Facebook.com has become the most visited site on the web. Anyone surprised with this revelation?
Google has just introduce several new features that integrate their DoubleClick Ad Planner data with other Google advertising solutions. These features help streamline the process of planning and building online ad campaigns and give you useful data for making more informed media planning decisions.
One of these new key releases is the Ad Planner 1000 list, a list of the top 1,000 global sites on the web by unique users as measured by Ad Planner. Published monthly, this list details the number of unique visitors, number of page views, and reach for each of the sites included. It’s a great way to quickly reference the most popular sites on the web.
And who is sitting on top of the Ad Planner 1000 list? Facebook.com of course.
Facebook banned in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has blocked social networking site Facebook for posting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed and "obnoxious" images of the Muslim-majority country's leaders. Seriously, instead of bothering themselves with the Internet, the Bangladeshi government should be concerned and guilty of letting a Bangladeshi rape victim get 101 lashes (for being a victim!).
Facebook was blocked late on Saturday, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said.
The move was ordered after the website "hurt the religious sentiments of the country's majority Muslim population" by publishing caricatures of Mohammed, BTRC acting chairman Hasan Mahmud Delwar told AFP on Sunday. Read Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan.
"Some links in the site also contained obnoxious images of our leaders including the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the leader of the opposition," he said.
Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested one young man over the images attacking the political leaders.
"A special intelligence team of the RAB arrested him, and he has been charged with spreading malice and insulting the country's leaders," senior RAB official Enamul Kabir said.
Delwar said the authorities "cannot tolerate these offensive images" of Mohammed and the political leaders, but he stressed the ban was "temporary".
"Facebook will be re-opened once we erase the pages that contain the obnoxious images," he said.
On Friday thousands of Bangladeshis took to the streets of the capital Dhaka, demanding that the government ban Facebook over what they called "anti-Islamic propaganda".
The protests were in response to an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" campaign on Facebook which sparked angry protests and a ban on the site in Pakistan.
"Drawing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, is an attack on Islam and is extremely humiliating for Islam," protest organiser ATM Hemayet Uddin told thousands of cheering, white-clad supporters.
Recommended reading:
* Is Facebook Haram or Halal
* Bangladesh is listed in the Top 10 Corrupt Nations. Fix the corruption not Facebook.
Facebook was blocked late on Saturday, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said.
The move was ordered after the website "hurt the religious sentiments of the country's majority Muslim population" by publishing caricatures of Mohammed, BTRC acting chairman Hasan Mahmud Delwar told AFP on Sunday. Read Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan.
"Some links in the site also contained obnoxious images of our leaders including the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the leader of the opposition," he said.
Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested one young man over the images attacking the political leaders.
"A special intelligence team of the RAB arrested him, and he has been charged with spreading malice and insulting the country's leaders," senior RAB official Enamul Kabir said.
Delwar said the authorities "cannot tolerate these offensive images" of Mohammed and the political leaders, but he stressed the ban was "temporary".
"Facebook will be re-opened once we erase the pages that contain the obnoxious images," he said.
On Friday thousands of Bangladeshis took to the streets of the capital Dhaka, demanding that the government ban Facebook over what they called "anti-Islamic propaganda".
The protests were in response to an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" campaign on Facebook which sparked angry protests and a ban on the site in Pakistan.
"Drawing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, is an attack on Islam and is extremely humiliating for Islam," protest organiser ATM Hemayet Uddin told thousands of cheering, white-clad supporters.
Recommended reading:
* Is Facebook Haram or Halal
* Bangladesh is listed in the Top 10 Corrupt Nations. Fix the corruption not Facebook.
Cheap .my Domain Sale
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This promotion is valid until 27th June 2010. This promotion is for NEW domain registration only. Upon renewal, the price is back to normal price. Domain registration fee is strictly non refundable if the domain name has been successfully registered.
Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest
Germany's Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with "Satellite," (video below) an upbeat, catchy pop song, edging out Turkey and Romania.Meyer-Landrut, who turned 19 during the competition in Norway, won 246 points in the voting by a panel of judges and telephone votes from fans in the 39 participating countries.
It was Germany's second win in the songfest's 55-year history, and the victory means it will host next year's contest.
Meyer-Landrut had been second favorite among leading bookmakers, but first in a Google predictor program. Her victory marks the second year in a row that the Google program has correctly projected the winner of Eurovision, after predicting Norwegian fiddler Alexander Rybak's win in Moscow last year.
Onstage after winning, Meyer-Landrut demanded a kiss on the cheek from Rybak.
"I'm so happy and so thankful and so grateful, and I never thought we could do this," she said, covering her face with a German flag and, looking bewildered, asked: "Do I have to sing now?"
Alone on stage, with her backup singers in shadow, and dressed in a black cocktail dress, black stockings and dark pumps, Meyer-Landrut sang "Satellite" again to cheers and applause.
Germany beat the Turkish entry by 76 points. Romania came in third.
Oil-rich Norway spent 200 million kroner ($31 million) to host the elaborate songfest, which led off with a performance by Rybak, who won the contest in Moscow in 2009.
The contest is known for over-the-top exuberance in costumes, lighting and set design. One notable semifinal outfit – tight silver sparkly shorts – was worn by the male singers in Lithuania's InCulto group, and contestants from Romania had plumes of fire in the background.
Earlier this week, 34 contestants were whittled down to 20 in two semifinals. They were competing in the final with five pre-qualified countries – last year's winner, Norway, and the contest's four perennials: Britain, Germany, France and Spain.
Politically motivated voting, as well as bloc voting, has been fairly common in Eurovision, and this year was no exception, with former Soviet bloc countries supporting each other, a trend that has helped the region win five of the last 10 contests.
SEO: lena meyer alexander rybak kiss
Most Visited Sites On The Web
Google has released a list of the top 1000 most visited sites on the web, as measured by unique visitors.
As Search Engine Land notes, Google is not only making this ranking available, it is also offering advertisers the option of purchasing ads exclusively on these top 1000 most visited sites.
Google AdPlanner compiled the data from "a variety of sources including anonymized, aggregated Google Toolbar data from users who have opted in to enhanced features, publisher opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research."
Interestingly, Google has excluded some sites from the list--notably, several Google properties as well as R-rated sites. The company provides this caveat: "Keep in mind that the list excludes adult sites, ad networks, domains that don't have publicly visible content or don't load properly, and certain Google sites."
Check out the top 13 most visited sites below. A third of the top 21 sites are Chinese, including Baidu, QQ, 163.com, and more.
#13 - Bing.com - 110,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 7% Reach 2,700,000,000 Page views
#12 - Wordpress.com - 120,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 7.7% Reach 1,200,000,000 Page views
#11 - Sina.com - 130,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 8.4% Reach 3,600,000,000 Page views
#10 - Mozilla.com - 140,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 9.2% Reach 2,100,000,000 Page views
#9 - QQ.com - 170,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 11.1% Reach 25,000,000,000 Page views
#8 - Baidu.com - 230,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 15% Reach 27,000,000,000 Page views
#7 - Blogspot.com - 230,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 14.7% Reach 4,400,000,000 Page views
#6 - Microsoft.com - 230,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 14.8% Reach 3,300,000,000 Page views
#5 - MSN.com - 280,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 18.1% Reach 11,000,000,000 Page views
#4 - Wikipedia.com - 310,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 20% Reach 7,900,000,000 Page views (No Advertising)
#3 - Live.com - 370,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 24.1% Reach 39,000,000,000 Page views
#2 - Yahoo.com - 490,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 31.8% Reach 70,000,000,000 Page views
#1 - FaceBook.com 540,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 35.2% Reach 570,000,000,000 Page views
As Search Engine Land notes, Google is not only making this ranking available, it is also offering advertisers the option of purchasing ads exclusively on these top 1000 most visited sites.
Google AdPlanner compiled the data from "a variety of sources including anonymized, aggregated Google Toolbar data from users who have opted in to enhanced features, publisher opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research."
Interestingly, Google has excluded some sites from the list--notably, several Google properties as well as R-rated sites. The company provides this caveat: "Keep in mind that the list excludes adult sites, ad networks, domains that don't have publicly visible content or don't load properly, and certain Google sites."
Check out the top 13 most visited sites below. A third of the top 21 sites are Chinese, including Baidu, QQ, 163.com, and more.
#13 - Bing.com - 110,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 7% Reach 2,700,000,000 Page views
#12 - Wordpress.com - 120,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 7.7% Reach 1,200,000,000 Page views
#11 - Sina.com - 130,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 8.4% Reach 3,600,000,000 Page views
#10 - Mozilla.com - 140,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 9.2% Reach 2,100,000,000 Page views
#9 - QQ.com - 170,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 11.1% Reach 25,000,000,000 Page views
#8 - Baidu.com - 230,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 15% Reach 27,000,000,000 Page views
#7 - Blogspot.com - 230,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 14.7% Reach 4,400,000,000 Page views
#6 - Microsoft.com - 230,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 14.8% Reach 3,300,000,000 Page views
#5 - MSN.com - 280,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 18.1% Reach 11,000,000,000 Page views
#4 - Wikipedia.com - 310,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 20% Reach 7,900,000,000 Page views (No Advertising)
#3 - Live.com - 370,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 24.1% Reach 39,000,000,000 Page views
#2 - Yahoo.com - 490,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 31.8% Reach 70,000,000,000 Page views
#1 - FaceBook.com 540,000,000 Unique visitors (users) 35.2% Reach 570,000,000,000 Page views
Gary Coleman dies due to brain haemorrhage
Gary Coleman, the adorable, pint-sized child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom Diff'rent Strokes who spent the rest of his life struggling on Hollywood's D-list, died on Friday after suffering a brain haemorrhage. He was 42.
Coleman was taken off life support and died with family and friends at his side, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said.
He suffered the brain haemorrhage on Wednesday at his Utah home. Frank said Coleman was hospitalised because of an accident at the home, but she had no further details.
Coleman's family, in a statement read by his brother-in-law Shawn Price, said information would be released shortly about his death.
Best remembered for Diff'rent Strokes character Arnold Jackson and his "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" catchphrase, Coleman chafed at his permanent association with the show but also tried to capitalise on it through reality shows and other TV appearances.
His adult life was marked with legal, financial and health troubles, suicide attempts and even a 2003 run for California governor.
"I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson," he told The New York Times during his gubernatorial run. "I'm someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more."
A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday on Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.
Coleman was taken off life support and died with family and friends at his side, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said.
He suffered the brain haemorrhage on Wednesday at his Utah home. Frank said Coleman was hospitalised because of an accident at the home, but she had no further details.
Coleman's family, in a statement read by his brother-in-law Shawn Price, said information would be released shortly about his death.
Best remembered for Diff'rent Strokes character Arnold Jackson and his "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" catchphrase, Coleman chafed at his permanent association with the show but also tried to capitalise on it through reality shows and other TV appearances.
His adult life was marked with legal, financial and health troubles, suicide attempts and even a 2003 run for California governor.
"I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson," he told The New York Times during his gubernatorial run. "I'm someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more."
A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday on Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.
Heavy metals found in Herbal Supplements
Nearly all of the herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants, and some supplement sellers made illegal claims that their products can cure cancer and other diseases, investigators found.
The levels of heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous, the investigators found. However, 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residues that appeared to exceed legal limits, the investigators found. In some cases, the government has not set allowable levels of these pesticides because of a paucity of scientific research.
Investigators found at least nine products that made apparently illegal health claims, including a product containing ginkgo biloba that was labeled as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and a product containing ginseng labeled as a treatment to prevent diabetes and cancer. They also described a salesperson at a supplement specialty store who claimed that a garlic supplement could be taken instead of blood pressure medication.
Any product that claims to treat, cure, prevent or mitigate a disease is considered a drug and must go through strict regulatory reviews.
The report, which was prepared by the Government Accountability Office, was provided to The New York Times and will be made public at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Its release comes two weeks before the Senate is scheduled to begin debate on a landmark food safety bill that is expected to substantially increase the federal government’s authority over food manufacturers.
But it is uncertain how tough the bill will be on supplement manufacturers, and it has been the subject of fierce lobbying. Capitol Hill staff members familiar with the process said the bill was unlikely to include provisions opposed by supplement manufacturers.
Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said in an interview that he was not concerned about the safety of the supplements tested by the G.A.O. investigators. But Dr. Sharfstein noted that the agency had recently announced a recall of Vita Breath, a dietary supplement that it said might contain hazardous levels of lead.
Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing the dietary supplement industry, said it was not surprising that herbal supplements contained trace amounts of heavy metals, because these are routinely found in soil and plants. “I don’t think this should be of concern to consumers,” Mr. Mister said.
Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who will preside over Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said that while improvements had been made in recent years in the oversight of supplements, “the F.D.A. needs the authority and tools to ensure that dietary supplements are as safe and effective as is widely perceived by the Americans who take them.”
Among the witnesses at the hearing will be Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, a company that has tested over 2,000 dietary supplements made by more than 300 manufacturers and has found that one in four have quality problems. According to Dr. Cooperman’s written testimony, the most common problems are supplements that lack adequate quantities of the indicated ingredients and those contaminated with heavy metals.
Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, wrote a letter to the committee saying that some athletes have been rendered ineligible for international competitions because they took supplements that contained steroids not listed on the products’ labels. There are thousands of supplements available for sale that contain steroids or other harmful ingredients, he wrote.
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* Axiron underarm cream to rival Viagra pills
The levels of heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous, the investigators found. However, 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residues that appeared to exceed legal limits, the investigators found. In some cases, the government has not set allowable levels of these pesticides because of a paucity of scientific research.
Investigators found at least nine products that made apparently illegal health claims, including a product containing ginkgo biloba that was labeled as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and a product containing ginseng labeled as a treatment to prevent diabetes and cancer. They also described a salesperson at a supplement specialty store who claimed that a garlic supplement could be taken instead of blood pressure medication.
Any product that claims to treat, cure, prevent or mitigate a disease is considered a drug and must go through strict regulatory reviews.
The report, which was prepared by the Government Accountability Office, was provided to The New York Times and will be made public at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Its release comes two weeks before the Senate is scheduled to begin debate on a landmark food safety bill that is expected to substantially increase the federal government’s authority over food manufacturers.
But it is uncertain how tough the bill will be on supplement manufacturers, and it has been the subject of fierce lobbying. Capitol Hill staff members familiar with the process said the bill was unlikely to include provisions opposed by supplement manufacturers.
Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said in an interview that he was not concerned about the safety of the supplements tested by the G.A.O. investigators. But Dr. Sharfstein noted that the agency had recently announced a recall of Vita Breath, a dietary supplement that it said might contain hazardous levels of lead.
Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing the dietary supplement industry, said it was not surprising that herbal supplements contained trace amounts of heavy metals, because these are routinely found in soil and plants. “I don’t think this should be of concern to consumers,” Mr. Mister said.
Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who will preside over Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said that while improvements had been made in recent years in the oversight of supplements, “the F.D.A. needs the authority and tools to ensure that dietary supplements are as safe and effective as is widely perceived by the Americans who take them.”
Among the witnesses at the hearing will be Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, a company that has tested over 2,000 dietary supplements made by more than 300 manufacturers and has found that one in four have quality problems. According to Dr. Cooperman’s written testimony, the most common problems are supplements that lack adequate quantities of the indicated ingredients and those contaminated with heavy metals.
Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, wrote a letter to the committee saying that some athletes have been rendered ineligible for international competitions because they took supplements that contained steroids not listed on the products’ labels. There are thousands of supplements available for sale that contain steroids or other harmful ingredients, he wrote.
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* Axiron underarm cream to rival Viagra pills
Keith Alexander, first cyber warfare general
The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare – despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace. The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon's ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world's computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland. Read also the Advent of Cyberweapons and eBombs - Futuristic Internet
The creation of America's most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support "to the frontlines of cyber warfare".
The creation of Cyber Command is in response to increasing anxiety over the vulnerability of the US's military and other networks to a cyber attack.
James Miller, the deputy under-secretary of defence for policy, has hinted that the US might consider a conventional military response to certain kinds of online attack.
Although Alexander pledged during his confirmation hearings before the Senate committee on armed services last month that Cyber Command would not contribute to the militarisation of cyberspace, the committee's chairman, Senator Carl Levin expressed concern that both Pentagon doctrine, and the legal framework for online operations, had failed to keep pace with rapid advances in cyber warfare.
In particular Levin voiced concern that US cyber operations to combat online threats to the US, routed through neutral third countries, "could have broad and damaging consequences" to wider American interests.
Plans for Cyber Command were originally conceived under President George W Bush. Since taking office Barack Obama has embraced the theme of cyber security, describing it last year as "one of the most serious economic and national security challenges [the US faces] as a nation".
During his confirmation hearing, Alexander said that the Pentagon's networks were being targeted by "hundreds of thousands of probes every day" adding that he had "been alarmed by the increase, especially in this year".
Cyber warfare has increased rapidly in scale and sophistication with China accused of being at the forefront of prominent recent attacks, including the targeting of Google and 20 other companies last year as well as "Titan Rain" in 2003 – a series of coordinated attacks on US networks. Russian and North Korean hackers have also been accused of large-scale attacks.
Moscow was accused of being behind a massive cyber assault on Estonia in 2007 – the second largest cyber warfare operation ever conducted.
While Alexander has tried to play down the offensive aspects of his command, the Pentagon has been more explicit, stating on Friday that Cyber Command will "direct the operations and defence of specified Department of Defense information networks [involving some 90,000 military personnel] and prepare to, when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, [to] ensure US allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."
The complex issues facing Cyber Command were thrown into relief earlier this year when the Washington Post revealed details of a so-called "dot-mil" operation by Fort Meade's cyber warfare unit, backed by Alexander, to shut down a "honeytrap website" set up by the Saudis and the CIA to target Islamist extremists planning attacks in Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon became convinced that the forum was being used to co-ordinate the entry of jihadi fighters into Iraq.
Despite the strong objections of the CIA, the site was attacked by the Fort Meade cyber warfare unit. As a result, some 300 other servers in the Saudi kingdom, Germany and Texas also were inadvertently shut down.
Of equally concern to those who had opposed the operation, it was conducted without informing key members of the Saudi royal family, who were reported to be "furious" that a counter-terrorism tool had been shut down.
The issue of cyber warfare – and how to combat it – has become an increasingly fraught one.
The need to have electronic warfare capabilities, say those who support them, has been proven repeatedly by the apparent success of hostile attacks on government networks, including last year's massive denial of service assault on networks in both the US and Korea.
Last year, hackers also accessed large amounts of sensitive data concerning the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter programme.
The difficulties facing the new command were underlined in March by former CIA director Michael V Hayden, who said that the Saudi operation had demonstrated that cyber warfare techniques were evolving so rapidly that they were now outpacing the government's ability to develop coherent policies to guide its use.
"Cyber was moving so fast that we were always in danger of building up precedent before we built up policy," Hayden said.
Recommended reading:
* Cyber terrorism hit Twitter
* How to use SkyGrabber to hack U.S. Predator drones
The creation of America's most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support "to the frontlines of cyber warfare".
The creation of Cyber Command is in response to increasing anxiety over the vulnerability of the US's military and other networks to a cyber attack.
James Miller, the deputy under-secretary of defence for policy, has hinted that the US might consider a conventional military response to certain kinds of online attack.
Although Alexander pledged during his confirmation hearings before the Senate committee on armed services last month that Cyber Command would not contribute to the militarisation of cyberspace, the committee's chairman, Senator Carl Levin expressed concern that both Pentagon doctrine, and the legal framework for online operations, had failed to keep pace with rapid advances in cyber warfare.
In particular Levin voiced concern that US cyber operations to combat online threats to the US, routed through neutral third countries, "could have broad and damaging consequences" to wider American interests.
Plans for Cyber Command were originally conceived under President George W Bush. Since taking office Barack Obama has embraced the theme of cyber security, describing it last year as "one of the most serious economic and national security challenges [the US faces] as a nation".
During his confirmation hearing, Alexander said that the Pentagon's networks were being targeted by "hundreds of thousands of probes every day" adding that he had "been alarmed by the increase, especially in this year".
Cyber warfare has increased rapidly in scale and sophistication with China accused of being at the forefront of prominent recent attacks, including the targeting of Google and 20 other companies last year as well as "Titan Rain" in 2003 – a series of coordinated attacks on US networks. Russian and North Korean hackers have also been accused of large-scale attacks.
Moscow was accused of being behind a massive cyber assault on Estonia in 2007 – the second largest cyber warfare operation ever conducted.
While Alexander has tried to play down the offensive aspects of his command, the Pentagon has been more explicit, stating on Friday that Cyber Command will "direct the operations and defence of specified Department of Defense information networks [involving some 90,000 military personnel] and prepare to, when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, [to] ensure US allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."
The complex issues facing Cyber Command were thrown into relief earlier this year when the Washington Post revealed details of a so-called "dot-mil" operation by Fort Meade's cyber warfare unit, backed by Alexander, to shut down a "honeytrap website" set up by the Saudis and the CIA to target Islamist extremists planning attacks in Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon became convinced that the forum was being used to co-ordinate the entry of jihadi fighters into Iraq.
Despite the strong objections of the CIA, the site was attacked by the Fort Meade cyber warfare unit. As a result, some 300 other servers in the Saudi kingdom, Germany and Texas also were inadvertently shut down.
Of equally concern to those who had opposed the operation, it was conducted without informing key members of the Saudi royal family, who were reported to be "furious" that a counter-terrorism tool had been shut down.
The issue of cyber warfare – and how to combat it – has become an increasingly fraught one.
The need to have electronic warfare capabilities, say those who support them, has been proven repeatedly by the apparent success of hostile attacks on government networks, including last year's massive denial of service assault on networks in both the US and Korea.
Last year, hackers also accessed large amounts of sensitive data concerning the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter programme.
The difficulties facing the new command were underlined in March by former CIA director Michael V Hayden, who said that the Saudi operation had demonstrated that cyber warfare techniques were evolving so rapidly that they were now outpacing the government's ability to develop coherent policies to guide its use.
"Cyber was moving so fast that we were always in danger of building up precedent before we built up policy," Hayden said.
Recommended reading:
* Cyber terrorism hit Twitter
* How to use SkyGrabber to hack U.S. Predator drones
Deadly lipsticks from Cover Girl's
Women love lipstick but without their knowledge, some lipsticks are hazardous for their health. They twist it, glide it, paint it on, and suddenly feel attractive, composed, sexy and ready for the world.Drenched in shades of sangria, dahlia, ruby, cherry and garnet, a lipstick-stained mouth exudes health. But looks can deceive.
Tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration last year on 22 red lipsticks found lead, a neurotoxin, in every single lipstick sample studied.
The highest levels were in three well-known and common brands: Cover Girl, Revlon, L'Oreal. While the FDA is continuing lead research on additional cosmetic brands and colours, it is reassuring consumers that the lead levels it found in the red lipsticks are very small and not a health threat.
The FDA does not regulate lead in finished cosmetics, only in colours added to the products. None of the products exceeded the 20 parts per million limit on colours, the agency said.
An industry trade group, the Personal Care Products Council, said manufacturers did not add lead intentionally.
''Because lead is found naturally in air, water, and soil, it may also be found at extremely low levels as a trace contaminant in the raw ingredients used in formulating cosmetics, just as it is in many thousands of other products,'' the group states.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is not convinced.
The lead found in ''Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor Maximum Red'' was 34 times higher than the lead found in the lowest scoring lipstick, Avon's ''Ultra Color Rich Cherry Jubilee''. Clearly, the manufacturers are capable of doing better, said Stacy Malkan, of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
Cover Girl's media centre at Procter & Gamble did not respond to requests for comment. ''I think some companies are not doing a good job sourcing their ingredients,'' Ms Malkan said.
Studies suggest the average woman inadvertently consumes about 1.8 kilograms of lipstick in the course of her life, licking her lips, eating fruit, sipping tea.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is calling on the FDA to require cosmetics manufacturers to reduce lead to the lowest achievable levels.
''The reason we're worried is that lead builds up in the body over time,'' Ms Malkan said. ''Even small levels of lead, recent science shows, is dangerous at any level to developing children.''
What should consumers do? She noted that glosses generally tested lower for lead than highly pigmented, opaque lipsticks, so that's what she uses.
Using fewer personal care products was probably a good idea, especially the fragranced ones, Ms Malkan said.
''We need to change the laws to require companies to disclose what's in their products.''
Will there be a Korean War 2010
Tension is brewing on the Korean peninsula. North Korea declared it would cut all ties with South Korea in response to its blaming of the communist country for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, as tensions on the divided peninsula spiked to their highest level in a decade.
The dramatic deterioration in ties came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Seoul on Wednesday for talks expected to focus on how to deal with North Korea.
The North's announcement late Tuesday came hours after South Korea began taking steps that were seen as among the strongest it could implement short of military action – ranging from slashing trade, resuming propaganda warfare and barring the North's cargo ships.
Tensions have risen since last week, when a team of international investigators concluded that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the Cheonan warship off the west coast on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
The North flatly denies involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, one of the South's worst military disasters since the Korean War, and has warned that retaliation would mean war.
North Korea is cutting all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office in early 2013, the country's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification, which handles relations with South Korea, said in a statement.
It also said North Korea would expel all South Korean government officials working at a joint industrial park in the northern border town of Kaesong, and South Korean ships and airliners would be banned from passing through its territory.
North Korea would start "all-out counterattacks" against the South's psychological warfare operations. Pyongyang called its moves "the first phase" of punitive measures against Seoul, suggesting more action could follow.
South Korea's military said Wednesday there were no signs of unusual activity by North Korean troops. At least two cross-border communication links were operating normally on Wednesday morning, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
Recommended reading:
* Kim Kyong-Hui moving up North Korea power ladder
* North Korea Hunger For War
* The Koreans Are In 2010 World Cup Finals
The dramatic deterioration in ties came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Seoul on Wednesday for talks expected to focus on how to deal with North Korea.
The North's announcement late Tuesday came hours after South Korea began taking steps that were seen as among the strongest it could implement short of military action – ranging from slashing trade, resuming propaganda warfare and barring the North's cargo ships.
Tensions have risen since last week, when a team of international investigators concluded that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the Cheonan warship off the west coast on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
The North flatly denies involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, one of the South's worst military disasters since the Korean War, and has warned that retaliation would mean war.
North Korea is cutting all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office in early 2013, the country's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification, which handles relations with South Korea, said in a statement.
It also said North Korea would expel all South Korean government officials working at a joint industrial park in the northern border town of Kaesong, and South Korean ships and airliners would be banned from passing through its territory.
North Korea would start "all-out counterattacks" against the South's psychological warfare operations. Pyongyang called its moves "the first phase" of punitive measures against Seoul, suggesting more action could follow.
South Korea's military said Wednesday there were no signs of unusual activity by North Korean troops. At least two cross-border communication links were operating normally on Wednesday morning, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
Recommended reading:
* Kim Kyong-Hui moving up North Korea power ladder
* North Korea Hunger For War
* The Koreans Are In 2010 World Cup Finals
Why is deleting Facebook profile so hard
Why Is It So Hard to Delete Your Facebook Account? Facebook reminds you of life without it if you try to de-activate. Facebook’s had a bad week over concerns about how it treats user data. Ready to delete your account? It’s harder than you may think. Read Delete FaceBook account - How to
Deactivating and deleting your Facebook account are two very different things. What Facebook makes difficult to find out is deactivation is temporary, deletion is permanent. And unlike deactivation, you need Facebook’s help to permanently delete the information. (See the top 10 Facebook stories of 2009.)
The actual deactivation process is fairly simple. Once logged in, click on Account Settings, and select Deactivate Account at the bottom. But first, Facebook gives you a guilt trip in the form of an ad with Facebook friends and your memories together, suggesting they’ll miss you. If you can make it past that (you coldhearted person, you) be sure to click “Opt out of receiving emails from Facebook.” Otherwise your friends can still invite you to events, ask you to join groups, and even tag you in photos.
But deactivation is very different than deletion. Facebook keeps all your photos and information. It’s as if you’re invisible. The information is still there, and it’s still easily accessible to you (and Facebook) by just logging back in. Facebook wants you to have the power to deactivate, but makes permanently deleting your information quite difficult. To actually delete your account you must request Facebook to eliminate it, and you must navigate through five other pages to get to that point.
To delete, log in, scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page and find the link to Help Center. Once there, click on Privacy Settings. Next, scroll halfway down the page to “Deactiviating, Deleting and Memorializing Accounts.” Next, click on “How do I permanently delete my account?” Read the explanation, and then click again on the word “here” which is hyperlinked in the text. It’ll generate a request for Facebook, who can take your information off the grid for good.
Why is deleting your Facebook profile so hard? Facebook doesn’t want you to really get rid of all your information. Because once it’s gone, you’re no longer one log-in away from coming back and sharing anew.
Recommended reading:
* Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan
Deactivating and deleting your Facebook account are two very different things. What Facebook makes difficult to find out is deactivation is temporary, deletion is permanent. And unlike deactivation, you need Facebook’s help to permanently delete the information. (See the top 10 Facebook stories of 2009.)
The actual deactivation process is fairly simple. Once logged in, click on Account Settings, and select Deactivate Account at the bottom. But first, Facebook gives you a guilt trip in the form of an ad with Facebook friends and your memories together, suggesting they’ll miss you. If you can make it past that (you coldhearted person, you) be sure to click “Opt out of receiving emails from Facebook.” Otherwise your friends can still invite you to events, ask you to join groups, and even tag you in photos.
But deactivation is very different than deletion. Facebook keeps all your photos and information. It’s as if you’re invisible. The information is still there, and it’s still easily accessible to you (and Facebook) by just logging back in. Facebook wants you to have the power to deactivate, but makes permanently deleting your information quite difficult. To actually delete your account you must request Facebook to eliminate it, and you must navigate through five other pages to get to that point.
To delete, log in, scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page and find the link to Help Center. Once there, click on Privacy Settings. Next, scroll halfway down the page to “Deactiviating, Deleting and Memorializing Accounts.” Next, click on “How do I permanently delete my account?” Read the explanation, and then click again on the word “here” which is hyperlinked in the text. It’ll generate a request for Facebook, who can take your information off the grid for good.
Why is deleting your Facebook profile so hard? Facebook doesn’t want you to really get rid of all your information. Because once it’s gone, you’re no longer one log-in away from coming back and sharing anew.
Recommended reading:
* Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan
Tiny Quantum dot speeds hi-tech future
Scientists have created a transistor in a computer chip that is 10 times smaller than those commonly in use now, marking the start of a new age of super-fast, super-powerful computing. At the heart of the electronic device is a "quantum dot" (pictured below), which measures just four-billionths of a metre — so small that it contains just seven atoms, compared to the millions that make up a typical laptop chip.
The technical breakthrough is reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The paper's co-author, Michelle Simmons, said the achievement marked the first time scientists had been able to dictate the placement and behaviour of single atoms within a transistor.
"We're basically controlling nature at the atomic scale," she said. "This is one of the key milestones in building a quantum computer."
Professor Simmons, director of the University of New South Wales centre of excellence for quantum computer technology, said devices made at this scale would allow more complex computations at exponentially greater speeds. This would also improve database searching and eventually lead to "100 per cent secure communication".
"It has many implications for national security and for the financial system and transferring information of any kind," she said.
This single-crystal dot, Professor Simmons said, was proof that it was possible to build the ultimate computer — a quantum computer in silicon.
The atoms of the quantum dot are imbedded in one silicon crystal.
Professor Simmons said the team chose silicon because of its longer lifespan and because it would be compatible with existing technology.
"All our computers contain silicon chips," she said. "Building transistors at the atomic-scale means that anything electrical like computers and mobile phones will get smaller and faster while their functionality increases dramatically."
The team's goal is to develop a single-atom transistor — unthinkable in 1949, when the first computer commissioned in Australia took up a whole room.
The technical breakthrough is reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The paper's co-author, Michelle Simmons, said the achievement marked the first time scientists had been able to dictate the placement and behaviour of single atoms within a transistor.
"We're basically controlling nature at the atomic scale," she said. "This is one of the key milestones in building a quantum computer."
Professor Simmons, director of the University of New South Wales centre of excellence for quantum computer technology, said devices made at this scale would allow more complex computations at exponentially greater speeds. This would also improve database searching and eventually lead to "100 per cent secure communication".
"It has many implications for national security and for the financial system and transferring information of any kind," she said.
This single-crystal dot, Professor Simmons said, was proof that it was possible to build the ultimate computer — a quantum computer in silicon.
The atoms of the quantum dot are imbedded in one silicon crystal.
Professor Simmons said the team chose silicon because of its longer lifespan and because it would be compatible with existing technology.
"All our computers contain silicon chips," she said. "Building transistors at the atomic-scale means that anything electrical like computers and mobile phones will get smaller and faster while their functionality increases dramatically."
The team's goal is to develop a single-atom transistor — unthinkable in 1949, when the first computer commissioned in Australia took up a whole room.
Simon Monjack, Brittany Murphy's husband found dead
The husband of actress Brittany Murphy has been found dead just five months after the death of his wife, according to reports. The Los Angeles Times says British-born Simon Monjack, a screenwriter, died from unknown causes at his Hollywood Hills home. Read Malaysian film among last starring Brittany Murphy
LA Police Sergeant Louie Lozano told the newspaper that detectives were investigating at the scene.
It followed an emergency 911 call about 9.30pm Sunday (Los Angeles time) for an "unspecified medical aid request", LA fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
The department sent staff to the scene to provide "medical services" to Monjack, but he was pronounced dead.
Celebrity website TMZ reported Murphy's mother, Sharon, found Monjack unconscious in the master bedroom.
Murphy, 32, who died of cardiac arrest in December, was ruled by the LA county coroner in February to have died of pneumonia, complicated by an iron deficiency, anaemia and "multiple drug intoxication".
The death was ruled an accident.
Among her best-known roles were Clueless, Girl, Interrupted and 8 Mile, while she also voiced Luanne Platter in popular animated TV show King of the Hill.
Murphy and Monjack married in a private ceremony in May 2007.
LA Police Sergeant Louie Lozano told the newspaper that detectives were investigating at the scene.
It followed an emergency 911 call about 9.30pm Sunday (Los Angeles time) for an "unspecified medical aid request", LA fire department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
The department sent staff to the scene to provide "medical services" to Monjack, but he was pronounced dead.
Celebrity website TMZ reported Murphy's mother, Sharon, found Monjack unconscious in the master bedroom.
Murphy, 32, who died of cardiac arrest in December, was ruled by the LA county coroner in February to have died of pneumonia, complicated by an iron deficiency, anaemia and "multiple drug intoxication".
The death was ruled an accident.
Among her best-known roles were Clueless, Girl, Interrupted and 8 Mile, while she also voiced Luanne Platter in popular animated TV show King of the Hill.
Murphy and Monjack married in a private ceremony in May 2007.
Too much Bok Choy can cause Hypothyroidism
An 88-year-old Chinese woman, who was eating large amounts of bok choy in hopes of controlling her diabetes, ended up in a coma after ‘overdosing’ on the vegetable, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.The woman, who was not identified in the report, was brought by her family to an emergency room at a hospital in New York City last summer. She was unable to swallow or walk for three days.
When doctors examined her, they discovered she had a severe case of hypothyroidism, which left her in a thyroid-induced coma. A breathing tube was inserted and she was taken to the intensive care unit where she eventually recovered.
Because the woman was eating so much bok choy—between 2 to 3 pounds on a daily basis—doctors believe an enzyme in the vegetable hindered the thyroid’s ability to function properly.
“This case demonstrates the potential for nutritional factors to have a profound effect on health,” it was stated in the report.
Free malware-infected USB drives from IBM
Don't trust free products or giveaways. IBM has been left with egg on its face after it distributed virus-laden USB keys to attendees at Australia's biggest computer security conference. Security conference, IBM security product preview and free virus. It's a rotten day for IBM and the delegates.
Delegates of the AusCERT conference, held over the past week at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, were told about the malware problem in a warning email this afternoon by IBM Australia chief technologist Glenn Wightwick.
The incident is ironic because conference attendees include the who's who of the computer security world and IBM was there to show off its security credentials.
Some attendees may have thought they were experiencing dejavu as Telstra was left red-faced at the 2008 AusCERT conference for also distributing malware-infected USB drives.
"At the AusCERT conference this week, you may have collected a complimentary USB key from the IBM booth," Wightwick wrote.
"Unfortunately we have discovered that some of these USB keys contained malware and we suspect that all USB keys may be affected."
Wightwick said the virus spreads when the infected USB device is inserted into a Windows computer but noted it should be detected by the majority of current anti-virus products.
He instructed attendees not to use the USB key and return it to IBM's head office.
AusCERT attendee Tom Piotrowski, managing director of IT security company Unixpac, said he was left "speechless" by the incident.
"Hundreds of IT security professionals make a pilgrimage to AusCERT each year," he said.
"Delegates are going there to listen about the latest developments in security technology ... just think how big an embarrassment a boo-boo like this must be for IBM."
Delegates of the AusCERT conference, held over the past week at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, were told about the malware problem in a warning email this afternoon by IBM Australia chief technologist Glenn Wightwick.
The incident is ironic because conference attendees include the who's who of the computer security world and IBM was there to show off its security credentials.
Some attendees may have thought they were experiencing dejavu as Telstra was left red-faced at the 2008 AusCERT conference for also distributing malware-infected USB drives.
"At the AusCERT conference this week, you may have collected a complimentary USB key from the IBM booth," Wightwick wrote.
"Unfortunately we have discovered that some of these USB keys contained malware and we suspect that all USB keys may be affected."
Wightwick said the virus spreads when the infected USB device is inserted into a Windows computer but noted it should be detected by the majority of current anti-virus products.
He instructed attendees not to use the USB key and return it to IBM's head office.
AusCERT attendee Tom Piotrowski, managing director of IT security company Unixpac, said he was left "speechless" by the incident.
"Hundreds of IT security professionals make a pilgrimage to AusCERT each year," he said.
"Delegates are going there to listen about the latest developments in security technology ... just think how big an embarrassment a boo-boo like this must be for IBM."
Spain's most famous matadors gored in the throat
Julio Aparicio, one of Spain's most famous matadors, was gored in the throat today during a bullfight. The horrific injury has left him in critical condition: "[The horn] went though the tongue and penetrated the roof of the mouth, fracturing the jawbone," one of the medics who worked on Aparicio told AFP news in Madrid. Don't blame the bull.
After two operations, it appears leading surgeon Maximo Garcia Pedros has saved Aparicio's life. The bull, however, was quickly killed by other matadors.
The incident took place during the Festival of Saint Isidro, considered to be the most important event in the bullfighting calendar, at the Plaza de Toros las Ventas bullring, which can seat up to 24,000 people.
After two operations, it appears leading surgeon Maximo Garcia Pedros has saved Aparicio's life. The bull, however, was quickly killed by other matadors.
The incident took place during the Festival of Saint Isidro, considered to be the most important event in the bullfighting calendar, at the Plaza de Toros las Ventas bullring, which can seat up to 24,000 people.
Wenlock and Mandeville
Organizers of the 2012 London Summer Olympics have decided upon one-eyed mascots for their Games, and no, they're not pirates. They are Wenlock and Mandeville, names for two small English towns, and they have no discernible gender. Orange Wenlock and blue Mandeville just look bizarre. The Olympics committee should have asked Pixar to create the mascots.
Says London organizing chief Sebastian Coe of the move away from mascots that easily make for stuffed-animal marketing: "We've talked to lots of children and they don't want cuddly toys. They want something they can interact with and something with a good story behind it."
Well, we suppose explaining to a child why someone has only one eye and is neither male nor female would indeed make for a good story.
Says London organizing chief Sebastian Coe of the move away from mascots that easily make for stuffed-animal marketing: "We've talked to lots of children and they don't want cuddly toys. They want something they can interact with and something with a good story behind it."
Well, we suppose explaining to a child why someone has only one eye and is neither male nor female would indeed make for a good story.
Air India flight IX812 crashes at Mangalore
At least 160 people were confirmed dead in an Air India Express plane crash in southern India early today, officials said. More story and photos from mangalorean.com - Air India Express from Dubai crashes at Mangalore Airport
The accident occurred when the plane overshot the runway of the airport serving the city of Mangalore in Karnataka state.
Indian television channels said the flight was coming in from Dubai.
"At least 160 passengers have died in the crash," V.S. Acharya, Home Minister of the southern state of Karnataka, told reporters.
A second official also confirmed that 160 people had been killed.
The plane was carrying 163 passengers and nine crew members.
Officials had said earlier 169 people were on the plane.
"The plane apparently overshot the runway and has crashed. We have news that the plane caught fire after crashing," Rohit Katiyar, a top airport security official, told Reuters.
Television footage suggested the plane had partially broken up, with smoke billowing from the main fuselage, as rescue workers sought to douse the fire with foam.
Acharya told the Press Trust of India that the crash site was as far as 10 kilometres from the airport. "We fear there are casualties," Mangalore Aiport Managaer Peter Abrahams told the NDTV news channel.
The accident occurred when the plane overshot the runway of the airport serving the city of Mangalore in Karnataka state.
Indian television channels said the flight was coming in from Dubai.
"At least 160 passengers have died in the crash," V.S. Acharya, Home Minister of the southern state of Karnataka, told reporters.
A second official also confirmed that 160 people had been killed.
The plane was carrying 163 passengers and nine crew members.
Officials had said earlier 169 people were on the plane.
"The plane apparently overshot the runway and has crashed. We have news that the plane caught fire after crashing," Rohit Katiyar, a top airport security official, told Reuters.
Television footage suggested the plane had partially broken up, with smoke billowing from the main fuselage, as rescue workers sought to douse the fire with foam.
Acharya told the Press Trust of India that the crash site was as far as 10 kilometres from the airport. "We fear there are casualties," Mangalore Aiport Managaer Peter Abrahams told the NDTV news channel.
YouTube is Haram and unIslamic
The Pakistani government blocked access to YouTube on Thursday because of "sacrilegious" content in a growing Internet crackdown against sites deemed offensive to the country's majority Muslim population. Watching soft porn in YouTube was okay but when there are videos on Islam's Prophet Muhammad, it became unIslamic.
The move against the video-sharing website came a day after the government blocked access to Facebook amid anger over a page on the social networking site that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. Read Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority did not point to specific material on YouTube that prompted it to block the site, only citing "growing sacrilegious contents." The government acted against both Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the "derogatory material," the regulatory body said in a statement.
It welcomed representatives from the two websites to contact the Pakistani government to resolve the dispute in a way that "ensures religious harmony and respect."
The regulatory body said it has blocked more than 450 Internet links containing offensive material, but it is unclear how many of the links were blocked in the last two days.
Access to the online encyclopedia site Wikipedia also was restricted Thursday, but it was not clear if the government had intended to do so. The head of the Pakistani telecommunications company Nayatel, Wahajus Siraj, said the restriction resulted from a technical glitch.
The government blocked Facebook on Wednesday after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court order requiring officials to restrict access to the site until May 31. It was unclear if the ban against YouTube also would be temporary.
Pakistan blocked access to YouTube for two days in 2008 because of what it said was unIslamic content. Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and Morocco have all blocked access to YouTube in the past for various reasons.
It remains to be seen how successful the government will be at keeping Pakistan's nearly 20 million Internet users from accessing the blocked sites. Other countries, such as China, permanently ban Facebook and YouTube. But citizens often have little trouble working their way around the ban using proxy servers and other means.
"What's common to Facebook and Lashkar-e-Taiba?" one user on Twitter wrote, referring to a Pakistani militant group that is banned but has an alleged front group that operates openly. "They are both banned in Pakistan, but Pakistanis can still find them if they want to."
Recommended reading:
* Is Facebook Haram or Halal
The move against the video-sharing website came a day after the government blocked access to Facebook amid anger over a page on the social networking site that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. Read Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority did not point to specific material on YouTube that prompted it to block the site, only citing "growing sacrilegious contents." The government acted against both Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the "derogatory material," the regulatory body said in a statement.
It welcomed representatives from the two websites to contact the Pakistani government to resolve the dispute in a way that "ensures religious harmony and respect."
The regulatory body said it has blocked more than 450 Internet links containing offensive material, but it is unclear how many of the links were blocked in the last two days.
Access to the online encyclopedia site Wikipedia also was restricted Thursday, but it was not clear if the government had intended to do so. The head of the Pakistani telecommunications company Nayatel, Wahajus Siraj, said the restriction resulted from a technical glitch.
The government blocked Facebook on Wednesday after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court order requiring officials to restrict access to the site until May 31. It was unclear if the ban against YouTube also would be temporary.
Pakistan blocked access to YouTube for two days in 2008 because of what it said was unIslamic content. Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and Morocco have all blocked access to YouTube in the past for various reasons.
It remains to be seen how successful the government will be at keeping Pakistan's nearly 20 million Internet users from accessing the blocked sites. Other countries, such as China, permanently ban Facebook and YouTube. But citizens often have little trouble working their way around the ban using proxy servers and other means.
"What's common to Facebook and Lashkar-e-Taiba?" one user on Twitter wrote, referring to a Pakistani militant group that is banned but has an alleged front group that operates openly. "They are both banned in Pakistan, but Pakistanis can still find them if they want to."
Recommended reading:
* Is Facebook Haram or Halal
Hotmail 2010 upgrades to challenge GMail
Microsoft upgrade aims to make Hotmail cool again. The free Web mail service soon will be switching to a new approach that Microsoft hopes will give Hotmail an edge over rival offerings from Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc.The upgrade, expected to be available in July or August, will automatically sort incoming messages into different categories devoted to users' key contacts and Internet social networks. It will also provide previews of incoming photos, videos and other material without having to open an attachment or click on a link.
Other tools are being added to make it less cumbersome to send photos, videos, documents and other attachments to e-mail recipients. Another tweak is supposed to make is easier to sync Hotmail on mobile phones.
It's all part of the most extensive overhaul to Hotmail since Microsoft bought the service 12 years ago, said Chris Jones, a Microsoft executive who is overseeing the renovations.
The new features are supposed to enable people to spend less time managing their inboxes and more time enjoying and digesting what's in the messages.
Microsoft is hoping the added convenience will help overcome the perception that Hotmail was growing stale as Google and Yahoo added more bells and whistles to their free Web mail services.
Even as it made relatively few changes, Hotmail remained the world's most used service with 360 million users, according to statistics complied by comScore Inc. Yahoo ranks second globally with about 284 million users followed by Google's Gmail at 173 million users.
Hotmail's most significant changes will provide new ways to look at photos and videos sent through e-mail. Microsoft expects this feature to be particularly popular because it says 55 percent of Hotmail's storage is consumed by photos sent as attachments.
The new technology will detect when an e-mail contains a photo attachment and automatically display a thumbnail of the image (or images) at the top of the message. Hotmail will provide similar previews when it detects links to photo-sharing sites Flickr and SmugMug or to video-sharing sites YouTube and Hulu. Read also how GMail users drag images into messages
Other changes are designed to make it easier to send photos, video and other Web content. A new insert bar will allow users to send up to 10 gigabytes – about 200 photos each containing 50 megabytes – by uploading them to Microsoft's free online storage service Skydrive, where they can only be viewed by the recipients of the e-mail.
Videos and other Internet material can be found through a new panel that will connect Hotmail to Microsoft's Internet search engine, Bing. The videos and other Bing-generated content can then be inserted into an e-mail with a mouse click. The e-mail recipient will then be able to see the video or other material without having to click through a Web link.
As it spruces up Hotmail, Microsoft also will try to make it more secure. Embracing a change recently made by Gmail, Microsoft is adding a so-called "secure sockets layer" (denoted by "https" before a Web address) that encrypts e-mail to make it less vulnerable to computer hackers.
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Samsung Bada smartphone
Samsung Electronics plans to launch Bada the first smartphone based on its own operating system in the next few weeks, as it seeks to catch up with bigger rivals in the booming high-end market.
Bada, which means ocean in Korean, is at the heart of Samsung's drive to emulate success by the likes of Apple and RIM in the smartphone market, develop new revenue sources from its own Samsung App store, and create synergies with other businesses such as its TV business, which is the world's biggest.
But it is still a daunting task to attract third-party developers as Samsung is not yet a big player in smartphones and its volume is also diluted by its multiplatform strategy.
Samsung also has to quickly boost its small pool of software bells and whistles to rival firms such as Apple, which boasts more than 200,000 iPhone apps, and needs to crack into the U.S. market, where carriers show little interest in its bada phone and are increasingly adopting popular Android models.
THE OCEAN OF OPPORTUNITY OR CHALLENGES?
Samsung is the world's No.2 mobile phone market with around 20 percent market share but it has a little traction in the smartphone market and is making a big push to treble smartphone sales to around 18 million units this year. Read also Top 10 mobile phones for 2010.
Asian technology firms vying for a bigger share of the smartphone market also face an uphill battle after Hewlett-Packard snapped up Palm.
Unlike Apple and RIM, Samsung supports multi-operating systems such as Symbian, Windows and Android and added bada, hoping its developer partners see the wide opportunity offered by the world's No.2 handset maker, which sold 227 million phones last year.
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blogging
SEO: Bada | Badaphone | Bada phone | Samsung Bada
Bada, which means ocean in Korean, is at the heart of Samsung's drive to emulate success by the likes of Apple and RIM in the smartphone market, develop new revenue sources from its own Samsung App store, and create synergies with other businesses such as its TV business, which is the world's biggest.
But it is still a daunting task to attract third-party developers as Samsung is not yet a big player in smartphones and its volume is also diluted by its multiplatform strategy.
Samsung also has to quickly boost its small pool of software bells and whistles to rival firms such as Apple, which boasts more than 200,000 iPhone apps, and needs to crack into the U.S. market, where carriers show little interest in its bada phone and are increasingly adopting popular Android models.
THE OCEAN OF OPPORTUNITY OR CHALLENGES?
Samsung is the world's No.2 mobile phone market with around 20 percent market share but it has a little traction in the smartphone market and is making a big push to treble smartphone sales to around 18 million units this year. Read also Top 10 mobile phones for 2010.
Asian technology firms vying for a bigger share of the smartphone market also face an uphill battle after Hewlett-Packard snapped up Palm.
Unlike Apple and RIM, Samsung supports multi-operating systems such as Symbian, Windows and Android and added bada, hoping its developer partners see the wide opportunity offered by the world's No.2 handset maker, which sold 227 million phones last year.
Recommended post:
* Apple's iPhone vs Palm's Pre Smartphone
* Top 5 Mobile Phone Manufacturers
bloggingSEO: Bada | Badaphone | Bada phone | Samsung Bada
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day banned in Pakistan
Facebook Group "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" has been banned by the Pakistan government. Malaysia bila lagi. Pakistan is blocking access to Facebook in response to an online group calling on people to draw the Prophet Mohammed, officials said Wednesday. "Obviously it (the blocking of Facebook) is related to the objectionable material that was placed on Facebook. That is why it is blocked," said Khoram Ali Mehran of The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. Read also Is Facebook Haram or Halal
"We have blocked it for an indefinite amount of time. We are just following the government's instructions and the ruling of the Lahore High Court. If the government decides to unblock it then that's what we will do," he told CNN by phone.
The organization has not received any complaints from internet users about the Facebook group so far, he said. Devout Muslims consider it offensive to depict Mohammed. Read also Face of Prophet Muhammad
There were riots around the world in response to a series of cartoons of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper in 2005, and at least two European cartoonists live under police protection after publication of their drawings of the Muslim prophet.
The administrators of the "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" group did not immediately respond to a CNN e-mail. Check out also AGAINST "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!"
. To view the Group page, login to your own FaceBook account.
Getting pissed off? Try hacking Draw Muhammad Day 2010! site.
SEO: everybody draw muhammad malaysia | hack draw muhammad day
"We have blocked it for an indefinite amount of time. We are just following the government's instructions and the ruling of the Lahore High Court. If the government decides to unblock it then that's what we will do," he told CNN by phone.
The organization has not received any complaints from internet users about the Facebook group so far, he said. Devout Muslims consider it offensive to depict Mohammed. Read also Face of Prophet Muhammad
There were riots around the world in response to a series of cartoons of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper in 2005, and at least two European cartoonists live under police protection after publication of their drawings of the Muslim prophet.
The administrators of the "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" group did not immediately respond to a CNN e-mail. Check out also AGAINST "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!"
. To view the Group page, login to your own FaceBook account.
Getting pissed off? Try hacking Draw Muhammad Day 2010! site.
SEO: everybody draw muhammad malaysia | hack draw muhammad day
Rima Fakih Stripper Photos
It didn't take long for the new Miss USA to become embroiled in a scandal: Rima Fakih--an Arab-American from Dearborn, Michigan, who was crowned Miss USA on Sunday night--was exposed on Monday as a former champion pole dancer by radio show MojoInTheMorning.com, which posted photos of Fakih participating in the "Stripper 101" contest at The Coliseum Gentlemen's Club in Detroit in 2007.
MojoInTheMorning.com congratulated Fakih, a former Catholic school girl, on their website, adding "Much like Miss Michigan Kristen Haglund who won Miss America in 2008, Rima is a Mojo In The Morning listener who has joined us in studio and at events. Check out Miss USA Rima Fakih when she won Mojo In The Morning's "Stripper 101" contest in 2007."
Here's one photo, you can find more photos at MojoInTheMorning.com.
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MojoInTheMorning.com congratulated Fakih, a former Catholic school girl, on their website, adding "Much like Miss Michigan Kristen Haglund who won Miss America in 2008, Rima is a Mojo In The Morning listener who has joined us in studio and at events. Check out Miss USA Rima Fakih when she won Mojo In The Morning's "Stripper 101" contest in 2007."
Here's one photo, you can find more photos at MojoInTheMorning.com.
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Huang Guangyu, Former Richest Tycoons In China Jailed
An appliance retailer who was once China's richest businessman was sentenced to 14 years for insider trading and other crimes Tuesday, the latest in a series of Chinese tycoons jailed for financial offenses. Huang Guangyu built Gome Electronics into China's biggest appliance retailer and was estimated in 2008 to be worth $6.3 billion. His abrupt fall reflected the uncertain status of entrepreneurs in China, where an economic boom has created dozens of billionaires but complaints of misconduct are widespread.
A Beijing court also convicted Huang of bribing officials and unspecified "illegal operations," said a statement by prosecutors. The ruling was reported by state television on its national midday news, possibly as a warning to other businesspeople. A receptionist for Huang's lawyer, Tian Wenchang, said the defense team would not comment.
Accusations of bribery, tax evasion and the collusion of corrupt officials in financial abuses are common in China. Successful businesspeople often are linked to Communist Party figures and prosecutions can be prompted by political struggles, though it is unclear what triggered Huang's case.
Huang was charged with paying 4.6 million yuan ($675,000) in bribes to five officials and insider trading of Gome shares worth 1.4 billion yuan ($204 million), the state-run China News Service said. Earlier reports said he was accused of paying bribes to win approval of Gome's stock market listing in Hong Kong.
Huang might face additional problems. The government said in 2008 he also was suspected of share price manipulation, money laundering, illicit asset transfers and tax evasion. There was no word Tuesday on the status of those accusations.
Hong Kong authorities are looking into whether Huang diverted money from a Gome share buyback to repay a personal loan. Regulators say that caused Gome and its shareholders to lose 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($207 million).
Huang's wife, Du Juan, is under investigation and Hong Kong has frozen their assets there.
State media had celebrated Huang's success as representative of reforms launched by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 that allowed millions of Chinese to lift themselves out of poverty.
Born in Shantou in the southern province of Guangdong, near Hong Kong, Huang came to Beijing as a teenager and became a clothing trader.
He switched to appliances, jumping on a retailing boom as Chinese families bought refrigerators, televisions and washing machines. Gome has grown to more than 1,100 stores and employs 300,000 people.
Huang also had extensive real estate holdings and dabbled in private equity.
Gome said earlier its chief financial officer, Zhou Yafei, was under investigation but no details of his case have been released.
A Beijing court also convicted Huang of bribing officials and unspecified "illegal operations," said a statement by prosecutors. The ruling was reported by state television on its national midday news, possibly as a warning to other businesspeople. A receptionist for Huang's lawyer, Tian Wenchang, said the defense team would not comment.
Accusations of bribery, tax evasion and the collusion of corrupt officials in financial abuses are common in China. Successful businesspeople often are linked to Communist Party figures and prosecutions can be prompted by political struggles, though it is unclear what triggered Huang's case.
Huang was charged with paying 4.6 million yuan ($675,000) in bribes to five officials and insider trading of Gome shares worth 1.4 billion yuan ($204 million), the state-run China News Service said. Earlier reports said he was accused of paying bribes to win approval of Gome's stock market listing in Hong Kong.
Huang might face additional problems. The government said in 2008 he also was suspected of share price manipulation, money laundering, illicit asset transfers and tax evasion. There was no word Tuesday on the status of those accusations.
Hong Kong authorities are looking into whether Huang diverted money from a Gome share buyback to repay a personal loan. Regulators say that caused Gome and its shareholders to lose 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($207 million).
Huang's wife, Du Juan, is under investigation and Hong Kong has frozen their assets there.
State media had celebrated Huang's success as representative of reforms launched by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 that allowed millions of Chinese to lift themselves out of poverty.
Born in Shantou in the southern province of Guangdong, near Hong Kong, Huang came to Beijing as a teenager and became a clothing trader.
He switched to appliances, jumping on a retailing boom as Chinese families bought refrigerators, televisions and washing machines. Gome has grown to more than 1,100 stores and employs 300,000 people.
Huang also had extensive real estate holdings and dabbled in private equity.
Gome said earlier its chief financial officer, Zhou Yafei, was under investigation but no details of his case have been released.
Getting married by I-Fairy robot
A couple in Japan was recently married by a robot. It was the first time a marriage was led or conducted by a robot. That would make the job of a priest or an Imam redundant. Read also an article about a Japanese man married a video game character.
Almost everyone stood when the bride walked down the aisle in her white gown, but not the wedding conductor, because she was bolted to her chair.
The nuptials at this ceremony were led by “I-Fairy,” a 1.5m tall seated robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails. Sunday’s wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co.
“Please lift the bride’s veil,” the robot said in a tinny voice, waving its arms in the air as the newlyweds kissed in front of about 50 guests.
The wedding took place at a restaurant in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, where the I-Fairy wore a wreath of flowers and directed a rooftop ceremony. Wires led out from beneath it to a black curtain a few metres away, where a man crouched and clicked commands into a computer.
Japan has one of the most advanced robotics industries in the world, with the government actively supporting the field for future growth. Industrial models in factories are now standard, but recently Japanese companies are making a push to inject robots into everyday life.
Honda makes a walking child-shaped robot, and other firms have developed them to entertain the elderly or play baseball.
Kokoro, whose corporate goal is to “touch the hearts of the people,” also makes giant dinosaur robots for exhibitions and lifelike android models that can smile and laugh.
The company is a subsidiary of Sanrio Co, which owns the rights to Hello Kitty and other Japanese characters.
“This was a lot of fun. I think that Japanese have a strong sense that robots are our friends. Those in the robot industry mostly understand this, but people mainly want robots near them that serve some purpose,” said bride Satoko Inoue, 36, who works at manufacturer Kokoro.
“It would be nice if the robot was a bit more clever, but she is very good at expressing herself,” said new husband Tomohiro Shibata, 42, a professor of robotics at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in central Japan.
The I-Fairy sells for about 6.3mil yen (RM230,000) and three are in use in Singapore, the United States and Japan, according to company spokesman Kayako Kido.
It has 18 degrees of motion in its arms, and mainly repeats pre-programmed movements and sounds.
Recommended reading:
* Roxxxy - World's first sex robot
* Soshokukei Danshi - Japan's Newest Demographic
* Japan's Herbivore Men Were Flaky And Weak
Almost everyone stood when the bride walked down the aisle in her white gown, but not the wedding conductor, because she was bolted to her chair.
The nuptials at this ceremony were led by “I-Fairy,” a 1.5m tall seated robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails. Sunday’s wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co.
“Please lift the bride’s veil,” the robot said in a tinny voice, waving its arms in the air as the newlyweds kissed in front of about 50 guests.
The wedding took place at a restaurant in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, where the I-Fairy wore a wreath of flowers and directed a rooftop ceremony. Wires led out from beneath it to a black curtain a few metres away, where a man crouched and clicked commands into a computer.
Japan has one of the most advanced robotics industries in the world, with the government actively supporting the field for future growth. Industrial models in factories are now standard, but recently Japanese companies are making a push to inject robots into everyday life.
Honda makes a walking child-shaped robot, and other firms have developed them to entertain the elderly or play baseball.
Kokoro, whose corporate goal is to “touch the hearts of the people,” also makes giant dinosaur robots for exhibitions and lifelike android models that can smile and laugh.
The company is a subsidiary of Sanrio Co, which owns the rights to Hello Kitty and other Japanese characters.
“This was a lot of fun. I think that Japanese have a strong sense that robots are our friends. Those in the robot industry mostly understand this, but people mainly want robots near them that serve some purpose,” said bride Satoko Inoue, 36, who works at manufacturer Kokoro.
“It would be nice if the robot was a bit more clever, but she is very good at expressing herself,” said new husband Tomohiro Shibata, 42, a professor of robotics at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in central Japan.
The I-Fairy sells for about 6.3mil yen (RM230,000) and three are in use in Singapore, the United States and Japan, according to company spokesman Kayako Kido.
It has 18 degrees of motion in its arms, and mainly repeats pre-programmed movements and sounds.
Recommended reading:
* Roxxxy - World's first sex robot
* Soshokukei Danshi - Japan's Newest Demographic
* Japan's Herbivore Men Were Flaky And Weak
Rima Fakih Bikini
Lebanon-born Miss Michigan Rima Fakih becomes first Arab-American woman to win the 2010 Miss USA title. The 24-year-old Miss Michigan beat out 50 other women to take the title Sunday night, despite nearly stumbling in her evening gown.As thus, Rima Fakih Bikini has become one of the hottest Alexa keywords search these couple of days.
Recommended reading:
* Rima Fakih Stripper Photos
Facebook sexiest video ever is a malware trap
A recent video attack on Facebook users is luring thousands of thrill seekers into installing malware, falsely offering clickers the 'sexiest video ever'. The offensive application has since been removed by Facebook.
According to Sophos, thousands of people have already been caught out by the fairly obvious ploy of offering sexiness on video – in this case a 'candid camera prank' offering a thumbnail of a woman in a skirt on a bike. DO NOT CLICK THAT thumbnail.
When you click on the link you are prompted to install the 'correct video software' which is, as you probably guessed because you aren't the kind of fool who falls for this, actually an adware installer.
Plagued by pop-ups
"You may want to watch a sexy video, but you're more likely to end up being plagued by pop-up advertising," warned Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"Not only is adware being installed on your computer, but the rogue Facebook application is posting the same message to all of your friends' accounts.
"It's no surprise that your friends might click to watch the movie when it looks to all intents and purposes that you are the person who has sent it to them."
So if you did fall for this, not only will you be left fuming at the pop-ups, but you'll also have propagated the link to all your friends, who will then know you clicked on it in the first place. Embarrassing.
Recommended reading:
* Facebook users are dumb f--kass
* Deadly Internet security sins and how to avoid it
According to Sophos, thousands of people have already been caught out by the fairly obvious ploy of offering sexiness on video – in this case a 'candid camera prank' offering a thumbnail of a woman in a skirt on a bike. DO NOT CLICK THAT thumbnail.
When you click on the link you are prompted to install the 'correct video software' which is, as you probably guessed because you aren't the kind of fool who falls for this, actually an adware installer.
Plagued by pop-ups
"You may want to watch a sexy video, but you're more likely to end up being plagued by pop-up advertising," warned Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"Not only is adware being installed on your computer, but the rogue Facebook application is posting the same message to all of your friends' accounts.
"It's no surprise that your friends might click to watch the movie when it looks to all intents and purposes that you are the person who has sent it to them."
So if you did fall for this, not only will you be left fuming at the pop-ups, but you'll also have propagated the link to all your friends, who will then know you clicked on it in the first place. Embarrassing.
Recommended reading:
* Facebook users are dumb f--kass
* Deadly Internet security sins and how to avoid it
Eating dog meat in Space
China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, 44, revealed that while in orbit, he and the crew of the 2003 Shenzhou Five mission consumed dog meat from Huajiang county in Guangdong, China. Dog meat was served to astronauts as late as 2009, according to a menu from a mission.
A passage from Yang's book, The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth, quoted in the Telegraph, reads: "Many of my friends are curious about what we eat [in space] and think that the astronauts must have some expensive delicacies, like shark's fin or abalone [...] Actually we ate quite normal food, there is no need to keep it a secret."
The Telegraph reproduced a sample of the Chinese astronauts' menu from a 2009 mission:
Day One: Lotus root porridge, crispy tofu with spring onions, braised yellow croaker fish, pork ribs with seaweed, spinach with minced garlic. Day Two: Spicy pig skin, braised duck neck, hairy crab with ginger, chicken liver with chilli, pine nuts with sweetcorn, three-flavour soup. Day Three: Poached egg in fermented rice soup, Harbin sausage, Huajiang dog, baby cuttlefish casserole, eel with green pepper, spicy beans with dried tofu. Apples, pears and oranges served with every meal, as well as rice, noodles, sweet potatoes.
NASA's first astronauts in space endured a far more limited menu. In the 1960s, the crew of Mercury, NASA's first human space flight program, were fed "bite-sized cubes, freezedried powders, and semiliquids stuffed in aluminum tubes. "
Skylab, the United States' first space station, helped give NASA astronauts' meals a major boost and meals have since improved considerably.
Yang Liwei's revelation has generated criticism and sparked controversy over the morality of using dogs as food. Jill Robinson, the founder of Animals Asia, criticized Yang, whom she said was a role model for children. She told the Telegraph, "[Dogs] found survivors after the Sichuan earthquake and protected people from potential terrorists during the Olympic games. Surely they deserve more."
Another spokesperson for Animals Asia, Irene Feng, warned of the "health risks associated with the farming, slaughter and consumption of dogs."
Recommended reading:
* Dog Meat Mafia revealed the booming dog meat trade
* Olympic Snippets - Dog meat on sale
* SpaceX puts Malaysian RAZAKSAT satellite in orbit
A passage from Yang's book, The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth, quoted in the Telegraph, reads: "Many of my friends are curious about what we eat [in space] and think that the astronauts must have some expensive delicacies, like shark's fin or abalone [...] Actually we ate quite normal food, there is no need to keep it a secret."
The Telegraph reproduced a sample of the Chinese astronauts' menu from a 2009 mission:
Day One: Lotus root porridge, crispy tofu with spring onions, braised yellow croaker fish, pork ribs with seaweed, spinach with minced garlic. Day Two: Spicy pig skin, braised duck neck, hairy crab with ginger, chicken liver with chilli, pine nuts with sweetcorn, three-flavour soup. Day Three: Poached egg in fermented rice soup, Harbin sausage, Huajiang dog, baby cuttlefish casserole, eel with green pepper, spicy beans with dried tofu. Apples, pears and oranges served with every meal, as well as rice, noodles, sweet potatoes.
NASA's first astronauts in space endured a far more limited menu. In the 1960s, the crew of Mercury, NASA's first human space flight program, were fed "bite-sized cubes, freezedried powders, and semiliquids stuffed in aluminum tubes. "
Skylab, the United States' first space station, helped give NASA astronauts' meals a major boost and meals have since improved considerably.
Yang Liwei's revelation has generated criticism and sparked controversy over the morality of using dogs as food. Jill Robinson, the founder of Animals Asia, criticized Yang, whom she said was a role model for children. She told the Telegraph, "[Dogs] found survivors after the Sichuan earthquake and protected people from potential terrorists during the Olympic games. Surely they deserve more."
Another spokesperson for Animals Asia, Irene Feng, warned of the "health risks associated with the farming, slaughter and consumption of dogs."
Recommended reading:
* Dog Meat Mafia revealed the booming dog meat trade
* Olympic Snippets - Dog meat on sale
* SpaceX puts Malaysian RAZAKSAT satellite in orbit
Highest paying job in the United States 2010
Now you know why your parents always wanted you to be a doctor. Medical professions, including oral surgeons and orthodontists, dominated the government's latest list of the top-paying jobs in America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its summary of American jobs and salaries in 2009. Overall, the average annual salary across all professions in the U.S. was $43,460 -- an median hourly rate of just $15.95. Which jobs were the most lucrative last year? Check out the top-paying jobs in 2010.
10. Psychiatrists: $163,660
9. CEO: $167,280
8. Family & General Practitioners: $168,500
7. Physicians & Surgeons: $173,860
6. Internists: $183,990
5. Obstetricians and Gynecologists: $204,470
4. Orthodontists: $206,190
3. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons: $210,700
2. Anesthesiologists: $211,750
1. Surgeons: $219,770
Recommended reading:
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* Top 10 Paying Companies
10. Psychiatrists: $163,660
9. CEO: $167,280
8. Family & General Practitioners: $168,500
7. Physicians & Surgeons: $173,860
6. Internists: $183,990
5. Obstetricians and Gynecologists: $204,470
4. Orthodontists: $206,190
3. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons: $210,700
2. Anesthesiologists: $211,750
1. Surgeons: $219,770
Recommended reading:
* Top 10 Jobs That Make The Most Money
* Signs Of Job Scams
* Get your husband a job - How to
* Top 10 Paying Companies
Top 5 Solutions For The Gulf Oil Spill
When an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig, killing 11, on April 20th--it set off a rupture that has been spewing at least 200,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf Of Mexico every day since. Now that BP's initial containment box has failed, the company is assessing other options.
Here are ideas people have proposed to help clean up the oil spill and stop the leak. Some seem plausible and effective, while others could potentially cause more damage in the end. Are these solutions crazy or genius? And what is your idea?
1. Build Fake Islands on top of the leaked well.
2. Nuke It to displace the ocean floor and squeeze shut the leaking oil well.
3. Meditation. Encourage worldwide meditation to stop the flow of oil in the Gulf Of Mexico.
4. Hay. Dump lots and lots of hay on the spillage area.
5. Plug The Leak With Garbage. US has lots of garbage.
Here are ideas people have proposed to help clean up the oil spill and stop the leak. Some seem plausible and effective, while others could potentially cause more damage in the end. Are these solutions crazy or genius? And what is your idea?
1. Build Fake Islands on top of the leaked well.
2. Nuke It to displace the ocean floor and squeeze shut the leaking oil well.
3. Meditation. Encourage worldwide meditation to stop the flow of oil in the Gulf Of Mexico.
4. Hay. Dump lots and lots of hay on the spillage area.
5. Plug The Leak With Garbage. US has lots of garbage.
Delete FaceBook account - How to
Feeling bad about being mocked by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of FaceBook in 2003 when he just started The Facebook site. Well, you can always opt to delete your Facebook account.All the cool folks left FaceBook ages ago. Actually, all the cool folks never joined.
Facebook makes it pretty easy to deactivate your account which will temporarily hide your information. However, if you want to permanently remove your information, the "permanent delete" option is much harder to find. This article will cover two easy ways to erase your Facebook account so you can Quit Facebook forever.
Read wikiHow - How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account
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From FaceBook - How to permanently delete your facebook account group
Ever tried to leave Facebook and found out they only allow you to "deactivate" your account? All your personal data, including photos, interests, friends etc will still be saved indefinitely! You don’t have to be a conspiracist to find this quite fishy (or simply annoying)!
Maybe you see no reason to leave Facebook yet?
In any case, information about how to close an account should be easily available to all members. Join this group to keep the information handy the day you appreciate your privacy more than updating long lost “friends” of your life.
------------------------------------------
HOW TO DELETE (long version)
Go here (working link above):
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
Click "Submit" and follow the instructions.
Your account will be deactivated for two weeks, and if you DO NOT LOG IN during that period, your account is permanently deleted. I REPEAT: don't panic if your profile isn't deleted right away! You must NOT try to log in to your account for at least two weeks, as it will cancel the deletion request. If you want out - stay out, mmmkay? ;)
This method is official and should be complete, i.e. no need to delete individual photos, comments, messages or items from your profile or anywhere else on Facebook! If you have any concerns whether your stuff is actually deleted (as opposed to being kept somewhere in the deep dungeons of Facbook's HQ) your best bet is to ask them using email: info@facebook.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question: Can you permanently delete Facebook account?
I don't want to keep it anymore so I want to delete it permanently and completely. But when I go to log in settings, there's only disabling. Are there anyway to delete it completely?
Yahoo! Answers: There is a difference between deactivating your account and actually deleting it. If you deactivate it can be brought back at anytime by sign in. Deleting it takes 14 days but is permanent. Follow this link and you can delete it
https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It should be noted that how deep your deletion goes is highly questionable — does Facebook still store your information even though you've destroyed your way of accessing it? You have no way of knowing.
Facebook makes it pretty easy to deactivate your account which will temporarily hide your information. However, if you want to permanently remove your information, the "permanent delete" option is much harder to find. This article will cover two easy ways to erase your Facebook account so you can Quit Facebook forever.
Read wikiHow - How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From FaceBook - How to permanently delete your facebook account group
Ever tried to leave Facebook and found out they only allow you to "deactivate" your account? All your personal data, including photos, interests, friends etc will still be saved indefinitely! You don’t have to be a conspiracist to find this quite fishy (or simply annoying)!
Maybe you see no reason to leave Facebook yet?
In any case, information about how to close an account should be easily available to all members. Join this group to keep the information handy the day you appreciate your privacy more than updating long lost “friends” of your life.
------------------------------------------
HOW TO DELETE (long version)
Go here (working link above):
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
Click "Submit" and follow the instructions.
Your account will be deactivated for two weeks, and if you DO NOT LOG IN during that period, your account is permanently deleted. I REPEAT: don't panic if your profile isn't deleted right away! You must NOT try to log in to your account for at least two weeks, as it will cancel the deletion request. If you want out - stay out, mmmkay? ;)
This method is official and should be complete, i.e. no need to delete individual photos, comments, messages or items from your profile or anywhere else on Facebook! If you have any concerns whether your stuff is actually deleted (as opposed to being kept somewhere in the deep dungeons of Facbook's HQ) your best bet is to ask them using email: info@facebook.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question: Can you permanently delete Facebook account?
I don't want to keep it anymore so I want to delete it permanently and completely. But when I go to log in settings, there's only disabling. Are there anyway to delete it completely?
Yahoo! Answers: There is a difference between deactivating your account and actually deleting it. If you deactivate it can be brought back at anytime by sign in. Deleting it takes 14 days but is permanent. Follow this link and you can delete it
https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It should be noted that how deep your deletion goes is highly questionable — does Facebook still store your information even though you've destroyed your way of accessing it? You have no way of knowing.
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