THE HIGH SCHOOL KID- THE WORLD STAGE IS TOO HECTIC FOR YOU

Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage

AP

US President Barack Obama is back in the US after an Asian trip that produced few results.

When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.

There were only a few hours left before Air Force One was scheduled to depart for the flight home. US President Barack Obama trip through Asia had already seen him travel 24,000 kilometers, sit through a dozen state banquets, climb the Great Wall of China and shake hands with Korean children. It was high time to take stock of the trip.

Barack Obama looked tired on Thursday, as he stood in the Blue House in Seoul, the official residence of the South Korean president. He also seemed irritable and even slightly forlorn. The CNN cameras had already been set up. But then Obama decided not to play along, and not to answer the question he had already been asked several times on his trip: what did he plan to take home with him? Instead, he simply said "thank you, guys," and disappeared. David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president, fielded the journalists' questions in the hallway of the Blue House instead, telling them that the public's expectations had been "too high."

The mood in Obama's foreign policy team is tense following an extended Asia trip that produced no palpable results. The "first Pacific president," as Obama called himself, came as a friend and returned as a stranger. The Asians smiled but made no concessions.

Lost Some Stature

Upon taking office, Obama said that he wanted to listen to the world, promising respect instead of arrogance. But Obama's currency isn't as strong as he had believed. Everyone wants respect, but hardly anyone is willing to pay for it. Interests, not emotions, dominate the world of realpolitik. The Asia trip revealed the limits of Washington's new foreign policy: Although Obama did not lose face in China and Japan, he did appear to have lost some of his initial stature.

In Tokyo, the new center-left government even pulled out of its participation in a mission which saw the Japanese navy refueling US warships in the Indian Ocean as part of the Afghanistan campaign. In Beijing, Obama failed to achieve any important concessions whatsoever. There will be no binding commitments from China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A revaluation of the Chinese currency, which is kept artificially weak, has been postponed. Sanctions against Iran? Not a chance. Nuclear disarmament? Not an issue for the Chinese.

The White House did not even stand up for itself when it came to the question of human rights in China. The president, who had said only a few days earlier that freedom of expression is a universal right, was coerced into attending a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, at which questions were forbidden. Former US President George W. Bush had always managed to avoid such press conferences.

Relatively Unsuccessful

A look back in time reveals the differences. When former President Bill Clinton went to China in June 1998, Beijing wanted to impress the Americans. A press conference in the Great Hall of the People, broadcast on television as a 70-minute live discussion, became a sensation the world over. Clinton mentioned the

1989 Tiananmen Square

massacre, when the government used tanks against protestors. But then President Jiang Zemin defended the tough approach taken by the Chinese Communists. At the end of the exchange, the Chinese president praised the debate and said: "I believe this is democracy!"

Obama visited a new China, an economic power that is now making its own demands. America should clean up its government finances, and the weak dollar is unacceptable, the head of the Chinese banking authority said, just as Obama's plane was about to land.

Obama's new foreign policy has also been relatively unsuccessful elsewhere, with even friends like Israel leaving him high and dry. For the government of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, peace is only conceivable under its terms. Netanyahu has rejected Obama's call for a complete moratorium on the construction of settlements. As a result, Obama has nothing to offer the Palestinians and the Syrians. "We thought we had some leverage," says Martin Indyk, a former ambassador to Israel under the Clinton administration and now an advisor to Obama. "But that proved to be an illusion."

Even the president seems to have lost his faith in a genial foreign policy. The approach that was being used in Afghanistan this spring, with its strong emphasis on civilian reconstruction, is already being changed. "We're searching for an exit strategy," said a staff member with the National Security Council on the sidelines of the Asia trip.

'A Lot Like Jimmy Carter'

An end to diplomacy is also taking shape in Washington's policy toward Tehran. It is now up to Iran, Obama said, to convince the world that its nuclear power is peaceful. While in Asia, Obama mentioned "consequences" unless it followed his advice. This puts the president, in his tenth month in office, where Bush began -- with threats. "Time is running out," Obama said in Korea. It was the same phrase Bush used against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, shortly before he sent in the bombers.

There are many indications that the man in charge at the White House will take a tougher stance in the future. Obama's advisors fear a comparison with former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, even more than with Bush. Prominent Republicans have already tried to liken Obama to the humanitarian from Georgia, who lost in his bid to win a second term, because voters felt that he was too soft. "Carter tried weakness and the world got tougher and tougher because the predators, the aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators, when they sense weakness, they all start pushing ahead," Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, recently said. And then he added: "This does look a lot like Jimmy Carter."

Spiegel International

FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS- TRY IT

Whenever, wherever you see success you’ll almost always not see the failure that accompanied that success. One of the most famous examples of this is Thomas Edison was working on the light bulb, a reporter found out that Edison had created 10,000 different versions and still could not get it to work. The reporter asked Edison, “How can you keep going after failing 10,000 times? Isn’t that a little ridiculous? Why don’t you just give up?” Edison answered, “You don’t understand, I haven’t failed 10,000 times, I’ve simply succeeded in finding 10,000 ways that definitely won’t work.”

We often fear failure because we view it as an expression of our own self worth. We sometimes think it shows that we’re an inadequate person or we’re bound for a life of mediocrity. However, this is simply not true. Failure, if anything, means that we now have an opportunity to learn. We tried and it didn’t work. So we need to find a different way to proceed until we can master the task at hand. Don’t let one failure deter you from trying something else.

Those who understand the learning opportunity presented by failure, like Edison, look forward to failures because of what they can teach you about yourself and your inner resiliency. When a failure occurs, look at it objectively and ask yourself why. Did you not do everything you could have? Can you retry it from a different angle, or with another mindset? Keep working and you will eventually achieve a favorable result. If you stop learning from your experiences, then you truly have failed.

VALUE ADDED TAX: IT IS COMING TO AMERICA, COMPLIMENTS OF THE DEMOCRATS

Pelosi’s “Value-Added” Tax

Harvard Economist Greg Mankiw has some great points on the so-called value-added tax, or VAT, on his blog. Recently, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi raised the specter of implementing a new tax to help boost revenue for Uncle Sam. In terms of taxes, the VAT is about as equitable as they come. It’s a consumption tax similar to the Fair Tax, which was advocated by Mike Huckabee during the 2008 Republican primaries. The problem is, however, that the VAT would not replace our current tax system; instead, it would be an additional layer of taxation. If you want to kill jobs and retard economic growth, add new layers to an already convoluted tax system. Like Mankiw notes, if the VAT were to replace our current tax system–to include the personal income tax, the corporate tax, the payroll tax, and the estate tax–I would be all for it. But it won’t.

Our current progressive tax system, which punishes success and hampers economic growth, is bad policy and our economy is smaller because of it. The VAT on its own is a decent idea which seems to be about as equitable as tax systems come. It emphasizes personal responsibility and choice. When you choose to buy a product or service, you pay a tax. Of course, critics argue that the VAT is a “tax on the poor.” Aw, good ol’ class warfare brought to you by left-wingers and “progressives” everywhere–but would you expect anything else?

Personally, I’ve always liked the Flat Tax idea–10% or 15% across the board–completely equitable. Everyone pays the same percentage regardless of what they make. So, as for the VAT, it makes sense when it stands on its own because it is equitable and is an effective way to generate revenue. However, since the VAT is being envisioned by the Democratic Congress as an additional layer to our current, broken system–it is a bad, bad idea.

SEE WHAT THE FUTURE HAS IN STORE FOR YOU.

Future Technologies

Deep involvement in the launch of 3G has inspired us to create an infrastructure that will allow people and all kinds of objects to communicate a wealth of information. Extended systems will link the home, the office and any number of other locations to bring greater convenience to all aspects of everyday life. For the future, it is our aim to incorporate information gathered by all five senses to achieve an array of services far beyond anything envisaged to date.

NTT DOCOMO is already making rapid progress in such areas through a wide range of innovative research, building expertise and techniques as we move forward towards exciting new business opportunities.

Innovating dreams

Goal is to create a broad array of exciting new services - services that will bring undreamed-of convenience to people everywhere.

In addition to Audio Barcodes and 3D Display System introduced in this website, cutting-edge technologies beyond the imagination are already under development. These include a system that makes distant objects feel like an extension of the human body for ultra-realistic experiences, and advanced chips that will allow items such as household appliances to communicate. What's more, we are actively realizing 4G technology such as MIMO (Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output) multiplexing technology and a wireless access communications system, as well as contributing to the establishment of specifications for global standardization.

Researchers at NTT DOCOMO have a clear vision of the future. A future that will unite all of the above advances and many more, to create a world where people can communicate at a higher level, regardless of time and space.

Audio Barcode

A barcode that allows data to be carried and transmitted on sound waves in the audible range.

3D Display System

A portable display system that enables 3D images to be seen without glasses.

Toward 4G

Visionary research into the technology that will enable the future: fourth-generation mobile telephone technology.

Super 3G (LTE)

An evolution of 3G systems that will enable high-speed data transmission of up to 300Mbps in downlink.

LIBERAL LIES, GET USED TO IT: obama the lier

IEA WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS AGENCY HAS DOWNPLAYED LOOMING OIL SHORTAGE.

According to a senior International Energy Agency official, the energy watchdog agency fears the truth would trigger panic buying

Energy Numbers Whistleblowers have added to outside criticism of the IEA's energy figures for the future IEA

A senior official at the International Energy Agency turned whistleblower just prior to the release of a major IEA report, and claimed that the international organization has downplayed a looming oil shortage to appease the U.S. and prevent panic buying.

The anonymous whistleblower apparently told his story to The Guardian on the eve of the new World Energy Outlook report that went public Tuesday. He alleged that the international watchdog has bowed to U.S. pressure to underplay the decline of existing oil fields and overplay the possibility of tapping new fields.

Outside economists and energy experts have already criticized a figure within the new report that states oil production can grow from 83 million barrels per day to 105 million barrels per day by 2030.

The whistleblower added that the IEA had already dropped its 2030 estimates from 120 million barrels a day to 116 million, and then 105 million. He also said that many IEA members believe maintaining oil supplies at just 90 million or 95 million barrels per day seems impossible.

These claims seem backed by a second IEA source who has already left the watchdog agency, but similarly wished to remain anonymous. He told The Guardian that the IEA had a rule of not angering the U.S., and affirmed that the world has already entered the peak oil zone.

Whatever the case with the actual oil production figures, the IEA report seems sobering enough in its predictions. The IEA predicts that the world needs to invest $26 trillion through 2030 for new energy projects to meet growing demand, and another $10.5 trillion toward mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. To the guys and gals meeting at Copenhagen in December and hoping to tackle the issue of climate change, we say "No pressure."

But seriously, almost everyone not hiding in a cave recognizes that our cars and homes won't run on fossil fuel energy sources forever. That's why we created PopSci's realist roadmap to 2050 for energy. It's also why the U.S. Department of Energy's new mad science lab has begun spraying funding in all directions for breakthrough technologies that could boost energy efficiency and improve renewable sources.

ROLL-UP LAPTOPS

Orkin design and Sony show off roll-up laptop concepts

Laptops keep getting thinner and lighter, but some concept laptops take portable to a new level. Orkin Design's Rolltop consists of an OLED display that can start as a rolled-up mat and deploy as a multi-touch 17-inch laptop. My beastly HP laptop just shed a tear of envy.

The Orkin laptop can also transform into a tablet PC operable with a stylus, or become a standup flat screen display. A power adapter and other features fit with the carrying canister that comes with a convenient holding strap.

Sony has also gotten in on the action with concept laptops, watches and MP3 players that take advantage of flexible OLED technology. All those went on display at CEATEC 2009 in Chiba, Japan.

This should get any ordinary laptop user excited. But people wondering if a lightweight laptop can still pack in computing power might do some research into   beefing up that small PC.

GOOGLE'S REPLACEMNT FOR HTTP PROTOCOL TO MAKE WEB BROWSING TWICE AS FAST

The proposed rewrite of the web's backbone comes with both benefits and caveats

Faster Internet Google's Chromium group wants to boost your Internet browsing Google

Google has scarcely stopped for a breather since launching its cloud-based Chrome OS as an alternative to PC and Mac operating systems. Now its Chromium group has announced an effort to replace the traditional HTTP web browser language with a new protocol that supposedly boosts Internet browsing by up to 55 percent.

HTTP currently is the protocol used by all web servers and browsers, hence the "http" in front of web addresses. But, as noted by Ars Technica, HTTP becomes inefficient when transferring many small files on many modern websites.

By contrast, Google's cleverly named SPDY protocol (pronounced SPeeDY, get it?) can compress and handle the individual requests via one connection that's SSL-encrypted. That allows higher-priority files to slip through immediately without becoming backed up behind large files.

SPDY has shown up to 55 percent web page loading when tested under lab conditions, and the Google team has released their source code for public feedback.

But Ars Technica raises some points of caution about the mandatory SSL encryption requiring more processing power from small devices and computers alike. Requiring SSL could also worsen the problem where server operators neglect SSL encryption and unintentionally encourage people to ignore warnings about unsecured websites.

Still Google's team recognizes these problems and has already proposed workaround solutions. An open approach has already proven a smashing success on Google's Android operating system, but redesigning the Internet's architecture will undoubtedly prove trickier in the days to come.

AN EASY WAY TO WASTE YOUR MONEY.

$18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site

July 08, 2009 9:50 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site.

The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site.

“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”  

The contract calls for spending $9.5 million through January, and as much as $18 million through 2014, according to the GSA press release.

“We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved," Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, says in the press release. “We thank the GSA for its assistance and look forward to working with Smartronix."

UPDATE:  The RNC has released a new web ad mocking the Obama administration's decision to allocate additional funds to the redesign of the Recovery.gov Web site.

MUSLIMS, THANKSGIVING AND OBAMA?????

What are those Muslims doing over this Thanksgiving holiday?

This Thanksgiving holiday coincides this year with part of the annual Hajj (Pilgrimage) that Muslims participate in.

The Hajj is the annual pilgrimage that all Muslims are required to perform once in their lifetime, if able. The Hajj is a journey that takes place in Saudi Arabia. The pilgrims performing Hajj go to the city of Mecca and sometimes travel through Medina or Jeddah. The Hajj is performed from the 7th to the 13th days of the month Dhu Al-Hijjah in the Islamic Calendar year.  This is the 12th month of this lunar calendar. A series of rituals are performed during the Hajj.

Interestingly this year 2009, one of those rituals, the Day of ‘Arafah, seems to be coinciding with Thanksgiving Day. On the Day of ‘Arafah, the 9th day of the Dhu al-Hijjah, Muslims who are on Hajj spend the day praying on the plain of ‘Arafah. Those who are not able to make the Hajj traditionally spend their day of ‘Arafah fasting. This is not an obligatory fast. The fast for Muslims lasts from the first obligatory prayer of the day (Fajr) to the evening prayer (Mahgrib). This is about an hour and a half before the sunrises to sunset. This fast is done in preparation for the three festive days that follow the Hajj. These days are called ‘Eid al-Adha. These days are most celebratory for the Muslim, like Christmas and Easter would be for the Christian or Yom Kippur for the Jew.

There are many benefits to the Muslim fast on the day of ‘Arafah.  "Fasting on the day of 'Arafah absolves the sins for two years: the previous year and the coming year, and fasting on 'ashûra, (the tenth day of Muharram) atones for the sins of previous years." [ Reported by all except al-Bukhârî and Tirmidhî] A prayer traditionally offered on this day is :"‘None has the right to be worshipped except God, alone, without partner. To Him belongs all praise and sovereignty and He is over all things omnipotent.’

While others are spending their day eating and filling their stomachs, many Muslims will be fasting and seeking to purify themselves. So, when you see Muslims fasting on Thanksgiving this year, do not be alarmed, you know why.

FAT ALBERT: THE NEW PIMP IN TOWN

Climate change pushes poor women to prostitution, dangerous work’

JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE, GMANews.TV

11/19/2009 | 01:19 PM

The effects of climate change have driven women in communities in coastal areas in poor countries like the Philippines into dangerous work, and sometimes even the flesh trade, a United Nations official said.

Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country.

“Climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing, possibly driving some women into sex work and thereby increase HIV infection," Mukherjee said during the Wednesday launch of the UNFPA annual State of World Population Report in Pasay City.

In the Philippines, small brothels usually pop up near the coastal areas where many women perform sexual services for transient seafarers. Often, these prostitutes are ferried to bigger ships by their pimps.

Based on the UNFPA report, there are 92 million Filipinos in the country as of 2009 and that number is expected to balloon to more than 146 million in the next 40 years.

Of the 92 million Filipinos, about 60 percent are living in coastal areas and depend on the seas for livelihood, said former Environment secretary Dr. Angel Alcala.

Alcala said that “we have already exceeded the carrying capacity of our marine environment."

But as the sea’s resources are depleted due to overpopulation and overfishing, fishermen start losing their livelihood and women are forced to share the traditional role of the man in providing for the family.

Alacala, who also heads the Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management in Silliman University, said some women often pick out shellfish by the coastlines, which exposed to storm surges.

Women who can no longer endure this work often go out to find other jobs, while some are tempted to go into prostitution, Alcala added.

In an interview with the Inter Press News Agency, Marita Rodriguez of the Centre for Empowerment and Resource Development, Inc. said women are taking the brunt of climate change.

"Aside from their household chores and participation in fishing activity, they have to find additional sources of income like working as domestic helpers in affluent families," she said.

The UNFPA noted that the temperature in the earth’s surface has risen 0.74 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years. The 10 warmest years globally since 1880 have also been recorded in the last 13 years.

“Slower population growth, for example, would help build social resilience to climate change’s impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas-emissions in the future," the UNFPA report said.

The UNFPA suggested five measures to mitigate climate change and overpopulation:

• Bring a better understanding of population dynamics, gender and reproductive health to climate change and environmental discussions at all levels;
  
• Fully fund family planning services and contraceptive supplies within the framework of reproductive health and rights, and assure that low income is no barrier to access;
  
• Prioritize research and date collection to improve the understanding of gender and population dynamics in climate change mitigation and adaptation;
  
• Improve sex-disaggregation of date related to migration flows that are influenced by environmental factors and prepare now for increases in population movements resulting from climate change; and
  
• Integrate gender considerations into global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
  

- GMANews.TV

obama's fiasco

Obama's human rights fiasco

Why the U.S. decision to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council is self-defeating.
By Anne Bayefsky                                           
. This means that the United States will soon be sitting down with Saudi Arabia, Cuba, and China to talk about human rights. Not human rights in Saudi Arabia, Cuba, and China, mind you. But human rights in Israel and the United States.
The Human Rights Council is the United Nations' lead human rights body. Created in 2006 by the General Assembly as a "reformed" Human Rights Commission, the council has taken the worst elements of its predecessor and magnified them. Former U.S. President George W. Bush decided not to join it after various U.S.-suggested reforms -- such as minimal standards of respect for human rights among member states -- were rejected. Now, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, claims that "working from within, we can make the council a more effective forum." The U.S. State Department speaks of future reform.
In other words, the United States is joining a fundamentally flawed body in order to make it something that it isn't. Disingenuous, to say the least. The council already is the reform. Its predecessor lasted half a century, and the same stumbling blocks that prevented fixing of the system in 2006 are still present and more entrenched than ever.  The majority of the members of the U.N. General Assembly are not fully free democracies. Getting serious about democratic rights and freedoms is not their priority.
The council itself is controlled by human rights abusers who like it just the way it is. Membership is determined by distributing seats among five regional groups, with the African and Asian groups holding the majority. In turn, member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) hold a majority in each of the African and Asian groups. This gives the OIC the balance of power. When the going gets tough, the single U.S. vote, or the seven votes of the "Western European and Others Group" (WEOG), amount to a hill of beans. Resolutions are continually watered down for the sake of artificial consensus or adopted over the objection of every WEOG member. Just last week, we saw another sorry example of this phenomenon, with the adoption of a resolution on the "defamation of religions." What does restricting free speech in the name of "religion" have to do with protecting individual human rights?
By letting some of the world's worst regimes rub shoulders with its leading democracy, the United States becomes an enabler. These governments don't share Western or universal values. They use the council to: (1) feign interest in human rights, (2) keep the focus on Israel and away from themselves, (3) manufacture victim status, (4) encourage liberal guilt and concomitant financial responsibility, and (5) undermine the universal application of real human rights standards.
The record is incontrovertible. The council has passed more resolutions and decisions condemning Israel than all other 191 U.N. members combined. The council has one (of only ten) formal agenda items dedicated to criticizing Israel.  And one agenda item to consider the human rights of the remaining 99.9 percent of the world's population. There have been 10 regular sessions on human rights for all, and five special sessions to condemn Israel alone. The council excludes only Israel from the key negotiating and information-sharing meetings of every regional group. It has terminated human rights investigations on Belarus, Cuba, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And all investigations of "consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights and all fundamental freedoms" in such states as Iran, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have been "discontinued."
Absolutely none of that will change with the United States sitting in the front row, Obama's rhetorical skills notwithstanding. On the contrary, joining this farce means accepting the discriminatory agenda and attending WEOG meetings with a sign reading "no representatives of the Jewish people allowed" hanging on the door.
The Council's one new device -- the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) -- was heralded as introducing a careful examination of all UN states without discrimination. What actually happens is that a series of human-rights abusers congratulate one another, avoid any serious scrutiny, and then denigrate the democracies that agreed to the travesty in the first place.
Ironically, in the name of "engagement" the United States will now repeatedly be drawn into confrontations that could have been avoided. With Canada leaving the council, the European Union spineless in the face of OIC opposition, and the international human rights system now opposed to "naming and shaming," the United States will have to rock the boat if it wants to avoid joining a corrupt consensus.  This will mean voting against OIC-driven resolutions and proposing "controversial" condemnations of any state other than Israel.
President Obama has waded into quicksand, which will drown both U.S. efforts to protect human rights and his sought-after reputation as their champion.
Anne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Director of the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.

new trends in personal computers

Trend for PCs is slimmer, no optical drives

By JESSICA MINTZ

SEATTLE (AP) Personal computers are changing — and not just because of the recent launch of Windows 7. Visit an electronics store and you might also find laptops are missing a familiar component. You could experiment with new ways of controlling some computers. And you'll see portable PCs slimming down.

Even with all the attention lavished on Apple's iPhone and Amazon. COM’s Kindle this year; your PC likely is still the center of your digital universe. Here's a look at what the season's computer trends mean for you.

We're over drives: Computers have come with "optical drives," slots for CDs or DVDs, for years. They've been useful for installing new software, watching movies or transferring music libraries into digital form. But one of the biggest lessons from the craze for netbooks — inexpensive little laptops designed mainly for browsing the Web — is that people were so excited about the small, easy-to-carry size that they didn't miss having a CD or DVD drive.

Apple Inc. got rid of an optical drive two years ago when it introduced the first sliver-thin MacBook Air. That wasn't seen as a trendsetting step at the time because the computer, which cost $1,800 (¥162,000) then, wasn't meant for mainstream consumption. But netbooks, which start at $250 (¥22,500) on BestBuy.com, surely are made for everyone. The wee laptop's popularity is proof that people are finding it easy enough to download software, movies and music to portable computers, especially with the widespread availability of Wi-Fi and cellular Internet service. And plenty of services let you store files over the Internet, eliminating the need to burn backups to discs.

Taking out the optical drive doesn't significantly lower prices. But doing so does let PC-makers design much thinner laptops. Companies including Dell and Hewlett-Packard have pulled DVD drives out of mid-range to more expensive computers, such as HP's Pavilion dm3z, which starts at $550 (¥50,000), all the way up to the $1,700-and-up (¥153,000) HP Envy and Dell's $1,500-and-up (¥135,000) Adamo.

You just might want to think twice if you're hooked on transferring CDs into MP3s — or if you spend a lot of time watching DVDs on airplanes and don't want to squint at your iPod screen or get a separate portable video player. 

Good enough is plenty: It might sound impressive when a PC sales pitch mentions multicore processors, state-of-the-art graphics chips, 6 or 8 gigabytes of memory and hard drives with a terabyte — 1,000 gigabytes — of storage. But another thing netbooks showed is that with a few exceptions — such as professional video editing, and maybe hardcore video-game playing — having lots of PC power is overkill.

There's very little software that can take advantage of these powerful computers, says technology analyst Rob Enderle. That means there's no "killer app," the program that's so cool or so useful it persuades everyday PC users to trade up.

While the microprocessors that act as the brains inside netbooks are less powerful than even those found in inexpensive full-size laptops, they are sufficient for most Web browsing, e-mailing and word processing. And these computers are getting bigger hard drives, which you need for storing digital photos, music and video. Overall, they're good enough that, to people replacing three- and four-year-old PCs, netbooks feel downright fast.

Go for more power only if you watch high-definition TV and films, or edit HD home movies. Those tasks would require beefier machines.

Everything's getting carried away: People want Internet access all the time, and PC-makers are betting "smart" phones — even the iPhone — aren't big or ergonomic enough for anything more complex or time-consuming than a quick e-mail reply.

But already the line between phones and PCs is blurring: PC-makers are teaming with mobile carriers to sell netbooks that cost as little as $99 (¥8,900) as long as the buyer subscribes to a wireless data service. A new buzzword, "smartbooks," is emerging to describe a device that runs a smart-phone operating system such as Google Inc.'s Android but on bigger hardware that is more like a PC than a phone.

To get you to carry their laptops to the corner coffee shop, PC companies are treating their wares as fashion accessories, not just tools. You'll see more colors and patterns, more design-conscious shapes and upscale materials.

"Thin and light is sort of the new black," says Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson.

The next frontier: cutting the cord for longer stretches. New chips that require less energy are emerging, and advances in battery technology are expected in the coming years to extend the time people can sit in the airport watching YouTube.

Hands-on has its place: In 2007, the iPhone made "multitouch" mainstream. Unlike ATM screens, which recognize one finger pushing on one spot at a time, the iPhone's screen responds to pinching and swiping gestures made with multiple fingers. Microsoft Corp.'s coffee- table-size Surface computer, designed for hotel lobbies and shops and also released in 2007, responds to similar gestures and can be operated by several people at once.

Now the PC is in on the action. Windows 7 includes more support for multitouch applications, making some basic touch commands work even on programs that weren't designed for it. You'll see more laptops and "all-in-one" desktops — computers that stash all the technology in the case behind the screen — with multitouch screens. HP, Dell and others have designed software intended to make it easy to flip through photos and music or browse the Web with a fingertip instead of a mouse.

Apple, for its part, has multitouch track pads for laptops and a multitouch mouse, but says it isn't interested in making a touch-screen Mac. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook calls it "a gimmick."

Will multitouch replace the mouse and keyboard? Probably not, but that doesn't mean it won't become a useful part of the way you work with your computer. Watching someone who has used a touch-screen computer for several months is interesting — they'll reach to the screen to scroll down a Web page just as fluidly as they type and use the mouse.

OBAMA'S MYOPIA

Welcome to the School of Social Engineering

By Ken Connor

In the wake of the controversial dismissal of Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, another of the President's men has been attracting negative attention.

The President has chosen teacher and GLBT activist Kevin Jennings for advice and guidance on how best to foster a safe and drug-free environment for America's school children.  Much has already been written about Jennings's controversial background, his troubling associations, his questionable ethics, and his obvious lack of qualification and suitability for the job of Safe Schools Czar.  Given Obama's need to stay in the public's good graces in order to advance the cause of health care reform, it would hardly be surprising to see Kevin Jennings gently shoved off the President's roster of advisors if this criticism continues. 

What the American people are beginning to realize—thanks to appointees like Van Jones and Kevin Jennings—is that the President's vision for the country involves far more than making health care accessible to all or reducing our collective carbon footprint.  True to his promise to bring about "change," Mr. Obama is aggressively pursuing a comprehensive policy of social engineering designed to do just that.

And he is using America's schools as an instrument to produce that change.

Ostensibly, Mr. Jennings was selected as Director of the Office for Safe and Drug-Free Schools due to his work in addressing the problem of bullying—a worthy and necessary effort to be sure.  Many children feel unsafe at school due to systematic harassment and violence at the hands of their peers.  What's revealing, however, is that—despite little evidence to suggest that the bullying of gay kids in particular is a pervasive problem—Mr. Jennings' principal criteria in evaluating the "safety" of a school appears to be the extent to which that school is a supporter and advocate of homosexuality and other alternative sexual orientations. 

With Mr. Jones, the President attempted to advance his controversial agenda by appointing an individual of dubious qualifications to head up a noble-sounding effort.  "Green jobs" was a pretext for advancing a divisive and partisan "social justice" agenda.  With Kevin Jennings, "safe schools" turns out to be a euphemism for the advancement and promotion of the GLBT agenda.  Were Mr. Jennings truly concerned with addressing the problem of bullying in school he might focus on developing programs that emphasize the basic precept of the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would wish to be treated.  Do not do violence to others for any reason.  Be tolerant of others, even those with whom you disagree.  Such a program would work to increase the safety and security of all children, including those struggling with GLBT issues.       

It appears that the true purpose of the Safe Schools Czar, then, is not to reduce instances of bullying in schools but to normalize alternative sexual identities and practices through a systematic program of indoctrination in the classroom.  Recognizing the truth of Abraham Lincoln's observation that "the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next," Mr. Obama knows that the best way to achieve his larger "progressive" vision of eradicating all traces of outmoded moral convention from the American social consciousness is to start with the children. 

As far as Mr. Jennings is concerned, the moral validity of homosexuality is self-evident; it is as indisputable as the roundness of the earth or the sum of two and two.  The fact that approximately 50% of the American people believe that homosexuality is immoral merely confirms to Jennings the importance of his mission and the necessity of his schoolroom strategy.  Just as it's necessary to prohibit Christmas cards and prayer in school in order to preserve the radicals' vision of the separation of Church and State, so too is it necessary to advance the views of homosexuals by ensuring that every American child is educated about the scope and variety of their sexual options in life.  It counts for nothing that most parents would object to their children being made unwitting dupes of a social agenda they find morally-objectionable and antagonistic to their religious views and notions of the traditional family.  Hijacking the classroom, however, is key to advancing the GLBT agenda. 

With each passing day, it's becoming increasingly clear that the change the American people voted for is not the "change" President Obama envisions for our country.  It remains to be seen, however, whether the American people are prepared to compromise their children's education in service of Mr. Obama's vision of the future.  If the answer is no, then it may well be that Mr. Jennings isn't the only one whose days are numbered.

CENTER FOR THE JUST SOCIETY