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Children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills

2008-01-18T00:54:00.001-08:00

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none, researchers said on Thursday in findings they called surprising.

The study, sure to be controversial, sought to assess whether it is wise, as some experts and the U.S. government have recommended, for pregnant women to limit their seafood intake to avoid mercury, a toxin that can harm the nervous system of developing foetuses.

Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a U.S. National Institutes of Health researcher who led the study in The Lancet medical journal, said seafood is a key source of omega-3 fatty acids, important for fetal brain development.

The researchers said limiting pregnant women's weekly intake to 340 grams (12 ounces) of fish and seafood, as advised by the U.S. government, did not protect their children from developmental problems. Women who avoid seafood, they said, may actually be harming their babies by depriving them of essential nutrients needed for the developing fetal brain.

"It was very surprising," Hibbeln said in a telephone interview. "We did not expect such clear-cut results of the harm of low seafood consumption." The study looked at the children of more than 8,000 British women tracked by the University of Bristol to determine how kids fared if their mothers ate more than 12 ounces -- about two average meals.

These children, compared to those whose mothers ate lesser amounts, were more advanced in developmental tests measuring fine motor, communication and social skills as toddlers, behaved better at age 7, and earned higher verbal IQ scores at age 8, the study found. The differences were striking when looking at kids whose mothers ate no seafood. They were 48 percent more likely to have a relatively low verbal IQ score at age 8 compared to children whose mothers ate the higher amount of seafood

Via

Foreign Office to court youth on YouTube

2008-01-15T06:03:00.001-08:00

The Foreign Office is to launch a public relations offensive in the
spring targeted at British and foreign youth, with the help of a
redesigned website and its own YouTube video channel.

The Foreign
Office channel has been functioning experimentally since September,
broadcasting the off-the-cuff thoughts of the foreign secretary, David
Miliband, observations from ambassadors and junior staffers alike and
vivid travel advisories for would-be tourists. But in the next few
months Britain's diplomats will follow in the steps of Buckingham
Palace, devoting cash and staff to making YouTube central to its effort
to court a younger audience at home and abroad.

"We're basically relaunching the website in March-April," a Foreign
Office spokesman said. "There will be a total revamp of the web
presence and that includes a presence on YouTube because of the
particular segment of the market YouTube is targeted at, the 18-25s."

Unlike the Royal Channel, the new Foreign Office presence on YouTube, Foreign Office presence on YouTube,
will not show past ceremonial highlights. It will focus on making
British diplomats appear more modern and approachable. In one of his
video blogs, Miliband said he hoped the initiative would open up the
"secret garden of diplomacy" to the public.

Some of the effort
will be aimed at Arab and Iranian youth in the hope of undoing some of
the damage to Britain's reputation in the Islamic world done by the
Iraq war. But a lot of the material will be aimed at Britons planning
holidays, as part of a Know Before You Go campaign, after a report last
year found record numbers were arrested or hospitalised during drinking
binges abroad.

Via Gurdian

Technorati Tags: Youth on YouTube, Royal Channel

Obama: Docs Know Best On Medical Marijuana

2007-12-18T19:16:00.001-08:00

Is America unofficially a theocracy? Where do you stand on medical
marijuana? What are your views on warrantless wiretapping? Democratic
hopeful Barack Obama joins Democrat John Edwards and Republican Mike
Huckabee as the third candidate to respond to the 10Questions.com
challenge. What did he have to say? Do you think he answered the
questions, or did he dodge and weave? Watch, decide, and vote on
10Questions.com. Is America unofficially a theocracy? Medical
Marijuana? Warrantless Wiretapping?

Read More

Train Crash in Pakistan today Killed Many Passengers

2007-12-18T19:00:00.001-08:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan train crash 'kills many'

At least five carriages of a train travelling between Karachi and Lahore came off the rails near the city of Mehrabpur in Sind province overnight.

A policeman at the scene was quoted as saying 50 bodies had been found but there is no official confirmation. Hundreds of people have died in recent years in crashes on Pakistani railways. Correspondents say casualty figures are often so high because trains are packed with far greater numbers than for which they were designed. Signalling faults and poorly maintained tracks are often the cause of the accidents.

More than 130 people were killed when three trains collided near the southern town of Ghotki in July 2005 in the country's worst train disaster for 15 years.

The express train which overturned on Wednesday is said to have been loaded with passengers travelling home for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.

Khalid Amin, a senior railway official, told the Associated Press news agency that two relief trains had been dispatched to pick up survivors.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Technorati Tags: Pakistan, Crash

Sextapes, Sextape, and SexTapes

2007-12-14T20:48:00.001-08:00

Pamela Anderson Denies Reality TV Show Reports

Entertainmentwise - London,UK

I'm blessed. So many options. I can't complain. I can be confused."
Looks like we'll just have to make do with the inevitable sex
tape.

Sex, guys and measuring-tape

East Anglian Daily Times - Ipswich,England,UK

So he's got three years of sex drive bottled up! "It gets
quite hot, but it's not explicitly hot. You're aware they're
ripping each other's clothes off, ...

Africa: Amy Winehouse - the Best of Our Generation

AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA

... topless on bar counters, and shot a sex tape or two, for
a 'good' cause (proceeds from Paris Hilton's sex tape
were apparently donated to charity). ...

Writer's strike latest hot mess: Pam Anderson and Rick Salomon get ...

Monsters and Critics.com - Glasgow,UK

By Stone Martindale Dec 13, 2007, 1:30 GMT In a predictable move, E! has
wooed sex tape stars (separate films) and coincidentally newlyweds,
Pamela Anderson ...

The Friday Random Ten+5 is done with you.

By Doug(Doug)

I can't even fathom why anybody would watch something like this; I
mean, say what you will about Paris Hilton having no reason whatsoever
to be famous, but at least she went through the trouble of making a sex tape. Glenn Beck ...

New Heidi Montag Single Leaked Online

By Free Britney

... loss and waste your time with numbingly run-of-the-mill pop
drivel) Perez posted HERE. Oh, and speaking of Perez Hilton, one
thing's for sure - we'd rather listen to Heidi Montag sing than watch
the alleged latest Ray J sex tape ... ...

View R Kelly Sextape

By Kevin(Kevin)

The dancer later pled that to attach adhesive tape was without its assent and was not correctly protected. Two other costumes of sex by girls of underage were arranged and it denied any relationship with one or the other of them, ...

BuzzFeed Updates For 12/12/2007

Jessica Sierra - This American Idol castoff enjoys an easy 15-minutes of fame with a new sex tape. Sex Tape of Troubled Former 'American Idol' Jessica Sierra to be Released. Look Movie - A movie filmed from the point of view of the ...

Elsewhere

By Michael

Tim Worstall has the goods on that NASA sex tape. *
Scott thinks -- no, knows -- that there can be such a thing as too much
healthy living. * Does Israel have a say in determining America's
foreign policy? If you read the NYTimes it can ...

Technorati Tags: Sex Tape, Sextapes Links

Woman awarded judgment in sex tape case

2007-12-01T19:47:00.001-08:00

By Edith Brady-Lunny
eblunny@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- A McLean County judge approved a default judgment Monday against two men sued by a woman over a sexually explicit video she claims was made without her consent.

A confidential agreement also has been reached with a third man accused of participating in the October 2004 incident, said Mark Johnson, the woman’s attorney.

A Dec. 20 hearing is scheduled to determine the amount of damages the woman is entitled to receive.

The Pantagraph has not identified the woman’s identity in criminal and civil proceedings connected to the accusations because she is the victim of an alleged sex crime.

Named in the civil lawsuit filed in April are Thomas Robert Hawkins, Jeff Young and Kenneth McCoy. Hawkins and Young were acquitted in March of criminal sexual assault and eavesdropping charges related to the woman’s complaint. Young is the woman’s former boyfriend.

Criminal charges were not filed against McCoy.

Johnson said Hawkins and Young, who are serving prison terms on matters unrelated to the civil case, did not offer a defense in the civil matter, which sought more than $50,000 from each defendant.

Young, 45, was sentenced to a total of 28 years in prison in September for assaulting and videotaping another woman and selling cocaine. Hawkins, 35, is serving a 12-year term for sexually assaulting three minors.

In testimony at the trial for Hawkins and Young, the alleged victim said she found a video in April 2005 made by Young. He admitted to having another tape that she later saw and turned over to police.

The woman contends she was heavily intoxicated and has no memory of the events that occurred at Young’s home. She admitted that she and Young had consensual sex earlier in the evening but she was unaware that Hawkins switched places with Young at some point.

The civil action alleges the three men caused the woman extreme anguish, embarrassment and mental suffering. VIA pantagraph

Technorati Tags: Judge, Sextape

McLean County judge agrees to a default judgment in sex tape case

2007-12-01T19:29:00.001-08:00

A former McLean County woman has left the community, her job, and her friends because she claims she was sexually assaulted and secretly videotaped. She says she feels validated by a judge's ruling Monday. McLean County Judge Jim Souk agreed to a default judgment against 45-year-old Jeff Young and 35-year-old Thomas Hawkins. The woman has settled her claims against Kenneth McCoy, a third man she accused in the lawsuit, of secretly videotaping her while Hawkins and Young sexually assaulted her. The woman, who WJBC chose not to identify, believes she was drugged because she had no memory of the events until she found a videotape of what happened to her. Hawkins and Young were cleared of sexual assault and eavesdropping charges. The victim says the lawsuit was her only way to get justice.

Download the Audio (MP3)

Judge Souk will decide next month how much money to award her. Young was sentenced in September to 28 years for sexually assaulting and videotaping another woman and selling cocaine. Hawkins is serving 12 years for sexually assaulting three children. VIA http://www.wjbc.com

Sex and Politics Romp to Victory

2007-12-01T19:19:00.001-08:00

Photo Credits :
http://morewhat.com

NEWS.com.au readers have voted, or clicked anyway, and however historic the federal election, it didn't come out on top when preferences were counted.

The appalling story about a 15-year-old Brazilian girl who was thrown in a jail cell with 20 men, and for a month was repeatedly raped and forced to have sex for food was by far our most read story of the week.

But readers' attention was also understandably focused on the outcome of Australia's federal election - arguably the most important one in recent times.

So, it's of no surprise that our article about Kevin Rudd's resounding victory romped to the number two spot on our most popular stories list.

Mr Rudd's slick Kevin07 campaign and its pitch of fresh leadership and new ideas had convinced the Australian electorate.

But NEWS.com.au readers' quest for election coverage was briefly derailed by two hungry sharks.

Last Friday, the plight of two teenage girls in Byron Bay stopped readers in their electoral tracks. READ MORE

A prayer service has been held outside the house where the bodies of missing teenagers Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol were found.

2007-11-25T05:16:00.001-08:00

Police are continuing to assess evidence collected at the property in Margate, Kent, following the discovery of the remains.

Peter Tobin, 61, is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Vicky, from Redding, near Falkirk, who disappeared in 1991.

Miss McNicol, an 18-year-old student, from Tillingham, Essex, went missing the same year on her way home from a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire.

A service was held for the girls outside 50 Irvine Drive in Margate, led by the Rev Arthur Houston of the nearby Holy Trinity Church.

A fund has been set up in memory of Miss McNicol by her former school, Chelmsford County High School for Girls, which Miss McNicol attended between 1985 and 1991.

A school spokesman said: "Staff remember her fondly as a sweet girl who worked hard and achieved well. The school was very shaken by her disappearance at the time. A fund is being set up in school in memory of Dinah."

Proceeds will go to the Essex Police Benevolent Fund and the Missing People charity "in recognition of the efforts of both organisations to find Dinah after her disappearance", the spokesman said.

Miss McNicol's father also paid tribute to the police and the charity. In a statement released through Essex Police, Ian McNicol, 68, said: "I would like to thank the police involved in finding my daughter. We are so indebted to them, as well as the Missing People charity. I would also like to thank all the people who have sent cards and letters. We are really very grateful.

"Also, Chelmsford County High School for Girls has been fantastic and a special thanks to the headmistress. My deepest thoughts are also with the family of Vicky Hamilton." Via dailystar.co.uk

Technorati : Dinah McNico, Missing case, Vicky Hamilton

Natalee Holloway case update- three men have been arrested

2007-11-21T19:38:00.001-08:00

Case of Natalee Holloway U.S. teenager who disappeared in Aruba in 2005 gain the progress. Prosecutors said they had new evidence in the case. Holloway was last seen alive with the three men arrested Wednesday. full story

Three men previously ID'd as suspects in Natalee Holloway disappearance re-arrested. | PHOTOS | VIDEO

The prosecutor's office in Aruba says Joran van der Sloot of the Netherlands and two brothers from Suriname have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm resulting in Holloway's death.

Van der Sloot was arrested in the Netherlands, where he is attending a university. The others -- Satish and Deepak Kalpoe -- were arrested in Aruba. Van der Sloot is expected to be extradited to the Dutch Caribbean island.

Holloway disappeared in May of 2005, hours before she was scheduled to fly home to Alabama with her high school classmates. She was last seen leaving a bar with the three young men who are now back in custody.

External Links relate to

Three Arrested in Natalee Holloway Case

Joran Van Der Sloot Arrested in Natalee Holloway Murder

Lists Missing Meridian Man

Three men re-arrested in Natalee Holloway case

Technorati : Aruba, Deepak Kalpoe, Murder, Natalee Holloway, Van der Sloot

Baby turtles at Malaysia's Ma' Daerah Turtle Sanctuary Centre and Green Turtles from Tanzania

2007-07-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Baby turtles crawl to the sea during their release at Malaysia's Ma' Daerah Turtle Sanctuary Centre in Kemaman, in the northeastern state of Terengganu, in August 17, 2004 . Leatherback turtles that survived the age of the dinosaurs face extinction across the Western Pacific today, even though rescue strategies could be as simple as saving their eggs from fishing nets.

(Photo: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters)

One of 154 Green Turtles recently hatched from a single nest is seen on a beach in Rad Dege, 24 km (15 miles) south of Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam, July 28, 2007. The Green Turtles are one of five turtle species, all globally endangered, that are found on the east African coast. Their nests are protected by local villagers, who work as part of a project that has been implemented by Sea Sense, a local Tanzanian NGO. REUTERS/Sala Lewis (TANZANIA)

After Won over Saudi Arabia of 1-0, Iraqi People Celebrate Their Soccer Team

2007-07-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

Soon after got a winning over Saudi Arabia in Asia Cup, Iraqi people celebrate their soccer team victory. Various ways the people do to celebrate this rare moment. In this fight within gelora bung karno, Younis Mahmoud was been the hero for the team after made one goal-determination.

In baghdad, Reuters said :

"Volleys of gunfire rang out across Baghdad on Sunday as Iraqis celebrated their soccer team's Asian Cup victory, a rare moment of joy and unity in four years of relentless strife."

Residents celebrate in Baghdad July 29, 2007, after the Iraq team won the final game of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament against Saudi Arabia in Jakarta.

REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen

Iraq's captain Younis Mahmoud lifts the trophy after their win
over Saudi Arabia in the final match at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta July 29, 2007.

REUTERS/Russell Boyce

Group of Prehistoric Fish

2007-07-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

Prehistoric fish are various groups of fishes that lived before recorded history. A few, such as the coelacanth still exist today and are considered living fossils.

The first fish and indeed the first vertebrates, were the ostracoderms, which appeared in the Cambrian Period, about 510 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Devonian, about 350 million years ago. Ostracoderms were jawless fishes found mainly in fresh water. They were covered with a bony armor or scales and were often less than 30 cm (1 ft) long. The ostracoderms are placed in the class Agnatha along with the living jawless fishes, the lampreys and hagfishes, which are believed to be descended from the ostracoderms.

The first fish with jaws, the acanthodians, or spiny sharks, appeared in the late Silurian, about 410 million years ago, and became extinct before the end of the Permian, about 250 million years ago. Acanthodians were generally small sharklike fishes varying from toothless filter-feeders to toothed predators. They were once often classified as an order of the class Placodermi, another group of primitive fishes, but recent authorities tend to place the acanthodiaes or that both groups share a common ancestor.

The placoderms, another group of jawed fishes, appeared at the beginning of the Devonian, about 395 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Devonian or the beginning of the Mississippian (Carboniferous), about 345 million years ago. Detailed anatomical studies of fossil remains by the Swedish scientist Erik Stensiö strongly suggest that the placoderms were closely related to sharks. Placoderms were typically small, flattened bottom-dwellers, however, many, particularly the arthrodires, were active midwater predators. Dunkleosteus was the largest and most famous of these. The upper jaw was firmly fused to the skull, but there was a hinge joint between the skull and the bony plating of the trunk region. This allowed the upper part of the head to be thrown back, and in arthrodires, this allowed them to take larger bites.

The cartilaginous-skeleton sharks and rays, class Chondrichthyes, which appeared about 370 million years ago in the middle Devonian, are generally believed to be descended from the bony-skeleton placoderms. The cartilaginous skeletons are considered to be a later development.

The modern bony fishes, class Osteichthyes, appeared in the late Silurian or early Devonian, about 395 million years ago. The early forms were freshwater fishes, for no fossil remains of modern bony fishes have been found in marine deposits older than Triassic time, about 230 million years ago. The Osteichthyes may have arisen from the acanthodians. A subclass of the Osteichthyes, the ray-finned fishes (subclass Actinopterygii), became and have remained the dominant group of fishes throughout the world. It was not the ray-finned fishes, however, that led to the evolution of the land vertebrates.

The ancestors of the land vertebrates are found among another group of bony fishes called the Choanichthyes or Sarcopterygii. Choanate fishes are characterized by internal nostrils, fleshy fins called lobe fins, and cosmoid scales. The choanate fishes appeared in the late Silurian or early Devonian, more than 390 million years ago, and possibly arose from the acanthodians. The choanate fishes include a group known as the Crossopterygii, which has one living representative, the coelacanth (Latimeria). During the Devonian Period some crossopterygian fishes of the order (or suborder) Rhipidistia crawled out of the water to become the first tetrapods.

The story of vertebrate evolution started in the seas of the Cambrian period, when jawless, toothless, soft-bodied fishlike creatures wriggled through the water, sucking up microscopic food particles. Only after tough, non-decaying bone was developed (initially as a scaly outer covering and later within the body) did fossils form and become preserved in the rocks. And only then could paleontologists take up the story with any certainty.

The earliest traces of bony scales are found in rocks of the Late Cambrian period, and the first recognizable vertebrate fish has been found in Australian rocks of Early Ordovician age. So, the first chapter in the vertebrate evolution starts with the ancient Arandaspis, a fish about 6in/15cm long with no jaws, no teeth and no fins other than a tail. It did, however, have gills and a stiffening rod of cartilaginous material (the notochord) that served as a backbone.

Indonesian coelacanth Make Scientists be Exciting

2007-07-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ronan Bourhis said :

French experts equipped with sonar and GPS try to reconstruct trough asked an Indonesia (Manado) Fisherman how to catch a rare coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world's oldest. This Full Article can read in Yahoo Tech News

A very rare coelacanth fish as Indonesian, Japanese and French specialists (unseen) carry out an autopsy of in Manado, North Sulawesi, in June. Coelacanths are among the world's oldest fish species. Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest the animal has changed little in that time.(Photo credit : AFP/File/ Ronan Bourhis)

Second Indonesian coelacanth known to science, later to become holotype of new species, Latimeria menadoensis. Photograph by Mark V. Erdmann, July 1998

Relate Article :

The Coelacanth: More Living than Fossil (http://www.mnh.si.edu/highlight/coelacanth/)
NOVA's "Ancient Creature of the Deep" site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fish/
A general information site about the coelacanth: http://www.dinofish.com/
South African deep water dives and the coelacanth: http://www.coelacanth-diver.co.za/

From Poverty to Power-The Way Out of Undesirable Conditions

2007-07-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Tittle : From Poverty to Power-The Way Out of Undesirable Conditions
by : James Allen

From the most trivial thought, word, or act of man, up to the groupings of the celestial bodies, law reigns supreme. No arbitrary condition can, even for one moment, exist, for such a condition would be a denial and an annihilation of law. Every condition of life is, therefore, bound up in an orderly and harmonious sequence, and the secret and cause of every condition is contained within itself.

The law, "Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap," is inscribed in naming letters upon the portal of Eternity, and none can deny it, none can cheat it, none can escape it. He who puts his hand in the fire must suffer the burning until such time as it has worked itself out, and neither curses nor prayers can avail to alter it.

All these conditions of mind are rightly called "evil," for they are the efforts of the soul to subvert, in its ignorance, the law, and they, therefore, lead to chaos and confusion within, and are sooner or later actualized in the outward circumstances as disease, failure, and misfortune, coupled with grief, pain, and despair. Whereas love, gentleness, good-will, purity, are cooling airs which breathe peace upon the soul that woos them, and, being in harmony with the Eternal Law, they become actualized in the form of health, peaceful surroundings, and undeviating success and good fortune.

A thorough understanding of this Great Law which permeates the universe leads to the acquirement of that state of mind known as obedience. To know that justice, harmony, and love are supreme in the universe is likewise to know that all adverse and painful conditions are the result of our own disobedience to that Law. Such knowledge leads to strength and power, and it is upon such knowledge alone that a true life and an enduring success and happiness can be built. To be patient under all circumstances, and to accept all conditions as necessary factors in your training, is to rise superior to all painful conditions, and to overcome them with an overcoming which is sure, and which leaves no fear of their return, for by the power of obedience to law they are utterly slain. Such an obedient one is working in harmony with the law, has in fact, identified himself with the law, and whatsoever he conquers he conquers for ever; whatsoever he builds can never be destroyed.

The cause of all power, as of all weakness, is within: the secret of all happiness as of all misery is likewise within. There is no progress apart from unfoldment within, and no sure foothold of prosperity or peace except by orderly advancement in knowledge.

Perhaps the chains of poverty hang heavily upon you, and you are friendless and alone, and you long with an intense longing that your load may be lightened; but the load continues, and you seem to be enveloped in an ever-increasing darkness. Perhaps you complain, you bewail your lot; you blame your birth, your parents, your employer, or the unjust Powers who have bestowed upon you so undeservedly poverty and hardship, and upon another affluence and ease. Cease your complaining and fretting; none of these things which you blame are the cause of your poverty; the cause is within yourself, and where the cause is, there is the remedy. The very fact that you are a complainer, shows that you deserve your lot; shows that you lack that faith which is the ground of all effort and progress.

There is no room for a complainer in a universe of law, and worry is soul-suicide. By your very attitude of mind you are strengthening the chains which bind you, and are drawing about you the darkness by which you are enveloped, Alter your outlook upon life, and your outward life will alter. Build yourself up in the faith and knowledge, and make yourself worthy of better surroundings and wider opportunities. Be sure, first of all, that you are making the best of what you have.

By so ennobling your present surroundings you will rise above them, and above the need of them, and at the right time you will pass on into the better house and surroundings which have all along been waiting for you, and which you have fitted yourself to occupy.

Even poverty and lack of time and leisure are not the evils that you imagine they are, and if they hinder you in your progress, it is because you have clothed them in your own weaknesses, and the evil that you see in them is really in yourself. Endeavor to fully and completely realize that in so far as you shape and mould your mind, you are the maker of your destiny, and as, by the transmuting power of self-discipline you realize this more and more, you will come to see that these so-called evils may be converted into blessings. You will then utilize your poverty for the cultivation of patience, hope and courage; and your lack of time in the gaining of promptness of action and decision of mind, by seizing the precious moments as they present themselves for your acceptance. As in the rankest soil the most beautiful flowers are grown, so in the dark soil of poverty the choicest flowers of humanity have developed and bloomed.

Free Download the Book (PDF)

Staying Calm and Cultivating Poise

2007-07-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

Marcus Aurelius practiced psychotherapy in the more pretentious and stilted style appropriate, perhaps, to his time and position. From this philosopher-emperor each of us will do well to absorb the following quotation: "Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil."

Why shouldn't we be prepared beforehand to view all these people with pity instead of resentment? Their attitude toward us and their abuse of us has really nothing to do with us, but means merely an exploitation of their peculiarities. To prepare ourselves in this way to meet ridicule, abuse, and the like means no more than for a sailor to be ready to put down the helm in a squall. If we should set about learning to sail a boat, this is one of the first things we should do, but we pay very little attention to learning how to run ourselves. On this point Epictetus says, "Cease to make yourselves slaves. Is there not some advantage to be gained from this man? From all: even a reviler. Does not the wrestler gain advantage from him with whom he exercises before the combat? The greatest. And just in the same manner I can exercise myself with this man - and the heavier he is the better for me; and it is surely an advantage to me when I am exercised in gentleness of temper. This is knowing how to gain an advantage from men."

The brief maxim should be constantly at command to clench such suggestions. Try keeping these in mind as you go about your daily live. "These are the annoyances incident to my business. To fret when they occur means that I cannot manage my business without friction." Another is this (for use when subordinates show stupidity), "If he had my brains he'd have my job". And finally (as a shield against everyday annoyances and resentments), "Never touched me."

I can think of no better illustration of the way such maxims should be ready for immediate use than the following instance, in which the laugh, by the way, was on me. I was walking with a friend one day when an automobile came up behind us, announcing its approach by one of those peculiar notes so far from the honk of a self-respecting goose that it can be described neither as a groan, grunt, growl, nor scream, but rather as possessing the discordant elements of all four. " Don't you hate those freak horns!" I exclaimed, rather petulantly. "I used to," he said, "but since reading your book I say to myself, 'Never touched me!'"

This incident marks the progress respectively of my friend and myself in mental training. For I have no hesitation in presenting myself, not as a past-master, but rather as a student-instructor in this branch of practical philosophy.

One of the principal depressing emotions we have to curb to preserve our poise are anger. And under anger we must include the moderate degree of anger known as fret. What makes us fret? We all know the expression "Mad as a wet hen". Suppose you were asked what makes the hen mad, you probably would answer, "Why, because she is wet"; but for the real reason we must go further back - she is mad because she insists on being dry. If she could forego that insistence she would remain unruffled, wet as well as dry.

Similarly, I think I am mad because so-and-so has called me a liar, a coward, or a what-not. But the underlying cause of my anger is that I can't stand being called such names. If I took a notion to practice philosophy to the extent of seeing how much instead of how little I could stand, I might finally be wishing some one would try it on, to see if I couldn't remain cool under the provocation, and simply say to myself, "Never touched me." "Any one can stand what he likes; it takes the philosopher to stand what he doesn't like."

There is no sharp line of division between the legitimate airing of a grievance and going into a state of fret. Nor is it fretting quietly to go about the adjustment of the grievance. Fret means internal turmoil externalized, not by effective work, but by wailing and gnashing of teeth.

You can spot a fretter from the tone and pitch of his voice. This test is not infallible but as a rule you can spot a fretter by his voice. When someone frets, his vocal cords tighten and produces a high-pitched, disagreeable tone which merges into the whine of chronic discontent.

I heard such a high-pitched voice inquiring the waiter one morning at breakfast, "How many eggs are there in this bacon and eggs?" "I don't know, sir, I think two... that is the usual number." "Well, I wish you would go and see"; and the waiter did so, returning shortly to announce with beaming face, "There are three, sir; they generally put in two, but this time they put in three." But even this cheerful news produced no change in the expression or the voice of the fretter, who despondently observed, "I knew the proportions were wrong." If you ever find yourself getting into this state of mind try the experiment of saying to yourself, " Don't pitch your voice so high!"

I once knew a man who was so obsessed with dust. If you inquired about his health, he would answer, " Pretty bad, thank you, and the dust is something awful!" If you admired a picture, he would say, "The composition may be good, but the frame is the kind that catches the dust." If you mentioned the Arctic regions, he would wish himself there to be out of the dust. When we finally had a fall of snow that covered the dust, I expected to find him beaming, but no - with the same tried expression and the same high-pitched voice he said the dust would be as bad as ever in a little while.

It is surprising how many things we can't stand if we cultivate our "can’t-standability." The degree of anger known as getting mad may be dismissed with an appeal to our vanity, thus: Consider the very angry woman. How unbecoming it is - how it lacks in dignity! Why, she is almost black in the face because her emotion interferes with her circulation, and causes a stasis of venous blood in the superficial vessels of her countenance! If she could look in the glass now, and if she knew enough physiology to realize that controlling the emotions also controls the circulation, she would wish never to be angry again.

It is worth while for us to profit by this observation; and if it chances that we are the object of her wrath, we shall do well to curb the natural reflex which will make our face as black as hers, and we shall maintain the role of spectator, disinterested and unaffected.

When real improvement has taken place in these directions there is not only a change in the manner of thinking, but a noticeable change of personality, which includes control of the body likewise. Indeed, to control the body or mind alone is to manage only one horse of a team.

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3 laws of memory or of thinking that you must know

2007-07-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

There are 3 laws of memory or of thinking that you must know if you are serious about developing a sharp memory.

The first and principal thing the pupil requires to do in this lesson after learning the definition of thefollowing Three Laws - is to be able to clearly understand the examples under each Law, and whether they verify or illustrate that Law.

LAW I
INCLUSION indicates that there is an overlapping of meaning between two words, or that there is a prominent idea or sound that belongs to both alike, or that a similar fact or property belongs to two events or things as, to enumerate a few classes:- Whole and Part -

(Earth, Poles) (Ship, Rudder) (Forest, Trees)
(Air, Oxygen) (House, Parlor) (Clock, Pendulum)
(Knife, Blade) (India, Punjab) (14, 7) (24, 12)
Genus and Species. - (Animal, Man) (Plant, Thyme)
(Fish, Salmon) (Tree, Oak) (Game, Pheasant)
(Dog, Retriever) (Universal Evolution, Natural Selection)
(Silver Lining, Relief of Lucknow)
(Empress Queen, Victoria) (Money, Cash)

Abstract and Concrete. [The same Quality appears both in the Adjective and in the Substantive.] -
(Dough, Soft.) (Empty, Drum.) (Lion, Strong.)
(Eagle, Swift.) (Courage, Hero.) (Glass, Smoothness.)
(Gold, Ductility.) (Sunshine, Light.) (Fire, Warmth.)

Similarity of Sound.
(Emperor, Empty.) (Salvation, Salamander.)
(Hallelujah, Hallucination.) (Cat, Catastrophe.)
(Top, Topsy.)
[Inclusion by sound is not punning.]

Simple Inclusion embraces cases not found in either of the foregoing classes, but where there is something in common between the pairs, as
(Church, Temple.) (Pocket, Black Hole.)

LAW II
EXCLUSION means Antithesis. One word excludes the other, or both words relate to one and the same thing, but occupy opposite positions in regard to it, as

(Riches, Poverty.) (Hot, Cold.) (Old, Young.)
(Damp, Dry.) (Life, Death.) (Love, Hate.) (Joy, Sorrow.)
(Courage, Cowardice.) (Health, Sickness.)
(Righteous, Wicked.) (Beauty, Ugliness.) (Peace, War.)

LAW III
CONCURRENCE is the sequence or co-existence of impressions or ideas that have been either accidentally or causally together. It is either the accidental conjunction of experiences or the operation of cause and effect; since even in the latter case, it is merely the sensuous facts of immediate succession that we know about, as

(Gravitation, Newton, Apple.)
(Dives, Lazarus, Abraham, Bosom.) (Pipe, Tobacco.)
(Michaelmas, Goose.) (Columbus, America.)
(Bartholomew Diaz, Cape of Good Hope.)
(Grandmother, Knitting) (Socrates, Hemlock.)
(Bruce, Spider.) (Nelson, Trafalgar.)
(Demosthenes, Seashore, Stammering, Pebbles.)
(Job, Patience.) (Wedding, Slippers, Cake.)
(Wellington, Bonaparte, Waterloo.)
(Depression, Fall of Silver.) (Lightning, Thunder.)

In the case of the following pairs, one word has been so often appropriated to the other, that there seems to be something in common in the meaning of the terms - but it is not so, they are mere cases of Concurrence, but of almost indissoluble Concurrence.

For instance, a man might examine a "spade" in all its parts and might even make one after a model, and not even know what "dig" means. The mention of "dig" is as likely to make us think of pickaxe as of spade. "Spade" does not mean "dig" nor does "dig" mean spade. "Dig" merely means the action of the "spade," or the use to which it is put. Hence this pair of words does not furnish an example of Inclusion. But as "dig" is frequently appropriated to "spade" - as we have often thought of those words together - this is a case of strong Concurrence. The term "swoop" is almost exclusively applied to "eagle."

A certain action or movement of the eagle is termed swooping. But "eagle" does not mean "swoop," nor does "swoop" mean "eagle." We always think of "eagle" when we think of "swoop," but we do not often think of "swoop" when we think of "eagle." It is not In, but Con.

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Visitor Identification Methods Through Urchin

2007-07-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

If I save an interesting-page, I see a file named "urchin" in javascript format. But I did'nt find it if I sae mine. So, I try to find more about this item in google search engine. Finally, I found a site explained about it.

I will re-write here about the explanation so that I keep it in my this dear-blog directory.

The site explanation is folowing :

Overview

Urchin has five different methods for identifying visitors and sessions, depending on available information. Of these, the patent-pending Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM) is a highly accurate system that was specifically designed to identify unique visitors, sessions, exact paths, and return frequency behavior. There are a number of visitor loyalty and client reports that are only available when using the UTM System. The UTM System is easy to install and is highly recommended for all businesses.

In addition to the UTM System, Urchin can use IP addresses, User-Agents, Usernames, and Session-IDs to identify sessions. The following table compares the abilities of each of the five identification techniques:

Ability IP Only IP+User-Agent Username Session ID UTM

Identifies non-proxied sessions X X X X X

Identifies some proxied sessions
X X X X

Uniquely identifies each session

X X

Defeats session IP proxying

X X

Defeats most provider caching

X X

Defeats browser caching

X

Uniquely identifies visitors

X
X

Captures exact path sequence

X

Captures visitor loyalty metrics

X

Captures browser capabilities

X

Ability	IP Only	IP+User-Agent	Username	Session ID	UTM
Identifies non-proxied sessions	X	X	X	X	X
Identifies some proxied sessions		X	X	X	X
Uniquely identifies each session				X	X
Defeats session IP proxying				X	X
Defeats most provider caching				X	X
Defeats browser caching					X
Uniquely identifies visitors			X		X
Captures exact path sequence					X
Captures visitor loyalty metrics					X
Captures browser capabilities					X

Data Model

The underlying model within Urchin for handling unique visitors is based on a hierarchical notion of a unique set of visitors interacting with the website through one or more sessions. Each session can contain one or more hits and pageviews. Pageviews are kept in order so that a path through the website for each session is understood. As shown in the diagram, the Visitor represents an individual's interaction with the website over time. Each unique visitor will have one or more sessions, and within each session is zero or more pageviews that comprise the path the visitor took for that session.

Proxying and Caching

In attempting to identify and track unique visitors and sessions, we are basically going against the nature of the web, which is anonymous interaction. Particularly troublesome to tracking visitors are the increasingly common proxying and caching techniques used by service providers and the browsers, themselves. Proxying hides the actual IP address of the visitor and can use one IP address to represent more than one web user. A user's IP address can change between sessions and in some cases multiple IP addresses will be used to represent a cluster of users. Thus, it is possible that one visitor will have different IP addresses for each hit and/or different IP addresses between sessions.

Caching of pages can occur at several locations. Large providers look to decrease the load on their network by caching or remembering commonly viewed pages and images. For example, if thousands of users from a particular provider are viewing the CNN website, the provider may benefit from caching the static pages and images of the website and delivering those pieces to the users from within the provider's network. This has the effect of pages being delivered without the knowledge of the actual website.

Browser caching adds to the question. Most browsers are configured to only check content once per session. If a visitor lands on the home page of a particular website, clicks to a subpage, and then uses the back-button to go back to the home page, the second request of the home page is most likely never sent to the website server, but pulled from the browser's memory. An analysis of paths may result in an incomplete path missing the cached pages.

In the above diagram, the actual path taken through the website by the client is shown at the top, while the apparent path from the server's point of view is shown at the bottom. In this case, before proceeding to Page-3 the user goes back to the Page-1. The server never sees this request and from its point of view it appears the user went directly from Page-2 to Page-3. There may not even be a link from Page-2 to Page-3.

Visitor Identification Methods

As mentioned previously, Urchin has five different methods for identifying visitors, sessions and paths. The more sophisticated methods which can address the above issues may require special configuration of your website. The following descriptions describe the workings of each method in more detail.

1. IP-Only: The IP-Only method is provided for backward compatibility with Urchin 3, and for basic IT reporting where uniquely identifying sessions is not needed. This method uses only the IP Address to identify visitor sessions. Thirty minutes of inactivity will constitute a new session. The only data requirements for using this method is a timestamp and IP Address of the visitor.

2. IP-Agent: The default method, which requires no additional configuration, uses the IP address and user-agent (browser) information to determine unique sessions. A configurable thirty-minute timeout is used to identify the beginning of a new session for a visitor. While this method is still susceptible to proxying and caching, the addition of the user-agent information can help detect multiple users from one IP address. In addition, this method includes a special AOL filter, which attempts to reduce the impact of their round-robin proxying techniques. This method does not require any additional configuration.

3. Usernames: This method is provided for secure sites that require logins such as Intranets and Extranets. Websites that are only partially protected should not use this method. The Username identification is taken directly from the username field in the log file. This information is generally logged if the website is configured to require authentication. This method uses a thirty-minute period of inactivity to separate sessions from the same username.

4. Session ID: The fourth visitor identification method available in Urchin is the Session ID method, which can use pre- existing unique session identifiers to uniquely identify each session. Many content delivery applications and web servers will provide session ids to manage user interaction with the webserver. These session ids are typically located in the URI query or stored in a Cookie. As long as this information is available in the log data, Urchin can be configured to take advantage of these identifiers. Using session ids provides a much more accurate measurement of unique sessions, but still does not identify returning unique visitors. This method is also susceptible to some forms of caching including the above example.

In many cases, the ability to use session ids may already be available, and thus, the time required to configure this feature may be short. For dynamically generated sites, taking advantage of this feature should be straightforward. The result is more accurate visitor session and path analysis.

5. Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM): The last method for visitor identification available in Urchin is the Urchin Tracking Module. This system was specifically designed to negate the effects of caching and proxying and allow the server to see every unique click from every visitor without significantly increasing the load on the server. The UTM system tracks return visitor behavior, loyalty and frequency of use. The client-side data collection also provides information on browser capabilities.

The UTM is installed by including a small amount of JavaScript code in each of your webpages. This can be done manually or automatically via server side includes and other template systems. Complete details on installing UTM are covered in the articles later in this section.

Once installed, the Urchin Traffic Monitor is triggered each time someone views a page from the website. The UTM Sensor uniquely identifies each visitor and sends one extra hit for each pageview. This additional hit is very lightweight and most systems will not see any additional load. The Urchin engine identifies these extra hits in the normal log file and uses this additional data to create an exact picture of every step taken by the users. This method also identifies visitors and sessions uniquely so that return visitation behavior can be properly analyzed. While this method takes a little extra time to configure, it highly recommended for comprehensive detailed analytics.

Genetic Signpost from Genographic Project

2007-07-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

This is explain about genome in our body which is generated from our parents. The explanation is in swf format (credit : nationalgeographic)

Are you an expert in genetic? I am interesting in this field since in my junior high school. It is so wonderfull to know how is our body create by the "generated-code". How about "clonning"?. That is another higher of human achieving in science and technology. (yeah, I thought)...any opinion from you?

Oil spills into Kan. river as flooding continues

2007-07-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

OSAWATOMIE, Kan. - An oil spill added to the misery caused by widespread flooding Monday as thousands of evacuees in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas waited for water to recede from their homes.

Kansas got a break from the weather Monday, but more rain was scattered over Texas and eastern Oklahoma, the latest in nearly two weeks of storms. It was the 20th straight day that rain had fallen in Oklahoma City.

“It’s such a dynamic situation,” said Parker County, Texas, spokesman Joel Kertok. “We get a break, and then it starts raining again.” LINK

Kansas officials said Monday they were trying to contain damage from the Coffeyville Resources oil refinery spill in the Verdigris River in Coffeyville, Kan., that occurred over the weekend as raging floodwaters wreaked havoc through the southeast part of the state.

Anatomy of Human Genes

2007-07-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is explain the anatomy of our gene from National Geographic (swf)

The swf-explanation file is a part and Credited by The Genographic Project.

Sea Urchin Genome Reveals Striking Similarities to Humans

2007-07-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

Scientists already knew that the creatures, which resemble underwater hedgehogs, are one of only a few invertebrates (animals without backbones) on the human branch of the evolutionary tree.

Purple sea urchins feast on the remains of
a giant kelp in Carmel Bay, California.

Scientists have completed sequencing the genome of
the California purple urchin—revealing surprising
new information about just how
closely urchins resemble humans and
how vital a role the marine creatures play
in ocean ecosystems.

(credit : Photograph © Science)

But a new sequence of the California purple urchin's genome reveals that the marine creatures and humans bear a striking number of similarities. (See related photo: "Sea Urchin Genome Decoded".)

"Comparing all the genes of the sea urchin, it's actually quite similar to us," said George Weinstock, who led the sequencing project. Weinstock is co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

The sea urchin is one of the few marine organisms whose genome has been sequenced. The study therefore also provides insights into the vital role of sea urchins in many marine ecosystems.

"Sea urchins are major grazers in shallow seas of many parts of the world's oceans ... and they are the main prey of many top predators," said John Pearse, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Results from the sequencing project and accompanying articles, including one by Pearse, will appear in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

Kelp Forests

Sea urchins, which feed mainly on algae, live in environments that alternate between species-rich kelp forests and sea urchin-dominated "barrens."

"They are known to limit sea grass and kelp production and consequently the diversity and complexity in communities supported by these producers," Pearse said.

He compares sea urchins to rabbits and other grazers found on land.

"Sea urchins are the main prey of many top predators—including crabs, lobsters, fish, and sea otters—that directly limit their abundance, comparable to how coyotes, hawks, and owls limit the abundance of rabbits," Pearse said.

With a diminishing population of sea otters in California's Monterey Bay, for example, the population of sea urchins has multiplied. The sea urchins are reportedly chewing up the kelp forest in the area and upsetting the ecosystem. (Related video: "Killer Whale Mystery at Monterey Bay".) There are other factors that influence sea urchins' ecological role, including interactions among different urchin species.

"Populations of some species tend to explode and devastate the communities they are in, while others rarely do so," Pearse said. "Knowledge of their genome might allow people to better understand the underlying mechanisms that lead to such differences."

Sea urchins can also be used by scientists to detect toxic chemicals.

"One of the things in the genome project has been to come up with a very detailed description of the defense mechanism that sea urchins have to deal with toxic chemicals," Weinstock, of Baylor College of Medicine, said.

"Understanding their sensitivities and resistances could potentially help fine-tune our use of them, in terms of understanding the marine environment."

Humans are also directly affecting sea urchin populations. Sea urchin roe, or ovaries, are a delicacy in Korea and Japan.

The U.S. sea urchin fishery has been in decline in recent years, however, because of reduced demand from Japanese consumers. (Related: "Seafood May Be Gone by 2048, Study Says"

[November 2, 2006].)

Human Cousin?

The urchin's usefulness as a model for developmental biology was another major reason for the sequencing project.

Scientists have long used sea urchins to study fertilization and early development in humans.

"The series of steps that happen after an egg is fertilized by a sperm ... those very early events turn out to be the same in the sea urchin as they are in the human," Weinstock said.

The scientists identified more than 23,000 genes in the 814 million base pairs, or "letters," of DNA code taken from the sea urchin.

The sea urchin represents the first sequenced genome from the echinoderms, which are the closest known relatives of the chordates, the group that includes vertebrates, animals with spinal columns.

The genome includes analogs to many essential human genes that were previously thought to be exclusive to vertebrates.

But missing among the sea urchin genes are some genes found in flies and worms. This, scientists say, shows that sea urchins are closer kin to humans than beetles, flies, crabs, and clams.

"Humans and sea urchins have a common ancestor," Weinstock said.

The eyeless sea urchin also has genes associated with taste, smell, hearing, balance—and surprisingly, even vision.

Source : http://news.nationalgeographic.com

About WIRED MAGAZINE: ISSUE 15.07 - How Slick It Is! Fill 'Er Up With Cooking Oil, Not Crude Oil

2007-07-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

John Voelcker

No need to battle other eco-warriors for a spot on the Prius waiting list. If you want to drive a green machine, just troll craigslist for an old diesel car or truck. Any diesel engine can run on vegetable oil — either used (fryer fat) or fresh out of the 5-gallon jug (Costco, baby!). The conversion process can be embarrassingly simple. Rudolf Diesel encouraged the use of veggie oil in his original engine, and later models require minimal tinkering to guzzle Wesson instead of Exxon: a booster pump here, a high-flow filter there. Los Angeles based Lovecraft, the cottage-industry leader, has modified more than 1,000 vehicles and sells DIY kits for the mechanically inclined. The company will convert almost any diesel rig, but Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Ford are optimum choices. It's the perfect excuse to fry every meal. Do it for the environment.

Mercedes-Benz 300SD, 1981 85

Blue book Value $3,200 (average)
Conversion cost $700

The 300SD can run on vegetable oil without modification — until the fuel filter chokes on the more viscous liquid (the conversion kit includes a bigger, high-flow heated filter). But Lovecraft prefers the 300SD because its fuel tank sits high up, behind the rear seat: Gravity helps the oil flow without stressing the pump.

Volkswagen Jetta TDI, 1996 2006

Blue book value $3,800 - 8,950
Conversion cost $950
Various Veedubs used this turbodiesel motor, but it's most common in the Jetta. The conversion requires changing the electrical relays, replacing the glow plugs, and various other mods. But you get startling results: It performs better on vegetable oil than on regular diesel, though Lovecraft hasn't studied it enough to say why.

Ford F250 Diesel, 1995 2000

Blue book value $6,325 - 12,900
Conversion cost $950
Need a green pickup truck or van? Ford's ubiquitous 7.3-liter Powerstroke V8 has been known to last 500,000 miles and makes for a straightforward conversion. Lovecraft installs a heat exchanger to thin the grease so it combusts easily. And although the company usually swaps in custom glow plugs, if the stock plugs are working well, the engine starts fine on veggie oil.

Photo illustration by J.F. Sebastian

Source : http://www.wired.com

Making Water From Thin Air

2007-07-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Audrey Hudson

A company that developed technology capable of creating water out of thin air nearly anywhere in the world is now under contract to nourish U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq.

The water-harvesting technology was originally the brainchild of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which sought ways to ensure sustainable water supplies for U.S. combat troops deployed in arid regions like Iraq.

"The program focused on creating water from the atmosphere using low-energy systems that could reduce the overall logistics burden for deployed forces and provide potable water within the reach of the war fighter any place, any time," said Darpa spokeswoman Jan Walker.

To achieve this end, Darpa gave millions to research companies like LexCarb and Sciperio to create a contraption that could capture water in the Mesopotamian desert.

But it was another company, Aqua Sciences, that developed a product on its own and was first to put a product on the market that can operate in harsh climates.

"People have been trying to figure out how to do this for years, and we just came out of left field in response to Darpa," said Abe Sher, chief executive officer of Aqua Sciences. "The atmosphere is a river full of water, even in the desert. It won't work absolutely everywhere, but it works virtually everywhere."

Sher said he is "not at liberty" to disclose details of the government contracts, except that Aqua Sciences won two highly competitive bids with "some very sophisticated companies."

He also declined to comment on how the technology actually works.

"This is our secret sauce," Sher said. "Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, it tastes good, but we won't tell you what's in it."

He did, however, provide a hint: Think of rice used in saltshakers that acts as a magnet to extract water and keeps salt from clumping.

"We figured out how to tap it in a very unique and proprietary way," Sher said. "We figured out how to mimic nature, using natural salt to extract water and act as a natural decontamination.

"Think of the Dead Sea, where nothing grows around it because the salt dehydrates everything. It's kind of like that."

The 20-foot machine can churn out 600 gallons of water a day without using or producing toxic materials and byproducts. The machine was displayed on Capitol Hill last week where a half-dozen lawmakers and some staffers stopped by for a drink.

"It was very interesting to see the technology in action and learn about its possible implementation in natural disasters," said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., a Republican from Florida whose hurricane-prone district includes Fort Lauderdale.

"It was delicious," Shaw said.

Jason Rowe, chief of staff to Rep. Tom Feeney, another Florida Republican, called the technology "pretty impressive."

"I was pretty blown away by the things it's able to do," Rowe said. "The fact that this technology is not tied to humidity like others are makes it an attractive alternative for military bases in the Mideast where humidity is not really an option.

"It seems like it's a cheaper alternative to trucking in bottled water, which has a shelf life," said Rowe, who described himself as a fiscal hawk.

Once deployed, the machines could reduce the cost of logistical support for supplying water to the troops in Iraq by billions of dollars, said Stuart Roy, spokesman of the DCI Group, Aqua Sciences' public affairs firm.

The cost to transport water by C-17 cargo planes, then truck it to the troops, runs $30 a gallon. The cost, including the machines from Aqua Sciences, will be reduced to 30 cents a gallon, Roy said.

Several systems on the market can create water through condensation, but the process requires a high level of humidity.

Aqua Sciences' machines only require 14 percent humidity, Roy said. "That's why this technology is superior and why they are getting the contracts."

Source : http://www.wired.com

Deathbed Confession Says Aliens Were at Roswell

2007-07-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

xnuandax writes ;

"The army's explanation of weather balloons in the Roswell, New Mexico incident 60 years ago has been dealt a serious public relations blow. Late Army Lt. Walter Haut had signed a sealed affidavit prior to his death last year asserting that he had witnessed the wreckage of an egg-shaped craft and its extraterrestrial crew while working at the Roswell Army Air Field. An article at News.com.au reviews how Haut had worked as public relations officer for the Roswell base and was involved in the original weather balloon explanation of events at the time. This recent evidence would seem to confirm speculation that egg-shaped saucers are notoriously difficult to fly safely at low altitude." Source : Slashdot

LINK

Tangible Display Makes 3D Touchable

2007-07-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

moon_monkey writes;

"Researchers in Japan have developed a display that makes 3D objects solid enough to grasp. The system, created by engineers at Japan's NTT, combines a 3D display with a haptic glove, making 3D items that look real but also feel solid to touch. Two cameras are used to image an object, to make the 3D image. A computer also uses this to render a solid representation. It could be used to inspect products remotely, or even to shake hands with someone on the other side of the world, the researchers say."

LINK

Taste Networking for Better Porn

2007-07-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Untitled, 1968.
Gerald Gooch. Lithograph.
Collection of The Museum of Sex.

The MoSex Index survey asks you
to rate sample images based on
how much it turns you on (or off).
This helps establish your "taste profile."
View Slideshow (Credit:Wired)

(Editor's note: Some links in this story lead to adult material and are not suitable for viewing at work. All links of this nature will be noted with "NSFW" after them.)

---

One frequent theme in my e-mail inbox is "Where can I find good porn?"

If you've written to me, you know that I do try to reply to everyone except the most obvious trolls, even if it takes me a while to get to you. And I answer questions as best I can.

But this is a difficult question to answer. What does "good porn" mean to you, and how much are you willing to pay for it?

Recently, one reader expressed frustration that on the occasions I do link to or recommend adult content, it's not free. "I have followed many of the links I find in your columns, but they all seem to wind up at commercial sites that want my credit card," he writes. "I don't think you want to be a shill for commercial porn, but sometimes I get that feeling."

Of course I am not a shill. I am selective, in that I rarely write about things I don't like unless I just can't keep my trap shut, but to be honest, I don't pay much attention to whether the adult sites I link to are free.

I have neither the time nor the patience to click through gallery after gallery of boring pictures or to sit through a series of low quality 1-minute clips. I'm 35, no longer on a Top Ramen budget, and frankly, what I like was hard to find even in the glory days of free porn.

If I can have a reasonable guarantee that the content I'm buying is what I want it to be, I'm willing to pay for it.

Yet I sympathize with the desire for recommendations from someone you know. Porn, like sex, can get awfully personal. If you feel an affinity for my taste, it's natural to ask me what I like and where to find it.

Daniel Gluck, executive director of the Museum of Sex (NSFW) in New York, sympathizes with the situation as well -- so much so, he's trying to do something about it.

The result is the fledgling MoSex Index (NSFW), an attempt to combine the best of social content with "taste networking."

"Our social content engine is similar to Digg or Reddit, where members can post content and others can rate it. Based on content thresholds, who is doing the rating, karma and reputation, links make it to the homepage," Daniel says.

"But -- and I think this is an extremely important aspect of the project -- we've also incorporated a collaborative filtering element. On other sites, you rate or (don't) rate; we have a degree of rating based on a 7-point Likert scale that adds weight to your like or dislike. We take that intelligence and form 'taste profiles,' which combine to form 'taste networks.' When people in your taste network find content they like, that content gets recommended to you."

The MoSex Index is barely launched, and like any community-based project, its usefulness will depend on the quality and quantity of its membership. So far, the user group has been small, with 70 testers posting links and adding ratings.

"Even with the small group, we're seeing semi-accurate predictions, on a broad scale, of what users might like," Daniel says. "Just with our museum staff, we can see who is most similar to whom. That's one of the aspects that's been most interesting to the staff, seeing whose tastes match."

When you create your MoSex Index user profile, you answer several questions about your sexual orientation, gender and preferences, then rate sexual situations based on how strongly they turn you on or off. Finally, you rate several pictures on how they affect you -- does the pin-up art thrill you or bore you? What about a Hustler photo of an all-female three-way? Or two 1950s male bodybuilders posing nude in a natural landscape?

Source : http://www.wired.com

July 2, 1928: America's First TV Station Goes on the Air

2007-07-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

1928: W3XK, the first American TV station, begins broadcasting from suburban Washington, D.C.

The station was an outgrowth of the work done by Charles Francis Jenkins in devising a way to transmit pictures over the airwaves, a process he called "radiovision." He sold several thousand receiving sets, mostly to hobbyists, and, after receiving permission to start an experimental TV transmitting station, aired programming five nights a week until shutting down in 1932.

A 1928 television from
General Electric initially receives
alternating sound and picture.
Photo: tvhistory.tv
View Slideshow(credit:wired)

Jenkins essentially brought the wrong technology to the field: His receiving sets relied on a 48-line image projected onto a 6-inch-square mirror to create the picture, rather than using electronics, the technology that determined the future of television.

An interesting aside: Jenkins was also the first to air a television commercial. He was fined by the government for doing so, a practice that was discontinued, unfortunately, as the medium matured.

Source : http://www.wired.com

Chinese Company OKs Deal on Sudan Oil

2007-07-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

AP Writer

China's No. 1 oil company, CNPC, and Indonesia's PT Pertamina have agreed to co-develop a Sudanese offshore oil block, ignoring international efforts to isolate Sudan over the crisis in its Darfur region, a report said Monday.
The agreement, signed Thursday in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, calls for a six-year exploration phase and shared future oil production under a 20-year concession, the CNPC-backed China Petroleum Daily reported. LINK

Intelligent Design Ruled "Not Science"

2007-06-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

blane.bramble writes :

"The Register is reporting that the UK government has stated there is no place in the science curriculum for Intelligent Design and that it can not be taught as science. 'The Government is aware that a number of concerns have been raised in the media and elsewhere as to whether creationism and intelligent design have a place in science lessons. The Government is clear that creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science National Curriculum programs of study and should not be taught as science.'"

MSNBC is carrying Newsweek reporting on two new security breaches at Los Alamos

2007-06-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

"MSNBC is carrying Newsweek reporting on two new security breaches at Los Alamos. Both of these latest incidents were 'human error' on the part of employees. In one, an e-mail containing classified material was sent over the open Internet rather than through the secure defense network. In the other incident, an employee took his lab laptop on vacation to Ireland, where it was stolen out of his hotel room. The machine reportedly contained government documents of a sensitive nature."

Read More...

Satellite Destruction Using Google Earth And Orbitron

2007-06-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

Thomas Claburn in InformationWeek said :

After a brief stop by Wikipedia to brush up on China's destruction of its Feng Yun 1C weather satellite in January, you download Sebastian Stoff's Orbitron satellite tracking software and Google Earth, to make your attack easier to visualize.

You plot a "solution" or flight plan that takes into account the liftoff phase, the controlled orbit insertion phase, and the ballistic fall onto the target. You double check your math, because you've got a small chunk of change invested in this scheme

Apple and AT&T today announced service plans for iPhone

2007-06-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

daveschroeder writes

"Apple and AT&T today announced service plans for iPhone, 4 days before its release in the US at 6pm local time on Friday, June 29. The plans are $59.99/mo for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes, and $99.99 for 1350 minutes, and all include unlimited data, 200 SMS messages, rollover minutes, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Any other standard AT&T service plan may also be used. A two year service plan is required, with a $175 cancellation fee if terminated early. In addition, activations are done via iTunes, so only the hardware is purchased in the store. Interestingly, activation of a contract via iTunes is required to enable the iPod/syncing functionality of the phone as well. (It will remain to be seen whether there are workarounds for this for those who only want the iPod functionality of iPhone, and whether the iPhone is easily unlockable for those who wish to try it on alternate carriers, and so on.)"

Google asked the judge to extend the court's oversight of Microsoft.

2007-06-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

A day before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is scheduled to review Microsoft's compliance with the terms of the agreement that settled federal and state antitrust cases against the company, Google asked the judge to extend the court's oversight of Microsoft.

Microsoft was supposed to go free, at least partially, on Nov. 12, 2007. Thanks to Google, the world's largest software company may remain on probation for a while longer.

Citing "Microsoft's history of aggressively minimizing the impact of court-ordered relief," Google said on Monday that the changes Microsoft promised to make in Windows Vista last week to accommodate competing desktop search software providers are vague and need to be clarified.

"The Court and the public would benefit greatly from a description of the precise measures Microsoft is planning to implement and the practical effect they will have on users of desktop search," Google said in its legal filing.

Microsoft is required to keep its "middleware" open to third-party developers to make up for its past anti-competitive behavior.

When the joint status report was issued last week by the U.S. Department of Justice, 17 state attorneys general, and the District of Columbia, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond offered a qualified endorsement of the steps Microsoft agreed to take to address the government's concerns. The remedies, he said, "should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers."

In Monday's filing, Google clarified its objections. "For example, it appears that Microsoft will continue to show its own desktop search results when users run searches from prominent shortcuts and menu entries throughout the operating system, though users will now be given a mechanism to request results from their chosen desktop search product by taking a second step after they have first viewed results from Microsoft's product," the filing states.

Google also claims that Microsoft "may intend to remove [menu entries in the Vista Start menu and in various 'right-click' menus] from Vista and deprive users of these access points altogether rather than provide the user choice [under the terms of Microsoft's agreement with the government]."

And Google also objects to "the automatic invocation of Microsoft's desktop search product following the boot sequence," which it notes Microsoft is planning to address only by providing unspecified technical information to companies and users.

Microsoft's allies, unsurprisingly, disagree with Google's call for continued oversight.

"Media reports of secret complaints and 11th hour court filings by Google show they are desperate to hamstring their competition in the courtroom rather than compete in the marketplace," said Jim Prendergast, executive director of Americans for Technology Leadership, in a statement. "It's outrageous that they would disregard an agreement reached by the Department of Justice, the state attorneys general, and Microsoft to file a last-minute complaint to advance their own selfish interests."

Americans for Technology Leadership is a tech industry interest group that counts Microsoft as its most prominent member. It frequently issues press releases that one might easily mistake for official Microsoft news releases, such as "Global Shipment of Windows Vista Great News for Consumers."

In 2001, the Los Angeles Times published an article linking the group to what was ostensibly a grassroots letter-writing campaign aimed at promoting settlement of antitrust charges pending against Microsoft at the time.

2007-06-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

By JEREMY CAPLAN

Poor Harry Potter. As he prepares for his swan song, it's the iPhone's wizardry--not his--that's stirring up the fevered anticipation usually reserved for a summer blockbuster. Nineteen million Americans say they want the hyper-hip gizmo sight unseen, reports research firm M:Metrics. And that collective clamor is not just about branded bling. It's about a widespread yearning for a better phone, a cooler calling tool that always works, that is easy to use, fun to play with and comes in a stylish, sexy shell

In Apple's shadow, a slew of mobile upstarts is quietly rethinking what phones can do, making them operate a little better for the millions of Americans who will still be non-iPhoners after Apple launches its latest gizmo on June 29. GrandCentral, for instance, consolidates all your phone numbers and personalizes the device you already have. EQO circumvents the carriers' steep rates for international calls. Spinvox and SimulScribe turn your voice mail into text. And TellMe lets you operate your phone with your voice, promising an end run around those confusing option menus. "Features have never been the carriers' strong suit," says GrandCentral CEO Craig Walker. "They're few, expensive and never work the same from one carrier to the next."

Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones
within a year. Its mobile phone rivals are
juicing up their services to compete.

Until recently, carriers have had little incentive to improve the software that runs on their phones. Like network TV in the 1980s, the U.S. mobile-phone system is dominated by a handful of established giants: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile control nearly 90% of the market. They have used that power to maintain tight control over their networks. In this so-called walled garden, when you sign up to use a carrier, you can use only the services they want you to use. Imagine if Seinfeld were available only on RCA televisions. Or if your broadband service let you use Hotmail but not Gmail. That's not far from the state of the mobile-phone system today. The carriers rule.

That was O.K. when most consumers just wanted to make a call. But today Americans are trying everything from video messaging and mobile blogging to photo sharing and customized ringtones. One ringtone alone, "Crazy Frog," has earned more than $70 million. Data demand increased about 68% last year, and it now constitutes 16% of the carriers' revenue. To guard that growing income stream, the carriers restrict the features available on your phone. They control the billing for add-ons, and most companies selling ringtones and games are so new that they need the carriers' help to gain a foothold.

But this new wave of mobile start-ups is finding ways to release consumers from the carriers' grip--by using the Web to get around carrier control and by training users to switch carriers for better add-ons. Other new services, though, still rely on the carriers because they are installed on phones or piggyback on the carriers' networks.

The big mobile-phone companies insist they have been responsive to consumer demands. They have bolstered their networks for better coverage, improved call quality by searching for and fixing dead spots, and made it easier to download ringtones and other add-ons. "There has probably been more change in the way phones operate in the past three years than in the 10 years prior," says Carlton Hill, a vice president at AT&T.

They may be forced to change even more. If the army of innovators, led by the iPhone, can build on their promise, the carriers will face stiffening competition and pressure to offer similar or better services. Lumbering giants, after all, have the furthest to fall. *

Source :

Relate (TIME.COM):

Next-generation gadgets like the iPhone are turning your mouse into a dinosaur and introducing hands-on computing LINK
When it comes to Apple's widely anticipated new gadget, both companies are starting to see the benefits of friendship LINK
With its touchscreen, keypad-less cell phone, Apple once again kicks off a revolution. A behind-the-scenes look at iPhone's birth LINK

Obama Debuts Commercials in Iowa

2007-06-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

By AP/MIKE GLOVER

(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is launching two biographical television ads this week, focusing on early voting Iowa in the first commercials of his presidential campaign.

The ads represent a strategic shift for the Obama campaign, which has focused on grass-roots efforts and now will introduce the candidate to a new population of voters watching at home.

Candidates typically hold off on advertising during the slow summer months, but the warp-speed campaign has forced the 2008 contenders to rethink the traditional approach. Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Bill Richardson have run ads in Iowa — and seen their poll numbers increase.

Obama's two biographical spots are just the start of what could be an unprecedented campaign on television. The Illinois senator has millions of dollars to spend on advertising along with other campaign activities.

Obama aides planned a conference call Monday to discuss the new commercials, featuring a Republican lawmaker who worked with Obama in the Illinois State Legislature and Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe.

Both Tribe and Republican Sen. Kirk Dillard are featured in the new commercials.

A 60-second commercial, called "Choices," focuses on the decision Obama made after graduating from Harvard Law School, opting to turn down lucrative offers from law firms and instead move to Chicago as a community organizer.

The other 30-second spot, titled "Carry," addresses Obama's work in the Illinois Legislature, where Dillard praises him for pushing ethics legislation, expanding child care and health coverage and supporting tax credits for the working poor.

"Senator Obama worked on some of the deepest issues we had and was successful in a bipartisan way," Dillard says in that ad.

Aides described Tribe, a member of the Harvard law faculty, as a mentor for Obama. Tribe praises Obama for his decisions after graduating.

"It was inspiring, absolutely inspiring to see someone as brilliant as Barack Obama, as successful, someone who could have written his ticket on Wall Street, take all of the talent and all of the learning and decide to devote it to the community and to make people's lives better," Tribe says in the commercial.

The Obama campaign is spending a modest amount of money to run his first ads in Iowa.

A recent poll in Iowa showed Obama bunched at the top with rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. His appearances in the state have drawn large and noisy crowds.

The ads come soon after an extensive mailing, which included a DVD biographical film on Obama, aides said.

Source : http://www.time.com

Relate :

View from Iowa: The Clinton-Obama Dust-Up

Iowans try to ignore the fracas but can't help worrying how it will affect the prolonged campaign season

The N95 as part of a DIY aerial photo system

2007-06-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

The N95 blog has an article describing and picturing a radio controlled aircraft system that uses the N95 as its main real time aerial photo viewer and editor.

Relate :

Create your personal Google Earth: Make the Nokia N95 FLY!

You might have noticed that with Google Earth you can only zoom to a certain level, or that some parts of the world are not covered with high resolution pictures…LINK

Your Nokia N95 can bring the solution to get a high quality bird’s eye view of the area you prefer.
All you need is your N95, a remote controlled plane, a radio and Pict’Earth Software:

Thick Layer of Magma Found Under American Southwest - Yahoo! News

2007-06-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer

Scientists have spotted a thick layer of melted rock beneath the Earth’s crust that could be part of a fluid band of hot magma circling the globe. The magma ring has until now remained a theory.

The molten-rock layer is 10 miles thick and can’t be seen, felt or smelt from the surface. Researchers Daniel Toffelmier and James Tyburczy of Arizona State University found the layer using a relatively new technique that measures changes in weak electrical currents flowing through the Earth’s mantle rock.

The current is created when the solar wind, a continuous flow of charged atomic particles emitted by the sun, interact with Earth’s magnetic field, called the magnetosphere.

The chemical make-up of the rocks affects their conductivity. By measuring changes in the current at different depths, the scientists were able to detect distinct rock layers, including the "invisible" magma layer.

“Rocks are semiconductors,” Tyburczy said. “And rocks with more hydrogen embedded in their structure conduct better, as do rocks that are partially molten.”

The discovery, detailed in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature, partially confirms a recent hypothesis by two Yale University geoscientists, which states that a band of molten magma circles the Earth about t 250 miles beneath the planet’s crust, near a hypothetical “transition zone” separating the planet’s two mantle layers.

The idea is that as the rock rises from the lower mantle to the upper mantle, it expels all the water in its crystal structure and melts.

The researchers detected the molten layer beneath Tucson, Arizona. They aren’t sure how far the sheet extends, but say there is little chance any of the molten rock will erupt at the surface.

The discovery only partially confirms the Yale scientists’ idea, since it reveals a molten magma layer only beneath one spot on the Earth. But “finding that sheet of melt-rock tells us we’re on the right track,” Tyburczy said.

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/

Robots to look for life in Arctic Ocean - Yahoo! News

2007-06-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 23, 4:39 AM ET

BOSTON - The Gakkel Ridge, encased under the frozen Arctic Ocean, is steep and rocky, and scientists suspect its remote location hosts an array of undiscovered life. Researchers hope newly developed robots will give them their first look at the mysterious ridge located between Greenland and Siberia.

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod plan to begin a 40-day expedition of the ridge on July 1. They plan to use the robots to navigate and map its terrain and sample any life found near a series of underwater hot springs.

Tim Shank, lead biologist on the international expedition, said researchers have no idea what new life at the ridge might be like.

"I almost think it's like going to Australia for the first time, knowing it's there, but not knowing what lives there," he said.

The Gakkel Ridge marks a 1,100-mile stretch from north of Greenland toward Siberia, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates continuously move away from each other.

Scientists believe new life could be discovered there because of hot springs that are created at such tectonic boundaries when ocean water comes into contact with hot magma rising from the earth's mantle.

The organisms known to exist in the Arctic basin, where the Gakkel is located, may have evolved in a unique fashion because they were mostly isolated from the life in the deep waters of other oceans for all but the last 25 million years, said Robert Reves-Sohn, the expedition's lead scientist.

The job of reaching any new organisms at the ridge falls to scientists operating three new robotic vehicles, two of which are designed to navigate untethered under the ice.

The two robots, named Puma and Jaguar, cost about $450,000 each and received significant funding from NASA because their mission is similar to what scientists hope to do in a future exploration under the ice of one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.

The robots are built to descend to about 5,000 meters and work 5 to 6 meters off the bottom, photographing and removing samples, said Hanumant Singh, the project's chief engineer.

The advances are no guarantee of success, however.

The hot springs are difficult to find in far less challenging conditions and the margin for error is thin, since the robots cannot surface through the ice and be retrieved if there are problems.

Singh said the excitement of finding new organisms and understanding the geology in the Arctic outweighs any risks to the robots.

"Even though we know there's a strong probability, or there's a reasonable probability of losing a vehicle, it's still worth it," he said.

TripAdvisor trots out social network

2007-06-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

"By Candace Lombardi – June 14, 2007, 9:00 PM PDT

TripAdvisor, that sea of au courant and sometimes complaint-driven posts about hotels, is making it easier to find like-minded travelers. The subsidiary of Expedia plans to roll out a social-networking component Friday that should help you avoid those less-than-helpful 'no ice in the water' comments about foreign hotels.

While you may roll your eyes at the idea of yet another social-networking site, keep in mind that TripAdvisor, which claims 10 million unique users, has cultural custom on its side."

For example, calling a person four degrees removed for advice on where to stay in Uppsala or asking for a dinner invitation when visiting someone's home city of Novosibirsk, is already socially accepted behavior for travelers.

TripAdvisor has made it painless to register your network of travelers, the point at which many sites often lose people. It imports contacts from Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Outlook and Outlook Express. Check off who you want to invite, and who you don't want to bother asking, but who you will preaccept if they invite you. Click Submit and you're done. LINK :

Facebook welcomes outside services

2007-06-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

By Greg Sandoval
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

update SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook is finally opening up to third-party software developers--a move that comes three years after rival MySpace jumped to a staggering lead in social networking largely by throwing the doors open to outside services.

Facebook announced Thursday that the No. 2 social-networking site is allowing software developers to create applications, or "widgets," for Facebook users. MySpace executives may yawn, but Facebook is also going to allow other companies to open retail services and advertise on the site, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at a media event here Thursday.

"You can serve ads...or if you don't want to advertise, you can just sell something," Zuckerberg told an audience of journalists and outside developers. "You keep all the revenue."

This contrasts sharply with MySpace's philosophy. It's against MySpace rules for anyone other than MySpace to advertise on the site.

At the core of Facebook's new plans is the debut of Facebook/f8, a platform that allows anyone to build applications for social computing. The company is hoping that its 23 million monthly users and the opportunity to create for-profit businesses will attract developers to build a host of new networking services on top of the f8 infrastructure.

"Facebook is really trying to catch up technologically," said Emily Riley, an analyst with JupiterResearch. "They were lucky to build a loyal audience fast, but they don't have the media play that MySpace has. MySpace is the perfect combination of communication and new media."

Facebook has lagged behind MySpace in offering users a wide array of services that keep them engaged and spending more time on a site. The longer users stay logged on, the happier the site's advertisers.

MySpace was founded in November 2003, just three months before Facebook, but has accumulated nearly three times the traffic.

According to comScore, MySpace, which News Corp. acquired in 2005 for $500 million, saw 66 million monthly visitors in April compared with Facebook's 23 million.

Beginning Thursday night, Facebook announced that users will be able to equip their profiles with 65 new services, including photo slide shows (Slide), a music recommendation service (iLike) and a music player (Uber). A new video application will allow Facebook users to send video messages directly to friends within Facebook.

For many, Facebook has long been considered an online hangout for college kids, but Zuckerberg said the company is growing up. He pointed out during the press conference that now, 60 percent of Facebook's users are out of college.

During the press conference, Zuckerberg downplayed the possibility that Facebook's new open-door policy was late. He said that up until now, third-parties were allowed only to "drop some widgets" into a site.

"This is the first time that anyone has ever offered a platform that allows others to build full applications into a social-networking site," he said.

Nonetheless, Owen Van Natta, Facebook's chief operating officer, appeared to acknowledge that Facebook needed to one-up MySpace to attract developers.

"We needed a competitive edge," Van Natta said. "We want to create the most attractive site for developers to develop applications and a big part of that is to allow them to build businesses."

Riley cautioned that Facebook shouldn't pine to be the next MySpace. She pointed out that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company grew a large audience by making it simple for users to communicate.

"Don't try to imitate MySpace too much," Riley said. "Make sure you stay true to what you do best today. Facebook is great for tight-knit communities and for people that already know each other offline. Facebook needs to remember that."

Facebook has long been rumored to be for sale. Asked whether that was true Zuckerberg said, "I've always thought that Facebook should remain independent and this just strengthens that."

Earthcomber- smart phone marks the spot

2007-06-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

By Jessica Dolcourt – June 11, 2007, 10:22 AM PDT

I do not take directions lightly, primarily because if I did, I'd never get anywhere. For the woefully orientation-challenged (and easily frustrated) like me, legible maps and accurate instructions are crucial. Even more so is being able to access them from a PDA or smart phone when you're lost.

Thankfully, there's a proliferation of reliable mapping and GPS-locating software for mobile handsets, but today I'll focus on one that contains both downloadable and Web-based (WAP) components.

Earthcomber
Pros: Broad cross-platform support; numerous map services
Cons: US content only; content partnerships somewhat limiting; possible carrier fee
Download: Windows Mobile or Palm
WAP address for BlackBerrys and smart phones: http://mobile.earthcomber.com

Download version
Earthcomber began as a downloadable map application for Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems. The interactive map is this program's heart, allowing you to zoom in and out, maneuver around the geography, and synchronize your position with a GPS device. A listings guide pinpoints places of interest on the map--movies, events, shopping, hikes, it's your choice. Tapping a listing from the map calls up a phone number, address, and a well-integrated short-cut for getting directions. The only thing you don't get (and want) is the complementing URL link.

Web version
This past Tuesday, Earthcomber's introduced a WAP version compatible with any J2ME-enabled device, including BlackBerrys. Though intended to be faster and lighter than the downloadable application, my Treo 650's Blazer browser was a tad slow to switch my location and begin a search. I did appreciate, however, the seven ways to change locations.

I was impressed with Earthcomber's listing options and directions format, though I noticed that it didn't catch all neighborhood listings ("looklists"), such as the Thai restaurant down the street. It did, however, pull up Citysearch.com reviews for 20 other Thai restaurants. I liked being able to tap a listing's phone number to initiate a call. Again, I would like to see Web links integrated into the listing info, especially when using Earthcomber with my browser. Unlike the device application, online maps aren't interactive, and you'll need to squint or rely on the directions feature for fuller detail.

Mobile charges
While the Earthcomber application and WAP are free for users (Earthcomber's revenue comes from corporate content partnerships), service carriers may charge for air time and data transfers. Before calling it quits on paper and PC maps, check your plan. A monthly data transfer and/or Wi-Fi subscription could make the most financial sense and keep Earthcomber as a useful, affordable lifesaver.

HOW TO GPS Tag Photos: Flickr, Mappr, Google Earth....

2007-06-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

"Here's the simple, non-techy way of tagging photos with the location of where you took them on planet Earth. There are lots of ways to do this, and I'll write about those later- but this is fun thing to do over the holiday weekend. As an added bonus, I'll show you how to see your photos on a cool Mapping application called Mappr, as well as Google Earth...

After hanging out at Where 2.0, I've been more interested in tagging my photographs with where they were taken with the exact latitude and longitude so I can later do some interesting things with them. This how-to is just the start of some mapping hacks, step-by-steps etc- I wanted to start out with the simplest method possible so even the non-techies can play. Also, if you have suggestions or other ways of doing this, please add them in the comments! LINK:

For this how-to all you'll need is:

* A digital camera.
* A free Flickr account.
* Optional: Cheap GPS off Ebay or wherever."

Google asks gov't to fight censorship

2007-06-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON - Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide.

The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs.

Google sees the dramatic increase in government Net censorship, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, as a potential threat to its advertising-driven business model, and wants government officials to consider the issue in economic, rather than just political, terms.

"It's fair to say that censorship is the No. 1 barrier to trade that we face," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs. A Google spokesman said Monday that McLaughlin has met with officials from the U.S. Trade Representative's office several times this year to discuss the issue.

"If censorship regimes create barriers to trade in violation of international trade rules, the USTR would get involved," USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said. She added though that human rights issues, such as censorship, typically falls under the purview of the State Department.

While human rights activists are pleased with Google's efforts to fight censorship, they harshly criticized the company early last year for agreeing to censor its Web site in China, which has the second-largest number of Internet users in the world.

The company defends its actions, saying the Chinese government made it a condition of allowing Chinese users access to Google Web pages. China has an Internet firewall that slows or disrupts Chinese users from accessing foreign uncensored Web sites.

Censorship online has risen dramatically the past five years, belying the hype of the late 1990s, which portrayed the Internet as largely impervious to government interference.

A study released last month by the OpenNet Initiative found that 25 of 41 countries surveyed engage in Internet censorship. That's a dramatic increase from the two or three countries guilty of the practice in 2002, says John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, who helped prepare the report.

China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore and Thailand, among others, are increasingly blocking or filtering Web pages, Palfrey says.

Governments "are having more success than the more idealistic of us thought," acknowledges Danny O'Brien, international outreach coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Still, even government filtering isn't always successful. In a brutal regime like Iran, which filters Web content, there are nearly 100,000 bloggers, making Farsi "one of the most blogged languages in the world," says Palfrey.

Google's YouTube has become a common target for thin-skinned rulers. Turkey in March blocked the video-sharing site for two days after a complaint that some clips insulted Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Thailand continues to block YouTube after several videos appeared in April, criticizing the country's monarch.

Bloggers in Morocco said in late May that they could not access YouTube shortly after videos were posted critical of that nation's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control of in 1975. A government spokesman blamed a technical glitch.

One likely source for Google's censorship idea is a paper written two years ago by Timothy Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, who argues that downloading a Web page hosted in another country effectively imports a service.

Drawing on that concept, Google envisions using trade agreements to fight back. The negotiated pacts would include provisions guaranteeing free trade in "information services." As is true of most trade pacts, the provisions would call for arbitration if there are violations.

The U.S. has a trade agreement with Morocco and began negotiating one with Thailand in 2004, although those talks were suspended early last year after a military coup.

Columbia's Wu said the trade pact approach is likely to be more effective when governments are guilty of blocking entire Web sites or applications, such as Internet phone-calling, than when they filter specific content.

Under World Trade Organization rules, countries can limit trade for national security or public moral reasons, Wu said, exceptions that authoritarian governments would likely cite when filtering politically sensitive material.

The company's trade initiative reflects Google's increasing acceptance of the value of federal lobbying. The company didn't hire a lobbyist until 2003, according to public filings, but paid the high-powered Washington-based Podesta Group $160,000 last year to work on Internet free-speech, tax and other issues.

Human rights groups say Google's censorship efforts seem sincere, albeit motivated by bottom-line incentives.

"Free expression is a unique selling point" for a company like Google, O'Brien said. Filtering and censorship "diminishes the value of their product."

Yet last month at the company's annual meeting, Google's board recommended investors vote against a shareholder resolution urging Google to renounce censorship.

The resolution was defeated, although Google is already acting on some of the proposal's ideas, including working with other technology leaders, such as Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., to develop a set of principles on how companies should respond to censorship and other human rights violations when doing business abroad.

Human rights advocates, academics and corporate social responsibility groups are involved in the project, announced earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Google's global growth efforts continue. YouTube said Tuesday that it plans to expand into nine other countries, including Brazil, France, Spain and Poland, offering local-language Web sites and highlighting videos of domestic interest.

In China, where Google is the No. 2 search engine behind the domestically based Baidu.com, the company said in April it will increase its investment as it works to create more content of interest to Chinese users.

Giants of the deep draw tourists to quiet corner of Philippines

2007-06-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

by Karl Wilson Fri Jun 22, 2:30 AM ET

Tourists follow a huge whale shark,nearly 6 meters long, swimming near the surface of the plankton-rich water of Donsol, Philippines (AFP/Scott Tuason)

DONSOL, Philippines (AFP) - The enormous grey whale shark glides effortlessly in the murky waters off Donsol in the eastern Philippines, its distinctive pale yellow spotted back and fins clearly visible as excited tourists prepare to enter the water from nearby outrigger canoes.

They swim to within a few metres (feet) of these gentle giants of the deep as their guide makes sure they give the whale shark plenty of room to move.

The world's largest fish, some as big as a school bus and weighing up to 30 tonnes, are not aggressive.

"But it's advisable not to get too close in case they decide to turn over," Angela Quiros, a marine biologist and one of the country's leading experts on the whale shark, told AFP recently.

Whale sharks have been a common site in the waters off this coastal town for as long as anyone here can remember, feasting on the rich plankton between January and June.

Once hunted for its soft white meat, known throughout Southeast Asia as "tofu shark," the whale shark is now protected and has transformed this sleepy corner of the Philippines 600 kilometres (372 miles) south east of Manila into a major eco-tourism centre.

"Since 1998 when the government passed a law protecting the whale shark, known locally as 'butanding,' tourism and revenue numbers have shot up dramatically," said local tourism coordinator Salvador Adrao.

Last year, almost 11,000 tourists visited Donsol, up from around 900 in 1998. Revenues from eco-tourism have risen to an estimated 12 million pesos (261,723 dollars), from 454,875 pesos (9,920 dollars) in the same period.

"Swimming with whale sharks has transformed Donsol from a sleepy fishing village into an eco-tourism centre," Adrao said.

"The only problem we have is the infrastructure. We can't cope with the tourism numbers we now have, let alone any increase."

Compared to some of the more developed areas for whale shark watching such as Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia, Donsol is still very cheap.

"That's why the tourists, especially the foreigners, come to Donsol," he said.

Ten years ago environmentalists fought a bitter campaign to end the slaughter of the whale shark, forcing the Philippine government to pass a law protecting the creature.

"I can't believe how this place has changed," said Korina Escudero, an underwater film maker and one of the original campaigners for the protection of the whale shark.

"The attitudes of the local people towards conservation rather than killing has been quite extraordinary. They can see the value in protecting these magnificent creatures. People come from all over the world just to see and swim with them.

"The publicity we gave to the senseless slaughter just hit a chord and people reacted. Villagers even managed to free two whale sharks that had been tied by their tails to coconut trees as they floundered in shallow water off a local beach.

"You can still see them today off Donsol. They are easy to identify as they still have the rope around their tails. We call them Big Lucky and Little Lucky."

One local fisherman said: "There was a time when the butanding was considered a pest. They would plough through our nets driving away smaller fish.

"Tourism has changed all that. Now we see the value in protecting them. Not only Filipinos but people from around the world come to swim with these giant fish."

Quiros and a small team of marine biologists and volunteers have spent more than a week photographing, measuring and taking tissue samples from the whale sharks for genetic analysis.

"It will help us build a better picture of the whale shark," said Deni Ramirez, a marine biologist from Mexico who specialises in whale shark genetics.

The programme is the first of its kind in the Philippines and is being partly financed by Mexico-based cement multi-national CEMEX Philippines Foundation and Conservation International.

"We hope that through the genetic analysis we will get a better understanding about their migratory patterns, age and breeding habits," Ramirez said.

"No one knows how long these fish live for. Some estimates have said up to 180 years. But we just don't know."

Quiros said a female can carry up to 300 eggs, each measuring up to 18 centimetres (seven inches). When hatched, the young are 40 to 60 centimetres long.

"They hatch inside the mother but very few survive to maturity," said Quiros.

"You very rarely see juvenile whale sharks. I haven't seen any here in Donsol but the local fishermen have so we know that the young are still in the area.

"Once the juvenile has established itself the mother will leave it and move on."

Despite its name and size, the whale shark is not a whale but classified in a family of its own called Rhincodontidae. Its closest relatives are the leopard and nurse sharks.

Romeo Trono, executive director for Conservation International in the Philippines said eco-tourism has helped save the whale shark from extinction but it hasn't stopped the killing.

"It still goes on in some parts of the country but not to the extent it did a few decades ago.

"It takes time to educate poor people that there are alternatives to killing a species off.

"Donsol is an example of what can be done if a unique species is protected."

Buying a home in Germany

2007-06-19T23:33:00.001-07:00

Should you buy or rent? Owning your own home is always an appealing option with a long period of economic stagnation having helped to keep German real estate prices down. Andrew McCathie takes you along the road to home ownership in the country.

A long period of economic stagnation has helped to open up some new opportunities in the German property market.

Indeed, a pickup in the economy and increased emphasis in the country on rolling back state pensions and encouraging people to provide more for their old age has made owning bricks and mortar a more interesting proposition for Germans, who for the most have been renters.

What is more, a somewhat fitful performance of the stock market has led many people to given looking at property as an alternative to shares.

That said, however, one of the few tax benefits for homeowners (the Eigenheimzulage) is facing an uncertain future.

But then officials in Berlin argue that Germany does not have a housing shortage which means that there government financial support to promote the housing market is not necessary.

Germany's economic recovery from a protracted period of stagnation has also meant property prices have remained subdued (and have fallen in some places, in particular the economically hard-pressed east). This combined with low interest rates; means buying could work in your favour.

One key factor behind any decision to buy is the length of time you intend to stay in the country. Apart from the somewhat hefty costs involved in buying, property prices in Germany do not tend to race ahead like other real markets so you should not expect a big quick return on your investment.

Considering that Germany's recent less-than-sparkling economic performance has also meant that rents have barely moved in recent years (and in cities like Berlin are low in comparison with other European cities) you should also weigh up whether it is financially more sensible for you to rent or to make monthly mortgage payments.

You don’t have to be German or even be a resident to buy what the real estate business in Germany call an ‘Objekt’. All you need is valid passport and enough money.

At the outset you should realise that total fees, including say for the agents and preparing the contract, can add up to between 10 and 12 percent of the purchase price.

But as you head off out onto the market, don’t forget the three rules of investing in a property also apply in Germany: ‘Lage’, ‘Lage’, ‘Lage’ (location, location, location).

Who you need to consult

Because a home-owning culture has not really developed in Germany, buying a property in the country can go along at a relatively leisurely pace without the tensions that arise in other markets around the world through auctions or in bidding wars.

But for really popular properties in Germany, you may find yourself competing in a quasi-auction with your agent (Makler) handling rival bids from prospective buyers.

Before you buy it is advisable to assemble a small team of advisers: a lawyer, Notar (notary), a tax accountant and if possible an architect.

OK, so you have found your dream home. Remember that normally you don’t have to sign anything committing you to the purchase until you are presented with the final contract. In general, you just have to reach an agreement with the owner on the price. But after that events can move fairly quickly.

This is when the team of advisers comes to the fore with that quaint continental European tradition of the Notar playing a key role in the process.

As the buyer you should be able to select the Notar to draw up the contract. Needless to say this is something that you should insist on from the start. No matter how chummy everything surrounding the sale has gone, it also goes without saying that you should not accept the Notar suggested by the owner.

Considering the size of the investment it is good to have as much control as possible, especially as the terms of the contract can vary.

Indeed, after the purchase has gone through, if the building is part of a modernisation project and the developer installs a firm to administer the property (Hausverwaltung) it is probably worthwhile to try an early point to link up with the other new owners and seek out a new Hausverwaltung.

You will need your tax accountant to help you through the purchase as the bank or mortgage company will want to see details of your recent tax returns. Depending on whether you want to live in it or rent it out as an investment you will need the tax accountant to fill you on exactly what the tax advantages are at present.

Some areas are, for example, zoned to regulate the rents that can be charged on the property. Besides, the tax office could also want details of how you have financed the purchase.

Mortgages and financing

In general, mortgage financing usually can be arranged up to about 60 or 70 percent of the purchase price.

Anything above that up will normally need to be secured possibly through insurance or another other form of financial security. This can sometimes be based on the income of the person or company making the purchase.

In the meantime, it wise to have an architect look through the property, especially if it is part of a building that has been renovated. There are all sorts of things to watch out for, including the age of the heating. New standards have to be met by 2005.

If everything goes to plan you will receive the contract to read through before you sit down to sign. Lawyers can be Notars as well. But just to be on the safe side, it is not a bad idea to have an independent lawyer read through the document first.

You should try and get as many of your wishes written into the contract as possible. This could include work on the property that the owner has agreed to undertake before you move in. Or even fittings that you want kept. This is especially the case if the property is part of a building which is being modernised. Valuable door handles, for example, have a habit of disappearing before you move in.

In setting out your wish-list, don’t forget the so-called common areas such as the stairwell (carpet?) and entrance area (in need of an update?).

The parties will then assemble on a specified date in the Notar’s office for signing the contract and to partake in the seemingly ancient ritual of the Notar reading out the contract word for word before you are called upon to put your signature to it. You will need to have your passport with you when the contract is signed.

The day of reckoning: handing over the property

The contract will also set out the date for the Uebergabe (handover) of the property. Because this is part of the contract, the failure of the owner or builder to meet the deadline for the Uebergabe could mean that you can make certain claims.

If the property is part of a complex that is undergoing renovation you can make instalments as the building work progresses. Once again these will be set out in the contract. You can also draw up a so-called ‘Maengelliste’ (list of faults) before you move in. This is when an architect on hand becomes very useful.

You should not pay the final payment until you are completely satisfied with the work and that all your wishes have been fulfilled.

The work carried out on modernised properties in Germany will normally have a five-year guarantee (Gewaehrleistung). But don’t be surprised if the building company responsible for carrying the costs of work under the guarantee suddenly declares itself to bankrupt once the project is completed.

Either way, battles over the ‘Gewaehrleistung’ will set you up for hours upon hours at the building’s annual ‘Eigentuemerversammlung’ (owners’ meeting).

What it all costs

The cost of the whole process depends who is involved. But in general you can expect to pay:

Notar - about 1.5 percent of the purchase price
Stamp Duty or Property Tax (Grundsteuer) - 3.5 percent of purchase price
Makler - between 3.5 percent and about 6 percent of the buying price, including VAT. The commission charged, however, can depend on the state
Registration of the property – between 0.8 and 1.2 percent

If the ‘Objekt’ is in the former east (where ownership claims are still been settled) you may find that a lot of the paperwork for the property has not been completed. This might even include the ‘Grundbuch’ (Land title register) for the property.

Any mortgage needs to be secured in the ‘Grundbuch’ and that can only be done by a Notar.

As a result, you find you stand to be hit with a bill every time a piece of paper concerning the property moves in the local administration.

Source : http://www.expatica.com

Heavily residency price of residency or non-Britons living in U.K.(2)

2007-06-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

U.S. citizen Caryn Radlove, right, with her English husband Glenn Havelock and their son Sammy. They are struggling to make ends meet in the U.K.

By Beth Gardiner

Published: May 25, 2007

LONDON: Caryn Radlove was looking forward to becoming a British citizen, gaining the right to vote and the flexibility to move her young family back and forth to the United States, her home country, in response to career demands.

Now, hit by whopping increases in the fees that Britain charges immigrants seeking residency, visas and citizenship, she is putting those plans on hold.

The price tag for naturalization more than doubled in early April to £575, or $1,135, from £200, part of a wave of steep increases in fees to immigrants. The biggest rise was in the cost of the long-term residency permit, known here as indefinite leave to remain, which rose to £750 from £335. Same-day service for the permit costs £950, compared to £500 before the change.

Officials say the proceeds will help pay for a big new push to enforce immigration laws and crack down on illegal arrivals. The Home Office, the government department in charge of domestic security, said it wanted to hire more enforcement agents, build detention centers and increase its ability to process migrants efficiently without spending tax money.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said it was fair to require those who benefit economically from living in Britain to pay for the changes. The Home Office emphasized that the biggest increases were directed at foreigners who live and work in the country, not at students or visitors, and said it was fair to raise charges now because they had not gone up since April 2005.

But immigrants say they are being unfairly burdened with the cost of an effort that was previously shared by all British taxpayers, not just the foreign-born ones.

"We consider ourselves fully functioning members of British society," said Radlove, who works part-time for an insurance company. "I just happen to be with an American accent."

But Radlove, who has a year-old son, says the fee is far more than she and her husband, who is British, can afford while he finishes his doctoral studies. Her husband also works part-time, but until he finishes his degree and gets full-time teaching work, the couple's combined income does not leave room for unexpected extras like the citizenship fee.

"There's absolutely no way we can come up with more than £500," she said. "That's a huge amount of money when you're struggling just to live normally."

George Tah, 34, a native of Cameroon who moved to Edinburgh three years ago, said it was unfair to require foreigners who follow the rules to shoulder the cost of stopping illegal arrivals.

The residency fee that he is due to pay in October is nearly equivalent to his monthly salary as a customer service representative for an energy company, he said. Tah plans to ask the Home Office if he can pay in installments. Otherwise, he said, "I'll have to forgo my bills."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office, speaking on the condition of anonymity under department policy, said the department did not allow visa applicants to pay in installments.

The new fees affect hundreds of thousands of immigrants and expatriates, from wealthy business executives to struggling families and minimum-wage workers from developing countries.

Nearly 70 percent of the 161,000 successful citizenship applications received in 2005 were from Asians and Africans, who also make up a majority of the roughly 145,000 people granted residency each year.

Fees for some visas, including indefinite leave, stayed the same or increased only marginally for those applying from overseas. For applications in Britain, though, charges in some of the major categories more than doubled.

Work permits for investors and business owners increased to £750 from £335. Student visas rose much less, to £295 from £250; officials said this was in recognition of the financial constraints faced by young people.

"We believe it is fair that those who benefit most from using our system - those who come here to live and work - should pay more to fund it," Byrne, the immigration minister, said in announcing the increases.

"The extra money will be at no extra cost to the taxpayer and will help pay for a firm but fair immigration system, tackling illegal working, organized crime, extremism and terrorism."

Britain is not alone in imposing new requirements on immigrants. France recently mandated that any non-European Union national seeking settlement take a day-long civics course, demonstrate language proficiency and sign a contract promising to respect its secular and democratic values. At €99, or $133, though, long-stay French visas remain far cheaper than in Britain.

Many foreigners in Britain complain that a consultation on the British increases was poorly publicized and failed to seek reaction from the immigrants who would have to pay the heftiest charges.

The Home Office spokeswoman said the public had been given a chance to comment on the changes before they were adopted, with the consultation posted on the office's Web site for eight weeks.

The increases were announced in March, less than a month before they took effect. The spokeswoman said that the Home Office had announced the changes as early as it was able and that it had met the legal requirement of giving 21 days' notice of any price increases.

"Most people are astonished," said Nero Ughwujabo, director of the Croydon Black and Minority Ethnic Forum, an independent panel that monitors race relations in the South London borough.

"There seems to be a lot of anger, one that the changes were introduced in the first place and second that they were at such extraordinary rates."

For many, the fees can add up quickly. Those who have not been here long enough to apply for residency often pay yearly work permit renewal fees, and after getting indefinite leave also apply eventually for citizenship.

"All of these fees have gone up, and when you start adding them together, that's when it will become very costly," said Rhian Beynon of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, an immigrants' advocacy group.

Another change that has angered some immigrants - and added further to their expenses - is a new requirement that those seeking residency pass a written test on British life, a hurdle that until April was required only of foreigners seeking citizenship, and only since 2005.

The test costs £34, and a recommended study booklet is £10. Those who cannot demonstrate proficiency in English are now required to take a language class before getting residency. Sophie Barrett-Brown, an immigration lawyer in London, said some of her clients had had to pay for visa extensions after learning at the last minute that they needed to take the British life exam.

Barrett-Brown said the test included questions that even many native-born Britons would find difficult to answer, like the names and dates of the national saints' days of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

She said it was less a test of culture than an exercise in memorizing a study booklet. "It's for most applicants very onerous, it's another hurdle and it's a timing issue," Barrett-Brown said.

The Home Office spokeswoman said the exam tested far more than memorization skills and was a useful way to encourage immigrants to integrate into British society.

Radlove, the American, said that after seven years in Britain, she was deeply disappointed at having to postpone her citizenship application.

"Now we may have to say, 'Well, maybe we won't be able to do this until we're much better off financially,' " she said.

Others :

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About Google and Intel to Online Press Conference to Discuss Computing and Climate Change

2007-06-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Forbes.com:

Google Inc., Intel, and several other global corporations and environmental groups. WHAT: Online press conference to discuss new opportunities in computing and climate change. WHEN: Tuesday, June 12, 10:00-11:00 AM, PDT. WHERE: A link to the online webcast will be made available Tuesday morning from the Google Podium on the web at:

http://www.google.com/press/podium.html

About Google Inc.

Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

About Intel

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom. Information on Intel's environmental programs and policies is available at http://www.intel.com/intel/other/ehs/.

Google is a trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Other Link :

Google has gone all googly-eyed over plug-in hybrid vehicles, pledging more than $10 million in funding for the nascent technology. At a sunny photo op at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters yesterday, company officials showed off a handful of Toyota Prius and Ford Escape cars that had been modified to ...

Microsoft to Change Desktop Search - Forbes.com

2007-06-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Forbes.com: "Microsoft Corp. will make changes to the program that helps Windows Vista users search their hard drives, in response to antitrust complaints from Google Inc., according to a U.S. Justice Department report issued late Tuesday."

Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) filed a 49-page document with the Justice Department in April claiming Vista's desktop search tool slowed down competing programs, including Google's own free offering, and that it's difficult for users to figure out how to turn off the Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) program.

Microsoft initially dismissed the allegations, saying regulators had reviewed the program before Vista launched. However, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in an interview last week that the company was willing to make changes if necessary.

Tuesday's regularly scheduled status report on Microsoft's post-antitrust business practices detailed a compromise that would give computer users clearer options for picking a non-Microsoft desktop search program.

Currently, when Vista users browse through their documents, access the control panel, or do other system-related tasks, a Vista search box appears in the upper-right corner of the window. That box will remain, and it will continue to use the Microsoft search engine, but Microsoft will also add a link to the default desktop search program. LINK

78 killed by bombing at Baghdad mosque

2007-06-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

"BAGHDAD - A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary."

Iraqis gather at the damaged Khillani mosque, a main Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, June 19, 2007. A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 75 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

The thunderous explosion at the Khulani mosque in the capital's busy commercial area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a week after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a curfew aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.

Gunfire erupted after the blast, which police said occurred in a parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just inside it to crumble.

Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said at least 78 people were killed and 218 were wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the debris.

One officer said the explosives-packed truck was loaded with fans and air coolers to avoid arousing the suspicions of security forces guarding the surrounding area, which is full of shops selling electrical appliances.

Six of those killed lived in a house behind the mosque that also collapsed, the officer said, adding that 20 cars were burned and 25 shops were damaged.

The mosque's imam, Sheik Saleh al-Haidari, said it was a truck bomb and the explosion hit worshippers as they left afternoon prayers.

"This attack was planned and carried out by sick souls, damaging the mosque's outer wall and collapsing my office and the room above it," al-Haidari told The Associated Press by telephone.

"There are number of bodies being pulled from the rubble and a number of worshippers were killed or injured," he said, adding that he was not inside the mosque when the blast occurred.

The Khulani mosque is named after a revered Shiite figure who, according to Shiite tradition, was one of four deputies anointed by the Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century and will return to restore justice to humanity.

AP Television News video showed a huge pile of rubble where the wall used to be, but its turquoise dome was intact. The Imam Ali hospital in the Shiite district of Sadr City was packed with victims, many badly burned.

Karim Abdullah, the 35-year-old owner of a clothing store, said he was making his way by motorcycle to pray at the mosque when the explosion forced him to pull over.

"I stopped in shock as I saw the smoke and people on the ground. I saw two or three men in flames as they were getting out of their car," he added.

The raids, dubbed "Operation Arrowhead Ripper," took place in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said. The operation was still in its opening stages, it added.

The commander of Iraqi military operations in Diyala, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, said handcuffs, swords and electricity cables — apparently used as torture implements — had been seized from militant safe houses in the area.

The operation was part of new U.S. and Iraqi attacks on Baghdad's northern and southern flanks, which military officials said were aimed at clearing out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had fled the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.

A top U.S. military official said American forces were taking advantage of the arrival of the final brigade of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to open the concerted attacks.

"We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaida and other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the areas clear and to really take on al-Qaida," the senior official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the operation. "Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar province and specifically Diyala province."

The hard-line Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars denounced the joint operations in Diyala, calling them "barbaric acts" and promising they "will not stop the people from persisting in their efforts to gain their liberty, unity and independence."

Al-Qaida has proven to be an extremely agile foe for U.S. and Iraqi forces, as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Baqouba from Anbar province, the sprawling desert region in western
Iraq. There is no guarantee that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries would prevent it from migrating to other regions to continue the fight.

In recent months, the verdant orange and palm groves of Diyala have become one of the most fiercely contested regions in Iraq. The province is a tangle of Shiite and Sunni villages that has played into the hands of al-Qaida and allied militants who have melted into the tense region and sought to inflame existing sectarian troubles.

Al-Qaida has conducted public killings in the Baqouba main square and otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code. The terror organization's actions in the province have caused some Sunni militants, al-Qaida's natural allies, to turn their guns on the group with U.S. assistance and blessing. Some militant Shiites are likewise joining government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim extremists.

Separately, the U.S. military announced the death of an American soldier in Baghdad. The soldier was killed by small arms fire during combat in an eastern section of the capital, a military statement said. No other soldiers were wounded in the attack, which took place Monday, it said.

The death brought to at least 3,528 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,889 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

In southern Iraq, police and hospital officials said the death toll reached 30 in clashes that continued into a second day between Mahdi Army fighters and Iraqi security forces in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Some 150 people were wounded, authorities said. The officials, who declined to be identified because they feared retribution, said most of the casualties were police or militiamen. A delegation from radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office arrived in the city to try to end the fighting, according to the city council.

A curfew was imposed Monday on Nasiriyah and remained in effect.

Iranian-made rockets were seized in raids in central Nasiriyah, police said.

In other violence reported by police, a roadside bomb killed the head of a Shiite tribe and two people traveling with him near Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

A roadside bomb missed a police patrol but hit two civilian cars in the Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding five.

___

Source : http://news.yahoo.com

Associated Press writers Hamid Ahmed and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of mosque to Khulani, not Khillani.)

9 firefighters died in S.C. warehouse fire

2007-06-19T04:48:00.000-07:00

Nine firefighters died in a blaze that swept through a furniture warehouse in a disaster the mayor described Tuesday as "difficult to fathom or quantify.

"Nine brave, heroic, courageous firefighters of the city of Charleston have perished fighting fire in a most courageous and fearless manner, carrying out their duties," Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley said at a morning news conference. "To all of their loved ones, our heart goes out to them."

Overnight, firefighters saluted as the bodies of their colleagues were taken from the warehouse.

Riley said the county coroner planned to disclose the names of the dead. He said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

The fire broke out about 7 p.m. Monday in the Sofa Super Store and warehouse, forcing officials to close off part of a nearby roadway.

Witnesses said the store's roof collapsed, throwing debris over about two-dozen rescue workers. Onlookers were hit with flying ash.

"It was like a 30-foot tornado of flames," said Mark Hilton, who was struck in his eye.

Riley said he believed all of the store's employees escaped. At least one worker and two firefighters were taken to the hospital.

Daniel Shahid, a salesman at a nearby car dealership, said firefighters came in asking for towels.

"The next thing you know, we were carrying hoses, directing traffic, everybody from the dealership," he said.

Shahid said he saw firefighters rescue four people from the building. "They were struggling. They were covered in black soot. They looked scared out of their minds," Shahid said.

Riley called the missing firefighters heroes. "This is a profession that we must never take for granted," the mayor said. "There's a fire raging and they go toward it."

Source : http://www.chron.com

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Apple: iPhone Battery Life Improved

2007-06-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Apple Inc. gave rival smart phone makers another reason for heartburn Monday, claiming its upcoming iPhone will have a battery life that exceeds the company's previous estimate and the battery life of competing phones.

With the iPhone launch still 11 days away, Apple said the hotly anticipated gadget will last for 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use or 7 hours of video playback.

When the company previewed the device in January, it said the rechargeable battery could last 5 hours handling any one of those functions.

Competitors' phones _ such as Palm Inc.'s Treo and Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Curve _ tout talk times of about 4 hours. Samsung Electronic Co. claims about 5.5 hours for the BlackJack.

The announcement lifted Apple shares, which have soared more than 40 percent over the past three months in anticipation of the iPhone, which combines the functions of a cell phone, iPod media player, digital organizer and wireless Web device.

After a day of heavy trading, Apple shares climbed 3.8 percent, or $4.59, to close at $125.09.

Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research who has a "buy" rating on Apple, was skeptical, however. "Our sources have indicated iPhone's active use battery life may be closer to around 4 to 5 hours for heavy use, similar to other smart phones," he noted in a research report Monday.

He also predicted Apple will face complaints over the design of the battery, which can't be easily swapped out by users. It's a convenience that other gadget makers often offer but one that Apple has not, most notably in its iPods, forcing users to send in their devices when the battery wears out.

If Apple's new iPhone battery life claims are true, analysts say the gadget will set a new performance standard for smart phones _ handsets that handle voice and data communications.

The Cupertino-based company also said the iPhone battery can handle 24 hours of music playback and up to 10 days of standby time before requiring a recharge.

"It is amazing," said Richard Doherty, president of The Envisioneering Group, a research company. "I'm not aware of any smart phone that has that amount of talk time without needing a battery the size of a cigarette pack."

Apple did not disclose details of how it achieved the new iPhone specifications. Doherty said that since battery technology has only seen limited improvements recently, Apple likely lengthened battery life by optimizing the iPhone's features and components, such as automatically powering down the display or wireless chips when those features are not in use,

"There has to be very efficient circuitry inside," he said.

Given its past legal battles, Doherty thinks Apple might be treading cautiously this time with its performance claims. Apple reached a settlement with affected consumers in another case over allegations of defective batteries in early iPod models.

In another change, Apple said the iPhone's touch-sensitive screen will be made out of glass instead of plastic, for "superior scratch resistance and clarity." Apple has been criticized and sued for how the screens on its iPod Nanos get scratched easily.

The iPhone will only be sold at stores owned by Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc., which has an exclusive deal to offer cellular service for the device when it goes on sale in the U.S. on June 29. It will also be available at Apple's Web site.

The device will be available in two configurations, $500 for a 4 gigabyte model and $600 for one with 8 gigabytes of storage.

Source : http://www.chron.com

Paris Show : Battle beetwen Boeing and Airbus

2007-06-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Airbus racked up a series of big orders at the opening of the world's biggest air show today, stealing some early limelight from US rival Boeing.

With the manufacturers' intense competition again expected to be a dominant theme of the weeklong show at Le Bourget, north of Paris, both looked to make a splash from the get-go, with billions of euros worth of orders announced.

Airbus booked orders from US Airways, Qatar Airlines, Emirates and Jazeera Airways for a fleet of planes, including its problem-plagued A350 and superjumbo A380 models.

US Airways Group Inc snapped up 60 A320 single-aisle aircraft and 32 widebody aircraft. It also increased its previously announced order of 20 A350s by two to 22 A350 XWBs in both the 800 and larger 900 series configuration.

The A320s will replace Boeing 737-300/400s, which will be eliminated from the fleet, the carrier said. It expects delivery of the first A350-800 in 2014, as the North American launch customer for the fleet type.

Qatar ordered 80 A350 XWBs, three A380s and three A320 family aircraft. Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said the order for the A350s is worth 12 billion euros ($A19.12 billion).

Wiring and other technical problems are behind a costly two-year delay in delivery of the A380. The holdup is set to wipe 4.8 billion euros ($A7.65 billion) off the profit of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co over the next four years.

Emirates is by far the biggest single customer for the A380. It initially ordered 43 A380s and took another four in May.

Jazeera Airways signed an order for 30 single-aisle A320 jets worth between 1.6 billion euros and 1.8 billion euros ($A2.55 billion and $A2.87 billion) on list prices.

Emirates ordered an additional A380 and now has to 55 of on order but is undecided about whether it will sign up for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner or its wide-bodied Airbus rival, the A350 WXB.

Airbus was forced last year to launch a costly redesign of the planned A350 after airlines scorned its earlier model - resulting in the extra-wide-body or XWB model - and is having to renegotiate existing orders.

Until today Airbus had only 13 firm orders for the mid-size, long-range aircraft, compared with 584 orders for Chicago-based Boeing's Dreamliner - the first commercial jet made of light, sturdy, carbon-fibre composites instead of aluminum.

Scott Carson, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said Monday that the Dreamliner was on track for test flights in August or September, and delivery to its first customers in May.

Carson also announced Monday that GE Commercial Aviation Services had ordered six of its 777 freighters, worth $US1.42 billion ($A1.69 billion) at list prices, taking the number of 777s ordered by GECAS to 39, including 14 freighters.

Jakarta-based Lion Air ordered an additional 40 737-900ER aircraft. At over $US3 billion ($A3.57 billion) each, that brings Lion Air's combined orders for the 737-900ER to 100.

The Paris show comes amid revived fortunes for the commercial airline industry. After two years in the red, the industry will make a profit of just over 3.7 billion euros ($A5.9 billion) this year, despite rising fuel costs, says the International Air Transport Association, whose 250 members claim to represent 94 per cent of international air traffic.

Away from the rivalry between Boeing and Airbus, Rolls-Royce PLC said it had received the largest-ever firm engine order for its civil aerospace business from Qatar.

The $US5.6 billion ($A6.66 billion) order is for Trent XWB engines to power Qatar's new fleet of 80 Airbus A350 XWB twinjets, with deliveries beginning in 2013.

source : http://www.smh.com.au

Rich Internet Applications make big splash on PCWorld’s top 25 sites to watch

2007-06-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

by Ryan Stewar

It looks like PCWorld thinks Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are going to be a big thing to watch this year because their list of the Top 25 sites to watch has a few recognizable names. The first is Popfly, Microsoft’s mashup creator that is targeted at geeks and average users a like. It’s been getting a lot of buzz and is a really fun RIA to play with while showcasing Silverlight technology.

Also on the list were Goowy, a Flash-based webtop and Picnik, a Flex application that lets amateur photographers retouch their photos from right inside the browser. Also surprising were the number of rich media sites on the list. Sites like Splashcast, Eyespot and Yodio all incorporate Rich Media elements and have helped expand what the web browser can do while blending a variety of web technologies. LINK

[Sean Alexander] :PCWorld: Popfly named #1 Web Site to watch

"Popfly provides a friendly, visual way to build your own mashups.If you haven't already discovered the world of mashups, Microsoft's Popfly is a good place to start. Mashups combine multiple Web-based sites or applications to produce all sorts of useful things, such as an overlay of traffic information over Google Maps. With Popfly, you can create your own mashups--and you don't have to know a lick of code to do it. Just drag prefab building blocks, connect them, and you have an instant mashup that you can add to an existing Web page or turn into its own site. For example, you can easily produce a mashup that grabs pictures from a site like Flickr and then displays them in a rotating cube"

Relate Link :

2006 PC World’s 25 Worst Websites Ever

Modern Linguistics Foundation and Amazon Tribe

2007-06-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

by ; By Brandon Keim

Wired Science - (Amazon Tribe Shakes Foundation of Modern Linguistics): "According to Noam Chomsky's linguistic theories, humans have evolved to possess an innate, biological set of grammatical 'building blocks' of which recursion -- the ability to insert one phrase inside another -- is perhaps the most fundamental. But an isolated Amazon tribe speaks a language without recursion, and they are, in the words of cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, 'a bomb thrown into the party' of modern linguistics"

So what does this mean?

Chomsky's absolutely correct to recognize the importance of recursion, but the role that he gives it, and the role that Hauser and Tecumseh Fitch give it, to me has got things backwards. In other words, rather than going from language to the brain, we have to have recursion in language, and then it starts to make its manifestation in other thought processes. It starts in the thought processes and it might or might not jump to language. It does not seem to be an essential property of language, certainly not the essential property of language.

So the evidence is still being collected, the claims that I have made about Pirahã lacking recursion and the fact that Pirahã is an evidence that there probably isn't a need for universal grammar. Contrary to Chomsky's proposal that universal grammar is the best way to think about where language comes from, another possibility is just that humans have different brains that are different globally from those of other species, that they have a greater general intelligence that can be exploited for all sorts of purposes in human thinking and human problem-solving. And one of the biggest problems we have to solve is how to communicate with other people—our conspecifics—and communication with our conspecifics is a problem that's often solved by recursion, but it doesn't have to be solved that way, it can be solved in other ways, especially in very small societies where so much information is implicit and held in common.

Relate Link :
Amazone : takes refuge from the authorities and womenfolk in the Amazonian forest (film)

Use Google Search Like A Pro

2007-06-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

This is about How to Use Google Search Like A Pro.

Many who use Google do not realize that there’s actually an art to searching on Google. Learning this art will not only save you time but also improve your search results.

In a Recent Article on Small Business Hub, blogger Dharmesh Shah shared some of his tips to using Google search like a Pro. Dharmesh may not be a Google expert but his experience with using Google Search is clearly shown in his article.

Dharmesh’s 12 Tips are presented to you in the order below:

Explicit Phrase
Exclude Words
Site Specific Search
Similar Words and Synonyms
Specific Document Types
This OR That
Phone Listing
Area Code Lookup
Numeric Ranges
Stock (Ticker Symbol)
Calculator
Word Definitions

To view these Tips in detail you’ll have to click on the link provided below.

Readers take note this article is for beginners and experts alike. Why experts?

Dharmesh says:

" if you are a technology geek, and can use Google like the best of them already, then I suggest you bookmark this article. You’ll then have it on hand when you are ready to pull your hair out in frustration when watching a neophyte (Beginner) repeatedly type in basic queries in a desperate attempt to find something".

In conclusion, If you’ve been using Google in it’s simplest form, it’s really time to change your ways.

Source : http://marketingsqueeze.com

Triggers, The Cue, and others in How to Change a Habit

2007-06-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

This is a review or are some notes of How to Change a Habit's Book by Scott Young

The Notes are:

Triggers
It is The first advanced tool for making habit changes stick. A trigger is simply understanding and reinforcing the cue that starts your habit. Before you can use a trigger to make your habits more resilient, you need to understand how a habit works.

What most people consider a habit, isn’t one habit, but many minor habits linked together. These minor habits are small links of thought and behavior that form a larger pattern you generally call a habit. Although smoking may be seen as a habit by some, it is actually many habits linked together. The chain of habits for smoking might be:
1. Feel the impulse for a cigarette
2. Look for cigarette
3. Pull cigarette out
4. Light cigarette
5. Smoke

The goal of creating a trigger, is to make a highly consistent ritual based on some initial stimulus that automatically redirects your behavior. The ritual has to be short, simple and highly focused to lead to the new habit you want to install. A trigger you create for your habit has two components, your cue and your ritual.

The Cue
The cue is a piece of stimulus that precedes your habit, like the bell for Pavlov's dogs. Some habits have a fairly uniform cue, while others may have a couple different initial signals. This may sound a bit complex but the cue for your trigger is actually fairly simple.

Consider you want a habit of waking up early, what would be your cue? This has to be one of the easiest: the sound of your alarm clock. That sound of your alarm clock is a universal piece of stimulus that gives you the option of waking up. If you wanted a habit trigger for an early riser habit, the alarm clock would be an obvious cue....

The best cues are external (time of day, alarm clock, after tasks, work, etc.) but when there aren’t any consistent external cues for when you should perform your habit, you need to look for internal cues. Internal cues are harder to make triggers, but they will work.

The Ritual
This is the most important part of your trigger. This should be a concise set of actions no more than fifteen minutes long, and often it can be as little as a few seconds. Your ritual needs to be strongly associated with your habit, so it should be done every time in the same fashion.

Because rituals develop naturally, consciously using a trigger is the process of ensuring two things: practice and consistency.

Practicing Your Ritual.....LINK (or Download)

Each your sales copy will play a major role in your success

2007-06-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Original Tittle : "Writing Effective Sales Copy"

A professional looking web site is a very important part of developing a profitable Internet business. However, your sales copy is just as important -- each will play a major role in your success.

The key to writing effective sales copy is simply learning how to write persuasive words specifically written for your targeted potential customer. You must feel their needs and write your copy with passion, excitement and benefits. Tell them exactly what's in it for them by writing copy that evokes a specific emotion and stresses your product's benefits.

Use the following formula when writing your sales copy:

A - Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention
I - Interest - Intrigue interest and create curiosity
D - Detail - Provide details about your product or service
A - Action - Call for action

When you begin writing your copy, your text should be written in a black, legible font with a light background. Avoid using fancy fonts or backgrounds that will make your text difficult to read. Write in small blocks of text with a space between each block. There is nothing that will make your visitor click away faster than a sea of black text --so make sure you use plenty of white space.

A great way to write your copy and come up with new benefits is to use the "so what" strategy. After each sentence, say to yourself, "so what" and then elaborate.

Example:

XYZ computers are lightning fast. (so what) They can process information faster than any other computer on the market. (so what) Your programs will instantly load on command, (so what) saving you hours of valuable time and frustration over the life of your computer.

Remember...benefits sell not features.

Headline

The first and most important part of your sales copy is the headline. If your headline doesn't instantly capture your targeted potential customers' attention, and arouse a specific emotion, the rest of your sales copy will be useless.

In order to write an effective headline, you must learn how to use specific words to achieve a specific reaction.

Before writing your headline, you must first learn a little bit about the basic human motivators. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, human behavior is always the result of one or more of five basic needs. He listed these needs in a sequence that he refers to as "the hierarchy of human needs."

He believes that until a less important need is met there won't be any desire to pursue a more important need. Below are the five human motivators, beginning with the basic needs and continuing to the most important needs.

Physiological - Basic human needs include hunger, thirst, shelter, clothing and sex.
Safety (Security) - Human need for physical, emotional and financial security.
Social (Affiliation) - Human need for love, affection, companionship and acceptance.
Esteem (Self Esteem) - Human need for achievement, recognition, attention and respect.
Self-actualization - Human need to reach their full potential.

When you are aware of the basic human needs, you can incorporate these needs into your writing. A great headline will appeal to your potential customers' emotions. You must feel their needs, wants and desires and write your headlines with passion and emotion.

Introduction

Just as your headline is a very important part of your sales copy, the first paragraph is just as important. Studies have shown that if your headline attracts your potential customers' attention, and you can maintain their attention through the first paragraph, chances are they'll read the rest of your copy.

The first paragraph should clearly define the benefits that will be outlined within your sales copy -- identify a problem and promote your product or service as the solution.

Subheadings

Subheadings are basically just smaller headlines used to break up your text blocks. They also provide your readers with important highlights of your paragraphs.

Use plenty of subheadings throughout your copy, as not all of your visitors will read your copy word for word. They'll simply scan it and only read what catches their attention.

Remove the Risk

You must provide your potential customers with a solid, no risk, money back guarantee. In addition, provide a limited time free trial or download that will completely remove their risk. This will build your potential customers' confidence in you and put their mind at ease.

Call for Action

Once your potential customer has read your sales copy, you must direct them to your order page by asking for the order.

Use a P.S.

When your visitor scans your sales message, chances are they'll read your headline, sub headlines and your PostScript message. Place your most important benefits within your PS message.

Provide Testimonials

Testimonials provide a great way to reassure your visitors. Blend your testimonials in with your sales message. Avoid making your visitors have to click to another page to view your testimonials -- chances are, they won't. By blending your testimonials in with your sales message, you can ensure they will be read.

Long Copy verses Short Copy

It is a proven fact that long sales copy out-sells short sales copy. However, some visitors do prefer a short sales letter. You can provide your visitors with both. For those who prefer a short sales letter, provide opportunities to click through to your order page prior to ending your sales letter.

Try to keep your sales letter all on one page. Your visitors would much rather have to scroll through your letter than click through and load another page. With each additional click, you'll lose a percentage of your potential customers.

Your words should seamlessly flow together from your headline through to your order page. Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific purpose -- to lead your potential customer to your order page. The simple, well-designed web sites with killer sales copy make the sales.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com

Launching Your Web Site on the Internet

2007-06-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

When you're ready to launch your web site, you'll need to make two very important decisions -- what your domain name will be and where you will host your new site.

A domain name is used to locate a particular web site on the Internet. It is a part of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and instructs the browser as to where to find a particular web page.

When a web address (http://www.domain.com) is typed into the browser, the web server will look for a page called index. This page may have different extensions, such as .htm, .html, or .shtml and will be displayed when the URL is called.

Additional pages within the site are called by including the URL followed by a forward slash and the page name. http://www.domain.com/page.htm

Selecting a quality domain name is of the utmost of importance. Not only will it tell your potential customers what your business is all about, but it will also play a role in branding.

LifeBook N Series Notebook

A good domain name is one that will be immediately remembered by your visitors, as it connects with something they're interested in.

A great domain name is one that can be guessed by a potential visitor looking for something in particular. For example, LINK

What's Apple's Safari strategy?

2007-06-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Withers

Windows doesn't really need another browser, so why is Apple porting Safari from Mac OS X to Windows?

The answer is market share.

With Safari, Apple currently has less than 5 percent 'web share' according to recent figures from Net Applications, with other browsers - primarily Firefox, but also Camino and Opera - taking nearly a quarter of the Mac's platform share.

Whether 75 or 85 percent of Mac users actually use Safari is neither here nor there. Even if the Macintosh's share of the market is growing, current levels of use are not enough to encourage many web designers and developers to check that their pages work with Safari unless their target market is particularly Mac oriented or especially vocal.

I'm not going to get into a debate about which browser most closely supports the relevant standards, but as long as there are any significant differences in the way major browsers handle the code they're fed, minority browsers like Safari are going to be a nuisance that many web developers would prefer to overlook.

It's just that Apple's about to start selling this thing called the iPhone, which uses Safari as its web browser. Not only that, but initially Web 2.0 applications will be the only way non-Apple developers can get their software onto the iPhone.

The company could quickly find itself selling more iPhones than Macs, but that would only mean Safari had perhaps a 10 percent web share - not really enough to impact on the IE/Firefox hegemony.

But if Safari on Windows could attract another five percent, then Safari is snapping at Firefox's heels, and web developers would have less justification for ignoring it. Steve Jobs seems to think it will come at the expense of Firefox, but we would be amazed if it didn't attract some Internet Explorer users.

With Macs - especially MacBooks and MacBook Pros - becoming more commonplace in corporate environments, you can see that IT staff might be keen to encourage the use of one cross-platform browser to minimise support loads. If Apple does a good job, that could be Safari rather than Firefox - but either way it would be IE that misses out. (Unless you think they'll recommend IE under Parallels or VMware instead.)

So why has Apple released a beta of Safari for Windows that some people are describing (unfairly in our view) as being of alpha quality?

Those Web 2.0 developers with an eye on the iPhone need a way of testing their apps on Safari now if they are going to be ready for the iPhone's release at the end of this month. They probably wouldn't go out and buy a Mac if they don't already have one, but installing a pre-release copy of the Windows version isn't much of a hardship.

Across the Nation, TB patient to get lung tissue removed

2007-06-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

DENVER, COLORADO (http://www.chicagotribune.com/) -- Surgeons said Thursday that they will remove a tennis-ball-sized section of lung from Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker, the air traveler who set off a worldwide scare when it was revealed that he carries an extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.

Removing the damaged lung tissue that contains most of the bacteria responsible for Speaker's TB will allow antibiotics to be more effective and eliminate the damaged tissue that serves as a breeding ground for the bacteria, surgeons said. The operation is planned in July.

Why Video Publishers Have More Inventory Than They Think

2007-06-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

By Aimee Irwin (http://www.imediaconnection.com)

Think we're at our video inventory limit? Think again. Advertising.com's VP of video networks gives pointers.

According to data from AccuStream iMedia Research, 75 percent of all video advertising inventory is sold each month. The truth is that publishers aren't exploiting all the advertising potential of their video content. They are not sold out; they're simply not selling everything they have to offer.

With so much money to be made from video advertising, how can this be?

One reason is that unlike display advertising, unfulfilled video inventory doesn't leave a big blank space on your site. If there's no ad to show prior to a video clip, the publisher can simply skip right to the video content, which means publishers cannot easily account for missed ad opportunities.

Another reason for this overreporting is that, due to the early stage and rapid growth of online video, inventory simply isn't as predictable or easily monetized as display inventory, particularly when it comes to sudden spikes in traffic. For example, breaking news events can dramatically increase video viewership, creating a high volume of unexpected advertising inventory.

These factors and more lead publishers to overestimate the percentage of video inventory sold, simply because they're not factoring in the hidden potential of their video content. And this can be a costly oversight.

With high CPMs and strong demand for video advertising, publishers should be taking advantage of every second of video ad space available. Here are some ways you can extend your video ad inventory and better monetize your current assets.

1. Use continuous play for continuous revenue
It can be hard to get off the sofa. That's why at the end of a TV show, plenty of viewers stay put and get drawn into the next show. Video publishers, too, can leverage this phenomenon with continuous play, positioning multiple clips back to back in order to keep the user interested and thereby multiplying opportunities to run ads.

2. Partner with a network to fill every minute
If you want to fill 100 percent of your ad inventory, an ad network is the way to go. Partnering with a network is the most efficient way to deal with the ups and downs of video viewership. Networks eliminate the unpredictability problem, absorbing any available impression you have, in real time. So, if traffic spikes as the result of a breaking news clip, a network will automatically ensure that additional inventory is monetized.

3. Improve your advertiser appeal
Boost the value of your video inventory and you'll keep advertisers coming back for more. One way to accomplish this is to offer formats that give advertisers the most bang for their buck. Another is to make your video advertising as appealing and welcoming to site visitors as possible. Consumers who have a better user experience are more likely to view video again on your site (creating more ad opportunities) and will have higher response rates (creating happy, loyal advertisers.)

Here are a few value-enhancing strategies that work:
Enable companion banners: What really sets online video apart from TV advertising is its interactivity and measurability. Like TV, video offers great visual and emotional impact. But video also offers a way to immediately generate and measure consumer response. Perhaps no format combines emotional appeal with actionability better than video advertising with a companion banner. Companion banners are clickable static ads placed inside a video player, just outside of the video clip. These ads are extremely attractive to advertisers, who essentially get twice the exposure for their money. In order to remain competitive in the video space, companion banners are a must-have value-add.
Set session limits: Check out your favorite TV program online, and you may see the exact same ad before the content and at each '"commercial break." This creates a less-than-desirable to downright frustrating user experience. Unfortunately, that repetitiveness can also diminish response rates. One solution is to cap ad frequency based on session limits (the length of time the consumer has been viewing your video content). Reducing ad duplication may not only improve response rates, it will also open up your content to additional advertisers and revenue opportunities.
Adapt ad length to clip length: Thirty seconds of advertising before a 90-second clip? What consumer wouldn't feel burned? A better approach is to adapt ad length to clip length, so a 90-second clip will have much less ad time than an hour-long program. Again, keeping viewers happy keeps them coming back to your content.

Boost the volume and value of your video ad inventory
Before you put up your "sold out" sign, take a closer look at your video assets for untapped revenue opportunities and ways to improve the user experience. When it comes to video advertising, every second and every impression counts.

As vice president of Advertising.com’s video network, Aimee Irwin is responsible for strategic publisher initiatives for the company’s video product, including the ongoing growth and development of its publisher base.

Big Bird dinosaur found

2007-06-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

Fossil of new species scientists named Gigantoraptor discovered in the Gobi Desert

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Xu Xing, a Chinese paleontologist, puzzled over the thigh bone of a monstrous new dinosaur he and his partners had discovered in the rich fossil beds of the Gobi Desert.

The bone was so big, he said in an e-mail to The Chronicle, that he thought he and his colleagues had merely found another of those familiar plant-eating, long-necked, semi-aquatic creatures called sauropods, well known in the evolutionary past of the dinosaur world.

Then he thought the bone most likely had come from a tyrannosaur -- perhaps the voracious and towering T. rex, the prime predator of fright movies.

But no, it wasn't T. rex at all; it was a fossil from the largest birdlik

e creature ever seen, Xu said. More than 26 feet long and 16 1/2 feet tall, it was a young adult that must have weighed at least a ton and a half when it was alive more than 70 million years ago, he said. It thrived in the late Cretaceous period only a few million years before all the dinosaurs on Earth became extinct.

"When I went back to my geologist colleague Lin Tan's lab to check the skeleton, I was shocked," Xu wrote in his e-mail. "I said to Tan, 'It is not a sauropod, it is not a tyrannosaurus, it is a tyrannosaurus-sized oviraptor. We have a gigantic chicken!' "

And that's the report the journal Nature is publishing today: the discovery of a creature Xu's team has named Gigantoraptor erlianensis, a giant birdlike dinosaur from the Gobi's Erlian basin, long known to science for its famous fossils and to prospectors for its vast oil reserves.

From the fossil record, the world's leading paleontologists are now sure that all modern birds are descended from the dinosaurs; in fact, the scientists often term birds "modern dinosaurs." And paleontologists, studying the fossils marking the evolution of birds during the age of dinosaurs, have observed that as the birdlike dinosaurs approached birdness, they seem to have evolved into smaller and smaller types.

So what's an enormous beast like Gigantoraptor doing among the avian world's ancestors?

It's a curious twist in the long up-and-down saga of evolution that has intrigued science ever since the Cambrian explosion of 500 million years ago, when the ancestors of countless familiar life forms emerged -- in the short span of 10 million years.

Said UC Berkeley's Kevin Padian, a leading expert on dinosaur evolution and curator of the university's Museum of Paleontology who has seen the report from Xu and Tan:

"We have dwarf sauropods, so why not giant oviraptors (the term means 'egg thief')? If resources are available, all animals will take the opportunity to increase their size. Dinosaurs can get small, and dinosaurs can get big, and the bigger ones grow faster than the little ones, because getting bigger fast can reduce the number of predators around.

"It all goes to show that when it comes to the diversity of dinosaurs, we're still just scratching the surface."

The details in the report by Xu and Tan are fascinating: "Growth lines" in one bone showed that the creature grew to adult size in only seven years -- faster than most other two-footed, meat-eating dinosaurs and "probably died in the eleventh year of life."

The animal had no teeth in its beak so its diet is a mystery, Xu said, because it had the relatively small head and long neck typical of plant-eaters, and the sharp claws of many meat-eaters.

And while the fossil-hunters found no evidence of feathers -- as many dinosaur species show -- the beast could well have had feathered arms and feathers on its tail, most likely for sexual display.

Finally, although most two-footed dinosaurs had stout legs to carry their weight, and short arms, Gigantoraptor's legs were relatively long and slender, and its arms were unusually long -- "more birdlike than its small relatives in many features," Xu said.

Mark Norell at the American Museum of Natural History has hunted dinosaur fossils with Xu in the Gobi Desert in the past but was not involved in this discovery. He studied the Gigantoraptor's fossil bones last year at Xu's Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

"It was really a surprise when I first saw it," Norell said in a telephone conversation. As dinosaurs evolved toward birds, they got smaller and smaller, their fossils show; until now, birdlike dinosaurs were at most 10 or 11 feet long -- certainly not 26 feet.

Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago who read the report, called it "a big find, really exciting -- a class act."

"But what kind of environment on Earth was this animal adapted to?" he wondered. "It's off the charts, and with no teeth what did it eat? Did it use those long legs to escape from predators? It's clearly a pre-flight bird, but no one would have predicted its evolution, so the door seems open to a new way of living for a new kind of dinosaur."

E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com.

Source : http://www.sfgate.com

Clinton, Obama fight for Illinois dollars

2007-06-15T02:57:00.000-07:00

CHICAGO (AP) - Barack Obama lives here, but some of the state's leading Democratic fundraisers are opening their wallets for former Illinoisan Hillary Rodham Clinton.

1 of Obama's chief rivals for president, Clinton is having her second fundraiser in Illinois later this month.

Her hosts are high-profile attorneys, a wealthy philanthropist, longtime Clinton family friends and business leaders, including a son of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, although the civil rights leader backs Obama.

Clinton campaign spokesman Blake Zeff says the New York senator is trying to capitalize on a May fundraiser in Chicago that raked in about $300,000.

Raising money in Obama's home state won't be easy for Clinton. But there are dollars for her here because she grew up in a Chicago suburb and has political alliances here that date to her years as first lady.

Source : http://www.wandtv.com/

LISTS OF HERBAL-MEDICINE FROM JAVA

2007-06-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

Following is a plant lists which is often used as traditional drug materials in Indonesia :

A
Adas (Foeniculum vulgare L.),Adem Ati (Litsea glutinosa (lour) C.D.),Akar Manis (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.),Asam Jawa (Tamarindus indica L.) , Alang-alang (Imerata cylindrica L.B.),Alpukat (Persea americana Mill.),Angsana (Pterocarpus indicus Willd.)

B
Belimbing Wuluh (Averrhoa bilimbi L.),Bandotan (Ageratum conyzoides), Bawang Putih (Allium sativum L.),Bawang Merah (Allium cepa L.), Bayam Duri (Amaranthus spinosus L.),Bengle (Zingiber purpureum Roxb.),Baru Cina (Artemisia vulgaris L.), Beluntas (Pluchea indica L.), Beringin (Ficus benjamina L.), Belimbing Manis (Averhoa carambola L.) ,Bambu (Bambusa sp.), Bangkoang (Pachyrrhizus erosus L. Ex), Bayam (Amaranthus sp.), Benalu (Loranthus sp.), Buncis (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), Buah Nona (Annona reticulata L.),Brotowali (Tinospora crispa Miers. Hook. & Thems), Bunga Pukul Empat (Mirabilis jalapa L.),Bungur (Lagerstroemia speciosa Auct.)

C
Cabe Jawa (Piper retrofractum Vahl.),Cincau (Cyclea barbata), Cakar Ayam (Selaginella doederleinii Hieron), Ceremai (Phyllanthus acidus (L.) Skeels), Cengkih (Syzigium aromaticum L.), Cabai (Capsicum anuum L.)

D
Daun Dewa (Gynura procumbens),Dadap Ayam (Erythrina orientalis),Daun Inggu (Ruta angustifolia), Daun Kentut (Paederia scandens), Duwet (Eugenia cumini), Daun Duduk (Desmodium triquetrum DC.), Daun Encok (Plumbago zeylanica L.), Daun Madu (Barleria cristata L.), Daun Sendok (Plantago major), Daun Wungu (Graptopohyllum pictum (L.) Griff), Daun Jintan (Plectranthus amboinicus),Delima Putih (Punica granatum L.)

G
Gandarusa (Justicia gendarussa Burm.), Gude (Cajanus cajan (Linn.) Millsp.), Gadung Cina (Smilax china L.), Gambir (Uncaria gambir (Hunter) R.), Garut (Maranta arundinacea L.)

H
Handeuleum (Daun Wungu) (Graptophylum pictum Griff), Hangjuang

I
Iler (Coleus atropurpureus L.), Iles-iles (Tacca palmata),Inggu (Ruta angustifolia)

J
Jahe (Zingiber officinale Rosc.), Jambu Biji (Psidium guajava L.),Jeruk Nipis (Citrus aurantifolia),Jambu Monyet (Anacardium occidentale),Jagung (Zea mays L.), Jambu Klutuk (Psidium guajava L.),Jintan Hitam (Nigella Sativa L.), Jati (Tectona grandis L.f.)

K
Katuk (Sauropus androginus [L.] Merr.),Kecubung (Datura metel L.),Kencur (Kaempferia galanga L.), Kunyit (Curcuma Domestica Val.), Kaki Kuda (Centella asiatica), Kaca Piring (Gardenia augusta), Kamboja (Plumeria acuminata), Keji Beling (Hemigraphis colorata), Kembang Sepatu (Hibiscus rosa sinensis), Ki Urat (Plantago major), Kemuning (Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack), Kompri (Symphytum officinale L.),Kacang Hijau (Phaseolus radiatus L.),Kapulaga (Amomum cardamomum Wild.),Kedelai (Glycine max L.),Kelapa Hijau (Cocos nucifera L.),Kembang Pukul Empat (Mirabilis jalapa L.),Kumis kucing (Orthosiphon aristatus Bl. Miq.),Kangkung (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk),Kapas (Gossypium sp.), Kayu Manis (Cinnamomun burmani),Kedawung (Parkia roxburghii G. Don.), Kemeyan (Styrax benzoin Dryand),Kemiri (Aleurites moluccana L. Willd), Ketapang (Terminalia cattapa L.),Ketumbar (Coriandrum sativum L.),Kopi (Coffea sp.)

L
Lempuyang Gajah (Zingiber zerumbet SM.),Lengkuas (Languas galanga), Lidah Buaya (Aloe vera sp.), Lidah Ayam (Polygala glomerata),Landep (Barleria prioritis L.), Landik (Barleria lupulina Lindl.), Lempuyang Wangi (Zingiber aromaticum) , Lada (Piper nigrum L.), Lamtoro (Leucaena glauca L. Benth.), Lobak (Raphanus sativus L.)

M
Melati (Jasminum sambac L.),Mangkokan (Nothopanax scutellarium Merr.),Murbei (Morus alba L.),Mentimun (Cucumis sativus L.),Mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia L.), Manggis (Carnicia mangostana L.),Meniran (Phylanthus niruri L.)

N
Nangka Sabrang (Annona muricata),Ngokilo,Nangka (Artocarpus integra Merr. (Thumb.)),Nenas (Ananas cumosus L. Merr.),Nilam (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth.),Nyamplung (Calophyllum inophyllum L.)

O
Oyong (Luffa acutangula L. Roxb.)

P
Pegagan (Centella asiatica L. Urban),Pepaya (Carica papaya L.),Pule Pandak (Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Bentham ex Kurz),Pace (Morinda citrifolia), Putri Malu (Mimosa pudica L.),Pacar Cina (Aglaia odoranta Lour),Padi (Oryza sativa L.),Pandan Wangi (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.),Prasman (Eupatorium triplinerve Vahl.),Pulai (Alstonia scholaris R. Br.),Pare (Momordica charantia L.),Pala (Myristica fragrans Hout.),Pasak Bumi,Petai cina (Leucaena leucocepohala de Wit),Pinang (Areca catechu L.),Pisang (Musa paradisiaca L.),Pisang Batu (Musa brachycarpa Back), Pulasari (Alyxia reinwardtii Bl.)

R
Randu (Ceiba pentandra L. Gaertn)

S
Sambang Darah (Excoecaria cochinchinensis Lour.), Sirih (Piper betle L.), Saga (Abrus precatorius L.), Secang (Caesalpinia sappan), Sembung (Blumea balsamifera [L.] DC.),Singkong (Manihot utilissima Pohl. atau Manihot esculenta Crautz.), Sosor Bebek (Kalanchoe pinnata), Senggani (Melatoma candidum D. Don), Senggugu (Clerodendron serratum [L.] Spr.) ,Som Jawa (Talinum paniculatum (Jacq) Gaertn), Srigading (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis L.), Seledri (Apium graveolens L.),Selada Air (Nasturtium officinale L. R. Br.), Salam (Syzygium polyanthum (Wigh) Walp),Sawi (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern.), Selasih (Ocimum basilicum L.),Sledri (Apium graveolens L.),Serai (Cymbopogan nardus L. Reandle),Sirsak,Sambiloto (Andrographis paniculata Burm.)

T
Tapak Dara (Catharanthus roseus L. G. Don),Tempuyung (Sonchus arvensis L.), Temu Hitam (Curcuma aeruginosa. Roxb.),Temu Kunci (Boesenbergia pandurata Roxb.S.),Temu Lawak (Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb.),Teh (Camellia sinensis L. atau Thea sinensis L.),Tomat (Solanum Lycopersicum L.),Teki (Cyperus rotundus L.),Tanjung (Mimusops elengi L.), Tembelekan (Lantana camara L.),Temu Giring (Curcuma heyneana Val. & V),Turi (Sesbania grandiflora L. Pres.)

U
Ubi jalar (Ipomoea batatas Pir. atau Batatas edulis Chois., atau Convolvulus batatas L.) Urang-aring (Eclipta alba Hassk.)

W
Wortel (Daucus carota L.), Waru (Hibiscus tiliaceus L.)

Source : http://iptek.apjii.or.id

Easy Money of CNBC

2007-06-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

by Tim Catts

In the past few months, Jim Kraber became more than a little obsessed with CNBC's "Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge." At the peak, the 42-year-old was spending 12 hours a day on the contest, using three computers in his Greenwich Village apartment to trade 1,600 different portfolios, all in an effort to win the $1 million grand prize. He even dropped his studies for the chartered financial analyst (CFA) exam, given once a year, so he could have more time for the financial news channel's game.

He made it into the group of 20 finalists, but in mid-May, as the last round of trading opened, he noticed an unusual pattern in the picks of other contestants. One trader had a stream of near-perfect picks, consistently placing huge bets on shares that soared in after-hours trading. Kraber suspected the trader and perhaps others were getting help from someone who was changing their picks after the stocks' increases—and he quickly notified CNBC. "I went back and looked at his trades and thought, 'This is pretty much statistically impossible,'" says Kraber, who holds master's degrees in business and statistics from New York University.

Kraber says CNBC rebuffed him at the time, but now it looks like he may have been right. Several contest participants have told BusinessWeek that there was a flaw in the design of the CNBC game that allowed certain players an unfair advantage. As many as four of the top contestants in the million-dollar contest may have exploited the flaw, according to the participants interviewed by BusinessWeek. On May 30, two weeks after Kraber says he notified the cable channel, CNBC posted a notice on its Web site that there have been allegations of trading strategies "in violation of the contest rules" and that it is investigating the issue. It has not disclosed the nature of the alleged problems.

"An Aggressive Investigation"

For what is essentially the American Idol of stockpicking, the stakes are sky-high. A million dollars is on the line for the ultimate winner of the contest, along with fame and future opportunity. CNBC, which bills itself as the essential news channel for investors and businesspeople, has a reputation to protect. With constant promotion from channel anchors like Becky Quick and Joe Kernen, the contest attracted 375,000 participants and nearly tripled the traffic to CNBC's Web site. Now, the channel, which is part of General Electric (GE), may have to publicly acknowledge mismanagement of the contest and could face potential lawsuits from disgruntled participants.

"I figured out very quickly what was going on—and they were looking at all the trades," says Kraber. "It's not negligence that they might have made bad software. It's negligence if they knew this was going on and did nothing to stop it."

CNBC declined to comment specifically on Kraber's allegations. A spokesman for the cable channel says, "Once these issues were raised, we launched an aggressive investigation immediately. The integrity of the contest is very important to us." CNBC, run by President Mark Hoffman, has been a money machine for GE, even as NBC overall has struggled (see BusinessWeek.com, 2/5/07, "Jeff Zucker Takes Charge at NBC Universal").

Too Good to Be True?

The performance of some participants does look unbelievable, literally unbelievable. Over the first nine trading days of the final round, the top five stockpickers tallied average returns of 45%, according to a BusinessWeek review of their trading portfolios. If that kind of performance was stretched out over a year, it would work out to an annual return of more than 1,200%. "Obviously if you have knowledge of what's happening with the stock, that would really skew the results," says Lubos Pastor, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago, who is speaking generally and has not studied the trading in the CNBC contest.

The top traders are reluctant to discuss their performance. Four of the top five performers declined to discuss their trading in detail with BusinessWeek, and the fifth could not be located for comment. "I don't want to jeopardize anything by saying something stupid," says Joe Dondero, who was fourth in the standings on the last day for which results have been made public.

How could traders exploit CNBC's glitch? According to several participants, the technique was relatively simple, but not obvious to all participants. A trader could go to the CNBC Web site and select a number of stocks to buy, but hold off on executing those trades. If you made the selection before the close of regular trading at 4 p.m. EST and left your Web browser open, you could execute those trades after hours and still receive the 4 p.m. closing price. For example, if a company whose stock closed at $20 a share rose to $25 in after-hours trading, you could buy the stock at $20, even though it was already worth 25% more (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/8/07, Slide Show: "How to Game CNBC's Stocks Contest").

The allegation is that certain traders may have used the technique with companies that were reporting earnings and other important news after the market's close. They could select as many as 50 stocks and then execute trades for only the one or two best performers.

Serge Amelyan, a real estate investor from Mequon, Wis., was one of the 20 finalists with prescient trades. On the first day of the final round, he placed a big bet on Mindray Medical International (MR), which was reporting earnings that afternoon. Amelyan cashed in as the stock rose 7% in after-hours trading, more than any other stock with a late earnings announcement. The very next day, he invested heavily in Compuware (CPWR), which again reported strong earnings and surged 7%. In all, seven of the nine stocks Amelyan invested in during the finals announced earnings after the markets closed. Six of those saw sharp increases, while one had a slight decline. Amelyan says he didn't use any unusual trading practices. "I didn't play that way," he says.

From Pharmaceuticals to Finance

Kraber, the player who helped uncover the CNBC contest's possible flaw, grew up in Dixon, Ill., about 100 miles west of Chicago. He majored in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois, where he says he began to develop an interest in the markets. But when he graduated in 1989, he found he didn't have the stomach for the risk he saw in a career trading. Instead, he took work in the pharmaceutical industry and moved to New York.

Kraber's interest in finance remained strong, however. So after five years working for Merck (MRK) and Schering-Plough (SGP), he decided to pursue an MBA in finance at New York University and then followed that with a master's in statistics. He says his three degrees have quite a bit in common: The knowledge needed to analyze heat transfer and, say, trade complex derivatives are closely connected, maintains Kraber. "I see it all as very much related," he says. He now trades for his own account and does market risk analysis for others on an ad hoc basis.

When Kraber heard about CNBC's million-dollar challenge earlier this year, he knew he wanted to enter. But it wasn't until he read the rules of the game that he figured he had a pretty good shot at making the finals. The key was that CNBC put no limit on the number of portfolios a player could manage, and only the best-performing one would count. So Kraber, with his expertise in statistics, computer-programming, and stock selection, could set up hundreds of different portfolios, all pursuing high-risk, high-return strategies.
By sheer chance, at least one of his portfolios would do well, and he figured that with smart strategic picks he'd rank near the top of all the participants. "I realized I had an almost 100% chance of making the finals," he says.

The first round of the CNBC challenge, which began on Mar. 5, consisted of 10 one-week contests. The winner of each weekly game won $10,000 and automatic entrée into the final round. In addition, the top 10 finishers overall made it into the final round. In mid-April, Kraber grabbed the weekly prize for the sixth week of the contest, with a portfolio that included WD-40 (WDFC), Cascade (CAE), and Apogee Enterprises (APOG). He became one of 20 contestants for the big-money prize.

"Very Suspicious" Trades

But it didn't take him long to notice curious behavior. On the morning of May 16, after the results of the final round's first day of trading were posted on CNBC.com, at least two traders posted big gains from Mindray. As Kraber saw what he thought were uncanny picks by other finalists he became incensed. He called CNBC and requested an investigation into any trades processed after 4 p.m., the official deadline laid out in the contest rules. "It's obviously against the rules, which say there's no after-hours trading," Kraber says. When he pointed this out to a CNBC marketing rep he managed to get on the phone, "she went off on me," he says.

Unbeknownst to Kraber, other contestants began to notice peculiar trading patterns. Two other finalists, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, say they also saw that several of the top contenders were consistently picking the stocks of companies with strong earnings reports after the market close. "It was very suspicious that people were making such good calls so consistently," says one of the two finalists.

The two traders say that it wasn't until they started talking with each other and two other finalists that the four of them together developed the theory of how the CNBC glitch may have worked. They hypothesized that if a contestant left open the browser window with the challenge's trading interface past the 4 p.m. deadline, it might still be possible to reorder, but not add, cancel, or change the quantity of trades. The two sources say that members of their group have demonstrated how this could be done.

Winner to Be Named

The two sources flagged CNBC near the end of the competition, when they became convinced they had figured out the puzzle. On May 24, the day before the contest closed, the pair scanned all the companies that were reporting earnings after the market's close, and noticed that Verigy (VRGY), which makes semiconductor testing equipment, had soared 20%. They thought that if their theory was right, many of the leaders would end up getting the stock at the 4 p.m. closing price. The group alerted CNBC to look for Verigy picks. The next day, they saw that three of the four players they suspected had picked Verigy. Amelyan didn't buy Verigy, opting instead for Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (RRGB), which gained 8.4%.

Now, it's left to CNBC to sort through what to do about the contest's troubles and who will get the million-dollar prize. The cable channel has said that it hopes to name the winner by July 8, but it may push back the deadline if more time is needed to get to the bottom of the trading issues.

Kraber realizes that he is unlikely to receive the prize money, even if the people suspected of exploiting the software glitch are disqualified. He finished in 12th place, behind several other people who don't appear to have used the loophole. He says he just wants CNBC to do what's right. "I think they knew about this and let it go," Kraber says. "I just want some accountability."

------------------------

Catts is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

Indonesian police have arrested the most wanted terrorist in the country Abu Dujana

2007-06-13T03:19:00.000-07:00

Indonesian police have arrested the most wanted terrorist in the country Abu Dujana, who is the top leader of the militant group in Southeast Asia of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto said Wednesday. The spokesman said that the 37-year-old Dujana was arrested at the weekend at his house in Banyuwangi of Central Java province. The police also arrested seven other terrorist suspects in the province during the raid.

After an intensified investigation and DNA test, the police found out that the man who named Yusron Mahmudi was Abu Dujana.

"Based on the interrogation, including investigation on the crime scene, it was known that Yusron Mahmudi has many alias names, one of them is Abu Dujana," said Adiwinoto.

Dujana, who was born in Cianjur of West Java province, was a field commander of the JI and also a strategic planner in the group. He became the head of military wing of the militant group in the region after the death of Azahari Husin in 2005.

The police said that he gave protection and provided a hide-out for fugitive terrorist coordinator in Indonesia Noerdin Mohammad Top.

Dujana was involved in the first Bali bombing in 2002, sectarian clashes in Poso of Central Sulawesi six years ago. Over 200 people were killed in the Bali bombing, most of them Australians.

In 1989 he went to Afghanistan and got military training in Mujahiddin Academy until 1991.

In Afghanistan he built a friendship with Zulkarnaen, a perpetrator of the Bali bombing.

In 1991, he left Afghanistan and became a teacher in a boarding school of Lukmannul Hakim in Johor Malaysia, where he met with Mukhlas, who played a key role in the Bali bombing.

He met Noerdin Mohammad Top, the terrorist coordinator in Indonesia. Noerdin is one of the most wanted terrorist fugitives in Indonesia now. In 2002 Dujana was appointed secretary of the JI in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of major terrorist strikes since 2000, which killed more than 300 people.

Source: Xinhua

Relate Links :

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Dallas Morning News (subscription
AP JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian police have arrested the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terrorist group blamed for the 2002 Bali ...

Indonesia arrests top terror suspect
Boston Globe, United States
By AP | June 13, 2007 JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian police have arrested the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror group blamed ...

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Indonesian police have captured the country's most-wanted militant, Abu Dujana, who heads a military wing of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah ...

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NEWS.com.au, Australia
INDONESIAN police confirmed today that Indonesian's most wanted terrorist, Abu Dujana, was captured in a raid at the weekend. ...

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NDTV.com, India
AP Four suspected members of the Al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah were arrested in weekend raids, including a top aide to Indonesia's most ...

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By Telly Nathalia in Jakarta INDONESIAN police have captured a suspected aide of wanted militant Abu Dujana, who is thought to head a splinter group of ...

Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars

2007-06-13T03:10:00.001-07:00

Militants attack revered Shi'ite shrine

Suspected al-Qaeda insurgents have destroyed the two minarets of a sacred Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in a repeat of last year's bombing that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.

Police said the attack involved explosives and brought down the minarets, which had flanked the dome's ruins.

Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars. No casualties were reported.

Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, head of the Shi'ite endowment administrative body responsible for shrines in Iraq, said the minarets were blown up by "terrorists".

"It is a terrorist attack ... the second one against the shrine," Haidiri said in Baghdad.

"It is a terrorist attack aimed at sparking sectarian violence."

The Shi'ite group loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged its supporters to exercise calm.

A national police force under command of a major general was ordered to move immediately to Samarra, an Interior Ministry official said.

The US military warned the new attack on the shrine might provoke another spike in sectarian violence, and said it was keeping a close eye on the situation.

"Based on the results of last year's attack, we are obviously watching it very carefully," said spokesman Lt Colonel Christopher Garver.

The attack was likely the work of al-Qaeda, whose militants have recently moved into Samarra from surrounding areas, said an official close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, citing intelligence reports.

He and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity, either because of the sensitivity of the matter or because they were not authorised to share the information.

The Askariya shrine's dome was destroyed on February 22 last year, in a bombing blamed on Sunni Muslim militants believed linked to al-Qaeda.

The mosque compound and minarets had remained intact but the site was closed after that bombing.

Police imposed an indefinite curfew on the Sunni city, 95km north of Baghdad amid fears the bombing might further inflame the sectarian hatreds that swept Baghdad and other areas of Iraq in the months that followed the destruction of the shrine's dome.

The execution-style killings largely blamed on Shi'ite militias had begun to decline in February, at the start of a major US-Iraqi security push to pacify Baghdad, but the numbers have seen a recent rise as the bombings continued.

But while the numbers of people killed are down in Baghdad, violence has been on the rise elsewhere in Iraq after militants fled the security operation.

The United Nations warned earlier this week that the "situation in Iraq remains precarious".

"Insurgent attacks persist and civilian casualties continue to mount," the UN said in a report on Iraq covering the period from early March to early June.

"While there was a brief lull in the level of sectarian violence early in the reporting period, it now appears that militia forces are resuming their activities, including targeted killings and kidnappings."

After the bombing, Prime Minister al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, went into urgent talks with Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, chairman of the Shi'ite Waqf, the government agency that looks after Shi'ite mosques and religious schools, according to officials in al-Maliki's office.

He later met with the interior and defence ministers, along with other top advisers and security commanders to discuss measures to contain any possible explosion of sectarian violence following the bombing, al-Maliki's office said.

The Askariya mosque contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams - Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868, and his son Hassan Askariya, who died in 874. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shi'ites consider them to be among his successors.

The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared.

Al-Mahdi, known as the "hidden imam," was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariyaya shrine. Shi'ites believe he will return to Earth restore justice to humanity.

After last year's bombing, the mosque was guarded by about 60 Federal Protection Service forces and 25 local Iraqi police who kept watch on the perimeter, according to Samarra city officials.

In the immediate aftermath of that bombing, US officials and others had promised to help rebuild the landmark dome, completed in 1905, but no rebuilding has begun.

Iraq has been plagued by violence since the war started in 2003, but the carefully orchestrated 2006 explosion, in which suspected al-Qaeda assailants wearing uniforms set off two bombs, touched a nerve.

The bombing unleashed Shi'ite militias, who ignored appeals for calm and instead attacked Sunni clerics and mosques. Nearly 140 people were killed the next day.

The United Nations reported that 34,452 civilians lost their lives in 2006 in the nearly unfathomable sectarian bloodshed that hit the capital hardest.

Sunni insurgents carried out bombings almost daily, and Shi'ite death squads dumped dozens of corpses on the streets and in vacant lots.

Source : http://www.thewest.com.au

Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars

2007-06-13T03:10:00.000-07:00