voiceofbreeze

Apple founding papers sold at auction for nearly $1.6m

2011-12-17T22:55:00.001+08:00

Apple's founding papers have been sold at auction for $1,594,500 (£1.03m).

Sotheby's had estimated the three typed partnership agreements would sell for between $100,000 and $150,000.

The documents were signed by the firm's three co-founders, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on 1 April 1976. The papers include an amendment added 11 days later when Mr Wayne quit.

The buyer was Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive of Cisneros Corporation.

His Miami-based firm owns stakes in a range of businesses covering real estate, TV production and telecommunications.

Sotheby's said five other bidders took part in the sale.

The sale price includes a 12% buyer's premium paid to the auction house Sotheby's for holding the auction. That values the documents themselves at $1.35m.
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

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Trillion frames per second light-tracking camera

2011-12-17T22:50:00.001+08:00

A camera capable of visualising the movement of light has been unveiled by a team of scientists in the US.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

The equipment captures images at a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second - or about 40 billion times faster than a UK television camera.

Direct recording of light is impossible at that speed, so the camera takes millions of repeated scans to recreate each image.

The team said the technique could be used to understand ultrafast processes.

The process has been dubbed femto-photography and has been detailed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab's website.

"There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera," said Andrea Velten, one of the researchers involved in the project.
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

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Worldwide cocoa shortage to send chocolate prices soaring

2011-12-17T22:44:00.001+08:00

Make the most of your chocolate treats this Christmas and start stock-pilling those Celebrations tins, they may not be around for much longer as experts predict that a cocoa crisis is imminent.

Amplify’d from sg.news.yahoo.com

Make the most of your chocolate treats this Christmas and start stock-pilling those Celebrations tins, they may not be around for much longer as experts predict that a cocoa crisis is imminent.

We will have a million-ton cocoa shortage within eight years, forcing the price of chocolate to rise significantly.

Industry insiders say the growing demand for chocolate in areas where it wasn’t previously popular means cocoa farmers need an area the size of the Ivory Coast to produce more cocoa.

Angus Kennedy, a leading British chocolatier, told The Express: “Part of the problem is the growing demand for chocolate in Asia where countries such as China are turning more towards Western tastes.”

If they do not receive more help to boost cocoa bean crops, prices will push chocolate into a delicacy price bracket and we will be forced to find less appealing chocolate substitutes in the market that “don’t melt in your mouth” says Kennedy.
Read more at sg.news.yahoo.com

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Zurich voters reject ban on "suicide tourism"

2011-05-17T00:12:00.001+08:00

Voters in Zurich overwhemingly rejected on Sunday proposed bans on assisted suicide and "suicide tourism" - foreigners travelling to Switzerland to receive help ending their lives.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

Voters in Zurich, Switzerland, have rejected proposed bans on assisted suicide and "suicide tourism".

Some 85% of the 278,000 votes cast opposed the ban on assisted suicide and 78% opposed outlawing it for foreigners, Zurich authorities said.

About 200 people commit assisted suicide each year in Zurich, including many foreign visitors.

It has been legal in Switzerland since 1941 if performed by a non-physician with no vested interest in the death.

Assistance can be provided only in a passive way, such as by providing drugs. Active assistance - helping a person to take or administer a product - is prohibited.

While opinion polls indicated that most Swiss were in favour of assisted suicide, they had also suggested that many were against what has become known as suicide tourism.
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

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Restore contacts in Gmail

2011-04-14T14:49:00.001+08:00

If you make changes to your contacts that you want to undo, you can restore your full contacts list to an earlier saved version

Amplify’d from mail.google.com

Recovering contacts that have been accidentally deleted

Restoring contacts after an unsuccessful sync

Undoing a recent import

Undoing a recent merge

To restore your contacts to a previous version, just follow these steps:

Click Contacts.

From the More actions drop-down menu, choose Restore contacts.

Choose the time you'd like to revert your contacts list to (e.g. 10 minutes ago, one hour ago, one week ago, etc). We
suggest that you also make a note of the time that you restore your
contacts, in case you'd like to return to where you started.

Click Restore. You'll see a confirmation at the top of the screen when the rollback is complete.

Read more at mail.google.com

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Singapore FreePort

2011-04-14T14:32:00.001+08:00

When Swiss authorities lifted the veil of banking secrecy—under pressure from the European Union to expose tax dodgers—Singapore stepped in, promoting itself to the world's ultrarich as a discreet place to park cash. Now, the Southeast Asian city-state hopes to persuade them to store their high-priced collectibles here, too

Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.com

This week, doors opened to the Singapore FreePort, a super-secure, state-of-the-art facility that operates in its own duty-free zone next to Singapore's Changi Airport. The largest such facility in the world, it provides wealthy collectors with tax-free storage, as well as a place to display and sell their art. Owners and prospective buyers can jet in, pop over to the FreePort to view a piece of art in a private gallery, seal the deal, and jet off again. While FreePort tenants have to register the goods online with Singapore Customs, they need report only what general category they fall under—say, one painting, not one Picasso.

"When you go to a bank and rent a safe, nobody knows what goes in. It's the same thing here," says Alain Vandenborre, president and co-founder of Singapore FreePort. "They only need to give a code that indicates the broad nature of the item—gold, wine or a painting. There's no value, no ownership, no inventory list—all details are confidential. We offer more confidentiality than Geneva," whose free port was set up in 1888.
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Color: Photo-Sharing App

2011-04-14T14:19:00.001+08:00

Much of last week’s buzz surrounding the launch of Color was justifiably skeptical. The startup, after all, raised $41 million to enter a crowded space without a business model or customers, and many wonder whether the world really needs another mobile photo-sharing app. But two components of Color’s vision — implicit networks (connections created without user effort) and place/time tagging — extend far beyond photo-sharing, and make the company worth watching as a potential indicator of social media and data-mining trends.

Amplify’d from gigaom.com

Color

Early reviews of the Color product are pretty negative. Om writes that Color is attracting the wrong kind of attention – pundits rather than users – because it doesn’t seem to deliver either “enchantment” or utility. Mathew Ingram wonders if the big funding bet is on Color’s all-star team rather than its product or ideas.

Implicit Networks: Angel investor and Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon says he’s intrigued by Color because it is pushing the envelope on implicit social graphs. Color’s implicit networks aren’t specified by users, but rather are based on underlying contexts like geography or shared interests. If Color builds on its implict network concept, it could deliver instant groups of friends for different occasions or interests, and expose recommendations based on common tastes. Marketers could target advertising or offers within a Color network to real-time groups around an event or location, or aimed by shared interests.

Place and Time Data: Search pundit John Battelle goes a little overboard on how Color could push augmented reality. But he’s right about the importance of geo-tagged data. In a presentation last week at GigaOM’s Structure Big Data 2011 conference, IBM Distinguished Engineer Jeff Jonas showedhow adding place and time to data objects can power big data analysis, predicting a person’s likelihood of being at a given location with astounding accuracy, and assisting in identity management. Again, if Color is a leader in gathering this data, it could build out a powerful — yet still privacy-protected — targeted advertising network.
Read more at gigaom.com

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Google to be audited on privacy

2011-03-31T13:58:00.001+08:00

Google will be subjected to independent privacy audits for the next 20 years over charges that it "violated its own privacy promises".

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that the search giant wrongly used information from Google Mail users last year to create its social network Buzz.

The FTC ruled that "the options for declining or leaving the social network were ineffective".

"Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards," Google said in a blog post.

"While we worked quickly to make improvements, regulators unsurprisingly wanted more detail about what went wrong and how we could prevent it from happening again.
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

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BBC denies rigging Top Gear

2011-03-31T13:43:00.001+08:00

The BBC is being sued by the makers of the electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, over claims a race on Top Gear was rigged.

Tesla Motors claims the test set up by Jeremy Clarkson on a 2008 edition of the show was rigged to make it look like the Tesla ran out of power when racing a petrol powered Lotus.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

The Tesla Roadster is the world's fastest production electric car.

A Top Gear spokesman said the BBC would be "vigorously defending" the claim.

On the programme Jeremy Clarkson claimed: "Although Tesla say it'll do 200 miles, we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles."
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

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Britney is back

2011-03-31T13:39:00.001+08:00

Britney is back, but can she compete with Gaga?

As Britney Spears prepares to launch her seventh studio album "Femme Fatale" on Tuesday, the pop star faces keen competition from Lady Gaga, Katie Perry and Rihanna, who reign atop Billboard's Hot 100 singles ranking.

Amplify’d from new.music.yahoo.com

Her younger rivals' dominance this week may be coincidental -- indeed, Spears also topped the ranking recently with "Hold It Against Me." -- but the chart is a reminder of how crowded the pop diva market has become since Spears rose to fame as a teenager.

There is little doubt her fans will ensure brisk sales -- Spears has sold nearly 70 million albums, according to label Jive Records -- and her music is making headlines again instead of personal meltdowns, a custody battle and rehab stints.

Spears kicked off a string of promotions for the album on Friday with a performance at a Las Vegas nightclub. On Sunday in San Francisco she will record a sold-out mini-concert to be aired on ABC's "Good Morning America" TV show on Tuesday.

Yet after more than 10 years in the music business, Spears, now 29, may have to do more to remain relevant in the era of Gaga, critics say.
Read more at new.music.yahoo.com

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25 Mind-Blowing Aerial Photographs

2011-03-31T13:37:00.001+08:00

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Porn Stars, Clad?

2011-03-31T13:35:00.001+08:00

Porn Stars, Clad? They Seem to Appeal to Indonesian Filmgoers

It was a cloak-and-dagger moment in Indonesia’s culture war between peddlers of titillation and Islamist conservatives.

Sora Aoi, who won fame for appearing in pornographic movies in her native Japan, was spirited into Indonesia recently for a starring role in “Evil Nurse 2,” a local low-budget horror movie.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

In a run-down maternity hospital in Jakarta’s gritty exurbs recently, the shooting of “Evil Nurse 2,” a sequel to a low-budget horror film, proceeded under unusually tight secrecy.

Rather than seek news coverage for the movie, the filmmaker, Ody Mulya Hidayat, swore entertainment reporters to silence. An ill-timed piece of publicity could bring enraged Islamist activists banging down the door. A single leaked photo could invite prosecution and a lengthy jail term.

The reason for all the furtiveness was Sora Aoi, a diminutive Japanese sex-film star who had been spirited into the country for a leading role in the movie, her presence concealed as she was ferried between her hotel and shoots around Jakarta.
Read more at www.nytimes.com

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Man Proposes to Girlfriend via iPad 2

2011-03-31T13:29:00.001+08:00

The newest nerdy engagement making the rounds comes from Jordan C., who decided to surprise his girlfriend, Jessica, by asking her the big question through an engraved iPad that simply read, “Will You Marry Me?” Jordan told 9to5Mac that he gave her the iPad under one of the world’s largest trees in the National Redwood Forest near Crescent City, California.

Amplify’d from mashable.com

Her response? “Yes; now give me my iPad!” It looks like Jordan has found a woman who appreciates her Apple gadgets.

While this isn’t the first time an Apple product has been used to ask a girlfriend for her hand in marriage, it’s the first iPad 2 proposal we’ve ever come across. Proposing under the giant redwood tree was a nice touch, too.
Read more at mashable.com

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Nokia promises strong Symbian devices

2011-03-31T13:27:00.001+08:00

Nokia promises strong Symbian devices through Windows Phone transition, major OTA update this summer

Amplify’d from www.engadget.com

Nokia is desperately trying to convince us that Symbian and the Qt developer framework are far from dead. In an open letter of encouragement to developers from Purnima Kochikar, VP of Nokia Forum & Developer Community, Purnima attempts to coax devs into fine-tuning their Qt skills in preparation for a "strong portfolio" of new Symbian products with "GHz+" processing and faster graphics coming in 2011 and 2012. Presumably she's talking about the T7, X7, and E6 leaks among others. And because Symbian is still the leading smartphone platform in markets like China, India, Russia, and Turkey, she hints that Nokia will likely continue to support Symbian well beyond the transition to Windows Phone, at least in select markets.

Of course, hardware has never really been Nokia's issue so it's nice to hear Purnima commit to a first major Symbian user experience update this summer that includes the new home screen, icons, browser, and navbar we've already seen, in addition to a "fresh look and feel" to the Ovi Store and Maps with the latter also getting a integrated social media services update. The Symbian update -- some of which has already been seen on the C7 Astound -- will come to "all users" over the air. Too late to save the platform but just in time for the Symbian faithful.
Read more at www.engadget.com

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Eminem Lawsuit May Raise Pay

2011-03-28T17:31:00.001+08:00

The most closely watched lawsuit in the music industry asks this question: how much should a song on iTunes or another digital music service be worth to the performer?

The artist at the center of the suit is Eminem, but some of the biggest beneficiaries of the case may be thousands of older artists who have not released an album in decades.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Four years ago, the producers who discovered Eminem sued his record label, the Universal Music Group, over the way royalties are computed for digital music, which boils down to whether an individual song sold online should be considered a license or a sale. The difference is far from academic because, as with most artists, Eminem’s contract stipulates that he gets 50 percent of the royalties for a license but only 12 percent for a sale.

“As of now it’s worth $17 million or $20 million, but on a future accounting basis, five or 10 years from now, it could easily be a $40 million to $50 million issue,” said Joel Martin, the manager of F.B.T. Productions in Detroit, which first signed Eminem and continues to collect royalties on his music. (Marshall Mathers himself, who performs as Eminem, was not a party to the suit, although he stands to earn millions from it.)

The suit reached its apparent end last week when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal, letting stand a lower court’s decision that digital music should be treated as a license. Lawyers and music executives say that few younger artists are likely to be affected by the decision because since the early 2000s record companies have revised most of their contracts to include digital sales among an artist’s record royalties. Eminem’s first contract was signed in 1995.
Read more at www.nytimes.com

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Popular Online File Storage Services

2011-03-28T13:47:00.001+08:00

There are many online file storage services available. It is a very good idea to store your data on secured servers, this not only saves your hard disk space but also allows you to sync and recover any lost data during a system crash or any other natural disasters.

Amplify’d from techie-buzz.com

Here in are some of the paid and free online file storage services that provide tons of free and paid storage space to store your data securely. Many of these services also allow you to share files over the web and by using specific clients, you can also backup your data automatically without the fear of losing data. The table below shows a detailed comparison of some of the popular online file storage services, look at the table and decide which service best suits you.
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Reinhold Niebuhr's "Serenity Prayer"

2011-03-28T13:36:00.001+08:00

Amplify’d from answers.yahoo.com

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

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List of world's most valuable brands

2011-03-28T13:24:00.001+08:00

Google is the world's most valuable brand, according to a brand valuation company's list of the top 500 global brands.

Assigning a dollar amount to Google's brand, BrandFinance raised the search giant's value to $44.2 billion this year, up 23 percent from $36 billion last year.

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

Google often embarks on ventures that aren't necessarily commercial but have a positive impact on its brand rating (AAA+), which is the highest in the list, according to BrandFinance. One example includes Google's online services designed to help rescue efforts after the natural disasters in New Zealand and Japan.

Moving to No. 8 on the list from No. 20 last year, Apple's brand value increased by 45 percent to $29.5 billion due in large part to the "unrivaled loyalty and affection" that the company commands within its sector, BrandFinance said.

Nokia was one tech company that didn't fair as well. Struggling in the smartphone market due to competition from Apple and Android, Nokia saw its brand value drop to $9.6 billion from $19.8 billion last year. Like other industry watchers, BrandFinance is waiting to see if Nokia's new deal with Microsoft can help revive its standing.
Read more at news.cnet.com

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Inside quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant

2011-03-27T22:47:00.001+08:00

Humbled by the efforts of the brave men who put their lives at risk to avert a catastrophe.

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Ohio man gets a $16.4 million cable bill

2011-03-27T22:37:00.001+08:00

You may have heard the story about the man living in a 14x60 trailer who got a $12,864 electric bill, or the Corpus Christie man who was billed $7.7 million by his water company, or the Canadian whose cell phone provider hit him up for $85,000--the list truly goes on and on and on. Now the outrageous bill receivers club has a new member in Daniel DeVirgilio.

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

Yes, based on the cable bill that DeVirgilio received this week, he's either the king of pay-per-view, or the victim of one of the most extreme computerized billing glitches in the history of computerized billing glitches. Fortunately for him, it looks like it's the latter.

When the Ohio man's attempt to make a payment on his cable bill to Time Warner was rejected, he learned that the company had calculated his past-due amount at more than $16 million.

"All I want to do is watch March Madness," DeVirgilio, whose bill usually runs around $80 a month, told the Dayton Daily News. The paper says DeVirgilio did the math and concluded that he'd have to order 1.6 million on-demand movies or a pay-per-view fight 400,000 times to accumulate $16.4 million in charges. But at least he's maintaining a sense of humor about the whole thing.
Read more at news.yahoo.com

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Cameraman Sued for Bad Wedding Video

2011-03-27T22:34:00.001+08:00

British couple took hired wedding videographer to court.

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Microsoft spends $7.5m on net addresses

2011-03-27T22:29:00.001+08:00

Microsoft has offered to pay $7.5m (£4.7m) for net addresses from bankrupt telecoms firm Nortel.

The 666,624 IP version 4 (IPv4) net addresses were put up for auction as part of the sell-off of Nortel's assets.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

Blocks of IPv4 are valuable because the pool of this generation of address is close to running dry.

It was predicted that a market in IPv4 would appear among companies facing a costly migration to the newer IPv6.

Details of the sale were contained in papers filed to a Delaware bankruptcy court and show that Microsoft's bid was the highest of the 80 firms asked if they wanted to make an offer for the IP addresses.
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YouTube Now 25% Of All Google Searches

2011-03-27T22:07:00.001+08:00

Video search on YouTube accounts for a quarter of all Google search queries in the U.S., according to the latest search engine numbers from comScore. Its monthly qSearch report, which was released on Thursday night, breaks out the number of searches conducted on YouTube. If it were a standalone site, YouTube would be the second largest search engine after Google. More searches are done through YouTube than through Yahoo, which has been the case for the past few months.

Amplify’d from techcrunch.com

The comScore numbers show healthy growth in core search activity as well (stripping out video search, map search, etc), especially for Google. Plain-vanilla search for Google grew 32.3 percent annually, compared to a 29.6 percent growth rate in October. Perhaps all of that holiday bargain hunting is helping.

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Lockheed Martin shows Orion spacecraft

2011-03-25T14:17:00.001+08:00

No, that's not the Apollo command module you're looking at up there. What's old is new again in space design, and what's floating weightless above this text is a photo of humanity's next great chariot into space. It's the Orion spacecraft from Lockheed Martin, commissioned for NASA and designed to carry a crew of four not just for trips into orbit but well out into the solar system.

Amplify’d from www.engadget.com

Lockheed Martin shows off Orion spacecraft, new secret lair

Lockheed Martin has just taken the wraps off the thing for the first time, also showing off its new Space Operations Simulation Center (SOSC), located neither in Houston nor Cape Canaveral. It is instead ~~dug into~~ built atop the bedrock in Colorado, theoretically isolating it from seismic and other disturbances so that the testing crew can do their thing without any outside interference. In that bunker the ship is currently testing ahead of a planned first launch in 2013, taking a crew into orbit as soon as 2016. Mars? That might be another few years.
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Theater Popcorn Calorie Count secret

2011-03-25T14:14:00.001+08:00

Would you buy a tub of popcorn at the movies if you knew you'd be munching on more than 1400 calories? Movie theaters bet you wouldn't. That's why the National Association for Theatre Owners is lobbying the Food and Drug Association against introducing food labels at their concession stands.

Amplify’d from newsfeed.time.com

Caloric Controversy: Theater Owners Fight to Keep Popcorn Counts in the Dark

It all boils down to a provision in the federal health care law that says restaurant chains with at least 20 U.S. locations must provide the calorie content of menu items. Though it was initially intended for only restaurants, the law is about to include grocery stores and concession stands–a move that theater operators aren't happy about. In the wake of soaring national obesity rates, it's not surprising lawmakers are flirting with the idea.

But the movie theater industry argues they are "just concession stands," so why should they have to exhibit what's in their food? “We're not restaurants where people go to eat and satisfy themselves,” Gary Klein, general counsel of the National Association. of Theatre Owners, told the LA Times. "The average person goes to the theater four times a year," Klein said. "I don't think they care." Whether they care or not, isn't the average person in the U.S. also overweight? Whether it is a movie theater or a restaurant seems irrelevant when one bag of popcorn could add up to three big Macs in one sitting.

This isn't the first time the theater industry has been put into the spotlight for selling fatty popcorn. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been waging an awareness war on the evils of popcorn for some time. But perhaps this law is a blessing in disguise. If logic prevails, surely less consumption of fatty foods means less heart attacks and more people buying tickets to see their favorite flicks.
Read more at newsfeed.time.com

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Barack Obama’s Super Secure Tent

2011-03-25T14:11:00.001+08:00

This is a picture from inside a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility aka a makeshift tent that lets top government officials discuss top secret information anywhere in the world. As you can see by the fugly floral carpeting, Obama's tent was propped up inside a hotel.

Amplify’d from gizmodo.com

Barack Obama’s Super Secure Tent Lets Him Hold Top Secret Discussions

SCIFs are actually very interesting. They're designed to withstand anything from eavesdropping to computer hacking and according to the BBC, made from "a secret material which is designed to keep emissions in and listening devices out". Hey, that "secret material" looks like blue tarp to me, but what do I know. More seriously, circling the exterior of the SCIF is a "ring of electronic waves" which prevents signals from getting in or out of the tent. Though they allow a secure and encrypted phone line to get out (as can be seen in the photo).

It's good to know how cautious they are though! They scout out buildings the President will visit beforehand to determine where they can place the tent. Ideally, the SCIF is far away from windows and concentrations of people. Sometimes they even create a SCIF with its own air supply and control the perimeter with guards. They're constantly improving the SCIF, which is supposed to be 99.9% infallible. [BBC via Kottke]
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Google may face antitrust probes

2011-03-25T14:08:00.001+08:00

Google could find itself the target of two separate antitrust probes launched by Ohio and Wisconsin, according to a story published today by Bloomberg.

Concerned over the search giant's business practices, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is "evaluating the facts to determine if it's something we want to review," his spokesman Dan Tierney told Bloomberg.

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

Asked if the attorney general is looking into a specific incident on Google's part that might trigger an investigation, Tierney said that he didn't have any information exactly as to what the office is reviewing but said that "there's a lot of information going on in various states, so we're just reviewing what's out there to determine if we need to take action under Ohio law."

The Ohio attorney general could also be contemplating a probe in response to a lawsuit filed against Google last year by Columbus, Ohio-based company MyTriggers. MyTriggers, which runs an online shopping comparison search engine, has charged that Google manipulated search results to penalize it, according to a copy of the lawsuit (PDF) posted by the site Googleopoly.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is said to be evaluating an investigation over Google's bid to buy travel software company ITA, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. A phone call to the Wisconsin attorney general's office for confirmation was not returned.
Read more at news.cnet.com

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Muzak Sold for $305 Million

2011-03-25T14:06:00.001+08:00

Mood Media Corp., a Toronto-based provider of in-store audio and video services, has agreed to acquire Muzak Holdings LLC, best known for providing piped music in elevators, for $305 million in cash.

Fort Mill, S.C.-based Muzak emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year after reducing its debt by more than half to around $230 million. When it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, Muzak was owned by private-equity firm Abry Partners. Muzak's creditors swapped debt for equity under the reorganization plan.

Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.com

"It's an incredibly complementary acquisition, minute one," Mood Media Chief Executive Lorne Abony said in an interview. The deal will help Mood, which is dual-listed in Toronto and London, build its presence in the U.S., he said.

Founded in 2004, Mood has a market capitalization of about $380 million. It has a large presence in Europe, where it provides background music and digital signage services to around 117,000 locations, from Nike to Hermes stores.

Muzak provides background music to about 300,000 U.S. locations, such as restaurants, malls and hotels. It makes most of its money through multi-year contracts and reported 2010 revenue of $195 million. The company traces its roots back to the 1930s when it distributed recorded music to theaters and stores. Today, it also provides on-hold messaging and video programming, although piped music is its forte.
Read more at www.wallstreetjournal.com

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U.S. Fight on Spent Nuclear Fuel

2011-03-25T14:03:00.001+08:00

The threat of the release of highly radioactive spent fuel at a Japanese nuclear plant has revived a debate in the United States about how to manage such waste and has led to new recriminations over a derailed plan for a national repository in Nevada.

Pools holding spent fuel at nuclear plants in the United States are even more heavily loaded than those at the Japanese reactors, experts say, and are more vulnerable to some threats than the ones in Japan. However, utility companies have taken steps since the 9/11 terrorist attacks to make them safer.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Adding to those concerns, no plan to move the waste has emerged to replace a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. President Obama promised to cancel the project during his 2008 campaign, and last year he told the Department of Energy to withdraw an application that it had submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction license.

Frustration in Congress is growing. “You have an unholy mess on your hands,” Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, told the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko, at a House subcommittee hearing last week. “The stuff keeps piling up, and you’ve doubled the amount that you can store in a single pool, but that’s running out. Is there a long-term plan anywhere in government?”

Congress selected Yucca Mountain as its first choice for a waste site in 1987, pending engineering studies. Many lawmakers said the Obama administration lacked the authority to stop the project and should revive it so that waste can be removed from their states.
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Textbook Renter Chegg Become More Social

2011-03-25T13:57:00.001+08:00

Chegg is known as the Netflix of college textbooks. The Silicon Valley start-up, which has raised more than $200 million in debt and equity, allows students to rent costly college textbooks, rather than buy them. When the semester is over, they ship the books back and order new ones.

The business, said Dan Rosensweig, the former Yahoo and Activision Blizzard executive who became Chegg’s chief executive 13 months ago, is booming. He said Chegg, which plants a tree for every textbook rented, has planted four million trees.

Amplify’d from bits.blogs.nytimes.com

But with increasing competition from scrappy start-ups like BookRenter.com, Chegg is now trying to get more of its customers’ attention. On Thursday, the company is unveiling a new Web site that in addition to rentals, helps students to select courses and to study.

“We aspire to be relevant to students every day of their college experience,” Mr. Rosensweig said in an interview.

The new services come from the integration of two start-ups that Chegg bought in the last year.
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Brazil police filmed 'shooting a boy'

2011-03-25T13:55:00.001+08:00

Five Brazilian police officers have been arrested after television stations broadcast a video in which some of them appear to shoot a 14-year-old-boy.

The footage - captured by a security camera in the city of Manaus - shows uniformed men pushing the teenager before shooting him in the chest.

The boy survived with several wounds and is now in a witness protection programme along with his family.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

The incident happened in August but has only recently come to light.

The boy's family and the person in charge of the security camera, as well as the first reporter to see the footage, initially held the video back because they feared retaliation if it was made public, prosecutors said.

Amazonas state prosecutor Joao Bosco Sa Valente said the officers would face charges of attempted homicide.

"I have been fighting organised crime for 30 years, but every time I see those images I feel indignation and disgust," the prosecutor told the Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

The images have attracted widespread media attention across Brazil.

Police officers in Brazil are frequently accused of using excessive force against criminal suspects, including extrajudicial execution.
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TNK-BP blocks BP Russian Arctic venture

2011-03-25T13:53:00.001+08:00

Russian shareholders of TNK-BP have blocked BP's Arctic exploration deal with state-owned Rosneft.

"We won," said a spokesman for the oil joint venture's Russian shareholders.

A Swedish arbitration panel in London agreed that the Arctic deal violated a previous agreement between them and BP made when they set up TNK-BP.

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BP said it was disappointed at the decision, and hoped it could still go ahead with a share swap agreed with Rosneft as part of the deal.

"BP looks forward to finding a way to resolve its differences with its Russian partners to allow these important Arctic developments to proceed in future," said the UK oil firm in a statement on the arbitration panel's decision.

However, the UK firm faces an effective deadline for breaking the deadlock of 14 April, according to the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston.

That is the date on which BP's agreement with Rosneft must be consummated by, or else it will expire.
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French chess hit by 'cheating' scandal

2011-03-25T13:51:00.001+08:00

The French chess federation has suspended three top players for violating sporting ethics at a chess olympiad in Siberia last September.

The trio are alleged to have used an elaborate scheme involving text messages and computer software to help beat opponents at Khanty-Mansiysk.

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The players - Sebastien Feller, Cyril Marzolo and captain Arnaud Hauchard - all deny cheating at the tournament.

"There have already been suspicions of cheating in chess, even involving strong players in the past, but there has never been proof of cheating," Mr Verat told AFP news agency.

According to the French federation, while international grand master Sebastien Feller, 19, was involved in a game, Cyril Marzolo followed developments over the internet and used computer software to establish the best next move. The answer was then sent by means of a coded text message to the third member of the team, Arnaud Hauchard.
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'Sleeping' US air traffic controller

2011-03-25T13:49:00.001+08:00

An air traffic controller who was unavailable to help two jets land at a busy Washington DC airport has been suspended, an official has said.

The planes landed safely, despite being unable to make contact with the control tower early on Wednesday.

The lone nighttime controller at Reagan National Airport had fallen asleep, the Associated Press reported.

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In response, regulators have ordered that two controllers be on duty on the midnight shift.

The jets carried a total of 165 people.

"As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged that this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes," Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Randy Babbitt said.

The FAA has launched a national inquiry into tower staffing, officials said.
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Billionaire Ho splits up gambling empire

2011-03-25T13:48:00.001+08:00

Ageing Macau gambling billionaire Stanley Ho has given up almost all his share in the casino empire he built up over five decades.

The move follows a bitter family feud over who would inherit his business.

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Mr Ho, who is estimated to have a personal fortune of $2bn, has 16 children from four wives, many of whom have key roles in his business.

But with Mr Ho now at 89 years of age and in fragile health, the succession issue has been worrying investors.

To solve the inheritance problem, Mr Ho has divided his $1.6bn controlling stake in Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM) among his relatives.

He has kept a tiny fraction for himself, according to a statement released late on Thursday.
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Chris Brown apologises for angry outburs

2011-03-25T13:44:00.001+08:00

Chris Brown has apologised for an angry outburst which followed a breakfast TV appearance in the US this week.

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The R&B singer reportedly broke a dressing room window and left Good Morning America shirtless on Tuesday after being questioned about his ex-girlfriend Rihanna.

He has now said sorry to "anybody who was startled in the office, or anybody who was offended".

"I'm disappointed in the way I acted - I got very emotional," he added.
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10 Most Beautiful Waterfalls

2011-03-24T22:07:00.001+08:00

From the thundering roar of Niagara Falls in the U.S. to the elegant veil of Angel Falls in Venezuela, we found the world's most photogenic waterfalls—and share the best ways to see the action in person.

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Few things in nature are as mesmerizing as a waterfall—the thunderous roar as water spills over cliffs, the light glistening off the spray, the sheer force of it all. We found the 10 most enticing cascades on the planet. Some are obvious choices (who could resist the honeymooners' classic Niagara?), others are more obscure (ever heard of Langfoss?), but they all share an important quality: One look, and you're bound to be transfixed for hours.

If the Grand Canyon were covered in Technicolor green moss, spotted with 16 lakes across its base, and laced with thousands of falls along its walls, it would look a little something like Plitvice Lakes National Park in southwestern Croatia ($15 entrance fee, per person). The color of the water is intensely turquoise, thanks to the unique mix of minerals and organisms in runoff from the Dinaric Alps. The Plitvice National Park Service offers three-hour tours, starting at $130 for groups, but it's more fun to explore at your own pace, stopping to duck under waterfalls when you need to cool off. Allow a solid two to three hours to poke around, and be sure to take in the view from the first entrance to the park. The perch, high above a series of caves, overlooks all the lakes. Maps for sale ($4 each) at the tourist information booths, located at each of the park's two entrances, will help you navigate the park's labyrinth of trails and boardwalks.

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Inside world’s ‘most dangerous’ volcano

2011-03-24T22:05:00.001+08:00

For scientists, sometimes the best way to study a volcano is from the inside out. That's exactly what volcanologists Dario Tedesco and Ken Sims did when they descended deep into Nyiragongo, one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

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Because of its location in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where constant warfare has raged for decades, Nyiragongo has barely been studied by scientists. This lack of knowledge could prove catastrophic for the city of Goma, located at the base of the volcano -- according to Tadesco, an eruption could potentially transform the city of one million into "a modern Pompeii." By coming face-to-face with boiling lava, Tadesco and Sims hoped to gather data that could help predict an eruption. Intrepid photographer Carsten Peter was there to capture incredible photos of their journey.

If a major eruption were to occur, molten lava could be the least of Goma's worries. Nearby Lake Kivu is infused with methane, and the force of an eruption could trigger a cloud of deadly gas to rise over the city. A unique, interactive National Geographic map illustrates the numerous threats posed by the terrain surrounding Goma.
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Source of latest Gulf oil spill

2011-03-24T22:02:00.001+08:00

Just hours after a new sizable oil slick was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, a Houston-based energy company came forward to claim responsibility for the latest round of crude tainting the area.

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Anglo-Suisse Offshore Partners issued a statement last night expressing "surprise" that what it claimed was a minor leak from a well that's been out of use for some time could have produced miles-long slicks that garnered national media attention. The company has been in the process of permanently plugging the well -- located in a shallow area about 30 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La. Anglo-Suisse owned a cluster of five platforms in that area that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

According to the Times-Picayune's David Hammer, Anglo-Suisse has filed three incident reports with the Coast Guard since last Friday. In those documents, Hammer reports, the company explained that as it used a remotely operated submarine to plug the well, some oil had been discharged into the Gulf.

However, the company claimed in those reports that it had spilled less than five gallons of crude -- an amount far too small to account for the scope of the spill shown in aerial photographs. Nor would five gallons of crude square with reports of oil washing up over a 30 mile stretch of Louisiana's shoreline.
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Billionaire Olsen Twins

2011-03-24T22:00:00.001+08:00

As the head designers of three separate clothing lines -- The Row, Elizabeth & James and Olsenboye -- the 24-year-old sisters have brought in $1 billion in retail sales through their company, Dualstar. Still, Mary-Kate and Ashley tell Vogue's April issue that buyers weren't always so supportive of their fashion venture.

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"We hired a showroom and talked buyers through," Ashley recalls. "People would drill us about fabric, where we'd make it," Mary-Kate adds. "The first season, customers bought it, so the stores came back. And drilled us again."

Unlike some celebrity clothing designers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are involved with each aspect of the apparel-making process.

Still, the twins realized that with no formal design training under their belts, they were in for a tough sell.
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Japan disaster likely to be world's cost

2011-03-24T21:58:00.001+08:00

Japan's government said the cost of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast could reach $309 billion, making it the world's most expensive natural disaster on record.

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The extensive damage to housing, roads, utilities and businesses across seven prefectures has resulted in direct losses of between 16 trillion yen ($198 billion) and 25 trillion yen ($309 billion), according to a Cabinet Office estimate Wednesday.

The losses figure is considerably higher than other estimates. The World Bank on Monday said damage might reach $235 billion. Investment bank Goldman Sachs had estimated quake damage would be as much as $200 billion.
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High-Tech Way To Beat The Heat In Qatar

2011-03-24T21:53:00.001+08:00

Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup by promising that its nine new open-air soccer stadiums would be air-conditioned. Now the Qataris have announced another cool twist to their hospitality -- an artificial cloud to hover above the stadium and provide shade.

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The head of mechanical and industrial engineering at Qatar University said the cloud would be positioned by remote control and run on solar power.

Based on the design shown in local Qatari news outlets, the cloud isn't white and fluffy. It is flat and rectangular, resembling a giant cell phone, and will be built using light carbonic materials. Perhaps something was lost in translation from Arabic because the invention is more spaceship than cloud, but ultimately players and fans will benefit from the shade.

The cost of the cloud is $500,000, but money is no obstacle for Qatar, which is one of the world's richest countries thanks to vast natural gas and oil reserves.
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Japan quake may hit SG’s investments

2011-03-24T00:48:00.001+08:00

As Singaporeans' concern mount over the safety of millions of Japanese, a small group of state investors are probably burning the midnight oil in Singapore.

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These people, who manage the two sovereign state funds with assets and investments worth in excess of US$200 billion are likely to be poring over possible future options.

They are not only keeping watch on the nuclear drama unfolding in Japan, but also on the spreading violent upheavals in the Middle East, where the republic has high stakes.

Recently, Foreign Minister George Yeo told Parliament that Singapore had to "adjust to changes" taking place there.

In 1999, the government began a strategy of investing heavily in overseas markets to get a higher return for the state funds.
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Apple's Jobs ordered to answer lawyers

2011-03-24T00:45:00.001+08:00

Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs, who is out on medical leave, has been ordered to answer questions from lawyers for a group of consumers accusing the company of creating a music-download monopoly.

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U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd, based in San Jose, California, ruled on Monday that lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the antitrust lawsuit may question Jobs for a total of two hours.

Apple may appeal the decision. A company spokeswoman declined to comment, while attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment.

The ruling comes amid intense questions about Jobs' health. The Silicon Valley icon, who has been treated for a rare form of pancreatic cancer and underwent a liver transplant in 2009, has been out on leave since January because of an undisclosed medical condition.
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Millions download latest Firefox browser

2011-03-24T00:21:00.001+08:00

More than five million people have downloaded the latest version of Firefox since its release a day ago.

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Mozilla, which makes the number two web browser, has been keeping a real-time map showing where in the world users are installing the software.

Despite the rapid uptake, downloads have been slower for version 4 than its predecessor.

Over the past year, Firefox's market share has declined slightly in the face of competition from Google's Chrome.
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Apple sues Amazon over 'Appstore' name

2011-03-24T00:20:00.001+08:00

Apple is suing Amazon in a bid to stop the online retail giant from using the name Appstore.

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The California-based firm, which makes iPhones and iPads, claims that the name is deliberately similar to its own App Store.

"It will confuse and mislead customers," said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet.

Amazon's Appstore will offer downloadable applications for Google's Android operating system.
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Twitter, telegram and e-mail

2011-03-23T14:41:00.001+08:00

Famous first lines and words from the World's Top technologies

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Twitter launched five years ago with the simple message "just setting up my twttr". In the same way, many technological breakthroughs that ultimately shaped the world began life, not with a fanfare of trumpets, but with a few humble words.

"Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants."

And so with great understatement, the first words were uttered on YouTube, in its first video posted in April 2005.

Me at the Zoo depicts co-founder Jawed Karim at San Diego Zoo. And yes, he's in front of the elephants.

Continue reading the main story
I hereby declare...

Telegram message, 1844: "What hath God wrought"

Telephone, 1876: "Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you."

Wireless communication over open sea, 1897: "Are you ready?"

BBC Radio 1, 1967: "And, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1".

Moon landings, 1969: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

E-mail, 1971: Qwertyuiop [probable]

Text message, 1992: "Merry Christmas"

Google, Jan 1996: no record of first search term, it says

Facebook, Feb 2004: no record of first post

YouTube, 2005: Video called "Me at the zoo", with first words: ""Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants"

Twitter, 2006: "just setting up my twttr"

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Google book agreement torpedoed by court

2011-03-23T14:40:00.001+08:00

An agreement between Google and publishers over the web firm's publication of books online has been blocked by a US court.

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The web giant has scanned millions of books and made them available online via its eBooks platform.

Google had negotiated the deal to settle a six-year-old class action suit claiming infringement of copyright.

But the New York court said the deal would "simply go too far", giving Google an unfair competitive advantage.
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Tokyo water 'unfit for babies'

2011-03-23T14:37:00.001+08:00

Officials in Toyko say that radiation levels in the city's tap water make the water unfit for babies to drink.

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Iodine levels in some areas are twice the recommended safe level.

The authorities have also imposed new restrictions on food from areas affected by leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States also announced restrictions on certain food imports.

Levels of radioactive iodine-131 in some areas of Tokyo is 210 becquerels per litre; the safe level for infants in 100 becquerels per litre.
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America's Worst Speed Traps

2011-02-19T13:01:00.001+08:00

TrafficTicketSecrets.com says the average speeding ticket in the U.S. is about $150. Multiply that out and that's $450,000 a day—and $14 million for the month.

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If you've ever been pulled over for speeding, you know it feels like you're a gazelle that just got taken down by a lion.

And, while this recession, and the gaping budget holes that resulted, have turned most cities into a jungle for motorists, there are some cities that have far more speed traps than others. And automated traffic cams have only egged them on. Now, they can snag just as many motorists for speeding, if not more, with less manpower.
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German minister denies plagiarism on PhD thesis

2011-02-17T18:28:00.001+08:00

Germany's defence minister has denied newspaper allegations that he committed plagiarism in his PhD thesis.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg got top marks for his 2006 law dissertation from the University of Bayreuth.

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But the Suddeutche Zeitung says several long passages in the thesis seem to have just been lifted from other people's work.

The telegenic minister has dismissed the accusations as "absurd".

The popular 39-year-old has been a lawmaker in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc since 2002 and is considered a possible future candidate for the top post.
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Cancer-stricken Apple boss may have six weeks to live

2011-02-17T18:23:00.001+08:00

Paper publishes shocking pictures of skeletal Steve Jobs claiming 'cancer-stricken Apple boss may have just six weeks to live'. Apple founder Steve Jobs has lost an alarming amount of weight and is reportedly sicker than has been previously admitted.

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The 55-year-old computer genius announced in late January that 'at my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health'.

Since then, Apple employees have claimed that he can still be seen at the company's headquarters in California and is also calling all the strategic shots from his home.

But today shocking new pictures were published in the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer which suggests things are worse than Apple would have the world believe.
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Sun unleashes huge solar flare towards Earth

2011-02-17T18:10:00.001+08:00

The Sun has unleashed its strongest flare in four years, observers say. The eruption is a so-called X-flare, the strongest type; such flares can affect communications on Earth.

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Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft recorded an intense flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation emanating from a sunspot.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) has issued a geomagnetic storm warning, and says observers might be able to see aurorae from the northern UK.

The eruptions are expected to hit the Earth's magnetic field field over the next couple of days, causing an increase in geomagnetic activity.
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Glastonbury Festival

2011-02-13T22:09:00.001+08:00

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The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is the largest green field open-air music and performing arts festival in the world.^[1] The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km²), had over 385 live performances^[2] and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stages^[3] and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000.^[4]
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Lady Gaga - Born This Way

2011-02-13T20:08:00.001+08:00

"Born This Way" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It is the title track from her forthcoming second studio album Born This Way and was released as its lead single on February 11, 2011.[3] Written and produced by both Gaga, the song received co-production from Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow.[4] It is the fastest selling song in the the history of iTunes.[5]

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Born This Way

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Super Sprayer

2011-02-13T19:47:00.001+08:00

Creation of a distant world.

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Purple drank

2011-02-13T19:42:00.001+08:00

Purple drank is a slang term for a recreational drug popular in the hip hop community in the southern United States, originating in Houston, Texas. Its main ingredient is prescription-strength cough syrup containing codeine and promethazine.[1] Cough syrup is typically mixed with ingredients such as Sprite soft drink or Mountain Dew and pieces of Jolly Rancher candy. The purplish hue of purple drank comes from dyes in the cough syrup.

There are numerous slang terms for purple drank, including sizzurp,[2][3][4][5][6] lean,[1][3][4][7] syrup,[3][5][8] drank,[5][9] barre,[5] purple jelly,[4][5] and Texas tea.[9]

Amplify’d from en.wikipedia.org

Houston, Texas producer DJ Screw popularized the concoction, which is widely attributed as a source of inspiration for the "chopped and screwed" style of hip hop music.^[3]^[10] Originally, the active ingredient of "syrup" was cough syrup containing promethazine and codeine. The concoction first gained popularity in the underground rap scene in Houston,^[10] where musician Big Hawk said it was consumed as early as the 1960s and 1970s, becoming more widespread in the early 1990s.^[11] Its use later spread to other southern states.^[3]

In June 2000, Three 6 Mafia's single "Sippin' on Some Syrup," featuring UGK, brought the term "purple drank" to a nationwide audience.^[2] Three 6 Mafia's single "Rainbow Colors" featuring Lil' Flip pertains to the consumption of purple drank; the addition of a Jolly Rancher candy to a cup of purple drank creates a spectrum of colors; hence the name. "Rainbow colors" can also refer to a mix of different narcotic cough syrups containing codeine, hydrocodone, and various other antihistamines, expectorants, and such. So-called "yellow syrup" is a blend of XR hydrocodone and atropine or chlorpheniramine and "pink syrup" is Cheratussin AC brand codeine and guaifenesin. Cheratussin AC (and other similar brands), which is legal for over-the-counter purchase in some states (e.g., Washington), is sometimes seen as an alternative to purple and yellow syrup.

In 2004, the University of Texas found that 8.3% of secondary school students in Texas had taken codeine syrup to get high.^[3] The Drug Enforcement Administration reports "busts" involving syrup across the southern United States, particularly in Texas and Florida.^[3]

The most popular type of codeine syrup is promethazine-codeine, a prescription cough syrup. The active ingredients are codeine, a narcotic, and the antihistamine medication promethazine. When taken in large quantities, both medications can lead to sedation and altered levels of consciousness.^[1] The addition of these antihistamines is intended to deter abuse at high doses (in doses higher than recommended, effects produce extreme somnolence, weakness and may even cause fatal respiratory depression). In lower doses, these potentiate the opiates.

Prescription cough syrups containing hydrocodone are also used to make the drink, though they are less popular.^[12] Songs like "Sippin' on Some Syrup" by Three 6 Mafia refer to Tussionex, a yellow cough syrup containing extended-release hydrocodone and chlorpheniramine (another antihistamine).^[13] Other hydrocodone-containing syrups such as Histinex HC, Hycotuss, and Hycodan may also be used but have the addition of atropine to deter abuse.^{[citation needed]} Syrup also is made with over-the-counter cough syrups such as Robitussin DM, which contain dextromethorphan as the cough suppressant. Although dextromethorphan is used recreationally, it has dissociative effects as opposed to narcotic. Dextromethorphan is a synthetic morphine analog that has been on the market in the United States since the 1960s. It is a cough suppressant in small doses, but in large doses it can result in a disassociative state, with hallucinations, similar to that produced by PCP or ketamine.^[12]

Promethazine-codeine contains 10 mg of codeine and 6.25 mg of promethazine per 5 mL.^[14]

Some users report that the large amount of sugar in drank causes them to experience weight gain, tooth decay, and other medical symptoms.^[
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The 40 Best Selected Wallpapers from National Geographic Magazine

2011-02-13T19:39:00.001+08:00

No doubt National Geographic features fantastic photography. The authors and photographers for National Geographic are one of the most diverse and committed people, and this is very obvious in every magazine they release. From urban to rural areas, from the civilized to the most exotic to the most desolate of locations, from happy events to disastrous ones, from home to the professional life, and religious and beyond, these people cover almost every bit of information of every aspect of this world. The photographic as well as journalistic excellence of National Geographic is truly undeniable.

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Australians hit by Cyclone Yasi warned to stay away from deadly giant birds

2011-02-13T19:38:00.001+08:00

Australians trying to rebuild in the wake of Cyclone Yasi have been warned to stay away from cassowaries – huge flightless birds with claws that can disembowel a human – on the hunt for food after their habitat was destroyed by the storm.

Amplify’d from www.telegraph.co.uk

cassowaries

Residents of communities around Mission Beach, on the north Queensland coast,
which was almost flattened by the category five cyclone earlier this month,
have been advised to beware of the 6ft tall birds, which are known to attack
if they feel threatened.

Famed for their long talons – their dagger-like middle claws measure 12cm long
– and powerful legs, the birds, which are unique to the rainforests of
northern Australia,
are said to be able to disembowel humans, dogs and horses with just one kick.

Weighing more than 10st, cassowaries resemble an emu, and in 2007 were named
the most dangerous birds in the world by the Guinness Book of Records.

However, thanks to land clearing and development along the coast, the fearsome
birds are seriously endangered, with just 1,000 left in the wild.

Queensland authorities and green groups have warned that over the coming weeks
the birds will be forced out of the rainforest after violent winds from
Cyclone Yasi stripped trees of their main food source, fruit.

The government, which is arranging emergency aerial food drops for the birds
in an attempt to keep them away from residential areas, has warned locals to
be on the lookout for hungry cassowaries.
Read more at www.telegraph.co.uk

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Bottled water – now available in a can!

2011-02-12T15:29:00.001+08:00

Amplify’d from www.funny-email.co.uk

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Experiment volunteers 'to land on Mars'

2011-02-12T15:26:00.001+08:00

Members of the Mars500 crew Alexey Sitev of Russia (L), Romain Charles of France (C), and Sukhrob Kamolov of Russia (R) take their seats at a press conference in Moscow in 2010. A group of volunteers will on Saturday reach a key stage in an unprecedented one-and-a-half year experiment to study the effects of a mission to Mars when they "land" on the Red Planet's surface.

Amplify’d from www.physorg.com

A group of volunteers will on Saturday reach a key stage in an unprecedented one-and-a-half year experiment to study the effects of a mission to Mars when they "land" on the Red Planet's surface.

Three of the six volunteers will "touch down" on Saturday before moving out of their lander for a first "space walk" Monday on the Martian surface -- all without leaving a Moscow research centre.

The landing marks the approximate halfway point for the experiment in which the participants must spend 520 days in isolation from the world to test how humans would respond to the pressures of the long voyage to Mars.

The first steps on Mars of the three volunteers from Italy, Russia and China will be relayed to the flight control centre that monitors real space missions, as part of an experiment organised by the European Space Agency and Moscow's institute of biomedical problems.

A team of six men from Europe, Russia and China, has been locked since June in a mock-up spaceship to test the psychological effects of an 18-month round trip in the experiment, called Mars-500.

The volunteers aged from mid-20s to late 30s, among them engineers, doctors and a physicist, are crammmed into a mock-up spaceship just 20 metres long and less than four metres across.

Phone calls are barred, although e-mail and radio communication is allowed, with a time delay, and the men eat the same food in tubes as astronauts.

Russian Alexander Smoleyevsky, Italian Diego Urbina and Chinese Wang Yue are the three who will land on Mars while Romain Charles from France and Sukhrob Kamolov and Alexey Sitev from Russia "remain in orbit" on a different module.

See more at www.physorg.com

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Drunk scientists pour wine on superconductors and make an incredible discovery

2011-02-12T15:24:00.001+08:00

Drunk scientists pour wine on superconductors and make an incredible discoveryWine makes superconductors better at their jobs. And apparently, it makes some scientists better at their jobs too.

Superconductors behave like most metals; they conduct electricity. They do so, however, with a twist. All metal has some resistance to the flow of electricity. But when the temperature drops, superconductors get less and less resistant (and therefore more conductive). When they reach very low temperatures, their resistance drops to zero.

Amplify’d from io9.com

Yoshihiko Takano and other researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan were in the process of creating a certain kind of superconductor by putting a compound in hot water and soaking it for hours. They also soaked the compound in a mixture of water and ethanol. It appears the process was going well, because the scientists decided to have a little party. The party included sake, whisky, various wines, shochu, and beer. At a certain point, the researchers decided to try soaking the compound in the many, many liquors they had on hand and seeing how they compared to the more conventional soaking liquids.

When they tested the resulting materials for superconductivity, they found that the ones soaked in commercial booze came out ahead. About 15 percent of the material became a superconductor for the water mixed with ethanol, and less for the pure water. By comparison, Shochu jacked up conductivity by 23 percent and red wine managed to supercharge over 62 percent of the material. The scientists were pleased, if bemused with their results.

So, a little sip of something turns out to make potential superconductors much better at their jobs. And, perhaps, scientists better at their jobs as well.
Read more at io9.com

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Life Explained

2011-02-12T15:22:00.001+08:00

Amplify’d from sprott.physics.wisc.edu

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2011-02-12T15:20:00.001+08:00

http://bit.ly/dUytWF http://bit.ly/fpPx6e

You just might be a grad student if:

2011-02-12T15:18:00.001+08:00

Amplify’d from www.math.psu.edu

...you can identify universities by their internet domains.

...you are constantly looking for a thesis in novels.

...you have difficulty reading anything that doesn't have footnotes.

...you understand jokes about Foucoult.

...the concept of free time scares you.

...you consider caffeine to be a major food group.

...you've ever brought books with you on vacation and actually studied.

...Saturday nights spent studying no longer seem weird.

...the professor doesn't show up to class and you discuss the readings anyway.

...you've ever travelled across two state lines specifically to go to a library.

...you appreciate the fact that you get to choose *which* twenty hours out of
the day you have to work.

...you still feel guilty about giving students low grades (you'll get over it).

...you can read course books and cook at the same time.

...you schedule events for academic vacations so your friends can come.

...you hope it snows during spring break so you can get more studying in.

...you've ever worn out a library card.

...you find taking notes in a park relaxing.

...you find yourself citing sources in conversation.

...you've ever sent a personal letter with footnotes.

...you can analyze the significance of appliances you cannot operate.

...your carrel is better decorated than your apartment.

...you have ever, as a folklore project, attempted to track the progress of your
own joke across the Internet.

...you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.

...you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar.

...you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.

...everything reminds you of something in your discipline.

...you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.

...you have ever spent more than $50 on photocopying while researching a single
paper.

...there is a microfilm reader in the library that you consider "yours."

...you actually have a preference between microfilm and microfiche.

...you can tell the time of day by looking at the traffic flow at the library.

...you look forward to summers because you're more productive without the
distraction of classes.

...you regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.

...you consider all papers to be works in progress.

...professors don't really care when you turn in work anymore.

...you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text.

...you have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just
trying to keep them all in the same general area.

...you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.

...you reflexively start analyzing those greek letters before you realize that
it's a sorority sweatshirt, not an equation.

...you find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade".

...you start refering to stories like "Snow White et al."

...you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy.

...you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.

...you have more photocopy cards than credit cards.

...you wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication".
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Future explorers could reach the Earthlike planet Zarmina in just 6.1 years

2011-02-12T15:16:00.001+08:00

Using our current technology, it would take 180,000 years to reach Zarmina. But our resident physicist Dave Goldberg has a more optimistic estimate - thanks to antimatter and time dilation, astronauts could get there in just a few years.

Amplify’d from io9.com

Alasdair Wilkins —

Using our current technology, it would take 180,000 years to reach Zarmina. But our resident physicist Dave Goldberg has a more optimistic estimate - thanks to antimatter and time dilation, astronauts could get there in just a few years.

Dave calculates that, if we could build a stellar drive that gets its fuel from matter-antimatter explosions, then it would be possible to travel to Zarmina at 92% the speed of light. Since the planet is about 20 light-years away, that means the starship would get there in 22.4 years as far as mission control back on Earth is concerned, but thanks to such serious time dilation at such near-light speeds, it would only be 6.1 years for the astronauts on board. All this assumes the ship would accelerate (and then decelerate) at Earth gravity throughout its voyage to give the astronauts a little comfort.

All that sounds pretty amazingly manageable, but we're not out of the woods yet. To carry all the fuel necessary for such a journey, the ship's fuel stores would have to be at least 530 times as massive as everything else on board the ship. That isn't exactly impossible, but let's just say we're going to have to jump up a few levels on the Kardashev scale before we can seriously plan on heading to this second Earth.
Read more at io9.com

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BBC News - What should you look for in a TV?

2011-02-12T15:09:00.001+08:00

URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9393...

With so many models of televisions now on the market, it can be difficult working out which one is 3D, HD or simply not up to the job.

LJ Rich gives her guide of what to consider when choosing a new TV.

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'Polite' Thief Arrested After Armed Robbery

2011-02-12T15:04:00.001+08:00

URL: http://sg.video.yahoo.com/watch/8734111/24129582

An armed robber has been arrested after what has been described as one of the politest cases of theft ever caught on camera.

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2011-02-12T15:03:00.001+08:00

Boring.............. http://bit.ly/g9ATgU

Britney Spears - Hold it against me

2011-02-12T14:55:00.001+08:00

Awesome song

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

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Boarding a Running Train outside of Yangon, Myanmar

2011-02-12T14:47:00.001+08:00

Certain trains on the train lines don't stop at some stations. The train drivers will however slowdown to give people the opportunity to board the train.

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

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Loading a Train outside of Yangon, Myanmar

2011-02-12T14:46:00.001+08:00

Certain trains on the train lines don't stop at some stations. The train drivers will however slowdown to give people the opportunity to board the train.

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

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2010-12-30T11:25:00.001+08:00

@scarlettbuzz Is ur name for real? Such a spot on match http://bit.ly/glhCnC

The day Niagara Falls ran dry

2010-12-21T12:26:00.001+08:00

Newly-discovered photos show the moment the iconic waterfall came to a standstill

Amplify’d from www.dailymail.co.uk

It's taken 41 years, but a previously unseen set of photos of the mighty Niagara Falls reduced to nothing more than a barren cliff-top have finally surfaced.

The stark images reveal North America's iconic - and most powerful - waterfall to be almost as dry as a desert.

In June 1969, U.S. engineers diverted the flow of the Niagara River away from the American side of the falls for several months.

Their plan was to remove the large
amount of loose rock from the base of the waterfall, an idea which they
eventually abandoned due to expense in November of that year.

During the interim, they studied the
riverbed and mechanically bolted and strengthened a number of faults to delay the gradual erosion of the American Falls.

The team, made up of U.S. Army Corp
of Engineers, blew up their temporary dam in November 1969 and six
million cubic feet of water once again thundered over the falls' sides every minute.

Now, after lying unseen for more than four decades, a set of images showing the eerie calm at the American Falls that year have been unearthed by a man from Connecticut.

Plan: The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers studied the riverbed and mechanically bolted and strengthened a number of faults to delay the gradual erosion of the American Falls

Historical moment: In order to stop the Niagara River running over the American Falls, engineers constructed a dam consisting of 27,800 tons of rock, stopping the water for the first time in 12,000 years

Gradual deterioration: Two rockslides from the plate of the falls in 1931 and 1954 had caused a large amount of rock to be collected at the base

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Facebook ramps up Google rivalry with messaging service

2010-11-16T19:37:00.001+08:00

Facebook has ramped up competition with AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google with a product to rival their e-mail services.

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

Facebook Messages aims to tie users more closely to the social networking site at a time when everyone is battling for their attention.

The product will merge texts, online chats, and e-mails into one central hub.

Facebook says traditional e-mail is too slow and cumbersome and needs to step into the modern world of messaging.

"This is not an e-mail killer," Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg told reporters and analysts at an event in San Francisco.

"Maybe we can help push the way people do messaging more towards this simple, real-time, immediate personal experience. E-mail is still really important to a lot of people. We think this simple messaging is how people will shift their communication."

'Killer app'

In a case of bad timing, reports surfaced hours after the Facebook launch that Gmail suffered an outage.

The new service is seen as offering an alternative to Gmail, the fastest growing web service in the past year with over 193 million users according to data tracker ComScore.

The irony was that ahead of the announcement, speculation was rife that Facebook's new product would be most crippling for Gmail. Mr Zuckerberg said he did not see it that way.

"In reality they have a great product.

"We don't expect anyone to wake up tomorrow and say, 'I'm going to shut down my Yahoo Mail or Gmail account'.

"Maybe one day, six months, a year, two years out people will start to say this is how the future should work," said Mr Zuckerberg.

AOL, which at the weekend previewed changes to its once popular web mail service, disagreed that e-mail was doomed.

"E-mail remains one of the killer apps on the internet," said Brad Garlinghouse, AOL's senior vice president of consumer products.

Industry analyst Augie Ray of Forrester agreed.

"Research we have done shows we know that in the US 90% of adults check their mail at least once a month and 59% of adults say they maintain a profile on a social networking site.

"There is a big gap between the reach social media has and the reach e-mail has."
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

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The Future of Indian Technology

2010-11-14T13:13:00.001+08:00

The Indian technology industry got its start running call centers and doing low-level IT work for western firms. Then, in the 2000s, it started taking on higher-level IT tasks, offering management consulting services, and performing sophisticated R&D. Now there is another transition happening, one far more significant: a transition to development of innovative technology products. Instead of providing IT services as the big outsourcing companies do, a new breed of startups is developing high-value products based on intellectual property. The Indian industry group NASSCOM estimates that in 2008, the country’s software product revenues totaled $1.64 billion. It forecasts that this will grow to $11 billion per year by 2015.

Amplify’d from techcrunch.com

I attended the NASSCOM Product Enclave in Bangalore, this week, and gave several talks to the 1000+ entrepreneurs in attendance. I was surprised at the changes that are powering the new transition: its tech workers are leaving high-paying jobs in IT services, and kids out of school are ignoring social taboos against failure and defying marriage customs to become entrepreneurs. A few Americans are also joining the fray, starting their ventures in India rather than in Silicon Valley. Though in China, returnees from the U.S. are fuelling the entrepreneurship boom, they aren’t as important in India. Sadly for my Indian friends in Silicon Valley who are looking to return home, returnees—formerly in high demand and treated like rock stars—are out of vogue and now treated like rocks.

Why are highly paid workers in an industry that does lucrative contract work for multinationals jumping ship? It’s the same dynamic as you observe in the United States. Entrepreneurs start their companies when they are, on average, 39 years of age. They have 10 to 15 years of work experience and ideas for products that solve real customer problems; they get tired of working for jerk bosses; and they want to build wealth before they retire. So they defy their fear of failure and take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

India’s outsourcing industry is about 20 years old and has hundreds of thousands of workers with 10 to 15 years of experience and ideas for innovative products.

Chandrasekhar learned that that the vast majority of the 12 million people in India who are blind could have maintained their sight if only their problems had been diagnosed and treated on time. The diagnostic equipment for a single hospital cost at least US$60,000—which put it out of the reach of most regional clinics—and required ophthalmologists to perform the diagnosis. Chandrasekhar and Forus cofounder Shyam Vasudev decided to leave their jobs as senior executives at NXP Semiconductor (an offshoot of Philips) to create an affordable, all-in-one intelligent pre-screening device that is non-invasive and can be used by minimally trained technicians in rural India. The device provides an indicative report in 10 minutes for five major eye-related problems, including diabetic retina. This frees the doctor up to treat patients rather than administer tests. The product costs less than $15,000, and Forus expects the price to drop to half that in volume production.

At the NASSCOM event, I met dozens of tech-service industry workers who had become entrepreneurs. A surprisingly high proportion weren’t developing products for their former customers, but were instead looking inward to solve India’s problems. The one who impressed me the most was K. Chandrasekhar, of Forus Health.

Another impressive entrepreneur at the NASSCOM event was Vishal Gondal. In youth entrepreneurship, Gondal is the Bill Gates of India. He dropped out of college to start his first company when he was 16, and launched his big success—Indiagames—when he was 23. He sold part of his company for a multi-million dollar sum 2005. He now mentors young entrepreneurs and invest in startups via his fund called Sweat & Blood Venture Group.

But college-dropout tech entrepreneurs like Gondal are extremely rare in India. Most make the wise choice to complete their education before joining a startup. So far, the biggest inhibitor of youth entrepreneurship in India has been the social stigma associated with failure and the low social esteem bestowed on startups. In the arranged-marriage system—which is still the norm in India—a young male who joined a company such as Infosys or IBM would command the best marriage proposals, and those who took the startup path risked trading down. No longer. All of the young entrepreneurs I met said either that they had told their parents that they would find their own partners, or that their parents supported their decision.

It also used to be that nearly all the graduates of India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) would join investment banks or take senior positions in the outsourcing industry. Given the huge salaries these workers commanded, entrepreneurship was out of the question. Yet I met dozens of entrepreneurs who had left these institutions and were now risking it all on entrepreneurship. Two such are Pavan Thatha and Rakesh Thatha.

After completing his MBA from IIT-Bombay and working in the outsourcing industry for four years, Pavan Thatha persuaded his brother Rakesh, an IIT-Madras graduate, to leave his job at Computer Associates India and start a security-software firm called Arrayshield. That was in May 2010. By October 2010, they had hired two more IITans who left new jobs at Oracle India and John Deere. The new recruits took 75% paycuts. The recruits received intense pressure from their family not to take the risk. Their parents couldn’t understand why they would leave prestigious, high-paying jobs to risk it all. But they were determined to be part of the journey of the brothers, who has set out to do something to make a difference and change the world.
Read more at techcrunch.com

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When a Twitter Post Can Land You in Court

2010-11-14T13:08:00.001+08:00

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown suspected trouble was brewing when her teenage daughter grew testy on the evening of Nov. 10. As Alibhai-Brown recounted to the BBC: "She was incredibly distressed before she went to bed and said, 'Why do you have to be a journalist, mum? Every time you open the door I think somebody is going to shoot you.'" It was only after a family friend directed Alibhai-Brown to a post on Twitter that she understood her daughter's concern: someone in the Twittersphere seemed to want her dead.

Amplify’d from www.time.com

Earlier that morning Alibhai-Brown, 60, a columnist with London's Independent newspaper, had appeared on radio and questioned whether any British politician was morally qualified to comment on human-rights abuses, including the stoning of women. That prompted Gareth Compton, a Conservative city councilor in Birmingham, to post the following message on his Twitter account: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really." (See how the British police have been using Twitter.)

Speaking to reporters the following day, Alibhai-Brown compared those comments to "incitement to murder" and suggested they could be racially motivated, as she is a Muslim of Indian descent. Compton, 38, removed the message, posted an apology for his "ill-conceived attempt at humor" and defended himself by saying that Twitter was a forum for "glib comment." Police didn't get the joke: they arrested him for violating the Communications Act of 2003 on suspicion of sending an offensive or indecent message and released him on bail pending further investigation. The Conservative Party added to the chorus of hisses by suspending Compton until that investigation is complete.

In the freewheeling world of social media, away from societal rules of the real world, people have a different understanding of what should be kept to themselves and what should be shared with those around them — and those all over the globe. As more and more people turn to public forums like Twitter and Facebook to air their private thoughts, the line between appropriate and inappropriate, between a gentle jab and an all-out assault, is still precariously fuzzy — and more people find themselves stumbling as they try to navigate the boundaries. "With these new platforms it takes a while for people to understand how to conduct conversation," says Charlie Beckett, director of POLIS, the media think tank at the London School of Economics. "People aren't used to being broadcast all the time. There is a learning curve for all of us." (See the best social-networking applications.)

And that includes the law. Beckett believes the legal system "is being made an ass" by ignoring the frequently flippant context of Twitter. "Compton is not some racist thug who was trying to conspire for violence against Yasmin Alibhai-Brown," he says. "It was a stupid remark and that was relatively clear in the tweet. The idea that the courts should now proceed against him is quite ridiculous and disproportionate." Besides, social media, which is driven by users' posts and comments — and often their disgust and anger — has a way of policing itself. Thanks to his comment, Compton's career as a public figure is likely over, and he's now the target of Twitterers' wrath. As @grpartington writes: "Yeah bet he's not feeling quite so smug now the stuck up git! :)"

In January, Chambers was courting a woman who followed him on Twitter and the two had arranged to meet in Ireland. When snow threatened to cancel Chambers' flight from Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport, he composed a tweet which he claims to have accidentally posted publicly, rather than sending it via a direct (and private) message: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your sh_t together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"

Officials at the airport got wind of the facetious bomb threat — and Chambers was eventually convicted of being a "menace." He lost an appeal on Nov. 11, and must now pay a fine of $1,600 and a further $3,200 in legal expenses. Judge Jacqueline Davies insisted that the tweet in question was "menacing in its content and obviously so. It could not be more clear. Any ordinary person reading this would see it in that way and be alarmed."

Appropriately enough, Chambers' conviction has spurred a flurry of tweets ridiculing the decision. By 1pm on Nov. 12, "#TwitterJokeTrial" and "Hood Airport" were the second and third-highest terms trending on Twitter in the U.K. David Allen Green, Chambers' lawyer, helped feed the fury. "The real threat to the life of the nation ... comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these," he tweeted. That comment echoes the sentiments of civil liberties lawyers who worry the ruling has implications for online freedom, pointing out that the Crown Prosecution Service did not invoke bomb-hoax legislation — which demands strong evidence of intent — but instead leveraged a law that was drawn up in the 1930s to reduce prank calls directed at female post-office operators. (See a TIME cover story on Twitter.)
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World's largest cruise ship makes US debut

2010-11-14T12:50:00.001+08:00

Allure of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship along with its twin Oasis of the Seas, made its US debut Thursday with operator Royal Caribbean showing off innovations including the first Starbucks coffee house at sea.

Amplify’d from sg.news.yahoo.com

Like its 11-month-old twin Oasis, Allure soars 65 meters (213 feet) above the waterline, stretches 360 meters (1,181 feet) from bow to stern and fully loaded weighs 225,282 tons.

It was built by South Korea's STX Finland Cruise shipyards in Finland at a cost of one billion dollars. The Allure made its US debut after a 13-day transatlantic journey from Turku, Finland, to Florida.

The Allure's 16 decks are divided into seven "neighborhoods," including a sprawling green area with fully grown trees reproducing New York's Central Park; a Coney Island-style Boardwalk; and numerous amenities offering rock walls, ice skating rinks and swimming pools with surf simulators.

Its 26 dining options include the first Starbucks at sea, the company said.

"It's like being on seven different ships at once, and it's so big you at times forget you're at sea," said Barba.

Despite the global economic downturn, Royal Caribbean decided to build the twin giant cruise ships and feels certain it can get the customers to fill them.

"We're optimistic because while we know we're going through some hard times, we offer a luxury cruises at relatively affordable prices, because everything is included," Barba said.

The cheapest cruise package Allure has to offer is a week-long voyage for 899 dollars per person, although a family of four would pay about 25 percent less per individual.

Miami's complementary port facility, Fort Lauderdale, houses the largest cruise ship port in the world that in 2008 welcomed some four million customers.
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RWS earns S$346.5 million in Q3 pre-tax profits

2010-11-14T12:46:00.001+08:00

Amplify’d from sg.yfittopostblog.com

The latest financial results show Genting Singapore being the front-runner in Singapore’s growing gaming market.

It announced its integrated resort (IR), Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), generated S$732 million in revenue and pre-tax profits of $346.5 million for the third quarter of 2010, reported The Straits Times (ST).

While this fell behind its Q2 performance, RWS’ results were still a notch higher than competitor Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

RWS also announced on that popular roller-coaster ride Battlestar Galactica, which has been closed since March, will re-open in the first half of next year, together with another new ride – Journey to Madagascar – at Universal Studios Singapore.

Add in the world debut of Transformers in the second half, and Universal Studios Singapore is on track to becoming the world’s leading theme park, said RWS. Capacity is expected to jump from 8,000 to 18,000.

RWS also updated, it is on track to meet the 13 million visitor target for the first year of operations – two-thirds of casino guests are from other countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and China – the four hotels are fully operational and its show, Voyage De La Vie, has received good response, reported ST.
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Apple iPod Touch, the best gets better

2010-09-02T10:36:00.001+08:00

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

As a portable media player/gaming device/mini-tablet computer,
Apple's iPod Touch has been blowing us away since 2007. The only thing really to say about the fourth-generation model unveiled Wednesday is that it is predictably more awesome, yet still not quite a match for the capabilities of the
iPhone 4.

The pricing is the same at the high end, with a 32GB model going for $299, and a 64GB version for $399. The 8GB entry model is $229, which is pricier than the $199 8GB version they kept around last year, but has the advantage of sharing all the same specs as its more expensive siblings. Curiously, a 16GB version isn't in the cards.

The big news about the new Touch is the addition of two video cameras--one facing the user and one facing out. The front-facing camera is meant for use with Apple's Facetime video chat app (first unveiled with iPhone 4), as well as any supported third-party apps. With Facetime on the Touch, users can place or receive video calls to both iPhones or other iPod Touch, using an e-mail address, as opposed to a phone number. In my brief demo using Facetime on the Touch, all of the features I've come to expect from the iPhone 4 were present, including the ability to call in portrait of landscape, switch camera views, and pause video transmission while maintaining a voice connection. The feature can be used with a plug-in headset (not included) or simply with the integrated speaker and microphone. For a device that isn't a phone and can be had for as little as $229, I feel that Facetime on the iPod Touch is a unique and noteworthy feature.

The rear-facing camera on Touch is capable of capturing still images and video up to 720p. It is not, however, identical to the camera on the iPhone 4. It uses a different sensor and there's no flash. It's also incapable of working with the new HDR camera feature being rolled out for the iPhone. Still, it's a welcome addition and opens the door to many more apps and uses.

Under the hood, you have a ton of features carried over from iPhone 4. The processor is the same A4 chip as the iPhone. There's an integrated gyroscope now for more fine-grain gaming control. The Wi-Fi antenna now supports 802.11n at 2.4GHz. And last, but not least, the LCD is the same 3.5-inch "retina" display used on the iPhone 4, sporting a 960x640 resolution.

All that screen resolution comes in handy with Apple's new 99-cent HD TV rentals, which are compatible with the Touch.
Read more at news.cnet.com

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America's Got Talent 2010 - Fighting Gravity

2010-08-15T01:48:00.001+08:00

Amazing act. Got to see this to believe

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

See more at www.youtube.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9qrzcm

Eastern & Oriental Express

2010-08-04T08:57:00.001+08:00

Asia’s most glamorous train, traversing the Malay peninsula.

Amplify’d from sg.travel.yahoo.com

Travelife Magazine Editor in Chief Christine Cunanan traverses the Malay Peninsula on Asia’s most glamorous train

Some trips are all about the voyage rather than the destination, and the three-night train journey from Bangkok to Singapore on the legendary Eastern & Oriental Express (E&O), covering over 2,000 kilometers and passing three countries, is one of these. The train trip is the destination itself, and it’s one amazing ride guaranteed to push even the most jaded travelers out of their comfort zone of nonchalance and make their hearts skip a beat.

With not a little excitement, my husband and I arrived at Bangkok’s Italian-designed circa 1912 Hualampong Station at 5 PM on a hot Sunday afternoon to complete formalities for boarding the E&O that would take us to the River Kwai, and then on to Malaysia and Singapore. Afterwards, we were led by a smiling young girl in a Thai formal dress to the other side of this cavernous and bustling central train station, with people and their luggage sprawled all over the floor. On platform # 21, a long line of gleaming green and gold carriages majestically awaited.

The pace of life onboard is slow but time passes all too quickly. Before long, the E&O pulled into Singapore’s art deco-inspired train station – and the temporary return to a graceful and elegant past of grand voyages came to an end. Read more at sg.travel.yahoo.com

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Facebook Farmville Requests

2010-08-01T20:58:00.001+08:00

hilarious.....

Amplify’d from golikeus.net

IF ANYBODY SENDS ME ANYMORE MORE FARMVILLE REQUEST I AM GOING TO BURN YOUR CROPS AND KILL YOUR ANIMALS :) luv yah
Read more at golikeus.net

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Japanese Card Launcher

2010-05-12T07:17:00.001+08:00

Amazing trick

clipped from www.youtube.com

DELL TECH SUPPORT

2010-05-12T07:13:00.001+08:00

You submitted a complaint? Didn’t think so.

clipped from punditkitchen.com

Devil's Pool in Victoria Falls

2010-03-24T03:47:00.001+08:00

Got my head spinning. Are these people crazy?

clipped from www.hoax-slayer.com

A series of compelling photographs showing people swimming at the very brink of a high waterfall are currently circulating. At first glance, the activity looks extremely dangerous and foolhardy. Some commentators have suggested that the images are fake.

However, the photographs are genuine and they do indeed depict a swimming hole known as the Devil's Pool at Africa's magnificent Victoria Falls. The Victoria Falls are located on the Zambezi River and border the African nations of Zambia and Zimbabwe. There are many other photographs and videos of people swimming in the pool on many different websites along with first-hand descriptions from visitors.

Although certainly not for the faint of heart, swimming in the Devil's Pool is probably not as dangerous as it appears in the photographs. A natural rock ledge reduces the current and stops swimmers from being swept over the edge.

Xkeken Cenote, Yucatan, Mexico

2010-03-24T03:34:00.001+08:00

Unbelievable Pic

clipped from twitpic.com

Define Bravery and Courage? See this Pic for the definition

2010-03-12T18:51:00.001+08:00

Its true. This man has got balls

clipped from imgur.com

When Sea Levels Attack!, Which cities will flood when?

2010-03-02T12:58:00.000+08:00

"INSECURITY Dude" - President of France

2010-02-24T14:16:00.001+08:00

clipped from twitpic.com

Really amazing pic.
"INSECURITY Dude", you're president of France and your wife's smokin' hot. Really. It's OK.

"INSECURITY Dude", you're president of France and your wife's smokin' hot. Really. It's OK." />

Employee VS Employer

2010-02-24T14:00:00.001+08:00

That's the fact of the decade

clipped from twitpic.com

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

2010-02-17T00:14:00.001+08:00

Its not about dancing, its about learning

clipped from www.youtube.com

25 Romantic Comedies That Don’t Suck

2010-02-11T23:43:00.001+08:00

Beautiful collection

clipped from www.complex.com

Valentine’s Day is upon us and love is in the air… Aaaand so is the promise of P. Whether you’re trooping a relationship or plucking strange from a singles bar, chances are you might find yourself camped in front of a TV this weekend, watching a romantic comedy. Don’t get us wrong, rom coms have their uses (namely you showing you can put in some time so she’ll let you put it in in due time), but the vast majority of them are formulaic, cliché-ridden shitstorms of faux emotion—that is, they suck

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are a few romantic comedies that are funny and romantic and won’t make you want to lock yourself at home with Kleenex and Canola and write off the opposite sex altogether. In fact, there’s 25 of ‘em. So choose wisely and with any luck, you’ll get some and not have to feel like you’ve been lobotomized in the process, all with Complex’s 25 Romantic Comedies That Don’t Suck…

The new Apple iPad review

2010-02-07T21:42:00.000+08:00

Eating Poison Fish

2010-01-24T13:42:00.002+08:00

Yummy.........................?

FYI: Puffer Fish Toxin 1000 times stronger than CYANIDE

clipped from www.youtube.com

Eating Poison Fish

Russian roulette - Dangerous Game in the Entire World

2010-01-24T13:36:00.001+08:00

One Hell of a game

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Russian roulette

Russian roulette (Russian: Русская рулетка, Russkaya ruletka) is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger. "Russian" refers to the supposed country of origin of the game and roulette to the element of risk-taking and the spinning of the revolver's cylinder being reminiscent of spinning a roulette wheel.

The form of the game can be as varied as the participants or their motives (displays of bravado, boredom, suicide, etc.), but typically a single round is placed in a six-shot revolver resulting in a 1/6 (or approximately 16.67%) chance of the revolver discharging the round. The player holds the revolver with his/her finger on the trigger, barrel against his/her own temple. The player then pulls the trigger once. Regardless of any player's position in the shooting sequence, his initial odds are the same as for all other players.

Indians' need Sex Education

2010-01-20T13:11:00.008+08:00

Seems to know everything about removing. See it for yourself and decide

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