youth-webdigger

Baby Laughs Like His Father (Video)

2011-03-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

Baby Laughs Like His Father

Baby Laughs Like His Father - Watch more Funny Videos

Windows® 7 Virus Removal

2011-03-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Methods to remove virus from Windows® 7 system

Virus is a very harmful piece of software. It would block both software and hardware performance. Thereby, your system performance gets down or you could get false output for some program. So, you need to remove this virus software from your system. In order to remove virus from your system you need to install software programs like antivirus software, anti spyware software etc. Trojan virus, Autorun Virus, Google redirect virus etc are some viruses which are able to alter the system performance. System requirements may vary for different virus protection software. To install virus protection software, your system needs to run with 500 MHz processor. 256 MB RAM is needed for running this software. Also, in order to store the files and folders for the Virus protection software in the hard disk it needs around 10 MB space. If you install this program without meeting the system requirement, you may face many errors during its processing or installation.

Given below are the tips to remove viruses and malicious content from Windows 7 system:

Antispyware program installation
Install Antimalware program
Online scanning

Antispyware program installation

Spyware Doctor, Microsoft Antispyware Beta, Spybot – Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware SE, SpyHunter, eTrust PestPatrol etc are the examples of Antispyware program. You could use all these tools to remove all virus programs from your system. These Antispyware softwares are able to detect and kill adware or spyware infected in your system. Antispyware program also prevents its attacks. So it keeps your system safe.
Install Antimalware program

Antimalware software is able to block the access of malicious sites to your system. You could easily protect your system from virus programs. You could choose latest Antimalware program from Internet. Updates for the malware program would help to increase the whole system performance as updates software contains new features and has the ability to detect the presence of new virus program.
Online scanning

One of the good methods to remove virus infection from your system is online scanning. In order to perform online scanning you need to visit the Antivirus software sites like bitDefender, ESET online scanner, etc. After opening these websites you could see the option to perform online scanning. The main advantage of this method is that you need not install any antivirus software in your system. Online scanning could be performed free of cost.

Top 100 Socially Networked Cities in the U.S.

2011-03-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Top 100 Socially Networked Cities in the U.S.

Anyone who wants to rank socially networked cities is going to be in for a fight. But the brave souls at Men’sHealth aren’t shying away from a tussle, placing the top 100 most socially networked cities in order for all to see.

How did they do it? It appears to be a fair and scientifically valid procedure. First, Men’s Health figured out each city’s LinkedIn and Facebook users per capita, and then tapped the NetProspex marketing database to figure out each location’s amount of overall Twitter usage.

Not stopping there, the next step was to consult online ad network Chitika to quantify traffic from MySpace, Friendster, Reddit and Digg, and finally, SimplyMap helped determine the percentage of households using chat rooms and blogs.

The list below is as much a study of how to find this information as it is a valid assessment of which city has the bragging rights to calling itself The Capital of Social Networking. Speaking of capital, who knew our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., would be at the top of the list, or that Milwaukee (#45), the location of Mashable’s humble Midwest Test Facility, would rate higher than the mighty New York City (#53), home of Mashable HQ

Most socially networked
1 Washington, DC A+
2 Atlanta, GA A+
3 Denver, CO A+
4 Minneapolis, MN A+
5 Seattle, WA A+
6 San Francisco, CA A
7 Orlando, FL A
8 Austin, TX A
9 Boston, MA A
10 Salt Lake City, UT A-

11 Cincinnati, OH A-
12 Raleigh, NC A-
13 Burlington, VT A-
14 Portland, OR B+
15 Madison, WI B+
16 Dallas, TX B+
17 Portland, ME B
18 Sacramento, CA B
19 Aurora, CO B
20 Boise, ID B
21 Charlotte, NC B
22 Wilmington, DE B
23 Oakland, CA B
24 St. Louis, MO B
25 Las Vegas, NV B
26 Columbus, OH B
27 San Diego, CA B
28 San Jose, CA B
29 St. Paul, MN B-
30 Plano, TX B-
31 Tampa, FL B-
32 Nashville, TN B-
33 Los Angeles, CA B-
34 Phoenix, AZ B-
35 Newark, NJ B-
36 Miami, FL B-
37 Norfolk, VA C+
38 Richmond, VA C+
39 Chicago, IL C+
40 Durham, NC C+
41 Colorado Springs, CO C+
42 Des Moines, IA C+
43 Jersey City, NJ C+
44 Indianapolis, IN C+
45 Milwaukee, WI C+
46 Fargo, ND C+
47 Columbia, SC C+
48 Houston, TX C+
49 Philadelphia, PA C+
50 Birmingham, AL C+
51 Cleveland, OH C+
52 Kansas City, MO C
53 New York, NY C
54 Greensboro, NC C
55 Reno, NV C
56 Manchester, NH C
57 Providence, RI C
58 Baltimore, MD C
59 Little Rock, AR C
60 Louisville, KY C
61 Sioux Falls, SD C-
62 Omaha, NE C-
63 Pittsburgh, PA C-
64 Baton Rouge, LA C-
65 Lexington, KY C
66 Wichita, KS C-
67 Anchorage, AK C-
68 Lincoln, NE C-
69 Cheyenne, WY D+
70 New Orleans, LA D+
71 Tucson, AZ D+
72 Buffalo, NY D+
73 Honolulu, HI D+
74 Santa Ana, CA D+
75 Charleston, WV D+
76 Oklahoma City, OK D+
77 Virginia Beach, VA D+
78 Winston-Salem, NC D+
79 Tulsa, OK D+
80 Albuquerque, NM D
81 Fort Worth, TX D
82 San Antonio, TX D
83 Jackson, MS D
84 Chesapeake, VA D
85 Jacksonville, FL D
86 Riverside, CA D
87 Memphis, TN D-
88 St. Petersburg, FL D-
89 Toledo, OH D-
90 Corpus Christi, TX D-

Least socially networked
91 Billings, MT D-
92 Fort Wayne, IN D-
93 Bridgeport, CT D-
94 Detroit, MI D-
95 Fresno, CA F
96 Bakersfield, CA F
97 Lubbock, TX F
98 Stockton, CA F
99 Laredo, TX F
100 El Paso, TX F

Five-year-old Indian becomes millionaire

2011-03-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

Five-year-old Indian becomes millionaire

Dubai: A five-year-old Indian boy has become a millionaire overnight after winning a lottery at a national bond draw in Dubai.

Ebrahim Fahimuddin Shaikh became the second millionaire in 2011 when the February draw of National Bonds Corporation picked his name.

Ebrahim's father received the life changing call on Saturday

"At first, I thought it was a prank call so I carried along with the call, shortly after it struck me, I am truly really speaking to National Bonds CEO in person," he said.

"I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness for my son! I realised I have just become the father of a millionaire and that my continued dedication to teaching Ebrahim the importance of savings has just been rewarded," Sheikh said.

Sheikh said he opted to save for his child's future at a young age with National Bonds saving scheme.

"Thank You National Bonds. I want to buy candy and sweets with it, save like my dad and get toys and gifts for my family," said the young winner.

Ebrahim's family represents the rapidly growing segment of expats in the UAE who are realising the importance of committing to a financially-safe lifestyle and a brighter tomorrow, by taking control of their finances through responsible spending and regular saving with a trustworthy highly rewarding scheme.

Till date, 63 per cent of National Bonds' millionaires have been expatriates, and more than 166 million Dirhams worth of prizes have been distributed to expat bondholders. With over 610,000 customers for the National Bonds, the number of

expatriate bondholders increased by 8 per cent between 2009 and 2010.

Mohammed Qasim Al Ali, CEO of National Bonds Corporation said that the scheme continues to exceed customers' expectations by offering innovative initiatives to make saving a rewarding and enriching experience.

"Most of our customers have turned to more frequent savers since they joined the programme, giving them financial security and peace-of-mind. I am proud to see more and more customers and their families committing to savings and looking ahead for a better financial future."

He said that minors such as Ebrahim form 13 per cent of the overall number of bondholders and this number has increased year on year.

"This means that we are encouraging positive savings values from a younger age and this enhanced financial responsibility will lead to a stable economy in the future," he said.

Recharge your mobile phone in seconds

2011-03-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Recharge your mobile phone in seconds

Washington: An amazing 3D nanostructure designed and developed by scientists may make it possible to recharge mobile phones in seconds or a laptop within minutes.

The 3D nanostructure has been designed by scientists at the University of Illinois.

The nanostructure would also charge high power lasers and defibrillators, required in surgeries, without loss of time between pulses, the journal Nature Nanotechnology reports.

Paul Braun's group at Illinois developed the nanostructure for battery cathodes that allows for dramatically faster charging and discharging without sacrificing energy storage capacity, according to a statement.

Aside from quick-charge consumer electronics, batteries that can store a lot of energy, release it fast and recharge quickly are desirable for electric vehicles, medical devices, lasers and military applications.

"This system that we have gives you capacitor-like power with battery-like energy," said Braun, professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois.

"Most capacitors store very little energy. They can release it very fast, but they can't hold much. Most batteries store a reasonably large amount of energy, but they can't provide or receive energy rapidly. This does both."

The performance of typical lithium-ion (Li-ion) or nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries degrades significantly when they are rapidly charged or discharged.

Making the active material in the battery a thin film allows for very fast charging and discharging, but reduces the capacity to nearly zero because the active material lacks volume to store energy.

Braun's group wraps a thin film into 3D structure, achieving both high active volume (high capacity) and large current.

They have demonstrated battery electrodes that can charge or discharge in a few seconds, 10 to 100 times faster than equivalent bulk electrodes, yet can perform normally in existing devices.

Braun is particularly optimistic for the batteries' potential in electric vehicles, which would slash charging time from half a day to a few minutes.

Engineering student murdered in broad daylight

2011-03-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

Nokia launching phone charger powered by a bicycle

2010-08-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Nokia are releasing a new mobile phone charger that can charge up the battery in your mobile using the power generated from riding a bicycle.
The device is really aimed at developing countries where electricity is not as widely available as in developed countries but the whole idea could take off anywhere.
“Bicycles are the most widespread means of transport in many markets around the world, so this is just one more benefit to be gained from an activity people are already doing,” said Alex Lambeek, Vice President at Nokia, in a statement.
This would certainly apply to somewhere like Amsterdam where bicycles are a popular mode of transport for getting about the city.
The new Nokia bicycle charger will fit any Nokia phone that has a 2mm charger jack. The charger comes with a charger kit which includes a special holder for attaching the charger to the bicycle’s handlebars where the phone slots into, and a generator which is attached to the bike’s fork.
Electricity is generated by the movement of the wheels so as you pedal you create the power. In order to charge up a phone you would need to cycle at a speed of about 6 kilometres an hour or more and the faster you go the more your battery gets charged.
As an example, Nokia have said that cycling at a speed of 10 miles an hour for 10 minutes will give you around 28 minutes of talk time or 37 minutes of standby but obviously these times will vary depending on which battery model your phone has.
The charger is likely to cost around 15 euros, which equates to about $18.40, and will be available towards the end of the year from some retailers and online.
Finland based Nokia is currently the world’s largest mobile phone company and along with details of the bicycle powered charger they also announced details of a new phone and I like the sound of it.
With the dual-SIM Nokia C2 you will be able to use two SIM cards at the same time on the same phone. This means that you can have a separate number for each SIM card but use only one device, and you can change from using one SIM to the other without having to turn off the phone first.
That’s pretty cool don’t you think!

peace

2010-08-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

I don’t wish to offend anyone with this picture, but the kid I’m sure means no harm by it. While everyone else is knelt towards Mecca during their Salaat prayer reciting the Iqama, this cute kid (maybe 10-years old or so) is giving the international symbol of peace. Bless his heart.

The 007 Hottest Cars from the James Bond Legacy

2008-11-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

Across 46 years, 22 films and six leading actors, the James Bond film legacy has featured some of the world’s most luxurious and iconic sportscars. From the signature Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger to the Lotus Esprit Turbo in For Your Eyes Only

Transformers: Parking Lot

2008-11-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Google optimizes search results for iPhone

2008-11-12T12:50:00.001-08:00

Google has refined the appearance of its search page when visiting from an iPhone or iPod touch, an announcement reveals. Results are now formatted in a similar manner to other Google services, with a blue navigation bar, and vertically-aligned text or imagery that eliminates the need to scroll horizontally. Where appropriate, results will automatically bring up maps, as well as larger and more obvious direction and phone call buttons. In the case of multiple listings a Show Map link brings up the new view.

If needed, it is also possible to revert to the desktop version of Google via the Classic link. Access to the iPhone/iPod formatting is currently restricted, however; it is only viewable in English from the US, and requires an Apple handheld with v2.x firmware. Google says it eventually intends to bring the formatting to other phones, countries and languages.

How to speed up your WordPress site.

2008-11-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

If you ever experienced slow WordPress admin panel, “MySQL server has gone away” message, pages taking forever to load or you want to prepare your site for a major increase in traffic

1. Check the Connection

In some occasions your connection and bandwidth may be the cause for the slow load. In case your site shows all right for everyone else but not for you this is the prime suspect.

You can run a trace back to your site also called “trace route” to see if there are any unusually slow hosts in-between.

The command to try it is tracert on Windows (or traceoute on Linux)

tracert www.prelovac.com

The command displays the average time to servers along the route (usually in ms). In case you see a constant problem along the route (high values) you can try contacting your ISP or changing ISP all together.

The second problem may be bandwidth problem.

Typical WordPress page is around 150KB in size, which means it will load for most modem users in about 35 seconds, just because of bandwidth with all other factors omitted.

2. Check your (Vista) System

In rare occasions it can be even your system that is causing the slowdown.

If you are running Vista check this article for a diagnosis and a possible solution.

3. Check the Plugins

Plugins are usually the prime suspect for slowdowns. With so many WordPress plugins around, chance is you might have installed a plugin which does not use the resources in an optimum way.

For example such plugins that caused slowdowns in the past have been Popularity contest, aLinks or @Feed.

To check plugins, deactivate all of them and check the critical areas of the site again. If everything runs OK, re-enable the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin.

After finding the cause you can either write a message to the plugin author and hope they fix it or search for an alternative.

4. Check your Theme

If it’s not the plugins, and you are troubleshooting slowdown of the site, you should check it with a different theme.

Themes can include code with plugin capabilities inside the theme’s function.php file so everything what applies to plugins can apply to the theme.

Also, themes may use excessive JavaScript or image files, causing slow loading of the page because of huge amount of data to transfer and/or number of http requests used.

WordPress comes installed with a default theme and it’s best used to test the site if your theme is the suspect for poor performance.

If you discover your theme is causing the slowdowns, you can use the excellent Firebug tool for Firefox browser to debug the problem. Learn more about Firebug, your new best friend.

You can also use this site get general information about the site very fast.

5. Optimize Database Tables

Database tables should be periodically optimized (and repaired if necessary) for optimum performance.

I recommend using WP-DBManager plugin which provides this functionality as well as database backup, all crucial for any blog installation.

WP-DBManager allows you to schedule and forget, and it will take care of all the work automatically.

Other alternative is manually optimizing and repairing your table through a tool like phpmyadmin.

6. Turn off Post Revisions

With WordPress 2.6, post version tracking mechanism was introduced. For example, every time you “Save” a post, a revision is written to the database. If you do not need this feature you can easily turn it off by adding one line to your wp-config.php file, found in the installation directory of your WordPress site:

define(’WP_POST_REVISIONS’, false);

If you have run a blog with revisions turned on for a while, chance is you will have a lot of revision posts in your database. if you wish to remove them for good, simply run this query (for example using the mentioned WP-DBManager) plugin.

DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = ‘revision’;

This will remove all “revision” posts from your database, making it smaller in the process.

NOTE: Do this with care. If you are not sure what you are doing, make sure to at least create a backup of the database first or even better, ask a professional to help you.

7. Implement Caching

Caching is a method of retrieving data from a ready storage (cache) instead of using resources to generate it every time the same information is needed. Using cache is much faster way to retrieve information and is generally recommended practice for most modern applications.

7.1 WordPress Cache

The easiest way to implement caching (and usually the only way if your blog is on shared hosting) is to use a caching plugin.

The most commonly used is WP Super Cache which is easy to install and setup.

If you run our own server you have several more options.

7.2 MySQL Optimization

MySQL can save the results of a query in it’s own cache. To enable it edit the MySQL configuration file (usually /etc/my.cnf) and add these lines:

query_cache_type = 1

query_cache_limit = 1M

query_cache_size = 20M

This will create a 20 MB query cache after you restart the MySQL server.

To check if it is properly running, run this query:

SHOW STATUS LIKE ‘Qcache%’;

Example result:

Qcache_free_blocks 718

Qcache_free_memory 13004008

Qcache_hits 780759

Qcache_inserts 56292

Qcache_lowmem_prunes 0

Qcache_not_cached 3711

Qcache_queries_in_cache 1715

Qcache_total_blocks 4344

Tip #1: If you are expecting a Digg Front Page you are likely to exceed your current limit of maximum concurrent MySQL connections which is among the prime reasons a site failing a Digg traffic spike.

You can prepare by increasing this number to about 250 using this line in the config file.

max_connections = 250

7.3 PHP Opcode Cache

PHP is interpreted language, meaning that every time PHP code is started, it is compiled into the so called op-codes, which are then run by the system. This compilation process can be cached by installing an opcode cache such as eAccelerator. There are other caching solutions out there as well.

To install eAccelerator, unpack the archive and go to the eAccelerator folder. Then type:

phpize

./configure

make

make install

This will install eAccelerrator.

Next create temp folder for storage:

mkdir /var/cache/eaccelerator

chmod 0777 /var/cache/eaccelerator

Finally to enable it, add these lines to the end of your php.ini file (usually /etc/php.ini or /usr/lib/php.ini):

extension=”eaccelerator.so”

eaccelerator.shm_size=”16″

eaccelerator.cache_dir=”/var/cache/eaccelerator”

eaccelerator.enable=”1″

eaccelerator.optimizer=”1″

eaccelerator.check_mtime=”1″

eaccelerator.debug=”0″

eaccelerator.filter=”"

eaccelerator.shm_max=”0″

eaccelerator.shm_ttl=”0″

eaccelerator.shm_prune_period=”0″

eaccelerator.shm_only=”0″

eaccelerator.compress=”1″

eaccelerator.compress_level=”9″

The changes will be noticeable at once, as PHP does not need to be ‘restarted’.

Note #1: WP Super Cache and eAccelerator work just fine together showing further increase in performance.

Note #2: If you like cutting edge and even more possibility for performance, check the ultra cool WP Super Cache and eAccelerator plugin.

Note #3: You can easily test changes in your configuration by running a test from your command prompt

ab -n 1000 http://your.server/

and comparing results.

Note #4: Apache optimization is out of scope of this article but you can find extensive information here.

Note #5: You can find even more tips&tricks on Elliot Back’s site (and he plays DOTA too, how cool is that).

8. “MySQL server has gone away” workaround

This WordPress database error appears on certain configurations and it manifests in very slow and no response, usually on your admin pages.

Workaround for this MySQL problem has been best addressed in this article.

This problem evidently exists, but the suggested fix is valid only until you upgrade your WordPress. Hopefully it will be further researched and added into the WordPress core in the future.

9. Fixing posting not possible problem

If you experience WordPress admin panel crawling to a halt, with inability to post or update certain posts, you are probably hitting the mod_security wall.

ModSecurity is Apache module for increasing web site security by preventing system intrusions. However, sometimes it may decide that your perfectly normal WordPress MySQL query is trying to do something suspicious and black list it, which manifests in very slow or no response of the site.

To test if this is the case, check your Apache error log, for example:

tail -f /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log

and look for something like this:

ModSecurity: Access denied with code 500 (phase 2) … [id "300013"] [rev "1"] [msg "Generic SQL injection protection"] [severity "CRITICAL"] [hostname www.prelovac.com"] [uri “/vladimir/wp-admin/page.php”

It tells you the access for this page was denied because of a security rule with id 300013. Fixing this includes white-listing this rule for the page in question.

To do that, edit apache config file (for example /usr/local/apache/conf/modsec2/exclude.conf) and add these lines:

SecRuleRemoveById 300013

This will white list the page for the given security rule and your site will continue to work normally.

10. Other reasons for slow posting

Reasons for slow WordPress posting may include rss ping and pingback timeouts.

By default WordPress will try to ping servers listed in your ping list (found in Settings->Writing panel) and one of them may timeout slowing the entire process.

Second reason are post pingbacks, mechanism in which WordPress notifies the sites you linked to in your article. You can disable pingbacks in Settings->Discussion by un-checking option “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article (slows down posting)“.

Try clearing ping list and disabling pingbacks to see if that helps speed up your posting time.

Conclusion

Modern webservers and websites have grown to depend on many different factors.

This article covered various approaches to optimization from system level PHP and MySQL cache to settings within your WordPress.

I hope following this guide will help you create a fast and responsive WordPress based site.

50 Simple Ways to Gain RSS Subscribers

2008-11-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

Most bloggers love their RSS readers. Not only that, but they also love to gain new RSS readers. It is such a joy when you wake up one day and see that your Feedburner count jumped by 200 or 300, right?

Those days are quite rare though, and most people seem to have a hard time gaining even a small number of new RSS subscribers consistently.

Is there anything you can do about it? Any way to efficiently attract more RSS subscribers?

Sure there is. Many people wrote about this topic in the past, but I wanted to give my take on the issue too. I wrote those 50 ideas as they were coming to my head, as briefly as possible. Enjoy.

1. Have a big RSS icon. People are lazy. You need to keep that fact always in mind. If you use a little RSS icon, visitors might have a problem finding it. Most of those will just give up after a couple of seconds, so make sure the RSS icon is big and easily recognizable.

2. Display the RSS icon above the fold. Apart from using a big RSS icon, you must make sure that you display it above the fold. That is where most blogs have one, and that is where people are used to look for when they want to subscribe, so go with the flow.

3. Display the RSS icon on every page of your blog. When I started blogging I did this mistake. Only my homepage used to have an RSS icon…. As soon as I added it to every single page on the blog, the number of subscribers jumped.

4. Use words. Depending on your audience, just using an RSS icon might not be effective. If they aren’t tech-savvy, they might not know what that little orange thing is. In those cases, you can write a small message explaining that subscribing will allow them to keep updated with your posts and so on.

5. Write a post asking for people to subscribe. Ever heard the saying “Ask and thou shalt receive”? This principle works on most areas of our lives. Blogging is no exception. If you want people to subscribe to your feed, ask them to! Write a post about it, give them some reasons and you will see how they respond.

6. Use the FeedSmith plugin. Unless you hand code a lot of redirects on your blog, readers will still be able to subscribe to different RSS feeds provided by WordPress. This plugin will make sure that all your subscribers will be forwarded to the Feedburner feed, so that you can track them and control how your feed is formatted.

7. Offer email subscriptions. Like it or not, only a small percentage of the Internet users know about or use RSS feeds. Studies confirm that this number is below 10% around the world. Why would you want to miss the other 90% of the pie? If you use Feedburner, you just need to go on the “Publicize” tab to activate your email subscriptions.

8. Use an email subscription form. For most bloggers, an email subscription form will convert better than a simple “Subscribe via email” link. That is because Internet users are used to seeing those forms around, and typing their email address there is quite intuitive. The top of your sidebar is a good spot to place one.

9. Encourage readers to subscribe at the bottom of every post. Apart from having an RSS icon and email subscription form above the fold, it is also important to place them below each single post. Why? Because right after people finish reading your articles, they will look for something to do next, and subscribing to your blog is a good option. Additionally, if the article they just read was really good, they will be on the right mindset to subscribe and receive more of your articles in the future.

10. As few steps as possible. People are lazy (I know I mentioned it before, but it is worth re-emphasizing). The fewer the steps required for them to subscribe to your blog, the better. If you can reduce the number of clicks required, therefore, do it!

11. Use icons to offer subscription on the most popular RSS readers. One practical thing that you can do to reduce the number of steps required to subscribe to your feed is to use RSS reader specific icons (e.g., “Add to Google Reader” or “Subscribe on Bloglines”). Just analyze the most common RSS readers among your subscribers and add those icons to the sidebar.

12. Have clear focus on your blog. If you write about 10 different topics, it will be hard to convince people to subscribe to your blog. They might like your articles about technology, but they would hate to receive the house cleaning ones…. Having a clear focus is one of the most efficient ways to attract subscribers.

13. Publish new posts frequently and consistently. By frequently I mean publishing many posts per week or even per day, and by consistently I mean sticking with that frequency religiously. Those two factors will communicate to the visitors that your blog is active, and that subscribing to the RSS feed might be the best way to stay updated with it indeed.

14. Don’t exaggerate. While writing many posts per week or per day is usually a good thing, there is a limit to it. Many people mention that if a certain blog starts overwhelming them with dozens of new posts a day, they will just unsubscribe. The exceptions to this rule are the blogs on fast paced niches like gadget news.

15. Write valuable content. People will only subscribe to your RSS feed if there is some value that they can derive from it. This value might come from different different factors depending on your audience: it may come from the breaking news that you offer, from the deep analysis that you write, or from the funny things you say and so on, but it must be there.

16. Write unique content. You content might be valuable, but if people can find it elsewhere, they will have no reason to subscribe to your RSS feed. For example, suppose you copy all posts from a popular blog on your niche, say Lifehacker. You content would still be valuable, but it would not be unique, and most people would end up subscribing to the original source.

17. Don’t ramble or go off topic. If your blog has a clear focus as we suggested before, readers will subscribe to it for a very specific reason. If you then start writing about off topic stuff, it will annoy a great part of them. Just consider that a bad or unrelated post is worse than no post at all, since it might make some of your readers actually unsubscribe.

18. Use your RSS feed link when commenting on other blogs. Many bloggers have the habit of commenting on other people’s blogs. Some do it simply to join the conversation. Others because they want to promote their own blogs and generate some traffic. Either way, you can leave your RSS feed link instead of the website one to encourage people to subscribe to your feed (if you use Feedburner, they will be able to see your content anyway).

19. Run a contest. Contests are very popular on the blogosphere. If you have a somewhat popular blog, in fact, it is not difficult to raise some prizes and create one. By making subscribing to your RSS feed a requirement to participate, you could quickly boost the number of subscribers that you have. If you want to control who is going to take this action, use the email subscription method.

20. Offer random prizes to your subscribers. If you are not a fan of contests and competitions, you could always entice people to subscribe to your RSS feed by giving away random prizes. For example, if some company approaches you to donate some free copies of its product, you could in turn donate it to your subscribers

21. Write guest posts. Guest posts represent a very efficient technique for generating both brand awareness and traffic. If you guest blog on a popular blog on your same niche, there is also a good chance that a good percentage of that incoming traffic will end up subscribing to your feed.

22. Welcome the new readers. Whenever you manage to land a guest post on a really popular blog, or when you get mentioned on a larger website or mainstream site, it could be a good idea to write a specific post to welcome those readers. Use that post to describe your blog briefly, to talk a bit about yourself, and to encourage them to subscribe.

23. Go popular on social bookmarking sites. Some people say that the quality of the traffic coming from social bookmarking sites (e.g., Digg and StumbleUpon) is very low. This is true to some extent, because those visitors will rarely click on anything on your page (including on the subscribe link). Because of the sheer amount of traffic that you can get on those sites, however, even a really small conversion rate could easily mean 200 or 300 new subscribers in a matter of 24 hours.

24. Explain to your readers what is RSS. As we mentioned before, it is estimated that less than 10% of the popular know about or use RSS feeds. Can you do anything about this? Sure you can! Write a post teaching your readers what RSS is, why it is good, and how they can start using it. It works particularly well on blogs that have a non tech-savvy audience.

25. Have a special “Subscribe” page with all the info and links there. Apart from writing a specific post teaching your readers about RSS, you can also create a special “Subscribe” page on your blog where you explain briefly how to use RSS feeds, and place all the subscription links, badges, and email forms. You could then link to that page from the sidebar, with a link that would say “Subscription Options” or “How to subscribe.”

26. Create a landing page on your blog to convert visitors in subscribers. If you are going to purchase some banners or other type of advertising, it is highly recommended that you create a landing page to receive those visitors on the best way possible. Use that page to describe your blog, to highlight your best content, and to ask them to subscribe. When doing guest blogging, you could use this page as the byline link as well.

27. Send traffic to that page using PPC. Pay-per-Click advertising, like Google AdWords, is one of the cheapest ways to send targeted traffic to your site. Depending on the quality score that you get (this is calculated from the AdWords side) you could start getting visitors for as low as $0.01 each. That is, with $100, you could send up to 10,000 visitors to your landing page. With a 1% conversion rate this would mean 100 new subscribers.

28. Write an ebook and ask people to subscribe in order to download it. Whether you like them or not, eBooks are a part of the Internet. Many people write them, many others download and read them. If the content and the promotion are well structured, you have thousands of people wanting to read yours. What if you then require people to subscribe first before they can download it? That would bring a heck lot of new subscribers.

29. Launch an email newsletter with Aweber. An email newsletter can be used to complement the content on most blogs. You send a weekly email to those subscribers with your insider views of your niche, with some extra tips, tools and so on. If you then choose Aweber for your newsletter, you can use the “Blog Broadcast” feature to turn those newsletter subscribers into RSS readers too (they will receive a weekly summary from your feed).

30. Offer a full feed. If your goal is to have as many subscribers as possible, then offering a full RSS feed is the only way to go. Many people get annoyed by partial feeds, and even if that does not discourage them from subscribing at first, it might make them unsubscribe shortly after.

31. Clutter your website with ads. This point is a funny/weird addition to the list, and I don’t recommend anyone doing it. I didn’t invent this though, and I saw some people in the past talking about it. The idea is simple: if you clutter your website with many flashy and intrusive ads, but offer top quality content anyway, some people might get an urge to subscribe to your RSS feed just to avoid the clutter on the website….

32. Don’t clutter your RSS feed with ads. Just as too many ads on your site can scare visitors away, too many ads or badges or links on your RSS feed can make people unsubscribe. Keep the RSS feed as clean as possible. That is what people expect to have when they subscribe to an XML file, after all.

33. Use social proof. Ever entered into a restaurant because the place was packed with people, or didn’t enter one because it was empty? That is social proof in action. If you have a good number of RSS subscribers already (I would say over 500), you could display it on your site using the Feedburner feed count widget. This might motivate people to give your RSS feed a shot.

34. Offer breaking news. RSS feeds are one of the most efficient ways to keep up with sites that are frequently updated with information that you care about. If you manage to break some news, or to offer frequent updates on popular topics (like stock market alerts), people would have a stronger motivation to subscribe.

35. Mention that subscribing to your blog is free. It might sound strange, but many people actually get confused with the “Subscribe” terminology. I received dozens of emails over the past year from people that wanted to know if there was any cost associated with subscribing to my RSS feeds! To avoid any confusion, it could be worth mentioning that subscribing to your blog is free, so instead of “Subscribe to my RSS feed” you could use “Receive our updates for free.”

36. Use pop-ups to encourage subscription to your newsletter. Darren managed to increase his conversion rate by more than 700% using pop-ups. Sure, they are intrusive, but they work like nothing else. If you already have an established and loyal following, perhaps using this technique wouldn’t hurt your traffic. We also did a recent poll on the topic.

37. Use an animated RSS feed icon to draw attention. Animated ads get a much higher click-through rate, exactly because they move around and draw people’s attention. You can use the same technique with your RSS feed icon, and make it an animated GIF to call the attention of the visitors.

38. Use feed directories. Don’t expect to receive hundreds of new subscribers by using this technique, but every small bit helps right? Some people use feed directories to find new RSS feeds and content to subscribe to, so if you have some free time you could submit yours on those sites. Here is a list with almost 20 feed directories.

39. Email first time commentators encouraging them to subscribe. Sending a personal email to your first time commentators is a kind gesture, and many will thank you for that. You could use this opportunity to remind them that they can stay updated with your blog via the RSS feed. There is also plugin called Comment Relish that can automate this process, although it becomes less personal.

40. Make sure the feed auto-discovery feature is working. Most modern browsers have an auto-discovery feature that tried to identify if the website you are visiting has a valid RSS feed. If they do, the browser will present a small RSS icon on the right side of the address bar. So make sure that your can see that icon while visiting your blog, and click on it to see if the right RSS feed will pop. On WordPress you can edit this part on the header.php file.

41. Offer a comments feed. If you have an active community of readers who often engage in discussions on the comments section of your blog, you could consider offering a comments RSS feed.

42. Offer category feeds. If you have many categories on your blog, you could offer an RSS feed for each of them individually. This would enable visitors that are interested only in specific topics to subscribe to them and not to the whole blog. At the same time this granularity could increase the overall number of RSS subscribers you have.

43. Run periodic checks on your feeds. It is not rare to find blogs around the web with a broken RSS feed. Click on your own feed once in a while to make sure that the link is working, that the feed is working, and that it is a valid XML document.

44. Recover unverified email subscribers. You will notice that good percentage of your email subscribers will never confirm their subscription. Some are lazy, some just don’t understand the process. This percentage can go as high as 30%, so you could end up losing many would-be subscribers there. Fortunately you can email those unverified subscribers and remind them about the problem. It works for some.

45. Leverage an existing blog or audience. If you already have a popular blog, newsletter, forum, twitter account and so on, you could leverage that presence to get new subscribers. People that already follow you in some place will have a higher chance of subscribing to you new blog, especially if they like your work or person.

46. Use cross feed promotion. Find some related blogs that have a similar RSS subscriber base, and propose to the blogger to use a cross feed promotion deal. That is, you promote his blog on your feed footer, and he promotes your blog on his feed footer.

47. Use testimonials on your “Subscribe” page. You probably have seen how most product sales pages on the web use testimonials, right? That is because a personal recommendation from a third party goes a long way into convincing a prospect. If that is the case, why not use testimonials to convince people to subscribe to your RSS feed?

48. Get friends to recommend your site and RSS feed on their blog. Even stronger than having a testimonial on your “Subscribe” page is to have someone recommend you on his own blog or website. Many of his readers will pay attention to the message and head over to your blog to check what the fuzz is about.

49. Do something funny or weird while asking for people to subscribe. People love blogs with a sense of humor. If you can make them laugh, you have took them half way into subscribing. Some months ago I published the Huge RSS Icon Experiment, and gained 300 new subscribers in 3 days.

50. Start a long series so people subscribe to keep update with it. Long and structured series of posts are not only traffic magnets, but also RSS readers magnets. If a casual visitor discovers that you are publishing a long series about a topic he is interested on, he will think about subscribing in order to not miss the future posts of the series.

Unemployment reaches 11-year high

2008-11-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

The number of people out of work in the UK in the three months to September jumped by 140,000 to 1.82 million - the highest in 11 years.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.8%, up from 5.4% in the previous quarter, according to official figures.

The number of people claiming the Jobseeker's Allowance rose by 36,500 to 980,900 in October - the highest monthly increase since 1992.

Economists say unemployment could top two million within months.

These latest jobs figures came shortly before the Bank of England produced its gloomiest set of forecasts for in more than a decade.

The Bank said Britain's economy had probably already entered recession and was likely to contract further in 2009.

On Tuesday news came of more than 5,000 cuts by firms including Virgin Media, Yell and GlaxoSmithKline.

Policy 'priority'

The annual growth rate of average earnings, including bonuses, eased to 3.3% in the three months to September compared to the previous period.

Excluding bonuses, average earnings grew at 3.6%, unchanged on the previous three months. Inflation is currently 5.2% but is set to plummet as the economy slows.

The number of manufacturing jobs fell to 2.86 million, the lowest figure since records began in 1978.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The signs are that redundancies are coming even faster since these figures were collected. Countering unemployment must be public policy priority number one."

ING economist James Knightley said that the last recession in the early 1990s saw 31 consecutive monthly rises in unemployment.

"We are likely to have plenty more bad news on the labour market to come," he warned.

He said the number of those out of work would "push towards 2.5 million in 2010".

Union pleas

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the Unite trade union, called for a programme of government intervention.

"Only urgent and widespread action by government to protect jobs and homes will help hard-pressed families through the worst of this global turmoil," he said.

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: "The chancellor is right to spend money to keep people in work rather than spend money on unemployment benefit."

"He needs to keep the pedal to the metal in terms of spending on regeneration," he said.

Graeme Leach, of the Institute of Directors, said unemployment could rise to 2.8 million by 2010.

"The UK labour market is about to suffer the consequences of the once-in-a-generation financial crisis," he said.

Jobless totals

The claimant count - those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance - has now increased for nine months in a row and is 154,800 higher than a year ago.

The number of people in work fell by 99,000 to 29.4 million and vacancies were down by 40,000 to 589,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The unemployment rate of 5.8% is the highest since early 2000, while the number of people looking for work has jumped by 182,000 over the past year.

The number of unemployed men was 1.07 million, up 85,000 over the latest quarter, while 55,000 more women joined the ranks of the unemployed, up to 750,000.

Unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds increased by 53,000 to 579,000, the highest figure since 1995.

Long-term unemployment rose, with the numbers out of work for longer than a year up by 20,000 to 435,000.

There was also increase in redundancies, as 156,000 people reported they had up lost their jobs during the three months to September - up 29,000 from the previous quarter.

Google searches track flu spread

2008-11-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

Google's philanthropic arm Google.org has released a new site that tracks the incidence of flu in the US based on terms used in Google searches.

The system uses aggregated, anonymous results from searches for flu-related terms and plots their locations.

The approach, validated against Centers for Disease Control (CDC) flu records, provides timely data that could be two weeks ahead of government figures.

The site, which is free to use, will pass the early-warning data to the CDC.

Hundreds of billions of Google searches from 2003 onwards were used to develop the model, which was then compared with CDC data on outbreaks.

"Our team found that certain aggregated search queries tend to be very common during flu season each year," Google said in their official blog on the topic.

"We compared these aggregated queries against data provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and we found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week."

Traditional survey techniques employed by the CDC take about two weeks to precisely identify outbreaks, and Google hopes that its data, based on a stream of current searches, will serve as an early warning system that the CDC can then act upon

Gorgeous Aerial View of the Island Bora Bora [PIC]

2008-11-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

Peru offers national hairless dog to Obamas

2008-11-12T09:53:00.001-08:00

Completely bald and older than the Incas, the Peruvian hairless dog seems like an odd fit for the White House.

But Peruvians are mindful of President-elect Barack Obama's preference for a hypoallergenic breed due to his daughter Malia's allergies — and say the dark, rough-skinned pooch with large ears and a pointy snout could be just the solution.

At his first postelection news conference on Friday, Obama said choosing a pet dog for his daughters is a "major issue."

"It has to be hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," the president-elect said.

The Friends of the Peruvian Hairless Dog Association responded on Monday, sending a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Peru offering the Obama family a 4-month-old pup that responds to "Machu Picchu," the name of Peru's famed Inca citadel.

"My family also has suffered from ... not being able to have a pet because my son and I are asthmatic, so we thought it would be ideal for him (Obama) to have a dog like ours," said association president Claudia Galvez.

Galvez, who has lived with six dogs of the breed for eight years, says being hairless has its benefits: The dogs are flealess and relatively odorless, too.

They were kept as pets during the Inca empire and depictions of the breed appear in 1,200-year-old, pre-Inca artwork.

The hairless dog was long scorned for its appearance before it was recognized internationally as the official Peruvian dog.

Yusuf Al Qaradawi: Obama is Like a Soft Touch Snake !

2008-11-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, President of the World Federation of Muslim Scholars, said that Obama, such as living silky, and a danger to Islam and Muslims, pointing out that McCain will make you an enemy explicitly specify your position clearly.

Qaradawi added that Obama, which he described as a “hypocrite” enemy of Muslims and wearing a mask of moderation, without the case.

He pointed out that McCain better than Obama, because it represents a clear hostility to Muslims and frank without equivocation or hypocrisy, which gives you an opportunity to confrontation and the ability to self-defense doctrine, including the interests of Muslims around the globe.

It is noteworthy that Barack Obama, a Democrat, who won the recent presidential elections, choosing “Rahm Emanuel” by nationality “Israeli” volunteered in the army, “Israeli” during the period that preceded the Gulf War in 1991, served as White House chief of staff, and His father, “Benjamin Emmanuel” had belonged to the group “Aitsel” secret Jewish nationalist group, which fought a guerrilla war against British forces prior to the announcement of “Israel” in 1948.

Democrats deaths of Iraqis dead Republicans times:

He advised the Arabs who were happy Qaradawi Obama victory, saying: those who believed that the Democrats less hostility from Republicans, Vicver to know that the number of Iraqis killed by the Democrat Bill Clinton during the siege of Iraq, are the times of those killed by Republican Bush.

For his part, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, he hoped the winner of the President to change America’s policy in the Middle East policy “unjust and Muftrip” to the policy of moderate and fair to return the usurped rights to their owners.

“CARE” warns the Arabs “to raise the ceiling” of the policies of their expectations for Obama:

On the other hand, Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, “CARE”, warned the peoples of the Arab states “to raise the ceiling on” expectations for the policies of Obama, saying that happy days will not reach the Middle East soon.

Arash AF10 2009

2008-11-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

Features:AF10 features an advanced road car aerodynamic package.

The package includes a radical front wing separated from the main front body clam and strong air intake side pods.

These features have taken influences from Lemans racing cars and F1 cars, however perform specific functions for the overall performance of the car. Split radiators have been used for the front and Oil radiators have been postioned in the side pods including air intakes. Active front and rear wings have been used to achieve an overall impressive aeropackage for high speed stability and low speed grip. The position of the front wing is unique to the current car industry today and is a ‘signiture’ to the Arash Cars family.

Powertrain

The 7 litre GM unit has been used for the AF10. Final power output is estimated at 550bhp at 6000rpm. The unit has been specifically chosen due to excellent supply of parts and backup from GM Uk and its reliable emission compliant power delivery. Servicing is minimal due to the unstressed nature of the engine as well as ease of installation into the AF-10 chassis.

Grazianno Trasmissioni have been chosen as the supplier of gearboxes due to the reliable power handling and good supply chain for transmissions to the UK. The transaxle unit can be found in many high level OE cars today.

Chassis

Full carbon and steel frame chassis with steel front and rear crash structures and cradles. The chassis has been designed with kpi angles to achieve sports car feel but supercar presence. All wishbones are double format and have steel tubular structures. All uprights are internally designed to fit AP racing 6 pot carbon ceramic discs and callipers.

Body

All carbon fibre with honeycomb and nomex sandwiches have been used to achieve weight reductions and built in stiffness advantages. All bodywork is hand laid up and cured at the Arash Cars facility in Cambridge. Strict quality control is carried out without the need for x-ray inspection.

Manufacturing

All manufacturing of main components will be carried out in Sawston due to such low volumes of cars being released to the market. An estimated 25 cars will be manufactured per year with a small number being delivered to the US market in LHD format. Outsourcing for machining and main OE parts will still be maintained, however a need to manufacture chassis and body components are essential to achieve control and quality control.

Specifications

Price: £172,000. Inclusive of VAT.

Full carbon body.

Carbon and steel chassis.

V8 7 Litre GM Engine. Titanium Conrods, dry sump with cooling.

550bhp at 6000rpm.

6 speed manual Grazianno transmission.

19 inch wheel standard 21 inch as per picture option.

Supercharged version to be released at later date 850bhp (AF10-S).

Full leather interior.

Lift up dihedral doors.

Full warranty and roadside assistance.

Full lifetime body warranty.

0-60 in 3.4 seconds.

Top speed 204 mph.

Active front and rear wings.

Full aero wind tunnel tested aero package with full underfloor aero system.

Standard sat nav, mp3 player, rear view camera fully integrated touchscreen

Full air con pack.

4.4 m long 2m wide.

Wheel base 2690.

AT&T iPhone Tethering to Cost $30/month?

2008-11-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

According to a MacBlogz source, AT&T's upcoming 3G iPhone tethering plan will run $30 a month over existing subscriptions and have a 5GB cap. That sounds about right to us, as the plan is identical to that which AT&T already offers to Blackberry users.

They also explain that the connection will simply be cut if you go over 5GB, preventing potentially huge overage charges (BlackBerry users can opt to pay $0.00048/KB for extra bandwidth, which would make sense on the iPhone, too).

World's smallest animals

2008-11-12T06:23:00.000-08:00

The smallest cow. 81-91 cm long

The smallest dog, Chihuahua Ducky, from Massachusetts. The dog is only 4.9 inches tall (about 12 cm)

The smallest cat, Mr. Peebles from Illinois, USA. He is 15.5 cm tall and 49 cm long

The smallest chameleon 1.2 cm long, Madagascar

The smallest fish is 7.9 mm long

The smallest hamster. 2.5 cm

The smallest horse is 43 cm tall

The smallest lizard - 16 mm long

The smallest snake. Only 10 cm long

Dog gives birth to mutant creature that resembles human being

2008-11-12T02:37:00.000-08:00

Oh! This looks like a good place to sleep!

2008-11-12T02:35:00.001-08:00

Magic Number Machine

2008-11-12T02:27:00.000-08:00

A free, full-featured, graphically laid out, high-precision, scientific calculator for Mac OS X 10.4 and greater. Full source-code is included with the distribution.

Good if you need to enter large expressions or have accurate precision. “Data” drawers allow statistical data, linear regression and gaussian elimination. All parts of the program support complex numbers and hexadecimal numbers.

Download the current version: Magic Number Machine (v1.0.27). Size: 2.0MB

http://magicnumbermachine.googlecode.com/files/magicnumbermachine_1.0.27.dmg

Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or greater. Native Intel Mac support (universal binary). Source code requires XCode 2.2 or greater. Users of Mac OS X 10.2.8 to 10.3.9 can download the special 1.0 Build which incorporates all major bugs fixed up to 1.0.22.

Changes in 1.0.27: Fixed a bug where a some calculations caused infinite loops (busy/lock-ups) and a crash when the window in the English version was reduced to minimum size.

Changes in 1.0.26: Fixed keyboard focus issue with drawers. Also fixed decimal point keyboard shortcuts in German.

Changes in 1.0.25: Added Italian translations (thanks to Alessio).

Changes in 1.0.24: Fixed an issue where the window didn't appear on startup or disappeared on resizing.

Changes in 1.0.23: Changes include:

For locales that use comma as the decimal point, this will now work.

Keyboard shortcuts have changed significantly to avoid conflicts in different language locales and to fix the "Clear" button (will now correctly clear the whole expression). New menu item in Help menu will link to help page on keyboard shortcuts.

Fixed tooltips in all languages. Non-English languages will now show correct language. English will now show correct keyboard shortcuts.

Any division by zero now correctly returns "Not a number" instead of "0".

Command-W will now work to close the window.

Changes in 1.0.22: Fixed a minor keyboard focus issue on application hide/unhide.

Program Features:

The program’s feature list goes something like this:

25 accurate digits of precision

Complex numbers

Hexdecimal, octal, binary, decimal and 2’s complement display.

Floating point numbers, even in non-decimal radices.

A full expression history (go back to anything)

A graphical display that you can click on to change the entry point

Value memory limited only by computer memory.

Statistics functions

Linear regression

Matrix functions including gaussian elimination, inversion and determinants.

Large number of scientific constants built-in.

4,300-year-old pyramid discovered in Egypt

2008-11-11T23:02:00.000-08:00

Tomb thought to house remains of Queen Sesheshet, mother of King Teti

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a pyramid buried in the desert and thought to belong to the mother of a pharaoh who ruled more than 4,000 years ago, Egypt's antiquities chief said on Tuesday.

The pyramid, found about two months ago in the sand south of Cairo, probably housed the remains of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti, who ruled from 2323 to 2291 B.C. and founded Egypt's Sixth Dynasty, Zahi Hawass told reporters.

"The only queen whose pyramid is missing is Shesheshet, which is why I am sure it belonged to her," Hawass said. "This will enrich our knowledge about the Old Kingdom."

The Sixth Dynasty, a time of conflict in Egypt's royal family and erosion of centralized power, is considered to be the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom, after which Egypt descended into famine and social upheaval.

Archaeologists had previously discovered pyramids belonging to two of the king's wives nearby, but had never found a tomb belonging to Sesheshet.

The headless, 6-foot high pyramid originally reached about 46 feet, with sides 72 feet long, Hawass said.

The pyramid, which Hawass said was the 118th found in Egypt, was uncovered near the world's oldest pyramid at Saqqara, a burial ground for the rulers of ancient Egypt.

"This may be the most complete subsidiary pyramid ever found at Saqqara," Hawass said.

The monument was originally covered in a casing of white limestone brought from quarries at nearby Tura, Hawass said.

Archaeologists plan to enter the pyramid's burial chamber within two weeks, although most of its contents are likely to have been taken by thieves, Hawass said.

Artifacts including a wooden statue of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis and funerary figurines dating from a later period indicate that the cemetery had been reused through Roman times, Hawass said.

Apple may turn to carbon fiber for lighter MacBook Air

2008-11-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Apple enthusiastically claimed ownership to the world's thinnest notebook earlier this year with the introduction of the MacBook Air, but is rumored to be unsatisfied with the system's weight, which it now hopes to drop below 3 pounds.

As such, people who've proven familiar with the company's portable plans say the Mac maker has been looking into substituting carbon fiber parts for certain structural components currently cast from heavier aircraft-grade aluminum.

Carbon fiber is an extremely lightweight material comprised of very thin fibers about 0.005–0.010 millimeters in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The atoms bond together in microscopic crystals that are aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber and can thus be used to form exceptionally strong composites without requiring more material.

The high strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fiber has made it a popular choice for the aerospace, sporting, and racing industries, where it's used for aircraft parts, bicycle frames, and performance car bodies. More recently, however, its application has spilled into the computing industry, with vendors such as Sony and HP's Voodoo PC brand all using it to construct lightweight notebook enclosures.

For its part, Apple is reportedly looking to adopt the material for only a portion of Air's enclosure. The Cupertino-based firm is extremely proud of the notebook's precision unibody upper chassis, which it mills from a single extruded block of aluminum. While no changes have been proposed for this component, those familiar with ongoing R&D efforts say the company is hoping to replacing the Air's lower aluminum case, or bottom cover, with one constructed from carbon fiber.

The move would reportedly raise production costs but shave upwards of a 100 grams off the notebook, dropping its weight from a hair over 3 pounds (or 1363 grams) to 2.78 pounds (or 1263 grams). A pre-production unit showcasing the new part was said to look identical to the existing Air with the exception of the carbon fiber bottom, which appeared in the material's native black.

In our attempts to provide some color on the weight-related claims, we contacted the tear-down experts at iFixit for a breakdown of the Air's weight distribution. Indeed, it turns out that the notebook's bottom cover is the second heaviest structural component outside the unibody chassis (260 grams), weighing in at 152 grams. The rear bezel, or top cover with the Apple logo, weighs 211 grams.

More than 35 percent of the Air's weight comes from the combination of its 287 gram battery and 210 gram LCD panel. The logic board, hard disk drive, and hard drive mounting brackets comprise another 10 percent of the unit's weight.

Asked about the rumored materials swap, iFixit chief executive Kyle Wiens said he wouldn't put it past the Mac maker, which is constantly pushing the manufacturing envelope, to make such a change.

Although AppleInsider publishes the aforementioned information strictly as a rumor, it's believed the shift to a carbon fiber bottom is far enough along in its development cycle that it could appear in a revision to the MacBook Air sometime next year.

Google launches video chat for Gmail

2008-11-11T22:33:00.000-08:00

Google is rolling out video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is embedded in the Gmail interface. It's a bare-bones voice and video-conferencing service, but it's simple to install and use and is a very good addition to Gmail.

It's no Skype, though. Gmail Video and Voice, as it's called, can't connect to the plain phone network, as Skype's paid service can. And there are plenty of other optional features missing, like a voice call recorder.

I found a demo of voice and video quality on the service excellent, although to be fair I was connected from CNET's corporate network to someone at the Google campus. I do expect Gmail Video quality to be a bit more consistent than Skype, since unlike the point-to-point architecture of Skype, Gmail Video traffic all runs through Google servers. I expect that Google has the bandwidth and server capacity needed.

But the service was a resource hog on my 2-year-old computer; it used up all my available CPU resources and made other apps slow to respond. I've had better luck with Skype. Newer computers would probably not have this problem.

Unlike many current video chat products, Gmail Video and Voice uses a proprietary plug-in, not Flash. The small (2MB) download supports Firefox, IE, and Chrome on the PC, and Firefox on the Mac. Support for other browsers and platforms (Linux and mobile) may come later.

Gmail Video and Voice will be made available to all Gmail users starting Tuesday at noon PST. Global rollout should be complete by the end of the day. To see if you have it, open a chat with someone (you don't actually have to message them). If your account is video-enabled, at the lower left of the chat window, there will be an interface element labeled "Video & more." When you click on that it will walk you through installing the plug-in. If you want to make a video call to someone who hasn't yet installed the plug-in, you'll be able to invite them to do so. (In my early test of the service, this feature wasn't yet enabled).

The existing downloadable Google Talk application, which has supported voice chat for a while, only later may get the video capability. The Google people I spoke with were noncommittal.

Upshot: The addition of voice and video makes Gmail a more compelling product. It's very nice to have all the major communications channels (e-mail, chat, voice, video, and soon, SMS) in one place and under one log-on. Google could, though, layer in some more connectivity into its own apps (like YouTube, Google Docs presentations, and Android) to make it even richer. And the lack of an interface to the standard phone system is limiting.

But Google got the first release of its videophone pretty much right. It works, it's easy, and if you're a Gmail user, the service is right where you want it.

Here's a Google developer's pitch for the service:

Google G1 phone cheaper to build than Apple’s iPhone

2008-11-11T22:28:00.000-08:00

HTC is able to build the G1 phone for a much lower bill of materials (BOM) than what Apple has to shell out for the iPhone 3G,. According to iSuppli, the hardware cost difference between the two devices is about 17%. Apple’s most significant expense is the flash memory and the screen, while HTC drops the most money into the baseband unit.

The market research firm estimates that the combined hardware cost of the G1 is $143.89, which compares to about $173 that Apple pays for the hardware of an iPhone 3G with 8 GB of flash memory ($164 without manufacturing). Holding a G1 and an iPhone in your hands side-by-side will reveal some of that cost difference, but the true differences that impact cost are actually under the hood.

Apple is estimated to pay about $23 for the 8 GB memory chip, which is the most expensive single component in the iPhone 3G. HTC, however, spends an estimated $28.49 on the device’s baseband chip, which uses a combination of an ARM11 microprocessor for multimedia applications and an ARM7 core for modem functions. Both companies spend about $20 on the touchscreen, while HTC spends more on the camera module ($13 vs. $7)

iSuppli identified the Radio Frequency (RF)/Power Amplifier (PA) portion, which costs $9.84 in the G1, as a key differentiator between the two phones. The G1 supports the HSDPA air interface at the 1700/2100 bands for 3G, which limits its U.S. end users to T-Mobile subscribers. If used in combination with AT&T, a user can only hit EDGE download speeds. In contrast, the iPhone 3G supports the HSDPA air standard operating at the 850/1900/2100 bands.

In many areas, the iPhone 3G seems to be much more technologically advanced than the G1. For example, the G1 has a projective touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard, while the iPhone relies on a sophisticated capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch capability – a feature the G1 lacks. There are also interface and software difference: For example, the G1 supports the downloading of music just like the iPhone, but unlike the iPhone, G1 users are limited to Wi-Fi to take advantage of this feature.

Also, the G1 presently supports only Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) mail, which does not work with many corporate e-mail systems, iSuppli said.

june2004hastings-mammatus

2008-11-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Spectacular Mammatus Clouds over Hastings, Nebraska

Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air.

Sometimes very ominous in appearance, mammatus clouds are harmless and do not mean that a tornado is about to form; a commonly held misconception. In fact, mammatus are usually seen after the worst of a thunderstorm has passed.

As updrafts carry precipitation enriched air to the cloud top, upward momentum is lost and the air begins to spread out horizontally, becoming a part of the anvil cloud. Because of its high concentration of precipitation particles (ice crystals and water droplets), the saturated air is heavier than the surrounding air and sinks back towards the earth.

The temperature of the subsiding air increases as it descends. However, since heat energy is required to melt and evaporate the precipitation particles contained within the sinking air, the warming produced by the sinking motion is quickly used up in the evaporation of precipitation particles. If more energy is required for evaporation than is generated by the subsidence, the sinking air will be cooler than its surroundings and will continue to sink downward.

Sleeping Baby....

2008-11-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

Your baby's sleep

Wondering if your baby will ever sleep through the night? We've got tips and advice to help your baby go to sleep – and stay asleep. We also answer your questions on how to make sure your baby is sleeping safely. Feeling sleep-starved yourself? We can help you cope.

Barack Obama's vision of a scientific America

2008-11-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

In modern times, America has led the world in scientific discovery. But since 2000, the country has seen what might be termed a scientific recession.

For five consecutive years, federal investment in science has fallen, stalling endeavour and leading to despondency among America's scientists.

Within the administration of George W Bush, scientific advice has been sidelined and subjected to sustained political manipulation.

Expert advisers on vital issues such as global warming, stem-cell research and the teaching of evolution have been marginalised, ignored and even removed from office.

The Republican approach during the election campaign was no better.

Despite John McCain's acceptance of global warming, his running mate, Sarah Palin, was widely thought to be hostile to scientific opinion, given her promotion of creationism in schools, her ridiculing of scientific research (for example on polar bears' endangered status) and her claims both that climate change wasn't man-made, and that it "kinda didn't matter" what had caused it.

It is no wonder, then, that 76 American Nobel laureates publicly supported Barack Obama – nor that there has been a dramatic lightening in mood among my colleagues in New York over the past week.

Obama understands – at least, according to his campaign literature and rhetoric – that science has the power to improve lives profoundly.

He also realises that the nations that succeed in the highly competitive world economy are those that foster technological advances and nurture intellectual strength.

What are Obama's specific pledges? First, to increase federal funding for science and engineering, which has halved as a share of GDP since 1970. He has promised to double the research budgets of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the other key agencies over the next decade, supporting high-risk, high-reward research in computing, biotech, nanotechnology and other fields.

Second, Obama has promised to invest in education, guaranteeing students access to a strong science curriculum and increasing the importance of maths and physics in schools.

Third, there is his plan for a green economy: a promised investment of $150 billion over 10 years to create five million new jobs.

There will be a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions and renewed engagement with international climate groups, including the UN's; investment in nuclear energy, clean coal technology and energy efficiency; and a requirement that
10 per cent of America's energy comes from renewable sources by 2012.

Fourth, there will be more investment in America's space programme, and in long-term research by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.

And finally, there will also be a new willingness to engage with genetic research: the head of Obama's "transition team" has already signified that they will look again at stem-cell research, which President Bush rejected.

So there is a feeling of hope that the new president will be much better for American science, and as a result for science across the globe.

There is no doubt that the President-elect sees an increased investment in science and technology as a way to introduce greener policies and help his country fight its way out of its economic turmoil.

But it is one thing to pledge an increase of funding during an election campaign, and another to double the budget during a global recession.

This will be one of Obama's foremost tests: can he deliver a sizable slice of a pie that every other sector and lobby group also wants?

The biggest challenge is to find a way to deliver the increase in funding for biomedical research, and the much-needed doubling of funding for research in the physical and engineering sciences, which was set out in the America Competes Act of 2007.

As the National Academy of Sciences warned in its report of the same year, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, America's advantages in the marketplace and in science and technology will be eroded without it.

Obama also needs to bring science back to the centre of government. In the UK, the science minister, Lord Drayson, attends Cabinet and has a PhD in robotics.

Gordon Brown has a track record of support for science, and there is cross-party agreement on its importance.

The Prime Minister recently supported and funded plans for a world-class research centre to tackle some of the biggest biomedical challenges of the 21st century: a public-private UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation that will bring together four of the world's leading biomedical research organisations – the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome Trust and University College London – in secure, high-quality laboratories in the heart of London.

So, without delay, President-elect Obama should appoint an influential, independent science adviser who can play an active role in establishing scientific priorities for the administration.

President Bush failed to confirm his chief science adviser, Dr John Marburger, until 10 months into his first term, killing any chance science had of having a true voice within his administration.

Obama must ensure that good, objective science is important at all levels of government, and that political prejudice is never allowed to cloud it.

He cannot behave like his predecessor, who removed Dr Elizabeth Blackburn from a scientific advisory position simply because she disagreed with his policies on stem-cell research.

Putting good science advisers in place – as he did with his campaign – could enable the new president to create sensible and sustainable policies, strengthening the world's ability to respond to the complex challenges posed by some of the biggest issues of our time: climate change, feeding humanity, improving global health, driving the economy forward.

He could ensure advances in knowledge by supporting research in areas ranging from stem cells to particle physics, and restore the faith of the scientific community by allowing good impartial science to be seen for what it is, without political manipulation.

This is an opportunity for a fresh start. America is a nation that has stagnated scientifically during the first years of the
21st century, but this can be reversed if actions follow the strong rhetoric we have seen during the campaign.

If Obama delivers, the whole world will benefit.

Coming Soon To Chrome: Google Bookmarks?

2008-11-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

Is Google finally going to do something with their bookmarking tool, Google Bookmarks? It's possible. In the latest builds of the Chromium project, the open source implementation of the Google Chrome web browser which is the testing ground for new features, a new and improved bookmark manager has been spotted which allows you to import your bookmarks from the Google Bookmarks service.

The new bookmark manager in the Chromium builds looks a lot more like what you would expect to see in a web browser today. Instead of the simplified interface currently found in Chrome, the Chromium bookmark manager lets you search for bookmarks, drag-and-drop them into folders, and even import and export them to and from HTML files.

However, the most interesting feature of the upcoming bookmarks manager is the new option to import bookmarks from Google Bookmarks. Although at the present time the browser presents this as an option to import from "Google Toolbar," that's somewhat misleading because the Google Toolbar doesn't even need to be installed in order to import your saved bookmarks from the service. Unfortunately, the new bookmark manager in Chromium doesn't sync up with the Google Bookmarks service automatically.

Google Bookmarks' Potential

It seems to us that Google is sitting on a untapped goldmine with their Google Bookmarks service. This half-hearted attempt at organizing your favorites sites looks like a project that was stopped mid-way through its implementation. In order to save bookmarks using the service today, you can star items from the Google Toolbar (if installed), you can use a browser bookmarklet, you can manually add a link from the bookmarks homepage or through the iGoogle Gadget, or you can click the star next to items in your Web History. What you can't do, however, is import bookmarks from an HTML file or browser, tag them, or share them with others.

But now that Google has a browser of their own, it only makes sense to tie together browser bookmarks and their bookmarking service. And surely they must realize that in order to get people to use Google Bookmarks instead of their current preferred service, Google must offer some compelling reasons to do so. By integrating Google Bookmarks deep within their browser itself and making them searchable through the familiar Google interface, they could offer a great reason to switch over to both their bookmarking service and their browser. If Google went the extra step and made their bookmarks sync between all the implementations of the Chrome browser, including the one they are preparing for Android, they could knock out competition from Opera, too, whose bookmark sync option is one of the browser's killer features for mobile users.

Even better would be an option to sign in to the Chrome browser using a Google profile in order to access the bookmarks along with other the services from Google like Gmail, Reader, or their personalized homepage.

Perhaps we're getting ahead of ourselves since nothing of the sort has been announced or implemented yet, but we hope that we're not the only ones thinking of all the possibilities that Chrome presents here.

The Colorful Moon

2008-11-11T09:25:00.001-08:00

Earth's Moon is normally seen in subtle shades of grey or yellow. But small color differences have been greatly exaggerated to make this dramatic mosaic image of the Moon's gibbous phase. The familiar Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis) is the blue area right of center. White lines radiate from the crater Tycho at bottom left, while purplish tones mottle the crater Copernicus left of center. Though exaggerated, the different colors are recognized to correspond to real differences in the chemical makeup of the lunar surface - blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron. Calibrated by rock samples from the Apollo missions, similar multicolor images from spacecraft have been used to explore the Moon's global surface composition.

You can't see me here!

2008-11-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

The Mysterious Coral Castle of Homestead, Florida

2008-11-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

In the city of Homestead, Florida sits a strange stone structure created by eccentric Edward Leedskalnin. No one really knows why it was built or how, but considering each of the megalithic coral stones weigh more than most men could move alone, the emergence of the Coral Castle remains an impressive mystery.

Edward never allowed anyone to witness the building of Coral Castle. A suspicious and private man, he worked at night by lantern, behind large walls he constructed. Reports from neighbors claim he levitated the blocks, some weighing 30 tons, twice the weight of the largest blocks in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Teenagers living in the area claimed they saw him one night, “singing to the massive stone, and it moved like it was a hydrogen balloon, easily settling into place.” By his own account, Edward claimed, “I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids, and have found out how the Egyptians and the ancient builders of Peru, Yucatan, and Asia, with only primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many tons.”

Coral Castle was moved to Homestead, Florida in 1936 by Edward, again on his own. According to one theory, Edward moved the castle because he had made a mathematical error in the position and wasn’t able to harness enough magnetic energy
in the original site to complete the structure. These theorists believe he was successful in decoding the Earth’s magnetic energies, and thus was able to magnetize the stone making it possible for a lone person to lift and move tons of weight with only a tripod and pulleys.

Edward believed, “all matter consists of individual magnets, and it is the movement of these magnets within material and through space that produce measurable phenomena, magnetism, and electricity, and these concepts involve the relationship of the Earth to celestial alignments.” He claimed to see beads of light which he believed to be the physical presence of nature’s magnetism and life force, what we today term as ‘chi’. Tourists to the area report, “energy sensitive people walking through the archway of the 9-ton gate are stricken with headaches,” thought to be built directly over a vortex.

Armed with only a fourth grade education, Edward Leedskalnin possessed a unique understanding of the laws of weight and leverage, and with that built a castle of immense proportions, singlehandedly. For twenty-eight years he quarried, cut, shaped, transported, and constructed the entire structure, with only primitive tools he fashioned from junk yard auto parts and cast away lumber. This feat would have been amazing by today’s standards with a crew and modern equipment, but by the hand of a 5 ft, 100lb man, it defies explanation.

According to the website Coral Castle Code, its creator Jon Depew, believes Edward Leedskalnin unlocked the code that is the base to all atomic structure, and that he left behind a blueprint for nature and a secret knowledge of the ancients. “What Ed’s code is leaving us with, is that this ancient science sacred geometry is really representing an advanced knowledge of two magnetic currents and the neutral particles of matter, they orbit as a common core,” says Depew.

Magnetic Currents

Which theory is true remains a question for all who see Coral Castle, whom upon entering must draw their own conclusions. However, the importance of such a feat is nonetheless awe-inspiring. Whether he was an intuitive possessing mystical power, a genius before his time, or had actually unlocked the mystery to creation and life itself, we must be forever grateful for this new wonder of the world.

Vodafone plans £1bn of cost cuts

2008-11-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

Mobile phone group Vodafone has announced £1bn ($1.56bn) of cost cuts because of rising raw material prices and increasing competition.

Vodafone also cut its full-year revenue forecast for the second time this year - to between £38.8bn and £39.7bn.

Its revenue for the six months to 30 September rose 17% to £19.9bn, helped by changing currency exchange rates.

However, half-yearly pre-tax profits fell 27% to £3.3bn - because of £1.7bn of write-offs in Turkey.

On an adjusted basis, pre-tax profits for the six months were up 12.5% to £5.2bn. The results were slightly ahead of market expectations.

Emerging markets

Chief executive, Vittorio Colao, who took over from Arun Sarin in the summer, said Vodafone would shift its focus from "revenue stimulation" towards offering more value to customers.

Efficiency would be a key part of the strategy, Mr Colao said, with the group expected to reduce its operating costs by £1bn a year by 2011.

"The first half results reflect a solid overall performance in a challenging operating and a weaker macro-economic environment," he said.

Vodafone, which is the world's largest mobile phone company by income, said it had put in place "appropriate actions" to improve trading in the UK, where it said it had "underperformed recently".

European revenues were down 1.1%, on a like-for-like basis, amid price pressure on its voice and messaging services and continued strong data growth.

However, Vodafone said the outlook outside Europe was healthier.

In a statement, the company said: "We are already represented in most of the key emerging markets, where significant growth is expected in the coming years."

Vodafone said its principal focus would now be in mobile phone markets in India, Turkey and in Africa.

Richard Hunter, of Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers, said: "There remain challenges around the wider economic picture, but the company nevertheless remains well-placed to benefit from any up-tick in economic fortunes."

India Marxists 'guilty of murder'

2008-11-11T05:46:00.001-08:00

A court in the Indian state of West Bengal has found two Communist leaders guilty of murdering a woman who opposed a Tata Motors car plant near Calcutta.

Suhrid Dutta and Debu Mallick were convicted of murdering 18-year-old Tapasi Mallick in 2006.

The two men were also found guilty of tampering with evidence. Sentencing is due on Wednesday and their lawyers say they will appeal against the verdict.

Months of protests over the factory led to Tata moving production elsewhere.

Land row

Tapasi Mallick's charred body was recovered from a paddy field in Singur on 18 December 2006.

She was in the forefront of peasant protests against the acquisition of farmland to be used for the Tata Motors car factory at Singur.

Mallick's murder case was handed over to India's federal police, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), after an outcry.

Suhrid Dutta, chief of the state's ruling CPI(M) party at Singur, was arrested along with another party leader Debu Mallick, in July last year.

Lawyers say Dutta and Mallick could face the death sentence or at least life imprisonment for their crimes.

Tata, one of India's leading industrial groups, had planned to make what it said would be the world's cheapest car, the Nano, at the Singur factory.

After weeks of sustained and sometimes violent protests, Tata scrapped the venture last month and announced that it would shift production of the Nano to the western state of Gujarat.

The Communists have ruled West Bengal for 30 years and are desperately trying to attract investment to shore up the state's ailing economy.

But many projects face opposition from farmers who are unwilling to part with their farmland for industries.

What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign

2008-11-11T04:46:00.000-08:00

will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing.

Take a relatively unknown man. Younger than all of his opponents. Black. With a bad-sounding name. Consider his first opponent: the best-known woman in America, connected to one of the most successful politicians in history. Then consider his second opponent: a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator.

It didn't matter. Barack Obama had a better marketing strategy than either of them. "Change."

Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was the master of the "big lie." According to Goebbels, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

The opposite of that strategy is the "big truth." If you tell the truth often enough and keep repeating it, the truth gets bigger and bigger, creating an aura of legitimacy and authenticity.

Clinton's 'solutions' fizzle
What word did Hillary Clinton own? First she tried "experience." When she saw the progress Mr. Obama was making, she shifted to "Countdown to change." Then when the critics pointed out her me-too approach, she shifted to "Solutions for America."

What word is associated with Ms. Clinton today? I don't know, do you?

Then there's John McCain. An Oct. 26 cover story in The New York Times Magazine was titled "The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate." The visual listed some of the labels the candidate was associated with: "Conservative. Maverick. Hero. Straight talker. Commander. Bipartisan conciliator. Experienced leader. Patriot." Subhead: "When a Campaign Can't Settle on a Central Narrative, Does It Imperil Its Protagonist?"

Actually, Mr. McCain did settle on a slogan, "Country first," but it was way too late in the campaign and it was a slogan that had little relevance to the average voter.

Tactically, both Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain focused their messages on "I can do change better than my opponent can do change."

"Better" never works in marketing. The only thing that works in marketing is "different." When you're different, you can pre-empt the concept in consumers' minds so your competitors can never take it away from you.

The ultimate slogan
Look at what "driving" has done for BMW. Are there vehicles that are more fun to drive than BMWs? Probably, but it doesn't matter. BMW has pre-empted the "driving" position in the mind.

The sad fact is that there are only a few dozen brands that own a word in the mind and most of them don't even use their words as slogans. Mercedes-Benz owns "prestige," but doesn't use the word as a slogan. Toyota owns "reliability," but doesn't use the word as a slogan. Coca-Cola owns "the real thing," but doesn't use the words as a slogan. Pepsi-Cola owns "Pepsi generation," but doesn't use the words as a slogan.

As a matter of fact, most brands follow the Pepsi pattern. Every time they get a new CMO or a new advertising agency, they change the slogan. Since 1975, BMW has used one slogan: "The ultimate driving machine." Since 1975, Pepsi-Cola has used these advertising slogans:

* 1975: "For those who think young."
* 1978: "Have a Pepsi day."
* 1980: "Catch that Pepsi spirit."
* 1982: "Pepsi's got your taste for life."
* 1983: "Pepsi now."
* 1984: "The choice of a new generation."
* 1989: "A generation ahead."
* 1990: "Pepsi: The choice of a new generation."
* 1992: "Gotta have it."
* 1993: "Be young. Have fun. Drink Pepsi."
* 1995: "Nothing else is a Pepsi."
* 2002: "Generation next."
* 2003: "Think young. Drink young."
* 2004: "It's the cola."

Thirty-three years ago when the "Ultimate driving machine" campaign started, BMW was the 11th-largest-selling European imported vehicle in the U.S. market. Today it's No. 1.

Thirty-three years ago, Pepsi-Cola was the No. 2-selling cola in the U.S. market. Today, many advertising slogans later, it's still No. 2.

The average Pepsi-Cola advertising slogan lasts just two years and two months. The average chief marketing officer lasts just two years and two months. The average corporate advertising campaign in BusinessWeek lasts just two years and six months.

The Obama campaign has a lot to teach the advertising community.

1. Simplicity. About 70% of the population thinks the country is going in the wrong direction, hence Obama's focus on the word "change." Why didn't talented politicians like Ms. Clinton and John Edwards consider using this concept?

Based on my experience, in the boardrooms of corporate America "change" is an idea that is too simple to sell. Corporate executives are looking for advertising concepts that are "clever." For all the money being spent, corporate executives want something they couldn't have thought of themselves. Hopefully, something exceedingly clever.

Here is a sampling of slogans from a recent issue of BusinessWeek:

* Chicago Graduate School of Business: "Triumph in your moment of truth."
* Darden School of Business: "High touch. High tone. High energy."
* Salesforce.com: "Your future is looking up."
* Zurich: "Because change happenz."
* CDW: "The right technology. Right away."
* Hitachi: "Inspire the next."
* NEC: "Empowered by innovation."
* Deutsche Bank: "A passion to perform."
* SKF: "The power of knowledge engineering."

Some of these slogans might be clever, some might be inspiring and some might be descriptive of the company's product line, but none will ever drive the company's business in the way that "change" drove the Obama campaign. They're not simple enough.

2. Consistency. What's wrong with 90% of all advertising? Companies try to "communicate" when they should be trying to "position."

Mr. Obama's objective was not to communicate the fact that he was an agent of change. In today's environment, every politician running for the country's highest office was presenting him or herself as an agent of change. What Mr. Obama actually did was to repeat the "change" message over and over again, so that potential voters identified Mr. Obama with the concept. In other words, he owns the "change" idea in voters' minds.

In today's overcommunicated society, it takes endless repetition to achieve this effect. For a typical consumer brand, that might mean years and years of advertising and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most companies don't have the money, don't have the patience and don't have the vision to achieve what Mr. Obama did. They jerk from one message to another, hoping for a magic bullet that will energize their brands. That doesn't work today. That is especially ineffective for a politician because it creates an aura of vacillation and indecisiveness, fatal qualities for someone looking to move up the political ladder.

The only thing that works today is the BMW approach. Consistency, consistency, consistency -- over decades, if not longer.

But not with a dull slogan. Hitachi has been "inspiring the next" for as long as I can remember, but with little success.

Effective slogans needs to be simple and grounded in reality. What next has Hitachi ever inspired? Red ink, maybe. In the past 10 years, Hitachi has had sales of $786.9 billion and managed to lose $5.1 billion. When you put your corporate name on everything, as Hitachi does, it's difficult to make money because it's difficult to make the brand stand for anything.

3. Relevance. "If you're losing the battle, shift the battlefield" is an old military axiom that applies equally as well to marketing. By his relentless focus on change, Mr. Obama shifted the political battlefield. He forced his opponents to devote much of their campaign time discussing changes they proposed for the country. And how their changes would differ from the changes that he proposed.

All the talk about "change" distracted both Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain from talking about their strengths: their track records, their experience and their relationships with world leaders.

As you probably know, Mr. Obama was selected as Advertising Age's Marketer of the Year by the executives attending the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference in Orlando last month. But one wonders if these CMOs are getting the message.

As one marketing executive said: "I look at it as something that we can all learn from as marketers. To see what he's done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it's created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It's very easy for people to participate."

Whatever happened to "change"?

Li Wei Forgoes Gravity

2008-11-11T03:59:00.001-08:00

Li Wei is a Chinese performance artist/photographer who mostly produces images of himself falling off buildings, dangling in mid-air or just generally defying gravity. And it's done entirely without Photoshop. Li Wei is ALL about the pulleys and levers.

It's anyone's guess as to whether these photos are infused with actual artistic purpose or are instead inspired by a childhood filled with Looney Tunes' infamous disdain for the concept of 'down'... Although, considering Communist China's general attitude towards the cartoons of our childhood, we could perhaps be certain that the Roadrunner played a relatively minimal role in Li Wei's artistic development. Perhaps 'Worker and Parasite' may have been more on point. Either way, there is little doubt that his images are both beautiful and profound, evoking a loose wonder for the world at the same time as they suggest the semi-visible and all-too-human fractures that line the theoretically well ordered systems of contemporary urbanity...

Yeah, I'm sorry, this blog needed a sentence of art wank sooner or later, and there it was. That was relatively painless though, right? It could have been worse. We could have tied him into a strain of post-colonial, neo-urban utopianism. But we didn't. So here we are. Cool. You'll be ok, kid.

Xbox 360 price dropped again

2008-11-11T03:55:00.000-08:00

Microsoft today cut the Australian price of the Xbox 360 for the second time in less than six months, with the cheapest model now costing just $299. The aggressive action, obviously aimed at trying to woo console shoppers away from Nintendo's rampaging Wii this Christmas, will be backed by a $5 million marketing campaign.

The Xbox 360 Arcade now costs $299, a reduction of $50, while the Pro and Elite versions of the console have been cut by $100 to $399 and $549 respectively. In addition to the price cuts, Christmas shoppers also receive free games bundled with the Xbox 360 as announced last month. The Arcade currently comes with Sega Superstars Tennis as well as give Live Arcade games, while the Pro and Elite both come with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda.

The price cuts come on the eve of the dramatic revamp of the Xbox 360's interface, dubbed "the new Xbox experience", which users will be able to download next week. The new interface is easier-to-use and lets users create individual avatars of themselves and form online parties to chat with friends, share photos and play games together.

Jeremy Hinton, Xbox group product marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, says Xbox 360 is now the cheapest next-generation console on the market and is host to the largest number of next-gen games. He says that while Wii has dominated sales charts this year, Microsoft has been happy with the Xbox 360's performance and is cutting the price to enable more people to enjoy the machine.

"We're very, very pleased with our sales this year so far," says Mr Hinton. "We knew in the first half of this year that we didn't necessarily have a lot of content, we didn't necessarily have the right message in terms of being able to take a response to market, so for us it's definitely been all about the best results in the second half.

"We're fairly consistently outselling PlayStation 3 in the second half. Wii has absolutely run away with the market, my hat's off to them. They're doing a fantastic job. But for us, console sales are important but also total spending on our platform is also important. Still 50 per cent of all third-party (game) sales are done on Xbox 360.

"The Xbox 360 customer buys a lot of games because we have a lot of games out there, and a lot of highly reviewed games as well. And things like our online service continue to go from strength-to-strength."

I Can't Believe We Still Have to Protest This Crap...

2008-11-11T03:53:00.000-08:00

I hate job hunting

2008-11-11T03:51:00.000-08:00

HOW TO: Instantly iPhone-ize Your Website

2008-11-11T03:47:00.000-08:00

As Jon explains in the video below, it’s a simple 4 step process: enter the RSS feed of your site, enter the site name, upload a home screen icon and place the code provided between the header tags of your website.

That’s it! Your iPhone and iPod Touch visitors will automatically be forwarded to an optimized version of your site. Could this be the best thing ever? No, because the best thing ever is animals in human clothes. But, close.

intersquash demo from jon on Vimeo.

Its his GOD GIVEN right

2008-11-11T01:31:00.000-08:00

Its his GOD GIVEN right

Ok, so lets breakdown the maths here:

• 4 Wives.
• 35 Children.
• Married 24 times.
• Has sex 15 times a day.
• Has 260 horsepower = 35,000 men power.

Facts:
- Can bend coins with his eye socket and tear them in half.
- Not only did Allah tell him to, but he has a medical certificate to prove it.
- The president pardons him from prison and recognises that he IS Super(hu)man.

His wives must have wombs of steel! 35 children and no hope of slowing down.
I think I need more proof, or do I not? I WANT TO BELIEVE!

Obama Plans Guantanamo Close, US Trials

2008-11-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

President-elect Obama's advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan that the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done.

Under the plan being crafted inside Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials. But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

Many of the about 250 Guantanamo detainees are cleared for release, but the Bush administration has not able been to find a country willing to take them.

Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.

The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But as details surfaced Monday, it drew criticism from Democrats who oppose creating a new legal system and from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. mainland.

The move would mark a sharp change from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that President Bush has faced many challenges in trying to close the prison.

"We've tried very hard to explain to people how complicated it is. When you pick up people off the battlefield that have a terrorist background, it's not just so easy to let them go," Perino said. "These issues are complicated, and we have put forward a process that we think would work in order to put them on trial through military tribunals."

But Obama has been critical of that process and his legal advisers said finding an alternative will be a top priority. One of those advisers, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, acknowledges that bringing detainees to the U.S. would be controversial but said it could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.

"I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake," Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees, said Monday. "We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems."

Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it would be a "colossal mistake to treat terrorism as a mere crime."

"It would be a stunning disappointment if the one of the new administration's first priorities is to give foreign terror suspects captured on the battlefield the same legal rights and protections as American citizens accused of crimes," Cornyn said Monday, noting that the Senate overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding Senate bill last year opposing bringing detainees to the U.S.

Obama did not vote on that measure. He has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

An Obama administration will want to avoid the criticisms that have marked the Bush administration's military commissions. Human rights groups and defense attorneys have condemned the commissions for lax evidence rules and intense secrecy. Some military prosecutors have even quit in protest.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."

Some weren't so sure.

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system _ trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few options.

Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises many problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.

That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what remains unclear.

"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.

According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system and may appoint a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.

One challenge will be figuring out what to do with the 90 or so Yemeni detainees _ the largest group in the prison. The Bush administration has sought to negotiate the release of some of those detainees as part of a rehabilitation plan with the Yemeni government. But talks have so far been fruitless.

Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team was an improvement over the current system. But he said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.

"If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail," Alshahari said. "But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial."

Whatever Obama decides, he should move quickly, Tribe said.

"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."

Amazing Pictures Of International Space Station

2008-11-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

Soyuz 13 Docked at ISS
The blackness of space and Earth's horizon provide the backdrop for this image of the docked Soyuz 13 (foreground) and the Progress 22 resupply vehicle. Astronauts photographed the Soyuz from a window on the International Space Station while space shuttle Discovery was docked with the station.

ISS Spacewalk
Astronaut Robert Curbeam works on the port overheard solar array wing on the International Space Station's P6 truss. Construction and repairs are an ongoing process on the ISS, which may be completed by 2010. When it's finished, the space station will be larger than a typical five-bedroom house.

ISS Construction
Discovery mission specialists Robert Curbeam (left) and Christer Fuglesang work on ISS construction during a spacewalk in 2006. Visiting astronauts typically live and work at the station for about six months before heading home.

International Space StationThis view of the International Space Station over a blue-and-white Earth was taken shortly after the space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the orbital outpost on September 17, 2006. During its six days on the space station, the Atlantis crew installed a pair of 240-foot (73-meter) solar wings, attached to a 17.5-ton section of truss with batteries, electronics, and a giant rotating joint. The new solar arrays were designed to double the station's onboard power.

Pirs Docking Compartment, ISS
A crew member aboard the space shuttle Endeavour snapped this image of the Pirs docking compartment of the International Space Station. The compartment has two primary functions: It serves as a docking port for transport and cargo vehicles and as an airlock for spacewalking astronauts.

ISS Over Miami, Florida
The turquoise waters of Miami, Florida, gleam underneath the International Space Station as it floats some 240 miles (390 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. The orbiting lab has hosted a rotating international crew since November 2000.

ISS Over Earth

The International Space Station has been under construction since November 1998. In that year the first piece of its structure, the Zarya Control Module, was launched into orbit with a Russian Proton rocket. Today the station features more space than the average three-bedroom house—and it's still growing.

Scenes from Antarctica

2008-11-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Down in Antarctica, November marks the end of spring, the beginning of austral summer, and the beginning of Antarctica's cruise season. The Sun just rose for the first time in 6 months on September 22nd, and is now visible in the sky all the time. Recent studies in Antarctica have brought new insights into the origins of deep sea octopus species (a 30 million-year-old ancestor from Antarctic waters), volcanic contributions to disappearing antarctic ice, and the effects of increasing numbers of icebergs scouring the seafloor. Collected here are 32 photographs of Antarctica from the past several years. (32 photos total)

After waiting for over two weeks for his mate to return from the sea and relieve him of nest duty, this Adelie penguin's hunger helps him make the decision to abandon his egg in search of fish and krill in the sea. Photo taken December 12, 2002. Known populations of the Adelie penguin have dropped by 65% over the past 25 years. (Melanie Conner/National Science Foundation)

A killer whale (viewed from above) swims amid floating ice in the Ross Sea in January of 2005. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southwest Fisheries Science Center were studying the whales to determine if there are three separate species of Antarctic killer whales. (Donald LeRoi, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center/National Science Foundation) #

Palmer Station seen from the ocean on June 10, 2006. Palmer Station is the smallest of the three U.S. Antarctic Program research stations, located on Anvers Island, near the Antarctic Peninsula. (Glenn E. Grant/National Science Foundation) #

A molting emperor penguin seen on January 3, 2007. (Carlie Reum/National Science Foundation) #

Sculptured iceberg in North Bay, Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, Antarctica. (© Pete Bucktrout/British Antarctic Survey) #

The Calkin Glacier, seen on November, 2003. The glacier is located in the Taylor Valley in Victoria Land, named for Parker Calkin, US Antarctic Program geologist who conducted research in the area during the 1960-61 and 1961-62 field seasons. (Brian Johnson/National Science Foundation) #

The aurora australis over the Dark Sector at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on June 3, 2008. The Dark Sector is so-named due to the absence of light and radio wave interfence. The bright spot above the ground shield in the foreground is Jupiter. The white streaks of light going up are the Milky Way. (Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation) #

Penguins on a massive iceberg near the Antarctic Peninsula on November 28, 2003. (Kurtis Burmeister/National Science Foundation) #

Nacreous clouds near McMurdo, Ross Island, Antarctica on August 28, 2004. These polar stratospheric clouds at 80,000 feet are the highest of all clouds. They only occur in the polar regions when the stratospheric temperature dips below 100 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. They are also the site of chemical reactions that break down ozone in the upper atmosphere and contribute to the creation of the ozone hole above Antarctica. (Zenobia Evans/National Science Foundation) #

The Commonwealth Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains, seen on February 4, 2007. The glacier was named by the British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott (1910-1913) after the Commonwealth of Australia. This glacier flows in a southeasterly direction, west of Mount Coleman, in Victoria Land. (Mike Embree/National Science Foundation) #

A balancing stone seen on the Dufek Massif in the Pensacola Mountains of Antarctica on January 18, 2007. (Bill Meurer/National Science Foundation) #

An aurora over the Elevated Station at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on July 16, 2008. (Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation) #

The northern edge of the giant iceberg B-15A seen on January 29, 2001. (Josh Landis/National Science Foundation) #

A view of the Antarctic coast from the Research Vessel NATHANIEL B. PALMER in April of 2007. (Patrick Rowe/National Science Foundation) #

A person stands silhouetted by the South Pole sunset on April 6, 2008. The sun dipped below the horizon on March 20th and did not appear again until September 22nd. (Calee Allen/National Science Foundation) #

A person stands underneath a natural arch in a glacier at Norsel Point, Anvers Island, Antarctica on July 30, 2006. (Glenn Grant/National Science Foundation) #

A full moon and 25 second exposure allowed sufficient light into this photo taken at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station during the long Antarctic night in July of 2005. The new station can be seen at far left, power plant in the center and the old mechanic's garage in the lower right. Red lights are used outside during the winter darkness as their spectrum does not pollute the sky, allowing scientists to conduct astrophysical studies without artificial light interference. The green light in the sky is the aurora australis. (Chris Danals/National Science Foundation) #

The former Russian icebreaker and now cruiseliner Kapitan Khlebnikov breaks through the annual sea ice near the Oates Coast of Antarctica on January 29, 2005. (Mike Usher/National Science Foundation) #

A view from the Research Vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer in April of 2007. (Patrick Rowe/National Science Foundation) #

US Antarctic Program participant DJ Jennings shows his frozen beard on October 26, 2006. (DJ Jennings/National Science Foundation) #

The first glow of sunrise appears above McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica on July 13, 2007. (Chad Carpenter/National Science Foundation) #

The Dome at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is seen above a field of sastrugi - ridges of snow formed by wind erosion on October 29, 2003. (Bill McAfee/National Science Foundation) #

South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, seen on February 23, 2006. (Melissa Rider/National Science Foundation) #

A cable portrudes from the ice wall at Explorer's Cover, New Harbor, McMurdo Sound in this photo taken on November 12, 2005. The cable was used for the Remotely Operable Micro-Environmental Observatory (ROMEO), an underwater camera. Connected to onshore equipment and linked by radio to the Internet, ROMEO allowed scientists to study benthic fauna year-round. (Steve Clabuesch/National Science Foundation) #

Ross Island as viewed from Black Island, about 25 miles away. The glow of lights of McMurdo Station (US) can be seen, and the glow of the sun just below the horizon creates a sunrise which will last for weeks. (Chad Carpenter/National Science Foundation) #

Icebergs near the Antarctic Peninsula in September 2002. (Jeffrey Kietzmann/National Science Foundation) #

An ice cave near Palmer Station, Anvers Island, Antarctica seen on July 24, 2000. (Zee Evans/National Science Foundation) #

Adelie penguins launch themselves out of the frigid water onto the ice on December 31, 2005. (Patrick Rowe/National Science Foundation) #

U.S. Antarctic Program participants handle ropes to secure the docking of a ship at Palmer Station, Anvers Island, Antarctica in the darkness of June 8, 2000. Swirling snow is illuminated above by the ship's lights. (Zee Evans/National Science Foundation) #

Soil biologist Dr. Diana Wall, Colorado State University, looks out across the Taylor Valley near Lake Hoare on January 17, 2006. Her group was conducting research on soil biota. (Emily Stone/National Science Foundation) #

Brooks de Wetter-Smith's photograph of an iceberg titled "Ice Tunnel" (Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum) #

The polar plateau seen on April 20, 2008. The polar plateau is comprised of a flat white snowy landscape as far as the eye can see in every direction. This photo depicts what most of Antarctica looks like - the bedrock of the continent is more than 2 miles below this snow surface. (Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation) #

30+ Creative Hi-Res Wallpapers Only for Designers

2008-11-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

Wallpapers can be creative, inspiring and elegant. If you are a designer, you probably need a desktop wallpaper that inspires you to create something creative and original. Today we present 30 stunning wallpapers created by some hard-working and dedicated designers. In this post we present creative desktop wallpapers related to art, photoshop, wallpapers-illustrations and abstract design. They are definitely worth a look.

1. Love Juice

2. Tiny World

3. Evolution

4. Perfection

5. My Whole World For YOU

6. Caress

7. On the Grass

8. The Maldives

9. Dawn On The Deck

10. Ei-Robot

11. Maybe It’s Over To The Left

12. Abstract Colorful Universe Wallpaper - TTdesign

13. Tower Bridge

14. Inferno

15. My Stash

16. A Gift of Moonlight

17. Tablefy - Water Lantern

18. Hard Boiled Scrambler

19. Calendario Septiembre

20. Labyrinth

21. Birds

22. FISSURE

23. Strukt Wallpaper

24. Noupe wallpaper Dedication

25. Surreal World 2008

26. Halloween

27. green head

28. A Dark Starry Night

29. Cant Sleep

30. Google Library

31. Dreamer

Downloand wallpapers from below links
============================

http://divineerror.deviantart.com/art/Love-Juice-20008390

http://jesar.deviantart.com/art/Tiny-World-87966916

http://alyn.deviantart.com/art/Evolution-36462345

http://mrblinddwarf.deviantart.com/art/Perfection-wallpaper-49227530

http://lilyas.deviantart.com/art/My-Whole-World-For-YOU-WP-93137370

http://silwenka.deviantart.com/art/Caress-37591667

http://lastscionz.deviantart.com/art/On-the-Grass-73645675

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattu/271206050/

http://l8.deviantart.com/art/Dawn-On-The-Deck-45706006

http://reginaldbull.deviantart.com/art/Ei-Robot-98216426

http://smashmethod.deviantart.com/art/Maybe-It-s-Over-To-The-Left-5743103

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttdesign/343167590/

http://phyzer.deviantart.com/art/Tower-Bridge-24878823

http://lost-exile.deviantart.com/art/Inferno-98054333

http://f--l--a--r--k.deviantart.com/art/My-Stash-77868448

http://zilla774.deviantart.com/art/A-Gift-of-Moonlight-9614276

http://ethe.deviantart.com/art/Tablefy-Water-Lantern-94912738

http://divineerror.deviantart.com/art/Hard-Boiled-Scrambler-17139698

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ton3vita/1298937923/

http://yasny-chan.deviantart.com/art/Labyrinth-61703168

http://kamilk.deviantart.com/art/birds-60339047

http://nameless-designer.deviantart.com/art/FISSURE-59617821

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaskoller/2163086771/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelcriminals/2506441767/

http://fc74.deviantart.com/fs33/f/2008/308/0/a/Surreal_World_2008_by_riolcrt.jpg

http://abduzeedo.com/wallpaper-week-28-halloween

http://luizsantana.com/

http://s3vendays.deviantart.com/art/A-Dark-Starry-Night-Wallpaper-68945495

http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?cantsleep

http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?googlelibrary

http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?dreamer

HOW TO: Instantly iPhone-ize Your Website

2008-11-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hive five:Five Best Remote Desktop Tools

2008-11-10T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hive five: Five Best Remote Desktop Tools

Whether you want quick access to your home computer from anywhere in the world or you're the go-to IT person for your friends and family, remote desktop applications are a godsend. Even better: They're easier than ever to set up. With the right remote desktop tool, you can access your home computer as though you're sitting right in front of it— no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing. Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite remote desktop tools, and today we're back with the top five answers. Keep reading for a closer look at each solution, then cast your vote for the remote desktop solution you like best.

LogMeIn (Windows/Mac)

LogMeIn was one of the first popular remote desktop solutions aimed squarely at consumers, offering a quick, no-hassle set up to remotely control your computer from the comfort of any web browser. LogMeIn comes in a variety of flavors, but the two that are designed to satisfy your remote desktop needs are LogMeIn Pro and LogMeIn Free. A Pro account adds more features to the service, including drag-and-drop file transfer, file sync, and meeting tools. LogMeIn Pro isn't exactly cheap, at $13/month or $70/year, and while a Pro account offers more features than a free account, many users are still perfectly happy with LogMeIn Free.

TightVNC (Windows/Linux)

TightVNC is a cross-platform, open-source remote desktop application. With TightVNC, you need to set up a VNC server on the computer you wish to access remotely; you can then remotely access that computer from anywhere else with any VNC viewer. We've already detailed how to set up TightVNC on your home computer, and if you'd prefer controlling TightVNC from a web browser to carrying a VNC client with you, you can also control TightVNC from the web.

TeamViewer (Windows/Mac)

TeamViewer—like LogMeIn—offers free and paid accounts for remote controlling any PC. Unlike LogMeIn, TeamViewer is free for all non-commercial users. It doesn't offer browser-based remote control, instead using small utilities to connect between computers. TeamViewer is even available as a portable application you can carry around on your thumb drive. Whether you want to set up personal remote computing or you're pull frequent tech support duty, TeamViewer has a lot to offer.

Windows Remote Desktop Connection (Windows)

Windows Remote Desktop—the default remote desktop app that comes bundled with Windows—is still more than enough for most Windows users looking for full-featured remote desktop control. If you've never happened upon the Remote Desktop Connection application buried in the Accessories folder of your Start menu, now might be a good time to try it out. Just be sure you've enabled remote desktop access.

UltraVNC (Windows)

UltraVNC is an open-source, Windows-only remote desktop application. UltraVNC supports a hefty feature set, including text chat, file transfer support, and support for optional plug-ins. Although UltraVNC only runs on Windows, you can still access your computer from any operating system using your web browser.

Super Baby, Aero Gymnastics with a 9 Month old Baby-boy

2008-11-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

A baby is very fragile and this actually endangers the baby's life. The possibility of multiple injuries to this child sets this aside from simply "playing with your baby".

Could Just 4% of the Wall Street Bailout End World Hunger?

2008-11-10T07:52:00.001-08:00

World hunger seems like one of those grand unsolvable problems – the perennial favorite wish of beauty pageant queens. The truth is, it's not unsolvable at all.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated that it would only take $30 billion a year to launch the necessary agricultural programs to completely solve global food insecurity. (Severe hunger afflicts 862 million people annually.)

$30 billion sounds like a lot of money, but considering we've just bailed out Wall Street to the tune of nearly a trillion, it's trifling. After I did a little digging, all I could think was...really? $30 billion is all we need to end world hunger? That's it? I thought such a major goal would require some unreachable, vast sum. Here are six things I learned we're doing with that money instead.

Global military and arms trade expenditures hit high at about $1 trillion annually. Approximately $540 billion is spent by the United States alone. (I don't mean to single out defense here, but...wow!)

The United States Department of Energy spends $23.4 billion yearly just to develop and maintain nuclear warheads.

How could we forget the recent $700 (and growing) billion housing bailout bill? In other words, 4% of the Wall Street bailout would end world hunger.

The U.S. Congress has approved $44 billion of U.S. funds for Iraqi construction projects (meanwhile, 39% of bridges in the United States have been deemed structurally deficient – but that’s another story. Am I being partisan?)

$30 billion was spent on Homeland Security in 2008, and they’re requesting $35 billion for 2009.

Lest we pick on ourselves only, residents of the United Kingdom waste about ₤20 billion worth of food every year. That translates to about $31.7 billion U.S. dollars.

You’ll notice that the big spenders are on corporations, defense and military organizations, but in my research I didn't intend to focus on this. It's just what we spend on! I can't help but think that if we could channel even a few of those war dollars into peace spending (like helping alleviate world hunger), there might not be much left to fight about in the future. This idealist believes it’s worth a try. What do you think?

Mumbai is for all, say Mumbaikars

2008-11-10T05:55:00.000-08:00

Mumbai has spoken and it says that the city is for all. 'Mood of Mumbai' poll, which is the first in-depth attempt to understand the impact of Raj Thackeray's dissident organization, the Maharastra Navnirman Sena's street violence, on the city.

The opinion poll reveals that when Mumbaikars were asked to define the identity of a local, almost 60 per cent said that any one who lives in Maharashtra and Mumbai is a local.

As for the perception that Maharashtrians are selective about low-end jobs which go to north Indians like driving taxis, selling milk and vegetables again, almost 60 per cent agreed with the observation.

Ironically, even Maharashtrians agree that they are picky about low-end jobs. A majority of Mumbaikars, nearly the same percentage, and north Indians in particular agreed, on the much-debated question that the Congress-NCP is being soft on Raj Thackeray.

"Yes there could be this perception," said Sanjay Nirupam, Congress Leader.

The NDTV-DNA poll shows that many have felt that Raj's campaign has little to do with the Marathi cause. Instead, it is an attempt to seize the title of the real leader of the Marathi 'manoos' from his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.

The strategy, the poll suggests seems to have worked. Almost 60 per cent Maharashtrians feel Raj is the real leader of Mumbai's Marathis compared to only 23 per cent who support Uddhav.

"I do not agree with this because the people of Maharashtra do not only belong or reside in Mumbai. They reside all over Maharashtra," said Rahul Narvekar, a Mumbai resident.

And so according to the findings of the NDTV-DNA opinion poll, while Mumbai has not embraced Raj's divisive politics, he seems to have made gains in his core base. It is something that will be put to test very soon in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The poll sampled about 1500 Mumbaikars, and was conducted between November 3 and November 5

Man kills self at Delhi metro station

2008-11-10T05:47:00.000-08:00

A man in his fifties committed suicide on Monday by jumping in front of a running metro train in Delhi, an official said.

The incident occurred at 12.12 p.m. at the Janakpuri west metro station and halted the train service on the route for nearly 15 minutes.

"We are yet to identify the person who jumped in front of the approaching train on platform number 1," Delhi metro spokesman Anuj Dayal said.

Dayal said the train from Dwarka to Indraprastha (Line-3) applied emergency brakes immediately but the train ran over the man before stopping.

"Preliminary investigations suggest that prima facie it may have been a case of suicide," he added.

Delhi Metro has reported a few cases of suicide on its stations in last couple of years.

In a previous case Annu Sharma, a young student, attempted suicide at a metro station in west Delhi in October. She, however, survived.

Fears grow for Barack Obama's security

2008-11-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

When Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech behind a thick screen of bulletproof glass it was a sign of the huge security operation which will surround the new President Election.

Fears are growing that Mr Obama, who will become America's first black president following his inauguration next year, will be the subject of an assassination attempt.

The secret service is reported to have already investigated more than 500 death threats against Mr Obama during the presidential election contest. Last month, two neo-Nazi skinheads were arrested for conspiring to assassinate Mr Obama.

He is expected to be protected by a secret service detail with hundreds of close-protection agents. Over the past few weeks, the US government has also begun secretly testing a new ultra-secure presidential limousine able to withstand most bomb blasts and terror attacks. Details of his movements will be a closely guarded secret for all but his most senior aides.

The scale of US presidential security is already on a different scale to that for British Prime Ministers with huge motorcades accompanying US presidents when they leave the White House.

Mr Obama received full secret service protection in May 2007, much earlier than most presidential candidates. His secret service codename is "renegade".

His wife, Michelle, is said to be particularly concerned about the threats that he now faces. However, Mr Obama previously said: "It's not something that I'm spending time thinking about day to day. I think anybody who decides to run for president recognises that there are some risks involved."

Muslim clerics endorse anti-terror fatwa

2008-11-10T03:49:00.000-08:00

About 6,000 Muslim clerics from around India approved a fatwa against terrorism Saturday at a conference in Hyderabad.

Maulana Qari Mohammad Usman Mansoorpuri, president of the Jamaiat-Ulama-i-Hind, called terrorism the most serious problem facing Islam, The Hindu reported. He blamed Islamic radicals for their actions and the news media for failing to distinguish between the radicals and the majority of Muslims.

"We have no love for offenders whichever religion they might belong to," he said. "Our concern is that innocents should not be targeted and the career of educated youth not ruined. The government should ensure transparency in investigation."

India has the world's second-largest Muslim population after Indonesia, although Hindus outnumber Muslims. The meeting was also expected to address issues like national integration.

"Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form. Cooperation should be done for the cause of good but not for committing sin or oppression," the fatwa written at the Darul Uloom Deoband, India's foremost Islamic seminary.

Preacher's Pulpit: Massive Cliff With a Stunning View [PIC]

2008-11-10T03:41:00.000-08:00

Foolproof plan for getting a raise

2008-11-10T03:29:00.001-08:00

Windows 7 Will Only Have One 'Ready' Sticker

2008-11-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

After receiving endless flak for their silly tiered Vista Compatibility scheme, Microsoft has decided to issue a single "Windows 7 Capable" sticker for hardware that works with the new OS. That means no more "Windows Home Basic", "Windows Ready", "Certified for Windows" and "Windows Ready When You Are, Asshole" labels slapped on every piece of hardware in the computer aisle at Best Buy.

During the same conference in which this was announced, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 7 on a modestly spec'd Eee netbook, so it looks like Windows 7 compatibility might be taken for granted with most new PCs. Microsoft did tell the Register that there would be different stickers for touchscreen and media center devices. While the touchscreen sticker will be a convenient indicator that a device is touch-capable, what will media center sticker mean? That a computer has an HDMI output? That marketing asked for it? Also, one=three, apparently.

An Expirement with Google Suggest

2008-11-10T02:34:00.000-08:00

India beat Australia to win series 2-0

2008-11-10T01:57:00.000-08:00

India on Monday gave ample proof of its status as a dominant force in world cricket as they thrashed Australia by 172 runs in the fourth and final cricket Test to regain the coveted Border-Gavaskar trophy after a gap of four years.

After settting the visitors a daunting target of 382 for victory, the Indians exploited a turning fifth day track to skittle out the Aussies for 209 just before the tea break to wrap up the four-match series with a 2-0 margin.

It turned out to be a perfect gift for Sourav Ganguly by his teammates in his farewell Test as they knocked out the Aussies in just about two sessions of play on the last day.

Only Matthew Hayden stood bravely amidst the ruins with a 93-ball 77 as the Indian bowlers ripped through the batting line up to bring an end to the Australian innings rather quickly.

Leg spinner Amit Mishra (4/64) and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (3/27) were the main destructors for the hosts who made amends for losing the home series 1-2 in the 2004-05 series.

Opener Hayden, let off twice in his 30s, showed the most defiance from the tourists' ranks and top-scored with 77 off 93 balls with eight fours and a six before being fifth out and the end came swiftly after the departure of the Queenslander midway into the second session.

Fast bowler Ishant Sharma took the first two of three Australian wickets to set India on their way to a deserving victory after which the spin duo of Harbhajan and Mishra spun a web of deceit to skittle the rest.

The end came when last man Mitchell was declared out leg before offering no shot to Harbhajan Singh before tea.

Australia lost their wickets at regular intervals after a fighting partnership between Hayden and Hussey was broken by young Mishra who had the latter caught at slip by Rahul Dravid who had a forgettable match with the bat and as a slip fielder too.

India, thus, finished on a victorious note to give a fitting send-off to Sourav Ganguly who had announced before the commencement of the series in Bangalore on October 9 that he will quit the game after this series.

The former India skipper, who missed the chance to score a century in his farewell appearance after having started his Test career with a bang a debut ton at Lord's in 1996 faded from the limelight with the happiness that he was part of a victorious team at the end.

He was chaired off the ground after being hugged by all his teammates and the Australian players and was also greeted by retired captain Anil Kumble who has returned from Bangalore to see the finale.

8-year-old-girl writes to Obama, gets response

2008-11-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

Eight-year-old Fil-Am Karina Encarnacion recommended a dog that president-elect Barack Obama should get for his daughters, and in return got “three bits of advice that will make your life more fulfilling.”

Karina sent Obama a two-page handwritten letter in September, and suggested a Coton de Tulear, a small Bichon-type dog named after the city in Madagascar, for its soft cottony coat, noting that “they do not shed, they are very lovable, small and very soft.” She said she has one, named Murphy, who “is very smart and sweet.”

Obama has promised his two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, that they can have a dog when they move in to the White House.

In a surprise reply received last Oct. 30, Obama told Karina, “Look out for other people, even when it does not directly benefit you; strive to make a difference everywhere you go; and get back up every time you are knocked down.”

Karina, a fourth grader in Missouri, told the then candidate that “I think you will make a very good president… I think that you will make wise decisions for the country.”

She also offered some suggestions for the future president: “Would it be possible for you to make a law that requires everyone to recycle… And would it be possible to ban unnecessary wars?”

Obama’s letter, dated Oct. 20, thanked her “for your kind words, your dog suggestion and for your support. I am impressed with your interest in politics, especially at your young age. I appreciate your idea to make a law requiring people to recycle and to ban unnecessary wars.”

Karina told the candidate that her mother, who is not a US citizen, has nevertheless volunteered for his campaign, going door-to-door to “encourage people to vote for you. She said that since she can’t vote, she wanted at least one person to vote in her place.”

Cindy Herbosa-Encarnacion, who holds a PhD in Biology, is the director of the St. Louis Science Center. Karina told Obama that “my mother also said that if you become president, she will become a citizen for sure.”

Karina’s father John is a professor at St. Louis University in Missouri.

“Creating change and making the world better is not always easy, and you will probably find in your life that it is more comfortable to ignore injustices that don’t affect you directly. Don’t take that comfortable road. Challenge yourself to make a difference,” Obama wrote.

“If you don’t already know what it means, I want you to look up the word ‘empathy’ in the dictionary. I believe we don’t have enough empathy in our world today, and it is up to your generation to change that.”

“I hope you will always be an active participant in the world around you, and that you will seize every opportunity to make the world better,” he added.

“Seeing young people like you who care about making things better inspires me and gives me great hope about the future of our country.”

Obama’s letter, which included an autographed picture that she requested, was sent to Karina’s home in Cedarbrook Lane, Kirkwood, Missouri.

The World's First Videogame From 1958

2008-11-09T11:24:00.001-08:00

In 1958, Dr. William Higinbotham was working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on a simulation of bouncing balls and missile trajectories that could predict the paths objects could take. Suddenly, it hit him: why not apply this to tennis? He created Tennis for Two, which depending on your definition could be considered the world's first videogame, in October of that year. Video after the jump.

Designing the circuit board and its components took Higinbotham a few days, and building the machine took about three weeks. On October 18th, 1958, hundreds lined up to play the newly christened Tennis for Two. It used a whopping five-inch oscilloscope screen, and featured play mechanics pretty similar to 1972's Pong, though the game was viewed from the side of the net rather than an overhead vantage point.

Why didn't he patent the technology? Well, Tennis for Two used designs extremely similar to what Higinbotham had created in his federal-owned lab, so any patent would have had to belong to the government. Owning the right to every video game ever sounds pretty sweet right now, given our monstrous debt, but that's really neither here nor there.

8-year-old Arrested in Double-Homicide

2008-11-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

An 8-year-old Arizona boy may face double-murder charges in the shooting death of his father and another man at the family residence

Police say Arizona child used a rifle to shoot his father and another man

A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should have a gun and had taught him how to use firearms, the clergyman said Saturday.

The Rev. John Paul Sauter said the father, Vincent Romero, 29, wanted his son to learn how to hunt, while the boy's stepmother, Tiffany, suggested he have a BB gun.

Police say the boy used a 22.-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos.

Romero was an avid hunter who taught his son how to use a rifle to kill prairie dogs, said Sauter, of St. Johns Catholic Church.

"He wanted to make sure the kid wasn't afraid of guns, knew how to handle it," the priest said. "He was just too young. ... That child, I don't think he knows what he did, and it was brutal."

The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said.

"I'm not accusing anybody of anything at this point," he said Saturday. "But we're certainly going to look at the abuse part of this. He's 8 years old. He just doesn't decide one day that he's going to shoot his father and shoot his father's friend for no reason. Something led up to this."

Psychological evaluation
On Friday, a judge ordered a psychological evaluation of the boy. Under Arizona law, charges can be filed against anyone 8 or older.

The boy had no record of complaints with Arizona Child Protective Services, said Apache County Attorney Brad Carlyon.

In a sign of the emotional and legal complexities of the case, police are pushing to have the boy tried as an adult even as they investigate possible abuse, Melnick said. If convicted as a minor, the boy could be sent to juvenile detention until he turns 18.

Police had responded to calls of domestic violence at the Romero home in the past, but authorities were searching records Saturday to determine when those calls were placed, Melnick said.

Melnick said officers arrived at Romero's home within minutes of the shooting Wednesday in St. Johns, which has a population of about 4,000 and is 170 miles northeast of Phoenix. They found one victim just outside the front door and the other dead in an upstairs room.

Romans had been renting a room at the Romero house, prosecutors said. Both men were employees of a construction company working at a power plant near St. Johns.

The boy went to a neighbor's house and said he "believed that his father was dead," Carlyon said.

‘He's scared’
Melnick said police got a confession, but the boy's attorney, Benjamin Brewer, said police overreached in questioning the boy without representation from a parent or attorney and did not advise him of his rights.

"They became very accusing early on in the interview," Brewer said. "Two officers with guns at their side, it's very scary for anybody, for sure an 8-year-old kid."

Prosecutors aren't sure where the case is headed, Carlyon said.

"There's a ton of factors to be considered and weighed, including the juvenile's age," he said. "The counterbalance against that, the acts that he apparently committed."

FBI statistics show instances of children younger than 11 committing homicides are very rare. According to recent FBI supplementary homicide reports, there were at least three such cases each year in 2003, 2004 and 2005; there were at least 15 in 2002. More recent statistics weren't available, nor were details of the cases.

Earlier this year in Arizona, prosecutors in Cochise County filed first-degree murder charges against a 12-year-old boy accused of killing his mother.

Romero had full custody of the child. The boy's biological mother visited St. Johns during the weekend from Mississippi and returned to Arizona after the shootings, Carlyon said.

Family members declined to speak on the record.

Brewer said the boy "seems to be in good spirits."

Why do women always feel colder than men?

2008-11-09T03:57:00.000-08:00

Let the battle of the thermostat begin. Now that the evenings have grown dark and chilly, most people have switched on their central heating. But many are keeping the temperature low to save on fuel bills, which are expected to rise by 42 per cent this year. Home heating can spark fierce disagreement in couples. Some people sneakily crank up the thermostat when their partners aren't looking; others wear woolly hats and gloves indoors as an ostentatious protest at the temperature of the room.

Some people, it seems, feel the cold more than others. But why is this and is there anything we can do about it?

Research is emerging to suggest that our biological thermostats are set to slightly different levels. We all feel the cold to different degrees, depending on our gender, fitness, age, diet, how much sleep we have, and even the company we keep.

Tropical past is cause of cold feet

At the core of the problem of keeping warm lies the fact that we're simply not built for the cold, says Mike Tipton, Professor of Human Physiology at the University of Portsmouth.

“Man is a tropical animal. We evolved on the Equator and have since migrated to all parts of the planet. The only way we've kept warm is by modifying our behaviour: we've learnt to wear clothes, build buildings, make fire. The oldest man-made building has been identified as a 3-million-year-old windbreak, so one of the first things we built was to protect against the effects of windchill,” he says.

Professor Tipton adds that we're only 25 per cent efficient, with 75 per cent of the energy we produce being released as heat>. Although we feel hot and cold throughout the day, our core body temperature - that of our vital organs - is always kept at about 37C. Maintaining this temperature is vital to survival: a 2Cdrop can cause hypothermia, a 12C drop results in death.

Our extremities dictate how hot or cold we feel; the temperature in our hands and feet varies widely compared with that of our organs. If our hands or feet are chilly, we'll feel cold. Most of our biological temperature sensors are located in the skin, and we have four times as many cold sensors as hot sensors. Our heightened sensitivity to cold makes a chilly draught invariably feel more uncomfortable than a warm breeze.

And women really do feel the cold more than men, but this is because they are better at conserving heat than men. Mark Newton, a scientist at W.L. Gore, the company that makes Gore-Tex, and a researcher at the University of Portsmouth, explains: “Women have a more evenly distributed fat layer and can pull all their blood back to their core organs.”

However, this female heating system means that less blood flows to their hands and feet, and as a result they feel cold. So there is literal truth in the old saying cold hands, warm heart. One theory as to why women have evolved this system, says Newton, is to enable them to survive freezing temperatures. Women carry less fat and muscle mass than men, and so need a more efficient technique of protecting their core body temperature.

Research also indicates that women's perception of cold varies during their menstrual cycle, says Newton, with the core body temperature often changing by more than 1C. A study in 2001 found that women's core temperature rises in the luteal phase (the post-ovulation phase) of the cycle. The researchers also found that women on the Pill have a slightly elevated core body temperature.

But it's not only hormones that can muck around with our biological thermostats; sleep can also affect how chilly or hot we feel. When we are tired we're more sensitive to changes in temperature, says Newton. Our body temperature falls at night, with women reaching their minimum body temperature quicker than men.

But what else determines our temperatures, apart from gender? Diet can make a difference (see box, right), as can a host of other factors, says Professor Tipton.

“People who are fatter tend to have cooler extremities because their skin is insulated from their body heat by a layer of fat. People who are physically active tend to have higher peripheral temperature because they have better blood flow to extremities. Those people who smoke may have lower extremity temperatures, because they may have poor circulation.”

Moreover, how hot or cold we feel also depends on the temperature we're used to living in, Professor Tipton adds. If you spend a lot of time in a cold house, going to a warm house will be a shock to the system, even if others insist that the temperature is normal.

In fact, the people around us, and how comfortable we feel with them, can also influence our perception of temperature.

Feel warm, be warmer

Feel warm and you'll be more generous and trusting, or so a recent study by researchers at Yale University suggests. They gave volunteers a hot cup of coffee or a cold drink and asked them to rate how trustworthy a person looked. Those holding the hot drink rated people as more trusting.

This shows that psychological warmth and physical warmth have close connections in our brain, says John Bargh, a professor of psychology, who conducted the study. “It seems that the same part of the brain, the insular, which is the size of a walnut right in the middle of the brain, handles both sensations of physical temperature and trust in someone else,” he says.

Professor Bargh adds that giving a person a hot cup of coffee is a way of gaining their trust. “What if someone gives me a cup of coffee when I'm buying a car? Maybe it's best to have a cold drink when making a big decision.”

In addition to this study, researchers in Canada found recently that mood can influence how hot or cold we feel. The study revealed that people who are lonely or socially excluded are more aware of the cold. So if you're looking to warm up this year, get social, get active, and get enough sleep.

How to keep warm

Clothing Ditch the big woolly jumper in favour of multiple thin layers. Remember, the more skin on show, the colder you'll feel. Keep warm at night by wearing pyjamas and bed socks.

Food Eating regular meals makes a big difference if you're trying to keep warm, but be sure to include carbohydrates. Amanda Ursell, the Times nutritionist, suggests dishing up stews and casseroles with meat, vegetables and potatoes. Soup is a great winter warmer: try bean and vegetable, lentil and tomato or pea and ham. Porridge makes a cheap, warming breakfast.

Thermostat 21C-24C is the optimum setting for central heating.

Visualise hot places According to research at the University of Portsmouth, imagining a hot place can make you feel warm.Move around Even if it's just to make a hot drink, keeping mobile is essential to maintaining body heat. A quick jig will not only warm you up but will also release endorphins, those feel-good chemicals in the brain.

Warm homes Insulation and double-glazing are key. Most over-sixties will be eligible for the winter fuel payment.

The 2008 Electoral Map if only Young People Voted

2008-11-09T03:52:00.000-08:00

Get ready, America. This is what your 2020 electoral map is going to look like.

Fire safety equipment a must in high-rises

2008-11-09T01:45:00.000-08:00

Punitive action will be taken against builders who do not provide fire safety equipment in high-rise buildings, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation chief city planner (CCP) B Purushottam Reddy said here on Saturday.

Speaking at a workshop on 'Fire Safety Issues and Possible Solutions,' organised by Institute of Town Planners India (ITPI) and Builders' Forum on the occasion of Town Planners' Day on Saturday, the CCP said flat owners have a right to demand action against builders.

Earlier, former city planner A Sri Ram Reddy said it was unfortunate that citizens who purchased flats at Rs 2-3 lakhs in apartment complexes a few years ago were now being asked to provide fire-fighting equipment of Rs 10 lakhs.

Additional director, fire services, G Pratap Reddy said buildings constructed prior to 1999 could be regularised without any structural changes.

V Ramakrishna Rao of Builders' Forum advised water
hydrants be provided on pavements, especially in densely populated areas and shopping areas.

"The fire services department should discuss with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to provide water hydrants on the roads. There were provisions of water hydrants in the core area and were removed during road widening,'' Ramakrishna Rao said. ITPI, AP regional chapter, chairman Syed Muzaffer Hussain said complexes which have been facing water problems could make arrangements for use of recycled water for emergency requirement by providing separate sumps.

No new jobs but existing jobs won't be cut: Govt

2008-11-09T01:32:00.000-08:00

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath says there will be lesser jobs on offer in the Indian industry but existing jobs won’t be affected. Karan Thapar, Kamal Nath also said Indian companies must learn to live with lower profits, instead of thinking about laying off employees.

Karan Thapar: Wipro, Infosys, Satyam all of them could begin to suffer, they could find contracts be cancelled, they may be under pressure themselves to contract and therefore may lay off people.

Kamal Nath: I don't think so. What could perhaps happen is, and what they have said is, that they may not be able to create the same number of jobs.

Karan Thapar: So growth in jobs may be checked.

Kamal Nath: Growth in employment generation will be affected

Karan Thapar: But you are saying actual levels of employment that exist should not be affected.

Kamal Nath: Will not be affected.

Karan Thapar: Regardless of whether you are talking about exports, manufacturing, or services.

Indian satellite captured by Moon

2008-11-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

India is celebrating the arrival of its Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft at the Moon.

An 817-second burn from the probe's engine on Saturday slowed Chandrayaan sufficiently for it to be captured by the lunar body's gravity.

The craft is now in an 11-hour polar ellipse that goes out to 7,502km from the Moon and comes as close as 504km.

Further brakings will bring the Indian satellite down to a near-circular, 100km orbit from where it can begin its two-year mapping mission.

Launched on 22 October, Chandrayaan is India's first satellite to break away from the Earth's gravitational field and reach the lunar body.

The mission will compile a 3D atlas of the lunar surface and map the distribution of elements and minerals.

Powered by a single solar panel generating about 700 Watts, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) probe carries five Indian-built instruments and six constructed in other countries, including the US, Britain and Germany.

The Indian experiments include a 30kg probe that will be released from the mothership to slam into the lunar surface.

The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will record video footage on the way down and measure the composition of the Moon's tenuous atmosphere.

It will also drop the Indian flag on the surface of the Moon.

The 10 Most Horrific Leg Injuries in Soccer History

2008-11-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

These days soccer is played at a breakneck pace and the highly tuned participants are always in danger of injury. Whilst players are always at risk of injuries to the head or upper body, it is the legs that take the bulk of the punishment.

Here are the top 10 most horrific leg injuries in soccer history.

10. When you sign a player that's notoriously injury prone, you can have little complaint when they're out of action. Still, West Ham's manager Alan Curbishley could be forgiven for feeling a little aggravated when new signing Kieron Dyer broke his leg in 2 places in only his second game for the club.

Over a year later, Dyer has still yet to play again for West Ham.

9. Sometimes injuries can be picked up in the most seemingly innocent of circumstances. Manchester United's Alan Smith managed to break his leg and dislocate his ankle whilst merely attempting to block a free kick.

As Smith blocked the free kick with his left foot, his ankle twisted underneath him. Smith commented "When I looked down, the leg was lying one way and my ankle was pointing towards Hong Kong, so I knew I was in serious trouble."

8. Celtic legend Henrik Larsson was out of the game for 8 months, after breaking his leg in two places having caught his studs in the turf.

Larsson returned as good as ever and at the age of 37, is still playing for Helsingborg and the Swedish national team.

7. Djibril Cisse had been at Liverpool for just 3 months when he broke his leg against Blackburn Rovers in 2004.

The French international appeared to catch his foot in the turf as he chased the ball, breaking his shin in two places. His tibia had to be pinned back together and Cisse claimed that if it were not for the prompt attention of Liverpool's medics, he would have lost his leg.

The striker made a miraculous recovery from the injury and was back playing before the end of

6. The German midfielder Ewald Lienen suffered an injury in 1981 which proves that it's not just broken bones that can be horrific.

A sliding tackle from a Werder Bremen defender slices open Lienen's thigh, to reveal the tissue and bone of the player's leg.

So incensed was Lienen that he hobbled over to the Bremen bench and shouted "Happy now?"

5. Richard Pryor once remarked that the moment that you really panic when you're on fire, is when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror.

The same is true of sporting injuries. Sometimes it's only when you look down that you realise how much your injury actually hurt.

This is the case here, when the Danish striker Jacob Olesen dislocated his ankle to such an extent that his foot points in entirely the wrong direction. Oleson made a full recovery and now plays for Viborg FF.

4. Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva suffered a broken left fibula and dislocation of his left ankle, after a clumsy challenge from Birmingham City's Martin Taylor.

Eduardo was treated for 8 minutes on the pitch, before being taken to hospital where suregery took place.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said claimed Taylor should never play football again.

It was feared that Eduardo's career may be over, but it now looks like his recovery is imminent.

3. Djibril Cisse is a really unlucky man. Cisse broke his leg for a second time in 2006 when on international duty for France, missing the World Cup.

Cisse was knocked off balance by a defender and as he fell, his right leg twisted underneath him, breaking above the ankle. This resulted in an open fracture of the tibia, though happily he made a full recovery and now plays for Sunderland.

Of all the images of soccer injuries, this may be the most disturbing.

2. The Belgian striker Luc Nilis' Aston Villa career got off to a great start when he scored this great goal against Chelsea, but in only his third match for the Villians, Nilis suffered a double fracture of his right leg after a collision with the Ipswich goalkeeper Richard Wright.

Nilis retired just four months after the incident and is now a coach at his former club PSV Eindhoven.

Notice how Richard Wright looks in considerably more pain than Nilis, despite it not being his leg that is bent in half.

1. When you think of horrific soccer injuries, the immediate name that springs to mind is David Busst.

In 1996, the Coventry City defender was injured in a match against Manchester United, resulting in compound fractures of his tibia and fibula.

It took 12 minutes for the blood to be cleared off the Old Trafford surface and the scenes caused the legendary United keeper Peter Schmeichel to vomit on the pitch.

Whilse in the hospital, Busst contracted MRSA which caused further damage to the muscle and tissue in his injured leg.

Busst had a total of 26 operations, more in an effort to prevent amputation than because of any realistic notion that he might play again.

Aussies shackled by patient India

2008-11-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

India lead the final Test at Nagpur by 86 runs after Australia were all out for a ponderous 355 late on day three.

Simon Katich, resuming on 92 with his side 189-2, was dropped at slip but hit a second Test century before Zaheer Khan trapped him for 102 before lunch.

The tourists took 354 balls to go from 200-300 and lost three wickets for 11.

Mike Hussey was run-out for 90 and Cameron White hit a Test-best 46, but India look set to protect a 1-0 series lead at 0-0 in the second innings.

India would be content with a draw, having won the second Test, but with Australia needing a victory to level the series, their tactics were a little harder to fathom on a day in which both sides appeared content to let the match drift rather aimlessly.

However, runs were not easy to come by for obdurate left-handers Katich and Hussey, given that all but one of the fielders were placed on the off-side and seamers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer made the batsmen reach for the ball wide of the off-stump.

The impressive Vidarbha Cricket Association, with its 45,000 capacity, is situated a considerable distance from the centre of Nagpur with little or no public transport links, and once again there was a disappointingly small crowd.

There was little to entice any newcomers in the first session, but India should have given those present an early wicket when Katich fished at the impressive Sharma, only for Rahul Dravid to fumble a regulation chance to his left at wide first slip.

Katich, dismissed on 99 on the last tour, guided Sharma to the third man boundary to complete his first century in India.

He was on 102 when Sharma had another slice of bad luck, an edge falling fractionally short of VVS Laxman at the second of the two wide slips.

Spin was introduced for the first time half an hour before lunch, but it was a piece of brilliance from Zaheer that made the breakthrough 10 minutes before the interval.

The combative left-arm seamer produced a stunning yorker that swung in to Katich and umpire Aleem Dar decided the ball was so full that it would have gone on to hit.

That session saw only 42 runs from 24 overs but the afternoon was more eventful as two magical moments gave India encouragement that victory is possible as three wickets fell in seven overs.

Sharma bowled an absolute beauty that pitched in the perfect area and moved away to square up Michael Clarke, taking his edge.

Hussey seemed to be booked in for the day, but 10 short of his 10th Test hundred he thought he could safely set off for a run after pushing Harbhajan Singh off the back foot.

Murali Vijay at silly point grabbed the ball one-handed, however, and returned to Mahendra Dhoni, who smartly deflected on to the stumps.

At the start of the evening session, after 102 overs, the ball was changed, but not for a new one, as India were happy to use a weather-beaten object.

Brad Haddin finally showed some intent with consecutive boundaries and an all-run four, but his innings ended on 28 in tame fashion.

Trying to kick away a sharply spinning delivery from Amit Mishra out of the rough from around the wicket, the ball missed the pad, caught the edge of a horizontal bat and was gleefully snaffled at slip by Dravid.

The new ball was finally taken 44 overs after it first became available and Sharma immediately threatened with some sharp inswing to the right-handers.

Jason Krejza was beaten for pace and movement as the ball thudded into his pad, and two balls later an unsettled Mitchell Johnson was dropped at second slip by Laxman.

Finally there was a directive to hit out, but it merely resulted in White and Johnson being caught in the deep and only one over left to bowl at the Indian batsmen.

The Australians will know that wickets are urgently needed on day four if they are to have any hope of salvaging the series.

Katich admitted that his team's innings had not gone according to plan

BlackBerry Storm Priced at $200, Delay Caused by Software

2008-11-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

According to the deep throats at Verizon, we will have to wait a little bit longer to buy the BlackBerry Storm. The original November 14 launch date has been delayed as we'd heard because of a "software glitch." It also looks like it's now headed on direct collision course against the iPhone, specially for businesses: "The price will be no more than $89.99 for companies," with a 2 year contract. Seems like Research In Motion and Verizon are feeling the heat as the iPhone keeps pushing up in the enterprise. But how much would it be for the rest of us and what is the "final" release date?

It will be available for $199.99 with a two year contract. For companies the price will be no greater than $89.99, also with a 2 year contract.

Family suicides on rise in Taiwan

2008-11-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

Five-year-old Ho Hung-an's parents loved him.

They bought him little plastic cartoon toys even though they were both unemployed and behind in paying rent.

But in June, they took his life and their own by burning charcoal in their sealed apartment, causing them all to succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Such shocking cases in which parents not only take their own lives, but those of their children, are on the rise in Taiwan, which already has one the highest suicide rates in Asia.

Experts who have studied the trend said most parents acted out of a deluded sense that it was better to spare their children the misery of living without anyone to take care of them.

"These cases are rare in the United States or Europe. They treat their kids as independent individuals," said Pan Yi-ju, a psychiatrist and researcher at the Taiwan Department of Health's Suicide Prevention Centre.

"When they want to kill themselves, they don't necessarily take their kids," she added.

"In eastern cultures, these cases are more frequent."

In the first 10 months of this year, there were 31 cases of attempted or successful murder-suicides involving child victims, a four-year high, according to the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF), a non-governmental organisation.

It compiled the statistics from government data and media reports.

Nineteen children have been killed in this way so far this year, the same figure as for the whole of 2007.

Financial woes

Social workers attribute the rise mainly to financial problems.

"In the suicide notes and police reports we study, most of the parents suffered some kind of financial pressure, including business failures, job losses and large debts," said Harold Li, the Foundation's chief coordinator of research and development.
The situation could deteriorate, he said, as Taiwan's already struggling economy begins to feel further pressure from the global financial crisis.

The unemployment rate in September hit a four-year high, while exports declined for the first time in years.

A large number of small or middle-sized enterprises have already shut down and economic indicators suggest the island is headed toward a recession.

"If the economic situation doesn't improve, these cases can become worse. So we're quite worried," said Li.

Suicide by burning charcoal in a closed room is the most common method used by despairing parents.

It is considered easier than other suicide methods and allows the family to die at the same time.

To ensure their children die, some parents strangle them while they are asleep before lighting the charcoal.

Others give the youngsters sleeping pills or put rat poison in their food.

Some perpetrators have been grandparents, struggling to cope with abandoned grandchildren they are unable to care for. One slit her grandchild's wrist.

Parents who choose to end their child's life often also suffer from emotional problems such as depression, and tend to be socially isolated, making it more difficult for them to get help.

Others do not want to burden their relatives with raising their children.

Cultural factors are also behind the disturbing trend, experts said.

"In Asian culture, parents think their children are their property. They think parents have the right to determine a child's life," said Mr Li.

"They think it's an act of goodwill. They don't believe anyone in this world will take care of their children. They lack trust in relatives, government or social agencies," he added.

In western countries, children are more commonly murdered in violent, revenge attacks against a spouse or an ex-partner.

In Taiwan, 42% of child murder-suicide cases this year involved both parents.

Statistics on such incidents are hard to come by as murder-suicides involving children are often not separated from general suicide figures, according to Ms Pan.

But she said it is clear the trend has been rising in Taiwan in the past decade, due in part to increasing knowledge about charcoal-burning suicide.

Public campaign

Shame also keeps parents from seeking financial or medical assistance.

"Usually the trigger is a tuition bill or late rent notice, which seem like a small matter, but in their despondent state, they don't believe anyone would help them," said Peng Yu-wen, a social worker with the CWLF who counsels parents and children who survive suicide attempts.

The CWLF has begun a campaign inviting the public to come up with ideas to reduce the alarming rise in suicides.

Social workers have also appealed to the government to address the issue.

And they have also called on all members of society to look out for those among them who could be at risk and not be afraid to help them.

At-risk children are also taught how to protect themselves.

"We teach them to spot signs, such as mum saying things like, 'I want to take you away with me'. We tell the kids to seek out a teacher, relative, friend of their parent or neighbour they can go to for help," said Ms Peng.

In the case of five-year-old Ho, no-one was there to help.

His parents, who sold arts and crafts trinkets on the street, had borrowed money from relatives in the past, but found they were unable to do so anymore, said Hsiao Yu-hsi, a police officer who, along with the landlady, discovered the family at the scene.

"They only had NT$1,000 [US$33] in their home, and no money in their bank account," said Mr Hsiao.

"They could have qualified for welfare but for some reason they didn't apply."

Mastercard Rebranding

2008-11-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

Inflating the Universe

2008-11-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

The Universe is expanding gradually now. But its initial expansion was almost impossibly rapid as it likely grew from quantum scale fluctuations in a trillionth of a second. In fact, this cosmological scenario, known as Inflation, is now reported to be further quantified by an analysis of three years of data from the WMAP spacecraft. WMAP's instruments detect the cosmic microwave background radiation - the afterglow light from the early Universe. WMAP's amazing success in exploring the first trillionth of a second and favoring specific inflationary scenarios lies in its ability to make unprecedented, precise measurements of the properties of the microwave background. The subtle properties are distilled from conditions in the early Universe and related to its first moments of existence. Schematically, this diagram traces the 13.7 billion year (plus a trillionth of a second ...) history of the Universe from the quantum scale to the formation of stars, galaxies, planets, and WMAP.