IPIP Blog

A selection of 17 apps for you today:

Collins Big Cat apps

Collins Education has released two iPad book-apps under its Big Cat brand, which aim to help children not only practise their reading skills, but their writing skills too. It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator and Around the World Story Creator are both interactive book-apps with the option to record your own voice narration, and test comprehension with a quiz. The Story Creator section, meanwhile, gets children to make their own stories using the pictures, characters and vocabulary from the main story.
iPad

Sports Tracker

Fitness-tracking app Sports Tracker has been a hit on Nokias Symbian smartphones, but now its hoping to take the companys new Lumia handsets - and other Windows Phones - by storm too. It tracks workouts and runs, and enables them to be shared with friends or analysed on the device.
Windows Phone

Adobe Flash Player 11

Adobes decision to soon stop updating its Flash player for mobile devices is well known, but theres one last hurrah for Android users: a version that runs on devices with the new Ice Cream Sandwich software.
Android

Breakout: Boost

Ataris mission to revive its most famous games for the apps era continues with Breakout: Boost, which has the familiar ball/bat/brick action with additional power-ups, balls and a freemium model where levels are sold via in-app purchases.
iPhone / iPad

Real Football 2012

Gamelofts FIFA rival Real Football returns for the 2012 season, and has also adopted a freemium model: its free to download and play, but you pay in-app for piggy bank credits. New social features have been added too.
iPhone / iPad

Hipstamatic Disposable

Hipstamatic may not have the profile of rival Instagram, but its still one of the most popular iPhone photo-sharing apps. Now it has a social spin-off, designed to be used by groups of friends. They each take shots on their own iPhones, and these are then pooled and sent back to every contributor, with the option to share albums on Facebook and Twitter.
iPhone

SummitX Snowboarding

com2uS has released SummitX Snowboarding, its take on SSX-style winter sports action with impressive visuals and a licensed music soundtrack. The link above is for Android, but you can find the iOS version here.
Android / iPhone / iPad

History of Rock

From Elvis to Nirvana and beyond, this iPad book-app takes in the last 60 years of rock music, with YouTube videos and iTunes links bringing in the music to complement the chronological storytelling and themed sections.
iPad

PocketCloud Explore

Wyses PocketCloud Explore is an Android app to help people search, view and organise the files stored on their computers. The idea being to provide quick and simple access to photos, music and documents. It works with a companion desktop application, and supports up to two remote computers.
Android

Rocks In My Socks

One of the most convincing uses for augmented reality technology so far is entertaining kids, and thats the theme for Rocks In My Socks. The iPad app ties into the book of the same name, with eight mini-games accessible by holding the iPad over the book to trigger the augmented content. One possible flaw: wont kids need a parent to do the iPad holding so they can focus on touching the screen?
iPad

London Bus Checker HD

The London Bus Checker iPhone app has been very popular, but now its been upscaled for iPad. It draws in real-time data on buses in London, with more than 20,000 stops in its database. There are also maps for all of the capitals 700 bus routes.
iPad

Punchfork

Foodies will love Punchfork, an app based on the equally stylish cooking website. Both involve scraping recipes from a range of other sites and blogs, and presenting them in a visually-appealing way, ranking recipes using data on whats being shared on Twitter and Facebook.
iPhone / iPad

Prime Location Property Search

Househunting site Prime Location has had an iPad app for a while, but now its available on iPhone too. It offers details of properties around the UK, adding in augmented reality technology for a different view of places around the users current location.
iPhone

Big Nate: Comix By U

Night amp; Day Studios latest iOS app is based on the Big Nate series of books, with the twist that children can create their own comics based on the characters. The app lets them start from scratch, or fill in frames and speech bubbles from partially-finished versions.
iPhone / iPad

San Diego Zoo

Why would people elsewhere in the world want to download an app from a zoo in San Diego? Well tell you why: PandaCams. The app includes live streams from the zoos panda and polar bear enclosures, with the ability to comment.
Android / iPhone

iSqueakTV

Freeview has an iPhone app! Does it let you watch digital TV on your device? Nope. Does it let you speak words into your microphone and have them turned into a helium-voiced version a bit like Talking Tom Cat without the Talking Tom Cat? Yep.
iPhone

Awesome! Notifier

Developer MobileMerit wants to put a rocket under Android notifications, from SMS and Gmail to social networks. It adds in avatars and full-screen notifications, as well as customisation features.
Android

From the Arab spring to the death of Osama bin Laden, 2011 was filled with landmark events the world over.

The most-viewed stories on CBCNews.ca in 2011 from the around the globe included a plane crash in Russia that killed most of the members of a Kontinental Hockey League team, including Canadian coach Brad McCrimmon and former Vancouver Canuck star Pavol Demitra.

But the most popular story on CBCNews.ca was the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japans east coast in March, sending waves as high as seven metres and black water surging inland. The natural disaster left roughly 23,000 people dead or missing and triggered a nuclear crisis at Japans damaged Fukushima power plant.

The most-read stories on CBCNews.ca from around the world in 2011:

• Japan quake, tsunami cause major damage
• Canadian tourist accuses Mexican police of raping her
• Plane crash kills KHL team in hockeys darkest day
• Special Report: Japan rebuilds
• Bin Laden death ends 10-year manhunt
• Obama monitored top-secret Osama raid
• Gadhafi killed in crossfire, Libyan PM says
• William, Kate unite in fairy-tale wedding
• Japanese helicopters dump water on nuclear reactor
• 2nd suspect sought in congresswoman shooting

January:

• Canadian tourist accuses Mexican police of raping her
• 2nd suspect sought in congresswoman shooting
• Accused Arizona gunman denied bail
• Moscow airport blast kills 35, including 2 Britons
• Arizona shooting suspect, woman fought for gun

February:

• Egyptian protesters rejoice at Mubaraks ouster
• Libyan violence draws UN condemnation
• New Zealand earthquake death toll hits 75
• US, Egypt mull Mubarak resignation: report
• MAP: Protests spread in Middle East

March:

• Japan quake, tsunami cause major damage
• Special Report: Japan rebuilds
• Japanese helicopters dump water on nuclear reactor
• Partial meltdown likely: Japanese official
• Radiation levels could damage health: Japan

April:

• William, Kate unite in fairy-tale wedding
• William and Kate wedding details emerge
• Kates wedding dress a labour of lace
• White House releases Obama birth certificate
• Japanese aftershock leaves 2 dead, 132 hurt

May:

• Bin Laden death ends 10-year manhunt
• Obama monitored top-secret Osama raid
• Release of bin Laden photo could be inflammatory
• Stranded BC woman doing remarkably well
• Schwarzenegger family hurt by news of secret child

June:

• William and Kates royal tour itinerary released
• Gabrielle Giffords smiles in new Facebook photos
• Pakistan denies major arrested for helping CIA
• Jaycee Dugard kidnapper gets life sentence
• Canadian found dead in Dominican resort town

July:

• Norway island camp massacre claims 80
• Norway gunman admits to firing weapons on camp island
• Norway shooting survivor played dead among bodies
• Norwegian gunman targeted immigrants on island
• Phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

August:

• Virginia earthquakes tremors felt far and wide
• Hurricane Irene bears down on US East Coast
• Hurricane Irene reaching NYC
• Irene weakens as US storm alerts called off
• Gadhafi claims tactical retreat from compound

September:

• Plane crash kills KHL team in hockeys darkest day
• 9 dead in Reno air race crash
• French nuclear officials downplay risks from blast
• Nevada air race crash kills 3, injures at least 50
• UN delegations walk out of Ahmadinejad speech

October:

• Gadhafi killed in crossfire, Libyan PM says
• Amanda Knox expected to fly home Tuesday
• Chinese outraged after bystanders ignore child hit twice by car
• Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies at 56
• Ohio police kill dozens of escaped exotic animals

November:

• Kate Middleton pregnancy rumours intensify
• Black Friday shoppers shot, pepper-sprayed
• Fed-up clients ditch banks for Transfer Day
• Greece backs off referendum, as concern grows for Italy
• UK outraged by storming of embassy in Tehran

December (first week):

• Suspected Virginia Tech gunman found dead
• Calgary couple drowns in Mexico
• Gadhafis Mexican escape plot may involve Canadian
• Cain suspends presidential campaign
• WWII bombs in Germany defused

The junior reporter whose name appeared on the News of the World story about Kate McCanns private diaries has said he felt very bad about his involvement and apologised to the mother of the missing child.

Daniel Sanderson said on Thursday that he felt uncomfortable with publishing the story but explained that he was a junior reporter who did not have the authority to make the ultimate decision on whether it should have been published.

The whole thing caused me concern, he told the Leveson inquiry into press ethics and standards.

Sanderson had been sent to Portugal to pick up the diaries from a freelance reporter and tasked with returning to the office to help verify they were genuine.

He told Leveson he knew the diaries were private but was led to believe that the diaries would not have been published without the express consent of Kate McCann.

A diary is clearly a private document but at the time this was being publicly circulated around Portugal. What the newspapers planned to do with the diary once we were in possession of that I didnt know that at the time, he said.

The mother of the missing girl Madeleine McCann told the Leveson inquiry two weeks ago how she felt violated by the publication of her diary in the News of the World without her permission in 2007.

Sanderson told Leveson he only heard three weeks ago when Kate McCann testified how she had felt.

My understanding was that the news editor spoke to the McCanns press secretary on a daily basis so in terms of getting the McCanns consent that was a job for the news editor. The first time I spoke to the McCanns press secretary was three weeks ago when I heard how it made Mrs McCann feel and to tell him that I intended to apologise. Thats not just for this inquiry, its because Im genuinely sorry, he said.

oTo contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly for publication.

o To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook

Lord Justice Leveson has branded emails sent by the News of the World to two women in the Max Mosley expose as frankly outrageous.

The judge put it to the papers former editor, Colin Myler, that the reason the papers chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, was not reprimanded about the emails was because of the general ethos of the paper.

Myler, giving evidence to the inquiry on Wednesday, admitted that the emails were totally inappropriate.

The emails were sent by Thurlbeck to get the first hand accounts of the women involved an orgy organised for Max Mosley. They offered them cash and anonymity if they told their story first hand for a follow-up story.

Myler says he didnt know until Thurlbecks evidence to the Leveson inquiry on Tuesday that Ian Edmondson, the papers then news editor, had written the emails.

Myler said: In hindsight I should have reprimanded them [Thurlbeck and Edmondson] and a letter should have gone on the personnel files.

Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Myler why, if he felt the emails were totally inappropriate was the Mosley story put forward for scoop of the year at industry awards. He suggested that far from being contrite Myler was proud of the story.

Myler said he was not gloating but was humiliated by the Mosley victory.

Let me be clear about this, the News of the World was humiliated by Mr Mosleys court victory, he said.

I was humiliated and it was a landmark for how tabloid newspapers would have to approach these stories. I wasnt gloating at all, Myler added.

Myler said he thought the News of the Worlds story on Mosley was justified.

Mr Mosley was the head of the richest sport in the world. It had a global membership of 120m including the Automobile Association, said Myler.

As head of that he presided over a huge expansion programme. He should have displayed ethical standards … taking part in orgies that were brutal and depraved and included paying women for sex was not [behaviour] the FIA could reasonably accept.

o To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly for publication.

o To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

So Newt Gingrich, self-proclaimed historian, self-proclaimed “most seriously professorial” American politician, self-proclaimed presumptive Republican nominee for president, thinks there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.

“Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people,” Gingrich told the Jewish Channel recently.

He then went on to explain the Palestinians “are in fact Arabs… and they had the chance to go many places.”

To summarize: Palestinians might think they’re Palestinians, and so might the US, and so might just about every other government in the world, including Israel, but Gingrich knows they’re just run-of-the-mill, generic Arabs who were too stubborn to go someplace else.

Does that mean Professor Newt also thinks the Canadians were invented, or the Americans, for that matter, given that until a few hundred years ago, they were part of the British Empire?

As Elliott Abrams, the ultra-conservative former deputy national security adviser to George W. Bush put it: “There was no Jordan or Syria or Iraq, either, so perhaps he would say they are all invented people as well, and also have no right to statehood. “

Gingrich addresses the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington, Feb. 10. Gingrich has called the Palestinians an invented people. (Larry Downing/Reuters)Saturday night, during a debate with other Republican presidential candidates, Gingrich elaborated.

“The Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story,” he insisted, adding: “These people are terrorists.”

You have to wonder whether Gingrich, who believes America is locked in what conservatives still call a war on terror, thinks somebody should therefore just bomb these terrorist Palestinians out of existence, neatly putting an end to the Middle East’s defining political pathology.

Gingrich a one-man think-tank

He is, after all, also a self-proclaimed idea machine. He thinks big, he thinks out of the box, and by the way, did I mention he’s seriously professorial?

Whatever he is, he’s scaring the Republican establishment, which would prefer to beat Barack Obama next November.

Polls suggest he has a significant lead over the rest of the Republican field in Iowa, which holds its caucuses in about three weeks. He’s closing on Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, whose primary vote is a week later, and has opened up double-digit leads in South Carolina and Florida.

In other words, he’s a serious threat to the man many Republicans believe is the only candidate able to beat Obama — a bombastic, over-the-top, bomb-throwing, loose-cannon threat, with a checkered history to boot.

The rise and fall of would-be Republican candidates

Now, Gingrich is not the first meteor in this race. The party’s rank and file has embraced several others: Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain have all spent the political equivalent of dirty weekends with the conservative base, only to be ditched on Monday morning.

Gingrich holds a copy of the Contract with America, during a press conference Jan. 4, 1995. At the time, he was the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Gary Cameron/Reuters)But Newt Gingrich is different. Hes the only candidate who’s operated at the presidential level. As Speaker of the House in the 90s, before he was censured for ethics violations and then pushed out by his own party, he was second in line to the Oval Office, behind only the vice-president.

Yes, he might have led the effort to impeach an adulterous Bill Clinton while carrying on an adulterous affair himself, but he was also the architect of the Contract With America, the Republican manifesto that propelled the party to congressional power.

Perhaps the party’s base thinks he can successfully lead another charge like that one.

He’s also something the military refers to as a target-rich environment, and the people who really run the Republican Party know it.

This is a man who once agreed with the basis of President Obama’s health-care legislation, the law that crystallizes conservative anger more than any other.

Mitt Romney, who is reviled by many Republicans for having passed a similar law when he was governor of Massachusetts, has said he actually got the idea from Gingrich.

The Newty professor

Then there are Gingrich’s assertions that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US mortgage giants, were a principal cause of the 2008 economic collapse, and that the Democrats who supported those companies should be jailed.

As it turns out, Gingrich was paid at least $1.6 million by Freddie Mac for what he calls “strategic advice” after he left public office. Gingrich sees no hypocrisy at all in the fact that he accepted the payments. That’s capitalism, he says.

Callista Gingrich, Newt Gingrichs wife, listens to him speak during a Newt 2012 campaign office opening in Urbandale, Iowa, Dec. 10. While he was still married to his second wife, Newt and Callista were having an affair at the time of the Lewinsky scandal. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)There was also Gingrich’s recent call for a repeal of child labour laws, so that poor (read black) children can be put to work and learn its value.

Or his rather strange warning, scoffed at by scientists, that some foreign regime may detonate a nuclear device high in space above the United States, releasing an electromagnetic pulse that would paralyze electronic systems across the country, leading to the deaths of millions.

Gingrich vs. Romney

Anyway, Gingrich would certainly be a more interesting nominee than Mitt Romney, the measured, squeaky-clean former money manager so despised by right-wingers for his moderate views. (They also loathe Romney for flip-flopping on issues, something they don’t seem to mind from Gingrich, who once starred in a TV ad with Democratic icon Nancy Pelosi, warning about climate change).

One suspects reporters here are ready to root for Newt. Guaranteed page one for months.

But big name Republicans aren’t so keen. John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, has called Gingrich “inconsistent, erratic, untrustworthy and unprincipled.”

Representative Pete King, a pillar of the party’s right wing, says Gingrich damaged both the Republican Party and Congress during his time as Speaker.

When Gingrich attacked the Republicans’ alternative health-care proposal as “right-wing social engineering,” the plan’s author, Representative Paul Ryan, asked “With allies like [Gingrich], who needs the left?”

Most Republicans who served under the Gingrich speakership won’t support him.

Last of the red-meat populists

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich talk during a break in the Republican Party presidential candidates debate in Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 10. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)But it may not matter. The base wants a red-meat populist, and it’s run out of choices. Such is the grassroots’ dislike for Romney that they may be getting ready to cut off their political noses to spite their angry faces.

You almost have to wonder whether it has something to do with the fact that Romney is a Mormon, a religion evangelical Christians consider some sort of cult. (Evangelicals also disparage Catholicism, the religion to which Gingrich converted, but there is little mention of that in the race so far).

Whatever the reason, I have a hotel room booked in New Hampshire next month. This might get really interesting.

PRAGUE Dec 27 (Reuters) – Here are news stories,
press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech
financial markets on Tuesday.

ALL TIMES GMT (Czech Republic: GMT + 1 hours)

=========================ECONOMIC DATA=========================

Real-time economic data releases……………….

Previous stories on Czech data…………

Overview of economic data and forecasts………

Updates on CEE currencies………………………
============================TOP NEWS============================

LEADERS BID FAREWELL TO HAVEL: International leaders bade
farewell on Friday to former Czech President Vaclav Havel, the
anti-communist dissident who led the peaceful Velvet
Revolution and inspired human rights campaigners around the
world.

Story: Related news:

CEZ TAKES CONTROL OF TRMICE PLANT: Czech power firm CEZ
said on Friday it had exercised an option to take a
15 percent stake in heating plant Teplarna Trmice from Dalkia
, raising its holding to 100 percent.

Story: Related news:

CEE MARKETS: Hungarys forint was stable in thin pre-holiday
trade on Friday as the country approved controversial laws that
may expose Budapest to further market turbulence if its
stand-off with international lenders goes unresolved.

Story: Related news:

CEE POWER: Czech power for Monday rose slightly as forecasts
for a fall in wind output outweighed lower demand, while the
front-year contract edged higher as oil prices were firm,
traders said on Friday.

Story: Related news:

————————PRESS DIGEST————————-

LENDING: There is a concern that Czech banks will become
reluctant to lend, following instructions of their parent euro
zone banks, Patria Finance analyst David Marek said.

The volume of all loans in the Czech economy rose by 5
percent in the first nine months of the year to 2.3 trillion.
The volume of non-performing loans stagnated at around 6 percent
in the period.

Hospodarske Noviny, page 16

GOLDMAN ON CZECH ECON: Economic performance next year will
be aggravated by reduced volume of lending by Czech banks, most
of which are units of euro zone banks that are scrambling to
boost their capital buffers, international advisor for Goldman
Sachs Vladimir Dlouhy said.

A collapse of debt financing in the euro zone cannot be
excluded, he said, which could lead to the end of the common
currency.

He said the Czech economy would contract by 0.5 percent next
year and grow by around 2.5 percent in 2013. He said a second
recession in three years would lead to a contraction of the
countrys potential output.

The crown will weaken against the euro until the
euro zone is stabilised and the rate can get to 27.00 per euro
(from 25.790 on Tuesday) next year. It will probably return to
around 25.00 in 2013.

Hospodarske Noviny, page 11

Reuters has not verified the media reports, nor does it
vouch for their accuracy.

For Instant Views of key economic data click on
For summary of economic data and forecasts
For diary of forthcoming Czech events
For calendar of east European economic indicators
TOP NEWS — Emerging markets
TOP NEWS — Convergence watch

For an economic indicator diary for the euro zone, the United
States and other Group of Seven countries see

For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets:
Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX

News editor of the day: Jan Lopatka on +420 224 190 474

E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com

(Reporting by Prague Newsroom)

Starting Tuesday, Zynga will add the Indiana Jones character to its Adventure World game on Facebook.

As we noted earlier, Zynga has a distinct lack of well-known brands compared to traditional game companies such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard. To compensate for that, Zynga has been doing marketing deals with celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga. Now it will integrate Harrison Fords Indiana Jones character into the Adventure World game.

The new integration will feature a chapter in the game entitled Indiana Jones and the Calendar of the Sun. The chapter is a collaboration between Lucasfilm, which owns the rights to Indiana Jones, and Zynga. Jones will be woven into the Adventure World story as a character, and the games new name will be Indiana Jones Adventure World.

This kind of tactic will help the new medium of social games get more traction with users. The company said previously that it would add the Indian Jones character to Adventure World in October. It is a little late with finishing up. The new chapter will be available in 13 languages. Players will have three different kinds of Indy outfits to wear and will get Indy gadgets in upcoming maps such as an Indiana Jones tent, snake bait, greased push blocks and a bear trap.

If games like Adventure World take off, then Zynga will have a better chance at pulling off an initial public offering. Zynga filed for an IPO in June and is expected to go public any day now. But Zyngas total user count has slipped to 215 million monthly active users. So it’s time to call in Indiana Jones for a rescue.

Singer Charlotte Church has told the Leveson Inquiry about a News of the World story that her father had an affair, headlined Church three-in-a-bed cocaine shock.

Giving evidence, she said the reporting of the affair had a massive impact on her mothers health.

They knew how vulnerable she was, but still published the story, which was horrific, she added.

Newsarama: How did you arrive at the concept of naming each story in the three Nightmare World volumes after song titles? Were these things from your personal playlist, or just appropriate? In fact, did you develop the stories first, then apply the proper song title, or were you inspired by the titles themselves, in turn. Explain yourself!

Dirk Manning: More often than not I had a story idea at least in mind before I ever started thinking about a title, and once I had a particular story idea in mind I would then start trying to decide on a title that would support and accent the story.

Why derive inspiration for Nightmare World story titles from song names? Before I started writing comics I spent about a decade doing music journalism, and the song title inspirations were my little nod to that part of my life and my last little huzzah in regards to promoting a lot of bands that I like more than anything else, really.

Mind you, I fully realize that most of the bands from whom I drew story-title inspirations from certainly are no longer to a point where they need the tiny rub that a Nightmare World shout-out gets them… but, hey, if someone thinks a particular song title is interesting and it leads them to discover a band like Faith No More, Helmet, Nailbomb or something… well… then I guess I did my job as a music journalist one last time. [laughs]

Nrama: How long from concept to ship date on Nightmare World Volume 3 did the whole process of creating Nightmare World take, and was there ever a point where you thought it just wouldnt come together? 

Only a first-year journalism student or my most thick-headed colleagues would deny that we reporters are a largely bourgeois bunch who have trouble dealing with the unconventional.

Collectively, we appreciate the order of things, which after all has been pretty good to us. We respect institutions and we like a nice, simple narrative, a natural beginning and a natural end to the stories we cover.

This attitude probably explains the subtext of relief in the coverage of those municipalities across America that are sending in their police to eject the anarchistic, smelly, sometimes weird Occupy Wall Street encampments that took over public spaces here this autumn.

For much of the media, the OWS movement was becoming a repetitive bore, a story that just went on and on and on without ever seeming to get to the point.

At first, no question, this movement did touch the national consciousness, a rare enough feat, given the self-absorbed, capricious nature of the American public mind.

Polling now suggests that support is souring, which is probably why local politicians are sending in the cops all of a sudden.

But for a while there, interest in the Occupiers was soaring, and most of the people who noticed them sympathized with their message, such as it was.

Droning on

That public interest meant the Occupiers were newsmakers, even if they were, and are, confusing people to deal with.

Occupy what exactly? A confusing message and now the police have moved in on New Yorks Zuccotti Park and elsewhere.

In the months since the camps went up, the protesters have been unable to articulate a central demand, and their discussion groups and general assemblies drone on pointlessly. (I know; I spent an hour and a half recently filming one, and even the participants agreed theyd accomplished nothing.)

In individual discussions, Occupiers patiently explain their aversion to any sort of leadership, and their dedication to rejecting the entire corporate/governmental system — everything, in their view, is broken, therefore any solution that works within the system is doomed.

To me, anyway, a declaration that the US government must be dismantled, or that all corporations must be taken down pretty much steers the conversation into neverland. Allrighty, then. Thanks.

The unbailed

In fact, it is one of the most remarkable aspects of this protest that those involved couldnt, or wouldnt, harness the power inherent in the name of their movement: Occupy Wall Street. And in their main slogan: We are the 99 per cent.

The words suggest a burning, pent-up anger at the small minority who have amassed insane levels of wealth in this country, in particular those who have done it not through hard work, innovation and ingenuity, but through a parasitic manipulation of markets, and cozy, subsidized cronyism with government.

Wall Street is just the best example. In the years leading up to the crash in 2008, its biggest players created what amounted to a giant, multi-leveled con, packaging and selling garbage, while secretly placing bets against the very products they were peddling.

When it all collapsed, these so-called Masters of the Universe turned to the politicians theyd helped install in Washington, to be rescued with a few trillion in taxpayer dollars.

The business model here, despite all the nonsense about market forces, was nakedly obvious: privatize profits, socialize loss.

Meanwhile, as just about everyone here knows by now, ordinary Americans were left unbailed to cope with the consequences of this rampant greed: recession, joblessness, personal debt, shrinking home values and foreclosures.

No wonder the public gravitated toward any protest movement with Wall Street in its name.

Big-government liberals

But if the advent of this movement created a particular moment, it is now disappearing. The Occupiers and their admirers deny it — they talk about living on in the public consciousness and changing the national discussion.

But the fact is, theyve managed to waste a spectacular amount of political capital. As Pew Research pollster Andy Kohut has put it, if they arent pursuing specific goals within the political system, theyre just another bunch of protesters outside the White House.

Will the Occupiers return? Or have they shot their bolt?

Part of this had to do with an internal tension to their rhetoric.

The Occupiers declared government broken and corrupt, but the long list of issues they want addressed — homelessness, discrimination against minorities, treatment of veterans, war, child poverty, reduction of economic inequality, social justice in general — all require even more government.

The Occupiers might talk like anarchists, but scratch them and you find big-government liberals.

They also seem to lump all corporations together, despite the original focus on Wall Street, and that just doesnt fly with many Americans.

Few people here, for example, see Apple as a parasitic entity on the level of the banks that created the subprime debacle.

As one observer put it the other day, an Occupy Silicon Valley movement would seem absurd.

The fact is, not all wealth in America is accumulated through corruption or the cynical manipulation of markets and government. Most Americans not only admire honestly acquired wealth, they aspire to it.

The Occupiers also managed to cross even American boundaries of free speech, which are probably the most liberal in the world.

Loosely, the courts here have defined speech limits as the right to swing your fist, as long as you stop at the tip of the other fellows nose.

Setting up tent cities in public parks, denying that space to fellow citizens, leaving trash lying about or relieving yourself in public spaces impinges on the other fellows nose. All the reports of sexual assaults and drugs didnt help, either.

The Occupiers rose up, muddled about and, in the end, neutered themselves.

If they were a threat to what George Carlin used to call the real owners of this country, they arent much of a threat anymore. And now winter is coming.

No wonder the Wall Street Journal, the sacred text of all those smug, ridiculously rich, unpunished incarnations of greed, was sneering and rejoicing in an editorial today about the police raids on the tent cities.

The threat is disappearing. The centre holds.

Too bad, in a way.