* DXY hits 8-month peak
* Dlr/yen seen edging higher; macros spotted building longs
* Euro zone manufacturing due later on Monday
By Antoni Slodkowski
TOKYO, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The euro sank to an eight-month low against the dollar on Monday and is poised to fall further after the Greek government said the debt-ridden country will miss a deficit target set just months ago in a massive bailout package.
Traders and analysts said that with Europe divided over the best cure for the debt crisis and with the possibility of a Greek default looming larger than ever, the euro was likely to grind lower in the coming days.
"A Greek default is a sort of Pandora box no one wants to open. While some markets seem to have priced in such possibility, it looks like euro has still some way to go should it happen," said Teppei Ino, a currency analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
The euro dived as deep as $1.3323 , from $1.3418 in New York on Friday, before nudging back up to $1.3344. The single currency?lost 7 percent in September, its largest monthly drop since November 2010.
It also fell to a one-week low against the yen at 102.98 , moving a notch closer to a decade low at 101.95 yen.
If Greece defaults on its debt, Ino said he thought the euro could initially fall to $1.32 and would then quickly move towards $1.30.
Underscoring jitters over European financial institutions, reports emerged that ministers from France and Belgium would meet to shore up the balance sheet of troubled financial services group Dexia.
Making matters worse, Germany's finance minister ruled out a higher contribution to the euro zone's rescue fund beyond an already approved 211 billion euros, while a key German coalition member of parliament said "Greece is bankrupt".
For now, technical support for the single European currency lies at January lows around $1.3250-80 and then in the $1.3250-00 zone, formed by trend channels, internal wave targets and Fibonacci projection objectives.
This support area combined with the strong resistance on the dollar index at 78.75-90, formed by a cluster of highs and lows on the daily charts, has the capacity to provoke a correction to the euro's decline from $1.4939.
Greece will miss a deficit target despite severe austerity measures, although inspectors from the IMF, EU and European Central Bank --the troika--are widely expected to release the next aid package.
While all eyes will be on the inspectors' forecasts for 2012-2014, Greek bond holders may have to take even larger haircuts, according to some reports.
Euro zone finance ministers are expected to discuss various plans about Greece and the rescue fund later on Monday.
Dexia , which received a combined 6 billion euro bailout from Belgium and France at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, has been badly hit by its huge exposure to Greece as well as the freeze in the inter-bank lending markets.
EDGING HIGHER
The dollar index hit an eight month high, edging up 0.5 percent to 78.888.
The greenback also gained a little on the yen, adding 0.1 percent to 77.10 yen after breaking above its 55-day moving average at 77.17 for the first time since its spike after intervention on Aug. 4. Stop losses loom around 77.30 yen, traders said.
Although the dollar failed to maintain early gains above 77.17, a close above the mark could improve sentiment toward the pair, especially as seasonal selling before end-Sept book-closings by Japanese exporters has run its course.
Tokyo dealers also reported macro funds building dollar-long positions and analysts said that if the current crisis deepened, this time the yen could weaken versus the dollar, unlike the global financial crisis in 2008.
"Contrary to what happened during the global financial crisis in 2008, this time the yen carry trade has not been as active," said Junya Tanase, chief strategist at JPMorgan Chase in Tokyo, adding that the dollar may strengthen to 78-79 yen over the next two weeks, although other yen crosses were likely to soften.
PMI numbers from China and the export numbers from Korea suggest global demand has not eased as quickly as some investors had feared in recent weeks, but this failed to make much of an impact on financial markets.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were off to a rocky start on Monday with the Aussie at $0.9665 .
European manufacturing PMI will be released on Monday and another deterioration below the key 50 level could see the euro sink further. It is also a big week for U.S. data with ISM Manufacturing on Monday and non-farm payrolls on Friday. (Additional reporting by Cecile Lefort in Sydney and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
The Little Bo Peep story
The Little Bo Peep rhyme builds the picture of a young shepherdess and the advice given to her by someone more experienced! It is interesting that the name of Little Bo Peep was derived from the derivative of the words bleat and sheep! There is no specific relevance to events in history for the origins of the Little Bo Peep rhyme. The morale of the words in the song are that one must take responsibility of falling asleep or face the consequences... The words of Little Bo Peep are quite interesting as they contain words that are an almost forgotten part of the English language. Words such as espied, hillocks and lambkin can all be found in the story of Little Bo Peep
Little Bo Peep story
Little Bo peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
Little Bo peep fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were all still fleeting.
Then up she took her little crook
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they left their tails behind them.
It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side
All hung on a tree to dry.
She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she could,
As a shepherdess should,
To tack again each to its lambkin.
Little Bo Peep story
The Little Bo Peep rhyme builds the picture of a young shepherdess and the advice given to her by someone more experienced! It is interesting that the name of Little Bo Peep was derived from the derivative of the words bleat and sheep! There is no specific relevance to events in history for the origins of the Little Bo Peep rhyme. The morale of the words in the song are that one must take responsibility of falling asleep or face the consequences... The words of Little Bo Peep are quite interesting as they contain words that are an almost forgotten part of the English language. Words such as espied, hillocks and lambkin can all be found in the story of Little Bo Peep
Little Bo Peep story
Little Bo peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
Little Bo peep fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were all still fleeting.
Then up she took her little crook
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they left their tails behind them.
It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side
All hung on a tree to dry.
She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she could,
As a shepherdess should,
To tack again each to its lambkin.
Little Bo Peep story
Thursday, March 17, 2011
What is a Sea Nettle?
Sea Nettle (Chrysaora) is one of the genus of Scyphozoa class of the phylum Cnidaria. The species of sea nettle we are most commonly knowledgeable about are Chrysaora quinquecirrh, which is mostly found along the east coast of North America in the Atlantic Ocean, and Chrysaora fuscescens, which is mostly found along the west coast of North America in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. The Sea Nettle is semi-transparent and has small whitish dots and reddish-brown stripes. In some cases, these stripes and dots are missing, and they make the sea nettle look whitish and opaque. The sea nettle is saucer-like in shape. The bell of the sea nettle usually grows to about 6 to 8 inches in diameter. It also has four oral arms attached to the underside of the mouth. In addition to this, it has a number of long tentacles, along the margins of its body, which extend for several feet.
Sea Nettles are equipped with a number of nematocysts along their oral arms and tentacles. These nematocysts are like capsules with a coiled thread inside it, which is lined with barbs along its length. The thread contains powerful paralyzing toxins within itself. When a sea nettle comes in contact with any hard surface and pressure is applied to the tentacles, these nematocysts get activated and the thread starts uncoiling. They get fired into the surface in its contact and inject their powerful venom into it.
Read more about Sea Nettles: http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/sea-nettle-jellyfish.html
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Tsunami Destruction Directly Linked To Destroyed Coral Reefs
The tsunami that struck Japan on Friday brought back memories of the tsunami of 2004 that devastated many parts of Sri Lanka. At the time, the steady destruction of coral reefs around the country was believed to have aggravated the impact of the disaster. The theory was confirmed by Sri Lankan scientist, Harindra Fernando, who was in Sri Lanka recently.
“We created a model of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami wave in the lab and tested the effects of damage caused by different wave heights, with and without underwater barriers resembling corals,” said Professor Harindra Fernando of the University of Notre Dame, Illinois, US.
Tsunami Destruction Directly Linked To Destroyed Coral Reefs
“We created a model of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami wave in the lab and tested the effects of damage caused by different wave heights, with and without underwater barriers resembling corals,” said Professor Harindra Fernando of the University of Notre Dame, Illinois, US.
Tsunami Destruction Directly Linked To Destroyed Coral Reefs
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Dictator Chic: Colonel Qaddafi—A Life in Fashion
Vanity Fair Magazine Considers Qaddafi a Fashion figure:
Since completing his transition from international pariah to statesman, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi—the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world—has brought color and his own eccentric panache to the drab circuit of international summits and conferences.
Drawing upon the influences of Lacroix, Liberace, Phil Spector (for hair), Snoopy, and Idi Amin, Libya’s leader—now in his 60s—is simply the most unabashed dresser on the world stage. We pay homage to a sartorial genius of our time
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Since completing his transition from international pariah to statesman, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi—the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world—has brought color and his own eccentric panache to the drab circuit of international summits and conferences.
Drawing upon the influences of Lacroix, Liberace, Phil Spector (for hair), Snoopy, and Idi Amin, Libya’s leader—now in his 60s—is simply the most unabashed dresser on the world stage. We pay homage to a sartorial genius of our time
Vanity Fair and Qaddafi
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Sticking to a Diet to Lose Weight
Finding the right diet or exercise plan that would work is not very hard. While a good comprehensive plan is important but sticking to the plan for a considerable amount of time enough to observe results is most essential.
What is causing failure for most dieters comes from a natural response from the body to changes in behavior. The body's tendency is to resist any change. An approach is required to confront this natural reaction wisely to overcome what seems impossible. Keep in mind that changes in behaviors that have developed with you throughout your life will never happen overnight. All you need is a plan to help you stick to the new behavior over a considerable period of time until it becomes a lifestyle.
A technique to stick to a diet long enough to lose the weight you want.
What is causing failure for most dieters comes from a natural response from the body to changes in behavior. The body's tendency is to resist any change. An approach is required to confront this natural reaction wisely to overcome what seems impossible. Keep in mind that changes in behaviors that have developed with you throughout your life will never happen overnight. All you need is a plan to help you stick to the new behavior over a considerable period of time until it becomes a lifestyle.
A technique to stick to a diet long enough to lose the weight you want.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Agatha Christie Found 3,000-year-old ivories Displayed
Carved ivories dating back almost 3,000 years, which were excavated with the help of novelist Agatha Christie, will go on show for the first time after being bought for £1.17 million by the British Museum in London.
The 6,000 treasures were discovered between 1949 and 1963 at Nimrud in what is now northern Iraq, in an excavation led by Sir Max Mallowan, one of Britain's most celebrated archaeologists.
His first wife, murder-mystery writer Christie, was in the excavation team and is known to have cleaned and preserved some of the objects, possibly using her face cream.
The ancient objects include carved decorative ivories for use on wooden furniture, as well as fragments of ivories used on horse trappings, statues and decorative boxes.
The Press Association: 3,000-year-old ivories go on show
The 6,000 treasures were discovered between 1949 and 1963 at Nimrud in what is now northern Iraq, in an excavation led by Sir Max Mallowan, one of Britain's most celebrated archaeologists.
His first wife, murder-mystery writer Christie, was in the excavation team and is known to have cleaned and preserved some of the objects, possibly using her face cream.
The ancient objects include carved decorative ivories for use on wooden furniture, as well as fragments of ivories used on horse trappings, statues and decorative boxes.
The Press Association: 3,000-year-old ivories go on show
Friday, February 25, 2011
A Fish Called Mola Mola
Mola mola is the heaviest known bony fish in the world with an average adult weight of 1,000Kg.
Mola mola is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe. It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally.
Mola Mola feeds mainly of jellyfish and it consumes large amounts in order to develop and maintain their great bulk.
Mola Mola Females can produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate. Their fry resemble miniature pufferfish, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.
Mola mola adults are vulnerable to few natural predators, but sea lions, orcas and sharks will consume them.
Among humans, mola mola are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, including Japan, the Korean peninsula and Taiwan. In the European Union, regulations ban the sale of fish and fishery products derived of the Molidae family.
Mola mola are frequently, though accidentally, caught in gillnets, and are also vulnerable to harm or death from encounters with floating trash, such as plastic bags.
A member of the order Tetraodontiformes, which also includes pufferfish, porcupinefish and filefish, the sunfish shares many traits common to members of this order. It was originally classified as Tetraodon mola under the pufferfish genus, but it has since been given its own genus, Mola, with two species under it.
The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is the type species of the genus.
Mola mola is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe. It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally.
Mola Mola feeds mainly of jellyfish and it consumes large amounts in order to develop and maintain their great bulk.
Mola Mola Females can produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate. Their fry resemble miniature pufferfish, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.
Mola mola adults are vulnerable to few natural predators, but sea lions, orcas and sharks will consume them.
Among humans, mola mola are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, including Japan, the Korean peninsula and Taiwan. In the European Union, regulations ban the sale of fish and fishery products derived of the Molidae family.
Mola mola are frequently, though accidentally, caught in gillnets, and are also vulnerable to harm or death from encounters with floating trash, such as plastic bags.
A member of the order Tetraodontiformes, which also includes pufferfish, porcupinefish and filefish, the sunfish shares many traits common to members of this order. It was originally classified as Tetraodon mola under the pufferfish genus, but it has since been given its own genus, Mola, with two species under it.
The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is the type species of the genus.
The Very Rare Long Nosed Gar Fish
The Gar Fish (Belone belone), or sea needle, is a pelagic, oceanodromous needle fish found in brackish and marine waters of the Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, etc.
The fish lives close to the surface and has a migratory pattern similar to that of the mackerel, arriving a short time before the latter to spawn.
It is long and slender, sometimes 2 or 3 feet (0.91 m) in length. (See a Picture of Long Nosed Gar Fish)
From the North Sea, Garfish migrate to shallow waters in April and May. They spawn in areas with eel grass in May and June. In the autumn they return to the open sea, including the Atlantic west of the British Isles.
Garfish are pelagic, they feed on small fish and leap out of the water when hooked.
The garfish are oviparous and the eggs are often found attached to objects in the water by tendrils on the egg's surface.
Garfish have unusually green bones (due to biliverdin) which discourages many people from eating them, but the green color is harmless.
They are caught mainly in fixed nets along the coast in shallow waters.
Garfish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The fish lives close to the surface and has a migratory pattern similar to that of the mackerel, arriving a short time before the latter to spawn.
It is long and slender, sometimes 2 or 3 feet (0.91 m) in length. (See a Picture of Long Nosed Gar Fish)
From the North Sea, Garfish migrate to shallow waters in April and May. They spawn in areas with eel grass in May and June. In the autumn they return to the open sea, including the Atlantic west of the British Isles.
Garfish are pelagic, they feed on small fish and leap out of the water when hooked.
The garfish are oviparous and the eggs are often found attached to objects in the water by tendrils on the egg's surface.
Garfish have unusually green bones (due to biliverdin) which discourages many people from eating them, but the green color is harmless.
They are caught mainly in fixed nets along the coast in shallow waters.
Garfish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Little Story of Penguin Pete of The Pittsburgh Penguins
Penguin Pete was the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first mascot. He was an Ecuadorian-born penguin on loan from the Pittsburgh Zoo. Penguins officials even had special ice skates made for Pete by CCM in Canada. A skater from the University of Pittsburgh taught Pete at the arena how to ice skate.
Penguin Pete made his first appearance during the second intermission of a game against the Boston Bruins on October 19, 1968.
Penguin Pete made six more appearances. His last appearance was on November 16 of the same year during a game against the New York Rangers. He died of pneumonia only one month into his first season. It is believed that his death was due to the ice crew at the Civic Arena keeping his nesting area too warm.
Penguin Pete died on November 23, 1968 and was sent to an area taxidermist. He was later displayed in the lobby of the Penguins team offices at the arena. However, the stuffed Pete was later removed from the lobby when a few concerned callers objected to its presence there. (Here are some Pictures of Penguin Pete)
A second penguin mascot, dubbed "Re-Pete", was later loaned to the team and made it through the 1971–72 NHL season.
The team later adopted Iceburgh, a more traditional mascot, for the 1993–94 NHL season. While Iceburgh's name is a play on both iceburg and Pittsburgh, not reviving the Penguin Pete name was likely done to avoid confusion with the mascot of the same name at Youngstown State University in nearby Youngstown, Ohio.
Penguin Pete - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Penguin Pete made his first appearance during the second intermission of a game against the Boston Bruins on October 19, 1968.
Penguin Pete made six more appearances. His last appearance was on November 16 of the same year during a game against the New York Rangers. He died of pneumonia only one month into his first season. It is believed that his death was due to the ice crew at the Civic Arena keeping his nesting area too warm.
Penguin Pete died on November 23, 1968 and was sent to an area taxidermist. He was later displayed in the lobby of the Penguins team offices at the arena. However, the stuffed Pete was later removed from the lobby when a few concerned callers objected to its presence there. (Here are some Pictures of Penguin Pete)
A second penguin mascot, dubbed "Re-Pete", was later loaned to the team and made it through the 1971–72 NHL season.
The team later adopted Iceburgh, a more traditional mascot, for the 1993–94 NHL season. While Iceburgh's name is a play on both iceburg and Pittsburgh, not reviving the Penguin Pete name was likely done to avoid confusion with the mascot of the same name at Youngstown State University in nearby Youngstown, Ohio.
Penguin Pete - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Google Adds Recipe Search Engine
Google has been working on the technology for several months. To use the recipe view do a regular search for a dish (try lasagna or whatever), and in a column on the left side of your screen, right under the shopping view, will appear recipes, says Goel. Click on it to use the feature.
The new feature will enable Google users to search for all recipes that have appeared on the Internet.
A product manager for the search engine, says that on average Google gets 10 million searches a day for recipes.
Although it’s only 1 percent of Google’s overall searches, the numbers were large enough to entice Goel and his crew to add a recipe view feature. Although users have always been able to find recipes using Google, under the new system they can narrow down their searches.
People can now search recipes based on everything from calorie count and ingredients to cook time and what publication the recipe came from. They can even plug in a search for a special occasion — say Cinco de Mayo — and come up with recipes for that holiday.
Inside Scoop SF » Google launches new recipe finder and search engine
The new feature will enable Google users to search for all recipes that have appeared on the Internet.
A product manager for the search engine, says that on average Google gets 10 million searches a day for recipes.
Although it’s only 1 percent of Google’s overall searches, the numbers were large enough to entice Goel and his crew to add a recipe view feature. Although users have always been able to find recipes using Google, under the new system they can narrow down their searches.
People can now search recipes based on everything from calorie count and ingredients to cook time and what publication the recipe came from. They can even plug in a search for a special occasion — say Cinco de Mayo — and come up with recipes for that holiday.
Inside Scoop SF » Google launches new recipe finder and search engine
Gaming: PS3 Could Become a Harder Nut to Crack
Sony Manufacturer doesn't like it when gamers mess with its products.
The company's stance against PS3 hacking -- users altering the machine's programming to make it perform functions other than playing games -- continues to grow stronger, as Sony pulls out the legal guns and shows no signs of backing down.
When it comes to consumer electronics, unauthorized hacking and pirating seem like unavoidable hassles. Every product appears to get cracked eventually. According to a new rumor, though, Sony is working on a way to prevent it altogether.
Technology News: Gaming: PS3 Could Become a Harder Nut to Crack
The company's stance against PS3 hacking -- users altering the machine's programming to make it perform functions other than playing games -- continues to grow stronger, as Sony pulls out the legal guns and shows no signs of backing down.
When it comes to consumer electronics, unauthorized hacking and pirating seem like unavoidable hassles. Every product appears to get cracked eventually. According to a new rumor, though, Sony is working on a way to prevent it altogether.
Technology News: Gaming: PS3 Could Become a Harder Nut to Crack
Monday, February 21, 2011
Domino’s ends policy - INSIDE JoongAng Daily
Domino’s Pizza officially ended its “30 minutes or free” delivery pledge in Korea after a spike in road accidents involving fast food deliverymen.
Since 1990, Domino’s has offered a discount of 2,000 won ($1.88) on pizzas delivered after 30 minutes of placing an order, and the pizza is given for free if delivery takes longer than 45 minutes. The system has forced deliverymen, most in their early 20s, to speed and drive recklessly on their delivery motor bikes.
“Following recent concerns over the 30 minute delivery promise, we decided to abolish the system after careful consideration,” said Domino’s on its Web site yesterday. “
We will make efforts to educate employees thoroughly on road safety.”The Youth Community Union called for a nationwide boycott of Domino’s if the system wasn’t abolished by today.
The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency said there were 4,951 accidents involving food delivery bikes between 2005 and 2009.
Domino’s ends policy - INSIDE JoongAng Daily
Since 1990, Domino’s has offered a discount of 2,000 won ($1.88) on pizzas delivered after 30 minutes of placing an order, and the pizza is given for free if delivery takes longer than 45 minutes. The system has forced deliverymen, most in their early 20s, to speed and drive recklessly on their delivery motor bikes.
“Following recent concerns over the 30 minute delivery promise, we decided to abolish the system after careful consideration,” said Domino’s on its Web site yesterday. “
We will make efforts to educate employees thoroughly on road safety.”The Youth Community Union called for a nationwide boycott of Domino’s if the system wasn’t abolished by today.
The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency said there were 4,951 accidents involving food delivery bikes between 2005 and 2009.
Domino’s ends policy - INSIDE JoongAng Daily
Domino’s beefs up its chicken line
Domino’s Pizza has added two new permanent items to its menu – boneless chicken and wings. This is the first time Domino’s has run a national promotion highlighting its chicken products since 2002.
The menu launch is part of a continued reinvention effort by Domino’s, which began in late 2009.
The chicken wings are available in hot, BBQ and new sweet mango habanero, while the new boneless chicken come with a selection of dipping sauces. The new items are available for delivery and carryout.
"We want to continue innovating, and reinventing our menu and brand – and our new chicken is the next chapter of our story," said J. Patrick Doyle, Domino's Pizza president and chief executive officer.
Russell Weiner, Domino's Pizza chief marketing officer said customer feedback outlined a demand for more choice and customization with the boneless chicken, and a better texture and flavor for the chicken wings.
"Over 80 percent of our menu consists of new, permanent menu items introduced since 2008, so the desire to continue getting better goes well beyond just our pizza," said Weiner.
Domino’s beefs up its chicken line PizzaMarketPlace.com
The menu launch is part of a continued reinvention effort by Domino’s, which began in late 2009.
The chicken wings are available in hot, BBQ and new sweet mango habanero, while the new boneless chicken come with a selection of dipping sauces. The new items are available for delivery and carryout.
"We want to continue innovating, and reinventing our menu and brand – and our new chicken is the next chapter of our story," said J. Patrick Doyle, Domino's Pizza president and chief executive officer.
Russell Weiner, Domino's Pizza chief marketing officer said customer feedback outlined a demand for more choice and customization with the boneless chicken, and a better texture and flavor for the chicken wings.
"Over 80 percent of our menu consists of new, permanent menu items introduced since 2008, so the desire to continue getting better goes well beyond just our pizza," said Weiner.
Domino’s beefs up its chicken line PizzaMarketPlace.com
Friday, February 18, 2011
A Red Siamese Fighting Fish
The Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens), also known as the Betta and simply as the fighter, is a popular species of freshwater aquarium fish. The name is derived from Ikan Bettah, taken from a local dialect of Thailand (Siam).
Betta is pronounced /ˈbɛtə/. The wild ancestors of this fish are native to the rice paddies of Thailand, peninsular Malaysia and Cambodia and are called pla-kad or trey krem ("fighting fish") in Thai.
Siamese fighting fish have upturned mouths and are primarily carnivorous surface feeders, although some vegetable matter may be eaten. In the wild, they feed on zooplankton including crustaceans and the larvae of mosquitoes and other insects, such as flies, crickets, or grasshoppers. Fish who feed on a wide range of foods live longer, have richer colors, and heal fin damage more quickly.
For reproduction the male betta will flare his gills, twist his body, and spread his fins, if interested in the female.
The female will darken in color, then curve her body back and forth. Males build bubble nests of various sizes and thicknesses at the surface of the water. The act of spawning itself is called a "nuptial embrace", for the male wraps his body around the female; around 10-41 eggs are released during each embrace, until the female is exhausted of eggs.
The male, in his turn, releases milt into the water, and fertilization takes place externally. During and after spawning, the male uses his mouth to retrieve sinking eggs and deposit them in the bubble nest (during mating the female sometimes assists her partner, but more often she will simply devour all the eggs that she manages to catch). Once the female has released all of her eggs, she is chased away from the male's territory, as it is likely that she'll eat the eggs due to hunger.
Henceforth, the eggs remain in the male's care. He carefully keeps them in his bubble nest, making sure none fall to the bottom, and repairing the bubble nest as needed. Incubation lasts for 24–36 hours, and the newly-hatched larvae remain in the nest for the next 2–3 days, until their yolk sacs are fully absorbed. Afterwards the fry leave the nest and the free-swimming stage begins.
A Red Siamese Fighting Fish in an Aquarium - Pictures
Betta is pronounced /ˈbɛtə/. The wild ancestors of this fish are native to the rice paddies of Thailand, peninsular Malaysia and Cambodia and are called pla-kad or trey krem ("fighting fish") in Thai.
Siamese fighting fish have upturned mouths and are primarily carnivorous surface feeders, although some vegetable matter may be eaten. In the wild, they feed on zooplankton including crustaceans and the larvae of mosquitoes and other insects, such as flies, crickets, or grasshoppers. Fish who feed on a wide range of foods live longer, have richer colors, and heal fin damage more quickly.
For reproduction the male betta will flare his gills, twist his body, and spread his fins, if interested in the female.
The female will darken in color, then curve her body back and forth. Males build bubble nests of various sizes and thicknesses at the surface of the water. The act of spawning itself is called a "nuptial embrace", for the male wraps his body around the female; around 10-41 eggs are released during each embrace, until the female is exhausted of eggs.
The male, in his turn, releases milt into the water, and fertilization takes place externally. During and after spawning, the male uses his mouth to retrieve sinking eggs and deposit them in the bubble nest (during mating the female sometimes assists her partner, but more often she will simply devour all the eggs that she manages to catch). Once the female has released all of her eggs, she is chased away from the male's territory, as it is likely that she'll eat the eggs due to hunger.
Henceforth, the eggs remain in the male's care. He carefully keeps them in his bubble nest, making sure none fall to the bottom, and repairing the bubble nest as needed. Incubation lasts for 24–36 hours, and the newly-hatched larvae remain in the nest for the next 2–3 days, until their yolk sacs are fully absorbed. Afterwards the fry leave the nest and the free-swimming stage begins.
A Red Siamese Fighting Fish in an Aquarium - Pictures
What are Coral Reefs
Often called “rainforests of the sea”, coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. They occupy very small percentage of the total sea surface on earth, yet they provide a home for twenty-five percent of all marine species.
Coral reefs flourish even though they are surrounded by ocean waters that provide few nutrients. They are most commonly found at shallow depths in tropical waters, but deep water and cold water corals also exist on smaller scales in other areas.
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals.
Corals are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, and are formed by polyps that live together in groups. The polyps secrete a hard carbonate exoskeleton which provides support and protection for the body of each polyp. Reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated waters. Also coral reef is a reef consisting of coral consolidated into limestone.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
How to Install Windows XP on Computers with SATA Hard Drive - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com
SATA is a new type of interface that connects hard drives to computers' main board (Motherboard) and replaces the older IDE standard. As of 2009, SATA has replaced IDE in most desktop and laptop computers. The difference between a SATA hard drive and the old IDE drives, among other things, is that SATA can provide for a faster data rate and speed.
How to Install Windows XP on Computers with SATA Hard Drive - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com
How to Install Windows XP on Computers with SATA Hard Drive - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Why Van Gogh Paintings Are Turning Brown?
The works of painter Vincent van Gogh are some of the world's most prized pieces of art, partly for their vibrant tones, but some of those colors have been fading in recent years. Art researchers and scientists have been using X-ray microscopes to examine Vincent van Gogh paintings that have been losing their color and determine why once brilliant yellows have been turning brown in several key works of van Gogh and other artists of the late 19th century.
The results of the study were published in the journal Analytical Chemistry. The problem comes down to the chromium in a yellow pigment called yellow chrome which undergoes a chemical reaction when exposed to ultraviolet lighting (including sunlight), turning the painting brown. The paint, which gave works including van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings, their sun-splashed beauty has been known to darken under sunlight since the early 19th century. What's new is that now scientists have uncovered why this happens and can work to gain potential clues as to how to prevent it.
Pigments were far from standardized in van Gogh's era and paints used varied both from painter to painter and time to time. Researchers had to track down historic tubes of chromium yellow in order to conduct their tests. Chromium yellow is toxic and no longer used. Artists switched from using the paint in the 1950s. The researchers were able to find three tubes of the yellow paint and hastened the aging process by exposing it to 500 hours under a UV lamp. They found that only one of the paint samples turned brown, one belonging to Flemish artist Rik Wouters. The color change was similar to that seen in the Van Gogh painting. During the course of the hurried-up aging process the color became darker and darker. Within three weeks, the bright yellow had become chocolate brown.
New Chemical Research Uncovers Why Van Gogh Paintings Turning Brown
Related Subjects:
Almond Blossom by van Gogh
The results of the study were published in the journal Analytical Chemistry. The problem comes down to the chromium in a yellow pigment called yellow chrome which undergoes a chemical reaction when exposed to ultraviolet lighting (including sunlight), turning the painting brown. The paint, which gave works including van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings, their sun-splashed beauty has been known to darken under sunlight since the early 19th century. What's new is that now scientists have uncovered why this happens and can work to gain potential clues as to how to prevent it.
Pigments were far from standardized in van Gogh's era and paints used varied both from painter to painter and time to time. Researchers had to track down historic tubes of chromium yellow in order to conduct their tests. Chromium yellow is toxic and no longer used. Artists switched from using the paint in the 1950s. The researchers were able to find three tubes of the yellow paint and hastened the aging process by exposing it to 500 hours under a UV lamp. They found that only one of the paint samples turned brown, one belonging to Flemish artist Rik Wouters. The color change was similar to that seen in the Van Gogh painting. During the course of the hurried-up aging process the color became darker and darker. Within three weeks, the bright yellow had become chocolate brown.
New Chemical Research Uncovers Why Van Gogh Paintings Turning Brown
Related Subjects:
Almond Blossom by van Gogh
Friday, February 11, 2011
Wael Ghonim: Proud To Be Egyptian
I'm proud to be Egyptian. I just want to say, you know, from the bottom of my heart congratulations to all egyptians and, you know, I want to say welcome back, Egypt. To me I've read about egypt in the history books and, you know, they convinced us for 30 days - for 30 years that egypt died and there's no more Egypt. We are just, you know, a generation that need to eat and sleep. You know, so many of the thousands decided to start a journey for Egypt and then they convinced hundreds of thousands then they convinced millions of people. We were all looking for Egypt and thank god that we found her today. I just want to say, welcome back Egypt.
I just want to say to Hosni Mubarak and to Omar Suleiman and to all those people who thought that being in power means you can oppress people, you know, hard-luck guys, you know, at the end of the day, we have a choice and we've made our choice, by the way very early enough and you should have respected that. You are responsible of the killings of 300 innocent Egyptians. You guys paid the price, are still going to pay the price. It's enough, it's enough for you guys that in history books they're going to talk to you - they'll say one word to describe you, a dictator.
Today is the day for celebration. It's very hard for me now to even think. We have been - we haven't been sleeping for a few days. We've been under a lot of war - among the media war. I'm also in the morning - a lot of people saying, wael, you have been logical and not emotional. What's going on with you, so I need to refer - restore my calm attitude. I'm not an angry person, and I became an angry person. I need to get some sleep so does my friends, there are a lot of grateful Egyptians. These guys - there are a lot of people who care about egypt and today I think the problem is solved.
At the moment you break the psychological barrier of fear, The moment you break the fear, the moment you convince people that if they die it's better for them to die for a good cause than to live without dignity which is something that we all worked on in our message at the very beginning. Then you should be sure that you are going to win because these guys are so corrupted, these dictators don't care about the people. They care about their lives and for them life is much, you know, life is much worth it and shame for us - I love my life. We all want to live. We don't want to die. We all want to make - survive free and open-minded. We all want this country to go where it should be. We should be among the countries in the world. We can do it and we will do it.
I want to go back to my company and work. I think it would be a big mistake for me to be involved. Also if you read history, you know, the people who helped the revolution should not be part of the revolution afterward. I think my mission has been accomplished. I just need to work for a few days to make sure that the country is in safe hands and then i need to disappear from the scene.
My mission is over. I want to go back to see my kids. I want to go back to start working. I want to be a normal person and this is about the Egyptians. Those guys - I'm not worried about this country seeing all these people in the street right now.
We are dreamers and we made it happen and it's time now to celebrate for a couple of days and then go back and start thinking about how can we develop the strategy and what's the best for us.
I was actually at my mom's house with a lot of, you know, in my mom's house a lot - like a lot of activists and having sort of like the center of my plan, my - so I was there and we were all of a sudden like I heard my mom screaming. I went out and, you know, it was amazing. She started hugging me and kissing me and started crying and it was, you know, the rest of the family came. It was really good.
Thanks to you and you folks on Tahrir Square. You guys have played a great role in saving the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people. This regime did not care about the people and they would have killed a lot of people if there was no international media. CNN did a great job. You guys deserve a great recognition from all the Egyptian people. We're not going to forget your role
Wael Ghonim: "I'm proud to be Egyptian" – Parker Spitzer - CNN.com Blogs
I just want to say to Hosni Mubarak and to Omar Suleiman and to all those people who thought that being in power means you can oppress people, you know, hard-luck guys, you know, at the end of the day, we have a choice and we've made our choice, by the way very early enough and you should have respected that. You are responsible of the killings of 300 innocent Egyptians. You guys paid the price, are still going to pay the price. It's enough, it's enough for you guys that in history books they're going to talk to you - they'll say one word to describe you, a dictator.
Today is the day for celebration. It's very hard for me now to even think. We have been - we haven't been sleeping for a few days. We've been under a lot of war - among the media war. I'm also in the morning - a lot of people saying, wael, you have been logical and not emotional. What's going on with you, so I need to refer - restore my calm attitude. I'm not an angry person, and I became an angry person. I need to get some sleep so does my friends, there are a lot of grateful Egyptians. These guys - there are a lot of people who care about egypt and today I think the problem is solved.
At the moment you break the psychological barrier of fear, The moment you break the fear, the moment you convince people that if they die it's better for them to die for a good cause than to live without dignity which is something that we all worked on in our message at the very beginning. Then you should be sure that you are going to win because these guys are so corrupted, these dictators don't care about the people. They care about their lives and for them life is much, you know, life is much worth it and shame for us - I love my life. We all want to live. We don't want to die. We all want to make - survive free and open-minded. We all want this country to go where it should be. We should be among the countries in the world. We can do it and we will do it.
I want to go back to my company and work. I think it would be a big mistake for me to be involved. Also if you read history, you know, the people who helped the revolution should not be part of the revolution afterward. I think my mission has been accomplished. I just need to work for a few days to make sure that the country is in safe hands and then i need to disappear from the scene.
My mission is over. I want to go back to see my kids. I want to go back to start working. I want to be a normal person and this is about the Egyptians. Those guys - I'm not worried about this country seeing all these people in the street right now.
We are dreamers and we made it happen and it's time now to celebrate for a couple of days and then go back and start thinking about how can we develop the strategy and what's the best for us.
I was actually at my mom's house with a lot of, you know, in my mom's house a lot - like a lot of activists and having sort of like the center of my plan, my - so I was there and we were all of a sudden like I heard my mom screaming. I went out and, you know, it was amazing. She started hugging me and kissing me and started crying and it was, you know, the rest of the family came. It was really good.
Thanks to you and you folks on Tahrir Square. You guys have played a great role in saving the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people. This regime did not care about the people and they would have killed a lot of people if there was no international media. CNN did a great job. You guys deserve a great recognition from all the Egyptian people. We're not going to forget your role
Wael Ghonim: "I'm proud to be Egyptian" – Parker Spitzer - CNN.com Blogs
Google’s Wael Ghonim Thanks Facebook For Revolution
Google’s Middle East and North Africa Marketing Manager Wael Ghonim, credited with organizing the demonstrations in Cairo, thanked Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg for the social network’s role in helping achieve freedom in Egypt.
Ghonim told CNN:
We think that Ghonim’s desire to thank Mark Zuckerberg in person seems like a great marketing opportunity for both companies, and would also help promote any book that the activist might actually write based on recent events in Egypt. The former would certainly jibe with Ghonim’s intention of returning his focus to his day job.
Readers, what do you think about this set of developments?
Google’s Wael Ghonim Thanks Facebook For Revolution
Ghonim told CNN:
I want to meet Mark Zuckerberg one day and thank him…. I’m talking on behalf of
Egypt. This revolution started online. This revolution started on Facebook. This revolution started in June 2010 when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaborating content. We would post a video on Facebook that would be shared by 60,000 people on their walls within a few hours. I always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them the Internet…. The reason why is the Internet will help you fight a media war, which is something the Egyptian government regime played very well in 1970, 1980, 1990, and when the Internet
came along they couldn’t play it. I plan to write a book called Revolution 2.0… that will highlight the role of social media.
We think that Ghonim’s desire to thank Mark Zuckerberg in person seems like a great marketing opportunity for both companies, and would also help promote any book that the activist might actually write based on recent events in Egypt. The former would certainly jibe with Ghonim’s intention of returning his focus to his day job.
Readers, what do you think about this set of developments?
Google’s Wael Ghonim Thanks Facebook For Revolution
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Google introduces 2-step Verifications for google account and Gmail
Google just launched a new, secured login for Gmail and other Google services. It can greatly increase a Google Account's defenses.
Google calls this option "2-step verification," although it's often referred to as "two-factor authentication." By either name, it adds an extra line of defense beyond your password: a numeric code generated on the spot for each login and then discarded.
Google calls this option "2-step verification," although it's often referred to as "two-factor authentication." By either name, it adds an extra line of defense beyond your password: a numeric code generated on the spot for each login and then discarded.
It's an extra step, but it's one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account because it requires the powerful combination of both something you know—your username and password—and something that only you should have—your phone. A hacker would need access to both of these factors to gain access to your account. If you like, you can always choose a "Remember verification for this computer for 30 days" option, and you won't need to re-enter a code for another 30 days. You can also set up one-time application-specific passwords to sign in to your account from non-browser based applications that are designed to only ask for a password, and cannot prompt for the code.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Ken is Tweeting. But they wouldn’t dare let Barbie talk
Suddenly alert to the wide world of social networking and the concomitant preternatural maturity of girls, Mattel has slammed the Net with a Ken and Barbie site (barbieandken.com) and a number of pages for the 50-year-old teen lovers estranged since 2004. Its pre-Valentine’s Day campaign asks Net users to help Ken win back his girlfriend.
The company has, further, introduced yet another Ken doll, who now looks much less like a thinner George Michael, or a better-structured version of Hollywood Squares comic Paul Lynde. His hair is a windswept, surfer mullet; he has ripped arms and shredded abs. And he speaks.
Ken is Tweeting. But they wouldn’t dare let Barbie talk - The Globe and Mail
The company has, further, introduced yet another Ken doll, who now looks much less like a thinner George Michael, or a better-structured version of Hollywood Squares comic Paul Lynde. His hair is a windswept, surfer mullet; he has ripped arms and shredded abs. And he speaks.
“Sweet Talking Ken” records one’s voice then repeats the words in three
different voices, the best of which is a sexy Barry White-ish purr.
Ken is Tweeting. But they wouldn’t dare let Barbie talk - The Globe and Mail
5-Year-Old who created "The Thanksgiving Coat"
Some children’s book characters have been around for half a century and more, but rarely do we find one that moves children, people and schools to commit large, organized acts of compassion and humanitarian gestures. Kailee and Elizabeth Hoadley, mother and daughter children’s book creators were moved to see that their book series sparked a school children’s led movement of charitable giving, saving hundreds of underprivileged people, from babies to adults, from being cold this winter.
A child’s book was read to children. A flyer was handed out. Very normal activities for elementary schools across North America.
However, this was no ordinary book, nor flyer. It was a book illustrated by 5-Year Old Kailee and written by her mother, Elizabeth Hoadley, about a little girl named “Sweet Zara” who is having a difficult year.
The book, “The Thanksgiving Coat” (one of 14 published by this mother/daughter team) is also being animated by Spider-Man 2 Oscar Winner, Anthony LaMolinara (release date, summer, 2011) and being transformed into a children’s Theatrical Musical Performance to be launched in 2012.
The story touched a chord with both the children and parents and in this small school of only 250 students, over 300 coats were generously donated and collected for their first annual “Thanksgiving Coat” Drive.
A video of the event was released this week on the YouTube Channel: ‘elizabethhoadley’ and named “The Thanksgiving Coat Drive.”
The coats were as varied as the donors: tiny baby ‘ones-ies’, pink furry coats, trench coats, hockey coats, leather coats, work coats, new and old coats alike.
The one unifying factor was the generosity of their donors and the good intentions with which they were sent to their future owners. It is hoped that, like Sweet Zara, they will feel the love of the anonymous person who donated it as the Thanksgiving Coat is worn, which is the premise of the book.
Kailee and Elizabeth have written and illustrated 14 children’s books to-date. Their International Musical Talent Search for the “The Thanksgiving Coat” Musical is still underway until the end of April, 2011.
Barbie Didn’t Start This, a 5-Year Old Did
A child’s book was read to children. A flyer was handed out. Very normal activities for elementary schools across North America.
However, this was no ordinary book, nor flyer. It was a book illustrated by 5-Year Old Kailee and written by her mother, Elizabeth Hoadley, about a little girl named “Sweet Zara” who is having a difficult year.
The book, “The Thanksgiving Coat” (one of 14 published by this mother/daughter team) is also being animated by Spider-Man 2 Oscar Winner, Anthony LaMolinara (release date, summer, 2011) and being transformed into a children’s Theatrical Musical Performance to be launched in 2012.
The story touched a chord with both the children and parents and in this small school of only 250 students, over 300 coats were generously donated and collected for their first annual “Thanksgiving Coat” Drive.
A video of the event was released this week on the YouTube Channel: ‘elizabethhoadley’ and named “The Thanksgiving Coat Drive.”
The coats were as varied as the donors: tiny baby ‘ones-ies’, pink furry coats, trench coats, hockey coats, leather coats, work coats, new and old coats alike.
The one unifying factor was the generosity of their donors and the good intentions with which they were sent to their future owners. It is hoped that, like Sweet Zara, they will feel the love of the anonymous person who donated it as the Thanksgiving Coat is worn, which is the premise of the book.
“For me, there is no bigger happiness and satisfaction I can achieve in seeing how a small gesture of care and love can place a smile on a child's face,” said Marina M., a representative from the school’s Governing Board who helped make this possible. “A simple, everyday coat for us can symbolize an eternal amount of warmth and love for a needy child, symbolically as well as physically.”
“I can’t imagine being like Sweet Zara and I am so happy that the coat changed her life.” said Gabriel, a 9-year old volunteer from the school. “Things weren’t going well for her and the coat reminded her that there is also good in life and to keep on trying until things get better.”
“This book and coat drive made me realize how we all can make a difference in someone’s life,” Gabriel continues, “it made me feel really happy knowing we were able to help. We should do this every year.”
Kailee and Elizabeth have written and illustrated 14 children’s books to-date. Their International Musical Talent Search for the “The Thanksgiving Coat” Musical is still underway until the end of April, 2011.
Barbie Didn’t Start This, a 5-Year Old Did
Dual-Screen Touch Smart Phone
Sprint is unveiling a two-screen smart phone. It's the Echo, made by the Japanese company Kyocera. The Echo, which uses Android software, allows users to multi-task or drag elements from one screen to the other.
TechBytes: Dual-Screen Touch - ABC News
TechBytes: Dual-Screen Touch - ABC News
Amazon Kindle Software Update - Kindle Sales expected to increase
Research firm Gartner estimates that e-reader sales will increase 68.3 percent in 2011, to more than 11 million units.
Amazon.com is tweaking its Kindle e-reader software with the addition of new features such as public notes and e-book page numbers that match those in the print editions.
Amazon has grouped these free updates together as Kindle Software Update Version 3.1, downloadable via a page on its Website. In addition to public notes, a feature that opens Kindle users’ book notes and highlights to an audience, and “real” page numbers, presumably good for classes and book clubs looking to reference and sync their reading, the new software includes a new layout for newspapers and magazines.
Kindle users who are dead-set on sharing (or over-sharing) their reading experience with everyone in the vicinity can also use the software update to immediately rate an e-book upon finishing, share messages about that book with their social network, view more books by the same author and receive “personalized” recommendations for their next book to read.
Although Amazon remains reluctant to share any hard data related to sales of Kindle e-readers, the online retailer perpetually claims the device is among its bestselling. In late January, it reported sales of 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks moved through its Web storefront, a number that apparently includes sales of books without an equivalent electronic edition, and excludes free Kindle e-books. Kindle e-book sales had already surpassed that of hardcovers, according to the company.
Research firm Gartner estimates that e-reader sales will increase 68.3 percent in 2011, to more than 11 million units.
Amazon has kept the Kindle a grayscale device, essentially betting its e-reader empire on the theory that most customers will want a device exclusively for reading in addition to their other gizmos. In addition, Amazon offers Kindle software for a variety of devices, including PCs and the iPad, along with an in-development Kindle for Web application, which will allow users to purchase e-books via a Website and read them within the browser.
Amazon Kindle Software Update Includes Public Notes, Recommending - Desktops and Notebooks - News & Reviews - eWeek.com
Amazon.com is tweaking its Kindle e-reader software with the addition of new features such as public notes and e-book page numbers that match those in the print editions.
Amazon has grouped these free updates together as Kindle Software Update Version 3.1, downloadable via a page on its Website. In addition to public notes, a feature that opens Kindle users’ book notes and highlights to an audience, and “real” page numbers, presumably good for classes and book clubs looking to reference and sync their reading, the new software includes a new layout for newspapers and magazines.
Kindle users who are dead-set on sharing (or over-sharing) their reading experience with everyone in the vicinity can also use the software update to immediately rate an e-book upon finishing, share messages about that book with their social network, view more books by the same author and receive “personalized” recommendations for their next book to read.
Although Amazon remains reluctant to share any hard data related to sales of Kindle e-readers, the online retailer perpetually claims the device is among its bestselling. In late January, it reported sales of 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks moved through its Web storefront, a number that apparently includes sales of books without an equivalent electronic edition, and excludes free Kindle e-books. Kindle e-book sales had already surpassed that of hardcovers, according to the company.
Research firm Gartner estimates that e-reader sales will increase 68.3 percent in 2011, to more than 11 million units.
“The connected e-reader market has grown dramatically during the past two years,Gartner viewed full-color tablets such as the iPad as the greatest threat to the e-reader market, one that some e-reader manufacturers are trying to anticipate with the introduction of color screens. Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, arguably the most prominent example, includes a full-color 7-inch display, WiFi capability, Web surfing and the ability to share selected passages from e-books via Facebook and Twitter.
driven by sales of Amazon e-readers, primarily in North America,” Hugues De La
Vergne, principal research analyst at Gartner, wrote in a Dec. 8 statement
posted on Gartner’s corporate Website. However, “growth in North American and
other markets will remain constrained by the success of media tablets, such as
the Apple iPad.”
Amazon has kept the Kindle a grayscale device, essentially betting its e-reader empire on the theory that most customers will want a device exclusively for reading in addition to their other gizmos. In addition, Amazon offers Kindle software for a variety of devices, including PCs and the iPad, along with an in-development Kindle for Web application, which will allow users to purchase e-books via a Website and read them within the browser.
Amazon Kindle Software Update Includes Public Notes, Recommending - Desktops and Notebooks - News & Reviews - eWeek.com
Monday, February 7, 2011
Barbie and Ken mark 50 years of complicated romance - NorthJersey.com
Ken Carson — better known as the Ken doll — is a man on a mission as Valentine's Day approaches.
He's had New York's famed Magnolia Bakery customize a cupcake for his lost love. Though a fellow of few to no words, he stands ready, willing and able to whisper sweet nothings into her tiny ear. He's even taken out billboards in Manhattan and Los Angeles to proclaim his ardor, making heartfelt declarations like "Barbie, we may be plastic, but our love is real."
Theirs is a complicated love story, to be sure, which has played out over half a century, and involved some fashion gaffes (both sides), ill-advised personas (Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken?) and bad-hair decades (his, the 1960s through the '90s).
But things are looking up for toydom's most famous sidekick.
Barbie and Ken mark 50 years of complicated romance - NorthJersey.com
He's had New York's famed Magnolia Bakery customize a cupcake for his lost love. Though a fellow of few to no words, he stands ready, willing and able to whisper sweet nothings into her tiny ear. He's even taken out billboards in Manhattan and Los Angeles to proclaim his ardor, making heartfelt declarations like "Barbie, we may be plastic, but our love is real."
Theirs is a complicated love story, to be sure, which has played out over half a century, and involved some fashion gaffes (both sides), ill-advised personas (Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken?) and bad-hair decades (his, the 1960s through the '90s).
But things are looking up for toydom's most famous sidekick.
Barbie and Ken mark 50 years of complicated romance - NorthJersey.com
The popular mobile game Angry Birds is launching on game consoles, in board game format, and is airing its own Super Bowl commercial.
Now the app that features little birds being catapulted through the air to cause destruction is coming out with a Valentine’s Day edition.
Keeping with the rhythm of other “holidays,” the game has previously been made available with special Halloween and Christmas editions.
The blog All Thing Digital says an update will be pushed out this week to iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones. The game is also expected to come out with an Angry Birds Rio edition sometime in March, to coincide with the release of the animated feature from 20th Century Fox.
Now the app that features little birds being catapulted through the air to cause destruction is coming out with a Valentine’s Day edition.
Keeping with the rhythm of other “holidays,” the game has previously been made available with special Halloween and Christmas editions.
The blog All Thing Digital says an update will be pushed out this week to iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones. The game is also expected to come out with an Angry Birds Rio edition sometime in March, to coincide with the release of the animated feature from 20th Century Fox.
Monday, January 31, 2011
'Choose your path' videos turn Youtube into game platform
Children of the ‘80s will fondly recall the "Choose Your Own Adventure" gamebooks, a series of interactive tales that let readers control the direction of the story by periodically choosing one of several plot paths.
Starting with 1979's "The Cave of Time," the prolific series captured imaginations and spawned countless clones over its impressive 20-year run, earning all sorts of pop-culture cred along the way.
And now, it's finding new life in the unlikeliest of places: Youtube.
Thanks to some incredibly creative (and seriously dedicated) users, 'choose your path' movies are cropping up more and more frequently on the online video megasite. Trading pages for page views, the premise is simple: you watch a video, and towards the end have to decide what happens next, which will then take you to a new video that continues the story. That can take a while, too -- some of the larger tales span over 60 options.
Starting with 1979's "The Cave of Time," the prolific series captured imaginations and spawned countless clones over its impressive 20-year run, earning all sorts of pop-culture cred along the way.
And now, it's finding new life in the unlikeliest of places: Youtube.
Thanks to some incredibly creative (and seriously dedicated) users, 'choose your path' movies are cropping up more and more frequently on the online video megasite. Trading pages for page views, the premise is simple: you watch a video, and towards the end have to decide what happens next, which will then take you to a new video that continues the story. That can take a while, too -- some of the larger tales span over 60 options.
Angry birds RIO Due Out in March to be the Next Super Mario
You can’t go a day without hearing someone mention Angry Birds.
Fans on Twitter share pictures of cakes they decorated with the Angry Birds characters. On YouTube, parents post videos of their kids playing Angry Birds in real life. Even talk show hosts like Conan O’Brien can’t resist cracking a joke about the game every night.
Rovio announced a new Angry Birds game based on a movie made by Fox. The game is due out March on multiple game platforms.The game’s creator Rovio on Friday announced a new game, Angry Birds Rio, based on a movie made by Fox.
The game is so ubiquitous it’s almost obnoxious. Some tech observers previously dubbed Angry Birds the new Pac-Man, but that wasn’t enough for the game’s makers.
“What we’re doing is we’re building out the Angry Birds world,” said Peter Vesterbacka, whose business card title reads “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio. “Pac-Man is only one game. Mario is a better benchmark.”
Angry Birds first appeared in Apple’s iPhone App Store in December 2009. Since then, the game has expanded to multiple devices, including the iPad, Android phones and the Sony PlayStation Portable, amassing over 75 million downloads to date, according to Rovio. The majority of sales comes from the App Store, where Angry Birds has consistently ranked a best seller.
Angry Birds accentuates the business opportunity unlocked by the iTunes App Store, Apple’s digital-distribution platform for selling third-party apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Launched in summer of 2008, the App Store’s friction-free business model proved to be a new digital frontier where software programmers big and small had an opportunity to make serious money, whereas before, hobbyist coders were no match to major game studios and their colossal marketing budgets.
In the App Store, some programmers have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales with clever games, software utilities and DIY social marketing. Apple recently announced that iOS customers surpassed 10 billion app downloads.
But Angry Birds was not a small-team effort, nor was its success a lucky strike. Based in Finland, the Rovio game studio that makes Angry Birds has 40 employees and expects to expand to 100 by the end of this year.
Angry Birds was actually the studio’s 52nd published game, and its 16th originally created game, according to Mikael Hed, Rovio’s CEO. He said the game’s success was carefully engineered with physics-based gameplay that made it easy to learn, while creating depth for advanced players in later stages. Add to that very cute characters and sounds, and a polished design, and you have a big hit.
The idea of Angry Birds hatched when a game designer produced a single mock screenshot (below) of an angry-looking bird with no legs and no wings. The designers at Rovio knew they had something special.
“Everybody really liked those game characters, and we figured it was worth taking those characters and making a game with them,” Hed said. “We tried projecting the birds and breaking structures, and that’s how it all started.”
Hed said the company studied the iPhone app ecosystem hard, looking at what worked. A team of 12 at Rovio spent eight months developing and refining Angry Birds before it was released.
(Indeed, another top-selling iPhone game Doodle Jump incorporated similar elements: a sharp design appealing for people of all ages and a physics-based gameplay.)
“It wasn’t completely random that Angry Birds did very well,” Hed said. “We did a lot of homework before we ended up with that concept.”
After producing a viral hit, Rovio kept Angry Birds popular by doing its own marketing with social-networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, and by continually adding new products.
“We try to respond to every question asked on Twitter,” Vesterbacka said. “Sometimes I reply, too.”
The company also regularly issues software updates for the game, adding new levels to keep people talking about Angry Birds.
The company operates an Angry Birds shop, where you can buy toys, T-shirts and iPhone cases. There’s even an Angry Birds board game in the works, through a partnership with Mattel.
To reach Mario status, Angry Birds needs a breakfast cereal and more variants of Angry Birds games. The Angry Birds directors said they were hoping to try out every possibility.
“We were thinking about making Angry Birds eggs,” Hed said. “We’ll do it when we get a good opportunity.”
Fans on Twitter share pictures of cakes they decorated with the Angry Birds characters. On YouTube, parents post videos of their kids playing Angry Birds in real life. Even talk show hosts like Conan O’Brien can’t resist cracking a joke about the game every night.
Rovio announced a new Angry Birds game based on a movie made by Fox. The game is due out March on multiple game platforms.The game’s creator Rovio on Friday announced a new game, Angry Birds Rio, based on a movie made by Fox.
The game is so ubiquitous it’s almost obnoxious. Some tech observers previously dubbed Angry Birds the new Pac-Man, but that wasn’t enough for the game’s makers.
“What we’re doing is we’re building out the Angry Birds world,” said Peter Vesterbacka, whose business card title reads “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio. “Pac-Man is only one game. Mario is a better benchmark.”
Angry Birds first appeared in Apple’s iPhone App Store in December 2009. Since then, the game has expanded to multiple devices, including the iPad, Android phones and the Sony PlayStation Portable, amassing over 75 million downloads to date, according to Rovio. The majority of sales comes from the App Store, where Angry Birds has consistently ranked a best seller.
Angry Birds accentuates the business opportunity unlocked by the iTunes App Store, Apple’s digital-distribution platform for selling third-party apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Launched in summer of 2008, the App Store’s friction-free business model proved to be a new digital frontier where software programmers big and small had an opportunity to make serious money, whereas before, hobbyist coders were no match to major game studios and their colossal marketing budgets.
In the App Store, some programmers have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales with clever games, software utilities and DIY social marketing. Apple recently announced that iOS customers surpassed 10 billion app downloads.
But Angry Birds was not a small-team effort, nor was its success a lucky strike. Based in Finland, the Rovio game studio that makes Angry Birds has 40 employees and expects to expand to 100 by the end of this year.
Angry Birds was actually the studio’s 52nd published game, and its 16th originally created game, according to Mikael Hed, Rovio’s CEO. He said the game’s success was carefully engineered with physics-based gameplay that made it easy to learn, while creating depth for advanced players in later stages. Add to that very cute characters and sounds, and a polished design, and you have a big hit.
The idea of Angry Birds hatched when a game designer produced a single mock screenshot (below) of an angry-looking bird with no legs and no wings. The designers at Rovio knew they had something special.
“Everybody really liked those game characters, and we figured it was worth taking those characters and making a game with them,” Hed said. “We tried projecting the birds and breaking structures, and that’s how it all started.”
Hed said the company studied the iPhone app ecosystem hard, looking at what worked. A team of 12 at Rovio spent eight months developing and refining Angry Birds before it was released.
(Indeed, another top-selling iPhone game Doodle Jump incorporated similar elements: a sharp design appealing for people of all ages and a physics-based gameplay.)
“It wasn’t completely random that Angry Birds did very well,” Hed said. “We did a lot of homework before we ended up with that concept.”
After producing a viral hit, Rovio kept Angry Birds popular by doing its own marketing with social-networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, and by continually adding new products.
“We try to respond to every question asked on Twitter,” Vesterbacka said. “Sometimes I reply, too.”
The company also regularly issues software updates for the game, adding new levels to keep people talking about Angry Birds.
The company operates an Angry Birds shop, where you can buy toys, T-shirts and iPhone cases. There’s even an Angry Birds board game in the works, through a partnership with Mattel.
To reach Mario status, Angry Birds needs a breakfast cereal and more variants of Angry Birds games. The Angry Birds directors said they were hoping to try out every possibility.
“We were thinking about making Angry Birds eggs,” Hed said. “We’ll do it when we get a good opportunity.”
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Touchscreen Interactive Bus Stops Keep People Busy While Waiting for Rid
Yahoo has introduced its Interactive Touchscreen Bus Stops installing them on variouse places. The screen is huge and people can keep busy while waiting for the bus to arrive.
Runaway Star Zeta Ophiuchi Could toast Any alien Civilization on its Path
Faster than a speeding bullet? More like faster than a supernova-propelled, hot blue supergiant!
In this stunning image fresh from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a bright star can be seen in the center of the shot. This star is called Zeta Ophiuchi, located 458 light-years from Earth (and 20-times the mass of our sun) in the constellation of Ophiuchus (yes, that Ophiuchus).
Why is Zeta Ophiuchi so special? It's a runaway star, traveling at a breakneck speed of 87,000 kilometers per hour (or 24 kilometers per second). And how did it get accelerated to that speed? After all, stars don't just careen around the galaxy -- eventually being ejected from the Milky Way all together -- for no reason.
The massive Zeta Ophiuchi probably used to have an even larger binary partner that exploded as a supernova. So, like a hammer thrower spinning quickly at the Olympic Games, the blue supergiant star was treated like the hammer, released from the gravitational embrace of its exploding sibling in an instant. At the moment of detonation, it's orbital momentum shot it off into space at high speed.
With the power of WISE's infrared eyes, a consequence of the star blasting through interstellar dust and gas can be seen. The reddish arc folding around the star is a bow shock; strong stellar winds from Zeta Ophiuchi colliding with the interstellar medium, causing heating, thus infrared light WISE can see.
Seeing the position of the bow shock, you can easily deduce the direction the star is headed -- toward the top-left of the image.
If there are any alien civilizations directly in the path of Zeta Ophiuchi, they're in trouble, this stellar juggernaut isn't slowing down any time soon.
Although any nearby alien civilization might get lucky. As it's a blue supergiant, it will likely explode as a supernova pretty soon in cosmic timescales. This "live fast, die young" star is estimated to be half-way through its 8 million year lifespan.
We know how fast it's traveling and we know (approximately) how long it'll be until the star explodes, therefore, after a rough calculation, we can work how much further it will travel: another 317 light-years before it reaches the end of the road. Any alien civilization in the path of Zeta Ophiuchi will need to be at least 317 light-years from the star's current position. Otherwise they'll be toast.
In this stunning image fresh from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a bright star can be seen in the center of the shot. This star is called Zeta Ophiuchi, located 458 light-years from Earth (and 20-times the mass of our sun) in the constellation of Ophiuchus (yes, that Ophiuchus).
Why is Zeta Ophiuchi so special? It's a runaway star, traveling at a breakneck speed of 87,000 kilometers per hour (or 24 kilometers per second). And how did it get accelerated to that speed? After all, stars don't just careen around the galaxy -- eventually being ejected from the Milky Way all together -- for no reason.
The massive Zeta Ophiuchi probably used to have an even larger binary partner that exploded as a supernova. So, like a hammer thrower spinning quickly at the Olympic Games, the blue supergiant star was treated like the hammer, released from the gravitational embrace of its exploding sibling in an instant. At the moment of detonation, it's orbital momentum shot it off into space at high speed.
With the power of WISE's infrared eyes, a consequence of the star blasting through interstellar dust and gas can be seen. The reddish arc folding around the star is a bow shock; strong stellar winds from Zeta Ophiuchi colliding with the interstellar medium, causing heating, thus infrared light WISE can see.
Seeing the position of the bow shock, you can easily deduce the direction the star is headed -- toward the top-left of the image.
If there are any alien civilizations directly in the path of Zeta Ophiuchi, they're in trouble, this stellar juggernaut isn't slowing down any time soon.
Although any nearby alien civilization might get lucky. As it's a blue supergiant, it will likely explode as a supernova pretty soon in cosmic timescales. This "live fast, die young" star is estimated to be half-way through its 8 million year lifespan.
We know how fast it's traveling and we know (approximately) how long it'll be until the star explodes, therefore, after a rough calculation, we can work how much further it will travel: another 317 light-years before it reaches the end of the road. Any alien civilization in the path of Zeta Ophiuchi will need to be at least 317 light-years from the star's current position. Otherwise they'll be toast.
Friday, January 28, 2011
The King Is Dead by 'The Decemberists'
The Decemberists have announced their new album The King Is Dead (Capitol Records, EMI). The album--a set of 10 concise, country-based songs--marks a deliberate turn towards simplicity after the band's wildly ambitious and widely acclaimed 2009 song-cycle The Hazards of Love. Produced once again by Tucker Martine, The King Is Dead features special guest appearances by Americana luminary Gillian Welch on seven tracks and legendary R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck on three tracks.
The King Is Dead showcases the ways in which The Decemberists--Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen--sound just as glorious in simple, stripped-down compositions as they do on the elaborate structures that have defined their work for years.
Meloy points out, however, that creating straightforward, unadorned songs can be at least as hard as building complicated musical epics. "For all my talk about how complex those records were, this one may have been harder to do," he says. "It's a real challenge to make simple music, and lot of times we had to deliberately hold off and keep more space. This record is an exercise in restraint."
The album was recorded in a converted barn at Pendarvis Farm, an 80-acre estate of lush meadows, forest, and Mt. Hood views outside of Portland, and it was the concept of the barn--as recording space and as attitude--that informed the making of The King Is Dead. "We wanted that ethos," he says. "That was the color we wanted the record to have."
To Meloy, in some ways The King Is Dead also represents his own musical journey coming full circle. "Over the last eleven years or so, since I moved to Portland, I feel like I've been mining mostly English traditions for influence", he says. "I guess I've kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place - R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds."
"Sometimes I kind of miss the epic-ness of the other albums," he continues, "but it's nice to get all of the information across in three minutes. It's like going from reading a novel to reading a bunch of short stories."
The King Is Dead showcases the ways in which The Decemberists--Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen--sound just as glorious in simple, stripped-down compositions as they do on the elaborate structures that have defined their work for years.
Meloy points out, however, that creating straightforward, unadorned songs can be at least as hard as building complicated musical epics. "For all my talk about how complex those records were, this one may have been harder to do," he says. "It's a real challenge to make simple music, and lot of times we had to deliberately hold off and keep more space. This record is an exercise in restraint."
The album was recorded in a converted barn at Pendarvis Farm, an 80-acre estate of lush meadows, forest, and Mt. Hood views outside of Portland, and it was the concept of the barn--as recording space and as attitude--that informed the making of The King Is Dead. "We wanted that ethos," he says. "That was the color we wanted the record to have."
To Meloy, in some ways The King Is Dead also represents his own musical journey coming full circle. "Over the last eleven years or so, since I moved to Portland, I feel like I've been mining mostly English traditions for influence", he says. "I guess I've kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place - R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds."
"Sometimes I kind of miss the epic-ness of the other albums," he continues, "but it's nice to get all of the information across in three minutes. It's like going from reading a novel to reading a bunch of short stories."
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Voyager Pro UC Bluetooth Answers Calls Automatically with Smart Sensors
Plantronics formally announced the Voyager Pro UC today, a Bluetooth headset with smart sensor technology.
Among other things, the Voyager Pro UC "knows" when the headset is being worn or not. This is designed to let users answer telephone calls from their headsets or phones without worrying about the two being paired.
Jan Caldarella, Plantronics' senior Bluetooth product manager says "A problem that Bluetooth users have is that you don't know where your headset is. You pick up the phone to answer the phone call, and the headset is still connected to the phone and the audio is still on the headset. With Smart Call Transfer, we're going to be able to rout the audio to the appropriate device. So if the headset is not being worn, the call will route to your phone."
The headset is designed with two sensors: one in the back spine and one in the speaker housing. Should users not wish to answer calls by simply placing the headset on their head, they can also do so in the traditional manner of pressing a button.
Other features include Auto Call Button Lock, which locks the call button when the headset isn't being worn. This was implemented to prevent the embarrassment of "pocket dialing," Caldarella said.
Beyond the customary uses for Bluetooth headsets, the Voyager Pro UC headset is also engineered to bridge the gap between Bluetooth headsets and PC communications. The company has developed software to use with the Voyager Pro UC that enables integration with such VoIP platforms as Skype and Microsoft Lync.
For example, users can switch from instant messaging to a phone call by putting on the headset. When a user is on a call, his online presence is switched to "busy."
The Voyager Pro UC also supports A2DP technology to allow for the streaming of music and turn-by-turn directions. The smart sensors will automatically pause music when the headset is taken off, Caldarella said, the act of which has become a common courtesy when talking face-to-face with someone. "When you put the headset back on, the music automatically begins." She noted that this feature was somewhat application dependent.
The Voyager Pro UC is currently available for a $199 suggested retail. It comes with a mini-USB adapter for use with PC conversations.
Among other things, the Voyager Pro UC "knows" when the headset is being worn or not. This is designed to let users answer telephone calls from their headsets or phones without worrying about the two being paired.
Jan Caldarella, Plantronics' senior Bluetooth product manager says "A problem that Bluetooth users have is that you don't know where your headset is. You pick up the phone to answer the phone call, and the headset is still connected to the phone and the audio is still on the headset. With Smart Call Transfer, we're going to be able to rout the audio to the appropriate device. So if the headset is not being worn, the call will route to your phone."
The headset is designed with two sensors: one in the back spine and one in the speaker housing. Should users not wish to answer calls by simply placing the headset on their head, they can also do so in the traditional manner of pressing a button.
Other features include Auto Call Button Lock, which locks the call button when the headset isn't being worn. This was implemented to prevent the embarrassment of "pocket dialing," Caldarella said.
Beyond the customary uses for Bluetooth headsets, the Voyager Pro UC headset is also engineered to bridge the gap between Bluetooth headsets and PC communications. The company has developed software to use with the Voyager Pro UC that enables integration with such VoIP platforms as Skype and Microsoft Lync.
For example, users can switch from instant messaging to a phone call by putting on the headset. When a user is on a call, his online presence is switched to "busy."
The Voyager Pro UC also supports A2DP technology to allow for the streaming of music and turn-by-turn directions. The smart sensors will automatically pause music when the headset is taken off, Caldarella said, the act of which has become a common courtesy when talking face-to-face with someone. "When you put the headset back on, the music automatically begins." She noted that this feature was somewhat application dependent.
The Voyager Pro UC is currently available for a $199 suggested retail. It comes with a mini-USB adapter for use with PC conversations.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Bruce Willis in "RED" on DVD - Blu-ray
You can take the agent out of the CIA, but you can't take the CIA out of the agent--or so discovers Frank Moses, to his chagrin.
Frank, played by Bruce Willis, simply wants to live his simple life with his government pension. But when a troop of black-ops guys descends on his house one night and blows it to smithereens, Frank realizes he needs to get a few of his old colleagues together and find out what's what.
That's the premise of Red, a jolly action flick based on a rather more serious graphic novel. Because Frank's old posse includes kicky roles for Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and a tea-pouring, hot-lead-spraying Helen Mirren, the movie boasts a certain appeal just at the "Holy cow, can you believe who's in this thing?" level. Actually, the rest of the cast is pretty sweet as well: Mary-Louise Parker steals much of the film as Frank's unsuspecting civilian date (swept into the action because she might innocently become a CIA target, too), Brian Cox hams it up as Frank's former Soviet adversary (wistfully recalling how he always wanted to assassinate a US president), and Karl Urban (Star Trek) supplies brawn and brains as the current CIA agent in charge of bringing the hammer down on Frank.
The breezy tone barely pauses to notice the semi-serious story point at the heart of the plot (a hazily recalled disaster in Guatemala many years earlier), nor the dead bodies that pile up around the edges of the action. Flightplan director Robert Schwentke lets his actors act up, which is not a capital crime given the skills of the cast list, and he shoves the plot along with fitting speed. It's not art, but as a multiplex diversion, Red scatters a decent share of legitimate jolts and rim-shot one-liners. --Robert Horton
Frank (Willis) is a former black-ops CIA agent living a quiet life alone... until the day a hit squad shows up to kill him. With his identity compromised, Frank reassembles his old team Joe (Freeman), Marvin (Malkovich) and Victoria (Mirren) and sets out to prove that they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Stand back and watch the bullets fly in this explosive action-comedy that critics call a rip-roaring good time.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Universal Translator on Android by Google
If you are a Star Trek serieus fan, you should know about the universal translator. It is a device that goes with officers' communicator and as they speak, the listener will hear spoken words in his or her own language.
Well, upto now you would have though that we are years (and maybe centuries) away from such technology.
Not true.
It seems now, smart devices runing on android can have an application called "Translate app" that will turn them into a universal translator. at least that is the goal. You type or say the initial phrase in whatever language you choose and it will spell out and give the option to allow it to say the phrase itself.
Although the thechnology is at its begining, it will definitly come in handy for alot of travelers and business people.
Google's official blog says:
Well, upto now you would have though that we are years (and maybe centuries) away from such technology.
Not true.
It seems now, smart devices runing on android can have an application called "Translate app" that will turn them into a universal translator. at least that is the goal. You type or say the initial phrase in whatever language you choose and it will spell out and give the option to allow it to say the phrase itself.
Although the thechnology is at its begining, it will definitly come in handy for alot of travelers and business people.
Google's official blog says:
When we launched the first version of Google Translate for Android in January 2010, we were excited about the year ahead. For the first time, we were bringing the capabilities supported on Google Translate—like machine translation, romanization of non-Roman scripts and spoken translations—to the Android platform. We also offered voice input to let you speak the word or phrase you wanted to translate instead of typing it in, and SMS translation so you could translate SMS messages sent to you in foreign languages.
Today, we’re refreshing Translate for Android with several updates to make the app easier to interact with. Among other improvements, we’ve created better dropdown boxes to help select the languages you want to translate from and into, an improved input box, and cleaner icons and layout.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Disney's True Story of a Horse Named 'Secretariat' : Released on DVD and blu-ray
The "greatest racehorse of all time" mantle fits easily around the neck of the movie 'Secretariat', the 1973 Triple Crown winner. So why not a movie version of this champion's life?
'Secretariat' begins in the late '60s, with some good behind-the-scenes material on how thoroughbreds come to be (there's flavorful atmosphere inside the horsey world, including an account of Secretariat's ownership being decided by a coin flip as part of an old-school agreement).
A highly lacquered Diane Lane plays Penny Chenery, the inheritor of her father's stables, who segues from being an all-American mom to running a major horse-racing franchise; reliable character-actor support comes in the form of John Malkovich, as a gaudily outfitted trainer, and Margo Martindale, as Chenery's assistant.
Screenwriter Mike Rich and director Randall Wallace must do some heavy lifting to make Lane's privileged millionaire into some sort of underdog--luckily, the hidebound traditions of the male-dominated racing scene provide some sources of outrage.
The need to stack the deck even more leads the movie into its more contrived scenes, unfortunately, as though we needed dastardly villains in order to root for Penny and her horse.
Meanwhile, attempts to reach for a little Seabiscuit-style social relevance don't come off, and a curious religious undertone might make you wonder whether we're meant to assume that God chose Secretariat over some less-deserving equine.
The actual excitement of the races can't be denied, however, and Secretariat's awe-inspiring win at the Belmont Stakes remains a jaw-dropping, still-unequaled display of domination in that event. And maybe in sports
Synopsis
A housewife with little knowledge of horse-racing fosters one of the greatest race horses of all time as the story of the 1973 Triple Crown winner comes to the screen in this inspirational underdog drama based on the novel Secretariat:
The Making of a Champion by William Nack and starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich. Penny Chenery (Lane) is a devoted mother and housewife whose ailing father is the proprietor of Meadow Stables in Virginia. When her father becomes too ill to tend to his horses, Penny agrees to take over the stables despite her inexperience. Desperate, she turns to veteran horse trainer Lucien Laurin (Malkovich) to help show her the ropes. Up to this point, horse racing has been a decidedly male-dominated sport. But with Lucien's help, Penny prepares to prove that gender has no bearing on one's ability to breed a fast race horse. As Secretariat blasts out of the gates to leave his competition in the dust, the whole world watches in amazement, and a legend is born.
'Secretariat' begins in the late '60s, with some good behind-the-scenes material on how thoroughbreds come to be (there's flavorful atmosphere inside the horsey world, including an account of Secretariat's ownership being decided by a coin flip as part of an old-school agreement).
A highly lacquered Diane Lane plays Penny Chenery, the inheritor of her father's stables, who segues from being an all-American mom to running a major horse-racing franchise; reliable character-actor support comes in the form of John Malkovich, as a gaudily outfitted trainer, and Margo Martindale, as Chenery's assistant.
Screenwriter Mike Rich and director Randall Wallace must do some heavy lifting to make Lane's privileged millionaire into some sort of underdog--luckily, the hidebound traditions of the male-dominated racing scene provide some sources of outrage.
The need to stack the deck even more leads the movie into its more contrived scenes, unfortunately, as though we needed dastardly villains in order to root for Penny and her horse.
Meanwhile, attempts to reach for a little Seabiscuit-style social relevance don't come off, and a curious religious undertone might make you wonder whether we're meant to assume that God chose Secretariat over some less-deserving equine.
The actual excitement of the races can't be denied, however, and Secretariat's awe-inspiring win at the Belmont Stakes remains a jaw-dropping, still-unequaled display of domination in that event. And maybe in sports
Synopsis
A housewife with little knowledge of horse-racing fosters one of the greatest race horses of all time as the story of the 1973 Triple Crown winner comes to the screen in this inspirational underdog drama based on the novel Secretariat:
The Making of a Champion by William Nack and starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich. Penny Chenery (Lane) is a devoted mother and housewife whose ailing father is the proprietor of Meadow Stables in Virginia. When her father becomes too ill to tend to his horses, Penny agrees to take over the stables despite her inexperience. Desperate, she turns to veteran horse trainer Lucien Laurin (Malkovich) to help show her the ropes. Up to this point, horse racing has been a decidedly male-dominated sport. But with Lucien's help, Penny prepares to prove that gender has no bearing on one's ability to breed a fast race horse. As Secretariat blasts out of the gates to leave his competition in the dust, the whole world watches in amazement, and a legend is born.
Behind every legend lies an impossible dream. Witness the spectacular journey of an incredible horse named Secretariat and the moving story of his unlikely owner, a housewife who risked everything to make him a champion. Out of the gate with never-before-seen bonus features, Secretariat is hours of pulse-pounding entertainment for the whole family!In 'Secretariat' Disney presents an astonishing true story bursting with hope, heart, and courage. Diane Lane and John Malkovich lead a celebrated cast in this inspirational motion picture from the producers of Miracle, Invincible and The Rookie.
Movie "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"
In 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,' Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob -- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.
Synopsis
The "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" story opens with the revelation that Seattle, Washington is being plagued by a string of murders, which Edward suspects is caused by a new vampire that is unable to control its thirst for human blood.
As Edward and Bella apply to colleges, Bella explains to Edward her desire to see her friend, Jacob Black, a werewolf. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that neither Jacob nor his wolf pack would ever harm her, and she begins visiting him occasionally.
On one of these visits, Jacob tells Bella that he is in love with her and wants her to choose him instead of Edward, but Bella says she just sees him as a friend. To that, Jacob forcibly kisses her and she reacts by punching him in the face, spraining her hand while not even leaving a scratch on him.
Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire who is hunting Bella for revenge, has returned to Forks. A few days later, Edward proposes to Bella and, despite harboring an aversion to marriage, she accepts.
Bella and the Cullens soon realize that the Seattle murders are being committed by an "army" of newborn vampires, controlled by Victoria.
The Cullens join forces with the wolf pack to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward, Bella and Jacob camp in the mountains, hidden during the battle, where they are later joined by Seth Clearwater, a young wolf pack member, to wait out the fight.
In the morning, Jacob becomes upset when he overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and threatens to join the fight and get himself killed. Bella stops Jacob by kissing him, and she comes to realize that she is in love with him as well.
During the battle, Victoria tracks Edward's scent to Bella's forest hiding place, and Edward is forced to fight. Edward manages to kill Victoria and her vampire army is destroyed. Afterwards, Bella explains to Jacob that while she loves him, her love for Edward is greater. After receiving a wedding invitation from Edward, Jacob runs away in his wolf form to escape his heartbreak over Bella's decision to become a vampire.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a great Vampire movie to watch.
Synopsis
The "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" story opens with the revelation that Seattle, Washington is being plagued by a string of murders, which Edward suspects is caused by a new vampire that is unable to control its thirst for human blood.
As Edward and Bella apply to colleges, Bella explains to Edward her desire to see her friend, Jacob Black, a werewolf. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that neither Jacob nor his wolf pack would ever harm her, and she begins visiting him occasionally.
On one of these visits, Jacob tells Bella that he is in love with her and wants her to choose him instead of Edward, but Bella says she just sees him as a friend. To that, Jacob forcibly kisses her and she reacts by punching him in the face, spraining her hand while not even leaving a scratch on him.
Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire who is hunting Bella for revenge, has returned to Forks. A few days later, Edward proposes to Bella and, despite harboring an aversion to marriage, she accepts.
Bella and the Cullens soon realize that the Seattle murders are being committed by an "army" of newborn vampires, controlled by Victoria.
The Cullens join forces with the wolf pack to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward, Bella and Jacob camp in the mountains, hidden during the battle, where they are later joined by Seth Clearwater, a young wolf pack member, to wait out the fight.
In the morning, Jacob becomes upset when he overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and threatens to join the fight and get himself killed. Bella stops Jacob by kissing him, and she comes to realize that she is in love with him as well.
During the battle, Victoria tracks Edward's scent to Bella's forest hiding place, and Edward is forced to fight. Edward manages to kill Victoria and her vampire army is destroyed. Afterwards, Bella explains to Jacob that while she loves him, her love for Edward is greater. After receiving a wedding invitation from Edward, Jacob runs away in his wolf form to escape his heartbreak over Bella's decision to become a vampire.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a great Vampire movie to watch.
Kiddy Movie "Alpha and Omega" Released on DVD
(PG, 2010, 88 minutes)In the animated kiddie movie "Alpha and Omega," sometimes the wolves look like wolves and sometimes they look and move like humans; some bear an uncanny resemblance to Dora the Explorer. That should tip you off to the target audience for this unexceptional 3-D offering, which is also available in 2-D. But the movie's visual flatness would work best at home on the small screen, where young girls (and maybe their big sisters) would enjoy the film's gentle, romantic shadings.
"Alpha and Omega" tells the story of the emerging love between Humphrey (voiced by Justin Long), a goofball omega wolf, and Kate (Hayden Panettiere), the foxy alpha wolf that he's been crushing on since he was a pup. Alphas and omegas can't marry, though, and, besides, Kate has been promised to an alpha wolf from another pack in order to settle a turf war.
A golfing goose (Larry Miller) and his British caddy (Eric Price) add a little humor, and the late Dennis Hopper turns up, voicing the menacing leader of the rival pack.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
David Fincher's "The Social Network" on DVD & Blu-ray
David Fincher's "The Social Network" is hitting Blu-ray and standard DVD this week.
Before it hit theaters in October, "The Social Network" was already being heralded as an Oscar contender. "The Social Network" tells the story of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is currently the youngest billionaire in the world. Backed by overwhelming critical support, "The Social Network" racked up nearly $200 million in theaters worldwide.
"The Social Network" was also voted the top movie of the year by the National Board of Review, joining recent films like "Up in the Air," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "No Country for Old Men." The David Fincher film is currently up for a bevy of Golden Globes as well, including Best Director, Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and Best Picture (Drama).
Before it hit theaters in October, "The Social Network" was already being heralded as an Oscar contender. "The Social Network" tells the story of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is currently the youngest billionaire in the world. Backed by overwhelming critical support, "The Social Network" racked up nearly $200 million in theaters worldwide.
"The Social Network" was also voted the top movie of the year by the National Board of Review, joining recent films like "Up in the Air," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "No Country for Old Men." The David Fincher film is currently up for a bevy of Golden Globes as well, including Best Director, Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and Best Picture (Drama).
Sunday, January 2, 2011
What is Gold?
Ever wonder why gold is so rare and so expensive? I have. Here is a definition of gold for those interested.Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (Latin: aurum) and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most malleable and ductile pure metal known. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Gold is one of the coinage metals and has served as a symbol of wealth and a store of value throughout history. Gold standards have provided a basis for monetary policies. It also has been linked to a variety of symbolisms and ideologies. Read More
A total of 161,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, as of 2009. Modern industrial uses include dentistry and electronics, where gold has traditionally found use because of its good resistance to oxidative corrosion and excellent quality as a conductor of electricity.
Chemically, gold is a transition metal and can form trivalent and univalent cations in solutions. Compared with other metals, pure gold is more chemically unreactive, but it is attacked by aqua regia (a mixture of acids), forming chloroauric acid, and by alkaline solutions of cyanide but not by single acids such as hydrochloric, nitric or sulfuric acids. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but does not react with it. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals. This property is exploited in the gold refining technique known as "inquartation and parting". Nitric acid has long been used to confirm the presence of gold in items, and this is the origin of the colloquial term "acid test", referring to a gold standard test for genuine value
1950 Battery Still Produces Energy After Sixty Years
Here is a revolutionary idea to built a battery that works for ever. It was build back in the 50's and ever since then, it is still working producing the same as much energy as it did then.The "Dimitrie Leonida" National Technical Museum from Romania hosts a weird kind of battery. Built by Vasile Karpen, the pile has been working uninterrupted for 60 years. "I admit it's also hard for me to advance the idea of an overunity generator without sounding ridiculous, even if the object exists," says Nicolae Diaconescu, engineer and director of the museum.
Half a century ago, the pile's inventor had said it will work forever, and so far it looks like he was right. Karpen's perpetual motion machine now sits secured right in the director's office. It has been called "the uniform-temperature thermoelectric pile," and the first prototype has been built in the 1950s. Although it should have stopped working decades ago, it didn't.
The scientists can't explain how the contraption, patented in 1922, works. The fact that still puzzles them is how a man of such a scientific stature such as Karpen's could have started building something "that crazy."
The prototype has been assembled in 1950 and consists of two series-connected electric piles moving a small galvanometric motor. The motor moves a blade that is connected to a switch. With every half rotation, the blade opens the circuit and closes it at the the start of the second half. The blade's rotation time had been calculated so that the piles have time to recharge and that they can rebuild their polarity during the time that the circuit is open.
The purpose of the motor and the blades was to show that the piles actually generate electricity, but they're not needed anymore, since current technology allows us to measure all the parameters and outline all of them in a more proper way.
A Romanian newspaper, ZIUA (The Day), went to the museum for an interview with director Diaconescu. He took the system our of its secured shelf and allowed the specialists to measure its output with a digital multimeter. This happened on Feb. 27, 2006, and the batteries had indicated the same 1 Volt as back in 1950.
They had mentioned that "unlike the lessons they teach you in the 7th grade physics class, the 'Karpen's Pile' has one of its electrodes made of gold, the other of platinum, and the electrolyte (the liquid that the two electrodes are immersed in), is high-purity sulfuric acid." Karpen's device could be scaled up to harvest more power, adds Diaconescu.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Facebook Visitors Top Google in 2010
Facebook has dethroned Google as the top-visited Web sites in 2010, as well as the most searched term of the year, a report says. Into 2011, it is to be seen whether the search engine giant can regain ground.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens to a question from the audience after unveiling a new messaging system during a news conference in San Francisco, California.
According to a report from Internet analytics company Experian Hitwise, Facebook accounted for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010. Google.com ranked second with 7.19 percent of visits, followed by Yahoo! Mail with 3.52 percent, Yahoo! with 3.30 percent and YouTube with 2.65 percent.
The Experian analysis found that the most frequently searched term this year was "facebook."
"Facebook" was the top-searched term overall for the second straight year, followed by "Facebook login" and "YouTube", says Experian.
Facebook, a site launched in 2004, has over 500 millon users and its rise marks a shift from search engines and Internet portals.
There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People who use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
Advertising contributes most of Facebook's revenue, one area it is yet to exceed compared with Google, which reported sales of about $24 billion in 2009. Facebook is reportedly expected to rake in about $2 billion in 2010, significantly up from $800 million in 2009.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who was chosen as Time’s Person of the Year for 2010, had early last year said the hugely popular social networking site is in no rush to go public. S&P Equity Research, in a company-specific predictions report for the Internet industry for 2011, said major social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are in no rush to become publicly traded entities despite the IPO market warming up somewhat in the second half of 2010.
"Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing," Business Week reported in 2010.
On exchanges for privately held companies, Facebook is worth more than $45 billion, about four times less than Google's.
Analyst Greg Sterling of SearchEngineLand.com says the Hitwise study does not track website visits via mobile devices and the number of searches on Google's Chrome browser was uncertain.
"This is right now more symbolic than anything" to see Facebook overtake Google in the United States, Sterling told AFP.
"Google is a very utilitarian site, where people go to make a decision, whereas Facebook is for entertainment," Sterling said. But if Facebook "were to concentrate on search, they could do something that stands to really hurt Google."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens to a question from the audience after unveiling a new messaging system during a news conference in San Francisco, California.
According to a report from Internet analytics company Experian Hitwise, Facebook accounted for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010. Google.com ranked second with 7.19 percent of visits, followed by Yahoo! Mail with 3.52 percent, Yahoo! with 3.30 percent and YouTube with 2.65 percent.
The Experian analysis found that the most frequently searched term this year was "facebook."
"Facebook" was the top-searched term overall for the second straight year, followed by "Facebook login" and "YouTube", says Experian.
Facebook, a site launched in 2004, has over 500 millon users and its rise marks a shift from search engines and Internet portals.
There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People who use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
Advertising contributes most of Facebook's revenue, one area it is yet to exceed compared with Google, which reported sales of about $24 billion in 2009. Facebook is reportedly expected to rake in about $2 billion in 2010, significantly up from $800 million in 2009.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who was chosen as Time’s Person of the Year for 2010, had early last year said the hugely popular social networking site is in no rush to go public. S&P Equity Research, in a company-specific predictions report for the Internet industry for 2011, said major social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are in no rush to become publicly traded entities despite the IPO market warming up somewhat in the second half of 2010.
"Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing," Business Week reported in 2010.
On exchanges for privately held companies, Facebook is worth more than $45 billion, about four times less than Google's.
Analyst Greg Sterling of SearchEngineLand.com says the Hitwise study does not track website visits via mobile devices and the number of searches on Google's Chrome browser was uncertain.
"This is right now more symbolic than anything" to see Facebook overtake Google in the United States, Sterling told AFP.
"Google is a very utilitarian site, where people go to make a decision, whereas Facebook is for entertainment," Sterling said. But if Facebook "were to concentrate on search, they could do something that stands to really hurt Google."
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