LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – What do Ben Roethlisberger's Super Bowl choke and "Two and a Half Men's" send-off to deceased cad Charlie Harper have in common? They were the most-TiVo'ed moments on television in 2011.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Roethlisberger's incomplete pass to Mike Wallace during Super Bowl XLV was the year's most "time-shifted" television moment, according to DVR company TiVo's newly released annual report.

Coming in second was the eulogy for Charlie Sheen's character on "Two and a Half Men" during the show's September season premiere.

The Best Pictures Oscar win for "The King's Speech" at the Academy Awards came in third, while "Modern Family" -- a DVR favorite -- rounded out TiVo's Top 5 television moments with its "After the Fire" and "Hit and Run" episodes.

Speaking of "Modern Family," the ABC comedy has overtaken "Grey's Anatomy" as the top-ranked show on the company's "Season Pass" list, which automatically records shows week-to-week, regardless of time-slot changes.

The medical drama had held the top ranking for months. (In this case, DVR use appears to echo real-time viewing; "Modern Family" consistently leads the ratings on Wednesday nights.)

In terms of network breakdown, the most-DVR'ed series -- at least within the scope of TiVo's study -- air on the CW, with "The Vampire Diaries," "Gossip Girl" and "Smallville" being viewed in time-shifted mode more than 83 percent of the time.

This would seem to be in alignment with the CW's younger audience, which presumably has better things to do than plunk itself in front of the television in accordance with the network's dictated schedule.

LOS ANGELES – Chris Paul had 17 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in his Los Angeles Clippers debut and Chauncey Billups made an equally impressive first impression with his new club, scoring 23 points in a 114-95 victory over the Lakers on Monday night.
The first of two preseason games between the teams followed a dizzying two-week media frenzy in both camps, during which time the Clippers acquired Paul from New Orleans right after the league squashed a proposed three-way deal that would have sent him to the Lakers.
Paul's arrival came immediately after the Clippers' acquisitions of former Laker Caron Butler as a free agent, and Billups from the New York Knicks in a waiver auction. Lamar Odom, whom the Lakers tried to peddle to New Orleans in the squashed deal, angrily demanded to be traded and was sent to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks — who swept the Lakers out of the playoffs last spring. And to top it all off, Kobe Bryant's wife Vanessa filed for divorce on Friday.
Blake Griffin had 12 points for the Clippers in a foul-plagued 25 minutes. Last season's rookie of the year picked up his third foul with 5:44 left in the second quarter, then received a technical foul about 2 minutes later for hanging on the rim too long after converting Billups' pass to him off the glass into a fast-break slam dunk.
Bryant had 22 points in about 30 minutes, Pau Gasol scored 16 and Andrew Bynum added 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Rookie point guard Darius Morris, a second-round draft pick out of Michigan and the first player off the Lakers' bench, beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 20-footer that tied the score at 28. He pulled them even again at 35 with a 3-pointer and finished with 11 points in about 24 minutes.
Bryant was sent crashing to the floor by Clippers center DeAndre Jordan on a blocked layup with 7:23 left in the third quarter and came up holding his right wrist — the one he shoots with. He stayed in the game for another 3 minutes, then went to the bench for a good stretch after the Clippers extended an eight-point lead to 80-62 on Billups' 3-pointer with 4:08 left in the period.
Paul and Billups sat out the fourth quarter. Mo Williams, beginning his first full season with the Clippers after joining them in last season at the trading deadline for Baron Davis, had nine points in 22 minutes on his 29th birthday.
Billups had 12 points as the Clippers led 55-50 at halftime.
Steve Blake started at point guard for new Lakers coach Mike Brown in place of Derek Fisher, who continued his conditioning program following weeks of inactivity while representing the players' association during the 149-day lockout.

An explosion over the weekend at a subsidiary facility owned by Apple supplier Pegatron injured 61 workers at the site, located at Shanghai’s Songjiang industrial park.

According to Reuters, chief financial officer of Pegatron, Charles Lin, said that while there had been no fire at the metal casing factory belonging to Riteng Computer Accessory Company, the gas explosion had resulted in 23 workers requiring hospital treatment.

“The factory has not started operations yet. Part of the facility is still under pre-operation inspection and part is running trial production,â€

Responding to the incident, Apple said in an emailed statement: “Our hearts go out to the people who were hurt in Songjiang. We are working closely with Pegatron to understand the cause of this accident.â€

Taiwan-based DigiTimes reported that Riteng’s facility was being extended for the production of metal casings used in slim notebooks, with Pegatron hoping to become one of the top three suppliers alongside Catcher Technology and Foxconn.

The incident at Riteng’s facility once again draws attention to concerns about safety at China-based factories supplying major electronics companies around the world with many of the parts used in computers and mobile devices.

In May this year an explosion at a factory in Chengdu operated by Apple supplier Foxconn killed three people and injured 15. More recently, Catcher Technology was ordered to close a facility in China making cases for Mac notebooks because of pollution concerns.

Suicides allegedly brought on by harsh working conditions have also been a problem at some plants – in July a Foxconn employee fell to his death in mysterious circumstances at one of the companies dormitories in Shenzhen, southern China, while in May it was reported that the same company was getting its workers to sign a “no suicide” pledge following the deaths of 14 employees over the last couple of years.

Of course, if Foxconn succeeds with its plans to build a robotic workforce in the coming years, employee suicides would be a thing of the past and any explosions would at least only result in a bit of twisted metal rather than any human casualties. But of course many of the people replaced by robotic technology would prefer to be employed and take the risk rather than have no job at all.

Foxconn, which employs over a million people, claims to have increased wages and improved working conditions for its workers in the last year.



This article was originally posted on Digital Trends





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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-led House of Representatives will set the stage on Tuesday for a showdown with Senate Democrats over a payroll tax cut extension that is becoming a proxy for 2012 election year battles.

The tax legislation has become the latest in a string of battles in Congress this year, all of which have contributed to widespread public discontent with Washington politicians.

When the House votes on Tuesday it will in effect be rejecting a bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly on Saturday and calling for formal negotiations with the Democratic-led Senate.

The Senate bill would set a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut with the aim of crafting a full-year tax cut extension early next year.

The House move will cast doubt on the future of the popular payroll tax cut, which is caught up in a high-stakes game of brinkmanship between the two political parties that some say could backfire.

Washington gridlock is fueling an anti-incumbent mood among voters heading into next year's elections.

"Our members do not want to just punt and do a two-month short-term fix where we have to come back and do this again," House Speaker John Boehner said late on Monday after a closed meeting with fellow Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shot back that the House should allow an up-or-down vote on the two-month stop-gap plan. "I am happy to continue negotiations on a yearlong deal as soon as the House of Representatives passes the Senate's bipartisan compromise, and prevents a tax hike from hitting middle-class families," Reid said.

Several Republican lawmakers publicly agreed with Reid.

The bipartisan two-month deal crafted by the Senate came after efforts at a full-year tax cut failed.

At stake is much more than politicians' reputations and their 2012 re-election chances. If Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on extending the tax cut that expires on December 31, 160 million Americans will begin 2012 with less money - about $1,000 a year for the average worker - in their paychecks.

That, economists fear, could dampen, or even end what little economic growth there is as the United States struggles to right itself after the deepest recession in decades and severe debt problems in Europe that could infect America.

Not only would workers' taxes go up in a couple weeks if the two sides cannot find a quick compromise. About 2.2 million people who have suffered long-term unemployment will see benefit checks cut off by the middle of February. And doctors treating elderly Medicare patients also will see their reimbursements cut.

Once the House on Tuesday requests a new round of negotiations, as expected, the next steps are unclear.

"We are not coming back, we are not appointing negotiators until they pass the Senate compromise," Reid's spokesman Adam Jentleson insisted.

President Barack Obama already has delayed a Hawaii vacation. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Monday said, "The president has made clear that he wants Congress to get this done, that he is here now and will be here as Congress tries to sort this out." But Carney did not make clear how Obama might bring the two sides together, or whether he will even try.

(Editing by Christopher Wilson)

NEW YORK – Starting this week and continuing into 2012, virtually all Michael Chabon novels, stories and other writings will become available as ebooks, news the author looks upon with pleasure and resignation.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," Chabon has been a published author since 1988, long enough to land on both sides of the legal and financial digital divide.
Chabon controls e-rights to such early works as "Wonder Boys" and his acclaimed debut novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" because they came out well before the electronic era and digital editions were not mentioned in his contracts. For those books, Chabon signed with Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher that offers 50 percent royalties. Chabon called the terms "extremely fair and generous."
E-rights to "Kavalier & Clay," published in 2000 by Random House, and such recent HarperCollins releases as "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" are owned by the original publishers. For those editions, Chabon's royalties will be around 25 percent, the industry standard and comparable to what publishers offer for hardcovers and paperbacks. Countless writers and agents have said the rate for ebooks should be raised.
"I agreed to the traditional ebook royalty, which I think is criminally low, because I didn't really have any legs to stand on. I didn't want to get left behind in the ebook revolution," Chabon said recently.
"When it's comes to royalties on a paper book, that rate (25 percent) is completely fair when you think of the expenses a publisher takes on — the delivery trucks and the factory workers and the distribution chains. But it's not fair for them to take a roughly identical royalty for an ebook that costs them nothing to produce."
A spokeswoman for HarperCollins, Tina Andreadis, said that the publisher does not "comment on our contracts with our authors." Jane von Mehren, senior vice president and publisher of trade paperbacks at the Random House Publishing Group, declined to comment on Chabon's criticism. But she did say in a statement that Random House was "thrilled" to release the e-book and trade paperback of "Kavalier & Clay" in June 2012 and "reach all the potential readers of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece."
With ebooks estimated at 20 percent of overall sales, and growing, the fight for new and old releases intensifies. Amazon.com, which also offers higher e-royalty rates than traditional publishers, has aggressively expanded its publishing program and signed the best-selling self-help author Timothy Ferriss. Open Road, co-founded in 2009 by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, has acquired e-rights to several popular "backlist" works, including Pat Conroy's "The Prince of Tides," Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" and Erica Jong's "Fear of Flying."
For traditional publishers, holding on to a classic can be expensive: Simon & Schuster reportedly paid seven figures for electronic rights to Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451."
Unlike Bradbury, who has likened ebooks to "burned fuel," the 48-year-old Chabon has no philosophical objections, only contractual ones. He has a Kindle app and iBook app and says one of his four children is enjoying the e-versions of the "Lady Grace" mystery series. He loves paper texts and believes they will last forever, but understands the convenience, and necessity, of buying a book at any time.
"I don't want someone who just finished `Wonder Boys' and wants to read another one of my books to be unable do so because there's no bookstore nearby," he says.
"The technology is a cool technology, the appeal is obvious. As readers, we tend to be more subject, more prey to the need of instant gratification. Readers are greedy. It's a benign greed, and I think ebooks have the potential to satisfy that greed."