Author: Serkadis

“Recent developments have, perhaps, increased the risk of secession (however modestly), as well as the urgency of addressing it as a possible scenario,” said the document, entitled Withdrawal and expulsion from the EU and EMU: some reflections.

The author makes a string of vaulting, Jesuitical, and mischievous claims, as EU lawyers often do. Half a century of ever-closer union has created a “new legal order” that transcends a “largely obsolete concept of sovereignty” and imposes a “permanent limitation” on the states’ rights.

Those who suspect that European Court has the power pretensions of the Medieval Papacy will find plenty to validate their fears in this astonishing text.

Read the whole story at The Telegraph — >

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See Also:

• It’s Not Just Greece: Trichet Extends Warning To All Of Europe On Budget Deficits
• ‘No Chance’ Greece Would Abandon The Euro Says Finance Minister, Credit Default Swaps Hit Worst Level Ever
• Euro Bankers Fly To Greece For Dramatic Emergency Meeting

It’s an unfortunate fact that great historical speeches and literature are often bastardized to justify poor management practices, leadership decisions and policies. There are at least 84 Chicken Soup for the Soul-related books on the market today and not one directed towards tech startups. As told through a series of abused “inspirational quotes”, here’s our effort to explain why.

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“It is better to be feared than loved.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
Hold a contest for worst employee of the month, instigate a bathroom pass for your five person team and remove all flare from the office. If the message you’re hoping to express to others is that you’re a terrible human being, then by all means, engrave this quote into your desk.

If you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. – Sun Tzu
Send your vast army of interns on fact finding missions, monitor every signal from the competition’s trench and position yourself as the RC Cola to their Coke. If you define yourself by your industry leader and let your employees know it, they’ll be enthused to exclaim the inspirational company cheer “We’re number four!” every chance they get. After all, you can’t lose a battle if no one thinks you’re worth challenging.

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” – Napolean Bonaparte
Armed with reruns of the Apprentice, some advice from a second cousin and a Wired magazine article from 1996, you’re the most brilliant person alive. Reduce your designers to pixel pushing monkeys, make the CTO your whipping boy and drive your product manager to prescription medication abuse. If you think you can code, design and sell better than any one else alive then surely your chutzpah and street smarts will make you the Charlemagne of startups.

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The whole AllThingsD team was shaking off the Consumer Electronics Show haze this week and getting back to business as usual. Just when we thought we’d left the craziness behind, we found ourselves knee-deep in a week of international espionage, network TV nastiness and a certain semiconductor manufacturer makin’ a heap-o-cash. But more on that later.

BoomTown just could not wait for Carol Bartz’s one-year anniversary at Yahoo (YHOO) to roll around so that the judging could commence. Kara and Carol have a famously sordid history, possibly involving both K-Fed and Bradgelina. Even with all that history, Kara was pretty complimentary, giving Bartz a solid A- in the management category and a C+ for financials. It looks like we’ll be able to tune in for the next few days and catch this ongoing judgefest. Kara moved on from the report card to a quick post declaring her love of network TV drama, and not the “Law and Order” kind. The fight over at NBC for late-night supremacy has been more hilarious than Leno or Conan. Maybe the solution is just to put some network execs on screen in that slot. Kara finished out the week with a conversation with recently departed RealNetworks (RNKW) CEO Rob Glaser. No, he isn’t dead, but he has very quietly decided to step down to look into other opportunities. Near as we can tell, they had something to do with woolly mammoths.

Digital Daily was abuzz this week with the headline story of Google Labs adding yet another feature to Gmail. The new foreign policy tab enables Google (GOOG) to make better publicized international relations decisions than the Federal Government (and do it 20 percent faster if you’re running Chrome). Of course, it wasn’t all Google rattling China’s cage this week. John covered the party over at Intel (INTC) after the chip maker announced a blowout Q4. Finally, readers got a taste of capitalism at its best. Now you can get either America’s best network or America’s best smartphone (not both, of course) at a significant price cut. Thanks to pressure from Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T) dropped rates on certain calling plans.

Peter hit us with lots of video news this week, starting early with the potential partnership between Vudu and Wal-Mart (WMT). The world’s largest retailer seems to be thinking about getting into the Web TV business, or as it calls it, opening a supercenter in your house. Some might be watching for a rerun of the megaretailer’s failed shot at competing with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes for music sales, but the Web TV space is wide open, so far. Also on the home entertainment front, Peter reported that it looks like Netflix (NFLX) may get a one-up from Nintendo fairly shortly, if it can finalize a deal to add the Japanese game giant’s systems to the list of places you can stream its digital video content. Peter rounded things out with a little foreshadowing that YouTube, the Web video 800-pound gorilla, may be edging its way out of the red. Since acquisition, YouTube has never turned a profit, and Google execs have been muttering that they expect that to change shortly. That’s different this week? An industry analyst finally agrees.

If a moment of Mossberg just isn’t enough for you, then you are in luck this week as team Walt and Katie went all the way with three new installments of gadget wisdom. In Personal Technology, Walt reviewed the Sony Reader Daily Edition. While the big improvement to Sony’s (SNE) previous e-reader offering is the addition of wireless connectivity for remote download of articles and books (think Amazon Kindle’s “Whispernet”), Sony also upped the ante in form factor and interface. Overall, Walt was positive and felt the device was a strong offering. Mossberg’s Mailbox was overflowing this week with all kinds of questions from the Nexus One crowd. Walt picked three gems and clarified some points on measly app storage capacity, cell company coverage maps and the nitty-gritty on synching data between the phones and computers. Katie donned her gaiters and bravely waded into the weeds of search technology to shed some light on a major emerging trend—visual search. Both Google and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing are offering ways to search for things you can’t recall the name of, doing so by comparing images until you get that ah-ha moment. This stuff is complicated, but head on over to Katie’s article to figure out how it is going to change the search landscape.

Thanks for reading this week. Weekend Update wishes everyone as much good luck as we had making it out of CES Las Vegas alive.

Oh yeah, and a quick note to Siegfried: We may have one of your tigers, and also Roy.

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Last Thursday, Intel (INTC) reported blowout earnings, the stock rose after hours, and everything was looking good for the bulls.

But on Friday morning, JPMorgan (JPM) reported decent (though mixed) earnings, and the stock market sagged, with even Intel ending in the red.

Clearly, worries over the financial system trump signs of a real economic rebound.

And so after US losses, Asian markets are picking up the baton and trending lower in early action. Japan is taking the brunt of things, down about 1.3%. The broader MSCI Asia Pacific index is off a bit less than 1%.

From Bloomberg:

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See Also:

• Not Even Intel’s Blowout Earnings Could Save This Market
• Intel Just Blew The Doors Off
• Financial Stocks Getting Whacked After JPMorgan Earnings

Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupe, Performance, Japan, Nissan

Tommy Kaira Silver Wolf Nissan GT-R – Click above for high-res image gallery

Japanese tuning enthusiasts (and racing sim fanatics everywhere) have come to know Tommy Kaira as one of the best in the business. The Japanese outfit works its magic on Skylines, Imprezas and more, and has now released a tuning package for the current Nissan GT-R.

Called the Silver Wolf, this GT-R sees its engine left intact, but gets treated to a full body kit, plus new rolling stock, brakes, exhaust and suspension components. The carbon fiber widebody package gives Godzilla a serious attitude adjustment, while the functional components – if Tommy Kaira’s previous offerings are anything to go by – promise to squeeze that extra bit of performance out of this Japanese icon. Click the thumbnails below for a closer look.

[Source: Tommy Kaira]

Tommy Kaira presents Nissan GT-R “Silver Wolf” edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Susan and Brian Walsh were preparing to leave Haiti after conducting a weeklong medical clinic, where their more than 1,000 patients included a teenage boy who had suffered third-degree burns after a kerosene lamp exploded in his face, when the earthquake hit.

“It was like a freight train coming,” said Susan Walsh, a pediatric nurse practitioner who lives in north suburban Glenview.

“I thought a plane crashed.”

PHOTO: Susan and Brian Walsh of Glenview talk Saturday about their experience of being in Haiti when the earthquake hit. (Tribune / Chris Sweda)

She and her husband, a housing contractor, were in Haiti with Little By Little, the non-profit group they created about two years ago to bring a team of medical workers and graduate-level nursing practitioner students Walsh teaches to the Mountain Top Ministries clinic in Gramothe.

When the quake hit, the Walshes sprang into action. They first headed from the house where they were staying to the nearby village, finding most buildings intact and people with minor injuries.

But an avalanche had fallen at a nearby riverbed, crushing the head of a girl about 4 years old, Susan Walsh said. She took the girl and rode on a four-wheeler to the clinic about five miles away. The girl’s father, who had wrapped his T-shirt around her head, rode on the back.

The girl died that night.

“The good thing about it is she was with her family, and they were able to take her home,” Susan Walsh said. Many people have died alone and their bodies stacked alongside roads, she said.

Within an hour of the earthquake, hundreds of Haitians had wrapped around the clinic. At one point, the Walshes were climbing over dead bodies trying to help. They taped broomsticks to broken legs and cut up scrubs for bandages.

“It was one crushing body after another,” recalled Susan Walsh, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “There were dead people lying in the hallway. It was a traumatic scene. It was emotionally and physically draining.”

Her 23-member team worked until midnight that first night. The next morning, people had lined up outside the house where the Walshes and her team were staying. They treated people with crushed limbs and gashes in the front yard.

On Friday afternoon, they went to the airport after the State Department recommended Americans leave.

“Personally, I really wish I was still there,” Susan Walsh said while taking a break Sunday from a trauma debriefing. “But we had to come home.”

They left on a U.S. Air Force cargo plane that had brought to Haiti supplies, troops and rescue workers. After a more than 24-hour journey, which included three stops, they got home around 4:30 p.m. Saturday and were greeted with posters neighbors had made welcoming them home.

“This earthquake and the misery, destruction, devastation and death it brought came from below, but love, strength, help, hope and life will come from above,” Susan Walsh said. “Please pray for Haiti.”

–Daarel Burnette II and Kristen Schorsch

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

First SNL did it and then reader Alex sent us this little bit of text, purportedly from the actual Avatar script. WTF indeed.

Deleted AVATAR Sex Scene

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Filed under: Macworld, Rumors, TUAW Business, Podcasts

Talkcast time again! This week (for the first time) hosting duties will be covered by me, Kelly Guimont. We’ll review this week’s in Apple news, speculate wildly about the upcoming Apple Event, and speculate only slightly less wildly about iPhone 4.0. We’ll be live at 10 pm Eastern, 7 pm Pacific, and various other times around the globe.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday.

To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!

TUAWTalkcast reminder: Join Kelly & crew at 10pm ET originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Electronic Arts announced Dead Space Extraction for the Wii—a follow-up to the million-plus selling PS3, 360, and PC title Dead Space—the company explained that the game would be used as a test case to see whether or not it would develop more Mature-rated Wii games in the future. And according to NPD sales figures, Extraction failed: it sold just 9,200 copies in its first week. So what does this mean for the future of Mature Wii games? Sega has publicly stated that it will “probably not” continue developing this style of game due to the low sales of Extraction. But are things really that bad? Ars digs into the numbers to see whether or not there really is a market for Mature games on the Wii.

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FOXSports reports: Free-agent infielder Jerry Hairston Jr. is closing on a one-year contract with the Padres, according to a major-league source.

The deal is expected to pay Hairston more than $2 million.

The former Cub will be united with his brother Scott, 29, who was re-acquired by the Padres in a trade with the A’s this week.

Jerry Hairston spent last season with the Reds and Yankees.

Get the full story at foxsports.com.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Another ho-hum week is upon us in this iteration of On Shelves This Week. We do have a couple of headturners, though. The creepy kid from Silent Hill is back to haunt you on your PSPs and

NEW YORK — Justin Burrell scored 11 points and 11 St. John’s players scored as the Red Storm routed DePaul 67-47.

Justin Brownlee added 10 points and leading scorer D.J. Kennedy (15.8 points a game) had eight points in 25 minutes as St. John’s (12-5, 2-3 Big East) won its second straight game.

The Red Storm used a 10-0 first-half run to take a 27-15 lead on Brownlee’s layup with 3:23 left and shot 50 percent from the field (11-for-22) to take a 31-20 halftime lead.

St. John’s scored the first two baskets of the second half for a 35-20 lead, and after DePaul (7-10, 0-5) scored, the Red Storm put the game away with an 18-2 run and a 53-24 lead with 10:20 to play.

Anthony Mason Jr. had eight points and 10 rebounds for St. John’s, which outrebounded DePaul 46-26.

Will Walker led DePaul with 14 points and Mike Stovall added 11 points.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Misc. Auto Shows, Celebrities, Event Alert

“Supercar Sunday is back and is here to stay!” That’s the first sentence of a long-awaited announcement from Dustin Troyan, one of Southern California’s most passionate, selfless and determined car guys. Dusty started the Supercar Sunday show in front of the Village Coffee Roaster coffee shop he managed in Woodland Hills several years ago. The idea was to invite car people out to the empty lot on Sunday mornings to meet up and hopefully buy some java.

The show was a smashing success, as hundreds of car guys and gals from all over the Southland gathered once a week to share their love of classic and exotic automobiles. The last Sunday of the month was the big show, attracting thousands of folks, including a few local celebrities. Businesses often brought in several extra staffers on Sundays to handle all of the extra customers.

As good as that sounds for gearheads and the businesses in that strip mall, the show got too big for the lot. Under intense pressure and threatened legal action from the landlord, the show was shut down late last year. With the huge car community in the Los Angeles area we knew it couldn’t be the end of the road for the weekly Sunday meet, but all was a little too quiet on the Western front until today.

Seems Dustin has been working tirelessly these past several weeks to secure a new venue for the show. Troyan is the same guy behind the immensely successful Motor4Toys charity toy drive so we knew he would be able to make it happen – and make it happen in a way that would make us forget all about the unpleasantness of a few months ago.

Well, now we can look forward to a revived Supercar Sunday in an even better locale, with a bigger parking lot, full cooperation from the local merchants and landlord, and a Corner Bakery to handle breakfast needs. So if you’re in the area, if you’ve attended or wanted to attend Supercar Sunday in the past or just want to get your weekly collectible car fix again, check out the new venue.

The show kicked off this morning at the Topanga Westfield Promenade. It’s just off the 101, 8 miles West of the 405 at the corner of Topanga Canyon and Erwin. Hope to see you there in the weeks to come.

Supercar Sunday exotic car meet revived in SoCal originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Europe, GM, Saab, Earnings/Financials, Spyker

To paraphrase the once great weekend update anchor Chevy Chase, “Generalissimo Saab is still dead” and appears likely to stay that way. Bloomberg reports that Spyker is the last bidder standing to pick up the Swedish brand from General Motors, although Genii Capital and partner Bernie Eccelstone apparently haven’t given up yet. At this point, according to the news service, Spyker is the only party in active talks with The General as the process of shutting down Saab has already begun. Genii hopes to reopen talks with GM this week.

The Spyker bid reportedly includes having GM continue to hold a stake in Saab – a stipulation that the U.S. company will probably be averse to. Another problem could still revolve around handing over intellectual property to Russia, just as it did with the aborted attempt to sell Opel to Magna (the largest shareholder in Spyker is Russian chairman Vladimir Antonov). Given Saab’s continued lack of financial success over the years, it’s hard to see how Spyker (which has had its own problems to sort through) could make a go of it. With any luck, we’ll know the outcome of this sad saga this week, although we’d be less-than-surprised to see things drag on for a while yet.

[Source: Bloomberg | Image: Joe Raedle/Getty]

Report: Spyker last bidder GM considering for Saab… or is it? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To Mike Mitchell, Conan “Coco” O’Brien is an orange-haired, smart-alecky everyman.

Now, courtesy of Mitchell’s social networking, O’Brien’s biggest Chicago supporters will hold a rally at 4:30 p.m. Monday on NBC’s Michigan Avenue doorstep to deliver a message to the network.

“NBC, I think, has already made their mind up,” said Mitchell, 27, a Los Angeles-based freelance illustrator. “Maybe (the protest) is more of a thing to show that there’s a lot of Conan fans.”

O’Brien publicly refused to push back the start of “The Tonight Show,” which he hosts, so that NBC could rescue former host Jay Leno’s prime-time ratings bomb. It seems O’Brien will leave the network, and Mitchell said he thinks the comic’s problems have touched a nerve.

“A lot of people have really crappy bosses,” Mitchell said. “They can really relate.”

Mitchell administers the “I’m With Coco” Facebook page — at 276,000 fans and climbing — and has other rallies planned for Monday in L.A., New York and Seattle.

He also illustrated the seminal image for the “I’m With Coco” movement, a black-and-white portrait of a grim O’Brien, the only color the bright orange in his hair and in the nickname, “Coco,” which originates from a skit on the late-night show. Other Facebook users have appropriated the image for similar groups, but Mitchell’s has the most followers.

Mitchell, who lived in Chicago from 2004 to 2006, will be attending the Los Angeles rally.

About 1,400 RSVP’d yes for the California rally and, as of Sunday afternoon, about 400 promised to attend the Chicago gathering at Pioneer Court in front of the NBC building downtown. Mitchell wants rally attendees to wear orange, bring signs and be civil.

Fans will be “there to kind of have fun and support somebody who’s kind of being (dumped) on publicly,” he said.