With this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco complete, organizers have been collecting the event's substantial volume of visual documentation.

This volume chronicles the Game Developers Conference's expansive expo floor as well as the star-studded Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony, featuring big winner Naughty Dog (Uncharted 2), host Warren Spector, special award recipients Gabe Newell, John Carmack, and Penny Arcade, and more.

Earlier roundups from GDC -- part of the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website -- collected images from the show's many notable speaker sessions, and the Independent Games Festival Summit, Pavilion, and Awards.

Game Developers Choice Awards 2010

These photographs highlight moments and personalities from this year's Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony, drawn from the considerable official GDC photo archive.

Ceremony host Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey) sets a serious tone for the evening's proceedings.

"Now we have won all the awards," the Naughty Dog team could have said with relative accuracy, after picking up wins for Game of the Year, Best Writing, Best Technology, Best Visual Arts, and Best Audio.

Penny Arcade guys Mike Krahulik (l), Jerry Holkins (c), and Robert Khoo (r) are extremely satisfied with their Ambassador Award.

Runic Games' Travis Baldree (l) and Max Schaefer are pretty pleased with themselves for earning Torchlight the Best Debut Game award, because they've totally made video games before.

id Software's John Carmack (Doom, Rage) is an extraordinarily smart man.

"Valve's Gabe Newell (Half-Life, Portal) is one swell guy," said Chris Hecker (Spore, SpyParty) while introducing the Valve co-founder.

...and then Gabe Newell successfully trolled the entire Game Developers Conference. (The above blue screen of death was the second of three that he showed, and is part GlaDOS-ed.)

Game Developers Conference 2010 Show Floor

These pictures capture moments from the show floor as well as the surrounding conference areas.

Crytek (Far Cry, Crysis) employees explain their Germanic graphical wizardry to prospective employees -- but wait, is that a dangerous warning in the background?

Phew! Fortunately, it's the booth operated by High Voltage Software (The Conduit, The Grinder), and not a deadly electrical hazard on the GDC expo floor.

"What's that?!" exclaims a surprised GDC attendee leaving the exhibit hall. Nobody answers.

Just like the old proverb says, "Everybody wants to work for Blizzard Entertainment."

Being at a real live conference is no excuse not to spend hours tethered to your computer. (As press, we should know.)

"I'm awesome," Akira Yamaoka correctly thinks to himself as he descends into the bowels of GDC. But how even more awesome would it be if he were riding up an escalator backwards?

In keeping with tradition, the lonely bicycle man circles the GDC expo floor as the exhibitors take down their booths, signaling the end of another year's conference.

[More pictures of the Game Developers Conference as a whole, taken by Vincent Diamante, are available on the Official GDC Flickr stream. Sarcastic post-GDC captions by Chris Remo.]

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Israeli settlement building must completely stop and expressed support for an independent Palestinian state, during a visit today to the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Beautiful and comfortable apartment, which feels like a house.
Totally renovated, maintaining the typicat Style of 1900s Montreal, it is situated in the residential region of the Plateau- Mile End: one of the nicest and most visited neighbourhoods of Montreal.

With charming rooms, very well furnished with a combination of modern and antique furniture, high quality mattresses, it can comfortably accomodate 4 people, or a couple with children. A sofa bed can be used for a 5th person if so desired.

- Capacity: 2/4(5) people
- Area: 1550sf (plus 300sf deck and yard)
- Living room and study: 1 sofa, 2 armchairs, coffee table, full sized desk, HIFI, DVD and Flat Screen TV.
- Master bedroom: 1 queen bed (1,53 x 2,03 m) with independent springs, 2 night-tables, 1 chest of drawer, closet, others.
- Double Bedroom: 2 high quality twin beds, others.
- Dining room: Ample space for 6.
- Kitchen with eating area: All appliances(fridge, stove, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, electric kettle, etc.), utensils, cutlery, dishes, and other necessary items included.
- Bathroom: 6' bathtub, and washer/dryer.
- Private yard: large deck, Gas BBQ.
- Sheets, towels.
- Wireless Internet.
- Optional house cleaning service. For longterm stays, a cleaning twice a month is included in the cost.

No smoking permitted inside the apartment.

Special low season cost for 2 people: CAN$120/day, CAN$750/week, CAN$2500/month.
Special low season cost for 4 people: CAN$160/day, CAN$1000/week, CAN$2800/month.


Minimum stay is 3 days.
For more information, photos, description of the neighbourhood, please visit our web site at:
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Here's a documentary so astonishing that, for a time, I was convinced that I was being had -- that no sane filmmakers would ever attempt, much less pull off, anything this crazy. The Internet assures me that Mads Brügger and Johan Stahl's The Red Chapel, which won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, is very real indeed: that Brügger and a pair of comedian friends really did sneak into North Korea pretending to be a pro-Socialist vaudeville troupe there to engage in cultural exchange with local schoolchildren, that they really did get most of it on tape, and that they really did escape that fascist hellhole with life and limb intact. In the process, they've made a film equal parts horrifying, exhilarating and hilarious -- an epic prank on the world's most sinister dictatorship that makes Sacha Baron Cohen look like a shrinking violet in comparison.

I have an abiding fascination with North Korea, or, as it is more affectionately known, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). I think it was Christopher Hitchens who once wrote that the reason George Orwell's writing remains relevant today is that the word "Orwellian" is the only accurate descriptor of the North Korean regime -- its complete intolerance of independent thought, the elaborate false reality painstakingly constructed for its citizens, the personality cult of the Dear Leader at its center. Never mind that, as The Red Chapel informs us, the Dear Leader is personally responsible for starving countless of his own people.

Continue reading SXSW Review: The Red Chapel

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When I came to the U.S. in 1980, I was young and naïve. I used to think that corruption and ethical lapses were just a third-world ill. Eventually, I became a tech CEO and learned the harsh realities of American business. Yes, standards are much higher, and breaches are punished, but the temptations are just the same here as they are in any other country. Ethical lapses (which are a form of corruption) are quite common.  You watch stories about these on TV every other day and read about them on TechCrunch.  It was the ethical lapses of our financial institutions that threw our economy into a tailspin, and for which we are paying the price, after all.

It is best to be aware of the temptations and to prevent the lapses from occurring. As Enron, Bernie Madoff, and Lehman Brothers have shown, it’s a slippery slope. Once you start compromising your values for short-term gains, there is no turning back. Business ethics are not something you need to start worrying about when your company reaches a certain size; they need to be sewn into the fabric of your startup from the get-go. The lessons are the same for tech businesses as they are for investment banks and for third-world economies.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer researched the difference between companies that perform at high levels for extended periods and those that implode when they reach a certain size. When analyzing the spectacular failures in the recent financial meltdown, he found that:

· Of the original Forbes 100 (named in 1917), 61 had ceased to exist by 1987.  Of the remaining 39, only 18 stayed in the top 100, and their return during the period 1917 to 1987 was 20% less than that of the overall market.

· Of companies in the original Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index of 1957, only 74 remained in 1997; of these, only 12 outperformed the S&P 500 in the period 1957 to 1998.

· The average CEO tenure in the U.S. is 4.2 years, less than half the 10.5-year average in 1990.

Beer posited three core reasons for the failure of so many Wall Street firms in the fall of 2008: the firms lacked a higher purpose (in other words, they were focused on short-term gains, profits, and bonuses); they lacked a clear strategy; and they mismanaged their risk. Companies like Charles Schwab and US Bancorp were able to avoid the fallout by having a laser-like focus on customer service and on honesty and transparency. Neither company touched the subprime mortgage securitization market, because they saw it as risky and simply not the kind of business that served the company’s long-term interests.

Even outside Wall Street, companies like Cisco Systems, Southwest Airlines, and Costco Wholesale, with the strongest sense of higher purpose, achieved the greatest success. Take Costco. Wall Street analysts have long chastised Costco’s management for paying high wages and keeping employees around for a long time, because this results in higher benefits costs. But the company’s CEO, Jim Sinegal, lives by his belief that keeping good employees is strategic for Costco’s long-term success and growth. The company’s per-employee sales are considerably higher than those of key rivals such as Target and Wal-Mart; customer service at the stores is phenomenal and fast; and Costco continues to expand, both in number of warehouses and in products and services for business and consumer customers. The culture of the company flows downward from Sinegal and his focus on employees and, by extension, to customers.

One of the problems that Beer found with the failed banks was that their employees lacked the ability to “speak truth to power”. Employees felt intimidated by superiors; the institutions’ internal voice of conscience and purpose was silenced by a maniacal focus on short-term profits and whatever scheme would bring them in. The silencing of employees who sought to challenge strategy and risk-management practices likely also undermined the banks’ moral authority and emboldened those who already felt inclined to do the wrong thing. With a muted internal voice, these organizations lacked a moral compass. As a result, they drove off a cliff with astonishing speed.

The same things happen in Silicon Valley companies.  I asked management guru — and head of the CEO Institute of Yale School of Management — Jeff Sonnenfeld for his advice on how startups can sow the seeds for building a Cisco or Costco. Here is Jeff’s advice:

1)  Create a culture of openness and welcome dissent – Internal constructive critics are your best friends — too often, founders are blinded by their own enthusiasm for their creative vision and then are surrounded by sycophants, kissing up. Founders who fall out of touch rapidly lose their ethical bearings. At Intel, founder Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore did not look for sycophantic followers in selecting the brilliant, contentious, but relentlessly honest Andy Grove as their colleague and successor. Similarly, Craig Barrett and Paul Otellini have consistently fought for different points of view internally — without undermining the enterprise, and always reinforcing Intel’s self-critical core ethic.

2)  Lead by example.  The authenticity of the leader’s character is essential — if colleagues don’t believe you, they will not take needed risks on your behalf — such as training subordinates to be able to do their own jobs.  Startups are often defined by the hip clichés of VC firms, adoring press, and HR consultants — but the startups don’t really practice what they preach.

3)  Learn from immediate peers or distant models. Too often, founders atrophy because they believe that the unique quality of their business or technological mission means that they too are truly unique in leadership values.  Steve Jobs has patterned himself after Polaroid founder Ed Land — and tried to learn from Land’s strengths and weaknesses.  Henry Ford regretfully once claimed “History is bunk” but in reality revered Thomas Edison.  Michael Dell put legendary tech entrepreneur (Teledyne) and educator Dr. George Kozmetsky on his board right from the start to learn from this brilliant then septuagenarian.

4)  Recognize your own fallibility as a leader, know your limits, and beware of the myth of immortality.  Entrepreneurs often are horrified at the thought of leadership succession. The founders of great firms such as Google, Cisco, Amgen, and Microsoft have known that they would need to prepare for a day when they no longer could be the lone day-to-day internal boss, primary external ambassador, and symbolic cultural icon. The founder of the original (pre-Starbucks) coffee house chain Chock-Full-o-Nuts started his first café on Broadway 43rd Street in 1923 and was a great national success.  Sadly, sixty years later, as a dying man who had been flat on his back for two years at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he still clung to the job of leader of the enterprise, his full-time physician serving as acting president.

5)  Remember that institutional character — like a liquid cupped in your hand — is fragile; easily lost; and hard, if not impossible, to regain. Egomaniacal moves, personal grandiosity, greed, and deception create impressions that are hard to erase.  Whole Foods founder, John Mackey, sabotaged the integrity of his own exalted brand, damaging the company’s internal pride and customer admiration far more badly than any competitor could have, due to his self-inflating and his misleading “anonymous” blogging, hiding his identity through an anagram of his wife’s name, “rehodab.”

I’ll add another very important point: Establish an independent board. Venture firms often demand a majority of board seats as a condition for their investments. Conflicts invariably arise. The board begins to serve the needs of VCs and management, rather than of the company itself, which loses the independent voice to warn it not to do the wrong things. The inconvenient truth is that all board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the interests of the company, and not in their own interests. Board members must not engage in transactions in which they or their partners stand to gain. They are legally required to avoid these conflicts of interest.

Finally, remember that in business, you have to make tough choices at every juncture. Though business decisions usually have clear consequences and outcomes, ethical decisions are always hard. Making the right choice doesn’t always bring success, but ethical lapses almost always lead to failure. No matter what the consequence, doing what’s ethical and right is always the better long-term strategy.

Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

NEW YORK—The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that the combined revenue brought in by Warner, Sony, EMI, Universal, and countless independent music labels in 2009 totaled $18. “The music industry is back,” RIAA representative Doug Fowley said. “Not only was Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits CD purchased at a Knoxville, TN Borders for $12.99, but we also had two songs downloaded through iTunes, and our ringtone sales reached three.” Fowley added that as long as no one returns or exchanges the CD, the music industry would continue to be a vital and creative force in American culture.
Report: Music Industry Made $18 In 2009 | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

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[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The goodies in this edition include a 2D platformer with a clever copy and paste gimmick, a 2D action game where you attack enemies by commiting suicide, a one-button effort about the adventures of a fish with a human-like face, and an action RPG where the characters are depicted as circular dots.

Here's the highlights from the last seven days:

Game Pick: 'Jump, Copy, Paste' (Arvi Teikari, freeware)
"Jump, Copy, Paste is a 2D platformer in which you overcome obstacles by copy and pasting parts of a level to build new platforms or create a passage through a wall. Parts which are greyed out cannot be affected by your copy and paste ability, so players need to work around those areas as they collect all yellow pieces to unlock the exit door."

Game Pick: 'Siromaru' (Abaruzu, commercial indie - demo available)
"Shiromaru is a 2D action game in which you attack enemies by commiting suicide and causing a chain of explosions. The longer the chain reaction, the more extra life items appear for you to collect."

Game Pick: 'Tiny and Big' (Black Pants Studio, commercial indie - demo available)
"Tiny and Big tells the story of a thief who had stolen our hero's most valued possession - a pair of underpants. The game basically is about him trying to chase after Mr. Big who had escaped to the top of a tall mountain. Armed with a raygun and a grappling hook, you must cut pillars and solid rock to build yourself platforms to stand or jump on."

Game Pick: 'Fish Face' (Beau Blyth, freeware)
"Fish Face is a one-button arcade game with three levels to play, each taking roughly five to ten minutes to complete. Here you play as a fish that uses its buoyancy to move in and out of the water, avoiding walls or enemies that will hurt our aquatic friend on impact."

Game Pick: 'Dragondot' (Nathan McCoy, browser)
"Dragondot is an action RPG in which you play as a dragon that can only claw at its adversaries at first, but will gain new and improved abilities whenever it gains enough experience to level up."

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20236542Authors: Moseley, H. N.Journal: BMC BioinformaticsABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Stable isotope tracing with ultra-high resolution Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) can provide simultaneous determination of hundreds to thousands of metabolite isotopologue species without the need for chromatographic separation. Therefore, this experimental metabolomics methodology may allow the tracing of metabolic pathways starting from stable-isotope-enriched precursors, which can improve our mechanistic understanding of cellular metabolism. However, contributions to the observed intensities arising from the stable isotopes natural abundance must be subtracted (deisotoped) from the raw isotopologue peaks before interpretation. Previously posed deisotoping problems are sidestepped due to the isotopic resolution and identification of individual isotopologue peaks. This peak resolution and identification come from the very high mass resolution and accuracy of FT-ICR-MS and present an analytically solvable deisotoping problem, even in the context of stable-isotope enrichment. RESULTS: We present both a computationally feasible analytical solution and an algorithm to this newly posed deisotoping problem, which both work with any amount of 13C or 15N stable-isotope enrichment. We demonstrate this algorithm and correct for the effects of 13C natural abundance on a set of raw isotopologue intensities for a specific phosphatidylcholine lipid metabolite derived from a 13C-tracing experiment. CONCLUSIONS: Correction for the effects of 13C natural abundance on a set of raw isotopologue intensities is computationally feasible when the raw isotopologues are isotopically resolved and identified. Such correction makes qualitative interpretation of stable isotope tracing easier and is required before attempting a more rigorous quantitative interpretation of the isotopologue data. The presented implementation is very robust with increasing metabolite size. Error analysis of the algorithm will be straightforward due to low relative error from the implementation itself. Furthermore, the algorithm may serve as an independent quality control measure for a set of observed isotopologue intensities.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20236946Authors: Fernandes, A. D. - Gloor, G. B.Journal: BioinformaticsMOTIVATION: Mutual Information (MI) is a quantity that measures the dependence between two arbitrary random variables and has been repeatedly used to solve a wide variety of bioinformatic problems. Recently, when attempting to quantify the effects of sampling variance on computed values of MI in proteins, we encountered striking differences among various novel estimates of MI. These differences revealed that estimating the "true" value of MI is not a straightforward procedure, and minor variations of assumptions yielded remarkably different estimates. RESULTS: We describe four formally-equivalent estimates of MI, three of which explicitly account for sampling variance, that yield non-equal values of MI even given exact frequencies. These MI estimates are essentially non-predictive of each other, converging only in the limit of implausibly large data sets. Lastly, we show that all four estimates are biologically-reasonable estimates of MI, despite their disparity, since each is actually the Kullback-Leibler divergence between random variables conditioned on equally-plausible hypotheses. Conclusions: For sparse contingency tables of the type universally observed in protein coevolution studies, our results show that estimates of MI, and hence inferences about physical phenomena such as coevolution, are critically dependent on at least three prior assumptions. These assumptions are (a) how observation counts relate to expected frequencies, (b) the relationship between joint and marginal frequencies, and (c) how non-observed categories are interpreted. In any biologically-relevant data, these assumptions will affect the MI estimate as much or more-so than observed data, and are independent of uncertainty in frequency parameters. CONTACT: Andrew D. Fernandes andrew@fernandes.org.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20236517Authors: Licamele, L. - Getoor, L.Journal: BMC BioinformaticsABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: There is a large amount of gene expression data that exists in the public domain. This data has been generated under a variety of experimental conditions. Unfortunately, these experimental variations have generally prevented researchers from accurately comparing and combining this wealth of data, which still hides many novel insights. RESULTS: In this paper we present a new method, which we refer to as indirect two-sided relative ranking, for comparing gene expression profiles that is robust to variations in experimental conditions. This method extends the current best approach, which is based on comparing the correlations of the up and down regulated genes, by introducing a comparison based on the correlations in rankings across the entire database. Because our method is robust to experimental variations, it allows a greater variety of gene expression data to be combined, which, as we show, leads to richer scientific discoveries. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate the benefit of our proposed indirect method on several datasets. We first evaluate the ability of the indirect method to retrieve compounds with similar therapeutic effects across known experimental barriers, namely vehicle and batch effects, on two independent datasets (one private and one public). We show that our indirect method is able to significantly improve upon the previous state-of-the-art method with a substantial improvement in recall at rank 10 of 97.03% and 49.44%, on each dataset, respectively. Next, we demonstrate that our indirect method results in improved accuracy for classification in several additional datasets. These datasets demonstrate the use of our indirect method for classifying cancer subtypes, predicting drug sensitivity/resistance, and classifying (related) cell types. Even in the absence of a known (i.e., labeled) experimental barrier, the improvement of the indirect method in each of these datasets is statistically significant.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 18 PMID: 20237567Authors: Huang, F. - Chakraborty, P. - Lundstrom, C. C. - Holmden, C. - Glessner, J. J. - Kieffer, S. W. - Lesher, C. E.Journal: NatureThe phenomenon of thermal diffusion (mass diffusion driven by a temperature gradient, known as the Ludwig-Soret effect) has been investigated for over 150 years, but an understanding of its underlying physical basis remains elusive. A significant hurdle in studying thermal diffusion has been the difficulty of characterizing it. Extensive experiments over the past century have established that the Soret coefficient, S(T) (a single parameter that describes the steady-state result of thermal diffusion), is highly sensitive to many factors. This sensitivity makes it very difficult to obtain a robust characterization of thermal diffusion, even for a single material. Here we show that for thermal diffusion experiments that span a wide range in composition and temperature, the difference in S(T) between isotopes of diffusing elements that are network modifiers (iron, calcium and magnesium) is independent of the composition and temperature. On the basis of this finding, we propose an additive decomposition for the functional form of S(T) and argue that a theoretical approach based on local thermodynamic equilibrium holds promise for describing thermal diffusion in silicate melts and other complex solutions. Our results lead to a simple and robust framework for characterizing isotope fractionation by thermal diffusion in natural and synthetic systems.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 18 PMID: 20237565Authors: Zipkes, C. - Palzer, S. - Sias, C. - Kohl, M.Journal: NatureImproved control of the motional and internal quantum states of ultracold neutral atoms and ions has opened intriguing possibilities for quantum simulation and quantum computation. Many-body effects have been explored with hundreds of thousands of quantum-degenerate neutral atoms, and coherent light-matter interfaces have been built. Systems of single or a few trapped ions have been used to demonstrate universal quantum computing algorithms and to search for variations of fundamental constants in precision atomic clocks. Until now, atomic quantum gases and single trapped ions have been treated separately in experiments. Here we investigate whether they can be advantageously combined into one hybrid system, by exploring the immersion of a single trapped ion into a Bose-Einstein condensate of neutral atoms. We demonstrate independent control over the two components of the hybrid system, study the fundamental interaction processes and observe sympathetic cooling of the single ion by the condensate. Our experiment calls for further research into the possibility of using this technique for the continuous cooling of quantum computers. We also anticipate that it will lead to explorations of entanglement in hybrid quantum systems and to fundamental studies of the decoherence of a single, locally controlled impurity particle coupled to a quantum environment.post to: CiteULike

43 aliases, 4 kids, 89 phone lines. Among his associates are members of the Mafia, CIA, IRA and MI6. Marijuana connoisseur, school teacher, money launderer, gentleman, fugitive and spy; raconteur, travel agent, writer, philosopher of science, rock promoter, public speaker, board game appreciator and the biggest dope smuggler on the planet. He has his own website which is very ganja-friendly, and he wrote a sequel to the autobiographical book this film is based on called Senor Nice. He's also written Dope Stories, and the upcoming Tripping. He has a show on YouTube, and in the words of Rhys Ifans, "He's a folk hero in the UK, but in Wales, he's a hero."

So how do you turn a book about a (folk) hero into a film? Director Bernard Rose (Candyman, Immortal Beloved, ivansxtc) has attempted to do it with a mixture of different styles, archival stock footage, and performances from Rhys Ifans and Chloe Sevigny. Ifans might not be the first name that jumps to mind when you think historical figure, but just watch that YouTube footage above and you'll see why they went with Ifans. It would be either down to him or Geoffrey Rush. Since Ifans is Welsh, just like Marks, and had a history with the man, that casting made a lot more sense.

Gallery: SXSW: Mr. Nice

Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, SXSW, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports

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Publication Date: 2010 Mar 18 PMID: 20237563Authors: Jiang, L. - Fan, X. - Brandt, W. N. - Carilli, C. L. - Egami, E. - Hines, D. C. - Kurk, J. D. - Richards, G. T. - Shen, Y. - Strauss, M. A. - Vestergaard, M. - Walter, F.Journal: NatureThe most distant quasars known, at redshifts z approximately 6, generally have properties indistinguishable from those of lower-redshift quasars in the rest-frame ultraviolet/optical and X-ray bands. This puzzling result suggests that these distant quasars are evolved objects even though the Universe was only seven per cent of its current age at these redshifts. Recently one z approximately 6 quasar was shown not to have any detectable emission from hot dust, but it was unclear whether that indicated different hot-dust properties at high redshift or if it is simply an outlier. Here we report the discovery of a second quasar without hot-dust emission in a sample of 21 z approximately 6 quasars. Such apparently hot-dust-free quasars have no counterparts at low redshift. Moreover, we demonstrate that the hot-dust abundance in the 21 quasars builds up in tandem with the growth of the central black hole, whereas at low redshift it is almost independent of the black hole mass. Thus z approximately 6 quasars are indeed at an early evolutionary stage, with rapid mass accretion and dust formation. The two hot-dust-free quasars are likely to be first-generation quasars born in dust-free environments and are too young to have formed a detectable amount of hot dust around them.post to: CiteULike

Ah, leave it to The Onion to successfully encapsulate the state of the recording industry with a report that is basically as accurate as most of the reports that come out of the RIAA these days: The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that the combined revenue brought in by Warner, Sony, EMI, Universal, and countless independent music labels in 2009 totaled $18. "The music industry is back," RIAA representative Doug Fowley said. "Not only was Kenny Chesney's Greatest Hits CD purchased at a Knoxville, TN Borders for $12.99, but we also had two songs downloaded through iTunes, and our ringtone sales reached three." Fowley added that as long as no one returns or exchanges the CD, the music industry would continue to be a vital and creative force in American culture.

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In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from SCEA Santa Monica, WB Games and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Gameloft: 3D Graphics Programmer
"As a member of our engineering team you will be part of the full development cycle of 3D video games for iPhone from start to finish, primarily focusing on 3D graphics. Duties could include: Analyze existing 3D functions in the engine and adapt them so they are compatible with current conventions; Support 3D functions and systems conceived for the production; Work with Game Developers, as well as Design teams to determine the different constraints of the game and put all the elements together."

Guerrilla Games: Senior Game Designer
"Guerrilla Games is looking to add a battle-hardened Senior Game Designer to its ranks for an upcoming project. If you're recruited, you will play a pivotal role in formulating the game design and guarding the game's vision. You will also act as a mentor, problem solver and source of bravery and inspiration for your fellow troops."

Rockstar North: Graphics Programmer
"Rockstar North, one of the world's leading video game developers, is a community of creative individuals from a variety of backgrounds. We are based in Scotland out of modern, spacious, purpose-built studios at the heart of Edinburgh. We develop original game titles and are proud to be the developer of the phenomenally successful Grand Theft Auto series. Rockstar North has been part of the Rockstar family since 1999."

Sony Computer Entertainment America Santa Monica: Senior Combat Designer
"Join the God of War team! Be a part of the most exciting and innovating computer entertainment in North America. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) markets the PlayStationÂ@ family of products and develops, publishes, markets, and distributes software for the PS oneâ„¢ console, the PlayStationÂ@2 and PlayStationÂ@3 computer entertainment systems and the PlayStation Portable (PSPâ„¢)."

WB Games: Art Development Director
"The Art Development Director develops art content staffing plans and monitors resource load and schedule for the external outsource teams as well as the insourced teams. In addition, he or she monitors content creation tasks in collaboration with production staff and art leads handling communication and feedback between the external partners and the internal game teams."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20237280Authors: Lindberg, P. G. - Feydy, A. - Maier, M. A.Journal: J NeurosciDiffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to elucidate relations between CNS structure and function. We hypothesized that the degree of spinal white matter organization relates to the accuracy of control of grip force. Healthy subjects of different age were studied using DTI and visuomotor tracking of precision grip force. The latter is a prime component of manual dexterity. A regional analysis of spinal white matter [fractional anisotropy (FA)] across multiple cervical levels (C2-C3, C4-C5, and C6-C7) and in different regions of interest (left and right lateral or medial spinal cord) was performed. FA was highest at the C2-C3 level, higher on the right than the left side, and higher in the lateral than in the medial spinal cord (p < 0.001). FA of whole cervical spinal cord (C2-C7) was lower in subjects with high tracking error (r = -0.56, p = 0.004) and decreased with age (r = -0.63, p = 0.001). A multiple regression analysis revealed an independent contribution of each predictor (semipartial correlations: age, r = -0.55, p < 0.001; tracking error, r = -0.49, p = 0.003). The closest relation between FA and tracking error was found at the C6-C7 level in the lateral spinal cord, in which the corticospinal tract innervates spinal circuitry controlling hand and digit muscles. FA of the medial spinal cord correlated consistently with age across all cervical levels, whereas FA of the lateral spinal cord did not. The results suggest (1) a functionally relevant specialization of lateral spinal cord white matter and (2) an increased sensitivity to age-related decline in medial spinal cord white matter in healthy subjects.post to: CiteULike

The Penny Arcade Expo is mixing things up a bit for its inaugural east coast occurrence -- the annual showcase of independent games will now focus on local flavors. According to an update on the PAX East site, the Boston Indie Showcase (which attendees can spot on the show floor at Booth 117) will offer six games the chance to be prominently displayed at a major gaming event without "eating into their elusive indie budgets."

Here's a list of the games which made the cut, along with links to additional info.

• Slam Bolt Scrappers - Fire Hose Games
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - Dejobaan Games
• Dearth - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Waker - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Turba - Keith Morgado
• Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch

Boston Indie Showcase participants selected for PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Penny Arcade Expo is mixing things up a bit for its inaugural east coast occurrence -- the annual showcase of independent games will now focus on local flavors. According to an update on the PAX East site, the Boston Indie Showcase (which attendees can spot on the show floor at Booth 117) will offer six games the chance to be prominently displayed at a major gaming event without "eating into their elusive indie budgets."

Here's a list of the games which made the cut, along with links to additional info.

• Slam Bolt Scrappers - Fire Hose Games
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - Dejobaan Games
• Dearth - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Waker - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Turba - Keith Morgado
• Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch

Boston Indie Showcase participants selected for PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 18 PMID: 20237562Authors: Lin, H. K. - Chen, Z. - Wang, G. - Nardella, C. - Lee, S. W. - Chan, C. H. - Yang, W. L. - Wang, J. - Egia, A. - Nakayama, K. I. - Cordon-Cardo, C. - Teruya-Feldstein, J. - Pandolfi, P. P.Journal: NatureCellular senescence has been recently shown to have an important role in opposing tumour initiation and promotion. Senescence induced by oncogenes or by loss of tumour suppressor genes is thought to critically depend on induction of the p19(Arf)-p53 pathway. The Skp2 E3-ubiquitin ligase can act as a proto-oncogene and its aberrant overexpression is frequently observed in human cancers. Here we show that although Skp2 inactivation on its own does not induce cellular senescence, aberrant proto-oncogenic signals as well as inactivation of tumour suppressor genes do trigger a potent, tumour-suppressive senescence response in mice and cells devoid of Skp2. Notably, Skp2 inactivation and oncogenic-stress-driven senescence neither elicit activation of the p19(Arf)-p53 pathway nor DNA damage, but instead depend on Atf4, p27 and p21. We further demonstrate that genetic Skp2 inactivation evokes cellular senescence even in oncogenic conditions in which the p19(Arf)-p53 response is impaired, whereas a Skp2-SCF complex inhibitor can trigger cellular senescence in p53/Pten-deficient cells and tumour regression in preclinical studies. Our findings therefore provide proof-of-principle evidence that pharmacological inhibition of Skp2 may represent a general approach for cancer prevention and therapy.post to: CiteULike

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We're reprinting this review from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival to coincide with the VOD release of Lovers of Hate today.

By: Erik Davis

Lovers of Hate is built around a gimmick that you either buy into or you don't. A colleague had suggested that the film feels like one Hollywood would buy just to remake it with more well known actors, because the premise is one that you'd so expect to find splattered across the next Will Ferrell movie. That's not to say the actors in this version are horrible at what they do; they're not. Nor is writer-director Brian Poyser (Dear Pillow), who, in a very emotional moment prior to the film's premiere, said that it was dedicated to his father who passed away one week after it was accepted to Sundance. Poyser definitely has an eye for the strange, uncomfortable comedy, and when things are strange and comfortable, Lovers of Hate really slips into the type of film you want to high five. However, its slower moments and refusal to fully commit to a particular tone drops it down a few notches, but not enough to skip it all together.

Rudy is a disheveled loser who's sleeping in his car and stalking his ex-wife hoping that maybe -- just maybe -- she'll forget, forgive and take one more shot at what once was a successful and meaningful relationship. Problem is, Rudy is a complete mess -- and part of this may have to do with the fact that his younger brother kinda-sorta stole his thunder by becoming filthy rich off the Harry Potter-like story Rudy used to entertain him with when he was a kid. Now, all grown up, Rudy's brother Paul is a hero novelist who has everything he could ever want, while Rudy is the exact opposite and a sorry excuse for a man. When Paul learns of Rudy's crumbling marriage and invites his brother's ex-wife Diana out to a fancy mountain cabin to "talk things over", the film's central storyline -- which involves one of the most awkward, uncomfortable love triangles I've ever seen -- soon kicks into high gear, and that's when Lovers of Hate turns into a film you either love or you hate.

Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Home Entertainment

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Today I am pleased to announce two fantastic opportunities for two enthusiastic, motivated and energetic folks to come and join my team for a six month internship. You will join Daniel Holbach, Jorge Castro, and David Planella as team-mates and report to myself as honorary horse-folk, working on awesome solutions to help make Ubuntu an ever more compelling community to be a part of.

This is a fantastic opportunity to work inside a fast-paced, collaborative environment, solving important problems, working with awesome colleagues and adding Canonical as a rocking reference to your resume.

Before we get to the details about the roles, I want to be clear on a few general elements:

• These are internships: they are are not normal full roles.
• Like most internships, these roles are unpaid.
• Each role lasts for six months.
• Working hours are Mon – Fri from 9am – 6pm.

I want to be clear that my team is a fast-paced, hard-working, hectic environment. I am going to work you hard, and you should expect that, but my goal here is to help you squeeze every ounce of opportunity out of your internship. We will have 1-on-1 weekly calls, I will help guide you on what to work on, help you manage your work, solve problems, and be effective in your projects. In other words: when you sign up for your internship, expect a solid six month adventure, but an adventure that will sow the seeds for many great opportunities in the future.

So, I am looking for two roles:

• Ubuntu Community Documentation Author (Internship)
• Ubuntu Community Web Developer (Internship)

Let’s take a look at the job descriptions:

Ubuntu Community Documentation Author (Internship)

Job Title: Ubuntu Community Documentation Author (Internship)

Reports to: Ubuntu Community Manager

Job Location: Home with some travel engagements.

Job Summary: To produce documentation and online materials for the Ubuntu community and new contributors.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities:

• Produce a series of well-written and clear materials about a range of different topics in the Ubuntu community surrounding how to participate.
• Make these materials available on line and ensuring they follow style and quality guidelines.
• Work with the Ubuntu Documentation Team, Learning Team and Ubuntu Manual project to liaise around collaboration and best practise for materials production.
• Promote and raise awareness of this documentation inside and outside the Ubuntu community.
• Identify common needs and requirements for materials, prioritize them and build them into your workflow.
• REQUIREMENTS

Specific Job Skills: Excellent writing skills, strong networking and social networking skills, good relationship building abilities, process driven, able to manage multiple work streams, good prioritisation, independent, willing to travel potentially 25% of their work time, and able to resolve conflict.

Experience: Experience of working with community in Ubuntu and Open Source projects, experience of the upstream/distributor relationship, technical experience.

Key Qualities: Have strong social skills, a good networker and a good technical knowledge of Ubuntu and the Open Source and upstream/downstream development process. Candidates should be process driven, strategically minded and committed. Competent visual design and artistic talent is highly desirable. Other: Candidates should provide evidence of existing experience and work in the Open Source community and suitable references.

Ubuntu Community Web Developer (Internship)

Job Title: Ubuntu Community Web Developer (Internship)

Reports to: Ubuntu Community Manager

Job Location: Home with some travel engagements.

Job Summary: To design and develop web functionality across a range of Ubuntu community infrastructure web properties.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities:

• In conjunction with the team and the community, design new features and solutions for specific needs in our key web properties.
• Develop and implement such features and solutions using a range of appropriate tools.
• Provide solid testing and quality assurance over your work during the development phase and before deployment.
• Triage, fix and deploy bug fixes.
• Work with the community to collaborate together on projects and solutions.
• Report your progress to the team and the wider community.
• Be responsive to changing needs, emergency fixes and feature requests and be reactive to a range of different customers.
• Requirements

Specific Job Skills: Excellent web development skills (Python, Django, PHP, HTML, CSS and Database experience are a must), good experience of Launchpad, Bazaar and Ubuntu community infrastructure, strong networking and social networking skills, process driven, able to manage multiple work streams, good prioritisation, independent, willing to travel potentially 25% of their work time, and able to resolve conflict.

Experience: Experience of working on collaborative web development projects in Python, Django and PHP, strong development experience over a range of projects, experience of working with community in Ubuntu and Open Source projects. Key Qualities: Excellent developer, strong social skills, a good networker and a good technical knowledge of Ubuntu and the Open Source and upstream/downstream development process. Candidates should be process driven, strategically minded and committed. Competent visual design and artistic talent is highly desirable.

Other: Candidates should provide evidence of existing experience and work in the Open Source community and suitable references.

How To Apply

If you are interested in applying for these roles do not contact me directly, you should follow these steps:

• Ensure you have a recent, up to date resume (in PDF or OpenOffice.org format) that outlines your experience, education, your community achievements, technical background and information about your interests and ambitions.
• Send an email to alice.paul AT canonical DOT com with the subject Community Team Internship Application and the following details:

• Specify which role you are interested in.
• Your resume attached.
• A few paragraphs about why you would like to have the role.

Good luck and I will speak to some of you soon in an interview!

would love to meet you for a drink...tease and taunt you subtly....haunt you with my gaze...expose you a quick sighting of my lingerie strap....kill you with charm

you are extremely handsome, sexy, clever, and with some kind of great style (no bobos, pls) . a good sense of humor is nice too

if we click, we can go back somewhere and i'll show you the possibilities of my sensual nature ;-)

be cool, safe, sane, and passionate in all the good ways though....i am

x

What the crap? A French comic? Are the French even allowed to make comics? Aren't they too busy being snooty and smoking Gauloises and wearing inappropriate swimwear? Where do they find the time to make comics, anyway?*

Well, the French can do all those things as long as they keep making comics this good, I tell ya. West Coast Blues is a cracking good crime comic, not really noir but definitely a tale of bad people doing bad things to each other. It's also, oddly enough, very wryly humorous, in a way we don't often see in crime comics here in the States. It was a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette in 1976, and in 2005, Manchette's old collaborator, Jacques Tardi, finally adapted it to comics (and then Kim Thompson translated it into English). Presumably, had DC's association with Humanoids continued, this would have been a DC book. As it is, Fantagraphics has published it in the States. Good for them!

The plot is deceptively simple, as for most of the book, we have no idea what's going and Manchette simply follows his main character around. We begin in the present with George Gerfaut, cruising around in his Mercedes in the middle of the night listening to West Coast style jazz (hence the name of the book - George digs the jazz!). After a few pages, we're introduced to another man, Alonso Emerich y Emerich, a Dominican of German descent who used to be in military intelligence. We have, initially, no idea what his purpose is, because we quickly get back to George, who is passed by two cars, one chasing the other. The first car crashes, the second car takes off, and George helps the first driver to the hospital. Then he returns to his house. A few days later, his family heads out on vacation. It takes us a few pages to realize that this is happening in time well before the opening scene, because Manchette doesn't give us any indication that we've flashbacked. That's okay, though - the transition between the "present" and the "past" is interesting because Manchette links them through George driving late at night. While we may be a bit lost initially, we quickly regain our footing.

George doesn't realize he's being tailed by two hitmen in the employ of Alonso, who goes by Mr. Taylor. Again, we don't know why they want to kill George (we can figure out it has something to do with the driver of the car, but we don't know what), but that's part of the fun. Because as the follow George to the seaside, the plot kicks into high gear. It's rather humorous - the hitmen can't kill George. Through, really, very little effort on his part, he manages to elude them. In their first attempt, he manages to grab one of the killer's balls, which of course tends to put him off. This attempt switches something on in George, and he abandons his wife and returns to Paris. The killers can never quite catch up with him, and when they do, he escapes again, killing one of them almost accidentally. Then he flees into the forest and ends up in the foothills of the Alps, where he's found by a slightly eccentric woodsman. And he simply stays there. He becomes someone else completely, learning how to be self-sufficient, hooking up with a woman, and changing his appearance by growing a beard. But the second killer tracks him down, and George ends up back in the world, ready to find out exactly why these two men were sent to kill him.

The fascinating thing about this story is the character of George. Actually, Carlo and Bastien, the two hitmen, are pretty interesting as well, but George is the central character, so he ought to be fascinating. As I pointed out, he doesn't escape from the killers because he's tougher than they are; he might be a bit smarter, but he's also really lucky. Manchette doesn't make it a ridiculous, corny kind of luck, but he does show that George happens to do things that throw them off the track without knowing he's doing it. This makes the pursuit rather odd and darkly humorous. The book is full of violent death, and it's definitely not a comedy, but just the fact that these two professional killers have such a tough time blowing away this rather inept sales manager makes it border on the surreal. Then, we think the book will be about George becoming more of an independent dude and less of a simpering whiner, as he's forced to live in the wild for so many months. But Manchette doesn't quite give us that, either. George is a complicated guy who realizes certain things about the way society is structured but still yearns for other things. By the end of the book, we're back on the freeway, but Manchette has made us see that George has changed, just maybe not enough that we would expect. West Coast Blues is, in my mind, very "European" in that regard - this is a broad generalization, but Europeans are more bound by history, both societal and personal, than Americans, so if this book had been written by a Yankee, it probably would have ended much, much differently. That it doesn't is a testament, I think, to Manchette's storytelling - he never takes the easy way out, even if George's fate might seem like he does. George has been affected by what happens to him, but in not so overt (American?) way.

Tardi's art is quite stellar, as well. He's amazingly detailed, but he doesn't pull any tricks on the reader - his work is very straight forward. He relies on very strong storytelling skills, as he simply takes us through George's story. We get a great sense of place from Tardi, either in the urban settings or, even more impressively, in the rural interlude George experiences. Tardi does masterful work with the characters, too - they look and move like people, stumbling when you might expect it, breaking bones when you'd expect it, acting like human beings. His best work might be with Carlo and Bastien, as George remains very low-key throughout (except for one brief scene). Carlo and Bastien, however, have a fun relationship, and Tardi helps with it. Manchette gives them good banter, but Tardi manages to portray their care for each other even as he keeps their faces impassive. It's a very verbose comic, but Tardi matches Manchette with panels that demand a great deal of attention - this is a visual feast as well as a literary one.

I suppose the only problem one might have with the book is its somewhat excessive narration, because often Manchette simply tells us what the pictures already do (and Tardi adapted it to comics, so why he didn't cut some more of it is beyond me). Occasionally, the narration is absurdly excellent - when Manchette lists all the weapons Carlo and Bastien have in their car, for instance, it's a comic mini-masterpiece - but occasionally, we can tell exactly what's going on and don't need to be told. Again, this is a comic adapted from a book into French and then translated into English, so there are many filters for it to go through. I don't have too big an issue with the words, but I should caution you that it feels bloated every once in a while.

Other than that, West Coast Blues is a very good crime comic. The fact that it has a slightly different sensibility than most American crime fiction makes it refreshing, and the fact that Manchette has a wry sense of humor about the material works well, too. And it looks great. And Ed Brubaker thinks Tardi is great. Dare you go against Ed Brubaker????

* Before you jump my shit, I'm joking. I am well aware of the long French tradition of comics, and cut my teeth on Asterix and Obelix before I had even heard of the X-Men when I was but a lad. Chillax, people!

Next: Can it be more Tardi? Well, of course it can!

Filed under: Motorsports, Hatchback, Volkswagen, UK, Racing

AmD Milltek Racing Volkswagen Golf touring car - Click above for image gallery
Touring car racing is big business overseas. Think of it as European stock cars and you've got an idea of the fan base. And while there's a World Touring Car Championship, it's the individual national series that draw the most attention: series like DTM in Germany, Australia's V8 Supercars, Italy's Superstars series, and this, the British Touring Car Championship.

The UK series dates back for decades, and has attracted the participation of many of the world's biggest automakers. Now, for the first time in ten years, a Volkswagen will be competing in the series. Prepared by AmD Milltek Racing, this VW Golf will be dicing it with the likes of the BMW 320si, Vauxhall Vectra, Seat Leon and Honda Civic Type R for the glory as an independent entry. (In fact most - if not all - of the entries are now privateers since the major manufacturers packed up shop.)

The Golf touring car was brought over under the new S2000 rules from the Baltic Touring Car Championship - one of the more obscure series in the discipline - and modified by Milltek before recently undergoing a shakedown at Brands Hatch where the team is based. The car was driven, as it will be throughout the season, by the team's managing director Shaun Hollamby, whose past experience had him competing in the Volkswagen Cup and directing the television department for Formula One Management.

Gallery: AmD Milltek Racing Volkswagen Golf touring car

[Source: AmD Milltek Racing via JonSibal.com]

AmD Milltek Racing brings the Volkswagen Golf back to the British Touring Car Championship originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The e-book war between Amazon.com and Apple is
getting uglier. Dennis Johnson cites a report in Publishers Marketplace (subscription required) that alleges that Amazon.com is telling publishers that if they switch to an agency model (ala Macmillan) , they will lose Amazon as a platform for both e-books and print.

This battle, which in many ways mirrors similar struggles between record labels and online music stores, underscores some of the challenges that moving into widespread digital distribution for a formerly non-digital product can bring.

The Agency Model Conundrum

Recently, Macmillian’s CEO John Sargent explained the agency model, as it relates to e-book sales, in his blog:

“Starting at the end of March, we will move from the ‘retail model’ of selling e-books (publishers sell to retailers, who then sell to readers at a price that the retailer determines) to the ‘agency model’ (publishers set the price, and retailers take a commission on the sale to readers).”

In other words, Macmillan wants to be able to control how much digital books are sold for on a per-book basis. Much like music publishers fought (and eventually won) the right to sell certain digital tracks or digital albums for more (or less, in some cases) than the $0.99 per track/$9.99 per album standard, publishers want that same control.

Amazon disagrees. And while it did acquiesce to Macmillan’s position at the end of January, it apparently has no plans of making those same concessions for future publishers.

In the Publishers Marketplace report, Michael Cader writes:

“At least one independent publisher of scale was told categorically by Amazon in a recent phone call initiated by the retailer that Amazon would not negotiate agency selling terms with any other publishers outside of the five initial Apple partners. This publisher was told that if they switched to an agency model for e-books, Amazon would stop selling their entire list, in print and digital form. In conversation, Amazon is said to have reiterated that as matter of policy they are declining to negotiate an agency model with any publisher outside of the five who have already announced agreements with Apple’s iBookstore.”

In other words, the agreements that have been made with the five publishers signed to work with Apple — Macmillan, Harper Collins, Penguin, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster — will not be passed on to smaller publishers.

It seems even the agreement with the other four publishers outside of Macmillan (known as Agency Four) isn’t set in stone.

Cader also writes:

“The indications are that if the Agency Four have not finalized new digital sales agreements with Amazon prior to the launch of Apple’s iPad, they could face delisting from direct sale at Amazon, as Macmillan did.”

Translation: If those publishers don’t finalize a new digital agreement with Amazon before the launch of the iPad, they risk being removed from Amazon.com

Amazon Is Biggest Now, But For How Long?

Because it is both the biggest seller of e-books and print books, Amazon has enormous power in the publishing industry. However, it’s unclear how long it will be able to play hardball with publishers, especially as formidable competitors like Apple (with iTunes) and Google emerge.

Apple, interestingly, held a reverse stance with music executives for many years before finally changing course in January of 2009 with the introduction of variable pricing. However, one reason Apple was able to exert so much influence over record labels pricing was because until Amazon launched its service (again, Amazon took the reverse approach with music, letting publishers set variable pricing for tracks and albums), there was no real competitor in the digital music space.

Amazon isn’t quite as lucky. First, e-books have been around for years and are available in a variety of formats from a variety of different storefronts. In fact, Amazon sold digital books long before it introduced the Kindle.

The e-book market has evolved much more quickly than the digital music space, which leaves less wiggle room for retailers, like Amazon, to exert pressure.

However, make no mistake, for smaller publishers, the risk of losing listings on Amazon.com is still probably a big enough threat to have an effect.

We’ll keep following this situation as it develops.

[via John Gruber]

Reviews: Google

Tags: amazon, apple, business, ebook price war, ebooks, ipad, Kindle, Macmillan

At least one independent publisher of scale was told categorically by Amazon...

Organisée à San Francisco du 9 au 13 mars, la Game Developers Conference a fermé ses portes, et avec elle la douzième édition du festival des jeux indépendants (Independent Games Festival, ou IGF, en anglais). Après avoir révélé Braid, World of Goo ou encore Blueberry Garden les années précéden...

Following the Congressional Budget Office's score of the health care reform reconciliation package, Fox News has attempted to portray the nonpartisan CBO as untrustworthy and unreliable. By contrast, after the CBO gave a "favorable" score to the GOP health care plan, Fox praised the office as "nonpartisan" and advanced false GOP claims about the CBO's findings.

Fox News does damage control, attempts to portray CBO as untrustworthy and unreliable

 Beck mocks CBO score of health care reform: "Well, that's a party in my pants." On the March 18 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck, Beck asked, "How would the CBO numbers even make any difference? You know, 'Only 900 and' -- what is it -- '$954 billion.' Ooh. Well, that's a party in my pants. Thank you for sending that one by. How does that make a difference?"

 Doocy: "[C]an you really rely on the numbers that the Congressional Budget Office comes out with?" On the March 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy claimed, "Democrats say it will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over the first decade." After guest host Dana Perino responded by saying, "Well, but there are other members who say that it actually will cost $2.4 trillion over the 10 years once you add it all up," Doocy asked, "Because, can you really rely on the numbers that the Congressional Budget Office comes out with?"

 Perino: "[C]an we trust these numbers?" Introducing an interview with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) on the same edition of Fox & Friends, Perino said, "Nine hundred and forty billion dollars over the next decade. That's the preliminary price tag for the Democrats' health care bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It also says the plan will cut the federal deficit by $130 billion in that time, but can we trust these numbers?" Weiner said the score "came out really better than we thought it would. It was a great savings number, and so the deficit hawks now have things that they can point at and say, 'You know what? This really does save money." Perino then asked him, "But do you think ... that those numbers can be trusted later on?"

 Johnson Jr.: "I don't expect or anticipate that their numbers are real." On the same edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said that the "average person" would say, "[I]f a plan costs $940 billion, tell me how I'm saving 130 billion. So it doesn't make any sense." Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. then noted that Perino had asked, "Do we really trust these numbers?" and claimed that "if you read carefully the latest CBO things, they say, 'Well, we don't usually project out another 10 years.' And there's so many variables and so many wiggle words that I don't expect or anticipate that their numbers are real." He later said, "I think we're being spun."

 Hannity calls CBO score "budgetary gimmicks and tricks." On the March 18 edition of Fox News' Hannity, host Sean Hannity called the CBO score of the health care bill reflected "budgetary gimmicks and tricks" and said that it is "[f]lat-out dishonest" that the score didn't contain separate legislation that cancels scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. After guest Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) claimed "the only way that [Democrats] pay for those additions is to reduce seniors' health care benefits on their Medicaid or raise taxes," Hannity responded, "[W]hy would the CBO not highlight this to give a truly educational, informational, you know, scoring of this to the American people?"

 Hemmer asks Juan Williams "do you believe" the CBO long-range forecast. On the March 18 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Fox News contributor Juan Williams called the CBO score a "deal-maker" because it will "reassure those independents and, by extension, those Democrats that have been on the fence because they are deficit hawks" because of the deficit reduction. Co-host Bill Hemmer then said to Williams, "That's 20 years out. You've lived in Washington a long time. Do you believe that?"

 Fox Nation headline: "CBO Score Called a 'Lie.' " On March 18, Fox Nation posted a National Review article under the headline "CBO Score Called a 'Lie.' " From Fox Nation:

By contrast, Fox News touted "favorable" CBO score of the GOP health care bill

 Fox's Shively touted "favorable" CBO report on GOP health care bill and advanced false GOP claim that GOP plan would lower premiums more than Democrats' plan. On the November 5, 2009, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, contributor Caroline Shively adopted the GOP spin by reporting, "Now, on the other side of the aisle, Republicans have gotten favorable reports from the Congressional Budget Office on the cost of their health care bill. GOP lawmakers say that means premiums for millions of families will be almost $5,000 lower under their plan, compared to the cheapest plan in the Democrats' exchange." In fact, the $5,000 difference Shively cited ignored premium caps in the House Democrats' plan. As Media Matters for America has noted, because the Democrats' health care bill provides premium caps on a sliding scale based on income, the lowest amount that a family would have to pay in premiums is significantly less than the GOP alternative.

America's Newsroom attributes Republican talking point to CBO. On the November 5 edition of America's Newsroom, host Martha McCallum claimed, "The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is saying that the Republican bill ... will carry lower costs for Americans. The CBO estimates that health insurance premiums would be nearly $5,000 cheaper under the Republican reforms than the Democratic ones." In fact, the CBO never made that claim. The comparison was based on calculations done by Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee. From America's Newsroom:

Fox & Friends report obscures that GOP plan wouldn't cover uninsured, wouldn't significantly lower premiums, would reduce deficit less than Democrats' plan. Shively's Fox & Friends report ignored that the GOP plan would not cover most uninsured Americans. Shively also did not report that the CBO estimates indicate that House Democrats' bill lowers the deficit more than the GOP's proposal.