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Keep this in mind when you’re reading a video game review from your favorite publication.

To quote Destructoid:

If a videogame review that you disagree with is posted online, you are duty-bound to respond and shame the writer into committing suicide, because it’s just that crucial. Of course, you need to be armed with the proper responses, and fortunately, we’re here to help. Come with me as I show you exactly how to respond to a video game review. That no-good writer who trashed Uncharted 2 by giving it an 8.5 will be crying into his oatmeal by sundown!

It goes on to detail, in humorous fashion, how you, the everyman on the street bouncing from IGN to Eurogamer to Edge to 1UP to Kotaku to CrunchGear when I get around to it, should react to a review of your favorite video game. Hate the score the reviewer gave the game? Call him biased! Upset that a game you hate got a 7.5 instead of a 7.0? (That’s why I don’t give numbers in my reviews, which are always entitled “Wherein we discuss [Game],” because I think they’re dumb.) Make wild accusations about conflicts of interests, as if every video game reviewer is a stock holder in a video game publisher.

I have no stock in anything, for the record. That’s a rich man’s game.

Now, we can use this as an opportunity to discuss what y’all look for in video game reviews. I do know that when I was younger (let’s say around 13), the first thing I’d check was the review score. “Yes, they gave Zelda a 5.0 for the fun factor~!” I didn’t pay much attention to the review itself, just the score. Today, it’s the complete opposite. I’d rather sit through a really long Edge review and not see a score (like the magazine did with Fatale) then see some 200-word quickie with an 8.0 tacked on the bottom for good measure.

Last week, Conan O’Brien had William Shatner stop by and read what was believed (at the time) to be twitter messages by Levi Johnston, the former boyfriend to Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol (and father of Bristol’s child). O’Brien has done this before, having Shatner read out Sarah Palin’s twitter messages, as spoken word poetry. It’s an amusing gimmick. The only problem this time around was that the tweets weren’t actually by Johnston, but an impostor. O’Brien quickly apologized. Fair enough.

However, what caught my attention was that Johnston’s lawyers didn’t just threaten O’Brien, but they threatened Twitter itself:

“My client, Levi Johnston, is being impersonated on your media (Twitter) and this is leading to libel and slanderous statements being attributed to him. … We want you to put an immediate end to this illegal activity. … You are being used as a medium to promote this illegality and we want immediate action. … You are now on notice and must take steps to put an end to what is clearly against the law and against your policy. … We want to know what steps you will be taking to correct what is clearly a problem which is escalating.”

Now, you can understand why they were upset, and Twitter is usually pretty good at responding to such requests and disabling the accounts (sometimes even going too far). However, the claim that Twitter is now “on notice and must take steps” to end the account is simply not true. Twitter, as the service provider, is protected against such claims and has no specific obligation under the law to change things, no matter how much “notice” his lawyers give. You would think that Johnston’s lawyers would understand that — and that they would be aware of earlier attempts, like the one by Tony La Russa to blame Twitter for an impostor, in which La Russa was forced to learn why Twitter is not liable.

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The Washington Post: “The abortion issue had been rumbling within the House Democratic caucus for weeks, but Saturday’s votes revealed the depths of the fault lines. The amendment passed with the support of 64 Democrats, roughly a quarter of the party caucus.” And with an eye on the Senate and eventual conference committee negotiations, abortion-rights supporters are now pledging to strip the amendment out of the underlying health bill.

Meanwhile, “Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is waiting for cost estimates of provisions of the bill he is cobbling together, and he hopes to bring it to the Senate floor before Thanksgiving. The battle over abortion has been more muted in the Senate, but Jim Manley, Reid’s spokesman, predicted that would change” (MacGillis, 11/9).

The Associated Press: “Abortion opponents in the Senate want tough restrictions in the health care overhaul bill, similar to the limits passed by the House this past weekend.” The issue threatens to shake up “an already shaky Democratic effort to pass a health care bill by year’s end.” Moderates such as Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., “said Monday it’s highly unlikely he would support a bill that doesn’t clearly prohibit federal dollars from going to pay for abortions. His spokesman said Nelson is weighing options, including offering an amendment similar to the one passed by the House.” Meanwhile, the approach adopted by the House has “angered liberals, some of whom are now threatening to vote against health care legislation if the curbs stay in” (11/9).

Bloomberg: “More than 40 House Democrats signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowing to vote against a final health overhaul measure if it includes abortion restrictions contained in legislation approved Nov. 7, said Representative Diana DeGette.” This “threat to vote ‘no’” creates added pressure for Democratic leaders who allowed a House vote on the language “after a revolt by anti-abortion Democrats threatened passage of the broader legislation.” Bloomberg also reports on statements made by one key Senate moderate vote. “Maine Republican Susan Collins told reporters that the Senate Finance Committee legislation ‘did a good job putting up a firewall that would prevent federal funds from going to abortions’” (Litvan and Rowley, 11/9).

The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was pivotal in advancing the House-passed abortion restrictions, “sent a message to churches urging members to contact their senators and ask the Senate to ‘correct the serious errors’ in Senate versions of the health legislation.” The key issue is whether abortion will be covered by health insurance policies sold in the health-insurance exchange established by the reform legislation. “Under the House bill, anyone who receives a new government tax credit to buy health insurance couldn’t enroll in an insurance plan that covers abortion.” In the Senate Finance Committee bill, consumers who get the tax credit would be able to buy an insurance plan that covers abortion, “but funding for the procedure would come from the portion of premiums paid by the enrollee.” Meanwhile, the Senate Health Committee “leaves it up to federal officials to determine whether abortion gets covered in subsidized policies” (Adamy, 11/9). 

Prior to last Saturday’s vote, The Wall Street Journal aptly called the House bill “the worst bill ever.” The bill is enormously expensive, but it is full of perverse incentives – an issue already plaguing our health care systems.

For individuals, the government will tell you what minimum insurance coverage you have to buy, where you must get it and what premium you will have to pay. Refusing to buy this insurance will result in a fine (tax) equal to 2.5 percent of your income. If you don’t pay the fine, you could go to jail.

The government will also tell your employer what type of insurance coverage the company must provide; and companies failing to provide it will face a tax equal to 8% of your wage income. Nominally, employers will be required to pay two-thirds or more of the cost. However, economic theory teaches — and empirical evidence confirms — that employee benefits and labor taxes are completely borne by workers themselves in the form of less take home pay. Thus, the combined penalty workers face for failure to insure is 10.5 percent of income.

During last year’s presidential primary, Senator Obama criticized Senator Clinton’s proposal to mandate coverage by asserting she would try to force people to buy something they cannot afford and then tax them when they don’t buy it — leaving them worse off than they were. Exactly the same criticism applies to Pelosi’s play-or-pay mandates.

As an unintended consequence, the bill encourages employers to drop health insurance coverage, forcing workers to buy coverage in a government-regulated health insurance exchange. Depending on their income, workers will receive subsidies when they purchase in the exchange. Many employers will find it more lucrative to drop coverage and pay taxable wages instead. The insurance subsidy means the employee can be thousands of dollars ahead. And the lower the employee’s income, the more profitable this decision becomes. However, workers will not be able to make this decision as an individual. If your employer decides that dropping coverage is good for the group as a whole, you will be swept up in the change.

This is why millions of people will lose their current employer coverage, despite President Obama’s promise that you can keep your current plan if you like it. (Lewin estimates 19 million would lose coverage under the Senate bill.) These people will be forced into Medicaid where there is already rationing by waiting or into a health insurance exchange, if they obtain new insurance at all.

Another unintended consequence is encouraging healthy people to be uninsured. Why pay expensive premiums for health insurance right now if you do not have any health problems? Under the House bill, there would be no reason to do so. People would be able to wait until after they get sick to insure and they would be able to do so without any additional financial penalty. The penalty for not entering the exchange and buying insurance is 2.5 percent of pay – far less then the cost of premiums for costly insurance.

Amazon.com has just launched an online store for jeans it calls the Denim Shop.

To attract shoppers to its Denim Shop, Amazon is offering free shipping on some men and women’s jeans. It is also offering shoppers free returns for purchases that for whatever reason don’t work out. Customers will have up to 30 days to return their jeans for a full refund.

In the terms and conditions part of the site Amazon says the free shipping and free returns will be available for a limited time only. The company does not say when that offer will expire but most likely sometime after the holiday season.

The Denim Shop features over 40 brands of jeans including both traditional brands such as Levi’s and designer names such as Rock & Republic and 7 For All Mankind.

Jeans on the Denim Shop range in price from $18 to $280. Visitors to the site can search by fit, price, brand, color and size.

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We all know that the new Star Trek was the best movie of all time – I’m serious – but how about the upcoming Blu-ray release? Well,  Blu-ray.com takes Blu-ray releases and grades them on four levels: Movie, Video, Audio, and Extras. The upcoming Star Trek release scored a perfect five out of five in each category. Yeah, it’s that awesome.

Normally I would encourage you to jump over to the source website and read the whole review yourself, but the damn thing is over 4,000 words so let me summarize it for you: the Blu-ray release is tits. Buy it.

The Short Version: I’ve always preferred functionality over looks in my gear. But the Bold 9700 puts a sleek outer cover on a powerful processor. T-Mobile’s first 3G BlackBerry is manufactured by Research In Motion. Perhaps you were expecting something more a bit more post-worthy?

RIM’s newest release brings us BlackBerry OS v5. It has all of the standard features you’ve come to know and love, email, SMS, IM, web browsing, etc. The Bold takes all of that and serves it too you on a 624MHz processor. i would say the only weak spot is the web browser.

The Bold is 4.29″ x 2.36″ x 0.56″ and weighs in at 4.3 ounces. Size wise, it feels about the same as any other BlackBerry, but it was much lighter than I expected. The back has this interesting faux-leather cover for those of you who want to feel like you really got your money’s worth.

The control surface proved a nice improvement. RIM replaced the traditional trackball with an optical trackpad. Personally, I like this interface much better. It feel much smoother and more precise than a ball. The trackpad sits flush with the body of the phone, so it won’t get damaged or worn out nearly as often. The keyboard proved to be easy to type on as well. The keys themselves are a little small, but the sculpted edges prevent you from slipping. Other dedicated buttons include a keypad lock key and a mute key on the top, voice dialing on the left side, and a volume rocker and programmable button on the right (default to opening the camera).

The display is something to behold. Not only can you watch streaming video with the new and improved JavaScript and streaming protocol support, but it all looks absolutely beautiful. The quality of pictures and video playback is pretty damn good. The camera itself isn’t too shabby either. 3.2 Megapixels with image stabilization, a 2x digital zoom, and flash. The onboard mic for video recording isn’t the greatest, but that’s to be expected.

In terms of connecting to the outside world, the Bold has not only 3G and Wi-Fi capability, but UMA support. Meaning you can make calls over a wireless network, without using your plan minutes.

T-Mobile hasn’t given us a firm release date. But you can expect it in time for the holidays for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Technical Specs

• Memory: 256MB of internal flash memory, with a microSD card slot
• Battery Life: Talktime – 6 hours     Standby Time – 19 days
• Display: 480 x 360 color display, TFT LCD
• Camera: 3.2 MP camera with 2X zoom, flash, and video
• Optical Trackpad
• Keyboard: Full QWERTY keyboard, backlit
• Bluetooth: v2.1
• Headset Jack: 3.5mm stereo headset
• Media Player Supported Audio: 3GP, MP3, WMA9/WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
• Supported Video: DivX 4, DivX 5/6 partially supported, XviD partially supported, H.263, H.264, WMV3, MPEG4, Sorenson Spark and On2 VP6 (Flash support)
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g (w/ UMA support)
• GPS: photo geotagging capability
• BlackBerry OS: v5.0

Construction productivity–how well, how quickly, and at what cost buildings and infrastructure can be constructed–directly affects prices for homes and consumer goods and the robustness of the national economy. Industry analysts differ on whether construction industry productivity is improving or declining. Still, advances in available and emerging technologies offer significant opportunities to improve construction efficiency substantially in the 21st century and to help meet other national challenges, such as environmental sustainability.

Advancing the Competitiveness and Efficiency of the U.S. Construction Industry identifies five interrelated activities that could significantly improve the quality, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of construction projects.

These activities include widespread deployment and use of interoperable technology applications; improved job-site efficiency through more effective interfacing of people, processes, materials, equipment, and information; greater use of prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication techniques and processes; innovative, widespread use of demonstration installations; and effective performance measurement to drive efficiency and support innovation. The book recommends that the National Institute of Standards and Technology work with industry leaders to develop a collaborative strategy to fully implement and deploy the five activities

Improving the Measurement of Late-Life Disability in Population Surveys summarizes a workshop organized to draw upon recent advances to improve the measurement of physical and cognitive disability in population surveys of the elderly population. The book questions whether or not the measures of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living used in many population surveys are sufficient as the primary survey-based indicators of late-life disability. If not, should they be refined or should they be supplemented by other measures of disability in surveys? If yes, in what ways should disability measures be changed or modified to produce population estimates of late-life disability and to monitor trends? The book also discusses what further research is needed to advance this effort.

Interacademy Programs Between the United States and Eastern Europe 1967-2009 documents how interacademy programs have played a significant role in establishing and maintaining American scientific contacts with colleagues in Eastern Europe prior to and following the lifting of the Iron Curtain. The book also discusses the changing roles of the academies of the region and the changing nature of interacademy cooperation that has emerged since 1991. The countries of interest are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the former German Democratic Republic, and the countries that previously were united politically within the framework of the former Yugoslavia.

The book should be of interest to officials and specialists in both the United States and the countries of Eastern Europe who are actively engaged in promoting scientific cooperation through bilateral and other channels. Also, an emerging audience for this book is the growing group of analysts in the United States interested in “science diplomacy” involving U.S. cooperation with countries that have political agendas that differ in important respects from the objectives of U.S. policies.

Last week the catchily-named organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that it had approved the use of Hindi, Mandarin, Hebrew, Korean, and twelve other languages — that are not based on the Roman/Latin alphabet — for use in domain names. It may not seem like much to most people in the USA or Europe, but in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa this news was was momentous.

Consider that you have been told about a source of near unlimited business, entertainment, and information, but to get access to it you have to read Korean… That is how the internet has appeared to the bulk of its users. Typing in domain names in characters you don’t understand is a total roadblock for many. With this change the floodgates will likely open, bringing literally millions more users online — those who have never used Roman characters in their daily lives.

Such an announcement will have implications for the world of web content management and e-commerce for sure. it will likely drive demand for technology to manage the increase in web content and the ever greater lingual fragmentation of that content. Something that will excite vendors for sure. For developers, business users, and implementers (the constituency of CMS Watch) the initial impact may be simply testing that your applications still work with non-Latin characters. Don’t assume they do, as though most browsers can support all kinds of character sets, software applications are typically much more limited.

There are so many potential implications to this announcement. Implications that we can currently only guess at, with repercussions that may resonate over the next decade or so. In English-speaking regions we may not even see or even hear of much change, but the rest of the world (most of the world) will be busy building their own web, drawing in billions of new users, and spawning a new set of web teams (many of which will likely be bigger than ours). All of which could nonetheless remain quite invisible to us.

GridPoint Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based smart-grid company, has acquired ADMMicro, a Roanoke, Va.-based provider of energy management systems for the commercial and industrial sector. No financial terms were disclosed. GridPoint has raised around $220 million in total VC funding, from firms like Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Susquehanna Private Equity, Perella Weinberg Partners and Robeco.

PRESS RELEASE
GridPoint, Inc., a leading smart grid company, today announced that it has acquired ADMMicro, a leader in energy management systems for the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector. The acquisition extends GridPoint’s smart grid solutions to a broader customer base, further strengthening the company’s commitment to transform the distribution and consumption of electricity.

“The smart grid cannot be fully realized without integrating intelligent facilities that are equipped to automatically achieve optimum efficiency,” said Peter L. Corsell, CEO, GridPoint. “ADMMicro is an innovative company that has established a leading position in a rapidly expanding market segment. Our respective technologies are highly complementary and will benefit producers and consumers of electricity across the board.”

ADMMicro helps clients cost-effectively manage their facilities to increase energy efficiency. The Roanoke, Va.-based company’s energy management and submetering systems automatically monitor and control energy consumption, including HVAC systems and lighting, and provide customers with online reports.

ADMMicro’s proven C&I systems, which are in use at thousands of sites nationwide, will enhance GridPoint’s portfolio of software solutions, which aggregate and manage distributed sources of load, storage and generation for utilities and their residential customers. GridPoint’s software allows utilities to efficiently balance supply and demand and improve grid reliability and empowers consumers with user-friendly tools to manage energy consumption.

The utility market remains a core focus for GridPoint, which will continue to develop products and services that redefine relationships between utilities and their customers. For example, the extension of GridPoint’s solutions into the C&I market creates new opportunities for utilities to engage enterprise customers in demand response and load reduction programs.

GridPoint’s strength in data analytics and designing user interfaces will further enhance ADMMicro’s energy management offerings by enriching the experience for customers, which include public sector and Fortune 500 businesses, including leading national retail, pharmacy and restaurant chains.

“Our companies have a closely aligned vision, which involves empowering our customers with visibility and control over energy consumption in order to realize savings and lower their carbon footprint,” said Don Howell, CEO, ADMMicro. “We look forward to participating in GridPoint’s exciting mission to enable the smart grid.”

Howell and ADMMicro’s management team are veteran electrical engineers and utility executives who have worked in the fields of energy management, building management, electrical power monitoring, and retail operations for more than 25 years. GridPoint values ADMMicro’s leadership role as a high-tech innovator and employer in the Roanoke Valley and will continue its operations there. ADMMicro has been featured in Fortune magazine and was recognized with a 2009 Rising Star Award by the NewVA Corridor Technology Council, which serves the growing technology industry in the region encompassing Roanoke, Blacksburg and surrounding counties.

GridPoint is working with utilities nationwide including Austin Energy, Duke Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and Xcel Energy. The company’s interoperable enterprise-class server technology enables utilities to rapidly integrate and manage emerging technologies, resulting in a practical path to developing a clean, efficient 21st century grid. GridPoint has raised in excess of $220 million to fuel its organic development and acquisition strategy. Investors include Altira Group, Craton Equity Partners, Goldman Sachs Group, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Perella Weinberg Partners, Quercus Trust, Robeco and Susquehanna International Group (SIG). GridPoint was recently named to the Global Cleantech 100 and was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer in 2008.

About GridPoint

GridPoint, Inc., an established leader in smart grid software, enables utilities to easily manage the transformation to a smart grid. GridPoint’s software aggregates and manages an intelligent network of distributed energy resources that controls load, stores energy and produces power. Utilities efficiently balance supply and demand, improve grid reliability and empower consumers with user-friendly software to manage energy consumption. Utilities and consumers realize the benefits of energy intelligence with GridPoint’s solutions including home energy management, load management, renewable integration, storage management and electric vehicle management. With GridPoint’s interoperable platform, utilities rapidly integrate and manage emerging technologies, resulting in a practical path to developing a clean, efficient 21st century grid. On the Net: www.gridpoint.com

About ADMMicro

Headquartered in Roanoke, Va., ADMMicro offers a new breed of intelligent energy management systems equipped with revenue-grade accurate metering devices to monitor electricity, natural gas, propane, or water consumption. The patented system can enhance security systems and manage retail maintenance service calls. The Energy Management System delivers rapid ROI for buildings of 1,500 square feet and up. ADMMicro is an Energy Star partner. On the Net: www.admmicro.com

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When Capcom asked its community members if they wanted DLC or a separate game for Resident Evil 5 Alternative Edition, they really wanted answers. As…

Yes. It is finished. We can shut down NASA, DARPA, all the arts and sciences, and stop trying now. The pinnacle of human achievement has been reached. Robot vacuums have been hacked to play the parts in a real-life game of Pac-Man.

The ghosts are actually moving autonomously along computer-defined lines (they can’t “see” the actual maze) and the Man of Pac himself is guided by an RC controller. I was a little disappointed to see that he doesn’t eat the dots, though.

I won’t waste your time by summarizing all the hacks and modifications that went into this project; they’re well-documented here, and good reading too if you’re into that sort of thing.

[via Giz and En]

We just wrote about how the Danish anti-piracy group was dropping its lawsuits against individual file sharers after realizing that Danish law made it almost impossible for the industry to win those cases. However, as pointed out by brokep, the international wing of the recording industry, the IFPI, wasted little time in trying to spin the news in its favor (Google translation of the original). The IFPI insists that the lawsuits won’t stop, but just that the anti-piracy organization was realizing it needed more detailed evidence — and this means that it will now start seizing computers to get evidence. Now, the Google translation trips up over the word “beslagslaeggelse,” but multiple Danish speakers have confirmed that the word means “seize” or “confiscate.” Of course, that raises some questions about why a private organization representing record labels has any right to seize computers of individuals. I think they were better off when they just admitted they were going to give up on the counterproductive legal strategy.

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By Tim Conneally, Betanews

South Korean consumer electronics giant and number two mobile phone seller worldwide, Samsung has re-negotiated its cross-licensing agreements with Qualcomm to the tune of $1.3 billion plus continuing royalties.

Though most of the terms and conditions of the deal are confidential, Samsung has said that the deal will give Qualcomm access to 57 of its mobile technology patents, and in turn receive access to Qualcomm’s 3G CDMA/WCDMA and 4G OFDM patents for the next fifteen years.

Samsung said this deal is “more favorable than the previous one.”

With such a substantial amount of money, it’s hard to imagine how costly Qualcomm patent licensing used to be.

In July, the South Korea Fair Trade Commission hit Qualcomm with the largest fine it’s ever levied on a single company for abusing its dominant market position to obtain higher licensing fees.

That fine was the result of a three-year investigation into Qualcomm’s collection of royalties, which the Commission alleged were unfairly stacked against companies that didn’t use Qualcomm chips. The Commission said Qualcomm would impose higher royalties on handset makers that used modem chips from Qualcomm’s competitors.

Qualcomm told the South Korean media that this deal with Samsung has nothing to do with the company’s fair trade violation there.

“We anticipate accelerated CDMA device growth in calendar year 2010 as the global migration to 3G continues,” Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm said.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

Just a quick post to report on a meeting today with a group of lobbyists and others who currently chair Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs). The group had objected to the Administration’s new policies barring the appointment (and reappointment) of federally registered lobbyists to agency boards and commissions. Although we have previously addressed their views here and here, we feel it important to meet with those with whom we disagree to discuss their concerns face to face. Much of the discussion focused on the arguments offered in the letter the group sent us (pdf) and our response letter (pdf). Click here (pdf) for the list of attendees.

We explained to the ITAC chairs that this issue is not about the few corrupt lobbyists or specific abuses by the profession, but rather concerns the system as a whole. For too long, lobbyists and those who can afford their services have held disproportionate influence over national policy making. The purpose of the President’s agenda to change the way business is done in Washington is to level the playing field to make sure that all Americans and not just those with access to money or power are able to have their voices heard and their concerns addressed by Washington.

We explained that in deciding to limit the ability of lobbyists to serve in government positions, including as members of agency advisory boards and commissions, we considered various arguments and counterarguments. We weighed the options, and considered the alternatives. In the end, we decided that while lobbyists have a right to petition the government, it would best serve the interests of a fairer and more representative democracy if we limited their ability to do so from special positions of privileged access within the government.

The result will be a Washington that is more reflective of all of America. We have already begun the process of recruiting new voices to advise the government through these agency boards. We believe small- and medium-sized business owners will be excited by the opportunity to help serve their country and advocate for their interests.

To make it even easier for those with valuable insight and expertise to offer to join this process from outside the Beltway, the Administration is working to develop tools to utilize internet technologies to make federal advisory committee proceedings accessible online. For example, the most recent meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) was watched online by 5000 people. This Administration is committed to seeking out those voices and bringing the change they represent into the decision making process in Washington.

We explained this to the ITAC chairs and asked for their help in reaching out to broaden and diversify these boards and commissions. We informed them that while we will always seek ways to improve good policies, we do not intend to rescind this decision. The ITAC chairs, although expressing their disagreement, are willing to assist in finding qualified replacements and we thank them for their commitment to working together to make the system work better for everyone.

Finally, we also replied to a letter from the American League of Lobbyists on this subject today-ALL’s letter is here (pdf) and our reply is here (pdf).

Norm Eisen is special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform

It could be said that the Google Books case is becoming the new Microsoft-Yahoo deal, having created all sorts of controversy and dragged on and on.  And on some more, as it turns out, since the involved parties are pushing a target date back again.

A revised proposal concerning how Google and its critics could settle their differences was originally supposed to be submitted to Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan federal court a little more than a month ago.  Obviously, that didn’t happen, and Chin picked today (Monday, November 9th) as an alternate goal.

Now, Motoko Rich has reported, "The parties to the Google book settlement, which would legalize the creation of a vast library of digital books, have asked the judge overseeing a revision of the agreement for an extension to this Friday, Nov. 13."

It sounds like the lines of communication are still very much open, though, as Rich also wrote, "[T]he group indicated that it had met with the Justice Department before and after the October status hearing and had met as recently as Friday, Nov. 6."  And (hopefully) Friday the 13th isn’t far enough away for this delay to signal serious trouble.

So as before, stay tuned, and maybe this whole thing will be resolved before the "early 2010" deadline Microsoft and Yahoo have set for their partnership.

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On Thursday at the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C., Vice President Biden moderated an in-depth discussion focusing on the long-term, structural challenges facing middle class families in today’s economy. Joined by a panel of policy experts, the group focused on broader issues such as the overall labor market in recent decades; shifting gender roles and the need for work-life balance in today’s economy; economic inequality and mobility; the increased gap between productivity and wages, and much more. 

Going forward, the Middle Class Task Force will continue working with these panelists, among other outside experts, developing policy ideas to help lift the living standards of working families.  As the Vice President put it Thursday: "That dynamic—where the economy’s moving forward as middle class families fall back—that just doesn’t work for the president, for me, and, certainly, for millions of families who are finding the system to be working against them, not for them."

Check out the video below:

Click here to see the video.

Terrell McSweeny is Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President.