World’s largest ‘Harry Potter’ store to open in NYC this year

MANHATTAN, N.Y. — Who couldn’t use a little magic right now? A new store marketed as the world’s largest “Harry Potter” shop will open at 935 Broadway in the heart of Manhattan’s Flatiron District later this year.SecretNYC reported 

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Social Media Leaders Facebook and Twitter are?

The answer is more nuanced than that question makes it sound. It’s hard to say anything for sure about events in another country an ocean away, but it looks like what’s happening in England right now is a combination of sincere frustration and out-and-out hooliganism.

To start with, the tension has been building in North London, where police and the black community have been at odds for decades. The police have been trying to crack down on gun crime, but the trouble goes back as far as the ‘80s, when the Broadwater Farm riots broke out in response to a death in the black community stemming from a police incident.

Three days of rioting is astonishing, especially when the chaos has roots in a peaceful protest. But not all the rioters are expressing indignation. With the widespread looting of businesses a considerable distance from the epicenter of the initial uprising, you know there are opportunists at work. These are people with no connection to or concern about what happened when police shot and killed Mark Duggan; they’re simply hoods looking to cause trouble for fun and maybe steal some shoes while they’re at it.

The latest reports also say that the rioters have been organizing via Twitter and by using their Blackberry devices. These social technologies seem to be the latest way to help stir up trouble, and unfortunately, the kids using this tech seem to have a better grasp of how it works than the adults that are supposed to be policing them. However, social media has also proven to be an effective way to track down rioters and bring them to justice, as seen following this year's hockey riots in Vancouver.

As for the riots themselves, there may be a point to be made about the actions of the police, but when violence like this erupts, the dialogue gets strained. The best-case scenario is that the government puts time and energy into fixing the situation and the relationship between police and the black community in Tottenham and around London, but you can’t help wishing there was a more positive process to that goal.

As for the shooting of Mark Duggan, there’s still a lot of information left to surface. For now, it seems as if the man was carrying an illegal firearm, but didn’t discharge it. In other words, the police were probably wrong to use lethal force, even though they had targeted a dangerous person.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media have inspired protests in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan and even faraway China.

Social media is unleashing movements for peace, democracy and freedom in a region of the world that essentially seemed like it was content to live without them.

Social media is changing the Middle East – perhaps it will have a similar positive effect on politics in the West – promoting a more vibrant democracy that includes participation of a younger generation – one that does not currently vote enough to sustain a true democracy.

In the end, violence and death are regrettable; we all hope for peace and justice. Whatever the final outcome of the 2011 riots in London, moments like these leave everyone frustrated and saddened. Here’s to a swift restoration of peace on the streets of London.

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Militants retreat from Mogadishu

MOGADISHU — Somalia's Islamist Shebab rebels pulled out of key positions in the war-torn and famine-struck capital on Saturday, with the country's president proclaiming the city "fully liberated."

"Mogadishu has been fully liberated from the enemy, and the rest of the country will soon be liberated too," Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told reporters.

The Al-Qaeda affiliated Shebab insurgents abandoned several strategic positions overnight that were then taken over by government troops.

"We are very happy -- the fruits of bloodshed and the wars that we fought against the rebels are finally attained," Ahmed said.

African Union-backed government troops have been battling Shebab rebels in Mogadishu in an offensive to secure aid delivery routes for victims of the drought threatening some 12 million people in Somalia and other Horn of Africa countries.

"We have two enemies to fight - one of them is the Shebab, while the other is those who try to rob the people," the president said.

"We will not tolerate looting, and anyone found committing such a crime will be brought to justice."

Lawless Somalia is awash with rival militia factions. On Friday, food aid being handed out to famine victims in Mogadishu was looted by gunmen, who killed five people.

However, a spokesman for hardline rebels, Ali Mohamed Rage, said Saturday's withdrawal involved merely "a change of military tactics."

"The Mujahideen fighters applied military tactic changes to undermine the allied enemy of Allah, and you will soon be hearing a good news."

Shebab fighters are waging a bloody campaign to overthrow the country's Western-backed transitional government, and control large areas of the south and centre of the country.

Until Saturday morning, government and AU troops controlled just over half of Mogadishu, including the airport and port, while the Shebab controlled the city's north-east.

"The enemy is defeated, they pulled out of Mogadishu -- and we will fight them to eliminate them from the rest of the country," Somalia's prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said.

Since February, the African Union mission (AMISOM) with its 9,000 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers has clawed back key positions from the insurgents.

Major Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the AU's AMISOM force in Somalia, said they were reacting cautiously to the Shebab's move.

Rebel units began trundling out of the city in pickups before dawn after intense firefights with government forces late Friday night. The Al Qaeda-linked militants headed toward their strongholds across Somalia, a desolate terrain awash with hundreds of thousands of starving families enduring the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades.

The country "welcomes the success by the Somali government forces backed by (African Union peacekeepers) who defeated the enemy of Shabab," President Sheikh Shairf Sheikh Ahmed told reporters at his residence.

He added: "It is time to harvest the fruits of peace. I call on the Somali people to help and to support their soldiers and point out any Shabab member hiding in homes."

Ali Mohamoud Rage, a Shabab spokesman, told a Somali radio station: "We have abandoned Mogadishu but we remain in other towns. We aren't leaving you. We have changed our tactics. Every one of you will feel the change in every corner and every street in Mogadishu. We will defend you and continue the fighting."

Shabab and its fierce interpretation of Islamic law, which espouses stoning adulterers and public beheadings, were despised in Mogadishu, where residents lived trapped by gunfire and artillery barrages between the rebels and government-backed troops. The capital devolved into a fearful, bloodstained, whittled version of itself as bullet-pocked buildings slumped along the Indian Ocean.

The U.S. has been concerned that the Shabab, which has connections to the Al Qaeda extremists in Yemen, would further disrupt the volatile intersection of Africa and the Middle East. In 2010, Shabab carried out twin bombings in Uganda that killed 76 people; the attacks were retribution for Uganda soldiers taking part in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

The rebels have been particularly brutal to their own countrymen. In recent weeks, they have deterred humanitarian organizations from reaching drought regions under their control, leaving swaths of the country scattered with starving families. Shabab has also been criticized for preventing hundreds of thousands Somalis facing famine from fleeing their territory to international aid camps.

The Islamic militants began seeping across Mogadishu in 2007, a year after Ethiopian troops invaded the country and a transitional government attempted to form a semblance of order among warring clans and religious extremists. The transitional government has received millions of dollars in Western assistance but is rife with corruption, tribal politics and an often noncommitted, underpaid army.

Surges by Africa Union forces, however, had weakened Shabab's grip on the capital. The rebels had been divided on tactics in recent months, and shortly before midnight Friday they launched attacks on government bases and troop positions. Gunshots and explosions rang across the city for hours as government-backed forces advanced on rebel strongholds.

"The government repelled the attacks and we have cleared Mogadishu this morning," government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman told The Times. "The security committee is in emergency meeting to restore law and order in the vacuum left by" retreating Shabab forces.

Somalis watched as militants streamed out of the city.

"I saw a convoy of about dozen pickup trucks full of fighters coming from Mogadishu," Osman Farole, a resident of Afgoye, about 22 miles outside the capital, told The Times. "Among the convoy were two black-tinted 4x4 vehicles that are supposed to carry their leaders.

Media of Pakistan

From Pakistan's independence, there have been four major news agencies in Pakistan: the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP); the Pakistan press association, later renamed the Pakistan Press International (PPI) Associated Press Service (APS) is the first Pakistani news Agency on IT base in specialization in editorial writing. APS news agency also contributing news, feature, article, column, interviews, audio, video and photo service to print and electronic media through out world. Renowned journalist and columnist Chaudhry Ahsan Premee Chief editor and Publisher of this news agency. APS Associated Press Service, the news agency, is working in Islamabad, Pakistan. (APS) Associated Press Service also accredited by Government of Pakistan; the United press of Pakistan (UPP); and the National News Agency (NNA). A number of other smaller news agencies have come into existence including the Independent News Pakistan (INP), News network international (NNI), Sharp Eye (www.sharpeye.pk), the South Asian News Agency (SANA), and Online News International (ONI), Worldwide News agency (WNA)

In the early 21st century, like the rest of the world, print media declined precipitously but total circulation number have increased. From 1994 to 1997, the total number of daily, monthly, and other publications increased from 3,242 to 4,455 but had dropped to just 945 by 2003 with most of the decline occurring in the Punjab Province. However, from 1994 to 2003 total print circulation increased substantially, particularly for dailies (3 million to 6.2 million). Print media are published in 11 languages, but most are published in Urdu and Sindhi, and English-language publications are numerous. The press generally publishes free without restrictions and has played an active role in national elections, but journalists often exercise self-censorship as a result of arrests and intimidation by government and societal actors. Most print media are privately owned, but the government controls the National Press Trust, a major newspaper publisher, and the Associated Press of Pakistan, one of the two major news agencies,but now many news channels and news corporations are made through which Pakistani media became more faster and complicated and many talk shows are held to get the answers from political leaders about their bad plans.

Silent as Judgment Day hours tick by

Harold family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was on Saturday playing recorded church music and devotional messages unrelated to the apocalypse.

Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.

In his latest pronouncement, he had said doomsday would begin in Asia, but with midnight local time come and gone in Tokyo and Beijing and those cities already in the early hours of May 22, there was no sign of the apocalypse.

The Oakland, California, headquarters of the network of 66 U.S. stations, which has international affiliates and had posted billboards around the country warning of a May 21 Judgment Day, were shuttered with a sign in the door that read "This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!"

The headquarters, which appears to be normally closed on Saturday, was also shuttered on Friday.

"If it will be"

It was a sunny day in downtown Ferndale when I was first introduced to Family Radio by a rather conspicuous mobile billboard with a rather casual message: "Save the date, May, 21, 2011, Judgment Day." It was the largest invite I had ever received and I did not plan on attending – I had to work.

And I know what you are thinking because I am thinking it, too — why Saturday? Why not Monday morning or Tuesday afternoon, or even Sunday morning when I will want the world to end anyway because of my massive hangover. But according to Bible scholar Harold Camping, Judgment Day waits for no one.

Camping, 89, is the president of the nonprofit Christian religious radio network Family Radio, based in Oakland, CA. He is responsible for discovering – and being very vocal, if I may add — about a theory extrapolated from the Bible that the rapture will take place May 21, 2011.

The rapture is a Christian belief that the faithful will be carried into the air to meet with Christ as the end of the world unfolds.

"That is a very, very serious admonition 'cause that is the nature of the believer," said Gunther Von Harringa, 59, about the thought-provoking advertisements. "God tells us to do it."

The need to spread the word to the masses through a media campaign of fliers, billboards and even motorcade is fueled by the belief that if you know of impending doom and you do not warn others, you are just as responsible for their ill fate.

Ohio-based Harringa is the international director of Bible Ministries and a big follower of Camping's theory. This is the second end of the world prediction for Camping – he also predicted the end of the world in 1994 – but maybe the second time's a charm.

"I would not say it is his belief," Harringa said. "It is more like what the Bible says and what it says he(God) will do.

Harold Camping Controversy

Camping's Biblical study regarding time and Christ's second coming is based on the cycles of:

Jewish feast days in the Hebrew calendar, as described in the Old Testament,

the lunar month calendar (1 synodic month = 29.53059 days), and

A close approximation of the Gregorian calendar tropical year (365.24219 days, rounded to 365.2422 ).

He projects these into modern times and combines the results with other information in the Bible.

Camping calculates date of the crucifixion of Christ as Friday April 1, AD 33. Not all commentators agree with that date. Hoehner argues for April 3, 33 A.D. Other students of the subject have placed the event in AD 29, 30, or 31.

Camping further calculates that the Rapture is 722,500 days after the crucifixion of Christ.From April 1 to May 21 is 51 days. Additionally, multiplying using the same math Camping uses returns an approximation of the remaining days. Using his date of April 1, AD 33, a total of 1978 years multiplied by 365.2425 days/year (Gregorian calendar) results in 722,449.66 days. Multiplying by 365.2422 (tropical year, seven significant digits) results in 722,449.07 days. Multiplying by 365.24219 (tropical year, eight significant digits) results in 722,449.05 days. If one accounts for leap seconds, each year is slightly longer than the previous. Since 1972 to 2011, the earth rotates 24 seconds slower. This is a difference of 0.000278 day over 39 years, for an average of only 0.000007 day per year.

In 1992, Camping published a book titled 1994?, in which he proclaimed that Christ's return might be on September 6, 1994. In that publication, he also mentioned that 2011 could be the end of the world. Camping's predictions use 1988 as a significant year in the events preceding the apocalypse; this was also the year he left Alameda Bible Fellowship. As a result, some individuals have criticized him for "date-setting. Camping's latest publications, We are Almost There! and To God be The Glory, refer to additional Biblical evidence which, in his opinion and that of others mentioned by him, pointed to May 21, 2011 as the date for the Rapture and October 21, 2011 as the date for the end of the world.

In an article "Is Harold Camping and Family Radio a Cult?", the evangelical Got Questions Ministries opposed Camping's teachings because they believe his entire method of Bible interpretation is flawed:

"Harold Camping employs an allegorical method of interpreting Scripture. Because of this method, the meaning of any Scripture passage is purely subjective, subject to the mind and imagination of the person. … Camping's use of an allegorical method of interpretation for Scripture, and especially for unfulfilled prophecy, is fatally flawed. It undermines the very nature of communication. God gave us His Word to communicate very specific information.

Harold camping Family Radio

In 1961, Family Radio began the Open Forum program, a live weeknight call-in program that Camping hosts. Listeners call in primarily with questions about the meaning of certain passages from the Bible, and Camping answers them by means of interpretations, often with reference to other Biblical passages. Occasionally the questions pertain to general Christian doctrine, such as the nature of sin and salvation, and to matters of everyday life conduct, such as marriage, sexual morality, and education. This program has continued to the present time and is broadcast on the more than 150 stations owned by Family Radio in the United States. The Open Forum is also translated into many foreign languages and together with other Family Radio programming is broadcast worldwide via shortwave station WYFR, a network of AM and FM radio stations, a cable television station, and the Internet.

Family Radio runs various programs on its radio stations. Programs that do not conform to Camping's understanding of the Biblical principle of comparing scripture with scripture (1 Corinthians 2:13) are normally removed from programming upon discovery. Before Camping started teaching that the "Church Age" had ended, programs produced outside of Family Radio were welcome provided they did not accept any "extra-Biblical revelation", and were associated with teachings accepted by the historic Christian faith. Now Camping refuses any ministry associated with the organized church. These programs can be heard by radio, satellite, television, short wave and Internet broadcasts.

His organization also utilizes numerous low-power television signals, for example WFME-TV digital television channel 66 in the New York City area. As of April, 2009, that transmitter has been configured to send out ten separate subchannels, with the first (66-1) carrying the main video at a low quality 480i, the second and third (66-2 and 66-3) sending out a blank video image and, respectively, carrying the audio of "Family Radio East" and "Family Radio West". The other seven have no video and are a mix of different audio content, mostly of a religious nature, and NOAA Weather Radio on 66-9.

Harold Camping

Harold Egbert Camping (born July 19, 1921) is a Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio, a California-based religious broadcasting network that spans more than 150 outlets in the United States of America as well as a website.

Camping's trademarks include his deep, sonorous voice coupled with a slow cadence. He has also used Bible-based numerology to predict dates for the end of the world. His most recent end times prediction was that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011 and that God would subsequently completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. He had previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1994. Both of these predictions have been proven incorrect by the continued existence and sustainment of Earth's Human population.

In 1970, Camping published  Biblical Calendar of History , in which he dated the Creation of the world to the year 11,013 BC and the Flood to 4990 BC. This was in contrast to Bishop James Ussher's famous chronology, which placed creation at 4004 BC and the Flood at 2348 BC. Camping argued that Ussher's dates "agree neither with the Biblical nor the secular evidence" and thus Ussher's methodology was flawed.

Camping surmised that word in the Old Testament scriptures "begat" did not necessarily imply an immediate father-son relationship, as had been assumed by Ussher and others who hadn't fully studied the biblical timeline according to incomplete information. Camping noted the use of the phrase "called his name" (Hebrew qara shem), found three times in Genesis 4-5, which he characterized as a "clue phrase" to indicate an immediate father-son relationship. Despite the fact that this "clue phrase" does not occur regarding Noah naming Shem, Camping maintains that there is enough evidence to otherwise conclude that they did in fact have an immediate father-son relationship. He also points out the use of qara shem in Isaiah 7:14, where we are told, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Camping assumes that since qara shem implies an immediate father-son relationship (e.g., Adam-Seth, Seth-Enosh and Lamech-Noah), all other relationships between the Antediluvian patriarchs (except Noah-Shem) are of ancestors and their distant descendants. That is, when one patriarch died, the next one who is mentioned was not his son but was actually a distant multi-great grandson who was born in that same year, thus Camping's concept of the "reference patriarch," i.e., various events are referenced to a specific year of a particular patriarch's life as a means of keeping an accurate chronological record (in much the same way we reference historical events by year to the birth of Christ). Despite the fact that there is no evidence that any ancient civilization kept track of time in this way,Camping uses this concept as the backbone of his chronological view of Biblical history.

May 21, 2011 the end of world?

Winston-Salem, NC -- You may have seen them in the Triad, across North Carolina, and throughout the United States. Billboards stating that the end of the world in May 21, 2011.

It's part of a world-wide publicity blitz by a broadcast ministry called Family Radio, based in Oakland, Calif. The short version: Founder Harold Camping believes through a complex set of numerological calculations, one can date the creation of the world, Noah's flood and other events described in the Bible, then extrapolate when the Bible "guarantees" the world will end.

Billboards nationwide proclaim doomsday is coming May 21, 2011.

But before you start selling off your belongings, you might want to check your math. The real earth ending won’t arrive for another five billion years from now, when the sun runs out of hydrogen, evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins claims.

In On Faith, our forum for news and opinion on religion and politics, Dawkins and others roundly debunk the May 21 end date, which was calculated by Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping.

Dawkins writes:

Science knows approximately how, and when, our Earth will end. In about five billion years the sun will run out of hydrogen, which will upset its self-regulating equilibrium; in its death-throes it will swell, and this planet will vaporise.... In the nearer future, it is pretty likely that human life will become extinct — the fate of almost all species that have ever lived.

As Camping asserts his explanation for May 21, 2011 being the specific Judgement Day, the theory becomes even more farfetched. According to Camping, since God warned Noah of global Judgment Day seven days before it happened, this also correlates to the next Judgment Day seven “days” (specifically millennia) later. More, Camping says the flood can be dated back to exactly 7,000 years ago from May 21.

According to his website he says, “The Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment, which will come on the last day of the Day of Judgment.

We're living at a time when God is opening up the scriptures and we have a responsibility to tell people," Ropp said.

Christian theologians say there is no reason to panic — or to cancel plans for May 22.

“Biblical teaching can be an inconvenient truth to those who would set a month, day, and year to Christ's return,” Ralph Tone wrote on the Baptist Press website. “Jesus left no doubt about the futility of playing the dating game when he told his disciples three times in Matthew 24 not to go there.”

"I do believe Christ is coming, but I don't believe we know the time or the hour," Warren Gage, dean of faculty at the Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, told the Orlando Sentinel. "I think there's a very clear scriptural reference that no one knows the time in the end.

"May 21 is not circled on my calendar. And I'll be looking forward to Sunday, May 22.”

Read more on Newsmax.com: Group Claims World Will End May 21

Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now.

Meredith Vieira leaving NBC’s ‘Today’ show, Ann Curry upped at #1 Morning Show

Today” Meredith Vieira announced she is leaving NBC’s leading morning broadcast. Vieira, who will depart in June, says she hopes “to stay in the NBC family, that is my goal, it just won’t be sitting at the couch every day.”

The announcement of Ann Curry, who’s been with the show with 14 years, got a round of applause from the ‘Today’ crew. “I think this day is really Meredith’s,” said Curry. “I just want you to know you’ve been a gift to this broadcast. You have been generous, and you have been a great girlfriend.” Here is the announcement, which was delayed by about a week after last week’s news of the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Transitions are unusual for “Today,” as Vieira was still the newbie among the show’s core four that included Lauer, Curry and Al Roker.

Curry has been with the show since 1997 as the news anchor. Passed over for the top job five years ago when Vieira was chosen, she stuck with the show and carved out a new reputation as a globe-trotting reporter. She was in Pakistan last week following the killing of Osama bin Laden.

“I feel like the high school computer nerd who has just been asked to the prom by the quarterback of the football team,” Curry

During her tenure, Vieira conducted numerous exclusive news-making interviews. She spoke with former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in her first-ever live television interview after her identity was revealed, she sat down with author J.K. Rowling in her only television interview about her final Harry Potter volume, she spoke with chimp attack victim Charla Nash in her first interview after leaving the Cleveland Clinic, and she talked to former Gov. of Illinois Rod Blagojevich in his first interview after receiving the verdict that convicted him on one count of lying to the FBI.

Vieira has also told the extraordinary and emotional stories of David Goldman, the New Jersey man who fought a five-year custody battle to recover his son Sean from his ex-wife’s family in Brazil, Carolyn and Sean Savage, the Ohio couple implanted with the wrong embryo, and John Michael and Ellen Keyes, parents of Emily Keyes, the only victim in the Bailey, Colorado school shooting. Vieira’s memorable exclusive celebrity interviews include Janet Jackson, Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler, Susan Boyle and Madonna, to name a few.

Savannah Guthrie currently serves as NBC News White House correspondent as well as the co-host of “The Daily Rundown” on MSNBC. She contributes to all NBC News properties including “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Public Broadcasting Service

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia.

PBS is the most prominent provider of programming to U.S. public television stations, distributing series such as PBS NewsHour, Masterpiece, and Frontline. Since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as America's most-trusted national institution. However, PBS is not responsible for all programming carried on public TV stations; in fact, stations usually receive a large portion of their content (including most pledge drive specials) from third-party sources, such as American Public Television, NETA, WTTW National Productions and independent producers. This distinction is a frequent source of viewer confusion.

PBS also has a subsidiary called National Datacast (NDI), which offers datacasting services via member stations. This helps PBS and its member stations earn extra revenue.

Sports broadcast on PBS

The network has shown some sporting events in its history.

During the 1970s and 1980s PBS was the leading American tennis broadcaster. Bud Collins and Donald Dell were PBS announcers. PBS was the first American network to regularly broadcast tennis tournaments.[citation needed] PBS also broadcast Tennis for the Future, hosted by Vic Braden.

In 1982, PBS, ESPN and ABC provided the first thorough American television coverage of the FIFA World Cup. PBS aired same day highlights of the top game of the day. Toby Charles was PBS' play-by-play announcer.

From 1984 to 1987, PBS broadcast Ivy League football. Dick Galiette and Upton Bell called games for the first season and Marty Glickman and Bob Casciola called the games in 1985. In 1986, PBS increased its coverage and had two announcing teams, Brian Dowling and Sean McDonough, who had been the sideline reporter for the prior two seasons were the play by play announcers and Bob Casciola and Len Simonian were the color analysts. For the final season McDonough and Jack Corrigan were the game announcers and Mike Madden was the sideline reporter.

PBS networks

PBS has also spun-off a number of TV networks, often in partnership with other media companies: PBS YOU (ended January 2006, and largely succeeded by American Public Television's Create), PBS KIDS (ended October 1, 2005), PBS KIDS Sprout, PBS World (commenced August 15, 2007), and PBS-DT2 (a feed of HDTV and letterboxed programming for digitally equipped member stations), along with packages of PBS programs that are similar to local stations' programming, the PBS Satellite Service feeds. PBS Kids GO! was promised for October 2006, but PBS announced in July that they would not be going forward with it as an independent network feed (as opposed to the pre-existing two-hour week daily block on PBS).

Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications satellites, as well as via direct broadcast satellite. With the transition to terrestrial digital television broadcasts, many are also often now available as "multiplexed" channels on some local stations' standard-definition digital signals, while DT2 is found among the HD signals. PBS Kids announced that they will have an early-morning Miss Lori and Hooper block with four PBS Kids shows usually around 08:00. With the absence of advertising, network identification on these PBS networks were limited to utilization at the end of the program, which includes the standard series of bumpers from the "Be More" campaign.

Nudity in American television

Nudity in American television has always been a controversial topic. Aside from a few exceptions, nudity has traditionally not been shown on terrestrial television. On the other hand, cable television is much less restrictive as far as nudity is concerned.

After Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's breast during a live performance at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show on February 1, 2004, a moral panic occurred, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tightened its indecency rules due to public pressure. As an instant result of the scandal, major networks edited some of their shows. CBS removed a shot of a naked man from Without a Trace, while NBC deleted a two-second shot of an elderly woman's breast from ER . Subsequently, prime time television networks became more reluctant to show even non-explicit nudity in their TV shows. In the current climate, nudity is almost unknown on any broadcast television show - with the exception being animated series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy (which spoofed the conservative phase of American television in the episode "PTV").

Cable television, on the other hand, is not bound by FCC rules and can show whatever material their executives consider suitable. While cable channels that rely on advertising still do not show nudity during primetime hours, nudity is often shown on premium cable channels such as Showtime and HBO. FX is one of the few commercially dependent cable channels that features nudity in its programming (notably the controversial Nip/Tuck). Discovery and other documentary-related channels may show nudity in a journalistic context, such as that of indigenous peoples.

Public Broadcasting Service, which features nudity in anthropological documentaries as well as some films, was the first network to display national programming that featured frontal female nudity on television.

Throughout the United States, many metropolitan areas had independent television stations that were not affiliated with any of the national networks and showed programming only to people within their limited broadcast range. During the 1980s, many of these stations experimented with showing frontal female nudity in movies during the prime time hour.

KTLA in Los Angeles, for example, showed an unedited version of Academy Award-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which features fully exposed female breasts, between 7:30 and 11 p.m. The channel began the time slot with a video of director Milos Forman stating that the film was too controversial to be allowed a faithful television broadcast (NBC's earlier broadcast had cut the film to fit the two hours format with commercials), but that KTLA believed that the culture had changed such that a complete broadcast would be tolerated and appreciated. Then, it was followed by a disclaimer that was repeated after each commercial break.

KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area regularly showed uncensored films that contained nudity, such as Magnum Force (Suzanne Somers), Big Bad Mama (Angie Dickinson and William Shatner), and Walkabout, which features full frontal nudity in a scene with teenage actress Jenny Agutter skinny dipping.

A number of stations in this era even went so far as to run promotions during which they would show a series of movies known for nudity in an attempt to get higher ratings for the week. In almost all cases, the nudity was restricted to showing exposed buttocks and female breasts.

By the end of the 1980s, most of these stations had started to receive complaints about such nudity and these broadcasts eventually stopped. In addition, some of these stations became Fox affiliates and were no longer able to make independent programming decisions during prime time.

Sirius XM Radio

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is an American broadcasting company that provides two satellite radio services (SDARS) operating in the United States, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio. The company also owns interests in XM Canada and Sirius Canada, two satellite radio providers in Canada. The company in its current incarnation was formed following the acquisition of XM Satellite Radio, Inc. by Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. on July 29, 2008.

On February 19, 2007, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio announced a merger that would combine the two radio services and create a single satellite radio network in the United States. The merger brought the combined companies a total of more than 18.5 million subscribers based on current subscriber numbers on the date of merging.

The proposed merger was controversial because, in 1997, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted only two licenses and, in order to ensure a state of competition, stipulated that one of the holders would not be permitted to acquire control of the other.
Each share of XM stock was replaced with 4.6 shares of Sirius. Each company's stockholders initially retain approximately 50% of the joined company. Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin became CEO of the new company, and XM chairman Gary Parsons was named chairman. XM CEO Hugh Panero stepped down in August 2007.


July 29, 2008 — Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin hosts a town-hall type meeting at XM Radio's Washington, D.C. headquarters which is broadcast companywide. Karmazin reveals that the management team would consist of him with a second tier of as many as 26 Executive Vice Presidents.

July 30, 2008 — Karmazin hosts a town-hall meeting with Sirius employees after appearing on several Sirius and XM shows, explaining the future of the new company. Karmazin also thanked the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) for the strong opposition to the merger which, in his words, established that terrestrial radio and satellite radio were still competitors.

September 9, 2008 — Sirius XM announces new "Best of Both" content, and would be available to most satellite radio customers on October 6, 2008 at a monthly cost of $16.99. The Sirius programming included in Best of Both being aired on XM: Howard 100, Howard 101, Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius NFL and NASCAR Radio, and Playboy Radio. XM programming included in Best of Both being aired on Sirius: NBA, NHL Home Ice, Oprah & Friends, The Virus, Public Radio with Bob Edwards, College Sports, and the PGA Tour.

November 12, 2008 — Sirius XM begins broadcasting a new combined channel lineup across both the Sirius and XM platforms. (On January 15, 2009, some stations previously dropped were added back to the line-up, due to subscriber demand.)
February 10, 2009 — It is reported that Sirius XM has hired advisors to prepare for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

February 17, 2009 - Liberty Media (49%-owner of DirecTV) acquires 40% of Sirius XM, with rights to acquire another 11%.
March 11, 2009 — Subscriptions for multiple radios (i.e., 2nd–4th radios) increase from $6.99 per month to $8.99 per month. The base subscription rate did not increase. The online listening platform was upgraded to a higher quality digital audio and is no longer included as part of a base subscription (i.e., at no charge).

June 16, 2009 — Sirius XM announces that beginning July 29, 2009 (as accounts renew after that date) subscribers would have to pay an additional $1.98 per primary account radio and $0.97 for each additional radio for radios 2–5 on an account as a Music Royalty Fee per month.
November 12, 2009 — Gary Parsons resigned as chairman. He is replaced by Eddy W. Hartenstein, Los Angeles Times publisher and CEO, as non-executive chairman.

February 9, 2010 -- DirecTV removed all Sirius XM music channels and replaced them with offerings from Sonic Tap.
December 21, 2010 - Sirius XM receives approval from the FCC to begin adding service to Alaska and Hawaii; Sirius XM also announced on January 17, 2011 that it will place repeaters in those states and adjust three of its satellites to cover those areas. The move finally gives Sirius XM coverage in all 50 states.
January 12, 2011 - XM Satellite Radio, Inc. is dissolved and merged into Sirius XM Radio.

May 4, 2011 - Sirius XM announced that it will streamline its channel lineup with both Sirius and XM services sharing the same channel, with some exceptions.


February 19, 2007, the merger was officially announced to shareholders of the company. This came after many months of speculation by industry watchers. On February 20, an open conference call was organized between the top executives of both companies.
March 20, 2007, the two companies filed a "Consolidated Application for Authority to Transfer Control" at the FCC.

June 8, 2007, the FCC's Mass Media Bureau gave "Public Notice" that it had accepted the application for filing and started its informal six-month merger review clock. The notice also set a pleading cycle requiring comments or petitions be filed by July 9, 2007, and responses or oppositions be filed by July 24, 2007.
October 4, 2007, Sirius and XM satellite radio announced that both companies will conduct a shareholder vote. Sirius scheduled its meeting for Tuesday November 13, 2007, for shareholders to vote on the proposed merger. XM scheduled a similar shareholder vote in Washington, D.C., on the same date.
November 13, 2007, Shareholders of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. approved the company's $5 billion acquisition of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. 96% of Sirius Satellite Radio shareholder's votes cast approved the acquisition.

January 15, 2008, it was reported that the FCC expects to come to a decision in Q1 2008.

March 24, 2008, the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced it closed its investigation of the merger of the two companies, citing no harm to consumers or competition.
May 23, 2008, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said at a press conference that "the Commission could act by the end of the second quarter", which ends June 30, 2008. Earlier that week senators called upon the FCC to enact strict requirements on the merger such as returning some of the radio spectrum to competitors and open its service to all manufacturers of satellite radio players.


Because both companies will operate as one, this may reduce the cost of licensing the broadcast material. It will also almost certainly reduce the staff required to run the company. Also, programming can be spread out among the companies' combined satellite constellations.

If all of the non-duplicate channels are kept, this will result in more programming being made available to subscribers of both services.
New development
With only one company to develop products for, the new company can afford to spend more money to develop new products. So far, services have been developed which were not even conceived of when satellite radio was launched. XM and Sirius now carry satellite weather and traffic, and Sirius launched television programming in 2007. Likewise, it is expected that new technologies and products will continue to be developed and integrated in to the combined infrastructure of XM and Sirius Rad

Both companies were losing money before the merger, and were rumored to be facing bankruptcy. The company argued that merger was the way to avoid bankruptcy, and that bankruptcy would result in diminished competition for existing terrestrial radio and streaming services like Pandora.


Sirius and XM have both used star power to attract consumers. Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Bubba the Love Sponge, Scott Ferrall, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Ron & Fez, Broadminded, Bam Margera, Tony Hawk, Jason Ellis, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey are among the stars that have signed contracts with one of the two companies. Exclusive sports programming (The National Football League, Barclays Premier League, Canadian Football League and NASCAR on Sirius and Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, PGA Tour, and Indy Racing League on XM) also drives consumers to one network or the other. Sirius and XM executives hope to lower the cost of this programming by merging; critics argue that the lowered cost will result in less total programming being made available. In particular, marquee sports and talk shows could be offered a la carte, similar to premium digital/satellite television tiers and out-of-market sports packages.


In Canada, Sirius Canada and XM Canada are partially owned by Sirius XM (20% and 23.3% respectively)  in joint ventures with Canadian companies. The two Canadian ventures have not yet agreed to a merger.Complicating matters is that Sirius Canada has nearly 80% of the total satellite radio subscribers in that country, and feels they deserve greater than a 50/50 split of the new company, whereas XM Canada feels that their deal with the NHL warrants a significant amount of value in the new company.

Even if the two Canadian systems combined, they still would not be able to provide the same channel line-up as Sirius XM in the US because of Canadian Content laws. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and the Canadian Competition Bureau would have to approve any merger between XM Canada and Sirius Canada.


Sirius XM has been developing a software application for use on the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch devices that will allow its subscribers and users of those devices to listen to its programming. An email from Sirius XM customer service began circulating the internet that said the application would be available in the Apple iTunes store on June 18, 2009
“ Thank you for contacting SIRIUS regarding whether or not there is a SIRIUS iPhone application available. We are here to help! We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us in regards to this matter! We are happy to inform you that beginning June 18th a SIRIUS Internet Radio application will be available at the Apple iTunes App-Store for the iPhone and the iPod Touch! All Premium SIRIUS Internet Radio subscribers will be able to download the application from the Apple iTunes App-Store for free on their device and access the service at no additional cost! Subscribers who are listening to the Basic Online Service for free must first upgrade to the Premium Online Service for $2.99 per month to access the application on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Sirius XM has also developed an application for use on certain 3G enabled Rim BlackBerry smartphones. Much like its iPhone and iPod Touch counterpart, it features a restricted 120 channel lineup featuring most of the music channels and selected talk programming. As with the iPhone app, some select programming, including MLB® Play-by-Play, and SIRIUS NASCAR® Radio, are not available at this time on the Blackberry. However, NFL Play-by-play was added in late 2010, as before you could only hear the talk-oriented daily programming. due to licensing and exclusivity deals, some play-by-play is not avalible, such is the case for both MLB and NASCAR, both online rights being owned by Turner Sports Interactive.


On May 28, 2010, Sirius XM released an application for mobile devices using the Android operating system. It features the same 120 channels of commercial-free music, news, talk radio, sports talk, and entertainment channels as found on the iPhone/iPod Touch and Blackberry applications. In August 2010, the Froyo release of Android broke the Sirius XM application. Sirius XM has since released an updated client that works with Froyo.
Receivers
Currently, XM and Sirius use different compression and conditional access systems, currently making their receivers incompatible with each other's service, though both companies have guaranteed that existing receivers will be able to receive content from both services after the merger.

Executives from both companies have stated that XM and Sirius will continue to operate as separate services. Buying another radio to receive programming from the other service will be optional. However, a unified receiver that can receive programming from both networks would allow subscribers to listen to the entire range of channels. Interoperable Technologies, a joint venture of both companies, was formed in 2003 and announced such a receiver in 2006. Mel Karmazin has confirmed the existence and operation of the radio, "We have one. It's in my office." Karmazin's dual system radio can expect competitors—according to tech-site Gizmodo, Onkyo is entering the interoperable radio arena.
Subscriber growth is expected to slow significantly as consumers wait for interoperable receivers.

Currently, there are 9 satellites in orbit; 5 XM and 4 Sirius satellites. Each company also has a ground spare, of identical construction to its first generation of satellite. The most recent satellite is XM-5, which was launched by Proton on October 14, 2010.
There are no publicly available facts concerning the cross-compatibility of the satellites themselves. If it is possible to use XM satellites to propagate Sirius's signal, this would give Sirius immediate access to a second geostationary satellite, which would improve reception for stationary receivers, such as those at businesses and homes. In the long term, consolidating transponders on to fewer satellites will reduce infrastructure costs significantly: to build and launch one satellite can cost more than US$300 million, with a lifetime of approximately 15 years. Once the next generation of satellites is constructed and operating, combining satellite networks could result in a savings of US$40 million a year.

Sirius XM radio content is also available over the Internet, competing for listeners of Internet radio stations and other online music services. The Internet-only option is offered for US$12.95 a month and does not require a stand alone radio receiver or additional computer hardware.


Executive compensation
Executives who are not offered jobs in the new combined company are assured generous golden parachutes due to severance agreements approved in 2007.
Former XM Radio Chief Executive Officer Nate Davis had a severance package worth $10 million.
Gary Parsons, the former Chairman of Sirius XM Radio, received $9 million.
Erik Toppenberg, Executive Vice President of Programming for XM Radio, has a severance package worth $5.34 million.
Joseph Euteneuer, Chief Financial Officer for XM Radio, has a severance package worth $4.9 million.
Vernon Irvin, Chief Marketing Officer, has a severance package worth $4.5 million.