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Kindle Fire a Toyota Corolla to the iPad's Lexus

2011-12-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Kindle Fire a Toyota Corolla to the iPad's Lexus

The Kindle can't keep up with the iPad, certainly, but the device will be fine for most people's immediate needs Since before the introduction of the Kindle Fire about a month ago the pundit class has been chattering wildly about the pros and cons of Amazon's entry into the tablet space. After mixed early notices, with more praise than pans, a second wave of analysis has featured some pessimistic second thoughts.

I finally got a chance to put mine through some paces. As the holder of a small amount of Amazon stock, I take no joy in saying that If I didn't need to keep the Kindle Fire for some work-related experiments, I'd send it back, stick with the tablet(s) I've been using, and wait for the next version. For what I like and need in a tablet, notably versatility, this one just doesn't measure up.

Of course, as a technology industry executive once reminded me, I'm not a normal user. And it's true that, for many people, this device will be more than good enough – provided their main reasons for getting it are a) indulging in various kinds of media consumption (especially media provided by Amazon); b) shopping on Amazon; and c) playing around with apps like Angry Birds.

As a Kindle e-reader that also plays audio and video, it's terrific. Although the 7in screen isn't as easy on the eyes as the traditional Kindle's e-ink display, it's more than good enough for even lengthy reading sessions. Streaming video playback for both Amazon and Netflix was problem-free, though the video player wasn't as capable as the one I use on other mobile devices running the Android operating system.
Other uses are less rewarding. Web browsing feels at best sluggish, and sometimes actions are jerky.

Privacy settings are pretty much non-existent. Amazon says it's readying a software update to remedy such defects, but the clunky nature of this early release suggests it was rushed out for the holiday season.
Amazon's version of Android is not recognizable to anyone who's used the operating system on other devices. It's more locked down, and has far fewer features, and the home screen is a bookshelf metaphor,

not a collection of apps and services. Again, this may be fine for people who want to live in the world Amazon has created – a world that does, to be fair, include a curated app marketplace – it is nonetheless overly restrictive. Users can load unauthorized apps, but doing so isn't trivial for novices. The hacking community is hard at work figuring out ways to make the Kindle Fire a full-fledged Android device, but this is also not for novices.

The physical deficiencies are even more problematic. Weirdly, Amazon put the on/off/sleep button on the bottom, a perfect location for accidentally stopping what you're doing. There's no camera or hardware volume control. Nor is there a slot for extra memory, a serious issue given the relatively paltry 8GB of built-in storage. Amazon's apparent assumption is that we'll be doing so much media consumption from the fabled online "cloud" that we don't need more local storage: not me, at least not yet.

Some of the criticism aimed at the Fire has struck me as unfounded, or at least likely to be less relevant in a few months or a year. Some naysayers complain that web pages that look fine on a 10in tablet screen are too scrunched up on the smaller 7in device. True enough: this is a problem for all smaller tablets, and it's high time software developers and web designers start caring about this form factor, which is not going to disappear despite the iPad's overwhelming (and deserved) market dominance to date.

I'm absolutely convinced that the 7in size is ideal for many uses. Reading is one. If I read a book on an iPad and don't use both hands, I quickly discover that it's a heavy machine to hold in one hand for very long. I also fly frequently, and the smaller tablet is ideal for video entertainment and games in a cramped economy seat. For checking email, using Twitter and some web browsing (usually using sites' mobile mode), I'm just as happy with the smaller size as I would be with an iPad or one of the larger Android tablets.

It's widely believed that Amazon's $200 price – wifi only, no connection to telecom carriers – means the company is taking a small loss on each unit sold, just as it almost certainly loses money on the other Kindle hardware. The point in each case, of course, is the virtual merchandize: books, etc, where Amazon makes money.

It's also a given that the Fire hardware will improve with the next version. No doubt there'll be a larger model (there's a larger regular Kindle), but the current size will be appealing – if the device gets better than this first try.

For now, I'm sticking with a year-old Samsung Galaxy Tab 7in tablet for my main tablet tasks. Now that I've updated the software – I had to do it myself, because Samsung and its mobile partner, T-Mobile, couldn't be bothered to support their users – the device is just fine for my immediate needs.

As I said when the Kindle Fire was announced, this isn't really an iPad competitor. The Fire is a Toyota Corolla, and the iPad a Lexus. Nothing I've seen changes my mind, but keep in mind that a Corolla gets people where they need to be, which is more than good enough for most people.

Amazon's rating system goes from one to five stars. For now, I've given the Kindle Fire three.

Obama to Visit Fort Bragg Today to End War in Iraq

2011-12-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

Obama to Visit Fort Bragg Today to End War in Iraq

When President Obama speaks at Fort Bragg today, the focus will be on two very different battlegrounds. Obama is expected to speak about the end of the war in Iraq before an audience of Fort Bragg soldiers and their families.

By coming to Fort Bragg, Obama will be making yet another visit to a state that is important to his re-election bid in 2012.
"It's a battleground in a different war," said Michael Munger, a professor of political science at Duke University.

Obama's visit will be his fifth to North Carolina since December 2010 but his first to Fayetteville or Fort Bragg since he was the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

In Obama's last visit to Fayetteville, he held a rally at the Crown Coliseum two weeks before the 2008 election. About 10,000 people attended.

Today's visit will involve a much smaller crowd. Obama will speak to more than 200 men and women at the 440th Structural Maintenance Hangar on Fort Bragg. The audience will consist mostly of soldiers who recently served in Iraq.

More than 200 Fort Bragg soldiers have died in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. More than 1,000 soldiers -- including about 800 members of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team -- are still stationed there.

Other Fort Bragg units that have been in Iraq recently include the 20th Engineer Brigade, 82nd Sustainment Brigade, 50th Signal Command, 1st Theater Sustainment Command and the 18th Airborne Corps.

The last U.S. troops are expected to be out of Iraq within days.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday, Obama acknowledged the hard work and sacrifices made by U.S. troops in Iraq.

"When I took office, nearly 150,000 American troops were deployed in Iraq, and I pledged to end this war, responsibly," Obama said. "Today, only several thousand troops remain there, and more are coming home every day.

"This is a season of homecomings, and military families across America are being reunited for the holidays," Obama added. "In the coming days, the last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq, with honor and with their heads held high. After nearly nine years, our war in Iraq ends this month."
An untold number of Iraqis have died and more than 1 million Americans -- military and civilian -- have served in the country, he said.

This will be the second time Obama has visited North Carolina to mark a significant milestone in the war in Iraq.

In February 2009, he traveled to Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base to announce that he would end combat operations in Iraq by August 2010.

Munger, the political science professor, said Obama's latest visit fits in with an ongoing campaign strategy that has the president and his Cabinet focusing on battleground election states rather than trying to sway congressmen on policy.

"He's conceded the policy war and wants to win the election war," Munger said.
The thinking, Munger said, is that the president wants to hold off on policy battles until a new, friendlier Congress might be in place.

"He likes campaigning," Munger said. "He likes speaking for audiences that cheer for him."
But Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution expects a much more subdued and somber speech from the president today.

"It's a moment of national recovery and healing," O'Hanlon said. "The best thing he can do is just thank the troops. A restrained tone would serve him well."

O'Hanlon said the end of the war in Iraq is a bittersweet celebration for the Obama administration. While the war is ending, that is partly due to a failure to negotiate with the Iraqi government on an agreement for a continued U.S. presence.

"I'm not a big critic of where we are," O'Hanlon said, "but it's a bit of a mixed outcome."
Obama's recent attention to North Carolina is unprecedented, Munger said.

In addition to the president himself, there have been more than 20 visits by Cabinet members in the past year, according to records kept by Duke University. Just last Saturday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke at Fayetteville State University's winter graduation.

First lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president on his visit. Also appearing will be state and local dignitaries, including Gov. Bev Perdue.

The Dark Knight Rises preview

2011-12-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

The Dark Knight Rises preview

A six-minute Dark Knight Rises preview at the IMAX culminates in a stunt the like of which Robbie Collin has never seen before.

Warner Bros may be about to learn that, when it comes to hyping a highly-anticipated film, sometimes less can be more. Before all IMAX screenings of Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol over the Christmas period, the studio will be screening a six-minute preview of The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in Christopher Nolan’s near-universally adored Batman trilogy. The footage is the opening scene of the film and introduces one of the key villains, Bane, who is played by Tom Hardy.

The preview, which I saw this morning, is hugely ambitious and technically outstanding, and culminates in a stunt the like of which I’ve never seen before. But there’s one enormous problem with it, and it’s going to overshadow any amount of excitement the sequence will otherwise generate. Tom Hardy’s dialogue is almost completely unintelligible.

The scene begins on a landing strip in the middle of some mountains, with two hooded mercenaries being hustled onto an aeroplane by a group of CIA agents. “Tell me about Bane,” one shouts, as the plane takes off. “Why does he wear the mask?” “Hrphmbrphmbrphle,” one of the captives replies.

“This one speaks!” says the agent – thanks for clarifying – and he pulls off the mercenary’s hood to reveal that he actually IS Bane; a burly, bald bruiser with some kind of metal breathing apparatus covering most of his face. “What happens if I pull the mask off?” asks the agent. “Grmphumphlebumph,” replies Bane, threateningly.

What happens next is, if anything, an even more impressive introduction to a villain than Nolan’s unveiling of the Joker during a bank heist in The Dark Knight. (If it’s not already obvious, this is the point at which to stop reading if you don’t want to know what happens in the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises.

A second, much larger aeroplane swoops down and a group of mercenaries jump out of it, who rappel down to the first plane and attach metal cables to its hull. The second plane then hoists the first upwards and it gradually disintegrates – wings first, then the tail – before in one gobsmacking shot, the fuselage drops away from around Bane and the chief CIA agent (who by this stage are dangling from a cable) and falls thousands of feet, crashing onto the rocks below. The whole thing is pulled off seamlessly, without any apparent assistance from computer graphics.

Throughout the sequence, Bane makes clear the details of his nefarious plot – or, rather, he would have done if he didn’t sound like he was chewing on a pair of socks at the same time. Amid all the spluttering, I just about caught that it involves a “Dr Pawel” and something to do with blood.

Naturally, the only talking point – or mumbling point – on the way out was if anyone had understood what on earth Bane was saying. (Nobody had.) This kind of buzz can only be counterproductive: thousands of cinema-goers who see the footage over the next few weeks will now think of Nolan’s next film as “that one where you can’t understand what the bad guy says”.

Clearly, the problem will be fixed before the film’s July 2012 release (I hope Tom Hardy doesn’t have much planned for January, because he’ll be spending an awful lot of it in an ADR studio), but I’m at a loss as to why Warner Bros think showing the footage to anyone in its current state is a good idea. It will certainly generate plenty of discussion, but probably not the kind they’ll be hoping for. And the film geeks, unlike Bane, certainly won’t be mumbling.

Luis Suarez's alleged racism at Patrice Evra - FA begins hearing

2011-12-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz ||Luis Suarez's alleged racism at Patrice Evra - FA begins hearing

The Football Association has begun a disciplinary hearing into claims Liverpool's Luis Suarez racially abused Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

A verdict is expected by Friday on whether Suarez used derogatory language in a confrontation during a match at Anfield on 15 October.

Suarez has been supported by his club in his denying the charge.

The 24-year-old striker told media in Uruguay that he "called him something his team-mates at Manchester call him.

Both players are expected to give evidence at the hearing which could revolve around different cultural interpretations of any term used by Suarez.

Evra made his claims immediately after the match and was quoted as telling French TV station Canal Plus: "There are cameras, you can see [Suarez] say a certain word to me at least 10 times."

The Frenchman reported his complaint after the game to match referee Andre Marriner who included it in his report.

Suarez is facing a separate charge from the FA over an alleged abusive hand gesture he made as he left the pitch following Liverpool's 1-0 defeat by Fulham on 5 December.

Leeds deaths football coach killed family before taking own life

2011-12-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz ||Leeds deaths: football coach 'killed family before taking own life'

One woman who laid flowers at the police cordon said her children went to school with Ben.

She said: "It's terrible. From what I saw of them, they were very fun-loving, kind and caring – full of life."

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: "They were a nice family."

Another neighbour, who lives round the corner, said: "It's such a shock. We've been up all night watching what's been going on.

"This really is a quiet street. You just don't expect it.

"I didn't know them, apart from seeing them around and about.
"They had two boys. It's just so sad."

Police and scientific support officers were still at the Smith family's home today.
The house, which has an integral garage, has a broken lounge window – the only other sign of anything out of the ordinary.

Family photos could be seen inside. Two cars were parked outside.
A police spokesman said officers were called to the house at about 5.30pm yesterday.

Part of Sheridan Way, where the house is located, was initially cordoned off amid fears that dangerous chemicals might be present.

Detective Superintendent Paul Taylor of the West Yorkshire Police homicide and major inquiry team said: "Initially, we had concerns regarding the release of harmful chemicals or gases.

"Following testing, we no longer have any concerns with regards to those working at the scene and we will continue our investigations today.

"Inquiries are at an early stage and I would ask anyone with information about the incident to contact the homicide and major inquiry team."

The tragedy comes just days after a separate incident in Melton Mowbray when a police officer who had been dismissed by his force attacked his family before apparently killing himself.

Darren Fletcher takes 'extended break from football' due to illness

2011-12-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz || Darren Fletcher takes 'extended break from football' due to illness

Darren Fletcher is to take "an extended break from football'' because of health reasons, Manchester United have announced. The Scotland captain is expected to miss the rest of the season as he receives treatment for ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel condition.

Fletcher, who has been sidelined at various points since last season with what was reported to be a virus, has actually been suffering with the condition for some time. He has made only 10 appearances for United this campaign and his last game was the draw against Benfica on 22 November, when he scored.

A club statement said: "Over the past year he has had several absence periods which we have attributed to a viral illness in order to respect his right to medical confidentiality. Darren has, in fact, been suffering from ulcerative colitis for some time preceding this.

"Whilst he was able to maintain remission of symptoms for a considerable period this has proved more difficult recently and Darren's continued desire to play and his loyalty to both his club and country has probably compromised the chances of optimising his own health and fitness.

"He has therefore accepted medical advice to take an extended break from the demands of training and playing in order to afford the best chance possible of achieving full remission once again."

Fletcher's team-mate Rio Ferdinand tweeted: "We are going to miss two big players in Fletcher and [Nemanja] Vidic. I hope they both come back fitter and stronger than ever."

Fletcher's absence is another blow to United following their elimination from the Champions League last week, and leaves Sir Alex Ferguson short of options in central midfield. Michael Carrick, Park Ji-sung, Darron Gibson and Ryan Giggs are the only recognised players in that position, although the versatile Phil Jones and the youngsters Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison are also options.

Tom Cleverley is hoping to return from injury to play some part in the Christmas fixtures, while Anderson is not expected back until February.

Craig Levein, Scotland's manager, said: "I am obviously absolutely devastated for Darren because I know how hard he has worked to get back to playing regularly for his club and country.

"He is one of the most inspirational players I have had the pleasure of working with and, on behalf of his Scotland team-mates and my backroom staff, I sincerely hope this time off, allied to the support of his family, will enable him to make a full recovery."

Fletcher's last appearance in international football came in November's 2-1 friendly win for Scotland in Cyprus, in which he played 64 minutes before being replaced by Brighton's Craig Mackail-Smith. "He is a central part of our plans for the World Cup 2014 qualifiers but, at this stage, his health is paramount and I would like to reiterate the best wishes of everyone at involved with the national team and the Scottish FA," Levein said.

High Court to Decide on Arizona Immigration Law

2011-12-12T11:29:00.001-08:00

AQ Buzz || High Court to Decide on Arizona Immigration Law

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether an aggressive Arizona statute targeting illegal immigrants interferes with federal law, entering another high-profile dispute between the Obama administration and conservative state governments.

Among other provisions intended to drive illegal immigrants from the state, the 2010 Arizona measure, known as SB 1070, requires police to arrest people they stop whom they suspect of being foreigners without authorization to reside in the U.S. Federal courts have blocked much of the Arizona measure from taking effect, agreeing with the Justice Department that it undermines federal authority over immigration.

The court is likely to hear the case by April and issue a decision before July. That i's the same time it is expected to rule on the president's 2010 health-care overhaul, which conservative activists and Republican leaders from 26 states contend exceeds federal authority.

The scheduling positions both cases for a significant role in next year's presidential and congressional elections—and could make the Supreme Court, certain to be criticized by the losers in each case, itself an issue. Four of the nine justices are in their 70s, suggesting the next president could have at least one vacancy to fill on the closely divided court.

In yet another case with political ramifications, the justices decided late Friday to rule on the deference that federal courts evaluating redistricting plans under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 should pay to state legislatures. The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature drew new maps after the 2010 census was expected to yield at least three Republican victories in the four new U.S. House seats the state gained as a result of the Census.

But the state's population gain is largely a result of burgeoning numbers of Hispanics, who have strongly favored Democrats. Civil-rights groups challenged the Legislature's maps and, ahead of the state's March primary election, a federal court in San Antonio drew new districts to serve in the interim before a final decision was rendered. Texas is one of several states with a history of discriminatory voting practices required by the Voting Rights Act to obtain federal approval before altering electoral procedures or districts.

Arizona's illegal-immigration measure, officially titled the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, reflected growing outrage among tea-party conservatives over what they considered lax enforcement by federal immigration authorities. Similar measures were introduced in other states, including Alabama, where officials were embarrassed after executives from German and Japanese car manufacturers the state fought to bring there were arrested for failing to produce immigration papers.

Those incidents and a backlash against the Arizona law have prompted second thoughts among some backers of state crackdowns. Last month, voters in Mesa, Ariz., recalled state Sen. Russell Pearce, the Republican firebrand behind SB 1070 and other measures targeting illegal immigrants. Mr. Pearce had begun the year on a high note after his colleagues elected him president of the state Senate, which he proclaimed would be the "tea-party Senate."

In May, over the objection of the Obama administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Supreme Court upheld another Pearce measure that forced employers that repeatedly hired illegal immigrants to go out of business. The justices voted 5-4 along ideological lines to give expansive effect to a provision of federal law authorizing states to consider compliance with immigration rules when issuing business licenses. Mr. Pearce's law withdrew corporate charters and other required permits from such employers.

Although that opinion, by Chief Justice John Roberts, sympathized with states seeking to control the borders, it is unclear how the justices will read separate provisions of federal immigration law at issue in the SB 1070 case.

The court will have to reach its decision without the participation of Justice Elena Kagan, who recused herself from the case, apparently because she was solicitor general when the administration began formulating its legal challenge.

Leveson Inquiry Neville Thurlbeck defends The News of the World

2011-12-12T11:16:00.001-08:00

Leveson Inquiry Neville Thurlbeck defends The News of the World

Giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics and phone hacking, Neville Thurlbeck gave a wholehearted defence of his former paper and the conduct of its journalists.

"The News of the World was a highly professional organisation," he said. "It was staffed by the best journalists in Fleet Street who worked with great diligence and great integrity and continue to do so.

"I was proud to work alongside all of my colleagues. I have enormous respect for all of them.
He added: "There may have been a small caucus of people who gave us a bad reputation now. Unfortunately the bulk of those very decent journalists have been tainted by that and are finding it extremely difficult to find work. They were an exemplary bunch of people who could work on any newspaper in the world.

He went on to say: "The NOTW was not the biggest selling newspaper in the world for nothing. it was put together by some of the most gifted journalists of their generation. That might seem to be a very unfashionable thing to say in light of what's going on now. But that was a tiny part of the NOTW's 168 year-old history. I was privileged to be part of that organisation. I did not recognise the picture painted by Paul McMullan."

The X Factor Amelia Lily's return paved way for Little Mix victory

2011-12-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

The X Factor Amelia Lily's return paved way for Little Mix victory

The controversial reintroduction of Amelia Lily to The X Factor appears to have paved the way for Little Mix to be crowned winners, according to voting figures released by ITV which show that her return killed the chances of the-then favourite.

Little Mix, the eventual winners of The X Factor, did not become the nation's favourite act until week seven of the competition, according to voting pattern figures released on Monday.

The figures show that Janet Devlin, the Northern Irish teenager, easily topped the first four public votes before the reintroduction of Amelia Lily, another teenage single female artist, in week six of the competition proved to be the 17-year-old's undoing.

Lily was brought back in a public vote after badboy contestant Frankie Cocozza left the show after breaking a "golden rule".

Cocozza was never a threat to the favourites – only managing between 5.2% and 8.7% of the public vote in the weeks he was in the contest – while the re-introduction of a female artist in his place in Lily seems to have spelt the end of Devlin's chances.

In the week after Lily was reintroduced she topped the public vote, with Devlin managing second place.

In subsequent weeks Devlin faded with Lily and Little Mix the major beneficiaries in each of the public votes.

Prior to Lily's arrival, Little Mix managed 11.9% of the vote – Devlin was on 18% – and the week after they jumped to 26% as Devlin began to slide.

Nearly 15.5m votes were cast during last year's X Factor, but ITV said it would not release a total figure for this year's series, leading to speculation that the fall in viewing figures had been mirrored by a drop in votes.

The figures show that Little Mix topped the vote in the semi-final and in both nights of the final, ending up with 48.3% of votes cast in the final weekend, while 42.8% plumped for Marcus Collins.

Collins, a Liverpool hairdresser, had been talked up by the tabloids as favourite to win the competition, but did not top the public vote in any week.

Big players hold out against binding deals on carbon footprints

2011-12-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

Big players hold out against binding deals on carbon footprints

Despite figures showing greenhouse gases had reached an all-time high, the US repeatedly blocked progress on a range of issuesGOD BE with the days when the US was represented at climate change negotiations

by iguana-like Texas oilman Harlan Watson and Paula Dobriansky, a svelte but razor-sharp Bush babe who resembled one of those “perfectly emaciated social X-rays” in Tom Wolfe’s novel,The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Everyone knew that they couldn’t give a fig about global warming and were only doing the bidding of George W Bush and Dick Cheney back in the White House – blocking anything that could compromise the economic interests of the US, and wilting only at the Bali conference in 2007 when they reluctantly went along with its roadmap

.This was all meant to change when Barack Obama took over in January 2009, pledging to “lead the world” on climate change after eight arid years of the Bush administration. And the people he appointed to key positions all seemed admirably well-qualified and, more importantly, well-disposed to making progress.

Obama’s climate envoy, Todd Stern, helped to negotiate the Kyoto protocol in 1997 (spurned by Bush in 2001), while his deputy, Dr Jonathan Pershing, served as climate and energy director at the Washington-based World Resources Institute and was previously a climate specialist in the US State Department.
Pershing is a walking abacus with an unnerving ability to rattle off figures, while the hawkish Stern appears to be devoid of emotion apart from the flash of an occasional smile. Their agenda is not dissimilar to what went before – to play for time, stick with voluntary pledges and hold out against a legally binding deal.
In Durban, the US repeatedly blocked progress on a range of issues even in the face of figures showing that greenhouse gas emissions reached an all-time record level of 30.6 gigatonnes last year, with warnings that they have to peak soon if we are to have any chance of capping global warming to 2 degrees.
The latest Climate Action Tracker, compiled by the Potsdam Institute, projected that it could reach 3.5 degrees by 2100, making the world as we know it unrecognisable: “To put it bluntly, the longer we wait, the less options we will have, the more it will cost, the less likely we are to be able to stay below global warming of 2 degrees,” it warned.
In a hard-hitting address at the opening of the conference’s “high-level segment” on Tuesday, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon told ministers representing 130 countries: “Without exaggeration, we can say the future of our planet is at stake – people’s lives, the health of the global economy, the very survival of some nations.”
But Ban was not optimistic about the outcome. “Let me speak plainly. We must be realistic about the expectations for a breakthrough in Durban. We know the reasons: grave economic troubles in many countries, abiding political differences, conflicting priorities and strategies for responding to climate change.”
As a result, “the ultimate goal of a comprehensive binding climate change agreement may be beyond our reach, for now,” he said. Xie Xinhua’s announcement that China would be prepared to sign up for such a deal at some stage was dismissed by Stern, who didn’t think “there has been any change at all in the Chinese position”.
The US stance reflects a number of factors, not least the difficulties facing Obama in seeking re-election next year, the defeat of his climate and energy legislation, the patchy results achieved by his renewable energy stimulus package and the virulent campaign by climate change denialists on Fox News, radio stations and the internet.
This campaign continues unabated despite 2011 being one of the worst years on record for extreme weather events in the US, with a record 14 “billion-dollar disasters” including tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves that killed 675 people so far this year and gave Americans their hottest summer since the Dust Bowl of 1936.
Eileen Claussen, who negotiated for the US at climate talks during the Clinton era and now heads a Washington think-tank, said: “We need to move past asking whether extreme weather is caused by climate change and start figuring out how to protect ourselves in a future when these events become both more severe and more common.”
The impacts have been much more severe elsewhere, especially in Africa. Former president Mary Robinson, who was present to greet the Caravan of Hope when it arrived in Durban from Burundi at the weekend, rightly noted that there was “no denial in Africa” about the reality of climate change, but rather a “huge sense of urgency”.
Durban was dubbed “the African CoP” (Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992), and the continent’s smallholders, who have been hard hit by global warming – not forgetting those suffering from famine in the Horn of Africa – were expecting that it would produce results.
A unique feature of CoP-17 was the convening of a daily “indaba”, Zulu for a “gathering of people, infused with wisdom” and “ubuntu” – interpreted as “I am what I am because of who we are”. Indeed, conference chairwoman Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa’s foreign minister, believes it “laid the foundation” for a deal.
But most of what happened was “climate poker”, with the biggest players – the US, China and India, which together account for more than half of global emissions – holding out against anything that would bind them to reduce their carbon footprints any time soon. Obama could lead us out of this last-chance saloon, but don’t bet on it.

Apple forced to deal with patent troll?

2011-12-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz || Apple forced to deal with patent troll?

Apple appears to have entered an unusual deal with a company commonly referred to as a patent troll.

Digitude Innovations--a company known more for obtaining patents for the purpose of suing other companies for royalties than making products--appears to have acquired two mobile patents it's using to press for royalties or product bans from other tech companies, according to a Tech Crunch report. Digitude is reportedly using the patents against Amazon, HTC, LG, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, and Sony.

The company may have been forced into the pact to avoid a costly legal dispute with Digitude, a company founded in 2010 to "acquire, aggregate, and license key technology areas within the consumer electronics and related technology fields in a patent

consortium." The Virginia-based company announced in April the "completion of its first such strategic partnership with one of the world's leading consumer electronics companies."

Digitude didn't identify that company, but it appears that it may have been Apple. Digitude recently filed a lawsuit with the International Trade Commission, which has the power to block imports, against a handful of companies (PDF) that cites two patents formerly owned by Apple, Tech Crunch reports.
The transfers seem to have occurred through a mystery company called Cliff Island, which appears to exist only in name.

The bigger mystery is why Apple would do this. Tech Crunch suggests two scenarios: Either Apple is using Digitude as a "hired gun" to go after patent royalties, or Digitude went after Apple and Apple transferred these patents to assuage Digitude.

Apple representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

BMW aims to boost its U.S. sales: report

2011-12-11T15:31:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz || BMW aims to boost its U.S. sales: report

BMW (BMWG.DE: Quote) plans to boost its U.S. sales by a quarter in the medium term, the head of the automaker's U.S. business told a German magazine.

"In the medium-term we expect to sell 300,000 BMW brand cars annually," Ludwig Willisch, the head of BMW's business in the United States, told Automotive News Europe.

Munich-based BMW expects to sell 240,000 BMW brand cars as well as 55,000 Minis in the United States this year, Willisch said.

Willisch left open the timetable for reaching the higher sales goal.

The magazine cited sources close to the company as saying BMW was targeting 2013/2014.

BMW expects slight growth in the U.S. market in 2012, the magazine quoted BMW board member in charge of marketing, Ian Robertson as saying.

"Next year there will be elections in the United States and therefore I expect support for the automotive branch," Robertson was quoted as saying.

Assad regime hold on Syria more tenuous

2011-12-11T15:18:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz || Assad regime hold on Syria more tenuous as thousands take part in general strike

The Syrian government's increasingly tenuous hold on power weakened further as rebels struck military targets across the country and thousands of businesses shut down in response to an opposition-called general strike.

Video footage from Dera'a, the southern city where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad first erupted in March, showed row after row of shuttered shops.

Defying the threat of reprisals, even traders in the capital Damascus, the regime's principal stronghold, observed the strike, prompting opposition activists to declare that their call for industrial action had been a triumph of unexpected proportions.

"It is amazing so far," said Omar al Khani of the Syrian Revolution General Commission, a nationwide group that organises protests, speaking from Damascus.

"We didn't expect it would be this big. Even some of the street markets in central Damascus are closed."
Infuriated by so widespread a display of impudence, Syrian soldiers and pro-regime "Shabiha" militiamen demonstrated their impotent rage by firing their guns into the air, banging angrily on the shop shutters and forcefully prizing them open – to no avail.

"In one street they forced the owners to reopen their shops," an activist in Deraa said. "The men opened them briefly and closed them again as soon as soon as the Shabiha left."

With the government already facing severe financial strictures as a result of international sanctions, sustained industrial action could prove highly effective at weakening the regime, observers say. The support of Syria's Sunni merchant class has proved a vital mainstay for Mr Assad but there is growing evidence that it is wavering as the economy deteriorates.

As importantly, the strike also served as a show of unity for Syria's fractured opposition, which has been subject to criticism for its perceived failure to coordinate action at a nationwide level.

Protest coordinators said they would call for more strikes in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, army defectors launched a series of assaults, setting military vehicles ablaze in both the south and north of the country. Though still small, Syria's rebel outfits are growing in size and mounting increasingly bold attacks against the armed forces.

At least eight people were killed in the latest violence, which comes amid growing fears that the army is planning a major offensive against Homs, the country's most restive city and scene of some of the worst bloodshed of the uprising.

Alain Juppe, France’s foreign minister, meanwhile said Syria was behind attacks on its troops in Lebanon earlier this week - five French peacekeepers were wounded.

“We have strong reason to believe these attacks came from there (Syria),” Mr Juppe said. “We think it’s most probable, but I don’t have proof.”

When asked if he believed Hizbollah had carried out the attack on behalf of Damascus, Mr Juppe said: “Absolutely. It is Syria’s armed wing (in Lebanon).”

Durban climate conference: the bag ladies with a vision.

2011-12-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

AQbuzzz new's | Durban climate conference: the bag ladies with a vision.

A South African invention, the 'Wonderbag' offers a low-cost way of cooking - and fighting climate change.

They have gone virtually unnoticed amid all the bombast, bargaining and breaking news of the past two weeks of top-level climate negotiations. But tucked away in an obscure corner of the giant conference site in the middle of Durban are two South African women, surrounded by a pile of brightly coloured bags, who promise to do more to fight poverty, save lives and combat climate change than all the suited bureaucrats, and their political masters, have done in their deliberations.

These women – one white, one black – have come up with a simple, traditionally-based technique that could dramatically cut the amount of fuel used to cook food, save desperately poor people a sizeable slice of their income, slash pollution, improve health and employ many thousands who have no jobs.

A large number of the world’s poorest people spend a third of their income on fuels such as kerosene or paraffin. Others, invariably women, have to trudge for hours each day – often risking attack or rape – to fetch firewood or dung, which increases deforestation and denudes the soil. Burning the fuel in their inefficient stoves produces toxic smoke that kills more than two million people – mainly women and children – a year, and emits carbon dioxide and black carbon, the two main causes of global warming. Attempts to introduce solar cookers have failed because people cook at night, after the sun has gone down.

The idea first came to Sarah Collins, a Durban “social entrepreneur”, during power cuts in 2008. She remembered how her grandmother had surrounded her pans with cushions to keep them cooking when taken off the stove. She tried it, found that it worked, and wondered if it could help the poor.

She later mentioned the idea to Moshy Mathe, a formidable, “traditionally built” social activist while sitting with her on an aeroplane. Moshy suggested replacing the cushions with a padded bag and together they went on to develop the lidded Wonderbag, covered in African textiles and insulated with recycled polystyrene.

Its users can heat cassava on a stove in just half an hour, instead of eight, placing it in the bag to finish off, and there are big reductions in cooking times for rice, stews, beans and root vegetables (each bag comes with recipes for such delicacies as tripe, “supper pap”, and chicken feet). It works on the same principle as the old hay box, or the Bushman practice of burying food to continue cooking.

The result is a massive reduction in fuel, and pollution. Calculations suggest that each bag will prevent the emission of half a ton of carbon dioxide a year, even if it is only used three times a week, a likely underestimate. Some will save a tenth of their income, or be able to use the time no longer lost in fetching fuel more productively. Far less water (often scarce) is needed for cooking, and less food sticks to the bottom of the pot, preventing waste.

Prof Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environment Agency, says it is “much the most exciting development I have come across during the entire Durban conference”, and Unilever shares her enthusiasm. In a pilot promotion, the multi-national company offered a free bag to South Africans who bought three boxes of its curry powder – and got more than double the expected uptake. It now aims to distribute another five million to almost half of the country’s households and says it wants to expand the scheme worldwide. And the two women are beginning to test the market in Europe, where – they believe – the bag’s time-saving qualities, and the fashion for slow cooking, will make it popular.

Wikipedia investigates PR firm Bell Pottinger's edits

2011-12-08T16:32:00.001-08:00

AQ Buzz||Wikipedia investigates PR firm Bell Pottinger's edits

Wikipedia has suspended at least 10 accounts linked to the public relations firm Bell Pottinger as it investigates allegations of content manipulation.
The online encyclopaedia's founder Jimmy Wales told the BBC the lobbyists had "embarrassed their clients".

He said a team of volunteers was looking at possible breaches of conflict of interest guidelines.
Bell Pottinger admitted to editing entries, but said it had "never done anything illegal".
Mr Wales said he was "highly critical of their ethics".
"I've never seen a case like this. In general when I speak to PR firms they have ethical guidelines that would prevent this kind of conduct."
While anyone is free to edit the encyclopaedia, the site's guidelines urge users to steer clear of topics in which they have a personal or business interest.

"I offered to pop by their office next week give them a speech on ethical editing of Wikipedia - but I guess they didn't think that was too amusing so they didn't respond," Mr Wales said.
Internal review
The investigation comes as blogger and search engine optimisation consultant Tim Ireland discovered activity by a Wikipedia user nicknamed "Biggleswiki".
Mr Ireland said the account had been responsible for adding positive - or removing negative - information from entries about or making reference to several Bell Pottinger clients.
In some instances, such as with the Paramount Group, Biggleswiki requested "edit protection" after altering a page in the hope that other users would not be able to change the most recent amendments.
Lord Bell, chairman of Chime Communications, the owner of Bell Pottinger, said an internal review had been launched.
"I can't see any bad headlines for our clients," he told the BBC. "You won't find anybody, including journalists, who doesn't do exactly the same thing."
He stressed that when companies had requested Bell Pottinger post untrue statements onto the site it had flatly refused - citing Wikipedia's guidelines.
"We are having our own conversations with Wikipedia, and we are also conducting our own internal review to establish the facts."
Bell Pottinger is one of Britain's largest lobbying and public relations companies. This week it came under fire after the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that the firm had written a speech delivered to the UN by the Sri Lankan president.
Mr Ireland has called for Bell Pottinger to publicly declare the identities of the other accounts under investigation in order to reveal which other edits have been made.
"I'd like to see that list," he told the BBC. "What they've done wrong here is they've not declared an interest. Let's see them do it - even belatedly."
Lord Bell said there was no intention to make details of the accounts public.
'1929 Rolls-Roce'
The Wikipedia team has posted a list of articles it believes have been altered by accounts traced back to Bell Pottinger.
So far, they said of the 10 accounts identified, two had carried out over 100 edits each.
Mr Wales highlighted an account - diginerd84 - which was among the investigated accounts. The profile said it had been set up by a 50-year-old retired stockbroker in Mayfair with an interest in classic cars - particularly a 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II.
"I will personally buy a full tank of petrol for Mr Draper's 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II if he exists at all," Mr Wales said. "Perhaps it's time for Bell Pottinger to issue another statement."
The BBC has approached Bell Pottinger for a response to this claim but at the time of publication it had yet to respond.
Wikipedia, which has grown into one of the web's most popular destinations since being founded 10 years ago, is edited by a huge number of volunteers who follow an agreed set of rules.
Wikipedia's guidelines state that a conflict of interest (COI) represents an "incompatibility between the aim of Wikipedia, which is to produce a neutral, reliably sourced encyclopaedia, and the aims of an individual editor".
It adds: "COI editing involves contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups. Where advancing outside interests is more important to an editor than advancing the aims of Wikipedia, that editor stands in a conflict of interest."
David Gerard, a UK-based spokesperson and volunteer for Wikipedia, told the BBC that the investigation must establish whether or not Bell Pottinger carried out the edits in "bad faith".
"We're having a close look. What the team is going to do is look at Bell Pottinger's clients and see what edits have been made.
"We have plenty of experience in dealing with people who try to spin Wikipedia - after a while it becomes really obvious."
He said that Wikipedia would be reviewing the effectiveness of its system for flagging up suspicious additions or edits.

David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy clash as leaders wrangle over euro deal

2011-12-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz||David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy clash as leaders wrangle over euro deal

French accused of setting Britain up as 'fall guy' in attempt to ringfence eurozone
David Cameron was at the centre of a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday after Paris tried to isolate the prime minister at the EU summit by suggesting that Britain is seeking to exempt the City of London from all European regulations.

In a move dismissed by officials in Brussels as an attempt to set Britain up as the "fall guy", senior French figures said Cameron wanted an "opt out" from EU financial services regulation.

The French were said to have found themselves isolated in their attempts to limit an agreement on tough fiscal rules for the single currency just to the eurozone's 17 members.

Britain said Sarkozy was distorting the British position, which is to ensure that changes to the eurozone do not harm the City of London.

Cameron confronted Sarkozy in a joint meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, shortly before the EU's 27 leaders met for dinner to try to hammer out an agreement to underpin new fiscal integration in the eurozone.

"The prime minister was very determined and very strong in the meeting," one British source claimed. "This is going to be a very difficult discussion."

The joint meeting with Sarkozy and Merkel set the scene for a tense night of negotiations as EU leaders embarked on a mammoth effort to prevent the collapse of the single currency at what was seen as the most important Brussels summit in years.

The focus was on how and whether to reopen the EU's Lisbon treaty to establish a rigorous euro stability pact with quasi-automatic penalties for fiscal sinners, more intrusive control of national budgets by EU bodies, and structural changes to entrench the eurozone as a much more powerful entity.

France, Germany and the leaders of the eurozone lined up against Cameron and his campaign to extract a price in return for agreeing to Europe's new "fiscal compact".

Sarkozy said the two-day summit was the EU's last chance to save the euro. In a speech to EU centre-right leaders in Marseille, the French president said warned that "never has the risk of disintegration been greater" for Europe.

The prime minister arrived in Brussels under fire from Tory Eurosceptics. Edward Leigh, the veteran rightwinger, likened Cameron to Neville Chamberlain who famously returned from a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 encouraged that he had taken steps to avoid war.

"That is a ridiculous comparison," a No 10 source said. "The prime minister is fighting hard to protect British interests."As he prepared to leave for Brussels, Cameron said he would use Britain's veto if he failed to win safeguards to protect Britain's position in the single market and the City of London. "If I can't get what I want, I will have no hesitation in vetoing a treaty … because I am not going to go to Brussels and not stand up for our country."

In what was seen as a warning on behalf of Germany and France, Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and chairman of the Eurogroup, told Cameron to back off or face the prospect of being sidelined by a new treaty forged only among the 17 eurozone countries.

The European Central Bank's chief, Mario Draghi, whose institution is seen as crucial to moves to contain the sovereign debt crisis, shaved interest rates by a quarter point to 1% and sought to head off a new credit crunch by easing and extending the terms of its lending to European banks.

But Draghi dampened hopes that the ECB would play a role as the eurozone's lender of last resort by buying up the bonds of distressed sovereigns, saying that a speech he made last week had been "misinterpreted".

Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council's president, was having to navigate around a difficult obstacle course. Merkel is adamant that rules for the eurozone should be established in a revision to the Lisbon treaty agreed by all 27 member states.

This is being resisted by the Irish Republic, which says that a referendum would then have to be called.

Sarkozy received a blow when EU lawyers ruled that imposing automatic sanctions on budget sinners are illegal if approved by only the 17 members of the eurozone. Commission and council lawyers delivered their verdict in overnight discussions with the so-called sherpas – senior ambassadors and civil servants – preparing the summit and its texts.

Their ruling significantly strengthens the UK's position by making plain that this German demand can only be approved by all 27 EU member states.

Batman cartoonist Jerry Robinson dies

2011-12-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

AQbuzz new's |Batman cartoonist Jerry Robinson dies

Cartoonist Jerry Robinson, who worked on the earliest Batman comics and claimed credit for creating the super-villian The Joker, died Thursday at the age of 89, his family confirmed.

"Batman has lost another father," said Batman movie producer Michael Uslan said. "Farewell to my dear, dear friend, mentor, and idol, Jerry Robinson."

Robinson, in a panel discussion at New York Comic Con in 2009, said he was a 17-year-old creative writing student at Columbia University when he was hired as a writer and illustrator at DC Comics.
Although he was initially just assisting Batman creator Bob Kane and Bill Finger, his chance to create The Joker came in 1940 when the demand for more Batman stories overloaded Finger.

"This was going to be a problem, so I volunteered to do one of the stories," Robinson said.
He handed in the work for a grade in his college creative writing class, he said.
"I wanted a very strong villain because I thought that's going to carry the story," Robinson said. "Villains are more exciting."
He wanted his villain to have a sense of humor, and "in a space of hours" one night "somehow The Joker came out," Robinson said. The first Joker image was modeled out of the joker card in a deck of playing cards, he said.
"It's extraordinary what's happened over the years," he said. Cesar Romero played The Joker in the 1960 television Batman TV series, followed by Jack Nicholson's and Heath Ledger's portrayals in Batman films.
"His creative work is immortal as co-creator of The Joker, Robin the Boy Wonder, and the visualizations of Alfred, The Penguin and many more," Uslan said. "Jerry elevated comic books as art and fought for respectability for all his fellow artists."
Robinson's role in the creation of The Joker is a long-running controversy in the comics industry. Kane downplayed Robinson as his assistant at the time.
But those now working for the DC Entertainment issued statements Thursday making it clear they credit Robinson for his creative contributions.
"Jerry Robinson illustrated some of the defining images of pop culture's greatest icons," DC Entertainment Co-Publisher Jim Lee said. "As an artist myself, it's impossible not to feel humbled by his body of work. Everyone who loves comics owes Jerry a debt of gratitude for the rich legacy that he leaves behind."
"It's impossible to work at DC Entertainment without feeling the impact of Jerry Robinson's contributions to the industry," said DC Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras. "His influence continues to resonate today."

Scotland Shut Down By Icy 165mph Blasts

2011-12-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

AQ Buzz||Scotland Shut Down By Icy 165mph Blasts

A fierce storm with winds of up to 165mph has battered northern parts of Britain, with people warned to stay indoors, schools forced to close and flights and rail links cancelled.
Localised flooding has also caused major disruptions on roads - and more than 30,000 homes have been left without power.In North Yorkshire, a RAF helicopter plucked a couple to safety after their car was swept away in floodwaters near Aysgarth. They were flown to hospital with suspected hypothermia.

A third person was also rescued from his car in a separate incident near the village of Gunnerside.
Police have advised against all travel until at least 2am Friday, when winds are expected to ease.
The Met Office earlier issued its strongest warning - a red alert - for winds in Scotland and warned parts of England and Wales to "be aware", as temperatures were expected to drop and snowfall was predicted as far south as Birmingham.

It said the Highland observing station at Glen Ogle reported a gust of 104mph at 11am. The Met Office later tweeted that a gust at the Aonach Mor ski area peaked at 137mph.

But further north in the Cairngorms, winds topped 165mph - the fastest gust recorded in the UK since 1986 when 173mph was felt, also on the top of the summit.

A Met Office spokeswoman said: "We do not issue red warnings lightly. That is why people need to take heed of it and take appropriate action."

By 2.45pm Scottish Rail confirmed it was suffering severe disruptions on express routes and minor disruptions across Highland, central, southwest and sleeper services.

It later suspended all routes from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Perth and Dundee.

:: Upload your snowy photos and video on the Sky News website.

Flights to and from Scotland were also affected by the wild weather. Up to 5pm, Glasgow Airport had cancelled 37 flights and Edinburgh Airport said it was forced to cancel 21 flights with a further three also having to be diverted.

Passengers have been advised to check the status of their flight before going to the airport.

Flood warnings were issued for parts of northern England, with train speed restrictions in place between Carlisle, Leeds and Skipton.
In the Republic of Ireland, Malin Head was hit by steady winds of 58mph and gusts of 80mph, while ferry crossings to Cairnryan were cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Welsh Environment Agency warned of strong winds, with heavy rain expected for both mid and north Wales.

Movie review 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'

2011-12-08T15:57:00.001-08:00

Movie review 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'

'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,' starring Gary Oldman and directed by Tomas Alfredson, based on John le Carré's novel, is perhaps the great spy tale of our time.

The question at the heart of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is simplicity itself: Is there a Soviet secret agent at the very highest echelons of British intelligence? Getting to the answer, however, couldn't be more deliciously, thrillingly, brilliantly complex.

Starring a surprising Gary Oldman and masterfully directed by Tomas Alfredson, "Tinker Tailor" comes by that complexity honestly, courtesy of the subtle, allusive 1974 John le Carré novel set in a merciless espionage world where trust is an illusion and nothing is remotely what it seems. This is a film to which very close attention must be paid, but the rewards of doing so are considerable.

That's because Swedish director Alfredson, who created a stir with his vampire-themed "Let the Right One In," has come up with a film that is endlessly rich in incident, atmosphere and personality, a film that leaves us hanging on by the barest skin of our teeth as we try to figure out who is doing what to whom and why. The spy trade doesn't get much more exciting than this.

Alfredson has accomplished all this in the face of considerable obstacles. Not only is Le Carré's book anything but straightforward, but it's already been made into a six-hour British miniseries starring an impeccable Alec Guinness as inscrutable protagonist George Smiley, a performance so potent that readers of what became a Cold War trilogy inevitably had the actor in their minds.

Screenwriters Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan were equal to the first part of the challenge, artfully compressing Le Carré's story — the novelist compared it to turning a cow into a bouillon cube — while understanding that in this world what is unspoken is as important as what is said.

Alfredson, for his part, has seen to it that "Tinker Tailor" moves along at a fast-paced, almost electrifying clip. Blessed with a superb ensemble cast, he displays a gift for authenticity and honesty in performance plus an almost uncanny feeling for atmosphere and mood, for letting the pitiless, almost Scandinavian gloom of this tawdry, amoral universe seep into its physical objects. As the gifted cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, an artist with the film's drab, faded grays and browns, told American Cinematographer magazine, "It is a melancholic world set in small rooms, drenched in nicotine and bureaucratic sweat."

Placing Oldman in the center of this universe was not an obvious choice, but it has played out superbly. For though George Smiley has, in Le Carré's words, an espionage past "so complex that even he himself could not remember all the enemies he might have made," he is thoroughly lackluster in appearance, "one of London's meek who do not inherit the earth."

Given that, as he himself says, Oldman is "often asked to play kinetic, frenetic characters," he was "thrilled to be asked to play someone still." He threw himself into the Smiley role, for instance reportedly trying on 50 pairs of vintage eyeglasses at Old Focals in Pasadena before selecting just the right pair.

Oldman's Smiley, so correct he even swims with those glasses on, is a man who by all appearances is tired, colorless and defeated, the drab epitome of the unthreatening drone with an unreliable wife thrown into the bargain. But in his methodical and imperturbable way, Smiley is a master at his game, someone you underestimate at your peril, and Oldman's quietly commanding performance fully understands the power inherent in restraint.

It's not Smiley we meet first in 1973's London but his superior, Control (John Hurt at his best), who opens his door in the dead of night to top operative Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong). "You weren't followed?" are the first anxious words he says, and the game is at once afoot.

Control sends Prideaux to Hungary (changed from the book's Czechoslovakia) to meet with a general who is thinking of defecting. The general claims to know the name of a double agent or mole the Soviets have placed at the top level of British intelligence, called the Circus by insiders, and Control very much wants that information.

Like everything else in "Tinker Tailor," that trip does not go as planned, and both Control and Smiley, who is his number two, are forced out of the Circus and into early retirement. With its savage bureaucratic infighting and bitter turf battles, the Circus was hardly Eden, but it is the only world Smiley has known.

Then, unexpectedly, senior government official Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney) calls Smiley back into the game. Lacon confirms what Control suspected: The mole exists. But who is he, and how does he operate?

Aided by the younger Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley is given the almost impossible task of deciding which of the main suspects identified by Control, who gave the men the nursery rhyme nicknames that give the novel its title, is the Soviet mole.

Was it Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), a.k.a. Tinker, the new head of the Circus? Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), a.k.a. Tailor, who replaced Smiley? Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), a.k.a. Soldier? Or someone else entirely. Whoever it is, Smiley knows that the implacable hand of Karla, Moscow's preeminent spy master, is likely behind it all.

Complex as this may sound, it is only the merest outline of the beginning of perhaps the great spy tale of our time. To see a novel of this level of quality getting the writing, directing and acting it deserves is beyond heartening. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is an enormously impressive piece of work, and that's news too good to stay secret for long.