Category: News

Like President Barack Obama, Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama made lots of extravagant economic and foreign policy promises on the road to victory earlier this year. Mr. Obama has shown flexibility and the willingness to compromise. Will Mr. Hatoyama do the same? If not, Japan will be in for a rough ride in 2010.

In some ways, Mr. Hatoyama’s victory was even more historic than the American election. His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ousted the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that had held power virtually without interruption for more than five decades. Like Mr. Obama, he’s had to come to grips with enormous immediate challenges, beginning with the need to kick start a stalled economy. Japan’s public debt is approaching 200% of gross domestic product—by far the largest debt-to-GDP ratio in the industrialized world.

Read the whole story at the WSJ — >

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See Also:

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• US-Japan Rift Grows As Obama Snubs Prime Minister Hatoyama In Copenhagen

My oh my. There have been many hints and clues in these closing weeks of 2009 that GPU support for the Palm Pre is much, much closer than expected, but until now there’s been nothing in the way of concrete proof. That all changed with the recent release of webOS 1.3.5, which zsoc (of Precorder fame) and destinal (who made the webOS Terminal) from WebOS Internals have been poring over today. And what they’ve discovered is starting to give us a pretty good idea of what Palm has planned for their upcoming 2010 CES appearance: hardware-accelerated graphics for webOS, via SDL.

What’s SDL? It stands for Simple Directmedia Layer, and as the website will tell you, it’s a cross-platform software library that enables low-level hardware access – which as of version 1.3.5 appears to have been baked into webOS’s Luna framework. And what better way to test this new functionality than with a port of iD’s seminal shooter, the legendary DOOM? zsoc was able to throw together a webOS port of the game today, and although it currently requires a bit of Terminal trickery to get it running, the proof is in the pud: behold the screenshot after the break! DOOM, running within a webOS Mojo-ized card and fully controllable via the keyboard. Brings a tear to the eye, it does.

Updated with video after the break!

Eight CIA Agents Reportedly Killed in Afghanistan
Eight CIA officers died after a suicide bomber set off an explosive vest at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, marking the deadliest attack on U.S. intelligence officials since the early ’80s, according to the Los Angeles Times. That same day, a Canadian journalist, Michelle Lang of the Calgary Herald, was killed along with four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, according to press reports. Los Angeles Times: The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province, an area near the border with Pakistan that is a hotbed of insurgent activity. It also injured an undisclosed number of civilians, the officials said. No military personnel from U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were killed or injured, they said. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the CIA had a major presence at the base, in part because of the strategic location. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted early Thursday on its Pashtu-language website. The casualties highlight the increasingly important role the CIA is playing in Afghanistan, and come as the United States is embarking on a major buildup of its civilian workforce that parallels an increase in troop strength. […] A former U.S. intelligence official knowledgeable about Wednesday’s bombing said it had killed more CIA personnel than any attack since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Before Wednesday’s attack, four CIA operatives had been killed in Afghanistan, the former official said. Read more

Eight CIA officers died after a suicide bomber set off an explosive vest at the Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, marking the deadliest attack on U.S. intelligence officials since the early ’80s, according to the Los Angeles Times. That same day, a Canadian journalist, Michelle Lang of the Calgary Herald, was killed along with four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, according to press reports.

Los Angeles Times:

The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province, an area near the border with Pakistan that is a hotbed of insurgent activity. It also injured an undisclosed number of civilians, the officials said. No military personnel from U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were killed or injured, they said.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the CIA had a major presence at the base, in part because of the strategic location. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted early Thursday on its Pashtu-language website.

The casualties highlight the increasingly important role the CIA is playing in Afghanistan, and come as the United States is embarking on a major buildup of its civilian workforce that parallels an increase in troop strength.

[…] A former U.S. intelligence official knowledgeable about Wednesday’s bombing said it had killed more CIA personnel than any attack since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. Before Wednesday’s attack, four CIA operatives had been killed in Afghanistan, the former official said.

Read more

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Since hair loss has become one of the major problems these days, many companies and individuals are focusing on developing products that will work towards preventing hair loss.

You can see several advertisements on TV commercials and classified columns of newspaper and magazines claiming to prevent hair loss. The market has been overloaded with products for prevention of hair loss.

If you want to prevent your scalp from hair loss, here are some of the best products available on the market for reducing hair loss. You can read about these products, compare, analyze and then decide to purchase one of these to solve your problem related to hair loss.

a) Rogaine

This is a famous product available for prevention of hair loss widely on the market. You can easily purchase the product from a drug store near your residence. This product needs to be applied twice on the scalp daily for three to four months in order to achieve excellent results.

b) Minoxidil

This medication is widely used for hair loss among younger men. This product is suggested to be extremely effective as a hair loss product. The product may come with some side effects such as itching. However, these effects are temporary. Consult a professional prior to using this product. This will save you from its potential side effects.

c) Dr. Proctor’s Hair re-growth shampoo

This is termed as one of the best hair loss products derived naturally without any kind of chemical mixing. This is a guarantee that your hair will not get rash treatment. This product has been widely used by many people to prevent hair loss. People all across the globe have positive remarks for this product. It prevents hair loss and also supports healthy hair.

d) ViViscal shampoo

It is a great product and rated as the best hair treatment by experts in this field. The shampoo treats hair loss effectively and also maintains good health for hair.

e) Revivogen

This is a natural solution for hair loss. It is prescribed by dermatologist. It reduces thinning of hair by a remarkable amount. Both men and women can benefit from this product.

f) Loniten®

It is a prescription form of Minoxidil. It was prescribed for high blood pressure. Thereafter, it was discovered for hair growth.

g) Rogaine®

It is a brand name for the prescribed drug Minoxidil. It is a vasodilator. It has been approved by the FDA in order to reduce hair loss. It is also prescribed for reducing the appearance of baldness.

h) Propecia®

It is a brand name given for finasteride. It is an oral medication for hair loss. It reduces hair loss and in some cases prevents hair loss.

i) Proscar®

A brand name for finasteride solution, it is prescribed to treat prostate enlargement in men. It helps in reducing hair loss and also increases hair growth.

It would be wise to use the above mentioned products on the prescription of a health care practitioner or a or a trichologist in order to avoid any potential side effects. This will help you benefit in a good way and also save you from any severe side effects that may occur due to overdose of any of these vitamins. Take measures to prevent hair loss now.

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On CNN this morning, host John Roberts asked former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden about the hypocritical “heat for this president from the Republicans” regarding the Obama administration’s response to the attempted Christmas day terrorist attack. Madden claimed that the two reasons Republicans were launching attacks were that Obama “has very little political capital” on terrorism and that he is “on vacation in Hawaii” at the moment. Madden added that “Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place“:

MADDEN: President Obama right now has suffered very greatly in the last few months because of the fight over health care, and he has very little political capital right now. So Republicans feel it is in vogue to criticize this president.

And then lastly, you have to also remember the fact that the president being on vacation in Hawaii, it’s much different than being in Texas. Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place. And I think those images, the optics, hurt President Obama very badly.

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Why bother? That’s the question more underwater Americans are asking themselves about their mortgage.

Trapped in the abyss of negative equity, more will decide to quit paying. As they should.

About a quarter of all mortgages in the United States are on houses that are worth less than the unpaid balance of the mortgage, according to real estate consultant First American CoreLogic. About half of that group, 5.3 million borrowers, are 20 percent or more underwater. For 2.2 million, the property is worth less than half the mortgage balance.

Read the whole story at Reuters BreakingViews — >

Join the conversation about this story »

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I’m always amazed at the claims by some of our usual band of critics in the comments that “remixing isn’t creative.” They never seem to explain how something like what Kutiman has done could ever be considered not creative. Nor do they explain how taking a clip of a note and using it to make a new song is really different from using a keyboard (which plays “pre-recorded” notes) and playing a song. And we’ve certainly seem plenty of content creators encourage remixing of their work, and now more and more musicians have been purposely releasing stems and asking fans to make their own mixes. But how about with a book?

A few months back, we wrote about how author Robin Sloan was offering a tiered support model, similar to what many musicians have done, so he could write a novella. He used Kickstarter, and it turned out to be a huge success, with him earning much more than he originally targeted as his goal. The novella has been published, and apparently it’s getting quite a response. But Sloan has realized that you don’t stop there.

He’s taking things a step further, and has reserved $1,000 as a “remix fund,” to encourage people to take the book that he just wrote (which is available for download in a variety of formats under a Creative Commons license) and do some sort of remix project on it. He’s asking his supporters to pitch remix ideas (including how much it would cost to do), and then those who helped pay for the creation of the original story will vote on the ideas — and the top ones will get funded (until the $1,000 runs out):

I wrote and published Annabel Scheme with the help of about 600 patrons. It’s got­ten a warm reception from read­ers, but I’m greedy! I want more: I want other people to trans­form it and make it their own. If you’re a writer, an artist, a musician, a mathematician, a pastry chef–or a fan of one of the above–where could you or they take this story? I want to find out.

It’s yet another cool way of connecting with fans, and going explicitly against what copyright allows. It’s explicitly encouraging people to copy his work and even offering money to them if they do a good job. I imagine this will confuse those who will say “but… wait, he should be getting paid any time anyone wants to do something with his characters.” But what Sloan appears to recognize is that building up a larger audience for his works will certainly pay off a lot more in the long run than trying to squeeze people in the short run.

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Rick Warren is the conservative evangelical minister who somehow has become a trusted friend to both Republicans and Democrats. Obama came to his Saddleback Church during the campaign, and then Warren spoke at his inauguration.

But the bad economy is taking its toll on his empire, and yesterday he sent out an emergency fundraising appeal to the church’s members.

Here’s part of what he posted it on the Saddleback Church blog:

Dear Saddleback Family,

THIS IS AN URGENT LETTER unlike any I’ve written in 30 years. Please read all of it and get back to me in the next 48 hours.

I have thrilling news to share with you below but first some seriously bad news:

With 10% of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated. Still, with wise management, we’ve stayed close to our budget all year. Then… this last weekend the bottom dropped out.

On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive – leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference today and tomorrow.

It sounds like the church will be fine either way. We suspect they’ll come up with the money and it’s probably not the end of the world if they end 2009 in the red, like so many other organizations did.

What is interesting is that the bottom fell out “this last weekend,” which is somewhat ominous sounding. Presumably it means some kind of unprecedented tension between buying Christmas gifts and donating to the church.

Join the conversation about this story »

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The University of Wisconsin-Extension and St. Croix Valley Homebuilders Association are offering a workshop for contractors on federal and state funding programs for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements for homes and small businesses …

Despite being rather conservative about its homepage, Google frequently features customized logos to mark special occasions and events. From sporting events to national holidays, from rather obscure celebrations to obvious choices like Christmas, Google isn’t missing too many occasions to treat its users to a new doodle. Google has been celebrating the first day of the new year for 10 years now and has come up with some pretty interesting designs over this period which also provide a small glimpse at its evolution from a promising startup in 2000 to the biggest company on the web in 2009.

The very first New Year’s doodle popped up on January 1st, 2000, and was one of the earliest doodles for Google, the eighth to be precise. Interestingly, Google is likely to do more doodles in a month these days than it did in its first two years. The 2000 doodle isn’t particularly good looking, but we have to remember that those were simpler times when Geocities was still going strong and the AOL – Time Warner seemed like a brilliant idea.

In 2001, Google returned with another New Year doodle featuring white teddy-bears, you can’t go wrong with cute furry animals, a theme that has carried on since then. The following years, Google continued with the animals theme and then in 2003 and 2004 as well. The doodles themselves… (read more)

One of the oldest, most popular bets — that the Japanese government would collapse under the weight of its debt — has a fresh round of adherents who believe that this time it’s going to work out.

Among them: Hayman Capital manager Kyle Bass, who made a fortune shorting subprime.

He tells the Journal a Japanese bond market collapse is merely a matter of when, not if.

Again though, this bet has been made for a long time, and bond yields have only gotten lower, while the Yen has only gotten stronger.

What’s different this time? Ostensibly it’s about demographics. Japan’s debt is self-financed by famously aggressive Japanese savers.

But…

Some predict that as Japan ages, more people retire and savings rates dip, some purchasers will start pulling back on buying or even turn into sellers. Japan’s public pension fund, the world’s largest, has said it could become a net seller of holdings in 2010. About three-quarters of the fund’s holdings have been in Japanese bonds.

“The biggest buyer is now a seller. That’s the biggest difference today,” said Mr. Bass of Hayman Advisors. To attract buyers, particularly from overseas, yields will have to rise significantly, the bears assert, making it painful for Japan to service its debt.

Indeed there’s some evidence of this happening. Japan recently opened its bond market wider to foreign participants, suggesting the unlimited well of domestic demand for debt may be reaching its end.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

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