Weighing 11,875 pounds, the sparkling sphere features 2,668 crystals woven into a triangular pattern and is powered by 32,256 LED lights. It is capable of producing a kaleidoscopic array of 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns, according to the event’s official Web site.

This New Year’s ball is also greener, consuming 10 to 20 percent less energy than last year’s ball and 78 percent less energy than the 2007 ball. It uses the equivalent amount of energy per hour as two traditional home ovens.

The 2010 numerals are also more energy efficient, as Duracell Batteries set up a lab in which visitors ride stationary bikes to provide the power to light the numbers on the ball.

Time Square has served as one of the most popular sites of New Year’s festivities since 1904, though the New Year’s Eve ball made its inaugural drop down the flagpole at One Times Square in 1907. That first ball, built with iron and wood, featured a hundred 25-watt light bulbs and was designed by Jacob Starr, a young immigrant metalworker.

The New Year’s Eve ball has beamed every year since with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when America was embroiled in World War II and New York City observed a city-wide “dimout” to cut energy costs.

As in previous years, security was tight. Police searched garages and subway tunnels for bombs, trash cans were removed and mailboxes and manhole covers were sealed. Detectives were asking hotel and restaurant personnel if they had noticed any suspicious people or activity.

If the White House thought they could slip the bailout of Fannie and Freddie through by announcing it in a Christmas Eve news dump, think again. Dennis Kucinich just released this statement:

On Christmas Eve, they also announced $4-$6 million compensation packages for their top executives. But they’ll start foreclosing on homeowners again in January.

Fannie and Freddie have been corrupt cesspools for years, a place where presidents of both parties parked friends like Dennis DeConcini and Rahm Emanuel, giving them lucrative spots on the board of directors as political payoff. As government sponsored entities (GSEs) selling shares to the public, they operate like hedge funds that socialize losses and privatize profits. From the LA Times last year:

It appears they kept looking. The Democrats have been too intimidated by leadership to start looking into the utter corruption at these entities, but Kucinich just doesn’t care.

This is the latest of this inexcusable situation:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The pair of uninvited guests at last week’s White House state dinner have been summoned to appear before a Congressional panel later this week, the committee chair said Monday.

The Salahis unabashedly talked their way into the event honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Published photos show the pair being greeted by Obama and posing with guests in pictures. One notable shot making the rounds is with them seemingly joking with Vice President Joe Biden.

The Secret Service has admitted it was ‘embarrassed’ by the ‘failing’ that led to the admission of D.C. area socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi. Reportedly the Salahi’s are vying for a turn on the reality Show The Real Housewives of Washington D.C..

The House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee is slated to hold a hearing on Thursday to investigate the incident. Additionally also being summoned is Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

The incident has sent shock waves through the security community. Despite the fact they passed through magnetometers security experts are stunned by how simply their insistent manner at the front gate and a guard wanting to keep the line moving was all it took to gain entry.

Swayze died of pancreatic cancer.

Swayze’s doctor, Dr. George Fisher, revealed in early March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from the disease.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” Wolf said in a statement Monday.

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Today, we are holding an H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit in conjunction with the White House to discuss our Nation’s preparedness. We are working together to monitor the spread of 2009-H1N1 and to prepare to initiate a voluntary fall vaccination program against the 2009-H1N1 flu virus, assuming we have a safe vaccine and do not see changes in the virus that would render the vaccine ineffective.

But the most critical steps to mitigating the effects of 2009-H1N1 won’t take place in Washington — they will take place in your homes, schools and community businesses.

Taking precautions for this fall’s flu season is a responsibility we all share. Visit Flu.gov to make sure you are ready and learn how you can help promote public awareness.

We are making every effort to have a safe and effective vaccine available for distribution as soon as possible, but our current estimate is that it won’t be ready before mid-October. This makes individual prevention even more critical. Wash your hands regularly. Take the necessary precautions to stay healthy and if you do get sick, stay home from work or school.

We are doing everything possible to prepare for the fall flu season and encourage all Americans to do the same — this is a shared responsibility and now is the time to prepare. Please visit Flu.gov to learn what steps you can take to prepare and do your part to mitigate the effects of H1N1.

U.S. government Web sites — including those of the White House and the State Department — have been under attack since the Fourth of July, along with financial and commercial sites like Yahoo Finance and the New York Stock Exchange, cybersecurity experts said Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security, which is one of the targets, according to a security expert, confirmed that the attacks were taking place.

Web sites in South Korea, including the president’s, were targets of the same attack, said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Washington Post said it, too, had been attacked.

There is some indication that the attack comes from China, Nazario said, but he added that he could not be certain of the origin. Even if it is coming from China, it would be difficult to determine whether officials or individual hackers were responsible.

He said the attack was of moderate size, involving “a few tens of thousands” of infected computers “around the world.”

“We measured a peak of 25 megabits/second” in data transmission, he said, calling it “about the size of a big PowerPoint presentation, well in the garden variety of what we see.”

But other cybersecurity experts said that even if the current attack was not particularly worrisome, it was a window into potentially more serious problems.

Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said that the attack was simple and primitive but that the fact that it worked on some agencies shows the government is still “disorganized.”

Some parts of the government were able to “beat this off,” while others haven’t, he said.

“That’s a problem. Everyone is marching to a different drummer,” he said. “We should have been able to beat this back. Someone needs to step back and say why not.”

Alan Paller of the Sans Institute said the attack “is not a small thing.”

“This is a harbinger of how people who are angry or at war with us can effect government Web sites,” he said, adding that he did not have direct knowledge of the current attacks.

Disabling a Web site matters, he said. “If people rely on that Web site for information, it’s important. If it stops government from functioning, it matters.”

The top U.S. military officer said Wednesday that cybersecurity is “a growing concern.”

“I grow increasingly concerned about the cyber world and the attacks, whether they’re from individual hackers or state entities, and that’s something we all need to be concerned about,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Web sites are facing a “distributed denial of service” attack or, more specifically, an “http flood attack,” in which computers are infected with a virus that makes them repeatedly try to access a Web page. The increased demand can overload the page’s servers, cutting off access.

The malware, or the program that is running the attack, does not seem to be stealing information from the computers it infects or the ones it attacks, Nazario said.

Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said no data has been stolen from any of the government Web sites. She stressed that the attacks were against some of the government’s public Web sites, not internal ones.

People trying to access the affected sites might have had difficulty getting into them or may have found the sites sluggish, she said.

Kudwa would not say which government agency sites were affected.

The department warned other federal departments and agencies, as well as partner organizations, about the activity and advised them of steps to take to help mitigate such attacks, she said.

“We see attacks on federal networks every day, and measures in place have minimized the impact to federal Web sites,” she said.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the “attacks had absolutely no affect on the White House’s day-to-day operations” but added that some “visitors from regions in Asia may have been affected.”

A South Korean presidential office spokesman said the attack on their computers only slowed down the system and caused no damage.

Workers are in the process of figuring out where the attack came from, the spokesman said.

Unnamed South Korean parliamentary sources said Wednesday that North Korea appeared to have orchestrated the attack, the official South Korean news agency reported. The sources cited informal reports by the country’s top spy agency.

But Nazario said he had seen “nothing that would suggest that North Korea is an accurate claim.”

He said his company was one of many working with “appropriate authorities around the world” to stop the attack.

He said that progress was being made but that the attack was not over.

The head of the U.S. Pacific Command said there is no reason for people in Hawaii to be concerned with North Korea’s missile launches.

The reassurance came after reports that North Korea fired at least five mid range missiles Friday.”There’s no real reason to be alarmed. We’re well prepared to defend American citizens and American property so there’s no reason to be alarmed about the demonstration of firepower North Korea is suing. But there’s reason for concern of this blatant disregard of normally accepted standards of behavior,” said Admiral Anthony Keating, Commander U.S. Pacific Command.

Keating said North Korea’s missile launches are in clear violation of the United Nation’s Security Council’s resolutions.”There are some people who feel by flexing your muscle you can be recognized but in this world it takes more than flexing muscle; and I hope that Kim Jon Il realizes that because if he fires long-range then he is asking for trouble. We’re not initiating it,” said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

Both Keating and Inouye said the United States has stepped up missile defense systems around the islands.The Sea Based X Band radar has been sent out. An integral part of the missile defense system. It is able to detect and track incoming missiles.North Korea has tried to launch missiles in the past around July 4.

North Korea said it is military exercises, but most see it as a way to defy the United States on Independence Day.

This is surely a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday, a fourth around noon and three more in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said that the missiles were ballistic and are believed to have flown more than 250 miles (400 kilometers).

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying the missiles appeared to be a type of Scud missile. North Korea’s Scuds are considered short-range, the South’s military said. But Yonhap also said it is possible they could have been longer-range Rodong missiles fired a shorter distance.

North Korea is not allowed to fire Scuds, medium-range missiles or long-range missiles. They are banned under U.N. resolutions, including Resolution 1874 passed after North Korea’s May 25 nuclear test, that prohibit any launch using ballistic missile technology.

Thursday’s launches, on the other hand, did not violate the resolution, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said it was believed North Korea launched cruise missiles Thursday.

Ballistic missiles are guided during their ascent out of the atmosphere but fall freely when they descend. Cruise missiles fly low and straight to their target. The North has a record of timing missile tests for the U.S. national day, which fell on Saturday. “The missiles were seen as part of military exercises, but North Korea also appeared to have sent a message to the U.S. through the missile launches,” a senior official in South Korea’s presidential office said, without elaborating.

The official told The Associated Press that North Korea could fire more missiles in coming days, but said there was little possibility it could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it threatened in April. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said both political and military reasons were behind the launches. “I think it’s a demonstration of their defiance and rejection of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, for one thing, and to demonstrate their military power capabilities to any potential adversaries,” Pinkston said. He also pointed out that July 4 is not only U.S. Independence Day but also the anniversary of a 1972 joint communique in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula.

During the U.S. Independence Day holiday in 2006, Pyongyang fired a barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 that broke apart and fell into the ocean less than a minute after liftoff. Those launches, which occurred on July 5 in North Korea, also came amid tensions with the U.S. over North Korea’s nuclear program.

North Korea’s state news agency carried no reports on the launches. But the North had warned ships to stay away from its east coast through July 10 for military exercises — an indication it was planning launches.

The chief of U.S. Naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, said Saturday the American military was ready for any North Korean missile tests. “Our ships and forces here are prepared for the tracking of the missiles and observing the activities that are going on,” Roughead said after meeting Japanese military officials in Tokyo before news of the launches. South Korea and Japan, which are within easy range of North Korean missiles, condemned the launches as a “provocative” act that violates the U.N. resolution.

South Korea “expressed deep regret over the North’s continuous behavior that escalates tensions in Northeast Asia by repeatedly defying” the resolution, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a statement that the launch of missiles “is a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan, and is against the resolution of the U.N Security Council.” In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said he had no immediate comment. China is the North’s closest ally.