Intel Has Shut Down The Group Making Chips For Google TV (INTC, GOOG, ARMH)

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Intel has shut down its Digital Home Group and will no longer make chips for interactive TV set-top boxes like the Google TV devices from Sony and Logitech, or the similar Boxee boxes from D-Link.

As reported earlier by AnandTech, the engineers from the group are being merged into Intel's tablet group.

Intel confirmed the move, explaining: "There is a ton of synergy between tablets and TVs (both are mainly content consumption, viewing devices) so we will combine the remaining CE businesses with the tablet organization (headed by Doug Davis). As you can imagine, this was a tough decision – Intel led the creation and launch of the smart TV category and its first products. But, these collective actions will help to ensure that Intel has the best people focused on top business priorities."

The move makes sense for Intel, as the first generation of Google TV has been a flop, and the prospects for interactive TV are uncertain at best.

Meanwhile, it's been pretty clear for a while that Google was looking at ARM for the next generation of Google TV.

ARM president Tudor Brown said the company was talking with Google last November. Earlier this year sources said that the next generation of Google TV would use a faster chipset, which suggests those talks were successful.

Whatever the case, if the interactive TV revolution ever happens, it looks like it will be powered by ARM rather than Intel -- just like smartphones and tablets are today.

Intel will continue to make silicon for set-top boxes for IPTV networks, and for other kinds of Internet gateways, such as cable modems. It will also keep making chips and software for use in digital TVs themselves, mainly for tuning and color correction.

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14 Facts About Decision Making And Willpower

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In a recent study of one million people around the world, researchers found that most viewed self-control as their biggest weakness and character failure. 

"In the last 15 years we've discovered that [willpower] really is a form of energy in the brain. It's like a muscle that can be strengthened with use, but it also gets fatigued with use," says New York Times author John Tierney. "You only have a finite amount [of willpower] as you go through the day, so you should be careful to conserve it and try to save it for the emergencies."

Tierney and social psychologist Roy Baumeister recently co-authored a book titled "Willpower: The Greatest Human Strength," which looks at how willpower and decision-making are interconnected. 

We pulled out some of the best takeaways, which Tierney covered in two excellent pieces for the Times ("Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?" and "Why You Need To Sleep On It"). 

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Opus Dei Pair Accused Of Making French Woman Work For Fifteen Years Without Pay

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Two members of the Roman Catholic minority movement, Opus Dei are under trial after being accused of forcing an assistant to work for 15 years without pay, reports News24.

The accuser, Catherine Tissier, was 14-years-old when she joined Donsen hotel school where religious matters were conducted by Opus Dei. Tissier accepted the faith, but also worked 14 hours a day without payment for her services.

By the time she was 29-years-old she weighed only 86 lbs as a result of her labors, reports the Irish Independent.

After visiting her family, and a doctor, she was told she should not go back to the school due to her poor health.

The couple have been charged with undignified punishment and illegal employment.

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Roubini Slams Trichet For Making The Biggest Mistake In ECB History

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Nouriel Roubini tweets: "I was just interviewed on CNBC:The ECB has to reverse this week its biggest mistake ever, the rate hike that sharply worsened the EZ crisis."

What's amazing about the ECB rate hikes earlier this year is that EVERYONE saw the possibility that it was going to turn into a disaster, in part because it so nicely echoed the blunder from 2008, when Jean-Claude Trichet -- looking at surging oil prices and a weakening banking system -- decided to hike rates in order to fight inflation.

Here's a chart we ran earlier this year, showing what the scene looked like in 2008, as Trichet hiked rates right at the top of the oil peak, only to see the whole thing collapse soon thereafter.

What's actually amazing is that the ECB's rate hikes from this year haven't been reduced yet. With all the ECB has had to do to glue the whole thing together (buying Italian, Portuguese, and Greek bonds), the obvious move -- reversing the rate hiks -- still hasn't been done.

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Stocks Are Actually Making A Really Big Rally Right Now

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Don't look at the number on your screen, showing the S&P down 1.4%.

Remember, the market was closed yesterday, and the major index futures were down over 2.2% during truncated trading.

So actually, compared to yesterday, the market is up quite nicely.

The only other winner: The dollar, thanks to the huge Swiss National Bank intervention, which might induce more European safe-haven flows to come to dollars, rather than Swiss Franc.

Meanwhile, this headline from Dow Jones just came out: "Bernanke Letter: Europe Credit Event Could Hit Many Markets, Financial Firms - Fed Closely Monitoring Developments In Europe"

Gold is down big now, having had a classically bonkers day of action.

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George Lucas Infuriates Fans By Making Even More Changes To Star Wars On Blu-Ray

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With breaking news that an updated version of the original Star Wars trilogy will be released on Blu-ray for the first time September 16th, fans of the series can expect more of the same -- which is to say -- something different.

Once again, Star Wars creator George Lucas is taking advantage of the change in medium to alter the content of his films. This time, the adjustments to the movie include giving puppet Yoda a CGI makeover, CGI Ewok eyes, and the climactic scene in the series' finale -- which now features a few added "No!" exclamations by Darth Vadar, to mirror his outbursts in the more recent prequel, Revenge of the Sith.

Though profits from the release should be huge, hardcore fans are boycotting the new version, citing Lucas' ability to "squeeze more cash out of a film franchise... and he’s at it again." Also, they really hate that he changes the movies they like.

The scene with Darth Vader that rang the fan boy alarm can be seen below [Spoiler alert, we suppose].

Again, this isn't the first time Lucas added and subtracted from his own beloved work, in an attempt to either complete his vision or to put out something else the public will undoubtedly buy. All this is put into even more startling relief by this excerpt, now used by upset fans as an example of great hypocrisy, from a 1988 Congressional testimony by Lucas, where he stated his views on artistic alteration of his favorite films -- which admittedly sounds an awful lot like an indictment of his 2011 self:

“These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tomorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with ‘fresher faces,’ or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor’s lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new ‘original’ negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires….

In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be ‘replaced’ by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten…. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.” (via Save Star Wars)

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