Diggmania in Action

Regulator unveils mobile phone sales crackdown

2008-03-18T08:26:00.001-07:00

By Jennifer Hill Reuters - 2 hours 58 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - The communications industry regulator said on Monday it would crack down on misleading sales practices in the mobile phone market, after a voluntary code failed to bring operators to heel.

Ofcom said it would introduce mandatory rules after the code introduced last summer failed to stop the growing problem of "slamming" -- where rogue salesmen switch people to expensive long-term contracts -- and "cashback" promotions that do not deliver.

"Slamming" involves salesmen cold-calling with the promise of a free phone upgrade or discounts. Customers think this comes with no strings attached, but then find they have been locked into an expensive new deal.

The five main mobile phone networks -- O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and 3 -- signed up to the guidelines on how they vet the resellers they do business with in July last year.

The code set out prohibited sales and marketing practices, how retailers must comply and complaints processes.

But Ofcom said it had since continued to receive a large number of consumer complaints about mobile mis-selling and cashback deals -- an average of around 700 per month in January, compared with 460 six months earlier.

Mandatory rules will introduce penalties of up to 10 percent of turnover for those who fail to comply.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said: "The UK has one of the more competitive mobile phone sectors in the world, but strong competition is no excuse for marketing malpractice.

"We warned the industry last year that unless it cleaned up its act we would consider introducing new rules.

"The facts show that this hasn't happened, so we are now proposing tougher measures to protect consumers from unacceptable sales and marketing practices."

A consultation will run until April 29 and Ofcom hopes to have the new rules in place by the summer.

But Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles at price comparison Web site Moneysupermarket.com, said it was a case of "too little too late".

"Consumers are still being ripped off, particularly on cashback deals," he said.

"If these steps had been taken earlier, thousands of people may not have suffered at the hands of the providers."

Almost a third of people have not been successful in claiming all of promised cashback and a tenth have not received any money, a YouGov poll of 2,500 adults for Moneysupermarket found.

People who have received a slamming call can contact the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) if they want to register a complaint, and have seven days to terminate any unwanted contract, according to OFT rules.

Consumers can also register their mobile number at a Web site run by the Telephone Preference Service (www.tpsonline.org.uk). In theory, after 28 days this should stop all UK-based telemarketing calls, but it will not prevent unsolicited text messages.

(Editing by Stephen Addison)

Obama refuses to disown controversial pastor

2008-03-18T08:25:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama speaks about race during an address in Philadelphia. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Barack Obama took the biggest risk of his presidential campaign so far when he today refused to disown his controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in a potentially make-or-break speech on race.

Obama condemned what he called controversial remarks by Wright about patriotism and race, but, tellingly, he tried to put the pastor's comments into a wider context of race relations in the US.

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama said in his speech in Philadelphia. He portrayed Wright, 66,as a product of his time, brought up under discriminatory race laws and a fighter in the civil rights movement.

But in an extremely personal speech, Obama said that it was time for the US to move on towards a genuinely multi-racial society.

Obama has been on the defensive over the last week as television footage showed Wright, pastor of Obama's church in Chicago until last month, saying 'God damn America' and talking in incendiary terms about how the black community is discriminated against.

Obama is behind in the polls ahead of the primary in Pennsylvania next month. Clinton's team has been battering him over his relationship with Wright.

Obama confronted head-on the questions that have been raised. He said he had condemned, in unequivocal terms, Wright's statements. "For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."

He continued: "But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic."

In spite of that, he would not turn his back on the pastor. "As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me." He added: "Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not."

The crux of the matter, he said, is that "race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American."

The speech was a test of whether Obama, as the Hillary Clinton team, repeatedly alleges, is capable of withstanding pressure when faced with a crisis.

Before the speech, Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic strategist and former adviser to John Edwards, who pulled out of the race earlier this year, told CBS's Early Show: "It's either going to be the crisis of his candidacy, or a shining moment for him."

Obama's advisers are concerned about the impact on white voters in the Pennsylvania primary, which is to be held next month, and the potential damage that the race issue could inflict in November's general election if he was the Democratic candidate.
America's claims to be a post-racial society have been undermined by the introduction of race into the Democratic campaign and the fracturing of the party vote in primaries in some states, where an overwhelming majority of African-Americans have voted for Obama and a majority of whites for Clinton.

Wright retired last month as pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. He helped bring Obama into the church, presided over his marriage to Michelle and acted as his spiritual adviser.

Constant replays on US television of Wright shouting "God damn America" and railing about discrimination against blacks risk alienating some white voters.

A Rasmussen poll published yesterday said Wright's comments made 56% of the electorate less likely to vote for Obama. The focus on Wright came days after Clinton broke ties with a long-time supporter, Geraldine Ferraro, over her claim that Obama would not have done as well as he has if he had been white.

Obama rarely spoke about race last year as his campaign team tried to present him as a candidate that transcends race. But he has positioned himself as a champion of black rights, an heir to the mantle of the Reverend Martin Luther King, in a speech last year and again in Atlanta in January on Martin Luther King day. He has also criticised those sections of the black community where anti-semitism and anti-homosexuality were rife.

CA lawmakers want to tax iTunes downloads

2008-03-18T08:24:00.001-07:00

The California Assembly, apparently facing an $8 billion deficit, has introduced a bill that would apply sales taxes to "media downloads," namely the music sales going through iTunes (which, as we've reported, is challenging even retailer giant Walmart for music sales numbers). But it seems as though (since new taxes require a 2/3 majority in California) they're going about it in a pretty weird way.
Basically, to duck the majority rule, they're instead trying to have "digital property" count like normal, taxable property. That way, all they're doing is changing a definition, not actually adding a new tax. Even then, they've got another hurdle to jump -- the California Assembly, of course, can only tax things bought in California, unless they charge a "use" tax, which is for people things buy elsewhere but only use in California. Which no one ever pays anyway. Yeah, it's weird.
Eventually, they'll probably pull something off -- Apple already charges sales tax in quite a few states, so it's not surprising that California, Apple's home base, would try as well. It seems like politics is making the process a little bumpier than elsewhere, though.
[Via Macdailynews]

NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2 officially ready to shred your wallet

2008-03-18T08:22:00.003-07:00

Not like we needed NVIDIA (of all companies) to tell us that the GeForce 9800 GX2 was more than a figment of our imagination, but nevertheless, one of the worst kept secrets in GPU history is finally "official." Reportedly, this beast of a card is available today from a number of retailers for upwards of $600 (MSRP), and just in case you're not absolutely sure such graphical prowess is really worth that kind of change, feel free to take a glance at early tests and the full review listed below before digging into that 401(k).
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - NVIDIA's official GeForce 9800 GX2 page
Read - GeForce 9800 GX2 gets reviewed
Read - GeForce 9800 GX2 gets reviewed (again)
Read - GeForce 9800 GX2 gets taken apart on video

Cheapo refurbished iPhones for sale online from AT&T

2008-03-18T08:22:00.001-07:00

Remember those dirt-cheap refurbished iPhones we mentioned you could snag in-store? Well it looks like AT&T has decided to share the bounty with the public at large, and has begun taking orders for the $249 8GB models online. If you've been on the fence, here's your chance to get in for $150 less than retail (and sadly for you early adopters, a whopping $350 tumble in price). In our experience, you can grab one in person with no activation, ~~though it looks like you'll have to sign on the dotted line to have it delivered~~.
Update: According to our commenters, you can get these mailed to you activation / contract free.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Amazing Wordpress 2.5 Sneak Peek

2008-03-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

By Matt. Filed under Development.

A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste.

For the past few months, we’ve been working with our friends at Happy Cog — Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and Liz Danzico — to redesign WordPress from the ground-up. The result is a new way of interacting with WordPress that will remain familiar to seasoned users while improving the experience for everyone. This isn’t just a fresh coat of paint — we’ve re-thought the look of WordPress, as well as how it’s organized so that you can forget about the software and focus on your own creative pursuits.

Here are a few vignettes of what’s in store.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard’s most important role is to inform quickly and get you to where you’re headed in the admin. In interviewing users, we found that most of you ignore the Dashboard entirely — its useful information being mostly hidden in an overly complex design. The new Dashboard is focused on the most relevant tasks at hand: a quick summary of what’s published and scheduled for publication, the latest comments and incoming links, blog stats, and WordPress updates and news. You can add your own RSS feeds and edit the way information is presented so that the new Dashboard conforms to the way you use WordPress.

Navigation

The WordPress navigation has confounded even sophisticated users. With the new design, we’ve cut the number of navigation options in half, separating the primary functions (writing, managing posts and pages, editing the blog’s design, and managing comments) from secondary functions. This presents information at a more comfortable pace, revealing only the information that’s necessary. Everything you need is still there — just better organized. (Especially for people new to WP.)

Write

By far, the most frequently accessed part of WordPress is the Write screen. It gets the job done, but its myriad options can be overwhelming. The new write screen only displays the information that you’ll use most often. It displays the most common fields in a way that makes posting incredibly easy. Additional options are hidden away until you need them. The new Write screen anticipates the natural flow of the way you write, and is smart enough to remember the way you left it so that your preferred writing environment is always quickly available. The new visual editor even has a handy full-screen mode to help block out distractions while composing your newest post. (My personal favorite new feature.)

Manage

The Manage screens have been redesigned and unified so that now, managing your pages, posts, media, and comments all use similar, consistent interfaces. We’ve omitted superfluous information and made what’s important faster to find. We believe these changes will make you a faster, more proficient blogger.

You might also notice there are some new colors, the dashboard feels much fresher and lighter. If you’re jonesing for the old look under your user options you can now select the “classic” colors and get those old blues back. (It’s also pluggable so people can easily add or share their own color schemes.)

If you make frequent backups and you’re interested in helping us out with development by testing the new code, download and install Release Candidate 1 of WordPress 2.5, and join our testers mailing list to report any bugs you find in the code.

We’re also interested in feedback on the new interface and would love to hear your opinions, thoughts, rants, raves, and anything in between. We created a special email address just for the occasion: 2.5-feedback@wordpress.org.

The software is basically done and stable, and could be released today, but we’d like to incorporate feedback from a wider audience before making it available to the general public. After a few days of your feedback we’ll set a final release date. Personally, I can’t wait.

The Web in Charts—Google vs. Microsoft-Yahoo vs. China

2008-03-18T08:19:00.001-07:00

Today more than ever, the Web is a global game. Below are charts from a new State of the Internet report from comScore that paints a picture of global competition on the Web.

In 1996, two thirds of all people online (66 percent) lived in the U.S. By last October, that had completely flipped, with 77 percent of the online population living in the rest of the world and only 23 percent in the U.S. The U.S. still has the largest total number of Web surfers (162 million a month), but China is catching up fast (with 96 million):

In China, homegrown sites such as TenCent, Baidu and Sina all reach more native Web surfers than Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo:

In fact, the leading Websites in many big markets such as Russia, Japan, and South Korea tend to be homegrown as well:

Social networks are the fastest-growing category of sites (nearly 60 percent annually), but they still lag in terms of penetration (less than 40 percent) behind photo sites, entertainment sites, search, and portals:

The fastest growing of all social networks, of course, has been Facebook, which jumped from the second pack to where it is now running neck-and-neck with MySpace:

Drilling down into search, Google still dominates with 62 percent share worldwide:

And it dominates search even more in other countries than it does in the U.S., where it only commands a 53 percent market share (compared to above 90 percent in parts of Europe and Latin America):

Looking at the efficiency of its search ads, Google puts up an ad against only about half of its searches, whereas Yahoo puts up an ad 75 percent of the time. Yet for those searches where an ad is shown, Google gets 0.24 paid click per search compared to 0.18 for Yahoo and 0.14 for Microsoft. (Search advertising on AOL and Ask are also powered by Google and they show the same or better clickthrough rates).

For display ads, Yahoo and MySpace control the most market share, with 19 and 15 percent each, respectively. (Microsoft comes in a distant third with 6.6 percent):

The report also gives an estimate of the unduplicated reach of Microsoft and Yahoo. A combined Microsoft-Yahoo would have 173 million unique visitors a month across the globe, a 10 percent share of all page views, 32 percent share of search, and 24 percent share of display ads:

Both Microsoft and Yahoo each have about 260 million Webmail users (with duplication), with Google’s Gmail bringing up third place with 87 million (no wonder Google execs keep bringing up market concentration concerns in relation to mail and instant messaging):

Why Cable News Doesn't Cover Science

2008-03-18T07:16:00.001-07:00

Cable news focuses much of its time on 3/4 topics a day and relies on wires and brief “tell stories” for much of the rest of the news. There's 2 distinct parts to a cable day, daytime is more focused on crime/disaster where nighttime increasingly is more about topics that spark controversy and suit the particular audience that tunes in.

read more | digg story

World's Second Tallest Building To Be Green?

2008-03-18T07:06:00.001-07:00

The historic city of Philadelphia hasn't been known for its skyline in a long time. Now, some developers want to change that with a proposal to construct what would become the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the second-tallest building in the world, standing at 1,500 feet, with a very-high degree of energy and water efficiency.

read more | digg story

USB Bomb is Bursting With Storage Space

2008-03-17T03:54:00.001-07:00

Joel Escalona, the same dude that brought us the Seven alarm clock concept is back with a design for a USB bomb-shaped storage device. I can definitely see where he came up with the design—bombs are cool, the cord makes for a great fuse and the size of the device itself would mean that it could potentially hold a massive amount of data. But what would keep this sucker from rolling off your desk? Since it is only a concept, we will probably never know. [Joel Escalona via Pan-Dan via Techabob]

Reduce Redundancy by Creating Photoshop Actions

2008-03-17T03:51:00.001-07:00

Frequent Photoshop users can save time and energy using automated Photoshop actions when processing images. The Epic Edits weblog explains how. First, make the actions palette is visible, and create a new action. Then, record all the steps you want to automate on one image, and stop recording when you're finished. Once your action is complete, then you can use it on any images going forward, without repeating the steps again.

How to Create Photoshop Actions [Epic Edits]

NATO Expansion, and a Bush Legacy, Are in Doubt

2008-03-17T03:50:00.001-07:00

Hamed Zalmy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Canadian soldiers inspected the site of a suicide attack against a NATO military convoy Wednesday in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s efforts to cement a trans-Atlantic legacy by adding three nations to NATO appear in disarray as the alliance struggles with internal political divisions, new tensions with Russia and the combat mission in Afghanistan that have exposed disparities of might and will among current members, officials, diplomats and analysts said.

As Mr. Bush and other leaders of the alliance prepare to meet in Romania in three weeks, invitations to Albania, Croatia and Macedonia to join have become mired in a spat with Greece over Macedonia’s name and more fundamental concerns that none of the three prospects have met all of the domestic political qualifications for membership.

And the administration’s hope of extending “road maps” to membership to two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, has run into strong opposition from some of the United States’ closest allies, including Germany, which fear provoking Russia, according to two NATO-nation diplomats and a Bush administration official.

The potential for confrontation with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, who will attend part of the summit meeting in Bucharest, has caused such anxiety that Mr. Bush has dispatched his secretaries of state and defense to Moscow for meetings on Monday and Tuesday to soothe some of Russia’s anger. Their agenda includes American plans to install missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russia strongly opposes, although NATO expansion is likely to be discussed, officials said.

Overshadowing the debate over possible new members has been an increasingly polarized dispute over NATO’s operations in Afghanistan. Bush administration officials and lawmakers now openly accuse strong American allies of shirking their duty to fight a resurgent Taliban, reluctant to bolster the NATO force of about 40,000 troops.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned last month that NATO could become a two-tiered alliance with “some allies willing to fight and die to protect people’s security, and others who are not.”

With violence rising in Afghanistan to the highest levels since the American-led invasion in 2001, the administration has been pressing NATO members to contribute more troops. The United States is adding 3,200 marines; of its current force of about 28,000, about 15,500 Americans serve in the NATO mission and 12,500 are involved in separate counterterrorism operations solely under American command. So far, however, few allies have stepped forward, and those that have continue to impose restrictions on where and how their troops will operate.

Canada, which has sent 2,500 troops, has threatened to withdraw unless another ally sends at least 1,000 troops to help secure Afghanistan’s restive southern area.

“We face a crisis in Afghanistan that is extraordinarily difficult for our country and for the NATO alliance,” the under secretary of state for political affairs, R. Nicholas Burns, said just before stepping down at the end of last month. “For NATO, it may be an existential crisis.”

For Mr. Bush, the expansion of NATO to include new members is part of what he hopes will be a legacy of promoting democracy and liberty, in this case in the formerly Communist Balkans, which were ravaged by war in the 1990s and are still haunted by ethnic divisions.

During Mr. Bush’s presidency, NATO has added seven new members — Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — bringing the number of allies to 26.

According to officials and diplomats, the administration has pressed for membership for Albania, Croatia and Macedonia to such an extent that they were given an unusual six-month extension to prove that they had made sufficient progress on a series of political and legal reforms.

Even now, just three weeks before the summit meeting where any official invitations to join the alliance would be issued, the administration has not submitted to Congress required reports measuring the worthiness of Albania, Europe’s poorest country, and Croatia and Macedonia, states that emerged from the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.

Administration officials said they remained hopeful that the summit meeting in Bucharest would be a success, producing a compromise allowing invitations to all three aspirants and an agreement that allies redouble their efforts in Afghanistan.

Expanding NATO remains politically popular in the United States. At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, no lawmaker or official spoke against inviting the three countries, but even supporters raised concerns, especially given the debate over NATO’s mission in Afghanistan.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic chairman of the committee, said many were concerned “that we may build this so big that it can’t function.” One reason the alliance can be cumbersome is that its members operate on consensus, meaning that one country can essentially block action. That is the case with Greece, a NATO member since 1952, and Macedonia.

Since Macedonia declared independence in 1991, Greece has vehemently objected to its use of the name Republic of Macedonia, saying it implies territorial claims to the Greek province of the same name — an assertion Macedonia has publicly disavowed.

The alliance’s protocols have become even more complicated and politically delicate in Afghanistan because each ally has been able to put conditions — diplomatically called “caveats” — on where and how they will conduct military operations.

Some officials quietly concede a point made by a number of academic analysts: that disagreements over how to carry out the security mission in Afghanistan reflect the uncertain evolution of the alliance.

“Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan,” said a report by the Atlantic Council of the United States, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to fostering ties between North America and Europe. More surprising was that the report’s chairman was Gen. James L. Jones, who served as NATO’s supreme military commander until 2006.

Mr. Bush argues that the alliance has evolved from a purely military force to defend against the old Soviet superpower to an organization that fosters political stability and democratic reform in Europe and extends its influence outside its members’ borders, first in the war over Kosovo and then in Afghanistan.

The projection of NATO’s power has led many inside and outside to argue that the alliance has become a weaker military force, as European countries lowered their defense spending, while the United States increased its own.

Stanley Kober, a research fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington who has written extensively about NATO, said the alliance continued to expand without giving sufficient thought to its immediate troubles, especially in Afghanistan.

“We’re now talking about NATO being in an existential crisis because of Afghanistan,” Mr. Kober said. “It seems to me that before you make promises to other countries, we should be able to resolve the existential crisis first.”

He also cited tensions created by Kosovo’s declaration of independence and Russia’s fierce opposition to missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, the issues at the heart of the visit to Moscow by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the defense secretary, Mr. Gates.

Mr. Kober called NATO’s expansion “a train that’s going forward on its own momentum.”

“In the meantime,” he added, “the wheels are falling off.”

Administration officials dispute that. They argue that expanding the alliance and shoring up operations in Afghanistan will stabilize NATO and enhance global security. One senior official noted that the willingness of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia to contribute troops to Afghanistan and Iraq had weighed heavily on President Bush’s willingness to support their membership bids.

The administration officials say that Croatia, Albania and Macedonia have made significant strides to address at least some, if not all of the internal shortcomings identified in their membership applications.

Albania, which was ranked 105th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, agreed under pressure to appoint a special prosecutor, an administration official noted. (Croatia and Macedonia fared better on the index, at 65th and 84th.)

Jeffrey D. McCausland, a retired Army colonel and now visiting professor of international law and diplomacy at the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University, said that using NATO to advance political objectives, even noble ones like stability, risked losing sight of the alliance’s fundamental obligation to defend itself against external threats.

“At the end of the day,” he said, “one has to balance any membership question for NATO: Are these countries security providers or security customers?”

Mother's plea after party chaos

2008-03-17T03:49:00.001-07:00

The mother of a girl whose birthday party was gatecrashed by up to 2,000 revellers after a "shout out" on Radio 1 has urged the BBC to review policy.

Youngsters caused damage estimated at tens of thousands of pounds to the Brooks family's grade-II listed mansion on the outskirts of Dartmoor, Devon.

The party at Colehayes Park, Bovey Tracey, was stormed after details were put on the web and Pete Tong's R1 show.

The BBC said the name and address of the venue had not been specified.

Sarah Brooks was expecting about 100 invited guests at her 18th birthday party on Friday night, but several hundred turned up.

The partygoers left a trail of damage

Four bouncers hired by Sarah's father Reg to protect the family's huge property were overwhelmed by the gatecrashers.

Sarah's mother, Rebecca Brooks, described the event as "terrifying".

She said: "Bottles and cans were strewn from the house to the village, which is two miles away."

Officers from Devon and Cornwall Police, who eventually cleared the mansion house using dogs, were pelted with glass by the drunken revellers.

Police confirmed officers had also dealt with disturbances at two nearby pubs and some arrests had been made.

COLEHAYES PARK

Grade II listed granite mansion

Mansion is mainly Georgian, but parts date back to 16th Century

Set in 20 acres of land

Field studies centre for schools and universities

Mansion's dormitories can accommodate about 70 people

Local residents said many of the revellers continued to rampage through the streets of Bovey Tracey.

Rebecca Brooks said she had sincerely apologised to local businesses and neighbours.

During the Radio 1 item Pete Tong stated: "We're getting ready for a huge mansion party - 500-plus people going - it's in Bovey."

Mrs Brooks said even if addresses were not mentioned, big homes were identifiable in rural areas.

She said: "I'm going to write a stiff letter to ask the BBC to review its policy. They have to be careful, particularly to rural communities.

Pete Tong gives shout outs on his show every week

"People only had to look for the mansion in Bovey Tracey. In this instance, they may has well have just given the exact address."

She added: "We've all learned lessons, and this is the last party we will be hosting for any of our daughters."

The BBC said Pete Tong gave shout outs on his show every week and he would never knowingly give an identifiable address for a private party.

A BBC spokesman said: "Of course, if the family makes a formal complaint we will fully investigate."

Mastodon skeleton awaits sale in California garage

2008-03-17T03:48:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California resident Nancy Fiddler has put for sale on eBay a mastodon skeleton that takes up most of her garage. The minimum bid -- $115,000 (57,000 pounds).

Her family's relationship with the Ice Age relative of the elephant has run its course.

Fiddler said they need the money an online auction could bring, and her son would prefer to build hot rod cars in the space the creature now occupies.

The Fiddlers also would like to use their sauna, which in the last four years has served as an additional repository for the huge plastic casts containing the animal's bones.

"We needed a safe, dry place," Fiddler said, explaining why they chose to sacrifice the sauna. "The mastodon takes precedence."

Mastodons, which stood 10 feet (3 metres) tall with trunks and tusks, migrated to North America about 15 million years ago and ranged all over the continent with saber tooth tigers, giant sloths and American camels. All met their extinction about 10,000 years ago.

A ranch hand discovered a mastodon tooth on the Fiddler ranch in northeastern California in 1997. Excavation revealed a rare, nearly complete mastodon skeleton that included everything but the tusks.

"It's a beautiful specimen," said paleontological consultant Bruce Hanson, who helped move the skeleton to the Oakland Museum of Natural History, where it was on display for several years.

After the museum made a replica, the Fiddlers moved the mastodon to the tasting room of a California wine bar. Then it found its way to their garage.

One paleontologist said he was sceptical that the Fiddlers would get as much as they want for the mastodon.

"What is it going to do? Sit on someone's mantle?" said Mark Goodwin of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. "I would prefer to see it donated to a museum. This is our fossil heritage."

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Gorda: Home of $5.20-a-gallon gasoline

2008-03-17T03:47:00.001-07:00

GORDA, Calif. - Try not to run low on gas in the tiny Big Sur town of Gorda, where a gallon of unleaded regular costs $5.20. And it's $5.40 a gallon for premium.

Amerigo Gas Station employee James Willman says at least once a day he gets an earful from motorists who pull into Gorda, which is about 35 miles north of Cambria on scenic Highway 1.

Willman says "they say all kinds of stuff — `You ought to be shot,' or 'Where's your mask?'"

The good-humored Willman usually responds, "Hey, I just work here."

Many potential customers slow down, look at the price, then keep on rolling.

Station manager Leo Flores says the high price reflects the cost of bringing fuel to the town's remote location as well as its reliance on a diesel generator for all of its power.

___

Information from: The Tribune, http://www.sanluisobispo.com

Genuine Persian Prince Favored For 'Prince Of Persia'

2008-03-16T04:24:00.001-07:00

Both international and U.S. audiences overwhelmingly favored David K. Zandi, motion picture executive, actor, champion equestrian, model, and honest to goodness Persian prince. David has also studied both fencing and sword fighting, so the only way he could be better suited for the role is if he actually possessed control of the Sands of Time.

read more | digg story

New mini laptop to cost under $300

2008-03-16T04:23:00.001-07:00

Since The ASUS Eee PC got popular, competitors have emerged, including Elonex, Everex, ECS, Acer, MSI, HP and others. Most have introduced aggressive pricing, but struggled to approach ASUS's $400 entry-level price point. Now, Norhtec plans to ship a sub-$300 laptop called the Gecko! Click for details.

read more | digg story

Right to bear arms at heart of high court case

2008-03-16T04:21:00.001-07:00

For the first time in 70 years, the U.S. Supreme Court will take on the question of whether individual Americans have the right to keep and bear arms or whether it a collective right of the people for service in a state militia.

read more | digg story

While Our Newsreaders Drooled Over Pictures Of Call Girls...

2008-03-16T04:18:00.001-07:00

...the Bush Pentagon moved to suppress a study Bush doesn't like: The Pentagon on Wednesday canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network.Suppressing information it doesn't like is a hallmark of the Bush family.

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Dear Hillary Clinton,

2008-03-16T04:15:00.001-07:00

Why can't you just show us the numbers? I mean... it's not like it's all THAT hard to hire an accountant to do your taxes for you, right? Or is there something that we should know about how you spend your money that might compromise your position in the race?Personally, I'm tired of seeing all of your hate. Please, stop.

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I Wrote Donkey Kong

2008-03-16T04:13:00.001-07:00

DadHacker author Landon Dyer has posted a compelling account of his time working as a programmer for Atari back in the early 80s, where he created, among other things, the cartridge game version of Donkey Kong. It's a fun read and gives a pretty unique perspective on the early days of the video game industry.

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Sam Raimi teams with CW for reality

2008-03-15T09:24:00.001-07:00

Spider-Man's director is going real. Reality TV that is. After nearly two years of talking with the CW about this project, Sam Raimi is prepping a summer reality series called 13. Considering Raimi's unique vision, as seen in the Spider-Man movies and other features like Darkman and Evil Dead, you have to hope that he'll bring something fresh to a genre as played out as reality.

Raimi with co-executive produce the eight-episodes of 13 with a renown reality producer, Jay Bienstock (Survivor and The Apprentice). Also attached is Robert Tapert, Sam's Ghost House Productions partner.

Bienstock
has only recently been added to the mix, and he's there to make this
show a reality -- really. The previous producers couldn't make it a go.
"The idea of doing horror/scary/reality show with Sam Raimi and Rob
Tapert -- there's nothing better," he said.

The idea for the show -- which was once called House of Horrors
-- is a bunch of people living in a house where they must face their
fears as one after another are killed (not really) off the show. There
will be 13 (like the title, get it?) contestants; the survivor (ha-ha)
wins.

"Think about those old movies -- we want to put people
in a place like that, where they have to deal with their fears and
anxieties. They'll end up surprising one another," said Bienstock.
"Those old movies" could mean anything from the hotel in The Shining to the castle in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. I don't think it'll be the groovy Big Brother house with plastic furniture, but I could be wrong.

Watch for all eight horrific episodes this summer on the CW -- just cover your eyes if you don't like scary movies.

Are You Powerless to the Web?

2008-03-15T09:23:00.001-07:00

The Wall Street Journal tries to understand what makes the web so
addictive, suggesting through studies done by neuroscientist Irving
Biederman that our attraction to the internet may be evolutionary.

It
is something we seem hard-wired to do, says Dr. Biederman. When you
find new information, you get an opioid hit (the brain's
pleasure-enhancing neurotransmitters), and we are junkies for those.
You might call us 'infovores.' "

Biederman goes on to
discuss how, like with food, we're hard-wired for scarcity, so we don't
have a good sense of limits in the face of an abundance of information.
This addiction, as most of us know firsthand, can be a real
productivity killer, which requires us to employ self-control when we
hit the web. So what do you think? Are you powerless to the web? Share
your thoughts in the comments.

China gives Tibetan protesters surrender ultimatum

2008-03-15T09:19:00.001-07:00

By Chris Buckley and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Saturday gave Tibetan independence
protesters an ultimatum to surrender after riots in Lhasa which killed
at least 10 people in the worst unrest in the region for two decades.

The tough response by the Chinese authorities came after fierce
protests on Friday which contradicted China's claims of stability and
tarnished a carefully-nurtured image of national harmony as it readies
to stage the Olympic Games in August.

The official Tibetan judicial authorities gave protesters until Monday night to turn themselves in and benefit from leniency.

"Criminals who do not surrender themselves by the deadline will be
sternly punished according to the law," said a notice on the Tibetan
government Web site (www.tibet.gov.cn).

International pressure mounted on Beijing to show restraint.
Australia, the United States and Europe urged the Chinese authorities
to find a peaceful outcome, while Taiwan, which China claims as its
own, predictably condemned Beijing for launching a crackdown.

Xinhua news agency said 10 "innocent civilians" had been shot or
burnt to death in the street clashes in the remote, mountain capital
which has been sealed off. The dead included two people killed by
shotguns.

A source close to the Tibetan government-in-exile, however,
questioned the official death toll of 10. He said at least five Tibetan
protesters had been shot dead by troops.

Some Tibet monitoring organizations outside the country put the death toll at up to 32.

A Western tourist said that Lhasa itself was like a ghost town on
Saturday, though it was packed with Chinese soldiers. Many Tibetans had
tied white prayer scarves to their doors in a gesture of protest.

DALA LAMA ACCUSED

China has accused followers of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the
Dalai Lama, of engineering the unrest in the run-up to the Beijing
Olympics. The Olympic torch relay will pass through Tibet in a few
weeks time.

The riots emerged from a volatile mix of pre-Olympics protests,
diplomatic friction over Tibet and local discontent with the harsh ways
of the region's Communist Party leadership.

The protests, the worst since 1989 in the disputed region, have
thrust China's role as Olympic host and its policy towards Tibet back
into the international spotlight.

A rash of angry blog posts appeared after the deaths were confirmed.
Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a Buddhist and an activist for Tibetan
causes, suggested an Olympic boycott.

Official statements suggested the government reaction in coming days
would be tough, with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries -- traditional focal
point of opposition to Beijing's rule -- and nunneries being brought
under tighter control.

The regional communist-controlled government said those who harbored
protesters would be punished and it offered rewards and protection to
informers.

An announcement on Tibet television urged residents to denounce the "malicious intent" of the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan crowds in the remote mountain city attacked government
offices, burnt vehicles and shops and threw stones at police in
Friday's confrontations. Many people were injured.

Chinese television showed footage of rioters trashing shops and
trying to break down the entrance of a bank, and plumes of smoke
floating above the city.

A Reuters picture showed a protester setting afire a Chinese
national flag. Another depicted security personnel shielding themselves
against rocks hurled by protesters.

Qiangba Puncog, the top government official in Tibet, told reporters
in Beijing that Tibetan authorities had not fired any shots to quell
the violence.

PRAYER SCARVES

John Ackerly, of the International Campaign for Tibet, said in an
e-mailed statement he feared "hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested
and are being interrogated and tortured".

The Free Tibet Campaign organization cited eyewitnesses as saying
that thousands marched on government buildings in Xiahe, an ethnic
Tibetan area of China, and raised a Tibetan national flag at a school.

In Lhasa, Danish tourist Bente Walle, 58, said: "Today Lhasa is completely closed and there is Chinese military all over."

Adding that many people were tying white prayer scarves on doors,
she said: "The Tibetans put them on their doors to tell everybody: here
is a Tibetan."

"We are fully capable of maintaining the social stability of Tibet,"
Xinhua quoted an official as saying in a statement repeated across
Chinese state media on Saturday.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng, Nick Mulvenney, Ben Blanchard
and Lindsay Beck in Beijing, John Ruwitch in Chengdu and Sophie Taylor
in Shanghai)

(Editing by Richard Balmforth)

5 Manly Sports That Will Seriously Kick Your Ass

2008-03-15T09:09:00.001-07:00

Here at Just A Guy Thing, we like to see sports that challenge men to push themselves beyond the mental, emotional, and physical boundaries of these rather soft sporting occasions.With this in mind we have scoured the four corners of the globe to find our favorite manly sports that will literally kick your ass.

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