Nuffnang Cost-Per-Click (CPC) campaigns, which pay bloggers based on the number of clicks generated on the ads is taking hit from click fraudsters. What is my take on this? No difference because my blogs seldom get awarded with their campaigns.
That's because my blog traffic majority are from the North America. And even if Nuffnang decided to give me some campaigns, it be related to cigarettes and alcohols, since their Muslim members would reject those kind of ads campaign.
Nuffnang, in fact should scrutinize their member's blogs. I mean, some bloggers have boasted to receive hundreds of Ringgit from Nuffnang yet their blogs are pretty much a personal rambling, devoid of real issues and contents. The only way for low ranking blogs to earn lots of money is from unusual activities.
According to Nuffang's broadcast mail, certain groups have been engaging in the CPC click fraud, which is defined as clicking on CPC advertisements intentionally just to generate earnings for a blog's owner. While some of you may just be anxious about earning some side income from displaying the banner ads, but do note that this is in fact a violation of Nuffnang Terms & Conditions under Section 6.
Among some of the actions which constitute click fraud are;
- clicking on other bloggers' ads and leaving a comment behind asking/hinting to the owner to click on their ads back
- asking for blog visitors' help to click on the ads
- registering a large number of blogs and clicking on ads on each of them
- repeatedly switching to a different IP to click on own ads
Recommended reading:
* Four ways to improve your BidVertiser earnings
Indra Nooyi is the most powerful businesswoman in U.S
I have posted about the most powerful woman in world's politics and the most dangerous celebrity. Today is about most powerful woman in U.S. business.Photos: Reuters/Mike Segar
According to Fortune magazine, PepsiCo Inc chief Indra Nooyi is the most powerful woman in U.S. business for the fifth year in a row, but Yahoo Inc boss Carol Bartz is the highest paid.
Bartz earned more than $47 million in 2009 and was ranked No. 10 on the 2010 most powerful women list, while Nooyi was the 10th highest paid with a salary of more than $14 million last year, Fortune said.
"Nooyi completed the purchase of PepsiCo's two largest bottlers, bringing revenues to a projected $60 billion," Fortune said. "Now she'll have to deliver the $400 million annual cost savings she promised. Investors seem assured: The stock is up 12 percent since September 2009."
The most powerful list ranked women in for-profit businesses. It was based on the size and importance of the business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of the woman's career, her social and cultural relevance.
The second most powerful businesswoman was Kraft Foods Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld, who led a hostile $18 billion takeover of Britain's Cadbury, No. 3 was Archer Daniels Midland Chief Executive Patricia Woertz, followed by Wellpoint Chief Executive Angela Braly.
Avon Products Andrea Jung came in at No. 5, while media mogul and talk show host Oprah Winfrey was the sixth most powerful businesswoman, followed by DuPont Chief Executive Ellen Kullman, IBM Senior Vice President Ginni Rometty and Xerox Chief Executive Ursula Burns.
Bartz rounded out the top ten, with Fortune saying: "A year and a half into her tenure, this candid leader is accused of lacking a vision for Yahoo. Despite partnerships with Nokia and Microsoft, investors aren't impressed: The stock is down 15 percent this year."
Behind Bartz, Oracle President Safra Catz was the second highest paid woman, earning more than $36 million in 2009, followed by former Schering-Plough executive Carrie Cox with $23 million, Kraft's Rosenfeld with $22 million and Annaly Capital Management's Chief Investment Officer Wellington Denahan-Norris with more than $21 million.
Hossein Derakhshan jailed 19 years for blogging
An Iranian news website says a court has sentenced a well-known Canadian-Iranian blogger to more than 19 years in prison. Before this, the Iranian prosecutors were demanding death penalty for Hossein Derakhshan.
The conservative website, Mashreghnews.ir, which is close to Iran's presidential office, says Hossein Derakhshan was convicted on charges of cooperation with hostile countries, spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment, promotion of counter-revolutionary groups and insulting Islamic thoughts and religious figures.
The report says Derakhshan can appeal.
Derakhshan, who made trips to Israel and blogged in both English and Farsi, has been in prison since 2008. It's unclear if he would benefit from time served.
Iranian authorities have arrested numerous bloggers in recent years in a bid to clamp down on Internet dissent.
The conservative website, Mashreghnews.ir, which is close to Iran's presidential office, says Hossein Derakhshan was convicted on charges of cooperation with hostile countries, spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment, promotion of counter-revolutionary groups and insulting Islamic thoughts and religious figures.
The report says Derakhshan can appeal.
Derakhshan, who made trips to Israel and blogged in both English and Farsi, has been in prison since 2008. It's unclear if he would benefit from time served.
Iranian authorities have arrested numerous bloggers in recent years in a bid to clamp down on Internet dissent.
Le Cap d'Agde Nudist Resort Becoming European Capital Of Debauchery
French naturists who frequent Europe's largest nudist vacation village were battling last week to stop the 40-year-old resort from becoming "European capital of debauchery".
Followers of traditional nudism denounced the "libertine" drift of the southern French resort of Cap d'Agde at a council meeting this week.
Independent local councilor Florence Denestebe said, "As soon as the sun comes out, one district of the Cap d'Agde becomes the European capital of debauchery".
Denestebe asked the town's deputy mayor and lawmaker Gilles d'Ettore to "intervene," fearing that "an overly sexual image" of Cap d'Agde may lead to "an explosion of libertarianism beyond the naturist area."
A group of around 30 traditional nudists supported Denestebe at the meeting, saying that a "sexy" and "pornographic" image of the resort does not accord with their aim for "harmony with nature".
One supporter, a Cap d'Agde resident of 34 years, said, "When we bought [an apartment] here, it was to live naked, live with the sun, we wanted a natural life. Nowadays new wildlife is appearing."
D'Ettore said there had been no complaints to the police and that he did not see the point in "putting a policeman behind the 40,000 naturists."
The mayor said moves had been made to ban minors from raunchier establishments -- but that he would refrain from "making value judgments on the sexual practices of people."
Followers of traditional nudism denounced the "libertine" drift of the southern French resort of Cap d'Agde at a council meeting this week.
Independent local councilor Florence Denestebe said, "As soon as the sun comes out, one district of the Cap d'Agde becomes the European capital of debauchery".
Denestebe asked the town's deputy mayor and lawmaker Gilles d'Ettore to "intervene," fearing that "an overly sexual image" of Cap d'Agde may lead to "an explosion of libertarianism beyond the naturist area."
A group of around 30 traditional nudists supported Denestebe at the meeting, saying that a "sexy" and "pornographic" image of the resort does not accord with their aim for "harmony with nature".
One supporter, a Cap d'Agde resident of 34 years, said, "When we bought [an apartment] here, it was to live naked, live with the sun, we wanted a natural life. Nowadays new wildlife is appearing."
D'Ettore said there had been no complaints to the police and that he did not see the point in "putting a policeman behind the 40,000 naturists."
The mayor said moves had been made to ban minors from raunchier establishments -- but that he would refrain from "making value judgments on the sexual practices of people."
More Magnesium Less Diabetes
Getting enough magnesium in your diet could help prevent diabetes, a new study suggests.People who consumed the most magnesium in foods and from vitamin supplements were about half as likely to develop diabetes over the next 20 years as people who took in the least magnesium, Dr. Ka He of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues found.
The results may explain in part why consuming whole grains, which are high in magnesium, is also associated with lower diabetes risk. However, large clinical trials testing the effects of magnesium on diabetes risk are needed to determine whether a causal relationship truly exists, the researchers note in Diabetes Care.
It's plausible that magnesium could influence diabetes risk because the mineral is needed for the proper functioning of several enzymes that help the body process glucose, the researchers point out. Studies of magnesium and diabetes risk have had conflicting results, though.
To investigate the link, the researchers looked at magnesium intake and diabetes risk in 4,497 men and women 18 to 30 years old, none of whom were diabetic at the study's outset. During a 20-year follow-up period, 330 of the subjects developed diabetes.
People with the highest magnesium intake, who averaged about 200 milligrams of magnesium for every 1,000 calories they consumed, were 47 percent less likely to have developed diabetes during follow up than those with the lowest intakes, who consumed about 100 milligrams of magnesium per 1,000 calories.
He and colleagues also found that as magnesium intake rose, levels of several markers of inflammation decreased, as did resistance to the effects of the key blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin. Higher blood levels of magnesium also were linked to a lower degree of insulin resistance.
"Increasing magnesium intake may be important for improving insulin sensitivity, reducing systemic inflammation, and decreasing diabetes risk," He and colleagues write. "Further large-scale clinical trials are needed to establish causal inference and elucidate the mechanisms behind this potential benefit."
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* Infant Puberty Due To Tainted Milk
Delhi Commonwealth Games Blame Game
Before the Delhi Commonwealth Games even started, the blame game has kick off. First, the Delhi Commonwealth Games crisis was blamed on corruptions and delayed construction of infrastructures. Next, the monsoon rain was accused of delaying the project. The animals moved into the game village. Not to mention the terrorist threats. Now, it the western conspiracy against India. As a matter of fact, they still haven't decided on who is suppose to officially open the game.
Games organising chief Suresh Kalmadi believes the Commonwealth's western countries have conspired to unleash the scathing criticism which has marred the buildup to the games.
In an interview with CNN India, Kalmadi was questioned about the constant criticism of the New Delhi Games over claims of corruption within the organising committee, the massive delays in construction and substandard building work.
When asked whether the criticism was a conspiracy from western countries who could not accept that India could organise a successful Games, Kalmadi agreed.
"Definitely, that's part of it," he said.
Pressed further on whether the western countries had conducted a conspiracy to damage India's reputation in the world, he said "I don't want to say to much but we'll talk after the Games are over."
Before the Games open on Sunday, they have been blighted not only by terrorism threats and a dengue fever plague, but construction deadlines which have been missed by months, a footbridge at the main stadium collapsing last week and filthy, unsafe and incomplete apartments at the athletes village.
But, as chairman of the Games organising committee, Kalmadi said he never thought of resigning during the controversy, even when he was caught up in accusations of corruption in the issuing of contracts for Games work.
"Never, never, my team of 4000 people is working day and night to make this a great games and I have the full support of the government," he said.
He said he wants an inquiry held after the Games to clear his name of all accusations.
And while he accepts the blame for the delays in construction and the chaos of the athletes village, he is still confident the Games will succeed.
"I will take the blame but I don't listen to much ... but when the Games are over, I hope I get the credit," he said.
He also said Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper should also take some responsibility for the failures in preparation rather than just blame the Indian government and the organising committee.
"Mike Hooper has been in Delhi for the past four years and he should have known what was happening, there's no point blaming the government," he said.
"Definitely, he could have done much more, I could have done much more."
Games organising chief Suresh Kalmadi believes the Commonwealth's western countries have conspired to unleash the scathing criticism which has marred the buildup to the games.
In an interview with CNN India, Kalmadi was questioned about the constant criticism of the New Delhi Games over claims of corruption within the organising committee, the massive delays in construction and substandard building work.
When asked whether the criticism was a conspiracy from western countries who could not accept that India could organise a successful Games, Kalmadi agreed.
"Definitely, that's part of it," he said.
Pressed further on whether the western countries had conducted a conspiracy to damage India's reputation in the world, he said "I don't want to say to much but we'll talk after the Games are over."
Before the Games open on Sunday, they have been blighted not only by terrorism threats and a dengue fever plague, but construction deadlines which have been missed by months, a footbridge at the main stadium collapsing last week and filthy, unsafe and incomplete apartments at the athletes village.
But, as chairman of the Games organising committee, Kalmadi said he never thought of resigning during the controversy, even when he was caught up in accusations of corruption in the issuing of contracts for Games work.
"Never, never, my team of 4000 people is working day and night to make this a great games and I have the full support of the government," he said.
He said he wants an inquiry held after the Games to clear his name of all accusations.
And while he accepts the blame for the delays in construction and the chaos of the athletes village, he is still confident the Games will succeed.
"I will take the blame but I don't listen to much ... but when the Games are over, I hope I get the credit," he said.
He also said Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper should also take some responsibility for the failures in preparation rather than just blame the Indian government and the organising committee.
"Mike Hooper has been in Delhi for the past four years and he should have known what was happening, there's no point blaming the government," he said.
"Definitely, he could have done much more, I could have done much more."
PlayBook not BlackPad
PlayBook was unveiled by Research In Motion on Monday that it hopes will leapfrog Apple's iPad with its potential for social networking, media publishing and corporate uses.
The tablet, named BlackBerry PlayBook, has a seven-inch screen and dual facing cameras. It has WiFi and Bluetooth but needs to link with a BlackBerry smartphone to access a cellular network. Previously, it was speculated that the new BlackBerry tablet will be called BlackPad.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has recently struggled to impress investors and analysts, who mostly shrugged off the August launch of its Torch smartphone and fret about eroding support among its core corporate clientele.
"PlayBook delivers a no-compromises web experience," co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis told the developers, who responded with intermittent applause.
RIM expects to ship the device to corporate customers and developers in October and to consumers early in 2011, meaning it misses the consumer holiday buying season.
While RIM is pitching the PlayBook as the evolution of its corporate heritage, its hopes the powerful processor and media offerings lure consumers too.
"They talk enterprise but this will get bought by individuals and used for business," IDC analyst Stephen Drake said from the floor of the presentation.
DEVICE DU JOUR
The market for tablets -- touchscreen devices larger than a smartphone and smaller than a laptop -- has gotten more congested since Apple launched its iPad in April, with Samsung and Dell showing off releases in the past two months and others expected from Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba.
While the market's direction is relatively uncharted, most analysts agree success will be measured by which applications each tablet can run.
"RIM has a strong story to tell to developers to say - look, however you want to make things for this thing, we're giving you tools and a platform that will allow you to do that," said Forrester Research principal analyst Charles Golvin.
RIM also launched its own mobile advertising network, following Apple's entry into that market earlier this year. Google's AdMob also has a major presence in mobile advertising.
RIM said developers will receive 60 percent of the advertising revenue, and RIM will provide analytics tools for targeting the ads effectively.
PlayBook can mirror a BlackBerry phone, giving users a bigger screen to view media and edit documents, and wipes all corporate data once the link between the two devices is broken.
The absence of a direct link to the cellular network means network carriers may be less eager to subsidize the device or promote it heavily. But corporate IT departments will likely cheer about its ability to mirror a company-issued BlackBerry without retaining that data when that link is broken.
"It's compelling, certainly to an IT guy, if they can look at this tablet and say it's really nothing we have to lock down," said Kevin Burden from ABI Research. "An IT manager can look at this tablet and say we don't even need to put this on our asset-tracking list."
The PlayBook weighs 400 grams (14 ounces). It will launch with a dual-core, one gigahertz processor running a QNX kernel and operating system that can incorporate BlackBerry OS 6, which RIM introduced in its Torch smartphone in August.
The QNX operating system uses industry standard APIs, or application programing interfaces, meaning developers should have little difficulty in making their games, software and other applications work on the device.
"All the code that is out there, and there is a huge source base out there, (it) is completely portable to QNX," said Dan Dodge, who co-founded QNX and led the company until RIM acquired it less than a year ago.
RIM has yet to set an exact price for the PlayBook but says it will fall in the lower range of prices for consumer tablets already in the suddenly congested market.
Asked if later versions will connect to advanced 4G networks now under development, RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters: "That's not a question we're answering today, but it's not a hard one to guess at."
SEO: PlayBook Price | PlayBook delivery | PlayBook availability | PlayBook specification | PlayBook features | PlayBook upgrades | PlayBook photos | PlayBook
carrier | PlayBook 4G
The tablet, named BlackBerry PlayBook, has a seven-inch screen and dual facing cameras. It has WiFi and Bluetooth but needs to link with a BlackBerry smartphone to access a cellular network. Previously, it was speculated that the new BlackBerry tablet will be called BlackPad.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has recently struggled to impress investors and analysts, who mostly shrugged off the August launch of its Torch smartphone and fret about eroding support among its core corporate clientele.
"PlayBook delivers a no-compromises web experience," co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis told the developers, who responded with intermittent applause.
RIM expects to ship the device to corporate customers and developers in October and to consumers early in 2011, meaning it misses the consumer holiday buying season.
While RIM is pitching the PlayBook as the evolution of its corporate heritage, its hopes the powerful processor and media offerings lure consumers too.
"They talk enterprise but this will get bought by individuals and used for business," IDC analyst Stephen Drake said from the floor of the presentation.
DEVICE DU JOUR
The market for tablets -- touchscreen devices larger than a smartphone and smaller than a laptop -- has gotten more congested since Apple launched its iPad in April, with Samsung and Dell showing off releases in the past two months and others expected from Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba.
While the market's direction is relatively uncharted, most analysts agree success will be measured by which applications each tablet can run.
"RIM has a strong story to tell to developers to say - look, however you want to make things for this thing, we're giving you tools and a platform that will allow you to do that," said Forrester Research principal analyst Charles Golvin.
RIM also launched its own mobile advertising network, following Apple's entry into that market earlier this year. Google's AdMob also has a major presence in mobile advertising.
RIM said developers will receive 60 percent of the advertising revenue, and RIM will provide analytics tools for targeting the ads effectively.
PlayBook can mirror a BlackBerry phone, giving users a bigger screen to view media and edit documents, and wipes all corporate data once the link between the two devices is broken.
The absence of a direct link to the cellular network means network carriers may be less eager to subsidize the device or promote it heavily. But corporate IT departments will likely cheer about its ability to mirror a company-issued BlackBerry without retaining that data when that link is broken.
"It's compelling, certainly to an IT guy, if they can look at this tablet and say it's really nothing we have to lock down," said Kevin Burden from ABI Research. "An IT manager can look at this tablet and say we don't even need to put this on our asset-tracking list."
The PlayBook weighs 400 grams (14 ounces). It will launch with a dual-core, one gigahertz processor running a QNX kernel and operating system that can incorporate BlackBerry OS 6, which RIM introduced in its Torch smartphone in August.
The QNX operating system uses industry standard APIs, or application programing interfaces, meaning developers should have little difficulty in making their games, software and other applications work on the device.
"All the code that is out there, and there is a huge source base out there, (it) is completely portable to QNX," said Dan Dodge, who co-founded QNX and led the company until RIM acquired it less than a year ago.
RIM has yet to set an exact price for the PlayBook but says it will fall in the lower range of prices for consumer tablets already in the suddenly congested market.
Asked if later versions will connect to advanced 4G networks now under development, RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters: "That's not a question we're answering today, but it's not a hard one to guess at."
SEO: PlayBook Price | PlayBook delivery | PlayBook availability | PlayBook specification | PlayBook features | PlayBook upgrades | PlayBook photos | PlayBook
carrier | PlayBook 4G
Delhi Commonwealth Games Chaos Continue
The Delhi Commonwealth Games crisis deepen. The last chaos involved animals moving into the Games village.
Apparenly, it not only about filthy washroom, broken beds but also monkeys, stray dogs, mosquitoes and snakes have been menacing Delhi's Commonwealth Games venues and the Australia's chef de mission, Steve Moneghetti, says his team can handle it. He's not worried by the discovery of a snake in one of the village rooms at the weekend.
''I think we are OK from the snake point of view,'' Mr Moneghetti said. ''We are Australians, we are used to dealing with the most venomous snakes in the world, so a couple of snakes here's not going to be an issue for us.''
A team of snake charmers has reportedly been stationed at the village and will be paid 1000 rupees ($23) for each snake caught.
In a separate incident, an adult cobra of more than a metre was found at Delhi's R. K. Khanna Tennis Stadium.
Dog catchers have removed more than 120 stray dogs from the Games village since last week and additional arrangements are reportedly being made to prevent monkeys from causing disruption at Games-related venues. This includes the deployment of additional trained langur monkeys to scare away smaller relatives.
Australian team members have also been advised to take precautions against mosquito bites because of an outbreak of dengue fever.
Mr Moneghetti, who arrived on Sunday, said he was confident the athletes would have ''the stage and the environment to perform at their best'' and gave a glowing assessment of the Games village, parts of which were last week described as filthy and uninhabitable. ''The conditions in the village are as good as I have been [in],'' he said.
But controversy continued to plague organisers yesterday.
Head of the Commonwealth Games Federation Mike Fennell defended the federation's New Zealand-born chief executive, Mike Hooper, after he made remarks interpreted as critical of the Indian government.
Mr Hooper said the federation was at ''the mercy of'' Indian governments for the delivery of games venues. ''Renewed deadlines came and went. New reasons for delays kept coming up. Absolutely exasperating from our perspective,'' he said.
Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit yesterday said conditions in the village were ''improving by the hour'' but refused to give a deadline for when all facilities would be ready.
Reports also claimed that Mr Hooper had been critical of Delhi's large population.
Mr Hooper denied the reports and Mr Fennell endorsed this, saying he could ''personally attest'' that Mr Hooper did not make any reference at all to the people of India.
Apparenly, it not only about filthy washroom, broken beds but also monkeys, stray dogs, mosquitoes and snakes have been menacing Delhi's Commonwealth Games venues and the Australia's chef de mission, Steve Moneghetti, says his team can handle it. He's not worried by the discovery of a snake in one of the village rooms at the weekend.
''I think we are OK from the snake point of view,'' Mr Moneghetti said. ''We are Australians, we are used to dealing with the most venomous snakes in the world, so a couple of snakes here's not going to be an issue for us.''
A team of snake charmers has reportedly been stationed at the village and will be paid 1000 rupees ($23) for each snake caught.
In a separate incident, an adult cobra of more than a metre was found at Delhi's R. K. Khanna Tennis Stadium.
Dog catchers have removed more than 120 stray dogs from the Games village since last week and additional arrangements are reportedly being made to prevent monkeys from causing disruption at Games-related venues. This includes the deployment of additional trained langur monkeys to scare away smaller relatives.
Australian team members have also been advised to take precautions against mosquito bites because of an outbreak of dengue fever.
Mr Moneghetti, who arrived on Sunday, said he was confident the athletes would have ''the stage and the environment to perform at their best'' and gave a glowing assessment of the Games village, parts of which were last week described as filthy and uninhabitable. ''The conditions in the village are as good as I have been [in],'' he said.
But controversy continued to plague organisers yesterday.
Head of the Commonwealth Games Federation Mike Fennell defended the federation's New Zealand-born chief executive, Mike Hooper, after he made remarks interpreted as critical of the Indian government.
Mr Hooper said the federation was at ''the mercy of'' Indian governments for the delivery of games venues. ''Renewed deadlines came and went. New reasons for delays kept coming up. Absolutely exasperating from our perspective,'' he said.
Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit yesterday said conditions in the village were ''improving by the hour'' but refused to give a deadline for when all facilities would be ready.
Reports also claimed that Mr Hooper had been critical of Delhi's large population.
Mr Hooper denied the reports and Mr Fennell endorsed this, saying he could ''personally attest'' that Mr Hooper did not make any reference at all to the people of India.
Kim Jong-un Who
It has been highly speculated that phantom Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il's son, will be the next North Korea leader. Except that foreign media is unable to identify Kim Jong-un. Even the North Korean don't know his face.
Kim Jong-un is so unknown that he probably could walk through the streets of Pyongyang without anyone looking twice. Only one confirmed photograph has been released, in which he appears to be about 12 years old.
That has left the world's news media scrambling for an updated image. When South Korean intelligence reported last month that young Kim was accompanying his father on a trip to China, packs of photographers and reporters, most of them Japanese and South Korean, set off in hot pursuit.
''In this case, Kim Jong-il was definitely No.2. The photo everybody wanted was Kim Jong-un. That would have been the real victory,'' said a Chinese photographer, who asked not to be named because he previously had been arrested while trying to photograph the family.
The photographer caught up with Kim's entourage outside a hotel in the Chinese city of Changchun and snapped a photo of a man behind a partly opened curtain in a limousine.
''In the end, we didn't run the photograph because we didn't know who it was, since nobody knows what Kim Jong-un looks like,'' the photographer said. ''Anyway, my editor said the guy was too good-looking to be Kim Jong-il's son.''
Amid all the mystery about the possible young successor, the streets of Pyongyang are festooned with flags and placards announcing the Workers' Party conference.
Last week the official Korean Central News Agency announced the meeting would select its ''supreme leadership body''. Party delegates have been arriving since Sunday.
The meeting will be the party's first major gathering since a landmark congress in 1980 where the then 38-year-old Kim Jong-il made his political debut. That appearance confirmed he was in line to succeed his father, North Korea founder Kim Il-sung.
The question of who will take over from Kim Jong-il, believed to suffer a host of ailments, is important to regional security because of North Korea's active nuclear and missile programs, and regular threats it makes against South Korea.
Some experts fear instability or a power struggle if Kim were to die or become incapacitated without naming a successor. Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his 20s, has two older brothers, previously touted as possible successors.
Rodong Sinmun, the North's leading newspaper, ran an article yesterday lauding the party and emphasising its loyalty to the country's leader. ''The WPK remains so strong as its ranks are made up of ardent loyalists who unhesitatingly dedicate their lives to devotedly defending the headquarters of the revolution, sharing idea and intention and fate with the leader.''
Perhaps as early as today, North Koreans will be allowed to know the face of the next leader to whom they will ''dedicate their lives to devotedly defending''.
Kim Jong-un is so unknown that he probably could walk through the streets of Pyongyang without anyone looking twice. Only one confirmed photograph has been released, in which he appears to be about 12 years old.
That has left the world's news media scrambling for an updated image. When South Korean intelligence reported last month that young Kim was accompanying his father on a trip to China, packs of photographers and reporters, most of them Japanese and South Korean, set off in hot pursuit.
''In this case, Kim Jong-il was definitely No.2. The photo everybody wanted was Kim Jong-un. That would have been the real victory,'' said a Chinese photographer, who asked not to be named because he previously had been arrested while trying to photograph the family.
The photographer caught up with Kim's entourage outside a hotel in the Chinese city of Changchun and snapped a photo of a man behind a partly opened curtain in a limousine.
''In the end, we didn't run the photograph because we didn't know who it was, since nobody knows what Kim Jong-un looks like,'' the photographer said. ''Anyway, my editor said the guy was too good-looking to be Kim Jong-il's son.''
Amid all the mystery about the possible young successor, the streets of Pyongyang are festooned with flags and placards announcing the Workers' Party conference.
Last week the official Korean Central News Agency announced the meeting would select its ''supreme leadership body''. Party delegates have been arriving since Sunday.
The meeting will be the party's first major gathering since a landmark congress in 1980 where the then 38-year-old Kim Jong-il made his political debut. That appearance confirmed he was in line to succeed his father, North Korea founder Kim Il-sung.
The question of who will take over from Kim Jong-il, believed to suffer a host of ailments, is important to regional security because of North Korea's active nuclear and missile programs, and regular threats it makes against South Korea.
Some experts fear instability or a power struggle if Kim were to die or become incapacitated without naming a successor. Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his 20s, has two older brothers, previously touted as possible successors.
Rodong Sinmun, the North's leading newspaper, ran an article yesterday lauding the party and emphasising its loyalty to the country's leader. ''The WPK remains so strong as its ranks are made up of ardent loyalists who unhesitatingly dedicate their lives to devotedly defending the headquarters of the revolution, sharing idea and intention and fate with the leader.''
Perhaps as early as today, North Koreans will be allowed to know the face of the next leader to whom they will ''dedicate their lives to devotedly defending''.
Eggcorn, new term derives from egg corn
In its most recent quarterly update, the Oxford English Dictionary Online announced that its word-hoard now includes the shiny new term eggcorn.An eggcorn, is — well, here’s the official new definition: “an alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements as a similar-sounding word.” If you write “let’s nip it in the butt” (instead of “bud”) or “to the manor born” (instead of “manner”), you’re using an eggcorn.
The term derives from “egg corn” as a substitution for “acorn,” whose earliest appearance comes in an 1844 letter from an American frontiersman: “I hope you are as harty as you ust to be and that you have plenty of egg corn bread which I can not get her and I hop to help you eat some of it soon.”
Why would eggcorn (as we now spell it) replace acorn in the writer’s lexicon? As the OED editors comment, “acorns are, after all, seeds which are somewhat egg-shaped, and in many dialects the formations acorn and eggcorn sound very similar.” (And, like corn kernels, acorns can be ground into meal or flour.) This coinage came to the attention of the linguists blogging at Language Log in 2003, and at the suggestion of Geoffrey Pullum, one of the site’s founders, it was adopted as the term for all such expressions.
Eggcorns needed their own label, the Language Loggers decided, because they were mistakes of a distinct sort — variants on the traditional phrasing, but ones that still made at least a bit of sense. “Nip it in the bud,” for instance, is a horticultural metaphor, perhaps not so widely understood as it once was; the newer “nip it in the butt” describes a different strategy for getting rid of some unwelcome visitation, but it’s not illogical. Hamlet said he was “to the manner born,” but the modern alteration, “to the manor born,” is also a useful formula.
And because they make sense, eggcorns are interesting in a way that mere disfluencies and malapropisms are not: They show our minds at work on the language, reshaping an opaque phrase into something more plausible. They’re tiny linguistic treasures, pearls of imagination created by clothing an unfamiliar usage in a more recognizable costume.
Even before the eggcorn era, most of us had heard (or experienced) pop-song versions of the phenomenon, like “’Scuse me while I kiss this guy” (for Jimi Hendrix’s “kiss the sky” line), but these have had their own label, mondegreen, for more than half a century. The word was coined in 1954 by Sylvia Wright, in commemoration of her mishearing of a Scottish ballad: “They have slain the Earl o’ Moray/ And laid him on the green,” went the lament, but Wright thought the villains had slain the earl “and Lady Mondegreen.”
Then there are malapropisms, word substitutions that sound similar but make no sense at all. They’re named for Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the 1775 play “The Rivals,” whose childrearing philosophy illustrates her vocabulary problem: “I would by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning....I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might know something of the contagious countries.”
And when the misconceived word or expression has spread so widely that we all use it, it’s a folk etymology — or, to most of us, just another word. Bridegroom, hangnail, Jerusalem artichoke — all started out as mistakes.
But we no longer beat ourselves up because our forebears substituted groom for the Old English guma (“man”), or modified agnail (“painful nail”) into hangnail, or reshaped girasole (“sunflower” in Italian) into the more familiar Jerusalem.
The border between these folk-etymologized words, blessed by history and usage, and the newer eggcorns is fuzzy, and there’s been some debate already at the American Dialect Society’s listserv, ADS-L, about whether the distinction is real. Probably there is no bright line; to me, “you’ve got another thing coming” and “wile away the hours” are eggcorns — recent reshapings of expressions I learned as “another think” and “while away” — but to you they may be normal.
But we face the same problem in deciding which senses are valid for everyday, non-eggcornish words. When does nonplussed for “unfazed” or enormity for “hugeness” become the standard sense? We can only wait and see; the variants may duke it out for decades, but if a change takes hold, the battle will one day be forgotten.
The little eggcorn is in the same situation: It’s struggling to overcome its mixed-up heritage and grow into the kind of respectable adulthood enjoyed by the Jerusalem artichoke. We’re not obliged to help it along, but while it’s here, we might as well enjoy its wacky poetry.
Mazlan Othman To Be The First Space Ambassador
Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist, is set to be tasked with co-ordinating humanity’s response if and when extraterrestrials make contact. Aliens who landed on earth and asked: “Take me to your leader” would be directed to Mrs Othman. But it won't happen in her life-time, for sure.She will set out the details of her proposed new role at a Royal Society conference in Buckinghamshire next week.
The 58-year-old is expected to tell delegates that the proposal has been prompted by the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other starts, which is thought to make the discovery of extraterrestrial life more probable than ever before.
Mrs Othman is currently head of the UN’s little known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa).
In a recent talk to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day human kind will received signals from extraterrestrials.
“When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.”
Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law at the UK space agency who leads delegations to the UN, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person”.
The plan to make Unoosa the co-ordinating body for dealing with alien encounters will be debated by UN scientific advisory committees and should eventually reach the body’s general assembly.
Opinion is divided about how future extraterrestrial visitors should be greeted. Under the Outer Space Treaty on 1967, which Unoosa oversees, UN members agreed to protect Earth against contamination by alien species by “sterilising” them.
Mrs Othman is understood to support a more tolerant approach.
But Professor Stephen Hawking has warned that alien interlopers should be treated with caution.
He said: “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. The outcome for us would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
Hossein Derakhshan prosecutors demand death penalty
Hossein Derakhshan, 35, who has both Iranian and Canadian nationality, won his nickname after developing a blog platform for Persian characters that was widely copied by online activists and commentators.
While living in Canada and Britain he became known as a defender of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, against attacks from his many critics in the West. But he also went on a one-man peace mission to Israel, trying to show an Israeli perspective on conflicts in the Middle East to Iranians and also to "humanise" Iranians for his hosts.
He was arrested within weeks of his voluntary return to Iran in 2008. His alleged offences include working with "hostile" governments, propaganda against the Islamic establishment, propaganda in favour of anti-revolutionary groups, and insulting religious sanctities.
An anonymous source told Radio Free Europe that the trial had taken place behind closed doors and that although no sentence had yet been handed down, the prosecutor had sought the death penalty.
His mother, Ozra Kiarashpour, has confirmed that he has been convicted. "The prosecutor has asked for the severest sentence possible to punish Hossein and make an example of him," she said in an interview with a dissident website. "We can't do anything about the judge's ruling except to pray."
A death penalty would be unusual although writers and dissidents have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms. In the last week, two dissident journalists have been sentenced to six years' jail on similar charges, one for an interview he conducted for the BBC Persian service. Exile groups say that capital punishment is increasingly being sought against those accused of "mohareb", or offending God and his prophet.
Mr Derakhshan's family speculates that he might have been victim of a power struggle in the country's ruling conservative faction, given that he was arrested so soon after praising the regime. He had also received a guarantee from the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad that he would be safe if he returned.
On his return, he made a Twitter comment that he "loved being in Iran" and was "generally impressed". Previously, he had defended Iran's right to develop nuclear weapons in self-defence, saying he would defend the country against any military assault.
But he also offended the authorities by tackling pro-reform issues, and on a previous visit home had been arrested and made to apologise for telling readers in Iran how to get round internet censorship.
While living in Canada and Britain he became known as a defender of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, against attacks from his many critics in the West. But he also went on a one-man peace mission to Israel, trying to show an Israeli perspective on conflicts in the Middle East to Iranians and also to "humanise" Iranians for his hosts.
He was arrested within weeks of his voluntary return to Iran in 2008. His alleged offences include working with "hostile" governments, propaganda against the Islamic establishment, propaganda in favour of anti-revolutionary groups, and insulting religious sanctities.
An anonymous source told Radio Free Europe that the trial had taken place behind closed doors and that although no sentence had yet been handed down, the prosecutor had sought the death penalty.
His mother, Ozra Kiarashpour, has confirmed that he has been convicted. "The prosecutor has asked for the severest sentence possible to punish Hossein and make an example of him," she said in an interview with a dissident website. "We can't do anything about the judge's ruling except to pray."
A death penalty would be unusual although writers and dissidents have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms. In the last week, two dissident journalists have been sentenced to six years' jail on similar charges, one for an interview he conducted for the BBC Persian service. Exile groups say that capital punishment is increasingly being sought against those accused of "mohareb", or offending God and his prophet.
Mr Derakhshan's family speculates that he might have been victim of a power struggle in the country's ruling conservative faction, given that he was arrested so soon after praising the regime. He had also received a guarantee from the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad that he would be safe if he returned.
On his return, he made a Twitter comment that he "loved being in Iran" and was "generally impressed". Previously, he had defended Iran's right to develop nuclear weapons in self-defence, saying he would defend the country against any military assault.
But he also offended the authorities by tackling pro-reform issues, and on a previous visit home had been arrested and made to apologise for telling readers in Iran how to get round internet censorship.
Similac Powder Formulas Mass Recall Due To Bug Contamination
Drugmaker Abbott Laboratories said Wednesday it is recalling millions of containers of its best-selling Similac infant formula that may be contaminated with insect parts.The voluntary action affects up to 5 million Similac-brand powder formulas sold in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and some Caribbean countries. The company said the products may contain a small beetle or larvae, which could cause stomach ache and digestion problems.
The recall does not affect any liquid formulas or other Abbott-brand products.
A company spokeswoman said Abbott uncovered the insects last week in one section of a manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Mich.
"We immediately shut down that one area and began an investigation," said Abbott's Melissa Brotz. "We're in the process of resolving it now." Abbott manufactures Similac at several U.S. sites.
Brotz said the company has been consulting with the Food and Drug Administration, which determined there was no "immediate health risk" from the contamination.
The company has set up a website and consumer hot line at (800) 986-8850. Consumers can enter the lot number on their containers online to determine if they are subject to the recall. The products should be returned to Abbott for a full refund.
"Delivering anything less than the highest quality infant formula is unacceptable to us," said Brotz. "We will do whatever is necessary to maintain the trust of parents in the coming weeks."
The affected products were sold in plastic containers and various can sizes, including 8-ounce, 12.4-ounce and 12.9-ounce.
Similac is the best-selling infant formula in the U.S. Abbott's nutritional products — which include adult brands like Ensure — had sales of $5.3 billion last year.
Abbott expects to lose $100 million in connection with the recall. However, the North Chicago, Ill., company confirmed its third-quarter earnings guidance between $1.03 and $1.05 per share.
Related link:
* www.similac.com/recall
Recommended reading:
* Cars Recall 2010
* Massive Recall of Contaminated Tylenol
* Slim-Fast recall due to Bacillus cereus
* McDonald's Recall Shrek Glasses Tainted With Toxic Metal Cadmium
BlackPad to be unveils
Research In Motion may use a developers' conference next week to announce plans for a tablet computer to compete with Apple's iPad and Amazon's, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday.
RIM, the company that makes the BlackBerry smartphone, has been widely expected to join the tablet market this year with a product dubbed BlackPad. RIM recently claimed the www.blackpad.com domain name, fueling the speculation.
Tablet computers fill a niche between smartphones and laptops. Most models lack a keyboard but enable users to download books and video, browse the Internet and send email.
The newspaper, citing unidentified people familiar with RIM's plans, said the device will have a 7-inch touchscreen, one or two cameras and Bluetooth and broadband connections. It will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry smartphone.
RIM will use a completely new operating system built by QNX Software Systems, the newspaper said.
RIM bought QNX earlier this year. QNX's open platform operating system is deployed across multiple business sectors including automotive, industrial, telecommunications, medical, defense, and aerospace.
The RIM tablet is being manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan, and will run on semiconductors from Santa Clara, California-based Marvell Technology Group Inc., the Journal said, citing people familiar with the tablet's manufacturing.
A spokeswoman for RIM declined to comment on the tablet device when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.
But company executives have said the DevCon event, traditionally focused on RIM's community of developers, will provide insights into the company's strategic direction.
DevCon takes place in San Francisco from September 27-30.
Korea's Samsung Electronics is one of the latest entrants to the tablet market, having struck deals with four U.S. carriers to begin selling a tablet running on Google's Android operating system during the coming holiday season.
RIM, the company that makes the BlackBerry smartphone, has been widely expected to join the tablet market this year with a product dubbed BlackPad. RIM recently claimed the www.blackpad.com domain name, fueling the speculation.
Tablet computers fill a niche between smartphones and laptops. Most models lack a keyboard but enable users to download books and video, browse the Internet and send email.
The newspaper, citing unidentified people familiar with RIM's plans, said the device will have a 7-inch touchscreen, one or two cameras and Bluetooth and broadband connections. It will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry smartphone.
RIM will use a completely new operating system built by QNX Software Systems, the newspaper said.
RIM bought QNX earlier this year. QNX's open platform operating system is deployed across multiple business sectors including automotive, industrial, telecommunications, medical, defense, and aerospace.
The RIM tablet is being manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan, and will run on semiconductors from Santa Clara, California-based Marvell Technology Group Inc., the Journal said, citing people familiar with the tablet's manufacturing.
A spokeswoman for RIM declined to comment on the tablet device when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.
But company executives have said the DevCon event, traditionally focused on RIM's community of developers, will provide insights into the company's strategic direction.
DevCon takes place in San Francisco from September 27-30.
Korea's Samsung Electronics is one of the latest entrants to the tablet market, having struck deals with four U.S. carriers to begin selling a tablet running on Google's Android operating system during the coming holiday season.
Did Moses really parted the Red Sea
Moses might not have parted the Red Sea, but a strong east wind that blew through the night could have pushed the waters back in the way described in biblical writings and the Koran, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
Computer simulations, part of a larger study on how winds affect water, show wind could push water back at a point where a river bent to merge with a coastal lagoon, the team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder said.
"The simulations match fairly closely with the account in Exodus," Carl Drews of NCAR, who led the study, said in a statement.
"The parting of the waters can be understood through fluid dynamics. The wind moves the water in a way that's in accordance with physical laws, creating a safe passage with water on two sides and then abruptly allowing the water to rush back in."
Religious texts differ a little in the tale, but all describe Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt ahead of a pharaoh's armies around 3,000 years ago. The Red Sea parts to let Moses and his followers pass safely, then crashes back onto the pursuers, drowning them.
Drews and colleagues are studying how Pacific Ocean typhoons can drive storm surges and other effects of strong and sustained winds on deep water.
His team pinpointed a possible site south of the Mediterranean Sea for the legendary crossing, and modeled different land formations that could have existed then and perhaps led to the accounts of the sea appearing to part.
The model requires a U-shaped formation of the Nile River and a shallow lagoon along the shoreline. It shows that a wind of 63 miles per hour, blowing steadily for 12 hours, could have pushed back waters 6 feet deep.
"This land bridge is 3-4 km (2 to 2.5 miles) long and 5 km (3 miles) wide, and it remains open for 4 hours," they wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.
"People have always been fascinated by this Exodus story, wondering if it comes from historical facts," Drews said. "What this study shows is that the description of the waters parting indeed has a basis in physical laws."
Related link:
* Parting the waters: Computer modeling applies physics to Red Sea escape route
Computer simulations, part of a larger study on how winds affect water, show wind could push water back at a point where a river bent to merge with a coastal lagoon, the team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder said.
"The simulations match fairly closely with the account in Exodus," Carl Drews of NCAR, who led the study, said in a statement.
"The parting of the waters can be understood through fluid dynamics. The wind moves the water in a way that's in accordance with physical laws, creating a safe passage with water on two sides and then abruptly allowing the water to rush back in."
Religious texts differ a little in the tale, but all describe Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt ahead of a pharaoh's armies around 3,000 years ago. The Red Sea parts to let Moses and his followers pass safely, then crashes back onto the pursuers, drowning them.
Drews and colleagues are studying how Pacific Ocean typhoons can drive storm surges and other effects of strong and sustained winds on deep water.
His team pinpointed a possible site south of the Mediterranean Sea for the legendary crossing, and modeled different land formations that could have existed then and perhaps led to the accounts of the sea appearing to part.
The model requires a U-shaped formation of the Nile River and a shallow lagoon along the shoreline. It shows that a wind of 63 miles per hour, blowing steadily for 12 hours, could have pushed back waters 6 feet deep.
"This land bridge is 3-4 km (2 to 2.5 miles) long and 5 km (3 miles) wide, and it remains open for 4 hours," they wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.
"People have always been fascinated by this Exodus story, wondering if it comes from historical facts," Drews said. "What this study shows is that the description of the waters parting indeed has a basis in physical laws."
Related link:
* Parting the waters: Computer modeling applies physics to Red Sea escape route
Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 Crisis
The Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi has been in the news lately, all for the wrong reasons. There were plenty of complaints exposed by the international media like construction delay in the completion of stadiums, roads, other infrastructures makeover and even the athlete villages. Media pundits are betting that the Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 which is scheduled to start this Oct 03, are far from ready and may be call off. With mounting complaints, everyone is starting to point to corruptions and scandal. Even the security readiness is in doubt.To make matter worse, it was just reported that a pedestrian bridge near one of the main stadium stadium. This is firming that the Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 is in crisis mode.
A pedestrian bridge under construction for next month's Commonwealth Games here collapsed Tuesday, officials said, adding to concerns raised about India's preparedness for the international sporting event.
At least 24 people were injured, three critically, said New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat.
The bridge near Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium came down while workers were laying a concrete slab, said Rakesh Mishra, engineer-in-chief for New Delhi's Public Works Department.
Designed as a pathway from a parking area to the stadium, the bridge was scheduled for completion this week. The games begin October 3.
"We are inquiring into it," said Mishra about the cause of the collapse. "It could be faulty execution or a fault in the design."
Two workers were injured in the accident, Mishra said.
The games, hosted for the first time by the Commonwealth's most populous nation, have already been troubled by delays in construction projects and allegations of corruption.
Monsoon rains have compounded the woes, with a spike in cases of dengue fever, water-logged streets and and massive traffic snarls.
And this week, security concerns heightened after a shooting attack Sunday on a bus near a New Delhi mosque injured two Taiwanese tourists. Police, however, downplayed the assault as "local mischief," insisting the city is safe for visitors.
India, are you ready for the Games?
Vatican Money Laundering Scandal
It is not uncommon for the Vatican to be in the spotlight because of sex scandals. Today however is a little bit different in a sense that the Vatican is facing a probe for the alleged money laundering. Imagine, God's banker is into money laundering.
Italian authorities seized euro23 million ($30 million) from a Vatican bank account Tuesday and said they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money-laundering probe.
The Vatican said it was "perplexed and surprised" by the investigation.
Italian financial police seized the money as a precaution and prosecutors placed the Vatican bank's chairman and director general under investigation for alleged mistakes linked to violations of Italy's anti-laundering laws, news reports said.
The investigation is not the first trouble for the bank – formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion. In the 1980s, it was involved in a major scandal that resulted in a banker, dubbed "God's Banker" because of his close ties to the Vatican, being found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London.
The Vatican expressed full trust in the chairman of the bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and his director-general, identified by the Vatican directory as Paolo Cipriani. It said the bank had been working for some time to make its finances more transparent to comply with anti-terrorism and anti-money-laundering regulations.
"The Holy see is perplexed and surprised by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors, considering the data necessary is already available at the Bank of Italy," it said in a statement.
Gotti Tedeschi told state-run RAI television that he was "humiliated and mortified" by news of the probe, which he said had arrived just as he was implementing new transparency procedures at the bank.
News reports circulated more than a year ago that Italian investigators were scrutinizing millions of euros worth of Vatican bank transactions to see if they violated money-laundering regulations.
In Tuesday's case, police seized the money from a Vatican bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa, according to news agencies ANSA and Apcom. The bulk of the money, euro20 million ($26 million), was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to Banca del Fucino.
According to the reports, the Vatican bank had neglected to communicate to financial authorities where the money had come from. The reports stressed that Gotti Tedeschi wasn't being investigated for laundering money himself but for a series of alleged omissions in financial transactions.
Prosecutors declined requests seeking confirmation of the reports.
Gotti Tedeschi was named chairman of the bank a year ago after serving as the head of Italian operations for Spain's Banco Santander. A member of the conservative religious movement Opus Dei, Gotti Tedeschi frequently speaks out on the need for more morality in financing and is a very public cheerleader of Pope Benedict XVI's finance-minded encyclical "Charity in Truth."
"It's not difficult to show that applied ethics produces more wealth," he wrote in a July piece for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. "Ethical behavior means lower costs – just thinking about control measures alone – and allows for more value thanks to transparency and trust, which alone produce more certainty and fewer risks."
News of the investigation came just after Benedict wrapped up a difficult trip to Britain and as the Vatican still reels from the fallout of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
The Vatican bank, located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, isn't a typical bank. Its stated mission is to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for religious works or works of charity. But it also manages ATMs inside Vatican City and the pension system for the Vatican's thousands of employees.
The bank is not open to the public. Depositors are usually limited to Vatican employees, religious orders and people who transfer money for the pope's charities.
Its leadership is composed of five cardinals, one of whom is the Vatican's secretary of state. But the day-to-day operations are headed by Gotti Tedeschi and the bank's oversight council.
The Vatican bank was famously implicated in a scandal over the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy's largest fraud cases.
Roberto Calvi, the head of Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in circumstances that still remain mysterious.
London investigators first ruled that Calvi committed suicide, but his family pressed for further investigation. Eventually murder charges were filed against five defendants, including a major Mafia figure, and they were tried in Rome and acquitted in 2007.
Banco Ambrosiano collapsed following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans the bank had made to several dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.
While denying any wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors.
The late Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, an American prelate who headed the Vatican bank at the time, was charged as an accessory to fraudulent bankruptcy in the scandal.
He left a villa in Rome two hours before police arrived for the safety of the Vatican, an independent city-state. Italy's Constitutional Court eventually backed the Vatican in ruling that under Vatican-Italian treaties Marcinkus enjoyed immunity from Italian prosecution. Marcinkus long asserted his innocence and died in 2006.
Last year, a U.S. appeals court dismissed a lawsuit against the Vatican bank filed by Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia who alleged it had accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.
The court said the bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts.
In its statement Tuesday, the Vatican also said it was working to join the so-called "white list" of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which keeps tabs on financial openness on the exchange of tax information.
The OECD divides countries into three categories: those who comply with rules on sharing tax information (white list), those who say they will but have not acted yet (gray list), and nations which have not yet agreed to change banking secrecy practices (blacklist).
Currently the Vatican bank isn't on any OECD list.
Recommended reading:
* Don't believe in God? Join the Satanist club
* Mocking God Has Consequences
* Great sex: God's way - Beer is illegal, Sex is not
Italian authorities seized euro23 million ($30 million) from a Vatican bank account Tuesday and said they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money-laundering probe.
The Vatican said it was "perplexed and surprised" by the investigation.
Italian financial police seized the money as a precaution and prosecutors placed the Vatican bank's chairman and director general under investigation for alleged mistakes linked to violations of Italy's anti-laundering laws, news reports said.
The investigation is not the first trouble for the bank – formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion. In the 1980s, it was involved in a major scandal that resulted in a banker, dubbed "God's Banker" because of his close ties to the Vatican, being found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London.
The Vatican expressed full trust in the chairman of the bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and his director-general, identified by the Vatican directory as Paolo Cipriani. It said the bank had been working for some time to make its finances more transparent to comply with anti-terrorism and anti-money-laundering regulations.
"The Holy see is perplexed and surprised by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors, considering the data necessary is already available at the Bank of Italy," it said in a statement.
Gotti Tedeschi told state-run RAI television that he was "humiliated and mortified" by news of the probe, which he said had arrived just as he was implementing new transparency procedures at the bank.
News reports circulated more than a year ago that Italian investigators were scrutinizing millions of euros worth of Vatican bank transactions to see if they violated money-laundering regulations.
In Tuesday's case, police seized the money from a Vatican bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa, according to news agencies ANSA and Apcom. The bulk of the money, euro20 million ($26 million), was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to Banca del Fucino.
According to the reports, the Vatican bank had neglected to communicate to financial authorities where the money had come from. The reports stressed that Gotti Tedeschi wasn't being investigated for laundering money himself but for a series of alleged omissions in financial transactions.
Prosecutors declined requests seeking confirmation of the reports.
Gotti Tedeschi was named chairman of the bank a year ago after serving as the head of Italian operations for Spain's Banco Santander. A member of the conservative religious movement Opus Dei, Gotti Tedeschi frequently speaks out on the need for more morality in financing and is a very public cheerleader of Pope Benedict XVI's finance-minded encyclical "Charity in Truth."
"It's not difficult to show that applied ethics produces more wealth," he wrote in a July piece for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. "Ethical behavior means lower costs – just thinking about control measures alone – and allows for more value thanks to transparency and trust, which alone produce more certainty and fewer risks."
News of the investigation came just after Benedict wrapped up a difficult trip to Britain and as the Vatican still reels from the fallout of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
The Vatican bank, located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, isn't a typical bank. Its stated mission is to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for religious works or works of charity. But it also manages ATMs inside Vatican City and the pension system for the Vatican's thousands of employees.
The bank is not open to the public. Depositors are usually limited to Vatican employees, religious orders and people who transfer money for the pope's charities.
Its leadership is composed of five cardinals, one of whom is the Vatican's secretary of state. But the day-to-day operations are headed by Gotti Tedeschi and the bank's oversight council.
The Vatican bank was famously implicated in a scandal over the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy's largest fraud cases.
Roberto Calvi, the head of Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in circumstances that still remain mysterious.
London investigators first ruled that Calvi committed suicide, but his family pressed for further investigation. Eventually murder charges were filed against five defendants, including a major Mafia figure, and they were tried in Rome and acquitted in 2007.
Banco Ambrosiano collapsed following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans the bank had made to several dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.
While denying any wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors.
The late Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, an American prelate who headed the Vatican bank at the time, was charged as an accessory to fraudulent bankruptcy in the scandal.
He left a villa in Rome two hours before police arrived for the safety of the Vatican, an independent city-state. Italy's Constitutional Court eventually backed the Vatican in ruling that under Vatican-Italian treaties Marcinkus enjoyed immunity from Italian prosecution. Marcinkus long asserted his innocence and died in 2006.
Last year, a U.S. appeals court dismissed a lawsuit against the Vatican bank filed by Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia who alleged it had accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.
The court said the bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts.
In its statement Tuesday, the Vatican also said it was working to join the so-called "white list" of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which keeps tabs on financial openness on the exchange of tax information.
The OECD divides countries into three categories: those who comply with rules on sharing tax information (white list), those who say they will but have not acted yet (gray list), and nations which have not yet agreed to change banking secrecy practices (blacklist).
Currently the Vatican bank isn't on any OECD list.
Recommended reading:
* Don't believe in God? Join the Satanist club
* Mocking God Has Consequences
* Great sex: God's way - Beer is illegal, Sex is not
Twitter Security Messed Up By onMouseover Javascript
Twitterers should watch out for a security flaw on Twitter that can automatically redirect users to third-party sites and launch pop-ups--even without users clicking on the spurious links.
Initially dubbed the Twitter "mouseover bug"--just hovering your mouse over an infected link can launch pop-ups and third-party sites--the exploit, which uses the onMouseover Javascript command, seems only to be affecting users on Twitter.com. Users are advised to stay off the site and use third-party applications until it is resolved. TweetDeck, one third-party Twitter client, noted, "Affected tweets show up in TweetDeck as containing code/script. Just ignore/delete such tweets & do not view on twitter.com until fixed."
There are also reports that the new version of Twitter, unveiled last week, is not affected.
Business ETC offers one explanation of how the glitch started spreading:
[U]sers began seeing large chunks of blacked-out text in timelines, which - when hovered over by users mistaking the message for blacked-out formatting - automatically filled the 'New Tweet' space on the page and tried to post the message.
The code in question is a JavaScript exploit which masquerades itself as a traditional hyperlink, so as to evade Twitter's automatic filters, but triggers a sequence that automatically posts the same message to a user's own timeline, thus continuing its spread.
Graham Cloley noted on his Sophos blog, "It looks like many users are currently using the flaw for fun and games, but there is obviously the potential for cybercriminals to redirect users to third-party websites containing malicious code, or for spam advertising pop-ups to be displayed."
Mashable estimates that the security flaw "has been widely exploited on thousands of Twitter accounts." Cloley observed that Sarah Brown, the wife of the former British Prime Minister, was affected. @MikeCane tweeted, "This thing is spreading so fast that Search Twitter cannot update fast enough." Another user, @Mikeful, wrote, "Seems like Twitter onmouseover-exploit is spreading like wildfire. Search page tells "14000 new tweets" after waiting 10 seconds." Because the exploit seems able to "fill and submit a status update form 'on your behalf,'" TechCrunch reports the onMouseover exploit may have spread to as many as 40,000 tweets in just 10 minutes.
Recommended reading:
* LOL is this you - Twitter latest phishing scam
* Twitter Service Temporarily Unavailable
Initially dubbed the Twitter "mouseover bug"--just hovering your mouse over an infected link can launch pop-ups and third-party sites--the exploit, which uses the onMouseover Javascript command, seems only to be affecting users on Twitter.com. Users are advised to stay off the site and use third-party applications until it is resolved. TweetDeck, one third-party Twitter client, noted, "Affected tweets show up in TweetDeck as containing code/script. Just ignore/delete such tweets & do not view on twitter.com until fixed."
There are also reports that the new version of Twitter, unveiled last week, is not affected.
Business ETC offers one explanation of how the glitch started spreading:
[U]sers began seeing large chunks of blacked-out text in timelines, which - when hovered over by users mistaking the message for blacked-out formatting - automatically filled the 'New Tweet' space on the page and tried to post the message.
The code in question is a JavaScript exploit which masquerades itself as a traditional hyperlink, so as to evade Twitter's automatic filters, but triggers a sequence that automatically posts the same message to a user's own timeline, thus continuing its spread.
Graham Cloley noted on his Sophos blog, "It looks like many users are currently using the flaw for fun and games, but there is obviously the potential for cybercriminals to redirect users to third-party websites containing malicious code, or for spam advertising pop-ups to be displayed."
Mashable estimates that the security flaw "has been widely exploited on thousands of Twitter accounts." Cloley observed that Sarah Brown, the wife of the former British Prime Minister, was affected. @MikeCane tweeted, "This thing is spreading so fast that Search Twitter cannot update fast enough." Another user, @Mikeful, wrote, "Seems like Twitter onmouseover-exploit is spreading like wildfire. Search page tells "14000 new tweets" after waiting 10 seconds." Because the exploit seems able to "fill and submit a status update form 'on your behalf,'" TechCrunch reports the onMouseover exploit may have spread to as many as 40,000 tweets in just 10 minutes.
Recommended reading:
* LOL is this you - Twitter latest phishing scam
* Twitter Service Temporarily Unavailable
Who will inherit Bill Gates's $56 billion fortunes
MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates has revealed he won't be leaving his estimated $56 billion fortune to his children when he dies. Gates is probably following the footsteps of Karl Rabeder.Instead the global software giant brainchild, who ranks alongside the Carlos Slim, Medicis, Romanovs, Rothschilds and Rockefellers as one of history's wealthiest people, told UK newspaper The Sun that his billions will be spent defeating global poverty. Read also the Top 10 Richest People - 2010.
"I will give the kids some money but not a meaningful percentage," he said.
"Setting the number so that they need to work but they feel reasonably taken care of is hard to figure out."
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have three children - Jennifer, 14, Rory, 11, and eight-year-old Phoebe.
"I knew I didn't think it was a good idea to give the money to my kids," Mr Gates said. Could it be that Gates believed that money doesn't buy happiness?
"That wouldn't be good either for my kids or society. So the question was, 'Can I find something that had incredible impact?' I knew I wanted to do that."
Along with his wife, he launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which so far donated $30 billion to fund mass vaccination programs to eradicate diseases such as polio and TB.
It also championed the search for the Holy Grails of health - vaccines for Aids and malaria.
Mr Gates is currently working on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals - a set of targets to reduce global poverty by 2015 - as a summit begins in New York on Monday.
"Once you improve health then the population comes down because people have fewer children because the survival rates are better," he said.
"When population comes down your ability to eat, to educate, to have jobs and to get countries to be self-sustaining is pretty phenomenal. Aid isn't something that will have to continue for ever."
Recommended reading:
* Secret of how rich people get rich
Free Trial Offer, Send Money Today Scam
ONLINE scams targeting young people are proliferating faster than you can say, 'free trial offer, send money today'. As a result, billions are lost as online criminals target the young.
About 10 per cent of all internet users lost a combined $1.2 billion in Australia to various scams last year, according to industry research. Hundreds of thousands also lost personal information, including financial details and tax information, which con artists can 'bank' to commit further fraud at a later stage.
While offline scams frequently targeted pensioners and older people, internet scammers have younger people in their sights, with people aged 18-24 losing an average $1619, compared to $1000 across all age groups.
The problem will be the focus of an international 'net sweep' today involving consumer protection authorities from 42 countries, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Peter Kell, deputy chairman of the ACCC, said often young people did not understand their rights on the web. 'They may be technologically savvy [but] they can be easy targets.'
A common scam involves ads for jobs that require applicants to send money for 'training'. Other common areas include online shopping, social networking and travel offers. Mr Kell said travel scams increase before Christmas and are often characterised by unknown companies claiming victims have won awards.
Sites targeted by the sweep will range from legitimate offers that contain incorrect information to downright tricks to lure money or personal information. Last year's sweep unearthed a fraudulent football World Cup tickets website and helped shut down 40 other scam sites.
'Many operators of these sites are based out of Australia, they move quickly and are impossible to track down,' Mr Kell said.
A survey by the internet security company VeriSign found 69 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds did not check for enhanced security when being asked to transfer money over the internet.
Dr Mark Gregory, a network engineering lecturer at RMIT University, said young people often forgot that the internet is a public place.
'It's equivalent to holding [personal information] up on a board in the middle of a supermarket but it's worse than that. You can take the board and go home but on the internet you can't.'
Recommended reading:
* How people counterfeit check from Internet source
* Types of Internet business scam
About 10 per cent of all internet users lost a combined $1.2 billion in Australia to various scams last year, according to industry research. Hundreds of thousands also lost personal information, including financial details and tax information, which con artists can 'bank' to commit further fraud at a later stage.
While offline scams frequently targeted pensioners and older people, internet scammers have younger people in their sights, with people aged 18-24 losing an average $1619, compared to $1000 across all age groups.
The problem will be the focus of an international 'net sweep' today involving consumer protection authorities from 42 countries, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Peter Kell, deputy chairman of the ACCC, said often young people did not understand their rights on the web. 'They may be technologically savvy [but] they can be easy targets.'
A common scam involves ads for jobs that require applicants to send money for 'training'. Other common areas include online shopping, social networking and travel offers. Mr Kell said travel scams increase before Christmas and are often characterised by unknown companies claiming victims have won awards.
Sites targeted by the sweep will range from legitimate offers that contain incorrect information to downright tricks to lure money or personal information. Last year's sweep unearthed a fraudulent football World Cup tickets website and helped shut down 40 other scam sites.
'Many operators of these sites are based out of Australia, they move quickly and are impossible to track down,' Mr Kell said.
A survey by the internet security company VeriSign found 69 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds did not check for enhanced security when being asked to transfer money over the internet.
Dr Mark Gregory, a network engineering lecturer at RMIT University, said young people often forgot that the internet is a public place.
'It's equivalent to holding [personal information] up on a board in the middle of a supermarket but it's worse than that. You can take the board and go home but on the internet you can't.'
Recommended reading:
* How people counterfeit check from Internet source
* Types of Internet business scam
Tougher Google Authentication
Google is making it tougher for computer hackers and other imposters to break into e-mail accounts and other password-protected services.An additional security measure introduced Monday will require typing a six-digit code after an accountholder's Google password is entered. The codes will be sent to people's mobile phones.
The two-step login means it will take more than a password to get into an account.
The extra protection initially will be offered to companies and government agencies subscribing to a Google service that provides e-mail and other office applications. Google Inc. also is offering the added security to schools that rely on Google to run their e-mail.
People using Google's free Gmail service will be able to make the security codes part of their login process within the next few months.
WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEANS?
This has nothing to do with protecting personal privacy and everything to do with ensuring their data is valid at the expense of end-users inconvenience and forcing their users to give-up their mobile number for even more Google Tracking.
On a positive note, revealing your mobile number to Google means that you are trusted but anytime your cross a forbidden line, Google can get back at you. In most countries, all mobile number registration can be traced back to the original registrant even if the number is on a pre-paid account.
Can Google afford to send text messages containing the six-digit codes to million of users? Yes, it can. Remember Google allowed you to make a phone call even from your GMail account.
On a sour note, it could be a problem for individual with a single mobile number but maintaining multiple Google accounts. It will also be a problem to Google users who doesn't have a mobile phones. This goes to people from poor countries and kids.
Clean Censored Internet Search Engines
Seek adult contents and ye shall not find. A number of new internet search engines created by Christian, Jewish or Muslim entities aim to filter out queries from web users in a way that is more relevant to those users and keeps them from temptation, alcohol and pornography. Meaning, censored results."We think that the other search engines are way too 'main street' oriented. We wanted to provide a solution to explore the web in a safe environment, where you won't bump into explicit content or immoral websites, like pornography," said Reza Sardeha, the Amsterdam-based founder of the Muslim-oriented search engine I'mHalal. Read also a prevent post on I am Halal Search Engine.
If one types the world alcohol into imhalal.com, the search engine produces results that explain the Muslim viewpoint on drinking. Type in "pornography", and the search engine produces... nothing.
The 21-year-old Kuwaiti says the site attracts users from places like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates as well as the United States.
"Actually we know that our users are not only Muslims, and once a week we get an email from non-Muslims as well saying that they like the content of our safe search engine and they allow their children to search knowing they won't bump into offensive content."
For Christians, SeekFind offers "a research tool for people who are looking for biblical and theological content from an evangelical Christian prospective," says founder Shea Houdmann, who operates from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
According to the seekfind.org website, the search engine functions by "only indexing websites that are Biblically-based, theologically-sound, and in agreement with our statement of faith.
"That way, you can have confidence that you will find content which will be God-honoring and spiritually encouraging," it says.
For the Jewish community, the niche is filled by another engine called Jewogle, which bears a passing resemblance to Google.
Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, said none of these website has "taken off and caught fire" but that "it doesn't mean to say that they can't be good, profitable businesses".
But he said some of the niche websites fail, like the African-American search engine called rushmoredrive, which was closed by its parent firm IAC in 2009.
"It was designed so that when you do a search you get sort of an African-American spin on the web results that you got back. But that never took off."
Michael Gartenberg, partner at technology research firm Altimer Group, told National Public Radio that some of these niche groups are bringing more users to the internet.
"You have an emerging generation and emerging culture that wants to take advantage of technology... search engines and the things that they provide but at the same point, be true to their heritage... and not stray from their belief system," he says.
SEO: adult free search engines | no porno | no adult contents | halal web | halal results | adult censored | censored search engines
Facebook Phone
Social networking website Facebook said on Sunday it is pushing deeper into the mobile phones sector, but denied an Internet report that it will build its own phone.Privately held Facebook has more than 500 million users worldwide and the company already has applications on a number of mobile phones that tie into its social networking website.
But Jaime Schopflin, a spokesman for Facebook, said the privately held company "is not building a phone." Facebook's current projects include "deeper integrations with some manufacturers," he said.
"Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this," Schopflin said in a statement.
In a report on Sunday, the website TechCrunch.com said a source with knowledge of the project revealed that Facebook is secretly building software for a phone and working with a third party to build the hardware.
TechCrunch.com said Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and core functions of a mobile phone, which it can only do if it controls the phone's operating system.
Facebook, for its part, cited Facebook Connect, a service to allow members to log onto third-party websites, for Apple Inc's iPhone, and contact syncing on its iPhone application as projects it has already undertaken.
In May, Facebook also launched a stripped-down version of its social networking website designed for mobile phones with limited bandwidth Internet connections.
"The bottom line is that whenever we work on a deep integration, people want to call it a 'Facebook Phone' because that's such an attractive soundbite, but building phones is just not what we do," Schopflin said.
Facebook's denial comes after Google Inc last year dismissed media reports about its plans to build a phone, and then later came out with the Nexus One.
At the time, the company said it was focusing on developing its Android mobile operating software, which works on a multitude of mobile phones developed by other companies such as Motorola Inc's hot-selling DROID device.
But Google eventually did release in January its own smartphone called the Nexus One, manufactured by Taiwan-based HTC Corp. Google sold the device itself through an online store, but in May announced it was closing that sales outlet and said the store had not lived up to expectations.
Photo: willimediablog.com
Nadya "Octomom" Suleman is broke
Choices have consequences. That's what Nadya "Octomom" Suleman is finding out -- the hard way.
After gaining notoriety for going full-term with eight children, to add to the six children she already had, the unmarried Suleman is now almost completely broke, and ready to go on welfare, RadarOnline.com reports.
"She's going on welfare and it's going to be very soon," an insider told the web site. "There's just no choice. She's running out of money and those kids need to eat."
The money Octomom made selling access to her life is almost all gone, and reality TV and book deals have not panned out, the web site says.
Behind on house payments and without any real source of income, sources tell Radaronline.com that Suleman's only choice is to go on the dole.
"She needs the money. She has no choice at this point," the source said. "And she's been on public assistance before."
Suleman, 35, lives in a house that her father bought her, but she has fallen behind on payments, the site reports.
Suleman gained international fame after giving birth to her octuplets on January 29, 2009.
Recommended link:
* Nadya Suleman Offered $500K Porn Deal
After gaining notoriety for going full-term with eight children, to add to the six children she already had, the unmarried Suleman is now almost completely broke, and ready to go on welfare, RadarOnline.com reports.
"She's going on welfare and it's going to be very soon," an insider told the web site. "There's just no choice. She's running out of money and those kids need to eat."
The money Octomom made selling access to her life is almost all gone, and reality TV and book deals have not panned out, the web site says.
Behind on house payments and without any real source of income, sources tell Radaronline.com that Suleman's only choice is to go on the dole.
"She needs the money. She has no choice at this point," the source said. "And she's been on public assistance before."
Suleman, 35, lives in a house that her father bought her, but she has fallen behind on payments, the site reports.
Suleman gained international fame after giving birth to her octuplets on January 29, 2009.
Recommended link:
* Nadya Suleman Offered $500K Porn Deal
wordpres.me a spam tool used by healthtabletsdirect.com
Another unintentional spam mail received from a new acquaintance. As usual, the spam mail originated from a Yahoo Mail account, without a subject and a link as shown as .wordpres.me .... See the sample link below:
http://myer630.wordpres.me/2009/03/are-overweight-or-obese.html
Once you click on that harmless looking link, you will be directly to another site, i.e. healthtabletsdirect.com
A week ago, I posted a similar spam mail from healthtabletsdirect.com using URL wordpres.us
http://myer630.wordpres.me/2009/03/are-overweight-or-obese.html
Once you click on that harmless looking link, you will be directly to another site, i.e. healthtabletsdirect.com
A week ago, I posted a similar spam mail from healthtabletsdirect.com using URL wordpres.us
Super Wi-Fi ushers bigger-faster-better internet connections
It's more powerful than your current home network -- able to leap through tall buildings from a single port.Look, up in the sky.
It's "SUPER Wi-Fi!"
At least that's what U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is calling a new class of bigger-faster-better internet connections, which could jump from fiction to reality after a commission vote on September 23.
Genachowski says "super Wi-Fi," which he also refers to as "Wi-Fi on steroids," may spark a technological revolution in the U.S.
"The spectrum allows signals to travel further, to go through walls, to [transfer] more information -- so it's very robust," he said in an interview with CNN.com. "Super Wi-Fi has extraordinary potential. What's as exciting is we have a new platform for innovation and we can't anticipate what will happen next."
The souped-up system could result in wireless internet connections coming to rural areas, fewer "dead zones" in Wi-Fi networks and the ability to transfer large files easily between machines and computers in hospitals, the FCC says.
Cities might also be able to use the larger Wi-Fi networks to offer up public wireless internet hot spots and perform such tasks as remotely monitoring infrastructure and water quality.
The changes would come about if the FCC votes to open up some of the "white space" between TV channels for use by anyone.
That spectrum allows for fast file transfers over areas that are several times as large as traditional Wi-Fi networks, which are used in many homes to connect computers, printers and mobiles phones to the internet.
If freeing up "vacant airwaves" is approved, it would be the first time since 1985 that the FCC has made new chunks of the wireless spectrum available for unlicensed use.
"This is going to be the first release of unlicensed spectrum in over 25 years," Genachowski said. "The last time we did this it led to Wi-Fi. It led to a multibillion-dollar industry and extraordinary benefits that we experience every day.
"We believe that history can repeat itself, and unlicensed spectrum will catalyze private investment -- it will create a new platform for innovators and entrepreneurs to develop new and exciting products for the public."
In addition to Wi-Fi, the 1985 spectrum change paved the way for wireless remote controls on televisions, baby monitors, wireless microphones and other gadgets.
Not everyone has been excited about the FCC's super Wi-Fi proposal, however.
Some broadcast groups as well as those who use the wireless spectrum to power microphones have criticized the new Wi-Fi plans.
The National Association of Broadcasters, however, said in an e-mail to CNN that the group "is working constructively with the FCC in hopes that the agency adopts final 'white spaces' rules that preserve the ability of local and network broadcasters to deliver interference-free television."
Jeff Evans, deputy director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute's telecommunications lab, said it appears that most technical issues with the wireless spectrum have been worked out.
The freeing up of the spectrum, however, will require concessions from theater operators and churches that use wireless microphones. They likely will have to switch wireless frequencies, he said.
Still, Evans said, the move to super Wi-Fi would be a good one.
"It should allow you to penetrate through just about any building -- and multiple walls," he said. "And instead of transmitting, say, a half-mile outdoors, you should be able to go two or three miles."
A common complaint about current Wi-Fi is that it doesn't work in all parts of a building and that the signals are sometimes so weak that they drop frequently.
On a technical level, the difference between super Wi-Fi and current Wi-Fi signals is that they travel at different frequencies, Evans said.
Old Wi-Fi is a 2.4-GHz signal, which is a shorter wavelength than super Wi-Fi, which will operate at several longer wavelengths in the TV spectrum.
Those frequencies gives the new Wi-Fi its espoused superpowers, he said.
"The wavelength is much longer and it's not attenuated nearly as much -- it's not absorbed as much by the atmosphere when you're transmitting, and it's also not absorbed by the buildings as much," Evans said.
Five or so super-Wi-Fi hotspots might be able to provide internet service to a small downtown area, he said. But it may be two or more years before such applications are available to consumers. It will take time for gadget and antenna makers to adjust to the new standards, he said.
Genachowski, the FCC chairman, said super Wi-Fi may be rolled out more heavily in some areas than others.
In dense cities where many groups are already using wireless signals, for example, super Wi-Fi may not be as prominent as in rural areas.
Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, said the FCC's plan could bring high-speed internet connections to new groups of people.
"It's taking an unused, or fallow, resource and making it available to help it address one of the significant challenges we as a society face," he said.
But, he added, the concept may not be economical. And, at least at first, it may not be helpful to people with mobile devices -- like smartphones and laptops -- who want to be able to get on the internet from anywhere.
"You're not going to have mobile phones and laptops that allow you to get in a taxi and go and be online as you're going to the airport and things like that," he said
The FCC is already testing the concept of super Wi-Fi in a few places.
The commission says the technology has been used to bring broadband internet to a school in rural Claudeville, Virginia, to add a public Wi-Fi network in Wilmington, North Carolina, and obtain data about the "smart grid" electricity infrastructure in Plumas County, California.
via CNN
Phyllis Greene Blog
Imagine you are a 90 years old person with 60-ish children and have a blog. Phyllis Harmon Greene, a 90 years old lady from Ohio is one of the oldest blogger around.Her blog address at http://wedeb90.blogspot.com reveal her daily thought and how the latest technology has brought a new dimension to her daily routine.
What is wedeb90? Wede stands for Phyllis other name given by her grandma, Phyllis like letter B and 90 is her age (now).
Phyllis Greene, became a first-time author at the age of eighty-two, with It Must Have Been Moonglow: Reflections on the First Years of Widowhood. She is the mother of three, the grandmother of eight, and the great-grandmother of (now!) two children. Greene live in Columbus, Ohio.
Phyllis Greene is sort of a blogger celebrity now after BBC publish a video about her and her knacks into blogging. Her blog popularity (including the number of comments, google connects and traffic) is spiking now.
Chitika launched Local Advertising Exchange
The untapped potential of local online advertising just got tapped. Online
ad network Chitika today revealed their newest property, LAX Local Advertising Exchange, which takes the fast-growing power of local advertising and applies it to the proven power of the ad exchange. One of Chitika’s cornerstone partners, online local pioneer Yellowbook, is among the first to take advantage of the opportunities presented by LAX.
“We’re always looking for unique opportunities to extend the reach of our more than half a million clients beyond the traditional distribution platforms,” said Mike Wilson, GM & vice president of digital media at Yellowbook. “Yellowbook is growing to over 100 million local searches per month driven by consumers who are ready to buy specific products and services. The first time we saw what Chitika was doing with LAX, we recognized the incredible impact this synergistic platform could deliver. We believe it meshes well with our overall performance advertising strategy.
“LAX stands to dramatically change the way local online advertising works, and in a very positive way – from which our advertisers and users will benefit. Combining the user-intent of search, the efficacy of pay-per-call, and the immediacy and ubiquity of mobile is a huge boon for local advertising – especially for the local business owner who can again trust Yellowbook to find the best methods for promoting their business while they focus on their passion of actually running their business and achieving success."
By applying the ad exchange model to local advertising, Chitika aims to create a powerful, cohesive network of both advertisers and publishers in an industry that is at the early stages of finding such cohesion.
To best serve the local market, Chitika also unveiled a local-oriented mobile ad unit, which will allow publishers with local traffic to monetize it properly and immediately. The unit, which is designed not to interfere with a publisher’s general traffic, will detect mobile devices and adjust itself accordingly. Even if a site is not designed for mobile, the site’s Chitika ads will detect an iPhone, for example, and serve a special advertisement that is tailored both to the mobile experience and to the local user.
Included in Chitika’s new mobile ads is a new take on Pay-Per-Call ads, which allow visitors who receive a local ad on their phone to call the advertiser with one touch. Publishers with heavy local traffic have looked for ways to properly monetize, and with instant gratification Pay-Per-Call ads and the ability to truly target local traffic, the Local Ad Exchange delivers.
Topix, Inc.’s VP of Business Development David Galvan is looking forward to the opportunities Chitika’s LAX offers. “As a local publisher, there’s always been a big question mark on how to improve advertising to my local traffic,” Galvan says. “I’ve seen what the ad exchange model has done for regular Internet traffic, and Chitika bringing it to the local space is huge for us.”
Along with Topix, local publishing pioneers Americantowns.com and GetFave.com have been beta testing Chitika’s LAX service, with the expectation that it will add another level of revenue to their booming industry.
“We’ve seen great success in bringing the power of search to publishers’ on-site advertisements,” says Chitika CEO Venkat Kolluri. “It’s amazing to think about what we can do when we take that success and mix in the fast-growing local market, and being able to put it in people’s hands on their mobile devices will maximize the impact of this ad exchange.”
Whether you’re an advertiser or publisher, take advantage of this growing industry by signing up at http://lax.chitika.com, and get on board the industry’s first local ad exchange.
About Chitika
Chitika, Inc., is a search-based online advertising network, leading the way in intent-based and local advertising. Chitika provides publishers with an innovative way to monetize both general and local traffic, and advertisers a new way of generating leads with clear consumer intent. With over 80,000 affiliated sites and 2 billion monthly impressions, the Chitika network is the pulse of the online world.
Chitika continually evolves its image as “the ad network that knows when not to show ads.” For more information, visit http://chitika.com
via Chitika Press Release.
ad network Chitika today revealed their newest property, LAX Local Advertising Exchange, which takes the fast-growing power of local advertising and applies it to the proven power of the ad exchange. One of Chitika’s cornerstone partners, online local pioneer Yellowbook, is among the first to take advantage of the opportunities presented by LAX.
“We’re always looking for unique opportunities to extend the reach of our more than half a million clients beyond the traditional distribution platforms,” said Mike Wilson, GM & vice president of digital media at Yellowbook. “Yellowbook is growing to over 100 million local searches per month driven by consumers who are ready to buy specific products and services. The first time we saw what Chitika was doing with LAX, we recognized the incredible impact this synergistic platform could deliver. We believe it meshes well with our overall performance advertising strategy.
“LAX stands to dramatically change the way local online advertising works, and in a very positive way – from which our advertisers and users will benefit. Combining the user-intent of search, the efficacy of pay-per-call, and the immediacy and ubiquity of mobile is a huge boon for local advertising – especially for the local business owner who can again trust Yellowbook to find the best methods for promoting their business while they focus on their passion of actually running their business and achieving success."
By applying the ad exchange model to local advertising, Chitika aims to create a powerful, cohesive network of both advertisers and publishers in an industry that is at the early stages of finding such cohesion.
To best serve the local market, Chitika also unveiled a local-oriented mobile ad unit, which will allow publishers with local traffic to monetize it properly and immediately. The unit, which is designed not to interfere with a publisher’s general traffic, will detect mobile devices and adjust itself accordingly. Even if a site is not designed for mobile, the site’s Chitika ads will detect an iPhone, for example, and serve a special advertisement that is tailored both to the mobile experience and to the local user.
Included in Chitika’s new mobile ads is a new take on Pay-Per-Call ads, which allow visitors who receive a local ad on their phone to call the advertiser with one touch. Publishers with heavy local traffic have looked for ways to properly monetize, and with instant gratification Pay-Per-Call ads and the ability to truly target local traffic, the Local Ad Exchange delivers.
Topix, Inc.’s VP of Business Development David Galvan is looking forward to the opportunities Chitika’s LAX offers. “As a local publisher, there’s always been a big question mark on how to improve advertising to my local traffic,” Galvan says. “I’ve seen what the ad exchange model has done for regular Internet traffic, and Chitika bringing it to the local space is huge for us.”
Along with Topix, local publishing pioneers Americantowns.com and GetFave.com have been beta testing Chitika’s LAX service, with the expectation that it will add another level of revenue to their booming industry.
“We’ve seen great success in bringing the power of search to publishers’ on-site advertisements,” says Chitika CEO Venkat Kolluri. “It’s amazing to think about what we can do when we take that success and mix in the fast-growing local market, and being able to put it in people’s hands on their mobile devices will maximize the impact of this ad exchange.”
Whether you’re an advertiser or publisher, take advantage of this growing industry by signing up at http://lax.chitika.com, and get on board the industry’s first local ad exchange.
About Chitika
Chitika, Inc., is a search-based online advertising network, leading the way in intent-based and local advertising. Chitika provides publishers with an innovative way to monetize both general and local traffic, and advertisers a new way of generating leads with clear consumer intent. With over 80,000 affiliated sites and 2 billion monthly impressions, the Chitika network is the pulse of the online world.
Chitika continually evolves its image as “the ad network that knows when not to show ads.” For more information, visit http://chitika.com
via Chitika Press Release.
Top 10 Weird Jobs That Pay Good Money
Finding a job in a recession is difficult, but the jobs are out there. You just have to know where to look, and for some jobs, be willing to think outside the cube -- imagine selling tequila shots to drunken men for up to $600 a night, diving for pearls for $1,200 a day or diving below an oil rig for $80,000 a year. The good news is that these weird jobs pay well, and are unique jobs to add to a resume.
Here are some of the weirdest jobs that pay well, according to WalletPop :
Shot girl
For a woman in her 20s, taking home between $300 and $600 a night is excellent pay, which is about how much shot girls make, The Wall Street Journal reports. They're paid 25 cents for every shot they sell at the bar, with the rest coming from tips, which vary between $1 and $20 per round. The watered-down tequila in a plastic test tube and Jell-O shots cost 15 cents to make and sell for $3 or $4. After the young woman gets her cut, the cash is evenly split between the bar and the company managers. The shot girls wear revealing tops and short shorts, which may not make it an appealing job for all women.
Submarine cook
In Australia, a senior submarine cook with more than six years of experience earns $200,000 (about $187,000 U.S.) per year, the same as a junior admiral.
The base pay is $58,806 per year, but the key is in the bonuses, which include a capability bonus of $40,000, seagoing allowance of $22,254, submarine service allowance of $26,703, and a bonus of $50,000 a year just for showing up for work, because the job is listed as "critical to the navy."
Macau junket operator
If you can convince millionaires to travel to the Chinese city of Macau to gamble at a casino, you could earn 1.2% or more of whatever the high-rollers gamble. Baccarat pays a 2.7% commission. That could add up to $5,000 per month.
Pearl diver
It's a dangerous occupation, but diving for pearls in Australia pays well. Offshore rates are $1,300 Australian dollars ($1,216 American) per day, and overseas daily rates start at $500 American.
Oil and gas diver
This may not be the most glamorous job since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but oil and gas divers can earn up to $80,000 a year. Tasks required in this demanding underwater job include inspecting and installing rigs, welding or laying pipe. The best news: It's a growing field.
Master sommelier
Experienced sommeliers, who help diners in upscale restaurants find wines that perfectly complement their meals and their palates, can earn $80,000 to $160,000 per year. They develop restaurants' wine lists, advise clients on pairings and must know many wines by detail.
Airplane repo man
If you like adventure and high-stress work, this is the high-paying job for you. Aircraft repossessors can get a 6 to 10% commission of the resale price of a plane they get back for a bank. For planes costing millions of dollars, that can add up to $10,000 to $900,000 per plane. Be prepared for tough work, though. Some repo men get shot at or tossed in a foreign prison.
Bounty hunter
Like a repo man, this is a dangerous job that could get you killed. Someone who has paid bail to get out of jail and then skipped town is tracked down by a bounty hunter and brought back to jail. This person likely won't be cooperative.
Pay is 10 to 45% of the bail deposit amount, so a suspect who skips out on $100,000 bail could net the bounty hunter $10,000 to $45,000 upon his or her return. Experienced bounty hunters who take high-risk assignments can make more than $100,000 per year.
White hat hacker
Instead of trying to steal information from computers and use it to make money, these ethical hackers help companies find security holes in their computer systems. The top certified ethical hackers earn up to $123,900 per year, and need a bachelor's degree in computer science or information technology.
Voice-over work
From cartoons to radio commercials, voice-over work can pay well if you get the right job. Five minutes of finished audio can pay $325 to someone who is experienced. Even lesser-known voice-over artists can earn $50,000 to $80,000 per year.
Recommended reading:
* Top 10 Jobs That Make The Most Money
* Top 5 Careers That Make The Most Money
* Top 10 Fastest-Growing Jobs For Women
* Top 10 Best Jobs for 2010
Here are some of the weirdest jobs that pay well, according to WalletPop :
Shot girl
For a woman in her 20s, taking home between $300 and $600 a night is excellent pay, which is about how much shot girls make, The Wall Street Journal reports. They're paid 25 cents for every shot they sell at the bar, with the rest coming from tips, which vary between $1 and $20 per round. The watered-down tequila in a plastic test tube and Jell-O shots cost 15 cents to make and sell for $3 or $4. After the young woman gets her cut, the cash is evenly split between the bar and the company managers. The shot girls wear revealing tops and short shorts, which may not make it an appealing job for all women.
Submarine cook
In Australia, a senior submarine cook with more than six years of experience earns $200,000 (about $187,000 U.S.) per year, the same as a junior admiral.
The base pay is $58,806 per year, but the key is in the bonuses, which include a capability bonus of $40,000, seagoing allowance of $22,254, submarine service allowance of $26,703, and a bonus of $50,000 a year just for showing up for work, because the job is listed as "critical to the navy."
Macau junket operator
If you can convince millionaires to travel to the Chinese city of Macau to gamble at a casino, you could earn 1.2% or more of whatever the high-rollers gamble. Baccarat pays a 2.7% commission. That could add up to $5,000 per month.
Pearl diver
It's a dangerous occupation, but diving for pearls in Australia pays well. Offshore rates are $1,300 Australian dollars ($1,216 American) per day, and overseas daily rates start at $500 American.
Oil and gas diver
This may not be the most glamorous job since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but oil and gas divers can earn up to $80,000 a year. Tasks required in this demanding underwater job include inspecting and installing rigs, welding or laying pipe. The best news: It's a growing field.
Master sommelier
Experienced sommeliers, who help diners in upscale restaurants find wines that perfectly complement their meals and their palates, can earn $80,000 to $160,000 per year. They develop restaurants' wine lists, advise clients on pairings and must know many wines by detail.
Airplane repo man
If you like adventure and high-stress work, this is the high-paying job for you. Aircraft repossessors can get a 6 to 10% commission of the resale price of a plane they get back for a bank. For planes costing millions of dollars, that can add up to $10,000 to $900,000 per plane. Be prepared for tough work, though. Some repo men get shot at or tossed in a foreign prison.
Bounty hunter
Like a repo man, this is a dangerous job that could get you killed. Someone who has paid bail to get out of jail and then skipped town is tracked down by a bounty hunter and brought back to jail. This person likely won't be cooperative.
Pay is 10 to 45% of the bail deposit amount, so a suspect who skips out on $100,000 bail could net the bounty hunter $10,000 to $45,000 upon his or her return. Experienced bounty hunters who take high-risk assignments can make more than $100,000 per year.
White hat hacker
Instead of trying to steal information from computers and use it to make money, these ethical hackers help companies find security holes in their computer systems. The top certified ethical hackers earn up to $123,900 per year, and need a bachelor's degree in computer science or information technology.
Voice-over work
From cartoons to radio commercials, voice-over work can pay well if you get the right job. Five minutes of finished audio can pay $325 to someone who is experienced. Even lesser-known voice-over artists can earn $50,000 to $80,000 per year.
Recommended reading:
* Top 10 Jobs That Make The Most Money
* Top 5 Careers That Make The Most Money
* Top 10 Fastest-Growing Jobs For Women
* Top 10 Best Jobs for 2010
Better Traffic Monitoring With Google Analytics Data Export API
Spending a lot of time monitoring your blog traffic for clues and trends? Using Google Analytics probably can make your traffic monitoring more productive if you know how.
Most common users of Google Analytics (GA) just use or analyse whatever GA presented on their individual dashboard. Some of the information make sense, some are alien. As for expert users, analyzing the information provided by Google can be time consuming, especially if you want to see your own charts and graphs. After all charts and graphs give better understanding then the usual text listing.
With Google Analytics Data Export API, you can automate retrieving those data and create your own graphs. It will be painstaking at first to create queries to dig the data but it is only done once. From there it will be a breeze looking at your own graphs instead of multiple default graphs.
For details, head to Google Analytics's Increase Your Productivity with the API page.
Most common users of Google Analytics (GA) just use or analyse whatever GA presented on their individual dashboard. Some of the information make sense, some are alien. As for expert users, analyzing the information provided by Google can be time consuming, especially if you want to see your own charts and graphs. After all charts and graphs give better understanding then the usual text listing.
With Google Analytics Data Export API, you can automate retrieving those data and create your own graphs. It will be painstaking at first to create queries to dig the data but it is only done once. From there it will be a breeze looking at your own graphs instead of multiple default graphs.
For details, head to Google Analytics's Increase Your Productivity with the API page.
Frank Castaldi Gets 23 Years For $77M Ponzi Scheme
Tearful, angry victims of a $77 million Ponzi scheme that targeted hundreds of often working-class Italian-Americans crowded into a Chicago courtroom Thursday to tell their stories before a judge handed the convicted swindler a maximum 23-year prison term.
The federal judge rejected prosecutors' recommendation of a 12 1/2 year sentence for Frank Castaldi – in part because he had reported the two-decade scam himself – saying that would let the 57-year-old accountant and businessman off too easy, given the lives he ruined.
Castaldi, once a respected member of the Chicago-area Italian community himself, sometimes targeted the elderly, widows and immigrants from Italy – many of whom were close friends of Castaldi who trusted him, U.S. District Judge John Darrah said.
"This is an offense of a huge magnitude," Darrah told the court. "Frank Castaldi abused that trust and had a horrific impact on victims," he said.
The slight, mustachioed Castaldi, who will begin serving his sentence on Nov. 15, also gained the trust of some by helping do their income taxes for years, prosecutors said.
Dozens of victims packed into the courtroom to speak at the sentencing hearing. Others were forced to stand in the doorway, straining to listen to often gut-wrenching testimony.
Reading from letters, Darrah cited one woman who said Castaldi persuaded her to invest $300,000 shortly after her husband had died, assuring her he would help her out.
"Instead, like a vulture, he prayed on my weakness," Darrah said, reading from the letter.
Frank Cesare, 72, said he had come from Italy and saved money all his life so he could help his children and grandchildren. Now, he said, he has lost all his savings to Castaldi.
Recommended reading:
* Thomas Petters admitted $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme
* Billionaire Stanford arrested for Ponzi Scheme fraud
* Allen Stanford Accused Of Multi-Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme
The federal judge rejected prosecutors' recommendation of a 12 1/2 year sentence for Frank Castaldi – in part because he had reported the two-decade scam himself – saying that would let the 57-year-old accountant and businessman off too easy, given the lives he ruined.
Castaldi, once a respected member of the Chicago-area Italian community himself, sometimes targeted the elderly, widows and immigrants from Italy – many of whom were close friends of Castaldi who trusted him, U.S. District Judge John Darrah said.
"This is an offense of a huge magnitude," Darrah told the court. "Frank Castaldi abused that trust and had a horrific impact on victims," he said.
The slight, mustachioed Castaldi, who will begin serving his sentence on Nov. 15, also gained the trust of some by helping do their income taxes for years, prosecutors said.
Dozens of victims packed into the courtroom to speak at the sentencing hearing. Others were forced to stand in the doorway, straining to listen to often gut-wrenching testimony.
Reading from letters, Darrah cited one woman who said Castaldi persuaded her to invest $300,000 shortly after her husband had died, assuring her he would help her out.
"Instead, like a vulture, he prayed on my weakness," Darrah said, reading from the letter.
Frank Cesare, 72, said he had come from Italy and saved money all his life so he could help his children and grandchildren. Now, he said, he has lost all his savings to Castaldi.
Recommended reading:
* Thomas Petters admitted $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme
* Billionaire Stanford arrested for Ponzi Scheme fraud
* Allen Stanford Accused Of Multi-Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme
Pregnant Nun Ads Banned
Britain's advertising watchdog has banned an Italian ice cream ad featuring a pregnant nun, saying it causes offense to Catholics.
The magazine ad for ice cream maker Antonio Federici showed the nun eating a tub of ice cream, with text that read: "Immaculately conceived ... Ice cream is our religion."
The Advertising Standards Authority said Wednesday it has received 10 complaints from magazine readers who said the ad was offensive to Christians. The agency said imagery used to illustrate immaculate conception was likely to be seen as mocking the beliefs of Roman Catholics.
The Italian company said the idea of conception represented the development of their ice cream and the ad aimed to gently satirize religion.
The magazine ad for ice cream maker Antonio Federici showed the nun eating a tub of ice cream, with text that read: "Immaculately conceived ... Ice cream is our religion."
The Advertising Standards Authority said Wednesday it has received 10 complaints from magazine readers who said the ad was offensive to Christians. The agency said imagery used to illustrate immaculate conception was likely to be seen as mocking the beliefs of Roman Catholics.
The Italian company said the idea of conception represented the development of their ice cream and the ad aimed to gently satirize religion.
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