The United States on Saturday removed North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Sen. John McCain called a statement by a Georgia congressman Saturday, which compared the feeling at recent Republican rallies to those of segregationist George Wallace, "a brazen and baseless attack."

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took her message to voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, lashing out at Sen. Barack Obama for his views on abortion.

The race for the White House is being waged in the final weeks in American living rooms through a blitz of negative campaign commercials.

From the day when it was first announced, Mahalo has not always received the most positive of reactions. Many numbered the days of Jason Calacanis’ human edited search engine saying that it would never works. Personally, while I thought the idea was interesting, I didn’t think that with all the other players in the search field that Mahalo had much of a chance.

However, that general impression may have to be re-looked at given the moves that Mahalo took yesterday on their site. In the past the site may have been centered around human edited search, but the Mahalo team discovered something as they watch the traffic around the site. Apparently there was a core userbase of Mahalo that were constantly refreshing the Mahalo homepage in order to check for new featured links and related guide pages for the subjects. So the Mahalo team took this idea and has remade the main page into a news aggregator that doesn’t just cover the tech industry but the things that regular web surfers will be interested in.

Along with that, Mahalo has also added a liveblogging section which displays hot ticket headlines of events and news as it happens. As with the core search part of Mahalo, these two new sections are also added and edited by real live humans rather than relying on RSS feeds or search algorithms. With the liveblog part each of the headlines is associated with specific tags (or sections) such as Gossip, Sports, Politics and Fun among others. The idea here is that these sections will later also be broken out into sections within Mahalo. Right now only selected text in the headline is linked to content on Mahalo while the Read link takes you to the actual article.

Now this is all neat and interesting, but for me this isn’t the real hook that could set Mahalo apart. What they have done with another feature of the liveblogging section is what just about every search engine other than maybe Google has been trying to do: try to create a community around the liveblogging section that then can be mixed into its search results property. On the extended page of the liveblogging they have added a uStream feed that when live will allow the people who are editing; or liveblogging, the news to interact with the people on the site.

Using something like this you will be able to see what new hot news is being posted, chat with other people about the news in the uStream chatroom, and be able to interact with those posting the news - or possibly even pointing them to something you think is important thereby adding personal value to the system. In some ways I almost see Mahalo as becoming a hybrid between a multi-author blog and a news aggregator, with a killer search ability. This is what I think might set Mahalo apart from other search engines.

By combining live news, communication and search Mahalo could be showing us an interesting and maybe a better direction in which search could be headed. Maybe I’ll start using it more now because I find this approach interesting and refreshing.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

Mahalo Launches Multi-Profiles; Why Didn’t I Think of That?
Mahalo Follow Offers Poor Comparative Search Tools
Veronica Belmont to Leave Mahalo Daily
Facebook Now Supported on Mahalo Follow
Mahalo Social: Search Engine Becomes a Social Network
Mahalo Launches New Toolbar And User Stubs
Mahalo Finally Growing?

SavvyAuntie has been one of my favorite sites for a while, helping me find the perfect gifts for my friends’ and family’s children and giving me helpful advice as well. Now the site is stepping up its game with the release of its Savvy Holiday Gift Ideas guide.

SavvyAuntie is saving the day for all of the aunts, godmothers, and other women who love kids (and who also love sending them home after visiting). The Savvy Holiday Gift Ideas Guide keeps the cool aunt in the loop on what gifts are hot for kids right now, making sure to keep up that cool aunt image no matter what.

The guide also helps keep to a budget by letting shoppers sort by price (this will come in handy as we all tighten our belts a bit this Holiday season). You can also filter your results further. Once you’ve found your price range you can add filters for age, gift category, the child’s favorite color, the child’s personality and more.

Members will also be able to rate gifts, leave comments, and generally help each other shop. You can also save a gift to your favorites to go back and decide on purchase later, which is a handy feature for the cautious shopper. Another handy feature for cautious shoppers is the “Ask a Parent” section, which lets you confirm whether the gift is a good idea or not according to parents.

I think the SavvyAuntie site is helpful for more than just aunts, friends and godmothers. It can also help the clueless uncle or father out there who doesn’t know quite what to buy. It’s hard to keep up with what is cool and hip as kids grow up, and the fact that SavvyAuntie CEO Melanie Notkin hand picks the gifts for the site ensures that someone always has your back when it’s time to buy gifts.

It may not even be Halloween yet, but Christmas is coming up fast. SavvyAuntie is working on giving early shoppers a head start, and on helping you not only pick the right gift, but find it at the right price for your budget. In a year where it’s wiser to give one or two great gifts instead of a large stack of wrong ones, SavvyAuntie is giving you a place to find out what those perfect gifts are.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

SavvyAuntie Launches: Everything You Need to Spoil & Send ‘Em Home
For the Holidays: Give the Gift of Wikipedia
Crappy Christmas Gift? Trade it for $5,000.
MyThings Giftlist Tries to Prevent Lame Christmas Presents
Gifts.com To Launch Q&A Community For Helping You Find The Perfect Gift
20+ Tools For The Best Father’s Day Ever
Online Shopping Still Strong After Christmas

Marilyn Manson's former bandmate Gidget Gein has been found dead, according to reports.

Garbage singer Shirley Manson has spoken out about her role in the Terminator TV series.

Held October 11th in most countries and October 12th in the United Kingdom, National Coming Out Day was started in 1988 as a way for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community to speak out about issues that concern them and their supporters.

There are an overwhelming amount of support resources on the Web for people of all ages who are struggling with coming out to their friends, family and coworkers. We’ve put together a list of over 20 for those wishing to learn more about National Coming Out Day, as well as find support.

Coming Out Support

AdvocatesForYouth.org - Advocates For Youth focuses on issues related to the younger generation. Has numerous pamphlets available online and PDFs about dealing with your orientation.

BiNetUSA.org - A national organization specializing in support for Bisexuals.

ComingOut101.com - A community for those who have come out and those who are looking to come out. Also welcomes family and friends of those who have just learned about their loved ones.

GayHealth.com - GayHealth offers an archive of various coming out stories from the past few years of high profile people and fictional characters.

GayTeens.org - Provides numerous resources for teens from around the world who are either out or questioning their orientation.

GetTheToolkit.com - A centralized resource, created by twelve organizations, that brings together some of the best information from around the Web on gay issues. Includes numerous guides about coming out.

Mogenic.com - Mogenic is primarily a youth driven site, but has resources for people coming out in all walks of life, including in the workplace.

OutProud.org - OutProud operates OutPath.com, an archive of coming out stories for all LGBT orientations and ages, as well as offers online brochures, resources for schools and more.

YouthResource.com - Offers answers to the most frequently asked questions by youth who are struggling with their sexuality.

Family & Civil Rights Support

Family Pride - Family Pride is a coalition of LGBT parents who work towards equal rights for their families. They also have an offshoot group called Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE) that supports the children of LGBT families.

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation - GLAAD is one of the most widely known groups out there, and they have a section dedicated to questions about coming out.

Human Rights Campaign - Considered the largest support group with over 700,000 members, the Human Rights Campaign has numerous National Coming Out Day events listed from around the country.

Matthew Shepard Foundation - Formed after the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998, the Matthew Shepard Foundation offers support to victims of hate crimes and tries to pass legislation to prevent it.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) - Support group for parents, friends and families that has been around since 1973.

The Trevor Project - A national crisis hotline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.

Work Support

This is but a small sampling of the number of work specific support groups out there. Many large companies offer their own groups.

Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists - An association that works in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association to promote better understanding of mental health issues related to the LGBT community. Also offers support for psychiatrists themselves.

Gay and Lesbian Medical Association - Formed in 1981 as part of the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, the GLMA strives for equal health care for patients and GLBT physicians alike.

Lambda 10 Project - A resource center specifically for fraternity and sorority issues.

National Gay Pilots Association -The NGPA assists pilots and other aviation enthusiasts/ professionals with scholarships, legal help, medical assistance, and more as it pertains to the aviation industry.

National Lesbian and Gay Law Association - The National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA) is associated with the American Bar Association and offers support to LGBT lawyers, judges, law students and more. They also work with other organizations inside the law field that look to help out the community.

Pride At Work - Affiliated with the AFL-CIO, Pride At Work is an LGBT association of labor union members who seek equal rights in the work place.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

Imbee Launches Branded National Geographic Group
YouTube Launches National Geographic Channel
YouTube US Election Page Adds More Sources To Video Catalogue
Blinkx Partners With National Geographic
National Lampoon Launches YouTube Channel
Spot Runner Nabs Microsoft Exec to Run National Ad Network
Facebook Loses Vodafone Advertising Due to Racist Profile

Noel Gallagher has laughed off plans for a musical based on the songs of Oasis.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin denied Saturday that she had abused her power as Alaska's governor, a conclusion reached by a state investigator in a report released the day before.

What it is: Atlas Power Ascender What it's used for: Rapidly pulling people and their gear up the side of a building or canyon The prototype of the Power Ascender was not easy to use. The battery-powered, waist-mounted climbing assistant yanked people up a dangling rope at a blistering 10 feet per second — almost 7 mph — fast enough to snap their limbs back. So Atlas, a company run by four mechanical engineers outside Boston, set the maximum speed to a more reasonable 5 feet per second and added a variable- speed trigger like on a power drill. Now customers — such as US military personnel — simply clip the 25-pound device onto a climbing harness, push any nonbraided rope through the top, and let it fly. Inside the gizmo, a network of grippers scurries up the line and ensures that it threads cleanly out the side. The Ascender's 10-kilowatt output can lift up to 350 pounds, which is no easy task. "Having that much power that close to your crotch is a huge engineering challenge," says Atlas' Bryan Schmid, "and frankly a bit risky." Sounds pretty ballsy.

Wired.com

McCain spoke out against the nastiness his Republican crowds have been demonstrating toward Obama and promised to treat Obama with respect.

If you’re feeling short of funds, get ready to be short of time today, too.

For those who’d like to reserve the same username across multiple sites (and keep it outta the hands of pesky namesquatters) comes UsernameCheck. The pitch: see whether your username is available or taken across 63 web services.

And if you, like me, spot scores of sites where your moniker is still up for grabs, you’ll no doubt feel compelled to fritter away the two-and-a-quarter hours it just took me to “catch ‘em all”. With only 150 of you feeling the same compulsion, we could collectively waste more than 300 hours. (Can I get a “woot”?)

One small insight gleaned from those misspent minutes: signup forms still suck. Most are longer than they need to be, and those sites using OpenID, the unified signup system, actually made the signup process more convoluted than those with standard registration.

OpenID has a long way to go, and you have a long, boring, signup form-filling Saturday afternoon ahead of you. (Sorry.)

The jury in the corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens will hear former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and others testify Friday about the Alaska Republican's character.

Alaska lawmakers huddled behind closed doors Friday to review a report on Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner, who says he was sacked for resisting pressure to fire the governor's ex-brother-in-law.

I have to admit that I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by today.  I’ve just about glazed over as I’ve gone through blog post after blog post talking about how grim and dire things are for us. I realize that the week has been legendary in terms of the stock markets plunging, but the response from many startups and bloggers has been far more emotional than logical.

I guess on Wednesday when I spoke of the optimism I have gained from my prior experience, I imagined that everyone would be infected by my visions of sugarplums, unicorns and rainbows. Instead, today has been filled with proclamations of the death of Web 2.0, layoffs, and depressing photo essays. Obviously, I realize that it may take a bit more than one single screed to turn the tide of emotion that seems to be sweeping over most of us, and I don’t intend to relent.

Our own resident cranky geek Steven Hodson was the first to chime in, and with many of the same sentiments I had:

The trick here is know that as human beings we have the incredible capacity to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and try again. We are an incredibly resilient people which we have proven over and over again. We did it in the 1980’s and again in the late 90’s. While we may not seem to learn lessons from those experience it doesn’t stop us from getting up each morning and trying once more.

Rob Diana echoed those sentiments:

This is the type of time that separates the wheat from the chaff. Those who can not survive may be able to sell off their assets in order to start something new. As Steven said, “are we going to feel pain?” Absolutely, but there is a lot to learn from pain. You learn not to do the same things. Personally, I think we will see some interesting ideas start to appear, and they will be created cheaply. Innovations in technology will continue to appear, but consumer prices will drop in order to stay competitive and affordable.

Perhaps one of the more interesting responses was Veritocracy CEO Lee Hoffman, who took the thoughts I had in a different direction:

At the end of the day, a society’s economic standard of living is based on the ability of its people to do more with less resources. Less time, less money, more output. The United States (and, increasingly, the world) is filled with brilliant, creative, and entrepreneurial people. This financial downturn may take a serious toll, but the tools that we have to deal with it are the best they have ever been.

The three of them hit on a few salient points that bear reiteration.  As Steven and Rob say, many of us have been here before, and one of the key factors that separates the wheat from the chaff (in tough times particularly) is perseverance.  And as Lee said, in a time where less capitalization may be available, those that do more with less will come out ahead on the other side (and as he and I agree, it’s never been easier to do more with less).

Necessity is the mother of invention, though, and the need to streamline budgets during a lean time will spell increased demand for certain types of businesses.  A few immediately spring to mind, though I’m sure there are many others.

Co-Working Spaces: Very recently, we featured an Austin area co-working space that made a significant impression on me. Beyond the fact that I think it’s a great idea in general for companies looking to save on costs and be in a position to grow their business through networking opportunities. This is a type of business that’s growing quickly right now, as several have popped up in other areas of the country as well. San Francisco has enough so that it’s difficult to spit without hitting one.  CenterNetworks has showcased a number of coworking spaces recently, including New Work City and IndyHall.

One of the things that really struck me about Conjunctured out in Austin was that it was a completely bootstrapped effort that seems to be paying off already. John Erik Metcalf gave the blueprints to how they made this happen at an interview he gave us at the SummerMash Austin event:

Bootstrapping and Growth Based Businesses: Bootstrapping a business (or as we used to call it years ago, making your business “growth based”) is one sure-fire way to build a sustainable business under these circumstances. Of course, if they nay-sayers are all right, we’ll all have no credit to speak of and it could be our only option for new businesses for a while, but if a business is able to make due on their own they can come out the other side much stronger.

Even before the catastrophic times of the last week or two the more folks I talked to both at events and via contacts made for story pitches at Mashable, it seemed I was hearing more about folks shunning the angel funding and venture capital route for the bootstrapped method.

It requires a more sharp business mind at the outset of the business than your typical VC-backed startup. There are a lot more pitfalls in a growth-based business, too, since you’re operating without a net most of the time.  Whereas in the instance of a venture backed firm, if you’ve made a gross miscalculation, I’ve heard many stories of where the business plan they started with has been modified beyond recognition to continue through the many rounds of financing. With a bootstrapped business, you’re still required to be nimble and responsive to market changes, but you’ve got less chance to get it wrong before you’re out of business.

In the end, the rewards are greater since you haven’t halved your business a few dozen times with the many investors, and if at the end of the day you have something successful, you’ve got greater freedom and share of the spoils.

Collaborative Tools: This is an area that has a lot of potential for growth, at the very least for existing players. Much of what is possible in this space has already been done, but for what’s there already could see a lot of growth as companies try to put the clamp down on unneccessary spending for travel.  Meeting tools like GoToMeeting and Webex immediately spring to mind, but Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs and Zoho which allow simultaneous editing of documents can also see more heavy usage and user growth.

Virtual conferences and online seminars are also going to see an uptick. Next to personel costs, travel budgets to conferences (particularly winter conferences like CES) are insanely expensive. The ability to network, meet vendors and learn from presenters with live video and advanced communications tools like Twitter, IM and inline chats all have the capability to replace (or create a suitable fascimile thereof) of the conference experience.

Idea Marketplaces: There are a growing number of idea marketplaces on the Web these days. I’ve actually looked at several under embargo in the last week or so, and they’re all getting more and more specialized for individual niches. In the past, companies have been bought and sold via places like SitePoint, eBay and even Craigslist, but what’s to come will be more specialized marketplaces so that weekend projects and bootstrapped efforts can be turned over to portfolio companies and larger organizations that want to rapidly add to their available services.

Workforce Marketplaces: This is going to be perhaps one of the more dicey and interesting sectors to watch as it develops under the coming economic shifts. Sites like Rent-A-Coder and GetAProgrammer are all international marketplaces where finding someone to do the grunt work on a project all generally go the the lowest bidder. It’s difficult for most citizens of first world nations to compete with the much lower costs of living overseas where the talent often matches American talent in most areas.

This is both good and bad.  A lot of work can be accomplished for very little cash, which is good for the cash-strapped business. Working with overseas contractors comes with its own set of issues, though, and this often precludes a lot of out of work talent in the US from finding work by these means.

Again, this means that a lot more niche marketplaces will start to spring up. Back in March, I spoke with Ross Kimbrovsky and Mike Samson of CrowdSPRING, founders of a specialized marketplace for design. In the conversations I had with them, they admitted the problem that international marketplaces often had, but explained to me checks and balances set up both in the mechanics and dynamics of the community that create an equal playing field for all market participants while still allowing for affordable quality design:

My guess is that if the overall economy continues to shift much further downward (and stay there a while), these are the types of marketplaces we’ll start to see spring up and gain traction.

That’s Not All, Folks…
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but just an example of a few existing sectors and growth areas in our industry that’ll see some positive numbers in a down economy. I’m sure you can think of even more.

Given the fact that everyone has been morosely plodding through the week and seeing nothing but desperation for the future, I figured that another dose of sunshine might be in order.  I think that our business, that is the so-called Web 2.0 and Social Media business, is probably most suited to make it through tough times unscathed as compared to the rest of the economy.

We’ve fortunately made it past our tipping point. The world knows that they need to be on the Internet, they know they can use it to efficiently connect to new and existing customers (something they’ll be wanting to do more than ever, soon), and we have ironed out the ways to do it.  Look at this as our distribution phase. We’ve been innovating for quite a while on the technology side, now we’ll be turning our attention on innovating and making more efficient the business side.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

Swivel Makes Tasty Data
Obama Plays to Start-Ups with LinkedIn’s Q&A Series
ThemBid is LendingTree for Classifieds
Songza Adds Twitter and OneLlama Music Recommendations
Business 3.0 Facebook App Doesn’t Live Up to its Name
On September 10th, Join E.Factor for The New Economy: Do or Die
Twit Pic. It’s For Twitter Pictures, Of Course.

Tom Service: Thanks to serendipitous concerts and a strong community of composers, Ireland's new-music scene is booming

With recent polls showing Sen. Barack Obama's lead increasing nationwide and in several GOP-leaning states, some Republicans attending McCain-Palin campaign rallies have taken on a new emotion: Rage.

Obama and McCain issued new economic proposals. Obama's plan would provide low-interest loans to struggling businesses; McCain's would let seniors delay 401(k) withdrawals.