doo. We need a sharp young Governor. I also like Michelle Bachman. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T --------------------------------------------------------------------From: "Bartholomew Mongoven" Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:52:13 0500 To: 'Anya Alfano'; Subject: RE: Insight - China/ Tibet/Obama Pawlenty is good. I think Romney could do it if he is himself. He was as badly handled in 2008 as Al Gore was in 2000. It should have been his nomination and he screwed it all up. Newt might actually pull the trigger. I think Huckabee could do it just to piss off people like me. I would tell Jeb that his time came and went when Katrina went under water. Frist would love to do it, but it'll take time for him to get up and
running. --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Anya Alfano [ mailto:anya.alfano@stratfor.com] Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 4:46 PM To: burton@stratfor.com Cc: Bartholomew Mongoven Subject: Re: Insight - China/Tibet /Obama The neocons on top of my hill all want Tim Pawlenty. burton@stratfor.com wrote: The GOP folks I talk to are pushing Jeb Bush. I think that is a mistake. Who else is out there? Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T --------------------------------------------------------------------From: "Bartholomew Mongoven" Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:39:03 0500 To: 'Anya Alfano' Cc: 'Fred Burton' Subject: RE: Insight - China/ Tibet/Obama Depends on where you are. In your neck of the woods, people tend to think no one can do the right thing in Washington. They think the world here is so corrupt that progress will always be stifled by the moneyed interests. (Of course, the fact is that on domestic policy, it's like foreign policy -- the president can have his ideals but there are very few things he can do that won't screw
up the country. So he doesn't do them. Watch climate, for instance. It's not corporate lobbying holding him from a deal, it's China. He won't commit economic suicide just to make environmentalists happy. The environmentalists don't think it's suicide, so they think Obama has sold out. It's sad really.) I think Mrs. P is far closer to a D.C. view of things. The liberal factions in DC think Obama is being a pussy. They don't want a climate deal that kills the US economy and gives everything to the Chinese, but they want someone to stand up to the Chinese and say "this is the way it's going to be." From a West Coast liberal perspective, that's inflaming rivalry and inviting conflict. From an East Coast perspective, that's the only way to get a climate bill. Right now, he's not going to commit suicide (Bay Area approach) but he's not going to back the Chinese down (Mrs. P) either. Obama needs to get in a fight and do something really mean and unfair to the right. (Gays in the military/revoke Don't Ask Don't tell). He's afraid of the backlash. He could also tell the banks to go screw themselves. Either way, he needs to do something that says STRATFOR page 42
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Economy/
Key Events In The Week Ahead - US Growth Focus And Oil Price Trends
Tyler Durden
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:46:32 PM
Last week saw dramatic dispersion among the major FX pairs as global and local influences caused significant moves in most of the key crosses. Goldman takes a look back at the key drivers of that volatility and then focuses on the week ahead as the EU Summit at the latter end is the main event risk while ongoing macro developments will be focused on the incessant rise in Crude oil prices and whether we start seeing knock-on impacts in the real economy. Goldman Sachs: What Matters in FX This Week : FX Week Ahead: Focus On US Growth Data And Oil Price Trends It has been a big week for FX; a number of global and local influences have caused significant moves in key crosses and mostly in G10 space. First, the EUR rallied on a trade weighted basis; stretched short EUR positions unwound as progress was made on the Greece PSI and as the market took relief in the avoidance of a more disorderly outcome in the Euro-area. Interestingly the EUR rally happened even despite rangebound performance for risky assets and lack of strong directionality in other dollar
crosses (such as $/LATAM or $/ NJA). The key event to watch in the week ahead in terms of Euroarea tensions will be the EU summit on Thursday and Friday where the final details of the next Greece assistance package will be discussed. Second, the JPY continued to depreciate sharply, extending the move that began with the BOJs latest balance sheet expansion operation and the shift to an inflation target. As Fiona Lake recently argued, although the shift in JPY fits fundamentally with a convergence towards fair value, the timing of the move is tricky
and we have been reluctant to follow the shift particularly in the absence of an analogous move in US front end rates. That said, the main macro development last week, the ongoing rise in Brent crude oil prices to the highest USD denominated level since last spring (and the highest EUR denominated level ever), was conducive to a shift higher in both in EUR/$ as well as in $/JPY. Our commodity strategy team has been highlighting that the run up in Brent prices over the past month has been driven primarily by a recovery in global growth
being long WTI crude oil, and we have recommended a long September 2012 WTI position to take advantage of our anticipated narrowing of the WTI-Brent spread following the reversal of the Seaway pipeline to flow crude oil from the oversupplied US midcontinent to the US Gulf Coast in June. What this means for FX is 1) currencies like NOK and RUB tend to experience the most positive Terms of Trade shock, while JPY and KRW the most negative one and 2) reserve recirculation dynamics imply EUR/$ buying flows from large commodity producing FX targeting countries. Finally, more dovish than anticipated BOE minutes led to expectations and hence was in GBP weakness which we think line with our broader views. can extend. Policy expectations in However, in the past couple of the UK, combined with EUR weeks fears of supply disruptions dynamics and developments in oil due to Middle East tensions has prices are bound to lead GBP/ likely contributed to the increase NOK lower; hence our new to over $124/bbl as well. Our trading recommendation last relevant top trade hit our target week. and we recommended clients to For the week ahead we will be close the long July 2012 Brent watching US data closely. Risky position. However, we still expect assets will need to see the to see Brent crude oil prices to improvement in growth dynamics rise to $127.50/bbl on a 12-month extend in order for the rally to horizon, and see the risk to this gain fresh momentum. ISM will forecast as increasingly skewed to be the key release to watch but the upside. For now, however, we expect the better opportunity for a KEY page 44 long position in crude oil lies in
Economy/ Culture/
41
German Interior Minister Says EU "Should Create Incentives for Exit That Greece Cannot Turn Down"; Greece Delays Swap Until March 8
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
10 Car Accessories That Could Be Dangerous

Garth Sundem (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
bailout, her interior minister, Hans -Peter Friedrich came out over the weekend in favour of Greece leaving the eurozone. Submitted at 2/26/2012 12:58:00 PM It is possible if not likely we have Friedrich told the news magazine to suffer through at least 11 more Der Spiegel, I do not mean that Groundhog days as Greece sets Greece should be kicked out of March 8 deadline for investors in the 17-nation eurozone, but he bond swap. said the bloc should create Greece has set a March 8 incentives for an exit that they d e a d l i n e f o r i n v e s t o r s t o cannot turn down. participate in its unprecedented Merkel is opposed to Greece bond swap aimed at sharply leaving the eurozone, and agreed r e d u c i n g i t s d e b t b u r d e n , in January with French President according to a document outlining Nicolas Sarkozy that Greece the offer. should be kept in the monetary Greece formally launched the union, as long as its government bond swap offer to private holders imposes strict budgetary reforms. of its bonds on Friday, setting in She expects the Bundestag to motion the largest-ever sovereign approve the second bailout debt restructuring in the hope of package in a vote Monday. getting its finances back on track. Friedrich, of the CSU, the In the document, Greece said the Bavarian sister party to Merkels March 8 deadline could be Christian Democrats, is the first extended if needed. Athens in the m e m b e r o f t h e f e d e r a l past has said it wants to conclude government to have spoken out the transaction by March 12. suggesting a radical change of Interior Minister Says Greece course in euro crisis policy. Should Exit Eurozone Outside European monetary In yet another break in Merkel's union, Greeces chances of ranks, German interior minister regenerating itself and becoming Hans-Peter Friedrich says Greece competitive are definitely better should exit eurozone. than if it remained inside the With German Chancellor Angela eurozone, Friedrich told Der Merkel facing a parliamentary Spiegel. vote Monday on a second Greek Meanwhile, at a meeting of G20
finance ministers and central bankers in Mexico City, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schuble said it made no economic sense to be endlessly pumping money into eurozone rescue funds. It should have been obvious Germany wanted Greece out of the Eurozone no later than January 27 when Merkel demanded Greece to Cede Sovereignty to Eurozone "Budget Commissioner". Merkel's Official Denial "I will have no part in forcing Greece out of the euro" Should have made it all the more clear on February 7. At the same time Schuble started "Salami Tactics" on German participation (see above link). On February 23, came the Pact With the Devil Over Gold. Then on February 23 Troika Demands 38 New Changes in Greek Tax, Spending and Wage Policies in Next 6 Days. Finally, at long last, the German Interior Minister came flat out and stated what previously Finance Minister Wolfgang Schuble only hinted at, and Merkel herself "officially denied". As I have said many times, Merkel's denial is not plausible. She just not does to be on record as the person causing any country to exit the Eurozone.
Merkel is to be pitied for one of two reasons. She is so amazingly dense that she cannot see that Greece needs to leave the Eurozone She is so concerned about her legacy that she does not have the honesty and decency to say what she knows is true, and she is willing to further destroy Greece in the process.
A car is an extension of the person driving it. And if you're like most Americans, you see yourself as individual and unique -- not simply a cookie-cutter floor model, but packed with personality and experiences that make you, you. The same can be true of your car -- that is, if you're willing to take that floor model and run with it. I vote for door number 2. With a car, if you can dream it, Mike "Mish" Shedlock you can do it, from lifting, h t t p : / / resculpting and refitting to an globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. almost infinite number and variety com of add-ons. Click Here To Scroll Thru My But beware: While manufacturers Recent Post List Mike b u i l d w i t h s a f e t y i n m i n d , "Mish" Shedlock is a registered standards are less strict for investment advisor representative aftermarket accessories and f o r S i t k a P a c i f i c C a p i t a l sometimes nonexistent for DIY Management. Sitka Pacific is an projects. When adding personality asset management firm whose to your vehicle, be sure you aren't goal is strong performance and also adding danger. Let's take a low volatility, regardless of look at some risky car accessories. market direction. Visit http:// This entry passed through the w w w . s i t k a p a c i f i c . c o m / Full-Text RSS service if this is account_management.html to your content and you're reading it l e a r n m o r e a b o u t w e a l t h on someone else's site, please read m a n a g e m e n t a n d c a p i t a l the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentpreservation strategies of Sitka only/faq.php#publishers. Five Pacific. Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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Culture/
STRATFOR
he doesn't care about losing political capital. By front loading health care and climate, he made being politically safe his primary objective. He doesn't think he can afford to piss people off until those two are done. (Back to Emanuel, whose job is to tell him that he shouldn't front load all of his controversial proposals.) --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Anya Alfano [ mailto:anya.alfano@stratfor.com] Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 4:17 PM To: Bartholomew Mongoven Cc: 'Fred Burton' Subject: Re: Insight - China/Tibet /Obama Bart, do you believe Mrs. P's thoughts are fairly mainstream among Obama supporters, or are most still fairly content? I feel like I hear comments similar to Mrs. P all the time on other various issues, but my viewpoint is probably fairly skewed. (Marx himself couldn't satisfy half the people here.) Bartholomew Mongoven wrote: I don't disagree that Biden is a weasel. I think Emanuel is emasculating Obama by selling
him on clever Clintonesque tactics. I would love to see Obama with someone more principled and less clever as Chief of Staff. He needs a James Baker and he has a Donald Regan. At least Clinton had Panetta at first to tell him when to not be a pussy. Without Panetta Clinton was just a great tactician but he didn't get anything done (except get reelected). --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Fred Burton [ mailto:burton@stratfor.com] Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 3:58 PM To: 'Bartholomew Mongoven'; 'Anya Alfano' Subject: RE: Insight - China/ Tibet/Obama She blames Obama and Biden. I dropped Emanuel into the soup and she said that he would be added to her list. She believes Biden is weasel and Obama is a pussy. I want her to fund my bid for Congress. Yes, I can be bought. --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Bartholomew Mongoven [ mailto:mongoven@stratfor.com]
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 10:55 AM To: 'Fred Burton'; 'Anya Alfano' Subject: RE: Insight - China/ Tibet/Obama I remember that she had misgivings about supporting him during the primaries. I assume that rather than support a challenger, she'll just sit out 2012 (unless Obama finds a spine). I'd love to know if there was any talk about whether she and her set think it's him or his staff (esp. Emanuel) who is making his presidency so muddled so far. --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Fred Burton [ mailto:burton@stratfor.com] Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 9:02 AM To: 'Bartholomew Mongoven'; 'Anya Alfano' Subject: FW: Insight - China/ Tibet/Obama Mrs. P --------------------------------------------------------------------From: Fred Burton [ mailto:burton@stratfor.com] Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 8:01 AM To: 'Secure List'
Subject: Insight - China/Tibet/ Obama From a billionaire Democratic fundraiser -The billionaire (who also funds ACORN) is greatly disappointed over Obama's "weakness and wimpyness" towards China ("Fred, they only understand strength") and Obama's failure to meet with the Dhali Lama. The fundraiser stated he/she was personally disappointed ("betrayed") for helping Obama get into The White House and does not intend to support Obama next election, absent a drastic turn -around. 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.
Play Old DOS Floppy Disk Games on Your Android Tablet [Video]
David Galloway (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 3:00:00 PM
Most retro gamers use emulators to play old school games on their Android device, but iIf you still have your old floppy disk games and a USB floppy drive ($11 at Amazon) you can play them on your Android tablet directly using an Android app port of DOSbox. More
DIY Magnetic Ironing Mat [DIY]

David Galloway (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:00:00 PM
Ah, ironing boards. They serve
their function, but it seems to take as much time to get them out and put them away than you spend ironing a shirt or other garment. If
you have basic sewing skills you
can make an ironing mat that magnetically attaches to the top of your dryer, taking significantly less time to get ready than an
ironing board. More
Economy/ Culture/
43
Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Monday, February 27, 2012 (KWK, VC, CHTR, SLXP, SWN, PCLN, CHMT, HGSI, AMRS, DNDN, LOW, URS, AES)
Eric Platt (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:01:00 PM
Want to Know How Lie Detectors Work? Watch the Video!

(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Monday starts a busy week with a whimper. There are only a few major earnings announcements scheduled for the day, and the market has few economic releases to digest. The important announcements of the day include pending home sales in the U.S. and Italian business confidence. Here's what you need to know. Hungary starts the day off early with economic sentiment at 6:00 p.m. EST on Sunday evening. Past readings of sentiment came in at -26.8, while business confidence stood at -16.8. A reading below zero indicates pessimism. At 7:01 p.m. EST, British property analysis company Hometrack will announce its February survey. January's results showed no change in home prices in January. Announcements go quiet, until 2:00 a.m. EST on Monday morning when Finland releases consumer confidence. Economists predict the key index will increase to 4, from an earlier reading of 3.4. They also see business confidence ticking up to -7 from 8. French producer prices follow at 2:45 a.m. EST, with expectations for a month-on-
Below, a roundup of tomorrow's big announcers. Quicksilver Resources (KWK): $0.01 Visteon( VC):$0.79 Charter Communications( CHTR):-$0.17 Salix Pharmaceuticals( SLXP):$0.93 Southwestern Energy( SWN):$0.47 priceline.com( PCLN):$5.05 Chemtura( CHMT):$0.11 Human Genome Sciences( HGSI):-$0.41 Amyris( AMRS):-$0.74 Dendreon( DNDN):-$0.60 Lowe's( LOW):$0.23 URS( URS):$0.98 month rise of 0.4 percent in manufacturing activity in the 11th AES( AES):$0.22 January. federal district, which includes Consensus estimates provided by At 4:00 a.m. EST, Italian Texas, northern Louisiana, and Bloomberg. business confidence will be s o u t h e r n N e w M e x i c o . Please follow Money Game on announced. Economists forecast Expectations are for the index to Twitter and Facebook. the index will be unmoved from move slightly higher to 15.5, from Join the conversation about this January's reading of 92.1. A 15.1. A reading above zero story reading below 100 indicates indicates economic expansion. See Also: pessimism. Israel will announce any Here Are The Key Market Attention shifts to North changes to its base rate at the Moving Events For Wednesday, America at 10:00 a.m. EST, when same time. Economists polled by February 22, 2012 pending home sales are released Bloomberg expect the benchmark Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Friday, in the U.S. January pending sales rate to remain at 2.5 percent. are seen increasing 1.0 percent, Closing out the day at 4:00 p.m. February 24, 2012 reversing December's 3.5 percent EST is the release of Colombian Here Are The Key Market decline. industrial production. December Moving Events For Thursday, U.S. announcements continue at production is seen increasing 5.6 February 23, 2012 10:30 a.m. EST, with the Federal percent year-on-year. Reserve Bank of Dallas reporting
Playlist | Lie Detector Videos Interested in learning more? See the full list of 4 lie detector videos in this playlist. There are 4 videos tagged "Lie Detector"' + ''; $('#googleAdRightRail').html(rt); } function getValidChannel() { var getChannel = function(subDomain) { return subDomain; } var validChannels = new Array("adventure", "auto","computer","electronics"," entertainment","food","health","h ome","mobiltravelguide","money" ,"people","recipes","science","trav el","www","reference","maps","vi deos","history","geography","ani m a l s " ) ; v a r subDomain=document.domain.spl it(".")[0]; if (subDomain) { var x; for (var x = 0; x This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
44
Culture/ Sports/
KEY
durable goods and consumer confidence will also be important. Monday, 27th February US Pending Home Sales (Jan): Consensus expects 1.0%mom after a 3.5% fall in December. Israel Monetary Policy Meeting : We and consensus expect no change from 2.50%. Also Interesting: ECB Asmussen Speech Tuesday, 28th February US Durable Goods Orders (Jan): Consensus expects -1.0% mom after 3.0% mom in December. US Consumer Confidence (Feb): Consensus expects a rise to 63.0 from 61.1 in January. Hungary Monetary Policy Meeting: We and consensus expect the base-rate to be unchanged at 7.00% Also Interesting: South Africa Q4 GDP, Philippines Jan exports, Japan retail sales Wednesday, 29th February India 2011 Q4 GDP: We expect 6.5%yoy vs consensus of 6.3% yoy after 6.9% yoy in Q3. Sweden Q4 GDP: We expect 2.8% yoy growth down from 4.6% yoy in Q3 2011. Euro area CPI (Jan): For core
CPI, consensus expects 1.7%yoy after 1.6% yoy in December. Bernanke Speech (semi annual testimony) Also Interesting: Fed Beige Book, US GDP Q4 (2nd), Australia/Germany Retail Sales (Jan), South Korea/Japan Jan IP, Thailand Jan Exports, UK Feb Consumer confidence, Switzerland KOF Thursday, 1st March South Korea Exports (Feb): Consensus expects 13.7% yoy after -7.0% yoy in January. China PMI Manufacturing (Feb): Consensus expects 50.8 up from 50.5 in January. Germany Flash CPI (Feb): Consensus expects 2.2% yoy after 2.1% yoy in January. US ISM/Global PMI: For ISM, consensus expects a reading of 54.5 in February up from 54.1 in January. US Personal Income (Jan): Consensus expects 0.4% mom, the same as in December. Switzerland GDP (Q4): We expect 0.3% yoy vs consensus of 1.0% yoy, down from 1.3% yoy in Q3 2011. Philippines Central Bank
Meeting: We expect the policy rate to be unchanged. Consensus expects a cut of 25bps to 4.00% down from 4.25%. Russia CB Meeting: We expect no change in the policy rate. EU Summit begins Also interesting: Brazil Exports, South Korea/Indonesia/Thailand CPI, Poland Q4 GDP Friday, 2nd March Canada GDP (Q4): We expect 2.1% yoy up from 2.0% in Q3 2011. EU Summit ends And a tabular summary from SocGen: Average: Your rating: None Average: 4.7( 3 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.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Bring Sexy Glamour to the Academy Awards
Lisa Sugar (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:40:32 PM
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made a glamorous entrance at tonight's 84th Academy Awards in LA. Angelina looked stunning in a black velvet Atelier Versace gown with a sexy slit while Brad brought his hotness in a Tom Ford tuxedo. They arrived with Brad's parents Jane and Bill. Angelina is presenting the award for original screenplay tonight and Brad is nominated for best actor in Moneyball. Brad continues to go head-to-head with his buddy George Clooney, who has already
taken home many awards this season, including a best actor Golden Globe. Make sure to vote on all the Oscar polls! View Slideshow
The Oscars in social media [infographic]

(Holy Kaw!)
Via Banyan Branch. Like infographics? So do we.
Permalink| Leave a comment
UPDATE 1-Golf-Huh edges Allenby in playoff to triumph in Mexico

Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:55:01 PM
(Adds detail, quotes) Feb 26 (Reuters) - American rookie John Huh won hisfirst PGA Tour title in only his fifth start by
beatingAustralian Robert Allenby in a marathon playoff at the MayakobaGolf Classic in Mexico on Sunday. Huh, who had never
competed on the U.S. circuit until thisyear, sealed victory at the eighth extra hole to deny the40year-old Allenby a first PGA Tour
win since the 2001Pennsylvania Classic. ...
Economy/ Culture/ Finance/
45
JEREMY GRANTHAM: The 10 Shakespearean Rules Of Investing

Sam Ro (Money Game)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:27:00 PM
Jeremy Grantham's latest quarterly letter to GMO clients came out on Friday. His letters are loaded with brilliant investment wisdom, expert analysis on the economy, and prescient calls on the markets. The first section of the three-part letter is titled Investment Advice From Your Uncle Polonius. Grantham channels this Shakespearean character to communicate 10 investing insights that should be taken very seriously. Click Here For Investment Advice From Uncle Polonius > Here's an explanatory footnote from the GMO letter: Polonius, a character in Hamlet, a verbose, self-important advisor to the King, was clearly intended to be a real loser, but curiously in the end Shakespeare couldnt resist making most of his ponderous advice actually useful and memorable. His famous speech to his son Laertes who is embarking on a dangerous sea voyage to France (from Denmark) is
can. Leverage reduces the investors critical asset: patience." Source: GMO Don't put all your treasure in one boat "Several different investments, the more the merrier, will give your portfolio resilience, the ability to withstand shocks. Clearly, the more investments you have and the more different they are, the more likely you are to survive those critical periods when your big bets move against you." Source: GMO See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook. See Also: reproduced as an Appendix. inefficient and wanders far from Jeremy Grantham: The Fed Is (Hamlet makes genocidal if rather fair price but eventually, after Creating Its LAST Bubble unintentional war on the Polonius breaking your heart and your New Jeremy Grantham Letter family, accounting for Laertes, his patience (and, for professionals, Warns That "Pavlovs Bulls" Are sister Ophelia, and poor Polonius those of their clients too), it will "Living On Borrowed Time" himself: a clean sweep.) go back to fair value. Your task is Grantham: Yes, Stocks Are We pulled the key quotes and to survive until that happens." Overvalued, But You Have To digested the lengthy sections of Source: GMO Buy Them Because Bond Prices his letter for you. But we Neither lender nor borrower be Are Ridiculous recommend reading the full- "If you borrow to invest, it will length version on GMO's website. interfere with your survivability. Believe in history Unleveraged portfolios cannot be " T h e m a r k e t i s g l o r i o u s l y stopped out, leveraged portfolios
Sandra Bullock Wears Black and White on the Oscars Red Carpet
Allie Merriam (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:01:50 PM
Prudential may move headquarters to Hong Kong

Graham Ruddick (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Sandra Bullock hit the red carpet at the Oscars in LA tonight! She's one of the many presenters taking the stage during this evening's show. She memorably won her own Academy Award back in 2010, winning best actress for her leading role in The Blind Side. Sandra isn't up for an individual honor today, but one of her movies could be crowned best picture - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of nine best picture nominees! What do you think of Sandra's ensemble? Make sure to weigh in on all our love it or hate it Oscars polls. View Slideshow
Britain's largest insurance company, Prudential, is considering moving its
headquarters to Hong Kong.
46
Economy/ Culture/ News Photos
Grant Williams On The Simplicity Of Owning Gold

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:22:06 PM
Photos: Rays spring training MyFox Tampa Bay

(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:23:39 PM
As we enter a week in which the expectations are high for yet another large expansion of central bank balance sheets, and ever more extreme monetary policy (thanks to the LTRO 2), we thought it appropos to listen to Grant Williams, of the famous "Things That Make You Go Hhhhm" newsletter, explain in its simplest terms, why it is still a good time to own gold. In two excellent and succinct presentations, Williams discusses the 'simplicity' of investing through the last four decades but ends by focusing specifically on the rotation to Gold at the start of the last decade (2000) and why the reason for rotating out of the precious metal has not occurred
yet. Seeing the world of Gold as a battle between Too Much and Not Enough(and drawing on global supply, demand, and holdings flow) Williams lays out the reasons for owning gold, and how to know when to cover - as he narrows the five reasons to
reconsider Buffett-and-Roubini's Barbarous Relic down to one simple rule - Central Bank Monetary Policy Changes. Simplicity 1- An introduction to investing by Simplicitly over the past forty years and making one big decision through each decade
- ending with a focus on the current position in Gold and Central bank largesse writ large... Simplicity 2- Williams expands specifically on Gold- with key insights on owndership, supply, demand shifts, demographics, and central bank behavior with a succinct summation of reasons to own and reasons to exit that should help many deal with the ebbs and flows. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 7 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.
MyFox Tampa Bay Photos: Rays spring training MyFox Tampa Bay ( Photos Kerry Klecic/ MyFoxTampaBay.com) The Tampa Bay Rays opened full squad workouts Sunday in Port Charlotte. ( Photos Kerry Klecic/ MyFoxTampaBay.com) The Tampa Bay Rays opened full squad workouts Sunday in Port Charlotte. and more
More than the basket youre born with: Women can make more eggs [video]
(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:56:00 PM
Over the last few decades, its become accepted fact that women get one basket of eggs at birth and
thats that, but those crazy ovaries have a few more surprises in store. It turns out that women in the reproductive time of life have ovarian stem cells, which can
produce new eggs capable of
being fertilized, as this video from Nature Medicine explains. Thanks to Jonathan Tilly and team for an ego boost for the girls down there! Full story at Scientific American. Reproductive science.
Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment
Culture/
47
5 Reasons Jesus Would Be Fired If He Were Hired as a Youth Leader

February 23, 2012| 10:19 am 1. He would shrink the group before he grew it. In the Gospels Jesus scared away the loud crowds and nestled into the committed core on several occasions. What makes us think he would do anything differently in a modern youth group context as a youth leader? His large and thriving "youth group" shrunk to next to nothing after his hard-to-understand lesson on communion in John 6:66, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." In Luke 14:25-27 Jesus implemented his crowd shrinking strategy in a much more direct way, "Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters-yes, even their own life-such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Calling for such radical commitment would cause pastors' kids to complain to their parents. Not to mention how Jesus' thought provoking teaching style
(that often created more questions than answers) would cause parents and pastors alike to cringe. Their red faces would soon turn into a pink slip. Like us on Facebook 2. He would do most of his youth ministry outside the four walls of the youth room. How much time do we see Jesus ministering in the temple or synagogues (the equivalent of a church building in the Jewish context)? He was there some but, more often than not, his pulpit could be found by a fig tree, on a pathway, in a field, on a mountain or in a boat. He used nature as sermon illustrations and "that just happened" incidents as his teaching curriculum. Jesus was his own mobile app. He applied truth on the go to the lives of his mostly teenaged disciples in real life situations and it would get him fired real quick from most churches. 3. He would bring the "un" ones (dirty, flirty and rejected) into his inner circle. Jesus reached the dirty "A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.' Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man." Mark 1:40,41 Jesus reached the flirty "When one of the Pharisees
invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is-that she is a sinner.'" Luke 7:36-39 Jesus reached the rejected. "When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.' So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a sinner'" Luke 19:5-7. As soon as Jesus started bringing converted call girls, puss-oozing sickies and cultural rejects into youth group many pretty and pristine Bible-toting, Scripturequoting teenagers would evacuate the premises. Soon the elders would call a meeting and, well, you know what happens after that. 4. He would confront the status
quo in the youth group and church at large. "When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, 'Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a market!' His disciples remembered that it is written: 'Zeal for your house will consume me.' The Jews then responded to him, 'What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?'" John 2:13-18 Imagine the scenario, Jesus flipping tables in the church foyer and screaming, "Why have you turned my Father's house into a den of robbers?" Sure, our churches aren't selling over-priced livestock for temple sacrifices. But many of them are selling the fattened calves of consumeristic Christianity that caters to self and not service to God. You wonder how many Sunday school classes Jesus would interupt and ask, "Why don't we get out of here and go down to the local shelter together? We can feed the poor,
clothe the hungry and share the gospel. I can teach you the lesson in the church van on the way back." This would lead to the inevitable "Our leadership team is headed in a different direction" conversation. 5. His hair would be way too long to be taken seriously. Below the ears is risky but below the shoulders? Come on! If you can't trust a man to visit the barber once in awhile can you trust him to run a youth ministry? I didn't think so! Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colo., where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the gospel. With experience as a senior teaching pastor and in youth ministry for almost 20 years, Greg has a reputation of knowing and relating to today's teens. He is widely viewed as an authority and expert teen spirituality. He is known for motivating, mobilizing and equipping teens for positive change. For more information on Dare 2 Share Ministries, and the 2010-2011 Un conference tour, please visit www.dare2share.org. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is REASONS page 48
48
Culture/
Richard Dawkins Reveals He Is Agnostic

were an atheist and a Christian. "I sit here as a representative of ignorance," he said jokingly. So naturally, it was a surprise to (Photo: REUTERS/Andrew him when Dawkins, who was Winning) The Archbishop of described by Kenny as "the Cantebury Rowan Williams (R) world's most famous atheist," said and atheist scholar Richard he is actually an agnostic, because Dawkins pose for a photograph he has no way of disproving outside Clarendon House at God's existence. Oxford University, before their Like us on Facebook debate in the Sheldonian theatre Dawkins explained himself in Oxford, central England, further by pointing to his book, February 23, 2012. The name of T h e G o d D e l u s i o n , w h i c h the debate is "The Nature of contains in it a seven-point scale Human Beings and the Question he created for people to evaluate of their Ultimate Origin." their beliefs with. The number one on the scale means "I know God February 24, 2012| 3:28 pm exists," and number seven means Dawkins revealed that he is in "I know he doesn't exist." On that fact not an atheist as he is not 100 scale, Dawkins said, he is a six percent sure God doesn't exist. (though he half-jokingly increased The discussion, titled "The that number to a 6.9 later on in the Nature of Human Beings and the discussion). Question of Their Ultimate Dawkins doesn't identify himself Origin," was moderated by with many other agnostics, he philosopher and agnostic Sir explained, because they believe Anthony Kenny. that there is about a fifty-fifty "I don't know whether there's a chance that there is a God. He G o d o r n o t . I ' m o p e n t o believes, by comparison, that the persuasion either way," said probability of the existence of any Kenny, as he explained why he supernatural entity is lower than sat between what he believed that.
"What I can't understand is why you don't see the extraordinary beauty of the idea that we can't explain the world, universe [and] life," Dawkins said to Williams. "That is such a staggeringly elegant and beautiful thing. Why would you want to clutter up your worldview with something so messy as a God?" The Archbishop who said during the discussion that he believes in both God and evolution said he agrees with Dawkins that creation is elegant and beautiful, but disagrees on other points. "I don't see clutter coming into it at all ... I'm not thinking of God as an extra that has to be shoehorned, somehow, into this," said Williams. One question that was posed to Williams asked under the assumption that the earth is billions of years old and that the Bible's writers had no scientific knowledge of how old it actually was at the time if the writers of the Bible should have avoided writing about the origins of the earth? "The writers of the Bible, inspired
as I believe they were, were nonetheless not inspired to do twenty-first century physics. They were inspired to pass on to their readers what God wanted them to know," said Williams. "And that means, reading the first book of the Bible, what I look for is the basic information: The universe depends on God and God's freedom, humanity has a very distinctive role in that universe and, from the first measurable moment, humanity has made a rather conspicuous mess of that role." Another major focus of the discussion was on human consciousness. The archbishop, who is the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, pointed out that human beings are self-aware and have the ability to ask questions, tell jokes, fantasize and even pray abilities that aren't seen in other animals. Dawkins described human consciousness as "deeply mysterious," but said it is something he believes science will eventually figure out. Kenny asked Williams if he thought the human soul survives
death, and he said it does. "The confidence that I, as a Christian, have about that is not the belief that there's something in me that will survive," said Williams. "It's a belief in the kind of God who does not terminate the relationship initiated from God's side as I develop and grow." Both Dawkins and Williams have ties to the University of Oxford. The university's chancellor, Christopher Patten, explained before the discussion that there were three "packed" theaters in Oxford and people watching around the world via a live Web stream. The size of the audience, he said, helped to "underline the importance of this event." 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.
REASONS
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/ Politics-Left/
49
Navigating through different car rebates and incentives can be tricky. How knowledgeable are you when it comes to car rebates and incentives? Take this quiz and find out!
(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
See All of the StarStudded Arrivals at the 2012 Oscars!

Brittney Stephens (PopSugar)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:49:43 PM
Navigating through different car rebates and incentives can be tricky. How knowledgeable are you when it comes to car rebates and incentives? Take this quiz and find out! 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
Syria holds vote on new constitution

(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 2/26/2012 2:52:21 PM
The 84th Annual Academy Awards are underway, and the stars brought full-on glamour to the red carpet. Michelle Williams looked amazing in orange Louis Vuitton, George Clooney and Stacy Keibler played the Old Hollywood card in Giorgio Armani and gold Marchesa, respectively, and Viola Davis's emerald-hued Vera Wang gown
had us green with envy. See all the star-studded arrivals on the Oscars red carpet when you click through now. View Slideshow
Voting is under way in Syria on a new constitution that could theoretically end five decades of one-party rule, amid an call for a boycott of the referendum from opposition activists and a SYRIA page 50
Colombia's FARC rebels 'to free hostages'

Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:28:25 PM
statement published on its website on Sunday. Al Jazeera's Toby Muse reported Colombia's FARC, the country's from Bogota that the kidnappings largest left-wing rebel group, has have been "nothing but a disaster vowed to free 10 remaining police for the FARC" and have lost the and military hostages and end its group a lot of support from the practice of kidnapping civilians. population. "We wish to announce that in "You do see that the FARC seems addition to our already announced to be clamouring for talks at this plans to free six prisoners of war, moment," our correspondent said. we will free the four others who "[The FARC] has taken a number remain under our power," the of blows, including the killing of Revolutionary Armed Forces of a n u m b e r o f i r r e p l a c e a b l e Colombia (FARC) group said in a leaders," he said, noting that
nonetheless, the group still counts at least 8,000 members spread across the country. The promised liberations could help advance negotiations to end the long civil conflict as the government says the group must free all the hostages it holds before talks can start. However, FARC did not say it was abandoning hostilities. 'Tricks and deception' The rebels announced on December 27 that they would free six of the captives, but said a
month later that they were delaying the release because of a government "militarization" of the area where it said release was planned. Neither the earlier statement nor the new one specified the location or set a date. That announcement, also on the rebel website, prompted President Juan Manuel Santos to issue a tweet: "My God, no more tricks and deception. We don't even know where the hostages are. They haven't provided the co-
ordinates. Free them now!" Latin America's last major rebel movement, the FARC was founded in 1964. It has been releasing captives piecemeal since early 2008. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
50
SYRIA
continuing government assault on their strongholds. Polls opened at 7:00am local time (5:00 GMT) on Sunday, with more than 14 million people over the age of 18 eligible to vote at 13,835 polling stations. With many parts of the country reeling from weeks of military assault, and army defectors engaged in a guerrilla campaign against loyalist troops, it was unclear how the ballot could prove to be convincing. Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, unveiled the proposed new national charter earlier this month in his latest reform pledge since protests erupted last March. The resulting violence has left more than 7,600 people dead, monitors say. Syria blames the violence on "armed terrorist gangs". Assad has promised to hold parliamentary elections within 90 days if voters approve the new constitution. However, the decision to hold the referendum has failed to ease global pressure on his government. Activists' perspective Louay Safi, a leading member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition group, says the new constitution will be "meaningless" in bringing about change because it is being created by a government that continues to violate its own laws in its campaign to crush the uprising. "The major problem is that the government is violating the current constitution," Safi told Al
Jazeera. "What we fear is if the regime stays intact, the new constitution will be meaningless. "So the real step to have a new constitution is to have a new or transitional government." A security expert explains why it would be nearly impossible to expect a free and fair election in Syria In Damascus, the Syrian capital, and its suburbs, opposition activists said they would try to hold protests near polling centres and burn copies of the new constitution. "No one is going to vote," Omar, an activist, said via Skype in advance of the referendum from the flashpoint Bab Amr district of the central city of Homs. "This was a constitution made to Bashar's tastes and meanwhile we are getting shelled and killed," he said. "More than 40 people were killed today and you want us to vote in a referendum? ... No one is going to vote." "What should we be voting for, whether to die by bombardment or by bullets? This is the only choice we have," said Waleed Fares, an activist in the Khalidiyah district of Homs. Adel Safar, the country's prime minister, said on Sunday that the opposition's call for a boycott indicated a lack of interest in dialogue. "If there was a genuine desire for reform, there would have been movement from all groups, especially the opposition, to
start dialogue immediately with the government to achieve the reforms and implement them on the ground," he said. Violence continues The vote was under way on Sunday as government security forces shelled residential areas in Bab Amr for the 26th day in a row, reportedly killing at least nine people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition group. The group said that rebel soldiers had also killed at least four government troops in the city. The SOHR said that eight civilians and 10 members of the government's security forces were killed elsewhere in the country, bringing the total death toll for Sunday to 31. Intense violence was reported in the province of Deraa, where the uprising first began last March. Activist groups said at least 100 people, mostly civilians, were killed across the country on Saturday alone as government forces besieged opposition strongholds in the cities of Homs, Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Deraa. The new constitution would drop an article making Assad's Baath party the leader of state and society, allow for political pluralism and enact a presidential limit of two seven-year terms. One-party rule The charter, framed by a committee of 29 people appointed by Assad, would drop the highly controversial Article 8 in the
existing charter, which makes the Baath party "the head of state and society". That would effectively end the monopoly on power the Baathists have enjoyed since they seized power in a 1963 coup that brought Assad's late father, Hafez, to power. Instead, the new political system would be based on "pluralism," although it would ban the formation of parties on religious lines. Under the new charter, the president would maintain his grip on broad powers, as he would still name the prime minister and government and, in some cases, could veto legislation. Article 88 states that the president can be elected for two seven-year terms, but Article 155 says these conditions only take effect after the next election for a head of state, set for 2014. This means that Assad could theoretically stay at the helm for another 16 years. This is Syria's third referendum since Assad inherited power from his late father. The first installed him as president in 2000 with an official 97.2 per cent in favour. The second renewed his term seven years later with 97.6 percent in favour. ICRC negotiations As the military onslaught continued across the country, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was still unable to evacuate distressed civilians from Bab Amr.
After a day of talks with Syrian authorities and opposition fighters, it said there were "no concrete results". "The ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent are still negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition groups. We are attempting to go into the affected area of Baba Amro today," said ICRC chief spokeswoman Carla Haddad. "We are working in good faith and need consensus of all involved in the violence," she said. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, called on Syrians who still support the president to abandon him. She said "the longer you support the regime's campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, the more it will stain your honor. If you refuse however to prop of the regime or take part in attacks ... your countrymen and women will hail you as heroes." Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, called Sunday's vote "a farce". 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.
Politics-Left/
51
Australia's PM retains Labor Party leadership

Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:05:07 PM
Kevin Rudd was ousted as leader and Prime Minister by Julia Gillard in 2010 [GALLO/ GETTY] Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has emphatically won a leadership vote by the ruling Labor Party over her rival and former premier Kevin Rudd, Australian media reported. Gillard won with 71 votes to 31 for Rudd, but now faces a mammoth task to rebuild support for her divided and unpopular minority government. . The result emerged just under an hour after the vote began in Canberra on Monday. A cabinet reshuffle is now expected to fill Mr Rudd's position as foreign minister, from which he resigned last week. Gillard called the vote to stamp her authority on the party and stop Rudd's push to regain the leadership after his sudden resignation as foreign minister last week. That move followed weeks of
mounting infighting between the two camps. Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas reporting from Canberra says: "This is a humiliating defeat for Kevin Rudd". "The task for Julia Gillard is to build up a force for the Labor Party for the next general election," said our reporter. Gaining popularity Rudd's supporters earlier put
Gillard on notice that whatever the leadership result, she must lift the government's standing in opinion polls or she could still be dumped as prime minister before the next election. The leadership vote has exposed deep divisions within the unpopular government, which opinion polls show would lose an election by a landslide. Gillard, languishing in public
opinion polls, now faces a tough task to lift support for Labor and its minority government ahead of general elections scheduled for late 2013 Rudd, ousted as prime minister in a shock June 2010 party-room coup, faced Gillard in a secret Labor ballot for the leadership after dramatically resigning as foreign minister in a bid for the top job.
Rudd came to power in a 2007 election landslide which ended more than a decade of conservative rule, but a series of policy mis-steps saw him lose the confidence of party chiefs and he was axed for the more pragmatic Gillard. While Rudd did not have the support of his parliamentary colleagues, he has consistently polled above Gillard as preferred prime minister, and has said he was the only leader capable of turning around the government's poor polling. Before the vote, Rudd said he would return to the government backbench and would not challenge Gillard a second time before the next election. 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.
52
TV/
Julie Gerstenblatt: Fake Academy Awards 2012

Julie Gerstenblatt (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
Best dramatic actor on 4 legs. And the nominees are: Joey the horse from War Horse Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:10:50 PM Rosie the elephant from Water Last year, my husband and I for Elephants created a matrix in order to Maximilian (Blackie the determine how to win an Oscar in D o b e r m a n ) f r o m H u g o 14 easy steps (which you can read Best comedic actor on 4 legs. here). This year, we are handing And the nominees are: out pretend Academy Awards. Dolce (Palmer the Pomeranian) So, without further ado, from our from Young Adult imaginations to your computer The dog (Uggie the Jack Russell) screen, here are the top Oscars in The Artist that no one in Hollywood will be (I'd like to make a prediction here. receiving this year. Uggie is the clear frontrunner, Best picture set in France in having won this year's Palm Dog which all the actors speak with award at Cannes and having British accents: already played a dog in Water for Hugo Elephants. Palmer the Pomeranian Best picture set in Sweden in has no prior experience in films which all the actors speak with and was hard to work with, slightly different, untraceable, according to co-star Charlize can't-quite-put-your-finger-on- Theron.) where-they're-from accents: Best Acceptance Speech: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Artist Best period mustache. And the Best Brad Pitt film. And the nominees are: nominees are: Jean Dujardin for The Artist Oh, you know what they are, Sacha Baron Cohen for Hugo right? In case you don't stalk him Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs like I do, they are Moneyball and
The Tree of Life. The odds are, that when you take Brad Pitt and put him in a baseball film based on a book about sabermetrics, there is a 37.5 percent chance of a win, based on prior statistics in which he was nominated for five Golden Globes but only won one, most recently losing to George Clooney for best actor. Now, if you also account for the four Oscar nods Pitt's received over his career, plus the four BAFTA nominations, and if you multiply that by the number of children he has, both biological and adopted, you will discover absolutely nothing about The Tree of Life. Best dramatic, sad-as-heck movie that was marketed as a comedy: The Descendants Best movie that I can't make fun of in any way, shape or form because of the 9/11 subject matter: Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close Best Julia-Child-as-MargaretThatcher Award: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Actress you hope wins so that she doesn't act out afterwards in anger and retribution: Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Best movie in which the director realizes he's aged out of playing the fumbling, bumbling romantic lead: Midnight in Paris Best movie based on a novel that took forever to get published, thus giving hope to frustrated novelists, like myself, and the hopeful mothers of these novelists, like my mother, who brag about their offspring at dinner parties despite the fact that their creative, brilliant children haven't sold a manuscript. Otherwise known as the "But Look What Happened to Katherine Stockett" award: The Help Think of others? Feel free to add them below. Let's watch the fake awards pile up, at least until the real ones do this Sunday, February 26th on ABC.
TV/ Gaming/
53
Gregory Peck's Grandson Shailene Woodley Heads To 'The Selection' Is Studying To Be An Herbalist
Jaimie Etkin (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)
Teegarden was recently revealed to be "The Selection's" leading lady. Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:26:48 PM In more TV casting news ... Gregory Peck's grandson is Bryan Greenberg is heading to heading to The CW. CBS to fall in love. The former Ethan Peck, who previously star of HBO's "How to Make It in starred on ABC Family's "10 America" landed the male lead Things I Hate About You" opposite JoAnna Garcia in the adapatation, will star in " The pilot from Greg Berlanti and Greg Selection," according to The Malins. Greenberg will play H o l l y w o o d R e p o r t e r . T h e womanizer Nick, who realizes his "Hunger Games"-esque drama is longtime best female friend, set 300 years in the future and is Wendy, is "the one" due to some based on an upcoming book unfortunate health circumstances. franchise by Kiera Cass. Of course, unfortunately for Nick, The show will focus on America, Wendy is engaged. Former a poor young woman who is "Heroes" star Greg Grunberg will chosen by lottery to compete to co-star in the romantic comedy as marry a prince (Peck). "Friday Wendy's brother Charlie. [ TV N i g h t L i g h t s " a l u m A i m e e Guide]
Former "Joan of Arcadia" star Elaine Hendrix has joined "American Judy." In the Judy Greer-fronted ABC comedy, Hendrix will play the town sheriff ex-wife of Greer's character's husband. [ TVLine] Tracy Spiradakos has been cast in NBC's "Revolution." The " Being Human" star has earned a part in the drama that's executive produced by J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burkfrom and written by the creator of "Supernatural." "Revolution" follows the struggle of a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously disappeared. [ TVLine]
Stephanie Marcus (TV on HuffingtonPost.com)

Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:29:24 PM
Everyone needs a backup plan -even Golden Globe nominated actresses. On the red carpet at the 2012 Oscars this evening we learned that"The Descendants" star Shailene Woodley is studying to be an herbalist, and it's apparently something the 20-year-old actress is passionate about. In November the actress, who also stars on "The Secret Life of The American Teenager," told the
FABLife: If I wasnt acting, I'd be either studying massage therapy or probably in the woods with some random group trying to survive in the wild, and Im not kidding, just to see if I could do it. Or going to herbalism school." It sounds as if she followed through on her passion -- but we weren't the only ones surprised to learn she was taking herbalism classes. Comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted: Is the teenage soughter from the descendandts really gonna b am herbalist or was that a "bit"?
Hitting on girls with subliminal video game titles is surprisingly effective

Jessica Conditt (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:30:00 PM
We may have strange taste in mates, but we don't think the above pickup lines from comedy group Simple Pickup are all that bad. In reality they're terrible, of course, but as far as "subliminally
inserting video game titles into pickup lines for random university girls" goes, the guys above do a pretty good job of things. They're even slightly successful -- maybe not "sticking my thing in her Portal" successful, but still. to use these in the local young- more success than the gentlemen. Numbers were received. person setting of your choice. And yes, we mean the Portal kind. We're not saying this is a Ladies, we expect you'll have Hitting on girls with subliminal challenge, but we challenge you
video game titles is surprisingly effective originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Products/ Sports/
2012 Annual Auto Issue: Best cars for braking

Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
performance, visit the respective model overview pages. Best 60-0 mph, feet Worst 60-0 mph, feet Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:59:59 AM Sports/Sporty car Porsche Boxster 2012 Annual Auto Issue: Best 112 Volvo C30 T5 143 Small car cars for braking Chevrolet Sonic LT 128 Nissan Good brakes are critical for Cube 149 Family car Nissan controlling a car and avoiding Altima 3.5 SR 128 Hyundai accidents. In our tests, we Sonata Hybrid 148 Upscale sedan measure dry and wet braking to variance between the best and Infiniti G37 (sedan) 126 Lincoln assess how each vehicle compares worst vehicles, with the extremes MKZ 3.5 142 Luxury sedans Audi to its competition, and we find separated by 39 ft. To put that in A8L there can be significant variation perspective, if a trio of the best- BMW 750Li 126 from the best to the worst stopping Porsche Boxsters were 126 Mercedes-Benz S550 141 performers. traveling at 60 mph, trailed by a Small SUV Honda CR-V EX 128 To measure how cars do in this bumper-riding Jeep Wrangler Jeep Liberty 150 Midsized SUV i m p o r t a n t t e s t a r e a , o u r Unlimited, and all vehicles Acura MDX 126 Jeep Wrangler automotive engineers conduct a applied the brakes with maximum Unlimited 151 series of tests, bringing a car from f o r c e , t h e J e e p w o u l d b e Subscribe now! 60 mph to zero on wet and dry theoretically halt atop the leading S u b s c r i b e t o pavement. To collect the data, Porsche. The differences are so ConsumerReports.org for expert each test car is rigged with a severe they could be measured in Ratings, buying advice and pavement-scanning optical device car lengths. reliability on hundreds of that records precise stopping To see the best and worst cars in products. Update your feed times and distances. We also braking, check out the list below. preferences judge brake-pedal modulation. For more detailed information on Our current results show notable
Georgia rips LSU to lock up first-round bye in SEC tournament - ESPN

(- Bing News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:59:04 PM
Team Stat Comparison LSU UGA Points 46 62 FG MadeAttempted 18-47 (.383) 22-51 (.431) 3P Made-Attempted 2-7 (.286) 7-18 (.389) FT MadeAttempted 8-10 (.800) 11-19 (.579) Fouls (Tech/Flagrant) 17 (0 /0) 13 (0/0) Largest Lead 4 20 Game Leaders LSU UGA Points C. Jones 11 K. Miller 14 Rebounds A. Webb 6 A. Armstrong 7 Assists L. Barrett 3 M. Mitchell 5 Steals T. Turnbow 3 A. Armstrong 7 Blocks J. Kenney 1 A. Armstrong 1 Associated Press ATHENS, Ga. -- Khaalidah Miller scored 14 points to lead Georgia (No. 16 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) over LSU 6246 Sunday, taking third place in the Southeastern Conference in the final regular-season game for both teams and also clinching the third seed in the conference tournament. Jasmine Hassell
added 12 points for the Lady Bulldogs (22-7, 11-5), and Meredith Mitchell had 10.After trailing early, the Lady Bulldogs used a 13-0 run midway through the first half to take a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Georgia led by two points at the break but outscored LSU, who got within four points a couple of times, 3623 to seal it in the second half.The Lady Bulldogs clinched a firstround bye in the SEC tournament.Courtney Jones and Adrienne Webb had 11 points apiece to pace the Lady Tigers (20 -9, 10-6), who clinched the fourth seed and also grabbed a bye in next week's conference tournament. Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
Sports/
55
Rain pushes Daytona 500 to noon ET Monday - NBC Sports

(- Bing News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:30:26 PM
John Harrelson / Getty Images The No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson sits covered on the grid Sunday. By MARK LONG updated 6:26 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2012 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. NASCAR has raced on the beach at Daytona, under the lights and even around a pesky pothole. But never on a Monday until now. The Daytona 500 was postponed Sunday for the first time in its 54year history after heavy rain saturated Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR officials spent more than four hours waiting for a window to dry the famed track, but it never came. When the latest storm cell passed over the speedway around 5 p.m., they had little choice but to call it a day. The 500-mile race was rescheduled for noon Monday. It will be aired on Fox. "This is one of the toughest things for us drivers," pole-sitter Carl Edwards said. "It's now who can really stay focused. That's not just the drivers, that's the pit crews, the crew chiefs, everyone, the officials. But I think we'll be just fine."
But Monday might be another test for both drivers and fans. The forecast calls for more rain, and officials are prepared to wait all day and into the night to avoid a Tuesday race, which would strain teams that must get to Phoenix for next week's race. "The longer runway we have
tomorrow to get in the Daytona 500, the greater the likelihood for us to start and finish the event on Monday," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "There are certainly a lot of considerations that go into the start time decision, and we believe scheduling it for noon gives us the
best opportunity for us to get the race in tomorrow." Eight previous Daytona 500s have endured rain delays, the latest in 2009. But never before had storms forced NASCAR's premier event to be moved. "I think that's a pretty good record for NASCAR," Edwards said.
"They've been living right to have 53 of these and never have one postponed. That's pretty spectacular. ... I think NASCAR, they're doing the right thing, you know, not dragging this out." Noontime showers sent fans RAIN page 56
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Gaming/
RAIN
scattering for cover and leaving everyone in wait-and-see mode. Puddles of water formed in parts of the infield, and many fans got drenched as they tried to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation. Drivers retreated to their motorhomes, relaxing while keeping an eye on developments. Edwards, Brad Keselowski and others took naps. Former Daytona 500 winners Jamie McMurray and Trevor Bayne did in-studio interviews with Fox. Another previous race winner, Ryan Newman, played with his daughter in the motorhome lot. "I guess I'm gonna have to win the first Monday Daytona 500," driver Greg Biffle said. "As you can tell, I'm still in my uniform because I was optimistic that this weather was gonna get out of here and we were going to get this thing going. But I'll have to save my energy for tomorrow. "I know a lot of race fans are disappointed and a lot of people at home on TV, but we just hope they tune in tomorrow." The last shortened Daytona 500 was Matt Kenseth's victory three years ago, when rain stopped the event 48 laps from the finish. He was declared the winner while the cars were parked on pit road.
The 2010 race had more than two hours in delays as NASCAR twice stopped the event to fix a pothole in the surface. Jamie McMurray held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win that race. This time around, drivers didn't even get in their cars. "I didn't know when to eat. I didn't know when to rest. I didn't know what to do," Bobby Labonte said. "I never took my uniform off. I took a nap. I think we cleaned out the refrigerator snacking on things." Now, NASCAR must deal with the downside of moving its biggest race. Ratings and attendance will suffer, falling short of what the series expected. Fans surely will have complaints, too. Daytona president Joie Chitwood said he understood fans were frustrated about the scheduling change that pushed the race back one week later than usual. NASCAR and the track made the decision to move the start of the season to address an awkward early off weekend and to avoid potential conflicts with the Super Bowl. Had the race been run on its traditional Sunday, it would have been completed under a bright,
blue sky. "I'm sure I'm going to have some customers tell me about the date change and the challenges that we have with it," Chitwood said. "But I think weather is unpredictable. I think based on the NASCAR schedule, the TV schedule on whole, this was the right move for the industry. We'll continue to work with the last weekend of February. "It's unfortunate that this had to happen the first year after we made that change. I'm sure I'll be talking to a number of customers in the next weeks ahead about that situation." Chitwood also said trying to wait out the rain any longer Sunday wasn't an option, because the Daytona 500 deserves better than being crammed into the late evening hours. Pointing to several intriguing story lines, NASCAR was hoping to capitalize on the success of last season's captivating championship race. The Daytona 500 is the first of 10 scheduled Sprint Cup Series events this season for Danica Patrick, who left IndyCar behind for a full-time move to NASCAR. She will race for the Nationwide Series championship driving for
JR Motorsports. Three-time and defending NASCAR champion Tony Stewart is trying to snap an 0-for13 losing streak in the 500. Stewart's 17 victories at Daytona include everything but the 500, ranking him second on the alltime list behind the late Dale Earnhardt's 34 wins. Stewart will start third when the race goes green. Earnhardt Jr., the 2004 Daytona 500 champion, takes a 129-race losing streak into the event. His last victory was in 2008, his first season with powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports. 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. advertisement 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.
One post for three very different Vita launch trailers

Jessica Conditt (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:00:00 PM
The Vita supports a cornucopia of differing games, developers and play styles, and today we bring you the launch trailers for just three of the bunch: Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen, Touch My Katamari and Escape Plan. One of these is a serious swordbased fighter, one a showcase of Vita's black and white capabilities and the other an awkward, slightly dirty rainbow event. We'll let you figure out which is which. Continue reading One post for three very different Vita launch trailers One post for three very different Vita launch trailers originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Gaming/ Featured/ Politics-Right/
57
Everything is scaffolding
(Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 9:02:02 AM
Live-action Mass Effect 3 'Fight' trailer leaks ahead of The Walking Dead
Jordan Mallory (Joystiq)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:35:00 PM
This latest, live-action trailer for Mass Effect 3 was originally supposed to debut during tonight's new episode of AMC's hit comic adaptation The Walking Dead, but like everything else important, it
I love it when software gets to the stage that the worldoutline is getting to. For the last year, while under development, it's been a hot steamy mess. But I use my messes, and I have users, so every time I had to undo a mistake, or had to change my mind about how something worked, it meant a difficult "corner-turn" where breakage would happen, and putting the pieces back together was often hard work. But it seems to have paid off. The last set of changes have been ended up on YouTube first. Live-action Mass Effect 3 'Fight' cleanups. Taking out half-done trailer leaks ahead of The Walking Dead originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
experiments, and relying on frameworks that were experimental before but now are rely-able (or reliable). And as a side-product it's gotten faster and faster, to the point where I can now link to pieces on the worldoutline from Twitter without taking the server offline while the bots that hack Twitter pound every link you push through there (Twitter might try to do something about this btw). I just published a piece about infinite loops you might find interesting. I think it's really cool that all of a sudden people are curious about how programs work. I love to tell stories, and it's a challenge to find human terms to explain programming concepts.
Everything in programming, of course, is human -- the languages were designed by people, used by people. They fit our way of thinking. If insects had evolved into a high form of life maybe they would have come up with a different kind of programming. Hey for all we know they have. (That's how programmers think, always questioning assumptions.) Anyway, I expect to post more "over there" and at some point, "here" will move "there" as well. That's another thing about the tech world, everything is scaffolding, it's always just here to provide a basis for the next big thing that will replace this old thing.
R.I.P. Army Staff Sgt. Ahmed Altaie

(The Feed)
Sunday. At about 1 a.m. Sunday, U.S. officers knocked on the door of the family home in Ann Arbor, Via McClatchy: Mich., with news that Army Staff The U.S. military has recovered Sgt. Ahmed Altaie was confirmed the remains of the last U.S. dead, though they had no details service member missing in Iraq, yet on how or when he died, said ending a nearly six-year ordeal Entifadh Qanbar, his uncle and a involving shadowy militants and a close aide to Iraqi politician last soldier unaccounted for in tragic love story, his family said Ahmad Chalabi. Altaie was the Iraq. There is closure now, but
Submitted at 2/26/2012 9:13:23 AM
we still want to know: Was he killed, or did he die by natural causes in the hands of the group? Qanbar said, noting that his nephew had suffered kidney problems that couldve worsened during his time as a hostage. . . Closure. Greg Pollowitz This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is
your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
58
Politics-Right/ Technology/
Chart of the Week: Winter Gas Prices Reach All-Time High

Rob Bluey (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
reports from Florida put the price at nearly $6. World events are a big factor for rising gas prices in the United Submitted at 2/26/2012 9:28:01 AM The cost of gasoline today is at States. The growing economies in its highest point ever during China and India are fueling winter, an ominous sign of what increases in demand for oil. might be on the horizon in the Instability in the Middle East months to come. from Iran is also driving prices According to government data higher. And, in just a few months, from the U.S. Energy Information when government regulations Administration, the average price require major metropolitan cities of regular unleaded is $3.34 over t o u s e c l e a n e r b u r n i n g t h e t h r e e - m o n t h p e r i o d o f reformulated gasoline blends December, January and February. during the warmer spring and The current national average is summer months, motorists could even higher: $3.65, according to be face even higher prices. the latest figures from AAA. The rising cost of fuel has L a s t D e c e m b e r , m o t o r i s t s alarmed the White House, which encountered the highest-ever price held an event Thursday at the for gas at Christmas in history. University of Miami. President Today drivers in California are Obama outlined new plans to paying on average of more than i n c r e a s e d o m e s t i c e n e r g y $4 per gallon for regular. News p r o d u c t i o n .
Heritages Nick Loris responded with five half-truths about gas prices and five steps Congress and Obama can take to effectively combat them. Loris said high
prices threaten to stall the countrys economic resurgence. Higher gas prices drive up production costs for goods reliant on transportation, and more money spent at the pump means less money spent at restaurants and movie theaters, Loris said. Buying fewer goods and services tightens the economic vice and holds back job creation. 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.
HTC One V: we go hands -on (video)

Mat Smith (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:12:00 PM
Koran Rage: 7 Soldiers Injured in Grenade Attack

(The Feed)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 9:17:57 AM
Via The Telegraph: A protester was killed and seven US soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack on their base in a
sixth day of anti-American protests on Sunday, police said, as President Hamid Karzai called for calm. . . Time to bring the troops home. . . Greg Pollowitz Full-Text RSS service if this is This entry passed through the
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.
And here's the littlest addition to HTC's bid for mobile world domination -- the HTC One V. Well, at least the hardware's here. Unfortunately, we weren't unable to take the OS for a spin, but we did manage to give the hardware a tour. Our impressions on the retro -chic handset after the break, alongside a short-but-sweet video. Gallery: HTC One V hands-on at MWC 2012 Continue reading HTC One V: we go hands-on (video) HTC One V: we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments
Social Media/
59
How One Tech Company Got MTV to Embrace Live Music

Peter Pachal (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:30:41 PM
Seven years ago a Texas company called NewTek launched TriCaster, a product that essentially puts all the equipment from a TV news truck into one box. Its affordable as broadcasting equipment goes, with rigs as cheap as $5,000. When it unveiled TriCaster, NewTek thought its main customers would be amateur broadcasters looking to upgrade from shoestring operations. Then MTV came calling. In 2008 MTV was looking to ramp up its web operations. The first project: an online after show for its reality-show hit, The Hills, shot at a remote location. The problem, as with many web projects that are secondary to a main broadcast, was cash. MTV didnt want to invest a lot of money in something that hadnt been proven to work yet. So MTV called up NewTek and set up a TriCaster to handle the broadcast. The Hills after show ended up being a huge hit, so the network turned again to TriCaster for its next move in original online video: live-streaming concerts from an intimate club, New York Citys Webster Hall. We started producing a Hills aftershow live stream with the
TriCaster four years ago, says Jeff Jacobs, MTVs senior vice president of operations. Now we have a half-dozen series that have live streams associated with them. For us, [TriCaster] allows us to produce shows and content that we would not otherwise be able to produce. Although streaming a concert over the web is easy at a major venue like a stadium, all MTV had to work with at Webster Hall was a closet. Fortunately, thats more than enough space for a TriCaster, and it enables the channel to live-stream bands on a regular basis bands like The Kills and Mariana and the Diamonds, who normally wouldnt get any attention from a brand like MTV. Jacobs says it would be a natural move to expand the live music project beyond New York City, though there are no firm plans yet. However, MTVs streaming operations continue to grow. In addition to the live music and extra material from various shows, the network streams live red-carpet coverage of many awards shows including tonights Oscars via a TriCaster. SEE ALSO: New AppList: Apps For Streaming On-Demand Video MTV is just one of many major brands that discovered how
the Tri is for). On top of that, the most recent models have a few extra tricks. No money for a sleek studio? TriCaster can create a virtual one, complete with desks that are accurately lit. Theres also Apple AirPlay support, so if you have an TriCaster is a cheap and easy way iPhone or iPad, you can easily to set up a remote broadcast and turn its screen into one of your still make it look like a pro video sources. Nelson gives a runoperation. NewTeks senior vice down of the latest TriCaster in the p r e s i d e n t o f s t r a t e g i c video below: development, Philip Nelson, says As Nelson sees it, a TriCaster is a in addition to MTV, Glenn Beck good investment for anyone and several pro football and looking to monetize an onlinehockey teams have invested in a video operation. TriCaster as part of their web- If you want sponsors, streaming video operations. video needs to look like TV. You When we first launched it, we get more credibility. My 13-yearthought our target was enterprise, old son knows what TV looks like churches and education. We and he knows what dorm-room d i d n t r e a l i z e i t w o u l d b e video on YouTube looks like. implemented so widely from Citing TriCaster operators like broadcasters. the Streamin Garage, Nelson While services like Ustream can says several web-video pioneers turn anyone with a webcam into have used the equipment to an Internet broadcaster, its a far upgrade their operations. On top cry from the professionally cut, of that, a host of colleges and multiple-camera setups that universities have bought one to usually take place in a studio. A broadcast games locally and TriCaster can support up to four online. or even up to eight cameras Not to sound cheesy, but its or sources depending on the really changed lives. In the model, and its equipped to M i d w e s t t h e r e s a n N C A A simultaneously feed the stream to conference called the Horizon three different places: a broadcast League. They were doing about channel, a live stream on the web 10 sporting events a year. They and digital signage (thats what bought TriCasters for all their
schools and with the same budget they went from 10 live events to 400. It opened up sports gymnastics, swimming that would never get coverage. TriCaster has certainly been a success story for NewTek. Thanks to interest from pros and amateurs alike, the company has doubled from 60 to 120 employees since the first product was launched in 2005. Nelson says NewTek has sold thousands and thousands of TriCasters, and the company cant make them fast enough to satisfy worldwide demand. What do you think of TriCaster? Is it something you think youd use for your own live-streaming operation? Let us know in the comments. TriCaster: TV Studio in a Box The TriCaster aims to "democratize" broadcasting by packing a live production system into a piece of gear you could fit into a backpack. Click here to view this gallery. More About: broadcasting, live streaming, mtv, NewTek, TriCaster For more Media coverage: Follow Mashable Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Media channel Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
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Social Media/
The Long and Winding Road to Personal Heads-Up Displays

Chelsea Stark (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:53:29 PM
images. The combiner is coated with a transparent film that allows all With the rumors churning about other light to pass through, but Googles potentialheads-up reflects or refracts the light display glasses coming out at the generated by the projector unit, end of the year, we thought it was making it appear to float on the important to look back at the screen. As you can see in the history of this technlogy. above image of a HUD on an Heads-up displays allow users to aircraft, the information appears receive data on a screen in front over the sky so the pilot doesnt of them, so they dont have to have to turn his head. The l o o k s o m e w h e r e e l s e , t h u s projector units are powered by d i s r u p t i n g w h a t t h e y r e cathode ray tubes, similar to older concentrating on. Each HUD has televisions, an LED, or a LCD. three parts: the combiner, which is Video games are a common way the surface the data is projected to encounter HUD; interfaces on like a windshield or lens; players use to keep track of their the projector unit, which puts out health, ammunition or objective the image; and a video generation are all displayed in some variety computer, which creates the of HUD, a technique that evolved
then, to now, and even into the future. World War II Origins The HUD we know today evolved from the reflector sight on German planes in 1937. They allowed targeting assistance to be added to a scope for pilots to more easily aim. Eventually it incorporated displaying information such as air speed velocity and attack angle that made it easier for pilots to hit targets. Click here to view this gallery. especially as first-person But before they were even Image courtesy of iStockphoto, perspective games, like shooters futuristic concepts, basic HUDs lsannes and RPGs, became mainstream. were first put into practice by the More About: features, heads-up Theyve also appeared in sci-fi military as early as World War II. glasses, hud movies as part of everyday Read our slideshow to learn the technology. history of heads-up displays, from
Oscars 2012: Discuss the Awards, Social TV and Trends With Mashable [LIVE BLOG]
Brian Anthony Hernandez (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:23:38 PM
The 84th Academy Awards airs tonight, and were capturing all the action for you from Mashable HQ in New York City. Join us as we dish the details before, during
and after the ceremony, which starts at 8:30 p.m. ET. Starting at 7:30 p.m. ET, our team will talk all things Oscars, including digital, social media, predictions, winners and so much more. Were looking forward to having you chime in, too! And dont forget to check out
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Daily World/
61
Oscar hopefuls tread the red carpet

(Evening Standard - News)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 5:49:16 PM
Double Oscar winner Meryl Streep's turn as Margaret Thatcher has secured the actress her 17th 27 Feb 2012 Oscar nomination, while Gary Some of the biggest names in Oldman has clinched his first for Hollywood have paraded down his performance as a spymaster. the red carpet ahead of the 84th Streep, 62, is favourite to win best Academy Awards. actress for her role as the former Stars including George Clooney, British prime minister in The Iron Jessica Chastain and the star of Lady - and has already carried off The Artist, Berenice Bejo, greeted a Bafta award and a Golden Globe fans, signed autographs and posed for her role. for photographers outside the Dujardin told reporters on the red Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles carpet he was "so proud and ahead of the event. nervous" about the possibility of Bejo, nominated for supporting becoming the first Frenchman to actress for her role in the film, win the best actor gong, adding: was accompanied on the red "But I'm very happy to be here." carpet by her husband - the film's There was a moment of comedy director Michel Hazanavicius. when Sacha Baron Cohen arrived The silent black and white film - promoting his film The Dictator has 10 nominations, including - dressed in character as Admiral best film, director, and actor for General Aladeen and flanked by French star Jean Dujardin. It is the two women in military uniform first silent film to be nominated carrying bunches of flowers. for best picture at the Oscars since Supporting actor nominee the 1928 movie The Patriot. Kenneth Branagh said he felt "no
nerves, only excitement at this point" on the red carpet. He said he slept well the night before the ceremony and "got to bed at a reasonable time". British actor Oldman, 53, who has never been nominated before despite some acclaimed performances, is in the running for best actor for his role as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Only one film - Hugo, Martin Scorsese's 3D ode to early cinema - has more nominations than The Artist, but many of its nods are in technical categories. 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.
Gillard trounces Rudd to stay as PM

(Evening Standard - News)
party last week, soon after Mr Rudd quit as foreign minister, to Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:20:00 PM confirm her authority after 27 Feb 2012 simmering leadership tensions Australian prime minister Julia t h a t h a v e d e s t a b i l i s e d t h e Gillard has won a resounding g o v e r n m e n t f o r m o n t h s . victory against the party leader A narrow victory could have left she deposed two years ago, Kevin her exposed to a second challenge Rudd, in a ballot of Labour Party if Labour continued to trail the politicians that she had ordered in conservative opposition coalition hopes of putting down strife in opinion polls. within her unpopular government. Ms Gillard was deputy prime Ms Gillard defeated Mr Rudd by minister two years ago when she a resounding 71 votes to 31, made a snap challenge to Mr official Chris Hayes said after the Rudd's leadership. meeting. When Mr Rudd discovered how Media had earlier incorrectly few politicians were prepared to reported the result as 73 to 29. support him at the time, he did not Supporters of both candidates contest the ballot and Ms Gillard had expected Mr Rudd to gain became prime minister without a around a third of the votes. vote. Mr Rudd had vowed that if he This entry passed through the lost the ballot, he would remain in Full-Text RSS service if this is politics at least until elections due your content and you're reading it next year, but he said he would on someone else's site, please read not challenge her leadership the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentagain. only/faq.php#publishers. Five M r G i l l a r d c a l l e d f o r t h e Filters recommends: Donate to leadership ballot within her ruling Wikileaks.
62
Politics/
Quotes of the day

Allahpundit (Hot Air Top Picks)
the White House and suggested that the time had come for the party to rally around one Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:15:05 PM candidate, however imperfect. posted at 8:15 pm on February *** 26, 2012 by Allahpundit The most disturbing aspect of Whether Mitt Romney wins or this election is that despite the loses the Michigan and Arizona parlous condition of the country p r i m a r i e s o n T u e s d a y , h i s and the profound vulnerability of advisers are warning donors and t h e i n c u m b e n t , t h e b e s t other supporters to prepare for a Republican candidates Jeb longer, more bruising and more Bush, Mitch Daniels, Chris expensive fight for the Republican Christie, Marco Rubio, Paul presidential nomination that may Ryan, and Haley Barbour have not be settled until at least May sat it out. As I keep lamenting, in M r . S a n t o r u m i s l i k e w i s e the terrible year 1968, with preparing to fight on for weeks or assassinations, riots, 550,000 months, enticed by new party draftees in Vietnam and 200 to rules that award delegates in early 400 of them returning in body primaries and caucuses based on bags every week, at one time or each candidates share of the another, Lyndon Johnson, Robert votes. The race is going to go a Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, long time, he said as he left the Nelson Rockefeller, Richard stage, promising to fight fire with Nixon, and Ronald Reagan were fire. all running for president, and all There is a growing sense among of them were more impressive party leaders that the primary than the present contestants. fight has gone on long enough and Of the surviving Republican that continued attacks by the contenders, Ron Paul is a sound candidates and their allies have m o n e t a r i s t a n d a d o u g h t y steered the conversation away libertarian, but he is a 76-year old from the economy and could kook who, like President Obamas damage the partys prospects in pastor, Jeremiah Wright, thinks 9/ the fall. But several Republicans 11 was the chickens coming home said a diversion to social issues to roost. Newt Gingrich is a threatened to turn off independent completely unfeasible flake. Rick voters, who will be needed to S a n t o r u m i s c o n s i s t e n t , form a winning coalition in the courageous, and believably argues fall for fiscal encouragement of In Michigan, some Republican families and the creation of jobs leaders expressed worries about that add value to the economy and the effect of an extended battle on n o t j u s t m o r e l a w y e r s a n d the partys prospects of winning consultants and service-industry
leeches. But he has his feet stuck in cement on abortion and samesex marriage, and early in the campaign even criticized contraception. These shouldnt be partisan issues at all, and any candidate who gets into them has self-detonating grenades strapped to his torso, front and back. Mitt Romney is more presentable and has a successful private-sector career behind him, but is afflicted by plasticity and has faced in all four directions on most issues It is all as ludicrous as Fidel Castro, the world authority on misrule, claims. If Obama loses, it will be because the Republicans jump the rails on this corrupt, farcical nominating process and draft a serious candidate on a serious platform. If he wins, it will be a disaster to delight Americas critics, and will be repealed by a nation chastened back to its senses in 2016. *** Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage told POLITICO Saturday he hopes to see a floor fight at the GOP convention in Tampa this summer, giving the party an opportunity to nominate a fresh face rather than one of the battered members of the 2012 field. Im pushing for a floor fight Id like to see a good oldfashioned convention and a dark horse come out, LePage told my colleagues Dave Catanese and Alexander Trowbridge at the National Governors Association
winter meeting. I think the candidates, in my mind, have injured themselves and injured the party by not following Ronald Reagans never speak badly of another Republican. Its been too messy. I just believe we ought to go to the convention and pick a fresh face, LePage said.They beat themselves up so badly that Id think itd be nice to have a fresh face. *** The most interesting [convention] scenario, however, is the case where the unpledged delegates would be sufficient to give a candidate a majority, but his claim to the nomination was somewhat tenuous. Suppose, for instance, that Mr. Romney had 43 percent of the delegates, Mr. Santorum 37 percent, and about 8 percent of delegates had not yet pledged to a candidate If Mr. Romneys plurality lead seemed to be built upon structural advantages in the delegate selection process rather than popular support say, for instance, that Mr. Romney had the most delegates, but Mr. Santorum was 10 points ahead in national polls at he time some delegates might conclude that it was not in the best interest of the party to give him a helping hand The aesthetics of how a candidate performs could be important in a case like this. If in addition to trailing in national polls, Mr. Romney had lost key
states like Michigan and Ohio, it would be harder for him to claim that his nomination reflected the collective will of the Republican electorate. *** By performing his aloofness from and contempt for the radical right, even as he fakes solidarity with it, Romney is doing exactly what he needs to do. He is keeping the radical right close to him for the general election by seeming to bow to its power, even as he is signaling to everyone else that he knows how miserably inadequate the support of the radical right will be in the general election. So lets all calm down and stop getting so excited about a deadlocked convention, and a dark-horse nominee introduced at the last minute, and an imploded Republican opposition. Beyond Super Tuesday lie delegate-rich states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California that are not top heavy with Tea Partiers and evangelicals and that will almost certainly enable Romney to arrive at the convention with a strong hand. And beyond that are the party elites, who were content to use the radical right-wingers but who never liked them, and who tremble at the thought of Candidate Santorum. Finally there are the Tea Partiers and evangelicals who, though hostile QUOTES page 64
Politics/
63
Strategic ambiguity for fun and profit

J.E. Dyer (Hot Air Top Picks)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 4:45:00 PM
materials in defiance of sanctions. In this extremely narrow, simplistic construct one or zero, posted at 5:45 pm on February Iran is about to get the bomb or 26, 2012 by J.E. Dyer isnt analysts can justify The US intelligence community incessantly splitting the distance is having a very difficult time from here to a bomb. interpreting the signals from Well, theyre closer than they Irans nuclear program. This were, but thats a technicality isnt that unusual in historical we still dont know if they want context; US intelligence tends to one. b e s u r p r i s e d b y n u c l e a r Well, theyre closer than they detonations. But it is of grave were, and theyre being less c o n c e r n t h a t o u r n a t i o n a l cooperative with the IAEA, but leadership at all levels seems to be w e s t i l l d o n t h a v e d i r e c t so shortsighted about what is at indications that they are designing stake. Our biggest problem in and testing a warhead. dealing with Iran today is framing Well, theyve offered their the issue and at the moment, Middle Eastern neighbors a were doing it wrong. missile umbrella as a defense If we frame the issue as a against outside powers, which is question of how close Iran is to something that would only work getting the bomb, as if all other if the missile umbrella were things are equal as if Iran could nuclear, but we just dont have the get the bomb in a vacuum, with evidence that they are working on n o t h i n g e l s e m a t t e r i n g o r a warhead right now. changing along the way then it Ive compared this approach in makes a sort of sense to focus the past to Zeno of Eleas famous exclusively on the potential paradox. Zeno proposed, as a ambiguity of our various data basis for a reasoning exercise, that points; e.g., computer files from because the distance between an 2003; Irans connections with a r r o w a n d i t s t a r g e t c a n Pakistan, North Korea, and the theoretically be divided in half an A.Q. Khan network; persistent infinite number of times, the a t t e m p t s t o i m p o r t s u s p e c t arrow can never actually reach the
target. US intelligence seems determined to operate on this basis, biasing its estimates with an emphasis on the remaining distance to the target. But this is a posture, not an intelligence conclusion, and its based on an assumption that we can afford to focus on whatever Iran doesnt seem to have done yet. A different, less complacent posture e.g., from the Oval Office would require a different emphasis from intelligence. The disconnect with reality is rather startling. Perhaps the strongest clue that Americas intelligence community misreads the historical moment is its officials use of the expression strategic ambiguity. According to the New York Times: [Intelligence officials] say that Iran could be seeking to enhance its influence in the region by creating what some analysts call strategic ambiguity. Rather than building a bomb now, Iran may want to increase its power by sowing doubt among other nations about its nuclear ambitions. Well, sure. And the point here? Strategic ambiguity is what Iran has now, which is why were in a scramble arms build-ups,
sanctions, economic insecurity, regional realignments, the spread of Iranian-backed terror incidents, threats of World War III from Russia and China and the situation is getting steadily worse. This is what strategic ambiguity looks like, Iraniannuclear-intentions-wise: destabilization of the Eastern hemisphere. Its no way for any of us to live. And it certainly isnt going to get better with age. The Iranian mullahs are one of several entities jockeying for leadership of the Islamist vision for the Middle East. Conflict and uncertainty are on their side, and thats what strategic ambiguity over Iran is ideal for promoting. The longer it goes on, the more likely it is that at least some of the power relationships affecting the region (and Irans prospects in it) will be realigned. Indeed, the entire region is already changing, even as the US strategic focus seems to narrow to an absurd concept of waiting to prevent Iran from getting the bomb at the precise, Unassailable Moment when no one could claim she wasnt trying to. An extended period of strategic
ambiguity for Iran means strategic discontinuity for the rest of us. There is no steady state in which the only thing that changes is how many seconds closer to a bomb Iran is. Strategic ambiguity over Irans nuclear intentions isnt some intermediate future condition that might be less of a problem than Iran having the bomb; its the condition of today, and it is the problem. J.E. Dyers articles have appeared at The Green Room, Commentarys contentions, Patheos, The Weekly Standard onlin e, and her own blog, The Optimistic Conservative. This post was promoted from GreenRoom to HotAir.com. To see the comments on the original post, look here. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
64
News Photos
QUOTES
to Romney at present, would rather vote for a golden retriever than give Obama another four years in the White House. What seems like a circus now is serious business, so let us look beyond the circus instead of exaggerating it. *** Whatever risks it might pose in the general election, the controversy over contraceptives, the Catholic Church, and the Obama administration has been an unalloyed blessing for Santorum in the Republican-nomination fight. Popping up unexpectedly, it has shifted what the political sharpies call the issue matrix in an awkward direction for Romney and a comfortable one for Santorum, and is likely to help the latter further solidify his already firm hold over a voting bloc with which his rival is notably weak If Santorum can consolidate the support of these groups as Gingrich did momentarily in South Carolina, the battle between him and his amalgam of red-hots and Romney and his army of regulars will be pitchedand, depending on what happens on Tuesday in Michigan, maybe bloody and protracted The reality is that even winning Michigan (and Arizona the same day) may not be enough to rescue Romney from the rough. Every money guy I know thinks Romney cant win a general election, says a respected
Washington player and presidential-campaign veteran. Our guys on Capitol Hill are moving into survival-of-thefittest, only-worrying-aboutthemselves mode. They think the damage to Romney may be done and may be irreversibleand now he might not even be the nominee. So Romney not only has to win Michigan and Arizona, but he has to have a resounding knockout on Super Tuesday or hes gonna be in real, real trouble. [I]f Obama prevails, precisely the opposite dynamic is likely to kick in: a period of bitter recriminations followed by a r e f o r m a t i o n ( o r counterreformation) of the GOP. This, please recall, was what many Republicans were counting on to happen in the wake of their partys loss of the White House and seats in the House and Senate in 2008. Instead, Republicans seized on a strategy of relentless opposition to Obama, which proved politically effective in 2010 but left the party as bereft of new ideas, a constructive agenda, or a coherent governing philosophy as before. With Obama having looked beatable months ago, a botched bid to oust himespecially if coupled with a failure to take over the Senatewould usher in a fullblown Republican conflagration, followed by an effort to rise from the ashes by doing the opposite of what caused the meltdown of
2012. *** Via Mediaite. *** Well, I think it is important to appeal to the independents, certainly as Ive described, Ronald Reagan did, she said. We will not win by getting only the people who voted for John McCain. So, yeah, we need moderates. We need my gender. We need independents. But I dont even know what he is talking about playing to fears, particularly. When I make that point I have specific criticisms. I dont think we should be prattling nonstop about contraception in the middle of an economic meltdown. I dont think we need a candidate who proposes child janitors and then turns around and opposes worker comp requirements in the welfare reform. That is Newt Gingrich. I think you need an appealing candidate. But conservative positions are appealing and the more conservative a candidate is, you know the better off you are, which is why I support Mitt Romney. *** GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said today that watching John F. Kennedys speech to the Baptist ministers in Houston in 1960 made him want to throw up. To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up.
What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? Santorum said I dont believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country, said Santorum. This is the First Amendment. The First Amendment says the free exercise of religion. That means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square. Kennedy for the first time articulated the vision saying, no, faith is not allowed in the public square. I will keep it separate. Go on and read the speech I will have nothing to do with faith. I wont consult with people of faith. It was an absolutist doctrine that was foreign at the time of 1960, 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.
Bobby Brown Mum's the Word on Whitney Casket Photos TMZ.com

Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:32:55 PM
Zee News Bobby Brown Mum's the Word on Whitney Casket Photos TMZ.com The photo of Whitney Houston lying in her casket should disgust her ex-husband Bobby Brown, but if it does ... he wasn't saying so last night in Hollywood. Our photog spotted Bobby B leaving Hemingway's Lounge with his fiance, Alicia Etheridge. Bobby Brown Won't Comment on Whitney Houston's Open Casket Photos PopCrush 'National Enquirer' publisher defends photos of dead Whitney Houston Zee News National Enquirer Whitney Houston Casket Pic: Funeral Home Denies Leaking Photos International Business Times Gather.com- Examiner.commediabistro.com all 948 news articles
Politics/ Technology/
65
Coming soon Obama: The movie

Jazz Shaw (Hot Air Top Picks)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 6:00:53 PM
posted at 7:00 pm on February 26, 2012 by Jazz Shaw What better time to announce this than on the day of the Academy Awards? President Obama seems to be making fast use of some of that campaign cash rolling into his coffers. Rather than wasting time with silly things like coming up with an energy policy, Team Obama is going Hollywood. With Hollywood gathering this weekend for the 84th Academy Awards, President Barack Obama has recruited Oscar-winning documentary director Davis Guggenheim to again produce a short film for his campaign. Obamas re-election staff in Chicago spent $162,834 on the film last month, according to the January Federal Election
Commission filing. Currently in post-production, the film focuses on the presidents first three years in office, according to a campaign official. The film will be less than 30 minutes long and released in weeks, though the exact date hasnt been decided, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The campaign is still considering how it will be used, the official said. What to do with a thirty minute film is a good question. Its not long enough to be a feature film, but buying a 1/2 hour slot in prime time across the country is a pricy proposition, even for somebody with those kids of cash resources. And whos going to sit through a thirty minute campaign commercial? Perhaps the pedigree of the players involved will help. As was noted above, the award winning
Davis Guggenheim was tapped to head up the project. Does that name ring a bell? ( Ahem.) The all -star cast is a given, natch. No word if Biden gets more than a walk-on role, though. Unfortunately, since the film isnt finished yet and theres only a few hours left until the Red Carpet is rolled out, it doesnt seem like The Obama Movie will have a shot at an Oscar tonight. I mean, you cant really give an award out for work that hasnt even been completed yet, can you? Then again, it worked for the Nobel Peace Prize, so 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.
Lumigon's T2 smartphone wants to control your TV, obey your commands

Sean Buckley (Engadget)
button" that can reportedly be programmed to perform any Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:56:00 PM function the phone has to offer -Ever notice how often you lose like activating an LED flashlight, your TV remote, but how rarely initiating speed-dial or even lose track of that social lifeline turning on and off your TV. you call a smartphone? So did the Sound pretty sweet? Sure it is -folks at Denmark-based Lumigon, just don't lose it in the couch. The that's why they've put their T2 is scheduled to hit select Scandinavian heads together to markets in Europe in Asia later build the Lumigon T2, a Android this year, hit the break for the 4.0 smartphone that's also a official press release. universal remote control. In Continue reading Lumigon's T2 addition to this handset's 1.4GHz smartphone wants to control your Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, TV, obey your commands 9 megapixel rear facing camera Lumigon's T2 smartphone wants and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower to control your TV, obey your sound, this phone's northern lip commands originally appeared on can copy commands from remote Engadget on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 controls and emulate them using 20:56:00 EDT. Please see our o n s c r e e n b u t t o n s o r terms for use of feeds. Permalink| programmable gestures. Above | Email this| Comments the T2's 3.8-inch Gorilla glass screen is a dual-action "activity
66
Technology/ News Photos
Inhabitat's Week in Green: dinosaur robots, a robotic bee and X-ray origami animals
Inhabitat (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/26/2012 8:30:00 PM
Zachary Quinto, At Oscars, Responds To 'Star Trek' Leaked Photos MTV.com

Submitted at 2/26/2012 7:43:58 PM
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week researchers harnessed technology to reap groundbreaking discoveries in the natural world as Inhabitat reported that a team of Russian scientists revived a 32,000-year-old Arctic plant, and a 298-million-year-oldforest was discovered beneath a coal mine in China. Meanwhile Google geared up to launch a "sea view" service that lets anyone explore the Great Barrier Reef and Makerbot launched a line of colorful 3D printed shells for hermit crabs. Scientists also harnessed advanced printing technology to create a new breed of realistic dinosaur robots and a miniature self-assembling robotic bee, and the National academy of Sciences urged a review of the risks and safety of nanomaterials. Green transportation also soared to astronomical new heights this week as a Japanese company announced plans to build a 20,000 -mile-high space elevator by the
Access Hollywood Zachary Quinto, At Oscars, Responds To 'Star Trek' Leaked Photos MTV.com "The cameras weren't even rolling so ... imagine what it'll look like when we're actually doing it," Quinto quipped in response to the leaked photos. "That happens, I guess. We're on incredibly big set pieces in the middle of somewhere and people sort... Zachary Quinto Keeps Quiet Over Recent 'Star Trek' Sequel Photos Access Hollywood STAR TREK 2 Bits: First Photos+ IMAX Confirmation year 2050. Back on earth, Toyota In other news, eco phone design least, we watched a gigantic solarunveiled the first teaser shots of rang loud and clear this week as powered metal flower bloom in Fused Film its upcoming FT-Bh mini hybrid AT&T announced plans to place Buenos Aires, Nike created a JJ Abrams 'upset over Star Trek 2 v e h i c l e , a " b r i c k e d " T e s l a green labels on mobile devices, prosthetic running sole for photo leak' Digital Spy Roadster launched an electric S h i k u n S u n d e v e l o p e d a amputee triathletes, and we shined Science Fiction- Yahoo's The vehicle debate, and we showcased DrawBraille smartphone for the a light on Takayuki Hori's Projector (blog) the Taga-- the ultimate bike blind, and a NYC architect turned beautiful X-ray origami animals. all 73 news articles stroller combo. Green design also defunct phone booths into free Inhabitat's Week in Green: h i t t h e s l o p e s a s T e n n a , mini libraries. We were also dinosaur robots, a robotic bee and Switzerland took the wraps off the wowed by several eye-opening X-ray origami animals originally world's first solar wing-powered recycled designs -- a fully appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 ski lift and William Hughes functional twin lens reflex LEGO Feb 2012 20:30:00 EDT. Please carved up the snow wearing a camera and a series of furnishings see our terms for use of feeds. blazing bright LED snowboarding made from decommissioned Permalink| | Email this| suit. military ammunition. Last but not Comments

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