Liberty Newspost July-30-2012

Curated News Edition
- 31/07/12
http://www.LibertyNewspost.com
Report: Despite overthrow of Mubarak, Egyptian Christians still persecuted and killed
Hope Hodge ( Todays Top News)
law and the reopening of churches closed by the government, it also described events of state brutality. Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:27:07 PM In one October 2011 incident, A newly released update of the eight months after Mubaraks U.S. governments International ouster in February 2011, Egyptian Religious Freedom Report shows security forces killed 25 political that mistreatment and murder of demonstrators and injured over Coptic Christians in Egypt 300 more, most of whom were remained prevalent even after the Coptic Christians. overthrow of dictator Hosni To date, government officials Mubarak last year. have not been held accountable Released today by the Bureau of for their actions, and there were Democracy, Human Rights and indications in early 2012 of Labor, the report covers religious mounting Coptic emigration, an freedom throughout the world in executive summary read. 2011 and details many chilling In November, Muslim villagers acts of religious persecution attacked and killed two Coptic worldwide, much of it aimed at Christians after an unrelated land Jews and Christians. dispute and the government did While the report cites steps taken nothing to prosecute the attackers, by Egypts interim government to according to the report. It was enhance religious acceptance, likewise idle after a Christian such as a new anti-discrimination church was burned to the ground [unable to retrieve full-text
by Muslims earlier that year. Earlier this year, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) pressured Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to withhold U.S. military aid to Egypt a sum of about $1.3 billion a year on grounds that she could not certify efforts by the Egyptian government to promote freedom of speech and religion. A decision to waive the conditions on military aid would send the wrong message to the Egyptian government that U.S. taxpayers will subsidize the Egyptian military while it continues to oversee the crackdown on civil society and to commit human rights abuses, they wrote in a March 15 letter. No credible assessment of the situation in Egypt can conclude that the Egyptian government is content]
implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law. Later that month, Clinton opted to waive the certification requirement and resume sending aid to the country. Presenting the results of the religious freedom study at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Monday afternoon, Clinton confirmed that sectarian violence in Egypt appeared to have increased since the fall of the Mubarak regime. She said nothing about pulling U.S. aid money to Egypt in the wake of this revelation, but said she remained hopeful that religious freedoms would expand as the countrys new government became more established. We are looking for ways to try to
support the government, particularly in fulfilling the economic aspirations of all Egyptians, but we are going to judge by actions, not words, Clinton said. We have supported a transition that we hope does lead to a democracy which we have made clear is not just about elections. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Top News/
Aleppo rebels say they stand firm in "regime's grave"

(Reuters: Top News)
civilians, were killed in Syria on Monday. Two rebel fighters died in Salaheddine. By Erika Solomon Outgunned rebel fighters, ALEPPO, Syria| Mon Jul 30, patrolling in flat-bed trucks flying 2012 8:55pm EDT green-white-and-black (Reuters) - The Syrian military "independence" flags, said they has stepped up its campaign to were holding out in Salaheddine drive rebels out of Aleppo, where despite a battering by the army's fighters said they were holding heavy weapons and helicopter firm, vowing to turn the country's gunships. largest city into the "grave of the A fighter jet flew overhead, a regime". reminder of the overwhelming Opposition activists denied a military advantage still enjoyed government declaration that its by government forces. f o r c e s h a d r e c a p t u r e d t h e "BASHAR'S FORCES WILL BE Salaheddine district, in southwest BURIED" Aleppo, straddling the most "We always knew the regime's obvious route for Syrian troop grave would be Aleppo," said reinforcements coming from the Mohammed, a young fighter, south. fingering the bullets in his tattered Hospitals and makeshift clinics in brown ammunition vest. rebel-held eastern neighborhoods "Damascus is the capital, but here were filling up with casualties we have a fourth of the country's from a week of fighting in the population and the entire force of city, a commercial hub drawn into its economy. Bashar's forces will the 16-month-long revolt against be buried here." President Bashar al-Assad. So far, however, the "Some days we get around 30, 40 government's superiority on the people, not including the bodies," ground means rebels have had said a young medic in one clinic. little success in holding on to "A few days ago we got 30 urban territory. The rebels made a injured and maybe 20 corpses, but major push into Damascus two half of those bodies were ripped weeks ago, but were driven out. to pieces. We can't figure out who The Syrian government has said they are." it has recaptured Salaheddine. T h e o p p o s i t i o n S y r i a n Reuters journalists in Aleppo have Observatory for Human Rights not been able to reach the said 40 people, 30 of them neighborhood to verify who holds
Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:55:29 PM
it. The army's assault on Salaheddine echoed its tactics in Damascus earlier this month when it used its overwhelming firepower to mop up rebel fighters district by district. Assad's forces are determined not to let go of Aleppo, where defeat would be a serious strategic and psychological blow. Military experts believe the rebels are too lightly armed and poorly commanded to overcome the army, whose artillery pounds the city at will and whose gunships control the skies. "Yesterday they were shelling the area at a rate of two shells a minute. We couldn't move at all," a man calling himself a spokesman for the "Aleppo Revolution" said on Monday. "It's not true at all that the regime's forces are in Salaheddine." Warfare has stilled the usual commercial bustle in this city of 2.5 million. Vegetable markets are open but few people are buying. Instead, crowds of sweating men and women wait nearly three hours to buy limited amounts of heavily subsidized bread. In a city where loyalties have been divided, with sections of the population in favor of the Assad government, some seemed wary of speaking out in the presence of the fighters, many of whom have
been drafted in from surrounding areas. Asked about his allegiances, one man waiting at a police station that had been badly damaged by shellfire said: "We are not with anyone. We are on the side of truth." Asked whose side that was, he replied: "Only God." Others stopped members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and asked them to do something about the supply of bread and petrol. Rebel fighters remain in control of swathes of the city, moving around those areas armed with assault rifles and dressed in items of camouflage clothing in an edgy show of confidence. They were emboldened to strike at Aleppo and central Damascus by a July 18 explosion that killed four of Assad's top security officials. BIG POWERS DIVIDED With big powers divided, the outside world has been unable to restrain Syria's slide into civil war. The only international military presence is a small, unarmed U.N. observer mission. A convoy carrying the head of the mission was attacked on Sunday and only the vehicles' armor prevented injuries, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday. He gave no further details of the
attack. U.N. officials said on condition of anonymity that the convoy of five vehicles was hit by small arms fire in Talibisa, some 17 km (10 miles) from Homs, in what they said was an oppositionheld area. Moscow has supported Assad and has shown no sign of abandoning him, blaming the West and Arab countries for stoking the revolt by backing the opposition. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Twitter: "Situation is really critical in Aleppo. It is clear that biased media by all means try to do work for the opposition when the latter fails." France said it would ask for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to try to break the diplomatic deadlock on Syria, but gave no indication that Russia and China would end their longstanding policy of blocking measures against Assad. In London, Syria's most senior diplomat resigned because he could no longer represent a government that committed such "violent and oppressive acts" against its own people, the British Foreign Office said. Charge d'affaires Khaled al-Ayoubi joins a growing list of senior Syrian defectors. ALEPPO page 7
Top News/
Colorado shooting suspect charged with first -degree murder

(Reuters: Top News)
charged Holmes with two counts for each victim - one for carrying out the crime "after deliberation" By Keith Coffman and Chris and the second for "malice Francescani manifesting extreme indifference CENTENNIAL, Colo.| Mon Jul to human life." 30, 2012 9:52pm EDT Holmes, who authorities say (Reuters) - The former graduate styled himself after Batman's student accused of opening fire at comic-book nemesis "the Joker," a midnight screening of the new appeared in court clad in jail garb, "Batman" film in Colorado, his hair still dyed bright orange killing 12 people, was charged on but with the color fading to pink Monday with 24 counts of first- in places. degree murder, making him He sat impassively at a table with eligible for the death penalty if two defense lawyers through the convicted. 45-minute hearing but seemed James Holmes, who was arrested more alert than during his initial b e h i n d a s u b u r b a n D e n v e r court appearance a week ago, multiplex minutes after the July when he looked dazed and 20 shooting at a packed showing groggy. of "The Dark Knight Rises," also The former neuroscience student faces 116 counts of attempted s p o k e o n l y o n c e , q u i e t l y murder in one of the worst answering, "Yes," in response to a outbursts of U.S. gun violence in question from Arapahoe County recent years. Fifty-eight people District Judge William Sylvester. were wounded in the attack, some He mostly kept his gaze lowered of whom remain in critical and did not look at a courtroom condition. gallery packed with members of Prosecutors have said a decision the media and victims' family could be months away on whether members. to seek the death penalty against The judge set a pre-trial hearing Holmes, 24, who made his second for September 27, tentatively court appearance on Monday. scheduling a preliminary hearing Colorado has three men on its for the week of November 13. death row and but has not Police say Holmes entered executed a condemned inmate Theater 9 at the Century 16 since 1997. multiplex in the Denver suburb of A r a p a h o e C o u n t y D i s t r i c t Aurora wearing tactical body Attorney Carol Chambers' office armor and a gas mask and tossed
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:52:43 PM
smoke bombs before spraying moviegoers with bullets from three guns. Authorities who rushed to his apartment following the movie house massacre said they found it wired with enough explosives to bring down the three-story building, and spent several days dismantling the booby traps. Holmes was also charged on Monday with possessing an explosive device. 'EVIL PRESENCE' Pregnant survivor Ashley Moser suffered a miscarriage following the shooting, but the loss of her fetus did not alter the number of murder charges because the unborn cannot be counted as homicide victims under Colorado law . Moser, 25, was left paralyzed from the waist down from her own bullet wounds. Her daughter, 6-year-old Veronica MoserSullivan, was the youngest of those who died in the shooting. Moser's aunt, MaryEllen Hansen, said after Monday's hearing that she found Holmes a "diabolical, evil presence." "But he looked very sane to me, he really did. His reaction looked different," she said. "When we've seen him before, he looked like he was kind of spaced out or out of touch. But he seemed very, very alert today and very lucid as to
what was going on." Prosecutors, who are under a protective or "gag" order imposed in the case by the judge, declined to explain their decision to file the double charges, but it appeared to be a strategy to offer jurors more than one path to a guilty verdict. During the hearing, defense attorney Tamara Brady asked that prosecutors turn over evidence collected in the case. The defense is seeking a package that news reports have said was sent by Holmes to a University of Colorado psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton. Prosecutors responded that they had not yet opened that parcel, which according to Fox News contained a notebook outlining his plans for the shooting, including stick-figure drawings. Holmes, a San Diego native, was a doctoral student of neuroscience at the university's Anschutz campus before turning in paperwork to drop out in June. Court documents filed on Friday by defense lawyers said he had been under Fenton's care. Police have not offered a motive for the shooting rampage that stunned Aurora and evoked memories of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School less than 20 miles away in Littleton. Authorities have said that following his arrest, Holmes
called himself "the Joker" and experts say his mental state could play an important role in the case. The judge set an August 9 date to consider requests from attorneys representing news organizations to unseal court records and investigative documents. He added he would hold a hearing on August 16 to determine what evidence should be considered protected between Holmes and his psychiatrist. "The guy's a coward and he looked defeated because he knows he's not the one with the power any more, we are," said U.S. Marine Donald Lader, who was in Theater 9 at the time of the shooting but escaped injury. Police said Holmes was armed on the night of the shooting with a Smith & Wesson M&P .223 semiautomatic rifle, similar to an AR15 assault rifle; a 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock .40-caliber handgun, according to police. An additional Glock .40-caliber handgun was found in his car. All the weapons had been bought legally in the previous 60 days. (Additional reporting by Dan Burns, Steve Gorman, Mary Slosson and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Will Dunham and Peter Cooney) COLORADO page 5
Top News/
Romney's foreign controversies overshadow economic message - Reuters

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:11:35 PM
to push attacks on Obama for saying, "If you own a business, you didn't build that." 1 of 2. Republican presidential But Romney was forced to fight candidate Mitt Romney and his off his own controversy after he wife Ann meet people on the called Jerusalem the Israeli capital street before his meeting with and said later that differences in Poland's Prime Minister Donald culture powered Israel's economic Tusk at the Old Town Hall in s u c c e s s c o m p a r e d w i t h t h e Gdansk, Poland, July 30, 2012. P a l e s t i n i a n s . Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed Both comments angered By John Whitesides Palestinian leaders, just days after WASHINGTON| Tue Jul 31, Romney annoyed Britons during a 2012 6:53am IST stop in London by questioning WASHINGTON(Reuters) - t h e i r r e a d i n e s s t o h o s t t h e Republican Mitt Romney's Olympic Games. campaign tried to keep the Romney pointed to the big domestic political focus on the difference in wealth between U.S. economy and jobs on Israel and the Palestinians and Monday, although the effort was suggested Israel's culture was the o v e r s h a d o w e d b y m o r e reason for the gap. controversy from a foreign trip "If you could learn anything from after he made remarks that upset the economic history of the world, Palestinians. it's this: culture makes all the Hoping to take advantage of difference," he told a fundraising President Barack Obama's "you event in Jerusalem. didn't build that" comment, The chief Palestinian negotiator, Romney's campaign sent teams of Saeb Erekat told Reuters that high-profile supporters to 18 Romney's comments amounted to events in a dozen swing states to "a racist statement that shows a hammer home its message that lack of knowledge." Obama is an anti-business lover He added, "Everyone knows that of big government. the Palestinians cannot reach their One-time Republican presidential full potential given the Israeli rivals Newt Gingrich and Tim restrictions imposed on them." Pawlenty, who is now a vice It was another bumpy day on an presidential possibility, were i n t e r n a t i o n a l t r i p a i m e d a t among the Romney supporters showing U.S. voters that the who fanned out across the country former governor of Massachusetts
can handle foreign policy, an area where his election rival Obama has a lead in opinion polls. "He's been fumbling the foreign policy football from country to country. And there's a threshold question that he has to answer to the American people, and that's whether he is prepared to be commander in chief," Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Air Force One. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, asked about the comparison made by Romney between Israelis and Palestinians, told reporters in Washington that some people were looking at those comments and "scratching their heads a little bit." Romney received words of encouragement on his visit to Poland on Monday from Lech Walesa, a former union leader and ex-Polish president, who said: "I wish you to be successful because this success is needed for the United States of course, but for Europe and the rest of the world too. Governor Romney, get your success. Be successful." But Solidarity, the union led by Walesa in the 1980s that helped topple communism in Poland, distanced itself from Romney, who it said "supported attacks on trade unions and employees' rights." OBAMA 'CONTEMPTUOUS'
Obama and Romney are running neck and neck in national polls ahead of the November 6 election, which has focused heavily on jobs. Romney has criticized Obama's economic leadership and jumped on his recent "you didn't build that" comment to accuse him of being hostile to small businesses. The Obama campaign says critics have taken that remark out of context and ignored Obama's broader point that public investment helped private businesses prosper. Obama, headlining a $40,000-aplate fundraiser with big-money donors at a New York hotel, did not mention that controversy or Romney's gaffes overseas, but said his campaign was being outspent, mostly on negative advertising. The event garnered nearly $2.5 million for Obama's re -election effort. "Right now, the economy is still rough enough for enough people that this is going to be a close election," Obama told an audience that included investment banker Robert Wolf and Evercore Partners Chairman and Bill Clinton-era Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman. Appearing at a television store in Arlington, Virginia, Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Obama's
comments on business in fact reflected his true approach. "When you read the totality of that speech, Obama is so clearly contemptuous," Gingrich told reporters, who were the only attendees at the event. "The longer this argument goes on, the better it is for Romney." The Romney campaign also released the latest in a series of videos featuring reactions to the comments by small-business founders. In the latest, an Ohio small-business owner says he was "ticked off" by Obama's comment. Polls show that while Obama is well liked and seen as having done a good job on foreign policy, voters often trust Romney more to improve the economy and lower the unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Jerusalem, Gabriel Debenedetti in Arlington, Margaret Chadbourn aboard Air Force One, Jihan Abdalla in Ramallah, and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints ROMNEY'S page 8
Top News/ Policy/ Economy/ Politics-Right/
Murder Charges for 'Batman' Shooting Suspect - Wall Street Journal

ANA CAMPOY (Top Stories Google News)
waive his right to a preliminary hearing within 35 days. Mr. Holmes is being held in the Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:30:54 PM Arapahoe County jail pending By ANA CAMPOY trial. CENTENNIAL, Colo.The Rita Paulina, using a wheelchair alleged gunman in the movie- after being shot in an arm and leg, theater shooting that killed 12 leaves court where James Holmes people and wounded 58 others in was charged on Monday. a Denver suburb was formally Prosecutors didn't disclose c h a r g e d M o n d a y w i t h 1 4 2 whether they would seek the offenses, including 24 counts of death penalty, a legal but rare first-degree murder. form of punishment in Colorado James Holmes also faces 116 that would be applicable in this counts of attempted murder, as case. Prosecutors previously well as counts of explosives indicated they would take several possession and commission of a months to consider that possibility crime of violence in connection and would discuss it with victims with the July 20 rampage at an and their families. early screening of the latest Legal experts said it isn't Batman movie in Aurora, Colo. uncommon in Colorado for The charges could put the 24- defendants to initially be charged year-old former doctoral student with more than one count of in prison for the rest of his life if murder for a single offense, he is convicted. depending on how the alleged Mr. Holmes appeared listless and crime was committed. unshaven during the hearing, still Karen Steinhauser, a criminalsporting hair dyed a bright orange d e f e n s e l a w y e r a n d f o r m e r - r e d , a n d s p o k e o n l y prosecutor in the Denver District onceanswering "yes" when the Attorney's Office, said the state judge asked whether he wanted to often files multiple murder
began, after entering through one of the theater's emergency doors. Mr. Holmes had been a graduate student in the neuroscience program at the University of Colorado but told the school he was withdrawing in June without giving a reason or completing the charges if the nature of a crime necessary paperwork. He was a matches more than one definition patient of a psychiatrist at the school, according to court under state law. Prosecutors filed 12 first-degree d o c u m e n t s , a n d s e n t h e r a murder charges under a subset of notebook that a law-enforcement the Colorado penal code that deals o f f i c i a l h a s s a i d c o n t a i n e d with a suspect accused of acting drawings of a shooting spree. "after deliberation," and another Mr. Holmes's lawyers tried to 12 under a separate subset for s u p p r e s s t h a t m a t e r i a l a s someone who allegedly showed evidence, arguing that its contents "extreme indifference to the value are protected communications between a patient and a doctor, of human life." They filed a similar double set of a n d c o m p l a i n e d t h a t t h e government leaked the attempted-murder charges. Mr. Holmes was arrested outside information last week to the news the midnight showing of "The media. The parties are set to Dark Knight Rises," police said, debate whether the notebook still clad in body armor and armed contains privileged information at with several weapons, including a a hearing next month. semiautomatic rifle. Authorities A courtroom sketch of suspect said he started shooting at the James Holmes. audience shortly after the film Carol Chambers, the district attorney for Colorado's 18th [unable to retrieve full-text content] [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Judicial District, has denied the leak claims. A court order limits pretrial publicity. Family members of the victims, as well as witnesses to the rampage, quietly stared at Mr. Holmes during the hearing. One of them was MaryEllen Hansen, aunt of Ashley Moser, who suffered a miscarriage and will be paralyzed due to the injuries and trauma she sustained. "I think that he should be locked away and live with what he did every day of his life," Ms. Hansen said when asked if she favors a death sentence if Mr. Holmes is found guilty. Write to Ana Campoy at ana.campoy@wsj.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
COLORADO
continued from page 3
(This story corrects the date of last Colorado execution to 1997 in the third paragraph) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it
on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Top News/
Syrian rebels seize rural territory Obama warns of economic "headwinds," while Assad forces focus on major cities - Washington Post sees euro surviving
(Reuters: Top News) (Top Stories - Google News)
always more fragile than had been thought and that it has become Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:09:11 PM significantly more so in the past With that, al-Bab became the few weeks. farthest point in a swath of rural This was a corner of the country territory stretching south from the that was assumed to be neutral in Turkish border toward the city of the conflict, a mostly Sunni Aleppo that has slipped beyond enclave whose aloofness from the government control in recent mayhem elsewhere helped sustain weeks. the governments claim that it still The unraveling of the regimes commanded the loyalties of authority here in this northern s i g n i f i c a n t s e c t o r s o f t h e province has been overshadowed population beyond its Alawite by the battles for control of the support base. cities of Homs, Damascus and, That the province of Aleppo was most recently, the provincial slow to join the uprising was due capital of Aleppo, where more to the governments government forces are waging a determination to prevent it from full-scale offensive to recapture doing so than to a lack of resolve neighborhoods seized by rebels in by its people, according to recent days. Ammar Osman, 29, an activist But even as Assads forces have with the Coordination Union for poured resources into sustaining al-Baba City and Its Suburbs. their hold on the major population W i t h m o r e t h a n 4 m i l l i o n centers, they have steadily been inhabitants, Aleppo is the most losing control of the countryside, populous and prosperous of in a series of seesawing battles Syrias 14 provinces, and its that have not yet proved decisive location on the border with but that appear to be giving the Turkey endows it with strategic momentum to the rebels. The significance beyond its role as the story of the battle of al-Bab, an c o u n t r y s c o m m e r c i a l a n d overlooked front in a war of many a g r i c u l t u r a l c e n t e r . f r o n t s , s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e The regime was very tough here. governments hold here was They put in a lot of security
forces. They know they cant afford to lose Aleppo, said Osman, who spent 45 days in jail last year for his efforts to organize protests. A race to arms On April 20, as bloodshed was accelerating elsewhere and the province of Aleppo was beginning to stir, everything changed in alBab. On that day, troops opened fire on a protest for the first time, killing seven people. Among them was Ammar Najjar, 20, an engineering student who had led calls for peaceful protests in the town. His father, Kamal, wept last week as he recalled his sons death. He only asked for freedom from tyranny. This was his weapon, he said, pulling his sons camera phone from his pocket. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
economy, which has felt shockwaves from Europe's debt troubles. United States President Barack "Right now, the economy is still Obama departs the White House rough enough for enough people in Washington July 30, 2012. that this is going to be a close Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron election," Obama said. Polls show NEW YORK| Mon Jul 30, 2012 h i m i n a d e a d h e a t w i t h 9:01pm EDT Republican challenger Mitt (Reuters) - President Barack Romney ahead of the November 6 Obama warned on Monday the election. U . S . e c o n o m y w o u l d f a c e U.S. economic growth slowed in continuing "headwinds" over the the second quarter to a 1.5 percent next few months, with Europe's annual rate, the weakest pace in a debt crisis still posing a challenge, year, the Commerce Department but predicted the euro zone and its said on Friday. currency would remain intact. "We're going to have some "I don't think ultimately that the continued headwinds over the Europeans will let the euro next several months," Obama unravel but they are going to have said. "Europe is still a challenge." to take some decisive steps," ( R e p o r t i n g b y M a r g a r e t Obama said at a campaign Chadbourne, writing by Matt fundraiser in New York. Spetalnick; editing by Todd "I am spending an enormous Eastham) amount of time trying to work This entry passed through the w i t h t h e m , a n d ( T r e a s u r y Full-Text RSS service if this is Secretary) Tim Geithner is trying your content and you're reading it to work with them," he said. "The on someone else's site, please read sooner they take some decisive the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentaction, the better off we're going only/faq.php#publishers. Five to be." Filters recommends: Incinerating Obama's re-election bid is Assange - The Liberal Media Go t h r e a t e n e d b y h i g h U . S . To Work. unemployment and a stumbling
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:01:33 PM
Top News/ Sports/
Obamas position on Jerusalem was identical to Romneys
ALEPPO
Amid growing concern about security on its frontier, Turkey sent at least four convoys of troops, missile batteries and armored vehicles to the border with Syria. There has been no indication that Turkish forces will cross the border, and the troop movements David Harsanyi ( Todays Top Jerusalem will remain the capital essentially been out-sourced to the may just be precautionary in the face of worsening violence in News) of Israel, and it must remain Likud. undivided. Like Romney, Obama On the question of Jerusalem, Syria. Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:32:22 PM upset the perpetually upset then, Romney joins other noted (Additional reporting by Yara During his recent visit to Israel, Palestinian government. Likudnick radicals like Bill Bayoumy and Dominic Evans in Republican presidential candidate N a t u r a l l y , O b a m a l a t e r Clinton, who, during the 1992 Beirut; Writing by Giles Elgood; Mitt Romney commented that it b a c k t r a c k e d o r p e r h a p s campaign, said that he would is a deeply moving experience to e v o l v e d s a y i n g , W e l l , recognize Jerusalem as an be in Jerusalem, the capital of obviously, its going to be up to undivided city, the eternal capital Israel. Somehow this declaration the parties to negotiate a range of of Israel, and I believe in the of fact has become controversial these issues. And Jerusalem will principle of moving our embassy and a gaffe. be part of those negotiations to Jerusalem. And John Kerry, Needless to say, the Obama which is nearly identical to the whose campaign material in 2004 Administration took a shot at position Mitt Romney took this stated that he has long advocated (china - Google News) R o m n e y s f o r e i g n p o l i c y past week on the status of ( East) moving the U.S. Embassy to Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:22:00 PM fumbles. And in response to the Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israels indisputable c a n d i d a t e s i n n o c u o u s The media has also taken up the capital. In 1999, he signed a letter Wall Street Journal (blog) declaration, White House Deputy charge. The Week claimed that taking President Clinton to task Hong Kong Stocks Rise Fourth Press Secretary Josh Earnest Romney also delivered a policy for not moving the embassy. Day on Signs of More China stated: Well, our view is that s p e e c h , p o i n t e d l y c a l l i n g This entry passed through the Stimulus thats a different position than this Jerusalem the capital of Israel ( a Full-Text RSS service if this is Bloomberg administration holds. Its the view controversial declaration that U.S. your content and you're reading it China Railway Group Ltd., a of this administration that the presidents have avoided for on someone else's site, please read builder of railroads and other capital is something that should d e c a d e s ) . N e w s w e e k / D a i l y the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- infrastructure, gained 1.5 percent be determined in final status Beasts Andrew Sullivan, a only/faq.php#publishers. Five a f t e r t h e c o u n t r y b o o s t e d negotiations between the parties. supporter of a judenfrei West Filters recommends: Incinerating investment in railways for a Funny, because when addressing Bank (sometimes he sounds like a Assange - The Liberal Media Go second time in a month. Hang the American Israel Public Affairs supporter of a judenfrei Middle To Work. Committee on June 4, 2008, as a East) notes that it is strikinghow Democratic presidential hopeful, the entire foreign policy position B a r a c k O b a m a s a i d t h a t of the GOP in the Middle East has
Editing by Peter Graff and Michael Roddy) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Hong Kong Stocks Rise Fourth Day on Signs of More China Stimulus - Bloomberg
Lung Properties Ltd., the Hong Kong developer which derives 46 percent of... Top China Stories from WSJ: Tokyo Seeks Defense, Olympics, Hong Kong Protests Wall Street Journal (blog) HK's strengths as strategic and differentiated SAR of China promoted in Singapore 7thSpace Interactive (press release) all 444 news articles
Vikes' Peterson 'fine now' after seafood reaction

(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has returned to
the team's training camp residence hall after an allergic reaction at
lunch sent him to a local hospital.
Top News/
Atheists, enviros criticize Obama administration over drought
Japan flags China military's policy role as potential risk - Reuters

(china - Google News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:35:24 PM
welcomed China's growing role on the world stage while noting its increasingly aggressive moves. Audrey Hudson ( Todays Top F o r a c a b i n e t o f f i c i a l t o Man-made climate change is KGMI Japan Sees Debate Over China News) recommend prayer as a solution supposed to exacerbate water Japan flags China military's Military's Role in Security Policy or call attention to his own shortages, lengthen heat waves policy role as potential risk Bloomberg Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:36:34 PM d e v o t i o n s m a y v i o l a t e t h e and extend droughts in the Great Reuters Tokyo Seeks to Expand Defense Agriculture Secretary Tom Constitutions prohibition against Plains, according to a 2009 In referring to those disputes, Against China Wall Street Journal Vilsack is praying for drought establishment of religion. Most Agriculture Department report. which include a long-simmering Japan concerned by China's navy, relief in the midwest farmlands, important, though, is that prayer Its simply not credible for row with Japan in the East China opaque leadership Boston.com but what hes getting in return is doesnt work. But if you want to Vilsack to now claim he is Sea, Tokyo's views echoed the all 118 news articles criticism from environmentalists test the power of prayer yourself, unaware of the science, and it findings of a 2011 paper which for not linking the dryness to c o n s i d e r t h i s . A p p a r e n t l y contradicts the USDAs mission climate change and from atheists Secretary Vilsacks been praying of providing farmers with the for actually praying. for rain every day; hows that scientific information they need to I get on my knees everyday and working out? do their jobs, the groups said in a Im saying an extra prayer right There is no word yet on whether statement. now, Vilsack said. If I had a Flynns group was offended by Congress this week is expected to rain prayer or a rain dance I could Vilsacks suggestion that a rain pass a drought relief bill in the do, I would do it. dance might end the drought. amount of $621 million to aid Vilsacks comments were met Meanwhile, environmentalists farmers and ranchers affected by (china - Google News) the slowing economy will hurt with condemnation from Tom want Vilsack to focus his energies the drought, freezes and wildfires. Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:54:18 PM earnings growth. Futures on the Flynn, executive director of the on denouncing the drought as a This entry passed through the CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) Council for Secular Humanism, result of human activity and Full-Text RSS service if this is Forbes expiring in August, the most who said the cabinet official blame the cloudless blue skies on your content and you're reading it China Stock-Index Futures Little active... should not be asking for divine climate change. PRESS DIGEST - China- July 31 on someone else's site, please read Changed; Suning May Decline intervention. Reuters They were none too happy when the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- Businessweek It sends the wrong message to Obamas agriculture chief told a only/faq.php#publishers. Five China's stock-index futures were Mainland China's Richest City distraught farmers when the White House press briefing that Filters recommends: Incinerating little changed, signaling the Forbes Agriculture secretary suggests he was not a scientist so Im not Assange - The Liberal Media Go benchmark gauge may fluctuate at all 33 news articles the start of trade, amid concern that the best response is to pray, going to opine as to the cause of To Work. Flynn said. this.
China Stock-Index Futures Little Changed; Suning May Decline - Businessweek
ROMNEY'S
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it
on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating
Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Business/ Technology/
Glenn Beck's 'Restoring' Love Rally Proves The Tea Party Isn't Dead
Elena Schneider (Business Insider)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:12:00 PM
Obama and Romney Should Say What They'll Do About Housing Bloomberg
(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:35:38 PM
Conservative, doom-and-gloom Tea Party icon Glenn Beck says he is on a new mission. A mission for love. More than one year after his Fox News departure, Beck accompanied by a gospel choir, an orchestra, an exact replica of the Liberty Bell made his comeback official this weekend, delivering a history lesson, a religious message, a spoken word performance and a musical and digital presentation to a 65,000plus audience in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. The "Restoring Love" rally completes Beck's trifecta of rallying calls -Beck struck a new tone with his audience, aiming for a positive, action-driven message, rather than an attack on a political ideology.
But he maintained some of his government finger-pointing that made him famous on cable television, particularly Obama's recent business and government gaffe and the First Lady's "Let's Move" campaign. Pacing around a cross-shaped stage, Beck told his audience:
"We must not become America in name only. We must strive to be the great country that we are," he said."There are two kinds of Americans. Those who like to be pushed, and those who push themselves." In the end, the "global Tea Party summit" was vintage Beck,
rounding out a trifect of rallying calls that began with his"Restoring Honor," a prayer event in Washington Mall in 2010 and gained international momentum with the "Restoring Courage" event in Israel in 2011. With the "Restoring Love" rally, Beck brought the party back home. Beck rented out Dallas Cowboys Stadium for his "Restoring Love" rally upwards of 65,000 people attended the event, according to estimates on Beck's website. Source: Glenn Beck A little girl waves a "Don't Tread On Me" flag and an American flag before the rally begins. Source: Glenn Beck This kid has the theme down. Source: Glenn Beck See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.
Wall Street Journal (blog) Obama and Romney Should Say What They'll Do About Housing Bloomberg Housing has been largely absent from the current recovery, as a glut of distressed properties and tight mortgage credit weigh on the sector. Residential investment is up only 8 percent since the economy hit bottom in mid-2009, compared with an average... Real Estate News: How Forgiveness Fits in Housing-Fix Toolkit Wall Street Journal (blog) all 22 news articles
Microsoft sets release date for Surface tablet

Mark Brown
Submitted at 7/30/2012 11:10:00 AM
Microsoft has let slip the release date of its upcoming tablet
device, in paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Surface will go on sale on 26 October -- the same day as Windows 8.
"The next version of our operating
system, Windows 8, will be -designed and manufactured generally available on October 26, hardware devices." 2012," the company writes. "At By: Mark Brown, Edited by: that time, we will begin selling Duncan Geere Continue reading... the Surface, a series of Microsoft
10
Business/ Technology/ Sports/
Chinese PMI Is Expected To Rise When The Data Is Released Tomorrow

Mamta Badkar (Business Insider)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:10:00 PM
NBC Spoiled Missy Franklin's Tape -Delayed Gold Medal Race Just Moments Before Airing The Race
Cork Gaines (Business Insider)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:27:00 PM
China is set to release PMI data tomorrow. With HSBC flash manufacturing PMI climbing to 49.5 in July, a 5-month high, investors are watching official numbers closely. Data in the past few months pointed to a slowdown in the Asian giant but policymakers have aggressively been cutting interest rates and said that stabilizing growth is a priority. Bank of America analyst Ting Lu expects NBS manufacturing PMI to rise to 50.4 in July, up marginally from 50.2 in June. The policy easing measures have seen business and consumer confidence recover slowly. But Lu warns that a significant rebound won't be seen for a few months, since policy easing measures come through with a
NBC has received plenty of heat and criticism for their decisions to tape-delay a number of the more popular Olympic events. But they aren't helping their own case when they spoil their own coverage with a promo for another show. That's what happened tonight when NBC was getting set to show the women's 100 meter backstroke, an event Franklin won (will win?). The network went to commercial with a view of Franklin in the pool and the teaser
"coming up, how good can Missy Franklin be tonight? The finals of the 100-back coming up." And from the "can't make it up department," NBC then showed a promo for "The Today Show" centered around Franklin celebrating her gold medal with her parents. The promo even included a shot of Franklin on the medal stand with her medal. Gee, I wonder if she is going to win?!? Here's the video... Please follow Sports Page on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
lag. He also warns that unusual weather patterns could impact industrial and construction activity. "Weather has been abnormally poor in July, which could have a negative impact on industrial and construction activity. It was unusually hot in large parts of China in the first half of July, but then rainstorms
and floods hit many areas of China after mid-July." Don't Miss: SocGen's Presentation On The Slowing State Of The Chinese Economy > (housing - Google News) Please follow Money Game on Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:31:43 PM Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this Wall Street Journal (blog) story North Dakota Proves Adage: Jobs Boost Housing Wall Street Journal (blog) For as long as the housing market has been in a rut, people have
North Dakota Proves Adage: Jobs Boost Housing - Wall Street Journal (blog)
been saying that it's going to take a turnaround in employment trends for there to be a meaningful housing recovery. For proof on just how closely the job market and the housing market... The one place they can't build homes fast enough MarketWatch all 26 news articles
BUY WITH ME!

noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)
July 30 Prelims
CITY!
(NBCOlympics.com RSS Top Slideshows)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:12:32 PM
Get the Best Deals in ANY
Sailors and crews compete on Day 3 of the Olympic sailing competition at Weymouth.
Business/ World News/
11
Cramer's Stealth Play Syria's Top Diplomat on Housing Rebound in London Defects - CNBC.com (blog) THISDAY Live
(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:14:32 PM
Team Anna now targets media, calls it biased IBNLive.com

(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:14:37 PM
Cramer's Stealth Play on Housing Rebound CNBC.com (blog) While housing data released last week showed that pending home
sales were down 1.4 percent month over month and new home sales clocked in at 350000 about 20000 less than experts predicted there was a footnote worth heeding: Weak pending... and more

Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:24:28 PM
Kevin Maguire column In the battle with David Cameron, BoJo has won the gold medal - Mirror.co.uk
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:41:14 PM
Telegraph.co.uk Syria's Top Diplomat in London Defects THISDAY Live Syria's top diplomat in London resigned on Monday in protest against the "violent and oppressive" acts of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the Foreign Office said. The move comes after a series of defections
by senior Syrian officials in recent... Assad's top man in London goes into hiding in protest at regime's bloodshed The Independent Syria diplomat quits UK post in 'protest' at Assad regime BBC News Syria's top UK diplomat quits Financial Times Mirror.co.uk- Daily Mail (blog)The Guardian all 360 news articles
Mirror.co.uk Kevin Maguire column In the battle with David Cameron, BoJo has won the gold medal Mirror.co.uk BORIS Johnson is pulverising David Cameron during the twoweek Olympic Games battle for hearts and minds. A good mate of mine was in The Mall at the weekend for the men's road cycling. The PM turned up and
spectators politely shook Cameron's hand. Johnson is popular choice to succeed Cameron Herald Scotland Boris Johnson favoured for Tory leader as George Osborne tumbles The Independent London 2012 Olympics: Boris limbers up to join the Tory Olympians Telegraph.co.uk Reuters UK- The Guardian- Irish Times all 48 news articles
Student sex attack suspect returns to India - Herald Scotland

Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:07:27 PM
Edinburgh Evening News Student sex attack suspect returns to India Herald Scotland A MALE student who is wanted by police in connection with a sex attack on a woman has returned to his homeland of India. The attack in Pilrig Park, Edinburgh, on Sunday, July 22, left a 23-yearold woman with serious facial
injuries. Edinburgh sex attack suspect flies back to India Scotsman Leith Pilrig Park sexual assault: International arrest warrant issued BBC News Man sought in connection with 'brutal' sex assault 'fled overseas' stv.tv Deadline News- Edinburgh Evening News all 7 news articles
IBNLive.com Team Anna now targets media, calls it biased IBNLive.com New Delhi: It's Team Anna versus the media now after senior member Shanti Bhushan accused media houses of bias in their coverage of their ongoing fast a Jantar Mantar. Supporters of the movement even heckled media persons at Jantar Mantar on Monday. Jantar Mantar abuzz with crowds Deccan Herald On Day 6, Team Anna strikes a militant note The Hindu Anna Hazare supporters enter into argument with mediapersons Daily News & Analysis Calcutta Telegraph- Economic Times- NDTV all 1,879 news articles
12
World News/ Sports/
Cong,NCP set for coordination meet - Indian Express

Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:07:50 PM
Police seize $500m worth Americans Flawless On of drugs in Sydney Sydney Morning Herald Day Three
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:19:55 PM
IBNLive.com Cong,NCP set for coordination meet Indian Express Amid indications that the truce between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in the state may not last very long, the former is readying for the first coordination committee meeting scheduled for August 2 or 3.
Apart from Chief Minister... Through the third eye: Is leaking of two Maharashtra scams Congress' counter... Economic Times Fireworks expected at NCP-Cong panel meet Times of India Rahul Gandhi is paying for the mistakes of Indira Gandhi Firstpost IBNLive.com- Business Standard all 30 news articles
NEWS.com.au Police seize $500m worth of drugs in Sydney Sydney Morning Herald For 11 months the Australian Federal Police had their eye on a group of alleged big-time drug smugglers. Along with investigators from the Australian Customs and Border Protection
Service, their every move was monitored until last night when it was... Heroin, ice hidden in terracotta pots Ninemsn Heroin, ice network smashed in $500m drug bust ABC Online Police investigation leads to $500m drug seizure Adelaide Now TVNZ all 52 news articles

Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:40:31 PM
Team USA went a perfect 6-0 on Monday with Venus and Serena Williams, John Isner, Andy Roddick and Varvara Lepchenko all registering wins at the All England Club. See photos from around the grounds.
Government takes axe to transport, Q-Build jobs ABC Online

Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:41:52 PM
Tamil Nadu Express: Why are there no fire alarms in trains? - Firstpost
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:15:51 PM
Sydney Morning Herald Government takes axe to transport, Q-Build jobs ABC Online The latest cuts announced in State Parliament today are
expected to take the reduction in public servants numbers since the March election to around 6700. Transport Minister Scott Emerson says Translink - the south east Queensland public transport body... 2000 Qld public service jobs to go Herald Sun
Transport and Main Roads to cut 2000 full-time jobs and Translink to be... Courier Mail Two thousand jobs to go in transport department Sydney Morning Herald all 58 news articles
Firstpost Tamil Nadu Express: Why are there no fire alarms in trains? Firstpost New Delhi: The fire in Tamil Nadu Express was the fourth such incident since last year but there are no effective measures including installation of fire and smoke detection alarms in trains.
The fire claimed 32 lives including six women and three... The tragedy of being in coach S11 The Hindu 28 die in TN Express fire, 25 injured Indian Express 32 die in bogie that became sealed oven Calcutta Telegraph Hindustan Times- Deccan Herald - Times of India all 1,181 news articles
World News/ Technology/
13
Crocodile shot with arrow, left for dead in city river - NEWS.com.au
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:27:20 PM
Contemporary Zorro Lookbooks - Be Mysterious with the Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2012 Collection (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:25:03 PM
Crocodile shot with arrow, left for dead in city river NEWS.com.au THE RSPCA has slammed a brazen act of animal cruelty after
a crocodile was found speared with an arrow in the Ross River. Boaties spotted the 1m freshwater croc struggling to move on the upper reaches of the river on Sunday afternoon and found it had... and more
( TrendHunter.com) The Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2012 lookbook channels the
fashionable prowess of legendary character Zorro. The latest from the international Italian fashion house Armani is this high end, ready-to-...
Jonathan Ive: For Apple, it's quality, not quantity

Dara Kerr (CNET News)
hard," said Ive, according to Wired. "We say no to a lot of Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:26:17 PM things that we want to do and are Apple's iPhone 4S is noted for its intrigued by so that we only work high quality design.(Credit: on a manageable amount of Apple) products and can invest an Jonathan Ive(Credit: Apple) incredible amount of care on each Why is Apple successful? It all of them." starts with the quality of its Ive insisted that when Steve Jobs products, according to Jonathan came back to the company in Ive. The company's senior vice 1997, Jobs' goal was to focus on president of industrial design superior products rather than waxed eloquent on this theme financial performance."We are during a talk about Apple's design really pleased with our revenues focus at the British Embassy's but our goal isn't to make money," Creative Summit. he said. "Our goal and what "I refute that design is important. makes us excited is to make great Design is a prerequisite. Good products. If we are successful design -- innovation -- is really people will like them and if we
are operationally competent, we will make money." Alongside Jobs, Ive has been named one of the smartest men in tech by Fortune magazine and is
known for making sweeping statements about Apple's products. In May, he cryptically said that the product the company is currently working on is
the"most important" product yet. In today's talk, he echoed this sentiment. "Really great design is hard. Good is the enemy of great," he said. "Competent design is not too much of a stretch. But if you are trying to do something new, you have challenges on so many axes."Apple iPhone 4S- 64GB black (Sprint) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
14
Technology/
iPhone 5 rumor roundup

Kent German (CNET News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:23:00 PM
The NFC idea is getting tossed around again The evidence is more substantial The latest iPhone 5 rumors than from your run-of-the-mill After unveiling a marginally p r e s s " i n s i d e r " : a p a t e n t improved iPhone 4S in 2011 application by Apple itself instead of a radically different revealed an NFC chip imbedded iPhone 5, Apple has returned to into several Apple products, its development labs to cook up including an iPhone. The patent is (no pun intended) the next titled "System and Method For iteration of its popular phone. In Simplified Control of Electronic 2012, we're fairly certain that the Devices," and illustrates the NFC real iPhone 5 will roll out of acting as a remote control for Apple's gates and that the device televisions, standalone cameras, should be a bigger leap forward and DVRs. than the 4S was. Maybe that smaller dock really is That's why after taking some time coming off at the end of last year, we've An iPhone case manufacturer in resurrected CNET's iPhone 5 China posted a picture of its rumor roundup to cover the new newest iPhone 5 case, and threw tidbits from 2012. So join us in a picture of the supposed again in watching the rumor mill device, too. Not only do we see churn. We'll add to it until we get that it's a little taller than the the real thing; please let us know current model, but a side shot of if we've left any gossip out. the handset's bottom reveals a July 30, 2012 shorter pin connector. This further More iPhone 5 footage has been corroborates existing rumors that released the dock is going to shrink. Last month, a video purporting to July 24, 2012 s h o w t h e n e w i P h o n e w a s Apple ambiguously hints at 'fall released on the Interwebs, and a refresh' during earnings call flurry of speculation followed. During Apple's third-quarter Today, another video has sprouted earnings conference call, CEO up, posted by Japanese site Tim Cook vaguely responded to Macotakara. Though it's best to an analyst's question about a "fall take this one with a grain of salt product transition." Cook said that as well, the featured device is "there's an incredible anticipation consistent with past rumors that out there for a future product" and the new iPhone will have a taller that based on what Apple has display, a smaller dock connector delivered in the past, this amount port, a relocated headphone jack, of speculation is "reasonable." All and a new back design. right, Cook, we get it. Mum's the July 27, 2012 word.
July 23, 2012 A smaller dock, once again Reuters reported that the new iPhone's Dock connector port will indeed be smaller. Its current 30pin port is expected to shrink down to a 19-pin connector. This will give more room on the bottom of the device for a headphone jack, which for now rests on the top of the iPhone. July 22, 2012 Production has started in Shanghai According to a Taipei-based report, manufacturing company Pegatron has already started building the new iPhone. Based in Taiwan, the company has begun production in its Shanghai factory. It is also expected to produce the new version of the iPad, reported Digitimes. July 19, 2012 Wait for the fourth quarter During the company's quarterly conference call, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo hinted at possible timing for the next iPhone with a vague reference that the carrier expects to launch a major phone in the fourth quarter. iPhone 5: 15 most-wanted features (photos) 1-2 of 15 Scroll
Left Scroll Right July 18, 2012 More new cases Possible new iPhone cases are showing up from Chinese sources. One comes complete with a rectangular cutout on the bottom, presumably where Apple's reportedly tweaked dock connector will be. July 17, 2012 It'll have a thinner screen The Wall Street Journal reports that the new iPhone's display will incorporate "in-cell technology." Already manufactured by LCD screen makers including Sharp, LG Display, and Japan Display, in -cell technology enables a screen's touch sensors and LCD be consolidated into one single layer. This would result in a thinner screen and a cheaper production price. July 16, 2012 A stockpile of SIMs The Financial Times reports that wireless carriers in Europe are
stockpiling nano-SIM chips in anticipation of Apple including the new technology in the next iteration of the iPhone. Smaller than regular SIM cards, they could allow Apple to include a bigger battery in its next handset. The company started using nanoSIMs in 2010 in the first iPad. iPhone rumors discussed and debunked July 15, 2012 Taller phone with a center camera The Taiwan-based blog Apple.pro posts photos of an alleged iPhone frame that is as wide as the iPhone 4S, but taller. That would allow for a 4-inch display with an aspect ratio of 16:9. It's already in production Production of the next iPhone has already begun, a Japaneselanguage Apple blog claims. The Macotakara blog cites listings for iPhone 5 cases on a Chinese site as proof of its claim and it says the back of the new iPhone has both glass and aluminum. July 12, 2012 Preorders now accepted Reuters reports that sellers on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao are taking preorders for the iPhone 5 for between 1,000 yuan ($160) and 6,999 yuan ($1,100). Reuters also says that sellers are listing the device's specifications and showing mockup images in order to entice IPHONE page 15
15
IPHONE
buyers. July 10, 2012 New engineering samples Tech site GottaBeMobile offers photos and speculation about a new iPhone and a smaller iPad of "a trusted source inside the Apple supply chain." Though the iPhone mockup is nothing more than milled aluminum, the noteworthy changes are a taller screen and what appears to be a hole for a microphone between where the rear camera and LED flash have been on the iPhone 4 and 4S. July 5, 2012 A quad-core A6 chip The not-always-reliable DigiTimes says that Apple's nextgeneration iPhone will be powered by a quad-core ARM processor based on Samsung's Exynos 4 architecture. What could be Apple's next iPhone. June 28, 2012 It's probably going to be a huge success In a report to investors, JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, said that the next iPhone will dominate 2013. With its "hardware enhancements and software-driven services," Moskowitz believes Apple's newest phone will be the industry lead and will show strong sales. June 25, 2012 It'll have NFC capabilities The coding from two iPhone 5 prototypes may hint at Near Field Communication capabilities, according to 9to5Mac. NFC chips have already been featured in Android devices for Google
Wallet and Android Beam, so this may mean that Apple is joining the mobile payments industry. This will coincide nicely with its launch of Passbook, an iOS 6 feature that lets users store electronic versions of receipts, tickets, and other merchant information. June 21, 2012 It's a world phone In addition to having a new design and a slightly larger screen, the next iPhone will support global LTE networks, making it a true world phone. And by keeping support for 3G networks, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu says that Apple will be able to support the Chinese market. June 20, 2012 A smaller dock connector TechCrunch reports that three independent manufacturers have affirmed that the next iPhone will have a smaller 19-pin port. According to earlier rumors, this type of connector is supposedly going to make its way into all of Apple's future mobile devices. While the 30-pin connector is what the iPhone maker has been using for years, a smaller port will create more space in the internal structure of the device. June 18, 2012 After WWDC 2012, more rumors spread about a bigger iPhone Now that software developers are getting their hands on iOS 6, more hints about the new iPhone are emerging. Most notably, of a new Auto Layout feature that lets developers set parameters for
certain UI elements. According to one developer that TechCrunch spoke to, Auto Layout is a necessity for Apple before it can launch devices with different resolutions -- implying that perhaps the next generation may have a different resolution than the last. June 14, 2012 You may be able to swap out the camera lens In a move that sounds nothing like Apple, a published patent application suggests that the new iPhone's back panel would be removable, allowing users to switch out the camera lens. This is highly unusual, since Apple has always shipped its handsets completely sealed. June 7, 2012 The new generation will be gray, metal, and sleek all over After several reported rumors about the iPhone's new look, a worker from a parts reseller company called ETrade Supply has now provided a video. Though its authenticity is still up in the air, at face value, the video shows the iPhone 5 sporting a taller and thinner build, a relocated headphone jack (it's at the bottom instead of the top), a smaller dock connecter, and an aluminum back plate. June 6, 2012 It may have a 16:9 aspect ratio and HD front-facing camera People who use the iPhone's front -facing camera for vanity shots and Web chatting, rejoice. Mingchi Kuo, an analyst from KGI, believes the new iPhone will
sport a 4.08-inch screen, a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a high-def frontfacing camera. In his report, Kuo also says he believes the rearfacing camera will still retain its 8 -megapixel spec, but its maximum aperture will jump from 2.4 to 2.2. June 4, 2012 iPhone 5 may launch in September In addition to the iPad Mini, an analyst from Topeka Capital Markets said that the iPhone 5 will likely launch in September. According to AppleInsider, the analyst, Brian White, cited sources from inside Apple's supply chain in Taipei. May 31, 2012 Latest iPhone 5 leak teases more RAM, map tweaks 9to5Mac posts purported details of a development version of the hardware, and iOS 6, the next major version of iOS. Among the details is that the next iPhone will sport 1GB of RAM, up from the 512MB found in the iPhone 4S. Details are less specific about 4G capabilities, and how much faster the processor will be. That pesky taller iPhone 5 screen pops up on video Japanese Apple blog Macotakara publishes a visual comparison of the mystery screen part that's been floating around, next to the existing iPhone to show just how much bigger the screen would be. The the two notable changes are that the screen is taller, and that the FaceTime camera has been moved to the very top, center of the device, like on the iPad.
An alleged SIM card holder for the next iPhone. May 29, 2012 Photos of purported iPhone 5 leak onto the Web A host of new photos have emerged from two sources who claim the devices in the pictures are actually Apple's nextgeneration iPhone. 9to5Mac posts photos that look like the back plate of a new iPhone model allegedly from a Chinese supplier. Similarly MacRumors published an additional set from repair firm uBreakiFix with the same part. iPhone 5 likely to launch by Sept. or Oct., says another analyst RBC analyst Amit Daryanani says Apple's next iPhone is coming in September or October, similar to the time last year when Apple rolled out the iPhone 4S. Daryanani added that the device will sport 4G/LTE technology and be fully redesigned. Yep, Apple owns iPhone5.com now Following a successful complaint filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization to gain control of the iPhone5.com domain, Apple is now listed as the owner of the domain. May 22, 2012 Taller iPod Touch screen parts already spotted in the wild Macrumors posts photos of white and black front panels, said to belong to Apple's next-generation iPod Touch and sourced from an unnamed supplier. Of note, the area for the screen measures 4.1 IPHONE page 16
16
IPHONE
inches diagonally as opposed to the 3.5 inches, which has been the same for all four generations of the device. Additionally, the site posts shots of alleged front and rear camera parts, as well as the home button, all said to be headed for the the next iPhone. May 17, 2012 Is Apple the new owner of iPhone5.com? Apple is the likely winner in a complaint it filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization to gain control of the iPhone5.com domain. The WIPO concluded an investigation into the domain on Apple's behalf, though the site still doesn't go anywhere. iPhone 5 launching with 3.95inch display, more pixels? Citing sources, Apple blog 9to5Mac says Apple's testing two iPhones with larger displays at its headquarters, one of which will be released. The blog adds that the screen has a 3.95-inch display, which would be up from the iPhone's current 3.5-inch option. May 16, 2012 More rumors pop up about that 4inch screen Looks like that 4-inch screen may be happening after all, now that the more reliable Wall Street Journal's the one reporting it. According to one of the paper's sources, Apple has been tapping for larger screens from its suppliers (which include LG, Sharp, and Japan Display) to compete with Android devices. May 4, 2012 iPhone touch-panel shipments on
the decline Citing unnamed sources, Digitimes says shipments of touch panels will be down 15 percent to 20 percent compared to the first quarter as Apple prepares to transition to its next handset. May 3, 2012 iPhone 5 launching with 4-inch screen, new Dock connector? Apple's next iPhone will have a 4 -inch screen and a thinner, taller body according to iLounge. Citing an unnamed source, the site said Apple's next iPhone will be 10mm taller, and 2mm thinner than the iPhone 4/4S. The handset is also said to be getting a new dock connector that's considerably smaller and "closer to a pill shape." May 1, 2012 Alleged iPhone 5 SIM card tray surfaces The next iPhone may not be all that different from current versions if an allegedly leaked part is to be believed. Spare parts site SW-BOX.com posts photos and details of a SIM card tray it says belongs to the next iPhone. The part is nearly identical to the one offered in the iPhone 4 and 4S with very minor cosmetic differences. April 26, 2012 Apple, HTC planning fall launches on Verizon's network, report says Boy Genius Report says it has insider knowledge of Verizon's summer and fall smartphone roadmap. The outlet said that the iPhone is once again slated for a fall release.
April 25, 2012 Sprint confirms unlimited data plan for next iPhone If the next iteration of the iPhone arrives with LTE, Sprint will continue to offer a no-strings unlimited plan, CEO Dan Hesse told CNET. "I'm not anticipating the unlimited plan would change by that point," Hesse said in an interview. "That's our distinctive differentiator." April 19, 2012 It'll be released in October due to supply issues There have been many guesses about when the device will come out, but based on research, Piper Jaffray, an investment banking firm, says that the iPhone is likely due out in October. This is because the company speculated to be making the iPhone's LTE 28 -nanometer chip, Qualcomm, is having supply shortages and is struggling to keep up with demand. April 18, 2012 It'll be made of liquid, Liquidmetal that is The rumor that Apple is ditching the iPhone's glass has surfaced again. This time from a Korean new site, ETnews, which reported that the iPhone 5 may be made out of Liquidmetal. In late 2010, Apple acquired a license for Liquidmetal, but has only used it for the iPhone's SIM ejector tool. April 9, 2012 Different chip, different body Several iPhone rumors from varying media sources suggest that the iPhone will be more robust, both inside and out.
Business Insider reported that it'll have a 4-inch screen and a unibody case, and 9to5Mac claims it'll be equipped with an A5X chip. Foxconn has no idea when it'll come out, now guesses an October debut Oh, Foxconn, manufacturing as many rumors as it does iPhones. According to the head of HR at its Taiyuan facilities, the iPhone 5 will be released in October, despite the fact that a week ago, a Foxconn hiring recruiter said it'll come out in June. Kotaku translated an article in South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper that reported this bit of news, and as always, we suggest you take this October estimate with a large ounce of skepticism. April 2, 2012 It's going to take a lot of labor In a recorded conversation aired by TV Tokyo, a Foxconn recruiter said that the reason the company needed to hire 18,000 new workers was because the iPhone will be due out in June. This extra manpower further supports the idea of the device's summer release. March 23, 2012 Perhaps it'll be equipped with a new dock plug Aside from more LTE rumors (this time coming from iMore), new iPhone 5 rumors are surmising that the upcoming device will come with a new dock plug. This time, it may be smaller to make room for the device's other components.
March 21, 2012 It might get a 4.6-inch screen For those who have been dissatisfied with the iPhone's usual 3.5-inch screen, Reuters reported that the new iPhone may get a bigger display, as a South Korean media outlet says Apple is putting in orders with suppliers for a 4.6-inch Retina Display. This may allow the company more room to update the chips inside the new iPhone, perhaps adding the A5X, for example. February 3, 2012 It's still going to be expensive Citigroup analysts who met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer reported that Apple did not feel the need to make cheaper phones. During the meeting, Oppenheimer suggested that the company will keep making "great products," and believed customers will still be willing to pay for them. Furthermore, the iPhone 5 is rumored to offer both LTE and TD-SCDMA, which is a 3G standard used in China. February 3 Apple has its sights on June? As reported by the Chinese newspaper Commercial Times, Apple may be going back to June as its go-to release month. Last time, the iPhone 4 was released in October, but rumor has it that the iPhone 5 may be coming to the Worldwide Developers Conference, which is scheduled for June 10 through the 15. IPHONE page 17
17
IPHONE
January 25 It could be the summer A source at Foxconn leads 9to5Mac to report that Apple is readying an iPhone with a 4-inch (or larger) display for release this summer. Apparently, the new device will retain the shape of the iPhone 4 and 4S, while being longer and wider. The blog also says that Apple has a few sample devices "floating around." January 3 Or maybe the fall Analyst Tavis McCourt of Morgan Keegan says that the iPhone 5 will arrive in the fall of this year and that it will be a "significant revenue and earnings growth driver." Keegan doesn't say how the handset will differ; perhaps it could be slimmer or have a metal back. September 30, 2011 Double the storage? The same 9to5Mac source who spotted new iPhone models in Apple's retail system says that a 64GB iPhone could also be in the cards. This isn't the first time we've heard talk about a highercapacity iPhone. In mid-April, Vietnamese site Tinhte posted a video of a white iPhone boasting 64GB of storage--the same site that got ahold of the iPhone 4 ahead of its official announcement. New iPhone spotted in Apple's inventory As a follow-up to the September 28 story, both 9to5Mac and SlashGear report that a phone with the code-name N94 has been discovered in Apple's inventory
system and is believed to be the iPhone 5. Information on the label also points to it being a dual-mode CDMA/GSM phone. September 29 iPhone 5 to have bigger screen, HSPA+ A pair of stories from PC Watch in Japan and CNET France resurfaces rumors that the iPhone 5 will offer HSPA+ support, which will allow for theoretical download speeds of up to 21Mbps, and feature a larger (4.2 or 4.3 inches) 960x540-pixel qHD touch screen. September 28 New iPhones, iPods in Apple's retail system There is debate over whether Apple will introduce more than one iPhone on October 5, but if 9to5Mac's tipster is right, it will be more than one. According to the source, there are two new iPhone models floating around Apple's retail system, with one possibly being an entry-level 8GB version of the iPhone 4. In addition, three new iPod Touch models were also spotted in the system. September 27 1GB RAM and voice control? Through a "reliable source," TUAW says the iPhone 5 will include a whopping 1GB of RAM and a voice-control system known as the Assistant. September 24 No vacation in October According to AppleInsider, Apple is telling staffers at its retail stores that they can't go on vacation during the second week
of October. September 23 A defect in iPhone 5 panels? Taiwan's DigiTimes says Apple supplier Wintek is finding a "delayed bubble" defect in some of the iPhone 5 panels it has produced. According to the publication, though it's unknown what the defect does to the screen, it appears after touch-panel lamination and during assembly. September 21 Even Al Gore says there will be more than one At the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in South Africa, former vice president and Apple board member Al Gore said, "Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month." iPhone 5 to debut Oct. 4 All Things Digital predicts that Apple will debut its iPhone 5 on October 4, with new Chief Executive Tim Cook leading the show. September 20 T-Mobile says no According to a leaked document, T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman told employees that the carrier would not carry the iPhone 5 this year. September 19 Two iPhones by the end of the year J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz tells Fortune that he expects Apple to release two new iPhones before the end of the year. One will be a brand-new model with a different appearance, and the other will be a souped-up iPhone 4 model
called the "iPhone 4-plus." September 15 Possible iPhone 5 cases emerge Accessory maker Case-Mate briefly posts renderings of a line of cases for a new iPhone. They suggest that the forthcoming handset will have a rounded aluminum backing, similar to the iPad 2's design. The images are quickly replaced with a generic notifications page, but Boy Genius Report managed to post them on its Web site. iPhone 5 on Oct. 15 While chatting with French reporters at a business conference, France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard said the iPhone 5 will debut on October 15. September 12 Vodafone spills the beans U.K. carrier Vodafone briefly lists the iPhone 5 on its Web site in both 16GB and 32GB editions and in black and white. September 9 A Sprint iPhone by October 15 A leaked Sprint memo informs the carrier's employees of a vacation blackout from September 30 through October 15 due to the "possibility" of a major phone launch. Sprint iPhone with unlimited data? Bloomberg predicts that Sprint will not only have the new iPhone in mid-October, but also that the carrier will offer the handset with an unlimited data plan to "distinguish" it from the AT&T and Verizon models. September 8 150,000 iPhones a day
Taiwan's DigiTimes cites anonymous industry sources to report that China's Foxconn Electronics, which has manufactured iPhones in the past, is currently producing 150,000 iPhone 5 units a day. Sprint and the iPhone 5 Beatweek says that Sprint is installing network repeaters at Apple retail stores to ensure that potential iPhone 5 buyers can find a strong signal for testing the device on the carrier's cellular network. September 4 Battle of the Best Buy leaks Boy Genius Report says a leaked internal document from the retailer puts the iPhone 5 launch date at sometime during the first week in October, with preorders beginning as early as the first full week of September. Sprint, too, will get the device, according to the BGR story. But wait--This Is My Next has its own leaked Best Buy info: a mysterious "Apple fixture Installation" at an unnamed Best Buy location suggests an October 21 debut for the gadget, according to the blog. September 2 Thinner, longer, wider Tech enthusiast site M.I.C. Gadget claims that new iPhone cases being sold by online vendor Alibaba and other Chinese retailers show a slimmer design for the next version of the handset. Not only will it be as thin as an iPod Touch, but also the mute switch is moved to the other IPHONE page 18
18
IPHONE
side, the overall design is wider and longer, and it will have tapered edges. August 31 New antenna Accessory maker Ideal Case posts a photo of what it says is the new antenna design for the iPhone 4S/iPhone 5. Exactly what those differences are, however, is unclear and the photos were posted without a back story. August 29 Same-size display DigiTimes rebuts earlier rumors that the iPhone 5 will have a 4inch display. Instead, DigiTimes says that the new handset will keep the current touch-screen size of 3.5 inches, or will grow slightly larger to 3.7 inches. Apple will, however, adopt a design with a thinner bezel for the display panel, which would make it appear larger. August 24 T-Mobile, too Citing "a contact within TMobile," Apple-tracking blog MacTrast says the U.S. carrier will be getting a version of the iPhone 5 that will run on the company's 3G network sometime in "early to mid-October." August 23 Sprint gets its turn According to The Wall Street Journal, Sprint will start selling the iPhone 5 alongside Verizon Wireless and AT&T in midOctober. Apple's TV commercials AppleInsider says that Apple has begun production on television advertisements to promote the
iPhone 5 that will run the first week of October. August 22 A dual-mode iPhone 5 A source tells TechCrunch that at least one variant of the the iPhone 5 will be a world phone with support for both CDMA and GSM networks. No flash on front camera Though previous rumors indicated that the iPhone 5 will have a front-facing LED flash, 9to5mac cites a leak in the parts distribution chain that suggests otherwise. August 19 AT&T expects a busy October According to Boy Genius Report, the next iPhone will launch in early October. The blog says an AT&T vice president has reportedly warned employees to "expect things to get really, really busy in the next 35 to 50 days, so prepare your teams accordingly." August 17 An October 7 release 9To5Mac says that Apple is considering an October 7 release for the iPhone 5 with preorders starting September 30. If that date is correct, the company would hold an unveiling event in early September. Carriers testing LTE iPhones Boy Genius Report says that at least one carrier is testing an iPhone with support for LTE networks. August 16 LTE in Apple stores Citing an anonymous source, Engadget reports that LTE equipment is being installed at a
major Apple store. The equipment supports the 700MHz band of spectrum, which could be used by AT&T or T-Mobile. August 12 iPhone 5 mockups Apple news and rumor site MacRumors commissioned CiccareseDesign to create mockups of the iPhone 5 based on the original leaked case designs. The renderings show a sleek handset with a 4-inch display and elongated Home button. Apple prepping iPhone reveal for September 7 event? According to Japanese Web site Kodawarisan, Apple is planning a media event for September 7 where it will unveil its new iPod lineup and perhaps the iPhone 5. But before you clear all appointments for September 7, another report by AppleNApps says the company will hold a separate event for the occasion, where Apple will not only introduce the iPhone 5 but also a cloud-based iPhone. August 4 China Telecom to get two new iPhones? A report by China-based Sohu.com says Apple and China Telecom have reached a "preliminary agreement" to start selling the iPhone before the end of October. And it's not just any iPhone, it's rumored to be the iPhone 5 alongside a "simplified" iPhone 4. August 3 10 million handsets in September DigiTimes says that Pegatron will produce 10 million iPhone 5
units. According to an unnamed source, the handsets will ship to Apple in September, which would pave the way for a release any time after that. August 2 iPhone 5 out for testing The Guardian (U.K.) reports that wireless carriers have received highly secure boxes containing iPhone 5s that the operators are using to test network compatibility. August 1 No vacations for you Gizmodo cites an e-mail allegedly from an AT&T employee, which says that the carrier is denying any vacations requested during the last two weeks of September "due to an event blackout." According to the employee, the only other times vacations were denied in the past were during iPhone release periods. Or maybe in October Going the other direction, a story on AllThingsD quotes a source"with knowledge of the plans" who says, "I don't know why AT&T's calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it's not for an iPhone launch." Instead, the source says that the next iPhone will come in October. July 28 A white iPhone 4S In a rather convoluted tale, MacRumors highlighted a forum post from Vietnamese site Tinhte that claims to have a new version of the iPhone 4. Differences between the new version and the current handset are few, but
Tinhte says it's a bit faster, it weighs less, and it has a plastic shell instead of glass. 4 million iPhones in September China Times reports that Apple will produce 4 million new iPhones for release in the second week of September. July 27 A new case for a new design U.K. blog Mobile Fun receives new iPhone case designs from two manufacturers. They point to a major redesign that includes a larger screen and home button, and a curved back. July 26 AT&T and Apple get to work MacRumors reports that Apple is bringing back former employees to work part-time between August 15 and September 15. Though that time period coincides with the back-to-school season, it also falls within the long-rumored early September iPhone release window. Also, according to Boy Genius Report, AT&T is preparing its employees for more foot traffic at its stores in September. A source told the blog that the carrier has asked its managers and employees to finish any current training as soon as possible. July 13 Now hiring for an August iPhone After some clever detective work, CNET UK finds a job posting repeated throughout the United Kingdom that asks for "Apple iPhone Sales Specialists" to work in Apple retail stores. The IPHONE page 19
19
IPHONE
temporary positions would last from mid-August through the end of October and would be for what the recruiter describes as "an exciting project." July 6 Suppliers get their orders Anonymous sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Apple has asked suppliers to build 25 million units of its next iPhone by August for a third-quarter launch. July 5 15 million in September DigiTimes reports that Apple has placed an order for 15 million iPhone 5s for a September release. July 1 Both an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3 DigiTimes says that suppliers are gearing up to help Apple produce millions of units of both an iPhone 5 and an iPad 3 for an October release. June 29 A modest update BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman claims in a note to investors that Apple will introduce just an iPhone 4S model in September. The iPhone 4S would include only modest feature upgrades and the design would be unchanged. June 27 Two new iPhones to come Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore predicts that Apple will introduce two iPhones later this year. The first will be a full nextgeneration handset (most likely an iPhone 5), while the second will be a revamped iPhone 4 (probably called an iPhone 4S) that Apple will target to customers on
prepaid cell phone plans. A third-quarter release Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said that Apple will start"aggressively" making the next iPhone in August and launch the handset late in the third quarter of this year. Huberty made the remarks after a trip to Taiwan where she presumably met with Apple suppliers. June 24 A brighter flash DigiTimes says the iPhone 5 will have a dual-LED flash. June 22 Again, in September Bloomberg reports that the new iPhone will have a faster A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and support for iOS 5. The new handset will sport a design similar to the iPhone 4's and will be released in September to coincide with iOS 5's debut. On a related note, Bloomberg's source also repeats a rumor that Apple is developing a cheaper iPhone for developing countries. June 21 An iPhone 5 in full September The Boy Genius Report predicts that Apple will announce the fully revamped iPhone 5 in early August with a release date later in the month. If true, that timing would bend from tradition, given that Apple usually holds an iPodthemed event in September. A 'tear drop' design Photos of a brand-new tapered or "tear drop" design also resurface that day. May 23 A curved display
DigiTimes suggests that the iPhone 5 will have a curved glass screen like the Samsung Nexus S' "Contour" design. DigiTimes also says that Apple has bought 200 or 300 glass-cutting machines to be used by glassmakers. May 19 A global iPhone for Verizon While speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo says that Big Red will carry the next iPhone and that it will "operate in as many countries as AT&T's global iPhone." Shammo's comments also suggest that the device won't have LTE. May 18 An iPhone 4S DigiTimes chimes in on the iPhone 4S side with a report that Apple will release an upgraded, but not redesigned, handset in September. May 13 Small changes, but on all carriers Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek says the next iPhone will show only incremental changes and will lack support for 4G LTE networks. Besides a few cosmetic tweaks, he predicts better cameras, an A5 dual-core processor, and support for HSPA+ networks. Though he says the new device could land at all four major U.S. carriers beginning in September, Misek likens the upgrade to what we saw from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS. April 19 A5 processor and a bigger camera
Concord Securities analyst MingChi Kuo predicts that the device will get an A5 processor and a much-improved 8-megapixel rear camera and that it will be released in October or November. A September release Reuters follows a different track with a report that Apple will begin production of the phone in July for a September release. April 13 Suppliers still in the dark DigiTimes writes that part suppliers in Taiwan still don't know Apple's needs for the handset. What's more, the outlet also says that production of iPhone 4 displays is still going strong. April 11 Trouble with suppliers AppleInsider quotes an Avian Securities note to investors, which suggests that production will start in September. According to the note, the latest information is "consistent with other findings the organization has heard in recent months." What's more, another rumor mentions that Apple is taking its time finding enough parts suppliers. April 7 A bigger display, part four A new Apple patent application depicts a screen that's built into the area surrounding the traditional touch screen. This could free up space on the main display, and open up new directions for developers. March 28 An October release A Japanese blog reports that
because Apple is behind schedule on securing parts, the iPhone 5 launch could be pushed to October. The blog also says the company is deciding whether to change the back of the iPhone from glass to metal. March 22 NFC, larger display, and a new antenna China Times claims the iPhone 5 will have a slightly larger screen, a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip, an A5 processor, and a tweaked antenna design to address attenuation. The release date is only set as "later this year." NFC confirmed The same day, The New York Times confirms that future iPhones will have an NFC chip. March 14 No NFC The Independent says that NFC won't make it into the new phone. Instead, the newspaper says, Apple plans to introduce its own mobile payment system next year. March 11 A bigger display, part three Reseller iDealsChina posts a "mold engineering" drawing that vendors use to develop iPhone accessories. The drawing shows a handset with an iPhone 4-like design but with a larger display. March 9 A5 processor, part two In a deep dive of the new iOS 4.3 code, Apple developers found signs that Apple may add an A5 dual-core processor in the next iPhone version. That would put IPHONE page 27
20
Technology/
Apple vs. Samsung: What's Behind Their High-Stakes Patent Clash

Dan Rowinski (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:06:00 PM
Apple and Samsung, the two titans of the mobile industry, are girding for yet another showdown over patents in a California court this week. Apple contends that Samsung copied the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad. Samsung says that Apples patents are overly vague and that Apple is also guilty of infringing on Samsungs own mobile patents. Billions of dollars in damages are at stake - not to mention the future of competition and innovation in mobile technology. The Battle Revolves Around Functionality and Design On Monday, Apple launched its U.S. court battle to stop Samsung from allegedly copying the design and utility of both iPhone and iPad hardware and software in its Samsung Galaxy devices. Apple claims that 25 different Samsung mobile products copied various Apple patents. That includes how the devices look (design patents) and how the user interacts with them (utility patents). If Apple had its way, it would throw its full arsenal of patents at Samsung. Same goes for Samsung, which has been in the mobile business longer than Apple and has thousands of patents of its own. But the judge
in the case, Lucy Koh, requested that both companies limit the number of actual patents in court because if both companies started arguing over every tiny detail of what they think the other copied or infringed, the case would become so overwhelming to
The iOS design patent addresses the grid layout of icons in iOS along with the bottom dock where staple applications like the phone, browser and messages live. From a design perspective, that is very simple to understand. The iPad patent, like the two from the iPhone, has to do with the shape and size of the device. A thin bezel and minimal aesthetics of the front and back are the primary aspects. Basically, Apple claims that Samsung devices look very similar to the iPhone and iPad and it believes it has the registered design patents to prove it. Samsung contends that these patents are extraordinarily vague. This brings up a new and interesting aspect of the case: the concept of "trade dress." Not something we've seen in Apple's other patent battles, trade dress is a form of intellectual property intended to protect consumers from packaging or appearance of products that are designed to imitate other products; to prevent from buying one product in the jurors that a verdict would be related to the iPhone. belief that it is another. impossible. Design Patents and The two iPhone design patents Basically, Apple wants to prove Trade Dress include placement of the iPhones that Samsung copied Apples Apple has boiled down its design round home button, rounded designs to trick consumers into p a t e n t s t o f o u r p a r t i c u l a r corners, edge-to-edge glass and thinking they were buying an instances. One is related to the uncluttered front of the iPhone. iPhone or iPad. Utility Patents iPad, one related to the look of S e e t h e p i c t u r e s f r o m t h e APPLE page 27 Apples iOS software and two r e g i s t e r e d p a t e n t s b e l o w .
Technology/
21
Dalton Caldwell On App.nets Plan To Build A Dependable, Ad-Free Version Of Twitter [TCTV]
Colleen Taylor (TechCrunch)
common misconceptions about what theyre up to. You can watch Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:58:01 PM our whole conversation in the Dalton Caldwell made some video embedded above, and serious waves earlier this month below Ive excerpted some of his w h e n h e a n n o u n c e d a n points. Electricity, Water, And audacious proposal to refocus his The Social Web company App.net to build a real- Caldwell says that if social web time feed API and service that services like Twitter want to be would essentially be a new, more treated like platforms for an open version of Twitter. ecosystem (which they clearly Perhaps the most unique thing are, as evidenced by the freakouts about App.nets new direction is that occur when Twittter goes that it aims to be something that down), we should get used to users will pay for, rather than paying for them like we pay for being another ad-supported social other infrastructure services: platform. Dalton has set up a If you think about things we take Kickstarter-like fundraising effort for granted that are infrastructure to attract $500,000 in necessary electricity, water, cell phone b a c k i n g f r o m s o m e 1 0 , 0 0 0 plans, phone plans, you name it potential users of App.nets these are things you pay for, service. App.net has a self- and you expect that when you turn imposed deadline of August 13th on the faucet the water comes out, to meet its funding requirement. and that it is what you expect. With two weeks to go, theyre a My thesis is that if you are a little over a fifth of the way there social platform, platform being in terms of money raised so the the imperative word, you are pressure is certainly on. telling developers to build their Its always fun to hear about big businesses on top of you. You are ideas like this, so it was great to telling websites to link into you. h a v e C a l d w e l l s t o p b y Youre telling them, hey, Im TechCrunch TV last week to tell going to enable social interaction us in person about App.nets new and communication, and Im mission and clear up some going to be a rock-solid thing that
you can depend on. My thesis is that if you purport to be a platform, your business model needs to reflect your platformness. Because if you instead have an ad business model, and youre not making enough money, you can end up slaughtering your ecosystem. Millions Of Dollars And Users Not Required If App.net is thinking so big, why is it only asking for $500,000, a relatively small amount of money by modern web standards? Caldwell explained it like this: We chose the number $500,000 because of a Paul Graham post. Paul Graham wrote in this post called Really Ambitious Startup Ideas that if you built a search engine, a Google competitor, that was used by the top 10,000 geeks even though its really nerdy and will only appeal to those 10,000 geeks, you can build something that will ultimately displace Google. Because when you think about Google displacing Yahoo, [at the time] Google was only used by 10,000 geeks. It was made for power users and trickled down. If I can build something that appeals to a relatively small
number of people, but make them passionate about it and make them believe in it, then that will validate that this market actually exists. Will It Actually Make It? In short, Caldwell says, maybe yes, maybe no: If you look at the people who [have invested in] Join.App.net John Gruber, Marco Arment people that I look up to have pretty impressively supported this and agreed with it. And thats been inspiring. So I think its gone quite well. But I have no idea if were actually going to get to 100 percent [of the funding needed to take App.net forward]. I think that a lot more needs to happen. ..Theres a great deal of skepticism, and again, I am completely sympathetic to that. Remember Diaspora? It captured peoples imaginations, and then they werent able to do the thing that they said they would. So I actually really relate to and understand peoples skepticism. Network Effects Work In Mysterious Ways The most common misconception Caldwell says hes heard is people saying App.net is ignoring the
phenomenon of network effects, where services go up in value as their user base grows. Caldwell says he definitely gets that concept but that hes seeing the potential for it to work in unique ways: People seem to think that I dont [understand] network effects at all, and that Im just totally crazy Look, the way I think about this is that if you have a sustainable business on a small user base, that will give you the time and momentum to get you where you need to go. Look at the iPhone: Very small market share out of the gate, but had runway to build the momentum of the platform, despite the fact that it was very expensive and very esoteric when it came out. And the other thing is, I would argue there is such a thing as negative network effects, where as communities get larger the quality of the community gets diluted. And if you look at what a lot of the people that built large social networks previously are doing now, its smaller, more curated communities.
22
Technology/ Sports/
W3i: App Marketing Costs On The Rise, Jump 56% On iOS, 70% On Android Since January
Rip Empson (TechCrunch)
iOS. By June, the cost-per-install on Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:06:03 PM Android had risen from $0.30 to Its no secret that the mobile app $ 0 . 5 1 , w h i l e i O S C P I h a s landscape has become extremely increased from $0.59 to $0.92. competitive. Over the last few W3i attributed this increase, in years, this has led to an incredible part, to mobile gaming giants like a m o u n t o f i n n o v a t i o n a n d DeNA have entered the U.S. progress, but the cost of visibility market, a prime example of the of acquiring new users is fact that, for the first time, billionalso on the rise. In fact, Fiksu d o l l a r c o m p a n i e s a r e n o w found that the cost of acquiring competing with small to midu s e r s h i t a r e c o r d h i g h i n sized developers. As free-to-play December. While December is a g i a n t s l e v e r a g e t h e i r h u g e critical month for app discovery, marketing budgets to help attract it remained to be seen whether or new users, the overall cost of user not this trend would continue. acquisition has increased Today, W3i, the monetization making it increasingly difficult for and distribution network for app developers who are trying to developers, released new user make a living in apps. acquisition figures for the first The entire user acquisition half of 2012, and the results tell market is undergoing a sea change the same story and are worrying t h a t w i l l r e q u i r e m o b i l e f o r d e v e l o p e r s . A s s e s s i n g developers to re-think how they hundreds of millions of mobile obtain and monetize their users, users from January to June 2012, said Robert Weber, co-founder of W3i found that the average cost- W3i. This could be the innovate per-install (of CPI) of mobile apps or die moment for a lot of increased by 70 percent on developers as the competition for Android and by 56 percent on mobile users continues to heat
up. Many were surprised when popular Mac and iOS email client Sparrow recently exited to Google. Considering that the Sparrow team was widely respected, the app had risen to popularity, and the team had raised a seed round from some notable investors, it seemed a somewhat disappointing result. The team behind iOS development startup, AppCubby, r ecently penned a post talking about what it called The Sparrow problem and the challenges facing indie mobile developers. Heres an excerpt: Things have definitely changed and Sparrow is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. The age of selling software to users at a fixed, one-time price is coming to an end. Its just not sustainable at the absurdly low prices users have come to expect. Sure, independent developers may scrap it out one app at a time, and some may even do quite well and be the exception to the rule, but I dont think
Sparrow would have sold-out if the team and their investors believed they could build a substantially profitable company on their own. The gold rush is well and truly over. AppCubbys conclusion, mixed with this news from W3i, points to the hard truth that, going forward, developers will likely have to consider new alternatives to marketing. W3i recommends that developers focus on designing apps for strong monetization to optimize their ability to compete, along with making paid buys during focused time windos to magnify chart rankings. And, since cost rises with volume in this market, theres still hope for beating the average rates by producing titles in less-saturated areas. Meanwhile, W3i said that, for the most part, social app discovery is still an unproven method for developers, with Facebooks App Center still new to the market and Apples App Store becoming increasingly competitive. But
social mechanics will become increasingly important going forward. Iris Shoor also recently penned a post for TechCrunch talking about the approach she and her team took to marketing their app, and how they used non-traditional marketing tactics to get to 10 million downloads, including getting customer stories and testimonials and creating direct channels to their users. W31 also noted that, like we saw from Fiksus analysis in December, the value of new users jumps even more during long weekends. Unsurprisingly, the company found that holiday weekends are high in advertiser demand, with rates increasing by 65 percent over the 2012 Memorial Day Weekend, for example, with some CPI rates even more than quadrupling the industry standard.
Kim Un Guk sets world record in 62kg

Weightlifters compete in Group world record lfiting a total of A of the 62kg weight division. 327kg (721 lbs.) Kim Un Guk of North Korea set a
Technology/
23
Digg Re-Emerges as a Single Source of "What the Internet is Talking About"

Jon Mitchell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:02:00 PM
Digg made its mark by turning Internet news aggregation into a social experience. Now people share links and talk about them everywhere. So Digg is gathering all that scattered activity back into one listing of the best of the Internet. With Digg set to relaunch for the Web and iPhone on Wednesday, general manager Jake Levine found a 25th hour in his workday to tell ReadWriteWeb what to expect. On July 12, news broke that New York start-up stable Betaworks bought the site for a song. Digg was delivered into the capable hands of the 10-person News.me team, whose app provides a feed of personalized news from readers Facebook and Twitter feeds. Levine and his team have rebuilt the site from the ground up, targeting as broad an audience as possible. Broadening the Conversation Were making sure that Digg is conducive to a social experience on and off the Internet, Levine says. Success for us means that you go home or go out with your friends, and what youre talking about is stuff that you found on Digg. Levine's statement is an acknowledgement that
conversations around great articles have moved outside Diggs walls. The new Digg will determine which stories matter based on buzz from Twitter and Facebook in addition to Digg votes. If that buzz arose from a link you shared on Facebook, the Digg page will credit you with the discovery. Digg v1 wont have its own
commenting system when it launches on Wednesday, which may come as a surprise to past Digg users. Levine doesnt just want to slap on a Reddit or Hacker News-style upvote/ downvote system. We werent 100% sure that that was right, and we didnt have time to be wrong. He wants to learn through experimentation to answer the
Digg to its essence as a front page for the most buzzworthy links from around the Web. Levine says he wants the v1 front page to evoke this reaction: This is hilarious and great stuff, and it strikes a chord with me. The team conducted a survey about the current state of Digg and found that over 80% of respondents consume news from four types of sources: successors of the old Digg like Reddit and Hacker News, blogs, major newspapers websites, and Twitter. Facebook was also over 60%, beating out TV. Levine saw an opportunity to simplify in these responses. For the first iteration, Digg will be a desktop and mobile destination for news that, while not replacing all other kinds of sources, is a reliable destination for broadly interesting stuff. As Levine simply puts it, Digg is about delivering what the Internet is talking about. question: What is this type of The Product They Would Have Built Anyway network good at? The conversations will still take Before Digg dropped in their place on Facebook, Twitter, laps, most of the new Digg team Reddit and elsewhere. When and was building News.me. The key i f D i g g l a u n c h e s i t s o w n difference between News.me and commenting system, it will be the new Digg is that News.me tailor-made for the interests and personalizes the news to the skills of Digg users. Keeping It person reading it, while Digg will Simple DIGG page 25 The new Digg will slim down
24
Technology/
Modern Warfare 3 September DLC images leaked

Eric Abent (SlashGear)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:21:52 PM
Weve got a slew of Modern Warfare 3 rumors to tell you about today, so sit down and strap in. We may have received our first glimpse at Activisions September DLC offerings for the immensely popular military shooter, which will apparently add three new maps to the game: Boardwalk, Gulch, and Parish. The images were initially leaked by Youtube user Gamecheat13 along with a gameplay video that gives us a preview of the Parish map. The video has since been removed, but not before MP1st could snatch up the images and post them for all the Internet to see. Of the three maps, Parish is the one we know the most about. The map appears to be centered around a run-down cathedral, complete with a bar and a pool area for players to shoot up. Looking at the screenshots, we see that Sunday services are held by one Father T McCool, and we also get few looks at an outside area filled with old military vehicles and missiles.
Boardwalk and Gulch remain a little more mysterious at the moment, but theres plenty we can guess at thanks to the screenshots. Obviously, Boardwalk will be similar to the boardwalks were all familiar with, and we can see a bar and a gift shop pictured in the leaked images. Gulchs screenshots dont give too much away (other than the fact that it looks to be set in the desert), but one screenshot comes with a
descriptive caption that reads Abandoned Utah mining settlement. Features an open layout and strong flanks. The name leads us to believe that this may be an homage to the legendary Halo: Combat Evolved map Blood Gulch, but other than our own wishful thinking, there isnt much to back that belief up. The original videos uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo by Gamecheat13 focused solely on
the Parish map, but before being wiped from the Internet, a few seconds of the video were included in GameSpots latest installment of Start-Select, which you can see above. In addition to all of this, MP1st speculates that Modern Warfare 3 players will be getting a new game mode when the August content update drops, and points to a tweet made over the weekend by the Call of Duty Elite account as evidence for this
claim. This is all some pretty intriguing stuff, but you should probably take all of this with a grain of salt until we get something in the way of official confirmation from Activision or Infinity Ward. Have a look at all of the leaked images in our gallery below, and keep it tuned to SlashGear for more information! Story Timeline Modern Warfare 3 Is What's Wrong With the Game Business Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sets new sales record on launch day Modern Warfare 3 sells record $775 million in 5 days Do you suck at Modern Warfare 3? Hire a virtual bodyguard Modern Warfare 3 beats Avatar for $1 Billion Record Sony PS3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 bundle announced Modern Warfare 3 September DLC images leaked is written by Eric Abent& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Technology/
25
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: July 30, 2012

Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:55:28 PM
Well folks, another Monday is in the bag. We must say that for an otherwise ordinary Monday at the end of July, this one was pretty eventful as far as news stories go. Most importantly, today marked the beginning of the patent trail between Samsung and Apple. This morning we took a closer look at the trial and the arguments being made by both sides, while later on in the day we received word that a key witness in the case wont be showing up to testify. Apples courtroom woes dont end at its trial with Samsung, however, as the company is also being sued over its Siri technology by a university in Taiwan. Moving right along with the Apple news, it looks as if the company might be planning to reveal the iPhone 5 during an event taking place on September 12, and there were also a few whispers about the rumored reveal of the iPad mini. Mac OS X Mountain Lion seems to be lining
Apples pocket with even more cash, as it was announced today that the launch of Mountain Lion has become the most successful OS launch in company history. In other news, 16GB Nexus 7s are now available at the Google Play Store again! They have an estimated shipping time of 3-5 business days now, but you might want to grab one sooner rather than later if youre planning on
buying considering the speed at which the last batch sold out, we wouldnt be surprised if Google ran out again soon. Microsoft announced that Surface will be launching alongside Windows 8 on October 26, and over the weekend an actual Xbox 720 developer kit was spotted in the wild, complete with a $10,000 price tag. Is the next generation Xbox closer to release than
Glass Explorer hangouts on Google Plus didnt quite achieve the desired effect, and today we got our first true introduction to the new Wikipad gaming tablet. Will it replace your gaming desktop? No, it certainly wont, but that weird-looking controller makes us want one anyway. Finally, the Curiosity rover will be landing on Mars soon, and NASA is planning on livestreaming the entire event. If youve ever wanted to watch history in the making, youll soon get your chance. That does it for the news, but weve also got a couple original posts for you to check out too, with a new column from Philip Microsoft is letting on? Berne and a review of the TDo you believe the National Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note by Security Agency is spying on Chris Burns. Enjoy the rest of American citizens? Thats what your Monday evening, folks! one former NSA agent claims. SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: Ubisoft made a pretty big fumble July 30, 2012 is written by Eric when it was discovered that its Abent& originally posted on UPlay client had some major SlashGear. security vulnerabilities, but 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All thankfully the publisher was able right reserved. to deliver a patch for the service quickly. The first round of Google
DIGG
initially be built to show the news that matters to everyone. There are 100,000-ish poweruser types on News.me who constantly scour their Twitter and Facebook streams for interesting news. The team was already
working on how to use the signals from these readers to pull together a more general-interest experience. What they needed was general-interest users. Then Digg came along, and it was like, Hey, heres a few million of
those people, Levine says. So the Digg team will work backward from a broadly appealing site for the millions of Digg users. It will learn to implement its knowledge of personalization of and
conversation about news as it goes. The teams Fk It, Ship It ethos is all about delivering something as soon as its good, then experimenting, studying and iterating to make it great. We
built this in six weeks, Levine says, and we want to rebuild it again in another six weeks.
26
Technology/
Capcom posts strong financial report for Q1 2012

Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:07:37 PM
Capcom is looking pretty good at the end of its first quarter for the year, thanks in no small part to the success of Dragons Dogma. Weve known for a while that Dragons Dogma has passed 1 million units shipped, but today Capcom reiterated that figure along with the intention of turning Dragons Dogma into a series in its quarterly report. Total Dragons Dogma shipments currently sit at 1.05 million, with the game doing particularly well in Japan. Overall, Capcoms net sales increased 55.8% year-over-year, settling at 18.62 billion ($238 million). Operating income came in at 2.66 billion ($34.03 million) for the period ending June 30, climbing 244.4% yearover-year. Finally, net profits landed at 1.32 billion ($16.9 million), which is a whopping 290.2% increase over Q1 2011. So Capcom is looking pretty good all around heading into its
Q2, but strangely enough, some of thanks for the successful quarter belongs to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Despite leaving some critics underwhelmed, the game has managed to ship 450,000 copies so far, so it seems that fans dont care all that much about poor review scores in this instance. Dragons Dogma and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City are
the only titles listed as major releases for the 3-month period, so Capcom apparently made a significant portion of its revenue from just those two last quarter. Capcom also says its social efforts, such as The Smurfs Village and Snoopys Street Fair, brought in a steady stream of revenue throughout Q1. Were indifferent when it comes to Resident Evil: Operation
Raccoon City, but its good to see that Dragons Dogma is exceeding expectations (at least in Japan). It was a solid open-world RPG title that wasnt without its flaws, but luckily it sold well enough to warrant a sequel, so Capcom will have a chance to fix those issues with upcoming titles in the series. Itll be exciting to see where the franchise goes next, and it just goes to show that not
all gamers are opposed to giving a new IP a go this late in the generation. Lets hope that Capcom gives the franchise the attention it deserves and transforms it from something good into something excellent. Story Timeline Capcom officially announces Resident Evil 6, reveals trailer and artwork Capcom putting Resident Evil 6 demo on Xbox 360 first Capcom Street Fighter X Tekken Vita trailer teases motion control Capcom's Resident Evil: Chronicles HD coming to PS3 Capcom Vancouver hit with layoffs Capcom posts strong financial report for Q1 2012 is written by Eric Abent& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Donate to World Vision

Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4
times by grant funds, and can mean the difference between life and death for hungry children.
Technology/
27
APPLE
IPHONE
The three utility patents should all be familiar to many mobile users. If you have used an iPhone, you know that you can pull to refresh a Web page or an app. Apple actually holds a patent on that, which the industry dubbed rubberbanding and it claims that Samsung has infringed on it. Another of the utility patents determines when someone is using one finger to scroll through and app or a website or using two fingers to zoom in on a picture or text. The final utility patent is the tap to zoom function, where a user taps the text of an article to make it larger compared to other areas of content on the page. Samsung must defend itself from Apple's design patents but it does not have any design patents of its own in the case. Samsungs case revolves around five utility patents. Two of them are associated with how 3G (or third-generation) cellular technology is implemented in the devices. The other three are about how a user transmits email, toggles between photo and image
modes, and selects MP3 (music) modes on the device. This is where the trial may become confusing. The concepts are very simple but the patented technology behind them is not. Both companies are limited to 25 hours of arguments and it will likely be difficult to explain how these patents work to a jury and still be able to argue other aspects of the case. Precedents and Indicators As mentioned above, Samsung is one of the first companies to come under a full attack from Apple over how its products are designed, not just how they work. Apple seems to believe that Samsung was obsessed with the iPhone and iPad and went out of its way to copy them. In some ways this may be true. Samsungs 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab was announced early in 2011, before the iPad 2. When Apple unveiled the second generation of its tablet, Samsung delayed the release of the Tab 10.1 and re-announced it later in the year to be slimmer and sleeker. In that case, it clearly
seems like Samsung reacted to what Apple had released. Apple brought a similar case against Samsung over design earlier this year in the United Kingdom. In that case, the judge issued a famous line saying that Samsung did not copy Apple because the Galaxy Tab devices were not as cool as the iPad. Apple was ordered to issue notifications on its website and in major U.K. news media saying that Samsung did not copy it. That ruling has since been stayed, but the precedent exists where Apple has lost its arguments over design. Another possible indicator of how the case might play out is that Judge Koh has ruled in favor of Apple over Samsung in the past. In late June, Koh issued a temporary ban of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the U.S. over utility patents.
the handset on par with the iPad 2's processing power. March 7 Looking like the iPad Design is the focus of this rumor, which suggests that Apple will ditch the glass backing on the iPhone 4 for a metal backing, revamp the antenna, and add tapered ends. The end result will be something like the iPad. February 28 A bigger display, part two iDealsChina posts a photo of an iPhone 5 front bezel that shows a larger display. February 15 A5 processor The A5 chip rumor is raised again when DigiTimes reports that Apple is outsourcing the production of the processor, which will be based on the ARM Cortex A9 design. February 14 A bigger display Speculation builds that the new handset will offer a 4-inch, "edgeto-edge" display. The reports suggest that the move would be a direct response to the display
design of many Android devices. Slide-out keyboard We also hear that the iPhone 5 could offer a slide-out keyboard or that it could just offer longer battery life and a better camera. January 14 No home button An anonymous Apple source told the Boy Genius Report that both the iPad 2 and the next-generation iPhone would lose their home buttons in favor of gesture-based commands that would be part of iOS 4.3. Editors' note: This roundup was originally published June 24, 2011, and is updated regularly. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Neuroscientist keeps astronauts awake with ISS lighting tweaks

Liat Clark
Submitted at 7/30/2012 12:00:00 PM
A neuroscientist is working with Nasa to develop special lamps that could help restore the
circadian rhythm of exhausted astronauts working aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Thomas Jefferson University neuroscientist George C Brainard, who has headed up the university's Light Research
Program since 1984, received approval for the lights in early 2012 and 100 of the LED models are due to be sent to Nasa by mid2015. The lights have three different colour tone settings to
help ease the astronauts into morning, nighttime and normal working mode. By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Duncan Geere Continue reading...
28
Technology/
Samsung 11.8 inch tablet revealed in court documents

Dara Kerr (CNET News)
connectivity, 2560 x 1600 resolution, and a pixel density of 256 ppi, according to The Verge. Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in This is much bigger than the iPad front of Apple's iPad.(Credit: tablet, which currently features a James Martin/CNET) 9.5 inch screen, 2048 x 1536 Dozens of Apple and Samsung resolution, and a pixel density of products are being leaked to the 264 ppi. According to The Verge, public in the blockbuster patent Samsung is one of the largest trial that got started in San Jose, s u p p l i e r s o f L C D s a n d Calif., today. The latest of these AMOLEDs, so it makes sense that l e a k s c o m e s f r o m c o u r t it would look to get into the world documents that show Samsung of Retina display for its Galaxy might be working on an 11.8 inch line. t a b l e t w i t h R e t i n a d i s p l a y , Sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab according to The Verge. 10.1 are currently banned in the Codenamed "P10," this tablet U.S. due to the patent case with would reportedly have LTE Apple. U.S. District Judge Lucy
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:12:36 PM
Koh ordered an injunction on the tablet in June at Apple's request. Apple said that the key design patents that cover its iPad also seem to apply to Samsung's
Galaxy Tab 10.1. In its counterargument, Samsung has repeatedly referred to that design as "generic." In addition to the possible "P10,"
other leaked products via court documents include two Windows Phone 8-based Samsung devices, codenamed Odyssey and Marco, and dozens of early prototypes and sketches of Apple's iPad and iPhone. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Amazon Lockers Available For Delivery In Silicon Valley, Too

Anthony Ha (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:11:28 PM
about some of the headaches that can come up, like worrying one of your neighbors will swipe the It looks like Amazon.com is package as its sitting on your expanding its Lockers program, doorstep, or making sure youre at which allows customers to have home to sign for it. With Amazon their deliveries sent to, yes, Lockers, the package sits securely nearby lockers. at a nearby pick-up station, until The idea was first reported last you come by at your convenience f a l l . I t m a y s e e m l i k e a n (well, as long as its within three inconvenient alternative to home days of delivery) and open the delivery at first until you think locker up with a special code.
Anecdotal reports suggested that at least one of the early lockers in Seattle didnt result in a stampede of new customers. However, Amazon continued to expand the program the site now lists Seattle, New York, Washington, DC, and London as participating geographies. And our own Ryan Lawler just saw that there are Amazon Lockers available for delivery in Silicon Valley
three, to be precise, at 7-Elevens in San Carlos, Palo Alto, and Mountain View. I havent had a chance to drive down to the Valley to see the lockers for myself (bad journalist!), but I was able to order a book for delivery to the San Carlos location, so they appear to be up-and-running. The interface for delivering to a locker is a bit wonky right now, because
you cant set an Amazon Locker as your default address, so you have to go in and manually select it each time. That, along with the limited locations, suggests this is still very much an experiment. But its an experiment thats growing. Ive also emailed Amazon for comment and will update if I hear back.
Technology/ Sports/
29
Daily iPhone App: mysms lets you manage your messages using multiple devices
Kelly Hodgkins (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Top Yahoo Exec Ross Levinsohn Steps Down

Jon Mitchell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:42:00 PM
Ross Levinsohn is leaving Yahoo after former Google executive Marissa Mayer was chosen over Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:30:00 PM him to be the new CEO. While the move was expected, this could be If you want to send text messages called the first big blow Mayer to friends regardless of their has faced since her appointment. device or operating system, you Levinsohn was named interim might want to take a closer look at CEO this year after Scott mysms. Mysms is an online Thompson was outed for faking a service lets you send, receive and computer science degree on his store text messages across resume. He had several big multiples devices and platforms. victories as interim CEO, It recently added the iPhone to its including settling an aggressive growing list of supported patent infringement lawsuit operating systems, which also against Facebook that Thompson includes OS X, Windows, and send it to an Android user and and sign up for a free account on you'll encounter each day. Android. There's also a web app then check the response from his the company's website. You can Daily iPhone App: mysms lets had initiated. For the last two also download the iPhone app you manage your messages using years, Levinsohn ran some of that'll work with the iPad and a or her iPhone. M y s m s i s v e r y s i m i l a r t o f r o m t h e i O S A p p S t o r e . m u l t i p l e d e v i c e s o r i g i n a l l y Yahoos most important business Facebook extension. The best feature is its cross- Whatsapp, another popular cross- Unfortunately, there is no iPad a p p e a r e d o n T U A W - T h e units, including media and platform syncing, which lets you platform messaging service. app, but users can login and send Unofficial Apple Weblog on advertising sales. manage all your text messages Unlike Whatsapp, mysms is messages via the web app. The Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:30:00 EST. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD from any device. An iPhone opening up its API and will let mysms service is free, so it's Please see our terms for use of reports that Levinsohn doenst have firm plans for his next job. owner that uses a Windows developers incorporate the service worth checking out if you're feeds. looking for a messaging app that Source| Permalink| Email this| But he kept business rolling in for Machine can type out a message into their own apps. Yahoo during its rough years, and using their desktop keyboard, You can read more about mysms supports almost all the devices Comments thats sure to have earned him a few admirers in the industry.
U.S. women outclass Angola

women's basketball team, evoking memories of the men's Dream Team of 1992, put on a hoops Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:24:32 PM masterclass in routing African LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. champions Angola 90-38 at the
Olympics on Monday. It took a little while for the Americans to get in synch, but once they did the reigning four-times Olympic champions put on a fastbreak
show to extend their Games winning streak to 35 in a row. The last time the U.S. ...
30
Technology/
Top 10 subtle Mountain Lion features (and a few more)

Mike Schramm (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 10:00:00 PM
Lifehacker has put together a list of what they call the " top 10 secret features of Mountain Lion." That's not quite right -- these features aren't secret, because it would be pretty silly to release an OS update and not tell anyone about it. But they are subtle, and this is a nice list of features you may not have noticed yet. For example, the fact that you can tweet right from the top of Notification Center, or that you can share photos straight from QuickLook using the Share button. You can also rename files in TextEdit (or share them to iCloud) just by clicking on the document's name at the top of the window, and you can even insert pages into PDF files in Preview through the Edit menu. Helpful
New iPhone, possible iPad mini, could launch sooner than expected
Jacqui Cheng
Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:51:30 PM
tips, for sure. We'll even add a few more features in that you may not have noticed yet: Over in Launchpad (which you can access from your dock or pressing F4 on a new Mountain Lion install, or set up a hot corner for), just typing will start you on a search for any app you've installed through the Mac App Store. And you may not have noticed, but Apple's added some
brand new Screen Saver and slideshow options for when your Mac goes to sleep. Just like Apple's other OS releases lately, there's a lot of new stuff to go find and play with in Mountain Lion. Continue reading Top 10 subtle Mountain Lion features (and a few more) Top 10 subtle Mountain Lion features (and a few more) originally appeared on TUAW -
The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Christian World Adoption

Christian World Adoption is one of the largest international adoption agencies in the United States. Since 1991, Christian World Adoption has placed
thousands of children from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. These children now enjoy the love and security of a forever family. Christian World Adoption currently offers adoption programs in Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Ukraine. Explore our website
to learn more about international adoption. Then, when youre ready, call our friendly adoption counselor, toll free, at 1.888.97ADOPT.
This year's iPhone refresh may come slightly earlier than last year's, but still within the general autumn timeframe. Not one, but two publications cited sources claiming the device could launch as early as mid-September, with a special Apple event happening earlier in the month. But it wouldn't just be the iPhone that would see a refresh at that time -- the rumored "iPad mini" is also supposedly nearing launch, not to mention the first major iPod touch bump in two years. By: Jacqui Cheng, Edited by: Duncan Geere Continue reading...
Technology/ Culture/ Sports/
31
Apple delivers Black Hat talk to mediocre reception

Mike Schramm (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Designer Olympic High Heels - The 'Opening Ceremony Platform Sandal' is Ready for the Olympians (TrendHunter.com)
(TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:05:02 PM
Eclectic Antique Shop Photography - Camisando 2012 F/W Look Book Boasts Daring Prints & Vintage Sets (TrendHunter.com)
Shades of Barcelona as U.S. women rout Angola

Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:32:49 PM
good public dialogue with the company on security. Apple has been quiet to say the least in the Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:00:00 PM past, preferring instead to just CNET's posted a strange writeup close its doors and windows for Apple's first talk at the Black where security is concerned, and Hat security conference, and release hotfixes and updates on its though the piece is short on own schedule. Just an appearance details, the theme is clear: There at the Black Hat conference, then, wasn't a lot of groundbreaking is a gesture by Apple that it news shown off to attendees. recognizes the values of hackers Manager of Platform Security and their culture. As CNET's Dallas De Atley basically gave a writer says, maybe next year quick rundown of the security Apple will have a more satisfying m e a s u r e s b u i l t i n t o t h e presentation. architecture of iOS, and didn't Apple delivers Black Hat talk to give much more. Any hackers mediocre reception originally looking for Apple to speak in a p p e a r e d o n T U A W - T h e person about vulnerabilities or Unofficial Apple Weblog on work being done for the future of Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EST. the Mac or iOS platforms were Please see our terms for use of a p p a r e n t l y t u r n e d a w a y feeds. disappointed. Source| Permalink| Email this| But I would argue that Apple just Comments showing up at the Black Hat conference is the beginning of a
( TrendHunter.com) The Opening Ceremony Platform Sandal' is Olympic fashionworthy. Featuring a coral and navy color scheme, the gorgeously patriotic apparel is a great way to celebrate the ongoing Summer...
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. women's basketball team, evoking (TREND HUNTER - The Latest memories of the men's Dream Trends) Team of 1992, put on a hoops masterclass in routing African Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:15:03 PM champions Angola 90-38 at the ( TrendHunter.com) Playful and Olympics on Monday. It took a eclectic, yet rich and classic, this little while for the Americans to s e r i e s o f p h o t o s f r o m t h e get in synch, but once they did the Camisando Fall/Winter 2012 look reigning four-times Olympic book captures the technical and champions put on a fastbreak playful personality of the brand. show to extend their Games winning streak to 35 matches. The The Camisando 2012 look... last time the U.S. ...
From Bikinis to Gatorade: A Pop Culture Playlist

(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:00:56 PM
Rubik's Cube to Zorro and the Karate Kid, with these videos from Stuff You Should Know and HowStuffWorks Videos "Pop The Stuff of Genius. There are 16 Culture Icons" Playlist | Pop videos tagged "Hsw Pop Culture Culture Icons Learn about the Icons" origins and evolution of some of Enterprise Feedback your favorite pop culture icons, M a n a g e m e n t from the teeny bikini and the CRM Integration
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
32
Policy/
Before Deadly Bulgaria Bombing, Tracks of a Resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat - By Sebastian Rotella
SEBASTIAN ROTELLA (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:01:14 PM
Bent on avenging attacks on its nuclear program, Iran and Hezbollah have allegedly spun at least 10 terror plots in the past year, most of them failures. With this month's deadly bombing in the beach resort of Burgas, Western counterterror officials say, the Shiite alliance has crossed a dangerous line. BY SEBASTIAN ROTELLA| JULY 30, 2012 After a decade in which al Qaeda dominated the world stage, the global terror threat from Iran has escalated sharply, generating a swarm of recent plots from Delhi to Mombasa to Washington and signaling an aggressive new strategy, counterterror officials say. But there were meager results until this month. On July 18, a suspected suicide bomber killed six people and wounded 30 aboard an Israeli tourist bus in a coastal town in Bulgaria. Israel quickly accused Hezbollah and Iran, longtime sponsor of the Lebanese Shiite militant group. Many questions remain about the authorities have said they do not b o m b i n g , a n d B u l g a r i a n have proof implicating Hezbollah
so far. Nonetheless, many Western counterterror officials
share Israel's suspicions. If the allegations are true, Iran
BEFORE page 33
33
BEFORE
and Hezbollah have crossed a dangerous line with their first strike in Europe in more than 15 years. The repercussions are stoking more turmoil in a Middle East torn by civil war in Syria and conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions. ProPublica has reviewed a string of plots attributed to the Shiite alliance, 10 cases in the past year alone, and found a complex and contradictory evolution of the threat. Iran and Hezbollah have waged a determined campaign to strike their enemies in retaliation for attacks on the Iranian nuclear program and the killing of a Hezbollah chief, counterterror officials say. The offensive led by the Quds Force, Iran's elite foreign operations unit, has displayed impressive reach and devastating potential. "The Hezbollah-Quds force threat is the big thing worldwide right now," a U.S. counterterror official said. "There has been a wave of activity." Yet the modus operandi so far has veered between agility and clumsiness, precision and improvisation. Most of the attempted strikes have failed, often hampered by hasty execution and unreliable operatives, according to counterterror officials and experts around the world. In some ways the apparent opportunism and erratic behavior make the menace worse, increasing the chances of conflict with the West, experts say. "These cases all seem
amateurish," an Indian counterterror official said. "The Iranians feel great frustration and desperation because of the attacks on the nuclear program, a real desire to strike. So they aren't prepared -- they act quickly. They don't care about reprisals. They are out of practice. They have done few operations like this since the '90s." ProPublica interviewed law enforcement, intelligence and diplomatic officials and experts from the United States, Europe, Israel and India for this article, granting them anonymity because of the ongoing investigation in Bulgaria and because many are not authorized to speak to the news media. They included officials from governments that do not always agree with Jerusalem and Washington about the nature of the Iran-Hezbollah threat. Starting in the 1980s, Hezbollah and Iran conducted an international campaign of bombings, hijackings, kidnappings and assassinations against Israeli, U.S., European, Saudi and Iranian dissident targets. In Argentina, car bombs blew up the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the AMIA Jewish community center in 1994, killing a total of 115 people. Argentine prosecutors charged that the Quds Force and Hezbollah used a web of diplomats, front companies and logistics specialists in the Lebanese diaspora. Iran had "plots on the shelf
methodically prepared and updated all over the world," said Charles (Sam) Faddis, a retired CIA counterterror chief. "They would do recon to test the defenses, update contingencies and plans." In 2001, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called Hezbollah, which relies on Iran for funding, arms and support, "the A-team of terrorists." But the alliance scaled back international terror activity outside of combat zones such as Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. Al Qaeda and its Sunni Muslim allies were the most urgent terror threat to the West during the past decade, but have declined dramatically in strength. Al Qaeda has not carried out a fatal bombing in the West since 2005. In February, Iran allegedly tried to unleash a terror spectacular in the style of old, targeting three countries at once. A motorcycle bomber managed to wound an Israeli diplomat in India. But authorities foiled attacks in Georgia and Thailand -- where a bomber blew off his own legs -even though a Quds Force commander had traveled undercover to Bangkok to lay the groundwork, according to Western counterterror officials. Last year, Quds Force officers allegedly directed an IranianAmerican used-car salesman to hire drug traffickers to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. But the suspect unknowingly recruited a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
informant and was arrested; defense lawyers assert that their client has a mental disorder. "It's as if there's a systematic policy of Iran recruiting low-rent, downright kooky terrorists," said British security expert Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation. Another factor has played a role: In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, global defenses against terrorism have been beefed up. Still, Iranian spymasters have deployed seemingly inexperienced or ineffective agents, especially those with Western passports. The profile helps preserve deniability, according to Ali Alfoneh, an expert on the Iranian military at the American Enterprise Institute. "They don't want to sacrifice better-equipped, better-trained people who, if arrested, can compromise the Quds Force, give up a lot of inside information," said the Iranian-born Alfoneh. In Burgas, Details Trickle Out The successful strike in Burgas, a low-cost beach resort popular with young Israelis and Scandinavians, took place on the 18 th anniversary of the AMIA bombing in Argentina. According to news reports, Bulgaria's prime minister has described a sophisticated conspiracy by "exceptionally experienced" terrorists. The scope was limited, however. And there were sloppy details. The suspected bomber carried a fake driver's license from Michigan, which has a large
population with Middle Eastern roots, according to U.S. and European officials. The forger put a Louisiana address on the license, an error that could have endangered the operation. A suspected accomplice carried another fake Michigan driver's license, this one with a Michigan address, U.S. law enforcement officials say. A travel agency refused to rent a car to the nervous suspected accomplice before the attack because the license raised suspicions, officials said. The decision to hit Israeli tourists aboard a bus further reflects limitations, experts say. "The attempts at attacking embassies and embassy personnel have been failures, so they are shifting to soft targets," Alfoneh said. Bulgarian authorities say the bomber and the accomplice, who apparently remains at large, arrived by plane about a month earlier. The bomber is believed to have flown in via Germany and the accomplice via Belgium, according to U.S. and European officials. Police following circumstantial leads have questioned a third person, a man of Turkish descent, but have not linked him to the attack so far, a U.S. law enforcement official said. The target, symbolic date and context of previous activity implicate Iran and Hezbollah, counterterror officials say. BEFORE page 34
34
BEFORE
"I am convinced the origin of this attack is Shiite," an Italian counterterror official said. "In the last two years, there was growing concern that they were going to come here to Europe to do something. They know if they do it in Israel, it's more difficult and retaliation is more likely." Israel has not offered concrete proof to back up its repeated accusations. Hezbollah and Iran deny responsibility. Iran accused Israel of orchestrating the attack on its own citizens. The process of identifying the attackers has been slow and the fingerprints sent to European and U.S. agencies and Interpol have not produced a match, according to counterterror officials. As a result, doubts endure. The apparent use of a suicide bomber perplexes some analysts. Iran and Hezbollah carried out major suicide attacks in the 1980s and early 1990s. The tactic then spread to Sunni groups. Al Qaeda began carrying out "martyrdom operations" in the mid-1990s and made them a signature. At the same time, Iran and Hezbollah have greatly curtailed the use of suicide bombers, counterterror officials said. The backpack bomb itself is a point of contention. The U.S. law enforcement official said aspects of the device in Burgas resembled bombs in the suspected Iranian triple plot in February. But the TNT-based explosive differs from the Iranian-made plastic explosive in the February case, according to another U.S. law enforcement
official, who remains skeptical. "I'm not convinced it's Iran and Hezbollah," he said. "I'm waiting to see the evidence." Complicating the issue, there has been no credible claim of responsibility. Al Qaeda usually follows attacks with videos featuring declarations by the suicide bombers, the network's leaders or both. Iran and Hezbollah keep silent. "It creates more fear," the Italian counterterror official said. "Ambiguity suits them very well. The attack itself sends the message." Whoever they were, the masterminds probably chose Bulgaria because it has weaker law enforcement and more porous borders than most of the European Union. Bulgaria has the EU's highest proportion of Muslims, about 12 percent of the population, though so far no public information has suggested a link to the local Islamic community. Hezbollah operatives have previously been detected in Bulgaria, U.S. law enforcement officials say. Western intelligence officials warned of Bulgaria's potential as a theater for terror five years ago. Intelligence revealed that Hezbollah chiefs and Iranian intelligence officials had put Bulgaria on a list of nations propitious for developing plots against Western targets. Iranian spy agencies prefer developing countries, where it's easier to cover their tracks, experts say. Conflict with Israel intensified in
February 2008 after a car bomb in the heart of Damascus killed Imad Mughniyah, a notorious Hezbollah military leader and ally of Iranian intelligence. Iranian and Hezbollah leaders publicly accused Israel and vowed revenge. Within weeks, a plot was under way against the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan. Police broke up the cell in May 2008. The suspects included Azeri accomplices, a senior Hezbollah field operative and a Hezbollah explosives expert. Police also arrested two Iranian spies, but they were released within weeks because of pressure from Tehran, Western anti-terror officials say. The other suspects were convicted. Police in Turkey soon broke up a similar plot against Israeli targets, arresting Hezbollah operatives with Canadian and Kuwaiti passports said to be involved in smuggling a car bomb across the border from Syria in 2009. The close partnership between Iran and Hezbollah is not without friction. There is debate in the Western intelligence community about the extent to which Hezbollah would do Iran's bidding in event of a confrontation between Tehran and the West. But many cases show that Iran and Hezbollah work together on terror activity, Western counterterror officials say. House Painter Turned Hit Man Iranian dissidents also found themselves in the crosshairs, according to government documents and investigators.
In July 2009, police in Glendora, Calif., arrested an IranianAmerican house painter when his accomplice got cold feet and reported that he was planning a murder. The suspect, Mohammad Reza Sadeghnia of Ann Arbor, Mich., had done surveillance on a prominent Iranian dissident who hosted a Farsi radio show, according to a report by the Glendora police. Sadeghnia hired an accomplice, an Iranian immigrant with a criminal record, paying him $27,000 via his mother in Iran, the report says. The two conspirators holed up in a seedy motel for five days, police say. After half-hearted efforts to buy a gun, Sadeghnia decided to make the killing look like a traffic accident, according to the police report. He and his accomplice purchased a 1986 van for $1,800. They tinkered with the engine in a plan to run over the dissident and blame a mechanical problem, the report says. "He didn't strike me as the Jason Bourne of Iran," Capt. Tim Staab of the Glendora Police said in an interview. Suspecting that his accomplice had lost his nerve, Sadeghnia threatened to have the man's relatives killed in Iran, according to the police report. "I have done other missions around the world," Sadeghnia warned. Alerted by the repentant accomplice, police rushed to a hotel near the Los Angeles airport and arrested Sadeghnia, who was
headed to a strip club before catching a night flight to Detroit, according to Staab. Sadeghnia was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and pleaded guilty to a lesser crime. He served about a year in prison and got five years more probation, authorities said. When a judge allowed Sadeghnia to visit his ailing father in Iran in 2010, he never came back. Despite Sadeghnia's amateurish exploits, there are signs he was a bona fide agent. He had plenty of cash -- crisp new bills in a seal from an Iranian bank, according to police. Sadeghnia admitted to the FBI that he was gathering intelligence on his target, the police report says. Before the Los Angeles episode, Sadeghnia had allegedly conducted surveillance in London on another Iranian dissident, a radio commentator for Voice of America there, according to a U.S. State Department cable disclosed by WikiLeaks. Sadeghnia befriended the dissident, met with him in London and Washington, and took photos of him, his home and his car, according to the cable, dated Jan. 21, 2010. The dissident grew suspicious and cut off contact with Sadeghnia, the cable says. After the arrest in Los Angeles, British authorities warned the radio personality that Sadeghnia had been "working for the Iranian intelligence services," according to the cable. It says that the BEFORE page 35
35
BEFORE
London surveillance photos were provided to Majid Alavi, a deputy Iranian intelligence minister at the time. Although the case reveals skullduggery in the heart of the West, the bumbling clashes with the formidable image of the Iranian security forces. "Why have they been so unsuccessful?" said Alfoneh, the Iran military expert. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is a Third World country, contrary to what people believe. ... Experience has shown when they operate very far away, their success rate is not good." $100,000 And Hit Men In the past two years, Iran redoubled efforts to strike its enemies in response to attacks against its nuclear program, including a major cyber-assault and assassinations of nuclear scientists with sophisticated "sticky" bombs attached to cars. Iran blames Israel and the United States for those attacks. The regime, under pressure to show strength at home and abroad, incorporated Hezbollah into its retaliatory offensive, experts say. "The two organizations cooperate," Alfoneh said. "The motivation of Hezbollah is to deliver services in exchange for the arms and money they receive. The motive of Iran is to repair its damaged prestige, the image that it is not even capable of defending its scientists. This is why they did those ill-prepared attacks. They needed to produce something." Last year's Washington plot had
an opportunistic quality. U.S. prosecutors charged Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Texas, and Gholam Shakuri, a colonel in the Quds Force who is thought to be in Iran, with planning to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia, a nemesis of Tehran. There was also talk about Israeli targets, according to U.S. officials. The evidence included a $100,000 wire transfer sent to Arbabsiar and telephone intercepts of senior Iranian officers discussing his plan to hire Mexican hit men for an ambush in a restaurant, according to a criminal complaint and U.S. officials. Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department accused three Quds Force chiefs as masterminds: Gen. Qasem Sulemaini, the Quds Force commander; Hamed Abdollahi; and Abdul Shalali, a cousin of the Iranian-American suspect. Arbabsiar had little apparent training and few qualifications other than his family connection, according to U.S. officials. His business career and personal life were checkered, according to court documents and state records. In the spring of 2011, he enlisted a Mexican drug cartel associate because he knew the man's aunt, according to officials and a federal complaint. The cartel associate, a DEA informant, promptly alerted his handlers and set in motion an undercover sting led by the FBI. Arbabsiar pleaded innocent and
awaits trial in the fall. In expert reports filed recently in federal court in the Southern District of New York, his lawyers paint him as hapless. Two defense psychiatrists said he was bipolar. "Arbabsiar consistently lost keys and titles to cars when he ran a used car lot," Dr. Michael B. First of Columbia University wrote in one report. Arbabsiar spent much of 2010 depressed and smoking cigarettes in his room, the report says. In manic episodes, the report says, he "becomes excessively energized, speaks rapidly, becomes hypersexual, is inappropriately trusting of other people to the point where he gets taken advantage of, and needs less sleep." On one plane flight, Arbabsiar "decided to treat the stewardess, the pilot and passengers seated around him to expensive bottles of perfume from the duty-free cart because he wanted to make everyone feel good," according to the report. To be sure, that portrait comes from defense lawyers. But the case has caused consternation in the U.S. intelligence community and some public skepticism. U.S. counterterror officials are convinced the evidence is solid, but they expressed surprise that Iran used a seemingly low-caliber agent for a high-risk scenario verging on an act of war. The misadventure may reflect factionalism and freelancing in Iran's mafia-like security forces, according to experts and officials. Some theorize the Quds Force
launched the mission mainly to send a warning message, or as part of Iranian political intrigue. In the aftermath, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, warned about a shift in Iranian strategy. "Some Iranian officials -- probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei -have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime," Clapper said during Senate testimony in January. String of Recent Plots The Arbabsiar arrest last October did not slow the drumbeat of terror activity. Weeks later, an alleged plot was detected in Azerbaijan, this time aimed at Americans as well as Israelis, counterterror officials say. The Washington Post detailed that case in a recent article. Israeli leaders have said publicly that they warned Bulgaria in January about another suspected threat there against Israeli tourists on winter vacation. In Thailand on Jan.16, police discovered a warehouse containing 8,800 pounds of explosives material. They jailed a suspect accused of stockpiling the stash and distilling the materials into crystal form, a step toward bomb-making. A former hairdresser born in Lebanon, Hussein Atris holds a Swedish passport and is a suspected Hezbollah operative, according to counterterror officials.
More than a dozen embassies in Bangkok issued warnings about impending attacks after the arrest. Despite that alert, a Quds Force commander named Majid Alavi secretly entered Thailand on a high-stakes mission, according to Western counterterror officials. Alavi is believed to be the same senior figure named in the WikiLeaks cable that described spying on dissidents in London and Los Angeles. He has served as Iran's acting intelligence minister, officials say. He shifted to the Quds Force early this year and along with Abdollahi, a commander accused in the Washington plot, now runs a team known as the Special External Operations Unit, or Unit 400, according to Western officials. The unit "conducts sensitive covert operations abroad [that] include terrorist attacks, assassinations, kidnappings and sabotage," a U.S. official said. The unit has supported Iraqi militants, "provided weapons, equipment, training and money to Afghan insurgents ... and also arranges the delivery of lethal aid into Syria and Lebanon and military training for Hezbollah and Palestinian militants." The Quds Force reports directly to Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, officials said, bypassing the Iranian military's complex decision-making structure. Alavi traveled to Bangkok on Jan. 19 using a diplomatic BEFORE page 40
36
Policy/
It Ain't Just a River in Egypt - By Shadi Hamid

SHADI HAMID (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:52:36 PM
Egyptian liberals lost badly in the post-revolution scramble for power -- and now they're in deep denial as many embrace outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. BY SHADI HAMID| JULY 30, 2012 When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pulls up to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo this week, he will see a protest outside its walls. Just steps away from Tahrir Square, supporters of Omar Abdel Rahman have been staging a sit-in for nearly a year to protest the imprisonment of the man known as the "Blind Sheikh," who is serving a life sentence in a North Carolina prison for planning terrorist attacks on American soil. Upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit just weeks before, these protesters were joined on the embassy's doorstep by a group often seen as more sympathetic to U.S. values and policies: Egypt's liberals. This time, they had lost some of that sympathy. The protests, by themselves, weren't entirely unexpected -after all, no one in Egypt these days seems to have much praise for President Barack Obama's administration. And liberals, due to their perceived closeness to the West, have often had to overcompensate to shore up their nationalist bona fides. After all, it wasn't the Muslim Brotherhood
but, rather, liberal standard-bearer AIN'T page 37
37
AIN'T
Amr Hamzawy who refused to meet in February with Sen. John McCain due to his "biased positions in favor of Israel and his support for invading Iraq and attacking Iran." What is different about this most recent surge in anti-Americanism is its conspiratorial bent. Some of Egypt's most prominent liberal and leftist politicians are telling anyone who will listen that the United States is in bed with the Islamists. Such allegations would be concerning on their own, but they're even more troubling for what they represent -- Egyptian liberals' growing ambivalence and even opposition to democratic rule. The rise of what we might call "undemocratic liberals" is threatening Egypt's fledgling democracy. The suspicion that the United States is secretly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood sounds farfetched, in part because it is. I remember first hearing a variation on the theory from a top Egyptian official in January: He spoke at some length of a U.S. master plan to install a grand Islamist alliance in government, including not just the Brotherhood but also more radical Salafists. Initially, I thought he might be making a meta-commentary on the absurdity of conspiracy theories. He wasn't. Over the course of Egypt's troubled transition, liberal resentment has only grown. This month, former presidential candidate Abul-Ezz el-Hariri claimed that the Obama
administration was backing the Brotherhood so it could then use the establishment of Egyptian theocracy as a pretext for an Iraqstyle invasion. Most of the allegations, however, have not aspired to the same level of creativity. Emad Gad of the Social Democratic Party, a leading liberal party, asserted that the United States was "working with purpose and diligence in order to enable the forces of political Islam to control the institutions of the Egyptian state." It was Gad who would capture in a few choice words the newfound merger of anti-Americanism and anti-democratic sentiment. "It's an Egyptian issue. It's not for the secretary of state," he told the New York Times. "We are living in an unstable period. If the SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] goes back to its barracks, the Brotherhood will control everything." Liberals' fears have increasingly dovetailed with those of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, which makes up perhaps 10 percent of the population and is understandably suspicious of the Muslim Brotherhood, after decades of ambiguous statements on minority rights. On the first day of Clinton's visit, four of the country's leading Coptic figures released a statement saying, "Clinton's desire to meet Coptic politicians after having met with the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi leaders is a kind of a sectarian provocation which the Egyptian people and Copts in
particular reject." It has reached the point, they wrote, where the United States had backed one candidate -- referring to the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsy-- in the presidential election. The belief that the United States was behind Morsy's victory has spread among anti-Brotherhood groups. Before the final election results were announced on June 24, a coalition of leading liberal parties held a news conference condemning the Obama administration for backing Morsy's candidacy. "We refuse that the reason someone wins is because he is backed by the Americans," said the Democratic Front Party's Osama el-Ghazali Harb, who was an influential figure in former President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party before resigning in 2006. In all these examples, no evidence was provided to substantiate the allegations, in part because no such evidence exists. When asked to explain how they came to believe in a U.S.Brotherhood "deal," Egyptians point to innocuous pro-democracy statements from U.S. officials, such as Clinton urging that the Egyptian military "turn power over to the legitimate winner" of presidential elections. One organizer of the anti-Clinton protests, the Free Front for Peaceful Change, accused the United States of attempting to "impose its hegemony" on Egypt because of a July 4 statement by
U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson in which she said, "The return of a democratically elected parliament, following a process decided by Egyptians, will also be an important move forward." A cui bono conspiratorial mindset has taken hold. The United States says it supports a "full transition" to democracy. The Brotherhood, being the largest, best-organized party in Egypt, naturally stands to benefit most from such a transition. This, in turn, must mean that the United States supports the Brotherhood. In other words, more democracy means more Islamism, so anyone who advocates the former is suspected of supporting the latter. The very notion of democracy is becoming politicized. The Brotherhood, the closest thing Egypt has to a majority party, is, unsurprisingly, a rather staunch advocate of majority rule. On this point, Morsy and other leading Brothers have straddled the fine line between democracy and demagoguery. For many Egyptians, Morsy's dramatic, chant-like chorus of "there is no power above the people" during a June 29 speech in Tahrir Square was a stirring ode to popular sovereignty. For others, it was a sign that the Brotherhood -having won 47 percent and 52 percent in parliamentary and presidential elections, respectively -- felt it had the right to implement its vision, regardless of what anyone else had to say about it. Turkey's experience is instructive
here, though less as a model than a cautionary tale. Upon assuming power in 2002, the Islamically oriented Justice and Development Party (AKP) understood that the best way to promote religion in public life was to promote democracy, which would allow it to wrest power away from Turkey's entrenched secular establishment. Despite the antiWestern orientation of its Islamist predecessors, the AKP latched on to the European Union accession process, which required Turkey to reduce the powers of the military and lift restrictions on freedom of expression, including on religious issues. It was odd that those three things went together -- better relations with the West, democracy, and Islamization -but in Turkey's case they did. But just like in Egypt, the backlash from Turkey's liberals was harsh. The opposition Republican People's Party and other secularists adopted an increasingly anti-American and anti-European posture, resisting many of the reforms the AKP was hoping to implement. The staunchly secular military, which had traditionally seen itself as a Europeanizing force in Turkish politics, also underwent a striking evolution. As Turkish scholar M. Hakan Yavuz noted in a 2002 article, "One of the newest characteristics of the Turkish military in the late 1990s is its willingness to employ antiWestern rhetoric and accuse AIN'T page 41
38
Policy/
Syria's DIY Revolt - By Eliot Higgins

ELIOT HIGGINS (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:33:09 PM
Syrian rebels are massively outgunned by Bashar al-Assad's regime. But as Assad's army bears down on Aleppo, it may find the armed opposition is more than ready. BY ELIOT HIGGINS| JULY 30, 2012 "We are using bullets that cost $3," lamented a Syrian rebel commander, "and they are coming with bombs that cost thousands." That may be so, but Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters have used those $3 bullets to bring President Bashar al-Assad's regime to the brink of collapse. Over the past week, they have seized control of several districts in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and economic hub. Now, as Assad musters his forces to retake the city, both sides are bracing for what could be a pivotal battle in the 16-month revolt. How did Syria's rebels get so far with so little? As their strength has grown, they have used heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft cannons, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and they have even captured tanks to inflict damage on the Syrian military. As a largely improvised guerrilla force, they have also cobbled together some strange doit-yourself (DIY) weapons systems, designed to hurl whatever explosives are on hand
back at their enemies. These weapons reflect the FSA's need for rapid movement, and they have at times proved effective in urban combat environments. Whether they will be enough for the rebels to repel the Syrian military in the battle of Aleppo, however, remains to be
seen. Here is just some of the military hardware that Syria's opposition fighters are using against Assad. TRUCK-MOUNTED WEAPONS When the FSA does use vehicles, it prefers to use trucks mounted with Soviet-era DShK heavy
machine guns or ZU-23-2 antiaircraft cannons. Both are used widely by the Syrian military for anti-aircraft and fire support roles. The 23 mm ZU-23-2 can fire both high-explosive rounds and armorpiercing rounds, which are capable of penetrating the armor of the Syrian military's BMP
infantry fighting vehicles. Although the smaller 12.7 mm round of the DShK -- nicknamed the Dushka, or "sweetie" in Russian -- is little threat to armored vehicles, it does pose a threat to the helicopters used by SYRIA'S page 39
39
SYRIA'S
the Syrian air force. Here we see a video that purports to show a DShK firing at a helicopter in the northern town of Azaz. How effective DShK fire is against aircraft at that range is questionable, especially without the detachable anti-aircraft sight that many of the DShKs in Syria appear to be missing. Nonetheless, the FSA boasts of having brought down helicopters using DShK fire, as these men from Azaz claim. This video claims to show a helicopter downed by rebels in Syria. In his June report from the northern town of Kafer Zaita, journalist Austin Tice described how speedy truck-mounted weapons could gain an advantage over slower-moving tanks. In this video, reportedly filmed in Azaz, a truck mounted ZU-23-2 fires at a target and then speeds off to avoid retaliation. These weapons are also useful for harassing the Syrian regime's air power, which the regime has seemingly relied on more frequently in recent days. In one battle, Tice described how a rebel commander attempted to draw helicopters away from a rebel force by engaging it with a DShK. "One helicopter gave chase, pursuing the black truck into the open countryside and expending significant machine-gun fire and at least three rockets," he wrote. "The truck traveled about six miles to the nearby town of Khan Sheikhoun, arriving unscathed before hiding in a garage." TANKS
The FSA has captured tanks and BMP infantry fighting vehicles from defeated or defected Syrian military forces. This video, for example, claims to show the rebels in command of seven vehicles captured during fighting in the western city of Talbiseh. While earlier reports have claimed that armored vehicles such as these were used in operations by the FSA -- seemingly more acts of opportunity than part of planned assaults -- their use in combat has been sparing. Video evidence has emerged in the last few weeks that the FSA is using Russian T-series main battle tanks. The Syrian army is estimated to have around 5,000 T55, T-62, and T-72 tanks, which generally employ a variety of high -explosive, fragmentation, and armor-piercing rounds. Tanks can support infantry by destroying fortified positions, but in the rare cases in which the FSA has used them, it seems they were used for surprise attacks on military checkpoints and bases. In this video reportedly from the city of Rastan, an urban center close to Talbiseh and the city of Homs, one of the brigades belonging to the al-Farouq Battalion shows off three captured T-62 tanks. But the brigade is merely using the tanks here for an impromptu military parade: Why are we not seeing these weapons used more frequently in combat? The answer is simple: Rebel armor is a high-priority target for Assad's air and ground forces. Without the ability to defend from
air attacks, tanks become sitting ducks for Assad's helicopters, and they are unable to escape Assad's ground forces as easily as infantry or truck-mounted weapons. This video shows a very rare example of a T-62 tank, which rebels say they captured during an attack on a house occupied by pro-Assad militiamen, being used to attack Assad's forces. ROADSIDE BOMBS Recent months have also seen the Syrian rebels add another tool to their arsenal: IEDs. The above video claims to show rebels using a roadside bomb to attack a tank on July 21 in the southern town of Tafas. Like the guerrillas who fought against the U.S. military in Iraq before them, Syria's rebels have discovered the lethal potential of these weapons. IEDs have allowed the FSA to limit the Syrian army's ground operations, which has been reflected in the increased reports of helicopters being used by the Syrian armed forces. "The bomb [IEDs] is not only essential; it is a main part of our success," one rebel commander told New York Times correspondent C.J. Chivers recently. Soldiers being transported in trucks are extremely vulnerable to IED attacks, which may explain why there's frequently footage of tanks operating without infantry in narrow streets. The above video claims to show an attack on two trucks full of pro-Assad militiamen known as shabiha in the western city of Qusayr, near
the border with Lebanon. Lack of infantry support, however, merely causes another problem for the Syrian military -it leaves the tanks vulnerable to RPG attacks. This footage from Aleppo purports to show FSA fighters exploiting that lack of infantry support to disable a T-72 tank with an RPG. The FSA has had access to RPGs since the beginning of the armed uprising, making it the rebels' dominant anti-tank weapon. The occasional M72 LAW and AT-3 missile -- anti-tank weapons developed in the 1960s by the United States and Russia, respectively -- also make an appearance. DO-IT-YOURSELF WEAPON SYSTEMS When all else fails, Syrian rebels are manufacturing their own weapons to combat Assad's military. These DIY weapons have been less of a feature in Syria than in the Libyan civil war, where rocket pods welded to the back of trucks appeared to be everywhere you looked. But they're still present, ranging from the incredibly basic -- such as a giant slingshot used to launch explosives-filled bottles -- to the more complex. In the above video (at the 2:40 mark), Syrian rebels appear to commandeer a fuel truck to fashion a homemade flamethrower, which they use to set alight a building. Some of these weapons systems even have their own workshops dedicated to producing ammunition for them. This video
shows what appears to be one of the more elaborate examples -- a homemade multibarrel rocketlauncher system. Here rebels make rockets from the remains of RPGs and fill them with homemade explosives. The upcoming battle between the Syrian army and the FSA in Aleppo will be a test for both sides. The FSA has had plenty of time to prepare IEDs and ambushes for Assad's forces, and the lack of infantry support for Syrian armor could result in a massive number of tank losses. We may also start to see some of the armored vehicles captured by the FSA in earlier fighting come into play. For the FSA, it might not be a matter of winning in Aleppo, but of doing the most damage before retreating, as it has done in the past. But if the Syrian army continues to fight as it has been, it's likely to suffer heavy losses before retaking the city. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
40
BEFORE
passport with the alias Hossein Tehrani, according to Western counterterror officials. He is believed to have entered from Malaysia, a suspected hub of the triple plot, according to a European security source who was briefed by Thai officials. The commander spent several days in Thailand working on preparations for an attack and meeting with Thai Shiite accomplices, officials said. Alavi relayed orders to strike as close as possible to Feb. 12, the anniversary of the Mughniyah killing, officials said. "It is unusual for someone of his rank to take part at the operational level, but this is indicative of the pressure being applied from the most senior political-military levels of the regime to carry out attacks," a Western counterterror official said. Other Iranian cells allegedly set up in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and Delhi. A group of Iranians with tourist visas entered India, which has good relations with Tehran and a large Iranian student community. Their accused Indian accomplice is a freelance journalist: Mohammed Kazmi, a Shiite Muslim and frequent collaborator with Iran's national news agency. (Kazmi has pleaded not guilty and is being held for trial.) Closed-circuit television footage,
Kazmi's statements to investigators and other evidence show that he helped his visitors do reconnaissance on the Israeli embassy and helped provide them with a motorcycle, Indian authorities say. The suspects communicated with the Iranian embassy and handlers in Iran, Indian officials say. The cells went into action Feb. 13, investigators say. A motorcyclist maneuvered through traffic in the heart of Delhi's embassy district, slapped a magnetic bomb onto an Israeli diplomatic vehicle and sped away. The explosion wounded the wife of Israel's defense attach. The method used closely resembled the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. The Iranian suspects fled the country, with the bomber heading to Malaysia. Other plots fizzled. A bomb placed on an Israeli embassy car in Georgia was detected. And in Bangkok, a wild scene took place at a safe house when a bomb exploded prematurely, causing three suspects to flee, according to the account of U.S., Israeli and European officials. Sayed Moradi was wounded in the Bangkok blast, according to the officials. He staggered into the street, bleeding from the ears, and tried and failed to escape in a taxi. When police closed in, he hurled a grenade at them that bounced
back and blew off his legs. Police arrested him and two other Iranians. A fourth fled to Malaysia, where he was captured. The cells in the three countries were linked by telephone contact, according to officials. And the sticky bombs resembled each other, according to counterterror officials from several countries involved. The devices were encased in shoebox-sized radios with components including a grenade, Iranian-made plastic explosives and magnets on the bottom, officials said. In the aftermath, Thai press reports and photos revealed that the suspects in Bangkok took time from casing Israeli diplomatic targets to cavort with prostitutes. An ambitious plan to spread worldwide terror broke down because of questionable personnel and "improvised" plots, a French official said. "Iran wanted to strike fast and strong," the French official said. "But they weren't ready. It was intended to send a signal. They failed." Surveillance on Israeli Tourists New incidents raised concerns in the weeks before the Bulgaria blast. In June, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi issued a terror warning after Kenyan police arrested two alleged Quds Force officers and found 33 pounds of explosives in
a shipping container in the port city of Mombasa. Authorities allege that they had Israeli, U.S., and Saudi targets in mind. The Iranian suspects have denied guilt and face trial. An arrest took place in Cyprus on July 7. Police detained a suspected Hezbollah operative and charged him with conducting surveillance on Israeli tourists, who frequent the island in large numbers. As in Thailand in January, the suspect held a passport from Sweden, which has an active, internationally connected community of extremists. He remains in jail. His profile fits a pattern of using operatives with Western documents. Israeli leaders say the Cyprus case has close parallels to the bombing in Bulgaria 11 days later. If the investigation implicates Hezbollah and Iran, it could worsen the Middle East turmoil caused by the civil war in Syria. While vowing a stern response to the bombing, Israel has also warned that it might intervene militarily if Syria attempts to transfer chemical weapons to its allies. Iran and Hezbollah have a vital triangular alliance with Syria, which plays a central role helping Iran fund, train and arm the Shiite militant group. The Syrian crisis has pushed Tehran
and Hezbollah closer together, though Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah knows that supporting the regime in Damascus hurts his international image, experts say. "When the individual interests of Hezbollah and Iran coincide, they are more dangerous," said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, a former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence at the Treasury Department. As the tensions mount, the world's intelligence and law enforcement agencies are keeping a close watch on a network they say has a taste for risk and for striking in unexpected places. "If there are hostilities, they would hit in the Middle East, Latin America, Europe," said Faddis, the CIA counterterror veteran. "And the U.S., if they could." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Culture/
41
AIN'T
opponents of being the 'tools of Europe' because of growing pressure from the European Union on human rights and the need for civilian control." EU accession was no longer in the interests of the military, and perhaps it never really was. In Turkey, like in Egypt, more democracy meant, inevitably, more religion. Turkey's secular establishment turned out to be much more secular than it was democratic -- and Egypt is looking as if it may go down the same path. The question is often posed: Do Islamists really believe in democracy? The more relevant matter for Egypt, at least for now, is to understand how would-be democrats like Gad and Harb have strayed from the very ideals they claimed to be fighting for. Some blame, of course, must be laid at the feet of the Muslim Brotherhood. As Egypt's most powerful political force, the movement had a responsibility to
rise above partisanship and do more to reassure its skeptics. But the Brotherhood thought it was strong enough to dismiss liberals, and liberals were too weak to put up a fight through the electoral process. What sometimes seems like a massive ideological divide is really about power. So too is the increasingly bizarre speculation about America's hidden designs in Egypt. Roger Cohen, a New York Times columnist, writes that conspiracy theories are "the ultimate refuge of the powerless." So in failing to win -- and feeling like an embattled minority in the process -- liberals have looked to the United States and other unnamed "foreign hands" to explain the rise of their Islamist opponents. The irony is that the Obama administration, while willing to engage the Brotherhood, has itself been wary of the Islamists' rise to power. For much of the transition, the United States stood by the SCAF, the ruling military junta
and the Brotherhood's archrival. The Egyptian military was a known quantity, the linchpin of the 30-year U.S.-Egypt relationship and a force for regional stability. The generals, the thinking went, would ensure that vital American interests were protected. When SCAF waged an unprecedented crackdown on civil society and threatened several American NGO workers with jail time, the United States sought a face-saving compromise and kept the $1.3 billion in annual military aid flowing. Even in her recent visit, Clinton avoided any direct criticism of SCAF, despite the latter staging an effective coup -dissolving the democratically elected parliament and stripping the presidency of its powers -- just weeks prior. The hostility of Egypt's secular establishment presents the United States with something of a dilemma. If it ever does get serious about pressuring the military and promoting
democracy in Egypt, the more liberals -- perhaps its most natural allies -- will cry foul. This no-win situation will likely persuade U.S. policymakers that it's better to stay away and do less rather than more. In this sense, liberal conspiracy theories, as absurd and creative as they might be, may be hitting their mark -- pushing the United States and other outside actors out of Egypt. That is probably good for Egypt's liberals, but not necessarily for Egypt. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Remains of the Day: Nook Tablets Get a Maps App [For What It's Worth]
Craig Lloyd (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:00:00 PM
Skobbler brings maps to the Nook Color and Nook Tablet, Facebook introduces a new UI for Photo pages, Codeacademy launches a new Python course, and Bing launches Facebook integration. More
Brad Pitt Makes One Seriously Hot Cowboy on Set

Lauren Turner (PopSugar)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:40:58 PM
Brad Pitt got into character with a cowboy hat and facial hair for The Counselor in London today. He's starting work on the Ridley Scott-
directed film, which he'll apparently only shoot for a few days. The drama is based on a screenplay by author Cormac McCarthy and follows a lawyer as he gets into the drug business. Also reportedly lined up for the p r o j e c t a r e C a m e r o n D i a z ,
Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, and Javier Bardem. Brad's on set in the UK, where he and Angelina Jolie have been staying as a family since Angelina began filming Maleficent in June. She's been in full costume and has
had visits from her kids in between takes. Brad, meanwhile, traveled to Germany and also met up with pal George Clooney in the UK during his downtime. View Slideshow
42
Economy/
Mike Mish Shedlock Answers: Is Global Trade About To Collapse; And Where Are Oil Prices Headed?
Tyler Durden
monthly readers find his advice invaluable and we recommend Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:13:16 PM anyone interested in learning F r o m J a m e s S t a f f o r d o f more about the global economy OilPrice.com and financial markets to stop in Is Global Trade About To a n d t a k e a l o o k : h t t p : / / Collapse? Where are Oil Prices globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. Headed? A chat with Mike com Shedlock To find his blog, you can also do As markets continue to yo-yo and a Google search for Mish commentators deliver mixed In the interview, Mish discusses: forecasts, investors are faced with Why global trade will collapse if some tough decisions and have a Romney wins number of important questions Why investors should get out of that need answering. On a daily stocks and commodities b a s i s w e a r e a s k e d w h a t s Why we have been oversold on h a p p e n i n g w i t h o i l p r i c e s shale gas and renewable energy alongside questions on Chinas Why oil prices will likely fall in slowdown, which commodities or the short-term instruments will provide safety in Why the Eurozone is doomed the current environment, will the Why there may soon be an oil Euro-zone split in the future and war with China what impact the presidential How government interference is election is going to have on the ruining the renewable energy economy and markets? sector To help Oilprice.com look into Why we need to get rid of these issues and more we were fractional reserve lending fortunate enough to speak with Oilprice.com: With oil prices the award winning economic now in the high 80's and news out c o m m e n t a t o r M i k e M i s h of Europe getting worse every Shedlock. day, do you expect prices to stay Mikes blog: Mishs Global in this range, or do you see them Economic Trend Analysis is one dropping in the short term? o f t h e m o s t p o p u l a r a n d Mish: There are two conflicting informative economic blogs forces here. One of them is oil online. His millions of dedicated prices over the long-term and the
other is oil prices over the shortterm. Even in the short-term you will find there are conflicting forces at play. For example, stress in the Middle-East puts an upward pressure on oil prices. However, economic problems in Europe, a slow-down in Asia and a slowdown in the United States put downward pressure on oil prices. New orders are falling at a staggering rate across the board in Asia, China, Japan, Europe, and the United States which also puts further downward pressure on oil prices. Long-term, forces such as peak oil and population growth in China are putting pressures to the upside. One needs to balance all of those factors out when they are about ready to give a prediction on oil prices. My opinion is that over the short to mid-term, oil prices will go down. Long-term, energy is a good place to invest. Oilprice.com: If your prediction is correct and oil prices do go down what sort of impact do you see this having on the U.S. economy, if any? Mish: That's an interesting question. However, the question puts the cart before the horse.
Looking at prices in a vacuum is a mistake. One also has to look at why prices are doing what they're doing. For example, falling oil prices that happen when supply shocks are alleviated are a positive thing. Falling oil prices because of falling demand is another. You seldom see this kind of distinction in mainstream media. Right now, oil prices are primarily falling because of falling demand, and that is in spite of geopolitical tensions. That is not a healthy sign for the economy. Oilprice.com: As we have seen with the recent oil workers strike in Norway and subsequent rise in oil prices. Geopolitical risks always remain to keep the markets off balance. Apart from Iran are there any other geopolitical risks you think people should be aware of? Mish: A key geopolitical risk in the long-term is that China cannot continue at its expected rate of growth. For years, the mantra has been "China, China, China," and many thought China could maintain its 8% to 10% per year growth going forward. That's not going to happen. I agree with Michael Pettis at
China Financial Markets, that China is more likely to see 2% growth than 8% or even 6% growth over the next decade. 2% growth is a shocking reduction, even from the lowered expectations that we've seen regarding China. The implication is commodity prices, especially base metals, are going to be under extreme pressure because of China stockpiles. For further discussion please see"China Rebalancing Has Begun"; What are the Global Implications? Oilprice.com: What are your longer term projections for oil prices say 3-5 years out? Mish: I think it's a fools game to make such projections. Most of the projections on the price of gold, silver and oil are ridiculous. They are designed to sell newsletters. The bigger the hype, the greater the sales. On occasion, I will make a call. For example, when crude hit $140+ in the summer of 2008, and others called for $200, I said oil prices would drop to the $45.00 - $50.00 range or so. Oil went to $35. Moreover, those predicting $200.00 never bothered to think what that would do to the global MIKE page 43
43
MIKE
economy. We saw the same thing in natural gas. People were predicting $25. Look at prices now, at roughly $3.00 NG fell all the way to $2.20, lower than even this staunch deflationist thought. I'm not willing to go out on the same limb and predict energy prices three years in advance. The reason is we really don't know for sure how central bankers are going to respond. China is particularly important. If there's universal printing of money everywhere, I would expect a lot of that to flow back into prices of gold, perhaps of silver, and perhaps energy, but we really don't know what they're going to do. We don't know when or how the Euro Zone is going to break up. I think it will, but how is as important as when. In the US, we don't know the results of tax hikes following the 2012 election. Heck, we don't even know who the next president in the United States is going to be. Will it be Republican? Will it be Democrat? Numerous political and economic forces are pulling and tugging in different ways. I don't believe there's anyone out there that can predict, with any kind of accuracy, what oil prices are going to do. Which is why I believe trying to predict oil prices in the midst of all of these possibilities is a fool's game. Oilprice.com: What are your views on inflation and hyperinflation. Mish: Hyperinflation is a complete collapse in currency. It is a political event that kicks off
hyperinflation, not a monetary one. Hyperinflation talk hit an extreme when oil prices hit $140. Such talk was silly then, and it is still silly now. Hyperinflationists in general fail to understand the role of collapsing demand for credit. The total credit market is over $54 trillion. Base money supply is $2.6 trillion and excess reserves are about $1.5 trillion. Seems to me we had huge expansion in credit and Bernanke is struggling to reignite demand. I suggest he will not succeed. The idea the US$ will suddenly go to zero is ridiculous. The US is the worlds largest holder of gold reserves, and that alone would stop it. Also note that Bernanke, as misguided as his policies are, is still beholden to the banking system. As such he has no desire for it to collapse. As far as inflation goes, I am still widely misunderstood. I view inflation as an increase in money supply and credit, with credit marked to market. Deflation is the opposite. If one insists that inflation is about prices, then we are in a state of inflation with 10year treasury rates below 1.5%. For those who woodenly view inflation in terms of prices, well, prices may or may not rise. Price have generally risen, but credit is the key behind housing prices, family formation, hiring, and in fact everything driving the economy. So, where is credit going? Demographics and student debt suggests nowhere. Indeed, credit has gone nowhere in spite
of heroic efforts by Bernanke. Oilprice.com: You just mentioned that we dont know who the next president is going to be and sticking to this topic how big an impact do you see energy prices having on this year's presidential elections? Mish: I dont think energy prices are what's on people's minds. What's on people's minds right now are jobs. Oil prices have kind of stabilized and in the very shortterm they are likely to stay stable unless there are some dramatic results in the Mid-East or a dramatic slowdown in the US economy. Both are possible, but a major US slowdown is arguably more likely. Regardless, I think energy prices are going to be a minor election issue. Oilprice.com: The message on peak oil seems to be confused. Many are adamant that peak oil is the largest threat to ever face humanity, whilst others believe that with new technologies and new fields being found, peak oil is a myth and we are actually swimming in oil. What are your thoughts? Mish: The idea that we're swimming in oil is preposterous. Moreover, abiotic oil is a ridiculous pipe-dream. That said, the idea that the global economy is going to come grinding to a halt in the next year or two because of oil is also preposterous (discounting a geopolitical MidEast shutdown). In general, I would side with the peak oil folks, noting that a global recession will likely pressure prices more than
anyone thinks, barring a breakout of war or supply disruptions in the Mid-East. Long-term, 8% growth in China is mathematically not going to happen. People really need to get a grip on exponential math and the implications thereof. If China does attempt to grow at 8-10% as some people have predicted, there's going to be an oil war of some kind between the United States and China because there's simply not enough oil. For a good discussion on the limits of exponential growth, please see Calpers Pension Plan Reports 1% Return; Stunning "What If" Charts at Various Compound Annualized Rates-ofReturn Going Forward Oilprice.com: Shale gas has been generating a great deal of headlines recently. Do you believe it could be the solution to Americas energy challenges? We are also seeing developments in oil & gas extraction technologies. Have we been oversold on such possibilities? Mish: I think we're oversold on everything. We're oversold on the idea of cheap energy, of free energy, of green energy, of clean energy. We're oversold on the stock market. We're oversold on what Obama can deliver. We're oversold on what Mitt Romney can deliver. We're oversold in so many areas, I can't even mention them. In regards to new technologies, how much water will it take to extract these reserves in the midst of these droughts? What are we
going to do with the contamination, how do we get rid of the waste byproducts? These kinds of projects look good on paper, but are they truly scalable in practice? I hope I am wrong. Oilprice.com: What is the role of government in alternative energy sources? Mish: The role of government should be to get the hell out of the way and let the free market work. If peak oil really is a problem (and I think it is), the free market will come up with a solution if left alone. Instead, the government is trying to pick winners. Look at the results. President Obama backed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra and the DOE loan guarantee scheme blew sky high. Our ethanol program is a total disaster. By government mandate, corn has been diverted to ethanol production smack in the midst of a drought. Corn is not an efficient way to produce ethanol, even if there was not a drought. Governments seldom back winners. Instead, government bureaucrats back companies that contribute to their campaigns. This is worse than it looks because such activities deprives companies with real solutions a chance at funding. We need to get government out of the energy business completely and let the free market work. Oilprice.com: Sticking with the renewable energy theme, do you MIKE page 44
44
MIKE
see them making a meaningful contribution to global energy production over the next 10 years? Mish: Adding to my previous answer, government subsidies of unviable products and unviable ideas gets in the way of the free market actually producing viable products and viable ideas. Simply put, the more government interferes, the less likely we are going to see advances in the actual direction of a true solution. Oilprice.com: In regards to presidential elections, how do you think energy will fare under Obama and under Romney? Which sectors will benefit, and which will suffer? Mish: Mitt Romney has declared that if hes elected he is going to label China a currency manipulator and increase tariffs on China across the board. That's something that I believe he might be able to do by mandate. If he's elected and he does follow through, I think the result will be a global trade war the likes of which we have not seen since the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act compounded problems during the Great Depression. Simply put, I think that global trade will collapse if Romney wins and he follows through on his campaign promises. Unfortunately, campaign rhetoric now is heating up to the point where President Obama and Mitt Romney are trying to outdo each other on who's going to do more to China. Thus, we may very well see a global trade war regardless
of who wins. As an aside, Mitt Romney is pledging to increase military spending. Given Romneys statements on Iran, it's more likely he would start a war with Iran than Obama. Note that the U.S. military is one of the biggest users of petroleum worldwide and oil price shocks could be devastating. None of this is any good for the world economy at all. I believe that Romney will do what he says. I believe he's more likely to start wars than Obama, but that doesn't make Obama any good. This is the worst slate of candidates in U.S. history running for president, and I'm writing in Ron Paul. Oilprice.com: As the global economy slows, where do you see the best investment opportunities available to investors? Mish: At this point, the best thing to do is wait for better opportunities. I am talking my book, but something like 70-80% cash (or hedged equities) and 2030% gold seems reasonable. I'm telling people, "Get out of the stock market. Get out of commodities except gold and perhaps a bit of silver." A global slowdown is underway. Actually, I made a Case for US and Global Recession Right Here, Right Now. Although nothing is certain, central bankers worldwide are highly likely to pump up money supply hoping to counteract the slowdown. If so, I think gold is going to be one of big beneficiaries. Silver may be a huge beneficiary, and I like it
here. However, silver is also an industrial commodity, so gold is safer. Bear in mind, I may seem like a broken record on this thesis given cash and gold has been my call for the last year and a half or so. In spite of calling the global economy exceptionally well, I've simply been wrong about U.S. equities. They have risen far more than I thought, but I still caution that risk is high. I'm going to repeat my general message here, that another slowdown, and another big downturn in the stock market is highly likely. Equities are quite overvalued at this point, cash is not trash, and staying liquid now, with a percentage in gold, is a good idea. Oilprice.com: I was hoping you could tell us your thoughts on the Euro. You mentioned previously, that you think the E.U. will split in the future, why do you think this will occur, and what will the economic and political implications be? Mish: I think it's pretty clear that the euro's going to split because no currency union in history has ever survived without there being a corresponding fiscal union in place. Right now we're in a situation where Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel says that"There should be no fiscal union until there's a political union." Francois Hollande said, "There should be no political union until there's a banking union," and the German Supreme Court will not allow a political
union or a fiscal union, nor a banking union without a German referendum. I did a post on this, and it's called, " It's Just Impossible." If politicians could not get agreements when times were good, how are they going to get these agreements now, when they're bickering over every little thing, including the amount of the ESM, whether or not the bailout of Spain should be via the ESM or the EFSF, and whether or not the Spanish government should be backstopping this loan. They can't get an agreement on anything, and the German Constitutional Court is hanging like a Sword of Damocles over the entire thing. For these reasons, the Euro is going to bust up. What happens to the price of the Euro depends on how it busts up. If the breakup is piecemeal and disorderly, it means one thing. If it's orderly and prepared in advance with Germany leaving and the northern states leaving, it's a completely different scenario. Any point along that line is possible, but piecemeal seems more likely. How disorderly remains to be seen. For example, if Germany exits the Euro and goes on the deutschmark, the value of the deutschmark will soar, whilst the value of the Euro will decline. Instead, if we see a break-up by Spain leaving, by Greece leaving, by Italy leaving, and the bulk of what's left is Germany and the northern States, then the value of
the Euro can soar. Those are the two conflicting possibilities here. The market has not decided which one of those is more likely. Meanwhile, the Euro is in a low 1.20 range to the U.S. dollar. A breakout or a breakdown might be a signal that the market is expecting one of those possibilities over the other. We are in uncharted territory and everyone is guessing. Short-term I am neutral on the US dollar at this level because the euro is a bit oversold, the idea of a Greek exit is no longer unfathomable, and the Fed is likely to initiate QE3 at some point. This is a change from my previous US dollar bullish stance. Oilprice.com: We mentioned China earlier, and I was wondering what you think the future holds for China, both politically and economically. Mish: A regime change in China is coming up. The current regime has been focused on growth. However, I think the next Chinese government already understands that the growth at any cost of the current regime is not sustainable. If so, we're going to see a major shift away from an export-driven production model dependent on investment on roads, on bridges, and more production, to a consumption-driven model. That shift will be one of the major forces in the global economy. If I'm correct on this, then it's going to be a painful adjustment, regardless of what China does. MIKE page 50
Economy/
45
The Fed On Gold Price Manipulation

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:37:17 PM
Lately various media outlets have been swamped with stories and allegations of precious metal manipulation ranging from the arcane, to the bizarre to the outright ridiculous. At issue is not that these claims of price fraud are unfounded - they very well may be completely true - but without a notarized facsimile of an actual trade ticket signed by Brian Sack, or his replacement Simon Potter, or any of the BIS traders confirming they are indeed selling gold on behalf of the Fed, BOE, ECB, SNB or BOJ simply to keep the price of the metal down, what such constant factless accusations (and no, sorry, a chart showing that the price of gold may go up or go down sharply indicates merely that and nothing about the underlying factors for such a move) do is to habituate the broader public to the real issues surrounding precious metal, and other asset class, manipulation. So instead of searching for circumstantial evidence which one can easily find everywhere, we decided to go straight to the source. To do that we go back to a post we wrote back in September of 2009, based on an internal previously confidential Fed document, which conveniently enough explains everything vis-avis gold manipulation and leaves nothing to speculation or misinterpretation. Zero Hedge
presents the smoking gun that may provide responses to all the various open questions regarding the Fed's Modus Operandi in the gold arena which answer the core question - motive- courtesy of a declassified memorandum, written by none other than the then Fed Chairman, and addressed to the president of the United States. From Zero Hedge, September 27, 2009. Exclusive Smoking Gun: The Fed On Gold Manipulation Zero Hedge has recently presented several declassified documents from the pre-1971 " Nixon Shock" days, that endorse the case for gold as a major historical factor in US monetary and foreign policy, as demonstrated by State Department and CIA disclosure. Gold's special status in policy and administrative decision-making was a direct factor in Nixon's choice to abolish the gold reserve at a time of an exploding budget deficit. Yet what about the days after 1971, and specifically, how did that critical "behind the scenes" organization, the Federal Reserve, perceive and manipulate gold in the post Bretton-Woods world? Was gold, freed from its shackles to the dollar, once again merely a symbolic representation for money? Zero Hedge presents the smoking gun that may provide responses to all the various open questions,
courtesy of a declassified memorandum, written by none other than the then Fed Chairman, addressed to the president of the United States. On June 3, 1975, Fed Chairman Arthur Burns, sent a " Memorandum For The President" to Gerald Ford, which among others CC:ed Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and future Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, discussing gold, and specifically its fair value, a topic whose prominence, despite former president Nixon's actions, had only managed to grow in the four short years since the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971. In a nutshell Burns' entire argument revolves around the equivalency of gold and money, and furthermore points out that if the Fed does not control this core relationship, it would " easily frustrate our efforts to control world liquidity" but also " dangerously prejudge the shape of the future monetary system." Furthermore, the memo goes on to highlight the extensive level of gold price manipulation by central banks even after the gold standard has been formally abolished. The problem with accounting for gold at fair market value: the risk of massive liquidity creation, which in those long-gone days of 1975 "could result in the addition of up to $150 billion to the nominal value of countries' reserves." One only wonders what would happen today if gold was allowed to attain
its fair price status. And the threat, according to Burns: "liquidity creation of such extraordinary magnitude would seriously endanger, perhaps even frustrate, out efforts and those of other prudent nations to get inflation under reasonable control." Aside from the gratuitous observation that even 34 years ago it was painfully obvious how "massive" liquidity could and would result in runaway inflation and the Fed actually cared about this potential danger, what highlights the hypocrisy of the Fed is that when it comes to drowning the world in excess pieces of paper, only the United States should have the right to do so. Another notable observation is that despite a muted antagonism between the Fed and the US Treasury persisting for decades, the fuse is and always has been short, and the conflict can promptly hit a crescendo, with the Fed ultimately always getting the upper hand. In the case of the Burns memo, the Fed's position was diametrically opposed to what the Treasury proposed was the proper approach. The result: full on assault by the Federal Reserve over the Treasury's credibility and even then, more than three decades ago, a veiled threat by the Fed involving escalating problems if the recommendation of the Treasury was picked over that of the Fed. " Severe criticism on the part of prominent and influential
financiers would inevitably follow if the Treasury's present position prevailed." It is not surprising that the Fed's modus operandi has not changed one bit since 1975: it is our way or virtually assured destruction/embarrassment way. Additionally, a curious tangent of the Burns memo is the fact that gold was explicitly used as an engine to enact political doctrine: "If the United States took a stand on the gold question that failed to satisfy the French in current international negotiations, would there be adverse economic or political consequences? I doubt it... If we do ever accede to French views on gold, we should at least use our bargaining leverage to achieve some major political advantage." And while gold as a policy mechanism was unable to satisfy its role this time, one wonders on how many subsequent occasions was global democracy trampled over in order to placate the US Federal Reserve: "I have consulted Henry Kissinger as to whether there is some political quid pro quo we might want to extract from the French in exchange for acceding to some part or all of their desired position on gold. But Henry tells me there is none at this time." At some point governments of advanced nations will say "enough" to the covert domination of their controlling bodies by the FED page 50
46
Economy/
The Reality Of The Rest Of Draghi's 'Believe-Me' Speech

Tyler Durden
the sentence appears to indicate a change in policy in which the ECB would begin targeting W h i l e i t i s p r o b a b l y n o t peripheral yields. However, it is surprising that so many decided to important to put the fateful focus on those few words of sentence in the context of Mr. relevance to an implicitly self- Draghis overall remarks. Thus, in aggrandizing crowd of long-only our opinion he was doing nothing risk-takers and commission- more than making a technical makers; the truth is that, as UBS observation on an impairment in notes,"Draghi was stating a fact, monetary policy transmission. not changing a policy". Putting The sentence in question is: the fateful sentence in the context To the extent that the size of of the rest of his speech/interview these sovereign premia hamper is critical and most importantly, the functioning of the monetary we agree with UBS' Justin policy transmission channels, they Knight's opinion that Draghi did come within our mandate n o t h i n g m o r e t h a n m a k e a This implies, perhaps strongly, technical observation on an that the ECBs mandate includes impairment in monetary policy bringing yields to levels where transmission (as we discussed they do not hamper policy h e r e ) . R e g a r d l e s s , i f o u r transmission and then keeping interpretation is correct, then the yields there. However, this rally in peripheral bonds should interpretation does not fit either unwind quickly. The size of the with the context of the rest of his move probably has knocked many interview, or with previous shorts out of the market. equally strong statements to the Justin Knight, UBS: Mr. Draghi contrary. Indeed, it does not mesh was Stating a Fact, not Changing with the current institutional Policy framework in Europe. Peripheral bond markets rallied Mr. Draghi immediately followed sharply on a single sentence the above remark with uttered by Mario Draghi in an So we'll have to cope with this interview with Bloomberg on f i n a n c i a l f r a g m e n t a t i o n , Thursday. When read in isolation, a d d r e s s i n g t h e s e i s s u e s .
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:34:19 PM
Financial fragmentation the fact that some banks have better access to market liquidity than others ? is the subject of this section of his speech. This sentence suggests that the policy response should be aimed more directly at financial fragmentation directly rather than peripheral yields per se. Put another way, it seems to us that he was simply stating that elevated sovereign risk premia impair the transmission of monetary policy as they raise the cost of bank borrowing(and therefore of lending). In the last ECB press conference, Mr. Draghi stated the favoured policy response to fragmentation: But in a highly fragmented situation, when a bank is short of funding, they only can go to the ECB. And if the bank is solvent, the ECB stands ready to provide all the liquidity they need. That is important. We should not forget that. I have been saying this on and on and on since the beginning. The ECB is providing liquidity and will keep all liquidity lines open to solvent banks. As policy, this is a far cry from the markets interpretation du
jour. Mr Draghi has been vocal about the ECBs inability to target peripheral yields. In December he referenced the need to respect the spirit of the rules on monetary financing laid out in the Treaty. In the July press conference he also said: With regard to the ECB, I have said on numerous occasions that we are certainly supporting the euro area economy by achieving our objective of price stability in the medium term, and we want to act within the limits of our mandate. I dont think there is anything to gain by asking the institution to act outside the limits of its mandate, thereby destroying its credibility Taking these statements together, it appears to us that the ECB already is addressing financial fragmentation. The Bank is providing unlimited liquidity to banks at the policy rate, and has proven quite willing to adjust its collateral requirements. More broadly, it seems evident that the ECB does not have a mandate to create the informal fiscal transfer union that a cap on peripheral yields would ultimately imply. The fiscal authorities could provide that mandate. However,
from our laymans perch they seem relatively unconcerned with recent market developments. Furthermore, Article 123 of the EU Treaty, which prohibits monetising debt, has its origins in German economic thinking on the hyperinflation of the early 1920s. Therefore, it is very unlikely to be compromised easily. We expect Mr. Draghi to clarify his comments in the coming days. That might mean waiting until the August 2 press conference. Regardless, if our interpretation is correct, then the rally in peripheral bonds should unwind quickly. The size of the move probably has knocked many shorts out of the market. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 3 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Economy/
47
Eurozone Retail Sales Sink 9th Month; 17th Month of Contraction in Italy; Margins Collapse in France; Germany Barely Above Contraction
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
This was signalled by the seasonally adjusted Italian Retail PMI posting 40.7, down from 41.7 in June. Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:18:00 PM Eurozone retail sales continue to Italian retailers generally fell dive and not even Germany is short of their targets set for July. immune. German manufacturing Employment levels continued to has been in contraction off-and- fall during July, extending the on, and retail sales are once again ongoing sequence of contraction on the verge contraction as well. to 55 months. Moreover, after Let's take a look at some reports. slowing to the weakest in eight Italy Retail Sales Slump Extends months during the preceding to 17th Month survey period, the rate of job Markit reports Downturn in retail shedding accelerated and was sales continues in July marked overall. Sales Fall Summary: Sharply in France July data pointed to a further Markit France PMI shows reduction in activity in the Italian Record Drop in Retail Margins retail sector, with sales down French retailers encountered markedly both on the month and another tough month in July. compared with levels one year Sales fell at a sharper rate on both ago. The rates of decline in a monthly and an annual basis, employment, purchasing activity while margins were squeezed to and inventories all accelerated, the greatest extent in the survey while profitability continued to history. The pace of job shedding d e t e r i o r a t e s h a r p l y . C o s t accelerated [fastest rate in nearly pressures, however, eased to the three years], while retailers scaled weakest in 20 months amid back their purchasing of goods stronger competition between and lowered their inventories. suppliers. The headline Retail PMI The downturn in Italys retail remained below the 50.0 nosector extended to a seventeenth c h a n g e m a r k f o r a f o u r t h month in July. Furthermore, the successive month in July. At 46.7, rate of contraction in like-for-like down from 48.9 in June, the index s a l e s a c c e l e r a t e d f r o m t h e signalled an acceleration in the previous month and was marked. monthly rate of decline in sales.
Gross margins in the French retail sector continued to decline in July. Moreover, the latest fall was the sharpest in the history of the survey. Panellists indicated that margins were squeezed by the need to engage in substantial discounting and promotional activity in the face of an increasingly competitive trading environment. German Retail Sales on Verge of Contraction Markit reports German Retail PMI hits three-month low during July The recent rebound in German retail sales faded in July, with like -for-like sales rising only marginally since the previous month. At 50.3, down from 52.4
Markit reports Eurozone retail sales fall for ninth month running in July Key points: Revenue downturn continues at faster rate Near-record drop in gross margins Wholesale price inflation strengthens Eurozone retail sales fell on an annual basis for the fourteenth successive month in July. The rate of contraction was little-changed from Junes sharp pace, and much faster than the long-run average for the survey. Sales fell rapidly in June, the seasonally adjusted in Italy, extending the current Germany Retail PMI signalled the sequence of decline to two-and-aslowest expansion in the current half years. France also posted a steep fall, the fifth in successive three-month period of growth. German retailers indicated that months. Sales were up compared their actual sales fell short of their with a year earlier in Germany, initial plans in July, and by the and at the fastest rate since greatest margin since January. March. Anecdotal evidence mainly cited Retailers cut back on staffing in w e a k e r t h a n a n t i c i p a t e d July. The current period of job underlying consumer demand. shedding now stretches to four July data indicated that retailers months, and the rate of reduction a r e d o w n b e a t a b o u t t h e i r accelerated to a 32-month record. prospects for reaching sales French and Italian retailers targets in one months time. The reduced their workforces on degree of negative sentiment was average, with the steeper decline the most marked since that posted among the latter. Italian recorded in December 2009. retailers have shed staff every Eurozone Retail Sales Sink 9th EUROZONE page 50 Month
48
Economy/
Congress Agrees On A New Round Of Sanctions Targeting Iran

AP (Money Game)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:26:00 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Monday on a new round of stifling sanctions on Iran, targeting energy, shipping and insurance sectors with punitive measures to derail Tehran's suspected push for nuclear weapons. Lawmakers filed a final bill late Monday, with a House vote expected as early as Wednesday. Congress has just a week before a monthlong August recess and members see the legislation as the last chance to impose crippling penalties on Iran. "The bill sends a clear message to the Iranian regime that the U.S. is committed, through the use of sanctions, to preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, RFla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the bill reconciles the House and Senate bills and incorporates new provisions from lawmakers. He vowed to help pass it in the Senate before Congress adjourns. Unless Iranians, "come clean on their nuclear program, end the suppression of their people, and
stop supporting terrorist activities, they will face deepening international isolation and even greater economic and diplomatic pressure," Johnson said. The two lawmakers and their staff worked for weeks behind closed doors to come up with a bill. Sanctions have broad bipartisan support in Congress and in a crucial boost to the measure's prospects, officials at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful proIsrael lobbying group, said they support the legislation. The bill would sanction many transactions related to the energy sector and prohibit Iran from transferring money back to the country from oil sales to foreign nations. Any company shipping proliferation-sensitive goods to Iran would be subject to penalties under the bill, a provision pushed by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. The bill would target the National Iranian Tanker Co., the state-run company and shipping line as the measure looks to undermine the ways Iran ships oil. The bill also would deny visas and freeze assets on individuals and companies that supply Iran with technology that could be used against its citizens, such as tear gas, rubber bullets and
Deutch, D-Fla., Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., Rep. Robert Dold, R-Ill., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., had pressed negotiators to blacklist Iran's energy sector, labeling it a "zone of proliferation concern" that effectively bans all business. But the bill says the president should impose sanctions and the provision is non-binding. Lawmakers also pushed for sanctions on the directors and shareholders of organizations like SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, unless they stop providing services to the Central Bank of Iran. The draft surveillance equipment. The bill U.S. officials say the penalties bill does not target the directors. extends those sanctions on human have reduced Iran oil exports to Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions rights violators to Syria, where less than 1.8 million barrels per expert and executive director of President Bashar Assad's regime day, costing Iran about $63 the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, described the is accused of a bloody crackdown million per day. against protesters But while Congress works on legislation as a "strong bill that T h e b i l l t a r g e t s I r a n ' s more sanctions, their effectiveness fills numerous loopholes and Revolutionary Guard Corps and in deterring Iran from pursuing t i g h t e n s t h e s a n c t i o n s requires companies that trade on n u c l e a r w e a p o n s i s b e i n g requirements but it could be a lot tougher" if Congress understood the U.S. stock exchange to c h a l l e n g e d . disclose any Iran-related business "All the sanctions and diplomacy as much about the psychology as to the Securities and Exchange so far have not set back the t h e l e g a l i t y o f s a n c t i o n s . Commission. Iranian program by one iota," Dubowitz said Iran often figures The United States and Europe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin out ways to get around the argue that depriving Iran of its oil Netanyahu said this past weekend. penalties. income would thwart its suspected A few lawmakers said they were The new legislation builds on drive for nuclear weapons. Iran frustrated that the legislation penalties that went into effect this year. Those sanctions target has exported 2.5 million barrels of didn't go far enough. oil per day to Europe, China, Several proponents of tough CONGRESS page 51 India, Japan and South Korea. sanctions such as Rep. Ted
Economy/
49
Productivity Puzzle: More People Are Back At Work In Britain, But Output Is Still Down
The Economist (Money Game)
estimate is now -1.3%, a considerable quarterly plunge. Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:03:00 PM Had policymakers known this at A puzzle: since last quarter, t h e t i m e , t h e y m i g h t h a v e 181,000 more Brits are in work, responded differently. This means but output is down 0.7%. What we might see this quarter's growth are these people doing, you might revised up in future. The average ask. absolute revision since Q1 2005 The caveats are that the quarterly has been 0.4%, which means employment figures are from commentators could currently be March to May, while GDP is arguing over the head of a pin. measured April to June - and Nonetheless, the gap between subject to revisions. GDP and jobs cannot be wholly But the enigma remains. Why, to e x p l a i n e d b y s y s t e m i c put it crudely, are we consistently u n d e r e s t i m a t i o n . having more jobs and less stuff (2) Post-crash Britain has become being produced? unproductive and this is The employment figures are permanent. Most jobs are being convenient for the Chancellor created in low productivity George Osborne, who can wheel sectors, such as retail, while the around to different television number of high productivity jobs studios and say, "Nearly 400,000 (in finance and manufacturing for more are in jobs since we came instance) has stagnated. If we into office." But all the while, the continue in the same direction, we economy has shrunk by 0.3% will not see a huge rise in since May 2010. productivity. Jobs figures will There are three responses to this: soon fall. ( 1 ) G r o w t h i s b e i n g The logic behind (2) is that much underestimated in the statistics. of the growth in the Blair years The Office of National Statistics was financed by easy credit. The (ONS) constantly revises its crash, and the draining away of forecasts. At the start of the credit, has wiped out this output. downturn, Q2 2008 GDP growth Now banks are rebuilding their was first estimated to be 0.2%; the b a l a n c e s h e e t s , t h e c r e d i t
inflation doesn't mean there is no capacity in the UK economy: recent high inflation was down to a rise in commodity prices and the VAT increase; it has since dropped. Business surveys are often unreliable and don't account for what happens when demand picks up. The financial crisis doesn't explain everything: look at the USA and Spain. These countries have had much stronger productivity growth. Indeed, Bill Martin and Robert Rowthorn, of Cambridge University, have lent much support to this "temporary" explanation in a May publication. They show that the shift in jobs from high- to low-productivity tightening is likely to stay. This indicate few firms are working sectors only amounts to a 1/4 percentage point of the restrains the output of credit- below normal capacity. intensive companies and dynamic, (3) This unproductiveness is p r o d u c t i v i t y s h o r t f a l l . new firms. The low investment temporary. The gap between Which is right? The jury is out (and resulting slow growth of output and jobs can be explained until we see more evidence. The capital stock) also hits labour by labour hoarding. Firms have FT gave a view on the puzzle this productivity. Unless credit eases, reacted to the slump mostly by morning. I tend towards position productivity will be persistently holding down wages and trying to (3). Readers can make up their weaker. This sort of thing happens keep on employees. Workers are own minds. after most financial crises: supply not working to their full potential Please follow International on freezes up. The past year's high because there is little demand: Twitter and Facebook. inflation shows this. The Bank of firms could produce more stuff, Join the conversation about this story England's May Inflation Report but few would buy it. shows that Business surveys Supporters of (3) argue that high
50
MIKE
FED
For example, a Chinese slowdown towards consumption would increase the value of the renminbi, would decrease their exports, would help the balance of trade between China and the United States and Europe, and would put intense pressure on commodity prices. In turn, asset prices and currencies of the commodity producing countries, like Australia, Brazil, and Canada will come under heavy pressure. Oilprice.com: Mark Faber is not a fan of the Federal Reserve, blaming them for the current US economic situation. He said,Usually under a gold standard you have a bubble under one sector of the economy but you dont have it across the board globally and thats really what the Federal Reserve has done over the last couple of years. Do you agree? Is the Fed to blame? And what can be done to avoid this in the future? Mish: I agree with part of it, if
not most of it. However, the idea that the gold standard itself causes bubbles is fallacious. The gold standard does not cause huge bubbles. The real culprit is fractional reserve lending. Historically, problems happened when banks lent out more money than there was gold backing it up. The gold standard did one thing for sure. It limited trade imbalances. Once Nixon took the United States off the gold standard, the U.S. trade deficit soared (along with the exportation of manufacturing jobs). To fix the problems of the U.S. losing jobs to China, to South Korea, to India, and other places, we need to put a gold standard back in place, not enact tariffs. Oilprice.com: Mish, thank you for your time this has been a very enjoyable and enlightening conversation for us. For those of you who havent seen Mishs superb blog and daily economic commentary we
strongly recommend you visit his s i t e : h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com. You can also do a Google search for Mish. Source: http://oilprice.com/ Interviews/Global-Trade-Likelyto-Collapse-if-Romney-WinsInterview-with-MikeShedlock.html Interview by James Stafford of Oilprice.com Average: Your rating: None Average: 3.5( 22 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
EUROZONE
month since January 2008. In contrast, German retailers raised headcounts for the twenty-sixth successive month. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike
"Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to
Federal Reserve, which through manipulation of its gold and money interests, effectively has control over not just the French, but every government which has a monetary basis to its respective economy and a relationship to the US "reserve" currency... Which means virtually every country in the world. The backlash, if and when it occurs, will be memorable. Lastly, the memo presents a useful snapshot into the cloak-and -dagger, and highly nebulous world of Central Bank negotiations and gold price manipulation: "I have a secret understanding in writing with the Bundesbank that Germany will not buy gold, either from the market or from another government, at a price above the official price." So to all conspiracy theorists claiming that gold is being manipulated on a daily basis by the Federal Reserve: when it occurs over and over, and is so well documented, it is no longer a theory, it is merely sad. And the l e a r n m o r e a b o u t w e a l t h fact that the US government goes m a n a g e m e n t a n d c a p i t a l to great lengths to hide the illicit preservation strategies of Sitka dealings of the Federal Reserve, Pacific. which through its monetary tentacles, has prima facie control over not just US policy but also over sovereign governments, is an unprecedented failure in the checks and balances system that the founding fathers had planned
when they created the United States of America. Yet saddest is that the United States no longer pursues strategic goals that are in the best interest of the majority of its citizens, but merely manipulates other, less powerful nations into a servile existence that only provides gain to a very limited subset of the American financial oligarchy. It is time for the Fed's unprecedented control over affairs, both global and domestic, to end. Full memo from Arthur Burns presented, compliments of Geoffrey Batt who collaborated in the creation of this post. *** As a post-script to all those complaining about gold, silver and other PM price suppression, here is one simple question: can one buy more gold at $1,600 or at $16,000? This is not a trick question. Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 15 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Economy/ Culture/ Featured/
51
Chinese PMI Is Expected To Rise When The Data Is Released Tomorrow

Mamta Badkar (Money Game)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:10:00 PM
CONGRESS
foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank by barring them from opening or maintaining correspondent operations in the United States. It applies to foreign central banks only for transactions that involve the sale or purchase of petroleum or petroleum
products. Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
China is set to release PMI data tomorrow. With HSBC flash manufacturing PMI climbing to 49.5 in July, a 5-month high, investors are watching official numbers closely. Data in the past few months pointed to a slowdown in the Asian giant but policymakers have aggressively been cutting interest rates and said that stabilizing growth is a priority. Bank of America analyst Ting Lu expects NBS manufacturing PMI to rise to 50.4 in July, up marginally from 50.2 in June. The policy easing measures have seen business and consumer confidence recover slowly. But Lu warns that a significant rebound won't be seen for a few months, since policy easing measures come through with a
5 Incredible Things Youll Learn in Sixth Grade

lag. He also warns that unusual weather patterns could impact industrial and construction activity. "Weather has been abnormally poor in July, which could have a negative impact on industrial and construction activity. It was unusually hot in large parts of China in the first days after the school year starts, you'll wonder why you ever worried. And you'll have plenty of Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:00:56 PM incredible discoveries to look Just a few years ago, you were forward to (and no, we're not half of July, but then rainstorms learning to write your name-- and talking about the lunch lady's and floods hit many areas of now look at you. You're entering m e a t l o a f s u r p r i s e ) . F r o m China after mid-July." Don't Miss: the sixth grade, where you'll be wrapping up your own mummy to SocGen's Presentation On The switching rooms throughout the becoming an author, sixth grade is Slowing State Of The Chinese school day, storing your books in going to be a fun time. Economy > a hallway locker and figuring out This entry passed through the Please follow Money Game on how to get to class on time. Full-Text RSS service if this is Twitter and Facebook. Even if you're a bit worried about your content and you're reading it Join the conversation about this the details, like memorizing a on someone else's site, please read story school map, remembering your the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentlocker combination and avoiding only/faq.php#publishers. Five the tardy bell, you're not alone. Filters recommends: Incinerating Every other sixth grader feels a Assange - The Liberal Media Go in America," a Paul supporter tells little stressed, too, even if he or To Work. Van Susteren. "The same things she never shows it. that Ron Paul says in America this The good news is that just a few is the same thing in Poland."
Laurie L. Dove (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Ron Paul Supporters Amassin Poland

Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)
where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is visiting: Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:53:00 PM "Well, exactly, in Poland, there is Fox News host Greta Van a party that is called the Right S u s t e r e n f i n d s R o n P a u l Wing Congress and this is like, supporters in the streets of Poland, exactly the same as Ron Paul says
52
Culture/
Credit Card Roulette: Payment Terminals Pwned in Vegas

Kim Zetter (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:09:00 PM
CanSecWest conference. The team purchased three pointof-sale terminals on eBay, one of Video: MWR Labs Pin Pad which is widely used throughout Racer from Nils on Vimeo. the U.S. and comes with a LAS VEGAS At least three touchscreen and a feature for widely used credit and debit card capturing cardholder signatures; purchasing terminals in the U.S. the other two are used in the U.S. and U.K. have vulnerabilities that and the U.K. and have a port for would allow attackers to install inserting chip-and-PIN cards, as malware on them and sniff card well as a mag stripe reader. data and PINs. To demonstrate their control of The vulnerabilities can also be t h e l a t t e r m a c h i n e s , t h e used to make a fraudulent card researchers loaded a racing game transaction look like its been onto one of the devices, which accepted when it hasnt been, Nils then played using the printing out a receipt to fool a devices keypad (see video salesclerk into thinking items above). The game consisted of an have been successfully purchased. X simulating a car, that Nils Or an attacker can design a hack maneuvered on a road lined with that would invalidate the chip-and trees. When his vehicle reached -PIN card system, a security the end of the road, he printed out feature that is standard in Europe t h e g a m e s c o r e f r o m t h e but only nascent in the U.S. It t e r m i n a l s r e c e i p t p r i n t e r . uses cards embedded with a chip Although the researchers and requires cardholders to enter a declined to name the brands of PIN to validate a transaction. terminals they examined, and had The hacks were demonstrated at taped over the names on the the Black Hat Security conference devices to prevent audience last week by Rafael Dominguez members from seeing them, V e g a , a S p a n i s h s e c u r i t y VeriFones name popped up on researcher and consultant for the touchscreen device after the M W R I n f o S e c u r i t y , a n d a system rebooted and the firmware German researcher who goes by displayed its launch page. The the name Nils, who is head of device is VeriFones MX780 research for MWR. Nils cemented point-of-sale terminal. The other his security bona fides in 2009 two devices match Vx models of when he hacked three browsers at terminals made by VeriFone. the Pwn2own contest at the According to the researchers, the
MX780 model, widely used in the U.S., has remote administration capability that allows the devices to communicate regularly with a server. But the researchers found that the terminals do not authenticate the servers with which they communicate, so the researchers were able to design a man-in-the-middle attack that tricks the terminal into communicating with their rogue server and allows them to download malware to the device. Although an attacker would have to be on the same network as the device to conduct this attack, the devices are set up to periodically connect to the remote server as well as connect during reboot, providing easy access to the machines once the attacker is on the network. The researchers noted that there are also wireless versions of the terminals that communicate with a stores network via WiFi. Once they have access to the device, the researchers found that the terminals, which use an operating system based on Linux, have a vulnerability that would allow an attacker to change applications on the device or install new ones in order to capture card date and cardholder signatures. According to the researchers, the vendor is in the process of
producing a patch for this model, but they note that it will take a while for the patch to be deployed to all of the devices in the field. The other two models of terminals, designed for use with chip-and-PIN cards, have different vulnerabilities being exploited. Chip-and-PIN cards became mandatory in the UK in 2006 and will become widely deployed in the U.S. over the next year. Both MasterCard and Visa announced earlier this year that they would be migrating U.S. consumers to chip-and-PIN cards by April 2013. The cards contain an embedded security chip that verifies the customers PIN when he or she enters it on a keypad. The chips also hold a secret key that validates the card to the bank. The key is supposed to ensure that fraudsters who know a bank customers PIN cant simply embed the data into any chipenabled blank card and use it to withdraw money from the customers account. The attack the researchers used involved a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the EMV protocol that is used to process chip-and-PIN cards. Using that vulnerability the researchers were able to install malware on the machines to take
full control of the terminals, by simply inserting a rogue payment card containing the malware into the smartcard reader. Because the devices allow only signed applications to run on them, the researchers werent able to alter the firmware itself, so they placed their rogue code into the device memory instead. Once in memory, the malware recorded card data and PINs for any cards subsequently inserted in the device and stored it in the devices memory. To collect the data in storage, the researchers simply inserted a different card in the device afterward, and collected the card data that had been siphoned. The terminal produces an invalid card error when the rogue cards are inserted, but otherwise Nils said there is no indication that anything has occurred. Because the malware prevents the device from connecting to backend systems when rogue cards are inserted, there is no lingering record in the system that two invalidated transactions occurred. There is one limitation to this kind of attack, however. Because the malware runs in the devices memory, it would be deleted each time the terminal was rebooted, CREDIT page 57
Culture/
53
Terrorist Group Releases India Missionary

(The Christian Post)
Kate Hudson and Lea Michele Buddy Up on the Set of Glee

Brittney Stephens (PopSugar)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:45:06 PM
But what they did not likely know was that GFA has had a Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:11:31 PM policy for the last 20 years stating July 30, 2012| 5:11 pm that they do not negotiate with GFA Founder and President K.P. terrorists. After several days, Yohannan told The Christian Post information about the kidnapping on Monday that the terrorists reached the national media, and targeted George because they s e v e r a l k n o w n t e r r o r i s t believed they could ransom him organizations said they had for money. George is a prominent nothing to do with the incident. leader in the region he oversees The police and military became about 300 missionaries, 200 involved in the situation once the churches, 26 Bridge of Hope media reports were released, and centers, three radio broadcast s Y o h a n n a n s a y s t h a t a d d e d and a Bible college and he was pressure is likely what caused the only person kidnapped by the George's captors to eventually terrorists. release him. "For years we have been doing Yohannan speaks highly of the tremendous amount of community government troops, police officers development ... but all these and state and federal officials things we do so that Christ's love whose influence led to George's can be communicated. So these freedom, but he also believes it is t e r r o r i s t g r o u p s m u s t h a v e nothing less than a miracle that he concluded, 'These people have a is still alive. lot of money, so you kidnap their Follow us leader and that means they have to "And I'm certain the living God give the money,'" said Yohannan. intervened, because, humanly On the evening of July 23, a speaking, we thought there was group of five armed terrorists maybe just a five percent chance kidnapped George from a GFA for them to release our brother, Bible school campus in the Karbi because usually they don't give Anglong district of Assam, India. into publicity," he said. "These With a blindfold over his eyes and people are just mean, that's all his hands tied together, the group they do." marched him several hours into After news of the kidnapping the forest, where they then tied made national news in India, him to a tree. Yohannan sent an email to
approximately 400,000 people telling them to pray for George. During a phone conversation after his release, George told Yohannan that he could sense people were praying for him during his time in captivity. "When I talked with him yesterday, all he could do was just weep and cry," Yohannan said, although George was able to speak a little. He was convinced he would die, he said, knowing how brutal the terrorists can be, and was saddened by the thought of never seeing his wife and children again. He was also reportedly within earshot of the terrorists when they were discussing whether or not to kill him, adding to the "mental anguish" he experienced while he was tied like "an animal to a tree," as Yohannan put it. After being tied up for a while, though, George began to meditate on the cross of Jesus Christ, and it was then that he felt peace. He began to think "that Christ's suffering and death was needed for redemption, and he must continue the journey following Christ and not hold on to his life," said Yohannan. GFA teaches its missionaries a "don't hold on to your life" mentality, he says, just as Jesus taught in Matthew
chapter 10, recognizing that sacrificial living is the only way to reach those nations where Christians are persecuted. George has already said that he wants to continue working in his mission field. GFA workers are in the process of discussing safety and security plans, but Yohannan doesn't think George will be captured by the same group again since they now know they won't receive any money from his organization. Gospel for Asia supports national missionaries across South Asia, and has 67 Bible colleges throughout the region. The organization also offers impoverished and Dalit, or "untouchable," children the opportunity to get an education, food and medical attention through its Bridge of Hope program. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Kate Hudson posed with Lea Michele on the set of Glee today. The show's creator, Ryan Murphy, tweeted a photo of the two, saying "Ms. Lea Michele and Kate Hudson on the NYADA set. Kate had chandelier approval." Kate is guest starring in six episodes during Glee's fourth season. She'll be playing Cassandra July, Rachel's dance teacher at her new performing arts school. Lea Michele gave us a glimpse of her new costar's arrival late last week. She shared a photo of her and Kate's chairs next to each other on the set, tweeting that it was "the coolest thing." Another A-list star to join the cast this season is Sarah Jessica Parker. She'll be playing a Vogue editor, though there's no word yet on whether she'll sing or dance. View Slideshow
54
Culture/
Gay Marriage to Be Included in Democratic Party Platform

It will be the first time in history that either the Democratic or July 30, 2012| 6:45 pm Republican Party has supported (Photo: Reuters / Lee Celano) anything other than the traditional Opponents of gay marriage definition of marriage as between display literature and gifts at the a m a n a n d a w o m a n . T h e 2011 Republican Leadership historical news was first reported Conference in New Orleans, by the Washington Blade and Louisiana June 18, 2011. confirmed by Rep. Barney Frank(D-Mass.), who recently wed his same-sex partner. (Photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni) A 15-member drafting committee Activists hold signs during a rally unanimously passed the language outside the Beverly Hilton hotel, and it will now head to the full where U.S. President Barack platform committee. The issue has O b a m a w a s a t t e n d i n g a been debated by Democrats in Democratic party fundraiser, in p r i o r p l a t f o r m c o m m i t t e e Beverly Hills, California May 27, m e e t i n g s . H o w e v e r , s i n c e 2009. California's supreme court President Obama came out in backed a ban on gay marriage on support of the issue in late May, it Tuesday, upholding the voter- has become less controversial approved Proposition 8 defining within Democratic circles. marriage as between a man and a "I don't think that we had any woman, but said the marriages issues that were controversial," an last year of 18,000 same sex unidentified committee member couples were still legal. told Politico on Monday. "I think we were pretty much in sync and in agreement with where we (Photo: The Christian Post) ended up." Thousands marched in the 'Let the Prior to the meeting of the People Vote' rally in Manhattan drafting committee, a document on July 24, 2011 to protest of containing the proposed language New York's gay marriage law and s t a r t e d c i r c u l a t i n g a m o n g demand that state lawmakers put committee members that read: the issue before voters through a "We support the full inclusion of statewide referendum. all families in the life of our
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:45:04 PM
nation, with equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law, including the freedom to marry. Government has no business putting barriers in the path of people seeking to care for their family members, particularly in challenging economic times. We support the Respect for Marriage Act and the overturning of the federal socalled Defense of Marriage Act, and oppose discriminatory constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny the freedom to marry to loving and committed same-sex couples." Follow us How or if the language was amended or altered is not known at this time. "We've not seen specific language at this point," said Zeke Stokes of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, who put forth a witness who testified in favor of including language supporting the issue. But not everyone believes that formal acceptance of gay marriage by the Democratic Party will help the party's candidates, especially those running in moderate or conservative states and districts. "I think it's going to put a lot of Democratic candidates in a difficult position," Ralph Reed,
founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told The Christian Post. "You've got to ask yourself if you're running under the Democratic label in say Missouri, Ohio or Florida, 'Is this what the majority of my constituents believe marriage should look like?' and 'Is this what I believe as an elected representative?'" Reed also highlighted the difference between some in the Democratic Party publicly supporting gay marriage versus the president and the party officially embracing the stance. "President Obama has taken a position that not only distances himself from people of faith, but also from Democrats who oppose same-sex marriage. I don't think the majority of swing state voters will feel the same way," said Reed. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Official Tetris alarm clock still wont make mornings addictive

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:13:00 PM
If your love of Tetris can overcome your love of sleep, then the Official Tetris Alarm Clock may be just the thing to make your mornings that much more enjoyable. Luckily, you cant actually play the game using the clock, or youd definitely never be getting out of bed, but it does play the theme music and feature that hypnotizing Tetris action for number changes, which might do something for a stubborn case of insomnia. Full story at MenKind via Technabob. Video games 24-7. Permalink| Leave a comment
Culture/
55
Evangelical Group: Gov't Top 10 Real-life Leaders' Threats Against Chick Haunted Houses -fil-A 'Evident Discrimination'
(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:00:56 PM
comments as discrimination against part of their city's population, and stated that they would not welcome Chick-fil-A to (Photo: AP Images / Chick-fil- their cities. A, Inc.) Pictured is Chick-fil-A's But surprisingly, the American "Eat Mor Chikin" billboard. Civil Liberties Union, known to be liberal, defended Chick-fil-A July 30, 2012| 6:19 pm against threats by the elected "Individuals have the right to officials. decide whether or not to 'eat mor "The government can regulate chikin.' But no government leader discrimination in employment or should restrict a business or against customers, but what the organization from expanding to government cannot do is to punish their district based on the personal someone for their words," Adam or political views of the owners," Schwartz, senior attorney for the said National Association of American Civil Liberties Union of Evangelicals President Leith Illinois, told Fox News. "When an Anderson in a statement Monday. alderman refuses to allow a "Such evident discrimination and business to open because its attempts to marginalize those with owner has expressed a viewpoint religious values have no place in the government disagrees with, American democracy." the government is practicing The NAE joins former Arkansas viewpoint discrimination." governor Mike Huckabee and Follow us evangelist Billy Graham in Similarly, New York City Mayor defending the restaurant chain and Michael Bloomberg defended its president Dan Cathy, who in Chick-fil-A's right to do business recent interviews stated his in his city and any other city in support for the traditional family the U.S. unit. "I disagree with them really Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, strongly on this one," Bloomberg Chicago Mayor and former White said during an appearance on the House Chief-of-Staff Rahm John Gambling radio show. "You Emanuel, and a Chicago alderman can't have a test for what the had all swiftly denounced Cathy's owners' personal views are before
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:19:43 PM
you decide to give a permit to do something in the city. You really don't want to ask political beliefs or religious beliefs before you issue a permit. That's just not government's job." The NAE says it is committed to opposing government interference with the integrity of the family and "innovations such as samesex 'marriage.'" It also affirms the principles of religious freedom and liberty of conscience. "If Chick-fil-A is not welcome for embracing traditional marriage, then are Chicago Mayor Emanuel and others saying that evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons aren't welcome either?" Anderson asked. Huckabee is calling on people to support Chick-fil-A this Wednesday, Aug. 1, by eating at one of its locations. So far, some 480,000 people have confirmed they are going. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Some people might be hesitant to admit that they believe in ghosts. But if you've ever heard a chilling bump in the night when you're home alone, ghosts might not be such a leap of faith. In fact, a little more than a third of American adults believe in ghosts [source: Dolliver]. Perhaps more surprising is that 23 percent of adults polled said they'd personally seen or felt a ghost [source: Dolliver]. Every October, thousands of people pay to walk through commercial haunted houses, in which costumed actors stand in for otherworldly spirits. Customers can get the adrenaline rush of scary "monsters" popping out at them for a few minutes without any risk of getting their souls stolen or becoming possessed. But real-life haunted houses are a different story. Sure, there are plenty of paranormal enthusiasts who intentionally stay in purportedly haunted hotels and hunt for ghosts. But what if ghosts found their way into your home? If the poll results we just mentioned are accurate, the
sensation of an uninvited guest isn't such an uncommon occurrence. According to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP), there are some things to pay attention to if you suspect your house is haunted. Seeing apparitions, hearing weird sounds, smelling odd odors, feeling "cold spots" within a room, noticing objects that have been moved or observing your pet acting agitated are all symptoms that people report in what the association calls a "typical haunting" [source: ASSAP]. The 10 places on the following pages have certainly filled that bill, boasting enough symptoms of otherwordly presence to become the world's most notorious real-life haunted houses. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
56
Culture/ Featured/
Chris Marker, French Filmmaker Who Inspired Modern Sci-Fi, Dies at 91

Geeta Dayal (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:16:00 PM
The late French filmmaker Chris Marker (left), pictured with his friend, director Alain Resnais. Photo: Getty/Keystone-France Chris Marker, a visionary French filmmaker who inspired modern science fiction, died Sunday at the age of 91. News of his death was confirmed this morning. Markers most famous film, the 1962 dystopian masterpiece La Jete( The Jetty), was an inspiration to many leading science fiction authors, including William Gibson and the late J.G. Ballard. The quietly powerful, minimalist movie, comprised almost exclusively of numerous black-and-white stills and clocking in at about 28 minutes, was a direct inspiration for Terry Gilliams 1995 thriller 12 Monkeys. Markers film takes place in a post-apocalyptic Paris, shortly after the nuclear holocaust of World War III. Paris is ravaged:
Streets are covered in radioactive rubble, buildings are blown out and the Arc de Triomphe has been split in half. Almost everyone is dead or missing. Only a few people survive, hidden in the labyrinthine tunnels underneath the decimated city. One hardy survivor is chosen to save the present by traveling in time to his memories of the pre-war past, and to the future. First viewing of La Jetee was astonishingly visceral, poetic, profound, Gibson wrote Monday on Twitter after hearing of Markers death. Immeasurable impact on everything Ive written. Gibson added that he first saw La Jete in a film-history course at the University of British Columbia in the early 1970s. Ballard previously praised La Jete in an essay he wrote on the film. This strange and poetic film, a fusion of science fiction, psychological fable and photomontage, creates in its unique way a series of bizarre images of the inner landscapes of time, he enthused.
Marker, whose real name was Christian Franois BoucheVilleneuve, seemed pleased with the attention his work attracted later in his life. Certainly, for me 12 Monkeys is a magnificent film, said Marker in a rare interview with French newspaper Libration in 2003.
Marker was modest, calling La Jete a piece of automatic writing. It was in the editing that the pieces of the puzzle came together, and it wasnt me who designed the puzzle, he said. Id have a hard time taking credit for it. It just happened, thats all.
Marker was also prolific, making several impressive films over the course of his long lifetime, including Le Mystre Koumiko(1965), A Grin Without a Cat(1977) and Sans Soleil(1983). He created several films in homage to his favorite directors, including A.K.(a 1985 tribute to Akira Kurosawa) and One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich(1999), for Andrei Tarkovsky. He also experimented with CD-ROMs and digital multimedia installations later in his life, in works like Immemory(1998). See La Jete below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Thread: Apple OS updates scare me

(Dave Winer)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 10:00:56 AM
All I want from an operating
system is stability and performance. I want it to stay out of my way. I use today's Mac OS largely the same way I used
previous versions and how I use Yet the tech industry seems to W i n d o w s . N o t l o o k i n g f o r think that users want change in innovation in the OS. Pretty sure the OS. I'm like most users in this regard.
Culture/
57
Jurors Selected by the Close of Apple v. Samsung, Day One

Christina Bonnington (Wired Top Stories)
man who works in construction. For close to eight hours, the jury pool was asked questions about Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:53:00 PM their backgrounds and hobbies, Just how similar are the Apple their technical expertise in areas iPad (left) and Samsung Galaxy such as law, patents and contracts, Tab (right)? Photo: Jon Snyder/ and their economic situations. Wired However tedious the question-and SAN JOSE, California After a -answer session became, Judge grueling day of grilling by both K o h m a i n t a i n e d a g e n i a l J u d g e K o h a n d l a w y e r s atmosphere in the courtroom, representing Apple and Samsung, aided by humorous remarks from a jury of nine was finally selected both potential jurors and lawyers. and sworn in to hear Apple v. When questioned about why she Samsung patent litigation. The was considering purchasing an rest of you may be feeling iPad, one potential juror said, I exhilarated like you escaped a love the technology, and talked bullet, Judge Koh said after the about how shed like to be able to nine names were announced. sit in the yard and use her iPad. Among the chosen jurors are a Samsung attorney Bill Price man who worked for over 35 replied, after a moments pause, years in the hard drive industry as Other companies sell tablets a n e l e c t r i c a l e n g i n e e r , a n too! Audience laughter ensued. unemployed San Jose native who A Google UI engineer who likes to play videogames, and a repeatedly pledged to be impartial
in the proceedings did not end up getting chosen. He worked primarily with UI layouts relating to Google Video, Google+, and mobile Maps, but had also contributed to Android. Apple tried unsuccessfully to get Judge
Koh to dismiss him from the jury pool earlier in the day, saying that Samsungs role as a business partner to Google would make it impossible for him to be impartial. After the selected jurors were
sworn in, Judge Koh gave them their preliminary instructions, as well as background on the utility and design patents involved in the case. Tomorrow, Apple and Samsungs lawyers will give their opening statements, outlining their arguments for their respective sides of the litigation. Each side will get an hour and a half (and will likely use the whole time) to state its case. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
CREDIT
forcing an attacker to re-install his malware. The researchers found they were also able to subvert the chip-andPIN function on readers to get at the magstripe data printed on cards. In order to be compatible with ATMs in the U.S. and elsewhere that read only magnetic-stripe
cards, chip-and-PIN cards currently have a backup magnetic stripe on them. Until now, thieves have been using skimmers and hidden cameras installed at ATMs to capture the mag stripe data as well as the customers PIN as he or she typed it on the keypad. In the attack designed by Nils and Vega, however, the same data is
stolen without a skimmer, simply by writing malware that cancels the chip-and-PIN transaction after the customer types the PIN, and produces an error message instructing the cardholder to swipe the card through the mag stripe reader, thus allowing the attacker to clone the card data from the mag stripe and use it
with the stolen PIN. The researchers note that the vendor has already produced a patch for the vulnerabilities used in this hack. VeriFone did not respond to a request for comment. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it
on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
58
Culture/ Gaming/
11 ways to streamlining social media marketing

(Holy Kaw!)
you can keep all the content you'd like to promote and resurface in social media -- because the more Social media wouldnt be so content you create, the harder it popular if it didnt suck will be for you to keep track of it productivity like a sponge, but all. So put in your ebooks, your with the help of these eleven tips blog posts, your infographics, from Corey Eridon at HubSpot, everything you will want to reyou can more efficiently engage promote at a later date in social in social media marketing and media. Then you'll be able to leave enough time to get other jump over to this tab in your work done without distraction. spreadsheet every week and 1) Compose your updates in quickly find content to promote! advance. Just be sure to include an Let's say you have to update your expiration date if the content isn't company's Twitter account with evergreen so you don't new content every hour during the accidentally promote, say, a business day. Do you click around webinar that has already taken trying to find content to power media publishing schedule -- an media updates in an hour? If so, place. those eight updates every hour, or Excel template that lets you input y o u m i g h t n e e d a c o n t e n t No more pulling content out of do you find that content in all of your social media status repository. We actually included a thin air, marketers! a d v a n c e a n d b o o k m a r k i t ? updates for each social network, content repository right in our Full story at HubSpot. Hopefully, it's the latter ... organized by the date and time social media template, because we Effectively marketing with social find it so useful to have it to refer media. otherwise you don't have much you'd like to publish them time left to do anything else but 2) Maintain a content repository. t o w i t h i n o u r s c h e d u l i n g Photo credit: Fotolia Did you just laugh at the idea of d o c u m e n t search for social content. Permalink| Leave a comment That's why we created a social crafting a week's worth of social Basically, this is the place that
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:18:00 PM
Have any great Mountain Lion command line tricks to share? [Discussions Of The Day]
Walter Glenn (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:00:00 PM
There is never a shortage of wonderful discussions here on Lifehacker. Each day, we highlight a discussion that is particularly helpful or insightful, along with other great discussions and reader questions you may have missed. Add your two cents and jump in on the fun! More
Left 4 Dead fan short is 'Seriously' gory

Xav de Matos (Joystiq)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 10:30:00 PM
Seriously Left 4 Dead is a new fan short revolving around three
characters that seem to hate each other as much as they do the zombies. Watch this one in the comfort of your own home, unless your office approves of excessive
swearing and blood-filled zombie
heads popping all over your monitor. Left 4 Dead fan short is 'Seriously' gory originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30
Jul 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Culture/ Finance/
59
A charge card that actually puts power in your wallet

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:11:00 PM
The financial crisis showed us all the peril of living on credit, but this is one charge card for emergencies that wont leave you banging your head against a wall down the road. ChargeCard, designed by Noah Dentzel and Adam Miller, is a tangled up with everything else in wallet-sized USB cable for your your bag, but still keeps you from iPhone or Android device that getting in a bind. easily fits in a wallet and folds out According to its Kickstarter page: when your battery starts dying. Our quest was simple: a charging No more bulky cords that get
designed ChargeCard in the shape of a business card, and at only three times the thickness of a credit card. With this form factor, the ChargeCard fits naturally into your wallet, purse or pocket. It's there when you need it, and out of your way when you don't. Backers can choose their color and personalization, so get on board today. cable for your iPhone portable Full story at Kickstarter via enough for you to always have it Tuvie. on you. Being ultra-portable, Smart inventions for your smart however, wasn't enough; it needed phone. to fit into your life. So we Permalink| Leave a comment
Video: Is Nashville Inspired by Taylor Swift? And More to Know About ABC Fall TV!
Becky Kirsch (PopSugar)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:40:39 PM
The Television Critics Association's Summer press tour is starting to wind down, but we still have more scoop for you on what's coming to TV this Fall! In today's episode of The Buzz, ahead on ABC, including new Becky Kirsch and Shannon Vestal supernatural show 666 Park are taking a closer look at what's Avenue and Nashville, the series
Readers offer their best tips for making our favorite smartphone car dock even better, remapping annoying Windows shortcuts, getting unique wallpapers for Jeremy Warner (Finance News - Business news from the UK individual spaces in OS X, and and world) always having enough fresh ice that goes behind the scenes of water to drink in your hotel room. Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:10:04 PM c o u n t r y m u s i c - s o m e a r e We'll ignore the empty seats. More speculating that one of the Forget also that Britain is so characters may even be based on g r i p p e d b y a n t i - b u s i n e s s Taylor Swift! We have that, plus sentiment that corporate sponsors more info on this year's Emmys a n d f r e e l o a d e r s b e c a m e show hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. automatically blamed, initially at Will his longtime rival Matt least, for half-deserted Olympic Damon make a cameo? Watch to venues. hear what he says.
UK's true Olympic challenge remains
A Smarter DIY Smartphone Car Dock, a Fix for Annoying Windows Shortcuts, and OS X Wallpaper Tricks [From The Tips Box]
Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:00:00 PM
60
Politics-Left/
Syria military claim on Aleppo fight disputed

(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:09:49 PM
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, said government forces Syrian forces and rebels have were on Monday "just reaching clashed violently in and around the outskirts of the [Salaheddin] Aleppo as the battle for control of neighbourhood". the northern city raged into a third Colonel Oqaidi said that "several day, with both sides claiming quarters of Aleppo are being advances. bombed with MiG [fighter jets] The Syrian army claimed on and helicopters". Monday to have overrun part of Activists on the ground reported the city's rebel-held Salaheddin that a string of rebel-held districts district, but the claim was denied in Aleppo were shelled or hit b y a F r e e S y r i a n A r m y by small-arms fire during the commander. night. They said some were "The Syrian army took control of strafed by helicopter gunships. part of Salaheddin district and UN convoy 'attacked' continues its offensive," a security UN Secretary-General Ban Kisource in Damascus said. moon on Monday singled out Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Oqaidi, Syria's government for censure, head of the FSA military council telling it to halt its violent of Aleppo, the country's most crackdown on the dissidents and populous city and commercial rebels fighting to overthrow capital, insisted government President Bashar Assad's regime, troops had "not progressed one a day after Syrian tanks attacked a metre". convoy carrying the head of the "We launched a new assault from UN observer mission. Salaheddin during the night, and Ban noted that his peacekeeping we destroyed four tanks," the chief, Herve Ladsous, recently rebel commander said by phone. went to Syria where he "called on In-depth coverage of escalating the government to end its use of violence across Syria heavy weapons and demonstrate Since the launch on Saturday of the commitment to ending the the regime assault on Aleppo, the armed violence. Government FSA "has already repelled three officials have repeatedly said they offensives" against Salaheddin, he would honour these commitments. said, adding that the rebels We are still waiting for them to controlled "between 35 to 40 per act." cent of Aleppo". Ban said that a dozen armoured
vehicles used by the military observers have been destroyed by blasts and shelling, and a convoy carrying the general heading the force was targeted on Sunday. "Yesterday, the convoy of Lieutenant-General Babacar Gaye was attack by armed tanks. Fortunately there were no injuries," Ban said. The UN observer mission's latest 30-day mandate is due to expire in August, and the United States, Britain and France do not want to see it extended under these circumstances. Syria's most senior diplomat in the UK, meanwhile, has stood down in protest at the "violent and oppressive" actions of al-Assad's regime, the British foreign office confirmed on Monday.
In a blow to Damascus, charge d'affaires Khaled al-Ayoubi informed the British authorities that he was "no longer willing" to represent the government amid the brutal repression of rebels. The British Government said his decision represented the "revulsion and despair" of Syrians and urged others around the world to follow his example and abandon Assad. International concern Outside of Aleppo, rebels seized a strategic checkpoint after a 10hour battle, securing them free movement between the northern city and Turkey, a FSA commander said. "The Anadan checkpoint... was taken this morning at [02:00GMT] after 10 hours of
fighting," said General Ferzat Abdel Nasser, a rebel officer who deserted the Syrian army a month ago. By securing the checkpoint, about 5km northwest of Aleppo, the rebels now control a direct route between the Turkish border and the commercial capital. Six soldiers were killed and 25 were taken as prisoners, General Ferzat said, adding that four of his own men died in the fighting. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in a statement that an estimated 200,000 people had fled from Aleppo in two days and an unknown number were still trapped in the city. Amos said in New York on Sunday that she was "extremely concerned by the impact of shelling and use of tanks and other heavy weapons" on civilians in Aleppo, Damascus and other locations. She said that many people in Aleppo had sought shelter in schools and other public buildings. "They urgently need food, mattresses and blankets, hygiene supplies and drinking water." Western maneuvers US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned Assad that the assault on his own population in SYRIA page 62
Politics-Left/
61
Palestinians accuse Romney of "racist" remark

(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:59:45 PM
Palestinians have accused US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of racism after he suggested disparities between the Israeli and Palestinian economies had cultural roots while not mentioning Israel's occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza. In a speech to fundraisers in Jerusalem on Monday, Romney, who is on a foreign tour, said Israel's gross domestic product was about twice that of the Palestinians, "a dramatic, stark difference in economic vitality". The actual gap is greater. Romney made the remarks in the context of juxtaposing two books he said had informed his thinking: "Guns, Germs and Steel," by Jared Diamond, which argues that geography primarily decides a society's success, and "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations" by David Landes, which argues for the importance of culture. "If you could learn anything from the economic history of the world it's this: culture makes all the difference ... recognise the hand of providence in selecting this place," Romney said. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian
negotiator in the peace process, told Reuters that Romney's comments amounted to "a racist statement that shows a lack of knowledge". Romney said Israel's GDP per capita was $21,000, while for Palestinians it was $10,000, though the US Central Intelligence Agency estimates Israel's is $31,400 and the Palestinians' about $2,900. "Everyone knows that the Palestinians cannot reach their full potential given the Israeli restrictions imposed on them," Erekat said. Romney made no reference to the tight control Israel has held on most of Palestinian territory since occupaying it in the 1967 war. Israel controls the borders of the West Bank and allows thousands of Israelis to live on illegal settlements inside Palestinian territory. It also harshly restricts the movement of Palestinians inside and outside the West Bank. In Gaza, where Israel has withdrawn settlements, an air and land blockade has hamstrung development. Romney was speaking at an event where he reportedly raised more than $1 million for his campaign. He did not travel to the West
Bank during his two-day stay in Israel, finding time only for a brief meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. He later flew to Poland on the last leg of his international tour. The controversy he kicked up among Palestinians followed irritation in Britain last week when he questioned London's readiness to stage the Olympic Games. 'Undermining peace process' Palestinians also accused Romney of undermining peace prospects in a speech he made on Sunday, when he called Jerusalem "the capital of Israel", ignoring their own claims to the city and most world opinion. "We condemn his statements. Those who speak about the twostate solution should know that there can be no Palestinian state without East Jerusalem," Erekat said. "What this man is doing here is just promoting extremism, violence and hatred, and this is absolutely unacceptable." Israel seized eastern Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it as part of its capital in a move never recognised internationally. A United Nations Security Council resolution condemns a
1980 Israeli law that declared Jerusalem its "complete and undivided" capital. Most countries, including the United States, have not recognised Israel's declaration and have kept their embassies in the coastal city of Tel Aviv. Previous US presidential candidates, including Barack Obama in June 2008, have referred to Jerusalem as Israel's capital ahead of elections, only to row back when taking power and suggest the issue should be resolved by negotiations. A senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rdeineh, said Romney's statements were unhelpful, stood in the way of a peace settlement and "contradict the previous positions held by the American administration". Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary-general Yasser Abed Rabbo said: "American policy makers must abandon hypocrisy and stop attempting to gain votes at the expense of the Palestinian people's rights." In an interview with CNN, Romney refused to be pinned down on whether he would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital if he beats Obama and
wins the White House. "A nation has the capacity to choose its own capital city, and Jerusalem is Israel's capital," he said. Pressed on whether he would make the move on becoming president, Romney said: "I'm not going to make foreign policy for my nation, particularly while I'm on foreign soil. My understanding is the policy of our nation has been a desire to move our embassy ultimately to the capital." Seeking American Jewish and fundamentalist Christian votes, Romney has criticised Obama on Israel, alleging last year that the president had "thrown Israel under a bus" in pushing hard for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. 709 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
62
Politics-Left/ Featured/
UN team to visit North Korea flood areas
SYRIA
Aleppo would be a "nail in his coffin". "It's pretty clear that Aleppo is another tragic example of the kind of indiscriminate violence that the (AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)) is likely to worsen the North's muddy water that covered the Assad regime has committed against its own people," Panetta food problems. city's streets on Monday. Many Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:53:54 PM told reporters on a military plane Assessing the damage residents sat on their homes' roofs en route to Tunisia. A United Nations team is to visit North Korea-based United and walls, watching the rising "And in many ways, if they storm-pounded counties in North Nations staff will visit the two water. Korea on Tuesday, after two days hardest-hit counties to see what Helicopters flew to various areas continue this kind of tragic attack o f h e a v y r a i n s u b m e r g e d help the UN team in the country to rescue flood victims, state on their own people in Aleppo, I buildings, cut off power, flooded might provide, Christopher de media reported. Casualties from think ultimately it will be a nail in rice paddies and forced people B o n o , U N I C E F ' s c h i e f o f t h e l a t e s t r a i n s w e r e n o t Assad's coffin," he said. "He's just assuring that the Assad and their livestock to climb onto communications for East Asia and i m m e d i a t e l y r e p o r t e d . regime will come to an end by rooftops for safety. the Pacific, said on Tuesday. He North Korea does not produce virtue of the kind of violence The rain on Sunday and Monday had no other details. enough food to feed its people, followed downpours earlier this On Sunday and Monday, rain hit and relies on limited purchases of they're committing against their month that killed nearly 90 people the capital, Pyongyang, and other food as well as outside donations own people." a n d l e f t m o r e t h a n 6 0 , 0 0 0 regions, with western coastal to make up the shortfall. It also French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in Paris on Monday homeless, officials said. areas reporting heavy damage. suffered a famine in the mid- and The floods also come on the In Anju city in South Phyongan late 1990s, the FAO and World that France, which is taking over heels of a severe drought, fueling province, officials reported 1,000 Food Program said in a special the UN Security Council's rotating presidency in August, will call an renewed food worries about a h o u s e s a n d b u i l d i n g s w e r e report late last year. emergency ministerial meeting on country that already struggles to destroyed and 2,300 hectares of 364 Syria. feed its people. f a r m l a n d w e r e c o m p l e t e l y This entry passed through the Fabius told French radio station Two-thirds of North Korea's 24 c o v e r e d . Full-Text RSS service if this is million people face chronic food The Chongchon River in Anju your content and you're reading it shortages, a UN report said last city flooded on Monday, cutting on someone else's site, please read month, while asking donors for c o m m u n i c a t i o n l i n e s a n d the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content$198 million in humanitarian aid submerging rice paddies and other only/faq.php#publishers. Five for the country. fields, said Kim Kwang Dok, vice Filters recommends: Incinerating South Korean analyst Kwon Tae- chairman of the Anju City Assange - The Liberal Media Go jin said the recent flooding, People's Committee. To Work. coming so soon after the dry spell, Boats made their way through the
RTL he would chair the meeting himself and that it had to be held urgently to stop Assad's regime carrying out massacres in Syria. "Since France is taking the presidency of the UN Security Council on August 1, we will make a request before the end of this week for a Security Council meeting, probably on the ministerial level to try to stop the massacres and to prepare a political transition," Fabius said. 972 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Biden Warns Trial Lawyers: 'Imagine the Supreme Court After Four Years of Romney'
Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:23:00 PM
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to a group of trial lawyers this afternoon in Chicago, delivered a stern warning.
"Imagine the Supreme Court after four years of Romney," said Biden, according to the pool report. "This is not scare tactics,
just what he said. If youre frightened its because you should be. You know who his advisor on constitutional issues is?
Appointed officially? Robert Bork."
Products/
63
Ten Questions: About Marriage

(Woot)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:00:00 PM
We love getting to know our community better. What you like, what you dislike, who you are. We've learned from talking to you there's a lot to enjoy by meeting everyone! Today we're talking to Andrew and Megan, a happy new couple. Why are we talking to them, you might ask? Well, we think we can sum it up with one simple photo. Credit for that evocative image goes to photographer Amy Washburn and it's a perfect representation of why this post is here today. We've got ten questions with Andrew and Megan about their screaming monkey proposal, right after the jump. See you inside. 1) Who are you? What makes you so special? We're Andrew and Megan. We live in Jackson, TN and just got engaged in November via screaming monkey. Andrew works for the government and Megan is a high school English teacher. Andrew: As a huge fan of the Woot monkey, I contacted the manufacturer and asked if they could make a special monkey for me. The fine folks at buysuperflymonkey.com not only gave me a customized monkey, but they waived the minimum order AND expedited shipping! (Take that SmartPost!) I decided to make it more
vows? Or did you go with something more traditional? Megan: We went the more traditional route of suit and wedding dress. We got married in a super small ceremony in June. Although, flying monkeys did show up as wedding favors for our guests. Andrew: Screaming the vows would have happened if we had managed to get Ben the OverLiteral Dermestid Beetle to officiate the ceremony. Had it been a much larger ceremony, we were going to be giving out Bags of Crap as party favors with a monkey to denote where you should sit. Now, I need to figure out what to do with 200 tote bags that have flowers on them, 375 kush balls, and 3,000 2009 Fact or Crap calendars. 5)We're big softies here. Tell us the story of how you guys met. Megan: We met on eHarmony. I saw his picture with a giant interesting by putting it into a down on one knee. time, hidden in my desk at work. Woot box that previously held Andrew: I wanted to launch the The other monkeys on my desk Homer Simpson birthday cake, monkeys. As a frequent Wooter, it monkey but thought perhaps the were wondering why one of their and he saw my picture with my really wasn't that much of a r i n g w o u l d t h r o w o f f i t ' s cousins was being locked up at then-pink colored hair. It was an surprise I would have a Woot box aerodynamics. So I went as night. The thing that kind of oddball love at first sight sort of somewhere in the house. traditional as you can when you scared me for a minute was that thing. I came down to visit him 2) Well, that is cool, then. have a screaming monkey holding Megan kept on mentioning that and he took me on the tour de Megan, did he launch the ring at an engagement ring. we should have Woot monkeys at Tennessee. I moved down in July you or was it more a more 3) Megan, were you expecting it? the reception and as favors. I from West Virginia to be with traditional proposal? Was it a total shock? thought she knew what was going him in Tennessee. Megan: The monkey was in a Megan: It took me a minute to on, but I guess she just really 6) Clearly Andrew's already a fan, but were you, Megan? And if Woot box, so I was expecting it to p i e c e e v e r y t h i n g t h a t w a s knows what I like! not, are you now? be something he ordered from happening together: Woot box, Dramatic re-enactment Megan: I honestly didnt know Woot. I took the monkey out, read flying monkey, ring, boyfriend on Dramatic re-enactment about Woot before we started his cape (which said Marry one knee. Dramatic re-enactment me?), noticed the ring on the Andrew: I had the monkey and 4) Did you consider wearing a TEN page 65 monkeys paw, and saw him get the ring for a few months ahead of hooded cape and screaming your
64
Products/
Report: $32 Billion In Federal Aid Going To Students At Underperforming For-Profit Colleges
Chris Morran (The Consumerist)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:32:11 PM
Earlier today, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) announced the findings of its twoyear investigation into exactly where the $32 billion annual investment in federal student aid is going -- and whether students are getting a return on taxpayers' investment. According to the report, not only does the for-profit education business rely the most on federal funding, it also has the highest percentage of students leaving with debt and the highest student loan default rates. HELP found that only 17% of what these colleges spend actually goes to instruction, while 42% of the money goes to marketing, recruiting and profits for the companies. Not-for-profit schools pay less than 1% on average for marketing. And even though an education at a for-profit college often cost twice what students would pay at a 4-year public college, public colleges spent almost double perstudent on instruction. And private, non-profit colleges spent
more than 2.5 times as much on average. The report also accuses for-profit schools of being overzealous in its recruiting of students, effectively bullying some under- or unqualified students into enrolling. From the report:
For the purposes of training their recruiting personnel, ITT used a " pain funnel" intended to educate recruiters how to break a potential student down by criticizing their current life situation. The most severe questions are meant to make the students feel bad about themselves: "What are you willing
to change now or have you given up trying to deal with the problem?" After breaking them down, recruiters would then present an education at ITT as the solution to the "pain." And while these schools pumped all this time, money and effort into recruiting, on average they
only had one career services staffer for every recruiter on the payroll. One of the largest forprofit operators had no career services position whatsoever. Maybe that's because an inordinate number of students never complete the programs at for-profit colleges. The HELP report found that, on average, 54% of students who began at a for-profit institution during the 2008-2009 school year withdrew by summer 2010. Nine schools in the study had withdrawal rates of at least 60%, with the highest being 84%. Of course, when students exit without a degree, they are still walking away with debt. And yet, while students are being aggressively recruited to pay too much for a degree from schools that don't support them in the classroom or in the job hunt, those same colleges are making a tidy profit. In 2009, 16 of the largest for-profit schools raked in a profit of $2.7 billion. For-profit colleges are taking advantage of students and taxpayers alike at a financially vulnerable time for many families, said Pamela Banks, REPORT: page 67
Products/ Featured/
65
TEN
dating, but I am a devotee now. I have many Woot T-shirts, and tolerate the middle of the night wake ups for Bags of Crap. He MUST always get his Bags of Crap. 7)Have you guys incorporated other Woot motifs into your relationship? How did you discover our site? Megan: I discovered the site through Andrew, but Andrew: I discovered the site sometime in October 2006. I honestly don't remember how I found Woot but it was a site I was checking from time to time and then I really started buying starting in early 2010. First it was a Bag of Crap, then a monkey, then Bacon Salt, and T Shirts. I now own probably 20 or so shirts. 8) Megan, how many Woot monkeys does your fiancee own? Megan: 13 unique monkeys with about three of each. 35-40 total with their homes ranging from our apartment to his desk at work. There are many, many monkeys on his desk. 9) Did you get to keep the monkey and the ring, or just the ring? Megan: Both! Plus, there was a backup monkey involved, so I scored two flying monkeys, a ring, and a fiance from the deal.
Andrew: Well - she scored ONE monkey. The backup monkey is hidden away in an undisclosed location. 10) And finally, how was the honeymoon? Andrew: It was awesome. I mean how could it not be? A week on the beach? No worrying about work. Finally catching up on my reading (3 or 4 books) and just relaxing. The toughest choices of the day were what Woot shirt to wear on the beach and whether to get the omelette with the jalapeno peppers or not. Megan: And we found our monkeys' cousins hanging out with dreads! Had to make sure they got their green cards to come to the US after the vacation. One of sitting on my desk now hanging out with my Woot monkey collection. Andrew: And we even got to go snorkeling, which was an interesting experience - especially when you bring one of those disposable underwater cameras and think you are taking such a great shot, only to realize that every picture pretty much looks the same. Either I am a horrible photographer (which granted, is quite possible) or the photo people just printed out 27 copies of the same picture as a practical
joke. Megan: If anything, the honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort spoiled us. Waking up one morning and looking out to see the ocean was wonderful. The next morning waking up to see a parking lot - not so much. Andrew: With everything included, there was not much need for the wallet, which was kind of awkward when the people at Subway did not like it when I tried to walk out of the store without paying for my sandwich. Megan: Oh, and did I mention that liking Bob Marley would be helpful? Otherwise, you will be quite surprised when you hear "One Love" over and over again. Instrumental, acoustic, gangster rap versions... Congrats to Megan and Andrew. They're starting off their new life correctly and we're thrilled to be somewhat connected. And hey, keep in mind we still want to learn more about you. Done something great? Something ridiculous? Something Wootrelated? Let us know! Maybe next time, you'll be the one answering the next ten questions!
Nothing Quite Like Being Stuck 150 Feet In The Air For 2 Hours To Put You Off Roller Coasters
Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:00:45 PM
If anything could turn a die-hard roller coaster rider off the idea of any more trips looping crazily and careening joyfully through the air, it would likely be sitting in a nonmoving train car 150 feet up in the air for almost two hours. That's what happened to a dozen riders the new Superman ride at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif. yesterday afternoon. It could be worse, right? At least it wasn't upside down. The Vallejo-Times Herald says the riders were eventually saved by firefighters from the stalled car about two hours after it slowed to a halt at the crest of the ride, just before a twist in the first tower. A theme park crane pulled up with a big bucket carrying firefighters and a park mechanic in charge. The passengers had apparently even tried to shake the ride loose to encourage it to go on its way, which didn't work. The mechanic was able to restart
the ride and it went backward, delivering the passengers safely to the ground. No one was hurt, but it's unclear just what caused the ride to take a nap. A spokeswoman for the park said the ride will reopen after a "thorough safety inspection." "If (a ride) stops, it usually detects something and it stops for safety reasons," she said, adding that she didn't know if the park will offer compensation to the stranded riders. The ride just opened on June 30, and boasts speeds up to 62 mph. Now however, it could see less riders than the park had hoped. Riders rescued from Six Flags' Superman roller coaster in Vallejo[Vallejo Times-Herald] This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Happy Hour Links: Like a Rolling Stone

Michael Warren (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:35:00 PM
Michael Moynihan reveals Jonah Lehrer's serious journalistic misconduct. George Will: Early voting is
In Obama's second term, expect some serious clashes with Bibi. "deplorable."
66
Products/
Kia Sportage SX Study: Healthy adults should skip routine EKGs gains power, gives
rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:01:57 PM
Study: Healthy adults should skip routine EKGs Heart disease is the leading killer in the U.S., so you might assume keeping close tabs on your heart with routine exercise stress tests, or electrocardiogram screenings (EKGs), is a no-brainer. That may be true if you already have heart disease or certain risk factors, like diabetes. But we've long advised that EKGs are usually not a good idea for healthy adults without symptoms of heart disease. And that view was confirmed today by a new report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. No organization recommends EKGs for low-risk adults, according to the Task Force, but it reports that such tests are nevertheless performed with "some frequency." Likewise, a 2010 Consumer Reports survey of nearly 1,200 people between the ages of 40 and 60 with no history of heart disease or heart-disease symptoms, found that 39 percent said they had undergone an EKG during the previous five years and 12 percent said they had an exercise stress test.
exercise program. But if you don't have any risk factors for heart disease, think twice before undergoing an EKG. You can find out more about the screening tests you should, and shouldn't, get in our guide to a healthy heart, including our Most of them probably shouldn't advice on EKGs. Also see our have. The Task Force's new Choosing Wisely report on review of evidence to date found E K G s ( P D F ) , p r e p a r e d i n that screening low-risk adults collaboration with the American without symptoms of heart Academy of Family Physicians, disease was "highly unlikely" to the ABIM Foundation, and the help reduce heart attacks and National Physicians Alliance. other cardiac events. Choosing Wisely is a campaign to T h e r e s e a r c h e r s d i d f i n d help educate and encourage evidence, however, that screening physicians, patients and others to low-risk adults can lead to harm, think and talk about medical tests such as unnecessary invasive and procedures that may be procedures, overtreatment, as well unnecessary, and that may cause as anxiety. That's because the tests harm. aren't as accurate on low-risk Source adults, and can lead to further Task Force Recommends Against tests and treatments. All of which Screening ECG for Asymptomatic can also be a waste of money. Adults at Low Risk for Coronary Bottom line: EKGs and exercise Heart Disease[Annals of Internal stress tests may be necessary if Medicine] Subscribe now! you have chest pain, shortness of S u b s c r i b e t o breath, an irregular heartbeat or ConsumerReports.org for expert palpitations, or other symptoms of Ratings, buying advice and heart disease. They can also be a r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f good idea if you have diabetes or products. Update your feed other risk factors, and possibly if preferences you're middle aged or older, sedentary, and are just starting an
up ride comfort
Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:59:59 PM
Kia Sportage SX gains power, gives up ride comfort Automakers are turning to smaller displacement, turbocharged engines to produce decent power without sacrificing fuel economy. Kia has followed suit with its Sportage SX, succeeding in delivering these goals. Compared to the naturallyaspirated, 176-hp, four-cylinder model, this force-fed turbo Sportage spools out 84 more horsepower. Consequently, acceleration is much more brisk, yet fuel economy only gives up 1 mpg. The underhood excitement is joined by a firmer suspension and larger wheels. While it would seem a natural supposition to think that the chassis must therefore be more engaging, it really isn't. The steering feels heavy and the ride is too stiff. But handling remains secure. The SX does benefit from
additional creature comforts, and there are some notable options, such as cooled front seats and a panoramic sunroof. But as tempting as the 260-hp SX may be, it does come with compromises. Check out the video below and our complete Sportage road test for details. Related: Automakers are turning to smaller, turbo engines for better mpg Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
Products/ Featured/
67
Mom Says Jolly Ranchers Crunch N Chew Candy Got Its Texture From A Rusty Razor Blade
Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:00:04 PM
REPORT:
Candy surprises are only good when they involve candy showing up when you least expect it, not when your bag of sweets surprises you with say, an old, rusty razor blade that could cut you while you're reaching for a treat. A California woman claims she found a grody old razor blade hanging out in her bag of Jolly Ranchers "Crunch 'N Chew," mixed right in with the candy. ABC 7 says she claims to have picked up the offending bag from a Safeway, and that it was completely sealed when she opened it at home. "I was all excited to try them out. Opened it up, ate two pieces first, went back in for my third piece and pulled this right out of the bag and was just in disbelief," she told the station about finding the dull, rusty blade which had some white tape wrapped around it and hardened granules of old candy clinging to the metal. Simply delectable. As one would do when
senior policy counsel for Consumers Union. These institutions promote the opportunity to advance your education and career and then leave students drowning with debt without the degree or experience unexpectedly happening upon a C H E W C a n d y . W e h a v e to become a higher earner. We razor blade in a bag of food sold apologized to the customer and, need to find ways to hold these for consumption, the woman says while there was no injury, we take for-profit colleges accountable she called the cops as well as the this situation seriously. We and make sure that these expenses candy's maker, the Hershey believe this is an isolated case and arent charged to the taxpayers Company. The consolation they accidental in nature. We will be tab. offered her was the exact wrong taking the needed actions to Senators Kay Hagan (N.C.) and thing. prevent this happening in the Tom Harkin (Iowa) have already "They offered me three bags of future." introduced the Protecting candy replacement and I was like, The woman says she just hopes Financial Aid for Students and 'I don't want anything. I just want Hershey changes something Taxpayers Act, which would to know this isn't going to happen because probably no one ever r e q u i r e a l l c o l l e g e s a n d again. I just want to know that wants a razor blade in a bag of universities to pay for advertising, kids are going to be safe,'" she candy. marketing and recruiting with non said. "I just want to make sure they're Giving someone bags of candy taking it seriously so children identical to the one where you don't grab this and find a shank found a razor blade would be like knife inside of it," she said. if Six Flags had offered unlimited *Thanks for the tip, David! roller coaster rides to people who Santa Clara woman finds shank had just been stuck on a roller in bag of candy[ABC 7 News] coaster for two hours. Which it, at This entry passed through the (Dave Winer) least, did not. Full-Text RSS service if this is Submitted at 7/30/2012 12:59:23 PM Hershey's statement on the your content and you're reading it incident reads: on someone else's site, please read Deadspin: NBC's No. 1 Tweeting "Food safety and the well-being the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- Critic Has Been Suspended From of our customers is a top priority only/faq.php#publishers. Five Twitter. for The Hershey Company. We Filters recommends: Incinerating According to the piece, it was a were contacted by the customer Assange - The Liberal Media Go tweet in which he revealed the yesterday regarding this incident To Work. email address of an NBC exec and immediately began reviewing that got his account suspended. our processes related to our "The man responsible for NBC JOLLY RANCHER CRUNCH 'N pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel." He included Zenkel's email address. One would hope Twitter would bend over backwards to
-taxpayer dollars. Schools should be focused on helping students, not their bottom line," said Banks. "This report underscores the need for Congress to protect students and taxpayers by passing this bill. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Twitter bans NBC critic

accomodate critics, esp since they are partnering with NBC on the Olympics coverage. And esp since NBC is using Twitter and realtime media incredibly poorly. It should be a serious embarassment to Twitter, assuming they understand how awful NBC's coverage has been. Shouldn't they have advised NBC not to delay the broadcast of the opening ceremonies according to timezone? It gets more interesting all the time!
68
Products/ Sports/
Whirlpool wins point in antidumping case against Samsung, LG

Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Olympics 2012: Ryan Lochte fourth in 200m free final - Sporting News
(- Bing News)
and 72.41 percent, respectively. The DOC also announced a 72.41 percent cash deposit rate for Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:59:59 PM Whirlpool's Mexican operations, Whirlpool wins point in though the company says it has antidumping case against stopped shipping washers from Samsung, LG Mexico for sale in the U.S. The U.S. Department of In an earlier antidumping case Commerce (DOC) ruled today involving French-door bottomt h a t s e v e r a l f o r e i g n the U.S. appliance industry," said freezers, the DOC also ruled m a n u f a c t u r e r s , i n c l u d i n g W h i r l p o o l C o r p o r a t i o n against Samsung and LG. But the Samsung and LG, both of whom spokesperson Kristine Vernier, in U . S . I n t e r n a t i o n a l T r a d e have many models on Consumer the news release. "Whirlpool is Commission then concluded that a Reports' recommended lists, are committed to building products in U.S. industry was not materially selling washing machines in the the regions where they are sold injured or threatened by those U.S. at prices below their fair a n d i n v e s t i n g i n o u r U . S . actions, and so no duties could be market value. The anti-dumping manufacturing presence. Our imposed. The trade commission investigation came in response to investments will continue as long will weigh in on this case as well, a petition filed in December 2011 as we can compete on a level though not until February 2013, b y W h i r l p o o l C o r p o r a t i o n , playing field, with all of our after the DOC issues its final another frequent winner in our foreign competitors playing by the determination. Subscribe now! appliance tests. Today's ruling established rules." S u b s c r i b e t o could result in price hikes for The U.S. plans to impose ConsumerReports.org for expert washing machines made overseas, antidumping tariffs for Korean Ratings, buying advice and though the case is far from over. producers LG, Samsung, and r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f "The Commerce Department's Daewoo of 12.15 percent, 9.62 products. Update your feed preliminary finding shows that percent, and 79.11 percent, preferences dumping is occurring, which respectively. Cash deposit rates supports the legal action we took for Mexican producers Electrolux on behalf of our employees and and Samsung are 33.30 percent
Lochte has turned in two straight disappointing performances after opening the games with a Ryan Lochte failed to medal d o m i n a n t w i n i n t h e 4 0 0 Monday in the men's swimming individual medley. On Sunday, 200-meter freestyle. The U.S. star Lochte anchored the U.S. in the finished fourth in the event. 4x100 free relay, taking over with France's Yannick Agnel routed a a seemingly comfortable lead. But stellar field by more than a second Agnel chased him down on the and a half to win the gold. Having final leg, giving France the gold. pushed France ahead of the While Lochte fell short in his United States in the anchor leg of final Monday, Matt Grevers was the 4x100 free relay a day earlier, golden in his. Grevers won gold Agnel led from start to finish and for the U.S. in the men's 100 clocked 1 minute, 43.14 seconds. backstroke. For good measure, RELATED: Updated medal Nick Thoman made it a 1-2 finish count; U.S., China neck and neck for the red, white and blue by "I did my best," Lochte said. "I taking the silver. g u e s s s o m e t i m e s y o u w i n , "Going into the ready room, we sometimes you lose. I gave it 110 were both just sitting there and we percent. There's probably some shared a look and shared a things I messed up on, but you t h o u g h t , " T h o m a n s a i d o f live and learn. (Agnel is) a great sweeping the top two spots. "I racer. There's no doubt about it. think that was in both of our He's quick and he showed it last heads." night and tonight. I'm happy for This entry passed through the him. He did good." Full-Text RSS service if this is Park Tae-hwan of South Korea your content and you're reading it and Sun Yang of China shared on someone else's site, please read silver in 1:44.93. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentW o r l d r e c o r d h o l d e r P a u l only/faq.php#publishers. Five Biedermann of Germany was Filters recommends: Incinerating fifth. Assange - The Liberal Media Go Defending champion Michael To Work. Phelps did not enter the event.
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:29:59 PM
Sports/ Gaming/ Finance/
69
Man United launches NY Stock Exchange listing YAHOO!

The Associated Press (- Bing News)
The club was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1991 until the Glazers completed Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:37:09 PM a leveraged buyout valued at LONDON (AP) -- Manchester $1.47 billion in June 2005. United launched its New York The Glazers, who also own the S t o c k E x c h a n g e l i s t i n g o n NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Monday, hoping to raise around also announced on Monday a $330 million by selling 10 percent seven-year shirt sponsorship deal of the Premier League club. with American car company The record 19-time English Chevrolet, which will begin at the champions said in a filing to the start of the 2014-15 season. S e c u r i t y a n d E x c h a n g e The current United shirt sponsor, Commission about 16.7 million Aon, has another two seasons to shares will be offered at a cost of run with the team in a deal that between $16 and $20. began in the 2010-11 season. United is looking to raise funds The Red Devils were on track to to help reduce debt from the win their 20th league title this Glazer family's 2005 takeover, year, taking an eight-point lead rated at $663 million as of March into the final weeks of the season. 31. But crosstown rival Manchester The Glazers will retain control of City, which became soccer's the club through its ownership of biggest spender following its Class B shares, which will have purchase by Sheikh Mansour bin 10 times the voting power of the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of stock sold to the public. Abu Dhabi, won the title on goal
difference on the final day of the season. RT @ Post_Game: Steelers Rookie Injured On Walk To Wal-Mart http://t.co/ Gn5N1FP3 Beach volleyball stars Kerri Walsh and Misty May went to marriage counseling to regain edge prior to the#Olympics. -> http://t.co/twUvGN2Y U.S. women's volleyball team is a real threat to win its 1st#Olympics gold. Destinee Hooker is a main reason why --> http://t.co/ 1sNSOZzU This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Free furry, gender-swapped DLC for Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3

Jessica Conditt (Joystiq)
option that makes Tycho a lion, Gabe a pony, Moira an American Red Fox and Jim a turtle. Both Penny Arcade's On the Rain- p a c k s a l t e r g a m e p l a y a n d Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is cutscenes, a feat that took a bit of bending the rules of gender and extra work for Zeboyd, and, as species with a free DLC pack Penny Arcade notes, makes the available now on Steam(and set to developer "very cool." hit Xbox 360 soon). The free Free furry, gender-swapped DLC DLC - labeled the "Fanfiction for Rain-Slick Precipice of Pack" - adds gender-swapped Darkness 3 originally appeared on v e r s i o n s o f a l l p l a y a b l e Joystiq on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 characters, turning Tycho into 21:30:00 EST. Please see our Tyche, Gabe into Gabbie, Moira terms for use of feeds. i n t o M a n u e l , a n d J i m i n t o Permalink| Email this| Comments Benjamina. The pack also adds a "furry"
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:30:00 PM
Manchester United seeks to raise $383m in NYSE float

Telegraph Staff (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Manchester United is seeking to raise up to $383m (243m) on the New York Stock Exchange in the
biggest test of investors' appetite for a football club in years.
70
Gaming/ Featured/ Social Media/
Can you do journalism on Twitter?

UK adopts PEGI rating system, can prosecute for underage sales
Jessica Conditt (Joystiq)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:00:00 PM
The UK now officially uses the PEGI system for rating video games, dropping its separate British Board of Film Classification ratings guide. This removes the voluntary dualclassification system previously in place, and makes the sale of games to underage customers illegal in a real way. In the UK, retail workers can face prosecution for selling games with a PEGI rating of 12, 16 or 18 to underage customers, with a
1. Twitter just threw a reporter off the service for revealing the email address of an NBC exec. 2. With all the reporters using NBC requested Twitter do it. 3. Twitter these days, it's interesting N B C a n d T w i t t e r h a v e a to see that now this question p a r t n e r s h i p . might finally get a real look. So at this point, if you're a In the past, when issues of ethics reporter and you have a story came up, it was only the tech that's critical of Twitter, do you maximum sentence of six years. press around, and they were more post a link to your followers? PEGI ratings include icons or less unanimous in getting angry What if it reveals information d e n o t i n g b a d l a n g u a g e , when their ethics are questioned. they consider private? What if discrimination, gambling, drugs, Tar and feather the accuser. Lots you violate some other of their sex, violence, fear and online of excuses why they had to feed terms of service? Have you play. Those two may as well be in the same trough as their disclaimed to your readers and one icon - the Internet is a competitors. The lure of millions followers that you are subject to terrifying place. of followers is too strong to resist. their terms of service? Do you UK adopts PEGI rating system, Let's see if the mainstream press know what's in their terms of can prosecute for underage sales is any better. service? originally appeared on Joystiq on Here are the salient facts. All this time the press has been Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:18:32 PM
(Dave Winer)
acting as if Twitter were a public utility, when it is nothing like that. It's a service operated for free by a private company. They don't see it in any way as a public utility. They have good PR and have chosen a friendly logo, and they make jokes and they're nice guys. But they're running a business. And your writing is subject to their whims. And your recourse is nothing. Read the terms of service. And lest you think Facebook is any better, it isn't. It's time for journalists to take a serious look at this and decide if they are really serious about journalism. Imho.
7 Benefits of Mobile Expense Reporting

Eric Sikola (Mashable!)
Services, about 63% of CFOs plan to implement digital expense reporting solutions. A growing In todays business environment, part of that is mobile expense the manual process of creating r e p o r t i n g . M o b i l e e x p e n s e and processing expense reports is reporting essentially automates quickly becoming a thing of the the entire process from expense past. According to CFO Research capture to expense approval.
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:34:35 PM
say, take pictures of receipts and save copies via the cloud. Here is a breakdown of just a few of the other benefits. 1. Eliminate Human Errors Manual expense entry leaves This means smartphone-equipped room for human error. One study travelers now have the option to, revealed t
Continue reading... More About: Mobile, business search, contributor, features, mobile apps
Science/ Finance/ Social Media/
71
Nike's New Strobing Glasses Enhance Athletes' Visual Acuity and Sensory Skills
Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:35:39 PM
Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear Like glasses that help you see worse. NIKE Nike has developed a means of increasing visual short-term memory retention and physical reaction time via a set of strobing goggles that rob athletes in training of some of their vision. The SPARQ Sensory Performance system evaluates an athlete for 10 visual performance skills and creates a training program specifically for him or her that involves wearing Nike's SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear, which basically fog over to block the wearer's vision for short
periods of time, forcing the athlete to anticipate what's coming next. The idea is to fine-tune an athlete's sensory perception, visual acuity, and the brain's ability to maintain a precise sense of timing absent a constant stream
of visual input. The regimen is backed up by Duke University research that shows that the SPARQ system can indeed heighten visual skills and improve athletes' reaction times. The system is apparently already in
beta with some professional and collegiate sports programs, and will see a worldwide rollout soon. It's tough to say at this point how much that improvement translates to the playing field, but Nike isn't the only entity out there looking for ways to groom the brain into a better tool for physical activity. DARPA and the DoD are constantly on the lookout for technological tools that will help soldiers stay more alert, improve physical reaction times, increase eye-hand coordination, and sharpen decision-making skills on the fly--so the implications for this technology beyond athletic training are certainly real. [ Mashable]
Batman Is a Cheapskate: Iron Man Get-Up Costs $1.6 Trillion [INFOGRAPHIC]

Chris Taylor (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:18:25 PM
Apple design chief: 'Our goal isn't to make money'

Katherine Rushton (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 5:17:08 PM
capitalisation of $556bn (354bn), but its design chief insists it is not in business for the money.
Apple might be the world's most valuable company, with a market
If you've been paying attention to the financial section of today's superhero news, you will have already noted the high cost of being Batman: $682 million. That's according to one estimate of the comic book character's costs by by British online financial marketplace MoneySupermarket.com. Big whoop, says Tony Stark. The cost of being Iron Man, from the tip of his gold-titanium exoskeleton to the last drop of fuel in his Audi R8, adds up to more than $1.6 trillion, according to one estimate by -- you guessed it -- MoneySupermarket.com. We're a little more confident in this estimate, however. Whereas the Batman study cited only "our research," this one lists a range of sites with e Continue reading... More About: batman, iron man
72
Science/ Talk/
Video: Four-Ton Japanese Mega Bot Fires BBs At Smiling Humans

Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:34:26 PM
Kuratas via Plastic Pals This boxy guy is called Kuratas, otherwise known as Vaudeville, and he stands 12 feet 5 inches tall. He weighs about 4.5 tons and is diesel-powered. Do not smile at him. He will shoot that grin right off your face. Kuratas is a real-life mech from (where else?) Japan, and it's an art project designed by Suidobashi Heavy Industry. Iron worker/artist Kogoro Kurata, at right in the
photo above, built his namesake robot and debuted it at something called Wonder Fest 2012, which took place over the weekend. It has a ride-in cockpit, a masterslave joystick and a touchscreen
fires when a small camera inside the robot detects when you smile. This is just for fun, however Kurata says he would never want his creation to harm anyone. But it could be used for robot competitions, he said. You could pretend-order one of your own, via a slick website Kurata and his colleagues at Suidobashi designed. The mecha come in various color schemes interface, and its arms can be and customizable weapons. But controlled via Kinect, so it could t h e b a s e m o d e l s t a r t s a t be trained as a champion boxer. $1,353,500, so better start saving. Its twin BB Gatling guns can fire [ Plastic Pals] up to 6,000 BBs per minute, according to Plastic Pals. And it
TED: Michael Anti: Behind the Great Firewall of China - Michael Anti (2012)
TEDTalks (TEDTalks (video))
Submitted at 7/30/2012 10:03:53 AM
Michael Anti (aka Jing Zhao) has been blogging from China for 12 years. Despite the control the central government has over the Internet -- "All the servers are in Beijing" -- he says that hundreds of millions of microbloggers are in fact creating the first national public sphere in the country's history, and shifting the balance of power in unexpected ways.
Video: William Shatner and Wil Wheaton Narrate Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing
Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:25:52 PM
Wil Wheaton On Mars NASA NASA is enlisting Hollywood to help promote its blockbuster new Mars rover, Curiosity, in a couple of new videos. Below you can watch both William Shatner and Wil Wheaton, vets of various "Star Trek" franchises, describe
Curiosity's "seven minutes of terror" as it touches down on Mars. As regular readers know by now, Curiosity has a very tricky landing ahead in a week's time, including use of a supersonic parachute and an elaborate "sky crane" lowering the rover onto the Both sci-fi actors are no stranger surface. Wheaton and Shatner to promotion of real space lend some appropriately dramatic science; Shatner has phoned the narration to NASA's animation of International Space Station to these events.
more funding through his multitudinous social media channels. Watch them both below and get jazzed for Curiosity's landing ... and remember to check with PopSci, live from Mission Control, for all the latest! wake up the astronauts, and he's narrated dramatic space shuttle commemoration videos. Wheaton promotes NASA and argues for
Health/
73
The Best and Worst French Fries in America

David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding (Eat This, Not That)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:50:24 PM
For years, experts have been trying to figure out the so-called French paradox. Why, if the French eat such rich food, do they tend to stay lean, while the waistlines of us diet-conscious Americans are growing faster than Justin Beiber's savings account? Well, in France, they eat a wide variety of foodsfats and carbs, yes, but also plenty of fruits and vegetables, and lots of lean meat. But when French food makes its way to America, things tend to go haywire. Le French bread? Pure carbs. Le French toast? Pure carbs with lots of sugar and grease. Le French dressing? Pure fat, mixed with water and magically tinted the color of Tang. And the worst offender of all: Les French fries. We've become so addicted to the crispy, salty, tender treats that nearly half of all potatoes harvested in the country wind up in the deep fryer. (And we eat an average of 130 pounds of taters, per person, every year.) But not every fry is created equal. While no one will ever accuse les frites of being a health food, there are some you can enjoy with relative impunityand others that deserve an all-out French Resistance. Take a look at the best and worst French fries in America, compliments of the forthcoming Eat This, Not That! 2013: The No
-Diet Weight Loss Solution. WORST CLASSIC FRIES Five Guys Fries (Large) 1,474 calories 71 g fat (14 g saturated) 213 mg sodium Five Guys lands on this list for no other reason than its egregious portion size. In terms of calories, it would take more than six small orders of McDonalds' fries to equal one large order from Five Guys. It's great that the chain fills its fryers with pure peanut oil, but until it offers reasonable portions, Five Guys will remain firmly entrenched on this side of the list. WORST SWEET POTATO FRIES Cheesecake Factory Sweet Potato Fries 960 calories 3 g saturated fat 1,521 mg sodium Think youre saving yourself some calories by opting for sweet potatoes over standard spuds? Youre not. A side of these fries will you run you 400 calories more than their regular counterpart. In keeping with the chains gargantuan portions (hey, it didn't finish first on our Worst Restaurants in America list without reason), this side dish contains nearly as many carbohydrates as 1.5 cans of Pringles. WORST LOADED FRIES Chilis Texas Cheese Fries with Chili and Ranch 2,120 calories 144 g fat (69 g saturated)
healthier side of the french fry spectrum. The thicker cut allows for a higher ratio of spud to oil. But not at Friday's. Here, ordering steak fries over standard fries will more than double your fat intakein fact, two-thirds of these calories are supplied by pure fat. That's how each hulking order manages to pack in more calories than an entire meal ought to. BEST CURLY FRIES Jack in the Box Seasoned Curly 5,920 mg sodium Fries (small) Not surprisingly, the namesake of 280 calories these fries, Texas, is among the 16 g fat (1 g saturated) top five most obese states in the 614 mg sodium nation. (Similarly, if you should Its menu once clotted with trans h a p p e n t o c o m e a c r o s s fats, Jack in the Box has made a Mississippi or West Virginia concerted effort in recent years to Fries, those should be avoided as cut down on dangerous oils. What well.) Essentially a plate of r e m a i n s i s a d r a m a t i c a l l y nachos that replaces chips with i m p r o v e d s i d e d i s h l i n e u p , fries, this appetizer is far and including your best option for a away the most damaging on novelty fry. Just be sure to stick to Chili's menu. It would take 22 of a small ordereach portion the chain's deep-fried mozzarella upsize tacks on an additional 150 sticks to match the calories on one calories. BEST CLASSIC FRIES plate, and the sodium toll will TGI Fridays Seasoned Fries likely leave you bloated with 290 calories water retention. 23 g fat (4.5 g saturated) FLAB? THERES AN APP FOR 650 mg sodium THAT! Eight of them, actually. TGI Friday's, the titleholder for Stop frontloading your meals with Worst Steak Fries, nearly redeems The 8 Worst Appetizers in itself with this classic version, the America and watch the pounds most reasonable you're likely to fall away. WORST STEAK find at a casual dining chain. Be FRIES careful though: These might be TGI Fridays Parmesan Steak surprisingly benign, but few of Fries Friday's entres follow suit. 660 calories Choose your meal wiselyI 49 g fat (10 g saturated) recommend the Petite Sirloinor 630 mg sodium you'll more than recover the Steak fries tend to fall on the
calories you saved on these damage-free fries. POUND-PACKING PATTIES: A decent side dish doesnt grant you free reign when it comes to your entre. Not even the most reasonable side of fries can make up for the dietary damage wrought by the 11 Worst Burgers in America. BEST FAST-FOOD FRIES McDonalds French Fries (small) 230 calories 11 g fat (1.5 g saturated) 160 mg sodium Not only are these fries "world famous," but they're also surprisingly harmless in small amounts. Downgrade from a large order to a small twice a week, and you'll drop 8 pounds within a year. I wouldn't recommend making them a regular part of your diet, but when a craving strikes, hit the golden arches and you'll emerge from the drive-thru relatively unscathed. For more instant health, fitness, and get-skinny-fast tips, follow me right here on Twitter or sign up for the FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter. Youll get up-tothe-minute news and studies that can help you lose weight and feel greatwithout ever dieting! -----------NEW! Check out the all-new 82Day Total-Body Speed Shred, the ultimate workout DVD series from the editors of Men's Health DON'T MISS ANY OF THE BEST page 75
74
Health/
What Does The Future Hold For Bird Flu Research?

Nell Greenfieldboyce (Shots Health Blog)
In a hotel ballroom in New York City, a couple hundred flu researchers watched with interest Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:46:00 PM Monday as a government official Firdia Lisnawati/ AP ran down a list of seven kinds of A government official in Bali, experiments that could raise Indonesia, holds a chicken before special security risks. administering an injection to cull The official noted that one item it as a precautionary measure in on the list was any experiment April to prevent the spread of bird that could make an infectious flu. agent more transmissible, or
contagious. "It wouldn't take long for this audience to come up with an example of that," he noted wryly. He was referring, of course, to controversial experiments that showed how to alter bird flu viruses in a way that could make them spread in ferrets, the lab stand-in for humans. The work caused an international uproar late
last year, as critics said if these viruses got out of the lab, they could cause a pandemic in people. Scientists said their work is essential in trying to prepare for a pandemic that might occur naturally, but in January agreed to voluntarily put some of their work on hold, in what was supposed to be a pause that lasted 60 days. It has now been more than six
months, and the moratorium is still in effect. The meeting at the Times Square Marriott Marquis will include discussions on whether and how the work should go forward. The flu scientists who made the mutant viruses are attending, along with other researchers who signed the WHAT page 75
75
WHAT
BEST
moratorium. Simply stated, good science can be put to bad use. - Dennis Dixon, NIAID Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded the controversial bird flu experiments, is set to lead an open discussion on Tuesday morning in a session called, "The Way Forward in Influenza Research." The meeting was closed to the press. However, the night before the conference began, officials reversed that decision. The first session of the conference Monday featured a talk that was a kind of primer for the researchers on something called the dual-use dilemma, the idea that legitimate science can pose risks in the wrong hands. "Simply stated, good science can be put to bad use," explained Dennis Dixon of the NIAID. In addition to reviewing types of experiments that might raise concerns, he described the new government policy put in place in March that aims to address this problem, by reviewing any of those experiments on a list of dangerous pathogens and toxins that includes highly pathogenic avian influenza. He said the National Institutes of Health recently did a review of its
supported research and found only a small number of projects that seemed to fall under the new policy. Some of them involve influenza. During a panel discussion following his talk, some flu researchers raised questions about how the new policy would be implemented. Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, whose lab did one of the recent bird flu experiments that raised concerns, said it wasn't clear what risks had to be mitigated for an experiment to be allowed to proceed, and to what extent those risks had to be minimized. He also said that the policy's requirement for a risk benefit analysis before doing experiments seemed "very tough" to him. Bird Flu Researchers To Meet About Research Moratorium July 24, 2012 Journal Publishes Details On Contagious Bird Flu Created In Lab June 21, 2012 Bird Flu Scientist Has Applied For Permit To Export Research April 24, 2012 "You can't weigh risks and benefits," Fouchier asserted, noting that if the benefits and risks for basic research are not quantifiable, "you're weighing two things that you can't weigh."
He also said that although concerns have been raised about so-called gain of function experiments that give pathogens new properties, like becoming more pathogenic or more contagious, such experiments are essential to truly understand how viruses work. "The proof of the pudding comes from the gain-offunction approach," said Fouchier. "There is no way around that." His concerns were echoed by Peter Palese of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who said: "I find some of these new rules and regulations actually quite frightening. And I am afraid that it will actually negatively affect our science. And so I would hope that there is a little bit of a pushback." Palese said he hoped any regulations will continue to allow this kind of flu research to be done in the United States. "Otherwise it will be done in other countries and I am not so sure that's what we really would want," said Palese. Scientists have an obligation to do risk-benefit analyses, "no matter how hard it is," said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota professor who serves on a government committee that advises the government on dualuse research.
"I believe the work you did is very important, that it is very informing, and it needs to be continued," said Osterholm, speaking to the researchers sitting on the stage at the front of the ballroom. But he said he sees a risk in a "business as usual" approach that would allow this technology to be freely communicated and distributed to other labs around the world that might not have the same oversight or safety. "The issue is enabling many parts of the world do to this work in a way that they wouldn't otherwise have done it," he said. Osterholm warned that if a mutant bird flu virus ever escaped a lab, the government would clamp down on research in a way that would make the current regulations seem "very mild." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
EAT THIS, NOT THAT! BOOKS! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
76
Health/
Legal Battle Erupts Over Whose Plastic Consumers Should Trust

Jon Hamilton (Shots - Health Blog)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:01:00 PM
[4 min 38 sec] Download David McNew/ Getty Images CamelBak-brand water bottles on display at an outdoor supply store in Arcadia, Calif., in 2008. The company removed BPA from the plastic in its bottles.
In 2007, Eastman Chemical began marketing a tough new BPA-free plastic called Tritan. Business was good, says Lucian Boldea, a vice president at Eastman. "We were able to make the statement that our product is not made with BPA and would release data to consumers to support that fact," he says.
BPA, short for bisphenol A, is a chemical that can act like the hormone estrogen. While environmental groups and the government still disagree about whether BPA or any estrogen-like chemicals pose a health risk, consumers are clear that they want Sippy cups and water bottles made of plastics they consider safe.
About a year ago, a scientist named George Bittner published a study of more than 400 plastic products, including some made with Tritan. Bittner is the founder of PlastiPure and CertiChem, which tests products for chemicals that act like estrogen. PlastiPure helps manufacturers make EAfree plastic products plastics free of any chemical with
estrogen-like activity. Bittner's study found problems with a wide range of BPA-free products, including Tritan. "We found that most other plastic products also released chemicals having estrogenic activity," Bittner explains. He says even products that had no estrogenic LEGAL page 77
Politics-Right/
77
LEGAL
activity when they came off the shelf changed under certain conditions, "such as boiling, microwaving, dishwashing or exposing to sunlight." Eastman responded to the study by declaring that Tritan products are not only BPA-free but EAfree, and it filed a lawsuit against CertiChem and PlastiPure. BPA And Behavior: More Questions Than Answers BPA in mothers' urineduring pregnancy was associated with bad behavior of their 3-year-olds. BPA To Be Banned In Calif. Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups The chemical, found in some hard plastics, has come under fire for its possible effects on health. Senate Lurches Ahead On Food Safety Bill, But Hurdles Remain A ban on earmarks has emerged as a key sticking point for a Senate vote on a food safety bill. Eastman's Boldea says Bittner's study subjected products to extreme conditions not found in the home. Furthermore, he says, there's a conflict of interest with Bittner's ownership of both companies. But Bittner says other tests
confirmed the finding, and that Eastman is just trying to squelch scientific evidence that makes its products look bad. What's interesting about the legal battle, though, is that Eastman, a major chemical company, thinks estrogen activity is important enough to fight over. That's a big change. Just a few years ago, chemical companies, including Eastman, were still arguing that BPA was safe. Now, many of those companies have voluntarily removed BPA from products and seem to be going even further embracing the idea that consumers want completely EA-free plastics. Mike Usey, the CEO of PlastiPure, says that's why he sees an upside to Eastman's suit against his company. "It's is a validation that there is a market there," Usey says. "Consumers do want safer products. They don't want slogans." Many endocrinologists think it's time to identify chemicals that act on any of the body's hormone systems. Biologist Tom Zoeller at the University of Massachusetts
says it doesn't make sense to focus only on chemicals that act like estrogen. "To the extent that legislators or regulatory bodies might actually think that if we take care of estrogen we're really OK I'd be surprised if anybody actually took that seriously," he says. Regulators are discussing ways to identify a broad range of so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals. But even as agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration look to new potential threats, they still haven't reached a conclusion about some old ones not even BPA. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
The Sweet Fruits of Free Trade

Sylvia Oh (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
generate 313,000 jobs statewide. South Korea is the fourth largest market for Washington goods, worth $1.4 billion of exports last Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:00:36 PM After years of delays and year. And cherry exports to South renegotiations, a free trade Korea are expected to continue agreement between the United growing. S t a t e s a n d S o u t h K o r e a ( Not surprisingly, it is not just the KORUS) finally took effect four U.S. economy that benefits from months ago. Some parts of the KORUS. In South Korea, where U.S. economy are already bearing fresh cherries can be found only sweet fruit. in upscale supermarkets at more As of this year, cherry growers in t h a n $ 1 0 p e r p o u n d , m o r e Washington have shipped 368,000 consumers will be able to enjoy boxes of fresh cherries to South high quality cherries at an Korea. Compared to the same affordable price. period last year, exports have This is just one example of how more than doubled from 171,000 trade freedom, one of the 10 boxes. Weve already surpassed significant factors of economic our expectations and we have freedom, brings mutual benefit to another month and a half to go, the global economy. B. J. Thurlby, president of Sylvia Oh is currently a member Northwest Cherry Growers and of the Young Leaders Program at the Washington State Fruit The Heritage Foundation. For Commission, said Friday. On more information on interning at March 15, as KORUS went into Heritage, please visit http:// effect, the 24 percent tariff on w w w . h e r i t a g e . o r g / a b o u t / cherries was removed, helping d e p a r t m e n t s / y l p . c f m . U.S. cherry growers to be more This entry passed through the competitive in an international Full-Text RSS service if this is marketplace. your content and you're reading it For the U.S. economy, such on someone else's site, please read vibrant growth in trade is good the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentnews. For example, according a only/faq.php#publishers. Five report released by the Senator Filters recommends: Incinerating Maria Cantwells (DWA) office, Assange - The Liberal Media Go Washingtons two ports (in To Work. Seattle and Tacoma) together
78
Health/
Ebola Outbreak Kills At Least 14 In Uganda

(Shots - Health Blog)
patients are admitted to hospitals. The outbreak began in a rural Submitted at 7/30/2012 12:42:00 PM district of Uganda about 125 Cynthia Goldsmith/ CDC miles west of the Uganda capital, Although infections with the Kampala. Ebola virus are rare, they can be WHO and the Centers for deadly. Disease Control and Prevention An outbreak of the Ebola virus have dispatched teams to the has emerged in western Uganda. region to investigate and help Twenty cases were reported by contain the outbreak. Doctors the World Health Organization from Medecins Sans Frontieres yesterday. At least 14 people have a r e a l s o h e l p i n g t o s e t u p died. The number of Ebola q u a r a n t i n e c e n t e r s . infections is expected to rise in The Wall Street Journal reports the next few days, as more o n e i n f e c t e d p e r s o n w a s
transferred to a hospital in Kamapala, raising fears that the virus has spread to the capital city. But the WHO said today on its Twitter account, "No infections occurred in Kampala." CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told CNN yesterday that "these outbreaks have a tendency to stamp themselves out, if you will, if we can get in and...stop the chain of transmission." Nevertheless, in a state broadcast this morning, Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni urged people to avoid touching each other, the BBC reports. Ebola spreads by direct contact with bodily fluids, such as saliva and blood. Uganda has suffered through three major outbreaks of Ebola in the past 12 years, including one that claimed 224 lives in 2000. Ebola, which is named after a small river in central Africa, is a deadly virus that causes sudden fever, muscle weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, and kidney problems. The death rate from Ebola
depends on the specific strain of the virus, but it has ranged between about 30 to 50 percent in Uganda. There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Politics-Right/ Social Media/
79
Sluggish Economic Growth: More Reason to Renounce Tax Hikes

Patrick Louis Knudsen (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
ink. For 2013, OMB now projects a deficit $91 billion greater than its February estimate, largely due to $148 billion in new stimulus spending the President originally Submitted at 7/30/2012 3:21:13 PM On the afternoon of another sought for 2012. Through the rest discouraging assessment of the of the decade, the Administration nations economic growth, the projects lower deficits and debt Obama Administration late Friday t h a n i t s F e b r u a r y b u d g e t quietly released its mid-year e s t i m a t e d . u p d a t e o f t h e b u d g e t . T h e The foundation of every budget is synchronicity made clear just how the set of underlying economic far from reality the Presidents assumptions, and that is where the fiscal and economic policies have problems with the Presidents driftedand the imperative of a numbers start. His economic prompt course correction. figures are all but unachievable. Friday morning, the Bureau of The Administration projects GDP Economic Analysis reported a growth of 2.3 percent for all of tepid 1.5 percent growth in real this year. Reaching that annual gross domestic product (GDP) for rate would require the economy to the second quarter of this year. expand at nearly 3 percent for the That reflected a slowdown from balance of 2012double the pace the anemic 2 percent in the first of the second quarter. That growth three months of 2012 and an rate is not impossible, but is ominous warning of growing highly unlikely, especially given sluggishness through the rest of the growing talk of recession. the year. At least as disturbing is the Later Friday, the Office of Administrations rosy forecast Management and Budget (OMB), beyond this year. OMB projects nearly two weeks past the legal 2.7 percent GDP growth next deadline, trickled out its Mid- year, 3.5 percent in 2014, 4.1 Session Review of the budget. It percent in 2015, and 4 percent in predicted a slight decline in the 2016. All four projections are d e f i c i t t h i s y e a r t o $ 1 . 2 higher than the Blue Chip t r i l l i o n s t i l l t h e f o u r t h consensus of private forecasters, consecutive year of 13-digit red and the discrepancy widens over
time: the 2015 and 2016 estimates exceed the Blue Chip by more than a full percentage point. Moreover, the U.S economy has not seen growth rates greater than 4 percent since 2000. One should certainly hope for such growth rates, but credible budgets are not built on wishes. Fridays disappointing growth figures also demonstrate the unquestionable failure of the Administrations economic analyses and Keynesian-inspired stimulus program. In President Obamas initial budget submission, in February 2009, the Administration projected the economy, jolted by the $831 billion Recovery Act, would be surging by 4.6 percent this year in inflation-adjusted terms. That is exactly twice the Administrations growth forecast now. Yet the President still demands $98 billion in tax hikes next year and nearly $2 trillion in tax increases over the next 10 years. Indeed, his allies in the Senate are willing to risk a recession by letting the $500 billion Taxmageddon tax hike take effect next year just to win an ideologically driven challenge. As commentator Pat Buchanan recently noted, their attitude
resembles the chicken run scene in the classic 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, in which Buzz Gunderson wins by driving over a cliff to his deathbecause his sleeve gets caught in the door handle of his car. The looming tax hikes and general uncertainly about fiscal and regulatory policy are stifling growth right now. While the government has little capacity to jumpstart the economy, one thing it can do is remove the threat of tax hikes hanging over investors and employers. Given the economys growing weakness, the President and his congressional allies should promptly renounce any tax increases and extend all existing tax policiesincluding current rates on upper-income brackets. They should yield their ideology and accept economic reality. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Goodbye, Gmail Video Chat. Hello Google+ Hangouts

Chris Taylor (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:30:16 PM
If you enjoy video chatting over Gmail the way you've been doing it since 2008, better wave your last goodbyes to your buddy list. Starting Monday, and continuing over the next few weeks, Google is going to be replacing Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts. "Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-topeer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Googles network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality," reads the explanatory blog post written by the Gmail team. "Youll be able to chat with all the same people you did before -and, in fact, with Hangouts youll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail, but also if they are on Googl Continue reading... More About: Google, gmail, google plus hangouts, trending
80
Politics-Right/ News Wire/
Obamacare by the Numbers

Alyene Senger (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 4:30:09 PM
Looking for some straight facts on Obamacare and its impact? Here are some of the most important numbers you need to know about President Obamas health law: 20 million. The Congressional Budget Office(CBO) projects that as many as 20 million Americans could no longer have their current employer-based health coverage by 2019; others predict it could be as high as 35 million. 85 million. The Office of the Actuary at CMS estimates that, by 2020, Medicaid enrollment will increase from 54 million in 2010 to 85 million, pushing America closer to government-run health care. 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Individuals earning over $44,680 a year and families earning over $92,200 a year are not eligible for any federal
subsidies to help purchase coverage under Obamacare. $1 trillion. Based on an updated CBO score, Obamacare imposes 18 new taxes or penalties totaling over $1 trillion from 2013 to 2022 that will directly or indirectly impact families, including those earning below $250,000. 8.1.2012. Starting August 1, Obamacare forces many employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to offer abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. $1.683 trillion. Obamacare expects to spend over one-and-ahalf trillion dollars between 2012 and 2022 on its coverage expansion provisions alone, according to the CBO. 30 million. Updated CBO estimates show that despite spending over a trillion dollars, Obamacare will leave 30 million Americans uninsured in 2021. $716 billion. Although Medicare faces $37 trillion in unfunded obligations, Obamacare takes
$716 billion out of Medicare to pay for non-Medicare coverage provisions, according to CBOs latest update. 15. The number of unelected officials that will be in charge of cutting Medicare payments for millions of seniors under the Independent Payment Advisory Board in Obamacare. 50.8 percent. The majority of Americans continue to support repeal. The Real Clear Politics Average from March 10, 2012, to July 28, 2012, shows that voters support repeal by an 8-point margin. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News

(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)
Top Stories Seven states in India lost power on Monday morning after the Northern Grid crashed, leaving more than 300 million people in the dark. Hong Kong residents marched en masse against a planned Chinese national education curriculum that many say would amount to brainwashing in schools. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against a firm for insider trading related to the recently proposed CNOOC-Nexen deal.
Olympic officials said they are investigating allegations that an Irish competitor who was not named, placed a bet on an opponent during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Since violence erupted in the central Asian Republic of Tajikistan Tuesday, an entire city of 20,000 people, Khorog, has been under siege. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Daily World/ Technology/
81
Gymnastics medallists 'inspiration'

(Evening Standard - News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:00:08 PM
Whitlock's training partner Anthony Wise, 16, from Havering, said: "Everyone was Britain's Olympic gymnasts have going mental each time he was on been lauded after their historic the TV. It is a bit mental, nobody medal win at London 2012. expected Great Britain to get a Team GB members like Kristian medal. We have never got a team Thomas will prove an inspiration medal before, we've never come for more youngsters to follow in anywhere, not even qualified. I'm their footsteps, the sport's chiefs over the moon, he's one of my said. best mates. He was not even John Caulwell, chairman of Earls expected to make the team a year Gymnastics Club in Halesowen, ago because he was one of the w h e r e T h o m a s h a s b e e n a younger ones." members since the age of five, Sam Oldham updated his said: "It is absolutely fantastic, it Facebook page saying: "I've won is such an inspiration to our young Bronze in the Gymnastics Artistic gymnasts and our young members - Men's Team - Final!" for them to have someone like Oldham receives funding of him to look up to. His attitude to 2,012 from Nottinghamshire his training is just fantastic. To County Council's Shining Stars have Kristian here doing what he's Fund to help with travel and doing is just phenomenal. It is a training costs each year. great privilege to have him in the Council leader Kay Cutts joined club." his family and friends at The Max Whitlock, 19, travels 90 Plough Inn, Normanton on the miles a day, six days a week from Wolds, Notts, to watch the drama his home in Hemel Hempstead to unfold on a big screen. Notts train at South Essex Gymnastics C o u n t y C o u n c i l ' s c u l t u r e Club, where he has been a committee chairman John Cottee member for seven years. Fellow said: "Many congratulations to gymnasts crowded round the TV Sam and his team mates for at the club and cheered him on as m a k i n g h i s t o r y i n m e n ' s he took bronze. gymnastics. We are so proud of
them and they will inspire a whole new generation of youngsters." Tony Dalton, the chairman of Southport YMCA where Daniel Purvis trains at the attached gymnastics club, said the medal winner had been at the club since the age of seven, training five or six days a week. "We are tremendously proud, as you can imagine," Mr Dalton said. Meanwhile, Britain's drop to a bronze medal after believing they had won silver was a "cruel twist" of fate, according to London 2012 chairman Lord Coe. He told ITV News: "It was a cruel twist at the end but it is still history. It is the first team medal and the atmosphere in that venue this evening was extraordinary. It was rocking. It was just sensational." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Samsung Retina-like 11.8 -inch tablet in the works according to court docs
Zach Honig (Engadget)
connectivity. Details are thin beyond that, and it's still possible that Samsung may not have a high If you've been following the -res tablet for us this year -Apple vs. Samsung case even though with the company's casually, you're probably aware mysterious New York City event that today marked the start of the coming up in two weeks, followed patent trial in the US District by IFA later in the month, there Court for the Northern District of are plenty of opportunities in California, with Judge Lucy Koh August alone for such an official p r e s i d i n g . A n d w h i l e t h e reveal. proceedings themselves won't Philip Palermo contributed to this necessarily justify an Olympics- report. l e v e l p l a y - b y - p l a y , s e v e r a l Filed under: Displays, Tablet PCs interesting bits are sure to come to Samsung Retina-like 11.8-inch light. Today's nugget relates to tablet in the works according to S a m s u n g ' s t a b l e t r o a d m a p , court docs originally appeared on revealing that a Retina-like tablet Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 may be in the works. The P10, as 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our it's been labeled internally, packs terms for use of feeds. Permalink| a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel, 11.8-inch The Verge| Email this| Comments display, along with WiFi and LTE
Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:25:00 PM
82
Daily World/ News Photos
Tickets sold to fill empty Olympics photos of the day - San seats
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:00:07 PM
Some 3,000 Olympics tickets from international sports federations were "put back in the pot" on Sunday night and sold to the public, Locog has said. The move came after the sights of swathes of empty seats at events in the first days of the Games prompted anger from people who had struggled to get tickets. London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe had promised to urge international federations to make sure they used areas reserved for them to avoid embarrassment. Jackie Brock-Doyle, Locog's director of communications, said they had been able to get back 3,000 and re-sell them - a move they will do each day to make sure as many seats as possible are filled. "We talked to the International Federations yesterday, we were able to put back into the pot for sale around 3,000 tickets last night, they have all been sold," she said. "That includes about 600
for the gymnastics event today and we're going to do that on a day-to-day basis." Meanwhile, a Brazilian tourist in London for the Olympics was helping sports fans by selling his unwanted tickets for no profit when he was arrested for touting, a court has heard. Cezar Navajas, 35, told Westminster Magistrates' Court he sold three unwanted beach volleyball tickets for 140 roughly the amount he paid for them - after seeing people outside the Olympic site with signs begging for tickets on his first day in the UK. The South American admitted a charge of illegally selling tickets under section 31 of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006. Three Romanians, Paul Gabriel Ramoiu, 36, Cosmin Constantin Vuc, 36, and Vezar Navajas, 35, pleaded guilty to the same charge, admitting they travelled to the UK and bought 12 tickets for 300 to sell for profit. The three, who were arrested separately in Stratford on Saturday, were fined by district judge Elizabeth Roscoe
but the fines were waived because they had already spent two days in custody. Judge Roscoe fined Navajas 300, saying: "Obviously these days no tickets for big sporting events are readily transferable on a commercial basis. I accept you were selling them for face value. But that is still not permitted." Thames Valley Police said they had charged a man with selling Olympic tickets without authority. George Doran, 59, of Scharnikau Strasse in Hanover, Germany, was charged after being arrested in Windsor. He has been released on conditional bail to appear before Slough Magistrates' Court on August 14. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Francisco Chronicle
(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:32:27 PM
San Francisco Chronicle Olympics photos of the day San Francisco Chronicle The nails of Laura Robson of Great Britain are painted with colors of the Union Flag as she plays against Lucie Safarova at the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon, in London, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 30, 2012. (AP
Photo/Mark... Multiple Exposure Olympics PHOTOS: Multiple Exposure Photos Capture... Huffington Post London Olympics: best photos of July 30, 2012 ( photo essay) OregonLive.com Photos: Swimming at the London 2012 Olympics, July 30 Long Beach Press-Telegram Denver Post- News in photos all 846 news articles
Photos: USA Women Defeat Brazil In Volleyball - Long Beach Press-Telegram

Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:28:31 PM
Photos: USA Women Defeat Brazil In Volleyball Long Beach Press-Telegram ... 30: The United States player celebrate winning the Women's
Volleyball Preliminary match between the United States and Brazil on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Earls Court on July 30, 2012 in London, England. ( Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)... and more
Daily World/ News Photos Politics/
83
Zara has her chance to rein supreme

Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:00:09 PM
Those memorable scenes in the Aquatics Centre were played out shortly after GB's men's gymnasts Zara Phillips is set to jump for wrote their own names into the glory with fellow riders from Olympic history books. Their Britain's eventing team as they dramatic bronze was the first reach for Team GB's first gold of British medal in the event for 100 the Olympics. years. The Queen's granddaughter can Britain hold silver medal position expect a rapturous reception from in the team eventing competition the home crowd at Greenwich b e h i n d r e i g n i n g E u r o p e a n Park as she takes part in the champions Germany coming into showjumping finale of the tightly- the action. The last time Team GB fought competition, with first won an Olympic team eventing place still very much in sight. gold was in Munich 40 years, That golden dream has already when Captain Mark Phillips c o m e t r u e f o r 1 5 - y e a r - o l d Zara's father - was a competitor. swimming sensation Ruta Phillips and her fellow Meilutyte after the Lithuanian equestrians were cheered on by schoolgirl, who lives and trains in t h e D u k e a n d D u c h e s s o f Plymouth, on Monday night stole Cambridge, Prince Harry, her the heart of her adopted country cousins Beatrice and Eugenie and with a spectacular win in the the Duchess of Cornwall. Phillips, women's 100 metres breaststroke a f o r m e r w o r l d c h a m p i o n , final. produced a command Her breathless victory and performance on her Olympics emotional post-race interview cross-country debut as the GB instantly secured her status as a eventers kept their hopes of gold darling of the London Games. alive.
After her win in the pool an incredulous Meilutyte, who attends the same school as diver Tom Daley, was left almost lost for words as she tried to absorb what she had done. "I cannot believe it," she told the BBC afterwards. "It's too much for me." Looking at the camera and speaking in Lithuanian, she told her father in Plymouth: "Thank you. I love you." It was a very different story for her fellow pupil at Plymouth College. Daley and Pete Waterfield were left deflated after missing out on a podium place in the synchronised 10m platform final. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Syria Crisis: Photos From Aleppo War Zone - Huffington Post

Submitted at 7/30/2012 6:35:39 PM
Syria Crisis: Photos From Aleppo War Zone Huffington Post Below are photos from the last week in Aleppo. High-resolution
photos of the conflict are often difficult to come by, and the aimed rifles, anguished families and war-weary faces in these pictures provide a rare look at the conflict. WARNING: Photos... and more
The Only Way to Fix Campaign-Finance Regulation Is to Destroy It

Ron Faucheux (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 2:21:49 PM
Spending laws have become become complex, senseless, and indecipherable. One counterintuitive way to fix it: Repeal contribution caps. Reuters Insanity is doing something over
and over, but expecting a different result. That pretty well describes campaign finance reform in America. The worse the system gets, the more we regulate it. The more we regulate it, the worse it gets. It all started in 1974, when Congress capped campaign ONLY page 84
84
ONLY
contributions and spending. The public rationale for the caps was that smaller donations and less spending would reduce the corrupting influence of money. A less apparent agenda, of course, was also less noble: Help reelect incumbents. Incumbents are usually better funded and better known than their challengers, so making it harder for all candidates to raise and spend money often puts newcomers at a disadvantage. The Supreme Court, in the 1976 Buckley decision, knocked down mandatory campaign spending caps, saying they violated the First Amendment on free-speech grounds, but kept caps on campaign contributions. This essentially left us with what we have today: a governmentregulated system in which individual contributions to federal candidates are limited, but spending by candidates and outside groups is unlimited. Has government regulation of campaign finance achieved its goal of reducing the importance of money in politics? A simple statistic can answer the question. Since 1974, total congressional campaign spending has gone from $77 million an election cycle to $1.8 billion (in 2010). You decide whether that sounds like success. Over the last four decades, the campaign finance system has
become a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption of complex, senseless, and indecipherable regulations. To fix it, new "reforms" (a.k.a. regulations) are routinely proposed, and some are even passed -- such as the McCainFeingold Bill in 2002. But the gush of money into politics continues unabated. It's time to recognize reality and do something we should have done years ago: Repeal campaign contribution caps. This suggestion will no doubt horrify some people. But when they think about it, cooler heads will prevail. When businessman W. Clement Stone contributed nearly $10 million to Richard Nixon's presidential campaigns in 1968 and 1972, appalled editorial writers and good-government types demanded Congress make it illegal for any person to contribute such a large amount of money. And so Congress did -spawning a massive array of rules and bureaucratic red tape to make sure contribution caps are obeyed, not to mention a slew of ways to legally get around them (in deference to free speech principles). Since then, contribution caps have given birth to a lot of the things today's editorial writers and good-government types detest, including super PACs and, of
course, the new whipping boy of campaign finance -- the misunderstood Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. ( Citizens United did not create unlimited "independent expenditures," as many pundits think. They have been around for years.) Contribution caps were intended to keep wealthy individuals -- like Clement Stone -- from dropping millions into campaign treasuries. They have not succeeded. The millions casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg have pumped into this year's elections through super PACs proves the point. And they are only the most obvious examples. The existing $2,500 cap on individual donations pushes money into independent entities such as super PACs, 527s, and 501(c)4s -- legal avenues for individuals and organizations to pipeline unlimited money into presidential and congressional elections. If we did away with the cap, we'd also do away with the need for these entities (after all, they only exist to legally circumvent the cap). The current system, with its limits on donations to candidates and complete lack of limits on donations to super PACs, diminishes candidates and breaks the chain of responsibility between voters and elected
officials. Under the current system, candidates have no responsibility for what super PACs do or say. They can deny -- in fact, legally, they must deny -- any involvement with them, even though these entities are, in essence, speaking for them through ads that are virtually indistinguishable from their own campaigns' ads (only the hard-toread disclaimer at the end tells them apart). If we eliminated contribution caps, political actors like Adelson and Katzenberg would give their money directly to Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, not the super PACs, and the candidates would each be publicly on the hook for accepting and spending this largesse. The super rich are already spending without limitation, so let's recognize that reality and make the candidates responsible for taking and spending the money. We get to vote for and against candidates. Their names are on the ballot. We don't get to vote for or against super PACs -groups with ambiguous names like "Restore Our Future" and "Priorities USA Action." In addition to eliminating contribution caps, we should make two other changes to our campaign laws: First, require full disclosure of all political
donations and expenditures and, second, reinstitute the $50 campaign-contribution incometax credit that existed between 1972 and 1986. Now, with online giving, this tax credit would encourage more small donations and broaden the base of political fundraising without multiplying rules and bureaucratic red tape. These changes would make our campaign system, if not perfect -nothing will make an electoral system in any democracy perfect - at least more honest and simple to understand. These are worthy, and achievable, goals. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/07/the-onlyway-to-fix-campaign-financeregulation-is-to-destroy-it/260426 / This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Politics/
85
Intellectual honesty on the national debt

Dustin Siggins (Hot Air Top Picks)
calculated cost $3.8 trillion through 2011. Surely he cant be held responsible for those Submitted at 7/30/2012 8:21:00 PM unforeseen events. posted at 9:21 pm on July 30, Yet Bush can and should be held 2012 by Dustin Siggins accountable for his policies. Senate Majority Leader Harry A c c o r d i n g t o R i e d l , t h e Reid(D-Nev.) recently decided prescription drug bill passed in for the fourth* year in a row 2006 is projected to add nearly not to pass a budget, meaning $400 billion in its first decade. u n c o n t r o l l e d s p e n d i n g c a n The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts cost continue apace. $1.7 trillion during the past 10 Federal spending will have gone years. Add on the cost of the war up by nearly 60 percent in 2010 on terror, which sums to about dollars from 2000 to estimated $1.3 trillion since its inception, 2013 spending. Yet to exclusively t h e 2 0 0 8 s t i m u l u s a n d t h e blame one political party smacks Troubled Asset Relief Program, of intellectual dishonesty because and there is plenty of fiscal both have failed in the past decade responsibility for the former to balance the budget. president. Additionally, Presidents Barack 2009 is where things get sticky Obama and George W. Bush had because Bush passed a budget that to deal with budgetary fallout l a s t e d t h r o u g h O b a m a s from their predecessors and other assumption of the presidency. factors for which they were not D i s e n t a n g l i n g w h o t a k e s responsible. Lets review some responsibility for what is difficult. history. Factcheck.orgs attempt to do so During Bushs tenure from 2001 concluded that Bush deserves through 2009, liberals cite the most of the culpability for the doubling of the national debt as staggering deficit: The truth is proof of his profligacy. The debt that the nearly 18 percent spike in did indeed double, but not all of it spending in fiscal 2009 for can be attributed to Bush policies. which the president [Obama] is For example, Bushs first year in sometimes blamed entirely was office was plagued by an inherited mostly due to appropriations and r e c e s s i o n a n d 9 / 1 1 , w h i c h , policies that were already in place coupled with other technical and when Obama took office. economic revisions, Heritage Yet Factcheck.org maintains that F o u n d a t i o n s B r i a n R i e d l about 14.5 percent of the 2009
deficit is attributable to Obama, which is no small contribution. Factcheck.org also notes that spending under Obama remains at a level that is quite high by historical standards. Measured as a percentage of the nations economic production, it reached the highest level since World War II in fiscal 2009 and has declined only slightly since. This means that while Obama escapes much of the blame for 2009, he doubled down and swelled spending, maintaining trillion-dollar deficits ever since. Indeed, he won enactment of an $860 billion stimulus bill and increased some of the spending in a $410 billion omnibus bill that year, and of course in 2010 signed the health care law, which is projected to massively skyrocket spending in years to come. In fact, costs will total nearly $1.3 trillion through the year 2022, Factcheck.org writes. Of course, part of the current deficits can be blamed on depressed revenue resulting from the recession, which according to liberal blogger Ezra Klein accounted for 19 percent of the 2009 deficit. But its undeniable that spending, and not lack of revenue, is the main source of our current deficits. Revenue is projected to return to its historical average of 18 percent of the gross
domestic product by 2016; meanwhile, spending is projected to stay well above the 20 percent of GDP historical average, swallowing nearly 25 percent as far as projections show. Worse are entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They grow automatically every year and did so relentlessly under Bush and Obama. Entitlement spending grew from 10 percent of GDP in 2001 to 11.2 percent in 2008. If left unaddressed, theyre projected to eat up 14.1 percent by 2020. Next year, they will cost $1.6 trillion. So where does all this leave us? If we average spending as a percentage of GDP under Bush from 2001 to 2009, it sums to just over 20 percent, about the historical average. If we do the same for Obama from 2010 to 2012, we get about 24 percent, quite a bit higher than the historical average. Was Bush too big a spender? Virtually every conservative even those who failed to admit it during his time in office will say so. Whats worse is that Obama not only continued Bushs final and worst year of spending, but he added on even more. And still more troubling is the fact that while the financial health of Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid has been worsened by both these presidents, demographic and other changes instituted by presidents before each mans time in office have created the core long-term budgetary problems we face. So we, members of the DebtPaying Generation, implore politicians, pundits and voters alike to focus not just on lessening spending in the short term, but to remember that the long-term effects of entitlement spending will outweigh even the worst of the policies of Obama and Bush. *The original version of this oped inaccurately stated Reid failed to pass a budget for the third year in a row. It is in fact the fourth. [ Originally published in Roll Call with David Weinberger, a Minnesota-based blogger who worked in communications at The Heritage Foundation.] This post was promoted from GreenRoom to HotAir.com. To see the comments on the original post, look here. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
86
Politics/
Democrats Prepare to Bring Out the Big Gun in Charlotte: Bill Clinton
Reid Wilson (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 11:01:41 AM
What a difference four years makes: After demonizing the former president, Obama turns to him for a marquee convention speaking slot. Reuters "There's a philosophy of saying and doing anything it takes." That was David Axelrod's critique of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign back in 2008, when he accused Bill Clinton of "doing slash and burn stuff" to win the nomination. Now, four years later, it takes Bill Clinton to make the case for reelecting President Obama. Democrats will announce today that Clinton will give a primetime address at this year's convention in Charlotte, formally nominating Obama for a second term in office and offering a clear contrast between his candidate and Republican Mitt Romney. The formal nomination is an insider's curiosity, a stark reversal from 2008, when Clinton's anger over the primaries was still palpable (And a nice parallel with 2008, when it was Hillary Clinton who moved that Obama's nomination be recorded as unanimous). But the speech he will give is the truly important signal, another
twist in the complicated and decidedly awkward political relationship between the two giants of Democratic politics made necessary by one's search for a legacy and another's hunt for reelection. It's a sign that the president who felt our pain is still the politician best able to connect with voters who will decide this election. At a moment when Americans are choosing between an incumbent who can't stop talking about how
rich he is and a Republican who can't stop talking about his buddies who own NASCAR and NFL teams, Clinton is perhaps the only national figure average Americans trust to understand what they're going through. MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL Obama, Romney Teams Vie for Early Voting Edge The Anti-Fed Movement Goes Mainstream The Slow Agony of the Obama
Recovery
to control the Democratic Party -the party's last president, who won Axelrod, Obama's top strategist, a second term, and its current said as much in an interview with incumbent, who's struggling to do The New York Times yesterday: the same. But dive deeper and it "There isn't anybody on the planet reflects a bigger tale of an who has a greater perspective on administration finding its way. not just the last four years, but the Just four years ago, Obama last two decades, than Bill contrasted himself with Clinton Clinton." during the Democratic primaries. Consider that statement for a O b a m a h i g h l i g h t e d R o n a l d moment. On its face, it highlights Reagan -- a president who did big an interesting insidery tale of two DEMOCRATS page 87 giant personalities still struggling
Politics/
87
Morgan Stanley strategist: Wall Streets betting on a Romney victory
DEMOCRATS
things on the national stage -- as the model he wanted to emulate. That was an implicit knock at Clinton, whose smaller, incremental steps were hallmarks of his run for re-election and second term. Now, facing a Republican House of Representatives and a Senate Allahpundit (Hot Air Top still kinda sorta maybe trusted presumptive prognosticators, Republican Conference that Picks) Wall Street. history indicates, but does not routinely blocks his priorities, At the end of the day, we are not guarantee, that the opposite has Obama has been forced to pursue Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:41:36 PM the same small-step strategies, really worried that Europe is usually been true. posted at 8:41 pm on July 30, going to be solved or that its Supposedly, the July 31-October using his executive power to 2012 by Allahpundit economy will strongly grow. We 31 trend has been accurate 82 advance administration agendas. I want to believe, but whats also dont think strong corporate percent of the time over the past Coincidentally, Obama's altered approach has come as he's relied happened lately to make Wall p r o f i t a b i l i t y r e l a t i v e t o century. Street believe this election isnt expectations will save the day, I wonder if Team O is tempted to more on Clinton as a political still a toss-up? Offhand, I cant [Morgan Stanley strategist Adam make hay of the speculation. The surrogate. think of one statistical model or Parker] said. idea of the market rising if your Clinton's planned address also betting market that has Mitt To us, the biggest bull case for opponents elected is, er, difficult highlights the fact that Democrats winning. Is there some concrete US equities is based on the huge to spin, but if theres one thing face a dramatically compressed indicator that theyre seeing or is cash balances and the potential Obama HQ is good at, its class convention schedule, something this more of a were not actually belief that they will be more warfare. A crude ad about bankers that's largely their own fault. The incumbent's party going to re-elect this tool gut a c t i v e l y a n d p r o d u c t i v e l y placing their bets on Mitt to avert feeling? Maybe theyre keyed into deployed. The biggest possibility tax hikes on their mansions and traditionally holds its convention the fact that Os hit Romney with here would be Romney winning dressage horses would be right up after the party out of power, and the kitchen sink on Bain and the presidential election. their alley. They could use that Democrats decided on Labor Day basically nothings happened to Many investors I have spoken scarrrry black and white photo of week before Republicans picked Mitts numbers? with believe that if the S&P 500 Romney waving around money in their dates. The party with the This guy is really the political should rise between July 31 and his Bain days and everything. Exit closest connection to the labor equivalent of a Cramer-esque Oct. 31, it would signal an question via Ace: Wouldnt a movement can't hold events on stock picker. If he says he detects impending Romney victory, said market rally just before the L a b o r D a y i t s e l f , m e a n i n g a trend, the trend becomes more S a m S t o v a l l , c h i e f e q u i t y election actually help Obama? Democrats had to compress their likely to happen simply because s t r a t e g i s t a t S & P . This entry passed through the schedule into three days instead of people are buying and selling The recovering market would be Full-Text RSS service if this is four. Adding to Democrats' based on his advice. If Wall Street a sign that the perceived anti-Wall your content and you're reading it scheduling troubles, the NFL will analysts start telling America that Street policies of the current on someone else's site, please read kick off its 2012 season with a the economys coming back if administration will soon come to the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- prime-time opener on Wednesday Romney gets elected (and based an end, as the incumbent would only/faq.php#publishers. Five night, the night usually reserved on their donation habits, they are), be replaced and that a plurality on Filters recommends: Incinerating for a party's vice presidential well, thats a nifty reason to go the Potomac might even return as Assange - The Liberal Media Go nominee. out and make sure Romney gets a result of the early November To Work. elected. Or at least it might have o u t c o m e , h e a d d e d . been five years ago, when people U n f o r t u n a t e l y f o r t h e s e
That means Democrats have to squeeze four nights of speakers into half the time. Convention speaking slots are already coveted, and the subjects of jealous behind-the-scenes campaigning. The Democratic schedule means even more prominent party leaders will be snubbed this year. Even Obama and Vice President Joe Biden now have to share a night (I wrote about both sides' convention headaches a few months ago). If the Clintons understood the value of doing whatever it takes to win, it's apparently another lesson the former president has imparted to the current one. What it takes is the campaign's best surrogate delivering the contrast that will define the 2012 election. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/07/ democrats-prepare-to-bring-outthe-big-gun-in-charlotte-billclinton/260491/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
88
Politics/
Report: GOP investigation finds five top ATF officials responsible for Fast & Furious
Allahpundit (Hot Air Top Picks)
Furious gun-tracking operation that was marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:01:26 PM reckless strategy. posted at 10:01 pm on July 30, The investigators, in a final 2012 by Allahpundit report likely to be released later Fearless prediction: Whatever this week, also unearthed new happens on election day, were evidence that agents from the going to have ourselves a new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Attorney General next year. Firearms and Explosives in Obama wouldnt dump him Phoenix initially sought to hide before for fear of looking weak by from the Mexican government the caving to GOP pressure, but if he crucial information that two Fast wins in November, hell have a a n d F u r i o u s f i r e a r m s w e r e perfect excuse. Just normal recovered after the brother of a administration turnover; all Mexican state attorney general presidents do it. No need to read was killed there anything into it just because this Two more final reports, they said, particular turnover involved a guy will deal with the devastating who oversaw guns being walked f a i l u r e o f s u p e r v i s i o n a n d to Mexican drug lords. leadership at the Department of Note well: This is only the first of Justice and an unprecedented three reports to come. obstruction of the [congressional] R e p u b l i c a n c o n g r e s s i o n a l investigation by the highest levels investigators have concluded that o f t h e J u s t i c e D e p a r t m e n t , five senior ATF officials from including the attorney general the special agent-in-charge of the himself. Phoenix field office to the top Follow the link for more, man in the bureaus Washington including the names of the five headquarters are collectively DOJ/ATF officials who are most responsible for the failed Fast and culpable. Holder isnt one of them
but, per the excerpt, hes set for a starring role in one of the next two reports to come about DOJ obstruction. The point of this leak, I assume, is to give Obama one last chance to drop his executive privilege claim over the DOJ documents that Issa wants to see. (The LAT quotes the report as saying its based on the best information available as of now.) If he does that, then the report will be held back while GOP investigators go through the new evidence. If he doesnt do it, then the GOP can argue that there must be nothing in those e-mails that exculpates any of the five guys theyve named. Your move, champ. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Americans' Top Issues? Everything Romney Is Talking About

Garance Franke-Ruta (Politics : The Atlantic)
insulting -- it's worth noting that Romney's overall message appears to be more in sync with Submitted at 7/30/2012 1:42:05 PM the top concerns of Americans, as Gallup's latest survey reveals a measured by a July 19-22 USA GOP message geared to exactly Today/Gallup poll. what people are most concerned You can also see from this how about. Romney's relentless focus on job While it sometimes seems as creation, "crony capitalism," the though President Obama is deficit, and failed solar-energy winning the day-to-day messaging company Solyndra plays not just war of late -- putting Republican t o t h e t o p c o n c e r n s o f challenger Mitt Romney on the Republicans but to those of all defensive over his tax returns, or voters, who are not that into sitting back as Romney stumbles environmental issues but care a o n t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l s t a g e , lot about the deficit and perceived upsetting British and Palestinian AMERICANS' page 89 leaders with remarks deemed
Technology/
89
AMERICANS'
government corruption. You can also see how Obama's focus on raising taxes on the wealthy, while appealing to Democrats, is not nearly as important ground to fight on when it comes to Americans' top concerns. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/07/ americans-top-issues-everythingromney-is-talking-about/260488/ This entry passed through the
Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Huawei Ascend G 302D goes public in FCC docs

Joseph Volpe (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:19:00 PM
It's a curious thing to have gold signify the low-end, but that's just what Huawei's done with its G series smartphone line. That bottom-dwelling, budget tier, first announced at this past Mobile World Congress, has already seen a couple of category cousins come out into the open (see: Vodafone's G 300 and T-Mobile's G 312), so color us unsurprised to find yet
another single-core, Googlefied device crop up at the FCC. The associated docs leave little to the imagination, treating us to unobstructed images of the Ascend G 302D -- presumably, a 4-incher. We're not quite sure what software the phone'll run when it ships, though from the looks of those very ICS-like capacitive keys, we wouldn't rule Android 4.0 out. Spec-wise, we have the included manual and some RF testing to go off of,
revealing two different sized batteries -- a 1,350mAh and 1,500mAh -- support for Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n and AT&T-
compatible radios. That's not to say this lil' guy's guaranteed an official U.S. slot on that carrier's lineup, but it should make for a
decent import option. Hit up the source below for additional shots of this mobile minor leaguer. Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless Huawei Ascend G 302D goes public in FCC docs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| FCC| Email this| Comments
90
News Wire/
Firm's Decision Ups Ante In Battle Over ObamaCare

(FOXNews.com)
expanding into new facilities in the Midwest. "Unfortunately, we have had to shelve these expansion plans and look overseas for that," Allison Giles, vice president for federal ObamaCare and Businesses affairs with the company, told Catholic business owners score FoxNews.com. "It's a huge win against ObamaCare mandate amount for us." Survey: Business Owners She urged the Senate to take up Disapprove of Obama on Jobs the repeal bill, even if it has to wait for the post-election lameduck session. An Indiana company's decision to "We're hoping that members will scrap expansion plans due to a look at this, not so much as a looming tax on medical devices health care provision, but as a has renewed pressure on the jobs provision," she said. Senate to consider a House-passed The Affordable Care Act bill repealing the tax. imposed the 2.3 percent tax on House Speaker John Boehner, in medical devices beginning in a written statement, urged the 2013. It is projected to raise Senate to take up the bill "as soon nearly $30 billion over the next as possible." decade -- the House voted to Companies in the medical device repeal it last month. industry for months have been The Obama administration argues calling on Congress to strip the that claims the tax will shift jobs provision. Amid the complaints, overseas are overblown. The tax, though, several firms have already after all, would still be imposed taken steps to cut back U.S. on equipment produced overseas investment out of concern for the and imported into the U.S. -tax's impact. though it wouldn't apply to Cook Medical, an Indiana-based equipment produced and sold medical equipment manufacturer, overseas. last week said it's nixing plans to According to the Treasury open five new plants in the next Department, the medical device five years -- claiming the tax will companies actually stand to cost between $15 million and $30 benefit from the law. Though the million a year, cutting into money 2.3 percent tax hits the industry, that would otherwise go toward the department argues that the
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:42:02 PM
millions of new health care customers insured as a result of the law will increase the demand in hospitals to order more equipment -- in turn boosting medical device companies' profits. The White House, in threatening last month to veto the bill, also complained that the House-passed repeal bill would offset the lost revenue from the tax by cutting down on subsidies for some families. This, the White House said, would effectively "raise taxes on middle-class and low-income families." Giles, though, said the Senate could always negotiate a different way to pay for the repeal. Cook Medical also argues that the impact is greater than just a 2.3 percent uptick in taxes, and that the impact on actual earnings is closer to 15 percent. Hundreds of representatives from the device industry sent a letter to congressional leaders last year arguing for repeal, and citing the impact on jobs. "It will increase the effective tax rate for many medical technology companies, thereby reducing financial resources that should be used for R&D, clinical trials and investments in manufacturing," they wrote. The repeal bill passed the House in June with bipartisan support.
Republican leaders in both chambers are now calling for the Senate to give the bill a vote. "The medical device tax repeal not only stops a devastating new tax that is already forcing American job creators to ship work overseas, it makes commonsense reforms to help reduce health care costs for families and allow them to keep more of their hard-earned dollars. I hope the Senate takes it up as soon as possible," Boehner said in a statement. A Senate Republican Policy Committee report last month said companies are already "shrinking their payrolls" in advance of the tax, pointing to the announcement last November by medical device firm Stryker Corp. to lay off 5 percent of its workforce in advance of the tax. A spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans in the chamber want to have the vote, but are being "blocked" by Democrats. A representative with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's office has not returned a request for comment. Device companies aren't the only ones concerned about the looming tax. Kevin Kuhlman , legislative affairs manager with the National
Federation of Independent Business, said the cost of the device tax could, in some cases, be felt by employers in the form of higher premiums. And that could affect job creation. "More resources will have to be devoted toward increased cost of benefits," he said. Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet Related Stories Indiana company scraps plans for expansion over ObamaCare device tax What Obamacare Means for All Entrepreneurs Survey Finds Obamacare Means Nearly 10% of Businesses to Drop Coverage Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
News Wire/
91
Twitter Boots Reporter After NBC Olympics Rants

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:42:02 PM
Twitter has suspended the account of a Los Angeles-based reporter for a British newspaper who included the email address of the NBC Olympics president and asked his followers to write him to complain about the network's coverage. Guy Adams, a correspondent for The Independent, was upset with the network's decision to broadcast the opening ceremony on tape delay when he sent his critical tweet Friday afternoon. "The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think!'' it read, before going on to provide his corporate email listing. Adams checked his Twitter account Sunday and received a message it was suspended. He then received an email Monday that attributed the move to his tweet that included Zenkel's email. "We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the
personal information of one of our executives,'' NBC Sports said in a statement Monday. "According to Twitter, this is a violation of their privacy policy. Twitter alone levies discipline.'' Rachael Horwitz, a spokeswoman for the social media site, said the company never comments on individual users for privacy reasons. But she said Twitter considers work emails private unless they're publicly shared. NBC has racked up record ratings through the first couple days of the London Games, but also has faced harsh criticism online, largely from American viewers upset with tape-delayed coverage. Angry Olympic fans used the hashtag "nbcfail'' and even set up at least one parody account poking fun at the TV wait. The network is streaming the events online, but that clearly isn't enough for some viewers who shelled out thousands of dollars for big-screen TVs and want their live coverage. "If this Gary Zenkel doesn't want to hear from the many tens of
thousands of customers he upset with his network's coverage, I think he's in the wrong job,'' Adams said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. When Twitter receives a complaint like the one against Adams, its support team does its own investigation before deciding whether to suspend the account. Adams said he found Zenkel's email with a simple online search, but said he didn't grab it from an NBC website. "His address is not a private email address,'' Adams said. "It's a corporate address. It's not his private email address. It's a corporate account. It's company information.'' Twitter and NBC have partnered on some social media-based projects surrounding the Olympics. But Horwitz said the site doesn't actively monitor content. The London Olympics has been dubbed the social media games, and it's lived up to the moniker already: -Switzerland stripped a soccer
player of his Olympic accreditation after he sent a threatening and racist message on Twitter about South Koreans. The comments by Michel Morganella came hours after the Swiss lost 21 to South Korea on Sunday. -Triple jumper Voula Papachristou was kicked off Greece's Olympic team last week for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right political party. -U.S. women's soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo took to Twitter to criticize NBC analyst Brandi Chastain, and the network responded with a statement praising the broadcast coverage by the former national team defender. -A group of Olympians is using Twitter as part of a campaign protesting an International Olympic Committee policy limiting the athletes' ability to market themselves during the games. And now the situation with Adams, who plans to try for reinstatement to the site, even
though he doesn't think he did anything wrong. "I think Twitter's approach is being very heavy-handed,'' he said. "They suspended my account without warning me. They didn't tell me for 24 hours why it had been suspended.'' Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
92
News Wire/ Technology/
Top Republican Warns Leaks Ongoing

(FOXNews.com)
selected out of cooperation around the world, Rogers explained. We know that operations have had to change. We know that operations have had to shut down. The chairman of the powerful Based on the work by his House Intelligence Committee committee investigators, the told Fox News that security leaks c o n g r e s s m a n j o i n e d o t h e r out of the Obama administration Republicans by claiming that the have not stopped despite an classified information came from internal probe, and that President a small group of people who have Obama has not done enough to access to the White House. turn off the spigot. It is very clear that somebody Without providing specifics who had access to the White about the new leaks, Rep. Mike House situation room, had very R o g e r s , R - M i c h . , s a i d t h e senior covert action classified damaging release of sensitive material was responsible for some information continues. of these leaks," he said. "That is W e v e s e e n m o r e l e a k s , not a big group of people." absolutely, Rogers told Fox On the level of cooperation from News in an interview Monday. t h e W h i t e H o u s e , R o g e r s This is an opportunity for the s u g g e s t e d i t w a s l a c k i n g . president to be bold, to take a I don't feel comfortable today stand, to step up and say, My that this administration has made administration will cooperate every person available when the fully and that my staff ... should investigator needs to talk to them not and will not participate in and the records they need to coordinated or uncoordinated provide in a timely way. I'm not leaking of classified information comfortable yet," Rogers said. for any reason. It's a crime.'" A congressional staffer told Fox R o g e r s , f o l l o w i n g u p o n News on Monday that the White criticisms of the leaks made last House had yet to respond to a July week by Dianne Feinstein, the 12 letter from House Judiciary Democratic chair of the Senate Committee Chairman Lamar Intelligence Committee, Rogers S m i t h , R - T e x a s , w h o t o l d agreed that human intelligence President Obama hed like to assets had been comprised. interview seven current and We know that sources have self former administration officials
Submitted at 7/30/2012 9:42:02 PM
who may know something about a spate of national security leaks. The request follows suggestions by lawmakers a day earlier that theyre interested in potentially pursuing a congressional investigation into the leaks, on top of the Department of Justice-led probe. Concern about these leaks knows no party line. When national security secrets leak and become public knowledge, our people and our national interests are jeopardized. And when our enemies know our secrets, American lives are threatened, Smith said in a letter to the president. The administration officials he'd like to interview are National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason and National Security Adviser to the Vice President Antony Blinken. The White House did not respond to Fox News's request Monday for comment for this story. And last Thursday, the White
House downplayed comments by David Axelrod, Obama's top political strategist, who said the president didn't leak anything, then followed up by saying the president did not authorize the leaks. All those statements are completely true," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. "I stand by what I've said and what Mr. Axelrod and the president said. What I can tell you is that there are investigations ongoing, and I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the investigations. Print Edgar Alvarez (Engadget) Email Submitted at 7/30/2012 7:57:00 PM Share Comments Its brief, mandatory appearance Recommend at the FCC a couple of weeks ago Tweet certainly let us know it'd be ready to take anyone's cash sooner Share This Article Newsletter rather than later, and surely Signup enough, the 97 Carbon's now Sign up for free e-mail news making itself available to all. Just alerts from FoxNews.com and as we'd heard, Archos is pricing FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter the Ice Cream Sandwich slate at Signup $250, though the company's This entry passed through the currently running a deal where it's Full-Text RSS service if this is parting ways with the Elements your content and you're reading it slab for $20 less than MSRP -on someone else's site, please read naturally, this is a "limited time the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly" offer, and thus it could only/faq.php#publishers. Five change at any given moment. Filters recommends: Incinerating Either way, that amount of Assange - The Liberal Media Go ARCHOS' page 93 To Work.
Archos' ICSloaded 97 Carbon tablet now up for sale, priced at $230 for a limited time
93
ARCHOS'
greenbacks snags you an eyepleasing 9.7-inch, IPS display with a run-of-the-mill 1GHz, single-core CPU and 16GB of built-in storage. Obviously the spotlight's still shining high on Google's Nexus 7, so we're interested to find out how many of you think this is enough to make you look past the Jelly Bean sweets -- do let us know in the comments below. Filed under: Tablet PCs
Archos' ICS-loaded 97 Carbon tablet now up for sale, priced at $230 for a limited time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Archos| Email this| Comments

Liberty Newspost July-30-2012

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Liberty Newspost July-30-2012

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Aleppo rebels say they stand firm in "regime's grave"

Curated News Edition

Colorado shooting suspect charged with first -degree murder

Curated News Edition

Romney's foreign controversies overshadow economic message - Reuters

Curated News Edition

Top News/ Policy/ Economy/ Politics-Right/

Murder Charges for 'Batman' Shooting Suspect - Wall Street Journal

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Top News/ Sports/

Obamas position on Jerusalem was identical to Romneys

Vikes' Peterson 'fine now' after seafood reaction

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has returned to

the team's training camp residence hall after an allergic reaction at

lunch sent him to a local hospital.

Curated News Edition

Atheists, enviros criticize Obama administration over drought

Japan flags China military's policy role as potential risk - Reuters

China Stock-Index Futures Little Changed; Suning May Decline - Businessweek

Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.

Curated News Edition

Microsoft sets release date for Surface tablet

"The next version of our operating

Business/ Technology/ Sports/

Curated News Edition

Chinese PMI Is Expected To Rise When The Data Is Released Tomorrow

BUY WITH ME!

Get the Best Deals in ANY

Curated News Edition

Business/ World News/

Team Anna now targets media, calls it biased IBNLive.com

(Nation - Google News)

Student sex attack suspect returns to India - Herald Scotland

World News/ Sports/

Curated News Edition

Cong,NCP set for coordination meet - Indian Express

(NBCOlympics.com RSS Top Slideshows)

Government takes axe to transport, Q-Build jobs ABC Online

Curated News Edition

World News/ Technology/

( TrendHunter.com) The Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2012 lookbook channels the

Jonathan Ive: For Apple, it's quality, not quantity

Curated News Edition

iPhone 5 rumor roundup

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Apple vs. Samsung: What's Behind Their High-Stakes Patent Clash

Curated News Edition

Curated News Edition

Kim Un Guk sets world record in 62kg

Curated News Edition

Digg Re-Emerges as a Single Source of "What the Internet is Talking About"

Curated News Edition

Modern Warfare 3 September DLC images leaked

Curated News Edition

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: July 30, 2012