Political Memo: A Three-Man Band of Budget Cutters

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, whose proposal to cut collective bargaining rights for government workers has drawn thousands of protesters outside the state Capitol in Madison, has described Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana as a ?great inspiration? and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey as a confidant.

Mr. Christie, whose is famous for his clashes with the New Jersey teachers? unions, has praised Mr. Daniels as ?a great help to me.? And the Indiana governor, who ended collective bargaining for state workers six years ago, has defended Mr. Walker?s choices. ?He is simply keeping a commitment that he made very openly in running for office,? Mr. Daniels said in an interview over the weekend.

Yet for all their camaraderie, significant differences exist ? both in tone and substance ? in the three governors? approaches to cutting the costs of their public work forces, limiting unions and demanding austerity. Their strategies are shaped by their states? relationships with the unions, by their personal styles and even by their political ambitions.

And while there is no immediately apparent competition among the three ? a function of age, geography and their positions on the Republican political ladder ? their budget fights will become part of their political résumés, and they know it. The degree to which the governors? approaches succeed will also help shape the party?s broader message on budgets and cuts.

For now, Mr. Daniels, Mr. Christie and Mr. Walker seem to be everywhere. On Sunday, they appeared, separately, on the morning television talk shows.

Throughout the weekend, they were at the center of conversation at the National Governors Association?s winter meeting in Washington.

Mr. Walker stayed in Wisconsin, where the Legislature remained in a standoff over a bill to cut the negotiating power for public sector employees. But Mr. Daniels and Mr. Christie were at the Washington meeting, often surrounded by clusters of fellow governors and their aides, offering advice and answering questions about their states? financial burdens. And in Arizona, the mere mention of Mr. Walker?s name elicited a standing ovation at a weekend Tea Party gathering.

All that attention has become a point of irritation and suspicion to the governors? critics, some of whom accuse the three of trying to outdo one another with cost-cutting measures as a way to feed their political ambitions.

?Some of the more extreme ideologues among the Republican governors are exasperating the pain of this recession in order to settle old scores,? said Gov. Martin O?Malley of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, who is critical of the fiscal approaches in New Jersey, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Of the three governors, Mr. Daniels, who is in his second term, is considered something of a role model for the others.

He is the only one of the three ? for now, at least ? who is openly considering a race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He said he intended to make up his mind this spring, but he conceded that his family had deep reservations about it.

Mr. Christie says, loudly and repeatedly, that he has no interest in running for president next year, but his denials have done little to quiet the clamor from some Republicans that he run. Mr. Walker, the newest of the governors, answers questions about his political future this way: ?My only goal right now is to balance the budget.?

Mr. Walker has been in office only two months, but his relationships with Mr. Daniels and Mr. Christie began during the race last fall, when they both traveled to Wisconsin to help him campaign. It did not hurt that Mr. Walker?s wife, Tonette, and Mr. Christie?s wife, Mary Pat, were said to hit it off, and that both families have children around the same ages.

?It?s really guys like Mitch and Chris and Tim that I?ve probably talked to the most about this ? and not just about this,? Mr. Walker said, including Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, in his list of consultants as the situation in Madison boiled over.

Still, the methods employed by Mr. Walker, Mr. Daniels and Mr. Christie ? while aimed at the same general goal ? carry important differences, a fact that has left some of them answering awkward questions when asked to reflect on the others? efforts.

Mr. Daniels has pushed for education changes this year, including restrictions on collective bargaining for teachers ? part of a package of bills that Indiana?s Democratic lawmakers, who are in the minority, said led them to flee the state last week in order to prevent votes from being taken.

But perhaps the most controversial measure that Indiana Republicans have proposed ? ?right-to-work? legislation that would prohibit any requirement that employees in private sector workplaces pay union dues or fees ? was not one that Mr. Daniels initiated. In fact, to the dismay of some of those who are opposed to unions, Mr. Daniels has said he is worried that the idea ?might get in the way? of the rest of his agenda.

?I thought it ought to really wait for a different time,? Mr. Daniels said on ?Fox News Sunday.?

In Wisconsin, private sector workplaces are not addressed in Mr. Walker?s proposal, but his plan would significantly limit collective bargaining for some 170,000 public sector workers, including many employees in local governments and school districts ? not just state workers.

Mr. Christie has certainly battled with the unions in New Jersey, demanding increases in how much the state?s public employees pay for their pensions and health care. But he has not called for truncating collective bargaining rights in the way that Wisconsin?s plan would.

So has Mr. Walker gone too far in Mr. Christie?s eyes? Does Mr. Christie support collective bargaining for state employees while his colleagues, it seems, do not? What is the larger goal here anyway?

?Every state is different,? Mr. Christie said on the CBS News program ?Face the Nation? when asked whether Mr. Walker had gone too far. ?And I?m not going to micromanage Wisconsin from Trenton, N.J.

?I know Scott Walker. I like him and I trust him. And I think he believes he?s doing what?s in the best interest of Wisconsin, the same way I?m going to do what I think needs to be done for New Jersey, which is to reform the pension system, to roll back expensive health benefits for public sector workers, to put them more in line with the rest of the population in New Jersey, to put us on a long-term path to fiscal stability.?

Monica Davey reported from Chicago, and Jeff Zeleny from Washington.

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Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Posted on 18th Feb 2011 at 10:18 by Podcast with 6 comments

This week's bit-tech and Custom PC podcast is brought to you by Clive, Antony and Paul.

First on the agenda is the continuing Intel Sandy Bridge saga, and what motherboard manufacturers are doing to sort it out. We also comment on MSI's returns strategy, which the company announced on Wednesday.

Next we make some time to talk about the gorgeous Silverstone FT03. It's a pretty peculiar case due to its inverted design, but it's always refreshing to see manufactures taking a different approach.

Finally, Antony gives us a sneaky look at the CPU cooler group test from the latest issue of Custom PC, which went on sale at newsagents yesterday. Make sure you pick up a copy if you want to see which new CPU coolers offer the best combination of cooling and value.


As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, although there's a slightly different twist on it this week. The lucky winner will be able to get their hands on a Mionix Propus 380 mousepad, which will provide the perfect tracking surface for whichever mouse you choose to use.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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A Pacemaker the Size of a Tic Tac

Medtronic, the world's largest medical-device maker, is using microelectronics and chip manufacturing to shrink pacemakers?implanted devices that regulate the heart's rhythm. Whereas current pacemakers are about as big as a silver dollar, Medtronic's device would be smaller than a tic tac. At that size, the device would be small enough to be inserted via catheter, rather than invasive surgery.

The device is still a research instrument, says Stephen Oesterle, Medtronic's senior vice president for medicine and technology, but it could be on the market in five years.

So far, Medtronic has developed most of the components?a circuit board, an oscillator to generate current, a capacitor to store and rapidly dispense charge, memory to store data, and a telemetry system to wirelessly transfer that data. The company has used chip manufacturing technology to assemble these components onto a wafer. Oesterle estimates that 60 to 70 pacemakers can be made from a single six-inch wafer, which the company creates at its own wafer fabrication plant in Arizona.

"What we don't have that is fundamental to a pacemaker is a way to power the chip," says Oesterle. The company is working with startups that make thin-film batteries and other innovative power sources, though Oesterle declined to give further details.

Medtronic's current-generation device houses all of the components in a small case implanted under the clavicle. Jolts of electricity are delivered to the heart via intercardiac leads. Eliminating the need for leads, which Oesterle calls "highly invasive and inefficient," is one of the major motivators in shrinking the device. Impedance between the wires and biological tissue ups the power requirement for the device. And the leads can cause complications if they fail. "You are stuck with either putting in new leads, which takes up space in the vein, or you can pull the leads out, which can risk tearing the heart or blood vessels," says Emile Georges Daoud, a physician and professor of cardiovascular medicine at Ohio State University.

A system small enough to be placed exactly where the electricity is needed would eliminate these issues. "If you have the pacing element at the area you want to pace, it doesn't take much power," says Oesterle. "All you need to do is stimulate one cell in the heart and create a wave of depolarization."

A smaller device would also be much easier to implant than existing versions. Scientists envision delivering it via the same procedure used in cardiac catheterization, in which a doctor inserts a thin plastic tube into an artery or vein, threading the tube all the way to the heart. The procedure is less invasive than surgical implantation, and more physicians are capable of doing it. "You can almost shoot these things in like bullets," says Oesterle.

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REM Debuts New Album on Spotify

Streaming music service Spotify has grabbed the rights to premier the new album by veteran rock band REM.

From today, the company?s premium subscribers in the UK, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Netherlands and Finland will get one week?s exclusive access to the album ?Collapse Into Now? a week ahead of its European release. Spotify is also running a competition offering users the chance to win prizes including guitars, signed merchandise and Sonos music systems.

This isn?t the first time Spotify has run an exclusive preview of a well-known artist?s new album but it is probably its second biggest deal since it offered U2?s 2009 album exclusively for a week prior to its full release. Other big names like Katy Perry have offered pre-release samplers, but not full albums.

While some artists have complained about the meagre royalties Spotify pays for streams from its service, it?s still clearly a useful tool for labels looking to stir up a bit of promotional pre-release interest.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/02/28/rem-debuts-new-album-on-spotify/

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Gmail accounts wiped for more than 100,000 users

Google is investigating a problem with its e-mail service following complaints from some Gmail users that all their messages, attachments, and Google Chat logs have disappeared. The company began investigating the issue at 3:09PM and issued a warning via its App Status Dashboard. The search giant has been hard at work all day in an attempt to restore the lost data.

"Google Mail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future," the website reads. "Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change. This issue affects less than 0.08% of the Google Mail userbase. Google engineers are working to restore full access. Affected users may be temporarily unable to sign in while we repair their accounts."

Google says a bug is responsible for completely resetting accounts. In fact, users logging in today would receive a welcome message as if they had just created their account.

Google says the problem affects less than 0.08 percent of its Google mail user base. Given that Gmail has over 170 million users, it should be safe to assume the issue affects over 100,000 accounts.

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Unions Debate What to Give to Save Bargaining

It is not yet clear whether Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin will succeed in his quest to strip public employee unions of most of their bargaining rights. But by simply pressing the issue, he has already won major concessions that would have been unthinkable just a month ago.

Some of Wisconsin?s major public sector unions, faced with what they see as a threat to their existence, have decided to accept concessions that they had been vigorously fighting: they said they would agree to have more money deducted from workers? paychecks to go toward their pensions and health benefits, translating into a pay cut of around 7 percent.

But Mr. Walker is not settling for that. He said that those concessions were ?an interesting development, because a week ago they said that?s not acceptable.?

In Tennessee, where teachers are fighting a bill that would repeal the 1978 law that gave them the right to bargain collectively, they have already signaled that they would be willing to make some concessions on tenure, said Jerry Winters, the manager of government relations for the Tennessee Education Association, which represents 52,000 teachers. And he said negotiations could be tough in the current atmosphere.

?When you?re fighting to keep the very right to have collective bargaining, it?s going to have some impact on what you do in your bargaining,? he said.

The sudden spate of bills seeking to eliminate or weaken collective bargaining ? and the fierce protests by unions trying to preserve those rights ? are largely a product of November?s elections. Those elections brought a new class of conservative Republican governors to power, including Mr. Walker and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who is also taking aim at collective bargaining. Republicans won control of both houses of 25 state legislatures, up from 14.

Now some of those newly powerful Republicans have decided to check the power of public sector unions, saying they have long used their political influence to win wages and benefits that the lawmakers believe are not affordable. Democrats, however, see the anti-union bills as an effort to weaken organized labor, which has long been one of their major sources of support.

Several Republicans seeking to overhaul labor laws said that they felt strong constituent support for taking on public sector unions. These unions have lost considerable popular support in recent years from private sector workers, many of whom no longer enjoy the job protection, health benefits and, especially, pension plans that many state and local workers still have.

Mr. Walker, who has called public sector workers ?haves? and private sector workers ?have-nots,? said in an interview last week that he was looking for a long-term solution to Wisconsin?s budget problems. ?We?re asking for a reasonable amount from state and local workers,? he said, ?and most people in the private sector will say what we?re asking for is pretty modest.?

Robert B. Reich, who was secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, said he saw the effort to curtail bargaining rights as a politically motivated act by Republican governors. ?Wisconsin state workers have already signaled their willingness to give the governor what he wants in concessions ? they just don?t want to give up the right to bargain,? said Mr. Reich, one of the more liberal voices in the Clinton White House. ?We?re likely to see the same pattern across the country. This is exactly the pattern we?ve seen over the last 20 years in the private sector.?

But some labor leaders said the governors were overreaching, and could create a measure of public sympathy for government employees? unions by shifting the conversation from whether they earn overly generous benefits to whether they should have the right to negotiate at all. ?I think it?s been a galvanizing force, a seminal moment for American labor,? said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Art Pulaski, the chief officer of the California State Labor Federation, said the Wisconsin standoff could encourage some Republican governors to take a harsher stance in bargaining. ?But for those with a more moderate stance, those not tied to the Republican strategy, I think they?re going to hold back, and say: ?Wait a minute. The response is so vigorous and spontaneous and strong, we have to be careful how far we go on this,? ? he said.

But focusing national attention on public employees? benefits could put unions on the defensive in many states. Thomas A. Kochan, a professor of industrial relations at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he thought unions were increasingly recognizing reality. ?There has to be a new bargain in the public sector on pension costs and health care costs, and to get out front on it,? he said. ?That helps them take that issue off the table and to focus on the issue of worker rights and the attack on unions.?

Anti-union groups, seeing this as their moment, are urging governors not to settle for economic concessions. Tim Phillips, head of Americans for Prosperity ? a conservative, free-market advocacy group that was created and financed in part by the billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch ? said Mr. Walker should push for a ?complete victory.?

Kate Zernike and Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting.

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Rallies for Labor, in Wisconsin and Beyond

It was a call heard in sympathy protests that drew thousands of demonstrators to state capitals and other cities from Albany to the West Coast.

The protesters were rallying against a proposal by Wisconsin?s new Republican governor, Scott Walker, that would strip the state?s public employee unions of nearly all their bargaining power and impose sizable take-home pay cuts by diverting more of their paychecks to finance health care and pension plans.

?We?ve had bargaining for 50 years, and he wants to end it in a week,? Al Alt, who has taught school for four decades in Waukesha, Wis., said as he paused on a bench after marching around the Capitol with other protesters.

A spokesman for the Madison police, Joel DeSpain, who provided the crowd estimate, said there had been no arrests during the rally.

The demonstrators in Madison were loud but peaceful, according to the Madison police.

But there was unease and confusion over the fate of the hundreds of people who have spent every night in the hallways, stairwells and public areas of the Capitol and have become the heart of the protest movement. State officials have said they would be evicted on Sunday afternoon.

?There will be no more sleeping over in the Capitol? beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jodi Jensen, a senior official at the Department of Administration, the state agency that includes the Capitol police, said in an interview.

After that, she said, the building would be open during normal daily hours and closed at night. She said the decision was made because of health and safety concerns and that Mr. Walker did not influence the move as far as she knew.

Some union officials and protesters said the evictions could lead to conflict. ?It?s a bit confusing,? said Alex Hanna, co-president of the Teaching Assistants? Association.

Later, Jim Palmer, the leader of a large law enforcement union, said that he had been told that the Capitol Police were backing away from the eviction plan.

?Now it sounds like they are going to let people stay,? said Mr. Palmer, whose union, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, has 11,000 members. The police, he said, might only ask for people to ?voluntarily comply? with requests to leave the building. He added that his union and other labor leaders had urged their members to comply with whatever the police asked.

?We don?t want anything to happen to create a blemish on what has been a model for civil discourse,? Mr. Palmer said. The Capitol Police referred all inquiries to the Department of Administration.

Two protesters, Alexandra and Alison Port, twins who attend the University of Wisconsin, were turned away Saturday because they were carrying sleeping bags as they tried to enter the Capitol. If people are evicted Sunday, the twins said, the protesters will circle the building holding hands.

Mr. Walker?s plan is far from the only proposal to curb union power, and crowds of teachers, firefighters and other public workers held rallies Saturday in cities from Albany and Miami to Olympia, Wash.

?This is a national issue,? Jim Goodnow, who attended the demonstration in Miami, where about 150 people rallied at Bayfront Park. Many of them said they were concerned that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, might try to strip away the few protections that unions have in Florida. A bill in the Legislature would block union dues from being automatically deducted from paychecks.

Still, the revolt in Wisconsin has become the main stage for arguments on both sides. Mr. Walker and other Republicans say the changes are necessary to put the state back on solid financial footing and to prevent wide-scale layoffs.

The protesters and Wisconsin?s Democratic leaders ? including 14 state senators who are hiding out in Illinois to prevent a vote on Mr. Walker?s proposal ? say the bill is an attempt to use fiscal problems to deal a crippling blow to the unions that are traditional Republican opponents.

Democrats from the Indiana House of Representatives also remained sequestered in Illinois on Saturday to avoid being forced by the State Police to attend a legislative session on a bill that would limit unions.

Although the Wisconsin protests have been peaceful, they have also reflected a strong personal dislike for Mr. Walker, who was elected in November, and many of the placards criticized his relationship with Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankroll conservative causes and Republican campaigns, including Mr. Walker?s race. ?We will not tolerate Koch heads in Wisconsin,? one said.

The largest unions have said they would agree to the benefit changes that Mr. Walker is seeking. State officials have said that the resulting cut in take-home pay could be 6 to 8 percent for the typical state worker. But for many lower-income state workers, the proposal would mean cuts in take-home pay of more than 10 percent.

Richard A. Oppel Jr. reported from Madison, Wis., and Timothy Williams from New York. Erik Bojnansky contributed reporting from Miami.

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Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Posted on 19th Feb 2011 at 10:32 by Richard Swinburne with 18 comments

During a brief discussion with Enermax recently, a PR person let slip that the company's planning to launch a new CPU cooler range, which will be based on the principles of vortex generator flow technology, while featuring a couple of Enermax's Twister bearing fans.

The cooler has six heatpipes that get direct contact with the CPU, while a Twister fan sits on either side of the tower. Meanwhile, the LEDs can be switched off using the little buttons below each fan in the picture. The fans *should* feature 4-pin PWM power connectors as well, but we don't know whether they'll be tied together with a single connector yet.


More information about the coolers is likely to start doing the rounds soon, though, as Enermax is encouraging folk to visit its booth in the usually wet (sometimes snowy), cold and miserable surroundings of the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany, at the start of March.

Does this design look like a winner to you? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

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Weekend Open Forum: Your first and current mouse

Mozilla releases Firefox 4 Beta 12

Mozilla has released Firefox 4 Beta 12. The new beta build comes less than three weeks after the Beta 11 release, and as far as we can see this is mainly just a bug fix release. The company says this release delivers improved performance and responsiveness when watching videos on websites. For more information, check out the release notes.

If you're already running a previous beta of Firefox 4 you should see an automatic update soon. Alternatively, you can download Beta 12 directly for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux 32-bit/64-bit. The beta supports 77 languages.

Mozilla was originally planning on having Firefox 4 out by the end of last year, but it has had to delay the release multiple times. The company has fixed more than 7,000 bugs since the first beta release. The RC is next, followed by a final release.

Mozilla has been struggling to get Firefox 4.0 out the door. As a result, the company has announced that in 2011, not only will we see Firefox 4.0, but we will also see Firefox 5.0, Firefox 6.0, and Firefox 7.0.

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