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We respect and value the social media editors who share the links that make our job easier. But sometimes, we have no idea what they are talking about. So after a long day spent staring at Twitter, we're sharing our favorites.

Anyone with a kid under 10 knows 'The Wiggles' -- but you may have not known the issues 'Blue Wiggle' faced off-camera fxn.ws/yuuj1W

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 22, 2012

Typical Hollywood stuff: passing on the wrong roles, typecasting, a very public break-up with Sean Young. Nothing you haven't heard before from a wiggly blue entertainer.

After C.S. Lewis College flops, a free campus for the taking wapo.st/ykoRZp

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 22, 2012

C.S. Lewis College: party school. If Arizona State and PCU from PCU had a child and that child was an institute of higher learning, it would look like C.S. Lewis College. (Not now, obviously: back when it was still a college.)

Our Birth Control Undermines Amphibians bit.ly/yYAQ26

— Scientific American (@sciam) February 22, 2012

Amphibians sure have a lot of opinions for animals that don't have fully functioning vertebrae. We don't go down to the pond and tell them how their poison glands and thin, delicate skin are impacting our habitat. They do, of course, but we carry on.
 

Gov't launches war on fresh milk, hair dryers... drudge.tw/ArfYmp

— Drudge Report (@Drudge_Report) February 22, 2012

Two-front wars are notoriously difficult to manage. And this one is going to involve dairy and electrical equipment close to a bathtub. Tough sledding.

'Hugo' sparks interest in 200-year-old automaton huff.to/A1Cgmf

— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) February 22, 2012

He was due. Plus, it's awards season. People get interested in Mickey Rourke when there's an Oscar on the line.

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The Trials of a Blue Wiggle, Amphibians and Birth Control, and Automaton Fever

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire -02/22/12)- Furthering its commitment to running high performance session border control (SBC) on commercial off-the-shelf platforms, Metaswitch Networks today announced that its industry-leading Perimeta SBC software is being made available for deployment on generic enterprise servers as well as virtual machine environments to support elastic cloud computing networks.

Introduced in September 2011 and already selected by more than 60 service providers worldwide, Perimeta's flexible architecture supports independent scaling of an SBC's signaling and media functions -- allowing service providers to cost-effectively address the signaling-heavy, changing mix of network traffic. With Perimeta now available to run on various hypervisors, large operators can take advantage of private elastic cloud environments to scale SBC functions completely independently of dedicated hardware.

"Our established approach to building portable SBC software makes it natural to extend Perimeta into cloud-based architectures," said Martin Taylor, Metaswitch's CTO. "By architecting our solution for massively parallel operation on multi-core CPUs, network operators can now, for the first time, leverage COTS server farms to initiate virtual SBC capacity on demand. This is a highly efficient use of shared compute resources and mirrors the software-defined network trend of moving control plane software into elastic compute clouds."

"Today network operators are investing heavily in data center infrastructure, including server hardware and virtualization software to support growing computing demands," said Diane Myers, Directing Analyst, VoIP and IMS, Infonetics. "By allowing operators to scale SBC capacity and functions on demand, Metaswitch is helping to limit capital expenditures and infrastructure complexity while optimizing the use of SBC licenses."

Perimeta SBC is currently running live on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Metaswitch will be demonstrating Perimeta at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 27 - March 1 on the MWC Avenue (AV80-81). Follow Metaswitch in Barcelona on Twitter at #metamwc.

Resource Link:

Learn more about deploying Session Border Control in the cloud.

About Metaswitch Networks

Metaswitch Networks is a leading provider of the software that powers a whole new generation of communications services, and the solutions that fuel the rapid migration to all-IP architectures. Hundreds of network operators worldwide defend, extend and brand their business by building on Metaswitch to deliver a reliable, scalable, and immersive communications experience. For more information, please visit http://www.metaswitch.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Copyright © 2012 Metaswitch Networks. "Metaswitch" is a registered trademark. Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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Metaswitch Puts Perimeta(TM) Session Border Control in the Cloud

By Cheryl Chen
Epoch Times Staff Created: February 22, 2012 Last Updated: February 22, 2012

Chinese media reports reveal intense infighting in the Chinese regime’s Politburo Standing Committee. Most of the members have been dragged into the political drama triggered by Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun’s taking a medical “leave of absence” and ending up at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu requesting protection from party boss Bo Xilai.

Insiders from each faction are using different media to reveal sensitive information to the public. The unusual phenomenon has broken the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) tradition of hiding its dirty laundry from public eyes.

Chinese media reported on Feb. 18 that Chongqing municipal authorities had decided to appoint Tai Zhan to become deputy secretary of Chongqing’s Municipal Party Committee, replacing the incumbent, Ding Xianjun.

Tai was transferred in 2011 from Beijing’s State Administration for Industry & Commerce to Chongqing’s Administration of Industry & Commerce. He is the son of (former regime leader) Jiang Zemin’s cousin, Jiang Zeling, while Ding Xianjun’s political career was once promoted by He Guoqiang, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

On Feb. 18, Chongqing’s largest Party newspaper, Chongqing Daily, said in a front-page article that Guan Haixiang has been appointed to take the post of Party Secretary to oversee security work in Chongqing and will continue the “hitting the black” campaign in the spring.

Guan was a political worker in the Communist Youth League from 1994 to 2009. The Communist Youth League has formed Hu Jintao’s power base.

Bill Gertz, a national security writer specializing in China issues, wrote on Washington’s Free Beacon, quoting Chinese officials saying that Zhou Yongkang, China’s most senior security official and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, has taken charge of Chongqing from Bo Xilai. However, Zhou has not allowed Beijing security authorities to further investigate or arrest Bo.

The state-run People’s Daily published a commentary on Feb. 16 criticizing some local officials for focusing on vanity projects that waste money and manpower for the purpose of climbing the political ladder.

The commentary can be regarded as the position of the Party’s top leaders who are probably preparing propaganda to target Bo Xilai, Zhang Weiguo, editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s Trends magazine told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

The commentary echoes a speech Xi Jinping made last year about cadres’ position changing hands, indicating Xi has already taken the lead in the Party organizations, Ming Xia, a professor of Political Science at City University of New York, told RFA.

Another commentary on People’s Daily on Feb. 17 stressed that during changing hands of leadership, some officials tend to leave problems to their successor, instead of finding solutions during their terms.

The article implies that Hu Jintao should deal with the problem caused by Bo and Wang promptly and not leave it to the new leadership after the 18th Party Congress, according to the Chinese-language dissident website Boxun. This articles also shows Xi’s supporters urging Hu and Wen via People’s Daily to handle the matter as soon as possible, according to Boxun.

The Mingjing Monthly magazine, which Chinese-language media regard as being tied to Jiang Zemin, recently quoted an insider’s words and listed five pieces of evidence incriminating Bo Xilai. The article said, “Bo has reached a frenzied state trying to enter the standing committee of the Politburo. He is now known as the biggest hypocrite in the Party by the top Party leaders.”

On Feb. 14 the Mingjing website was the first to publish an article saying that all nine Politburo Standing Committee members agreeing to conduct a criminal investigation task force targeting Bo Xilai.

Read the original post:
Who Gets to Control Chongqing and its Wayward Party Boss?

Archie Fraser says it is not a new concept for a structure appointed by the club owners to manage and run the professional league in a country. Photo: Darren Pateman

THE prospect of a breakaway A-League competition managed and run by the owners of the existing clubs is not as fanciful as the FFA might think.

After years of significant losses, some as much as $6 million each year by individual club owners, and A-League annual accumulated losses in excess of $28 million, understandably owners are running out of patience. For now it's all about control by the FFA and the fear that it might lose something, even though by holding on to the A-League it will eventually kill it off.

It is not a new concept for a structure appointed by the club owners to manage and run the professional league in a country.

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After all, the English Premier League was founded on the same premise, where the clubs took over the running of the old League Division 1 from the Football League to form the EPL.

When it was formed the English FA cried foul. However, the results since control passed from the bureaucrats to the owners have been spectacular.

Many question the ability of a governing body to run all aspects of the game and the conflicting priorities they face when the responsibility stretches from junior game development through to World Cup campaigns and the compliance that is required by the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA.

The owners have been more than patient and the FFA must step back and allow this to happen so it can focus on what it is good at - running our national teams and game development.

FFA should keep the media rights to Socceroos games and any sponsorships it can derive.

A breakaway league would need to be sanctioned by the AFC, which is the body to which the FFA reports. Or the FFA could support the new league and the structure, just as the English FA did. If the owners of the A-League clubs want to make this a reality, then they will have to call the FFA's bluff.

My reading of the 10 A-League club owners is that there could be more than half who would like to be part of a structure that allowed them to be driving their own destiny. This group certainly has the business talent and money to make this a success.

Clearly the test is the past and what the FFA has achieved. There has been some progress but the financial plight of the governing body and the clubs is well documented and it does not read well. Sponsors and media will judge how the FFA manages the game and the current crisis, which ultimately affects the total value of the A-League brand.

With a TV and new media deal being integral to the future of the A-League, owners want to know they are getting the best possible result for their product.

They are concerned that based on a string of failed ventures and an inability by the FFA to deliver substantial added value to the A-League brand there will be less on the table when the media offers start rolling in.

The owners believe - and rightly so - that the revenues derived from the A-League through sponsorship and media rights would be more than enough to manage, promote, market and expand the game if the total value of these were applied directly to the A-League.

Long term this would be an outstanding investment for the owners: the A-League brand would grow and the media rights would become increasingly valuable.

Sponsors would flock to a new entity, owners would invest in building their clubs and they would infuse themselves further into the communities, all of which would deliver a larger audience that is starved of free-to-air viewing.

The A-League ownership group has significant intellect, money and desire. When it's your reputation and money on the line you look at things differently.

The new A-League with a new media deal, expansion plans, marquee players, professional referees and a developing brand profile would be a true competitor to the other codes.

The owners are asking for the opportunity to invest more money, be allowed to actually drive the business model and to be in charge of their own destiny.

Just as the Crawford report suggested.

Archie Fraser was head of the A-League in 2009-10.

Go here to read the rest:
Owners must take control of A-League

The beauty of the current birth-control conversation for Democrats is that they not only have public opinion on their side but also have cannily managed to make contraception a front-burner election-year campaign issue — by complaining that Republicans are making it front-burner election-year campaign issue.

The answer, in other words, to the many who are wondering why the Republicans would want to ride such a losing pony is: They don’t.

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“No one is making birth control a topic,” Rick Santorum’s long-time media consultant and friend John Brabender told me. “It’s not an agenda that anyone’s running on. But it’s a distortion that works to [the other side’s] benefit to imply we’re for limiting access to birth control.’’

The narrative that it’s conservatives who won’t stop talking about pills, gels and contraceptive foam is probably set in stone at this point; a story in today’s Washington Post reports that contraception has “suddenly become an obsession of the 2012 presidential campaign. To many observers, it seems that the clock has indeed been turned back.”

The first two such observers quoted in the piece are leaders of the contraception lobby, whose job is to monetize real and perceived attacks, exactly as their counterparts on the right do: “As Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, said incredulously on Saturday during a rally in Austin: “Somehow in this country, in 2012, this election might turn on whether women should have access to birth control.’ ”

Incredulously, or hopefully? It’s Democrats like Richards who keep saying this is what the election will turn on. Which is smart, if you are Cecile Richards, because for any campaign or cause these days, outrage is oxygen. (See Komen vs. Planned Parenthood.) And if the election does turn on contraception, her team wins.

When I looked back at a tape of what Republicans have been saying on the topic, what’s striking is how reluctant they are to go there.

Yes, even including Santorum’s 71-year-old bankroller, Foster Friess, whose assets may until now have buffered him from the news that his jokes need work.

But when he recycled a fragment of an (at least) 50-year-old funny about an aspirin held between the knees being all the birth control a nice girl needs, it was in response to Andrea Mitchell’s question about whether he was concerned that Santorum’s views on birth control and women in combat roles could hurt his viability as a candidate.

His first response was to deflect the question: “I get such a chuckle when these things come out. Here we have millions of our fellow Americans unemployed, we have jihadist camps being set up in Latin America, which Rick has been warning about, and people seem to be so preoccupied with sex!”

The aspirin inanity that followed has been successfully cast as his candidate’s “agenda,” mainly through the efforts of Democratic fundraisers: “We’ve already accumulated 65,000 signatures on our petition opposing their Aspirin Agenda,” Sen. Patty Murray said in a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraising letter Friday. “But I’m too mad to stop at ‘opposing.’ It’s time we punished the people responsible by taking away their jobs. The DSCC is ready to send the GOP agenda back to the 1950s where it belongs — and send these Republicans packing. Will you click here and give $5 or $10 to help us raise $100,000 by the end of today to fire anti-choice Republicans?’’

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Birth-control debate a winner for Democrats