Drew Peterson meets with divorce lawyer
Drew Peterson has met with a prominent divorce attorney more than a year after his wife, Stacy, disappeared, his lawyer confirmed to CNN today. Police have said that the former Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant is a suspect in his wife's disappearance, which investigators have labeled a "potential homicide." Peterson maintains his wife left him for someone else.

Auto execs face sharp scrutiny
Skeptical senators grilled auto executives at a hearing today, calling them short sighted and unimaginative, as they seek a $25 billion taxpayer-funded bailout to ward off looming bankruptcy, CNNMoney reports. "Their board rooms in my view have been devoid of vision," said Sen. Chris Dodd.

Sources: Obama chooses attorney general
Former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for the position of attorney general, according to two prominent Democrats involved in transition matters.

Boy, 8, gives taped account of killings
An 8-year-old Arizona boy suspected in the deaths of his father and another man told police he found the two men dead upon arriving home from school, according to a portion of a videotaped interview released Tuesday by authorities.

U.S. families struggle to feed kids, report says
Almost 700,000 U.S. children lived in households that struggled to put food on the table at some point in 2007, the highest number since 1998, according to a federal report.

EmEditor Professional 8.0
Create macros and edit text in a scripting-oriented editor.

Iris Browser beta
Explore the Web on the go with your handheld device.

BFilter 1.1.4
Detect and block banner ads during Web surfing.

MySpeed Plug-In for YouTube Beta 2.11
Speed up or slow down the playback rate of any YouTube or other streaming flash video.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.4
Surf the Web, block pop-ups, and keep spyware at bay with this lean and fast open-source browser.

Network Neutrality — Without Regulation
boyko.at.netqos writes "Timothy B. Lee (no relation to Tim Berners-Lee), a frequent contributor to Ars Technica and Techdirt, has recently written 'The Durable Internet,' a paper published by the libertarian-leaning CATO institute. In it, Lee argues that because a neutral network works better than a non-neutral one, the Internet's open-ended architecture is not likely to vanish, despite the fears of net neutrality proponents, (and despite the wishes of net neutrality opponents.) For that reason, perhaps network neutrality legislation isn't necessary — or even desirable — from an open-networks perspective. In addition to the paper, Network Performance Daily has an interview and podcast with Tim Lee, and Lee addresses counter-arguments with a blog posting for Technology Liberation Front."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lessig, Zittrain, Barlow To Square Off Against RIAA
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's case in Boston against a 24-year-old grad student, SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum, in which Prof. Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School, along with members of his CyberLaw class, are representing the defendant, may shape up as a showdown between the Electronic Frontier and Big Music. The defendant's witness list includes names such as those of Prof. Lawrence Lessig (Author of 'Free Culture'), John Perry Barlow (former songwriter of The Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation), Prof. Johan Pouwelse (Scientific Director of P2P-Next), Prof. Jonathan Zittrain (Author of 'The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It'), Professors Wendy Seltzer, Terry Fisher, and John Palfrey, and others. The RIAA requested, and was granted, an adjournment of the trial, from its previously scheduled December 1st date, to March 30, 2009. (The RIAA lawyers have been asking for adjournments a lot lately, asking for an adjournment in UMG v. Lindor the other day because they were so busy preparing for the Tenenbaum December 1st trial ... I guess when you're running on hot air, you sometimes run out of steam)."

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Study Recommends Online Gaming, Social Networking For Kids
Blue's News pointed out a report about a study sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation which found that online gaming and social networking are beneficial to children, teaching them basic technical skills and how to communicate in the Information Age. The study was conducted over a period of three years, with researchers interviewing hundreds of children and monitoring thousands of hours of online time. The full white paper (PDF) is also available. "For a minority of children, the casual use of social media served as a springboard to them gaining technological expertise — labeled in the study as 'geeking out,' the researchers said. By asking friends or getting help from people met through online groups, some children learned to adjust the software code underpinning some of the video games they played, edit videos and fix computer hardware. Given that the use of social media serves as inspiration to learning, schools should abandon their hostility and support children when they want to learn some skills more sophisticated than simply designing their Facebook page, the study said."

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CRTC Rules Bell Can Squeeze Downloads
pparsons writes "Bell Canada Inc. will not have to suspend its practice of 'shaping' traffic on the Internet after a group of companies that resell access to Bell's network complained their customers were also being negatively affected. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today released a decision that denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request that Bell be ordered to cease its application of the practice to its wholesale customers."

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MIT and NASA Designing Silent Aircraft
Iddo Genuth writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently won a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to design quieter, more energy efficient, and more environmentally friendly commercial airplanes. The two-million-dollar contract from NASA is just an initial step in bringing green technologies to the sky."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Report: CIA witheld info from White House
The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee Thursday called for a criminal investigation into whether the CIA lied ...

Baghdad plans to kill stray dogs
Baghdad authorities announced a citywide campaign on Thursday to kill stray dogs in the Iraqi capital after a spate of dog attacks ...

Federal judge orders 5 terror suspects released at Gitmo
A federal judge has ordered the release of five Algerian terror suspects who have been held without charge for almost seven ...

Former Hill aide pleads guilty to hiding gifts
A former congressional staffer has pleaded guilty to not reporting thousands of dollars in illegal gifts from lobbyists.

Bush, Olmert to hold final meeting in office
President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert two leaders with just weeks left in office will discuss a range ...