http://www.todleho.com/ppl/blog/view/id_855

http://onlywire.com/r/50283309 Like some sort of archangel descended from internet heaven, Google has bathed Stanford University in glorious high-speed goodness as part of the beta test of their new gigabit fiber network. Since the program was announced, the service, which is now being provided free to students and faculty in the Palo Alto area, has caused a lot of people to ask (sometimes beg) that their city be next on Big G’s list for communication salvation. But can Google save us all from crappy internet? And more importantly, is it a good idea to let them? As it stands, the broadband situation in the United States is pretty dismal, and it’s the big telecoms, cable companies and the federal government who are to blame. Because companies like AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable aren’t sharing the overwhelming majority of American copper wiring that they currently own, costs stay high and speeds stay slow. If you ever wondered why our friends in Europe enjoy blazing-fast internet at a fraction of the cost

http://onlywire.com/r/50099235 The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has confirmed an earthquake struck central Virginia at 1:51 p.m ten miles south-southeast of Louisa, Va., near Mineral, Va. It was felt throughout the D.C. metro region and over a large part of the eastern U.S. USGS reports it measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. Minutes after the quake,Marcia McNutt, USGS director -- who watched objects falling from the shelves in her office -- concerned about aftershocks, cautioned that the shaking might not be over.

http://onlywire.com/r/43048591 The Syrian government’s retaking of a town this weekend that had teetered beyond its control is sharpening sectarian tensions along one of the country’s most explosive fault lines: relations between the Sunni Muslim majority and the minority Alawite sect to which the family of President Bashar al-Assad belongs, residents and officials say. Each side offered a litany of complaints about the other, according to interviews with refugees, residents and activists, suggesting, even in a small sample, deepening animosities in a country where the fear of civil war is at once real and used as a pretext for suppressing dissent. Syria is a volatile blend of Sunnis, Alawites, Christians, Kurds and others inhabiting the same land, but with disproportionate political power vested in the Alawite elite.

http://onlywire.com/r/43044540 The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention. The F.B.I. soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity. The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm

http://onlywire.com/r/41630827 More than 40 Yemenis were killed in pitched street battles in the capital Thursday as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war. Residents were fleeing Sanaa by the hundreds, hurriedly fastening possessions to the roofs of cars, hoping to escape the violence that has killed more than 80 people since Monday. The fighting, pitting the security forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh against members of the country's most powerful Hashed tribe led by Sadiq al-Ahmar, was the bloodiest Yemen has seen since protests began in January. The battles threatened to spread into other parts of the capital Sanaa.

http://www.todleho.com/ppl/dignews/display_article/id_3731/Mozilla-rejects-We... Google built the royalty-free WebM video format with the sophisticated VP8 compression technology that it obtained in its 2009 acquisition of On2. In addition to advancing the goal of open video for the Web, the search giant also used On2 technology to build a new image format called WebP with the aim of reducing page load time by increasing the efficiency of image compression. WebP uses some of the still-image compression techniques that VP8 relies on to compress individual video frames. The format is intended for use with lossy images as an alternative to the venerable JPEG. Google conducted a large-scale study demonstrating that WebP offers an average file size savings of 39 percent. Despite the seemingly impressive results, not everybody is convinced by Google's findings. Mozilla, which has officially refused to support the format in Firefox, has emerged as one of WebP's most prominent opponents.

http://onlywire.com/r/26446816 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Sarah Palin is attempting to trademark her name ahead of a possible 2012 presidential run. The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate filed paperwork with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November to register the trademark. The federal office is seeking more information and examples of usage. The office is also seeking additional details for the application submitted in September by Palin's daughter, Bristol, a contestant on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" last year. Palin's attorney, John J. Tiemessen, said Friday that he has six months to provide the information.

http://onlywire.com/r/19832937 Facebook announced Tuesday that it will temporarily disable a feature that allowed the social-networking site to share user phone numbers and addresses with app developers. Douglas Purdy, director of developer relations for Facebook, said in a blog post that the site is "making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so."

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