Deep Underground Nuclear Research Facility,Artemovsk:This 'underground lair' is maintained by the Russian Institute for Nuclear Research (RAS), and it's located in an old salt mine at depths of around 600 meters. The most bizarre aspect of this secret place is the entrance to the facility which looks like a typical Ukrainian Cottage from the outside: you would never guess that it's the entrance to a deep underground research facility equipped with a 100 ton neutrino particle detector. This place even has an underground Orthodox Church carved into a damp and chilly cave, and a slew of cave-carved statues.




Baksan Neutrino Observatory,Caucacus Mountains: Located deep within the Caucasus Mountains, the Baksan Neutrino Observatory (BNO) is maintained by the RAS and houses the Baksan Underground Scintillation Telescope (BUST). This huge nuclear-detecting telescope is located about 300 meters below the surface of the earth.

This Russian research facility is located literally inside a mountain with a complex network of tunnels that lead to the telescope. This place is definitely not for the claustrophobic! The only way to gain access to BNO is to cross an old, rickety bridge that leads to the main entrance.



The United States Bullion Depository,Fort Knox: Simply known as Fort Knox to most people, the United States Bullion Depository in Kentucky is home to over 5,000 tons of gold bullion. Fort Knox is one of the most secretive and secure places on the planet, and there have only been a select number of people to ever grace the inside of this top secret fortress: most presidents haven't even seen the inside of this place.

Because of the highly secretive nature of Fort Knox, there have been countless conspiracy theories linked to Fort Knox and many of which claimed that there was no gold stored here, and it was a complete hoax. Those rumours were quieted after a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the facility was given to a very few select people in 1974. The only known video of the inside of the depository shows that there is gold here, and lots of it!

Fort Knox holds about 1/8th of the world's total gold reserves, which equates to well-over $100 billion at today's rates. Each gold bar weighs 40 lbs a piece and is worth about $200,000. The gold is stored in a total of 28 vaults that are protected by 21" thick steel doors that weigh 20 tons each, and the entire facility is guarded by armed military police.



Guardian Underground Telephone Exchange & Deep Level Tunnel System,Manchester: Built in 1954, this mass system of tunnels consisted of a main tunnel that was 1,000 feet long and 25 feet wide. This complex safe-haven was built in case of a nuclear attack, which was a very serious threat at the time. The extensive tunnel system was designed to be able to resist a Hiroshima-sized atom bomb. In the event of an attack, the main tunnel was sealed by a huge 35 ton concrete slab. The main tunnel was located beneath buildings in Back George Street, and there were other longer tunnels constructed that connected with Salford, Guardian and Ardwick near the University of Manchester.

There is some evidence that these tunnels are still used today or at least kept in working order, although not to the extent that they were back in the days of the Cold War.



Underwater Telescope,Lake Baikal: The RAS has situated a huge telescope at a depth of about 1200 meters inside of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. The intended purpose of the telescope is to measure neutrino activity, and it can cover an area of over 1,000 square meters.



Site R @ Raven Rock,Pennsylvania: This underground facility was one of the first of its kind in America, and it was initially completed in 1953 and added onto in 1963. The secret complex lies 650 feet below the summit of Raven Rock which stands 1,529 feet tall. This mountainous military facility has just about everything that you would ever need to survive here including a restaurant, fitness center, barbershop, legal services, chapel, 6 1,000 kilowatt generators and much more.

The 6 storey high underground facility was visited by 5 helicopters and a convoy of SUVs within hours of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon according to people who live nearby the facility: was it the President or Vice President taking cover in the granite fortress at Raven Rock? Nobody knows for sure.


Congressional Bunker @ the Greenbrier Hotel,West Virginia: Sometime around 1960, a large underground bunker was constructed at the luxurious Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia as a place for members of Congress to hideout in the event of a nuclear war. The huge bunker could accommodate up to 800 people and was accessible from inside the hotel or an outside entrance. In all, about 50,000 tons of concrete laced with steel reinforcements was used to construct the bunker which was covered with about 20 feet of dirt upon completion.

Today there isn't as much threat of a nuclear war as there was 50 years ago, but the bunker still remains today hidden beneath the West Virginia Wing of the historical Greenbrier Hotel. Hotel guests now have the opportunity of taking a tour of the historical hideaway.


Menwith Hill,North Yorkshire: The world's largest spy base, and most secretive in Britain, is the Menwith Hill base which is run by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. Little is known of the intelligence that flows through this little-known spy base and as a matter of fact, hardly anyone even knew this base existed until a few years ago. The top secret base works on a 'ask no questions, get no answers' way of thinking when it comes to the the base's missions and intelligence.

Menwith Hill is guarded by an 8 foot high security fence, barbed wire, infrared cameras, and security guards. The number of radomes (the giant golf ball covers over the satellites) have steadily grown in numbers of the years, which leads some people to believe that this spy station is growing in both size and the amount of intelligence that flows through the facility.


Fuhrerbunker,Berlin: This bunker was located over 8 meters below the ground, and became famous for being the location that Adolph Hitler and his wife committed suicide during World War II. Fuhrerbunker was actually two bunkers in one, and there was four meters of concrete separating the two. There was a total of 30 small rooms in the two levels of the bunkers.

The Fuhrerbunker was actually located just beneath the garden of the old Reich Chancellery building, and when Hitler took cover at Fuhrerbunker back in 1945, rumour has it that he used to walk his dog Blondi through the garden until that area started to sustain heavy fire from the Red Army. Hitler killed himself below this same garden on April 30, 1945. Today, the Fuhrerbunker is not in use and is surrounded by apartment buildings, but there's a plaque at the location of the bunker to inform people of its historical significance.


Guantanamo Bay,Cuba: This detainment center in Cuba is exclusively for prisoners that have been classified by the U.S. as 'enemy combatants'. The list of detainees at Guantanamo Bay have included 775 prisoners since the start of the war in Afghanistan (420 have been released), and 6 prisoners who are waiting to be prosecuted for conspiracy in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

There are many secrets surrounding the treatment of inmates at Guantanamo Bay. Many inmates have alleged acts of torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging and religious persecution among other complaints. Many of these allegations haven't been proven to be true, but the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp still has an aura of secrecy behind its closed doors that could just very well be hiding the truth.



RAF Flyingdales,North York Moors: This radar base on Snot Hill is part of the US Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) and is just one of a series of these secret facilities around the world that the US and the UK use to share intelligence of any type of missile attack or orbiting object. This facility is maintained by the Royal Air Force who monitor the 360 degree radars here, which are capable of tracking objects up to 3,000 miles away. There were 3 'golf ball-like' radomes that were each 40 meters in diameter at this location, but they were later replaced by the 120 foot tall 'pyramid' radar system that had a wider range.

Flyingdales is located relatively close to Menwith Hill, and the two bases have similar functions. They are both the subject of many protests by people who believe that the bases are somehow associated with nuclear warfare. Whether they are or not may never truly be known, because not much information leaves these intelligence facilities.



Syrian Nuclear Reactor Facility,Al Kibar: Recent images were released by a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mission that shows what seems to be a nuclear reactor plant in the eastern desert near Al Kibar, Syria. The structure strongly resembles nuclear reactor facilities located in North Korea. The nuclear reactor facility here was recently destroyed by bomb, although there are other similar-looking plants nearby that are still being investigated to this day.



Hack Green Nuclear Bunker,UK: In 1941 Hack Green became the site that was designated to protect land between Birmingham and Liverpool from any kind of hostile attack against the UK. At that time, this facility was used exclusively as a bomb decoy site. Hack Green was fully-equipped with radar, searchlights and fighter plane control and played an intricate defense role during World War II. A top secret defense weapon, called the WE I 77, was used to detect a missile attack against the UK, and automatically fire a retaliation missile defense against the attack. You can now take a tour of this once top secret nuclear defense base.


Iron Mountain,Pennsylvania: Deep within Iron Mountain near Pittsburgh, lies a secret hideaway that sits over 200 feet beneath the surface of the earth. This place stores some of the most priceless photographs, master record recordings, secret government documents and much more: the priceless value of the documents and artifacts stored here are worth more than any other place like it on the planet, including places like Fort Knox. Some examples of the items being stored here include priceless photos of Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, a rare photo of Adolph Hitler as a baby and important moments in world history. Iron Mountain is also the storage facility for thousands of master record recordings from artists like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Frank Sinatra.

This huge underground cavern also is the home to some of the most important, and classified, government documents on the face of the earth, including secret documents about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Iron Mountain is essentially an underground city, and its security is so tight that there has never been a security breach of any kind at the facility.



Mt. Weather,Virginia: Mt. Weather is a 100+ year old government official 'safe zone' located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bluemont, Virginia just a short drive from the White House in Washington DC. The entire complex is set on a 434 acre site, and the complex itself is about 600,000 square feet in size.

The underground bunker at Mt. Weather is more like a city than a bunker: facilities here include a hospital, crematorium, dining areas, recreation areas, power plant, radio/television studios, plenty of drinking water and much more. During the 9/11 attacks, this was the location that many of the high-level government officials were relocated to. Until somewhat recently, this government facility was kept totally secret from the public.


Source

Rajasthan Royals' Shane Watson raises his bat after his fifty against Delhi Daredevils during the IPL T20 match at the Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai

Rajasthan Royals' players celebrate the dismissal of Delhi Daredevils' captain Virender Sehwag on Friday.

Rajasthan Royals celebrating Gautam Gambhir’s wicket during IPL T20 first semi final match at Wankhade stadium

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne greets Shane Watson on dismissal of Maharoof during first IPL T-20 semi final against Delhi Daredevils at the Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai on May 30, 2008

Rajasthan Royals' Shane Watson receives the Man of the Match award from Sharad Pawar after his team won the first IPL T-20 semi final against Delhi Daredevils at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Rajasthan Royals' Yusuf Pathan receives the highest sixes award after his team won the first IPL T-20 semi final against Delhi Daredevils at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 30, 2008.

A construction crane toppled onto a New York City street this morning, killing at least one person after ripping open the side of a 23-story apartment building.

At least 100 firefighters and rescue personnel were sifting through the debris for possible victims. Another person was seen being carried from the site alive.

"It was like a big crash coming down. A big noise. A lot of debris crashing hitting, coming down," construction worker Vincent Rosado told WABC-TV in New York.

he crane collapsed around 8 a.m. at East 91st Street and First Avenue, crashing more than a dozen stories to the ground, swiping a high-rise apartment and leaving a twisted pile of crane and apartment wreckage.

A second construction worker was reportedly injured in the collapse. The person's condition is unclear.

Operator : "Thank you for calling Pizza Galaxy Kholi . May I have your..."

Customer: "Hello, can I order.."

Operator : "Can I have your multi purpose card number first, Sir?"

Customer: "It's eh..., hold........ ..on..... .889861356102049 998-45-54610"

Operator : "OK... you're... Mr Singh and you're calling from 43rd Floor, Akask View Apt, Cantt Road, ........
Your home number is 4094! 2366, your office 76452302 and your mobile is 0142662566.

Which number are you calling from now Sir?"

Customer: "Home! How did you get all my phone numbers?

Operator : "We are connected to the system Sir"

Customer: "May I order your Seafood Pizza..."

Operator : "That's not a good idea Sir"

Customer: "How come?"

Operator : "According to your medical records, you have high blood pressure and even higher cholesterol level Sir"

Customer: "What?... What do you recommend then?"

Operator : "Try our Low Fat Hokkien Mee Pizza. You'll like it"

Customer: "How do you know for sure?"


Operator : "You borrowed a book entitled "Popular Hokkien Dishes" from the National Library last week Sir"

Customer: "OK I give up... Give me three family size ones then, how much will that cost?"

Operator : "That should be enough for your family of 10, Sir. The total is Rs 2249.99"

Customer: "Can I pay by! credit card?"

Operator : "I'm afraid you have to pay us cash, Sir. Your credit card is over the limit and you owe your bank Rs10,720.55 since October last year.

That's not including the late payment charges on your housing loan, Sir."

Customer: "I guess I have to run to the neighbourhood ATM and withdraw some cash before your guy arrives"

Operator : "You can't Sir. Based on the records, you've reached your daily limit on machine withdrawal today"

Customer: "Never mind just send the pizzas, I'll have the cash ready. How long is it gonna take anyway?"

Operator : "About 45 minutes Sir, but if you can't wait you can always come and collect it on your scooter.. ."

Customer: " What!"

Operator : "According to the details in system, you own a Lambretta 1969 Vintage Scooter,...registra tion number USE 8999..."

Customer: " ????"

Operator : "Is there anything else Sir?"

Customer: "Nothing... by the way... aren't you giving me that 3 free bottles of cola as advertised?"

Operator : "We normally would Sir, but based on your records you're also diabetic.... ... "

Customer: #$$^%&$@$%^

Operator : "Better watch your language Sir. Remember on 11th Nov 1986 you were convicted for using abusive language on a policeman who stopped you for driving through a one way, in fact you were driving a 1973 Ambassador bearing registeration number UTD 4267.......

Customer: [Faints]

A Delhi court has awarded life sentence to Vikas and Vishal Yadav, key accused in the sensational Nitish Katara murder case.

Nitish was kidnapped and murdered after he attended a wedding in Ghaziabad in 2002. His body was found in a village in Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in the day, Special Public Prosecutor B S Joon sought death penalty on the ground that their offence fell under the rarest of rare category as they killed a defenceless person in the most diabolical manner.

"They deserved death penalty for not only the offence but for utter disregard for the human body as they while disposing of the body, chopped off the private parts of Nitish Katara," he said.

Citing various Supreme Court judgements including that of infamous Tandoor case, the prosecutor said, the pre and post-crime conduct of the convicts and the commission of this dastardly act merited the consideration of the case under the rarest of rare category, warranting award of gallows for them.

Senior defence lawyer K N Balagopal sought lenient punishment for the convicts, saying the case was based on circumstantial evidence and life imprisonment be awarded to the convicts as neither the offence was diabolical, nor the convicts were menace to the society.

"It is a regular murder committed under the emotional disturbances. Though every such offences are heinous but they all do not fall under the rarest of rare category," he said.

On Wednesday, Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur held Vikas, son of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, and his cousin Vishal guilty of murder, abduction and destruction of evidence in the case.

Judge Ravinder Kaur in her judgement that ran into 1,100 pages observed: "The relationship between the two (Nitish and Bharti) was not mere friendship, it had ballooned into a love affair and showed that they wanted to marry."

In the verdict, the judge concluded: "I hold Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav guilty under Section 302, 364, 201 and 34 of the IPC."

Timeline:

Six years of the Nitish Katara murder case

How it Happened??

Feb 16-17, 2002: Nitish Katara abducted from a marriage party in Ghaziabad.

Feb 20, 2002: The body of Nitish Katara found in a village in Bulandshahr. His alleged girlfriend Bharti Yadav, daughter of influential Uttar Pradesh politician D.P. Yadav, leaves for Britain.

March 11, 2002: The Tata Safari allegedly used in the murder recovered from GT Road, Karnal.

March 31, 2002: Uttar Pradesh police files a four-page chargesheet.

April 23, 2002: Prime accused Vikas and Vishal Yadav arrested from Madhya Pradesh.

Aug 23, 2002: Supreme Court transfers the case from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi.

Nov 23, 2002: Charges framed against the three accused - Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev.

April 7, 2003: A separate trial starts against the third accused Sukhdev Pahalwan, who was arrested in 2005. The trial in Sukhdev's case is at the stage of prosecution evidence.

March 2004: All witnesses, except D.P. Yadav's daughter Bharti Yadav, depose in court.

November 2005: Prime witness Bharti Yadav returns to India.

May 2006: Bharti Yadav's passport is revoked.

Nov 25, 2006: Bharti Yadav deposes in court after three years of notices and summons.

December 2007: The prosecution wraps up its final arguments and claims Bharti Yadav's alleged proximity to Nitish resulted in her brothers murdering him.

April 2, 2008: Trial court begins hearing the Nitish Katara murder case on a day-to-day basis.

April 23, 2008: Trial in the Nitish Katara murder case ends.

May 27, 2008: Court fixes date for pronouncement of verdict.

May 28, 2008: Court holds Vikas and Vishal Yadav guilty of murder. Quantum of sentence to be pronounced May 30.

May 30:Delhi court has awarded life sentence to Vikas and Vishal Yadav, key accused in the sensational Nitish Katara murder case.

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This is one of the smaller changes to Google – at least if measured in pixels! Google changed their “Favicon.ico”, the 16x16 image file that usually shows in the browser address bar or in bookmarks. The old icon used a square with red, green and blue edges, wrapping an upper-case “G”. The new logo is a bit more open, showing just the lower-case blue “g” from the Google logo, without borders, and a bit of shadow. To see this, visit Google.com (or images.google.com, Google Product Search and so on), empty your browser cache and reload the page.

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The Czeerz MK1 is a Dutch-made speedboat that relies only on solar energy, which makes it the first solar speedboat. The 10 meters-long boat reaches the speed of 30 knots which isn’t bad at all for this kind of vehicles. It has a light, carbon fiber shell covered with 14 square meters of solar panels that power an 80 kilowatt engine. Only thing this thing lacks is space, u can only get 2 people in it and they wouldn’t be very comfortable. But after all it’s built for speed not comfort.

Would you let someone jump over your infant like this?

Known as El Colacho in Spain, the Baby-Jumping Festival is a popular event that takes place in Castillo de Murcia near Burgos, every year since 1620. It’s basically all about infants laying on a blanket and adults dressed as devils jumping over them is a procession that’s supposed to cleanse the little ones of all evil doings.

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As a child, John Webber often played with the strange engraved metal cup that was lying around in his grandfather's scrapyard.

Even when he inherited the cup from the old rag-and-bone man, he assumed it was simply another piece of bronze or brass which had escaped the melting pot.

But last year Mr Webber, himself now a 70-year- old grandfather, unpacked it from its box after six decades to discover he had been sitting on a fortune.

Experts say the cup is pure gold and dates back to before the birth of Christ.

Next month, it will go up for auction with an estimate of between ￠G50,000 and ￠G100,000, although Mr Webber says he will not be surprised if it fetches half a million.

Standing 51/2in high, the cup carries the outline of two similar female faces looking in opposite directions, their foreheads decorated with a snake motif.

When they first saw it, experts were baffled by the piece, unlike any they had seen before.

That was until laboratory analysis of the gold put it in the third or fourth century BC.

Now it is thought the intricate design is the work of craftsmen in the days of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which spanned three continents until Alexander the Great defeated the forces of its last ruler in 330BC.

Mr Webber said the cup was acquired in the late 1930s or early 1940s by his grandfather William Sparks in Taunton, Somerset.

Before his death in the late 1940s he gave it to his grandson because his own son had already died.

Believing it to be brass or bronze, Mr Webber put the cup, along with other gifts, in a box and forgot about it until last year when he moved house.

Only then did he unwrap the cup from tissue paper and realise the long-forgotten toy of childhood might in fact be gold.

Mr Webber, who lives near Taunton, said: 'My grandfather was originally a proper rag-and-bone ban from Romany stock and lived in a caravan.

He formed a scrap-metal company in the 1930s and made enough to have his own house built.

'I remember when I was a boy playing with all the things he had. As a child I remember the faces on the gold cup used to scare me to death.

'I'm sure a lot of pieces ended up in the melting pot, but not this. My grandfather must have known it was of some value.'

Mr Webber sent the cup to the British Museum where experts recommended he have it tested at a laboratory.

Tests confirmed its age and that it had been crafted from just one piece of gold.

Scientist Peter Northover reported: 'The method of manufacture and the composition of the gold are consistent with Achaemenid gold and goldsmithing.'

The vessel is to be auctioned at Duke's auction house in Dorchester on June 5, along with two other items passed down from Mr Webber's grandfather.

They are a gold spoon valued at ￠G10,000 which might have come from Roman North Africa, and a 'Hellenistic' gold mount with a figure thought to be Ajax, probably from the second century BC and valued at up to ￠G2,000.

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6:36 - They want to have a Bill + Steve redux, except this time the Steve is Ballmer, not Jobs. Playing the Gates retirement video from CES.

6:43 - Stiiiiiiiill playing the video. It's still pretty good though, and they added a few new clips here and there.

6:46 - All done! Mossberg: Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer!

6:47 - Taking it back to the beginning, what kind of classmate/roommate was Bill in college? "He was a pretty shy guy... quiet, kind of shy, but a certain kind of spark. Especially later in the day, early in the morning. Bill was usually going to bed by the time I was waking up." Bill's talking about how he constantly played hookey.

6:50 - Ballmer talking about how Gates came and went Harvard. Gates: "You can leave and come back!" Say, is that a hint about Bills retirement? Ballmer's talking up his time spent at Procter and Gamble. Mossberg: Was it about then that you tried to hire Steve? Gates: "Not yet..." they were still way early on in the company.

6:53 - Mossberg: Did you wait to finish business school? Ballmer: "This is classic. Gates calls, 'Hey, what are you doing? Oh, god, too bad you don't have a twin brother or something...' he didn't just come out and say anything. 'Too bad, too bad -- and he hung up!' That was the sales call!"

6:54 - Gates on the early days: "We had so many customers, so many choices about what we could do next. We've always managed the company very conservatively." Talking anecdotally about how early-Microsoft wanted to have enough in the bank to pay its employees for a year if their customers stopped paying. "I had this very conservative view of our financial limits."

6:57 - Ballmer: "I wondered, why did I leave Stanford business school for this?" Eventually Bill gave him the real pitch: "We can put a computer on everyone's desk." Gates: "I needed Steve. I needed the skills he had, I needed a partner." Ballmer: "Bill said, 'Prove we can hire one good guy, and we'll hire 2-18'... and that became our management approach!" Ballmer says Microsoft hedges all its bets, takes all its risks technologically -- "Why take financial risks?"

7:03 - Mossberg: There's this perception that [Bill's] the technology guy, and [Steve's] the sales guy. Is that right? Bill: They've been jointly involved in a lot of crossover stuff, "Steve and I have done all this stuff together." Ballmer: Discussing working on the Windows 1.0 as a project manager. (Remember that infomercial?) "I'm not an engineer!"

7:04 - Swisher: Would you call yourself a businessman? Gates: "Sure. Sales minus costs equals profits. Is there more?" Big laughter. Mossberg: Did it bug you that Bill blew up and became extremely famous? Ballmer: "No. ... It was always clear Bill was the senior partner and I was the junior partner... it's never bothered me at all."

7:08 - Swisher: Do you still get veto on company decisions? Gates: "No." Says he's become the junior partner when he swapped roles with Ballmer. Mossberg asking about Bill's participation these days and going forward. "It's a very different role" he's taking on. Ozzie and Mundie have stepped up, and he's looking to Steve to help pick and choose his future projects.



7:12 - Ballmer: "I want to know what [Bill] thinks." Swisher wants to talk Yahoo! Ballmer gives the quick rundown of events to date. "We are not rebidding for the company -- we reserve the right to do so, but it's not on the docket." Swisher: What are you interested in, in Yahoo? Ha, they're wheeling out a whiteboard for Ballmer to diagram his explanation. Swisher: "This is like crack for him." Ballmer discussing ads, bidders, search, and the scale of it all. "To accelerate scale, it made sense for us to look at Yahoo!'s business."

7:17 - Ballmer says they're still in talks with Yahoo! about a "partnership." Swisher mentions that Ballmer's model of competing with Google is reminiscent of a monopoly. Ballmer gives the who, me? look. Gates: "Guys like us avoid monopolies because we compete!" Naturally, the lot of that exchange was all very tongue-in-cheek.

7:20 - Ballmer: "You need scale, you need business and technology innovation. Large and small... this is a funny marketplace in which to say you're cheaper [than the competition]." Swisher: What's the key element" Ballmer: "The most important thing is that we have a good team and that we're patient." And money -- investment. Ballmer's getting super intense. Mossberg: "You're getting a little scary there." Ballmer: "WELL, YOU GOT THE REAL ME!" Dude, this is Steve, what do you want?

7:24 - Mossberg wants to talk Vista. "Is Vista a failure? Is it a mistake?" Ballmer: "It's not a failure, it's not a mistake. Are there things we'll modify and improve going forward? Sure." Gates is mum, smiling off into the distance. Bet he can't wait to wash his hands of this stuff.

7:26 - Ballmer: "Let me ask Bill..." is Vista up to your expectations compared to '95 and 3.0? Gates: "There's no product that we've ever shipped that was 100% of what I wanted. That's part of the magic of software, people give you feedback... and you get to make a new version. ... We have a culture of 'we need to do better."

7:28 - Ballmer: "There are two unique things: in a lot of our Windows releases in the past, we've always had a second stream. With 95 we were introducing NT in the background... the number one thing people found jarring [with Vista] was that we changed the UI. ... That was ironic." Mossberg: Will you show us a little bit of Windows 7? Ballmer: "Sure! This is the smallest snippet of Windows 7. It's just a small little snippet.'"

7:29 - "This is 'likely to ship within three years of general availability of Vista.'" Demo time! It does multi-touch!

7:35 - They worked with the Surface team on the multi-touch stuff. Microsoft is re-thinking the whole user interface to better accommodate multi-touch for day to day use.

7:37 - Not running on surface. Running on a Dell Latitude XT. They've changed the taskbar, but it was difficult to tell exactly what they did.

7:39 - Swisher and Mossberg: So, what does this represent? Is this the next phase of the way people will do day to day work on their computers? Gates: "We're at an interesting junction... in the years to come, the roles of speech, vision, ink, all of those will become huge. I showed what an intelligent whiteboard would be like."

7:43 - "For the person at home and the person at work, that interaction will change dramatically." Talking about the single-user interfaces we have today. Mossberg: This is 15-18 months from release, your friends in Cupertino probably have one more turn before you get this out the door. They have the iPhone, which is on the market today... is there a risk that the work you're doing here will look like they got there first? Ballmer: "There's a lot in Windows 7, and our goal's got to be, with our hardware partners, to produce fantastic PCs. ... We'll sell 270m PCs a year, and Apple will sell 10m. Apple is fantastically successful, and so are we."

7:45 - Ballmer's talking about Microsoft's "real opportunity" to improve things in the future -- which is another way of saying that things could be better, but there's no real specific commitment to making the Windows experience better.

7:47 - Mossberg's drilling Bill on the Mac vs. PC, Bill's reticent. Ballmer: "Every share point Apple picks up is a share point we don't like. ... But it depends on what your goal is. We like selling 290m units. ... Our model is better." Mossberg: But you CAN'T be happy with this Vista situation? Ballmer: "What's the appropriate response? I kind of like what Bill already said." Gates: "You're kind of repeating yourself." Ouch. Big applause.

7:51 - Q from the internet: Do you feel the unsuccessful pursuit of Yahoo! has tarnished Microsoft at all? Ballmer: "No. ... at very least, people now know we're serious about our online business."

7:53 - Talking about the phone market, Mossberg and Ballmer are debating unit volume between Nokia, RIM, Windows Mobile, Apple. On Android, Ballmer: "It's another person taking another crack at the pie. ... Google comes late, without experience, and no clear business model. ... But we take them seriously."

7:54 - Open floor for Gates as he transitions out of Microsoft: "It probably is the last time I'll get to speak here..." Nawwwwww. "Melinda will be speaking Thursday, you'll hear from here why this will be a fun journey."

7:58 - Audience questions, but unfortunately none have been all that interesting so far.

8:02 - O'Reilly: You set out to put a computer on every desk -- and you achieved that. So do you have a new audacious goal? Gates talking about the future and goals of how Microsoft thinks the future will look. Interactive TV, tablet PC, and so on.

8:08 - Question about apps in the browser, and what that means for the future of software. Ballmer doesn't think it's all or nothing.

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Operating system support

Availability, price and employee familiarity often determines which operating systems are offered on dedicated servers. Variations of Linux (open-source operating systems), are often included at no charge to the customer. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, provided through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Red Hat Enterprise is a commercial version of Linux offered to hosting providers on a monthly fee basis. The monthly fee provides OS updates through the Red Hat Network using an application called up2date. Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no charge. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.

Support for any of the operating systems above typically depends on the level of management offered with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core system in order to acquire the latest security fixes, patches, and system-wide vulnerability resolutions. Updates to core operating systems include kernel upgrades, service packs, application updates, and security patches that keep server secure and safe. Operating system updates and support relieves the burden of server management from the dedicated server owner.

Security

Dedicated hosting server providers utilize extreme security measures to ensure the safety of data stored on their network of servers. Providers will often deploy various software programs for scanning systems and networks for obtrusive invaders, spammers, hackers, and other harmful problems such as Trojans, worms, and eggdrops (see "Limitations" below). Linux and Windows use different software for security protection.

Software

Providers often bill for dedicated servers on a fixed monthly price to include specific software packages. Over the years, software vendors realized the significant market opportunity to bundle their software with dedicated servers. They have since started introducing pricing models that allow dedicated hosting providers the ability to purchase and resell software based on reduced monthly fees.

Microsoft offers software licenses through a program called the Service Provider License Agreement. The SPLA model provides use of Microsoft products through a monthly user or processor based fee. SPLA software includes the Windows Operating System, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint and shoutcast hosting, and many other server based products.

Dedicated Server Providers usually offer the ability to select the software you want installed on a dedicated server. Depending on the overall usage of the server, this will include your choice of operating system, database, and specific applications. Servers can be customized and tailored specific to the customer’s needs and requirements.

Other software applications available are specialized web hosting specific programs called control panels. Control panel software is an all inclusive set of software applications, server applications, and automation tools that can be installed on a dedicated server. Control panels include integration into web servers, database applications, programming languages, application deployment, server administration tasks, and include the ability to automate tasks via a web based front end.

Most dedicated servers are packaged with a control panel. Control panels are often confused with management tools, but these control panels are actually web based automation tools created to help automate the process of web site creation and server management. Control panels should not be confused with a full server management solution by a dedicated hosting provider.

Story

Ranbeer Talwar (Saif Ali Khan), one of the country's top industrialists, is a loner, not by choice, but because he lost everyone he ever loved. He is now faced with a very peculiar and uncomfortable situation. In a rare and landmark court verdict, he is to look after 4 orphan children.

The orphans hate him and want revenge from him.

The children do not want to live with a man they hate; he too cannot face them or look them in the eye for certain reasons.

Their life together is very unhappy, one day they pray to God for help and he does help them. He sends his most mischievous, childlike, lovable angel to the rescue, with a mission to bring Ranbeer and the kids together.

Geeta (Rani Mukerji) comes bicycling down a rainbow… and bursts into Ranbeer's house as the self-proclaimed new nanny.

And then starts the roller coaster ride of fun, emotions, magic and love.

An angel who doesn't know what love is.

A man who always lost love.

Four orphans who need love.

All come together to bring you a film with fun, excitement, masti, tears, magic and love

Truly…

…Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic!

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова listen (help·info)) (born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 1. At the end of 2006, she was the world's highest-paid female athlete.^[2]

Sharapova has won three Grand Slam singles titles. In 2004, she beat Serena Williams to take the Wimbledon title at the age of 17. Two years later, she defeated Justine Henin in the final of the 2006 U.S. Open. At the 2008 Australian Open, she beat Ana Ivanovic in the final. Sharapova has been ranked in the top 10 since winning Wimbledon, the longest of any current female tennis player.^{[citation needed]}. Although she has never been the year-end World No. 1, she achieved that ranking in 2005 (twice) and 2007 before relinquishing it before the end of those years.

On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii . By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States.)

In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and 423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched the first wave of a two-wave attack. Beginning at 0600 hours his first wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa. The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167 aircraft, which again struck at the same targets.

At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, 50 high altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor Within the next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the attack.

When it was over, the U.S. losses were:

Casualties
USA< /st1:country-region> : 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.


USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA. TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.
-------------------------------------------------

Battleships
USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss when she capsized and sunk in the harbor.
USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
USS Maryland (BB-46) - Light damage.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cruisers
USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage..
USS San Francisco (CA38) - Light Damage.
USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage..
-------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
Destroyers
USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Cassin - (DD-37 2) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minelayer
USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seaplane Tender
USS Curtiss (AV-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Repair Ship
USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harbor Tug
USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------
Aircraft
188 Aircraft destroyed (92 USN and 92 U.S. Army Air Corps.)

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After Friday’s dramatic developments in the Aarushi murder case, Saturday saw the families involved swing into damage control mode even as the police stuck to its stand.

Aarushi’s mother, Dr Nupur Talwar, put up a spirited defence of her husband, Dr Rajesh Talwar, describing him as a caring and loving father.

Talwar’s business partner, Dr Anita Durani — who the cops said was having an affair with him — said the allegation was baseless and the cops had not even questioned her.

Guarded by their lawyers, both women mounted a frontal assault on the police case, insisting that the killer was still out there and it would be a miscarriage of justice if Rajesh Talwar was proceeded against.

But even as the two women were protesting, the cops stuck to their guns, saying it was impossible that the parents could peacefully sleep through the entire mayhem on the night of May 15-16.

They also recalled how Talwar had urged them to look for Hemraj without wasting time at their house on the morning when the body was recovered. And they also asked why he was seeking anticipatory bail shortly before he was arrested if he was innocent. The cops will be relying on call details too to build up their case.
But on Saturday, they kept their counsel and refused to be quoted. Apparently, they had been stampeded into making a premature arrest on Friday because Noida SSP Satish Ganesh, was being transferred when the case was yet to be wrapped up. Now there are many loose ends to be tied up and the crime weapons, besides the mobiles of Aarushi and Hemraj, to be recovered.

Without this evidence, the case will be quite weak, point out lawyers and even other cops, and they may suffer serious embarrassment in court.

So, all eyes will be on Talwar’s bail application, which comes up for hearing on Monday. The same day, the cops are expected to apply for his police remand so that they can take him around, get evidence and make their case foolproof.

On Saturday, they seized Talwar’s laptop even as his lawyers filed two applications in court. The first one sought proper medical facilities for Talwar, saying he was asthmatic. His counsel, Avijit Banerjee, said he needed "an oxygen cylinder and a nebulizer as stress can bring about his asthmatic symptoms."

The other application sought bail for him on the ground that "the police neither have (any), nor have presented evidence whatsoever for the arrest".

The haste with which the police addressed a press conference in Noida and Lucknow on Friday was evident from the lack of coordination.

IG (Meerut Zone) Gurdarshan Singh said in Noida that Talwar wanted to kill Aarushi and had hence eliminated would-be witness Hemraj. Meanwhile, Brij Lal, ADG, Law and Order, Crime and Special Task Force, was telling reporters at the same time in Lucknow that the doctor had killed Hemraj and wanted to eliminate Aarushi since she knew he had taken him up to the terrace.

Whatever be the police compulsions, their suggestion that Aarushi was having a relationship with Hemraj — she was said to have been found by her father in an "objectionable", not "compromising", position — has outraged lawyers, women groups and public opinion in general.

While the legal fraternity sees in it a ploy to build up mitigating circustances for Talwar to get a lighter sentence, women groups are condemning the character assassination of a child who is no longer there to defend herself.

Nupur Talwar, in fact, said 45-year-old Hemraj was trusted by the family and had children of his own. With the cops refusing to comment, one can only speculate where the theory of Aarushi having a relationship with Hemraj came from.

Source

Every year, farmers in the rural town Inakadate, Japan creates rice field art by using red rice in with their regular rice in special patterns. A few others fields in rural Japan also followed the trend of this beautiful rice field art.

Check out different stages of the rice field art from start to harvesting.

See the story of a Horny Bull.Click Here
Saddam Hussein's Yacht for Sale.Check out Here

Li Ching-Yuen or Li Ching-Yun ( (Szechuan, China, May 1677 - May 6, 1933) is said to have been one of the oldest persons who ever lived, reportedly dying at 256 years of age.

Biography

Li Ching-Yuen was supposedly born in 1677 in Chyi Jiang Hsie, Szechuan province. He spent most of his life in the mountain ranges gathering herbs and knowledge of longevity methods.

In 1748, when he was 71 years old, he moved to Kai Hsien to join the Chinese army as a teacher of the martial arts and as a tactical advisor.

In 1927, Li Ching Yuen was invited by General Yang Sen to visit him in Wann Hsien, Szechuan. The general was fascinated by his youthfulness, strength and prowess in spite of his advanced age. His famous portrait was photographed there.

Returning home, he died a year later. Some say of natural causes, while others claim that he told friends that “I have done all I have to do in this world. I will now go home,” and then allowed his spirit to depart.

After Li’s death, General Yang Sen investigated the truth about his claimed background and age. He wrote a report that was later published. In 1933, people interviewed from his home province remembered seeing him when they were children, and that he hadn’t aged much during their lifetime. Others reported that he had been friends with their grandfathers. The truth regarding his long life may never be solved.

Source

Following is the sequence of events in the investigation into the killing of 15-year-old Aarushi Talwar and domestic help Hemraj that culminated in the arrest of her father Rajesh Talwar on Friday.

May 16

Aarushi Talwar, daughter of a dentist couple, found dead with her throat slit in the bedroom of her flat in Jal Vayu Vihar; domestic help Hemraj suspected.

May 17

*Hemraj's body found on terrace of Talwar's house.
*Noida sector 20 station house officer shifted for lapses in investigations.
*Autopsy report rules out sexual assault.

May 18

*Police say murders done with surgical precision; insider job suspected.
*Superintendent of Police (City) Mahesh Mishra shifted out.

May 19

*Talwar's former domestic help Vishnu Sharma named suspect.

May 21

*Delhi Police join murder probe; police say murder committed by "doctor or butcher".

May 22

*Family under suspicion; honour killing angle probed; police quiz Aarushi's close friend Anmol, who she spoke to 688 times in the 45 days before she was murdered.

May 23

*Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar arrested for twin murders.

Source

HotWired was the first web site to sell banner ads in large quantities to a wide range of major corporate advertisers. The first web banner sold by HotWired was paid for by AT&T, and was put online on October 25, 1994.
This is how it looked like:

Deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean, forgotten for the best part of a century, lies a tunnel linking London and New York.

It was built on the whim of a Victorian inventor with the aim of linking two great cities and developing the kind of friendship that still exists today.

But bad fortune befell the venture - and the tunnel lay idle ever after.

Until today, that is, when the project was rekindled with a modern twist.

Using a giant "electronic telescope" and state-of-the-art technology, England and America were joined once again when the tunnel entrances were reopened beside Tower Bridge in London and Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

It meant that New Yorkers and Londoners could wave to each other across the sea and begin the kind of mute dialogue that was only a dream all those years ago for eccentric engineering entrepreneur Alexander Stanhope St George (deceased).

Or at least, that's the way the story goes.

What is certain is that now you can indeed stand on the South Bank of the UK end of the 21st century "Telectroscope" - and see someone standing 3,460 miles away across the water.

The Telectroscope uses 6ft screens and a Jules Verne style telescope that gleams with brass and an array of Victorian dials. Participants peer into one end of the screen - and hey presto - they can see anyone standing at the other side.

Much of the first few hours of this morning were taken up by bemused-looking Americans gazing cautiously at the antics of the London transatlantic gazers before realising that it wasn't a set-up, that they weren't being filmed for a candid camera TV stunt, and that it wasn't a terrorist threat.

Source

This is Lurch, the proud bearer of the world’s largest horns. Lurch is a Watusi bull living in an Animal shelter, whose horns measure 92.25 cm and weigh more than 100 pounds each. He’s quite the attraction in his home state and he’s favorite pass-time is acting as bodyguard for a crippled horse that’s being harassed by fellow horses. He looks amazing doesn’t he?

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John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, started his project now known as the Beer Can House in 1968 when he began inlaying thousands of marbles, rocks, and metal pieces into concrete and redwood to form unique landscaping features. When the entire front and back yard were completely covered because he "got sick of mowing the grass", he turned to the house itself and began adding aluminum siding – aluminum beer can siding, that is. Over the next 18 years the house disappeared under a cover of flattened beer cans for both practical and decorative reasons. Garlands made of cut beer cans hanging from the roof edges not only made the house sing in the wind, but also lowered the family's energy bills. Ripley's Believe It or Not estimated that over 50,000 cans adorn this monument to recycling. John considered his work an enjoyable pastime rather than a work of art, but he did enjoy people's reaction to his creations.

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Several John Glenn Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders were recently honored by The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) for their exceptional performance on the College Board’s SAT test. Victoria Albert, Eleni Drivas, Ruth Hanna, James Kuo, Annika Nosal, Allegra Scharff, and Pamela Weidman earned a High Honors award for achieving an exceptionally high score (at least 550 for seventh-graders and 600 for eighth-graders) on at least one component of the SAT. In addition, Ruth Hanna received a special award for having the highest Critical Reading score of all the Massachusetts seventh-graders who took the SAT.

In the photo:
JGMS Center for Talented Youth Honorees. Back Row (left to right): Victoria Albert, Eleni Drivas, Allegra Scharff, James Kuo; Front Row (left to right): Pamela Weidman, Annika Nosal, Ruth Hanna

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Source

United have won their third European Champion Clubs' Cup, and the second of Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure. The final was the ninth to be settled by penalties.

Qadissiyat Saddam, designed for the former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, is now open for sale for $34,5 million. Constructed in 1981 by the Danish engineers, the yacht boasts, among other things, a secret emergency exit, a mobile hospital and a helicopter landing area. The yacht can accommodate 28 guests and 35 members of the crew.

The Story

This film is based on Chetan Bhagat's book One Night @ the Call Center Hello... is a tale about the events that happen one night at a call center. Told through the views of the protagonist, Shyam, it is a story of almost lost love, thwarted ambitions, absence of family affection, pressures of a patriarchal set up, and the work environment of a globalized office.

Shyam(Sharman Joshi) is losing his girl friend because his career is going nowhere as he trudges his way around in a call center. His girl friend, Priyanka(Gul Panag), is also an agent like him at the call canter who is about to be snatched by an NRI tech geek who works for Microsoft in America.

There is also the aspiring model, Esha(Isha Kopikar), who is hoping for the break that seems to be always already eluding her and the man about town, Vroom(Sohail Khan), who is into well, things. The housewife, Radhika(Amrita Arora), who is constantly at the receiving end of her mother-in-law and a beleaguered grandfather, Military Uncle(Sharat Saxna), who has been barred from interacting with his grandchild make up the rest of the call agents who see their worlds crumbling around them as the decisions of right sizing are conveyed by Bakshi(Dilip Tahil), the boss.

It is a night when dreams will finally crumble. Or will it? For there is that call from God. Narrated as a tale within a tale as a beautiful woman meets the author narrator and promises him a story on the condition that he has to narrate it further, Hello, based on Chetan Bhagat's one night @ the call Center, is the one remarkable story from Tales from a Thousand and One globalizing, urban, Indian Nights

A four-part series about the environment and humanity’s impact upon it: Think of all the issues that could be addressed—the efforts, theories and competing ideas that could be analyzed—and, after all is said and done, the many different ways this series could conclude.

The article “Lessons From Easter Island” presents a historic example of what happens when human beings take the environment for granted, indiscriminately stripping the planet of its natural resources, bringing society to the brink of collapse. History also shows that man refuses to learn from the past, thus repeating disastrous patterns—ultimately on a global scale.

Earth’s Resources,” we look at today’s landscape: The world population is increasing to disastrous proportions. And with China and India, two of the most populous countries on earth, emerging as First World nations, there are too few natural resources available to maintain the industrialized, high-tech, “Me first” lifestyles that billions wish to copy from the West. In addition, cities continue to absorb surrounding towns and suburbs, transforming into burgeoning megacities that encroach upon farmlands and wildlife areas. These and other factors are contributing to a future scenario of global violence as peoples and nations clash over food, water, oil and other disappearing necessities of life.

Then, in our article “Is Going Green the Answer?” we look at the efforts offered to solve the situation before things grow worse.

Finally, in “The Environment, Dwindling Resources and Mankind,” we ask, How did humanity come to this point in the first place—and what will be its final outcome?

Source

In 1954, a young Princeton University doctoral candidate named Hugh Everett III came up with a radical idea: That there exist parallel universes, exactly like our universe. These universes are all related to ours; indeed, they branch off from ours, and our universe is branched off of others. Within these parallel universes, our wars have had different outcomes than the ones we know. Species that are extinct in our universe have evolved and adapted in others. In other universes, we humans may have become extinct.


This thought boggles the mind and yet, it is still comprehensible. Notions of parallel universes or dimensions that resemble our own have appeared in works of science fiction and have been used as explanations for metaphysics. But why would a young up-and-coming physicist possibly risk his future career by posing a theory about parallel universes?

With his Many-Worlds theory, Everett was attempting to answer a rather sticky question related to quantum physics: Why does quantum matter behave erratically? The quantum level is the smallest one science has detected so far. The study of quantum physics began in 1900, when the physicist Max Planck first introduced the concept to the scientific world. Planck's study of radiation yielded some unusual findings that contradicted classical physical laws. These findings suggested that there are other laws at work in the universe, operating on a deeper level than the one we know.

In fairly short order, physicists studying the quantum level noticed some peculiar things about this tiny world. For one, the particles that exist on this level have a way of taking different forms arbitrarily. For example, scientists have observed photons -- tiny packets of light -- acting as particles and waves. Even a single photon exhibits this shape-shifting [source: Brown University]. Imagine if you looked and acted like a solid human being when a friend glanced at you, but when he looked back again, you'd taken a gaseous form.

This has come to be known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The physicist Werner Heisenberg suggested that just by observing quantum matter, we affect the behavior of that matter. Thus, we can never be fully certain of the nature of a quantum object or its attributes, like velocity and location.

This idea is supported by the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Posed by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, this interpretation says that all quantum particles don't exist in one state or the other, but in all of its possible states at once. The sum total of possible states of a quantum object is called its wave function. The state of an object existing in all of its possible states at once is called its superposition.

According to Bohr, when we observe a quantum object, we affect its behavior. Observation breaks an object's superposition and essentially forces the object to choose one state from its wave function. This theory accounts for why physicists have taken opposite measurements from the same quantum object: The object "chose" different states during different measurements.

Bohr's interpretation was widely accepted, and still is by much of the quantum community. But lately, Everett's Many-Worlds theory has been getting some serious attention. Read the next page to find out how the Many-Worlds interpretation works.

Source

Green Business is Good for the Bottom Line

Operating a green business is not only good for the environment but good for your business's bottom line because conserving resources and cutting down on waste saves money. The good news is that whether you run a home-based business or an off-site enterprise, there are simple things you can do to run an environmentally friendly business.

Recycling is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of being environmentally friendly. And recycling is important. But recycling is only one part of the environmentally friendly business equation. We can also take a large step towards being more environmentally friendly by reducing the amounts of waste in our offices and business operations.

Here are just ten easy-to-implement ideas for running a green business from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's Greening Operations guides that you can put into practice right now to make your office a more environmentally friendly place:

1. Turn off equipment when it's not being used. This can reduce the energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.

2. Encourage communications by email, and read email messages onscreen to determine whether it's necessary to print them. If it's not, don't!

3. Reduce fax-related paper waste by using a fax-modem and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary.Fax-modems allow documents to be sent directly from a computer, without requiring a printed hard copy.

4. Produce double-sided documents whenever possible.

5. Do not leave taps dripping; always close them tightly after use. (One drop wasted per second wastes 10,000 litres per year.)

6. Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones [not bricks] in the toilet's reservoir will displace about 4 litres of water per flush - a huge reduction of water use over the course of a year.

7. Find a supply of paper with maximum available recycled content.

8. Choose suppliers who take back packaging for reuse.

9. Instigate an ongoing search for "greener" products and services in the local community. The further your supplies or service providers have to travel, the more energy will be used to get them to you.

10. Before deciding whether you need to purchase new office furniture, see if your existing office furniture can be refurbished. It's less expensive than buying new and better for the environment.

Source

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus. Along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of "modern" architecture.

Life

Born in Berlin, Walter Gropius was the third son of Walter Adolph Gropius and Manon Auguste Pauline Scharnweber. Gropius married Alma Mahler (1879-1964), widow of Gustav Mahler. Walter and Alma's daughter, named Manon after Walter's mother, was born in 1916. When Manon died of polio at age eighteen, composer Alban Berg wrote his Violin Concerto in memory of her (it is inscribed "to the memory of an angel"). Gropius and Alma divorced in 1920. (Alma had by that time established a relationship with Franz Werfel, whom she later married.) In 1923 Gropius married Ise Frank (d. 1983), and they remained together until his death. They adopted Beate Gropius, also known as Ati. Gropius, like his father and great-uncle Martin Gropius before him, was an architect. But all sources agree that Walter Gropius could not draw, and was dependent on collaborators and partner-interpreters all through his career. In school he hired an assistant to complete his homework for him. In 1908 Gropius found employment with the firm of Peter Behrens, one of the first members of the utilitarian school. His fellow employees at this time included Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Dietrich Marcks. In 1910 Gropius left the firm of Behrens and together with fellow employee Adolf Meyer established a practice in Berlin. Together they share credit for one of the seminal modernist buildings created during this period, the Faguswerk, Alfeld-an-der-Leine, Germany, a shoe lace factory. The glass curtain walls of this building demonstrated both the modernist principle that form reflects function and Gropius's concern with providing healthful conditions for the working class. Other works of this early period include the office and factory building for the Werkbund Exhibition (1914) in Cologne.

Gropius's career was interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war in 1914. Called up immediately as a reservist, Gropius served as a sergeant major at the Western front during the war years, was wounded and almost killed.^[1] Ironically the war provided an opportunity which would advance his career during the post war period. Henry van de Velde, the master of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar was asked to step down in 1915 due to his Belgian nationality. His recommendation of Gropius to succeed him led eventually to Gropius's appointment as master of the school in 1919. It was this academy which Gropius transformed into the world famous Bauhaus, attracting a faculty which included Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Herbet Bayer, László Moholy-Nagy, Otto Bartning and Wassily Kandinsky. Students were taught to use modern and innovative materials and mass-produced fittings, often originally intended for industrial settings, to create original furniture and buildings.

Also in 1919, Gropius was involved in the Glass Chain utopian expressionist correspondence under the pseudonym 'Mass'. Usually more notable for his functionalist approach, the "Monument to the March Dead", designed in 1919 and executed in 1920, indicates that expressionism was an influence on him at that time.

In 1923, Gropius aided by Gareth Steele, designed his famous door handles, now considered an icon of 20th century design and often listed as one of the most influential designs to emerge from the Bauhaus. He also designed large scale housing projects in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Dessau from 1926-32 that were major contributions to the New Objectivity movement.

With the help of the English architect Maxwell Fry, Gropius was able to get out of Germany in 1934, on the pretext of making a temporary visit to Britain. He lived and worked in Britain, as part of the Isokon group with Fry and others and then, in 1937, moved on to the United States. The house he built for himself in Lincoln, Massachusetts, was influential in bringing International Modernism to the US but Gropius disliked the term: "I made it a point to absorb into my own conception those features of the New England architectural tradition that I found still alive and adequate" (see [1]).

Gropius and his Bauhaus protégé Marcel Breuer both moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and collaborate on the company-town Aluminum City Terrace project in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, before their professional split. In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

In 1945, Gropius founded The Architects' Collaborative (TAC) based in Cambridge with a group of younger architects. The original partners included Norman C. Fletcher, Jean B. Fletcher, John C. Harkness, Sarah P. Harkness, Robert S. MacMillan, Louis A. MacMillen, and Benjamin C. Thompson. TAC would become one of the most well-known and respected architectural firms in the world. TAC went bankrupt in 1995.

Gropius died in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 86. Today, he is remembered not only by his various buildings but also by the district of Gropiusstadt in Berlin.

In the early 1990s, a series of books entitled The Walter Gropius Archive was published covering his entire architectural career.

Important buildings

• 1910–1911 the Fagus Factory, Alfeld an der Leine, Germany
• 1914 Office and Factory Buildings at the Werkbund Exhibition, 1914, Cologne, Germany
• 1921 Sommerfeld House, Berlin, Germany designed for Adolf Sommerfeld
• 1922 competition entry for the Chicago Tribune Tower competition
• 1925–1932 Bauhaus School and Faculty, Housin, Dessau, Germany
• 1936 Village College, Impington, Cambridge, England
• 1937 The Gropius House, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA
• 1942–1944 Aluminum City Terrace housing project, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, USA
• 1949–1950 Harvard Graduate Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (The Architects' Collaborative) [2]
• 1957–1960 University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
• 1963–1966 John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• 1948 Peter Thacher Junior High School,
• 1958–1963 Pan Am Building (now the Metlife Building), New York, New York, with Pietro Belluschi and project architects Emery Roth & Sons
• 1957 Interbau Apartment blocks, Hansaviertel, Berlin, Germany, with The Architects' Collaborative and Wils Ebert
• 1961 The award-winning Wayland High School, Wayland, Massachusetts, USA
• 1959–1961 Embassy of the United States, Athens, Greece (The Architects' Collaborative and consulting architect Pericles A. Sakellarios)
• 1967–69 Tower East Shaker Heights, Ohio, this was Gropius last major project.

The building in Niederkirchnerstraße, Berlin, known as the Gropius-Haus is named for Gropius' great-uncle, Martin Gropius, and is not associated with Bauhaus.

Nearly 120 ancient paintings charting the life, struggles and eventual triumph of the legendary Indian king Rama go on show to the public on Friday for the first time at the British Library.

The highly detailed and lavishly illustrated pictures which date from the 17th century were formerly bound together in book form and available only for scholarly study.

"I am thrilled that we are able to display the magnificent Mewar Ramayana manuscript, one of the finest manuscripts of the Ramayana epic ever produced," said exhibition curator Jerry Losty.

"This is one of the great secular texts of world literature. Its influence spread not just across India but the whole of South East Asia and endures to this day," he said at a preview on Thursday of "The Ramayana -- love and valour in India's great epic."

The story is still retold regularly in films, dances, songs and puppet shows.

The panels, each accompanied by a text explanation of what is happening and its significance to the story, detail each step in the life of Rama who is considered to be the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, the supreme Hindu god.

Originally comprising 400 paintings and 24,000 verses of text in Sanskrit, the pictures were bound in seven volumes of which the British Library has four and a half.

Source

French actress Vahina Giocante (L) kisses sensuously her boyfriend French designer Ora Ito, as they arrive for the opening ceremony and the screening of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008 in Cannes

Appealing Aishwarya Rai (C) blows a kiss at the lucky photographers as she arrives with US actress Eva Longoria Parker (L) and French actress Rachida Brakni (R) to attend the opening ceremony and the screening of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in Cannes.

Uruguyan actress and singer Elli Medeiros (R) kisses Argentinian director Pablo Trapero (L) during a photocall for their film 'Leonera' at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in Cannes on May 15, 2008.

French actress Vahina Giocante kisses her boyfriend, French designer Ora Ito, as they arrive for the screening of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008 in Cannes

Argentinian actress Martina Gusman (L) and Uruguyan actress and singer Elli Medeiros (R) kiss the lucky Argentinian director Pablo Trapero (L) during a photocall for their film 'Leonera' at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in Cannes on May 15, 2008.

US actress Julianne Moore blows a kiss at photographers (so that they click her) as she poses during a photocall for Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008 in Cannes. (AFP Photo/Francois Guillot)


French actress Vahina Giocante (L) and her companion, French designer Ora Ito, pose as they arrive for the opening ceremony and the screening of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008 in Cannes.

French actress Vahina Giocante and her partner, French designer Ora Ito, pose as they arrive to attend the opening ceremony and the screening of Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' film 'Blindness' at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008 in Cannes.

In the Bible, the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper is little more than a prop, given no particular prominence. But over the centuries, the fate of this now legendary vessel, the so-called Holy Grail, has come to haunt stories ranging from Arthurian legend to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Grail takes on even greater significance from tales that Joseph of Arimathea, in whose tomb Jesus was placed prior to his resurrection, used the cup to collect Jesus' blood while he was being crucified.

Theories abound as to where the cup eventually went. One says the Knights Templar, a medieval military order that persisted for more than 200 years, took it from Jerusalem during the Crusades.

There's also a story in which Joseph carries the Grail to Glastonbury, England, a Roman outpost at the time of Christ's crucifixion. In 1906, in fact, a blue bowl claimed by some to be the Grail was found there, and since then at least four other cups have been proclaimed to be the Grail, two from England and Wales and two from the Middle East.

But the reality, says historian Richard Barber, author of The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief, is that the Grail stories are just that—stories.

Source

The NAACP Board of Directors has chosen a new president making 35-year-old Ben Jealous the organization's youngest president ever.

The 64-member board met and voted to elect Jealous in Baltimore and plans to formally announce its decision on Saturday.

As for his experience, Ben is a former news executive and lifelong activist. For the NAACP, they'll get a young well connected leader familiar with black leadership and social justice issues.

Jealous takes the helm as the NAACP's 17th president just months before the organization's centennial anniversary, as the group grapples with dwindling membership and looks to boost its coffers.

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Moving in to sanitise the small screen, the government on Friday banned two underwear advertisements, calling them indecent and vulgar. The I&B ministry has issued an advisory to all entertainment and news channels to pull Frenchie X and Lux Cozy advertisements off the air.

In the Frenchie X advertisement, a lissome woman enters a room to find a young man in his briefs and slams the door shut leaving the rest to the imagination. According to sources, the advertisement was being repeatedly screened during the IPL matches that led to viewers' complaints.

The ministry said that there had been an increase in the number of tasteless advertisements of late and these were not suitable for unrestricted public viewing. "We have received a lot of complaints from viewers. So we have asked all channels to refrain from showing such ads," a source said.

The Centre had also recently asked Star News and MTV to run a scroll apologizing for screening the new Axe deodorant advertisement. Both channels have run the scroll for three days. Television channels have also been instructed "to be more careful in future in selection of advertisements and to strictly adhere to the advertisement code".

In Friday's notice, the ministry pointed out that the advertisements were revoked because they were considered "indecent, vulgar and suggestive" and violated rule 7(8) of the advertising code prescribed in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995. The code lays down that "indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements".

This is not the first occasion that advertisements have been found objectionable. Channels had been issued a warning in 2007 regarding a similar advertisement of Gen-X and Lux Cozy undergarments. The ministry, in the notice, had asked channels to be more careful in future in selection of content of advertisements.

In February 2007, the government had taken cognizance of complaints regarding advertisements promoting the India-West Indies one-day cricket series on Neo Sports.

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Theodore Maiman made the first laser operate on 16 May 1960 at the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, by shining a high-power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces. He promptly submitted a short report of the work to the journal Physical Review Letters, but the editors turned it down. Some have thought this was because the Physical Review had announced that it was receiving too many papers on masers—the longer-wavelength predecessors of the laser—and had announced that any further papers would be turned down. But Simon Pasternack, who was an editor of Physical Review Letters at the time, has said that he turned down this historic paper because Maiman had just published, in June 1960, an article on the excitation of ruby with light, with an examination of the relaxation times between quantum states, and that the new work seemed to be simply more of the same. Pasternack's reaction perhaps reflects the limited understanding at the time of the nature of lasers and their significance. Eager to get his work quickly into publication, Maiman then turned to Nature, usually even more selective than Physical Review Letters, where the paper was better received and published on 6 August.

With official publication of Maiman's first laser under way, the Hughes Research Laboratory made the first public announcement to the news media on 7 July 1960. This created quite a stir, with front-page newspaper discussions of possible death rays, but also some skepticism among scientists, who were not yet able to see the careful and logically complete Nature paper. Another source of doubt came from the fact that Maiman did not report having seen a bright beam of light, which was the expected characteristic of a laser. I myself asked several of the Hughes group whether they had seen a bright beam, which surprisingly they had not. Maiman's experiment was not set up to allow a simple beam to come out of it, but he analyzed the spectrum of light emitted and found a marked narrowing of the range of frequencies that it contained. This was just what had been predicted by the theoretical paper on optical masers (or lasers) by Art Schawlow and myself, and had been seen in the masers that produced the longer-wavelength microwave radiation. This evidence, presented in figure 2 of Maiman's Nature paper, was definite proof of laser action. Shortly afterward, both in Maiman's laboratory at Hughes and in Schawlow's at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, bright red spots from ruby laser beams hitting the laboratory wall were seen and admired.

Maiman's laser had several aspects not considered in our theoretical paper, nor discussed by others before the ruby demonstration. First, Maiman used a pulsed light source, lasting only a few milliseconds, to excite (or "pump") the ruby. The laser thus produced only a short flash of light rather than a continuous wave, but because substantial energy was released during a short time, it provided much more power than had been envisaged in most of the earlier discussions. Before long, a technique known as "Q switching" was introduced at the Hughes Laboratory, shortening the pulse of laser light still further and increasing the instantaneous power to millions of watts and beyond. Lasers now have powers as high as a million billion (10¹⁵) watts! The high intensity of pulsed laser light allowed a wide range of new types of experiment, and launched the now-burgeoning field of nonlinear optics. Nonlinear interactions between light and matter allow the frequency of light to be doubled or tripled, so for example an intense red laser can be used to produce green light.

I had a busy job in Washington at the time when various groups were trying to make the earliest lasers. But I was also supervising graduate students at Columbia University who were trying to make continuously pumped infrared lasers. Shortly after the ruby laser came out I advised them to stop this work and instead capitalize on the power of the new ruby laser to do an experiment on two-photon excitation of atoms. This was one of the early experiments in nonlinear optics, and two-photon excitation is now widely used to study atoms and molecules.

Lasers work by adding energy to atoms or molecules, so that there are more in a high-energy ("excited") state than in some lower-energy state; this is known as a "population inversion." When this occurs, light waves passing through the material stimulate more radiation from the excited states than they lose by absorption due to atoms or molecules in the lower state. This "stimulated emission" is the basis of masers (whose name stands for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation") and lasers (the same, but for light instead of microwaves).

Before Maiman's paper, ruby had been widely used for masers, which produce waves at microwave frequencies, and had also been considered for lasers producing infrared or visible light waves. But the second surprising feature of Maiman's laser, in addition to the pulsed source, was that he was able to empty the lowest-energy ("ground") state of ruby enough so that stimulated emission could occur from an excited to the ground state. This was unexpected. In fact, Schawlow, who had worked on ruby, had publicly commented that transitions involving the ground state of ruby would not be suitable for lasers because it would be difficult to empty adequately. He recommended a different transition in ruby, which was indeed made to work, but only after Maiman's success. Maiman, who had been carefully studying the relaxation times of excited states of ruby, came to the conclusion that the ground state might be sufficiently emptied by a flash lamp to provide laser action—and it worked.

The ruby laser was used in many early spectacular experiments. One amusing one, in 1969, sent a light beam to the Moon, where it was reflected back from a retro-reflector placed on the Moon's surface by astronauts in the U.S. Apollo program. The round-trip travel time of the pulse provided a measurement of the distance to the Moon. Later, ruby laser beams sent out and received by telescopes measured distances to the Moon with a precision of about three centimeters—a great use of the ruby laser's short pulses.

When the first laser appeared, scientists and engineers were not really prepared for it. Many people said to me—partly as a joke but also as a challenge—that the laser was "a solution looking for a problem." But by bringing together optics and electronics, lasers opened up vast new fields of science and technology. And many different laser types and applications came along quite soon. At IBM's research laboratories in Yorktown Heights, New York, Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson demonstrated two lasers that used techniques similar to Maiman's but with calcium fluoride, instead of ruby, as the lasing substance. Following that—and still in 1960—was the very important helium-neon laser of Ali Javan, William Bennett, and Donald Herriott at Bell Laboratories. This produced continuous radiation at low power but with a very pure frequency and the narrowest possible beam. Then came semiconductor lasers, first made to operate in 1962 by Robert Hall and his associates at the General Electric laboratories in Schenectady, New York. Semiconductor lasers now involve many different materials and forms, can be quite small and inexpensive, and are by far the most common type of laser. They are used, for example, in supermarket bar-code readers, in optical-fiber communications, and in laser pointers.

By now, lasers come in countless varieties. They include the "edible" laser, made as a joke by Schawlow out of flavored gelatin (but not in fact eaten because of the dye that was used to color it), and its companion the "drinkable" laser, made of an alcoholic mixture at Eastman Kodak's laboratories in Rochester, New York. Natural lasers have now been found in astronomical objects; for example, infrared light is amplified by carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus, excited by solar radiation, and intense radiation from stars stimulates laser action in hydrogen atoms in circumstellar gas clouds. This raises the question: why weren't lasers invented long ago, perhaps by 1930 when all the necessary physics was already understood, at least by some people? What other important phenomena are we blindly missing today?

Maiman's paper is so short, and has so many powerful ramifications, that I believe it might be considered the most important per word of any of the wonderful papers in Nature over the past century. Lasers today produce much higher power densities than were previously possible, more precise measurements of distances, gentle ways of picking up and moving small objects such as individual microorganisms, the lowest temperatures ever achieved, new kinds of electronics and optics, and many billions of dollars worth of new industries. The U.S. National Academy of Engineering has chosen the combination of lasers and fiber optics—which has revolutionized communications—as one of the twenty most important engineering developments of the twentieth century. Personally, I am particularly pleased with lasers as invaluable medical tools (for example, in laser eye surgery), and as scientific instruments—I use them now to make observations in astronomy. And there are already at least ten Nobel Prize winners whose work was made possible by lasers.

There have been great and good developments since Ted Maiman, probably a bit desperately, mailed off a short paper on what was then a somewhat obscure subject, hoping to get it published quickly in Nature. Fortunately, Nature's editors accepted it, and the rest is history.

She made her entry into the films through a Telugu film Chirutha, starred opposite Ram Charan Teja (Son of Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi). Chirutha is debut movie for both Neha Sharma and Ram Charan Teja. The movie was released on September 28,2007 and did good business in spite of mixed reviews but it didn't reach expectations. Neha Sharma got good recognition for her dance skills, acting & beauty in the movie.It has been confirmed that she will be doing another movie by the name of "Jandapai Kapiraju" with Krishna Vamsi as the director and Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu as the hero.

India on Wednesday test-fired the 3,500-km range surface-to-surface nuclear capable Agni-III missile from the Wheelers' Island off Orissa coast.

The intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) was test-fired from a mobile launcher from the launch complex (LC-4) of the integrated test range (ITR) around 9:56 am, defence sources said.

The 16 metre-long and 1.8-metre wide missile roared into the sky in a vertically slanted position leaving behind a thick column of orange and white smoke and, within seconds, became invisible to the naked eye, an eyewitness said.

Agni-III missile is fitted with on-board computer for its guidance system.

A battery of sophisticated radars, electro -optic tracking systems, telemetric data centres in the mainland apart from two naval war ships anchored near the impact point, were engaged to monitor the entire trajectory in today's test launch.

"The test result will be known after detailed analyses of the flight data recovered," the sources said.

Weighing about 48 tonnes, the Agni-III missile was first test-fired on July 9, 2006 but it failed to meet its mission objectives due to cascaded failure of booster flex nozzle controller.

However, during the second test conducted on April 12, 2007, the entire flight path of 15 minutes duration validated all mission objectives, they said.

Yahoo Inc investors latched on to hopes the company would resume talks with Microsoft Corp or soon forge a deal with Google Inc, sending shares up 6 percent on Tuesday.

Investors are anticipating that Yahoo may give in to pressure from its largest shareholders to reconsider Microsoft's $47.5 billion offer, and noted conciliatory comments from its chief executive, Jerry Yang.

Alternately, Yahoo could strike a pact to outsource some of its search listings to Google to boost its performance. The two are hammering out the details of a potential deal and sharing their plans with antitrust regulators, said a person close to Google.

"There are definitely big accounts stepping in and buying Yahoo on the assumption they will get back to the table," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler. "If they don't, you have one other out, which is the Google outsourcing (deal)."


Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang told media on Monday that he had "mixed feelings" about events over the weekend, when talks broke down, and was still open to negotiations. "If they have anything new to say, we would be open," he said. "I am more than willing to listen."

Microsoft had sweetened its offer to $33 per share, but walked away from talks on Saturday after Yang held out for a price of $37 per share.

Yang's softer stance came as two of Yahoo's largest shareholders told The New York Times they would have been happy with a deal at $34 per share.

"I am extremely angry at Jerry Yang and at the so-called independent board," Gordon Crawford, portfolio manager for Capital Research Global Investors, the largest Yahoo shareholder with some 16 percent of stock, told the newspaper.

Crawford's sway over media companies is legend. In 2002, he mounted a campaign to force the resignation of AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, the architect behind one of the worst corporate mergers of its era. Case resigned in January 2003.

Bill Miller of Legg Mason Inc, which owns about 7 percent of Yahoo shares, said he was disappointed the two companies didn't reach a deal and was surprised Microsoft walked away.

Deadline for proxy fight

In an apparent effort to contain a shareholder revolt, Yahoo on Monday set its annual meeting for July 3. It said May 15 is the deadline to nominate board candidates, giving dissident investors just over a week to launch a proxy fight.

"If you lose the goodwill of some of the largest shareholders, which seems to have happened, we would expect a bloodless coup with Jerry being invited to step aside," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay.

Yahoo shares rose $1.49 cents to $25.86, partially recovering from a 15 percent drop on Monday. Microsoft rose 1.6 percent to $29.54. Despite the renewed optimism, a Microsoft executive cast doubt on the idea that talks could resume.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, told media in London that the company has moved on from Yahoo and will focus on its own strategy to be a leader in Internet services.

Asked if that was the end with Yahoo, he replied, "Absolutely, that's the end of the story. We are moving on because our strategy is very clear."

Google deal

Microsoft courted Yahoo to capitalize on the rapidly growing market for Internet advertising, one that has long been served by Yahoo's search, e-mail and Web communities.

It is also trying to fend off the expansion of Google, which has made inroads into Microsoft's home turf with a portfolio of Web based-applications, e-mail and messaging.

A Google deal would boost Yahoo's operating performance in the near term, but runs the risk of regulatory scrutiny over an alliance between the Internet's top two players.

"If it turns out that Google was just being used to thwart Microsoft, I think investor reaction will be very negative," Lindsay said.

In a letter to Yang over the weekend, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer warned that any deal between Yahoo and Google would be difficult to unravel and would preclude an agreement with Microsoft.

Yang told media the company would take care to structure any such efforts to "preserve as much (as possible) long-term flexibility for Yahoo, both operationally and strategically."

Source

Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "The land between the two rivers")^[1] is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq^[2], northeastern Syria,^[2] southeastern Turkey,^[2] and the Khūzestān Province of southwestern Iran^[3][4].

Commonly known as the "Cradle of civilization", Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian Empires. In the Iron Age, it was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which gave way to the Achaemenid Empire. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire.

History

Mesopotamian history extends from the emergence of Urban societies in Southern Iraq in the 5th millennium BC to the arrival of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC (which is seen as the hallmark of the Hellenization of the Near East, therefore supposedly marking the "end" of Mesopotamia). A cultural continuity and spatial homogeneity for this entire historical geography ("the Great Tradition") is popularly assumed, though the assumption is problematic. Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient states with highly developed social complexity. The region was famous as one of the four riverine civilizations where writing was first invented, along with the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley in the Indian subcontinent and Yellow River valley in China (Although writing is also known to have arisen independently in Mesoamerica and the Andes).

Mesopotamia housed historically important cities such as Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, and Babylon as well as major territorial states such as the Akkadian kingdom, Third Dynasty of Ur, and Assyrian empire. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were Ur-Nammu (king of Ur), Sargon (who established the Akkadian Kingdom), Hammurabi (who established the Old Babylonian state), and Tiglath-Pileser I (who established the Assyrian Empire).

"Ancient Mesopotamia" includes the period from the late 6th millennium BC until the rise of the Achaemenid Persians in the 6th century BC. This long period may be divided as follows:

• Late Neolithic:
  • Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf "cultures"

• Chalcolithic:
  • Ubaid period (ca 5900 BC–4000 BC)
  • Uruk period (ca 4000 BC–3100 BC)
    • Jemdet Nasr Period (ca 3100 BC–2900 BC)

• Early Bronze Age
  • Early Dynastic city states (ca 2900 BC–2350 BC)
  • Akkadian Empire (ca 2350 BC–2193 BC).
  • Third dynasty of Ur ("Sumerian Renaissance" or "Neo-Sumerian Period") (ca 2119 BC–2004 BC)

• Middle Bronze Age
  • Early Assyrian kingdom (20th to 18th c. BC)
  • First Babylonian Dynasty (18th to 17th c. BC)

• Late Bronze Age
  • Kassite dynasty, Middle Assyrian period (16th to 12th c. BC)

• Iron Age
  • Syro-Hittite or Neo-Hittite regional states (11th–7th c. BC)
  • Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th to 7th c. BC)
  • Neo-Babylonian Empire (7th to 6th c. BC)
  • Achaemenid Persian Empire (6th-4th c. BC)

Dates are approximate for the second and third millennia BC; compare Chronology of the Ancient Near East.

According to BBC, the history of London Zoo is revealed in images published online for the first time. Sweet and funny vintage photos are now on Funtasticus too.

The Swiss bank UBS plans to cut 5,500 jobs after suffering a $10.9 billion first quarter loss due to the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.

The seven percent job loss will include as many as 2,600 positions at the securities division, the company said in a Tuesday statement.

UBS also said it planned to sell a $15 billion portfolio of sub-prime mortgages to a newly created fund managed by BlackRock Inc by the end of June.

Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner told analysts he expected 'tough business conditions', which has so far caused $38 billion of markdowns at the company, to continue, forcing the bank to 'manage costs, resources and capacity very actively'.

UBS, Europe's biggest victim of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, had earlier announced 1,500 job losses, which, together with the latest staff cuts, represent an 18-percent reduction of the company's workforce since mid 2007.

Other leading companies have also announced job cuts due to the US credit crunch, which has led to markdowns and losses of $319 billion.

Citigroup Inc, which has suffered almost $41 billion from the sub-prime crisis, cut about 15,200 jobs while Merrill Lynch & Co reduced 5,220 positions.


Source

The show Naked Office plans to have cameras following fully clothed employees at work and gauging their views on nudity.

Some will be asked to pose for life-drawing classes to see how comfortable they feel in the buff in public.

And, every now and then, the firm’s staff will all be asked to come to work in the buff for an event called Naked Friday.

The basic idea behind the whole plot is to look at people’s attitudes to nudity, body image and the role clothes play in office hierarchy.

In a letter inviting companies to take part in Naked Office, producers assure potential participants the project would be a “very productive day as well as a day to remember.”

What is rogue anti-spyware? Rogue anti-spyware programs are defined by spyware and anti-spyware expert Eric Howes on the Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products and Sites page.

A bit of history about the Rogue Anti-Spyware page, if you will. I had been loosely tracking complaints on the web about anti-spyware apps for some time when the first "super rogue" was unleashed just over 2 years ago. In late November 2003, complaints about a program called Spy Wiper started popping up by the dozens in forums and blogs all over the net. I had an entire blog category devoted to Spy Wiper and its successor Spy Deleter. Eventually the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) filed a complaint about the two, and later the FTC took action and that operation was shut down.

Due to the Spy Wiper/Spy Deleter attacks I was really fired up about rogue anti-spyware and started blogging about rogue apps. A while later I learned that Eric Howes had also been tracking anti-spyware complaints and testing the applications. We began collaborating and the Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware page was officially launched on June 26, 2004 with about 50 apps listed.

Less than a year later, on June 9, 2005, the rogue list reached 200 apps. If you are wondering why there are so many rogue anti-spyware apps, click here and scroll down a bit. The list currently stands at 241 programs including 19 that have been de-listed but remain on the page with notes about why they were listed and later de-listed.

This year we have seen a proliferation of what I call super rogues, blogged here and here. These super rogues are usually seen on pages designed to look like a Windows security center, seen here and here. The super rogues are also known for hijacking desktops and being installed via security exploits, along with a myriad of spyware and adware apps, and are usually part of an infestation called smitfraud.

Let me say that choosing the top few was very difficult because they are all nearly identical in behavior and installation methods. I’ve ranked them in part by their pervasiveness and the number of complaints found about them on the web. They are apps that debuted this year, except for one honorable mention, an app that’s been around for about 2 1/2 years but continues to appear regularly in spyware infestations. The names of the programs are linked to a complaint or example of the app, not the website of the vendor or program.

Without further ado, I present to you the top 10 rogue anti-spyware applications of 2005.

Dis-Honorable mention goes to VirtualBouncer/AdDestoyer for its 2 1/2 year history of being stealth installed in exploits without notice or consent.

10. Spyware Bomber brought to us by the same folks behind Enternet Media, the spyware company shut down recently by the FTC.

9. SlimShield tied with Winhound Spyware Remover for hijacking and stealth installation.

8. WinAntiVirus and its companion WinAntiSpyware 2005 for hijacking, aggressive advertising and inappropriate collection of personally identifying information.

7. SpywareNo and its clone SpyDemolisher for stealth installation and deceptive aggressive advertising.

6. Razespyware for stealth installs, desktop hijacks and aggressive advertising.

5. Spy Trooper for stealth installs, desktop hijacks and aggressive advertising.

4. WorldAntiSpy for stealth installs, desktop hijacks and aggressive advertising.

3. PSGuard for stealth installs, desktop hijacks and aggressive advertising.

2. SpySheriff for stealth installs, desktop hijacks and aggressive advertising.

1. SpyAxe for desktop hijacks, stealth installs and deceptive, aggressive advertising.

Note: For anyone landing on this this page while searching for help with removing these rogues, I’d suggest going to one of the reputable spyware help forums and posting for help. SpyWareBeware, the home of ASAP, the Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals lists member sites where users can get expert help with spyware removal from trained volunteers.

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar (R) gestures as he greets President Pratibha Patil (L) after receiving the Padma Vibhushan award in the field of sports during the presentation of the 'Padma Awards 2008' at the President House in New Delhi on May 5, 2008.

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar with playback singer Asha Bhosle during the Padma awards function at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on May 05, 2008.

President of India Pratibha Patil, left, presents Padma Vibhushan, one of country’s highest civilian awards to cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in New Delhi on May 05, 2008

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (L) is seen with cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at the Padma Awards ceremony in New Delhi on May 5, 2008.


Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar shares a laugh with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav after receiving Padma Vibhushan award from President Pratibha Patil during a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on May 05, 2008.

I have seen quite a lot of AdSense publishers posted in different forums stating that their AdSense accounts were banned by Google due to fraudulent clicks. Most of these people claim that they are innocent and have never clicked on their on AdSense ads. So they have no idea why click fraud can occur on their AdSense accounts. The truth is click fraud can happen in several ways and not necessarily caused by the AdSense publisher himself/herself who accidentally clicked on his/her own AdSense.

Below are some of the tips to protect your AdSense account:

1) Do not use autosurf programs to promote your websites that contain AdSense. Autosurf programs can substantially increase your website traffic or hits, AdSense page view and ecpm but people who surf your site only to earn advertising credit or other type of incentives. So the traffic generated from autosurf programs aren't counted as real and thus against AdSense policies.

2) If possible, do not involve in any traffic exchange networks and programs. If you have join one or more programs or networks that can make you a steady AdSense commission, you should start worry about your AdSense account as this could mean that members of the program(s) were clicking each other AdSense ads all the while whether intentionally or unintentionally. As soon as Google detected a group of people were clicking each other AdSense, many of the members AdSense account in the program will be suspended. Also traffic exchange can be another mean to artificially generate tons of unreal website traffic or hits and boost up AdSense page view & ecpm and it is strictly prohibited by Google .

3) Do not join AdSense exchange networks. They are similar to traffic exchange programs except members are participate just for clicking each other AdSense. This should be a guaranteed way to be banned by Google.

4) Read all the Google AdSense policies at http://www.google.com/adsense to see whether you have against any policies and make the necessary modification.

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