- McCain, Facing G.O.P. Foe in Primary, Tilts to the Right Challenged by J. D. Hayworth from the airwaves, and soon in a primary, John McCain has moved starkly, and often awkwardly, to the right.
- On Health Bill, G.O.P.’s Road Is a New Map Republicans this month will bring President Obama a set of ideas and a more modest health care plan.
- Toyota Details Recall of 2010 Prius for Brake Problems The worldwide recall will affect about 437,000 units of the 2010 Prius and other hybrid models, according to the company’s filing.
- News Analysis: For Kremlin, an Election in Ukraine Cuts T... Russia’s preferred candidate is the apparent winner, but the starkly contested presidential race contrasts sharply with Russia’s recent history.
- Making Solar Power Portable A growing number of business travelers are using portable renewable energy devices to power up their electronics when they work in places that offer little or no access to electricity.
- Iran Is Said to Begin Nuclear Enrichment Brushing aside international threats of stricter sanctions, Iran reportedly began enriching its uranium on Tuesday.
- In City Real Estate, Old Clans Are Shrewd Again Some families with deep roots in Manhattan kept their heads a few years ago when the market for skyscrapers and other big projects overheated.
- U.N. Climate Panel and Chief Face Credibility Siege Rajendra K. Pachauri and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change face accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest.
- Afghan Avalanches Kill at Least 28 At least 28 people are dead and another 1,500 are stranded following multiple avalanches in Afghanistan.
- Paperwork Hinders Airlifts of Ill Haitian Children Doctors and aid workers are wrestling with proving that they are not illegally transporting children, whose risk of dying is rising while the paperwork awaits.
- Menendez Prodded Fed to Aid Lender Sen. Robert Menendez wrote to the Fed last July asking it to approve a bank takeover that would have kept two of his campaign contributors from losing their investments in the ailing bank.
- Leverage Sought In Health Summit Republicans ruled out any health legislation that doesn't start from scratch in response to Obama's plans for a bipartisan health summit.
- Hearts Actually Can Break Broken-heart syndrome mimics a heart attack but is brought on by acute emotion or physical trauma. But patients usually fully recover with no lasting heart damage.
- Fannie, Freddie Remain State Wards With no blueprints for the future and no clear exit strategy for the government, Fannie and Freddie are focusing for now on the U.S. loan-modification program.
- Toyota to Recall Hybrids World-Wide The auto maker is recalling 437,000 hybrid vehicles world-wide, including the Prius, due to problems with their antilock braking systems.
- FSA Chief Sants to Step Down The U.K. Financial Services Authority said that Hector Sants will leave the organization this summer after three years as chief executive officer.
- UBS Swings Back to Profit UBS reported its first net profit in five quarters, but continued to lose assets from wealthy clients, underlining that the Swiss bank has yet to regain trust it lost during the financial crisis.
- Japan Airlines Sticks With AMR Japan Airlines said it will maintain its alliance with AMR's American Airlines, dealing a blow to rival Delta.
- CIC Offers a Glimpse of Holdings The massive national China Investment Corp. provided the closest look yet at its politically sensitive holdings, in an SEC filing that revealed that it has accumulated small stakes in more than 60 U.S. companies but is making big bets outside the U.S.
- Mortgage Mess Breeds Unlikely Allies Some activists and investors have formed a loose coalition, aiming to cut amounts owed by borrowers whose loans exceed the values of their homes.
- Would you marry the same person again? "Would you marry the same person again?" could be a dangerous question.
- UBS back in black but outflows double Read full story for latest details.
- Toyota recalls more than 400,000 hybrid cars Toyota's president apologized profusely Tuesday as he announced the global recall of more than 400,000 of the automaker's 2010 hybrid models, including the popular Prius, for problems in their anti-lock braking systems.
- Man goes undercover to combat child sex slavery Aaron Cohen first met Jonty Thern and her older sister, Channy, in 2005 while singing in a karaoke bar in Battambang, Cambodia. He has come back to see them every year since.
- Nuke fears rise as Iran ramps up uranium enrichment As promised, Iran began enriching uranium to 20 percent on Tuesday, state media said.
- Van Gaal not interested in Nigeria job Nigeria's short-list of targets for the vacant national manager's job has been cut by one after Bayern Munich coach Louis Van Gaal distanced himself from the role.
- Murder charges filed against former Philippines governor Authorities in the Philippines have filed murder charges against the former governor of southern Maguindanao province and 196 others in connection with last year's election-related massacre there.
- U.N. supports Olympic Truce The United Nations declared its support Monday for the traditional Olympic Truce ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which begin Friday.
- China seizes tainted milk less than 2 years after scandal Chinese authorities have seized 72 tons of milk powder tainted with melamine and are trying to track down an additional 100 tons, less than two years after contaminated milk killed babies and sickened people across China.
- Climate row scientist says he considered suicide The UK scientist at the center of a controversy surrounding e-mails leaked from a leading UK climate research unit has admitted the strain of the affair led him to consider suicide.
- Images: Stewart Butterfield's new gaming start-up Since last March, the Flickr co-founder and three partners have quietly been developing an online social game they hope will appeal to a wide audience. CNET has been there to document the creation of their start-up.
- Stewart Butterfield's Tiny Speck team To build Glitch, the Flickr co-founder put together an impressive team of some of his earliest collaborators on the popular photo-sharing site.
- In depth with Tiny Speck's Glitch The new online social MMO from Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield's Tiny Speck puts players through a wide variety of paces. Quests, egg growing and clouds on a string are just a part of it.
- Watching the birth of Flickr co-founder's gaming start-up Stewart Butterfield and his friends are back at it with a new company. CNET's Daniel Terdiman was given exclusive, behind-the-scenes access as they built it from scratch.
- Google launches Nexus One phone support Customers suffering shipping and technical issues with the new Android phone now have more resources than online support forums.
- Did this Metro PCS ad make the tech world cringe? Cell phone provider Metro PCS' new campaign, featuring two supposed Indian tech experts, is proving a little controversial. The company admits it has received complaints.
- iPad pricing: How low can you go, Apple? It seems odd that Apple execs would even hint at the possibility of an early price cut lest they give folks already on the fence about buying the first iteration of the device more reason to stay there.
- Twins learn of teen brother's death on Facebook Twins logging on to Facebook to read birthday wishes instead discover that people have left RIP posts about their 17-year-old brother. Police hadn't notified the family.
- Silicon: It's good for you, especially in beer Researchers at UC Davis say that silicon, the most common metalloid and a known booster of bone-mineral density, is highly "bioavailable" when consumed in beer.
- University worker accused of extorting student file sharers Security analyst at University of Georgia tasked with catching copyright violators allegedly uses his position to shakedown students.
- Why Digg.com is heading for a Major Pitfall Digg.com is taking a turn for the worst, and may need a lot of help recovering. More and more people are starting to realize how heavily the system is gamed by certain power users.
- Toast Girl a Hit in Tokyo (Video) Toast Girl and her two gogo-babies have toured Australia and Japan for years. Hiroe Hama quit her accountantcy job and started to recreate household articles for music shows after studying art. She is fascinated by the sound of toast jumping out of the toaster. Toast Girl designs skater shoes made of hoovers.
- Translator for Smartphone by Google soon The Google folks are always busy in their labs bringing new technology to the users and enhancing the existing applications for a better user experience.
- Retro 3-Point Shootout (Basketball) Game Is it just me or does a perfect 30pt game seem impossible?
- Macworld Expo 2010 Caters to Apple Fans Like a Star Trek convention minus Leonard Nimoy, Macworld Conference and Expo 2010 kicks off Tuesday at San Francisco's Moscone Center with no official
- The ultimate 'Japan only' games consoles Garish, customised versions of your favourite games consoles can only be found in Japan.
- Dante's Inferno Interview: Of Marketing and Gods of War We chat with Jonathan Knight, the executive producer of EA's Dante's Inferno about the game's unique marketing, how it's harder than it looks to create a game 'God of War' and why his take on the classic poem may not be a lasting part of the story of Dante's work. It was an interesting discussion, and proved that the game may not be as easily...
- NASA to Study Seeds in Space to Understand Plant Growth (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA scientists hope to better understand exactly how and why plants grow differently in space in an experiment named, Tropi. Future astronauts may be able to grow plants as part of life support systems on long-duration space missions to the moon or Mars.
- Hollywood's Version of Stretch Armstrong? Lautner + Oedekerk Taylor Lautner’s global box office stardom is based on his role in Twilight, which had a built-in audience and required him to do nothing but stand around with his shirt off. Meanwhile, Steve Oedekerk’s last script was for Evan Almighty, which earned $75 million less than its budget, domestically. They both have signed on for "Stretch Armstrong".
- Decent DX11 Capable Gaming For $79, Radeon HD 5570 Launched A quick look at its model number, will reveal that the Radeon HD 5570 falls somewhere in between the Radeon HD 5450 and 5670 in AMD's current line-up. The card offers decent frame rates at moderately high resolutions for some of the latest and it's also a half-height, low-power card so perhaps ideal for an HTPC
- Google Launches Phone Support For The Nexus One, Lowers E...
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google Launches Phone Support For The Nexus One, Lowers ETF By $200 — Since the launch of the Nexus One, early adopters have likely had one question lurking in the back of their minds: who to take the phone to if it broke. You see, when the phone was first launched, Google was directing people …
- Foursquare Signs a Deal With Zagat (Jenna Wortham/Bits) Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Foursquare Signs a Deal With Zagat — Foursquare, the location-based mobile application that is capturing the fancy of hip urbanites, is a fun bar game that lets users compete for points and badges when they go out at night. But recently the service has been branching out beyond its bar-hopping origins.
- 1080p streaming not coming to Netflix this year (Josh Low...
Josh Lowensohn / Crave: The gadget blog:
1080p streaming not coming to Netflix this year — Editors' note, 4:30 p.m. PST: Netflix now claims that it incorrectly acknowledged 1080p streaming in the company's 2010 development road map. A Netflix representative has clarified that the company plans to bring 5.1 surround and closed captioning …
- Job Postings Hint at Amazon's Plans for the Kindle (Nick ...
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Job Postings Hint at Amazon's Plans for the Kindle — It looks like color screens and Wi-Fi might be the next additions to Amazon's Kindle. — Last week, Brad Stone and I reported that Amazon had acquired the New York based multi-touch screen company Touchco to integrate into Lab126, the Kindle hardware division.
- Motorola: Droid update to Android 2.1 'will start to roll...
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Motorola: Droid update to Android 2.1 ‘will start to roll out this week’ — We knew Android 2.1 was coming for the Droid, but we'll confess — we didn't expect it to come this soon. Motorola is now reporting via its official Facebook page that it's “happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to Droid …
- iPhone 4G Parts are Here... (Brian/iResQ)
Brian / iResQ:
iPhone 4G Parts are Here... And they have a couple of interesting features. — 1) The LCD appears to be factory glued to the digitizer which is more similar to the first generation iPhones than the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The digitizer can be separated from the LCD on the 3G and 3GS models …
- Google Launching Twitter-Killer For Gmail! (GOOG) (Nichol...
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Launching Twitter-Killer For Gmail! (GOOG) — Google could launch a Twitter-killer as soon as this week, the Wall Street Journal reports. — Google already allows Gmail users to update their status. The prompt reads, “let people know what you're up to, or share links to photos, videos, and Web pages.”
- Motorola Droid's next update to be Android 2.1, includes ...
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Motorola Droid's next update to be Android 2.1, includes multitouch browser — We've just gotten the inside line on the next Droid update that's making the rounds through Verizon's testing department from one of our trusted sources, and overall, it looks like this should take users 95 percent …
- Google doppelgänger casts riddle over interwebs (Cad...
Cade Metz / The Register:
Google doppelgänger casts riddle over interwebs — Why is Google routing the world through ‘Googol’? — Sometime in the middle of October, Google silently launched a new net domain - a barely-disguised doppelgänger to the familiar google.com - and according to the latest stats …
- Apple Management: iPad Prices Could Change (Matt Phillips...
Matt Phillips / MarketBeat:
Apple Management: iPad Prices Could Change … Apple intends to stay “nimble” on pricing of the iPad, possibly lowering prices if the newly unveiled tablet device fails to gain traction among consumers. — That was just one of the items in a note out Sunday night from Credit Suisse recounting meetings with Apple executives.
- The iPad Questions Apple Won't Answer snydeq writes "Apple's reticence to reveal details prior to a product's launch is legendary. But when Apple extends this silence beyond a product's unveiling, historically this has meant that the product cannot deliver the functionality that analysts and journalists are asking about. InfoWorld's Galen Gruman lists eight key questions for the iPad, about all of which Apple has kept silent. Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad? Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Does the iPad support VPN? Configuration management? 'I have no doubt the iPad will be compelling to some users. But I now have major concerns that it will fulfill the potential beyond being an iTunes delivery screen that I and other industry observers saw,' Gruman writes."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Improving Education Through Social Gaming A piece up at Mashable explores how some schools and universities are finding success at integrating social gaming into their education curriculum. Various game-related programs are getting assistance these days from sources like the government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"For the less well-to-do educator, the Federation of American Scientists has developed a first-person shooter-inspired cellular biology curriculum. Gamers explore the fully-interactive 3D world of an ill patient and assist the immune system in fighting back a bacterial infection. Dr. Melanie Ann Stegman has been evaluating the educational impacts of the game and is optimistic about her preliminary findings. 'The amount of detail about proteins, chemical signals and gene regulation that these 15-year-olds were devouring was amazing. Their questions were insightful. I felt like I was having a discussion with scientist colleagues,' said Stegman. Perhaps more importantly, the video game excites students about science. Motivating more youngsters to adopt a science-related career track has became a major education initiative of the Obama administration. So desperate to find a solution that motivates students to become scientists, the government has even enlisted Darpa, the Department of Defense’s 'mad scientist' research organization, to figure out a solution."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Reduces Its Nexus One Termination Fee CWmike writes "The only smartphone Linus Torvalds doesn't hate is that much less unlikable now that Google has quietly chopped $200 off its early termination fee on the Nexus One. Customers who cancel the service had been on the hook for $550, including a $350 Google cancellation charge. Google has reduced their fee to $150 — but users are still liable for a $200 ETF from T-Mobile. Users have a 14-day grace period during which they do not have to pay either charge, although they may be hit with a restocking fee. The $350 total fee matches one of the highest in the industry, charged by Verizon. Google did not announce the change but simply altered its online terms-of-service document." The price cut could add momentum to a phone that, by one reckoning, costs only $49 unlocked.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Game Development In a Post-Agile World An anonymous reader writes "Many games developers have been pursuing agile development, and we are now beginning to witness the debris and chaos it has caused. While there have been some successes, there have also been many casualties. As the industry at large is moving away from the phantasmagoria of Agile, Gwaredd Mountain, Technical Director at Climax Studios, looks at Post-Agile and what this might mean for the games industry."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- IBM Releases Power7 Processor Dan Jones writes "As discussed here last year, IBM has made good on its promise to release the Power7 processor (and servers) in the first half of 2010. The Power7 processor adds more cores and improved multithreading capabilities to boost the performance of servers requiring high up-time, according to Big Blue. Power7 chips will run between 3.0GHz and 4.14GHz and will come with four, six, or eight cores. The chips are being made using the 45-nm process technology. New Power7 servers (up to 64 cores for now) are said to deliver twice the performance of older Power6 systems, but are four times more energy efficient. Power7 servers will run AIX and Linux." And reader shmG notes Intel's release of a new Itanium server processor after two years of delays. The Power7 specs would seem to put the new Intel chip in the shade.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Oracle Drops Sun's Commitment To Accessibility An anonymous reader writes "What I feared has come true: after buying Sun, Oracle had a look at its accessibility group and made big cuts in it by firing the most important contributors to the Linux accessibility tools. This is a very sad day for disabled people, as it means we do not really have full-time developers any more." The coverage in OSTATIC has a few more details, including the caution: "This just shows that all too few companies are sponsoring a11y work. If one company laying off a couple of developers spells trouble for the project, then there were problems before that happened" (thanks to reader dave c-b for pointing this out).Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Virtualizing a Supercomputer bridges writes "The V3VEE project has announced the release of version 1.2 of the Palacios virtual machine monitor following the successful testing of Palacios on 4096 nodes of the Sandia Red Storm supercomputer, the 17th-fastest in the world. The added overhead of virtualization is often a show-stopper, but the researchers observed less than 5% overhead for two real, communication-intensive applications running in a virtual machine on Red Storm. Palacios 1.2 supports virtualization of both desktop x86 hardware and Cray XT supercomputers using either AMD SVM or Intel VT hardware virtualization extensions, and is an active open source OS research platform supporting projects at multiple institutions. Palacios is being jointly developed by researchers at Northwestern University, the University of New Mexico, and Sandia National Labs." The ACM's writeup has more details of the work at Sandia.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Study Says OOXML Unsuitable For Norwegian Government angry tapir writes "Microsoft's XML-based office document format, OOXML, does not meet the requirements for governmental use, according to a new report published by the Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI). The agency wants to start a debate over the report as part of its work on standards in the Norwegian government. (As we discussed a week ago, Denmark has already decided to choose ODF over OOXML.)"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Virus-Detecting "Lab On a Chip" Developed At BYU natharward writes "A new development in nano-level diagnostic tests has been applied as a lab on a chip that successfully screened viruses entirely by their size. The chip's traps are size-specific, which means even tiny concentrations of viruses or other particles won't escape detection. For medicine, this development is promising for future lab diagnostics that could detect viruses before symptoms kick in and damage begins, well ahead of when traditional lab tests are able to catch them. Aaron Hawkins, the BYU professor leading the work, says his team is now gearing up to make chips with multiple, progressively smaller slots, so that a single sample can be used to screen for particles of varying sizes. One could fairly simply determine which proteins or viruses are present based on which walls have particles stacked against them. After this is developed, Hawkins says, 'If we decided to make these things in high volume, I think within a year it could be ready.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Shooting For Smartphone Universal Translator nikki4 writes to tell us that in giving some major improvement tweaks to its existing voice recognition tool for the Smartphone, Google is aiming for new translator software that will provide instant translation of foreign languages. "The company has already created an automatic system for translating text on computers, which is being honed by scanning millions of multi-lingual websites and documents. So far it covers 52 languages, adding Haitian Creole last week. Google also has a voice recognition system that enables phone users to conduct web searches by speaking commands into their phones rather than typing them in. Now it is working on combining the two technologies to produce software capable of understanding a caller’s voice and translating it into a synthetic equivalent in a foreign language."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
