Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms: If the Fed is to be believed, we were teetering on the edge of total financial collapse back in 2008. At least, that is how they justify the extraordinary lending that they did.

The Day MAME Saved My A**: A fantastic piece on some of the inner workings of the video game industry. The conclusion is damming:

"Publishers would have people believe that MAME and the emulation scene is the root of all evil, that it promotes piracy and ultimately hurts the poor, starving developers slaving away on the game. Not only is this claim patently false, it ignores the fact that many developers use things like MAME, mod chips, and homebrew development utilities to help us overcome the day-to-day frustrations caused by the people behind the real problems in our industry."

Slightly technical, but well worth a read if you care at all about video games, and the industry.

Verizon Strikes Out in Smartphones: If these leaked Verizon sales figures are accurate, it basically means that Apple has crushed them into submission with amazing iPhone 4 sales. Wow.

Time Warner Takes a Shot at Netflix: Tim Arango, for the New York Times:

“It’s a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world?” said Jeffrey L. Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, in an interview last week. “I don’t think so.”

Oh brother.

Ron Paul Defends WikiLeaks On House Floor (VIDEO): A strong and cogent argument. There is very little to disagree with here.

Portal 2 - Full Co-op Trailer: This game just looks ridiculously awesome. I can't wait until April.