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Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple

2011-08-25T13:44:00.002+03:00

This is the letter from Steve Jobs himself:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve

Apple has confirmed that Apple COO Tim Cook will replace Jobs as CEO, following Jobs’ own recommendation. Considering that Cook has filled in for Jobs in the times of his medical leaves (including the one he has been on this year), this kept everyone wondering if and when it came time for Jobs to step down.

Also as requested, Jobs has been elected as Chairman of the Board and will remain with the company in that capacity. Cook will join the Board as well.

Facebook has just moved 30 petabytes of Hadoop data

2011-07-28T19:31:00.002+03:00

Facebook, a huge Hadoop user, has just moved its whopping 30-petabyte cluster from one data center to another.

FYI:
1 Petabyte (PB) = 1.024 Terabytes (TB) = 1.048.576 Gigabytes (GB)

The move was necessary because Facebook had run out of both power and space to expand the cluster — very likely the largest in the world — and had to find it a new home. Facebook’s data team undertook a multi-step process to copy over data, trying to ensure that any file changes made during the copying process were accounted for before the new system went live.

Unlike a traditional warehouse using SAN/NAS storage, HDFS-based warehouses lack built-in data-recovery functionality. They showed that it was possible to efficiently keep an active multi-petabyte cluster properly replicated, with only a small amount of lag.

For Facebook, though, it looks like its fast-growing Hadoop data warehouse is just part of a larger trend toward needing more space. Recently, Facebook confirmed it’s building a second data center in Prineville, Ore., next to its existing one. That will make three for the company, which also is building a data center in Forest City, N.C.

Happy Birthday Mick Jagger, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey!...

2011-07-26T16:55:00.000+03:00

Sir Michael Philip Jagger, the only member of the Rolling Stones to be granted knighthood, turns 68 today.

Sandra Bullock (1964) turns 47 today, while Kevin Spacey (1959) turns 52.

Happy Birthday to everyone else celebrating today, July 26th!!!

Michael Phelps Loses To Ryan Lochte In 200-Meter Freestyle Swimming World Championships

2011-07-26T16:42:00.001+03:00

American teammate Ryan Lochte beat the 14-time Olympic champion. Lochte overtook Phelps on the final turn of the 200-meter freestyle on Tuesday to win one of the most highly awaited races of the world championships and remind everyone that he's a threat to replace Phelps as the world's top swimmer.

Lochte touched in 1 minute, 44.44 seconds, with Phelps taking the silver in 1:44.79. Biedermann of Germany settled for bronze in 1:44.88.

Royal wedding festivities are underway in Monaco

2011-07-01T23:20:00.002+03:00

Wedding festivities have started in Monaco, where the principality's ruler, Prince Albert II, is marrying South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock in a civil ceremony Friday followed by a religious ceremony on Saturday.

The wedding is expected to be the biggest event in Monaco since 1956 when Albert's mother, American film star Grace Kelly, married Prince Rainier.

The 3-day wedding began with a concert held by Eagles who rocked the party in American style. After the concert the band signed a guitar for Price Albert II and they all took a few pictures together. Photo here.

On Friday, Albert will marry Wittstock in a civil ceremony in the Throne Room of the Prince's Palace. On Saturday, the couple will marry for a second time in a religious ceremony in the palace's main courtyard.

The 53-year-old bachelor prince has acknowledged fathering two illegitimate children: a daughter with an American tourist and a son with a Togolese flight attendant. Neither can be considered in line for the throne. Rumors of a third out-of wedlock child have been denied and seem to only exist in the attempt to damage the reputation of the monarch and that of his bride.

Cosmic close call - Asteroid near-miss TODAY, Monday 27 June 2011

2011-06-27T14:37:00.010+03:00

A house-sized asteroid is set to miss Earth by a whisker later today, passing just 7,600 miles (12.000 km) above us.

The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team in Socorro, New Mexico, just last week.

Peter Lake is an amateur astronomer from Australia that captured some of the first images of what will be a very close pass of Earth by asteroid 2011 MD. (See the image here.)
The image was actually taken yesterday with a 20-inch telescope in New Mexico controlled via his iPhone, through the Global Rent-A-Scope program. Isn't technology wonderful?

The asteroid, which was only detected last week, is about 25 to 55 feet (8 to 18 m) across, is expected to pass less than 8,000 miles above Earth’s surface on Monday, June 27th. Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will reach its closest point to Earth at about 1:00 PM EDT (17:00 GMT) when it will be observable from South Africa and parts of Antarctica. The approach will also be visible across Australia, New Zealand, southern and eastern Asia and the western Pacific.

The asteroid is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, says NASA, while some astronomers reckon it may actually be just a piece of space junk. However, an analysis of its orbit indicates there's no chance it will actually hit us. In any case, at just under 20 meters in diameter, it would most likely fragment and burn up before impact anyway. That would be exciting, and make quite a show, but that’s about it. On its way back out again, after its orbit's been bent by gravity, it will actually pass well inside the ring of geostationary man-made satellites orbiting the Earth. There is a tiny chance, though, that it could hit a man-made satellite... We'll just have to wait and see.

Click here to see its trajectory.
Watch the video HERE - on YouTube.

According to Minor Planet Center’s ranking charts 2011MD’s trip will be the fifth-closest recorded Asteroid event. The last asteroid to impact earth was "2008TC3" which was detected on 7 October 2008, just 19 hours before it burned up in the atmosphere over northern Sudan.

A lager asteroid is due to buzz the Earth on November 8 this year. Near-Earth asteroid 2005YU55, which is around 400 meters across, will pass within 0.85 lunar distances from the Earth.

NASA says it poses no threat of an Earth collision for at least 100 years. However, it will be the closest yet approach by an object this large that we know about in advance. Nothing comparable will happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass within 0.6 lunar distances of the Earth.

The eclipse of the century - on the Internet

2011-06-16T10:07:00.002+03:00

Half of the Earth enjoyed a true show in the sky last night - the longest total lunar eclipse in the last 100 years.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9CUrgXM5Dc

The phenomenon was visible in most of Europe, Africa, Central and West Asia and the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately in many places it could not be observed due to the cloudy skies or bad weather.

The moon entered the Earth's penumbra, and even disappeared for a couple of hours, leaving the planet in complete darkness. The eclipse lasted for over 5 hours. When the sun and the earth were perfectly aligned, as the eclipse was reaching its peak, the moon disappeared completely for about 100 minutes.

Americans and Canadians had to accept watching it on TV, as it was day time when it happened.

You can find more on this topic on NASA's eclipse website: click here or here.

Technical details:

The first lunar eclipse of 2011 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in southern Ophiuchus about 7° west of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). The Moon passes deeply through Earth's umbral shadow during this rather long event. The total phase itself lasts 100 minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was in July 2000. The Moon's contact times with Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows are listed below.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 17:24:34 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 18:22:56 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 19:22:30 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 20:12:37 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 21:02:42 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 22:02:15 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 23:00:45 UT

At the instant of greatest eclipse the umbral eclipse magnitude will reach 1.6998 as the Moon's centre passes within 5.3 arc-minutes of the shadow axis. The Moon's southern limb will lay 54.2 arc-minutes from the edge of the umbra while the northern limb will lay 22.3 arc-minutes from the umbra's edge. Thus, the northern regions of the Moon will probably appear brighter than the southern regions that lie deeper in the shadow. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will change dramatically with time. It is difficult to predict the exact brightness distribution in the umbra so observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality.

The June 15 total lunar eclipse is the 34th member of Saros 130, a series of 71 eclipses occurring in the following order: 8 penumbral, 20 partial, 14 total, 22 partial, and 7 penumbral lunar eclipses (Espenak and Meeus, 2009a) spanning 1262 years.

The Space Art Image of the Astronaut on the Moon time of Total Eclipse by Daivd Hardy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYyvxYs_iW0

AIRLINE ALLIANCES

2011-06-16T07:13:00.005+03:00

The increasing competition in the airline business made companies join their forces in so called alliances, agreements between airlines wiling to cooperate creating extended unified networks of connectivity and convenience for international passengers and international packages. The result is the reduction of costs generated by shared sales and operational facilities, operational staff. Making investments and purchases jointly, members of the alliances can get extra volume discounts.

Travelers also benefit from lower prices for a given route, more destinations made available and more departure times for certain routes with greater possibilities to optimize transfers.

A wider range of airport lounges shared with alliance members and faster mileage rewards by earning miles for a single account on several different carriers can be other benefits for travelers. Nevertheless, they can also feel disadvantages created by possible higher prices when all competition is erased by the creation of alliances on a certain route. The European Commission and other national antitrust bodies from the USA to

Australia

keep a close eye on airlines to maintain a proper competition in the field.

Landing rights may not be owned by the airlines themselves but by the nation in which their head office resides. If an airline loses its national identity by merging to a large extent with a foreign company, existing agreements may be declared void by a country which objects to the merger.

Star Alliance http://www.staralliance.com is the largest alliance of the world so far with 27 full members. We give you details about them here below, in their alphabetic order, also mentioning their official website enabling you to directly contact them.

ADRIA, AEGEAN, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zeeland, ANA (All Nippon Airlines), Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Blue1, British Midland International, Brussels Airlines, Continental Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Egypt Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airlines, Spanair, SWISS, TAM, TAP Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, UNITED, US Airways.

SkyTeam Alliance - http://www.skyteam.com – is the second largest alliance in the world, with 13 full members:

Aeroflot, AeroMexico, AirEuropa, AirFrance/KLM, Alitalia, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta, Kenia Airways, Korean Air, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines.

Oneworld Alliance - www.oneworld.com - is the third largest alliance of the world, with 12 members:

American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines.

READ MORE - CLICK HERE...

Williams Syndrome Awareness Week

2011-06-11T19:37:00.000+03:00

People with Williams Syndrome Have NO Racial Bias International Business Times Williams syndrome is an extremely rare neurodevelopmental disorder of 1 in 7500 to 1 in 20000 births. Dr. JCP Williams first identified the syndrome in 1961. It is caused by a deletion of about 26 genes from the long arm of chromosome 7.

People with Williams syndrome have a distinctive, "elfin" facial appearancev and a low nasal bridge combined with an unusually cheerful demeanor and ease with strangers. They make friends with strangers within minutes. Other characteristics, among others, include developmental delay, strong language skills and cardiovascular problems.

Research has found that an interesting fact that people with Williams syndrome (Ws) have no racial bias, because the neural pathway that imprints for racial bias is missing.

The fact is, while it is much more rare than Ds (about 1 in 10,000 babies born has Williams syndrome and 1 in 691 has Down syndrome), there are quite a few similarities. There are some physical markers (harder to detect in infants), developmental delays in speech and fine and gross motor, learning delays, heart conditions and other traits. Williams syndrome is the deletion of genetic material from chromosome 7. Down syndrome is the addition of an extra chromosome 21.

You can read more on parents blogs of children with Williams syndrome, such as Adventures With Baby J and Bean where you can learn so much more. Because there are so few markers present at birth to raise red flags, diagnosis often comes very late for children with Ws. Because the condition is relatively rare, there is so much less information and support out there for families with children with Ws.

I've just learned that the week 9th to the 15th May is Williams Syndrome Awareness Week, I hope many more people will seek to learn more, and to open their arms in support of these families.

Earth Day and World Oceans Day

2011-06-11T19:26:00.000+03:00

In November 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin wanted to bring environmental issues into the political agenda. The first task was to persuade President John Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. President Kennedy liked the idea and began a five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. This was the seed that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

In that era of protests against war and social injustice, millions rallied to the first Earth Day and demand a change. The public demonstration of love for nature led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. Now, every year in April, people across the world are celebrating the beauty of nature, our rivers and mountains, and wildlife.

Now fast forward about forty years: millions of acres have been established as national parks and wilderness areas and over all the air quality has improved. Nevertheless, over half of our oxygen comes from the ocean. Fish feed millions and the beauty and complexity of marine life leave us in awe. Yet today, a year after the ravages in the Gulf from the BP Oil spill, 90% of large pelagic shark species are going extinct from overfishing and for their fins. Whales and seals have been hunted to a genetic bottle neck and are hunted still. The wolves of the sea and the bluefin tuna are being fished to the vanishing point. And where is our outrage?

New oil wells are being considered along our coast while nuclear power plants hum along our shorelines vulnerable to Tsunami and earthquakes.

The ocean needs our help.

After a week of celebrating the Earth, the people decided that it's time to celebrate our ocean with World Oceans Day. This day had been unofficially celebrated every June 8 since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then, WOD has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network with greater success and global participation each year. World Oceans Day is an opportunity every year to honor the world's ocean, to celebrate the all marine life.

The 2011 billionaires

2011-06-03T16:14:00.002+03:00

In only one year Moscow added 21 more billionaires in US dollars, making a total of 79 and leaving New York far behind in the second place. In only two decades Moscow jumped from no billionaires during the communist regime to 79 now, followed by New York with 59 and London with 41. Other cities from surprising locations are approaching fast: Mumbai (India), Taipei, Sao Paolo (Brazil) and Turkish economic capital Istanbul neck-and- neck with Los Angeles.

Individual billionaires list remained practically the same, with 74 billion owned by Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu first, followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates with 56, the 80 years old Warren Buffet (USA) with 50 the French LVMH owner Bernard Arnault with 41, Larry Ellison owner of Oracle with 39, the Indian “king of iron and steel” Lakhsmi Mital of India with little over the 31 billion of the owner of the Spanish Zara, Amancio Ortega with and oil and mining magnate Eike Batista of Brasil with 30 billion.

The country with most billionaires remains the USA, with 412 richest of the rich, almost four times more than the 115 billionaires in China, followed by Russia with 101, India with 55, Germany with 52 and 38 in Turkey. These are evaluations of the Forbes Magazine, but other voices are more cautious and selective in their reports. Huffington Post, for example put the USA first with 394 billionaires, followed by China (72), Russia (58), India (47), Germany (43), UK (42), Honk Kong (29), Switzerland (27), Japan (23) and Canada (22).

Irrespective of sources, the number of billionaires sharply increased during crisis years, most of them coming from emerging economies of the so called BRIC countries (an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China group of countries).

Earth getting 50 C degrees (122 F) hotter in a week

2011-05-30T17:37:00.002+03:00

It has all started on May 21st, when lightening stroke not far from a house in Caransebes, Romania. The floor in only one room of the house started to get hotter and hotter in time and the owner had to eventually move all his belongings to avoid burning them. No other plots of land in the area get hotter, not even the very spot directly hit by lightening.

As a precautionary measure the tenant of the house was eventually evicted by authorities from that building when the floor reached a temperature of more than 60 C degrees (140 F) this weekend. Temperature continued to rise to 66 C degree now (150 F).

The strange phenomenon has no clear explanation so far. The gas company sent specialists at the scene and confirmed that they have no pipes there and no other energy networks are in place. Electricity cables are also far from the hot place and no other underground installations exist. Heat emanates from a two square meter (21.5 sq. ft) spot of the floor and an increased electric field with no specific cause was detected even two meters above the floor by the electricity company specialists called by the amazed mayor also present there. The electric field is similar to the one usually forming inside high tension transformer stations. The house built some 20 years ago on a plot of land formerly used by a construction site at the outskirts of the city and seems to have important quantities of scrap iron buried underneath.

A small hole was dug by the specialists in the hot floor of the room only to discover that temperature is rising sharply as the depth grows. Next to the usual paranormal explanations, some tried to give scientific reasons to the phenomenon suggesting the existence of a strongly ascending thermal water spring in the area, a possible ignition of an unknown natural deposit of coal beneath the house or even saying that magma was pushed nearer to the earth crust by the huge energy of the lightening that stroke the near-by area. The Caransebes area of Romania is a tectonic zone but no similar situations were previously reported.

Germany: Deadly E.Coli string claims more lives - the source of the outbreak is still unknown.

2011-05-29T21:27:00.001+03:00

Germany warned Sunday that the source of an outbreak of bacteria poisoning blamed for 10 deaths and hundreds of people falling ill, some in other countries, has yet to be pinpointed.

"Until experts in Germany and Spain are able to positively identify the source of the pathogen, general warnings about vegetables remain valid," Consumer Minister Ilse Aiger told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

"The relevant authorities are doing all they can to clear this up, nationally and internationally."

Germany's national disease institute, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), has confirmed two deaths so far from haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease caused by a strain of bacteria known as enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC).

But there are eight other suspected HUS deaths, and the RKI has said that close to 300 people have contracted the disease in recent weeks.

The epicentre of the outbreak has been in northern Germany, with more than 1,000 people suspected of being infected, reports said. Several are said to be fighting for their lives.

Hospitals in the city of Hamburg, where more than 400 people are believed to have been infected with EHEC, were said to be overwhelmed and sending patients to clinics elsewhere in the country.

Sweden has reported 25 E. coli cases, of whom 10 developed HUS, according to the European Commission. Denmark reported seven E. coli cases (including three HUS) while Britain counted three cases (two HUS).

More cases have been reported in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, where authorities ordered organic cucumbers, tomatoes and aubergines delivered from Germany but grown in Spain withdrawn from sale in 33 shops.

For the moment, suspicions have so far turned towards Spain, although Spanish authorities deny it.

Champions League final - Barcelona vs Manchester United - from an economical perspective

2011-05-29T21:18:00.001+03:00

FC Barcelona (Spain) and Manchester United (UK) have faced eachother in the UEFA Champions League (UCL), the most important football competition in Europe, for a total gain of 126 million euros, according to a study commissioned MasterCard, the official sponsor of the competition.

The losing team also receives 73 million euros, three million more than the previous edition.

"It will be earned a total of 200 million euros, making it the most lucrative final of UEFA Champions League, " said Professor Simon Chadwick, who led the study.

The final also stimulates the economic activity beyond the borders of England and Spain. Millions of fans watched the match in pubs, spending money on consumer goods, while betting has increased across the continent.

Online casinos create more problem gamblers

2011-05-25T15:35:00.003+03:00

Since the development of internet made betting easier, the risk of becoming a problem gambler increased, with additional deviant sexual behavior and emotional difficulties, depression and a tendency towards cross addictions, mainly drugs, alcohol and sex abuse.

Problem gambling is also known as ludomania and is defined as an urge to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. Problem gambling harms not only the gambler but also their families.

Gambling is legal (the only exceptions are Utah and Hawaii), but along with drinking and smoking it is usually regarded as a “sin industry” although it is advertised as a form of entertainment. It is a recession resistant activity, because people addicted to gambling can not stop betting even in times of economic crisis. Internet gamblers are more likely to be unmarried and younger with lower education and income levels.

Internet gambling specialists say that systems already exist to watch closely for any signs of abnormal behavior, excess spending and other abnormalities at gamblers. Also, measures were in place to restrict the amount of money a customer can deposit and win, this making properly regulated and controlled internet gambling better than other forms of gambling.

Read more - click here...

Fair play and match-fixing in football is no match

2011-05-11T15:48:00.004+03:00

Efforts to combat illicit betting intensified and FIFA teamed with Interpol in a 35 million dollars plan to eliminate match fixing. Sepp Blatter, FIFA President, is committed to implement a 10-year anti-corruption program and hopes this to be his door opener to a fourth mandate as a leader of the international soccer federation.

Read more - click here...

Desperately Needing Accountants

2011-05-10T16:12:00.001+03:00

An increased demand for auditors and accountants is noticed as the economy is making an exit from the crisis period. I know, accounting is the boring college major but you should not regret signing up for it. Companies want their accounting files in order, a prerequisite to avoid accounting scandals like the ones that erupted in the last several years and financial blunders that pushed us in recession in 2008. Managers no longer avoid being bombarded with numbers, statistics and spreadsheets and seem even interested to have a tighter grip on their company figures rather than leaving others to bother about this.

Colleges are scrambling to find more accounting teachers and professors to replace those retiring. Not an easy task, since there are twice as many accounting faculty openings than applicants to fill them.

Read more - click here...

More and more millionaires

2011-05-09T19:11:00.000+03:00

An evaluation of the financial and non-financial assets of the rich in Brazil, Russia, India and China (so called BRIC countries) shows a sharp increase of the number of millionaires, in spite of the economic crisis. Deloitte, the evaluating company, took into consideration stocks, bonds, and other investments including primary residence, durables, business equity and other assets to rank richest families in 25 countries. Estimates show that they are expected to more than double what they have up to $202 trillion by 2020, from a mere $92 trillion this year.

In the developing world, the families with more than a million dollars will more than double, to 10 million, while in the developed world the number will increase by more than 65%, to 55.5 million.

Read more - click here...

Osama bin Laden corpse photo is fake

2011-05-03T19:24:00.008+03:00

Corpse photo of Osama bin Laden is fake

Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two years

The bloodied image of a man with matted hair and a blank, half-opened eye has been circulating on the internet for the past two years. It was used on the front pages of the Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun and Mirror websites, though swiftly removed after the fake was exposed on Twitter.

It appears the fake picture was initially published by the Middle East online newspaper themedialine.org on 29 April 2009, with a warning from the editor that it was "unable to ascertain whether the photo is genuine or not". A simple search on the internet can reveal it. Traces of Photoshop editing can also be seen on closer inspection.

Read more - click here...

INDIA: Super-computer built in India

2011-05-03T17:55:00.002+03:00

New super-computer built in

India!

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) invested more than USD3 million to build one of the fastest supercomputers able to calculate 220 trillion operations per second. India has eight super-computers in the top 500 list.

Update: Osama Bin Laden is dead - but since when?

2011-05-02T14:51:00.003+03:00

The latest words on everyone's lips right now, is the breaking news announcement made by US President Barak Obama, that the world's number one terrorist, Osama bin Laden has been shot dead this morning in Pakistan.

In related news, other interesting developments have happened today: the website whatreallyhappened.com issued the following statement today:

"Yes, we were hacked. Starting just moments before President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, our website was hit with what the hosting company described as a massive distributed denial of service attack, no doubt to prevent the public from accessing the documentation showing Bin Laden actually died in December of 2001 of natural causes."

Their news title reads "Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government."

FOX News Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

[Fox News. December 26, 2001]

Who's telling the truth and who is lying? We may never know for sure.

What we do know, is that Osama bin Laden has officially been no.1 on the world's most wanted list for over 10 years - a very, very long time for today's technology and capabilities... so you can't help but wonder - would the US Governemnt have had any interest in postponing this announcement for so many years?... I'll leave it as open question, although for many it's a rhetorical one.

The typewriter is not dead

2011-05-02T14:34:00.001+03:00

The typewriter is not dead... But it’s definitely dying.

The announcement made by the Indian typewriter producer Godrej and Boyce that its remaining inventory was almost cleared after ceasing production in 2009 and no other producers exist, triggered the conclusion that the era of mechanical typewriters is history.

This is bad news for the fans of mini-skirted typists but also for WhiteOut and TypEx.
Ribbons, carbon paper and foolscap producers are doomed to too. Other similar connected businesses may disappear too. But not all activities connected with them will die. Forensic scientists specialized in analyzing type-written documents are not crying because verifying inkjet cartridge ink and determining what sort of printer it came from is already used in courts. One murder case has already been solved through this method.

The truth is that the typewriter is still used, in the USA included, and the mentioned Mumbay-India producer is not the last one. Special ones are still needed in defense agencies, courts and some other government offices. Are we sure we do not need them in some post-nuke age? The military may have acquired a stock. Mechanical devices are immune to electromagnetic pulse. Humanity needs to keep a certain stock of typewriters in the event some form of catastrophe that might take out power across the planet. The Inland Revenue is still going to work and need legible tax returns even if there is a total black-out. Tax and death are the only certain things in life, people say.

Swintec-New Jersey representative has just confirmed that jails in 43 states are still being supplied with clear typewriters so they can't hide contraband inside them. Manufacturers in China, Japan and Indonesia are making typewriters for Swintec.
Several insurance agencies still need typewriter¬s for multi part forms that some of the smaller insurance carriers require. Electric typewriter¬s are still being made by Brother, Royal-Adle¬r (Olivetti) and perhaps others.
Mechanical typewriters cost around £165 each

One of the legacies of mechanical typewriters is the inefficient QWERY keyboards, specially designed to be slow to use. Faster keyboards could not be used in the early ages of the typewriter because skilled typists jammed up machines equipped with them. This was because the mechanical parts of those early machines were unable to raise the needed character and drop it back fast enough and the typewriter jammed. The typist had to stop typing, move the jammed parts back and resume, slowly.

QWERY has slightly different alternatives in other countries: in France it's an AZERTY, in Germany it's QWERZU and examples could be further given with QWERTZ in Romania and QÜERTY in Azerbaijan. But QWERTY was so entrenched that in the post-mechanical digital age that the more efficient layouts never took much of a grip. Some computer keyboards, a generation ago, were equipped with a switch that enabled the user to swap between QWERTY and the faster Dvorak system. Few people wanted these, and the switches disappeared.

Ferrari fires fire back

2011-05-02T14:32:00.002+03:00

A Ferrari 612 Scoglietti F1 car bought only two weeks ago is the last make you expect to burst into fire while cruising on a highway. Nevertheless it happened, and the owner and driver, a retired Romanian soccer player, won a compensation of almost euro 400,000 from Ferrari, in court, five years after the incident. The court procedure was long and difficult, the Romanian fighting since 2006 against the giant Ferrari before winning.

The Italian built Ferrari 612 Scoglietti F1 has an estimated price of euro 320,000, and is a 2-door coupe already shaded by the 599GTB sport coupe.

This is not the only situation when a Ferrari bursts into fire, but it’s among the few settled in court with the Italian company failing to win.

In 2010 Ferrari confirmed that glue used in producing the super-car may be the cause of fires and asked owners of more than 1000 Ferrari cars to return their cars for repairs. Press reports have shown Ferrari cars burning in California, Paris, in Switzerland mountains and near Heathrow airport in London.

Osama Bin Laden is dead

2011-05-02T14:28:00.004+03:00

IT'S OFFICIAL:
Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, mastermind of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the world’s most wanted man for almost a decade is dead, President Barack Obama announced in the early hours of the morning.

Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist of all time, was killed in Pakistan by U.S. forces. The leader of AlQaeda has opposed capture and died in a shootout. Bin Laden was hiding in a building located 100 kilometers from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, along with other family members, many of them killed or captured during the battle.

Automotive overview: Ford Motor Co

2011-04-26T20:18:00.000+03:00

After 13 years of effort Ford Motor Co adjusted to the demand for more fuel efficient vehicles and succeeded its best first-quarter profit. Strong sales in the USA and a smaller impact of the Japan earthquake on its business were the driving force behind the results.

A loss of production of only 12-14 thousand cars in Asia where several plants have temporarily been closed could not drag Ford behind competition.

Stock exchange reacted positively and pushed shares up 3.5% to a staggering USD16.09 at the end of the day. The result is even more surprising as Q4-2010 results missed the expectations of the analysts by a large margin.

Outside Asia Ford’s production felt no changes and the company registered a net income increase to USD2.55 billion (almost 61 cents per share) as compared with USD2.09 billion (50 cents a share) a year earlier. Another staggering first-quarter net income increase was registered only in 1998.

Revenue rose to USD33.1 billion, from USD28.1 last year, with expectations of the analysts as high as USD29.7 billion.

The Consumer’s Union signaled the revival of Ford sales even before the announcement of these results taking into consideration the improved road-test and reliability scores of this make, higher than any other vehicle. They are expected to prove now that the new trend is sustainable for a longer term. Good results have also been obtained by General Motors and Volvo both on road-test and reliability that may be reflected in better profits. Honda, Subaru and Toyota remain the best vehicles overall for the third year and could easily change the market trend in the long run.