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plenum: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

plenum: a full assembly, as a joint legislative assembly.

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BBC News

At least 50 dead in Iraq attacks

At least 50 people are killed in Iraq and hundreds injured in a wave of bombings and shootings targeting mainly police officers in Shia areas.

World leaders discussing Somalia

African and Western leaders meet for a major London conference on the future of Somalia, to discuss political change, terrorism and piracy.

Flaw found in fast neutrino story

Faulty wiring may have caused the surprising 2011 finding of sub-atomic neutrino particles appearing to travel faster than light, researchers say.

EU sees 'mild' eurozone recession

The European Commission predicts that the eurozone economy will contract by 0.3% in 2012, having previously forecast 0.5% growth.

Merkel sorry for neo-Nazi outrage

As Germans mourn neo-Nazi murder victims, Chancellor Angela Merkel appeals to their families for forgiveness.

Fresh Koran demos in Afghanistan

At least five people are killed in fresh anti-American protests across Afghanistan, in the wake of the burning of Korans at a US military base.

UN receives Syria war crimes list

A UN panel draws up a list of Syrian officials who may be investigated for crimes against humanity, as Syrian forces renew shelling in Homs.

Italy chided over Africa migrants

The European Court of Human Rights says Italy violated the rights of Eritrean and Somali migrants by sending them back to Libya.

Gillard calls leadership ballot

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard calls a ballot for the leadership of the Labor Party on Monday to end a tussle with Kevin Rudd.

Putin says 'battle on' for Russia

Thousands of supporters hear Vladimir Putin deliver a strongly patriotic speech at a Moscow stadium as he bids for re-election.

CNet News

Bad data connection could explain too-fast neutrinos

A fiber-optic link malfunction might have caused neutrinos to appear to travel faster than the speed of light--but another effect could make them look even faster.

Chrome to support Do Not Track privacy feature

Google found Do Not Track "interesting" but too vague, but now says the technology for blocking behavioral ad targeting is mature enough to use.

Boku Accounts enables mobile payments anywhere, anytime

The new service means wireless carriers can sell customers a way to seamlessly make transactions at any credit card terminal with their phones, and no hardware has to be changed.

More reasons to wait for 'Ivy Bridge' MacBook, Windows laptops

Decisions, decisions. Should I wait for that Ivy Bridge-based laptop? Yeah, if you want a faster system with better battery life.

Quad-core LG 4X HD could be king of the Optimus hill

Bound for Mobile World Congress, the LG Optimus 4X HD promises a 4.7-inch display, a quad-core processor, and high-end features.

LinkedIn officially acquires plugin Rapportive

Amid rumors of an impending acquisition, the two-year-old startup confirms that it's been bought by the social-networking giant.

Little startup Infochimps has a platform for big data

Infochimps announces platform as a service environment for the redhot big data market.

Black hole clocks fastest wind ever recorded by NASA

Born from the collapse of a massive star, a recently detected stellar-mass black hole is breaking high-speed records.

Obama unveils Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights

President promises privacy legislation and says Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL are committed to working with Do Not Track technology in browsers.

Twitter rebuts Sarkozy censorship allegations

The social-networking site implies that the suspension of the accounts that belittled the French president disregarded the site's parody and spam rules.

Music Videos

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The Onion, Daily

SAN ANGELO, TX—The obnoxious drunk hitting on Lloyd’s girl was in need of a serious beating, but it’d have to wait until he hit the gym for a couple more months.

SAN ANGELO, TX—The obnoxious drunk hitting on Lloyd's girl was in need of a serious beating, but it'd have to wait until he hit the gym for a couple more months.

TV Listings: Ace Of Lasagnas

Food 8:30 p.m. EST/7:30 p.m. CST Executive chef Ruff Goldstein rushes to create a lasagna that looks like a flock of penguins for an event at the Columbus Zoo.

Obama: No Option Off The Table Except Snatching Iran's Leaders With Hook Lowered From Plane And Flying Them To Washington

WASHINGTON—A resolute President Obama warned Tuesday that if Iran remained unwilling to halt its nuclear program, the United States would consider any and all options at its disposal short of whisking away the Islamic republic's leaders using a hook...

Area Man Hears Self Say He's A 'Big Chicken Pot Pie Guy'

Area Man Hears Self Say He's A 'Big Chicken Pot Pie Guy'

[video] Leaf From "Tree Of Life" Frontrunner For Best Actor Oscar

On Star Fix, entertainment insiders say this might be the year Hollywood's favorite leaf, which has appeared in more than 60 films, finally takes home the Academy Award.

Letters To The Editor: Best Spaghetti

Dear The Onion, My wife makes the best spaghetti in the world. How do I get her to make it more often without having to admit that I like it? Randolph Tiggs, Chicago

American Voices: Negative Advertising More Frequent In 2012 Primary

According to the ad-tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG, the percentage of Republican primary attack ads increased from 6 percent in 2008 to 50 percent in 2012.

Nation Trying, Okay?

NEW YORK—Pushed to the breaking point after constantly being taken to task for its shortcomings without ever hearing so much as a word of thanks for everything it does around here, an overwhelmed and infuriated nation announced Wednesday that it was...

[audio] Crush Lasts Nearly Entire Bus Ride

Crush Lasts Nearly Entire Bus Ride

Little League World Series to Begin Testing Players For Mustaches

Little League World Series to Begin Testing Players For Mustaches

Scientific American

Stress Linked To Aging Chromosomes

Too much sun, smoking and a poor diet can make us look older. But additional forces are at work aging our cells.? [More]

Superluminal Neutrino Result Caused by Faulty Connection?

A data transmission problem? (Wikipedia/BigRiz) Although still awaiting full confirmation, a breaking news report in Science (and Nature , see below) indicates that the measurement of an apparently faster-than-light travel time for muon-neutrinos generated at CERN and detected at the Gran Sasso laboratory – which hit the world headlines back in September 2011 – may have been due to a problematic physical connection between a fiber-optic cable and an electronics card in a computer. [More]

Could GPS Problems Explain Seemingly Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos?

OPERA apparatus. Credit: CERN One of the biggest stories in science last year was the announcement by a European physics collaboration that neutrinos can seemingly travel faster than light. Most physicists were skeptical of the result , which would upend a well-tested tenet of modern physics namely, that nothing outpaces light. And the researchers on the OPERA experiment that made the measurement were themselves very cautious, stating only that they had found a discrepancy that they could not get rid of. [More]

Being Happy: Social and Natural Factors Are More Important than Money (Especially in Costa Rica)

It’s easy to find an online test that will purportedly tell you how happy you are. But how happy are the people of an entire nation? And which nation’s people are happiest ? That’s hard to measure. So for decades world organizations like the United Nations that concern themselves with improving people’s well-being have used a single proxy for happiness: gross domestic product, or GDP. The loose logic is that as people attain a higher standard of living, they will feel less burdened by basic survival and have greater means for everything from decent food to recreation. [More]

Faster-than-light neutrinos explained?

The detector at the Gran Sasso end of the OPERA experiment. Credit: OPERA The faster-than-light neutrinos seen by the OPERA particle physics experiment last year may have just been explained. By a loose cable. I wish I was joking. [More]

If You're Happy, How You Know It

[More]

New Family of Limbless Amphibians Discovered in India

From Nature magazine. [More]

Our Birth Control Undermines Amphibians

The most common types of ingested birth control contain estrogen. But the hormone doesn't just prevent human babies. It may be lowering numbers of frog babies, too. Because estrogens can travel unaltered through a woman's system, and back into the environment--where they interfere with the courtship of frogs. [More]

$1.3B 'Brain in a Box' Project Faces Skepticism

By M. [More]

Sirtuin Protein Linked to Longevity in Mammals for First Time

By Heidi Ledford of Nature magazine At last, a member of the celebrated sirtuin family of proteins has been shown to extend lifespan in mammals -- although it's not the one that has received the most attention and financial investment. Sirtuin genes and the proteins they encode have intrigued many researchers who study ageing ever since they were first linked to longevity in yeast. [More]

Buzz Machine

A letter to 2040

Zeit Online is having some of us write letters to a child just born, to be read in the year 2040. After reviewing David Weinberger's Too Big to Know, they asked me to write about wisdom. I wrote about media. It being a letter to a German child, I of course wrote about Gutenberg, too. [...]

Profitable news

One of the most controversial things I have said (you're welcome for that straight line) is that I insist my entrepreneurial journalism students at CUNY build only for-profit businesses. When I said that at a recent symposium for teachers of entrepreneurial journalism, I thought some of the gasping participants would tar-and-feather me.
I'm not against [...]

Are media in the content business?

The Guardian launches its new Media Network my essay asking whether we in media are really in the content business. Here's the first half (in the rest, I catalog the methods I think are worth exploring to rethink our role…. I'll be expanding on that later).
* * *
What if we in media are not [...]

Economist debate on sharing: closing

You are free to live in a cave of your making, Andrew, and you can be assured that I shall neither drag nor entice you out of it. But it is difficult to believe that you would be content in that dark, quiet, and lonely space, considering how you do seem to adore the spotlight [...]

Economist debate on sharing: Round II

Here's the second of three rounds in the Economist debate on the benefits of sharing. This is my response to Andrew Keen's opener.
* * *
Being public, I shall rely on the public to respond for me:
In a discussion on Google+, Google News creator Krishna Bharat writes: "The thrust of Keen's argument seems to be that [...]

Privacy and speech

Two notable decisions in Europe reflect the tension between privacy and free speech.
The European Court of Human Rights came down on the side of press freedom — thus speech — when it ruled in favor of media reporting on public figures. And a Dutch German court ruled that journalists had a right to interview [...]

The temporary, pop-up corporation

A stat I heard repeated all over Davos: that the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company is now 15 years, according to Cisco's John Chambers. Trying to confirm that figure, I found others saying the number is less than 50.
Whatever. It's far from forever.
So what if corporations more and more become short-lived [...]

Economist debate on sharing

The Economist has just launched a debate between me and Andrew Keen — and you — on the proposition that society benefits when we share information online." Here is my opening statement; follow the link for Andrew's and the discussion:
* * *
We are sharing for good reason?not because we are insane, exhibitionistic, or drunk. We [...]

Sin or sense?

Oh, no, the "original sin" meme of newspapers not charging for content is rising again. Sigh.
Dick Tofel, general manager of Pro Publica and former assistant publisher and assistant managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, is a very smart and reasonable man and he has written a smart and reasonable Kindle Single (enabling him [...]

Facebook goes public: Zuckerberg in Public Parts & WWGD?

Relevant to the expected Facebook IPO announcement, here are excerpts from my interview with Mark Zuckerberg for Public Parts.
* * *
?I'm in the first generation of people who really grew up with the internet,? Zuckerberg tells me. ?Google came out when I was in middle school. Then there was Amazon and Wikipedia and iTunes [...]

Slashdot

Why Tesla Cars Aren't Bricked By Failing Batteries

itwbennett writes "Don't believe recent claims made by a blogger that non-functioning batteries in the Tesla Roadster cause the electric cars to be bricked, says IDC analyst Sam Jaffe. 'Here's the primary fact that the blogger in question doesn't understand: the Tesla battery pack is not a battery,' says Jaffe. 'It's a collection of more than 8,000 individual batteries. Each of those cells is independently managed. So there's only two ways for the entire battery pack to fail. The first is if all 8,000 cells individually fail (highly unlikely except in the case of something catastrophic like a fire). The second failure mechanism is if the battery management system tells the pack to shut down because it has detected a dangerous situation, such as an extremely low depth of discharge. If that's the case, all that needs to be done is to tow the vehicle to a charger, recharge the batteries and then reboot the battery management system. This is the most likely explanation for the five 'bricks' that the blogger claims to have heard about.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Secret UK Network Hunts GPS Jammers

garymortimer writes "A secret network of 20 roadside listening stations across the UK has confirmed that criminals are attempting to jam GPS signals on a regular basis. From the article: 'Government-funded trials involving the police have revealed more than a hundred incidents of GPS jammer use in the UK.

The Sentinel project, which has been running since January 2011, was designed to measure GPS jamming on UK roads. The project, run by GPS-tracking company Chronos Technology, picked up the illegal jamming incidents via four GPS sensors in trials lasting from two to six months per location.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gates Foundation Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets

Julie188 writes "Last summer the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to spend millions to reinvent the toilet. That investment has born fruit with teams from around the world coming up with many different ways to turn human waste into energy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Almost a Million UK Homes Will Suffer 4G TV interference

First time accepted submitter Nick Fel writes "As the UK nears the end of a lengthy digital TV switch-over, the sale of the analogue TV spectrum for 4G mobile phones will disrupt digital TV in almost a million homes. Affected homes will be issued with a filter or required to upgrade to satellite or cable, and in extreme cases may be granted funding to find their own solution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

FCC Chair Calls On ISPs To Adopt New Security Measures

alphadogg writes "U.S. Internet service providers should take new steps to protect subscribers against cyber attacks, including notifying customers when their computers are compromised, the chairman of the FCC said Wednesday. Julius Genachowski called on ISPs to notify subscribers whose computers are infected with malware and tied to a botnet and to develop a code of conduct to combat botnets. Genachowski also called on ISPs to adopt secure routing standards to protect against Internet Protocol hijacking and to implement DNSSEC, a suite of security tools for the Internet's Domain Name System."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Biologists Debunk the "Rotting Y Chromosome" Theory

An anonymous reader writes "Biologists have previously predicted that that the male sex-determining Y chromosome, which once carried around 800 genes, like the X, has lost hundreds of them over the past 300 million years, will mutate itself out of existence, leading to the eventual extinction of men. However, researchers of a study published in the latest issue of Nature found evidence to suggest that the Y chromosome will not shed anymore of the 19 ancestral genes that it is left with."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NRC Releases Audio of Fukushima Disaster

mdsolar writes "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today released transcripts and audio recordings made at the NRC Operations Center during last year's meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The release of these audio recordings comes at the request of the public radio program 'BURN: An Energy Journal,' and its host Alex Chadwick. The recordings show the inside workings of the U.S. government's highest level efforts to understand and deal with the unfolding nuclear crisis as the reactors meltdown. In the course of a week, the NRC is repeatedly alarmed that the situation may turn even more catastrophic. The NRC emergency staff discusses what to do — and what the consequences may be — as it learns that reactor containment safeguards are failing, and that spent fuel pools are boiling away their cooling water, and in one case perhaps catching fire."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

LinkedIn Buys Rapportive

redletterdave writes "Business networking site LinkedIn acquired Rapportive on Wednesday, which is a Gmail add-on that provides information about your social contacts as you e-mail them. The deal was reportedly already in place by Dec. 8, but Rapportive confirmed the acquisition on Wednesday in its company blog. Rapportive, which is still available over Gmail, adds an e-mailer's social networking accounts, including their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and overlays the information over open messages and e-mail drafts. Neither Rapportive nor LinkedIn would release the financial details of the acquisition, but sources close to the situation say the deal closed in the 'low teens' of millions of dollars."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft's Anti-Google Video Campaign

eldavojohn writes "As the presidential race heats up, the smear ads on TV are also increasing. But Microsoft isn't going to site idly by and let the politicians engage in all that song and dance — and Microsoft really does employ both song and dance. Their Youtube channel appears to be slowly transforming from trade show videos and launches into a marketing attack or propaganda campaign that only targets Google (both videos I've watched seemed to have nothing positive about Microsoft in them). Under a month ago, they launched a spoof called GMail man, a creepy guy that flips through all your GMail and serves up super personal ads that are wrong (although they never say if Hotmail engages in targeted marketing). And a few days ago Googlighting shows up to spread fear and uncertainty about Google Docs. Most amusing to this viewer was that I found no such trace of 'Googlighting' on Bing's video service."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ask Slashdot: Best Practices For Maintaining IT Policy In K-12 Public Education?

First time accepted submitter El Fantasmo writes "I work in public education, K-12, for a small, economically shaky, low performing school district. What are some good or effective tactics for getting budget controllers to stop bypassing the IT boss/department? We sometimes we end up with LOW end MS Win 7 Home laptops, that basically can't get on our network (internet only) or be managed. The purchaser refuses to return them for proper setups. Unfortunately, IT is currently under the 'asst. superintendent of curriculum and instruction,' who has no useful understanding of maintaining and acquiring IT resources and lets others make poor IT purchasing decisions, by bypassing the IT department, and dips into IT funds when their pet project budgets run low. How can this be reversed when you get commands like 'make it work' and the budget is effectively $0?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guardian Unlimited

UN accuses Syria of crimes against humanity - live updates

? Protests in Homs in tribute to Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik ? Ban Ki-moon calls for sending of relief envoy to Syria ? Renewed bombardment on eve of Friends of Syria talks 11.54am: For the third day running, students are protesting at Aleppo university in northern Syria ? a city which has been relatively quiet until recently. This video is said to students at the science faculty demonstrating earlier today. Al-Jazeera says police fired teargas to disperse them, and two students were detained and taken to the university branch of the ruling Baath party. Yesterday, a demonstration was reported outside the university's main library and on Monday security forces reportedly opened fire inside the campus while confronting another protest at the science faculty. 11.35am: Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch's deputy director for the Middle East, highlights some of the key findings of the UN's commission of inquiry report on Syria. Houry, who has been monitoring the crackdown in Syria since it began, offers the following tweets: #Syria COI report: gov failed in its responsibility to protect its people.committed widespread, systematic & gross human rights violations #Syria COI rep: "anti gov groups also committed abuses, though not comparable in scale and organization to those carried out by state." #Syria COI report: "Commission did not apply IHL as it does not consider this to be armed conflict yet." for lawyers , read para 13. Here's the paragraph is referring to: The commission did not apply international humanitarian law for the purposes of the report and the period covered.5 International humanitarian law is applicable if the situation can be qualified as an armed conflict, which depends on the intensity of the violence and the level of organization of participating parties. While the commission is gravely concerned that the violence in certain areas may have reached the requisite level of intensity, it was unable to verify that the Free Syrian Army (FSA), local groups identifying themselves as such or other anti-Government armed groups had reached the necessary level of organization. #Syria gov told UN COI: between dec 23 & February 10, 651 killed army & security forces, 2292 injured. 519 unidentified bodies found. #Syria gov told UN COI that 2,493 civilians and 1,345 soldiers killed between until Jan 18, 2012. According to VDC, 6,399 civilians! The Violation and Documentation Centre (VDC) a website maintained by activists has since updated the number of civilian casualties to 6,691 out of a total death toll of 8,480. #Syria COI: army intensified bombardment with heavy weapons. gave no warning to population, no chance to evacuate. #Syria COI: state forces arrested, tortured and summarily executed suspected defectors & opposition activists. #Syria COI: "snipers and shabbiha terrorised the population, targeting and killing small children, women and other unarmed civilians." 11.15am: CNN's Arwa Damon urged the Syrian government to allow the bodies of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik to be taken out of the city. Marie & Remy bodies & Paul & Edith wounded need to get out NOW - urgent plea from activists they were with, why wont #syria govt facilitate? ? Arwa Damon (@arwaCNN) February 23, 2012 11.09am: The Syrian army entered the Jobar area of Homs last night as more tank reinforcement arrive, an activist in the city told the Guardian. Speaking via Skype, Abo Emad, who said he was in the Baba Amr area, said army reinforcement had been seen arriving today. He claimed 25 tanks and 35 armoured vehicles and supply trucks had been counted on their way to the city. He claimed 100 rockets had landed on the Baba Amr area so far today, but there had been no ground invasion in the district. However, troops had entered the Jobar area to the south east of Baba Amr, Emad said. It has been 20 days [of bombardment] and they have been trying to enter the neighbourhood on the ground. Until now they couldn't accept for the neighbourhood of Jobar. They entered late yesterday and are still in it today. They were taking everyone who is more than 14 years old. We don't know if they are going to continue that. Emad also discussed the difficulty of re-establishing a media centre in Homs following the attack on the centre that killed journalist Marie Colvin. "It is a very difficult job to get new sat equipment," he said. Emad said he believed those using satellite signals were being targeted by the regime, via Iranian tracking equipment. "I'm connected to the internet via some difficult and tricky ways so I think I'm safe until now," he said. Emad also said: ? Mosques were warning people in the al-Khaldiyeh area, to stay in lower floors of their homes to avoid being hit in the renewed bombardment. ? The bodies of the foreign journalists killed in Homs can't be removed from Homs. "We don't think the government will allow us to get the bodies [out]," he said. ? Emad dismissed the prospect of a Red Cross-brokered ceasefire in Homs. "You can't make a ceasefire with these people", he said. ? Military defectors from the Free Syrian Army are trying to stop reinforcements reaching Homs. ? Residents in Baba Amr fear they will die of hunger because food supplies have run out during the bombardment. ? Activists in Homs are pinning their hopes on tomorrow's Friends of Syria meeting in Tunisia. "If they [the international community] don't want to interfere directly they can support the Free Syrian Army," he said. 11.07am: Some background (via Reuters) on the compilation of the UN report which says crimes against humanity are being committed in Syria on orders from the "highest level": The UN team was not allowed into Syria but said it had interviewed 369 victims and witnesses. They included people still in Syria whom it contacted by telephone and those who have fled to neighbouring countries which it declined to identify. "Satellite imagery of areas where military and security forces were deployed and related reported violations occurred, corroborated a number of witness accounts," it said ... "On several occasions in January and February 2012, entire families - children and adults - were brutally murdered in Homs. On both sides, there is a pattern of abducting people not directly involved in the clashes for the purposes of revenge, ransom or as hostages," the UN panel said. More than 18,000 people were in detention as of February 15, it said ... citing the Violations Documentation Centre. "Security agencies continued to systematically arrest wounded patients in state hospitals and to interrogate them, often using torture, about their supposed participation in opposition demonstrations or armed activities." The panel, the report said, had "documented evidence that sections of Homs Military Hospital and Al Ladikah State Hospital had been transformed into torture centres". 10.50am: A report from the Center for a New American Security argues that the US has a responsibility to respond to the growing violence in Syria buy should not respond with military force, which is unlikely to improve conditions in Syria and has the potential to make them far worse. The report's author, Marc Lynch, recommends "an enhanced diplomatic strategy" that includes: ? Present Assad with an ultimatum: resign, or be referred to the International Criminal Court for war crimes. ? Tighten economic and financial sanctions against Asad regime officials and the most senior members of the Syrian military. ? Conduct a sustained and vigorous effort to isolate the Asad regime diplomatically. ? Strengthen the opposition and encourage it to develop a unified political voice. ? Support a strategic communications campaign to publicise the regime's atrocities and encourage regime members to defect. 10.39am: More on the UN investigators' report, via Associated Press: The report claims that the ruling Baath Party's National Security Bureau was responsible for translating government policies into military operations that led to the systematic arrest or killing of civilians. It says the four main intelligence and security agencies reporting directly to Assad ? Military Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, the General Intelligence Directorate and the Political Security Directorate ? "were at the heart of almost all operations." The report details how businessmen helped hire and arm informal pro-government militias known as the Shabbiha. "In a number of operations, the commission documented how Shabbiha members were strategically employed to commit crimes against humanity and other gross violations," it said. The report also identifies 38 detention centers "for which the commission documented cases of torture and ill-treatment since March 2011." 10.28am: The Syrian government said today that it cannot be held responsible for the deaths of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik in Homs yesterday. Al-Jazeera reports that a foreign ministry statement read out on state television said: "We reject statements holding Syria responsible for the deaths of journalists who sneaked into its territory at their own risk." Yesterday, the Syrian information minister, Adnan Mahmoud, said his ministry has no information about the entry or the presence of Colvin, Ochlik and other foreign journalists in Syria. Sana, the government news agency, said: The minister added that the authorities in Homs were asked to look for the whereabouts of these journalists who were reported by some media to have been injured in Homs. Minister Mahmoud pointed out that the ministry asked all foreign journalists who entered Syria illegally to refer to the nearest immigration department in the areas of their presence to regularise their status according to law. 10.19am: Syrian forces have shot dead unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders from the "highest level" of army and government officials, United Nations investigators said today. The investigators called for perpetrators of such crimes against humanity to face prosecution and said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanding officers and officials alleged to be responsible, Reuters reports. "The commission received credible and consistent evidence identifying high- and mid-ranking members of the armed forces who ordered their subordinates to shoot at unarmed protestors, kill soldiers who refused to obey such orders, arrest persons without cause, mistreat detained persons and attack civilian neighbourhoods with indiscriminate tanks and machine-gun fire," investigators said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council. The commission of inquiry, headed by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, found that rebel forces led by the Free Syrian Army had also committed abuses including killings and abductions, "although not comparable in scale". 10.11am: What would a Republican US president do about Syria? Here are the candidates' collected thoughts from last night's TV debate. Santorum and Romney both seem to view Syria through the prism of Iran. Rick Santorum: Syria is a puppet state of Iran. They are a threat not just to Israel, but they have been a complete destabilizing force within Lebanon, which is another problem for Israel and Hezbollah. They are a country that we can do no worse than the leadership in Syria today, which is not the case, and some of the other countries that we readily got ourselves involved in. So it's sort of remarkable to me we would have ? here again, it's ? I think it's the timidness (sic) of this president in dealing with the Iranian threat, because Syria and Iran is an axis. And the president ? while he couldn't reach out deliberately to Iran but did reach out immediately to Syria and established an embassy there. And the only reason he removed that embassy was because it was threatened of being ? of being overtaken, not because he was objecting to what was going on in Syria. This president has ? has obviously a very big problem in standing up to the Iranians in any form. If this would have been any other country, given what was going on and the mass murders that we're seeing there, this president would have quickly and ? joined the international community, which is calling for his ouster and the stop of this, but he's not. He's not. Because he's afraid to stand up to Iran. He opposed the sanctions in Iran against the ? against the central banks until his own party finally said, "You're killing us. Please support these sanctions." Ladies and gentlemen, we have a president who isn't going to stop them. He isn't going to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. We need a new president or we are going to have a cataclysmic situation with a ? a power that is the most prolific proliferator of terror in the world that will be able to do so with impunity because they will have a nuclear weapon to protect ? protect them for whatever they do. It has to be stopped, and this president is not in a position to do that. Mitt Romney: The Arab Spring has become the Arab Winter. Syria is in flux. And, of course, Pakistan, with 100 nuclear weapons or more, represents a potential threat. Northern Mexico is a real danger area. I mean, looking around the world, you have Hezbollah in Latin America and Mexico. I mean, we face a very dangerous world. The right course is to add ships to our Navy, to modernise and add aircraft to our Air Force, to add 100,000 troops to our active-duty personnel, and to strengthen America's military ... It's very interesting that you're seeing, on the Republican platform, a very strong commitment to say we're going to say no to Iran. It's unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And ? and Rick is absolutely right. Syria is their key ally. It's their only ally in the Arab world. It is also their route to the sea. Syria provides a ? a shadow over Lebanon. Syria is providing the armament of Hezbollah in Lebanon that, of course, threatens Israel, our friend and ally. We have very bad news that's come from the Middle East over the past several months, a lot of it in part because of the feckless leadership of our president. But one little piece of good news, and that is the key ally of Iran, Syria, is ? has a leader that's in real trouble. And we ought to grab a hold of that like it's the best thing we've ever seen. There's things that are ? we're having a hard time getting our hands around, like, what's happening in Egypt. But in Syria, with Assad in trouble, we need to communicate to the Alawites, his friends, his ethnic group, to say, look, you have a future if you'll abandon that guy Assad. We need to work with ? with Saudi Arabia and with Turkey to say, you guys provide the kind of weaponry that's needed to help the rebels inside Syria. This is a critical time for us. If we can turn Syria and Lebanon away from Iran, we finally have the capacity to get Iran to pull back. And we could, at that point, with crippling sanctions and a very clear statement that military action is an action that will be taken if they pursue nuclear weaponry, that could change the course of world history. Newt Gingrich: Well, the first thing I'd do, across the board for the entire region, is create a very dramatic American energy policy of opening up federal lands and opening up offshore drilling, replacing the EPA. (APPLAUSE) We ? the Iranians have been practising closing the Straits of Hormuz, which has one out of every five barrels of oil in the world going through it. We have enough energy in the United States that we would be the largest producer of oil in the world by the end of this decade. We would be capable of saying to the Middle East, "We frankly don't care what you do. The Chinese have a big problem because you ain't going to have any oil." (APPLAUSE) But we would not have to be directly engaged. That's a very different question. But, first of all, you've got to set the stage, I think, here to not be afraid of what might happen in the region. Second, we clearly should have our allies ? this is an old-fashioned word ? we have have our allies covertly helping destroy the Assad regime. There are plenty of Arab-speaking groups that would be quite happy. There are lots of weapons available in the Middle East. And I agree with ? with Senator Santorum's point. This is an administration which, as long as you're America's enemy, you're safe. You know, the only people you've got to worry about is if you're an American ally. Ron Paul: You know, I ? I've tried the moral argument. I've tried the constitutional argument on these issues. And they don't ? they don't go so well. But there ? there's an economic argument, as well. As a matter of fact, Al Qaida has had a plan to bog us down in the Middle East and bankrupt this country. That's exactly what they're doing. We've spent $4 trillion of debt in the last 10 years being bogged down in the Middle East. The neoconservatives who now want us to be in Syria, want us to go to Iran, have another war, and we don't have the money. We're already -- today gasoline hit $6 a gallon in Florida. And we don't have the money. So I don't believe I'm going to get the conversion on the moral and the constitutional arguments in the near future. But I'll tell you what, I'm going to win this argument for economic reasons. Just remember, when the Soviets left, they left not because we had to fight them. They left because they bankrupted this country and we better wake up, because that is what we're doing here. We're destroying our currency and we have a financial crisis on our hands. 9.33am: The British foreign secretary, William Hague, has expressed frustration at the situation Syria but ruled out military intervention ? at least for now. Speaking on the BBC's Today programme this morning, he said there were more constraints over Syria than in Libya. There was no authority for military intervention from the UN, the effect on surrounding countries such as the Lebanon, Israel and Saudi Arabia had to be taken into account and military intervention would have to be "on a vastly greater scale" than in Libya. Hague said the international conference due to be held in Tunisia tomorrow would seek to agree a "wide set of measures across a large group of nations", and there would be further efforts to bolster UN sanctions next week. The aim was to tighten the "diplomatic and economic stranglehold" on Syria. "Do not underestimate the cumulative impact of that over time," he added. "None of (the measures) on their own are the solution, but we are operating under many more constraints than we were in the case of Libya," he said. Britain wanted Assad "to go", and the economic and other measures were making "life much more difficult" for him. "Time is against the Assad regime." Last night the Syrian Ambassador to London, Sami Khiyami, was summoned to the Foreign Office and told the government was "horrified" by the ongoing violence in Homs, the Press Association reports. 9.26am: Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik may have to be buried in Homs because the city remains cut off, according to Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. Writing on a Facebook group for foreign correspondents, which he moderates, Bouckaert writes: The roads out of Homs towards Lebanon are effectively blocked by the Syrian army at the moment. There is no refrigeration, ice, or electricity to keep their bodies refrigerated, so there is an increasing likelihood that they will have to be buried in Homs if we don't manage to move things very quickly. And the same blocked roads prevent the movement of the wounded. No real progress on the diplomatic front. 9.15am: The veteran French surgeon Dr Jacques Bérès, who has been operating in Homs for three weeks, says he no longer believes he can leave the city, which is being "almost constantly bombarded". The former MSF chairman and co-founder spoke to Le Nouvel Observateur last night by satellite phone, telling the magazine that the city was starting to look like Beirut during the war and that he was running low on anaesthetics. Our colleague Lizzy Davies provides this translation of his comments: It's hard, very tiring. And now I don't think I'll be able to leave either that side of the city or the other. We tried yesterday to transfer the whole hospital towards Damascus but we were stopped on the road; there were people killed...I've been here now for about three weeks; I am very tired. I thought I was going to go home tomorrow and I had organised a means of transport. But it seems there is no longer a chance of getting out... It's starting to look like Beirut during the war. Cars are on fire, buildings on fire, holes in the walls of houses and lots, lots of injured- sometimes Free Syria Army fighters but mainly civilians- men, women and children. They are not managing to evacuate the most vulnerable people...These men are very brave and believe victory is possible. I do too, but it is claiming so many human lives. The neighbourhood is being almost constantly bombarded. The humanitarian situation, said Bérès, was nearing disaster. There are not many anaesthetics left and if more don't arrive secretly from abroad it's going to get difficult...There is very little left: not much food, not much water, and there is no more electricity to pump. There are generators, but no one has any more fuel to power them. 8.44am: (all times GMT) Welcome to Middle East Live. Today's press coverage of Syria is dominated by the killing of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin. Despite the international outrage the killing provoked, the shelling of Homs appears to have intensified. Here's a roundup of the main developments. Syria? Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces bombarded opposition districts in the city of Homs for the 20th day, despite the international condemnation of the reported killing of more than 80 people on Wednesday, Reuters reports. "Explosions are shaking the whole of Homs. God have mercy," Abdallah al-Hadi said from the city. ? Activists held a demonstration in tribute to Colvin and photojournalist Remi Ochlik, in Homs last night. The footage was purportedly filmed in al-Qousour, a district in the north of the city. ? UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has asked UN emergency relief chief Valerie Amos to visit Syria to assess the humanitarian situation. The call came after Ban met the head of the Arab League Nabil alArabi in London. ? The deaths of Colvin and Ochlik, and the rising toll of civilian dead in Syria, have prompted renewed calls for an end to the Assad regime. "That's enough now," said French president Nicolas Sarkozy said. "This regime must go and there is no reason that Syrians don't have the right to live their lives and choose their destiny freely. If journalists were not there, the massacres would be a lot worse." ? The journalists were killed in a deliberate attack on a media centre in Homs, according to the Times. Local sources said that seven opposition activists were caught and killed as they tried to take medical aid to the journalists, but that could not be confirmed.It appears that the building was targeted deliberately. Syrian activists said that it was hit by more than ten shells, and last week its top floor was destroyed by rockets. ? On Wednesday Residents of Homs said they are preparing for a final onslaught as tank reinforcements moved in and scores were killed in the latest bombardment. Up to 60 of those reported killed in Homs on Wednesday were killed in an afternoon artillery barrage. Activists said some military defectors who have joined a rebel army were among the dead. "This was in one part of the city only," said one activist. "The shelling was with very heavy weapons. It was not mortars or rockets." ? Colvin's death was greeted by an outpouring of tributes and appreciations by the many colleagues who had worked with her, writes Peter Beaumont. Marie Colvin had a knack of finding her way to places where other journalists had not been, getting there first and staying when others had long gone. Colleagues would arrive in conflict zones to find Colvin already in situ, usually hunched over her laptop or talking urgently into her mobile phone to one of her sources from her vast contacts book. ? While much international attention has focused on Homs, up the road in Idlib, another town has become one of the country's most contested areas, according to the LA Times. In Maarat Numan, strategically situated on the main highway between Syria's two major cities, Aleppo and Damascus, rebels loosely associated with the Free Syrian Army, an insurgent group based on the Turkish side of the border, are holding their own against security forces. Rebels appear to control most residential districts, where images of the tricolor opposition flag are spray-painted on countless walls. But military checkpoints and carefully placed snipers control two main thoroughfares intersecting in town. President Bashar Assad's government seems intent on holding the two main roads and occasionally firing into rebel neighborhoods, driving people indoors. ? The Syrian government has accused the international community of trying to use medical emergency for political ends after the Red Cross called for a ceasefire in the worst hit areas. In letters to the Red Cross, the UN and others, the Syrian government claimed terrorist groups had targeted hospitals. Iran? UN experts have returned from Tehran empty-handed after two days of talks focused on Iran's nuclear programme, narrowing the options for diplomacy, the Independent reports. In unusually frank comments, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was "disappointed" with Iran's refusal to allow inspectors to visit sensitive military sites amid widely-held suspicions that Tehran is building an atomic bomb. SyriaBashar al-AssadArab and Middle East unrestMiddle East and North AfricaUS foreign policyIranUnited NationsMatthew WeaverBrian Whitaker guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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RBS chairman makes plea as £2bn loss is announced

? Sir Philip Hampton says bank needs to be run on commercial grounds if taxpayers are to get their £45bn investment back ? Branch staff offered 1% pay rises, bankers given £390m in bonuses ? Average investment bank bonus was £22k ? Bank insists bonuses were down ? Stephen Hester: 'Bonuses should be taken' Royal Bank of Scotland pleaded on Thursday to be allowed to run on a commercial basis as the taxpayer-owned bank announced losses widened to £2bn in 2011, and confirmed it paid out £390m in bonuses to investment bankers. Sir Philip Hampton, appointed chairman after the October 2008 bailout, said that the bank needed to be run on "commercial grounds" if taxpayers were to get their £45bn investment back. The taxpayer is currently sitting on £20bn of losses on its 82% stake, despite the 2% rise in the shares to 28p by 8.30am. However, the bank ignited the row over City pay as it prepared to pay out bonuses to its 17,000 investment banking staff and even as it attempted to show pay restraint by freezing the salaries of its 10,000 most senior staff and its investment banks. It insisted bonuses were down, but average staff costs inside the investment bank remained steady at £144,000. Union officials were furious that 60,000 branch staff were being offered 1% pay rises, while 17,000 investment bankers were sharing £390m of bonuses. Talks have broken down and Unite is now urging staff to reject the offer as David Fleming, Unite national office, accused the bank of "hypocrisy". "How does RBS expect staff to accept its claims of poverty and this ludicrous pay offer, when there is clearly enough money flowing into the hands of its top bankers and traders?" said Fleming. "The bonus pot would give these low-paid employees approximately £6,000, which amounts to simply loose change for a City slicker." A year ago RBS paid out £950m in bonuses after reporting a £1.1bn loss. For the first time, the bank published a figure for the bonus pool for its entire staff of £795m but for accounting purposes the "variable compensation" was £985m compared with £1.2bn a year ago. Chief executive Stephen Hester, who waived his near £1m bonus in the face of political uproar, stressed that bonuses were down "any way you cut it" although the compensation to income ratio - which shows how much revenue is used to pay staff - rose to 41% from 34%. He said the average bonus inside the investment bank - which is being scaled back with 3,500 job cuts and retrenchment from international bonuses - was £22,941, more than 50% lower than the average of £50,114 a year ago. For the total 146,800 staff, the average bonus was £5,347 versus £9,260. He said the bank used 18% of its profits from investment banking to pay bonuses to investment bankers compared with 35% at Barclays which reported its results almost a fortnight ago. Hester said his colleagues - a handful of whom could be handed £11m in the coming months when bonuses awarded up to three years ago pay out - should not hand their bonuses back as he did. "I believe bonuses are awarded and they should be taken," Hester said, as he warned the "noise" around RBS was damaging. "You can't have your cake and eat it," said Hester. "If you want an RBS that is mired in the past, a British Leyland, then we should be judged on a different basis," Hester said. It was view echoed by his chairman. In a letter to shareholders, Hampton said: "It is the board's view that running the business on commercial grounds is the best way to make the bank safer and more valuable for everyone who depends upon it. I do not believe there is a workable alternative if our aim is to provide the opportunity for the UK government to sell its shares in the public markets in a reasonable timescale," he said. "A sign that we have succeeded will be the desire of private investors to acquire the UK government's stake. While these investors hold only 18% of our shares today, their view of our performance, leadership and strategy is crucial. All being well, they will own the majority of the equity capital of the company in future years," Hampton said. He had expected that the shares would already be up for sale by now but regulatory change, the downturn in the economy and the eurozone crisis have meant this is not happened. The results were announced as David Cameron said that anti-business "rhetoric" should be stopped. "We have got to fight this mood with all we've got," he said. Chancellor George Osborne added that RBS was "cleaning up the mess after the biggest bank bailout in history". "We have made clear that RBS should be a backmarker in the industry when it comes to pay, so it's right that bonuses at the investment bank are less than half what they were last year and less than a third of what they were in 2009," said Osborne. Hester set out the progress made to reduce losses since the record-breaking £24bn losses he inherited from 2008 but said the bank had incurred £42bn of clean-up costs to salvage the operation. The bank's impairment charge for bad loans was down 20% at £7.4bn while other items also ate into profits such as the £906m to participate in the government's asset protection scheme, the previously announced £850m provision for payment protection insurance, a £1bn impairment on Greek debt and a £300m bank levy. Ulster bank continued to be a drain on RBS, reporting an operating loss of £1bn compared with £761m a year ago while the UK retail arm generated £1.9bn of profits, up from £1.2m. The global banking and markets arm - the investment bank - reporting an operating profit of £1.5bn down from £3.3bn, a 54% fall. The insurance business, which Hester said would be floated on the stock market in the second half of next year, reversed £295m of losses to £454m of profits. Royal Bank of ScotlandBankingExecutive pay and bonusesJill Treanor guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

NHS watchdog chief Cynthia Bower resigns

Care Quality Commission chief executive quits amid criticism of regulator's failure to adequately police hospitals and care homes The head of the NHS regulator for England, who has been the subject of mounting criticism over the watchdog's failure to adequately police hospitals and care homes, has resigned. Cynthia Bower announced on Thursday that she was resigning from her £195,000-a-year role as chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, which she has held since 2008. Although she insisted it was "time to move on" after four years helping set up and lead the regulator, it comes after growing public and private pressure for her to quit. When the CQC started up in April 2009, Andrew Lansley, the then shadow health secretary, questioned the appointment of Bower, given that in her previous role as chief executive of the NHS's West Midlands strategic health authority she had failed to properly investigate the scandal at Stafford hospital, where hundreds of patients died due to appalling care. In recent months the Commons health select committee and the National Audit Office have issued highly critical reports about the CQC. They were prompted in part by serious concerns raised by key organisations in the health and social care fields, such as the unions representing NHS staff, the NHS Confederation, which speaks for hospitals, and campaign groups such as Action on Elder Abuse and Action against Medical Accidents. It has been criticised for adopting a "light-touch" regulatory regime, despite evidence of poor standards of care in some NHS hospitals, particularly of older patients, and whistleblowers' claims that the CQC has a bullying culture, low morale and a lack of strategic direction. "After almost four years leading CQC, I feel that it is now time to move on," Bower said. "The process of setting up an entirely new system of regulation has been intensely challenging ? but we have accomplished an enormous amount. We have merged three organisations, registered 40,000 provider locations and brought virtually the entire health and social care network under one set of standards, which focus on the needs of people who use the service," said Bower. She welcomed the publication on Thursday of the findings of an unprecedented performance and capability review of the CQC by the Department of Health's permanent secretary, Una O'Brien. Bower said it "recognises the scale of what has been achieved ? and in particular the significant improvements made over the last nine months. I'm confident that CQC will continue to build on the progress already made, delivering increasing benefits to people who use services by shining a light on poor care ? and I am proud to have played a part in this." Bower would stay in her post until this autumn as part of "an orderly transition", sources said. But her eventual departure may coincide with a government shake-up of NHS regulation after the publication, expected in early summer, of the result of a public inquiry into how NHS regulatory failure let the Stafford scandal happen. The chair of CQC, Dame Jo Williams, said: "I am very sorry that Cynthia has decided to move on, but I understand her desire to take on new challenges. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for the enormous contribution she has made to the setting up and running of CQC. "She has shown tireless commitment to this organisation, and she leaves it in a strong position to carry out our essential role in tackling poor care. This is confirmed by today's performance review from the Department of Health, which recognises CQC's 'considerable achievements' in setting the essential platform from which tougher regulatory action can be taken." The NHS's chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, thanked Bower for her commitment to the job: "Building a new regulator involves great vision, leadership and resilience. This is always a complex task and one under constant scrutiny. It is great credit to Cynthia's leadership to have achieved this." O'Brien said Bower had "provided energetic leadership to the CQC from its very outset". Pressure for a shake-up of the CQC intensified last November after two internal whistleblowers gave extraordinary evidence about its failings in the Stafford hospital inquiry. Kay Sheldon, a CQC board member, and Amanda Pollard, a CQC inspector from Kent, claimed that patients' lives could be at risk because the regulator was performing so badly it might not spot another scandal. They claimed some staff were not properly trained for their jobs, the CQC had a culture of bullying, was beset by low morale and lacked a clear view of what it should be doing. Sheldon said Bower and Williams put "reputation management and personal survival" above patients' interests. Sheldon said Bower's departure was necessary and overdue. "This is the right decision for CQC and for the future of regulation," she told the Guardian. "People will not be surprised to learn that I believe Cynthia Bower should have left before now given the serious and ongoing problems the organisation has faced. Today's capability review report raises significant questions about senior level competence in the organisation as well as the functioning of the board. "It is an inescapable fact that the board has not provided the necessary leadership and scrutiny. The persistent failure to address, and at times acknowledge, the problems needs to be tackled if we are to achieve an effective and sustainable regulator that functions in the interest of patients and the public." Health and social care organisations were divided about Bower's departure. Jeremy Taylor, chief executive of National Voices, an umbrella group representing 130 charities such as Asthma UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, doubted that Bower needed to go. "It's not clear that this resignation was necessary but it does offer the opportunity for the CQC to move on and recover public confidence after a rocky period. The last thing CQC needs is a hiatus in leadership, so the plan for Cynthia Bower to stay on until the autumn seems very sensible. The recruitment of her successor needs to begin immediately, not 'shortly', as in the chair's statement," Taylor said. "The CQC needs to be the firm, independent champion of the patient and service user, acting without fear or favour." He said the watchdog needed adequate funding and a sensible remit from the government. "The CQC has been hampered by being asked to do too many things that have little relevance to patient safety and quality." He cited the example of registering all GPs and dentists when they are already regulated by other bodies. Taylor identified three priorities for the regulator: "assessing quality and risk from a patient and service user experience, developing smart intelligence, and developing a high quality inspectorate". NHSHealthHealth policySocial careDenis Campbell guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

UN votes to increase Somalia peacekeeping force

Somali prime minister says he hopes conference in London on Thursday will mark a tipping point in the country's fortunes The UN security council has voted to increase an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia to nearly 18,000 troops in a bid to defeat extremist rebels and help stabilise the country after more than two decades of chaos. The vote to boost the Amisom force of east African troops came as a joint Ethiopian and Somali government offensive wrested control of the central city of Baidoa from the al-Shabaab rebels. It boosted hopes at a conference in London on Thursday aimed at consolidating the government in Mogadishu, bringing greater stability to the country, and combating piracy which has thrived on Somalia's lawless coastline. Responding to a Guardian report that the British government had considered air strikes against the al-Shabaab militia, which has vowed fealty to al-Qaida, the Somali prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, said: "Targeted strikes against al-Qaida in Somalia we would welcome. But we have to be sure we protect the lives and safety of Somali citizens." The UK sponsored the security council resolution that increased the Amisom force and widened its mandate. Speaking after the vote, the British ambassador to Nato, Mark Lyall Grant, said: "For the first time it authorises Amisom to use all necessary means to reduce the threat from al-Shabaab, and therefore to conduct more robust and offensive operations." The resolution also imposed a ban on the export of Somali charcoal, a principal source of funding for the rebels. The Somali prime minister welcomed the UN security council vote, which puts Kenyan troops in Somalia under AU command, after Nairobi launched its own offensive against al-Shabaab bases over its northern border. They will fight alongside Ugandan and Burundian troops already in the AU force and a fresh contingent from Djibouti. Amisom, which has been in the country since 2007, has scored a string of victories, taking Mogadishu last August and driving al-Shabaab fighters out of the centre and south of the country. Reports from Baidoa on Wednesday said that Ethiopian and Somali government tanks and troops had swept into the town, while the insurgents had melted into the surrounding forest. Speaking in London on the eve of the conference, Ali said the long-term solution to Somalia's security problems was a robust home-grown army, navy and coastguard, and that the only enduring solution to the al-Shabaab insurrection and chronic piracy was economic. "We must be ready to welcome and assist large numbers of defectors from the extremist ranks, and give them ways of making an honest living," Ali said. "The long-term answer to piracy lies inland. Its root causes are lawlessness and poverty. The opportunity cost for young Somalis to take to the seas is zero. Lots of lives have been lost and lots are in prison. We have to offer alternative livelihoods." The Somali prime minister said he hoped the London conference, which will bring together about 50 governments and international organisations, would mark a tipping point in Somalia's fortunes. "We expect this to be a game-changer for Somalia. These are the expectations of the Somali people. We think it will succeed," he said at a meeting of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. David Cameron told parliament that the conference would seek to galvanise an international effort to transform Somalia. "It means working with all the parts of Somalia, which has been more blighted by famine, by disease, by violence, by terrorism than almost any other country in the world, to give that country a second chance," the prime minister said. He argued there were already tentative signs of progress. According to the European Union's naval anti-piracy patrols, pirates hijacked six vessels in the last six months of 2011, compared with 19 in the first four months of that year. Ransoms last year cost the shipping industry about £86m. Perceptions of Somalia as an international case for intensive care were reinforced last year, when the UN declared famine in parts of Somalia, where a fierce drought on top of years of conflict between a weak transitional government and Islamist insurgents from al-Shabaab pushed the country over the edge. Some tens of thousands of Somalis are estimated to have died, but the famine is now over, although 2.34 million people ? a third of the population ? remain in need of food aid and shelter, with 1.7 million residing in the southern regions controlled by al-Shabaab, which has blocked access for many humanitarian groups. Iran, Qatar and Turkey are also active diplomatically in Somalia, with Turkey planning to hold a conference of its own on Somalia later in June focusing on humanitarian efforts. In Somalia, efforts are under way under the auspices of the UN to draw up a constituent assembly, an independent electoral commission, a new federal structure and a smaller parliament with greater representation for women. The UN has tried to draw in all Somalis, including those from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, although al-Shabaab, which has declared a formal alliance with al-Qaida, remains frozen out politically. SomaliaMiddle East and North AfricaAfricaAfrican UnionPiracy at seaUnited NationsJulian BorgerMark Tran guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Iraq attacks kill at least 50 people

Baghdad and other cities rocked by bombs and shootings believed to have been targeted at police officials At least 50 people have been killed in a series of bombings and shootings in Iraq that officials say were targeted at police officers. In the worst attack, a car bomb went off near a security checkpoint in the Baghdad's Karradah shopping district, killing nine people and wounding 26, including four policemen, officials said. Footage of the scene showed bloodied victims walking away from several damaged shopfronts and charred vehicles. At least eight more bombs exploded during the morning across Baghdad, killing 18 more people. And on opposite sides of the capital, gunmen with silenced pistols killed eight policemen at security checkpoints, officials said. The casualties were confirmed by Baghdad hospital officials. Nationwide, security forces appeared to be targeted in at least 14 separate attacks. Officials in Baquba, 35 miles (60km) north-east of the capital, said a suicide bomber blew up his car outside a police station near a market. Two people were killed and eight wounded. In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, two police patrols were hit by roadside bombs. Twenty policemen were injured in the attacks, said Major General Sarhat Qadir. Bombs in the town of Tuz Khormato, outside Kirkuk, wounded three guards at the office of a Kurdish political party. And south of Baghdad, eight policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in the town of Madain. Iraq's police are generally considered to be the weakest element of the country's security forces. Earlier this week, 20 policemen and recruits were killed by a suicide bomber outside the Baghdad police academy. Angry residents blamed the attack on political feuding. The country has been besieged by political turbulence since the day US troops pulled out of Iraq, when an arrest warrant was issued for the vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi, on charges that he commandeered death squads to target security forces and government officials. Hashemi, the country's highest-ranking Sunni, has denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated and blaming the Shia-led government of trying to unseat him. Experts worry the case will raise Iraq's sectarian tensions. IraqMiddle East and North AfricaGlobal terrorism guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Labour suspends MP Eric Joyce over assault allegations

Scotland Yard says officers detained a man in his 50s after being called to an incident at a bar in the House of Commons The Labour MP Eric Joyce has been suspended from the party after allegations of an assault in a House of Commons bar. Joyce remains MP for Falkirk but cannot take the Labour whip in the Commons until the completion of a police investigation into the incident. Scotland Yard confirmed that officers detained a man in his 50s after being called to reports of an incident at a bar within the Palace of Westminster at around 10.50pm on Wednesday. He was taken into custody at a central London police station. A Labour spokesman said: "This is an extremely serious incident. We have suspended Eric Joyce pending the results of the police investigation." The PoliticsHome website reported that the MP for Falkirk headbutted and punched the Conservative MP Stuart Andrew, and alleged that he lashed out at several Tory MPs and one Labour MP. Andrew, the MP for Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough, is reportedly planning to press charges against Joyce. In response to a tweet asking how he was, Andrew replied: "Thank you. I am ok." Speaking in the Commons before transport questions on Thursday morning, the Speaker, John Bercow, said: "Members will be aware of reports of a serious incident in the House last night. I have been informed by the serjeant at arms that the honourable member for Falkirk has been detained in police custody. "The matter is being investigated. I take this matter very seriously, as do the House authorities. I would ask that no further reference should be made to these reports in the chamber today." Scotland Yard confirmed on Thursday that they were still questioning a man over the alleged assault. A spokesman said: "The man remains in custody at a central London police station." An MP since 2000 who was formerly in the army education corps, Joyce tweeted just three days ago: "OK, who's the hardest boxing correspondent in the country? There's only one way to find out ..." Having maintained an interest in defence and military issues during his time in Westminster, Joyce quit as the private parliament secretary to Bob Ainsworth in 2009 due to his concerns over the war in Afghanistan. He had served as PPS to a number of ministers from 2003, including John Hutton ? during the period when he served as defence secretary ? Mike O'Brien and Margaret Hodge. In 2010 he resigned as shadow Northern Ireland minister after pleading guilty to failing to provide a breath test. Eric JoyceLabourHouse of CommonsHélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Net migration to Britain remains at record levels

Government's hopes of reducing migration suffer blow with figures showing it remained at 250,000 in the year to June 2011 The government's hopes of reducing net migration to Britain to below 100,000 have suffered a fresh blow with the latest figures showing that it remained at the record level of 250,000 in the year to June 2011. The Office of National Statistics said that figures published on Thursday showed long-term immigration remained steady at 593,000 coming to live in Britain in the year to June 2011. Long-term emigration over the same period was also stable at 343,000 people going to live abroad, giving a net migration figure of 250,000. The figures for the first year of the coalition government showed that net migration actually rose from 235,000 to 250,000 in their first 12 months in office. This increase was driven by falls in the emigration side of the equation, with the number of people going to live abroad at its lowest level since 1998. The latest quarterly ONS migration statistics report confirms that studying remains the most common reason to come to live in Britain, with an estimated 242,000 students arriving in the year to June 2011. The figures also show that long-term immigration of new Commonwealth citizens ? mainly from the Asian sub-continent ? hit a record level of 170,000 ? two-thirds of them students ? over the same period. A separate set of Home Office immigration statistics giving annual figures for 2011, which do not include an estimate for the politically sensitive figure of net migration, show that study, work or family visa applications to Britain fell by 6% last year. The latest visa data shows a fall in the number of overseas students since a peak in June 2010. The immigration minister, Damian Green, insisted there were signs of progress: "Our reforms are starting to take effect. Home Office figures from the second half of last year show a significant decrease in the number of student and work visas issued, an early indicator for the long-term direction of net migration. "Net migration remains too high, but is now steady, having fallen from a recent peak in the year to September 2010," he said. "This government remains committed to bringing net migration down from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands over the course of the Parliament." The latest net migration figure is only 5,000 below the September 2010 peak of 255,000. The number of people granted settlement, which is to be the subject of fresh curbs to be announced next week, fell by 32% last year to 163,477. But it is thought this drop represents a backlog of long-term asylum "legacy" cases moving through the system. There were 177,000 new British citizens ? 9% fewer than in 2010. The Home Office figures show a sharp rise in asylum cases in the last three months of 2011 to 5,261 ? the highest quarterly total since 2009 with rises in applications from Pakistan, Libya and Iran. The number of people detained for immigration reasons in Britain, already the highest in Europe, rose by 11% to 6,681 in the final quarter of 2011. The figure includes 41 children, the majority of whom were detained in the new "pre-departure" family accommodation run in association with Barnardos. Ministers will also be concerned to see that removals and deportations also fell again during 2011 from 60,244 in the previous year to 52,526. The last three months of the year saw some recovery in the number of removals. Immigration and asylumOffice for National StatisticsLiberal-Conservative coalitionConservativesAlan Travis guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Romney and Santorum trade barbs in Arizona debate

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum both tried but failed to land a winning blow ahead of the Michigan and Arizona primaries Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum traded accusations over federal spending, contraception, the bailout of the car industry and healthcare reform on Wednesday night in what may have been the last in a series of televised debates stretching back to May last year. Romney and Santorum are about the last two standing from a bruising and protracted campaign to choose a Republican nominee to take on Barack Obama in November. Both sought to deliver a telling blow ahead of Tuesday's Michigan and Arizona primaries but neither could manage it. Failure to win Michigan would be a major humiliation for Romney as it is his home state and would seriously damage his chances of winning the nomination. Santorum badly needs a win to build on the momentum he created earlier this month with victories in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri and his supporters will view the debate as a missed opportunity. The debate in Meza, Arizona, was the twentieth and possibly the last. Although a debate is scheduled for Portland, Oregon, in March, there are doubts about whether it will go ahead. The early debates were marred by having too many candidates, with time only for soundbites, but Arizona suffered from having two candidates who have been battling too long and who were too familiar with each other's policies, squabbling over minor details, frequently nitpicking and fabricating points. Although former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas congressman Ron Paul were also on stage, they were left largely on the sidelines. Gingrich, who has been fading since his victory in South Carolina in January, needed to dominate as he had done with earlier debates but could not impose himself. Santorum came off marginally the worse in his sparring with Romney. He became bogged down in a long, rambling defence of his votes for 'earmark' spending while a senator, an answer that could lose him conservative support, incensed by what they see as wasteful spending on projects such as Alaska's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere". Romney, asked to respond, replied contemptously: "I didn't follow all that." Romney, who highlights on his CV his intervention on behalf of the Olympics in Salt Lake City, produced the soundbite of the night, telling Santorum: "When I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the Bridge to Nowhere." Santorum, frustrated at the direction the debate was going, petutantly said to Romney: "You don't know what you're talking about." Santorum was shouted down at frequent points during the debate by an audience dominated by Romney supporters. Santorum came close to acknowledging he had not had a good night when he said afterwards: "This is Romney's town and a Romney crowd." Andy Tobin, the Arizona House speaker and a spokesman for the Romney campaign, said: "Santorum said earmarks are OK. It is not OK. I think he missed a great opportunity tonight." But it was not a good night for Romney either. Like Santorum on earmarks, he waffled over his opposition to federal bailouts for the car industry and that could hurt him in Michigan, headquarters of the country's biggest auto manufacturers. He also shifted to the right at several points with policies aimed at winning over conservatives in Arizona. He said the Arizona model for dealing with illegal immigration, regarded by the Obama administration as draconian, should be adopted by the whole country. That could help Romney in the Arizona primary but damage him in a general election, particularly with Latino voters. One moment of light relief in an otherwise plodding debate came when each candidate was asked to sum themselves up in one word. Paul went for "consistent", Santorum "courage", Romney "resolute" and Gingrich "cheerful". On foreign policy, Romney, Santorum and Gingrich were adamant Iran would not be allowed to become a nuclear power, while Paul dissented, saying there was no evidence it was seeking a nuclear weapon capability. On social issues, Romney challenged Santorum's credentials as anti-abortionist, saying he had backed former senator Arlen Specter, a supporter of abortion rights. Romney went further, saying that Santorum, through his support of Specter, had helped bring about healthcare reform, a contentious and obscure point. Republican presidential nomination 2012United StatesUS politicsMitt RomneyRick SantorumRon PaulNewt GingrichUS elections 2012ArizonaMichiganEwen MacAskill guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

A4e compelled jobseekers to work unpaid in its own offices

DWP reveals that A4e sent the unemployed to work in at least two of its own offices in an apparent conflict of interest The company at the centre of a police investigation into an alleged abuse of government back-to-work contracts compelled jobseekers to work unpaid in its own offices for at least a month at a time, the Guardian can reveal. In response to a freedom of information request about the company last year, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that A4e sent jobseekers it was meant to be helping into employment to work in at least two of its own offices in an apparent conflict of interest. The placements, part of Labour's Flexible New Deal scheme, were mandatory and are understood to have lasted for four weeks. Those on benefits were, in effect, forced to work for free for the company or have their benefits stripped. The DWP's list of placements from just one of A4e's offices in Holloway, north London, shows that it sent the unemployed to work at two of its other London offices in Camden and Woolwich. The document also contains a third reference to work in an A4e office. The list also reveals that from the 12 months to late June 2011 the company sent people to work unpaid in Asda, Sainsbury's, Oxfam bookstores and a host of other charities and small businesses. Oxfam and Sainsbury's have since pulled out of unpaid work experience programmes linked to the receipt of benefits. A dozen other major charities and high street chains have also left the programme following protests. Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, David Cameron praised work experience for young people. "I think we should encourage companies and encourage young people to expand work experience because it gives people a chance of seeing work and all that involves and gives them a better chance to get a job," he said during prime minister's question time. The prime minister will go further in defence of the government's work experience schemes on Thursday. "We see this in the debate on education, put a young person into college for a month's learning, unpaid ? and it's hailed as a good thing," he will say. "Put a young person into a supermarket for a month's learning, unpaid ? and it's slammed as slave labour. "Put a child into a great school run by a local authority ? cause for celebration. "Put them into a great school backed by a bank ? and that is a cause for suspicion." He urged a "thorough" inquiry on Wednesday into A4e after four of the company's former staff were arrested as part of an ongoing police inquiry at its offices in Slough. A former government official who helped devise Labour's unemployment programmes said he was "very surprised" that A4e had placed the unemployed to work for free in its own company. There is no suggestion that A4e would have received any direct financial reward for placing people in unpaid work experience but the official explained that mandatory placements were partly devised to stop those private companies running back-to-work schemes from "parking" difficult or problematic jobseekers. Apart from being able to gain from unpaid labour, the senior former official, who did not want to be named, said sending jobseekers to work in its offices would help A4e cut down on its overheads as it would not have to spend time on organising placements in outside businesses. The company ? owned by families tsar, the millionaire Emma Harrison ? has refused to comment on the allegations or explain what work they were made to do and whether it included tasks such as data entry, cleaning or was job shadowing. Harrison has come under pressure to step down from her post since she was appointed by Cameron in December 2010 but on Wednesday a spokesperson for her said she was "staying put". A4e corroborated the veracity of the document and has previously confirmed that companies listed in the freedom of information release have been used by A4e to place jobseekers. The revelation raises the question of where private companies running back-to-work schemes such as Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) and the Work Programme are allowed to place unemployed people. In recent days, ministers and the DWP have insisted that while the "voluntary" work experience scheme operates in high street chains, mandatory placements are always for community benefit. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, employment minister Chris Grayling said: "Where we use mandation in our welfare policies, it will be to do useful work on community projects. We will never mandate anyone to work for a big company. They wouldn't take them if we did." An official tweet from the DWP also backed the claim saying: "The DWP only mandates people for community work #workfare". However, the private company Seetec, which won two contracts to run the MWA scheme in London and the East of England told the Guardian that "community benefit" also includes private companies. In a statement Seetec said: "There are occasions where people taking part in MWA would carry out a work placement with a local employer who may be a private company, but this would be a placement that does deliver community benefit." The DWP has now clarified that private companies can also be included in the definition of "community benefit". Official figures show that 24,000 mostly young jobseekers have been made to do MWA but since this entire scheme is administered by private companies, information on where worked has not been made public. In response to questions about mandatory placements from the Guardian, a spokesperson for Ingeus Deloitte, which administers MWA in the east Midlands and the north-east, said: "We have not sought the permission of MWA placement providers to publish their names so will not be able to issue you with a list at this time. However, I can confirm that our clients are placed with wide range of community-based organisations and charities which benefit the local community, in accordance with the provider guidance issued by DWP." Both Seetec and Ingeus said that they did not place jobseekers on MWA placements within their own company. Official provider guidance for the MWA says "community" benefit can be defined as profit for the person using the unpaid jobseeker in their organisation. Under section 48 of the 2011 official guidance, the third definition of community benefit is described as "working towards the profit of the host organisation, providing that the majority of the role is dedicated towards delivery of benefit to the community". A Labour MP has contacted the Guardian to say they were concerned that the MWA programme had not been scrutinised by the Commons and had passed into law with the "tick of a minister's pen" last year. A spokesperson for the DWP said: "As well as offering jobseekers the chance to develop work-related disciplines and behaviours, DWP specifies that all placements under the Mandatory Work Activity scheme must be of benefit to the local community. This could be in a wide range of roles, including renovating and recycling old furniture, working in a local sports club or supporting charitable organisations. The department also specifies that placements must be additional to any existing or expected vacancies." WelfareUnemploymentBenefitsWork & careersShiv MalikPatrick Wintour guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Tech giants agree to new privacy rules

Mobile apps will have to disclose how private data will be used before download under new agreement Six of the world's top consumer technology companies ? including Apple, Google and Microsoft ? have agreed that apps will provide greater privacy disclosures before users download them so as to protect consumers' personal data, California's attorney general said on Wednesday. The move comes amid increasing criticism over "data grabs" by a number of third-party applications which don't offer clear disclosure about how much of a user's personal data such as their address book they will store on their servers. Google also came under renewed scrutiny over its announcement earlier in February that it would streamline its privacy policy, and still faces separate scrutiny from the US Congress over its circumvention of security settings in browsers to track millions of users of its services on Apple's iPhone and iPad, and users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. The new agreement binds Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), and Hewlett-Packard ? and developers on their platforms ? to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded, Attorney General Kamala Harris said. "Your personal privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, but all too often it is," Harris said. She said that 22 of the 30 most downloaded apps do not have privacy notices. Some downloaded apps also upload some or all of a consumer's contact book to online servers ? including small companies such as the would-be social network Path, and the giant microblogging network Twitter. The importance of reining in wayward apps has become urgent: there are nearly 600,000 applications on offer in the Apple App Store and 400,000 in Google's Android Market, and consumers have downloaded more than 35bn, Harris said. She said there are also more than 50,000 individual developers who have created the mobile apps available for download on the leading platforms. Harris said an estimated 98bn mobile applications will be downloaded by 2015, and the $6.8bn (£4.3bn) market for mobile applications is expected to grow to $25bn within four years. Google said that under the California agreement, users of its Android mobile operating system will have even more ways to make informed decisions when it comes to their privacy. Apple confirmed the agreement but did not elaborate. Harris was also among US state lawmakers who on Wednesday signed a letter to Google chief executive Larry Page to express serious concerns over the web giant's recent decision to consolidate its privacy policy. The policy change would give Google access to user information across its products, such as GMail and Google Plus, without the proper ability for consumers to opt out, said the 36 US attorneys general in their letter. EU authorities have asked Google to halt the policy change until regulators can investigate the matter. Meanwhile the US's Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has put up a page explaining how people can wipe clean their Google Search History before the changes take effect on 1 March. But it noted that this will not prevent some tracking. California's 2004 Online Privacy Protection Act requires privacy disclosures, but Harris said few mobile developers had paid attention to the law in recent years because of confusion over whether it applied to mobile apps. "Most mobile apps make no effort to inform users about how personal information is used," Harris said at a press conference in San Francisco. "The consumer should be informed of what they are giving up." The six companies will meet the attorney general in six months to assess compliance among their developers. But Harris acknowledged that there was no clear timeline to begin enforcement. The attorney general repeatedly raised the possibility of litigation at some future time under California's unfair competition and false advertising laws if developers continue to publish apps without privacy notices. "We can sue and we will sue," she said, adding that she hoped the industry would act in good faith. Data protectionAppsPrivacyInternetGoogleMicrosoftTwitterAppleRIM (Research in Motion)Digital mediaCharles Arthur guardian.co.uk ? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

ComputerWorld

White House pushes for new privacy codes of conduct

The U.S. White House will push for online businesses to adopt new privacy codes of conduct, including consumer rights to control what information websites collect about them and a right to see what data is being collected, officials there said.

Mobile app stores to require, disclose privacy policies

Apple, Google and other mobile platform providers will present privacy policies for all the apps offered in their stores as part of an agreement with the state of California.

Whitman gives HP harsh report card, outlines recovery plan

Hewlett-Packard has underinvested in its business and become "too complex and too slow," President and CEO Meg Whitman said Wednesday, offering a three-part turnaround plan to get the ailing company back on track.

Next round of 'meaningful use' rules for eHealth records expected Thursday

The second of three sets of rules established by the federal government for attaining 'meaningful use' of electronic medical records by healthcare facilities is expected to be published online Thursday.

HP profit falls 44% amid weak PC sales

Hewlett-Packard's profit dipped sharply in the first quarter as consumers slowed spending on its PCs and printers, HP announced Wednesday.

Apple to open another data center in Oregon

Apple has bought a vast sprawl of land in Prineville, Oregon, where it will open a data center, the company said on Wednesday.

Adobe to Linux users: Get Chrome or forget Flash

Adobe today said that it would stop offering direct downloads of Flash Player for Linux, telling users to move to Google's Chrome browser, which bundles Flash with its updates.

Google updates Docs on Android and improves presentation app

Google has expanded the functionality of its Docs word processing application on Android devices while simultaneously improving the Docs presentation application for desktop browsers.

Feds request DNS Changer extension to keep 400K users online

U.S. government officials have asked a New York judge to extend an impending deadline that could sever ties to the Internet for hundreds of thousands of users infected with the "DNS Changer" malware.

Oracle lawsuit alleges 'gray market conspiracy' over support services

Oracle is alleging that two companies violated its intellectual property as part of a "gray market" conspiracy to provide support for Oracle's Sun Solaris OS and hardware, according to a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Christian Science Monitor

In Darkness: movie review (+trailer)

The movie's power comes from its uncompromising take on the heroism of a Polish sewer inspector during the country's 1942 German occupation.

Republican debate: Romney fights to win against surging Santorum

Mitt Romney?used Wednesday's?Republican debate to go head-to-head with?his leading challenger, Rick Santorum.

What Heinrich Rudolf Hertz taught us about nothingness

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, who was honored Wednesday on his 155th birthday, helped explain how even nothing at all can be something. ?

'Diddy' as TV mogul? Why new network could face steep challenges.

'Diddy,' a.k.a. Sean Combs, will head one of four new minority-owned networks on Comcast. But with the TV landscape changing, 'Diddy' will have to do something special to stand out.?

Sarah Palin: press 'wee-weed up' over Santorum Satan speech. Is she right?

Sarah Palin has criticized the 'lame-stream media' for making too much of Rick Santorum's 2008 statement that Satan is attacking America. But the media aren't the only ones concerned.?

Supreme Court debate: Is lying about being a war hero protected speech?

Supreme Court justices heard arguments over the Stolen Valor Act, which bars lies over receiving military medals, but the discussion broadened into whether there is any value worth protecting in falsehood.

GOP's big investors: Who's really running for president?

A handful of billionaires are all but funding the GOP primaries. Never before have so few spent so much to influence so many.

Republican debate: why Rick Santorum faces more pressure than Mitt Romney

Wednesday night's Republican debate in Arizona may be the most crucial yet. But Mitt Romney isn't the only one facing pressure. Rick Santorum needs to show that his rise to the top is real.

Virginia GOP backs off mandatory invasive ultrasound tests

Republican legislators in Virginia voted to amend a bill that would have required women seeking abortions to submit to invasive ultrasound imaging.

Rutgers spycam case: why it's not open and shut

Dharun Ravi faces charges of, among other counts, invasion of privacy and witness and evidence tampering. The most serious charge ? bias intimidation ? could draw a 10-year sentence.

Church Of The Customer

Playbooks and visual explanations

People trust people

FedEx's apology: expertly delivered

The simplest definition of word of mouth marketing

14 new statistics about word of mouth marketing

How Nordstrom creates word of mouth around the holidays

Steve Jobs

Where do most people talk about brands?

Creating word-of-mouth for a cause, the Innocent Drinks way

Kicking out unwanted customers, Alamo Drafthouse style

Wired News

The Beauty and Tragedy of Hungary's Supple Stringbike

The Stringbike is a bicycle from another world, a cat's cradle of strings, springs and pulleys. But it's so expensive, it may never win the public's acceptance.

iPad App Explores George Harrison's Guitar Collection, Music

In Back Alleys and Basements, Video Arcades Quietly Survive

Music Legends' Last Stops Before Great Gig in the Sky

A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Feb. 23

Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.

DataLocker Aims to Allow Personal Cloud at Work

AppSense Labs today released a new product aimed at making free-wheeling consumer cloud practices such as synching of mobile devices more acceptable at work. But while Dropbox is popular and DataLocker is welcome for encypting mobile data, the bigger question facing IT soon will be what to do about iCloud on Macs and SkyDrive on Windows 8.

Alleged Accomplice of Accused Cable-Modem Hacker Testifies Against Him

The alleged accomplice of an accused cable-modem hacker testified in court on Wednesday that the suspect taught him how to pirate cable service using hacked firmware and cloned Mac addresses.

After Oracle Lawsuit, HP's Itanium Sales Take a Hit

Looking at Hewlett-Packard?s financials, it?s easy to see see why the company around and sued Oracle last year after the database vendor decided to pull support for HP?s Itanium systems.

Ex-Apple Man Streams Flash Onto the iPad

On Wednesday, OnLive unveiled a new version of OnLive Desktop -- a iPad application that lets users access a virtual Windows desktop and Windows applications housed on servers in the proverbial cloud -- and this new version includes a browser equipped with Adobe Flash. Famously, Apple doesn't allow the Flash player to run locally on the iPad, but OnLive is offering a way around the restriction.

Apple, Google and Other Mobile Giants Commit to App Privacy Standards

The California Department of Justice issued a press release Wednesday detailing an agreement among leaders in the mobile space to strengthen user privacy and transparency policies for mobile apps. Apple, Google, HP, Amazon, Microsoft and RIM signed the agreement.

CNN Live

France, Britain to al-Assad: Halt shelling, return bodies

Britain and France demanded Syria cease attacks against the city of Homs to return the bodies of 2 journalists killed in shelling and to aid 3 more hurt in the same attack.

Taliban: Kill NATO troops over Quran

The Taliban in Afghanistan called on Muslims Thursday to attack NATO military bases and convoys, and kill its soldiers as demonstrations over Quran burning intensified.

Dozens killed in wave of Iraq attacks

A series of what police believe were coordinated bombings and shootings kill 34 people and injured dozens in Baghdad and other areas, Iraqi police said.

Jury: Give UVA player 26 years for death

A judge is considering a jury recommendation that a former University of Virginia lacrosse player be sentenced up to 26 years in prison for his role in the death of his ex-girlfriend.

Manning in court over WikiLeaks case

An arraignment is scheduled Thursday for Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is suspected of leaking secret documents to the WikiLeaks website and is the subject of a court martial.

50 killed in Argentina train crash

At least 49 people were killed and more than 600 people were injured when a train plowed into a platform at a Buenos Aires station today, state media said.

Opinion: Court to end affirmative action?

Abigail Thernstrom says it will be surprising if the Justices are comfortable with declaring affirmative action policy unconstitutional.

Hitman hired to kill random fur-wearer?

A self-proclaimed animal rights activist in Ohio has been charged with soliciting a hit man to kill a random person wearing fur, either by shooting the individual or slitting his or her throat.

Arrests made in death of Ala. 3rd-grader

The grandmother and stepmother of a 9-year-old Alabama girl who died Monday after allegedly being ordered to run around her family's house -- for hours -- as punishment for lying about taking a candy bar have been charged with murder, police said Wednesday.

U.S. envoy meets N. Korean officials

A U.S. envoy is meeting with North Korean officials in Beijing on Thursday to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear program, the first such talks since the death of the longtime leader Kim Jong Il.

ESPN

• Lunardi: Michigan lifts Spartans to top line
• Lakers prevail late in seesaw game with Mavs
• Pujols objects to Angels' 'El Hombre' billboards
• Lin, Knicks stay hot, cruise past listless Hawks
• Lin braces for Heat's D, won't change approach
• Tiger Woods rallies to win Match Play 1st round
• Bulls' Rose says he would never push for trade
• Rangers' Ryan: OF Hamilton has club's support
• Source: Pack, Finley reach 2-year, $15M deal
• UFC's White: Mayweather 'racist' for Lin tweets
• Sources: Temple in talks about joining Big East
• Phils' Howard takes 1st BP since Achilles injury
• Magic: Kobe needs to sit down with Jim Buss
• Celtics' Rondo replaces Hawks' Johnson in ASG
• Knicks guard Shumpert out of dunk contest

Cool Tools

SupportDetails.com

SupportDetails.com is a simple site with an easy-to-remember URL and a singular purpose: it allows you to see all of the tech support information you might need to pass along to a customer service technician or impatient family whiz kid.

It's great because it works equally well for helping customers as it does for troubleshooting the remote machines of those who don't have the tech experience to understand where to start. It's only "feature" is that it allows the visitor to send these details along to you via email.

It's got one ad and costs nothing to use. There's nothing to log in to, and the results aren't impacted by security settings in most typical scenarios. I also think that unlike a lot of sites that will tell you your IP address, the designer of SupportDetails.com clearly wanted to help people that aren't tech savvy (and not make your eyes bleed out at the same time).

-- Pete Forde

SupportDetails.com
http://supportdetails.com/
Free

Sample Excerpts:

Support Details provides all the technical support information about the computer you are using in a single easy to read format.

Autodesk 123D

Printing in 3D is now no more complicated than printing photos in Picasa. First you design something in Autodesk 123D (in my case, my first project was a device housing prototype). Then pick "Make" from the menu. You can print your object on your desktop printer, like a Makerbot (moderate quality, now), or you press another button to have it printed (high quality, later) on a commercial printer. Enter your credit card (my prototype, shown here, cost $24) and a week later it's delivered to your house. Wow.

Best of all, 123D is free. This is the future of fabrication.

-- Chris Anderson

Autodesk 123d
Free
Windows-only (OSX support to come)
Available from and produced by Autodesk

Kelty Pathfinder

I've used this kid-carrier backpack from Kelty, called the Pathfinder, nearly every day for the past year. For instance, just today I took a bird-watching hike with my 16-month-old son, Ivan, who loves traveling in the pack. Previous to the Pathfinder I was using an expensive Phil-and-Ted Backpack for a few months, but it was inferior. It is attractive and stylish and it has what seems to be a more comfortable seat for the child, but the adjustments are limited for positioning the child. It's essential when using one of these packs that the kid's weight is well-balanced over the wearer's hips, and not too far back. I find that the Phil and Ted's pack isn't adjustable enough, so that my child becomes cantilevered too far off of my back. In contrast, the Kelty pack's adjustments allow me to place my child in such a way that his weight rests on my hips and doesn't put too much strain on my back and neck.
 
The previously reviewed and recommended Ergo Baby carrier is an outstanding product, if not the best overall child carrier. It's great for wearing young infants in front, and it can—like this Kelty— be used to wear a larger toddler on your back. However, the kid is directly against your back, so any type of serious hiking would be out of the question because it would be too uncomfortable and sweaty. I like to get a workout in while I'm out with my son, and with the heat he generates having him directly on my back would be miserable.
 
Like the other packs in this class, the Pathfinder is designed to balance a lot of weight (up to 44 lbs.), so that it feels comfortable for the wearer and for the child while you are really hiking. The pack itself is lightweight, and comes with a very useful sun/rain canopy. The padding on the back and the positioning of the child both keep my back from getting hot and sweaty. The Pathfinder has two hip pockets accessible while you're wearing the pack, and the main storage compartment that rests behind the kid detaches as a small daypack, diaper bag. 
 
What sets the old Pathfinder apart from the top-of-the-line Ortlieb and Deuter models -- and the current Pathfinder 3.0, Kelty's current top-of-the-line version  --  is simply its low price. Functionally it's the same as, or at least very similar to, the high-end newer models, but with out-of-style colors.
 
You can get these classic packs cheap on eBay because parents receive them as gifts but then never use them. It requires some effort to adjust them properly, and more importantly it's simply hard to carry 32 pounds (my kid + cargo + the pack itself) on your back if you're not used to it, especially hiking uphill or on uneven terrain. So there's an abundance of high-quality inexpensive used backpacks in excellent condition. I bought mine unused for $65 through Craigslist, versus about $275 for the new Pathfinder 3.0.

-- Elon Schoenholz

Kelty Pathfinder 3.0
New from $250-$275

Available from Amazon

Available used from eBay

Manufactured by Kelty

Cloning Your Own Mineral Water

You can start with a carbonation water machine, like a SodaStream, Soda-Club, or the previously reviewed home system, and then you can add minerals to make your own artisan mineral waters. There are several ways to calculate how much mineral you need to add. In general you start with an analysis of your tap water (often provided by your water company), then you get a list of branded mineral waters to imitate, and then use a spreadsheet to figure out how much mineral to add. Of course you can also refine your own personal mix that suits your taste, too. Finding a source for the minerals is a little bit trickier, but I suspect selling such salts will soon become a small cottage business for someone (if you know of a source let me know in the comments.) Right now check out this tutorial which tells you how:

How to Clone Mineral Water, Edible Geography

A spoon full of mineral salts is required for the preparation of 1 liter of San Pellegrino mineral water. Image from Khymos, Mineral waters a la carte

One of the commentors on the Khymos blog noticed that Burton salts, used in beer brewing, and available from supplier like AHS, is very close to the mix of the salts in San Pelligrino mineral water. A quick experiment awaits?

(Has anyone tried more than one off-the-shelf home carbonation machine and would like to recommend the best one?)

-- KK

Katadyn Pocket Microfilter

While bottled water is available in most large towns throughout the world, in many remote locations the water quality is questionable. Even where bottled water is available it seems extremely wasteful to throw away a dozen plastic bottles every day. We used the Katadyn Pocket Microfilter to fill up our own canteens. On a bike trip through SouthEast Asia we were able to avoid purchasing about 20 of those liter bottles of water every day by having the pump. And of course in places without bottled water, this was a life-saver.

The Katadyn Pocket is different from everything else on the market. The first difference is the price. It costs is two-to-three times the price of it's competition! Also, it is not lightweight. And really it's not all that easy to use.

So what's so great about it? Katadyn has been making this filter for decades. It has been used by the Navy Seals and other special forces for years. The aluminum construction makes it very durable.The filter is fully field-cleanable. That means there is no expensive filter cartridge to replace after a month of use. The ceramic cartridge in the Katadyn Pocket has a life of 13,000 gallons or 50,000 liters. So this filter will last for a lifetime of any adventure.

There are a few things that need to be done regularly to keep the filter in good working condition. The pores of the ceramic filter element absorb the contamination and must be scrubbed clean periodically. Generally I give it a light scrubbing after pumping about ten liters of sink water. If the water source is slightly salty or dirty then the element must be scrubbed more frequently. I can tell it needs a cleaning when the filter becomes difficult to pump. When I first began using the filter I would scrub it too often and too hard, removing more of the ceramic coating than necessary. The first filter wore our faster than the 50,000 liter limit and I learned my lesson. Now I am careful to scrub it lightly and evenly so the wear occurs at the outer edges of the filter at the same rate as the center.  Katadyn provides an organic lubricant that is applied to the pump handle at the bottom and the point where the rod enters the pump. While the lubricant is a tiny little tube it seems to last a long time.

-- Richard Ligato

Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter
$277

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Katadyn

Sample Excerpts:

Filling the water bag in a hotel bathroom in Thailand

Thingiverse

Thingiverse is a swap meet for exchanging digital files for 3D printing of tiny objects, like the stuff for doll houses. You download a file and print out the object using a the previously reviewed Makerbot or 3D printing service. Eventually, the objects will be larger, and the selection larger, and you'll be able to print out complex things. For now, 3D printing is a thrilling hobby, and this exchange site is a real tool for model makers.

-- KK

Gerber Hinderer Rescue Knife

This knife is designed by firefighter Rick Hinderer for the working Firefighter, EMT or Medic. It has a serrated stainless steel blade, a window punch and a foldaway seatbelt cutter. But what tempted me, and what gets used the most, is the built in oxygen tank wrench. It is a deceptively simple slot in the handle, but it has time and again come in handy switching out portable oxygen tanks while on scene. No more sending someone running back to the rig because someone on C-shift forgot to replace the oxygen wrench back in the bag! The over-sized thumb studs make it workable even with bunker gloves on and it comes with a 9-piece kit of screw bits.

-- Jesse Hinds

I've used this knife for two years, and found that it has served me well in all my field work. For me the knife is exceptional because of its appropriate sizing and ergonomic hold. It's easy to use with gloves on. The strap cutter on the back side is excellent and I end up using it a lot. The rubber strip with different tools have been useful for hard to access spaces. It does not replace a multi-tool, but is a great compliment to it.

-- Jason DeJong

Gerber Hinderer Rescue Knife
$62

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Gerber

PacSafe RFID-tec Wallet

Traveling back from Europe last year, I almost missed my plane because I was shopping for a wallet that had a fully closing change-purse (necessary for one and two Euro coins). I bought a very stylish, leather one at the airport for $100, which did not have a bill pocket, only a clip (which itself soon broke).

I replaced it with a more utilitarian PacSafe wallet, and I love it. It has two bill pockets, one that zips closed, as well as a large coin-purse. It has three larger than card-sized pockets as well as three card-slots and a transparent pocket for an ID card.

The material is super-strong nylon and has something sewn-in that blocks RFID signals. It successfully prevents the SF Bay Area touchless transit card Clipper from working while the wallet is closed. I am even more impressed with the construction and the little details like small elastic pockets to hold the zipper-pulls to keep them from jingling and catching on things.

In short, it does what it is supposed to do and does it well.

-- Richard Haven

[Blocking RFID signals is increasingly relevant given the number of credit cards and passports that currently use the technology. Faraday cages and other signal blocking materials can prevent RFID sniffers from accessing sensitive information used in identity theft. --OH]

Pacsafe RFID-Tec 100 RFID-Blocking Bifold Wallet
$26

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Pacsafe

OPI Matte Nail Strengthener

My husband has dry fingernails that are very thin and are prone to breaking. Once we get into the dry season, they start to peel, and he's always biting them off as soon as they start to snag.

There's all sorts of things you can brush onto your nails, but one that I like is from a nail polish company called OPI (that's Oh-Pee-Eye, not "ohpee"). They have a line of nail care products called Nail Envy. They all look like white or beige nail polish (in nail polish bottles), and most of them are designed to be worn underneath or on top of nail color.

There IS one version of Nail Envy, however, that's designed for men. It's called Matte Nail Envy, and as the name implies, it's a nail polish that dries into a matte, non-shiny coating. Now, my husband swears up and down it's shiny--it DOES give your nails a sheen, but I wouldn't call it a shine at all. OPI is sold in most hair and nail salons as well as higher-end stores that sell cosmetics. If you have a store like Sally Beauty Products or ULTA in your neighborhood, they will have it in stock.

If you're embarrassed to walk into a beauty store, you can always write down the product name on a piece of paper, and go to the cashier right away and ask them to get it for you. The nail polish aisle will likely look pretty overwhelming for you. Another option is to simply buy them online.

If you try it, and you agree with my husband that the sheen is too much for you, my suggestion is that you use an extra fine nail sander to buff off the surface a bit.
Another thing you can do is keep some moisturizer on hand, especially when the weather is cold and dry. Just dab a little bit on your fingernail, then pat your finger down at each of your nail beds, and then just lightly rub back and forth. It will keep your nail area moist and less likely to chip and crack.

-- Lani Teshima

OPI Matte Nail Envy Nail Strengthener
$5

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by OPI

Image credit: Montpelier Beauty

Valentine One Radar Detector

I carry a Valentine One radar detector in my day bag. I drive multiple cars, so I can I transfer it from one car to the other, and I use it for rental cars as well. A radar detector may seem a wholly unnecessary item for a law-abiding citizen, but as police departments see their budgets threatened, they have become more active in pulling people over for small infractions such as failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, or even driving just a few miles in excess of the limit. Modern police radar is designed to be kept in standby mode, activated only when the officer points-and-shoots, but in my experience, many police are lazy and leave their radar guns active all the time.

Since I like to know where they are, the Valentine One is the only detector that shows me the direction of a radar source (whether ahead, behind, or either side). It's very expensive at $499, but can easily pay for itself, depending on your driving habits. The after-sale service is remarkable; when my detector's frequency setting drifted after about 8 years, I sent it in and they fixed it and sent it back without charge. They will also upgrade older models for a small fee.

-- Charles Platt

Manufactured by Valentine One

Available from Amazon

Digg Frontpage News

$1.3B 'Brain in a Box' Project Faces Skepticism

Undercover With Nature’s Creepiest Predator: Old People

Sex Chromosomes, Men & Women

Cat and Rat Drinking Milk Together

7 Other Famous Abbeys in England (besides Downton)

Community Has a Return Date; NBC Shakes Up Its Schedule

Agenda for the Dark Ages: GOP Frontrunner Rick Santorum's 5 Most Extremist Themes |

Better Homophobes and Gardens

The Earth might have a "pulse" that causes extinctions every 60 million years

Eternal Copyright: a modest proposal

Wonkette

Liveblogging The Last Arizona Apocalypse & The End Of All Things

Is it really already the last debate? Have there even been any before tonight? Wait, the intern telling us something… !!!… okay, so there have been about 20 debates! Thanks, intern. (You're fired.) Well, this process has certainly made us a better nation. So let's watch tonight's CNN debate live from the gay Mexican firecracker [...]

Anti-Gay Marriage NM Gov. Fired From Her Gay Stylist's Client List

In addition to that eerie, pinch-faced scowl worn by anti-gay marriage wingnuts that makes them all rather less attractive in general, homophobes may soon be forced to seek out their haircuts from homophobe stylists as well. Bet there are lots of those! Popular Santa Fe stylist Antonio Darden cut the hair of New Mexico's anti-gay [...]

What Strange Terrorist Ads Will Air During Tonight's Debate?

Are you one of those humans who watches the Super Bowl "for the commercials," which are always uniformly terrible? This is why those of us who live in Washington watch presidential debates! Oh the interest groups, they love buying DC ad time during hilarious presidential debates. There's usually an Israel Project/AIPAC thing about how scared [...]

Newt's Ad To Latinos: Be Thankful America Gave You So Much Stuff

Since Newt Gingrich is a bitter, complaining gasbag who nonetheless half-asses his plans for world domination in the course of putting most of his energy into reminding everyone of his hurt feelings, it makes sense that his new ad trying to appeal to Latino voters is just a cheap video shot in a single location [...]

Sarah Palin Declares ‘Wee-Wee' to Be a Word, Thing That Santorum Haters Do

Sarah Palin went on Fox News to talk about Satan's 2008 speech about Rick Santorum on Tuesday, and in the process made a sound that she then passed off as an adjective recognized by English speakers as something that people who don't like Rick Santorum do when Rick Santorum does something that they don't like. [...]

Mitt Romney's New Economic Plan Centered On… Massive Tax Cuts

Mitt Romney is "reintroducing himself" to the conservative base after running for president for six to seven years. He comes bearing the most creative of new economic plans: A big sloppy tax cut to throw in everyone's fat faces. His previous 59-point plan of modest technocratic tweaks, anchored by a large cut to investment income [...]

Important Website Now Lets You Turn Dead Mormons Into Gay Dead Mormons

It was very exciting to learn that the young Mitt Romney maybe baptized the sad ghosts of Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust, to turn them into followers of Mitt's folk religion. Who knew Mitt ever did anything but the kind of vicious 1% capitalism that ruins the lives of countless Americans? Well now, thanks [...]

Engadget

Samsung may cough up millions over kaput TVs

A class action lawsuit filed by owners of faulty Sammy TVs has finally reached a settlement. The manufacturer has promised to foot the bill for new repairs, reimburse for previous repairs and hand out up to $300 to customers who no longer possess their broken TVs but can prove they once did. The fault can affects any of the models listed above -- possibly up to seven million sets in total -- and centers on an errant capacitor in the power circuit that stops the TV turning on, makes it slow to turn on, produces a "clicking sound" or makes it cycle on and off. If you think you're affected then check the source link for details on what to do next. Curious to know how much the lawyers got? A cool half-million for their troubles, which means they'll be upgrading to OLED.Samsung may cough up millions over kaput TVs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink?Electronista ?|? Samsung ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Sony outs 350Mbps TransferJet chip for smartphones, tries not to stare at Toshiba

With Toshiba's toes having already crossed the 560Mbps wireless transfer speed barrier, Sony is instead forced to emphasize that its new TransferJet chip has "industry-leading short-range sensitivity." Crucially though, the miniaturised 6mm x 6mm device also boasts lower consumption compared to Sony's previous offerings, making it suitable for smartphones and tablets rather than just cameras or laptops. The product should start appearing in devices some time after August and will sell to OEMs for ?500 ($6) -- which means it doesn't beat Toshiba on price either.Sony outs 350Mbps TransferJet chip for smartphones, tries not to stare at Toshiba originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? Sony (Japanese) ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Panasonic: Eluga means 'Elegant, user-orientated gateway,' not a cry of distress

No, it's not the noise people make when they've eaten too much caviar. Panasonic's revealed the reasoning behind calling its long-heralded smartphone Eluga -- apparently it stands for "ELegant, User-orientated GatewAy." The company's also revealed a few more specs and tidbits following on from yesterday's rather sketchy announcement. You'll find an 8-megapixel camera sitting flush to that 7.8mm body, NFC and an "eco mode" that will shut down non-essential features when you're nursing your nearly-empty battery. That 1.0GHz TI OMAP processor we revealed to you yesterday will be joined by 8GB storage, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. You'll buy the phone with Gingerbread 2.3.5 installed, with ICS promised to arrive "from June," by which point you'll have probably learned how to pronounce the name without looking ill.Continue reading Panasonic: Eluga means 'Elegant, user-orientated gateway,' not a cry of distress Panasonic: Eluga means 'Elegant, user-orientated gateway,' not a cry of distress originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? Panasonic ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Star Wars 3D getting the Blu-ray treatment for spring?

Just finished your deliciously digital Blu-ray collection of the Star Wars saga? Thought that was the end of it? C'mon. Following the three-dimensional release of Episode 1 in theaters, Pocket-lint's heard from sources at a recent Panasonic event that the "start" of the saga will be arriving on 3D Blu-ray faster than you might think -- this spring, likely as a replacement for its Avatar pack-in exclusive. Panasonic's got a history of Star Wars tie-ins, so we're putting whatever money we have left for additional Jedi media on it making an appearance over the next few months. Star Wars 3D getting the Blu-ray treatment for spring? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? Pocket-lint ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Qualcomm Atheros flaunts 802.11ac WiFi module for Snapdragon S4

The 802.11ac WiFi standard may sound like an alphabetical step backwards, but for high-bandwidth tasks like 1080p streaming it promises to wipe the face off 802.11n. Qualcomm Atheros wants its share of the billion unit pie and has just launched a series of products to flesh out its 802.11ac ecosystem. Top billing goes to the WCN3680 WiFi/BlueTooth/FM combo module, which plugs into the new Snapdragon S4 (MSM8960) and offers speeds of up to 433Mbps to complement that blistering CPU performance. Since the S4 already includes built-in b/g/n WiFi (not to mention its 3G/4G/LTE baseband), manufacturers who choose to add the 802.11ac component will achieve full WiFi cross-compatibility and make many consumers happy in the process. Meanwhile, you'll also find similar multilingual abilities in QA's other 5G WiFi modules for PCs, laptops, routers and enterprise, which are all detailed in the PR after the break. Rest assured that we'll bring you more hands-on impressions of the latest Snapdragon just as soon as things kick off at MWC -- and hopefully in the form of a finished, market-ready tablet or handset.Continue reading Qualcomm Atheros flaunts 802.11ac WiFi module for Snapdragon S4 Qualcomm Atheros flaunts 802.11ac WiFi module for Snapdragon S4 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Harris new rugged tablet brings Honeycomb to your local combat-zone

Harris makes the tough tech you'd expect to see census takers (leave it), NFL stadiums and public buses toting around. It's introducing a new 7-inch Android tablet that's so hard-as-nails it would make a Galaxy Tab go home and call its mother. The Harris RF-3590 packs a 1024 x 600 multitouch display, a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, 2GB of LPDDR2 RAM, 2 and 8-megapixel front and rear-facing cameras and comes running Honeycomb. There's plenty of connection options with the usual WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth supplanted by a cellular connection, Ethernet, HDMI, SD and USB holes. It'll come with a 64GB SSD as standard but you can upgrade it to 128GB if you've got the moolah. Designed for soldiers in the battlefield, when stealth isn't necessary you can even activate voice control and bark your orders into the pair of microphones included. There's no word on pricing or availability, presumably because if you want to pick one of these up, you probably need to be called "General," and not just because you're good at Starcraft. [Thanks, Mike]Continue reading Harris new rugged tablet brings Honeycomb to your local combat-zone Harris new rugged tablet brings Honeycomb to your local combat-zone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? Harris ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Apache outs version 2.4 of its HTTP server six years after last full release

It's been half a dozen years since Apache last released a new version of its venerable HTTP server, but the day has finally come for version 2.4 to be unveiled to the world. Granted, the old Apache was doing fine -- it's been the most prolific web server in the world since the mid nineties -- but a bit of freshening up couldn't hurt, right? Among the many changes are reduced memory usage, improved performance and efficiency, and more finely-tuned caching support for high-traffic sites. If you want to know more, check out the source link below for an overview and full feature list. Well, what are you waiting for, Tanto... jump on it!Apache outs version 2.4 of its HTTP server six years after last full release originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink?Ars Technica ?|? Apache Software Foundation ?|?Email this?|?Comments

T-Mobile lost more customers in Q4, will launch LTE in 2013 with AWS spectrum from AT&T

In T-Mobile USA's first earnings report since the proposed merger with AT&T fell through in December, it noted a loss of 802,000 customers in Q4 (being the only carrier not to have the iPhone is a lonely, lonely circumstance). But there is some good news -- thanks to the AWS spectrum it's receiving due to the termination of said deal, it plans to launch LTE services in 2013. Additionally, it plans to spend $4 billion rolling out HSPA+3G/4G services on the 1900 MHz band which should mean high speed data access (in some areas) for previously unsupported devices like the iPhone 4/4S. Also, since both T-Mobile and AT&T use AWS spectrum for LTE, we could see existing (and future) unlocked devices that are compatible with both networks. For now, T-Mobile is focusing on the new devices it's delivering like the just-announced Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, and its addition of 276,000 prepaid customers. Check out the full report with all the details and dollar amounts after the break.Continue reading T-Mobile lost more customers in Q4, will launch LTE in 2013 with AWS spectrum from AT&T T-Mobile lost more customers in Q4, will launch LTE in 2013 with AWS spectrum from AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? T-Mobile ?|?Email this?|?Comments

Samsung's Galaxy S II celebrates 20 million sold, just in time for MWC

After crossing the 10 million units moved threshold back in September, Samsung has joyously announced ahead of MWC 2012 that its Galaxy S II family of phones has sold 20 million since launching in April. According to Samsung, taking just ten months to hit the mark puts it ahead of the original Galaxy S (hovering around 22 million sold) by seven months. The hallmarks of this model -- in its many forms as seen above for AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint -- has been the Super AMOLED Plus screen, slim design and dual core CPUs, all of which made it a record breaker right out of the gate. Samsung's been pretty quiet as Mobile World Congress 2012 approaches, but whenever we see the Galaxy S III, it will certainly have a lot to live up to.Samsung's Galaxy S II celebrates 20 million sold, just in time for MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? Samsung Tomorrow ?|?Email this?|?Comments

NVIDIA officially brands Tegra 3's five-core quad-core architecture as 4-PLUS-1

NVIDIA's cooked up a few ways to describe the Tegra 3's quad-core-with-a-spare architecture, usually by giving the extra Cortex A9 a cute nickname like "ninja," or "companion." Until now, the proper description was "Variable Symmetrical Multiprocessing," or, vSMP for short. Despite how much fun (and technically accurate) some of these descriptions may have been, however, they just aren't marketable. "Our customers wanted a name for it that's unique and descriptive," writes mobile business unit general manager Michael Rayfield, "A name they could put on a box or a store sign that immediately represents its value." That official name is the 4-PLUS-1 quad-core architecture, he says, and you'll probably see it pop up a few times in Barcelona next week if LG's latest offering is any indication. It lacks something in pizzaz, to be sure, but we'll admit that it is at least descriptive of the Tegra 3's technical chops. In related news, NVIDIA promises the Tegra will be less fickle about its new moniker than the symbol formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince.NVIDIA officially brands Tegra 3's five-core quad-core architecture as 4-PLUS-1 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink? ?|? NVIDIA ?|?Email this?|?Comments

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Scobleizer

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEW BLOG

Hello, we know you're still subscribed to this blog (9,000 of you are on Bloglines, for instance). So, please unsubscribe from this blog and come over and visit me in my new home at http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/
My new RSS feed is here: http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/feed/
I have permanently moved over there, so please do come and visit!

Come visit me on my new WordPress blog

I should have been clearer. My new blog is over on WordPress's new hosted service, which is still in beta. I've been posting frequently over there. http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/
I'm still playing around, though, and learning the new system. I'm also setting up a separate blog over on TypePad to learn that blog tool. And have yet another one over on DABU too.
Oh, and of course, there's our book blog (which is also on TypePad) and the Channel 9 video blog, done on modified version of Community Server. So, I'm getting around to a variety of blog tools and services. I find I don't like a lot about all the tools. It's interesting to me that no one has really come out with a big blog breakthrough lately.
I'm getting another demo of Flock tomorrow, too.
Oh, and ou might check in on Channel 9. I just uploaded three videos, including my first Xbox 360 one, an interview with a Vice President in charge of half of our developer division (we're shipping Visual Studio "within days" I hear).

Slate

What Beer Can Teach Us About Emerging Technologies

This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and?Slate. On Feb. 29, Future Tense will host an event on the Make movement and do-it-yourself innovation in Washington, D.C. For more information and to sign up for the event, please visit the?NAF website.)

Temptation Island

Get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.)

Out of Air in Arizona

The 20th and perhaps final Republican presidential debate wheezed across the finish line and collapsed. At times it felt like the candidates had already talked themselves out on the big themes and could only bicker over table scraps. There was a long symposium on how earmarks and the congressional appropriating process work. Then, there was a confusing discussion of Arlen Specter, his re-election, and the judiciary committee.?

Santorum’s Martyr Complex

Is Rick Santorum suffering for his faith? One of his advisers suggested to the Washington Examiner's Byron York that he is, and that Mitt Romney is getting absolution.?"Why is Mormonism off limits?" York quotes the adviser as asking. "We're having to spend days answering questions about Rick's faith, which he has been open about. Romney will turn on a dime when you talk about religion.?We're getting asked about specific tenets of Rick's faith, and when Romney says, 'I want to focus on the economy,' [the press says,] ?OK, we'll focus on the economy.' "

Heavy Medals

So, on the way to oral argument this morning in U.S. v. Alvarez, I was kidnapped by a tribe of angry space aliens. They beamed me up to a ship where they forced me to perform exotic anaerobic dance routines to old Leif Garrett songs. Later, they beamed me back onto the Supreme Court Plaza, but not before stealing my Medal of Honor.*

Don’t Burn After Reading

Violent protests have raged outside Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan for two days after local workers found the burned remains of more than 100 Qurans in a pile of garbage from the base. What's the proper way to dispose of a Quran?

Shame on You!

Earlier this month, New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas brought down the wrath of civil libertarians by telling his cops to start putting plate-sized orange stickers on houses that they'd searched for drugs. The crazy thing about Serpas' idea was that the cops wouldn't have to make an arrest or find drugs to smack a sticker on a house?all they'd need was an anonymous tip and a quick investigation of the home. Cue the protests: The ACLU of Louisiana called the stickers a ?scarlet letter tattooed onto the homes of otherwise innocent people, giving them no presumption of innocence.? When Serpas backed down last week, saying the stickers wouldn't work without ?widespread community support,? the Times-Picayune editorial page expressed relief that he'd scrapped a ?dreadful idea.?

America’s Best Weather Forecast

If you start at the Bay Bridge and head west along most major streets in San Francisco, you'll eventually get to a magical land of misery known as the Sunset. The name is a joke, and perhaps even a way to trick tourists: The sun rarely visits the Sunset, not even when it sets. The primary weather element in the Sunset is fog?thick, endless, depressive clouds of it that wash up from the ocean to completely saturate the land. I lived in the Sunset for a single, terrible year. Before I moved there, I used to be one of those snobby city-dwellers who'd look down on suburbanites who couldn't handle San Francisco's famously capricious climate. I'd heard the Sunset's weather wasn't great, but hey, how bad could it be?

Why Did Mitt Change His Mind?

How, when, and why did Mitt Romney change his mind about abortion? William Saletan delved 50 years back into the GOP front-runner's personal history to uncover a well-documented pattern of shifting stories and positions on the issue. Saletan will be chatting with readers about Romney's core malleability, what it says about the candidate and what it means for the 2012 presidential race. Bring your questions and comments about Romney's pro-life conversion to Slate's Facebook page on Thursday at 2 p.m. ET.

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SquidooCool Blog

The (Even Better) Best Ever Squidoo Advice

On SquidooCool.com I've asked the visitors a few times what they think the best Squidoo advice is, and they always say "make lots of lenses". Why is this? Because there's no better way to learn than through experience. Simple: Build lots of lenses, and see how the experts do it. If you observe the successful [...]

Unbelievable Lens Categories Now Available!

Squidoo has now gone live with their new lens categories… and blimey… there are hundreds of them! You can choose from topics as broad as "Entertainment and Media" and as specific as "History of Atheism and Skepticism". They've done a brilliant job. The hard part for us (if you have a lot of lenses) is [...]

6 Best Places To Bookmark Your Lenses

If I've missed out your favourite bookmarking site, post it below in the comments!  You may even win a cookie. If you want to start getting more visitors to your lenses, this list is a great place to start! Remember. Every time you submit your lens to a bookmarking site make sure you add the [...]

Using Squidoo for Marketing Purposes, or , Some Basic Squidoo Advice

To Internet Marketers, Squidoo is a way to get high rankings in Google. Squidoo has a high page rank, and many backlinks pointing to it, and building pages is a super easy process. If you want to venture into a new niche as an experiment, Squidoo is the way to go. See how easy it [...]

RANT: Squidoo Banned Topics: Is Squidoo Going Too Far?

Be Aware: Before you start a lens on whatever topic you think of, be aware of the Squidoo rules. Squidoo Banned Topics: * MLM * "Get your ex back" * Rude XXX * Ringtones * Dieting and weight loss * Gambling * Pharmaceuticals and drugs * "Medical cures" * Downloading movies, music, and TV shows [...]

Edit Your Lens Sidebars Now!

Squidoo has just gone live with an incredible new feature. They've just announced "sidebar widgets", which means you get even more control over the sidebar of your lenses. We pretty much have modules for our lens sidebars! There are 4 types of widgets: * RSS Widget * Amazon Spotlight * Featured Lenses * Recent Squidcasts [...]

RIP Squidoo Groups

The day we all knew would come has arrived. Squidoo groups are dead and buried, never to be seen again. Weep weep, kinda. WHEN: Just a few days ago, Squidoo converted all groups into regular lenses. You can no longer add your lens to a group, and your existing lenses are no longer members of [...]

The $2000 Lens Challenge

Joe from CaptainSquid is back from many adventures, with a new challenge for himself and anyone who wants to follow along. Joe will attempt to get a brand new lensmaster account from $0 to $2000-per-month, using only the tools available to all lensmasters. So anyone will be able to emulate his success. If you are [...]

#1 Most Important Thing… About Guestbooks

If you've put Guestbook modules on your lenses, and you have 10+ published, you'll be very familiar with the kind of comments I'm talking about here. If a guestbook comment doesn't say anything interesting, and add to the conversation, DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT DELETING IT. Don't think just because someone left you a comment you [...]

Pinging Your Lenses

WHAT IS A PING? Any time you update certain webpages or publish a new blog post or lens, you can send a Ping for it. A Ping is a little signal your new updated page sends to various search engines and directories. A ping is the online equivalent of your new lens running up to [...]