With the economy in continuing decline, keeping track of your money is more important than ever. These financial apps for Google Android help count every penny.

object width="380" height="310"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9k38Wb8kIHchl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9k38Wb8kIHchl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="380" height="310"/embed/object/embed br /iNew York -/i Most television executives have come to realize that advertisers, in the coming years, will put more and more money into online media where they can be guaranteed a captive, engaged audience, with an intention to buy. While still making billions of dollars from selling 30-second spots, how do you make sure you don’t trade analog dollars for digital pennies? Will TV networks that do not free up their programming and move to a digital platform find themselves the prime-time equivalent of Kodak’s 35 mm film business? Watch these exclusive interviews with two top industry analysts, IBM's Bill Serrao (above) and Accenture's David Wolf (below), from DMW’s a href="http://www.televisionconference.com/east/" target="_blank"Future of Television Forum East/a and note how differently they approach the subject of performance guarantees for television advertisers. Also don't miss the video of their presentations at the event as well as a great panel on the future of television advertising (embedded below). pa href="http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/12/01/dmw-vlog%3A-are-performance-guarantees-future-television-advertising%3F"read more/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=V8dvO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=V8dvO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=CXlro"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=CXlro" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=LljYo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=LljYo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=kXEBO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=kXEBO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=zWcFo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=zWcFo" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dmwmedia/~4/471800305" height="1" width="1"/

It's a thorny dilemma, both legally and morally -- fittingly, the kind of story that, were it turned into a movie, might win a couple Oscars itself. The question is this: Does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have the legal right to buy back an Oscar winner's statuette if he or she (or his or her heirs) decides to get rid of it? What if the Oscar winner wants to sell it at auction and donate the money to charity? Can the Academy in good conscience demand return of the statuette and deprive the charity of those funds? See? Thorny!

For Academy Award winners since 1950, the legalities are fairly uncomplicated. The minute you win the sucker, you have to sign a contract saying that if you or your heirs ever decide you don't want the trophy anymore, the Academy has the right to buy it back for $10. That's the Academy's way of preventing the devaluation of the statuette. If any old schmo with a few hundred thousand dollars could "win" an Oscar at Jack Nicholson's garage sale, the prize would lose all meaning. As it is, of course, winning an Oscar is the single greatest achievement that a human being can ever hope to accomplish -- and the Academy wants to keep it that way.

The issue that's about to go before a Los Angeles judge and jury is what should happen to the best actress Oscar that Mary Pickford won for 1929's Coquette. (That's Pickford and the troublesome trophy in the picture.) The Academy didn't have the first-dibs rule back then -- but when Pickford won an honorary Oscar in 1976, she signed the agreement, and the Academy says that contract was retroactive to include her earlier trophy, too.

Filed under: Classics, Celebrities and Controversy

Continue reading Who Owns Mary Pickford's Oscar?

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pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=492411ec14b9b9e500c14c35maxX=140maxY=157" border="0" alt="Rosenblatt.jpg" title="Rosenblatt.jpg" width="140" height="157" /After three rounds of polling the results are in: Readers say Yahoo (YHOO) should hire David Rosenblatt for its next CEO./p pRosenblatt is the guy who cut costs while building revenues at DoubleClick before selling it to Google (GOOG) for $3.1 billion. He beat out Google's head of sales Tim Armstrong and former AOL CEO Jon Miller in our final round of voting./p pWe haven't heard from Rosenblatt about whether he'd even take the job, but we decided to collect recommendations to send to Yahoo's board anyway./p pWe started with another former CEO of DoubleClick, cofounder Kevin Ryan, who also happens to work in our office as SAI chairman. Kevin loves the idea of Rosenblatt-run Yahoo. He gave us five reasons why:/p ul listrongHe's experienced./strong Rosenblatt successfully managed an Internet company with more than 1,000 employees./li listrongHe owns the niche/strong. DoubleClick wasn't just a tech company and it wasn't just an advertising company. It was both -- like Yahoo.br //li listrongHe can cut and grow Yahoo at the same time/strong. At DoubleClick, Rosenblatt cut headcount from 2,000 to 1,000 between 2001 and 2003. br //li listrongHe can cut emand/em grow/strong. While selling off businesses DoubleClick needed to get out of, Rosenblatt managed to increase its revenues anyway. /li listrongHe's new./strong Yahoo needs someone who isn't responsible -- and isn't interested in defending -- past decisions./li /ul pCurrent DoubleClick/Google employees crush on Rosenblatt, too. One told me: "There is nothing not to love about him. [Rosenblatt taking the Yahoo CEO gig] would be great for him. Huge loss for us."/p pA few readers told us why they chose Rosenblatt:/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"David Rosenblatt is a incredibly smart and an amazing manager; he turned Doubleclick around and was behind the entire sale to Google. He is far and away the best man for the job. Yahoo would be crazy to let him get away.../p p style="padding-left: 30px;"Rosenblatt's banking connections prob facilitate another deal with MSFT quickly./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"DR!!! Worked for him. Smart guy, understands the business and surrounds himself with strong people./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"David R. Thats what people at DCLK call him. A great CEO worked with him, even played basketball with him (he was part of the DCLK b'ball team) in the league in nyc. A great competitor./p pOne reader composed a list of ten reason while Rosenblatt will get the job:/p ol /ol ul listrongTurned around DoubleClick as CEO/strong, gave it a rebirth and sold to Google for 5x in less than 2 years /li listrongUnlike the AOL guys/strong, has had a history of success in the online business-- success follows people and breeds more success... /li listrongIs not a homegrown, loyal Google guy/strong like [Tim Armstrong] and would probably leave /li listrongHas seen the insides of Google/strong, whose organization is most likely factorial worse than Yahoo only masked by the 1 phenomenal revenue stream /li liProbably strongmade 95% of his DCLK acquisition money already/strong-- time to diversify! /li liAs President of Display, hestrong will always be the step child to the search guys [at Google]/strong/li listrongIs highly ethical /strong/li listrongIs a technologist/strong who gets the advertising space, exactly what Yahoo! needs with its open strategy and apt platform /li listrongIs smart/strong-- street smarts combined with cognitive intelligences (Yale and Stanford MBA) /li listrongIs respected/strong in the industry-- advertisers, publishers, agencies AND investors./li /ul ol /olol /ol pstrongSee Also:/stronga href="../../2008/11/everyone-s-pick-for-yahoo-ceo"br /Everyone's Pick For Yahoo CEO/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4zt7XM_vpDBmh85ttOKHmSNvYJs/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4zt7XM_vpDBmh85ttOKHmSNvYJs/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=D0bUDPYe"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=D0bUDPYe" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Pr6CfhiZ"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=pIbLDVG7"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=zQnmYJfS"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=zQnmYJfS" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=dfbfibW6"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=klli2NRD"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=UYXhozwm"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=KpetsAd1"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/mzjYG0vX3dc" height="1" width="1"/

So I might buy an iPhone 3G on PAYG (Uk)
I will get enough money by January, but should I wait for the July update, or just buy it because the updates might not be amazing?

pemimg align="left" src="http://www.techdirt.com/images/ic-bauble.png" alt="ic" / This is a case from the Insight Community, a powerful new marketplace that connects companies with intelligent communities like Techdirt. a href="http://www.insightcommunity.com/"Click here/a to learn more./em/p Once again, we're asking small business owners for their insight into how to deal with the financial crisis. If you're not a member of the a href="http://www.insightcommunity.com/"Insight Community/a sign up today to earn money for your insights.pAs you probably know from our a href="https://www.insightcommunity.com/case.php?iid=1259"earlier/a cases, American Express is sponsoring a conversation here in the Insight Community concerning how small businesses are dealing with the financial crisis. Already, a bunch of the insights generated by those earlier discussions have made their way to American Express' a href="http://blogs.openforum.com/"OPEN Forum blog/a. Some great examples of the type of content include Zack Miller's post on a href="http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/10/15/its-time-for-some-black-swan-contingency-planning/"Black Swan Contingency Planning/a and Dennis Howlett's a href="http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/10/10/some-quick-tips-for-small-businesses-in-this-financial-crisis/"Quick Tips for Small Businesses/a. If you decide to participate in this case, we suggest those two posts are great examples of the level of quality to strive for./p pThis time, we're looking for more insight from small business owners on issues as we approach the end of the year.nbsp; How are you approaching your strategy for the end of this year, as many are worried that holiday spending won't be what it's been in the past?nbsp; Alternatively, how are you gearing up for this financial climate as we head into 2009 and how would you recommend others do so.nbsp; We're also curious how the changing political environment, and the various efforts to create various stimulus packages (or bailouts) might impact the way you do business./p pTo enter, please submit a post around these concepts. Please try to emavoid/em just listing out the questions here and answering each one separately. The description is just a conversation starter, from which we hope you'll craft an interesting, insightful, compelling, and relevant blog post that will be helpful to small business owners, such as yourself. The goal here is to go beyond what everyone else is talking about, and dig a little deeper./p pemThis case uses the "claiming" system. You can claim a slot and reserve that spot for yourself, guaranteeing payment if the response actually does meet the guidelines laid out in the case description. Any insight that is selected to then be placed on the American Express OpenForum blog, also will be designated a "top insight" and the authors will be granted the additional bonus on top of the guaranteed claim amount. Please be aware that claiming a spot but failing to submit an insight will lead to a poor rating and an inability to participate in future cases./em/pul liEarn up to b$200/b for Insights on this case./li liInsights Due: b10 Dec 2008, 11:59PMPT/li/p /ul pa href="http://www.insightcommunity.com/case.php?iid=1290"View Case Details at InsightCommunity.com/a/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=3ed99ade9762e65fe8f992e9b9d72912p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=3ed99ade9762e65fe8f992e9b9d72912p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=3ed99ade9762e65fe8f992e9b9d72912" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?a=gKhwo"img src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?i=gKhwo" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/471723415" height="1" width="1"/

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/sedans/" rel="tag"Sedans/Saloons/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/government-legal/" rel="tag"Government/Legal/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/chrysler/" rel="tag"Chrysler, LLC./a/pa href="http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081201/ANA03/812010361"img width="210" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="297" border="1" align="right" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/12/projectd_opt.jpg" alt="" //aAs you'd imagine, it's pretty tough to run a successful auto company if there's no viable product in the pipeline. Chrysler has seen its fair share of negative press for not announcing a clear strategy to rebuild the heart of its line-up, namely the Chrysler Sebring and the Dodge Avenger, and it's unclear how much life the aging 300C and Charger platform has in it. According to Chrysler's product development chief, Frank Klegon, though, there's nothing to worry about... assuming that the Feds pull through and "show them the money" they need for future development. If Detroit's number 3 automaker doesn't get the cash? Don't ask.br /br /Klegon also says that a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/16/chrysler-working-on-project-d-to-replace-sebring-avenger/"Project D/a is still moving along, though no actual decisions have yet been made as to whether 1) a completely new platform is needed, 2) the old one will be modified or 3) a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/13/chrysler-looking-for-partners-for-mid-size-car/"another firm's/a mid-sizer will be cribbed for the next Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger. Despite a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/21/rumormill-chrysler-cancels-development-of-phoenix-v6-engines/"rumors/a of its apparent demise, Klegon a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/23/chrysler-phoenix-v6-engine-program-still-alive/"reiterated/a that the a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/23/chrysler-phoenix-v6-engine-program-still-alive/"Phoenix project/a to develop next-gen V6 engines is well into the testing phase. Chrysler needs to knock all of these plans out of the park in order to remain competitive. br /br /[Source: a href="http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081201/ANA03/812010361"Automotive News/a - sub. req'd]p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/01/chrysler-hasnt-killed-future-product-plans-yet/"Chrysler hasn't killed future product plans... yet/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:28:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081201/ANA03/812010361Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/01/chrysler-hasnt-killed-future-product-plans-yet/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1387524/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/01/chrysler-hasnt-killed-future-product-plans-yet/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/JJWVf359cHJT_pzHCVl-J-H6prU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/JJWVf359cHJT_pzHCVl-J-H6prU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=A4XlmRLI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=A4XlmRLI" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=l7ncZDP4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=l7ncZDP4" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/hlna4aRDOiU" height="1" width="1"/

Pownce, a microblogging service started by Leah Culver and others back in May 2007, has been acquired by blogging software giant, SixApart and will be shutdown. Culver and other members of the Pownce team are going to work for San Francisco-based Six Apart, well known for products such as MoveableType and TypePad. What it means — negligible or no money changed hands.

Pownce seemed like a pretty cool idea, but it never got any major traction, losing out to the simpler and more popular Twitter. I used the service for a few months but then lost interest, and so did many of my friends. From Culver’s post, it seems that SixApart is going to incorporate Pownce’s microblogging technology into its blogging platforms. It makes a lot of sense for SixApart to buy a microblogging platform, since microblogging is one of the faster growing parts of the “social media ecosystem.”

Pets.com's Sock Puppet asks Congress: "Why are you talking about bailing out the auto companies when you let all us tech companies just crash and burn?" (Instead of giving taxpayer's money directly to the automakers, why not pass a law that requiring every US citizen of driving age to buy a Hummer, Tahoe, or F250? Those unable to pay cash can get a pre-approved AIG-insured payment plan. That would keep Detroit busy, help the oil companies, and give AIG another excuse for a cash infusion down the road.) Now Playing at Reason.tv: Where's Sock Puppet's Bailout?...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=a2cb5e933d473c2811cc47942ec0b9e3p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=a2cb5e933d473c2811cc47942ec0b9e3p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=a2cb5e933d473c2811cc47942ec0b9e3" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

In a November 30 Washington Times article on the December 2 Georgia Senate run-off, reporter S.A. Miller uncritically reported Sen. Saxby Chambliss' (R) suggestion that he would support filibustering judicial nominees if they are, in Chambliss' words, "liberal activist[s]." Miller did not note that Chambliss previously said that the filibuster of judicial nominations, resulting in a denial of an up-or-down vote, is unconstitutional, or that he supported the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster as a procedural option for a minority of senators to block judicial nominations.

Miller quoted Chambliss saying: "[W]e have the opportunity to make sure that we are that firewall, that 41st vote to make sure that we don't have our taxes raised, to make sure that we have the right kind of judges going to the bench, not liberal activist judges." Senate rules require a supermajority of 60 votes to invoke cloture, or end debate, on most matters -- including judicial nominations. Thus, 41 votes against cloture would defeat it.

However, Miller did not note that in a Senate floor statement on April 13, 2005, Chambliss asserted that "never before in the history of the Senate has a minority of 41 Senators held up confirmation of a judicial nominee where a majority of Senators has expressed their support for that nominee." He added: "It is for this reason, if given the opportunity, I will vote in favor of changing our rules to allow confirmation of a judicial nominee by a simple majority because under the Constitution of the United States, the Senate is required to give its advice and consent to the President on his judicial nominees." Chambliss continued:

The Senate can say no in regard to any particular nominee, but to do so we need an up-or-down vote to decide what advice we give the President. Failing to answer the question is shirking our constitutional role in the separation of powers scheme. The Constitution spells out in certain areas, such as passage of constitutional amendments and ratification of treaties, where more than a simple majority of Senators is required. Confirmation of judges is not one of these areas.

Moreover, Chambliss and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) wrote in a May 24, 2005, op-ed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that "the Constitution require[s] an up-or-down vote" and expressed support for restoring what they said was "a 214-year Senate tradition whereby judicial nominees are confirmed by a simple majority."

Additionally, Miller reported in the article that "Republican Party and conservative groups such as Freedom's Watch" have criticized Democrat Jim Martin for being "soft on crime," without noting that the Martin campaign responded to a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) ad attacking Martin's votes on crime bills with an ad of its own, in which Martin notes that his daughter was kidnapped when she was 8 years old and states, "That's why I fought so hard to crack down on violent crime and lock up violent criminals."

Moreover, Miller did not note that while the NRSC ad claimed Martin was "one of three to vote against making it a felony to solicit a child for prostitution," according to a November 25 FactCheck.org article, the Martin campaign asserted that he did not support a version of the bill that included "language that would have allowed willing teenagers to be prosecuted as felons for engaging in oral sex." The FactCheck.org article also reported that Martin did support a bill identical to the one that the ad cites except that it made clear that those prosecutions would occur only in instances in which money was being offered.

From Chambliss' April 13, 2005, Senate floor statement:

I will start by noting again that never before in the history of the Senate has a minority of 41 Senators held up confirmation of a judicial nominee where a majority of Senators has expressed their support for that nominee. It is for this reason, if given the opportunity, I will vote in favor of changing our rules to allow confirmation of a judicial nominee by a simple majority because under the Constitution of the United States, the Senate is required to give its advice and consent to the President on his judicial nominees.

The Senate can say no in regard to any particular nominee, but to do so we need an up-or-down vote to decide what advice we give the President. Failing to answer the question is shirking our constitutional role in the separation of powers scheme. The Constitution spells out in certain areas, such as passage of constitutional amendments and ratification of treaties, where more than a simple majority of Senators is required. Confirmation of judges is not one of these areas.

The Senate rules have changed on several occasions over the years as to whether and in what circumstances a filibuster is allowed, but we have, unfortunately, come to a point in time where the filibuster is being abused to hold up judicial nominees on which we are required to act; that is, to say yes or no. I believe it is in violation of the Constitution.

I want to take a point in fact relative to the circuit in which I practiced for a number of years, and that is what is happening today with regard to the judicial nominee to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The Democrats have held up confirmation of the only nominee President Bush has made to the Eleventh Circuit Court which handles Federal appeals in my home State of Georgia as well as Alabama and Florida.

From Chambliss and Isakson's op-ed:

Article II of the Constitution clearly states that, as members of the U.S. Senate, it is our responsibility to give "advice and consent" to presidential judicial nominees. It is what this president and every president deserves. It is what the American people want. And most importantly, it is what the U.S. Constitution requires.

Yet for the past two years, the Senate has failed to carry out this duty because the minority party has filibustered several of President Bush's judicial nominees. The minority has blocked the majority from having an up-or-down vote. Not only does the Constitution require an up-or-down vote, denial of an up-or-down vote goes against basic principles of fairness; it also is unprecedented in Senate history.

We believe it is time to end this obstructionism and fulfill our constitutional duty. That's why we are supporting Majority Leader Bill Frist in his effort to restore a 214-year Senate tradition whereby judicial nominees are confirmed by a simple majority.

The Constitution specifies those few times when the Senate must have a two-thirds vote, such as to ratify treaties or override a presidential veto. But when it comes to confirming the president's judicial nominees, the Constitution does not require a two-thirds vote for confirmation. The Constitution clearly states it is the Senate's responsibility to give advice and consent.

We both wholeheartedly support discussion and debate regarding judicial nominees. It is important for each judicial nominee to have his or her qualifications examined, undergo thorough background checks and be asked tough questions. But it is also important that after a time of extensive debate, there must also be a time for a decision.

From the FactCheck.org article:

An NRSC ad claims Martin was "one of three to vote against making it a felony to solicit a child for prostitution." Actually, Martin eventually supported the child prostitution bill after it was rewritten. He objected to language that would have allowed willing teenagers to be prosecuted as felons for engaging in oral sex.

Martin's campaign notes that he voted in favor of the bill 16 days later, after a slight wording change.

Martin voted against House legislation on Feb. 1, 1988, and was one of only three representatives to do so. Martin's campaign tells FactCheck.org that the original bill contained a constitutional problem. It defined solicitation of sodomy (which can be either oral or anal sex under Georgia law) from a person under age 17 as a felony -- whether or not it is done for money. "That's why he voted against it," says Patrick Suter, Martin's research director. Suter said the bill as worded would have made it illegal for two willing teenagers to have sex.

The Georgia Senate then offered a substitute bill, and when it came to the House for a vote on Feb. 17, 1988, Martin voted for it. We looked at the votes and language of both versions of the bill published in the Georgia House Journal. The Senate version stipulated that a solicitation of sodomy must be "for money" to be a felony. Other than those two words, the House and Senate versions were identical. The Senate version passed the House unanimously.

From the November 30 Washington Times article:

Ads by Mr. Chambliss, the Republican Party and conservative groups such as Freedom's Watch hit Mr. Martin for being too liberal for Georgia and a champion of the liberal agenda of Mr. Obama and the Democrat-led Congress. They say he is soft on crime, backs higher taxes, and takes liberal stands on social issues such as opposing parental consent for minors to get abortions.

[...]

On the stump, Mr. Chambliss is running as much against Mr. Obama and the Democrat-led Congress as he is against Mr. Martin.

"We know the direction in which they are going to take us, [and] we have the opportunity to make sure that we are that firewall, that 41st vote to make sure that we don't have our taxes raised, to make sure that we have the right kind of judges going to the bench, not liberal activist judges," Mr. Chambliss said at a rally at the Right Wing Tavern in Woodstock, Ga.

"Jim Martin will provide that blank check to do all of those things, ... but you can make the difference," he told the more than 200 people who filled the bar, a focal point of politics in the Republican stronghold of Cherokee County, which is north of Atlanta and key to Mr. Chambliss' runoff strategy.

Mr. Chambliss was joined at the rally by former Republican presidential candidate and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, one in a parade of political celebrities stumping in Georgia that included Mr. McCain.

The FBI on Monday arrested the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, on federal charges including conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=tmUd8Veo"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=1dHE6Nz4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=udPoFY4I"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=udPoFY4I" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=QevE8Yi4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=avEPftNS"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=avEPftNS" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~4/6dpZ1zIQYwI" height="1" width="1"/

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Ten-year-old Volker Bertelman couldn't afford a synthesizer, so he modified the family piano to sound like a harpsichord by pressing metal tacks into its hammers. His mother was unamused, but couldn't have known that her little boy would make a living doing more or less the same thing, years later.

Bertelman has become an accomplished player of the "prepared" piano -- that is, a piano that has been modified by any number of hardware additions -- under the name Hauschka. His latest album, Ferndorf (German for "distant village"), was released to critical acclaim by Fat Cat Records earlier this year.

For a typical piece, he makes over twenty adjustments to the innards of a grand or upright piano using duct tape, felt, cellophane, bottle caps, leather wedges, aluminum foil, sheets of paper and E-bows (normally used to sustain notes on an electric guitar), as well as materials donated by his fans. The concept, while new to the ten-year-old Bertelman, seems to have been first explored by John Cage, an avant-garde composer who began writing for prepared piano in the '30s. Hauschka brings his own brand of prepared piano to a new audience of indie music fans, while shocking classical buffs unfamiliar with this sort of experimental piano modification.

"Wherever I play, people are surprised," explained Bertelman in an extensive interview with Wired.com. "When I'm playing in front of an indie audience, people are just discovering more classical music. And when I play in front of a classical audience, people are surprised by how experimental a piano concert can be. I would say my audience is an audience that is open for discovering things. What's also interesting is that there's a huge range of age... there are old people, but at the same time there are very young people -- like, 18 -- and they think I'm a freak."

Bertelman started his approach at a considerably younger age, as mentioned above. "When I was a boy around the age of ten," he told us via telephone, "I put some all these little metal pins that you use to pin up paper... I put tons of those in the hammers of the piano, just to use it as a kind of harpsichord, because I had no money to buy a synthesizer at that time."

There was just one problem with his first piano modification: heavy parental skepticism. "My mom didn't like it very much, so I got away from that," he explained, until he began work on his first album, 2004's Substantial in the Welsh countryside.

"While I was recording these pieces," he said, "I thought I needed some more sounds to use, but I always had it in mind to perform live shows, and was aware of the fact that I don't want to go on tour with a big band and I didn't want to use a laptop. So I had the idea to invent some stuff on the strings, to get a kind of electronic sound on top of the piano sound, and that's actually where the whole thing started. I found out that paper sounds like a high hat, and then I used beer bottle caps, three of them, on one rope, and they sounded suddenly like a tambourine. So I had on certain tones a tambourine, and then I had some high hats, so I was thinking in a kind of band arrangement."

Bertelman and his Hauschka project, which occasionally includes two cellists, also from Düsseldorf, or various string players from the cities he tours, were up and running. As he honed his technique with more modifications, including those donated by an appreciative audience, Bertelman has faced an obstacle unfamiliar to most other musicians: having his musical equipment summarily thrown into the trash.

"It's quite weird to have material that everybody thinks is just garbage," he said. "But the good thing about it is that it's very easy to replace. There are not many things where I have to look in the city for a long time to find those things. A lot of them are very simple things that I can found in every household."

However, in the future, Bertelman says, more expensive modifications are in the works. He's already experimenting with e-bows, which apply magnetism to metal strings to keep them vibrating. And he's working on modifications that use motors, which would let him automate rhythmic drones on certain notes.

And he has designs on even larger prey: a full orchestra, which he would split into various sections to mirror the way electronic music is made: one section for melody, another for pads, another that acts like a big drum machine, and so on. For now, though, he's focused on the same instrument he first modified at the age of ten.

Hauschka - "Blue Bicycle" (MP3):

Hauschka - "Freibad" (MP3):

See Also:

• How To Mod a Piano: The Hauschka Interview
• FatCat Records Reaches out to Classical Fans
• He Met The Walrus: Animated Lennon Interview
• Difference Engine: An Interview With Neil Halstead
• Listening Post Discusses Digital Music on NPR's 'Fresh Air'

 

Performance photo: MySpace; inside piano photo: Glen Johnson

Better, brighter, faster games--and perhaps more profits--are in Nintendo's future
Hardcore gamers may still scoff at Nintendo's Wii for catering to casual gamers. But hidden behind its Clark Kent facade are some impressive financial muscles.

Nintendo rocked the gaming world when it brought out the Wii gaming console three years ago by turning an entirely new demographic of users on to gaming. Middle-aged and senior citizens stood in line to buy Wiis on the strength of games like Wii Fit, which audiences found more fun than workout DVDs.

To date, Nintendo has sold nearly 35 million Wiis, including 12.6 million in the U.S., Nintendo's biggest market. That's lower than Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) PlayStation 2, which has sold 43 million units since 2000. But it's still pretty high for a console that, at launch, was technologically a generation behind its chief competitors, Sony's PlayStation 3, with 13 million units in users' living rooms, and Microsoft's Xbox 360, with 23 million units. This year, the Wii is expected to sell more than the best-selling PS2 sold in its best year, 2003.

Just as interesting as how Nintendo has changed the gaming world, however, has been its business approach. Nintendo sells games along the time-honored razor-razor blade model, namely pushing out the console and then enticing users to buy more games.

"More casual players aren't as likely to be attracted by hardware features, so it's all about delivering a fun, easy-to-use and addicting game experience," says Anita Frazier, toy and video game analyst at NPD Group.

Another factor in enticing those casual users is keeping its console cheap. "The key thing about Nintendo is they want their things to be at price points that anyone can respond to," says Hiroshi Kamide, director of research at KBC Securities Japan. Nintendo's strategy is to buy inexpensive components instead of making them in-house, allowing the Wii to sell for $260 while the PS3 costs $300.

But here's the winning point: Unlike its competitors, Nintendo has figured out how to make money from its console sales. Sony loses money on each Playstation sold. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) might just break even. But every Wii brings in $6 of operating profit for Nintendo, says David Gibson, an analyst at Macquarie Securities.

Nintendo also sells 60% of Wii games itself, compared with 30% for Microsoft and 15% for Sony. Wii users are expected to buy the most games this year, 220 million, compared with 120 million PS3 games and 125 million for the Xbox 360.

The top three Wii games--"Wii Play," "Super Smash Brothers Brawl" and "Super Mario Galaxy"--are all Nintendo's own titles, but the top three for PS3--"Grand Theft Auto IV," "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" and "Assassin's Creed"--are all from outside developers, not from Sony.

By making most of its games itself, Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ) risks sacrificing the chance to earn licensing fees from as many third-party developers as its competitors. It also prices games cheaper--at $50 versus $60 for the other two consoles. But so far the gambit has paid off: Wii locks in fans because many of its most popular games appear exclusively on the Wii. And Nintendo has a higher gross margin on game software than the others at 65%, compared with between 50% and 60%.

Those only-available-here games sell better than games that have been ported to other consoles because the Wii's unique features--the motion-sensor remote, for instance--make it hard to translate into other systems. PS3 and Xbox 360 games can be ported between those two systems fairly easily, but developers that want to make a game for all three consoles need a dedicated Wii team to write the Nintendo version.

Ubisoft's new "Shaun White Snowboarding" game, which shipped in late November, uses the Wii Fit motion board to simulate full-motion snowboarding; its Xbox and PS versions push online virtual snowboarding with friends.

http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2...s-1201wii.html

 

Here's the full interview we conducted recently with Hauschka's Volker Bertelman, a pianist who modifies his instruments with tacks, tape, felt, plastic wrap and other materials to alter its sound for his compositions, attracting fans from indie rock and classical circles alike.

As this interview reveals, Haushka arrived at the idea of modifying pianos on his own, occasionally has his equipment thrown in the trashcan by overzealous cleaning staffs, and plans to do to the orchestra what he has already done to the piano: approaching it as one would a digital audio workstation.

Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired.com: Thanks for taking the time today. I'm very impressed by your music. I didn't know about it until now, but I really enjoyed it.

Volker Bertelman, Hauschka: Thanks a lot for that.

Wired.com: My father is a pianist, and when I was growing up, I was a boy soprano singer. I was in "Ancient Voices of Children," the George Crumb piece...

Bertelman: Right...

Wired.com: And so I saw my dad messing around in the piano a little bit, just with his hands. But I'm not too familiar with prepared pianos. How did you first encounter the prepared piano?

Bertelman: When I was a boy around the age of ten... I put some all these little metal pins that you use to pin up paper... I put tons of those in the hammers of the piano, just to use it as a kind of harpsichord, because I had no money to buy a synthesizer at that time. And so I tried to figure out how I could change -- slightly -- the sound of the piano. My mom didn't like it very much, so I got away from that, but I remember now that I did that. Finally, in 2004, I recorded my first Hauschka record. My aim was to make a record with little short piano pieces, and I went to the Welsh mountains. My friends had a piano there. While I was recording these pieces, I thought I needed some more sounds to use, but I always had it in mind to perform live shows, and was aware of the fact that I don't want to go on tour with a big band and I didn't want to use a laptop.

Hauschka - "Blue Bicycle" (MP3):

So I had the idea to invent some stuff on the strings, to get a kind of electronic sound on top of the piano sound, and that's actually where the whole thing started. I found out that paper sounds like a high hat, and then I used beer bottle caps, three of them, on one rope, and they sounded suddenly like a tambourine. So I had on certain tones a tambourine, and then I had some high hats, so I was thinking in a kind of band arrangement, you know?

Wired.com: Mmm hmm.

Bertelman: And slowly, I discovered more preparations that I could use. At concerts, people [started] bringing me little pieces that I can use, that they think can sound very well. So I'm getting more and more involved with materials.

Wired.com: Is there a way to categorize the modifications? Is it like, things that bounce and things that tamp the volume, or is it just a near infinite amount of possibility?

Bertelman: There are two different ways. One is, you put material on top of the strings that are bouncing or vibrating on top of the strings, so they are resonant on top of the string... If I'm playing an upright, it is different, because they are swinging, but if I'm playing a grand piano they are just flipping. So there is the piano tone plus vibration, which is one thing. And then I am using, for example, tape -- like duct tape. With that, you can change the envelope of the tones. You can tamp them, or you can make them shorter -- they sound just like pizzicato strings. I'm also using these felt things that piano tuners use to mute the note, you are familiar with that?

Wired.com: Yes.

Bertelman: It's just things that you just clamp between the two strings to mute them. With that, they get a very, very short tone, and very percussive. So I would say these two things I'm using at the moment. But there's more stuff coming on top of that. I'm using e-bows, which are normally used for electric guitar. Are you familiar with those?

Wired.com: Oh yes.

Bertelman: I'm using those on the piano, and they are great, because they create a kind of patch. I have a constant tone and can play on top of that. And I'm actually developing at the moment  a couple of different machines, where I'm using little motors to have more of a constant vibration in the piano so that I can create carpets of sound.

Wired.com: Incredible.

Bertelman: The more you work with it, the more you want to have different options, and the more you don't want to use other instruments. Just using this one, you get deeper and deeper into the instrument and what you can do with it. The piano offers, I would say, all the options that you would want to have.

Wired.com: In your playing right now, how many effects typically will be happening in the piano during one piece?

Bertelman: During one performance of one track, I'm using maybe around 20, 25 different preparations, all over the keys. I would say a third of the piano is piano sound, and the rest is manipulated.

Wired.com: Do you have to make changes in between pieces? I've seen some videos on YouTube, but they never show in-between.

Bertelman: You should look on iTunes, I have a podcast there [iTunes link]... I explain the material, what I am using, what is creating what sound, so you can have a look at what I'm doing... Normally, I improvise my whole show. I have to work with a different room, I have to work with a different piano, then I have to prepare the piano. I have some standard notes that I prepare. But I have to change a lot of things, and I like changing [the piano] between tracks. I like to take things out, put things back in, so that the sound of each track may be slightly different. Or sometimes I just stay with the preparations because it's quite nice to get into the preparation of a piano. You discover, very slowly, where the best part of the piano is. It's like every piano has a certain part where it resonates in a very nice way. And you find this area of the piano during your performance.

Wired.com: So, [you make adjustments] during the performance. I was picturing that you show up the day before or something.

Bertelman: No -- actually, there is not much time for that. I'm trying to find the strong parts of the piano at the soundcheck, but you can't play too long during the soundcheck -- otherwise your arms are falling off as you're performing. I'm trying to find the spaces where things work -- there and there and there -- to play. Then I... develop something around whatever -- the bass part, or some pianos have a very nice brightness in the high notes, so I work on that. There are different ways of exploring a piano.

Wired.com: I posted your "Blue Bicycle" piece on Wired, and read that that was improvised. There were some other players on it. I'm wondering what the mix is on a song like that; I imagine that you come up with a few forms first and then elaborate. Or is it 100 percent improvisation?

Bertelman: I always started my shows with a kind of warm-up, because you have to warm up your fingers. You have to find a spot where you just try to train your fingers on the first track. And "Blue Bicycle" I used for warming up my fingers [alarm sound]... When I was in the studio with those two cello players, I just told them that we might play this one as a kind of warm-up. We sat down together, and I started carrying on with it, and in the end this was one of the nicest tracks that we created. It's just one take -- we recorded that, I mixed it, and that was it. There were no notes involved, no conversations about structure, or we want to go down there or we want to go up there. It's more like meeting each other and hearing each other, stepping back, going forward, just a proper improvisation.

Wired.com: It's interesting what you said about hearing each other. Because I play music, and sometimes you try to improvise, and you realize nobody's listening to anybody, and it's terrible.

Bertelman: You're totally right. I'm very happy that I found those two cello players, because they... already played together for ten years, but never recorded a record or anything. They were just teaching in my hometown. I just discovered their music, and was totally amazed because it was so similar to what I'm doing that I thought, "we have to come together." When I play shows with them now, a lot of people think the same -- they think we are quite in the same kind of area with our compositions. And they are so strong by themselves that you could just listen to them and it's great, you know? So we're very lucky about that.

Wired.com: Who is your audience? Your publicist said [the music reviews site] Pitchfork writes about you, and classical publications as well. So how would you describe your audience, is it a mix of both types of people?

Bertelman: So far, wherever I play, people are surprised. When I'm playing in front of an indie audience, people are just discovering more classical music. And when I play in