An Older, Wiser EBay, Growing Patiently

LAS VEGAS EBay's big buying binge was the talk of its fifth annual user convention here this week, which pulled 15,000 sellers from around the world eager to learn what the Internet auction giant plans to do next.







"We are going to test different approaches with Yahoo over the next several months,"
sayz eBay CEO Meg Whitman.





While eBay Inc. is showing signs of a middle-age crisis, with slowing growth and a sliding stock price, company executives seemed almost giddy as they outlined plans to use their recent acquisitions to move beyond auctions -- into communications, advertising and financial services.

Wall Street has remained skeptical that eBay can recoup the $2.6 billion it spent last fall to acquire Skype, a young company that provides Internet-based calling services but brings in relatively little revenue. It was eBay's second major purchase last year, following its $620 million acquisition of Shopping.com. But chief executive Meg Whitman told convention-goers that she believes Skype's calling service will boost trade on eBay much the same way PayPal's payment service did after eBay bought that company several years ago.

EBay executives spent a fair amount of time talking up Skype; PayPal; and Shopping.com, the comparison-shopping service that eBay bought to expand its online marketing and advertising repertoire. They also tried to reassure their key customers -- the more than 1 million people who earn part or all of their living selling on eBay -- that auctions remain their core focus.

What struck me most about eBay's convention this year is how smartly and intensely the company is trying to improve online shopping by integrating new forms of advertising, payments and communication. EBay may not be growing as fast as it was, but it is growing shrewdly -- and in ways that are likely to have a major impact on the future of e-commerce.

Jetliner pilot locked out of cockpit after toilet break...

The pilot of a Canadian airliner who went to the washroom during a flight found himself locked out of the cockpit, forcing the crew to remove the door from its hinges to let him back in!

The incident occurred aboard a flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg on Saturday. The regional jet, capable of carrying 50 people, was operated by Air Canada's Jazz subsidiary.

Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stewart said that with 30 minutes of the flight to go, the pilot went to the washroom, leaving the first officer in charge. But when he tried to get back into the cockpit, the door would not open.

"The door malfunctioned ... this is a very rare occurrence," Stewart said, adding that the crew's decision to remove the door had been in line with company policy.

A report in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper said that for about 10 minutes "passengers described seeing the pilot bang on the door and communicating with the cockpit through an internal telephone, but being unable to open the door."

Stewart said the paper's report was "a bit dramatic" and stressed that at no time had the plane or passengers been in danger. She did not say how many people had been on board.

Now imagine yourself in a situation like this as a passenger.... ;-)

Is RFID tracking you?

Most of the CS guys might know about this info...but this is meant for the ones who dont...


Radio frequency identification has been heralded as a breakthrough in tracking technology, and denounced as the next Big Brother surveillance tool.
RFID sounds futuristic: A transmitter smaller than a dime embedded in everything from a T-shirt to human skin, communicating data over a short distance to a reading device.



Before
The technology has been around for decades -- the British used it to identify aircraft as friend or foe during World War II, and factory warehouses have used it more recently to make shipping more efficient.

Today ...
Today, it can be used to identify missing pets, monitor vehicle traffic, track livestock to help prevent disease outbreaks, and follow pharmaceuticals to fight counterfeit drugs. Many of us start our cars using RFID chips embedded in the ignition key.

RFID chips, injected under the skin, can store a medical history or be used to control access to secure areas. The next generation of passports and credit cards are hotbeds for RFID. It could make bar codes obsolete.

However, hackers and analysts are exposing potentially serious problems. Hackers could disable a car's RFID anti-theft feature, swap a product's price for a lower one, or copy medical information from an RFID chip.

Can an identity be stolen?
Most RFID chips or tags are passive, meaning they contain no battery power and can transmit data only when zapped with a reader. Active tags, which are more expensive, can carry some battery power.

Prices for the chips can range from several cents to a couple of dollars apiece, depending on the application and whether they are ordered in bulk. The cost has limited RFID's appeal. To compete with barcodes, RFID chips need to be priced at under a penny each. The cost is gradually coming down, though.

The storage space is extremely small, typically about 2KB, and the data on the tags can be read by equipment from a few inches to several feet away -- and sometimes a bit farther.

A group of hackers at the 2005 DefCon technology convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, used an antenna attached to an RFID reader to scan the information on a tag nearly 70 feet away. RFID proponents downplayed the demonstration, saying the apparatus was impractical and wouldn't work if the information on the RFID tag were encrypted, which is more often the case.

RFID near you ...
Despite these concerns, others say there are huge benefits to using RFID.

"At least 30 million people carry an RFID tag on them every day in their car keys or in their access control card to get into their office building or to buy gas or to pay a toll," wrote RFID Journal's Roberti. "Everywhere RFID has been rolled out in the consumer environment, consumers have overwhelmingly embraced it."

One new consumer application is in credit cards. Consumers could simply wave a credit card containing a passive chip at an RFID reader to pay for their purchases.

The controversy and discussion about RFID technology will not end anytime soon. But both sides agree that a sizable dose of debate is needed to hammer out the kinks. Meanwhile, the technology is appearing in an increasing number of places -- though even if you look around, you still might miss it.

GM unveils new diesel

General Motors Corp. will introduce a new V-8 turbo-diesel for its light trucks such as pickups and SUVs after 2009.




The company has offered diesel engines on its larger heavy- and medium-duty pickups, as well as on its commercial vehicles, which have different emission rules than the better-selling light-duty trucks.

While higher gasoline prices have led to more than half the vehicles sold in Europe being powered by the more fuel-efficient diesel engines, Americans have been slow to embrace the technology. Less than 1 percent of the 17 million cars and light trucks sold in the United States use diesel.

DaimlerChrysler is the only other automaker to offer diesel engines in cars and light trucks for the U.S. market that will meet tighter environmental regulations taking effect here in 2007.

In June Daimler announced that a diesel 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee would be available early next year, and it had previously publicized diesel offerings for its luxury Mercedes brand. Ford Motor has limited its diesel offerings to its super-duty pickups to date.

Did he do it or Not? Is he Crazy or Not???

John Mark Karr believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey even though "he is not the killer," sayz Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy.

In California, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Cerena Wong sealed documents, including the arrest warrant, in the child pornography case. Wong acknowledged that Karr is "newsworthy" but said sealing the documents protects his right to a fair trial. The privacy rights of minors involved in the case also need to be protected, she said.

Shackled at the wrists and ankles, Karr appeared in a blue jail uniform with a white undershirt. He appeared calm during most of the hearing but grew agitated when prosecutors refused to return a photo to him -- a copy of the last known photograph of JonBenet Ramsey and her mother, Patsy.

"John Karr sincerely believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey, there's no question in his mind about that," Lacy said. She said Karr still believes, even now, that he killed the young girl even though evidence points to someone else.

"The way he told the story (of how JonBenet died), the DNA would have been his and it was not," Lacy said. "He is not the killer." However, she explained, experts in the case said that the sample found in the young girl's underwear was a mixed sample, as were the samples taken from Karr without his knowledge. The experts wanted a clean sample from Karr and didn't want to compare a mixed sample with a mixed sample, she told reporters in a news conference about the case.

To get such a sample, they would have needed Karr's permission, and they didn't want to tip him off that he was under investigation, she said. Lacy has been sharply criticized for detaining and arresting Karr. "The decisions were mine," Lacy said Tuesday. "The responsibility is mine and I should be held accountable for all decisions in this case."


What do u say guys??????????

Google boss joins Apple's leadership

Google boss Eric Schmidt has been appointed to the board of directors of Apple Computers in a move that points towards a possible alliance between the two IT giants!!!

Schmidt joined Google from Novell, where he was chairman and CEO. He was also formerly chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems and a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre.

Apple CEO Steve jobs said: "Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors."

Schmidt also sits on Google's board, as well as the Princeton University board of trustees.

Lets C what happens after the alliance.... :-)

Gas may be headed back near $2

Hmmm...sounds great isnt it???

Industry analysts see prices between $2 and $2.50 by Thanksgiving 2006!
The recent drop in prices at the pump could pick up steam, driving gasoline sharply lower in coming months.

So far the average cost of a gallon of gas peaked this year at $3.036 on Aug. 10 and has come down largely due to diminishing hurricane fears.

Rretail gasoline prices of around $2 a gallon by Thanksgiving were certainly possible, although not likely since crude prices would need to drop by about $20 a barrel to have that effect

The price of gasoline's main component, crude oil, has also been falling in recent days. Crude oil, accounting for about half the price of gasoline, closed below $70 a barrel Tuesday for the first time since June-20-2006

one-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina...

President Bush, marking the one-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, promised a "better and more effective response" in the event of another hurricane, saying the catastrophic storm exposed government failure at "all levels."

Speaking at the oldest public school in New Orleans, Bush also said he supports legislation that allows tax-preferred industrial zones to promote more investment and new laws that would enable Louisiana to collect more revenue from oil companies drilling offshore so the state could invest in wetland protection to safeguard New Orleans's levees.

In a theme he has returned to several times since the storm, Bush chronicled the severity of Katrina, the costliest disaster in American history. He said the hurricane caused "flooding on a biblical scale" and "perhaps the greatest dislocation of American citizens since the dust bowl of the 1930s." He said the debris from the storm was "more than any previous disaster."

Today, he repeated that he takes "full responsibility for the government's response" and that the government has looked at both what was right and what was wrong with its response.

The Moment...

At 9:38 a.m. Central Time, they knelt for a moment of silence to mark the first breaching of the New Orleans' levees, which were built to protect the city from precisely the kind of flooding it suffered.

Residents held public and private vigils throughout the city and the region to mark the anniversary, news agencies reported.

The president began the day by meeting with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in a neighborhood where the houses are still stained with high-water marks from the flooding. They had breakfast at Betsy's Pancake House.

U.S. waistlines continue to grow!!!

The gravy train -- make that the sausage, biscuits and gravy train -- just kept on rolling in most of America last year, with 31 states showing an increase in obesity.

Mississippi continued to lead the way. An estimated 29.5 percent of adults there are considered obese. That is an increase of 1.1 percentage points when compared with last year's report, which is compiled by Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group that promotes increased funding for public health programs.

"Populations are not equal in terms of experiencing these health problems," saya a doctor... "Low-income populations tend to experience all the health problems we worry about at greater rates."

Indeed, the five states with the highest obesity rates -- Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky -- exhibit much higher rates of poverty than the national norm.

The five states with the lowest obesity have less poverty. They are Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Note:
The government equates obesity with a body mass index, or BMI, of at least 30. Someone who is 5 feet 4 would have to weigh 175 pounds to reach that threshold.

The report says those health costs are in the billions of dollars annually. Citing a 2004 report, the advocacy group said $5.6 billion could be saved when it comes to treating heart disease if just one-tenth of Americans began a regular walking program.

So guys & gals...be cautious when it comes to fast food!!!

Gas Prices Record Steepest Decline

The declining prices of crude oil and ethanol combined with rising gasoline supplies have brought a bit of welcome relief at the pump as the summer driving season draws to a close.

Average gas prices have dropped about 15 cents in the past two weeks, to $2.87 per gallon nationwide and $2.99 in the Washington metropolitan region. The gasoline monitor surveys more than 6,000 stations nationwide every two weeks.

The decline, based on a survey , is the largest drop since November, when prices fell 18 cents after the price increases that followed hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In recent weeks, ethanol prices have dropped to about $2.30 a gallon. Worries over supply have largely subsided as oil companies have made the transition.

World's oldest person dies!

Maria Esther de Capovilla, believed to be the world's oldest person, died at the age of 116!!!

Three of Capovilla's five children -- Irma, Hilda, and son Anibal -- are still alive, along with 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren

Born on September 14, 1889 -- the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler -- Capovilla was married in 1917 and widowed in 1949.

Robert Young, senior consultant for Gerontology for Guinness World Records, said Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee, now appears to be the oldest person alive.

"Guinness World Records will have to make an official announcement from London," he said. "For all practical purposes, the next oldest person is going to be presumed to be Elizabeth Bolden. She is 116, but she was born 11 months after Capovilla."

Capovilla was confirmed as the oldest living person on December 9, 2005, after her family sent details of her birth and marriage certificates to the British-based publisher. Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, retains the title as oldest man at 114.

She always ate three meals a day and never smoked or drank hard liquor. "Only a small cup of wine with lunch and nothing more," tells her daughter Irma .

Do u really waannaa live that long????????

Apple initiated "silent" recall of batteries

Apple Computer Inc. recalled 1.8 million of its laptop batteries because they pose a fire hazard, a move that follows a similar recall last week by Dell Inc. of 4.1 million batteries, some of which ignited while in use.

On the flip side of the coin, Dell Inc.'s recall of 4.1 million notebook computer batteries could cost Sony Corp. anywhere from ¥10 billion to ¥ 50 billion ($85 million-$430 million), hurting the Japanese electronics maker's short-term earnings and its brand image.

Dell (Charts), the world's largest personal computer manufacturer, announced Tuesday the biggest recall in its 22-year history, saying the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony could smoke and catch fire.

Sony is screwed
Sony estimated costs related to the Apple and Dell recalls will total between $172 million and $258 million.

...So guys if u have a 12-inch iBook G4/ 12-inch PowerBook G4/15-inch PowerBook G4 with corresponding Battery model numbers:A1061/A1079/(A1078 and A1148) & bought it October 2003 through August 2006...better get a replacement from "apple" @ https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/

Pluto no longer a planet!

Kids...get ready to update yourself...for what we learned in our third grade...that there are 9 planets in the solar system ...
Leading astronomers declared on AUG-24-2006 that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight!

Members of the 6th General Assembly of International Astronomic Union vote on a resolution for planet definition in Prague.

Now there is a 12-planet solar system with eight classical planets and three bodies including Pluto in a new and growing category called "plutons" - Pluto-like objects - plus a former asteroid, Ceres collectively called "Dwarf Planets"

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured Pluto and its moon Charon in this image.
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

Textbooks and classroom materials will now have to be reworked, even as some aspects of the new decision are still being worked through.

Pluto has been demoted to a class of objects that has not yet been named. They would include celestial bodies orbiting a star that are large enough to pull themselves into a round shape but not large enough to clear their orbital paths of other objects. Pluto's orbit is largely decided by the much larger Neptune, which is what disqualifies it from being a planet.

Somewhat confusingly, both Pluto and 2003 UB313 will also be part of a larger group of objects known as dwarf planets. Dozens of objects will be part of this new group, which will be distinguished from the new, unnamed category of objects because dwarf planets are scattered more widely around the solar system. Ceres, for instance, which is between Mars and Jupiter and has long been thought to be an asteroid, will be considered a dwarf planet.

Now UB313 is the largest dwarf planet...doesnt it sound cool ;-)

Hybrid vehicles make economic sense

Some hybrid cars will make up for their premium cost because of higher gas prices and tax credits from the U.S. government on the more fuel efficient vehicles according to a study.

Hybrid cars and trucks, which get improved mileage in city driving by running on a combination of gas and electric power, cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than traditional versions of the same vehicles.

In another study , auto industry tracking firm CSM Worldwide cited higher gas prices as one factor driving a shift toward more efficient six-speed transmissions.


Current Scenario
Assuming vehicles were driven 15,000 miles per year and gas was priced at $3 per gallon, owners of the Toyota Prius and Ford Motor Co.'s Escape Hybrid would break even within three years. Buyers of the Saturn Vue Green Line from General Motors Corp., the Toyota Camry and the Civic Hybrid from Honda Motor Co. would break-even within six years!

Study forecast that automatic six-speed transmissions would account for 60 percent of the U.S. car and truck market by 2012, up from less than 5 percent today.

Future ...
GM has already announced plans to shift to a new family of six-speed transmissions for upcoming models. Three-quarters of the new cars from GM, the world's No. 1 automaker, would feature the six-speed transmission by 2012.

Hybrids currently account for 1 percent of new car sales in the United States. But Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., the hybrid market leader, sees its annual hybrid sales topping 1 million units soon after 2010!!!


Source: Edmunds.com

Scientists Offer Proof of 'Dark Matter'

This composite image depicts the "bullet cluster" formed by galactic collision, with hot gas in a bullet shape shown in red and areas of dense matter in blue. Most of the matter in blue area is "dark," according to the astronomers' analysis

For decades, many scientists have theorized that the universe is made up of nearly undetectable mysterious substances called dark matter and dark energy. But until yesterday (22-aug-2006) there was no proof that the subatomic matter actually exists.

After studying data from a long-ago collision of two giant clusters of galaxies, researchers now say they are certain dark matter does exist and plays a central role in creating and defining gravity throughout the universe.

While the scientists are still not sure exactly what dark matter is, since they have yet to identify it in a laboratory, they said that the workings of the universe cannot be explained without it.

The breakthrough came using data from NASA's orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory and involved information from what researchers called the most massive release of detected energy in the universe since the big bang.

Scientists said that the "bullet cluster," formed by a collision between an enormous cluster of galaxies more than 3 billion light-years away and a smaller galaxy cluster, demonstrated the existence of dark matter. In effect, the collision stripped the dark matter away from visible matter. Once stripped, dark matter was clearly identified by the strong gravitational pull that it exerted.

The super-hot gases have qualities that typically would have become the seat of any new gravitational fields, cosmologists say, but instead they went with the stars. That could happen, Maxim Markevitch (Team member, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., ) said, only if dark matter separated from the gases and collected with the stars.

Wireless robots may float above the Earth!

Former NASA manager Bob Jones has a lofty idea for improving communications around the world: Strategically float robotic airships above the Earth as an alternative to unsightly telecom towers on the ground and expensive satellites in space.

He envisions a fleet of unmanned "Stratellites" hovering in the atmosphere and blanketing large swaths of territory with wireless access for high-speed data and voice communications.

Tethered flights of a prototype -- which cost about $3 million to build and is about one-fifth scale model of the planned commercial airships -- are scheduled later this month in this Mojave Desert city, about an hour's drive north of Los Angeles.

Unlike the cylindrical shape of a traditional blimp, a Stratellite has a broad, tapered nose like a shark. The solar-powered dirigible will carry a payload of radio and digital devices.

Cell towers are hampered by line-of-sight limitations and limited range. Geostationary satellites suffer from the quarter-second it takes a signal to travel out 22,300 miles and back -- insignificant in one-way TV transmissions, but terrible for two-way Internet computer communications.

Jones believes his solar-powered, helium-filled Stratellites _ so named because they would hang in the stratosphere -- could replace unsightly cell towers and cost less than satellites. Because of the airship's altitude according to Jones, its radio equipment can cover an area the size of Texas!!!

Russian solves historic math problem, shuns prize

A reclusive Russian won an academic prize recently for work toward solving one of history's toughest math problems, but he refused to accept the award -- a stunning renunciation of accolades from his field's top minds.



Grigory Perelman, a 40-year-old native of St. Petersburg, was praised for work in the field known as topology, which studies shapes, and for a breakthrough that might help scientists figure out nothing less than the shape of the universe.

But besides shunning the medal, academic colleagues say he also seems uninterested in a separate, $1 million prize he might be awarded for his feat. It had proved a theorem about the nature of multidimensional space that has stumped people for 100 years.

Three other mathematicians -- another Russian, a Frenchman and an Australian -- also won Fields honors this year. They received their awards from King Juan Carlos to loud applause from delegates to the conference. But Perelman was not present.

If his proof stands the test of time, Perelman will win all or part of the $1 million prize money. In 2000, the institute announced bounties for seven unresolved, historic math problems, including the one Perelman tackled.

Two weeks ago, academics began analyzing Perelman's work, which draws heavily from a technique developed by another mathematician, Richard Hamilton of Columbia University. The institute says it could conceivably share the money.

Dudeeeeeeeeeeeeeee u must be kidding!!!

Oldest living former U.S. president receives heart pacemaker

Gerald Ford, the oldest "living" former U.S. president, is 93 years old!!!


Former President Gerald Ford has received a cardiac pacemaker and is in stable condition at the Mayo Clinic, where the procedure was done.



Over the past few days, Ford, 93, has been evaluated and undergone a series of tests at the clinic that resulted in the implantation of the device, which is intended "to enhance his heart's performance".

The nation's 38th president was admitted to the clinic last Tuesday for testing and evaluation. Ford was hospitalized in 2003 after suffering a dizzy spell while playing golf in 96-degree heat.

Ford is the only president to have held office without being elected by the voters to the presidency or vice presidency.

He became then-President Richard Nixon's vice president in October 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned and pleaded no contest to bribery, conspiracy and extortion.

Ford assumed the presidency in August 1974, after the Watergate scandal forced then-President Richard Nixon from office. He then pardoned Nixon. Ford narrowly lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter.

How about that?

Tiger Woods is unstoppable right now!!!

Tiger Woods convincingly won his 12th major on Sunday by dominating the field in the PGA Championship. The only thing that threw Tiger off his game was when that old guy from the PriceWaterhouseCoopers commercial chided him for his propensity to curse on the course.

Above ----> Tiger Woods, shown here with wife Elin Nordegren

Really, what was the story with the old guy in those omnipresent PWC ads? For those who didn't watch the broadcast, there were a series of commercials in which an old man in a white hat and gray cardigan counseled a multiethnic stream of young golfers who found themselves in the woods. The old-timer was prone to Yoda-esque bits of wisdom such as, "Thinking -- always a good idea, my young friend," and "One of the things that golf teaches you, my young friend, is that hate doesn't work." The commercials' central conceit is that "the lessons of golf are the lessons of life." Perhaps.

Still, I was mostly left wondering where the old guy kept materializing from. Does he only play with young kids? Or is he a caddie-ghost that simply appears in the woods, a kind of Bags-Under-the-Eyes Vance? Very strange.

Evolution of Desktop Computers...

Got this one from a friend(Nirmal) ...Interesting :-)

1984 - 1986

January 1984: Macintosh System 1

April 1985: Macintosh System 2

November 1985: Microsoft Windows 1.0

November 1985: Microsoft Windows 1.0

January 1986: Macintosh System 3

1987 - 1989

March 1987: Macintosh System 4

1987: Macintosh System 5

December 1987: Microsoft Windows 2.0

December 1987: Microsoft Windows 2.0

April 1988: Macintosh System 6

1990 - 1994

May 1990: Microsoft Windows 3.0

May 1991: Macintosh System 7

August 1992: Microsoft Windows 3.1

August 1992: Macintosh System 7.1

1995 - 1997

March 1995: Macintosh System 7.5

August 1995: Microsoft Windows 95

July 1997: Mac OS 8

1998 - 1999

June 1998: Microsoft Windows 98

July 1998: KDE 1.0

October 1999: Macintosh System 9

2000 - 2001

October 2000: KDE 2.0

September 2001: Mac OS X 10.1

October 2001: Microsoft Windows XP

2002 - 2006/7

November 2005: KDE 3.5

Mac OS X 10.5

Microsoft Windows Vista

Rocket - fuelled by coke + mentos !!!

Found this one while I was researching for rockets!
GUd one!

Australia collided together

The island continent of Australia was once three continents which collided 1.64 billion years ago, a new study has found, prompting speculation of new mineral deposits in the outback. According to a study ... Northern, western and central Australia all belonged to different continents.



The huge forces involved in this collision produced volcanoes which actually helped create the crust of central Australia. Using a geophysical technique called "magnetotellurics" allowed the explorers to penetrate sediment along the border of the three previous continents and measure the electrical conductivity of the Earth up to hundreds of kilometers below the surface.

The study found northern Australia was more conductive than central Australia and that the boundary between the two areas extended to at least 150 kilometers (93 miles) in depth.

The findings mean there could be new mineral deposits where the former separate continents joined to form Australia. Central Australia's main minerals include copper, uranium (Olympic dam) and opals.

"Such structures play an important role in determining how fluids move under the surface and it is these fluids which often carry the metals that can concentrate into valuable mineral deposits."

100$ Laptop - How about that!

The "one-hundred dollar laptop" is
designed for use by schoolchildren
in developing countries.









The ambitious project to provide low-cost laptop computers to poor children around the world is about to take a small step forward. More than 500 children in Thailand are expected to receive the machines in October and November for quality testing and debugging.

The One Laptop Per Child program, which began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab and now is a separate nonprofit organization, hopes to deploy 5 million to 7 million machines in Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina in 2007.

Thailand's government is expected to buy 1 million in the first year.

Walter Bender, a Media Lab founder who serves as One Laptop Per Child's president of software and content, said the organization still is talking with Indian officials and non-governmental agencies.

"While 'India' will not be part of the year-one launch, with 25 percent of the world's children, it is within our mission to work with India down the road," Bender said in an e-mail this week.

How about increasing from 9 to 24 planets !!!

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is debating a plan to establish that our solar system has 12 planets.



Our solar system would have 12 planets instead of nine under a proposed "Big Bang" expansion by leading astronomers, changing what billions of schoolchildren are taught about their corner of the cosmos.

Much-maligned Pluto would remain a planet -- and its largest moon plus two other heavenly bodies would join Earth's neighborhood -- under a draft resolution to be formally presented to the International Astronomical Union, the arbiter of what is and is not a planet.

"Yes, Virginia, Pluto is a planet!!!," quipped Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The proposal could change, however: Binzel and the other nearly 2,500 astronomers from 75 nations meeting in Prague to hammer out a universal definition of a planet will hold two brainstorming sessions before they vote on the resolution next week. But the draft comes from the IAU's executive committee, which only submits recommendations likely to get two-thirds approval from the group.

NEW LINE UP ...
- the new lineup would include 2003 UB313, the farthest-known object in the solar system and nicknamed Xena; Pluto's largest moon, Charon; and the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it was demoted. The panel also proposed a new category of planets called "plutons," referring to Pluto-like objects that reside in the Kuiper Belt, a mysterious, disc-shaped zone beyond Neptune containing thousands of comets and planetary objects. Pluto itself and two of the potential newcomers -- Charon and 2003 UB313 -- would be plutons.



The asteroid Ceres, about 930 kilometers (580 miles) across, was the first asteroid ever detected.





If the resolution is approved, the 12 planets in our solar system listed in order of their proximity to the sun would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and the provisionally named 2003 UB313. Its discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, nicknamed it Xena after the warrior princess of TV fame, but it likely would be rechristened something else !!!

IMPACT IN GEOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS :(
The galactic shift would force publishers to update encyclopedias and school textbooks, and elementary school teachers to rejigger the planet mobiles hanging from classroom ceilings. Far outside the realm of science, astrologers accustomed to making predictions based on the classic nine might have to tweak their formulas.

Even if the list of planets is officially lengthened when astronomers vote on Aug-24-2006, it is not likely to stay that way for long: The IAU has a "watchlist" of at least a dozen other potential candidates that could become planets once more is known about their sizes and orbits.

Definition of a Planet
Opponents of Pluto, which was named a planet in 1930, still might spoil for a fight. Earth's moon is larger; so is 2003 UB313 (Xena), about 70 miles (113 kilometers) wider. But the IAU said Pluto meets its proposed new "definition" of a planet: any round object larger than 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles) in diameter that orbits the sun and has a mass roughly one-12,000th that of Earth. Moons and asteroids will make the grade if they meet those basic tests. Roundness is key because it indicates an object has enough self-gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape. Yet Earth's moon would not qualify because the two bodies' common center of gravity lies below the surface of the Earth.

Remarks
For the first time since ancient Greece, we have an unambiguous definition. Now, when an object is debated as a possible planet, the answer can be swift and clear.

Many people say the sentence (called a mnemonic) "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets" as a way to remember the order of the planets. If 2003 UB313, Ceres and Charon are dubbed planets, what new sentence will we use to remember them?

more...

Imagine IAU's idea of adding 12 more...that would result in 24 "planets"...Thank GOD I finished my school earlier else I would have been forced to learn the structures of "twenty-four" planets and their names!!!

Comedian Steven Colbert roasts president Bush!

What "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart is to evening news, "The Colbert Report" is to personality-driven pundit shows. Stephen Colbert, who plays a phony correspondent on the fake-news program "The Daily Show," is getting his own show on Comedy Central.
Comedy Central in 2005 announced The Colbert Report as part of a lineup where they hope to "Keep the viewers attracted by The Daily Show to keep watching late into the night".



Coming to the point...during the annual White House Correspondents Associated dinner Colbert made hilarious comments about current affairs and the relationship between the press and the White House.

If above player doesnt work ...Watch this funny ---> "live" video...

Bush's impersonator !!!

An excerpt from the annual White House Correspondents Associatino dinner. President Bush's presentation included an impersonator, Steve Bridges, who "interpreted" the president's remarks for laymen!!!



If you cannot view in the player try here...
watch this awesome video ---> here...

Google -------> What NEXT ???

Earth


Moon...


Mars......


Ahem...Whats Next? Read here for more planet info...

AOL digs for gold to pay for spam

AOL is digging for gold in an effort to recover millions owed by a man it sued for sending out spam, searching for gold and platinum bars he is believed to have buried.

AOL won a $12.8 million judgment last year in U.S. District Court in Virginia against Davis Wolfgang Hawke after suing him for sending millions of unsolicited e-mails to its customers.



AOL plans to dig on his Medfield, Mass., property for the bars, since it has been unable to contact Hawke to recover any of the money,. The search has been permitted by the court. Court documents list Hawke's last known residence as being in Medfield.

"This is not new," AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. "We've seized cars before, cash, gold coins and other assets including a boat, and even worked with the Virginia attorney general to put a lien on several houses."

Any money recovered would be used in AOL's spyware and spam protection programs.

Note: AOL is owned by Time Warner, which is also the parent company of CNNMoney.com.

'Ricky Bobby' Continues to Step Up

Sony Pictures' "Talladega Nights," the NASCAR parody starring Will Ferrell, drummed up $23 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, a 51 percent slide in its second weekend, according to studio estimates.

Movie Wknd Gross --->

1. Talladega Nights* $23m
2. Step Up* $21m
3. World Trade Center* $19m
4. Barnyard* $10m
5. Pulse* $8.4m
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest* $7.2m
7. Zoom* $4.6m
8. The Descent* $4.6m
9. Miami Vice* $4.5m
10. Monster House* $3.3m

sooooooooooo cute!!!

A lovely "comic" music video ----> click here

Should Pluto be considered a planet???

Nearly 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries gathered in Prague to come up with a universal definition of what qualifies as a planet and possibly decide whether Pluto should keep its planet status.

For decades, the solar system has consisted of nine planets, even as scientists debated whether Pluto really belonged. Then the recent discovery of an object larger and farther away than Pluto threatened to throw this slice of the cosmos into chaos.


An illustration of
Pluto, foreground,
and its satellite
Charon. Two tiny new
moons were discovered
in October 2005.



Participants hope to set scientific criteria for what qualifies as a planet. Should planets be grouped by location, size or another marker? If planets are defined by their size, should they be bigger than Pluto or another arbitrary size? The latter could expand the solar system to 23, 39 or even 53 planets.

The debate intensified last summer when astronomer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology announced the discovery of a celestial object larger than Pluto. Like Pluto, it is a member of the Kuiper Belt, a mysterious disc-shaped zone beyond Neptune containing thousands of comets and planetary objects. Brown nicknamed his find "Xena."



An artist's concept of
2003 UB313, an icy body
that lies beyond Neptune
and is bigger than Pluto.






The Hubble Space Telescope measured the bright, rocky object officially known as 2003 UB313, at about 1,490 miles (2,300 kilometers) in diameter, roughly 70 miles (112 kilometers) longer than Pluto. At 9 billion miles (15 kilometers) from the sun, it is the farthest known object in the solar system.

Some argue that if Pluto kept its crown, Xena should be the 10th planet by default -- it is, after all, bigger. Purists maintain that there are only eight traditional planets, and insist Pluto and Xena are poseurs. Jupiter could be labeled a "gas giant planet," while Pluto and Xena could be "ice dwarf planets."

We of course need the "definition" of a planet first !!!

Meteor shower reaches its brightest tonight ...AUG_12_2006

The year's biggest display of meteors peaks tonight when the Earth sweeps through the dust trail left by the Swift-Tuttle comet in 1992. Up to 120 flashes an hour can be expected after sunset, barring clouds, with the north-east the best place to look because the sky will be darkest.

The display should be best between 1am and 4am - although the bright and almost full moon will outshine some falling stars - and around 10 o'clock tonight while the moon is low. Yorkshire astronomers have been watching from Topham's Column, at Wold Newton, where a meteorite landed in 1795.

ah...well...this is what I read from a f*** website which made me stare @ the sky the whole night...landed up watching stars...moon...a bunch of planes which I misinterpreted as meteors.......oh mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!

Peace Finally...

Lebanon accepts cease-fire & Hezbollah says it will. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said saturday (AUG-12-2006) that his militia will agree to a U.N. call for a cease-fire with Israel once a deal on timing is reached.



Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah appears Saturday in a televised address.

Since the war began, 880 Lebanese have been killed, most of them civilians, and 3,529 wounded. Israel said 92 military personnel and 40 civilians had been killed and about 1,000 wounded.

Our Old Dude is back...!!!

Fidel Castro is sitting up, walking, talking and even working some during his recovery from intestinal surgery that forced him to step aside temporarily as president, the Communist Party newspaper said Saturday on the eve of the leader's 80th birthday.

Castro's 80th birthday on Sunday had been expected to trigger days of parties, concerts and conferences on his legacy. Instead, the communist leader will likely spend the day in bed, recovering from surgery for intestinal bleeding.

An announcement five days later shocked Cubans: On July 31, Castro's secretary went on state television to say the leader underwent surgery and was temporarily passing the torch to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro.

Details on Fidel Castro's whereabouts and medical condition are a mystery.

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon told that Castro appears to be confronting "serious" health problems and his attempt to turn over power to his brother is doomed.

"The transfer won't work," Shannon said. "Ultimately, there is no political figure inside of Cuba who matches Fidel Castro."

Cool aint it??????

Woman finds 'God's water' gurgling from tree

Is it an artesian spring, a broken water pipe or an abandoned well?
Lucille Pope's red oak tree has gurgled water for about three months, and experts can't seem to get to the root of the problem.
"What kind of mystery do I have where water comes out of a tree?"

Her son, Lloyd, 47, discovered water leaking from the tree in April. He said it was cool, like it came from the tap.



Lucille Pope above tests the water flowing from a tree in her backyard.


Lucille Pope has started to wonder if the water has special properties.

Her insurance agent dabbed drops of the water on a spider bite and the welt went away, she said.

"I just want to know if it is a healing tree or blessed water," she said. "That's God's water. Nobody knows but God."

I am a true believer of GOD... but water from tree...too much!!!