Jingle Ball 2008 at Arco Arena my future husband x]

Author: britdizzle Keywords: jesse mccartney leavin' departure jingle ball 08 the end 107.9 Added: December 4, 2008

img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASApFloating 190 miles above the Earth's surface, the extraplanetary crash pad known as the International Space Station careens through the sky at an average of over 17,000 miles per hour, making almost 16 Earth orbits a day./p pSet for completion in 2011, it's been a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/12/dayintech_1204"10 years since construction first began/a on the ISS. The final version will double its current capacity of three residents to six and provide incalculable contributions to science. In honor of its 10th birthday, we've assembled some of our favorite photos from the space station's lifetime. Click through the gallery for a glimpse at one of the world's most impressive sci-fi realities./p pstrongLeft:/strongbr/ Astronaut Piers J. Sellers moves along a truss on the International Space Station, while space shuttle Discovery is docked in July 2006. /p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation2_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASApThe Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station with Expedition 18 on Oct. 14, 2008. Visible in the background is the southeastern coast of Tunisia (left), the Gulf of Gab#232;s and the Isle of Jerba (bottom center). Top of the picture points northwest./p pThe Expedition 18 mission brought NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov to the ISS for a six-month stay that relieved two other astronauts of their posts. pOf particular note to Wired.com readers: Videogame icon and now space tourist Richard Garriott (known as Lord British in the citeUltima/cite series) tagged along on the expedition for 12 days before returning to Earth on Oct. 24./p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation4_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASApThe International Space Station is seen here in front of the Earth's horizon, photographed from the space shuttle citeAtlantis/cite as it moves farther away June 19, 2007. /p pDuring the departure and fly-around, the citeAtlantis/cite crew got a look at the station's newly expanded configuration, which included the retraction of an old solar array and the unfolding of a new one on the starboard side of the station.

/p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation6_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASApDuring a seven-hour, 19-minute spacewalk, astronaut Scott Parazynski cut a snagged wire and installed homemade stabilizers to strengthen a damaged solar array. Parazynski is anchored to a foot restraint on the end of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System./p pMission STS-120 was flown by the space shuttle citeDiscovery/cite and delivered the citeHarmony/cite module. The module, among other things, added 2,666 cubic feet of living space and completed the U.S. core contribution to the ISS./p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation7_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASA pBest known for the insulation-foam scare after the citeColumbia/cite tragedy, STS-118 found citeEndeavour/cite with a puncture in its heat shield. Fortunately the fears that the exposed foam would lead to another catastrophe were needless. /p pciteEndeavour/cite's orbital-maneuvering-system pods and vertical stabilizer are visible in this photo as it docks with the International Space Station. The mission successfully delivered its supplies and modules./p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation8_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASApOn mission STS-122, European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel works to replace a nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station's ammonia cooling system./p pPictured in the photo is the exterior of the new Columbus laboratory, which Schlegel traversed during the six-hour, 45-minute spacewalk. /p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation9_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Victor Zelentsov/NASApThe station's first female commander, Peggy A. Whitson, walks with cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko (center) and Malaysian space tourist Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who is also the first Malaysian in space./p pThe astronauts are wearing Russian Sokol launch-and-entry suits for Expedition 16. The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 10, 2007, and arrived at the ISS on Oct. 12. /p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation10_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASA 
pIn this photo, the Expedition 1 crew members are still training for their upcoming mission a week-and-half prior to the Oct. 30, 2000, launch to International Space Station. /p pThey are (left to right) Soyuz commander Yuri P. Gidzenko, Expedition 1 commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd and flight engineer Sergei K. Krikalev./p pAs the first residents of the ISS, it was this crew's job to unpack all the supply boxes and move in. They stayed a little over four months before returning to Earth./p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation11_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASApThis view of Hurricane Felix was taken from the International Space Station on Sept. 3, 2007, with a 28-70mm lens set at 28mm focal length. /p pThe ISS was located nearly over the coast of eastern Honduras when this image was taken. At approximately noon GMT, Hurricane Felix was moving west at 21 miles per hour. The sustained winds were 165 miles per hour with higher gusts making it a category 5 hurricane. /p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation12_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASApPhotographer Bill Ingalls has traveled the world as a photographer for NASA since 1989. Honored by United Press International as one of the top pictures of 2007, Ingalls' photo of the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft shows it being transported by train to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. /p pThe spacecraft launched two days later, bringing the Expedition 16 crew to the International Space Station. /p img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_spacestation/spacestation13_t.jpg'/img: Photo: NASA pRussian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 17 flight engineer, uses a communication system in the citeZvezda/cite service module of the International Space Station on July 17, 2008. The Russian module provides living quarters and life-support functions./pbr style="clear: both;"/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:9af4e9b99baa80ac985c8370fca352ce:Kk035%2F0L2P5Q7t5%2FeKfQ%2BUKXvtHRPc07iF2IPjROIhjfx0LHW03pHcYI0TyB3latXcGnqMo9KAhNFg%3D%3D'img border='0' title='Add to Facebook' alt='Add to Facebook' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/facebook.gif'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:40de80a51605e43aa8666b01d653ce92:ru%2FQvBfpHzKeIukFar7bL364mmVeayeC3xPoBG%2BeUra%2F1%2Fd4GsMaxffY%2FWkFB9FVF9PDbWBtwuZE'img border='0' title='Add to Reddit' alt='Add to Reddit' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/reddit.png'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:8d167de8e86392709c06933354a94f47:Um32DKGj8m5dc8ATvBGrfpeSbrWr%2Bnf4IRTvnXjxJ%2Bj8yzTUd9xp1u7VNaDUVAqlBaRvSAsyysbi'img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/digg.gif'//a a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:6a3a611fe83f5572670c835a05757835:ByU2Ie3Yr80l1ZcQhsmDSktBJVw1wmJMzoaIEewSSYaf3rp2tK0x5MiIgu9wtwm8qbMw%2FzbfQ0UZ'img border='0' title='Add to Google' alt='Add to Google' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/google.png'//a br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=bfca563db639eb47d73fe3664a25fa86p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=bfca563db639eb47d73fe3664a25fa86p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=bfca563db639eb47d73fe3664a25fa86" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/ pa href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=bxhltL"img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=bxhltL" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/474334204" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/40836?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+A+toxic+legacych=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Guantanamo+Bay+%28News%29%2CObama+White+House+%28News%29%2CBarack+Obama+%28News%29%2CUS+foreign+policy%2CUS+news%2CHuman+rights+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CUS+Electionsc6=Julian+Borgerc7=2008_12_04c8=1128354c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Guant%C3%A1namo+Bayc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FGuant%C3%A1namo+Bay" width="1" height="1" //divpEver since January 11 2002, when the first 20 prisoners were flown in from Afghanistan in orange jumpsuits and shackles, the Guantaacute;namo Bay detention camp has been a hefty burden around the Bush administration's neck. /ppThe defence secretary at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, picked the Cuban enclave as the "least worst place" to hold captives accused of terrorism. But the effort to run a camp outside the reach of US or international law, so that "enemy combatants" could be held indefinitely without charge, steadily corroded America's standing in the world. The images of the inmates languishing in small metal cages in Camp X-Ray, the rudimentary first phase of the complex, and the steady stream of reports of human rights abuses, have taken a daily toll. The camp's existence has angered and embarrassed Washington's closest allies, and become a recruitment tool for its enemies. /ppNearly six years on, there is no debate over whether "Gitmo" should be closed - only how. As it approaches the end of its term, the Bush administration is anxiously attempting to dispose of its own toxic legacy. John Bellinger, the state department's top lawyer, has been trying to persuade other governments to accept detainees cleared for release. More than 500 have already been sent back to their homelands or to third countries, but there are still 250 prisoners left who cannot go home for fear of persecution and who no one else will accept. They are now Barack Obama's problem./ppThe president-elect has frequently stated his intention to close Guantaacute;namo. In an interview since the election, he repeated that pledge, saying it was "part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world". But the question of what to do with the remaining inmates still divides his ideologically diverse national security and justice teams./ppObama's inaugural speech on January 20 will be closely scrutinised around the world for signs of how bold or cautious he decides to be. His policy on Guantaacute;namo will be widely seen as a benchmark for his intentions as president. /ppA report by a non-partisan panel of US security and human rights experts, entitled Closing Guantaacute;namo: From Bumper Sticker to Blueprint, estimates that the camp could be emptied within a year if the Obama administration decided on a clean break from Bush policies and devoted enough resources to the job. The report advocates the establishment of an independent commission to review the cases of all the detainees, to assess the evidence against them and order the immediate release of the innocent./ppThe first task will be to complete the Bush administration's effort to find homes for the 150-200 prisoners who, according to lawyers familiar with their stories, have no case to answer but who cannot be sent back to their native countries for fear they would be victimised, tortured or killed. /ppThe clearest example of inmates stuck in this limbo are the 17 Uighurs, separatists from a Muslim minority in China who were seized in Pakistan during the Afghan war. They have all been cleared for release by the US authorities, most as long ago as 2003, but have so far not been accepted by any third countries. Albania agreed to take in five other Uighur detainees in 2006, but has refused to take any more. /ppBellinger's efforts to find any other government to receive the Uighurs have been undermined by the adamant refusal of the US authorities to allow them to live in America because of the presumed threat they pose to the US, in part because of presumed animosity caused by six years of detention without charge. Obama's envoys may find they have better luck than Bellinger./pp"I don't think anyone is inclined to do this administration any favours, but Obama will find he has a lot of goodwill to draw on," a European diplomat says. But that goodwill will be greatly enhanced if the new administration stops fighting the resettlement of inmates in the US./ppA second category of prisoners will be referred for prosecution outside Guantaacute;namo, but that raises the question of whether that prosecution should be conducted by military courts martial in the US or the civilian legal system. That will be a decision that goes to the philosophical heart of the issue - should the US approach terrorism as a military threat or as a criminal enterprise, or some hybrid of the two? Obama has refrained from using the phrase "war on terror", but he is said to be under pressure from the more conservative national security experts on his team to leave his options open and not bind himself with the procedural constraints of the civilian judiciary./ppOn the other side of the debate is a "rule of law" camp within the embryonic administration which argues that anything short of a complete return to constitutional normality would rob Obama of the international goodwill he might otherwise gain by scrapping Guantaacute;namo./ppThat debate underlies the toughest dilemma the new administration is likely to face on closing the offshore camp: whether there should be a third category of prisoners, deemed too dangerous to release but too difficult to prosecute. The evidence against them may be in the form of intelligence material that cannot be disclosed in court, or that falls short of legal proof. Confessions would also be ineligible if they were obtained under torture, as in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks who was "waterboarded" (subjected to simulated drowning) by the CIA. And few if any of the inmates of Guantaacute;namo were reminded of their right not to incriminate themselves, which is standard police practice./ppThe Bush administration has been seeking international agreement for a new form of preventative detention that would allow inmates in this third category to be held in the US and abroad. "The problem is you've got 200-plus very dangerous people, and the question is what do you do with them. And these are people who say regularly: 'If I'm let out of here, I will go immediately and start killing Americans again,'" Condoleezza Rice, the outgoing secretary of state, said during a visit to London this week. She argued that "even though you know that this person is a future threat, we don't really have a legal framework for that, which is why it's been done within a war framework. But if you don't hold a person who you know is a future threat, then you risk the deaths of thousands of innocents. So I do think that this is something for the international community to take up."/ppThere is little sign, however, that the international community has any appetite for such a departure from established human rights law. The decision on preventative detention will be Obama's alone. Several of his advisers and allies, liberals included, think that terrorism is such a pernicious threat, and the security risks of releasing suspects are so great, that new legislation allowing for preventative detention is unavoidable. The political risk of a released inmate carrying out an attack are also enormous. Such an event could prove crippling to a new administration. /ppOn the other hand, any new system of preventative detention would be seen around the world as Guantaacute;namo redux, human rights lawyers say. It would be every bit as effective as an al-Qaida recruiting tool, and would perpetuate the extremists' self-image as warriors rather than mere criminals. Within the internal debate under way in the transition team, liberal activists want foreign governments to lobby Obama against creating a new legal limbo. /ppIt is one of the toughest decisions the new president has in his in-tray. What Obama decides will say a lot about his presidency. Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and author of the Closing Guantaacute;namo report, says it is uncertain which way Obama would lean. But she adds: "My sense is the president-elect has taught courses in the constitution in one of the most reputable law schools in country. He ran on opting back into the international system. The idea of going for a new legal regime that will result in more years in litigation is not going to appeal. It will not be the clean break he needs to make."/ph2A history of the prison camp/h2p· January 11 2002: First prisoners arrive/pp· February 27 2002: First hunger strike begins/pp· April 29 2002: The first prison, Camp X-Ray, closes, replaced by a more solid concrete construction, Camp Delta/pp· November 10 2003: US Supreme Court agrees to hear appeals from inmates that they are being held illegally/pp· February 13 2004: Bush administration agrees to establish review panels to establish whether inmates still pose a threat/pp· March 19 2004: Five British detainees freed/pp· February 16 2006: The UN calls for the closing of Camp Delta, arguing that the treatment of some inmates amounts to torture/pp· June 10 2006: Three inmates hang themselves/pp· June 21 2006: President Bush first expresses the wish to close the camp/pp· September 6 2006: Fourteen "high-value" detainees are transferred from secret CIA prisons around the world to Guantaacute;namo, including Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh, three alleged planners of the 9/11 attacks/pp· June 12 2008: US Supreme Court rules that inmates have the right to challenge their incarceration in the US courts/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guantanamo"Guantánamo Bay/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-white-house"Obama White House/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barackobama"Barack Obama/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usforeignpolicy"US foreign policy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/humanrights"Human rights/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DnF9th1tAua-YMzXf_qz88giof4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DnF9th1tAua-YMzXf_qz88giof4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/73455?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Flights+resume+out+of+Bangkok+as+protesters+lift+airport+siegech=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Thailand+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+MacKinnonc7=2008_12_04c8=1128358c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Thailandc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FThailand" width="1" height="1" //divpHopes for the hundreds of thousands of foreign travellers stranded in Thailand were raised yesterday when the first international passenger flights left Bangkok's main airport after anti-government protesters ended their eight-day siege./ppWithin hours of the lifting of the blockade the first passenger service in a week arrived from the resort island of Phuket, and a Thai Airways flight left for Sydney./ppThe end of the standoff - which left travellers frustrated and Thailand's tourist industry hamstrung - resembled a victory parade peppered with hugs and handshakes as the protesters declared they had won./ppThousands of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) demonstrators left Suvarnabhumi international airport yesterday morning, a day after a court disbanded the governing party and barred the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, from office for electoral fraud. /ppBut as services resumed, the Thai airports' authority said the arrival of the first three international flights would not happen until tomorrow - although the hope was that normal services could resume soon after to take home the estimated 230,000 trapped tourists. As PAD supporters, dressed in yellow as a mark of respect for the king, packed up their tents and bedrolls, government MPs met to choose an interim leader. The rump of the six-party coalition - led by the People Power party - plans to meet on Monday to select a new prime minister. It will be Thailand's third prime minister in three months and may spark fresh tensions./ppAlthough the end of the standoff has defused the immediate crisis, demonstrators warned they would return if need be, raising the spectre of further violence in the bitterly divided country. "We will come back when the nation needs us," said Somkiat Pongpaibul, a key PAD member, an alliance of Bangkok's urban monarchist elite pitting itself against the rural poor who voted mainly for the government./ppThere was a carnival mood yesterday as the remaining demonstrators sang and danced to a band on the makeshift stage outside the airport's departure areas. Queues formed before a table set up for PAD's co-founders, Chamlong Srimuang and Sondhi Limthongkul, who signed autographs./ppThe international airport's manager, Serirat Prasutanond, predicted a speedy return to normality after inspecting the terminal. As he spoke, 700 soldiers and specialist bomb squads moved into the airport complex with sniffer dogs to search for explosive devices, while cleaners cleared the rubbish and IT technicians started rebooting systems shut down a week ago./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/thailand"Thailand/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/T9tFPrByi-NVbKKVuPyU7_rQCfM/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/T9tFPrByi-NVbKKVuPyU7_rQCfM/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Oh, man, this is sad and unexpected news: 16-year veteran CNN reporter and presenter Miles O'Brien will be departing CNN, as the network closes its sci/space/tech news division. Snip from mediabistro: O'Brien's departure comes as the network dismantles its science, space, environment and technology unit in Atlanta. That includes O'Brien as well as six producers. O'Brien has been CNN's chief technology and environment correspondent since being replaced as anchor of American Morning in April 2007. The LA Times has an item, also. I won't go through a laundry list of the departing names here, but I've had the pleasure of meeting and/or briefly working with a number of them (as a guest on various CNN shows) -- they're talented, dedicated, rare professionals. And Miles is truly one of the greats. I am so sorry to hear this news. (Thanks, MW) Previously: Xeni on CNN's "Welcome to the Future" - Boing Boing Xeni on CNN "American Morning" re: 'net movie downloads - Boing Boing Xeni on CNN American Morning: Apple recalls Sony batteries - Boing ... Xeni on CNN x 2: Extreme Cellphones, ICANN and internet governance ......br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=64ffcc8c3cb79ae224dc9539f64aa630p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=64ffcc8c3cb79ae224dc9539f64aa630p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=64ffcc8c3cb79ae224dc9539f64aa630" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/driving/" rel="tag"Driving/a/pdiv align="center"a href="http://twitter.com/ncroal/status/1036856543"img vspace="4" hspace="0" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/01/bizarre-barrel.jpg" alt="" //a/div At a summit held by Massive for in-game advertising, Activision confirmed that a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/bizarre"Bizarre Creations/a is working on a new third-person Bond title for release in 2009. According to the a href="http://twitter.com/ncroal"Twitter feed/a of Newsweek's N'Gai Croal (trust us, he's legit), the game is being touted as "racing and driving focused." The executive also mentioned Bizarre's a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/09/bizarre-creationss-new-racing-ip-due-fy09/"new racing IP/a, describing it as "emMario Kart /emmeets emForza./em" It's not much (in fact, it's somewhat paradoxical), but it does hint at a departure from emProject Gotham Racing's /emrealism -- relative to Mario Kart!br /br /The executive also reportedly said the span class="entry-content"next emCall of Duty Modern Warfare/em is due out Fall 2009. We're uncertain if that's confirmation of the next emCOD's /emsetting or just a glib way of saying "Infinity Ward's emCOD/em series." We're reaching out to Activision for clarification on all these statements./spanp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/bizarre-making-bond-title-for-2009-new-racing-ip-is-mario-kart/"Bizarre making Bond title for '09, new racing IP is 'Mario Kart meets Forza'/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:44:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href=http://twitter.com/ncroal/status/1036856543Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/bizarre-making-bond-title-for-2009-new-racing-ip-is-mario-kart/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1390496/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/03/bizarre-making-bond-title-for-2009-new-racing-ip-is-mario-kart/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/q21RUcFpUmb8Hj6B-VEwsaF736A/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/q21RUcFpUmb8Hj6B-VEwsaF736A/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=djM2s1u4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=djM2s1u4" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=SDau5apI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=SDau5apI" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/g_MSVLfg_no" height="1" width="1"/

File this one under ‘public use of reason 101’.

On 28 November 2008 The Nation, one of Papua New Guinea’s two largest newspapers, ran a story entitled Male Babies Killed To Stop Fights which claimed that women in the Gimi area have decided to kill all their male children in an attempt to stop an ongoing tribal fight by, as it were, cutting off the supply of reinforcements. The story, sensational as it was, got picked up by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and even made its way to Fox News.

Now, on the one hand this story is so outrageously exoticizing, so sensationalistically othering, so reliant on tropes of primitive, savage black people that it pushes all the buttons of Politically Correct Anthropologists. On the other hand, Melanesianists like myself often are wary of overly-eager professors who denounce myths of cannibalism and so forth because, well, Papua New Guinea is a place where cannibalism was practiced, a place where real cultural difference does occur, were there is fighting, and so forth: no one ever told anyone in PNG that we in the academy had developed an elaborate set of rules about how they were supposed to live their lives, if you see what I mean.

But even given these reservations, even given these reservations, this story still sounds absolutely ridiculous to me and stands, in my opinion, as a classic example of Papua New Guinea being trotted out again to serve Australian and American fantasies of primitive savagery.

For one thing, the Salvation Army has been in the Gimi area (so much for being ‘untouched’) and has worked to try to end the dispute, and they are quoted in the original news story. However, in a follow-up story the ABC has reported that the Salvation Army denies that these killings took place. According to this report “the Highlands women are making the point that there are so many murders they might as well kill their newborn boys themselves, rather than go through the pain of losing them in tribal fights.” Now this I believe, as this sounds very much the way that people talk about pain and suffering in PNG.

Moreover, experts on Gimi say that this area fits the pattern that we see in a lot of the world—that female infanticide, not male infanticide, is common. In an email to me Paige West, a professor at Barnard College, wrote
Historically Gimi in Lufa and Unavi practiced infanticide through subtle neglect and exposure if a baby was unwanted or if the mother was simply too overwhelmed by other young children (especially if there was one already breast feeding when the new one was born) to care for the newborn. This was more often than not done with female infants – so much so that in the census reports in the 60s and early 70s there was a marked gender imbalance among Gimi. Gillian Gillison’s work shows that in general in the 70s and 80s first born babies were more likely to die than to survive (See Between Culture and Fantasy: A New Guinea Highlands Mythology for Gillison’s in-depth discussion of Gimi ideas about conception, birth, and death).
Additionally, she writes:
No Gimi person I know would actually attribute the cause of fighting to their own immediate family (if between patrilines), to their own extended family group (if between ‘clans’), to their village (if between villages), or to their ethnic group (if between Gimi and others). They would attribute the cause of the fighting to whomever they were fighting so to kill male offspring in ones own line in order to stop fighting is nonsensical.
and
The thought process that is ascribed to the mothers in the story in some ways seems to be a Foucauldian management of population which is hard to imagine that any Gimi would apply to their own children and kin. The idea that eliminating one’s own child to create some future social benefit to all seems like a kind of governmentality that does not exist in Gimi society. Essentially the extent to which kinship controls social relationships means that that arguement would be a radical departure from Gimi social world views.

In sum, we have a typical story: inaccurate reporting which is picked up on on global media because readers find it exciting to read about Papua New Guineans behaving badly. Is anyone willing to defend the original National article in public? And, more importantly, when are we going to have some positive news coverage of everything that is going right in Papua New Guinea?

UPDATE: Its fascinating to watch this story mutate—now Women on the Web is linking to the original story with the headline Male Infanticide on Rise as Papua New Guinea’s Women Attempt to End War. This headline makes it sound like the whole country is getting into the act (although to be fair the body of the article just repeats what is in the original National article).

Any competent developer who tries to automate the selection of news headlines will inevitably discover that this approach always comes up a bit short. Automation does indeed bring a lot to the table -- humans can't possibly discover and organize news as fast as computers can. But too often the lack of real intelligence leads to really unintelligent results. Only an algorithm would feature news about Anna Nicole Smith's hospitalization after she's already been declared dead, as our automated celeb news site WeSmirch did last year:

Instantly obsolete news isn't the only hazard. A fundamental component to any news organization program is the determination of whether two stories are related. Deciding is often rather easy: if two stories hyperlink each other or both use the words Apple, Psystar, and DMCA repeatedly, they're probably related. Unfortunately, the clues are sometimes far too subtle for the most advanced algorithms to notice. This leads to bad "related" grouping, and even the failure to surface breaking news in the first place. Even giant, technically-accomplished corporations have had trouble breaking news using algorithms.

It's time for a more "edited" Techmeme

In 2005 it was clear to me that an ideal news aggregation site would need to combine automation with direct, hands on editing. In a rare departure from my usual reticence, I even stated in comments to a blog post "I'm planning extensions to my system to enable a hybrid man+memeorandum." This "planning" turned out to be rather long term, since we made no major headway on this idea until 2008.

Early on, when our system was less technically refined, the clearest path toward improvement involved simply iterating algorithmic development. Later, as the automation reached a certain degree of maturity, we recognized that direct editing could now improve news results by leaps and bounds. Though our roadmap contains a number of novel future algorithmic enhancements, introducing editing now appears to be a no-brainer.

So what exactly will change?

Humans have always edited Techmeme of course, just implicitly. For instance, when a blogger links to a story, the headline might move higher on Techmeme. What's different now is that an additional human editor will carry out changes explicitly to directly improve the mix of headlines on Techmeme. Though the implicit edits conveyed via algorithm outnumber the explicit edits perhaps by 1000 to 1 or more, the impact of the human editor is nonetheless pronounced. What will that effect be?

The news will just get faster and more interesting. Obsolete stories will be eliminated sooner while breaking stories will be expedited. Related grouping will improve. Most of this will happen only on Techmeme, though other sites (like memeorandum and WeSmirch) will increasingly benefit from the direct human touch as well.

Meet Techmeme's new scapegoat

Last month we hired Megan McCarthy to help with a variety of editorial tasks. Chief among them was taking up this new editing role. We haven't settled on a job title yet, but perhaps "news maestro" is a fitting moniker, given her new role in conducting the symphony of voices that flow through Techmeme each day. Her name may sound familiar to you: Megan has worked at institutions ranging from Wired.com to The Rose and Crown. She mentioned some other place too which I can't recall at the moment. Appropriately, Megan is quite familiar with the workings of tech news on the web.

Writers and publicists unhappy with the headlines on Techmeme are encouraged to transfer the bulk of their resentment to Megan. I'm pleased to report she's looking forward to this. Though Omer Horvitz and I will share some of these editorial tasks, Megan will focus on this much more than us.

Doesn't this make Techmeme even more unfair and biased?

If that question makes any sense to you, you're probably a frustrated blogger. Otherwise, feel free to skip to the next section! I'd like to note here that Techmeme isn't fair because life isn't fair, and Techmeme will always be biased because humans have built Techmeme. And because news judgement, by definition, is bias. For background, please see this post from last year in which I state "Techmeme is biased".

Ultimately, Techmeme will succeed based on whether it interests a significant readership. While fairness and balance probably affect this interest, I need to stress that bloggers will never agree on what's fair. Why not? To generalize and perhaps exaggerate somewhat, many bloggers feel that in the fairest scenario, Techmeme prominently features all of their posts. So it's hard to be fair.

Image by tartx There's something happening here

I should note that the experience of introducing direct editing has been a revelation even for us, despite the fact that we planned it. Interacting directly with an automated news engine makes it clear that the human+algorithm combo can curate news far more effectively that the individual human or algorithmic parts. It really feels like the age of the news cyborg has arrived. Our goal is apply this new capability to producing the clearest and most useful tech news overview available.

New contact info

We always want to know how we can do a better job, and are now better staffed for listening. Please send complaints or news suggestions to this new email address: editorial at site domain Though we'll realistically reply to almost nothing sent there, we'll read it all, and appreciate your thoughts!

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=4936e4de796c7a4d005f9b36maxX=127maxY=197" border="0" alt="DaeMellencamp.jpg" title="DaeMellencamp.jpg" width="127" height="197" /Connected Ventures video-sharing site Vimeo has new adult supervision from parent-company IAC: former About.com SVP of product management Dae Mellencamp. Current Vimeo GM Tim Allen will return to the IAC mothership./p pDuring Allen's tenure -- which followed Connected Ventures cofounder Jakob Lodwick's departure -- Vimeo's traffic doubled and then doubled again. Vimeo revenues remain tiny, but a source tells us new Vimeo Plus accounts earned more than $100,000 in the first few weeks. That's not much, but apparently it's enough to convince IAC big boss Barry Diller the site still has potential./p pstrongSee Also:/strong a href="../../2008/6/vimeo_hey_people_are_watching_our_videos_"strongbr //strongVimeo: Hey, People Are Watching Our Videos! /a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ygql4bVgQ3mFschXn97mj5sR-80/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ygql4bVgQ3mFschXn97mj5sR-80/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=2V1uTBOt"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=2V1uTBOt" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=NY8KXXxf"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=dgCSVbeu"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Rc5Rl6dT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=Rc5Rl6dT" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=PrPJijGI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=2z7kjHUv"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=uJzQpass"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=mcAbvQjk"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/zA6y5k9Gzs8" height="1" width="1"/

centerimg id="image1642" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/polite-umbrella-2small.gif" alt="polite-umbrella-2small.gif" //centerbr / centerimg id="image1643" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/politeumbrella1small.gif" alt="politeumbrella1small.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Polite Umbrella/i/centerbr / ipa href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/"JooYoun Paek/a builds small, object-based responses to urban life, transforming the aches and pains we customarily suffer, at the hands of the metropolis, into novel sites of reflection, social courtesy, and rest. The artist's humorous, insightful approach bespeaks her familiarity with her subject; she was raised in Seoul, Korea, and moved to New York in 2005 to attend NYU's a href="http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/"Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)/a. Fresh from her recent participation in "a href="http://eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitionsid=190"Untethered/a," at a href="http://eyebeam.org/"Eyebeam/a, and "a href="http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=5632"Design and the Elastic Mind/a," at a href="http://www.moma.org/"MoMA/a, JooYoun caught up with me at her a href="http://www.lmcc.net/"LMCC/a Workspace Residency studio, on the twenty-ninth floor of the Equitable Building in Manhattan's Financial District. - Tyler Coburn /p/i pbWhat's the difference between wearable technology and what you make?/b/p pThe difference? Well, I never define what I make as wearable technology. I think I'm just doing conceptual work that's wearable. Wearable technology is more about focusing on using new technology and making it fashionable, but also highly functional. I don't think my work was ever designed for utilitarian purposes. But oftentimes the methodologies of what I'm doing and wearable technology overlap, and that's why people think, on the surface, that my work is similar./p bpThat really comes across in a piece like a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/politeumbrella.html"iPolite Umbrella/i/a./p/b pYes. I made iPolite Umbrella/i after I came to New York for ITP. ITP isn't really a fine art school. It focuses more on collaborative and innovative practices. We had an assignment of observing daily life and behavior, and I began to observe umbrella usage. Quite interestingly, it was the fall of 2005, which was one of the rainiest times in New York City. October was a record-breaking month. It rained almost every day. This was my first time living in New York, so I thought this was usual. Previously, I had framed myself as an artist working with sculpture and sometimes in performance and photography and video, but after going to ITP, I began to explore design. This didn't bother me that much, because the observation of life was already a part of my creative process, which either came out as very utilitarian or very expressive objects. It always started from the observation of mundane moments./p pbOne of the things that I find interesting about this piece is that I can imagine an umbrella that just condenses uniformly, but your model responds to specific scenarios, such as a particular angle of passing. One or all sides of it can compress. So it's not just something that has a function that’s designed to meet a generic social scenario; it's something you can control on a case-by-case basis. I think that specificity is what pushes it beyond just being a quirky object./b/p pIt's not only helpful to you. It also gives a gesture to other people. I definitely involved the cultural reference of people bowing to one another in this piece./p pbSo you see the compression of the side of the umbrella as a gesture of social politeness?/b/p pYes. It has a morphing gesture, but conceptually it gives other people more space./p pbI can see a similar interest in modifying and improving everyday city life in a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/ssc.html"iSelf-Sustainable Chair/i/a, which is also controlled by the user, yet is far more absurdist in conceit./b/p pWith this piece, I was also inspired by New York and walking in the city. I was getting sick and tired of walking the same commute route from my station stop to my home every day while carrying a heavy backpack. I wanted to make something that could make every walk I take more meaningful. The idea was very abstract, so I began to add up the days and minutes of my commute time. My walk ended up being almost fifteen full days per year. That time should be more exciting, so I made this chair. I thought that each step could generate some energy, which can then transform into something else./p centerimg id="image1644" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/selfsustainablechairsmall.gif" alt="selfsustainablechairsmall.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Self-Sustainable Chair/i/centerbr / bpIt punctuates the commutes. No two walks are the same anymore, depending on when you choose to stop or pause or contemplate. I like the way that once the chair becomes full, it not only gives you the option to rest but sort of forces you to. It makes you stop for a minute. It seems like a lot of your work is about using fast-paced technologies to slow down, or as palliatives. The origami project, a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/foldloud.html"iFold Loud/i/a, comes to mind. You actually stitched circuits onto sheets of folded paper, such that a given user's manner of folding would close the circuits and release specific human vocal harmonies. The possible combinations aren't just beautiful to the ear; they're soothing./p/b pThere is that kind of notion./p !--more-- pbBut not, as you were saying, in a practical fashion. More in a fanciful fashion. Like iSelf-Sustainable Chair/i, this object presents a far-fetched way of relaxing, which more interestingly offsets our pace of living than an object we could buy from a store for stress relief./b/p pSome people ask about iPolite Umbrella/i, "So when will we see it on the market?" And I groan, "Oh, I don't really think it would work that well on the market."/p bpI think the fact that you're not distributing them as such also lends to how they function conceptually as art-objects – to their being singular ideas manifest./p/b pYeah. I think it's about the statement. You mentioned the origami work. It reflects some of my personality, but this foldout doesn't really tie into my past work./p pbHow do you mean?/b/p pIt's a very design-oriented work. The object isn't really tied into any context./p pbWell, it's tied into a historical context./b/p pYes, it is tied into a historical context, but not necessarily into the daily mundane experiences that a lot of my other work ties into. So I'm having a hard time connecting it to the other work. iFold Loud/i was more about exploring technology with my personality, in my way. I made it as my ITP thesis project. I could have gone more in the direction of fine art, but I wanted to take the chance to use technology and see where it ended up./p bpBut there's also an everyday reference. I grew up in the States and we didn't make origami, but we would play games with folding paper, like predicting our futures. Even origami is something that is made in Japan as a way to pass the time. So while it's definitely more of a niche reference than those in your other works, I think that there's still a connotation of the everyday. But I agree with you. It is more to the side. I don't think this means that it's more of a design object, though. I think it actually very much engages with contemporary conceptual art strategies by taking a method of folding, an idea of sound production, and the idea of origami as hardware, and drawing an axis between these points. This seems like a very contemporary approach. I couldn't speak to how much it engages with the design world, but I think it's very relevant to contemporary art./p/b pYes, thank you./p centerimg id="image1645" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/foldoudsmall.gif" alt="foldoudsmall.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Fold Loud/i/centerbr / bpIn the text on your website, you describe the work as having a "meta-technological aesthetic." What do you mean by that?/p/b pThe technology isn't hidden. It forms the exposed circuits, so you can actually see how it's working. The technology is bubbling up. It has a different sensibility than most devices, where things are hidden behind a button and you don't know how you trigger the events on the screen./p bpSo given that iFold Loud/i marks something of a departure form previous work, has the stuff you've been making since been more in line with it?/p/b pWhat's interesting is that I'm still working in the way I used to, and Fold Loud is developing as a side-project. For the Eyebeam Fall show, "Untethered," I had two pieces. One was called a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/2831757646/in/set-72157607128132407/"iNot-Bicycle Cover/i/a, which is a bicycle cover that camouflages your bike. It's a small cover that looks like a pile of garbage bags that you can unfold, pump up, and inflate. The other project was called a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/2899668716/in/set-72157607128132407/"iNothing In It/i/a. It's a little bag, and when you open it, it releases the sound of objects. When you close it, they disappear. And when you open it again, you hear different sounds. But when you look into the bag, you see that there's nothing in it./p bpAre all the sounds from public, urban space?/p/b pThere are a lot of these sounds. There is also the sound of a ticking clock./p pbWhat informed the sounds that you used?/b/p pI was thinking a lot about this. Should I have the sound of someone telling a story? Should I have the sound of someone singing? I actually tried to minimize that effect and use the sounds of random objects to not convey too much of a specific story. With a story you have to listen from the beginning to the end, but these sounds should make sense anytime you open the bag./p bpAll the sounds are also things that might be heard as the bag is carried around, so it seems appropriate to collapse them into a mobile, personal belonging. It makes it seem like the sounds you hear have actually been collected by the bag./p/b pInteresting./p bpSo I have to ask: how was it practically made, given that you can't see anything inside?/p/b pI ideally wanted everything to be self-contained within the bag, but for this show I had to make it quickly, so the audio system is beneath the pedestal and the bag is made with a zipper sensor. The concept of the piece relates to the idea that what's in the world is only there because of your belief, and if you start to believe in different ways, things will change. So it was about making you recognize the notion of what you’re believing in - that your belief is really creating the world. Nothing else. /pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-fp/~4/473940998" height="1" width="1"/

Vocalist Björn Lodin (SIX FEET UNDER, BALTIMOORE) has announced his departure from BALLS, the Swedish project he formed with Micke Nord Andersson (guitar; NORD, ROXETTE, JAMIE WALTERS, SKIFS), Janne Stark (guitar; OVERDRIVE, LOCOMOTIVE BREATH), Björn Lundqvist (bass; SKYRIDE) and Robban Bäck (drums; ECLIPSE, BILLION DOLLAR BABIES, BLACK LADIES).

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/790?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+India+step+up+security+to+prevent+cash+crisisch=Sportc3=guardian.co.ukc4=England+cricket+team%2CIndian+Premier+League+%28cricket%29%2CCricket%2CMumbai+terror+attacks+%28News%29c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCricketc6=David+Hoppsc7=2008_12_03c8=1128213c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=England+Cricket+Teamc13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FEngland+Cricket+Team" width="1" height="1" //divpIndia will embark on a major upgrading of security facilities at its international stadiums in a desperate attempt to prevent the economic collapse of the international game in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks./ppEmergency levels of security, perhaps unprecedented in cricket history, have been guaranteed for England's return to India for Tests in Chennai and Mohali, but there is no guarantee that the Indian government will be so amenable to special measures — such as the provision of special security forces — in the future./ppIndian cricket has therefore concluded that permanent security measures must be introduced for all major competitions to allay players' fears about their safety, guard against mass withdrawals and to protect the country's status as cricket's thriving economic powerhouse./ppIndia's greatest worry is that the country that provides roughly 70% of cricket's revenue will become the country that nobody wants to tour — causing it to follow Pakistan towards the prospect of a depressing future playing home matches in Abu Dhabi or Dubai./ppFor India to have to take such a step would ultimately have a disastrous effect on the finances of the game and England, and its top players, would not be immune./ppThe driving force behind the security measures is, unsurprisingly, Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and commissioner of the Indian Premier League. Modi knows that the IPL will not receive such security support from the state, so he is now pressing for what amounts to a total modernisation of India's stadiums, with security the overwhelming priority./ppModi said after the Mumbai atrocities: "Security is something we need to think about seriously because becoming sidelined like Pakistan due to security threats is something that is logical. We have to ensure that the security measures we take are the best. We shouldn't allow such attacks to disrupt our determination."/ppHis response has been swift. He has written to representatives of the eight grounds that stage IPL Twenty20 cricket — to insist upon new security measures. He has contacted Shashank Manohar, the board's president, pressing for all cricketing associations to convene an emergency meeting at the earliest opportunity./ppIt is intended that all these measures will be in place long before the start of the next IPL tournament in April. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are among the most sought-after England players — although Flintoff is widely reported as having ruled out a return to India for the Test series when the England squad makes its expected departure at the end of the week./ppMeasures include the installation of permanent CCTV cameras at every stadium and the provision of turnstiles — rather than just manned gates — at entry and exit points to allow a more controlled check on spectator entry. Security arrangements at the eight IPL grounds will be managed by a central agency answerable to the IPL and funding will be provided by the Indian board. Modi also wants disaster management teams to be appointed to devise definite plans in the event of a terrorist strike at a cricket stadium./ppIndia has always prized its rotation system, retaining its 21 grounds, including some in such outlying places as Guwahati and Visakhapatnam, despite much criticism from touring sides, but those grounds that do not enthusiastically implement the new measures may find that security concerns end their status as an international venue./ppThe IPL's governing council had already begun to examine development needs at its eight stadiums, recognising that many of India's stadiums remain disgracefully underfunded for such a wealthy cricketing country. Security, by necessity, has now shot to the top of the agenda./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandcricketteam"England Cricket Team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/indianpremierleague"Indian Premier League/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/cricket"Cricket/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mumbai-terror-attacks"Mumbai terror attacks/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/91iIV3BERltue5jSAABYCuMOrJ0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/91iIV3BERltue5jSAABYCuMOrJ0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/50703?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+First+flight+reaches+Bangkok+after+airport+blockade+endsch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Thailand+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+MacKinnon%2CPeter+Walkerc7=2008_12_03c8=1127880c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Thailandc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FThailand" width="1" height="1" //divpThe first commercial flight in a week arrived at Bangkok's international airport today after anti-government protesters ended their siege following the removal of the country's prime minister./ppA Thai Airways service from the resort island of Phuket landed at Suvarnabhumi airport at 2.15pm local time. Flights to destinations around the world were due to leave later in the day, although it remained unclear when a full schedule would resume./ppThe sudden end to the protest follows a court decision yesterday that disbanded the ruling party and banned the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, from office./ppThere are likely to be further delays for the 300,000 foreign tourists stranded since the sit-in began a week ago, all but paralysing Thailand's lucrative tourist industry./ppActivists from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which had demanded Somchai quit and the government step down, also ended their occupation of Bangkok's domestic airport./ppA spokesman for the group said protesters at both sites had been told to "clean up and pack their belongings" before leaving. The PAD staged a "handover ceremony" at the international terminal. The head of Thailand's airports authority shook hands with protest leaders as activists danced to music./ppAlthough the PAD has claimed victory in forcing Somchai out, the court decision is unlikely to dramatically alter Thailand's divided political landscape./ppThe ruling raises the spectre of street violence. Government supporters angered by the judges' decision surrounded the Bangkok court and refused to allow the judiciary to leave. A few hours earlier a grenade was thrown at Bangkok's barricaded domestic terminal, Don Muang, killing one demonstrator and injuring 22./ppJudges from the constitutional court found the People Power party (PPP) and two senior coalition partners guilty of electoral fraud for vote-buying in last December's general election and barred the prime minister from office for five years. Another 59 executives from the three parties were banned from political office, among them 24 MPs who will have to resign their seats./ppImmediately after the decision to disband the PPP and the Machima Thipatai and Chart Thai parties, Somchai said he would abide by the rule of law and stand aside, describing it as "not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full-time citizen."/ppThe ruling coalition's six parties immediately said they would re-form under a new banner, which is permitted by the constitution. The PPP's surviving MPs are to join Puea Thai (For Thailand) and choose a new prime minister next week./ppThe PAD leadership embraced the court decision, perhaps grabbing an opportunity to save face and remove itself from the airport siege that has seen its backing dwindle among Thailand's metropolitan monarchist elite./pp"We have finished our duty," said the PAD leader, Sondhi Limthongkul, who had branded the government a proxy of the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "If a puppet government returns or a new government shows its insincerity in pushing for political reform, we will return."/ppThe warning and the government supporters' decision to continue their own protests against yesterday's court ruling herald the prospect of further turmoil, though both sides will stand down for King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 81st birthday celebrations in two days./pp"The divisions are so deep, it's difficult to see how it could be over," said Giles Ungpakhorn, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, who described the court ruling as a "judicial coup" to strip the PPP of power. /ppFor tourists stranded for the past week, the departure of the thousands of PAD supporters comes as a huge relief. The first cargo aircraft left Suvarnabhumi yesterday afternoon after an agreement with the PAD, helping to reduce the economic distress of lost Thai export earnings of £53m a day./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/thailand"Thailand/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4XVYg7yAMeyS2tQ2bbROLl1flFo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4XVYg7yAMeyS2tQ2bbROLl1flFo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p