Beginning in December, iAd rich media ads will be available for apps on the UK and France App Stores, with Germany to follow in January. And apps on the Japan App Store will be able to serve iAd rich media ads beginning in early 2011.

If you are not already part of the iAd Network, don't miss this growing opportunity to create a significant new revenue stream. Apple sells and serves the ads and you receive 60 percent of the advertising revenue generated. Join the iAd Network.

iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Thursday, December 23 through Tuesday, December 28. iTunes Connect access will resume on Wednesday, December 29.

Do not schedule price changes or availability dates during the shutdown. Pricing changes scheduled during the shutdown will not be reflected on the App Store and will result in your app becoming unavailable for purchase. If you select an availability date that occurs during the scheduled holiday shutdown, your app will not go live on the App Store until iTunes Connect resumes business on December 29. Please plan your releases accordingly.

iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Thursday, December 23 through Tuesday, December 28. iTunes Connect access will resume on Wednesday, December 29.

Do not schedule price changes or availability dates during the shutdown. Pricing changes scheduled during the shutdown will not be reflected on the App Store and will result in your app becoming unavailable for purchase. If you select an availability date that occurs during the scheduled holiday shutdown, your app will not go live on the App Store until iTunes Connect resumes business on December 29. Please plan your releases accordingly.

Saluting the longevity of Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies great Brian Lara has described the Indian batting legend as the 'Don Bradman' of modern era but refused to the compare the icons of different eras.

Thanks to Wikicommons.

Twinkle, twinkle MANY stars? There may be more than THREE times as many stars in the heavens than previously thought.

Enough is enough. Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has had it up to here with his nuclear scientists being killed.

SNOW DAY!!!! Northern Europe hampered by blizzards and low temperatures.

It can be hard to keep a secret.

This is especially true when you’re the most powerful nation in the world… and have people dedicated to unearthing the skeletons (and other things) in your closet.

Last week, the website Wikileaks released 250,000 classified US diplomatic documents to the world. This is in follow up to past document releases including classified military documents on Iraq and Afghanistan.

As is to be expected the US government is not amused, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the release a

a very irresponsible, thoughtless act that put at risk the lives of innocent people all over the world

Agreeing with Clinton, Joe Klein, over at Time’s Swampland, noting that

If a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail because of a leaked cable, this entire, anarchic exercise in “freedom” stands as a human disaster. Assange is a criminal. He’s the one who should be in jail.

Some however see positive aspects of the documents release.  Digby defends Wikileaks noting

There are times when it’s necessary that the powerful be shown that there are checks on its behavior, particularly when the systems normally designed to do that are breaking down.

And finally, some surprisingly don’t seemed so worried.  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates thinks that the leaks will cause little change to American diplomacy as

governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.

Perhaps a more interesting takeaway is looking at the future of government secrets.  At Democracy in America, W.W. notes that we should expect more unearthing of secrets because

Just as technology has made it easier for governments and corporations to snoop ever more invasively into the private lives of individuals, it has also made it easier for individuals, working alone or together, to root through and make off with the secret files of governments and corporations.

In the future of Facebook, Wikileaks, and Twitter we wonder what is the future of secrets.  Is a new era of government openness upon us or will diplomatic relations grind to a halt?  Is Wikileaks the hero, the villain, or the inevitable?