Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Hardware, iMac

Update: MacNN reports that a “reliable source” (read: rumor) has told them that Apple has ceased production of Core i5- and i7-based iMacs until they’ve fixed this issue for good.

At the end of last year, customers who bought 27″ iMacs reported screen flickering. Apple acknowledged the problem and released a firmware update intended to fix it back in December. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

According to Ars Technica, Apple’s internal support system is aware of the continuing problem and working on a fix. Customers who complain about the issue are to be told that their faulty display can be replaced “…in about three weeks.” Note that the units currently for sale have a 3-week shipping time, so you might want to wait a month before making a purchase Ars suggests, and we agree.

The shipping delays began in December when Apple declined to comment on why, but discussion threads pointed to the display. The delay was pushed ahead even further in January, which is how we got to the present 3-week wait.

Here’s hoping this gets fixed soon and all you owners can enjoy your 27″ iMacs in all their non-flickering glory.

TUAWApple acknowledges continuing 27″ iMac screen issues originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s never easy to pick a winner, but here we are. The week is up it’s time to announce who will be getting themselves some Tekken 6 in the mail soon. We sure had a bang-load

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement of a new U.S. policy on global Internet Freedom included a bold new statement about the responsibilities of American technology companies:

…We are urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments’ demands for censorship and surveillance. The private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression. And when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what’s right, not simply what’s a quick profit.

We couldn’t agree more.

While Clinton focuses on media companies — meaning Internet media companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft — there are plenty of other companies deserving scrutiny. Specfically, many U.S. (and multinational) technology companies may be knowingly selling Chinese authorities the surveillance equipment used to commit or facilitate human rights abuses. We think it’s high time to pay attention to them as well.

The “Corporations of Interest”

Drawing from published news articles, EFF has compiled a list of seven corporations that are reportedly selling surveillance technology to the Chinese government and related entities. We’re designating them “corporations of interest”.

Of course, news articles alone are not absolute evidence that these companies are indeed fostering repression in China. But it’s clear that China uses technology to employ rampant censorship, invasive data collection and intimidation. Learning exactly what is going on, especially in the Chinese environment of state secrecy and propaganda, is difficult. But news reports, especially those that include admissions of some level of involvement from company officials, are a sufficient basis to begin asking further questions.

1. Cisco: Cisco’s deep involvement in the building of China’s Golden Shield Project has been admitted by the company. Cisco’s involvement has even already been raised before Congress, including the fact that Cisco engineers gave a presentation acknowledging the repressive uses for their technology that quoted their Chinese government buyers as saying that Cisco’s products could be used to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other hostiles.” The UK’s Guardian reports that Cisco provides over 60% of all routers, switches, and network gear to China and estimates that Cisco makes $500 million annually from China.
2. Nortel: Rolling Stone and The Guardian report that Nortel has sold hardware to aid the Golden Shield Project for surveillance and censorship purposes, including working with Tsinghua University to develop speech recognition software to monitor telephone conversations.
3. Oracle: Business Week reports that Oracle has sold software to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security for criminal and ideological investigations. Oracle admits that one-third of its business in China is with the government.
4. Motorola: Business Week also reports that Motorola sold the Chinese authorities handheld devices for street cops to tap into “sophisticated data repositories” on Chinese citizens.
5. EMC: Business Week also reports that EMC sold “sophisticated data repositories” to the Chinese public security authorities. The top EMC executive in Beijing is quoted as saying, “We can expect big revenue from public security agencies” in China.
6. Sybase: Business Week also reports that Sybase sells database programs to the Shanghai police.
7. L-1 Identity Solutions: Rolling Stone reports that this Connecticut-based biometrics company sold software to Chinese companies that aids government officials in identifying individuals for purposes of criminal investigations.

The question of which companies have assisted in Chinese surveillance is just a small piece of a very large puzzle and we’re quite confident that there are more than just these seven. And obviously many countries other than China are engaged in Internet surveillance — from Iran’s infamous repression of political dissent, to censorship efforts across the globe, to the USA’s own domestic surveillance architecture. Corporate complicity in these efforts is equally deserving of scrutiny.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that surveillance is only part of the equation. Other technologies created or sold by companies may also be misused by the Chinese authorities. For instance, Internet censorship systems curtail civil liberties almost as severely as Internet surveillance systems. Research by the OpenNet Initiative has shown that censorship systems in many repressive countries have been outsourced to U.S. corporations.

The Solution

What comes next? Again, there’s simply not enough publicly available information to be absolutely certain about the extent of any one company’s active involvement or complicity.

So, a good first step would be for the companies in question to clear the air and come clean with the public about their behavior. There are six steps we’d like to see them take:

1. Clarify their actual relationships with the Chinese authorities engaged in surveillance and censorship of the Chinese people.
2. Publicly disclose what sorts of products and services they are selling to the Chinese government.
3. Publicly disclose whether they have been doing “customization” or otherwise facilitating targeting of human rights activists or other vulnerable groups in China.
4. Publicly disclose whether they have learned that their products and services are being used for repression.
5. Publicly disclose how much money they make selling products and services to the Chinese government.
6. Publicly disclose the steps they can take to prevent their products and services being used to violate human rights.

EFF (and presumably the State Department) will be watching closely to see whether these and other corporations selling surveillance technologies to the Chinese authorities take these steps.

And if they don’t? Then it may be time for Secretary Clinton, or her allies in Congress and the Administration, to pressure them to do so.

Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson will visit The View for the first time next month. The British star and co-star Emilie de Ravin will join hosts Joy Behar, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd to promote their upcoming romantic drama Remember Me.

Pattinson and de Ravin’s live interview on the Emmy-winning morning gabfest is set for March 2. Remember Me — which also stars Pierce Bronson — opens in theaters March 12.

A suspect who LAPD investigators said jolted a woman with a stun gun during an attempted robbery on Melrose Avenue is the 22-year-old son of the man accused of being the "Westside rapist" serial killer.

David Victor Thomas was arrested in the stun-gun attack and is being held without bail on a parole violation. Hollywood Division Lt. Bob Binder said he’s the son of John Floyd Thomas, who allegedly raped and killed older women in the 1970s and ’80s on Los Angeles’ Westside and in the Inland Valley.

The younger Thomas was arrested by Hollywood Division officers Wednesday after a group of valets from a karaoke club in the 4800 block Melrose Avenue near Western Avenue witnessed the attack, police said. The men chased Thomas and held him down until police arrived.

Police had been seeking to identify the female victim, who left the scene shortly before officers arrived. She contacted detectives over the weekend, Binder said. He said she is in her 40s. Investigators are looking into whether the younger Thomas committed other similar crimes and are encouraging anyone with information to contact police.

The younger Thomas is on parole for a drug-related charge and is classified as a non-violent offender. He was living in the same South Los Angeles apartment he shared with his father, a veteran state insurance claims adjuster who was charged last April with the killings of Ethel Sokoloff, 68, in the Mid-Wilshire area in 1972, and Elizabeth McKeown, 67, in Westchester in 1976.

John Floyd Thomas, 73, currently faces a total of seven murder counts. Authorities say he could be responsible for as many as 30 homicides.

The so-called Westside rapist attacked white seniors in neighborhoods from Hollywood to Inglewood. The crimes led to the formation of a special police task force in the mid-1970s. Victims ranged in age from the 50s to the 90s. Authorities say Thomas manually strangled his victims before placing bedding over their faces.

The attacks appeared to stop in 1978. That year, a witness took down Thomas’ license plate after he raped a woman in Pasadena. He was convicted and sent to state prison. When he was released in 1983, he moved to Chino.

At the same time, a killer began stalking older women, this time in the Inland Valley area.During that period, Thomas worked in neighboring Pomona as a peer counselor at a hospital. The killings–which authorities say may have numbered a half-dozen during this period–stopped inexplicably in 1989.

— Andrew Blankstein

Photo: John Floyd Thomas. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

State Supreme Court: Sex offenders may challenge ‘Jessica’s Law’ residency rules

Federal agents find 14 suspected illegal immigrants in Reseda ‘drop house’

Orange County fishermen angle for unusual catch: Giant squid

Will Angelenos soon be trimming city trees? Budget cuts could bring big changes

“South Butt,” sued by North Face for trademark infringement, has filed a delightfully nyah-nyah answer to the apparel maker’s legal claims. While North Face asserts that South Butt is sewing confusion and mistake among consumers, and deceiving them, the parody company, intent on a 1st Amendment defense, insists that that “the consuming public is well aware of the difference between a face and a butt.” The rest of the fun filing, inside…

The South Butt Answer to the North Face

Our response to The North Face lawsuit! [TheSouthButt]

PREVIOUSLY: The North Face Thinks You Might Confuse Them With “The South Butt”

This is one dude that looks like a lady that could prove hard to ditch. Lawyers for rock icon Steven Tyler have contacted Aerosmith’s manager threatening legal action if the band moves forward with plans to replace its longtime band frontman, who is currently undergoing treatment for dependency on prescription drugs, Rolling Stone has learned.

Guitarist Joe Perry recently revealed the musicians are looking to replace the rocker while he takes a break to recover from a recent stint in rehab – insisting they want to continue with plans for a new tour and album without its lead singer. Lenny Kravitz and Billy Idol have been courted for the job, but Steven’s attorney is vowing to use every legal remedy at his disposal to protect the musician’s place in the group.

In a letter to Aerosmith manager Howard Kaufman, Steven’s lawyer Skip Miller demands that the band “immediately cease and desist from engaging in acts and conduct to the harm and detriment of your own client, Aerosmith, and our client who is one of its members.”

The note further states that “we reserve all of our legal rights and remedies in this matter, including, without limitation, pursuing legal action for damages and other appropriate relief.”

Amnesty International has called on the Sri Lankan government to end its crackdown on journalists, political activists and human rights defenders following last week’s presidential election.
 
Opposition supporters and journalists have been arrested, several prominent newspaper editors have received death threats and trade unionists and opposition supporters have been harassed since the poll.
 
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) reported more than 85 post-election incidents, including two murders and several assaults. The CMEV has not released details of these incidents.
 
Pressure on government critics has been mounting since President Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected on 26 January, defeating his former Chief of Defence Staff – retired army general Sarath Fonseka.
 
“Victory against the Tamil Tigers followed by an historic election should have ended political repression in Sri Lanka but instead we have seen a serious clampdown on freedom of expression,” said Madhu Malhotra, Amnesty International’s Asia- Pacific Deputy Director.
 
Sri Lankan journalists have given Amnesty International a list of 56 of their colleagues who face serious threats, including some working for the government-owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, as well as Independent Television Network, Lak Hada and the Lake House Group.
 
“Threats, beatings and arrests mean that Sri Lankan human rights activists live in fear of the consequences of expressing their political opinions,” said Madhu Malhotra.
 
Security officials detained 13 former military officials supporting the defeated presidential candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka on 29 January during a raid on the candidate’s campaign office. They are being held incommunicado, according to opposition lawyer Shiral Lakthilaka.
 
The government has accused Fonseka and his supporters of plotting a coup d’etat.  
 
Also on 29 January, police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raided the office of newspaper Lanka Irida and arrested chief editor Chandana Sirimalwatte, who remains in detention.

The newspaper had openly campaigned for opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka during the elections. The office was raided again the following day.
 
Offices of the popular internet site, Lanka E News, were sealed off by the authorities and Amnesty International received reports that a number of unidentified gunmen visited the Lanka E News office on at least two occasions during last week.
 
Sri Lankan journalist and political analyst Prageeth Eknaligoda, a contributor to the site, disappeared on his way home from work two days before the election and is still missing.

When his wife reported his disappearance to the Homagama police, she was herself detained for several hours. Eknaligoda had been actively reporting on political events in the run-up to the election and had recently spoken out in favour of Sarath Fonseka.
 
“President Rajapaksa’s government has to show that it will now try to deal with the human rights violations that have plagued Sri Lanka, instead of using the post-election period to launch a new crackdown,” said Madhu Malhotra.
 
Numerous serious assaults by unknown perpetrators against journalists have not been properly investigated or prosecuted. Amnesty International calls on the Sri Lankan authorities to change this pattern and demonstrate their commitment to human rights standards by ensuring the prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation of these recent attacks.

Finishing his breakfast at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park last week, Craig Woods, a 55-year-old pipe fitter from Lake County, had to be reminded that there is a primary election on Tuesday.

He said he tried to forget unpleasant subjects — like politicians and the “promises they always break.”

“As far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Woods said, “they should outsource all the politicians. The country needs jobs, but all the politicians care about is the banks. The politicians are running America into the ground.”

As voters prepared to head to the polls this week, interviews across the Chicago area show, candidates must fight to win voters’ trust. Incumbents, in particular, seem most likely to face a backlash.

From the streets and barbershops of President Barack Obama’s Hyde Park to a conservative candidates’ forum in Gurnee; from a coffee shop in Zion to a working-class neighborhood in Jefferson Park, there was a consensus: throw out those in charge and keep a close eye on the ones who might replace them.

The anger was bipartisan. So was the deep sense of fear about the national economy and its repercussions here in Illinois. People said they were tired of war and terrified of terrorists, fearful of losing their homes and their livelihoods. Locally, concerns ranged from the corruption in Springfield to the privatization of Chicago’s parking.

And everywhere, the four-letter word on everyone’s lips was “jobs.”

Ed P. O’Toole, 58, a retired mailman sitting on a bar stool in Jefferson Park, said he used to measure weakness in the economy by the number of unemployment checks on his route. “It never got as bad as it is today,” he said.

Mr. O’Toole comes from a military family, and said he wanted his elected officials to take better care of veterans, create jobs and make health care more affordable.

Leon McGee, 76, a retired chemist from the South Side, was born at the tail end of the Great Depression and cannot remember a worse economy. “We’re like a third world country,” he said.

On Jan. 23, about 65 people went to the wood-paneled Gurnee American Legion Hall for a Republican candidates’ event sponsored by the Northern Illinois Patriots, a Tea Party group. Among them were Amy and Jesse Moore of Zion, who have a 2-year-old daughter and a mortgage they struggle to pay.

“We are wondering, Where is our money going?” said Mrs. Moore, 28, a self-described staunch pro-life voter. “What are we paying taxes for?”

Mr. Moore, 28, lost his job in 2005, but quickly found work in Lake Bluff as a machinist. Mrs. Moore is a full-time mother. They said they considered themselves lucky even though their home had plummeted in value in the six years since they bought it.

“We wish we had never bought the house,” Mrs. Moore said. “We’re stuck now.”

She leaned forward in her seat as the candidates, including Dan Proft, a contender for governor, and Maria Rodriguez, the hopeful for the Eighth Congressional District, spoke and fielded questions about the economy, protecting gun rights and their plans to clean up corruption in a state where one in five former governors in the past century have wound up behind bars.

“I would end the practice of committing felonies by the governor’s office,” Mr. Proft said. “I promised my mom I wouldn’t go to federal prison.”

In nearby Zion, Rhonda Janus, 57, owner of the shop It’s All Good Coffee and Espresso, wants tax breaks for small businesses like hers, paid for by cuts in the size of government.

“When we prosper, we’re anxious to see others prosper,” Ms. Janus said. “We’re not hoarders, and our government seems to be hoarders.”

Democratic politicians also face an angry electorate. When Daniel W. Hynes, the state comptroller and candidate for governor, made a campaign stop at a Riverdale hair salon recently, Donnie Hackler, a barber, was blunt. “We’ve heard all this before,” Mr. Hackler said.

Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, also a Democrat, was sitting at a restaurant in Tinley Park recently when a woman came by to offer sympathy. “You’re certainly catching a lot of heat,” she said.

Read the original article from the Chicago News Cooperative.

Alexi Giannoulias would be nothing in Illinois politics if not for Broadway Bank. Now the near-failure of that family-owned bank is threatening to make him a political non-entity again.

Broadway Bank is the source of the wealth that has made him a viable candidate. It also provides his main claim to professional expertise, the ability to write loans and tally a balance sheet.

But now the precipitous implosion of the bank’s finances — punctuated last week by an agreement with regulators that the bank must raise more capital or else — is a potentially serious blow to Mr. Giannoulias’s viability in the race for the United States Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Mr. Giannoulias, 33, has ducked all but the most general questions about which loans he approved that might have contributed to the bank’s trouble. He said there would be time later to get into such details.

I interpret that to mean: “I hope I can get this past my fellow Democrats. I’ll worry about my Republican opponent later.”

Though he would not talk to the Chicago News Cooperative, in public statements Mr. Giannoulias has noted that four years have passed since he left the bank. In a statement, the bank said only 9 percent of the $242 million in nonperforming assets currently on its books originated under Mr. Giannoulias.

But here is an inconvenient fact about bank failures: They do not happen overnight. A dollop of reckless lending here, a dash of destabilizing hot money there, hide a few troubles over there. Let that simmer for a while and, voila!, an insolvency soufflé.

After law school, Mr. Giannoulias went to work full-time at the bank in 2002. He quickly became a senior loan officer and then a vice president. Whether merely by coincidence, or because of the ambition and aggressiveness of its well-pedigreed new junior executive, the bank’s profile changed sharply between then and when Mr. Giannoulias resigned after winning the race for state treasurer in November 2006.

According to a review of the bank’s annual filings with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2001 through Sept. 30, 2009, the bank plunged into the sort of lending that has caused bank crises across the country: construction and development loans.

Mr. Giannoulias’s lending department sharply increased the construction and development portfolio to $356 million by 2006, six times the level it had been before he went to work there.

In 2006, the bank set aside $2.2 million as a provision against loan losses, a safety measure that federal regulators require banks to take. Despite its large increase in risky loans, Broadway only doubled its bad-loan reserve in the time Mr. Giannoulias was there.

A bank spokesman said he had been only lightly involved during that period.

Construction-related lending jumped to more than triple the bank’s required regulatory capital during this period, and the loans started to go bad.

By the time Mr. Giannoulias departed, Broadway was left with nearly $14 million in real estate on its books, more than 10 times the level when he arrived. Foreclosures take time, though — often about 18 months. And within two years of Mr. Giannoulias’s departure, the bank was left holding $38 million in real estate.

The move into real estate coincided with a headlong push into brokered deposits. This is quintessential hot money — large amounts that jump from bank to bank, each bank offering the lure of high interest , which the banks then must fund by making ever-riskier loans.

During Mr. Giannoulias’s time at the bank, brokered deposits catapulted fourfold, to $640 million.

The typical bank at this point was growing brokered deposits at about 9 percent a year. Mr. Giannoulias’s bank was increasing its load by as much as 48 percent in a single year. Broadway Bank’s brokered deposits reached 80 percent of total deposits in 2006.

No one knows for certain how big a role Mr. Giannoulias played in these decisions. As Broadway’s top lending officer, he must have influenced the move into construction lending. As a connected family member, he was probably present during discussions of the hot-money play.

Certainly, he took part in the family’s decision to take out some $70 million in dividends from the bank in 2007 and 2008, even as it careened toward a consent decree with the F.D.I.C.

Mr. Giannoulias told reporters that a time would come when he could answer questions about what happened at his family’s bank. Here is hoping there is plenty of time, because questions keep mounting faster than the troubles at Broadway Bank.

Alcohol-addicted 78-year-old actor Rip Torn was so drunk when police picked him up off the floor of a closed Connecticut bank last Friday night, he thought he had been dozing off in his own living room, law enforcement sources told The New York Post Monday.

State police say Torn was arrested after authorities found him inside the Litchfield Bancorp in Salisbury with a loaded revolver. The actor was so drunk he had no idea he was in a bank, insiders say.

Torn is scheduled to appear in a Connecticut court this afternoon on charges of burglary, criminal-trespass and criminal-mischief after spending the weekend in jail. The Men in Black actor is being held on $100,000 bond.

Bank President Mark Macomber told TMZ.com that no one was in the bank during the break-in and that the only damage was the smashed window in the back of the building that Torn seemingly thought was his front door.

In 2004, the actor was arrested in Manhattan after crashing his car into a taxi while under the influence. He was found not guilty, despite launching into a vicious tirade on police. Torn was given probation in a Connecticut drunk driving case and granted permission to enter an alcohol education program. Torn, whose real name is Elmore Torn, has starred in scores of films and television shows over the past 60 years. He won an Emmy for The Larry Sanders Show in 1992 and was nominated for an Oscar in 1983 for Cross Creek.

Chrysler Group LLC has decided to use Internet marketing for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands’ clothing and accessories lines, offering clients dedicated websites for this purpose.

Each of the four brands has its own online store where fans and consumers can preview and buy the aforementioned items.

"Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram Truck Brand vehicles each attract a different customer, and the clothing and accessories offered on the brand sites represent the lifestyle and attitude… (read more)

Last August, we wrote about the sheer insanity that movie makers need to go through to make sure no “unauthorized” brands appear in a movie. The process of clearing every single right is mind-boggling, and appears to serve only one purpose: to transfer money from creators to lawyers. I’m reminded of the massive spreadsheet Brett Gaylor showed when he discussed his movie, and the process of trying to secure insurance for it. It went on and on and on and listed every single thing in the movie, and whether it was cleared or not. The more you learn about this stuff, the more ridiculous it seems.

Ry Jones writes in to let us know that he transcribed a part of the Fight Club Director’s commentary by David Fincher, where he discusses the insanity of rights clearance for that movie. He mainly discusses two key points, both of which seem ridiculous. First, with the character of Marla Singer, they had to do a search and find out if there are real Marla Singers who might be upset and claim that the movie is about them. If there are lots of Marla Singers, no problem, since they can just say “hey, not you.” But if there’s one, then it becomes an issue. Guess what?

There’s only one Marla Singer in the continental United States, in Illinois somewhere, of course, as soon as attorneys get involved, the whole thing gets completely fucked up. Somebody called her and told her there’s this book, and we’re making a movie based on this character that had her name. All of a sudden, her attorneys are calling and we have to pay this person off.

On top of that, they had wanted to base the movie in Wilmington, Delaware, which is where the book takes place. But, apparently, that would require all sorts of rights clearances as well, to the point that they weren’t even able to show the Delaware state flag because it would require a new set of rights clearances. How does this make any sense at all? Unlike the Aboriginal flag of Australia, the state flag of Delaware certainly should not be covered by copyright, and it makes little sense that there would be any requirement at all for clearing the rights. If the book can take place in Wilmington, Delaware without rights clearances, why can’t a movie?

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The Bracket Big Board takes into consideration past returns,
current performance and expected future gains in determining who should
be included among the field of 65 (31 automatic and 34 at-large bids).
Essentially, the Bracket Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for
amateur bracketologists if they were filling out a Tourney Pick ‘Em ’10 entry today. The Bracket Big Board is updated every
Monday/Friday until the dance card is officially unveiled March 14.

On Tuesday, in a Pennsylvania
tradition dating back 124 years, a corpulent marmot, blessed with the
roundness of Rick Majerus and the meteorological foresight of Al Roker, will be yanked from its comfortable den to reveal a long-range forecast for stir crazy – or just
plain crazy – onlookers.  

Tournament anxious Villanova fans in attendance are praying
a blanket of clouds will envelope Punxsutawney.

Off to its best start in its 90-year history, the Big East pacesetter
– and its fans – can’t wait for March to arrive. Blemished only by a top-flight
Temple team back in early December, the Wildcats
have raced out to a 19-1 start, beating the likes of Mississippi,
Maryland and Georgetown. In conference play, it
seems only Syracuse and West Virginia has a realistic shot of
chasing down Jay Wright’s unbeaten club.

‘Nova’s success stems largely from an explosive four-guard
lineup. On the season, Scottie Reynolds and company have netted 1.21 points per
possession, the third-best mark in the nation. Though they lack interior size,
the ‘Cats are an aggressive rebounding team evident in their top-25 offensive rebounding percentage. Mike Brey, whose mediocre Irish team
was throttled 90-72 in Philly a week ago, summed up the Villanova offense best:

"If you’re going to beat them, you have to
really score it. Because they’re going to score it. They really get down the
floor."

But the Wildcats, much like Punxsutawney Phil, are masters
in the art of deception.

As KenPom fanatics know, a team’s defensive efficiency is unequivocally
the best predictor of tournament success. Simply put, in college basketball,
the adage "defense wins championships" rings true. Over the past decade, no
squad has reached the Final Four ranked outside the top 25 in D efficiency. Currently,
Villanova clocks in at a ghastly 69^th nationally in that category. Opponents
have converted numerous charity stripe opportunities and three-point rainbows against the Wildcats.

Unquestionably, ‘Nova possesses the talent, toughness and
experience to advance deep into the tournament. Reynolds and the two Coreys (Fisher
and Stokes, not jean tight-rollers Haim and Feldman) have the firepower, particularly from distance, to carry this team.
But due to their inefficiencies on the opposite end, every offensive
performance must be spectacular.

With away games at Georgetown
and West Virginia
upcoming, ‘Nova’s quest to earn its first ever No. 1 regular season ranking may likely fall by
the wayside. Unless significant improvements are made, its chances of again
reaching the Mecca
of college hoops might too.

Here are the movers and shakers in the first edition of this year’s Triple-B:

*For games played through Sunday, Janurary 31
*RPI data provided by Rivals
*Efficiency stats from kenpom.com

On the Bubble: Louisville (13-8), Wichita St. (19-4), Illinois (14-8), Tulsa (17-4), Seton Hall (12-7), Minnesota (13-8), Virginia (13-6), Arizona St. (15-7), South Carolnia (13-8), UTEP (15-5), San Diego St. (15-6) 

Dropped Out: None

Conference Breakdown: American
East (1), ACC (7), Atlantic Sun (1), Atlantic 10 (6), Big 12 (7), Big
East (7), Big Sky (1), Big South (1), Big Ten (4), Big West (1),
Colonial (1), Conference USA (1), Horizon (1), Ivy (1), Metro (1),
Mid-American (1), Mid-Eastern (1), Missouri Valley (1), Mountain West
(3), Northeast (1), Ohio Valley (1), Pac-10 (1), Patriot (1), SEC (5),
Southern (1), SWAC (1), Summit (1), Sun Belt (1), West Coast (2), WAC
(1)

—

Image courtesy of AP

Fashion industry public relations guru Kelly Cutrone has appeared on MTV hits like The City and The Hills and even worked with some of the biggest names in fashion. But Cutrone is perhaps best known as a real-life caricature of Miranda Priestly — the tough as nails character Meryl Streep made fashion in the hit comedy The Devil Wears Prada.

Cutrone has been called one of the “coolest, most intimidating persons ever.” Now Kell is bringing her acid tongue to the world of reality TV. On tonight’s series premiere of Bravo’s Kell on Earth , fans get a behind the scenes look at the high-powered and fast-paced world of fashion PR as cameras follow the life of Cutrone.

How does Kelly balance running her wildly successful fashion PR company, People’s Revolution, organizing Fashion Weeks in New York and London, all while being a single mother and one of New York’s most notable women?

Tune in for the series premiere of Kell on Earth tonight @ 10/9c on Bravo.

The four Republicans running for DuPage County Board chairman in Tuesday’s primary combined to collect nearly $500,000 for their campaigns.

The lion’s share of that was raised by state Sen. Dan Cronin, whose campaign finance reports indicate he has collected $262,625 in cash contributions and in-kind donations on top of the nearly $80,000 he started with.

None of the other three came close to Cronin’s tally. They raised a combined $177,177 in addition to the money they started with, according to finance reports available on the state election board’s Web site.

Together, all four candidates have spent $507,331, according to the same reports.

Cronin is the race’s biggest spender. He entered the campaign with nearly $80,000 in his war chest and by last week had spent more than $300,000 in an attempt to secure his party’s nomination in Tuesday’s primary. He loaned his campaign $30,000 as well.

Cronin’s coffers were filled by a number of Illinois businesses and political action committees, but his largest single donations of $10,000 each came from Chicago-based engineering firm Knight Partners and the Inland Real Estate Group PAC out of Oak Brook.

County board member Debra Olson and state Sen. Carole Pankau each spent more than $80,000 on the race, according to the finance reports. Olson slightly edged Pankau in spending, but raised just $42,432.67 during the campaign compared to Pankau’s $80,138.90.

Olson entered the race with $60,000 in loans she had made to herself, which made up nearly half of the $130,000 she started the campaign with.

Her husband donated another $10,000 to the campaign Tuesday. Fellow county board member JR McBride was Olson’s largest single donor with $2,150, the financial reports say.

Pankau loaned her campaign $8,000, but raised funds from an array of corporate, political and union committees as well. Her son and daughter each donated $4,000, and Bloomingdale Republican state Rep. Franco Coladipietro’s campaign donated $5,000.

Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso contributions have almost doubled in the past two weeks. He has raised $54,606 so far, according to the state finance reports. He loaned his campaign $15,000 late last week and received his largest single contribution in the amount of $5,000 on Jan. 20 from Oak Brook-based development firm Inter Continental Real Estate.

The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face Democrat Carole Cheney in November. Cheney’s campaign has yet to file a report with the state election board.

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama sent Congress a $3.83 trillion budget on Monday that would pour more money into the fight against high unemployment, boost taxes on the wealthy and freeze spending for a wide swath of government programs.

The deficit for this year would surge to a record-breaking $1.56 trillion, topping last year’s then unprecedented $1.41 trillion gap.

The deficit would remain above $1 trillion in 2011 although the president proposed to institute a three-year budget freeze on a variety of programs outside of the military and homeland security as well as increasing taxes on energy producers and families making more than $250,000.

The budget proposal reflects the competing pressure on Obama ahead of the November congressional elections to cut the deficit while pulling the country out of a deep recession — a step that normally requires more rather than less government spending.

Obama and the Democrats are trying to regain their political footing after the surprising loss of a Massachusetts Senate seat long held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. That vote cost them their supermajority needed to pass major legislation and has given momentum to Republicans.

With his plans to overhaul health care now unlikely to move forward soon, Obama pledged in his State of the Union address last week to make job creation his top priority.

Following up on the pledge, Obama put forward a budget that included a $100 billion jobs measure that would provide tax breaks to encourage businesses to boost hiring as well as increased government spending on infrastructure and energy projects.

He called for fast congressional action to speed relief to millions left unemployed in the worst recession since the 1930s.

After a protracted battle on health care dominated his first year in office and led to a string of Democratic election defeats, the administration hopes its new budget will convince Americans the president is focused on fixing the economy.

Republicans complained about Obama’s proposed tax increases and said the huge projected deficits showed he had failed to get government spending under control.

But administration officials argued that Obama inherited a deficit that was already topping $1 trillion when he took office and given the severity of the downturn, the president had to spend billions of dollars stabilizing the financial system and jump-starting growth.

Obama’s job proposals would push government spending in 2010 to $3.72 trillion, up 5.7 percent from last year. Obama’s blueprint for the 2011 budget year, which begins Oct. 1, would increase spending further to $3.83 trillion, 3 percent higher than projected for this year.

While Obama projects that deficits from 2011 to 2020 will add $8.5 trillion to the national debt, the administration said that figure would have been $1.2 trillion higher were it not for deficit cuts the administration is proposing, including elimination of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 annually, something Republicans have vowed to oppose.

Much of the spending surge over the past two years reflects the cost of the $787 billion economic stimulus measure that Congress passed in February 2009 to deal with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The surge in the deficits reflects not only the increased spending but also a big drop in tax revenues, reflecting the 7.2 million people who have lost jobs since the recession began and weaker corporate tax receipts.

“Having steered the economy back from the brink of a depression, the administration is committed to moving the nation from a recession to recovery by sparking job creation to get millions of Americans back to work,” the administration said in a statement accompanying its budget.

The administration’s $100 billion proposed jobs measure would be lower than a $174 billion bill passed by the House in December but far higher than a measure that the Senate could take up as early as this week.

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from occupied london, 1 February 2010: “Tension is high across the country. The most farmers’ blockades of highways and other roads go on, entering the 3rd week of struggle with no perspective of coming to an agreement with the government soon. The strike of the egyptian fishermen in Nea Michaniona also goes on.

23 January: About 20 anarchists invaded a supermarket in Chalandri (Athens), expropriated many things and gave them to people in the area. When leaving they gave flyers that wrote “Against bosses, states and their minions – we come for what belongs to us”. The people were congratulating the comrades…” more