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EPA May Have Suppressed Anti-Global Warming Study

Accusations are flying over leaked e-mails (warning: PDF) that the EPA suppressed an internal report that casts a skeptical light on using regulations to reign in carbon emissions and reduce global warming.

The 98-page report (warning, PDF), primarily authored by Alan Carlin, argues that there is no reason to regulate carbon dioxide in the U.S. since much of the science cited by the Environtmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its recent pro-regulation recommendation to President Obama is outdated. Carlin claims that recent studies show that long-held assumptions about hurricanes in the Atlantic, the shedding of ice sheets in Greenland, and the trend of rising temperatures worldwide may be misguided.

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Cell Phones, Web

Quacking Ringtone Interrupts Obama Press Conference


When's the most embarrassing moment possible for your cell phone to ring? During a church service? How about a college lecture? A funeral, maybe? Nope, nope, and nope. Try being the poor sap whose phone not only rang, but quacked, during a recent press conference by President Obama.

During a live broadcast of a speech about gay rights yesterday, a White House correspondent's cell phone quacked like a duck. After a look of disbelief (and who can blame him?), Obama asked, "Who's duck is back there?" The press corps laughed, but then the president delivered a real zinger when he said, "Where do you guys get these ringtones, by the way? I'm just curious." Ouch, burned by the President. [From: Wonkette]

TV

FCC's McDowell Nominated for Another Term

After delays and much debate, President Obama has announced that he will officially nominate Republican Robert M. McDowell as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to FreshNews.com. (Of course, his appointment will require Senate approval.) McDowell's expected re-nomination was somewhat hindered by political rivals and alleged opposition from AT&T -- he reportedly butted heads with ol' Ma Bell as a lobbyist and a representative of COMPTEL, a trade group of competing telephone companies.

Divisiveness seems to dominate the political landscape, but this move should cross party lines and provide balance, as Obama has already nominated Democrat Julius Genachowski as Chairman of the FCC. McDowell, originally appointed to the FCC by George W. Bush in 2006, has developed a reputation for being moderately conservative and business friendly, while supporting developing communications companies.

Since the FCC has been heavily preoccupied by the decade-long transition to digital television, perhaps McDowell's nomination signifies that the group is ready to get back to its normal issues -- like protecting us all from traumatic and corrupting "wardrobe malfunctions" and "fleeting expletives." [Via: InformationWeek]

Celebrities, Web

'Obama Time Capsule' Book, Authored by You, Online

Customizable Obama Book Lists You as Author
Look out respectable citizens, because here comes 'The Obama Time Capsule.'

What is it, you say? Well, 'The Obama Time Capsule' is a $35 coffee table photo book, available through Amazon, that can be customized with images and words of your choosing. It's like some bastard love child of Web 2.0, grassroots politics, and those cheesy 'put-your-kid-in-a-story-book' carts at our local mall.

The 200-page book is filled with over 140 professionally shot photos, and includes essays from Colin Powell, Joe Klein, Arianna Huffington, and quite a few others. So why do we care about a politics book? After ordering it, you'll get an e-mail with a link to the book's Web site, where you can customize your copy. You can write the dedication, have your name listed as an author on the cover, and upload your own images to put in the book.

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Cell Phones, BlackBerry

Obama Getting New Super-Secure BlackBerry


Soon, Barack Obama will finally be getting a beefed-up BlackBerry worthy of his office, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

The President, whose affection towards his BlackBerry is well documented, has actually been using a combination of two devices (a regular BlackBerry and an NSA-supplied security attachment called the Sectera Edge) while awaiting delivery of his uber-secure, top-secret Blackberry 8830. The new phone will be equipped with SecureVoice -- a high-security software developed by Genesis Key, Inc. that turns any Blackberry 8830 or Curve into a hacker-proof line of communication.

When Obama finally receives his new phone (expected to be within a few months), he will be able to call, e-mail and text other people who have appropriately secure BlackBerry models. It is expected that top aides to the President, along with his wife Michelle, will be among the recipients.

We are sure the President is thrilled to be getting his new toy; we just hope that the thing is as secure as advertised. [From: Washington Times]

National Broadband Plan Starts Rolling Out


Hey, what do you know? All those meetings over the proposed National Broadband Plan has amounted to something: a "yeah, we should probably hit this up." Today, the FCC has kicked off an immensely ambitious project to bring "high-speed internet access to every corner of the United States." $7.2 billion of the economic stimulus package has already been allocated for the task, but it'll be ages before anything becomes of this. For starters, the FCC is asking for input from consumers, businesses, etc, yet it doesn't require a response until February of 2010. Meanwhile, nations like South Korea, Japan and Australia are all looking to implement similar rollouts, albeit with much higher speeds. You see, the FCC currently defines "broadband" as 786Kpbs, which obviously isn't anywhere near median rates in some of the aforementioned countries. Pardon our skepticism in this becoming a reality, but at least we'll be extra elated if our rock-bottom expectations are met.

Celebrities, iPod

President Obama Offers iPod to the Queen of England


No, this isn't an April Fool's joke. President Obama met today at Buckingham Palace with the Queen, and our forward thinking commander-in-chief brought along a little tech for gifting purposes. Obama presented Elizabeth II with an iPod containing video from her 2007 visit to the States. In return, the first family received what is apparently a standard present for visiting dignitaries to the Palace -- a silver-framed photo of the Queen and her husband. At a glance, it seems like Obama has a thing for gadgets (and related media); he recently handed off a set of DVDs featuring classic American films to Prime Minister Gordon Brown... who was unable to play them due to incorrect region encoding. Regardless, the Queen appears pleased with the music player, telling the President during their 25 minute tea that she "Finally has something to listen to [her] Pantera records on."

Computers, Celebrities

Once-Arrested White House CIO Steps Out, Then Back In

White House CIO Steps Aside Over 12 Year-Old Theft
Remember that new Chief Information Officer (CIO) that President Obama recently appointed? As was the case with many of the other seemingly ill-vetted appointees, it now seems like Vivek Kundra too has a couple of skeletons in his closet that almost stopped him from accepting the position for the newly created post.

As with Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Charles Freeman, Ron Kirk, Timothy Geithner, and Bill Richardson before him, it looked like Kundra was going to have to step aside. This time, however, it had nothing to do with unpaid taxes. It looks like Kundra was arrested (though not convicted) on charges of theft back in 1997, and that some in his office are embroiled in a bribery scheme.

According to public records dug up by Valleywag, Kundra received probation before judgment (and a $500 fine, of which he only paid $100) for a theft of less than $300 in value. That information, along with news that Kundra had taken a leave of absence from his new post, started making the rounds on the Internet earlier this week and prompted many to assume that he would soon be gone. In fact, he had already taken a leave of absence relating to a raid by the FBI on his office last week that led to the arrest of two Washington DC officials.

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Computers

Iranian Computer Found to Have Info on Presidential Chopper


Classified information regarding President Obama's helicopter was recently found in a peer-to-peer sharing folder on an Iranian computer, according to Computerworld.

Chris Gormley, C.O.O. of Tiversa Inc., told Computerworld that the company's analysts first located the leaked information on February 26th, determining it to have been taken from the system of a U.S. defense contractor. Since last summer, sensitive documents pertaining to the helicopter -- known as Marine One -- have been circulating on P2P networks, Gormley elaborated. Although Tiversa employees notified authorities and the contractor at the time, the discovery in Iran proves that the information is still up for grabs.

Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Inc., told Computer world that, in the interest of protecting information, companies should encrypt their files, uninstall any P2P programs from company computers, and block P2P traffic from company networks. Our safety depends on it. [From: Computerworld]

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Computers, Visionaries

Obama Names New Chief Information Office for White House

Obama Names New Chief Information Office for White House
Vivek Kundra has been named the first Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) by President Obama. The CIO for the White House is a newly created post that will carry a variety of responsibilities, not the least of which is overseeing how the technology budget is spent by the federal government.

Kundra will be responsible for making sure that federal agencies are able to communicate and share information, as well as for ensuring that data is secure in the face of hackers, leaks, and other cyber threats. The CIO will also work closely with a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to develop and implement technology policy for the administration. That will include furthering Obama's pledge of governmental transparency through the use of tools like WhiteHouse.gov and Recovery.gov, as well as deciding how money should be invested to spur new technological developments like clean, renewable power sources.

The new CIO will be in charge of the entire federal government's $71 billion IT budget and will hopefully prevent future administrations from having to deal with the technological mess the Obama transition team encountered when it moved into the White House.

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Audio/Video, TV

DTV Coupons Begin Flowing Once More


For all of you still waiting for a little governmental assistance in buying that DTV converter box that you should've purchased months ago (we kid... a little), we've excellent news. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is overseeing the program, has announced that it has finally begun to ship $40 vouchers towards the purchase of these very boxes once more. The waitlist has grown some 4.1 million deep since the subsidy program ran dry back in January, but the agency is hoping to have that cleared within three weeks. Of course, you better not procrastinate on your second chance -- who knows how quickly the $650 million it has left will last.

[Image courtesy of BreakItDownBlog]

Cell Phones, Computers, Celebrities

Has Obama Dropped Twitter?

Obama Drops Twitter?

The question on everyone's mind is has Barack Obama given up on Twitter?

Okay, not everyone's mind, maybe, but we're sure someone besides ourselves and Paul Boutin at the New York Times is wondering. Our first tech-enabled president, who built so much of his support using tools like Twitter, has seemingly disappeared from the service.

Since joining Twitter in April of 2007, Obama, or at least one of his staffers, has updated his Twitter page regularly, with 264 total updates in the lead-up to January 20th. Then, nothing. It would be a shame if the President turned his back on what helped to get him where he is. It is possible that the limitations put forth by the Presidential Records Act (which almost cost Obama his BlackBerry) do not permit him to use Twitter.

It should be noted, though, that after the election on November 4, the next update from the then-President-elect's Twitter account didn't come until January 15. So maybe it's not quite dead. Maybe, in the hustle and bustle of the transition and the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, Twitter is something that has simply fallen by the wayside for the time being.

We hope to see you back and tweeting soon, Mr. President. [From: NY Times]

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Car Tech, Cell Phones, Computers, Celebrities, BlackBerry, TV, Green Tech, Visionaries

Obama's Address Filled With Techie Promises

Obama's Not-State of the Union Address Filled With Techy Promises
Last night, President Barack Obama took to the Capitol to shed some light on the massive, $800 billion stimulus bill he just signed into law. As you might expect, his not-quite-State-of-the-Union address dealt in part with technology and science, which the president believes are essential to restoring the United States' economy and securing our place in the global marketplace.

We know that some of you don't have the time to read through the hundreds of pages in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or even to sit through the hour-long speech, so we've done the heavy lifting for you and broken down how your tax dollars are going to be spent on technological advancement.
  • $7 billion for mass transit, including $750 million for high-speed trains
  • $7.2 billion for improving broadband infrastructure and penetration
  • $650 million for the transition to DTV
  • $2 billion to improve IT services for the health care industry, focusing on a shift to electronic medical records
  • $1 billion for NASA programs and research
  • $3 billion for the National Science Foundation
  • $2 billion for research at the Department of Energy
  • $220 million for research and grants at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
  • $2 billion for the development and manufacturing of advanced battery technology, particularly for vehicles
  • $15 billion a year for clean or renewable power research, including wind and solar power, biofuels, clean coal technology, and increasing the fuel-efficiency of cars and trucks

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Cell Phones, Video Games, Celebrities, BlackBerry, Mobile Phones

Obama Needs His BlackBerry...to Play Brickbreaker!


Remember all that hoopla surrounding Obama and his BlackBerry about a month back? Barack fought tooth-and-nail to keep his beloved smartphone, and now we know why; he plays the game 'Brickbreaker' to unwind.

That's right, America, it's not just us common folks that are addicted to the one BlackBerry game that doesn't suck. According to Star magazine (who heard it from a presidential confidante), the Prez likes to play 'Brickbreaker' for a while before going to sleep. This may seem strange to some people, but immersing oneself in simple, puzzle-like games is a great way to decompress when one has, let's say, the weight of the entire world on one's shoulders. Obama reportedly has a high score of 15,000 or so, which confirms that he is more advanced than us in yet another category of life. Awesome. [From: GeekSugar.com]

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Computers

Obama Worm Harmless and Likely a Student Prank

If President Obama's face appears in the lower-right corner of your screen, you may be infected with what's called the "Obama worm." Likely a variant of the MAL_OTORUN code that spreads via USB drives and network shares, this worm is essentially harmless -- except for the fact that Obama's mug appears on your screen every Monday.

Jamz Yaneza, a senior threat analyst and researcher at Trend Micro, says "it is probably some prank by a student since today's 'serious' malware, as you may have noticed, would have at least installed a keylogger to steal some information." Further supporting this idea of a student prank, Thompson Cyber Security Labs has a blog post specifying that the worm's victim was a school with about 100 PCs -- the computers had file sharing enabled, and the worm appeared on all of the PCs at about the same time.

Then again, given Obama's attraction to tech, perhaps this is just his way of letting you know he's always thinking about you. [From: CNET]

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Weirdest Techie Heists and Scams

    Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
    When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.

     

    Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
    In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.

     

    Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
    Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.

     

    Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
    Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.

     

    17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
    When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.

     

    Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
    Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."

     

    Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
    Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?

     

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CNET provides the latest tech news, unbiased reviews, videos, podcasts, software, and downloads, making tech products easy to find, understand and use.

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