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The super popular “Hitler rants…” meme is now under fire by Constantin Film, the German production company behind Downfall, from which the original clip is taken. According to TechCrunch, Constantin started filing DMCA takedowns on many of the popular YouTube variants of the oft re-subtitled clip. Particularly ironic is the fact that the director of the movie enjoys the clips himself — but of course, since the producer holds the copyright to the movie, the director has no real say in the matter.

In a mind-blowing meta way, the most amusing video caught in this mess is the takedown of the video that parodies these takedowns themselves:

Since this video, which uses the same Downfall clip in question, can be considered parody, then it should be covered under fair use. Since its creator filed a dispute after it was taken down, for now, the video is viewable on YouTube (and on Vimeo, as in the link above), awaiting review from Constantin on the copyright claim.

That said, Constatin has a lot of work to do if it truly wants to remove all instances of this video online. There are thousands of variants available and, in looking through a list of the some of the most popular videos, not even all of those have been taken down yet. Even so, when a popular variant is taken down, the video can be posted to other sites, as in the case of “Hitler Finds Out About the iPhone 4g Leak,” the video that supposedly was the first of the videos to be taken down.

It’s not clear what Constantin is looking to gain by issuing these takedowns. Constantin is killing the very promotional vehicle that has been driving sales and rentals of Downfall itself. Each viewing of these videos has played a part in pulling the 2004 movie out of oblivion — without these millions of views, very few, if any, people would have ever heard of the movie.

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Want to ridicule the Noise for his Billy Butler(notes) obsession or misguided
projections? Humiliate him in 140 characters or less on Twitter.

Roughly 17 months ago St.
Louis rookie Jaime Garcia(notes) laid anesthetized on a
surgeon’s table. His left UCL, stressed from overwork, was in desperate need of
repair. Only a pup at 22, the Cardinals’ most promising pitching prospect had
reached a pivotal crossroads in his young professional career. Optimism turned
to uncertainty …

Jump to the present.

After two brilliant starts, the relative unknown
may soon be mentioned alongside pitching junior heartthrobs Tommy Hanson(notes), Brian Matusz(notes)
and Brett Anderson(notes). The sample size may seem insignificant, but over 13 innings
against two potent offenses (Milwaukee and New York) he’s exhibited
the polish and poise of a cagy veteran surrendering
just one run with 10 strikeouts (highlights versus Brewers/Mets
here).

Many pundits have already brushed off Garcia’s initial effort,
mislabeling it as nothing more than beginner’s luck. Even those close to the
organization have expressed cautious optimism. Still, despite the general
pessimism, the southpaw’s glowing April shouldn’t be ignored. He could be this
year’s Josh Johnson(notes).

Garcia’s rapid recovery is a testament to the advancement of
modern medicine. Thirty years ago a similar injury would’ve promptly ended a
pitcher’s career. Even in the mid-90s, the chances of full Tommy John recovery
stood at approximately 60 percent. At the time, Screech had better odds of
hooking up with Lisa Turtle.

But the former 22nd-round pick has climbed the mountain. Based
on his phenomenal first impression, rumors he received a tendon from Steve
Carlton might actually be true. His expressionless cool and systematic elimination of hitters bears a resemblence. 

On paper, Garcia is a blossoming prodigy. His terrific minor
league strikeout record (8.26 K/9 over 402 IP) combined with his ability to attract weak contact is very
appealing. Though the caboose’s fastball scores average, his offspeed
offerings, particularly his cutter, are downright filthy plus pitches. Corey
Hart(notes) commented earlier this month the kid’s breaking stuff was extremely
"tough to square up." His resulting 63.8 groundball percentage this
season flashes "excitement." Cardinals GM John Mozeliak commented via email Monday the hurler’s striking initial success is primarily due to two
key factors:

"Jaime has always been impressive and adding a slider
has made him even more impressive. The big difference in Jaime is that he has
matured both physically and mentally."

Naturally, questions about Garcia’s projected workload are
unavoidable. In the recent past, pitchers who’ve undergone Tommy John have
typically taken multiple seasons to  recover fully (e.g. Francisco Liriano(notes)).
However, the Cardinals aren’t married to the idea of limiting their fifth starter to a specific
innings cap.

"We don’t have an innings gauge," said Mozeliak.
"We will monitor him and make sure he is provided a safe atmosphere to
learn and grow in, without pushing him too fast."

In all likelihood, Garcia will be lucky to surpass 170
innings. Still, given his marvelous repertoire, placid demeanor and generous run
support, he could be one of the season’s surprise sensations. Having mound
Miyagi (Dave Duncan) around certainly doesn’t hurt. After all, two years ago
the esteemed pitching coach impossibly turned Todd Wellemeyer(notes) into a reliable
starter. And last season he resurrected the nearly deceased career of Joel
Pineiro(notes). The 23-year-old is a less challenging project. 

Overshadowed by Chris Carpenter(notes) and Adam Wainwright(notes), Garcia is
hardly a household name. But sizzling out of the gates, the 18-percent owned hidden
treasure could soon become indispensable in mixed leagues.

Many hungry owners may be preparing to sacrifice useful apendages for Ike Davis(notes), but the St. Louis upstart could be the NL rookie
hoisting the hardware come October.

Fearless Forecast (full
season): 159.1 IP, 11 W, 3.68 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 138 K

—

Discount Den
Quality commodity owned
in fewer than 30 percent of Yahoo! leagues.

Marlon Byrd(notes), ChC, OF
(24 percent-owned):  When compared to middle digit flasher Milton Bradley(notes), Byrd is Mother Theresa. His
infectious attitude and productive play has been a breath of fresh air on the
North Side. Those who drafted him in the Old Style hazy hours of drafts house
similar feelings. Since April 12, he’s notched four multi-hit games with four
doubles, a homer and six RBI. He’ll be hard-pressed to match last year’s career
numbers playing in the National League, but very useful OF4 or UTIL totals will
likely be accumulated, especially considering his excellent peripheries. An end
line around .290-18-80-65-10 is very possible.

Ooh Stream Weaver…
Widely available plug
n’ play starter heading into the weekend.

Livan Hernandez(notes), Was
(4/22 vs. Col, six percent-owned): Consuming week old cashew chicken may
seem less risky than trusting the services of an elderly contact pitcher who’s
posted a morbidly obese ERA since 2008. Both could lead to painful indigestion.
However, in two starts against quality opponents (Milwaukee
and New York),
the former World Series MVP has been surprisingly terrific. Though his
strikeout totals are unsightly, he’s yielded just nine hits and has yet to
allow a run over 16 innings. He also has two wins. Colorado is a formidable offensive club,
averaging 4.6 runs per game. Also, with Ubaldo Jimenez(notes) fresh off a no-no taking
the mound for the Rockies, Livan’s third
straight W could be elusive. But the crafty veteran has been untouchable. Go
ahead. Play with fire. 

Middle Relief Magic
ERA/WHIP savior,
potential saves/wins vulture.

Carlos Villanueva(notes),
Mil (six percent-owned): Collectively, the Brewers staff may be scrapping
the bottom of the barrel. They currently rank near the league bottom in hits
and homers allowed. However, Villanueva has been a bright spot. The righty has
thrown with more power and purpose this season. Over seven innings he’s induced
numerous groundballs and posted an otherworldly 14.14 K/9. Leaning more heavily
on his curve, the 26-year-old may be reaching maturation. He, not LaTroy
Hawkins(notes), could be next in line if Trevor Hoffman’s(notes) bones finally liquefy.

—

Image courtesy of US Presswire

This morning didn’t start as planned. At 5 A.M. there was a loud “boom”, the power at home went out, and then there was a second loud “boom”. The power was out in the immediate area, and we stumbled around in the dark until candles were lit and flashlights were located. The only good thing about this unexpected darkness was it happened right at the time my wife’s alarm clock signaled it was time to get up for the day. She has one of those job things that requires her to actually go to work, unlike me who has a 5 second commute to Mobile Tech Manor. Fortunately for us both, my home office is outfitted with outstanding mobile technology, and that comes in handy when the power decides to go away.

We normally watch the morning news on TV while sipping our first cup of coffee, and my wife didn’t want to miss this part of the daily ritual. I fired up the Sprint Overdrive hotspot, and once connected to the Sprint 3G network (we don’t have 4G coverage at home) I powered on the Acer Ferrari One laptop I have been testing. Our local ABC TV station broadcasts the news online, so my wife was able to get her morning news fix with no problem. I was on the iPad, happily tweeting via candlelight.

When the power outage entered its second hour it was clear we were in for the long haul. No worries as I have been working away on my MacBook using the Overdrive 3G connection. It’s almost like all the other mornings when we have power, just a bit darker. Working in the glow of the laptop screen reminds me of the period after Hurricane Ike, when we lost power for almost 3 weeks.

Having all of this mobile tech around is a great thing when confronted with a situation like this power outage. I figure between the MacBook and other laptops in Mobile Tech Manor I could easily go 3 – 4 days without power before all the various batteries run dry. The Overdrive modem is only good for 3 – 4 hours on its little battery but when it starts running out I will just connect it to the currently used laptop via USB. It will take a hit on the laptop battery but I won’t care, I’ll still be online and working away.

I do miss the 40 Mbps broadband I normally enjoy, and the 24-inch monitor on my desk too. But times like these remind me those are nice to have but not essential to get the work done. Just lots of batteries and mobile broadband and I am good to go.

I must admit that while it was romantic tweeting via candlelight, it is kind of sad when a power outage is no excuse to miss a little work. This situation does make me proud of the green tech work the GigaOM network does, especially the GreenNet 2010 conference kicking off this month.

Inhabitat has a post on plans to expand biogas production in the UK – UK Prepares to Use Human Poop to Power Homes.

In some parts of the UK anaerobic digesters are already being used to generate electricity from human refuse, but this summer British Gas in a partnership with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks will start piping biomethane from the sewage system — which is derived from fecal matter — right back into the homes of 130 customers in Didcot in Oxfordshire. The new gas will take 23 days to complete its waste treatment cycle and when it enters homes will smell just like natural gas.

Using human waste for power is not a new idea. Marco Polo noticed that the Chinese used enclosed sewage tanks to generate power and bath water was said to be heated with biogas in Assyria in the 10th century BC. With populations on the rise and the issue of what to do with sewage becoming an ever present problem, why not bring it back around to electrify our houses? It’s completely renewable — as long as we keep eating — and could be a big part of the no waste holy grail.

We’ve seen plenty of developers release call blocking applications lately. With an increasing number of unwanted calls from telemarketers — many of them claiming that you have “no problems with your credit card account,” but to hang on the line — having solid filter can be useful. You can find many of these application in our BlackBerry applications archives. For the most part these are premium applications, but yesterday I stumbled upon one that, for the rest of today at least, comes at no monetary cost. It takes a little extra effort, but I’m willing to bet that once you see what it entails you’ll be willing. You’ll probably also appreciate that Call Control is one of the better call blockers on the market.

(more…)

Luke Timmerman wrote:

One of the big ideas in diabetes research today is that inflammation is one of the major culprits. Tamp down inflammation, and maybe you can reduce the assault on blood vessels that leads to all sorts of complications like heart attacks, blindness, and amputations. If this can be proven over time, Cambridge, MA-based Catabasis Pharmaceuticals might have just the drugs to stop the inflammation and all its nasty effects.

That’s the concept anyway, and it’s one that Catabasis is being richly financed to pursue. The Cambridge, MA-based company has secured a $39.6 million Series A financing from SV Life Sciences, Clarus Ventures, and MedImmune Ventures. We first broke the story last week saying that Catabasis pocketed the first $7.7 million tranche of this deal. CEO Jill Milne confirmed the figure today, adding that Catabasis will get the rest of the money if it can hit certain development goals.

The Catabasis story began in the summer of 2008 when Milne and her colleague Mike Jirousek decided to leave senior jobs at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals after it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline. They started talking with Steven Shoelson, a leading researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center, about the emerging understanding of inflammation as an underlying culprit in diabetes. The diabetes market is one of the biggest in the pharmaceutical industry, with an estimated 24 million people in the U.S.—almost one out of every 12 people—suffering from adult-onset or Type 2 diabetes. Incidence has roughly tripled over the past three decades as more people eat unhealthy diets, and live sedentary lives.

The pharmaceutical market has responded to this epidemic by flooding doctors and patients with drugs like metformin, various forms of insulin, GLP-1 inhibitors, and DPP4 inhibitors that work in different ways to keep blood sugar under control. Yet despite all that intense effort at every Big Pharma company, no one has yet gotten a drug approved for Type 2 diabetes that works by controlling inflammation.

“This is a novel way of treating the disease,” Milne says. “It got me excited.”

Catabasis has a plan to tackle this problem with what amounts to a combination drug strategy. Milne and Jirousek, who are trained in biochemistry and chemistry, respectively, started piecing this plan together after they heard about some promising results from Shoelson’s research. His team had shown that a generic anti-inflammatory drug, a type of salicylate, was effective at helping reduce blood sugar in a clinical trial. But there was a catch. The patients had to get a whopping 4 grams a day, and take their pills three times daily. And, researchers saw a case of tinnitus, a serious condition in which people suffer from ringing in their ears, which isn’t an effect the FDA or patients would consider allowable for treating a chronic condition like diabetes.

“That was not acceptable,” Milne says.

While some scientists have pursuing the anti-inflammatory hypothesis, others have been studying Omega-3 fatty acids—those heralded substances in fish oil …Next Page »

Salon has an article by William Astore looking at the state of play in American politics – The business of America is kleptocracy.

Think of socialism and fascism as the red herrings of this moment or, if you’re an old time movie fan, as Hitchcockian MacGuffins — in other words, riveting distractions. Conservatives and tea partiers fear invasive government regulation and excessive taxation, while railing against government takeovers — even as corporate lobbyists write our public healthcare bills to favor private interests. Similarly, progressives rail against an emergent proto-fascist corps of private guns-for-hire, warrantless wiretapping, and the potential government-approved assassination of U.S. citizens, all sanctioned by a perpetual, and apparently open-ended, state of war.

Yet, if this is socialism, why are private health insurers the government’s go-to guys for healthcare coverage? If this is fascism, why haven’t the secret police rounded up tea partiers and progressive critics as well and sent them to the lager or the gulag?

Consider this: America is not now, nor has it often been, a hotbed of political radicalism. We have no substantial socialist or workers’ party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the corporate-friendly “Democrat” party here.) We have no substantial fascist party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the cartoonish “tea partiers” here; these predominantly white, graying, and fairly affluent Americans seem most worried that the jackbooted thugs will be coming for them.)

What drives America today is, in fact, business — just as was true in the days of Calvin Coolidge. But it’s not the fair-minded “free enterprise” system touted in those freshly revised Texas guidelines for American history textbooks; rather, it’s a rigged system of crony capitalism that increasingly ends in what, if we were looking at some other country, we would recognize as an unabashed kleptocracy.

Recall, if you care to, those pallets stacked with hundreds of millions of dollars that the Bush administration sent to Iraq and which, Houdini-like, simply disappeared. Think of the ever-rising cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now in excess of a trillion dollars, and just whose pockets are full, thanks to them.

If you want to know the true state of our government and where it’s heading, follow the money (if you can) and remain vigilant: our kleptocratic Houdinis are hard at work, seeking to make yet more money vanish from your pockets — and reappear in theirs.

HTC actually introduced new copy-and-paste features in the new version of Sense way back at Mobile World Congress, but let’s take a look at it here on the Verizon Droid Incredible. You can select one word, several words, or whole paragraphs, and from there paste them into another application, look up a word in Wikipedia, or share it with a friend. (You also can share links.) Note that these features are currently only available in the browser, and we did experience a hiccup or two. Take a look.

The FDA has launched a new web site aimed at making the processes and decision-making rationales for the development of regulations concerning radiation-emitting medical devices more transparent. 

The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Transparency web site is part of a continuing initiative by the agency to increase transparency and public accessibility, but it also comes at a time when the health risks of radiological procedures are under the microscope due to concerns over cancer and over-exposure to radiation.

CT scan procedures across the country are under close scrutiny by the FDA after the discovery that a number of patients have suffered radiation overexposure from CT Scans performed incorrectly. The FDA is currently reviewing CT scan procedures nationwide, and released interim guidance for health care professionals and radiologists in December. The guidance advised them to review procedures and CT scan settings, and to be thorough in checking the amount of dosage prescribed for each CT scan patient.

The recent FDA investigation was sparked by the discovery of CT scan radiation over-exposure problems that may have affected more than 200 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles last year. Since then, the FDA has uncovered at least 50 more radiation CT errors.

The new web site will give the public access to premarket submissions for new or improved radiation-emitting medical devices, postmarket performance and safety documents, FDA compliance and enforcement actions, science and research program data, performance metrics and educational resources. In addition, the site will allow visitors to perform a Total Product Life Cycle search, which will pull premarket and postmarket data on a particular medical device from multiple sources and compile them into a single “snapshot.”

CDRH Director Jeffrey Shuren, M.D. said that the web site will give the public a window into the FDA’s regulation of radiation-emitting medical devices. “It provides a closer and clearer look at what we do and why we do it,” Shuren said.

The new site follows an initiative announced earlier this year by the National Institute of Health (NIH), which plans to track radiation exposure in patients’ medical records. Their record-keeping will also not focus on radiation errors, but instead will watch the accumulation of radiation exposure from  a variety of treatments.

Traditionally, if you want to sell something online you would either setup a store or put it up on eBay. Even though both these options are great, they don’t work for each and every situation. For example, if you want to sell only a couple of items and want to target them to a certain group of people, none of these would work. In such situations, a better solution is to use a service like TinyPayMe.

It takes less than 2 minutes to setup a sale on TinyPayMe; you can include as little or as much information possible including price, quantity, pictures, description, tags, location and any personal info that you want to publish. You can sell physical items as well as digital content using TinyPayMe. Once you have created your listing, simply share the link with desired audience or embed it on your website or blog. A user will be able to purchase the item through PayPal instantly.

The service however is not free, they do charge 5% of the selling price as their service fee. You can also donate a portion of every sale to a specific charity if you want. There is also an option to display pageviews, include listing in search results and require a shipment address from the buyer. Over all, TinyPayMe is not a world-changing solution but can work really well if you are trying to do a very targeted sale and think the convenience is worth the 5% fees.

[Via DownloadSquad]

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Charles Schwab could face close to $1 billion in damages and settlements stemming from securities fraud lawsuits over their Schwab YieldPlus bond fund. 

In an earnings release issued by Charles Schwab Corp. last week, the company announced that it faces at least 194 individual stockbroker arbitration claims for up to $34 million, in addition to a YieldPlus Bond Fund class action lawsuit that looks to recoup $890 million for investors. In addition, other claims may still be filed against the brokerage firm over investment losses allegedly caused by their handling of the bond fund.

The Schwab YieldPlus funds are ultra-short bond funds that were heavily promoted as conservative investment alternatives to money market funds or cash. Despite being advertised to generate income with minimal changes in share price, the fund lost more than 30% of its value between June 2007 and June 2008 due to heavy investments in risky subprime mortgage securities, which some experts indicate violated the prospectus.

The funds lost much of their value when the sub-prime mortgage market crashed in late 2007, leaving investors with substantial losses. The investor claims allege that Schwab misled investors and failed to properly disclose the nature of the risks associated with certain securities held by the bond funds.

In October, Schwab announced that it had received a “Wells notice” from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating that they plan to recommend that the company be brought up on civil charges. No charges have yet been filed.

Earlier this month, a summary judgment from a federal judge in California determined that the company erred in failing to get investors’ approval before shifting half of the fund’s assets into mortgage-backed bonds. The ruling clears the way for the pending class action lawsuits for three classes of plaintiffs to proceed.

Two classes of plaintiffs are scheduled to go to trial on May 10.

Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy has announced his retirement from acting.

Nimoy began his acting career in the early 1950s and rose to international fame as Mr. Spock in the sci-fi series. Now the almost 80-year-old star — who has also tasted fame as a director, photographer — is stepping away from the camera.

“I’ve been doing this professionally for 60 years. I love the idea of going out on a positive note. I’ve had a great, great time,” says the Fringe actor.

As for his iconic character Spock, Leonard say he’s happy to let Heroes actor Zachary Quinto take over the reigns from now on. Quinto turned in a well-received performance as Spock in last year’s Star Trek prequel.

“He’s a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it’s time to give him some space. And I’m very flattered the character will continue.”

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2010

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010

In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and the Economic Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.

The President and the Vice President will then meet with the bipartisan leaders of the Senate and the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Oval Office to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Stevens. Expected attendees include Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, Senator Leahy, and Senator Sessions. There will be a pool spray at the top.

In the afternoon, the President and the Vice President will have lunch in the Private Dining Room. This lunch is closed press. Later, the President will attend a reception for G-20 labor ministers in the Diplomatic Reception Room. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will also attend. This event is closed press.

The President and the First Lady, with the White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport, will host members of the United States Olympic and Paralympic teams on the South Portico. The President and First Lady will congratulate Olympians and Paralympians on their performance and thank them for representing the United States during the Vancouver Winter Games. They will also discuss the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will also attend. This event is open press. (Note: This event may be moved indoors due to bad weather. If so, the event will be closed press.)

Later, the President and the Vice President will meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Oval Office. Following the meeting, the President and the Vice President will then meet with Secretary Geithner and Secretary Sebelius in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.

In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: ABC
Print: Scripps Howard
Radio: ABC

EDT

9:30AM Pool Call Time

9:30AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:00AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT receive the Economic Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:30AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with bipartisan leaders of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee
Oval Office
Pool spray at the top (Gather time 10:25AM – Briefing Room)

12:30PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT have lunch
Oval Office
Closed Press

2:15PM THE PRESIDENT attends reception for G-20 labor ministers
Diplomatic Reception Room
Closed Press

2:50PM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press

3:50PM THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY welcome members of the United States Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House
South Portico
Open Press (Pre-set 2:00PM – Final Gather 3:20PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)

4:30PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary of Defense Gates
Oval Office
Closed Press

5:45PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary Geithner and Secretary Sebelius
Oval Office
Closed Press

Briefing Schedule

12:00PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

##

[JURIST] Amnesty International (AI) on Tuesday called for an investigation into the deaths of 25 people during recent anti-government protests. The group stated that it would welcome a pledge by the Thai government to “investigate promptly, effectively, and impartially the recent violence,” and urges it to “provide accountability for any violations by security forces as well as abuses by violent protesters.” The protesters, known as red shirts, claim that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power illegitimately and that he should resign and call for elections. After the death toll rose to 21, the Thai army was called in on Monday to prevent the protests from spreading into Bangkok’s financial district. While AI’s statement recognized that the military’s use of force may have been justified by the fact that some of the protesters were armed with guns and grenades, the group also urged the Thai government to adhere to international principles on crowd dispersal and the use of force. Such principles dictate that law enforcement officials may use firearms only when less dangerous means are not practicable and only to the minimum extent necessary
The protests are currently in their fifth week and have led to an increasingly hostile political climate in Thailand. Earlier this month, a Thai court issued arrest warrants for at least 17 high-profile protesters, including top red shirt officials. Abhisit hopes that the arrest warrants will encourage the protesters to disperse. Abhisit was forced to declare a state of emergency earlier this month after a Thai court refused to issue an injunction against the protesters. The protesters are supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was removed from power during a 2006 military coup. Thaksin was convicted in absentia on corruption charges in October 2008. Despite the conviction, the Cambodian government refused to extradite the ousted prime minister to face a two-year prison sentence.

Materials: Erslev rug in light green

Description:

1. I created a stencil by tracing a Moroccan tile shape onto a piece of card stock and cutting out the negative space with an Exacto knife.
2. I placed the stencil on the rug starting in the top left corner.
3. I used a washable white fabric paint and a stippling brush to fill in the stencil.
4. I repeated steps 2 and 3 working my way from left to right all the way down the rug until the design was completed.
5. Painting freehand, I filled in the unfinished spots left by the “bridges” of the stencil.

~ Natalie, San Francisco

And so it ends. The sixth and final episode of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” airs this Friday on ABC in a stadium. From the promos, it looks like there will be tears, hugs, surprises and twists aplenty, and general yumminess bursting over Huntington, West Virginia, like fireworks.

I’ve streamed the first three episodes online, and will certainly see the rest. Though I find some of the reality TV tropes cheesy and manipulative, the message of this show is incredibly compelling, and its truths cut deep. It presents a powerful indictment of our food system.

Have you been watching the show? Do you think Jamie Oliver is really planting the seeds for change in our school lunch programs nationwide, or do you find his quest too idealistic?

Investors and analysts want to know what impact the SEC’s civil fraud charges will have on Goldman Sach Group Inc.’s client relationships. Defending the firm from these allegations could very well be a lengthy and highly public process that motivates some of Goldman’s capital market competitors to try and take market share.

In Canada, Royal Bank stands out as having the most global reach in its capital markets business and may therefore stand to gain more on a relative basis from the current situation, according to Stonecap Securities analyst Brad Smith. He points out that Royal has been quietly hiring a great deal of talent from global competitors that were stung by the credit crisis in the past couple of years.

“Having selectively added to its global capital markets capabilities we view the bank as being well positioned to capitalize on any competitive vacuum that may emerge in the months ahead,” Mr. Smith told clients.

The possibility of Goldman and other Wall Street competitors having to turn their attention to defending a government led push to reregulate the business, coupled with slowing deterioration in Royal’s U.S. credit portfolios in the first quarter, suggests Royal banks shares will begin recovering some of the relative performance gains lost in recent months. Stonecap rates the stock at Outperform with a price target of $70, which represents upside of roughly 14%.

Other Canadian banks like CIBC and National Bank have been hit by subprime related credit default swap (CDS) and collateralized debt obligation (CDO) losses. Mr. Smith noted that may also stand to recoup some losses if things do very badly for Goldman, opening the door to potential third-party claims.

“The time to recovery and likely costs associated with pursuing any future claims are however less compelling in our view than the potential immediate benefit to earnings that Royal could experience should a protracted defense against the SEC’s allegations cause any disruption to Goldman’s market competitiveness.”

Jonathan Ratner

If you’re in Denver and need to commute, do yourself and the environment a favor and shun the city bus and your car. Use a cycle instead. And if buying one worries you, simply enroll in the cities bike-sharing program! This Earth Day will see B-Cycle fling their doors open to what will be the first city-wide bike sharing program in the US. Compromising insurance company Humana, bike maker Trek Bicycle, and advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bugosky, B-Cycle will open 50 stations across Denver, Colorado.

The bikes, unlike the old gas guzzling four-wheeler you’ve got back home, are equipped with computers that display the kilometers you’ve travelled, the calories you’ve burnt and the number of carbon offsets you’ve earned. B-Cycle is eager to set up shop in Boston and Minneapolis too in future. Clean transport like this deserves a pat on its back.

[Gas2]

Are you a Facebook developer but can’t make it out to tomorrow’s sold-out f8 developers conference in person? Never fear — the social networking site is teaming up with Livestream to allow viewers to watch and even participate in the conference from afar. Beginning Wednesday, April 21 with Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT, Facebook will launch f8 Live, which will stream all sessions from the conference live on the Interwebz, along with a number of interactive features that are designed to let those who can’t attend feel like they are a part of the action.

Facebook will have multiple channels available to online viewers, enabling them to watch the keynote and other sessions, as well as “behind the scenes” live interviews with Facebook executives, f8 launch partners, notable developers and other attendees through the Inside f8 Channel. That channel will be moderated by Randi Zuckerberg, and will allow remote viewers to ask questions and interact with the featured attendees.

In addition to streaming video from the event, f8 Live will have employees live blogging the event, and will allow viewers to watch video of one session live while following the blogging or discussion around a different session. Since Facebook developers are global, chat and discussions will support eight different languages. Finally, f8 Live will have a scrolling ticker to alert viewers when new sessions or interviews are about to begin.

The f8 Live embeddable widget is available here, or you can watch the embedded stream below. A complete schedule of planned events can be found on the Facebook f8 site.

Image courtesy of Flickr user David Berkowitz.

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Rihanna was hospitalized for a mystery aliment after playing a concert in Zurich, Switzerland, on Monday night.

The “Umbrella” star, 22, was rushed to a local hospital just after midnight early Tuesday — after performing to a sold-out crowd at the Hallenstadion Arena. Rihanna was briskly swept into the ER by her driver, bodyguard and assistant to be treated for an undisclosed condition, hospital officials have confirmed.

“Rihanna arrived at the accident and emergency unit. We’re not going to give any details,” says Alenka Ambroz, a rep for the medical center.

She was treated for approximately two and a half hours and was discharged from the hospital at around 2.55AM.

Rihanna managed to take the stage for was able to take to the stage in Lyon, France last night.

The island-born beauty is preparing for her “Last Girl on Earth” Summer Tour.