What Google's NFC Android Phones Will Mean For You - PC World

Grab your hoverboards, gang: The next generation of Android phones is on the way, and it's going to feel a bit like something out of Back to the Future II.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave us a sneak peak at what's in store for Android's newest handsets during a session at the Web 2.0 Summit on Monday (video here). In addition to providing a few new clues about the hotly anticipated Android Gingerbread release, Schmidt revealed that upcoming Android devices would include support for something called Near Field Communication.

Near Field Communication -- better known by its acronym, NFC -- uses a combination of hardware and software to let you essentially turn your phone into a wallet. Future Android phones will have NFC chips built in, Schmidt said, and the Android Gingerbread release will provide the software needed to allow them to function.

So what's this NFC stuff all about, and how will it actually work with Google Android smartphones? Here's a quick primer on what you can expect.

Google's NFC Android phones will let you make contact-free payments.

One of the primary ways NFC will be used within Android will be as a mobile payment system, Schmidt says. Thanks to the chips' short-range wireless capabilities, an NFC-enabled smartphone will allow you to simply wave your device in front of a retailer's sensor and have your purchase immediately placed onto your credit card or banking account. It's something Schmidt refers to as a "tap and pay" method of purchasing -- and its impact could be enormous.

"This could replace your credit card," he says.

Google's NFC Android phone-based payments should be secure.

Schmidt and others contend that having your payment system on your phone is actually more secure than carrying it around on a piece of plastic, as it provides a greater level of authentication. And rather than imprinting your account number on a easily readable card, an NFC-enabled device keeps it encrypted and password-protected inside the phone.

"The credit card industry thinks that the loss rate is going to be much better. They're just fundamentally more secure," Schmidt says.

Google's NFC Android phones will allow you to retrieve information.

Google's NFC-enabled Android phones won't only be about commerce: The systems will also allow you to "check in" with sensors around a city to instantly load information onto your device.

During his demo, Schmidt tapped a phone to a specially marked Google Places placard. It immediately caused location information to pop up on his Android handset. The same principle could be used to exchange information with retailers or other smartphone users.

Google's NFC Android phones could work as keys.

A Swedish company is currently testing the use of NFC-enabled smartphones as hotel keys. As reported by PCWorld earlier today, the system lets guests "check in and receive [their] key directly onto their mobile phones" before ever setting foot in the building. Similar usages have been envisioned for ticket processing -- and all of this is likely only the tip of the iceberg.

"People don't understand how much more powerful these devices are going to be," Schmidt says.

Of course, it's too soon to know exactly what other usages might appear. Even Schmidt himself admits the idea is simply too new to predict what types of applications Google and others will invent.

NFC technology isn't just for Android.

While Google's NFC vision is taking center stage right now, other smartphone companies are taking steps toward implementing the technology, too. Nokia has said it plans to have NFC-ready Symbian phones on the market by next year, and rumors have pointed to Apple quietly developing an iPhone-based NFC implementation for some time.

America's mobile carriers are getting on-board with NFC as well. Earlier today, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile announced the formation of a joint mobile commerce network that'll be structured around NFC technology. The network, called Isis, will encourage retailers to provide NFC support in their businesses.

Ultimately, that retailer support may be key to NFC's success. No matter how many phones offer NFC and how cool it seems in theory, if stores don't have the sensors to enable mobile payments, it won't do much good in the real world.

Still, the first steps are underway, and the next few years hold plenty of potential. Or, to borrow a phrase from a certain wise scientist: Great Scott! The future looks bright.

JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. You can find him on both Facebook and Twitter.

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Verizon, ATandT, T-Mobile Join to Launch Isis NFC Payment Service - eWeek

Rival carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile will be working together to create a ?national commerce network that aims to fundamentally transform how people shop, pay and save,? the three announced Nov. 16.

The venture, called Isis, relies on smartphones and near-field communications (NFC), which uses short-range, high-frequency wireless technology to pass encrypted information between devices. In countries such as Japan, consumers have used such a service, which essentially turns one?s smartphone into a wallet, for several years now.

Michael Abbott, formerly with GE Capital, has been tapped to lead Isis, which is expected to roll out its service to ?key geographic markets? over the next 18 months.

?Our mobile commerce network, through relationships with merchants, will provide an enhanced, more convenient, more personalized shopping experience for consumers,? Abbott said in a statement. ?While mobile payments will be at the core of our offering, it is only the start. We plan to create a mobile wallet that ultimately eliminates the need for consumers to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes.?

Between them, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon offer wireless service to more than 200 million customers, who will have access to Isis. Currently, Isis is working with Discover Financial Services? payment network to develop an infrastructure for the program. Barclaycard US is expected to be the first issuer on the Isis network, offering mobile payment products.

?We believe the venture will have the scope and scale necessary to introduce mobile commerce on a broad basis,? said Abbott. ?In the beginning, we intend to fully utilize Discover's national payment infrastructure as well as Barclaycard's expertise in contactless and mobile payments. Moving forward, Isis will be available to all interested merchants, banks and mobile carriers.?

The day before the Isis announcement, Google CEO Eric Schmidt ? while showing off a device expected to be the Nexus S at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco ? explained that Android 2.3, or ?Gingerbread,? will leverage NFC technology, working with an embedded chip in the phone and a mobile application.

"The theory of the case is that you'll be able to take these mobile devices from everybody, and you'll be able to walk into a store and do commerce and be able to figure out where you are, again with your permission," Schmidt said. "It could eventually literally replace your credit card."

He added that NFC uses a higher level of authentication than the traditional credit card magnetic stripe, making it more secure.

Google competitor Apple is also preparing to get in on the action, and in August hired an NFC expert as its new product manger for mobile commerce, as well as published a number of NFC-related patents over the summer. In addition, Nokia ? no stranger to NFC, having launched a trial NFC payment plan in China in 2006, among other efforts ? plans to push out an upgrade to its Symbian 3-running C7 smartphone in early 2011, enabling the device to handle NFC tag reading, Near Field Communications World reported Nov. 14, citing the French site Teknologik.

?Anytime major industry players agree on a step forward, it's a great step for all involved, especially consumers,? Nokia spokesperson Joseph Gallo told eWEEK. ?In this case, with regards to NFC, it adds further value to the handset and ultimately the consumer by allowing access to new services and digital content on their mobile easily and conveniently.?

The ability to easily share content such as business cards and photos, or to use an NFC mobile device as a travel card, ticket, or loyalty card, Gallo explained, ?adds to the consumer's emotional attachment to the device.?

Bling Nation, a company that uses contactless stickers, called Bling Tags, on the back of mobile phones, has recently been running a mobile payment trial with PayPal and will roll out its solution in early 2011, Forbes reported Nov. 15. The Bling technology is compatible with NFC technology, and so will work with NFC phones, Forbes reports, adding that the company is currently in negotiations with handset manufacturers to incorporate the technology directly into their handsets.

Isis, effective as of Nov. 16, will be based in New York.

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Defense witnesses flesh out Mitchell's earlier life - Salt Lake Tribune

By Stephen Hunt

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Nov 16, 2010 08:17PM
Updated 30 minutes ago Updated Nov 16, 2010 08:54PM While working with Brian David Mitchell at OC Tanner during the early 1990s, Doug Larsen came to consider his fellow tool and die cutter “close to being a brother.”

“He and I hit it off really well. We had a lot of similar views about the world and religion,” Larsen testified Tuesday for the defense at Mitchell’s trial for allegedly kidnapping Elizabeth Smart.

Several years later, Larsen spotted a transformed, Biblical-looking Mitchell begging for money at Main Street and South Temple — a man who now refused to even acknowledge his former friend.

Larsen, hoping to find out what Mitchell had done over the years, said: “You gave that guy a ‘God bless you’ for fifty cents. Will you give me five minutes of your time for five dollars?”

Mitchell, money in hand, looked at him and said, “The Lord be praised. God bless you.”

Larsen said, “I will pray for you,” and then he started to walk away. Mitchell turned and over his shoulder said, “And I will pray for you.”

Before that, Mitchell had been a clean-cut and “utterly sincere” member of the LDS Church, who often was ridiculed by other workers at the Salt Lake City jewelry company for singing hymns and zealously expressing his religious opinions. But after Mitchell quit in 1994 and became a follower of a naturopathic health concept called lymphology, Larsen said he lost track of him for four years prior to the Main Street encounter.

Prosecutors rested their case in chief Tuesday morning after four days of testimony that laid out the alleged facts of Smart’s kidnapping and her nine months of captivity and sexual abuse at age 14 in the hands of Mitchell, 57, and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 65.

—

The defense » Now, with the start of the defense case, comes what U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball has identified as the real focus of the trial.

Larsen’s testimony — and more to come this week from other defense witnesses who knew Mitchell prior to Smart’s June 2002 abduction — is designed to illustrate Mitchell’s alleged descent into madness.

The defense is asking jurors to find Mitchell not guilty by reason of insanity. They also have the burden of proving he was insane at the time of the alleged crime.

To that end, Mitchell’s father and other family members are slated to testify today about Mitchell’s childhood and teenage years. Barzee, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor and is serving 15 years in prison, could take the witness stand as early as Thursday. She is being held in the Davis County Jail awaiting her testimony.

The defense’s first witness Tuesday was Dru White, who was an LDS high counselor in 1987 when he met Mitchell and Barzee at a Salt Lake City ward. Mitchell was the bishop’s clerk, Barzee the organist.

White said Mitchell was “quite clean-cut and well-dressed — a normal, conservative young man.”

Mitchell had a reputation as “an active member of the ward, and willing to work and serve,” which earned him a promotion to counselor, White said.

“He seemed eager to do a good job,” recalled White. “He was quiet, but friendly. At meetings he was quite attentive and listening carefully to everything that was going on.”

On the witness stand, Larsen said he was devoted to his religion, but that Mitchell was even more devoted.

They both read the same religious books, both assumed the prophesied Davidic king would arise from the upper leaders of the Mormon Church, and both admired then-LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson as “among the great prophets.”

He and Mitchell also considered most church members to be “largely idolatrous.” He said they often discussed religion at work, and both were viewed by co-workers as “religious fanatic guys.”

Mitchell got into arguments with co-workers over religion because he was “very confident to the point of being dogmatic and inflexible, and he came across as abrasive,” Larsen said. When co-workers became annoyed and called Mitchell “crazy,” he would terminate the discussion by walking away, Larsen said.

But after Mitchell left OC Tanner, Larsen said the man he encountered was not the same Mitchell.

—

A changed man » Speaking to reporters outside of court, Larsen said of Mitchell: “The person I knew no longer exists; he’s completely changed.”

“It’s like Brian David Mitchell died,” said Larsen, adding that he attributed the changes to Mitchell’s experimentation with LSD as a teen.

But Larsen added that he didn’t doubt Mitchell knew what he was doing.

“He’s clever, he’s lucid. He was calculating and in control,” Larsen said, pointing out that Mitchell tried to keep from getting caught by police.

Larsen said that while listening to testimony last week from Smart about what she called her “nine months of hell” with Mitchell and Barzee, he recalled that it was similar to a religious, science-fiction fantasy novel he once wrote and allowed Mitchell to read.

He testified that Mitchell objected to a portion of the novel in which a female character “prostitutes herself” to distract some guards and allow other family members to escape.

Mitchell claimed “he didn’t think God would ask a girl to give up her virtue,” Larsen recalled. Yet Smart had testified to a scenario “almost identical to his objections,” Larsen said, referring to Mitchell’s alleged contention that it was God’s will that they “marry.”

Larsen also told an amusing anecdote about Mitchell from his time as an actor in a Creation play, which used to be held on Temple Square, but has now been replaced with a movie.

Mitchell, who played the role of Satan, was taken aside and told, “You are one of the best Lucifers we’ve had, but could you tone it down a little,” Larsen recalled. “He was amused by their concern [that] he played a good devil and he was convincing.”

—

More witnesses » Also Tuesday, the defense called two sons of the late C. Samuel West, a lymphologist who employed Mitchell to promote the concept that “bouncing” helps the blood and lymphatic system work together to prevent and to cure disease.

Karl West testified that when he first met Mitchell, he was clean-cut and dressed normally, but later wore robes, earning him the nickname, “The Israelite.”

Mitchell and Barzee lived off-and-on in the basement of the West’s Orem home, and also in a teepee in the backyard, while building a covered handcart, which they later pulled across the country, West said.

West testified that the couple left after having a religious disagreement with his father, possibly over the issue of practicing polygamy. West said the couple was also burning something in the basement of his house, which caused him to accuse the couple of “desecrating” the residence.

When Mitchell and Barzee reappeared in the spring or summer of 2001, West said they stood on the sidewalk in front of the house, yelling and “telling us the house was going to be destroyed.”

“I’d never seen him like that,” West told defense attorney Wendy Lewis. “He was off his rocker.”

Asked if Mitchell appeared mentally ill, West replied: “Yeah, in retrospect.”

But when prosecutor Felice Viti asked if Mitchell and Barzee may have burnt incense in the basement to cover the smell of marijuana, West agreed that after seeing pictures of Mitchell on the news with a beer in his hand, he decided it was marijuana.

“Are you saying he fooled you?” Viti asked.

West replied: “Yeah, definitely.”

shunt@sltrib.com

Pamela Manson and Cimaron Neugebauer contributed to this report.

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Suu Kyi release could boost Myanmar's economy - AFP

Suu Kyi release could boost Myanmar's economyBy Roberto Coloma (AFP) – 1 hour ago

SINGAPORE — The release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi could pay off economically for Myanmar's junta even though Western nations are unlikely to ease trade and other sanctions soon, analysts said.

For years, the military regime of resource-rich Myanmar has blunted the impact of US and European punitive measures by cultivating trade and investment links with neighbours led by Thailand, China, India, Singapore and Malaysia.

Suu Kyi's freedom and this month's rare election may reduce the stigma of doing business with Myanmar, even though her party boycotted the vote and the results were dismissed as a sham by much of the outside world.

"It is a welcome sign. We hope this is the start for a change and that it will encourage more investments in Myanmar," said a senior official from the Malaysian trade ministry who declined to be named.

But opponents of the junta fear that any increased money flowing into the impoverished country will not improve the lives of ordinary people.

Myanmar is one of the world's least developed countries, with nearly a third of the population living below the poverty line as the generals and their associates exploit raw materials for their own benefit.

Asian neighbours China, India, and Thailand already overlook human rights concerns in favour of engagement with Myanmar, which boasts oil, gas and other natural resources as well as tremendous tourism potential.

India gave Myanmar leader Than Shwe a red-carpet welcome in July and the two countries signed pacts on border security, road building and finance.

But for India, as the world's largest democracy, Myanmar's recent moves could ease domestic political pressure not to prop up the regime.

"The release of Aung Sang Suu Kyi gives India a greater diplomatic space to engage with Myanmar without the fear of being criticised while dealing with the military dictatorship regime," said C. Uday Bhaskar, director of the New Delhi think-tank National Maritime Foundation.

Thailand is another top investor and trading partner, importing over 90 percent of all of Myanmar's natural gas exports.

A major Thai construction firm recently signed an eight-billion-dollar infrastructure deal with the military-ruled country, including the construction of a giant deep sea port in the impoverished nation.

China, a single-party state often criticised for its own human-rights record, is also expected to forge closer economic ties regardless of the political situation as it scours the world for natural resources to feed its fast-growing economy.

Indeed, it recently became the largest foreign investor in Myanmar this year, state media in Beijing reported. Among projects already under way, China National Petroleum Corp. is building an oil and gas pipeline from Myanmar's Kyuakryu port to southwestern China.

"Both the junta and Chinese Communist Party have an understanding that whatever the West and rest of the world thinks about human rights and the Nobel prize, it will not really have an impact on the development of ties and support for each other," said Professor Ian Holliday at the University of Hong Kong.

Myanmar watchers said it was too early to say if the developments could lead to an easing of Western sanctions on the regime, which is still holding an estimated 2,200 political prisoners, and they underscored the crucial role to be played by Suu Kyi.

Alistair Cook, a fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Western nations will await "feedback" from Suu Kyi, who plans to consult the people of Myanmar.

"Should they want an end to the economic sanctions, then I am sure Aung San Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy leaders will articulate this. It will be then up to those states imposing economic sanctions to respond accordingly."

Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide win in Myanmar's 1990 elections, but the military never recognised the result and kept the Nobel peace prize laureate in detention for 15 of the past 21 years.

Critics of the sanctions say they have done little to undermine military rule and instead aggravated the deprivation of ordinary people in Myanmar.

The United States bans trade with companies tied to the junta in Myanmar. It also freezes such firms' assets and blocks international loans to the state.

The European Union also has sanctions freezing assets and businesses of junta figures, and blacklisting their travel, but it has continued some trade and investment such as in oil.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

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Microsoft says sells 1 million Kinect devices - Reuters

Assistants demonstrate the game ''Kinect Adventures'' for Kinect for Xbox 360 during a media briefing at the Wiltern theatre in Los Angeles, June 14, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

SEATTLE | Tue Nov 16, 2010 3:20pm EST

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Monday it has sold more than 1 million of its new hands-free Kinect gaming systems in the first 10 days since launch, putting it on track to beat its target of 5 million sales by the end of the year.

The world's largest software company is hoping the Kinect will help revitalize sales of its Xbox game console this holiday shopping season and counter competing motion-based gaming systems from Nintendo Co, which makes the Wii, and Sony Corp, which introduced its Move product two months ago.

"It's a strong start," said Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's game unit, in a telephone interview on Monday. "Consumers are loving it."

The Kinect -- a sensing device you plug into the Xbox which allows you to play games just by moving your body and speaking commands -- is priced at $150 for a standalone unit and $300 bundled with a 4 gigabyte Xbox console.

It went on sale in U.S. stores November 4, although many customers had pre-ordered units, likely causing a spike in early sales. Microsoft is hoping sales will stay hot as the day after Thanksgiving -- one of the biggest shopping days of the year, known as 'Black Friday' -- approaches on November 26.

More than 30,000 U.S. stores are selling Kinect in the United States, including branches of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target Corp, Best Buy Co, GameStop Corp and online at Amazon.com. It went on sale on November 10 in Europe and is due to go on sale in Asia on November 18.

Ultimately, Microsoft is hoping the new technology will help extend the role of its Xbox 360, which has sold 45 million units, and introduce a concept that is expected to feature in forms of electronics and computers in the next few years.

Microsoft shares were trading unchanged after hours, after closing down 7 cents at $26.20 on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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Web 2.0: RIM CEO Says Apps Unnecessary For Web - InformationWeek

Moments before Web 2.0 Summit co-chair John Battelle invited Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie on stage, he asked attendees how many had BlackBerry mobile phones and somewhere between 10% to 20% of the audience members raised a hand. Then he asked how many used to have BlackBerry mobile phones and noted that the number of hands was comparable.

The perception is that RIM's grasp on its market is slipping as adoption of Apple's iPhone and Android phones surges. That may not jibe with reality: Earlier on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker presented a slide showing that RIM's smartphone market share had grown from 7% in Q1, 2006, to 15% in Q3, 2010.

But RIM is at a transitional moment and concerns about the future health of its platform deserve some consideration.

Asked about his view of Apple, Balsillie did not mince words: "We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," he said.

"We believe you can bring mobile to the Web," he said. "You don't need to go through some control point SDK. You don't need an app for the Web."

Balsillie made it clear that he's all for native apps on mobile devices. But he stressed that proprietary tools are not necessary to make content mobile.

"It's really not about a set of proprietary tools," he said. "We completely disagree with that point of view."

He predicted that proprietary mobile computing would be a passing phase like the DRM era for music.

Balsillie talked up the performance of his company's forthcoming PlayBook, noting how well it performs in a video that has been posted to YouTube. "It's like three to four times faster than an iPad," he said. Yet asked whether he had one to show, he demurred.

Balsillie also balked when asked to comment on a competitor that isn't Apple. During a few minutes of audience questioning, David Levin, CEO of United Business Media, which owns TechWeb, asked whether it is over for Nokia (Levin was previously CEO of Symbian).

Balsillie initially declined to comment. Prodded by Battelle, he allowed that big shifts, like the shift from feature phones to smart phones, can be tough.

Asked to define RIM, Balsillie flashed his company's enterprise credentials. While recognizing that IT has been consumerized, he said you still can't dismiss enterprise requirements. "We sell performance," he said. "We sell Web fidelity and Web tools. We sell CIO, professional-grade requirements."

RIM, he said, is about "innovative performance and constructive alignment."

And someday soon, RIM will sell the PlayBook. Just not today.

Unified communications isn't just for the big guys; it can be extremely useful for smaller companies looking to streamline operations and improve productivity. Read our report and find out more. Download it here (registration required).

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Beatles finally allowing digital downloads on Apple's iTunes - Washington Post

I'm sorry, were you expecting congratulations here?

This absurdly overdue development happened shortly before 10 a.m. - slightly in advance of the vague prediction posted on Apple's home page Monday.

Apple now offers all 13 remastered Beatles studio albums and the three major post-breakup compilations as multimedia-enhanced "iTunes LP" downloads, plus a $149 "box set" that includes all those releases and a video of the band's 1964 concert at the Washington Coliseum. (You can watch that last item for free in iTunes through the rest of the year.)

Individual songs cost $1.29 each, while single albums sell for $12.99 and double releases cost $19.99.

Apple's news release only cites that concert film as an exclusive. But the Fab Four's work doesn't show up on Amazon's MP3 store, Apple's main rival in the digital-download business. You can, however, continue to buy their CDs off the Seattle retailer's site - in some cases, for $3 to $5 less than what Apple charges.

That seems a fitting conclusion to this band's history of digital denial.

It's been almost seven years and seven months since the iTunes Store opened for business as the iTunes Music Store. The Beatles would have looked like visionaries to join Apple in this venture, and I'm sure Apple chief executive Steve Jobs would have given every black turtleneck he owns to have them. But they held back.

Three and a half years ago, Apple announced that it would stop requiring "digital rights management" restrictions on iTunes downloads - just a few months after Apple and the Beatles' Apple Corps record label had settled a long-running dispute over their similar names and logos.

The Beatles would have been hailed as pioneers for following up on that resolution by bringing their music to the Internet free of DRM shackles (even if that credit properly goes to the independent labels that never sought DRM in the first place). But they stayed aloof.

Just a year and a half ago, Apple banished DRM entirely from the iTunes Store's music inventory. But the Beatles picked that very day - as if they were flaunting their obstinance - to announce they'd be digitally remastering their catalogue for another re-release on CD.

Last September, the band licensed its music for inclusion in the Rock Band video game. But download sites continued to stock only the occasional cover version of their work.

Tuesday, the Beatles finally ran out of excuses for not letting downloaders give them their money. Alas, seven years is a long time to cede the market to file sharers and CD swappers who readily provided something that they would not. Is there anybody left online who doesn't already have all the Beatles MP3s they want?

This is a point that often gets overlooked in entertainment circles: The market continues to function even if the logical and rightful supplier of a product refuses to participate. The ease of duplicating and transmitting digital data ensures that somebody else will fill that vacancy.

You can mope about the massive copyright infringement that results from this dynamic, but the best way for artists to reverse it is to get into the market themselves.

Now that the Beatles have finally ended their tiresome, we're-too-good-for-the-Internet act, perhaps that change of heart (or the money they'll make off iTunes downloads) will lead to a similar rethinking among the lesser musicians who have also boycotted the download market.

That doesn't justify any media celebrations or heartfelt Baby Boomer ruminations over a band's decision to let its customers pay them. It certainly doesn't merit Apple's overclocked hype machinery, which had its home page promising visitors that Tuesday would be a day "that you'll never forget."

We probably will. And in the end, the Beatles will remain great artists. They have, however, proved themselves to be lousy capitalists.

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Murkowski Widens Lead in Alaska - Wall Street Journal

Sen. Lisa Murkowski appeared to hold enough of a lead over Joe Miller Tuesday evening to win the Alaska Senate race, with a 2,247-vote lead even without counting misspelled votes that could be challenged in court.

Getty Images Sen. Lisa Murkowski talks to reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday.

Ms. Murkowski launched a write-in campaign to keep her Senate seat after tea-party favorite Mr. Miller—endorsed by former Gov. Sarah Palin—beat her in the Republican primary.

With nearly all the names on write-in ballots tallied, officials had counted 100,868 votes in Ms. Murkowski's favor, compared with 90,468 votes for Mr. Miller from the Nov. 2 election, according to Alaska elections officials.

Of those 100,868 votes for Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Miller's camp has challenged 8,153 because of misspellings and other imperfections. Not counting the challenged votes, Ms. Murkowski would be left with 92,715 votes.

Mr. Miller has said in recent weeks he would move ahead with a federal lawsuit to throw out those contested ballots if doing so might give him a lead over Ms. Murkowski.

Even if a judge were to throw out the contested ballots— fewer than 1,000 ballots remain to be counted—Ms. Murkowski seems poised to win.

Election officials counted in Ms. Murkowski's favor most misspellings and other irregularities, as long as the voter's intentions seemed clear—a decision based on past Alaska elections in which voter intent was considered even if ballots were marked imperfectly.

Associated Press Observer Joe Geldhof, left, for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and observer Ivy Frye, for GOP nominee Joe Miller, closely watch the last of the write-in ballots during counting on Monday.

Mr. Miller has questioned the legality of that method, because state law says a write-in vote must include the candidate's name or last name as written on his or her paperwork, with "no exceptions." The candidate could also request a ballot recount at his own expense.

Mr. Miller's spokesman and his lawyer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Throughout the past several days, Joe Miller has said that he will not continue to contest the election if the votes don't add up," said Ms. Murkowski's campaign manager, Kevin Sweeney, in a statement. "By the end of the day tomorrow after every Alaskan vote will have been counted, we expect Mr. Miller to keep his word."

Write to Vauhini Vara at vauhini.vara@wsj.com

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Uncovered: Images From Full-Body Scanners Hit the Web - Fox News

A new revelation could make the angry debate about the use of full-body scanners at airports even angrier: Some government agencies have improperly stored images from those scanners -- and those pictures have been made public. 

Gizmodo, notorious for leaking the first photos of the newest generation Apple iPhone, has revealed the images of 100 people taken from a U.S. Marshal in a Florida Federal courthouse who had stored more than 35,000 images from a full body scanner. 

The images don't come from the z-backscatter scanners in airports, which privacy advocates say take nearly naked photos of people. Rather, they come from a millimeter wave scanner, and the images are hardly high-resolution pictures of naked bodies. 

But they are images of public servants and private citizens that the Transportation Security Administration says are impossible to make public. 

"We understand that it will be controversial to release these photographs," Gizmodo wrote on its website. "But identifying features have been eliminated. And, fortunately for those who walked through the scanner in Florida last year, this mismanaged machine used the less embarrassing imaging technique."

The pictures come from a Brijot Imaging Systems machine and were obtained by a freedom of information request after it was recently revealed that U.S. Marshals operating the machine in an Orlando courthouse had improperly saved images of the scans of public servants and private citizens.

The leaked photos demonstrate the security limitations of not just this particular machine, but millimeter wave and X-ray backscatter body scanners operated by federal employees in our courthouses and by TSA officers in airports across the country. And they seem to run counter to the officially stated policy of the TSA.

The TSA's website states that "advanced imaging technology cannot store, print, transmit or save the image, and the image is automatically deleted from the system after it is cleared by the remotely located security officer." 

Whatever the stated policy, Gizmodo wrote, it's clear that it is trivial for operators to save images and remove them for distribution if they choose not to follow guidelines.

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Cholera outbreak likely to grip Haiti for months - USA Today

A cholera outbreak in earthquake-ravaged Haiti that has killed more than 900 people will continue for at least six months, possibly years, experts say.The outbreak has spread quickly, reaching at least six of Haiti's 10 provinces since it was confirmed Oct. 22, says Donna Eberwine-Villagrán of the Pan American Health Organization. So far, 16,800 people have been hospitalized, but she says the number affected is most likely higher because those who have not gone to a health facility have not been counted.

Her group estimates at least 200,000 people will become ill.

Now that the disease has a foothold, it will be nearly impossible to eradicate without permanent access to clean water, says Jeffrey Withey, a microbiologist with the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

A massive earthquake in January left 1.3 million people homeless, many crowded in tent camps without plumbing.

"The outbreak will continue for the foreseeable future," Withey says.

A permanent solution in Haiti is far off, especially since government and relief agencies are overwhelmed trying to save people with the disease, says Sophie Delaunay, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA.

The bacteria are spread through contaminated food or water. Relief agencies and the government have launched a campaign to teach people to drink only clean water, wash their hands with soap and clean water and dispose of feces properly. Cholera is lethal if untreated. It is relatively easy to treat with rehydration packs of salt or sugar water and antibiotics; even so, Delaunay says, relief agencies do not have enough supplies.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has started a $164 million fundraising effort that includes a proposed $90 million to build permanent distribution systems for clean water.

Complicating the response: riots in several cities Monday by protesters responding to rumors that U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal were to blame for the outbreak. The riots left at least one protester dead and six peacekeepers wounded.

The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti said the protests were linked to the Nov. 28 presidential election.

Robert Quick, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who is in Haiti, says it is likely that the cause of the outbreak will never be known. Global travel and trade make it easy for the bacteria to spread, he says.

The CDC concluded in March that cholera was unlikely to occur in Haiti because the country had not seen an outbreak in at least 50 years.

Afsar Ali, a University of Florida microbiologist who studies cholera in developing countries, was not surprised by the outbreak.

Ali says he went to Haiti in August and saw too many people in crowded, squalid conditions with no access to clean water. He says more surveillance of water sources, particularly in areas outside Port-au-Prince, could have alerted authorities to cholera in the water and an education campaign could have taught people how not to spread the bacteria.

Because the focus was on disaster relief after the quake, he says, "nobody paid attention. Everyone was busy doing other things."

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Bush and Cheney, Together Again at Groundbreaking - New York Times

In their first public appearance together since leaving office, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney heaped praise on each other, putting behind them the tension of their final days in the White House when they fought over the president’s refusal to pardon the vice president’s ex-chief of staff. In his new memoir, Mr. Bush wrote that he worried that the fight had fractured their friendship.

Addressing a crowd of 2,500 supporters and Bush administration veterans, Mr. Cheney said the response to Mr. Bush’s book showed that the country had begun to re-evaluate him.

“Two years after you left office, judgments are a little more measured than they were,” Mr. Cheney said. “When times have been tough or the critics have been loud, you’ve always said you had faith in history’s judgment, and history is beginning to come around.”

Mr. Bush responded by hailing his No. 2 and recalling the decision to ask him to be the running mate in 2000. “As I stand here,” Mr. Bush said, “there is no doubt in my mind he was the right pick then, he was a great vice president of the United States and I’m proud to call him friend.”

Until this week, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had seen each other just once in private since President Obama was inaugurated. Mr. Cheney’s attendance was a rare public appearance since his long hospital stay for heart trouble this year. He appeared much thinner in his face and body, more hesitant in his gait, and he used a cane, although he put it aside when it came time to approach the lectern. After the speeches and ceremonial dirt turning, he quickly departed, while other luminaries lingered.

His daughter Liz Cheney said Mr. Cheney, 69, was gaining back his strength. “He lost weight when he was in the hospital this summer, as most people do, but he is feeling great and enjoying working on his book, and hanging out with his grandkids,” she said after the event.

His dry wit seemed intact as he took a poke at Mr. Obama’s recent admission that there were no such things as shovel-ready public works projects. Referring to the groundbreaking, he said, “This may be the only shovel-ready project in America.”

Mr. Bush, on the other hand, left his successor unscathed, as he has since leaving Washington.

“I believe the ultimate responsibility of a leader is to not do what is easy or popular but to do what is necessary and right,” Mr. Bush told the crowd. “The decisions of governing are on another president’s desk, and he deserves to make them without criticism from me. But staying out of current affairs and politics does not mean staying out of policy.”

Mr. Bush plans to use a public policy institute that will be housed at the center along with the traditional presidential library and museum to advance four causes he adopted as his own while in office: human freedom, global health, economic growth and education. He has also started a women’s initiative led by his wife, Laura Bush.

“He’s energized,” Andrew H. Card Jr., his first White House chief of staff, said in an interview. “He’s very much at peace. He’s reliving, but he’s not second-guessing. And he’s not opining. This is not a political event.”

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Move to Ban Earmarks Exposes Both Parties to Divisions in Ideology - New York Times

Given how zealously Mr. McConnell has defended the constitutional prerogative of Congress to control the federal purse, his turnabout was also the surest sign yet that the rightward pressure of Tea Party groups, and an antispending sentiment among voters, have begun to influence the way Washington does business.

At the same time, the renewed push against earmarks highlighted a potential conflict between the calls to eliminate the spending items and demands by many Tea Party supporters for greater fidelity to the Constitution. It is the Constitution, after all, that put Congress in charge of deciding how to spend the taxpayers’ money. In pledging not to let individual lawmakers designate federal money for local purposes, the anti-earmark contingent is in effect ceding more power to the executive branch over how taxpayer dollars are spent, presumably not the outcome desired by the new crop of grass-roots conservatives.

“If Congress does not direct any spending,” said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, who supported the earmark ban, “the president will have 100 percent of the discretion in all federal programs. The failed stimulus is replete with examples of the president’s earmarks that are wasteful.”

The earmark ban is one issue forcing Republicans to navigate among conflicting priorities, like tax cutting and deficit reduction. But it has quickly emerged as a high-profile if somewhat symbolic test of the willingness of Republicans — and some Democrats for that matter — to respond to what they see as a message of the midterm elections.

Both supporters and skeptics of an earmark ban say that it would empower the executive branch, at least initially. While earmarks amount to a trickle in the government’s flood of red ink — slightly more than three-tenths of 1 percent of federal spending — most of that money would still be expended by federal agencies in the absence of earmarks but without specific directions from Congress.

Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said, “I remain unconvinced that fiscal prudence is effectively advanced by ceding to the Obama administration our constitutional authority.” But he said he would abide by his colleagues’ wishes .

Some critics of earmarks say the tension between the constitutional and antispending prerogatives is overblown. Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said Congress could easily maintain — and even expand — its purview over spending and still not engage in the earmarking process that has led to corruption scandals and is often viewed as a way to generate campaign contributions.

“This notion that earmarks are an expression of our Article 1 authority, that’s a pretty sad tale,” Mr. Flake said in an interview, referring to the part of the Constitution that gives Congress power of the purse.

He said defenders of earmarks often noted that they accounted for a tiny percentage of federal spending, and Mr. Flake said that was the reason Congress should stop paying so much attention to them.

Instead, he argued, Congress should focus on the vast bulk of the budget that it has already ceded to the administration’s control, and should improve the authorization process by which Congressional committees judge the merit of spending items, the appropriations process in which the money is allocated and subsequent oversight.

Ralph Spampanato, an organizer of the Stark County 9-12 Patriots, in Ohio, said that he supported the idea of an earmark ban and that Congress should exercise its constitutional authority by adopting a budget and demanding that agencies stick to it.

“If they give them the money that’s required to get their basic job done, there won’t be any money leftover to spend,” Mr. Spampanato said.

Mr. Flake said: “We need to reinvigorate the authorization process. The problem with earmarking is you do very little authorizing, a lot of appropriating and very little oversight.”

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Google Voice finally debuts in the App Store - Digitaltrends.com

Apple has approved the Google Voice app for its App Store, and the free VoIP is better than ever for its official release.

Sure, iTunes now has the Beatles Anthology available for download, but Apple‘s got bigger news: the Google Voice app is here. It may not have warranted a full-page notice, but there are plenty of iPhone users out there celebrating Google Voice‘s long-coming availability in the App Store.

Prior to today, users were limited to using Google Voice on the Web only, but to fantastic results. It’s been wildly popular, allowing users to make international calls for pennies and send free unlimited texts – and all with Apple’s stiff disapproval. Apple claimed concerns over the app duplicating its own primary function and has allegedly been reviewing it since. This invited some attention from the FCC and FTC, and a year and half of subversive use later, here we are.

The app allows users to bundle multiple phone lines under one number, as well as transcribe voice mails. The dirt cheap international calling and free SMS service remains, and Google is even going to bolster the app with optional push notifications and quicker call connection.

And it is definitely more powerful than its Web-based counterpart, for anyone out there wondering if the app is worth installing (for free, mind you). While we can’t imagine anyone is really wondering that (again, emphasis on free app), the so-far glowing reviews (including this one from SlashGear) say it definitely is.

What’s also encouraging about the addition of the Google Voice app is what it means for the App Store. Apple’s approval process has had its fair share of critics, and it recently implemented some policy changes as a response to user and developer frustrations. Apple claimed it would be relaxing its restrictions for app guidelines, and adding Google Voice is a significant step in that direction.

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Rare Honor for a Living Service Member - New York Times

The young staff sergeant, Salvatore A. Giunta, now 25, of Hiawatha, Iowa, was an Army specialist when he took part in the firefight in eastern Afghanistan three years ago. He is the first living service member to receive the Medal of Honor, the military’s most prestigious award, for action in any war since Vietnam.

Sergeant Giunta and the other soldiers of Company B, Second Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, were part of a campaign to provide food, winter clothing and medical care to Afghans in remote villages. They were ambushed in the Korengal Valley in a coordinated attack from three sides.

In a packed ceremony in the East Room before Sergeant Giunta’s family, squad mates and the parents of two soldiers who were killed in the ambush, Mr. Obama recounted the events on the night of Oct. 25, 2007.

“The moon was full; the light it cast was enough to travel by without using their night-vision goggles,” Mr. Obama said, with Sergeant Giunta standing at his side, looking straight ahead. “They hadn’t traveled a quarter-mile before the silence was shattered. It was an ambush so close that the cracks of the guns and the whizzes of the bullets were simultaneous.”

The two lead squad men went down. So did a third who was struck in the helmet. Sergeant Giunta charged into the wall of bullets to pull him to safety, Mr. Obama said. Sergeant Giunta was hit twice, but was protected by his body armor.

The sergeant could see the other two wounded Americans, Mr. Obama recounted.

By now, the East Room was so silent you could hear a rustle from across the room. One Army officer took out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes.

Sergeant Giunta looked down as the president described how he and his squad mates threw grenades, which they used as cover to run toward the wounded soldiers. All this, they did under constant fire, Mr. Obama said. Finally, they reached one of the men. As other soldiers tended to him, Sergeant Giunta sprinted ahead.

“He crested a hill alone with no cover but the dust kicked up by the storm of bullets still biting into the ground,” Mr. Obama said.

And there Sergeant Giunta saw “a chilling sight” — the silhouettes of two insurgents carrying away the other wounded American — his friend, Sgt. Joshua C. Brennan. Sergeant Giunta leaped forward, and fatally shot one insurgent while wounding the other. Then he rushed to his friend. He dragged him to cover, and stayed with him, trying to stop the bleeding, for 30 minutes, until help arrived.

Sergeant Brennan died later of his wounds. So did Specialist Hugo V. Mendoza, the platoon medic. Five others were wounded.

Speaking to reporters after receiving the award, Sergeant Giunta said the honor was “bittersweet.”

“I lost two dear friends of mine,” he said. “I would give this back in a second to have my friends with me right now.”

The outposts in the Korengal Valley were disbanded this spring after months of patrols that cost the American military dearly. Forces were moved to provide security to larger population centers.

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Facebook CEO has "made every mistake you can make" - CNNMoney

By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporterNovember 16, 2010: 10:14 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney.com) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's made "every mistake you can make" in business, but love of the product keeps users faithful.

At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday night, conference moderator John Battelle pressed Zuckerberg on the social network's past failings.

"The Facebook trait seems to be pushing the envelope so far and then saying, 'Oops,'" Battelle said. "Is that an intentional point of view? That I didn't ask permission, but now I ask forgiveness?"

Zuckerberg, a young CEO at 26 years old, conceded he has "made every mistake you can make. But people allow those mistakes because they love [Facebook]."

Zuckerberg appeared more at ease than he usually is at conferences, and he readily admitted that Facebook is still figuring out the best way to handle issues like data privacy.

"As far as I can tell, Facebook Connect has enabled the greatest portability of data ever created," Zuckerberg said, referring to users' ability to interact on other sites using their Facebook identities.

For other data portability options, users can download their Facebook data into a zip file. Zuckerberg said the idea was to give users control over their information, but he admitted, "I'm not sure we're 100% right on this."

Despite Facebook's imperfection, its users are loyal: Zuckerberg said more than 50% of Facebook's 500 million users visit the site at least once a day. As a result, he said, the idea of social is now woven into the online experience.

"Over the next five years, most industries are going to be rethought to be social," Zuckerberg said. "Social makes any Web application a whole order of magnitude more engaging than anything else."

Gaming developers best embody that philosophy, Zuckerberg said, citing four successful companies that were built around the Facebook platform: Zynga, Playfish, Playdom and Crowdstar.

"All four are really good companies, too," Zuckerberg said. "Zynga's market cap is now bigger than EA's. That's massive disruption.

Audience members laughed when Zuckerberg called Facebook a "small" company in pointing out that the site has "only a few hundred" engineers.

"If something doesn't have to be built by us, we'd rather it wasn't," Zuckerberg said. "Apple and Google will come up with an idea and just build it, but we're more decentralized. Why not mobilize some young entrepreneur to build their own thing, build their own company?"

Moderator Battelle asked whether Zuckerberg is "interested in the business social graph, connections between businesses" -- i.e., a B2B social network. But Zuckerberg looked blank, saying, "I don't know what that means."

Zuckerberg also rehashed Monday's announcement of a Facebook messaging system, which combines messages across Facebook, email and text.

He said a Facebook bug that surfaced earlier Tuesday, which mistakenly deleted legitimate user accounts, was not related to the messaging system.

Battelle asked the question that's constantly buzzing in Silicon Valley: When will Facebook go public?

Zuckerberg said flatly: "Don't hold your breath." 

First Published: November 16, 2010: 10:10 PM ET

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Google personalizes local search with Hotpot - Digitaltrends.com

Google's second stab at a social network goes heavy on the practical and light on the personal. Places with Hotpot gives users a way to find local businesses they and their friends like.

Google has launched a new service tied in with its Places feature that helps you and your friends rank and recommend local businesses. The tool, called Hotpot, is its new business-integrated search engine that helps you find what you’re looking for based on what you and your friends like.

Location is taking over the digital scene, with companies like Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and Facebook Places (meets Deals, of course) ruling the territory. Wisely, Google is beefing up its Places application with a social side to compete.

A significant advantage that many of Hotpot’s competitors have, however, is their integration with Facebook. It’s no secret at this point that Facebook and Google are on less than good terms, which puts Hotpot in the tough position of having to rely on its own social graph. Many Google account holders don’t create profiles for the site, choosing instead to use Google for Gmail alone. The built in viewership that comes with Facebook integration is invaluable, and Hotpot simply won’t have access to it.

Still, Google’s working with what it’s got, and the “Add friends” tool is simple and non-committal enough that it should be effective. Users are shown their Gmail contacts list and invited to “Add” friends from it, which sends an e-mail inviting the selected person to see your ratings.

The user interface definitely leans toward a traditional social networking format, and includes the option of an alias, profile picture, and the friends list. Aside from that, there’s no personal information available – something Google may have learned from its Buzz debacle. The focus is on Places, your rankings, and the recommendations eventually generated for you. By offering a social service with functionality at its core, Google is making a smart, safe step into the arena.

If it can get users beyond that annoying first round of sending and receiving invites to use Places with Hotpot, it will be a worthwhile service. Google Maps is many consumers’ default for directions and business’ locations, and a more accurate ratings system – not to mention those ratings being authored by people you know and presumably trust – would be a benefit for anyone.

And even if it can’t get people to collectively jump on and invite entire contact lists, Hotpot is still useful for an individual. Based on the ratings you give, it will generate recommendations for you. Who needs friends when you’ve got Hotpot?

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Crisis of Democracy Faces Euro Zone - Wall Street Journal

Tiny Ireland and the major powers of the European Union were still engaged in their strange dance last night The EU and the European Central Bank want the Irish to ask for a bailout. Ireland, crippled by the guarantee it gave its banks and all but bust, says it doesn't need bailing out, thank you very much. Oh yes you do, says everyone else. Oh no we don't, say the Irish, but while you're on the line: what would the terms be?

One has to admire the Irish for their pluck, and for their striving to protect a rather weak negotiating position. If Irish ministers resist they know it would mean the spread of more investor panic to other countries. In theory, this could in time blow up the euro zone, trigger a depression and derail the European project.

Reuters Christine Lagarde of France and Germany's Wolfgang Schäuble Tuesday.

Herman Van Rompuy, the EU's president, acknowledged this yesterday: "We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone, because if we don't survive with the euro zone we will not survive with the European Union."

But he said he was confident the Irish end of the crisis could be handled. And in one sense he's right. Barring an earthquake, the euro zone is not going to blow up.

Any country leaving would find that its new currency dropped like a stone (which would increase the relative size of its debts, still denominated in euros). It might default but it could not raise a penny on the markets to fund itself. Unless there is gold at the end of the rainbow, or 870 million barrels of oil off the west coast of Ireland, as was claimed yesterday, Ireland's only option appears to be the euro. It long ago passed the point of no return.

As I have argued several times in this space before, and Ireland is discovering, the events surrounding the sovereign debt crisis are driving much closer integration in the euro zone. In exchange for German guarantees, and EU-sponsored bailouts, the other countries in the single currency must learn to live by German rules.

But then what? Accelerated by the crisis, a new model of government without direct accountability to voters is being constructed. And the democratic consequences have been given very little thought other than by a hardened band of opponents.

To listen to European leaders speak in public, one would imagine there really are no implications. It is as it ever was, only a little bit more so. Ireland's Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was interviewed recently and suggested it was the same old story: "Ireland has always been linked to a fixed currency arrangement. We are currently linked to the euro, we were linked with sterling for more than 150 years. Small countries don't have the luxury of having a separate currency, they link themselves to another currency, there's nothing unusual about that."

In reality, the political end of the European project is now being completed, having been parked because it was too difficult a subject when the single currency was founded. So Ireland is not just "linked" to another currency—its independence is no more than notional. In return for its bailout it will lose control over its corporate tax rates, if not this time then a little further down the line. There will be extraordinary oversight not just of budgets but all manner of other aspects of euro-zone countries' economies. That goes well beyond a pooling of sovereignty. If it walks like a government, and it talks like a government, then it probably is a government.

But what happens when enough voters, in what might be called a nation state, inside the euro zone, one day soon decide that they want to change their government? I don't mean reshuffle their political elite, drilled by the bond markets and common currency orthodoxy, but vote to really head off in a new direction right or left, a direction that requires an independent economic policy. Perhaps such voters in countries including Ireland will always be relaxed when they discover the option has been permanently removed by the ECB and EU. But what happens if they are not so relaxed?

Skepticism about the European project leads to nationalism and extremism, said Mr. Van Rompuy last week. It is equally possible that designing a new form of government that does not have democracy at its heart will anger voters and provide an opening for extremists.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Irish border, the U.K. government is already considering how Northern Ireland might gain a competitive advantage as the celtic tiger licks its wounds.

Intriguingly, in a speech last night in London the Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson raised the possibility of allowing Ulster to have lower corporate tax rates than the rest of the U.K. About 70% of economic activity in the north is in the public sector, and the government hopes to gradually wean Ulster off state dependency.

Mr. Paterson said: "Despite its current economic problems in the first six months of this year the Republic of Ireland attracted over 50 foreign direct investments, including a number of big global hitters. There's an obvious reason for this and it does put us at a real competitive disadvantage. That's why, by the end of the year and working with the [Northern Ireland] executive, the Government will produce a paper on rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy. This will look at possible ways of turning Northern Ireland into an enterprise zone and potential mechanisms for giving it a separate rate of corporation tax to attract significant new investment."

Never waste a serious crisis, as someone once put it.

Write to Iain Martin at iain.martin@wsj.com

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Rep. Charlie Rangel found guilty of 11 ethics violations - Washington Post

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), who was until his recent troubles one of the House's most powerful members, was found guilty Tuesday of breaking 11 separate congressional rules related to his personal finances and his fundraising efforts for a New York college.

The eight-lawmaker subcommittee that handled the trial - and reached a unanimous verdict on 10 of the counts - will now send the case to the full ethics committee for the equivalent of sentencing. Potential punishments include a formal reprimand or censure, with either of those needing to be ratified by a vote on the House floor. Expulsion is another possible penalty but is considered highly unlikely.

The full committee will begin considering Rangel's punishment Thursday.

Rangel was not present for the ruling. He walked out of the trial Monday after the panel rejected his request to delay the proceedings because he had no campaign money left to pay for a legal team. He had already spent $2 million on his defense.

He released a statement blasting the decision. "How can anyone have confidence in the decision of the Ethics Subcommittee when I was deprived of due process rights, right to counsel and was not even in the room?" it said. "I can only hope that the full Committee will treat me more fairly, and take into account my entire 40 years of service to the Congress."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chaired the trial, praised her colleagues for their handling of the case, which landed uncomfortably in their laps in July after talks with Rangel over a plea deal broke down.

"This has been a difficult assignment, time consuming, and we have approached our duties diligently," Lofgren said.

The trial subcommittee, divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans, essentially ratified all but one of the original 13 charges filed against Rangel by an investigative panel in July.

Those charges pointed to a collection of infractions related to four central elements of the case: that Rangel improperly used his congressional staff and official letterhead to raise seven-figure donations from corporate charities and chief executives for a college wing named in his honor; violated New York City rules by housing his political committees in his rent-controlled apartments in Harlem; did not pay taxes on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic; and did not properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal financial assets.

This occurred while he served as the ranking Democrat or chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which has oversight of tax issues. He resigned as committee chairman in the spring when he was found guilty of a more minor infraction related to accepting corporate-financed travel.

After Tuesday's decision, most Democrats declined to address the issue or, as Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) did, described it as a "regrettable" moment. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) emerged as one of Rangel's strongest supporters, rejecting any call for the 20-term congressman to resign. At the Capitol to lobby for his city's interests, Bloomberg called Rangel a friend and defended his storied career. "Whatever happens to Charlie, I wish him well. As a human being, he's certainly a nice guy, and he has done a lot for New York," the mayor said.

The Lofgren panel deadlocked, 4 to 4, on one count against Rangel: that he violated the gift ban by raising money for the Charles B. Rangel Center at the City College of New York. In his testimony before the committee Monday, the top ethics staff investigator acknowledged that raising donations of $1 million or more for a charity, even from corporate executives with business before Rangel's committee, was not in itself a rules violation. The problem was the official, taxpayer-funded methods the lawmaker used to raise the money, a point that Democrats highlighted during Monday's public trial.

Two other counts from the original charges were deemed so similar that the committee rolled them into one. On one other charge - that Rangel's actions brought "discredibility on the House" - the vote was 7 to 1 in favor. The subcommittee members were forbidden from naming the holdout.

This case will be very familiar to the 10-member ethics committee. All eight members of the trial subcommittee sit on the full ethics panel, and another lawmaker who worked on the investigative subcommittee also serves on the full panel. So just one of the lawmakers on the full committee will be new to the case.

Rep. Michael McCaul (Tex.), the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, said he hopes that the public exposure of the trial will "begin an era of transparency and credibility" in Congress.

Staff writer Jason Horowitz contributed to this report.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Doesn`t Have Be an iPad Killer to Succeed - eWeek

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By: Wayne Rash
2010-11-13
Article Rating: / 7

There are 4 user comments on this Enterprise Mobility story.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Doesn`t Have to Be an iPad Killer to Succeed
( Page 1 of 2 ) Samsung?s Galaxy Tab landed in stores with a lot of fanfare, and a lot of speculation as to whether this device will be the long anticipated ?iPad Killer,? and if it is, to what degree. So having spent time looking at these devices (along with some others) let me say right up front that it?s not an iPad Killer. But that?s kind of like saying that a BMW 328 isn?t a Dodge Minivan killer. In both cases these aren?t the same kind of device; they?re not aimed at the same markets and while they seem similar, they really aren?t. 

Because of this, the Galaxy Tab can be successful even if it doesn?t dent the iPad?s sales at all. They?re two different devices, aimed at different types of users. It?s unlikely that someone seriously thinking of buying an iPad will be diverted to the Galaxy Tab. The same thing is true for people seriously considering the Samsung device. In this the situation is somewhat different from what it is in the smartphone world. 

When people shop for smartphones there are several factors that matter. They care about the applications that the device runs, of course. But in the case of iOS and Android devices, there are lots of applications for both. They care about the carrier, but it?s unlikely that anyone is buying an iPhone just so they can get AT&T service. With tablets, it?s a different story.  

When people are thinking about tablets, applications matter a lot, and those applications have to meet their needs while also functioning usefully in a tablet form factor. Both the Android tablets and the iOS tablets have such applications, although the iPad has a lot more that are designed for that device because it?s been around longer. But people also buy a tablet because they find the device comfortable to use, and they find that it meets their needs in other ways, such as by having a data plan that makes sense. And they choose because they like the form factor. 

Setting aside the Android vs. iOS battle for a moment, mainly because it?s not that relevant for anyone but the fanatics on either side, the two devices are about as different as they can be for two lightweight tablets. The Galaxy Tab is relatively small?about the size of an Amazon Kindle. It?s about half the weight of the iPad. It has two cameras, one of which points at the user so they can do video conferencing. 

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Google Doodle Celebrates Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th Birthday - PC Magazine

Google's Saturday doodle is in honor of what would have been Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th birthday.

The doodle, found on Google.com, features a pirate, pirate ship, the coveted chest of gold, and the always ominous skull and crossbones flag.

Stevenson is perhaps best known for his books "Treasure Island," "Kidnapped," and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," though he also dabbled in essays, travel writing, short stories, novels and romances, as well as poetry, plays and biography during his 20-year career, according to a Stevenson Web site maintained by Edinburgh Napier University.

"Treasure Island" was first published in 1883 and told the story of Jim Hawkin's quest for buried treasure. It prompted several film adaptations, including a 1950 production from Disney, which was the studio's first live-action film.

"Jekyll and Hyde" and "Kidnapped" were published three years later in 1886, telling the stories of a physician with a dark side and a boy's quest for his inheritance, respectively. A 1941 film version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" starred Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

In his later life, Stevenson settled in the Samoan Islands with his extended family, where he was buried after his death in December 1894.

Stevenson is not the first artist to which Google has paid homage with its doodle recently. In October, the company honored what would have been musician Dizzy Gillespie's 93rd birthday, as well as the would-be 70th birthday of former Beatle John Lennon. In September, the company celebrated its own 12th birthday with a doodle drawing of a cake.

Several cartoons have also received the Google doodle treatment. Google commemorated the 50th anniversary of "The Flintstones" with a picture on its home page, and it celebrated Halloween with the help of Scooby Doo. This spring, in celebration of the 30 years of Pac-Man, Google also converted its Google.com homepage to a full, playable game.

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Cisco Picks Up Mark "Antennagate" Papermaster - PC Magazine

Cisco has hired the man responsible for Apple's famed "Antennagate" issues—Mark Papermaster, 49, has joined the company as vice president of Cisco's Silicon Switching Technology Group, which oversees the various chips that the company develops for its hardware switches. It's a profitable business for Cisco, as switches make up a significant portion of the company's overall revenue stream.

That said, Papermaster is likely looking to keep his name out of the press for any hardware upsets this time around. The former senior vice president of devices hardware engineering for Apple left the company in August of this year, a year and change after his arrival at Apple in April of 2009 (following a protracted legal battle with former employer IBM.)

It's unclear whether Papermaster's departure was the result of a cultural incompatibility within Apple or due to the simple fact that the iPhone 4 suffered a gentle reaming in the public eye from the alleged antenna issues users reported when trying to hold the device and make calls. So much so, that Apple itself decided to offer all purchasers of the iPhone 4 a free wraparound bumper shortly after the device's release in an effort to staunch users' signal loss issues.

Papermaster himself reportedly lost the confidence of Steve Jobs after the Apple CEO returned to the company following his recovery from a liver transplant in early 2009. Part of that has been attributed to Apple's corporate culture, according to undisclosed sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

At Apple, senior executives don't have as much room for delegation as other companies, for it's expected that those on the top will process even the tiniest details within their realms of control. The same sources indicated that perhaps this wasn't Papermaster's strong suit—as well, they claim he lacked the kind of creative thinking Apple propagates.

Regardless, Cisco needs its best captains to face the stormy sea of sales challenges that lie before it. The company recently took a huge hit to its stock price as a result of its most recent earnings announcement. Although Cisco announced greater earnings as compared to the previous quarter, investors punished Cisco for a 48 percent drop in its state government contracts quarter-to-quarter and a 35 percent drop in orders from cable operators, to name a few of Cisco's admitted challenges. The company's expected second-quarter revenue was approximately $1 billion under Wall Street projections.

As a result, investors sent the stock plummeting 16 percent –the biggest loss the company's seen since July of 1994. That's not the best financial omen for a company that's widely touted as a bellwether stock of the technology industry.

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San Francisco Bay Bridge closed in police standoff - Reuters

The Bay Bridge, linking Oakland to the east with San Francisco, is shown in San Francisco, California August 18, 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith

SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:50pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The San Francisco Bay Bridge was shut down for over an hour on Thursday after an apparently suicidal man claiming to have a gun and explosives stopped his car and threatened to blow it up, authorities said.

Traffic was halted on the bridge, a major commuter route into the city, when the man called in his threat at 6:58 a.m. It resumed flowing just over an hour later, after he was taken into custody.

Authorities said the unidentified man had his 16-year-old daughter in the car with him and may have been upset over marital issues.

The man threatened to blow up the Bay Bridge, but upon initial approach police determined he "wasn't much of a credible threat from an explosives standpoint," Highway Patrol spokesman Trent Cross said.

No explosives were recovered from the car and the man's daughter was being interviewed by authorities.

CHP Officer Shawn Chase said police on the scene witnessed the man, a resident of nearby Antioch, California, throw something into the bay.

"He said he had a fake gun, a toy gun that he threw over the rail," Chase said.

Shortly after the call, authorities stopped traffic to the bridge, designated as part of Interstate 80, at the westbound toll plaza, and asked westbound drivers already on the span to turn around and drive east.

Traffic on the bridge was lighter than normal because of the Veterans Day holiday in the U.S., Cross said.

The 8.4 mile Bay Bridge connects San Francisco to Oakland. Over 40 million vehicles crossed the span in the 2008-09 fiscal year, bringing in over $43 million in base tolls, according to the Bay Area Toll Authority.

(Reporting by Jonathan Oatis and Dan Levine; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jerry Norton)

Really ruined the commute this morning – I’m back at home trying to rescue some of the day by working from here. I hope the police ‘help’ him to let us know why he did this, perhaps he needs a little trip to Guantanamo… Just the amount of fuel wasted as hundreds of thousands of people sat there with their engines running was enough of a disaster to warrant a good investigation. The East Bay was a parking lot.

fiendish Report As Abusive

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This week in crazy: Glenn Beck - Salon

It is one of the oldest pieces of wisdom in conflict. Every successful military leader, every good chess- or poker player, every successful electoral politician, everyone ever in a conflict situation (as we are all sometimes) should have that maxim "pasted on the inside of his hat". So it is not surprising that Soros, being a very smart fellow, looked closely at Hitler, presumably the better to resist similar characters (there will always be such, alas) in his future. Indeed, anyone who is concerned with Nazism (and it's possible re-occurrence, which is not an inconceivable event as the world spirals into economic chaos and the inevitable enormous social dislocations coming) has to read "Mein Kampf". In it Hitler clearly laid out what he meant to do, and how he meant to do it. And he came awfully close to succeeding; but for his own fatal lack of judgment he could have won all his wars. The main military mistakes being: misjudging the strength of the USSR, failing to support Rommel's drive to the Suez Canal and beyond, not being prepared to follow up the quick defeat of France with an invasion of nearly defenceless Britain, and above all, unnecessarily declaring war on the US after pearl Harbor, which his treaty with Japan did not require him to do. It's possible that his monomaniacal drive to destroy the Jews also led him to mis-allocate resources to that end rather than in more strategically useful directions, not to mention depriving his economy and research of the talents of many Jewish experts: many of the men who developed the A-Bomb for us were refugee Jews from Hitler's Europe.

Much of his book is the tedious ranting of an auto-didactic, power-mad sociopath who found what he was pre-disposed to believe in various writers...but the pages on propaganda and the use of deception and outright lying (e. g. The Protocols of Zion, a well-exposed forgery) and PR is crystal clear, as he openly acknowledges his debt to American advertising for many techniques. Had he had to hand the power of television, who knows what he might have accomplished (among other things, putting me in a gas chamber)?

The raw materials for an American fascism are lying around us everywhere, not least in the frothings of Mr. Beck and Ms. Palin. Neither of them has the craftiness to be the leader of such a development, but rest assured that there are some out there who just might. If the economy really collapses (as it could if, say, the Mad Hatters of the Tea Party succeed in blocking the raise of the debt limit and so throwing the US into default and destroying the world's credit system) that possibility becomes ever more plausible. And Mr. Soros is a ready-made hate figure around which such a movement would happily coalesce.

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NATO Seeks Afghan Police in the South - New York Times

The mujahedeen were Afghan guerrilla fighters trained and backed by the United States to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. They later fought against the Taliban and helped topple them from power in 2001.

Under President Hamid Karzai, they were gradually disarmed and demobilized. But many maintain fearsome reputations and have deep links in communities that can be revived to gather intelligence and raise forces quickly.

NATO commanders hope that they can be used to help raise as many as 30,000 local police officers within six months, providing a critical element to help the government and coalition forces hold on to areas newly cleared of Taliban insurgents, the officials said.

Previous efforts to raise local defense forces have failed, largely because of a lack of support in communities and from the government. The police, meanwhile, have a reputation for poor discipline, drug abuse and corruption, and have proved easy prey for the Taliban.

Though some NATO commanders remain cautious about using the mujahedeen, others say the village-based forces can work as part of the coordinated military and civilian strategy that has begun to gain traction in the south since the arrival of 30,000 more American troops and thousands of extra Afghan troops this year.

Under the plan, the new forces will be approved by local councils, or shuras, to ensure that they have the support of all constituencies, that old rivalries between commanders and tribes are not reactivated, and that one faction does not gather too much power to itself.

“Then you partner it up effectively with I.S.A.F. and with the Afghan National Police, then you have got a very real possibility of keeping the Taliban out,” said Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the departing British commander of coalition forces in the southern region, referring to the International Security Assistance Force of NATO.

Still, many, even in NATO, have reservations about recruiting and arming loosely controlled forces. Many Afghans, too, including President Karzai, are wary of empowering private militias, given the factional fighting among mujahedeen groups in the 1990s and the more recent tensions caused by Afghanistan’s private security companies.

General Petraeus had agreed with President Karzai to a pilot program of 10,000 such local Afghan policemen shortly after taking command in July. Recruitment has already begun in some places to expand that plan, with the blessing of the Karzai government.

On a recent day, General Carter sat with Afghan and American commanders on the roof terrace at the district headquarters of Arghandab, just north of the city of Kandahar, discussing how to consolidate their hold over areas cleared three weeks before.

“How quickly can you recruit 300 local police?” he asked a former mujahedeen commander, Hajji Hafizullah. “Can you bring them for training by tomorrow?” By the end of the meeting, the district governor was signing the papers of several dozen local men who will form the local police force.

General Carter calls the new forces “sons of the shura,” because they require approval by everyone on the traditional council of elders to prevent them from becoming what he called “one bloke’s militia.” The plan has clear echoes of the Sons of Iraq, the neighborhood militias that helped turn around violence there.

General Carter, who completed his one-year tour on Nov. 2, contends that the local forces can provide insight in the Taliban heartland, here in Kandahar Province and in neighboring provinces.

He said one early mistake he made was to remove the discredited local police from Marja, in Helmand Province, ahead of the large-scale operation against the Taliban there in February. Without leaving some of them there to provide important local intelligence, General Carter said, “we did not really have an understanding of what was going on probably for about four to six weeks.”

American Marines holding Marja have been plagued by the reinfiltration of insurgents since the operation. NATO commanders are bracing themselves for the same trouble in the newly cleared districts around Kandahar.

“The challenge always is what happens when a resurgent Taliban tries to come back and tries to undermine the security that you are trying to establish,” General Carter said. “And that we should expect on and off over the next few months.”

Whatever their reputation for excess, the former mujahedeen know their areas and their people like no one else. They have also proved themselves brave enough to stand up to the Taliban. “These guys have the clout to make people braver,” General Carter said.

Local police officers, trained and supervised by American Special Forces, are already operating in a number of places, including part of Marja and an area in Arghandab, and Special Forces units are already looking to recruit men in the newly cleared horn of Panjwai in Kandahar Province, said Brig. Gen. Frederick Hodges, the coalition director of operations in the south.

“It is promising, but the jury is still out,” he said in an interview.

Carlotta Gall reported from Arghandab and Ruhullah Khapalwak from Kabul, Afghanistan.

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