Bell Labs: Is there anything those guys didn't figure out? Transistors, the wave nature of matter, talking pictures, modern cryptography, Unix, cosmic background radiation...and global warming.

That's right. In 1958 -- when Al Gore was 10 -- Bell Labs scientists participated in the making of a short Frank Capra-directed film called "Unchained Goddess" for the Bell Telephone Hour, a variety show that ran on TV and radio and at the movies. In it, Bell scientists explained that no one was sure yet how great humankind's impact on the planet would be, but if it was greater than a certain amount, the environmental consequences would be...well, very much as scientists have predicted and documented since.

Dan Rosensweig, who was Yahoo's chief operating officer until sweeping organizational changes in late 2006, will take a seat on Adobe's executive board.

Rosensweig departed Yahoo "to ensure a smooth transition," into a re-organized Yahoo. Not long after Rosensweig's departure, CEO Terry Semel was replaced by interim CEO Jerry Yang.

Web video site Joost will be offering a live stream of inauguration day festivities on Tuesday when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 56th United States President.

The site already features an extensive collection of video related to the President elect on its Everything Obama channel, and inauguration day will include interviews, campaign highlights, satire, and musical entertainment.

Pandemic's Australian satellite studio opened in 2000 and is best known for creating the 2005 Xbox and PS2 title Destroy All Humans! Kotaku reports that EA, who purchased the studio in 2007, has stopped supporting it, effectively rescinding any publishing obligations it had.

While the fate of the studio is currently unclear, EA responded to the rumor by saying, "In December, EA announced a cost reduction initiative that will impact facilities and headcount. We do not expect to make any more public announcements until our earnings call in early February."

Now that consumers are pinching pennies, an analyst group is predicting that high-speed broadband prices will fall to levels that will make IPTV a preferable alternative to cable and satellite TV...in some parts of the planet, at least.

According to a report by ABI Research, IPTV will grow by about 32 percent annually over the next six years to 79 million users worldwide by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, growth rates for legacy pay-TV platforms such as cable and satellite will slow.

Canadian telecommunications company Nortel announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.

"These actions are imperative so that Nortel can build on its core strengths and become the highly focused and financially sound leader in the communications industry that its people, technology and customer relationships show it ought to be," said Nortel President and CEO Mike Zafirovski.

Nintendo's third incarnation of its popular DS touchscreen handheld game system went on sale in Japan on November 1 with no announcement of worldwide availability. Various reports have pegged US launch for early November.

IGN says "multiple sources close to Nintendo," have pegged the DSi's release in the United States in early April, likely on the fourth.

We're testing a theory here at Betanews: that a problem with the most recent revision of Sun's client-side Java VM may be preventing Microsoft's Download Manager app from enabling downloads of the latest Windows 7 beta for some users. Those tests are ongoing, and we'll keep you apprised of progress.

UPDATE While some testers have already found success in downloading the gargantuan Windows 7 .ISO DVD image file, others are like us and have had a truckload of problems. There may be any number of reasons why that have nothing to do with Microsoft's servers, and one we're tracking down has to do with the most recent Java 6 Update 11, which is used for the Download Center applet, used when trying to download the .ISO using both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Last month, a Czech online computer retailer -- either inadvertently or by design -- posted a listing for a 2 TB Western Digital hard drive. The price wasn't exactly stratospheric, but it's a little high, which might make you think it's some kind of scam, but it's got the right part number for what exactly such a part would be.

However, when news to the press was leaked out last December 15, the specs didn't exactly say 2 TB. Let's just say the Czech retailer rounded up. The original word said to expect this new model in the WD20EADS power-saving product line, which is why some believe it will actually end up spinning at 5400 rpm rather than 7200. But the window for any such real announcement from WD may be closing fast: Its fiscal second quarter conference call is scheduled for two weeks from today.

Blockbuster announced this morning that it has partnered with Sonic Solutions to deliver its video on demand content to a wider spectrum of connected devices.

Sonic Solutions and Blockbuster will bring the streaming video on demand service to PCs, portable media players, Blu-ray players, DVRs, set-top boxes, mobile phones, and connected televisions, including devices already supporting Sonic's CinemaNow. Earlier this month, the company announced that CinemaNow content will be available on LG's network Blu-ray players and on Fujisoft-enabled Nintendo Wiis in Japan. "Everybody's Theater" for Wii is expected to launch in Japan on January 25, and allow users to rent OVA titles for between 300-800 Wii Points.

This morning, Mashable's Stan Schroeder discovered some examples of independently submitted videos to YouTube where the music track has been muted, and a notice given to that effect. Apparently, the system Google has long promised for identifying music tracks by their signatures, is working.

But is it working everywhere? Schroeder's examples include a track of mainly music, with just an accompanying slide, by blues great Albert King, apparently "ripped" off of one of those big, spinning, vinyl things folks used to use for music. People do like to post music to YouTube for some reason, even if it's only accompanying a slide telling you what the music is. We went looking for other examples of copyrighted tracks to test the depth of its detection ability.

It is a done deal: As widely reported yesterday, Carol Bartz, the former CEO and until yesterday Executive Chairperson of Autodesk, is the new CEO of Yahoo effective now.

The news from Yahoo looks very straight up, and even Jerry Yang's public statement includes some upper-case: "I believe Carol is the ideal person to take Yahoo forward and I will be honored to be a resource to assist her in any way she finds helpful. I believe Yahoo's best years are still ahead of it. For the past 14 years, I have poured all of my energies into this great company -- and I hope to keep contributing to its success for many years to come."

Fresh off what must feel like a bracing win for Elevation Partners (that would be the Palm Pre announcement), managing director and co-founder Roger McNamee is taking a seat on the advisory board of Wikimedia Foundation. It's not a new relationship, of course; in March it was announced that the company was considering a deeper relation with the Foundation after raising a helpful $1 million for it.

According to the Foundation, McNamee will act as a special advisor to the Executive Director on business and strategy issues. The advisory board meets once a year and pitches in as needed with advice on technology, policy, law, organizational development, and outreach efforts. No word on how McNamee's band, Moonalice, fits into the new deal, but I'd be a lesser sort of blogger if I didn't use the Foundation's good news to compliment them on garnering the support of "Chubby Wombat," not to mention the continued goodwill of his $1.9 billion day gig.

Just last October, Sony gave guidance suggesting it could post a $1.5 billion profit for its entire fiscal year ending next March. But the Japanese business news service Nikkei said this morning that the company may actually now be preparing to post a $1.3 billion loss for the year.

Now, there's no official announcement, and no forms have been filed to that effect, although oftentimes news like this is "leaked" through business news services first to diffuse the effect of a bad shock. Sony had all day to refute the leak as rumor or innuendo, and hasn't done so.

Apple's App Store has added an iPhone application for managing mobile-optimized contact information slated to be provided in conjunction with .tel domain names.

New to the App Store since last week, the iPhone client software is one of several similar applications from Telnic Limited, the registry operator for .tel, an emerging domain directory service for lightweight contact information that looks likely to see widespread use.