My Collection

The Karate Kid 2010 CAM

2010-06-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

Plot:12-year-old Dre Parker could’ve been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother’s latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying – and the feeling is mutual – but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre’s feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts “the karate kid” on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.

Genre: Action | Drama | Family | Sport
IMDB rating: 5,1/10
Directed by: Harald Zwart
Starring: Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan

Sex and the City 2 2010 CAM

2010-06-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

Plot:
What happens after you say “I do”? Life is everything the ladies ever wished it to be, but it wouldn’t be “Sex and the City” if life didn’t hold a few more surprises…this time in the form of a glamorous, sun-drenched adventure that whisks the women away from New York to one of the most luxurious, exotic and vivid places on earth, where the party never ends and there’s something mysterious around every corner. It’s an escape that comes exactly at the right moment for the four friends, who are finding themselves in–and fighting against–the traditional roles of marriage, motherhood and more. After all, sometimes you just have to get away with the girls...

Genre: Comedy, Romance
IMDB rating: 3.7/10 (8,004 votes)
Directed by: Michael Patrick King
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon

Shrek Forever After 2010 TELESYNC

2010-06-18T05:02:00.000-07:00

Here is scene group SiLVERCAM with a TS for the movie “Shrek Forever After”. Shrek Forever After is a 2010 animated fantasy-family film, and it is the fourth and final film in the Shrek series. Size is 1CD.
A bored and domesticated Shrek pacts with deal-maker Rumpelstiltskin to get back to feeling like a real ogre again, but when he’s duped and sent to a twisted version of Far Far Away — where Rumpelstiltskin is king, ogres are hunted, and he and Fiona have never met — he sets out to restore his world and reclaim his true love.
After the success of the first three films in the Shrek series, a fourth entry appears with more adventures of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Puss in Boots. But in addition to all the laughs the first three films have brought, SHREK FOREVER AFTER features a whole new element in the series: 3-D.

Genre: Animation | Adventure | Comedy
IMDB rating: 6.7/10 (5,023 votes)
Directed by: Mike Mitchell

Watch "Prince of Persia The Sands of Time 2010" TS Online

2010-06-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

Genre: Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Romance
iMDB Rating: 6.8/10 (5,076 votes)
Directed by: Mike Newell
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina

Plot: Adopted from the streets of Nasaf by King Sharaman of Persia, young Dastan grows up amongst royalty and quickly earns his place as a mighty warrior and prince. As his brothers Garsiv and Tus plan battle strategies, a spy sends word that the Holy City of Alamut has been supplying weapons to enemies of Persia. Taking matters into his own hands, Tus orders an attack on the sacred city and upon its fall Dastan encounters the beautiful Princess Tamina. When King Sharaman dies under mysterious circumstances shortly after, and Dastan is accused of his murder, he flees with the princess on a harrowing mission to clear his name. Learning from Tamina the true motives behind Alamut’s invasion, Dastan must embark on a perilous quest to stop an evil mastermind’s plot for ultimate power with a mystical weapon that can control the very fabric of time.

Watch "Starstruck 2010" Dvdrip Online

2010-06-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

Jessica Olsen goes to Los Angeles with nothing more in mind that visiting her grandparents while her sister tries to meet Christopher Wilde. One night she meets Christopher Wilde. They go an an adventure around Los Angeles and start to like each other. When Jessica returns home, Christopher, on national TV, says he doesn’t know her, and never met her.

The Stranger 2010 DVDRiP

2010-05-24T00:36:00.000-07:00

The Stranger Movie starring Ex WWE star “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The Stranger is a an action-thriller directed by Rob Lieberman in Vancouve. Quality is great for a DVDRip its a 1 CD rip released by QCF.
Pro wrestling legend Steve Austin stars as a man with no name, no memory and absolutely nothing left to lose. But when he finds himself hunted by both the FBI and the Russian mob, this amnesiac decides to fight back. Pursuit cannot stop him. Torture will not break him. And with every beating, bullet and betrayal, he’ll remember another piece of the horror that took away his career, his family and his identity. Now the puzzle is nearly complete, and one man is about to take back his past…by ending a whole lot of futures. Erica Cerra (“Eureka”) and Adam Beach (Flags of Our Fathers) star in this explosive action-thriller about collateral damage, stone cold vengeance, and a double-crossed killing machine known only as The Stranger

Genre: Action | Thriller
IMDB rating: (awaiting 5 votes)
Directed by: Robert Lieberman
Starring: Steve Austin , Erica Cerra , Adam Beach , Geoff Gustafson , John Tench

Solomon Kane 2010 DVDRip

2010-05-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

Here’s Nedivx with the dvdrip for Solomon Kane. Quality is 1 CD rip.
PLOT: Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A 17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms. His adventures, published mostly in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, often take him from Europe to the jungles of Africa and back.

Genre: Action | Adventure | Fantasy
IMDB rating: 6,4/10
Directed by: Michael J. Bassett
Starring: James Babson, Laura Baranik

Dark Island 2010 DVDRip

2010-05-24T00:32:00.000-07:00

After losing contact with its researchers on a remote island, a military corporation hires a group of scientists and soldiers to find out what went wrong. When they arrive, the team quickly discovers that experiments performed on the island have unleashed a powerful and deadly entity that will stop at nothing to destroy them all.

The Wolfman 2010 DVDRip

2010-05-24T00:27:00.000-07:00

Here is scene group DiAMOND with the unrated dvdrip for the movie “The Wolfman” starring Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro. Size is 2CD. English, french and spanish subtitles are included.
Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother… and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate.

Genre: Horror | Thriller
IMDB rating: 6.3/10 (14,286 votes)
Directed by: Joe Johnston
Release Name: The.Wolfman.UNRATED.DVDRip.XviD-DiAMOND
Size: 700×2 MB
Video: xvid – 624×336 1.86:1
Audio: 448 kbps 6ch. AC3
Runtime: 1 hour 59 minutes
Filename: dmd-twm

Watch "Hannah Montana Miley Says Goodbye" 2010 Online

2010-04-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

Plot:
Never before has Miley Stewart faced such a crucial decision! Now, DVD viewers will be the FIRST to see the season finale with Miley’s pivotal decision-making moment about staying in Hollywood or returning home to Tennessee, only on DVD before it airs on Disney Channel! Get ready for Hannah Montana: Miley Says Goodbye?, with six episodes, including the Season 3 finale episode, exciting bonus features and a bonus episode.

Genre: Comedy, Family, Music
Release Name: Hannah.Montana.Miley.Says.Goodbye.2010.DVDRip.XviD-NEUTRON
Size: 353.02 mb
Quality: 464 x 336, English 128 kbp/s MP3
Runtime: 49 min

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Watch "Jack And The Beanstalk" 2010 DVDRip

2010-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

A fairy tale character who is about to flunk out of fairy tale school, Jack must perform a heroic deed by Monday or fail miserably, just like his father before him. Anxious to make good, Jack sells his C.O.W. (Computer of Wonder) for a handful of magic beans and a mysterious book that records his adventures as he’s having them. Accompanied by his sidekick Grayson — a goose who ate a bean and underwent an amazing transformation — Jack climbs the magic beanstalk to recover the fabled Harp of Destiny from the evil Giant who lives in the sky. Helping Jack on his perilous quest is the spunky Jillian, a fearless young girl whom Jack meets on his journey — and who just may have a hidden agenda…

Watch "The Crazies" 2010 Online

2010-04-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Plot: In a terrifying tale of the “American Dream” gone wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown in “The Crazies,” a reinvention of the George Romero classic. David Dutton is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his house after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh…with insanity. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Sheriff Dutton; his pregnant wife, Judy; Becca, an assistant at the medical center; and Russell, Dutton’s deputy and right-hand man. Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a struggle for survival as they try to get out of town alive.

Watch "A Closed Book" 2010 Online

2010-04-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Plot: Sir Paul, a distinguished author, blinded in a horrific accident, advertises for an amanuensis, an assistant to help him with his writing. He employs the amiable Jane Ryder to be his eyes as he revisits scenes from his past and works on what he intends to be his final opus. Jane appears to be ideal: attractive, intelligent, unruffled by her employer’s abrupt eccentricities. But, gradually, we come aware that Jane has another agenda. Incrementally, Sir Paul’s familiar surroundings are altered. Strange things happen around the house and he becomes increasingly dependent on his new assistant. Jane plays increasingly sadistic games until their relationship breaks down…

Watch "Demonic Toys 2 2010" Online

2010-04-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Plot:
Dr. Lorca from Hideous! (Michael Citrini) is back and is continuing to collect strange odditites, along with the help of Caitlin (Alli Kinzel) and her boyfriend David (Lane Compton). Along the way, they collect the mysterious pieces of the last Demonic Toys and they continue their search at a mysterious castle in Italy, where there have been rumors of a mysterious, ancient puppet alive and walking around, which is under the control of a mysterious demon, who takes on the human form of a little woman named Lilith (Selene Luna). When not looking, the puppet brings the Demonic Toys back to life, and now… blood, terror and death counts will rise again.

watch "Peacock 2010" Online

2010-04-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Plot: ohn Skillpa, a quiet bank clerk living in tiny Peacock, Nebraska, prefers to live an invisible life. This might have to do with John’s secret: he has another personality no one knows about, a woman who each morning does his chores and cooks him breakfast before he starts his day. Then, in a moment, everything changes…

Watch "Dear John 2010" Online

2010-04-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

Why We Can't Do 3 Things at Once

2010-04-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

Jumat, 16 April 2010

AFP

A graphic released by the University of Liege shows brain scan results of a recent study on brain activity in disorders of consciousness. The image depicts the brain activity of a healthy subject and a patient in a coma answering questions.

KOMPAS.com - For those who find it tough to juggle more than a couple things at once, don't despair. The brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more, a new study suggests.

That's because, when faced with two tasks, a part of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) divides so that half of the region focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division of labor allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled.

"What really the results show is that we can readily divide tasking. We can cook, and at the same time talk on the phone, and switch back and forth between these two activities," said study researcher Etienne Koechlin of the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. "However, we cannot multitask with more than two tasks."

The results will be published this week in the journal Science.

Multitasking in the brain

The MFC is thought to be part of the brain's "motivational system." Specifically, it helps monitor the value of rewards and drives a person's behavior according to that value. In other words, it's where rewards are represented in the brain.

Scientists knew that a region at the very front of the brain, called the anterior prefrontal cortex (APC), was involved in multitasking. But they weren't sure how the MFC was involved. Are the rewards for the different tasks represented separately? Or summed together?

Koechlin and his colleagues had 32 subjects complete a letter-matching task while they had their brains scanned with functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI). The subjects saw uppercase letters on a screen and had to determine whether those letters were presented in the correct order to spell out a certain word. They were given money if they performed the task with no errors.

The researchers saw that, the higher the monetary reward, the more activity there was in the MFC.

But then they made the task more difficult. In addition to uppercase letters, the subjects were also presented with lowercase letters, and had to switch back and forth between matching the uppercase letters to spell out, say, T-A-B-L-E-T, and lowercase letters to spell out t-a-b-l-e-t.

During this duel task, the MFC divided up the labor. One hemisphere of the brain encoded the reward associated with the uppercase letter task, and so showed activity during that task, while the other region encoded the reward associated with the lowercase task, Koechlin said.

Essentially, the brain behaved "as if each frontal lobe was pursuing its own goal," Koechlin said.

To make things even more complicated, the researchers introduced a third letter-matching task. Here, they saw the subject's accuracy drop considerably. It was as though, once each hemisphere was occupied with managing one task, there was nowhere for the third task to go.

"[The] subjects perform as if they systematically forget one of the three tasks," Koechlin told LiveScience.

Decision-making

The results might also explain why humans seem to have a hard time making decisions between more than two things, Koechlin said.

Previous work has indicated that people like binary choices, or decisions between two things. They have difficultly when decisions involve more than two choices, Koechlin said. When faced with three or more choices, subjects don't appear to evaluate them rationally; they simply start discarding choices until they get back to a binary choice.

This is perhaps because your brain can't keep track of the rewards involved with more than two choices, Koechlin said.

source: kompas.com

Watch "Clash of Titans 2010" Online

2010-04-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Watch "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" Online

2010-02-11T03:44:00.000-08:00

To Topple Facebook and Twitter, Google Buzz Launched

2010-02-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

Kamis, 11 Februari 2010

Daily Mail

Google founder Sergei Brin introduces Google buzz

KOMPAS.com - Google has launched a new social network in a bid to take on community giants Facebook and Twitter. Called Google Buzz, the new media tool allows users to share messages, web links, photos and videos with friends and colleagues directly within the popular email system Gmail.

The new social networking features are also compatible with smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. By integrating Buzz directly into Gmail, Google hope to appeal to its existing pool of 176million users. In this way they can rapidly challenge the popular social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

'Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there's nothing to set up - you're automatically following the people you email and chat with the most,' Google's Edward Ho said on the official blog.

Each time a user posts a message, photo or link they can choose to share it publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends. Responses are sent to the user's inbox, but Mr Ho was keen to point out that 'unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time.'

Buzz technology has also been weaved into the mobile versions of its website and its online map products. Executives said users can easily share content from various Google online properties like photo-sharing service Picasa and video site YouTube.

Content from Twitter can also be shared, but users can only see tweets within Buzz and cannot publish new messages to Twitter's service. Buzz is unable to display messages that originated on Facebook, the world's No. 1 social network with 400 million active users.

'The fact that Gmail did not connect and allow broadcasts out to Twitter and Facebook could be a real challenge to them,' said social media analyst Augie Ray. Google has tried to ride the social networking wave before, launching the Orkut social network in 2004.

But while Orkut is big in certain overseas markets like Brazil, it has failed to attract users in the UK and U.S. Buzz will be rolled out to Gmail users over the next few days.

================
source: kompas.com

Picture of Ghost Caught up by iPhone

2010-02-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

Kamis, 11 Februari 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald

This fake photo, which was created through an iPhone application, was analysed by WAs leading medium.

By CHLOE JOHNSON

KOMPAS.com - One of WA's most respected mediums is defending his credibility after he publicly analysed a ghost photo which was in fact a fake image captured by an iPhone application. Anthony Grzelka had his spiritual talents tested on radio Nova 93.7 on Tuesday after a listener, Rhanee, sent in a photo of her house which also showed the glow of a ghost.

Mr Grzelka had the photo looked at by a photographic specialist who confirmed it was not fake. Mr Grzelka told Rhanee the photo was frightening but the spirit was only an innocent little girl called Bethany who had died in a fire in the early 1900s.

"Around 1905, 1910 this little girl unfortunately lost her life in a (hospital) fire, I'm not sure if it's your building or in that area," Mr Grzelka said.

"You'll probably only have a run in with her when you have younger kids around the place.

"There's nothing to be scared of here (but) there is another spirit in this house.

"The other spirit is an older gentleman."

However, only a few hours later Nova 93.7 listeners revealed the photo was the same image used in an iPhone application called Ghost Capture. Nova integration and marketing manager Andy Milne confirmed it was an iPhone application photo.

"We downloaded the application and it was definitely a hoax," Mr Milne said.

"But there is definitely something going on in this chick's house. She still wants to sell."

Mr Milne said Rhanee's friend's 11-year-old son had taken the photo on his iPhone as a joke. Mr Grzelka does not deny the ghost image was fake, however he stands by what he told Rhanee.

"Yes I stand by the information I gave, keeping in mind the information I gave relating to the hospital/orphanage fire was all correct and verified by the lady who owns the house where the events are happening." he said.

"I am reading the environment surrounding the photo image as well.

"The name Bethany came to me along with details of how she passed, I naturally related this to what I was looking at.

"I also picked up on another spirit in the house with her and after discussions it turned out to be the lady's father.

"Whether I am a bogus medium will of course be asked after an incident like this and there is no way of avoiding this.

"I do not hide what I do, it is on display to be scrutinised and critiqued. It's part of what I do and I don't always get it right but I try to the best of my abilities.

================
source: kompas.com (menu english)

This Mother Posted Suicide Note on Facebook

2010-02-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Kamis, 11 Februari 2010

Lita Broadhurst left an apparent suicide note on her Facebook page and then plunged 30ft from her fourth-floor rooftop terrace

KOMPAS.com - A mother-of-two jumped to her death after announcing her suicide on social networking site Facebook. British expat Lita Broadhurst, 48, died instantly after leaving a tormented message for her teenage children and plunging 30ft from her fourth-floor rooftop terrace.

English teacher Lita, who lived in Garrucha near Almeria in south east Spain, was due to give evidence against an ex-boyfriend accused of assaulting her in a trial scheduled for the day of her death. He has now been released on bail while investigators probe her deathbed message, left two days before she ended her life.

Lita, who had named her alleged attacker on her Facebook page and detailed a litany of abuse she claimed to have suffered at his hands, wrote: 'I have been so terrified these past 12 hours that I have even slept with a crowbar in my hands, a bottle beside the bed and the phone prepared for instant dialling of the local police number.

'I am not easily beaten, but this time I can see no way out of the black hole.

'My fabulous children are my only anchor and I deeply regret the pain I will cause them both.

'Please, I beg you, don't hate me for letting you down now.

'My love for you both will never disappear because I have no doubts that when you need it, you'll feel it still.'

The message was titled Lita Broadhurst: Last Words. Lita is thought to have penned the Facebook message the same day she reported her ex-partner, also British, to police. A new date for his trial has yet to be set.

Lita died last Friday morning around 9.30am. Police had raced to her home after being alerted by worried neighbours. A court spokesman said: 'The trial was postponed at the last minute because of the British woman's death.

'The man she had accused of assaulting her has been released on bail.'

============
source: kompas.com

The Marvelous Pagoda Made of Chinese New Year Cakes

2010-02-10T18:27:00.001-08:00

Kamis, 11 Februari 2010

A pagoda replica made of 1,888 Chinese new year cakes displayed at Ciputra Malls atrium to Celebrate the Chinese New Year 2010

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — To celebrate the coming Chinese New Year, each mall in Jakarta is having its own festivities to attract visitors. Ciputa mall has put up a pagoda replica made of 1,888 Chinese new year cakes. These sticky cakes are also known as sweet nian gao on the mainland.

The pagoda is 5.3 m high, its base is 3.5 x 3.5 m. It's constructed of wood and decorated with unique Chinese ornaments mostly in red.

The pagoda will be displayed for 25 days, from January 27 to February 21, 2010, at the mall's atrium. It took six persons to finish this 600 kg pagoda that costs Rp. 27 million.

On the last day of the pagoda's display, on February 21, the plan is to give away all the cakes to the mall goers then. The replica has received an award from the Indonesian Museum of Records (Muri) for being unique.

"This is Indonesia's first pagoda replica made of Chinese new year cakes," stated Jaya Suprana, the director of Muri, when granting the award, Wednesday, at Ciputra mall's atrium. (HIN/C17-09)

====================
source: kompas.com

Google to Build Ultra-Fast Broadband Networks

2010-02-10T18:26:00.001-08:00

Kamis, 11 Februari 2010

(AP/Mark Lennihan)

In this photo made Monday, Jan. 11, 2010, a Google logo is displayed at the National Retail Federation convention in New York. Google on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010 said it plans to build experimental, ultra-fast Internet networks in a handful of communities around the country.

By JOELLE TESSLER

WASHINGTON, KOMPAS.com – Google Inc. plans to build a handful of experimental, ultra-fast broadband networks around the country to connect consumers to the Internet and ensure that tomorrow's systems can keep up with online video and other advanced applications that the search company will want to deliver.

The Google project, announced Wednesday, is also intended to provide a platform for outside developers to create and try out all sorts of cutting-edge applications that will require far more bandwidth than today's networks offer.

The company said its testbed fiber-optic networks will deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 Americans. That would be roughly 50 to 300 times faster than the DSL, cable and fiber-optic networks that connect most U.S. homes to the Internet today, at speeds typically ranging from 3 megabits to 20 megabits per second.

Google envisions systems that will enable consumers to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes; allow rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the Internet; and let students collaborate with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture.

"Our goal is to trial new technologies and figure out what kinds of applications you can send over these big pipes," said Richard Whitt, Google's Washington-based counsel for telecommunications and media. "There may be next-generation applications that are being held back right now."

It's unlikely that even Google could afford to bring such connections to big chunks of the country. And Whitt said Google isn't looking to compete head-to-head with the phone and cable TV companies that dominate the U.S. broadband business. Rather, he said, Google hopes its project will help create advanced broadband applications and network technology and identify ways to bring fiber-optic connections to more Americans at a lower cost.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski praised the project, saying that "big broadband creates big opportunities." Next month, the FCC is set to unveil its recommendations on how to bring affordable high-speed Internet access to all Americans.

In comments that Google filed with the FCC about the national broadband plan, Google suggested that the government create the type of testbed network that it now hopes to build itself.

Google's announcement Wednesday also came as welcome news to public interest groups that have warned that broadband connections in the U.S. are far slower and more expensive than those available in many countries in Europe and Asia. Ultra-fast networks now available in the U.S., such as the university-backed Internet2 project, aren't available to consumers, as Google's systems would be.

Sascha D. Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, said the Google project underscores just how slow the major U.S. phone and cable companies have been in building advanced networks.

In a statement, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, a trade group, said the cable TV industry has invested $161 billion over the past 13 years to build a nationwide broadband infrastructure that is available to 92 percent of U.S. homes.

And Verizon Communications Inc. said the Google network will mark "another new paragraph in this exciting story" of broadband growth. Verizon has been building a super-fast fiber-optic network, called FiOS, that offers speeds of up to 50 megabits per second and has run a field test experimenting with speeds of up to 10 gigabits — 10 times faster than what Google is proposing.

Google will seek input from communities that might be interested in getting one of its test networks. The company said it is too soon to say how much the networks will cost to build, but stressed that it does not intend to apply for any of the $7.2 billion in funding for broadband included in last year's economic stimulus bill.

Google said it is prepared to sell access directly to consumers at prices that are competitive with existing broadband services, but would consider letting Internet service providers or local governments sell their own services over the Google network.

===================

source: kompas.com

Indonesia on Track to Lead Southeast Asia's Economic Recovery

2010-02-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Kamis, 11 Februari 2010
AFP

After China and India, Indonesia is the fastest growing economy among the G20

By Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia’s economy, Southeast Asia’s biggest, grew 4.5 percent last year and is on track to lead the region’s recovery from the global economic crisis, officials said Wednesday. Resilient domestic demand, stimulus spending and political stability helped the mainly Muslim nation of 234 million people weather the economic turbulence of 2009 and emerge poised to resume its pre-crisis growth trajectory.

Last year’s growth was down from 6.1 percent in 2008 but above government forecasts of 4.3 percent and puts Indonesia on track to hit its 5.5-percent target for 2010, officials and analysts said. “Domestic factors such as elections, fiscal stimulus and growing infrastructure projects helped Indonesia in 2009,” Statistics Agency deputy chairman Slamet Sutomo said.

Capital Economics research consultancy said it forecast growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of six percent this year, well above the government’s target of 5.5 percent. “A sustained and strong upswing is no longer in doubt. Consumer confidence remains at a high level and retail sales have soared,” it said in a report.

“We have long expected that GDP growth will accelerate to 6.0 percent this year and then see growth staying above 6.0 percent in 2011, even in the context of upswings elsewhere in Asia probably slowing a little.” After China and India, Indonesia is the fastest growing economy among the G20 group of rich and developing economies.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has targeted 7.0-percent growth by the end of his second term in 2014. However risks include corruption-related political instability and red tape, which are hampering investment needed to modernise the country’s creaking infrastructure and remove development bottlenecks, analysts say.

HSBC Asian economist Wellian Wiranto said foreign investment had failed to materialise in levels needed to make a significant contribution to output. “It appears that more reforms are needed on areas ranging from infrastructure provision to labour laws before we could see private investments, in particular, as a significant engine of growth,” he said.

Ongoing corruption scandals which have consumed parliament for weeks and stirred divisions in the ruling coalition had “presented, at the very least, a huge distraction for the policymakers”, Wiranto said. The local stock market, which barely moved in response to the growth figures, soared more than 80 percent last year but about half the population continues to live on less than two dollars a day.

Only around half of the 11.55 trillion rupiah (1.23 billion dollars) earmarked for stimulus spending on infrastructure last year has reportedly been spent. Chief economic minister Hatta Radjasa said the government would establish “special economic zones” to speed up investment, but provided few details.

“Java remains the centre of growth because its infrastructure connectivity is still better than Sumatra or Kalimantan. In view of that therefore we will develop special economic zones to cover the eastern regions,” he told the state-run Antara news agency.

Officials have said there will be no cuts to popular but expensive fuel subsidies this year in order to continue supporting consumer demand, which accounts for about 60 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product. The government aims to cut unemployment from 8.1 percent to 5.0-6.0 percent this year, and poverty from around 14 percent to 8.0-10 percent.
==================
source: kompas.com

Google Buzz goes after Facebook, Twitter

2010-02-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

By Doug Gross, CNN

February 9, 2010 5:05 p.m. EST

Google Buzz, a feature of Gmail, aims to compete using elements similar to Facebook and Twitter.

(CNN) -- Google plunged into the world of social networking on Tuesday, melding pieces of Facebook and Twitter into a new feature, Google Buzz.

Buzz, which will work through the popular Gmail service, will allow users to post status updates, photos and links to members of their network -- as well as pull in their activity on other sites like Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.

Google spokesman Bradley Horowitz said the service, which was rolling out to some Gmail users Tuesday afternoon and should be available to all in the next couple of days, aims to weed out what he called the clutter of other networking sites.

With networking sites, "there's obviously value there," he said. "It's a phenomenon that's real, but it's increasingly becoming harder and harder to make sense and find the signal in the noise."

By letting users post photos, links and updates openly, the tool would mimic Twitter's micro-blogging format. But users also will be able to make their content available to "friends only," more closely following the Facebook model.

At an event at the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters, Google also seemed poised to take a poke at the AOL Instant Messenger service, saying Buzz will be offered to companies as a tool for interoffice communication.

"It will change the way businesses communicate around the world," Horowitz said.

Despite the inevitable comparisons, Google spokesmen said they didn't set out to tread on anyone else's turf.

"We try not to pay too much attention to competitors," Gmail product manager Todd Jackson said. "We try to listen to users."

Horowitz said Google Buzz will automatically make "friends" out of the people a user e-mails or chats with the most on Gmail.

See CNNmoney's report on reaction from some Google competitors.

Comments on posts will appear in real time. And comments by other users will be weighted, similar to how Google's search engine weighs results, to "collapse bad buzz and recommend the good buzz," Jackson said.

The hands-down leader in the search engine world, Google has been branching out on projects that include its Nexus One smartphone, the company's first foray into hardware marketing.

Late last month, Google announced that people could tweak their accounts to make results related to friends, co-workers and other members of their social networks appear above all other results.

The Social Search feature was introduced to a limited number of Google users last year and was made available to everyone in beta status on January 28.

The change came with a hint of more things to come.

"This is just a first step in our ongoing effort to ensure that Google Web search is always as social as the Web itself," the company said in an instructional video posted to its official blog.

Google Buzz probably won't be able to bring in status updates and other materials from Facebook for the same reason that Social Search doesn't.

Because most Facebook users set their information to be viewed only by friends, Google's search engine can't collect that information in the same way it can from Twitter and, obviously, Google-owned sites like YouTube.

Buzz also will have a mobile component, operating on most major wireless operating systems with features that include voice-recognition posting and a GPS-enabled ability to attach the user's location to posts.

The Web-based mobile application, which can be used by iPhones despite not going through Apple's online store, can also be set to pick up posts to Buzz being made near the user's location.

Changes to the tool could be coming quickly, too. Google officials say they're already studying possible expansions. They include allowing Buzz updates by phone, letting users post to their Twitter account through the tool and linking Buzz with the still-emerging Google Wave system.

"We're just getting started," Horowitz said. "We're not launching this today because we think we're done. We don't think that's how a product like this is built."

=======================
source: CNN.com/tech (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/09/google.social/index.html?hpt=C2)

Toyota Safety Crisis Deepens

2010-02-09T21:28:00.001-08:00

Rabu, 10 Februari 2010

A Toyota technician checks a recalled Prius Hybrid car at a factory in Taipei

KOMPAS.com - The reputation of Toyota took another hammering yesterday with the recall of 8,500 of its flagship Prius cars in the UK because of brake problems.

The move comes after a series of safety alerts that have battered the standing of the world's biggest car maker and affected millions of motorists.

Toyota's worldwide problems have caused consternation in Japan where transport minister Seiji Maehara yesterday criticised the company for reacting too slowly to the unfolding crisis.

'We hope this never happens again,' he said. 'The consideration for customers was lacking in Toyota.'

His comments came as Toyota bosses face a grilling on the company's safety record when they appear before a United States Congressional hearing on February 24.

Federal safety officials have received 80 complaints from drivers of 2009 and 2010 Corollas in America, with many saying their cars wandered when driving straight on highways - making it hard to stay in lanes.

In total, nearly 400,000 Prius cars, 52,900 of them in Europe, are to be recalled because of complaints about a time lag when braking on bumpy or icy roads.

Toyota have insisted it was not a safety issue. Instead, it said the braking problem was a 'phenomenon' which it described as 'inconsistent brake feel'.

The UK Prius recall involves the third generation of the hybrid petrolelectric car which has proved immensely popular with green-conscious celebrities.
The recall affects models manufactured from last summer up to January 27 this year.

Toyota is already reeling in the furore over a 'sticky' accelerator pedal affecting more than eight million vehicles, which lawyers in America blame for 19 deaths. A 77-year-old grandmother in Michigan, America, was killed in 2008 after her Toyota Camry suddenly sped up to 80mph, her family revealed yesterday.

Guadalupe Alberto died instantly when the vehicle hit and tree before careering into another car. Alberto's daughter Lilia admitted: 'Toyotas aren't perfect.'

More than 180,000 British cars are affected. It has also had a knock-on effect on thousands of Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107 models, which have had to be recalled. Both cars are built on the same Czech production line as the Toyota Aygo and use the same accelerator pedal.

Toyota said last night that the 30-minute repairs to 180,865 faulty accelerator pedals on its models would begin today at 206 Toyota service centres, with the capacity to repair up to 6,000 vehicles a day.

Some 100,000 accelerator pedal repair parts will arrive in the UK by Friday. Dealers have also been supplied with software upgrades for Prius brakes.
Last week the boss of Toyota in Britain Miguel Fonseca, 49, insisted the Prius was safe to drive.

But lawyer Nick Freeman - dubbed 'Mr Loophole' for his defence of celebrities accused of driving offences - yesterday urged owners affected by the recalls not to drive their cars.

'If I had a Toyota I would not even drive it to the dealership for the repair work to be done,' he added. 'What if you had an accident on the way? You could be criminally liable.'

State Farm insurance, the largest U.S. car insurer, revealed it had warned federal safety regulators more than two years ago about an increase in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

The company said it noticed an increase in reports of unwanted acceleration in Toyotas from its large customer database and warned the NHTSA in late 2007. NHTSA officials said the report was reviewed and the agency issued a recall later that month.

Toyota officials have apologized for the recalls and vowed to fix customer vehicles. Akio Toyoda, the company's president and grandson of its founder, wrote in an opinion article in The Washington Post today that Toyota 'has not lived up to the high standards you have come to expect of us' and called the recent spate of problems 'the most serious' the company has ever faced.

'We fully understand that we need to more aggressively investigate complaints we hear directly from consumers and move more quickly to address any safety issues we identify,' Toyoda wrote.

===================

source: kompas.com

Trial of Man Charged in Jakarta Bombings Begins

2010-02-09T21:24:00.000-08:00

Rabu, 10 Februari 2010

Indonesia National Police

Noordin M Top

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — An alleged Islamic militant went on trial Wednesday on charges of harboring terrorists behind twin suicide hotel bombings in Jakarta that killed seven and injured more than 50 in Indonesia. Amir Abdillah appeared in South Jakarta District Court on charges of violating Indonesia’s anti-terror law by concealing information and harboring terrorists linked with the July 17 attacks at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.

The bombings ended a four-year lull in terrorism in the Muslim-majority country. Abdillah, who prosecutors say was a driver for the late Southeast Asian militant leader Noordin Top, was arrested a month after the attacks as the first suspect in the case. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Following his arrest, Abdillah’s tips led to the arrests of several other suspected terrorists and two deadly raids in Central Java that killed four suspects, including a florist at the J.W. Marriott who facilitated the attacks.

“I am going to defend Amir Abdillah because he was accused of helping and accompanying Noordin M. Top to go everywhere he wanted as well as be a chauffeur for Top,” lawyer Asludin Hatjani said.

Malaysian-born Noordin, who was shot dead in a gunbattle with police on Sept. 17, was blamed for a string of terrorist attacks in Indonesia that killed more than 250 people. In all, police have killed six and arrested more than a dozen suspects including Saudi citizen Ali Mohammad Abdillah, who is accused of helping finance the bombings.

=================

sourcE: kompas.com

Watch "Edge of Darkness" Online

2010-02-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

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Know how to attract different zodiac sign people

2010-02-09T18:52:00.001-08:00

Aries
You'll have to dip into the bold and strong aspects of your personality to really interest an Aries. If your approach is timid or half-hearted you can expect to be brushed off in typical Aries style. Make sure you’re smart enough to connect with them on an intellectual level if you really want to impress them. They can also be dominating at times and dislike being dominated, so don’t be too pushy if you really want to enjoy their company.

Taurus
Taureans love to be entertained; so something like a popular movie would be a great conversation starter. They love attention so don’t let yourself get distracted when you’re in their company and pamper them a bit to bring out their best side. They love jokes, so a few good ones up your sleeve would do you great. Put aside some quality time for them and enjoy them to their fullest.

Gemini
You'd better be smart enough to talk about a variety of subjects if you want to catch a Gemini’s attention. Some gossip and a few jokes will definitely turn their head your way. Boredom is something they avoid with a passion so make sure you keep things bubbly.

Cancer
You’d better not compliment a Cancerian just for the heck of it, they can detect half-heartedness in a flash. Be polite and courteous when you are conversing with them. Being romantic and artistic they will fall hopelessly for such events or arrangements. You’d better be patient too, if a Cancerian is in your mind.

Leo
Leos love to be flattered, so a few here and there will make them beam for sure. They are extremely social people who love to be in the company of others so you’d better have your people skills sharpened when you meet them because chances are you’ll end up meeting a lot of new people in their company. Give them your complete attention too at all times.

Virgo
Virgo’s love positivity so make sure you keep your conversation full of it. Being intellectual and logical they love to debate and dissect topics into their minutest detail so you’d better be a keen observer of your world too, if you really want to keep up with them. Enlist all the topics for a romantic conversation beforehand while dating a Virgo.

Libra
Libras are easily pleased, having very low expectations most of the time about outcomes. They love to explore new topics and subjects. So try and develop a good understanding of a few topics you think they’ll find new to get them buzzing. They hate arguments, but love conversations so make sure you remember to keep things smooth.

Scorpio
Scorpios love the element water and anything to do with it, so do some reading up on something that you think will take them by surprise. They are attracted to successful people so you’d better not look like a slacker when you’re around them. Earn their respect by showing off your abilities.

Sagittarius
Sagittarians love nature and animals and most of all the freedom of just being themselves. An outdoor hangout with plenty of green around, giving them an opportunity of spitting their inner self out freely would be a great way to make them feel comfortable. They religiously follow current events and news so make sure your general knowledge is a match for theirs.

Capricorn
Capricorns love intellectual conversations and hate noise. So make sure that if you do decide to meet up, it’s nice and peaceful, preferably as insulated from the city sounds as possible. If you’re rich you’re in luck. Spending flamboyantly in front of them always makes them impressed.

Aquarius
Aquarians are attracted to anything strange and unique; finding normal, mainstream thoughts and ideas boring. They are passionate about the sciences and find great pleasure in having their imagination stirred. So when you’re talking to one try and be as creative as possible with the ideas you express.

Pisces
They love all things supernatural or spiritual. So picking a conversation starter along these lines is sure to capture their imagination. Don’t ever appear weak in front of them, they only respect strong individuals. They love support and are free with their praise when they’re impressed by some action. So dip into those qualities if you want luck with one.

=============
source: http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/zodiacs/attract_different_zodiacs.htm

Happy Valentine Day

2010-02-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

10 Romantic Ideas for Valentine's Day

Just days to go for Feb 14. Just days to go for Valentine's Day. A festival for love 'n romance, Valentine's Day provides us with a splendid opportunity to spend some quality time with our truelove. Are you looking for some tips to romance your sweetheart on this Feb 14? You've come to the right place then. Here are ten nice romantic ideas that you can use to build the romance in your relationship with good effect on your special someone. Check out! If you like our 10 romantic ideas for Valentine's Day, don't forget to click here and share the tips with your friends. Celebrate Valentine's Day with everybody and have a great time with your sweetheart. Happy Valentine's Day!

Create a LoveSpace
A splendid idea on Valentine's Day is to open your heart to your sweet one and let know your feelings for her. An easy way to do this would be to create a "lovespace". If you are not already registered to myspace, you can sign up for a free account and within minutes you'll have a page dedicated to your sweetie. Keep it focused on romance with weekly love notes, romantic poems, and photos. You can even add a romantic love song that she loves very much in your 'lovespace'. That way she will get to listen to her favorite song whenever she visits the page! If you both are private persons and don't like to let the world know about your relationship, you can sure make the page private. That way you'll also feel free to open your heart and write about your inner feelings without a care.

Send an e-Card
You may have doubts whether sending an e-card will not be an impersonal way of communicating with your special e-cardssomeone. But trust us, this is a great way to add a little romance to your sweet one's day. Browse the various free e-card sites, such as DeepestFeelings.com, for a gamut of romantic e-cards ranging from the funny 'n flippant to the poetic and passionate. It is even better if you can send a personalized message with your card and sites like DeepestFeelings lets you do that. Put in a bit of thought to your message and rather than ending it casually, think deep and write from the heart. It will work wonders with your lover. Imagine your sweet one's delight on finding a cute, romantic e-greeting with a romantic message in his/her inbox on Valentine's Day. Doesn't that seem great?

Make a Video
Another splendid idea is to make a short video declaring your love for your honey. If you have a camera phone or a webcam at your disposal, you can easily make a video and upload
it online in sites like YouTube for free. You can then send a link via email to him/her to check out your valentine video! If you don't prefer a public declaration of your love, you can keep it personal and have a private viewing of your video with your sweetheart who'll surely love the idea.

Buy roses for your love
rosesThis one is specially for men. Buy a dozen roses for your sweetie, hide them in different spots of a place like a park or a mall. Invite her and hide in some nearby spot from where you can watch the proceedings. Arrange a person to hand over a rose to her as soon as she arrives. Attach a note to it informing her where to find the next rose. This should be the case with each rose and the last one should lead her to you waiting with a bouquet of flowers. You should take the authorities into confidence for this plan to work out smoothly. Thereupon, treat her to a sumptuous lunch/dinner.

Candle-lit dinner
candlelit dinnerTreat your honey to a romantic dinner by candle-light. That doesn't mean you don't have to take your sweetheart to a posh restaurant and spend a lotta bucks. Rather, you can arrange your own candle-lit dinner at home. Cook up a splendid dinner together. Even a simple pasta would work; buy dessert from the bakery in the grocery store. Set the table; create a romantic atmosphere with candles, sweet snacks and wine. Have soft romantic music playing in the background, and dim the lights so that it's mostly the candles lighting the room. Then dress up and "attend" the dinner walking up to the table hand in hand with your love. You'll be amazed how much more fun it gives to have a candle-lit dinner at home. Once dinner is over, dance slowly to your song. Then snuggle as you watch a romantic flick together.

Prepare a dessert
dessertThis one is specially for the ladies. Invite your honey and treat him to a dessert dish. Find out about the favorite dessert of your partner and prepare it yourself on Valentine's Day. Even if it doesn't turn perfect and your cooking skills don't prove amazing, he'll pleasantly surprised and love you for your serious attempt.

Balloons in the car
Sneak into your sweet one's car while he/she is busy at work and fill it with roses and balloons upto the roof. Also leave a note inside telling how much your sweetheart means to you. It will amaze and touch your love to no less measure.

Walk on the beach
Take a ride to a secluded beach at sunset and park your car nearby. Slip your hand into your partner's and take a stroll along the beach bare foot, watching the sunset together. It will be better to stay awhile after the sunset and enjoy the sight and sound of the waves crashing into the shore, as the water covers your feet. Look up at the starry sky and feel the magic of the universe.

Have a beach-dinner
If you can arrange it, treat your love to a candlelit dinner under the stars, preferably to the accompaniment of some music playing off somewhere in the background. You can arrange it all near a lake or pond to make the ambience even more romantic. To top it all, you can rent a small boat and row it after dinner to go out to the middle of a lake and watch the stars.

Love-letter
Believe it or not, writing love letters is still as cool. Yes, the world may have changed and e-mails and text messages love lettermay be the order of the day, but a passionate letter of love still posseses that eternal charm and out-of-the-world romanticism which many would die for. So put your pen to paper and pour your feelings out for the love of your life. Say in simple words what your sweetheart means to you, and how your life has changed since his/her arrival. Then hide it in some spot where your sweet one is likely to lay his/her hand soon. Don't worry if you're not too good with words, your sweetheart will surely appreciate your gesture. Your effort will culminate into a moment which both of you'll treasure forever, trust us.

Study: Pop Culture Helps Indonesia Fight Terrorism

2010-02-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

Rabu, 10 Februari 2010
KOMPAS/RENE L PATTIRADJAWANE

Elite troops of the Indonesian Army, Kopassus, Satuan-81, are in combat training with the elite squad of police to anticipate terrorist attacks in Jakarta, Dec.12, 2008
By KRISTEN GELINEAU

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Using social media and pop culture has helped Indonesia’s government counter terrorism and encourage moderate views on Islam, a leading terrorism expert said Tuesday. The world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia has stemmed widespread development of extremism and marginalized the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, said Magnus Ranstorp, research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College.

To learn how, Ranstorp’s center interviewed a cross-section of groups fighting extremism, religious organizations, defense officials and past and present members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian network blamed for attacks including the 2002 bombing on Bali that killed 202 people.

The results of the study, conducted for the Swedish International Development Agency and released this week, show Indonesia has relied on a mix of measures, including information campaigns that encourage debate on extremist issues using the Internet and TV.

Another is the use of highly respected religious figures to promote moderate interpretations of Islam. The study cites the success of Indonesian pop star Ahmad Dhani, whose anti-extremist song “Laskar Cinta,” or “Army of Love,” sold millions of copies.

“Using pop culture is extremely important,” Ranstorp said. “It’s really about sort of maximum reach with a message” of tolerance.

The study noted that interest in interfaith dialogue was increasing in Indonesia. On the island of Java, for example, Christians have visited and lived with Muslims at Islamic boarding schools, and in rural areas, Christian and Muslim youth have worked together on welfare projects.

Julian Pasha, spokesman to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, credits government efforts to forge relationships with potential extremists throughout Indonesia, which Pasha believes has helped foster better understanding between groups and kept violent radicalism at bay.

But terrorism analyst Sidney Jones, senior adviser for Crisis Group International, said popular culture and interfaith dialogue have nothing to do with Indonesia’s success. Far more important, she says, is Indonesia’s track record of getting extremists off the streets through strong police work, and bringing members of violent networks to trial.

And there’s another key factor, she said: “The places where you’ve got the strongest terrorist movements are places that are either under occupation in the middle of a war, beset by a repressive government, or possessed of an alienated Muslim minority. And Indonesia doesn’t fit any of those categories.”

Ranstorp said more studies are needed to determine which measures have had the most impact, and how they can be applied elsewhere. Still, he thinks there are many important lessons to be learned from the review.

“It’s a good showcase ... of how the battle within Islam can be won,” he said.

=====================
source: kompas.com

Century Case Could Distract Indonesians from Bigger Issues

2010-02-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 9 Februari 2010
C17-09

Chat After Lunch at Plaza FX, third floor, presenting Akbar Tanjung (right), Akbar Faisal (left), and Firmanzah (mid), Feb. 9, 2010

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Firmanzah, the youngest dean in University of Indonesia's history, reminded everyone that the bigger issue in the inquiry committee is actually about accountability and transparency. He conveyed that at the live talkshow Chat After Lunch, at Plaza FX, Jakarta, Tuesday, with chairman of Golkar's central board; Akbar Faisal, Hanura's representative in the legislature's inquiry committee on Century Bank.

"We spot-light on accountability," the dean emphasized. He admitted that resolving the case of Century Bank is also important, but behind this case there is the matter of public accountability, meaning that the people should know clearly how the government came to decisions like the bailout.

So the public accountability is the bigger issue, and it's also the issue that fuels other matters greater than the Century Bank. He illustrated that, if judging by the size and effect on everyone, then the Indonesian people, whose attention has been nailed on the Century Bank case, should focus more to the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA). He believes that the ACFTA is more systemic than Century Bank's case.

Actually the government has a lot of other homeworks, such as the ACFTA, decentralization, and the regional representative elections. Those homeworks seem to be eclipsed by the intensity of Century Bank's case.

Again, behind all of those issues there's always the matter of transparent accountability. All the confusion that's happening, according to him, is because the people aren't clear on how the government came to critical decisions, whether regarding the bailout or the ACFTA. The government should be transparent about, "strategic decisions, decisions that affect the lives of many people. Though that doesn't mean all decisions should be made public." (C17-09)
=============
source: kompas.com

Impeachment is A Risk, Not A Target

2010-02-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 9 Februari 2010
Dhoni Setiawan
Akbar Tanjung

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Akbar Tanjung, the chairman of Golkar's central board implied that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono finds the right time to resuffle should he do it in his cabinet. At the live talkshow Chat After Lunch, at Plaza FX, Jakarta, Tuesday, with Akbar Faisal, Hanura's representative in the legislature's inquiry committee on Century Bank; and Firmanzah, dean of University of Indonesia's Faculty of Economics, .

Akbar Tanjung's final point regarding the reshuffle is that "maybe among the ministers who don't perform, but if the momentum is now, then it's not appropriate. The president should find another timing."

The talk show was mainly about the performance of the inquiry committee, but several times it came back to the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle. "If there is the possibility, reshuffling is the president's right," admitted Akbar Tanjung, but he continued that a reshuffling would, "move the political map", and that in turn he believes might affect the effectiveness of the inquiry committee's investigation on Century Bank's case.

Complementing his mention of the 'political map', he also opined regarding the coalition. "The coalition's purpose is to support what the president is doing. But it doesn't mean that the parties cannot do their function." He believes that all parties should still be critical, coalition or no. He also mentioned that the political map could signify the final decision of the inquiry committee.

On the other hand, Akbar Faisal, also reminded that the political mapping so far in the inquiry committee can be quite fickle. "At first it was five to four, then it became seven to two," he referred to the shifting of opinions among the fractions in the parliament regarding Century Bank's bailout.

President's accountability

Speaking of the president's right to reshuffle, Akbar Faisal also mentions that the president also has the obligation for accountability, at least to give confirmation to details like Sri Mulyani's claim that she had reported to both SBY and Jusuf Kalla on November 22, 2008.

Regarding involvement of the president, he stated that, "The inquiry committee is to investigate the presidential institution." He compared the case with the time when there was an inquiry committee that investigate Bulog gate which implicated the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid, or known as Gus Dur. At that time Gus Dur complied with the committee's summons, though it should be noted that the nature of that hearing was closed.

Akbar Faisal also chipped in his opinion that, "the point (of the inquiry committee) is that we want a better nation, more orderly and credible. If in the end it leads to an impeachment then it's a risk, but not a target." (C17-09)

===================
source: kompas.com

The Theorists Belarus

2010-02-09T02:13:00.001-08:00

In many cases gender representation in the socialist period was marked either by the continuity in or the transformation of traditional gender roles. Could you describe how and which tradition was continued or transgressed under socialism?

There are no simple answers to what tradition(s) was continued or transgressed under socialism. Are we speaking of certain local cultural traditions linked to a sense of national identity (and shaped by religious, ethnic, or political communities) that provided the framework for articulating and representing gender issues in the national (nation-minded) art of the last two centuries? Or are we speaking of rural (i.e. folk, traditionalist) or urban (i.e. cosmopolitan, modern) cultural traditions that might be linked to the development of particular schools of thought or trends in the art scene? Or do we mention the role and position of various Eastern European male and female artists throughout the history of European modernism? All of these questions eventually point to the main problem: how “to retrieve the past” (bearing in mind that conceiving and reconstructing the past is always politically charged) relative to the potential legitimacy of the particular issue.

Many researchers mention that Gender Check has brought their attention to the less-known subjects of local histories: neglected artists or new issues, methodologies, or epistemological approaches. Could you write about your “discovery” or “discoveries” during the research?

The work for MUMOK generated for me a series of interrelated questions that should be addressed and incorporated into how Belarusian scholars approach their research. I realized that prior to a re-conceptualization of gender representations in socialist or post-Soviet Belarusian art we need to conduct, first and foremost, serious scholarly work that has not yet been undertaken and is long overdue. This work should proceed along two parallel lines: rethinkingthe art historical canon, and investigating the field of contemporary Belarusian art from a sociological perspective (examining the actors, institutional frameworks,the art market, etc.). In short, the modern history of Belarusian art needs to be rewritten in light of contemporary scholarship and restructured according to critical discourse and thinking.

While the sociological examination of Belarusian art has not even started yet, the reasons why “current art” in Belarus hardly exists have already been debated in intellectual circles for some time. Unlike many other Eastern European countries, Belarus resembles a “virgin” space where both properly institutionalized forms as well as lively discussions on the state of current art practices and processes are lacking. The Soros Art Centers and other such programs, which changed significantlythe art scenes of all other neighboring Eastern European countries, never existed in Belarus. Under Lukashenko’s regime the country has been very isolated and “cut-off” from the cultural and theoretical debates that have taken place in other former socialist countries.(1) Of the initiatives and collective projects that came into being and flourished from the time of the perestroika through 1994, very few have survived and continue to play an important role in contemporary Belarus. As Belarusian philosopher and art critic Olga Shparaga argues, the Belarusian artists who were actively involved in the social-aesthetic renewal of Belarus roughly ten to twenty years ago have nowadays become either marginal figures or are involved in thecultural life of other countries.

Indeed, many artists as well as art critics emigrated in the 1990s and continue to work in different countries. Therefore, the question what counts as “Belarusian art” is now a critical one given the apparent division inthe art scene between “here” and “there,” those who remained in Belarus very rarely participate in ambitious collective projects that would include Belarusians living abroad, and vice versa.

You described the split in the Belarusian art scene where, due to political reasons, many artists and theoreticians have left to live and work abroad. Could you characterize how gender issues were and are approached artistically and theoretically by both parts of the intellectual scene? For example, what are the roles of the Gender Itinerary festival and the International Women’s Film Festival in Minsk and the activities of the Centre for Gender Studies at the European Humanities University (EHU), based since 2005 in Vilnius, and how are they received?

I am not quite sure that I have a complete picture of what has been written on gender and Belarusian art in other countries (and in other than English, Russian, or Belarusian languages). I only have a fragmentary knowledge of some of the texts of such art critics as Olga Kopenkina (New York) or Nelly Bekus (Warsaw), but even these critics were not directly addressinggender issues or feminist art practices. Thus, I will concentrate instead on what the situation is like in Belarus.

Several attempts were made to introduce feminist topics into public discourse and the art scene-mostly through the initiatives of our Centre for Gender Studies at the European Humanities University. Since 1999 we have organized a series of workshops on women and art in Eastern Europe, on women and media art; launched a series of publications; introduced university courses related to gender representations in the visual arts; and organized exhibitions or film screenings (with the participation of Polish and Lithuanian art theorists, curators, and female artists). For instance, in 2002 our center published a calendar, (Ženš?iny Belarusi: tvorcy kul’tury), on feminism and art from the eighteenth century through today (edited by Elena Gapova, agender studies scholar and the director of the EHU Center for Gender Studies ). Women at the Edge of Europe (Ženš?ny kraju Europy, 2003; edited by Elena Gapova) included several essays dedicated to women musicians and women artists throughout Belarusian history. The book Gender and Transgression in Visual Arts (Gender i transgressiia v vizual’nych iskusstvach, 2007, edited by me) was the result of a Belarusian-Lithuanian workshop that took place in 2003. Our colleague in Minsk, Irina Solomatina, initiated in 2005 a new festival titled “Gender Itinerary” that was created to serve scholars and practitioners of feminism in art from different countries as a forum for theoretical interventions supplemented by performances, live music concerts, or experimental video screenings. However, these sporadic events didn’t radically transformthe art scene in Belarus. But we also weren’t planning for the “revolution” in inviting our audiences to look differently at the history of women as subjects in Belarusian art history and to examine its multicultural inspirations. The current state of the Belarusian educational system, the “local-mindedness” of art institutions, and the lack of resources provide little opportunity for other voices to challenge the existing canons for interpreting our art history.

Notes:

(1) See, for instance, a very inspiring text by Elena Gapova dedicated to the symbolic “geography of desire” in defining the borders of Belarus, and to its “marginality” in contemporarycultural and political discourse: Elena Gapova, “Kroja kraja Europy” (Etching the Edges of Europe), in (Women at the Edge of Europe), ed. Elena Gapova (Minsk: European Humanities University, 2003), 7-22.
BIOGRAPHY

Almira Ousmanova, Research Belarus

Almira Ousmanova is a professor at the Dept. of Media and director of the MA program in Cultural Studies at the European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania). Since 1998 she has also been working at the Center for Gender Studies at EHU and organized a whole series of conferences and workshops, including seminars on Feminist Art in Eastern Europe (2001 – 2003) and a conference on Simone de Beauvoir and Feminist Philosophy (2009).Her international fellowships and grants include a Fulbright Visiting Scholarship at the University of Madison – Wisconsin in 1996, Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy in 1997/1998, a Fellowship at the British Academy, Oxford, UK in 1999 and a Fellowship at IKKM (Bauhaus University, Weimar) in 2009. From 2002 to 2004 she was a Fellow at KWI (Essen), working in a research project directed by Luisa Passerini on the topic of “Europe: Emotions, Identity, and Politics.” Major publications are Umberto Eco: Paradoxes of Iterpretation (2000); Gender Histories from Eastern Europe (co-edited with Elena Gapova and Andrea Peto, 2002); Bi-Textuality and Cinema (2003), Gender and Transgression in Visual Arts (2006), Visual (as) Violence (ed., 2007), and Belarusian Format: Invisible Reality (ed., 2008). She is currently working on a book project on Representation and History: The Cinematic Images of “the Soviet”.

================
source:
http://www.abreakingnews.us/the-theorists-belarus.html

Valentines Day Zodiac Signs Gifts Ideas

2010-02-09T01:48:00.000-08:00

By: Dr.Prem Kumar Sharma

Valentine's Day is here yet again and one of the most exciting part about it is to make your beloved feel cherished by making them feel that Valentine's Day means a lot more than romance and gifts. But looking for gift ideas particularly for someone very special to you can be a difficult task to do. Yes, you might say that it's the thought that counts, but we all know your beloved will appreciate it more if you give him something that he'll love. Just you need to know is the sun sign of your lover. So, here's your guide to what your lover really wants, based on his zodiac sign.

Aries: (Mar. 20-Apr.19) Aries is a fire sign with the need for independence. Normally they are passionate, and tend to be dominant and wild. They also like to be playful and childlike, and live for the moment. But this Valentine’s Day, they would like to be the centre of attraction and wants to be pampered.Valentines Day, Zodiac Gifts A quiet gourmet dinner, with a bottle of champagne would do nicely to escape all the mayhem of the prior weeks.

Taurus: (Apr. 19-May 20) They tend to like doing the same things, over and over and over. Anything that affects any of their five senses is off to a good start. Most Taureans like floral fragrances. Select a nice perfume for your man or woman and make the Valentine a dazzled world of fragrance and love. Be sweet to your Taurus today, not critical accept anything he/she wants to do without voicing a word and you will make them very happy indeed.

Gemini: (May 20-Jun 21) Geminis love surprises and novelty. They might expect to start the day off with a cute text message or love note on their pillow. They would also appreciate fantastic love letters to spice up their mood. This is a fun-loving sign so you might also go for something naughty and nice.

Cancer: (Jun. 21-Jul. 22)! You will please your Cancer lover best by treating him/her like royalty today. They might be delighted with a framed family tree or silver jewellery. Scented candles for the Cancerian will ignite the flame of romance or give them an I Owe You token for "Breakfast in Bed" or "A Night of Passion!"

Leo: (Jul. 22-Aug. 23) Valentines Day is your chance to prove how much you LOVE them. Celebrate Valentine's day in style with the Leo with a gift of chocolates. Leos love jewellery; choose something stunning and expensive! You will always be remembered for this gift.

Virgo: (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) A simple, quiet place where they can just pour out their heart and soul about how everyone's picking on them and how misunderstood they are will put you in the winner’s circle. Ruled by Mercury, planet of communication, flowers are always appreciated by the Virgo. A book by their favourite author would also please them.

Libra: (Sep.22-Oct. 23) If you could wave a magic wand and remove their blockages, and plenty Libra's have them now, that would be the ideal gift for Valentine's Day. Ruled by the loving planet Venus Libans will appreciate receiving hearts, flowers and anything romantic. Roses are a symbol of love. Send a dozen beautifully wrapped roses to celebrate this Valentine's Day.

Scorpio: (Oct. 23-Nov.22) Scorpio's of all ages will be pleased to be taken out near or on water. Lakeside, poolside, oceanfront, it doesn't matter the water will surely calm the easily ruffled feathers of your Scorpio. Perfume, cologne or pampering presents would also appeal to this sign.

Sagittarius: (Nov.22-Dec. 21) Give them a weekend away where you can explore something. Both sexes see themselves as adventurers so try something new.

Capricorn: Dec. 21-Jan. 20) The shy and quiet goat will just appreciate your 100% attention. Capricorn is expecting real loyalty and friendship. Unique but, heartfelt gifts that mean something to the relationship will go over big. This is a good time to let them know where they stand. Married Capricorns like to discuss plans for the future too. Because the sign rules the winter months, warm clothing would also be appreciated.

Aquarius: (Jan 20-Feb. 18) Make your Aquarius forget they are normal human beings. Aquarius wants to feel star like and recently they could have had their reality shattered, or they could have fallen to earth. Put your Aquarius on a pedestal, shining gem like objects and busy. Aquarius will appreciate humorous gifts that helps keep romance light-hearted and fun.

Pisces: (Feb. 18-Mar.20) Spend some money on them, Pisces wants to be indulged this Valentines Day. Any sort of cheapness and cutting expenses will be frowned upon by your fish! A gift of flowers would delight the romantic Pisces. You can never go wrong with body lotions, perfumes, teddy bears and soft toys when buying for the Piscean lover.

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source: http://living.oneindia.in/astrology/astrologers/premkumar/article/valentines-day-zodiac-signs-gifts-ideas-2.html

Facebook gives itself a birthday face-lift

2010-02-09T00:51:00.000-08:00

By John D. Sutter, CNN

February 5, 2010 11:08 a.m. EST

Facebook has announced changes designed to help users find new photos and updates more easily.

(CNN) -- Facebook has given itself a face-lift for its sixth birthday.

The online social network -- which now boasts a population of 400 million people -- unveiled on Thursday night several surface changes to the look and feel of its home page.

"Facebook began six years ago today as a product that my roommates and I built to help people around us connect easily, share information and understand one another better," founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Thursday night.

"We hoped Facebook would improve people's lives in important ways. So it's rewarding to see that as Facebook has grown, people around the world are using the service to share information about events big and small and to stay connected to everyone they care about."

Facebook's population grew by more than 200 million people in the last year alone, to a total of 400 million users now, Zuckerberg said in the post.

For comparison, the site's current population would make it the third-largest country in the world, behind only China and India and ahead of the United States, which has about 308 million people.

Users can more easily access Facebook applications and games, as well as a list of friends who are currently online. The search function on the site became more prominent. And Facebook's news feed is now divided into categories for "top news" and "most recent" posts from Facebook friends, a slight change from the previous arrangement, which also allowed users to sort posts by what's newest and what's most relevant to them.

Video: Facebook's 6-year history

The site also tries to make it easier for users to find friend requests and new messages, creating a potential all-in-one hub for online communication.

"For example, when you receive a Facebook notification about someone writing on your Wall or tagging you in a photo, you'll see a red bubble appear in the left-hand corner near the search bar," Facebook engineer Jing Chen wrote in a blog post on the site.

"When you click on the icon, you'll see a drop-down menu with your most recent notifications."

Facebook says it's going for a "simplified design."

So far, the online community has not reacted with the same vitriol it has to other Facebook changes.

When the site first introduced the "news feed," which pulls in new information from friends' pages, users blasted the site for eliminating the privacy of their pages. And changes to Facebook's privacy settings typically are met with heated discourse on blogs and on the site.

Video: Facebook's privacy issues

In this case, more than 5,200 people have said they "like" Zuckerberg's recent post, and many users are wishing the site a happy birthday as if it were a friend of theirs.

"What a great venue to reconnect with old friends or make new ones. Thank you Facebook Happy sixth birthday," one user wrote, in response to Zuckerberg's post.

Some bloggers said the site looks and feels similar to before, with a slightly greater emphasis on gaming and applications.

"Many changes are subtle and the look and feel of the site remains the same," Jessica E. Vascellaro wrote on the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog.

VentureBeat's Kim-Mai Cutler says the updated and more-prominent search function on Facebook is perhaps the most significant part of the update.

"When you type in names, it auto-completes for people who are the closest to you by social promixity (sic) -- e.g. the people you share the most mutual friends with," she writes on the site's DigitalBeat blog.

Facebook says the changes will be rolled out worldwide. As of Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET, it appeared that not all pages had been updated.

=======================
source: cnn.com

China: Large hacker training Web site shut down

2010-02-09T00:49:00.000-08:00

February 8, 2010 6:02 a.m. EST

Google says it has been the victim of cyber attacks in China.

Washington (CNN) -- Police in China shut down what officials think was the largest training Web site for computer hackers, local media said.

The Black Hawk Safety Net offered lessons on cyber attacks and sold Trojan software, which allows outside access to a computer when remotely installed, media reports said.

Police arrested three people who ran the Web site and charged 100 to 200 yuan ($14 to $29) for lessons, the China Daily newspaper said.

Established in 2005, the site had recruited more than 12,000 paid and 170,000 free members and collected more than 7 million yuan ($1.02 million) in membership fees, the reports said.

Authorities were tipped off to its existence while investigating a cyber attack in 2007. Some suspects arrested in that case were members of Black Hawk.

The suspects in the Black Hawk case were arrested under a law revised last year in response to cyber crimes.

China says hackers caused 7.6 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) in losses in the country last year.

Last month, online search giant Google threatened to pull out of China, saying Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering.

China's information information technology ministry called the accusations of government involvement "groundless."

The Chinese government has said that the Google case is a business dispute and should not affect relations between Beijing and Washington.

Last month, foreign correspondents in at least two Chinese bureaus of news organizations had their Google e-mail accounts attacked, with e-mails forwarded to a mysterious address, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China.

======
source: cnn.com

Super Bowl ad breaks Google's TV silence

2010-02-09T00:44:00.000-08:00

By David Goldman, staff writerFebruary 8, 2010: 4:15 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you watched the Super Bowl Sunday night, you saw at least two unprecedented events: The New Orleans Saints won their first championship, and Google ran an ad for its search engine on television.

The 60-second spot called "Parisian Love" aired during the third quarter of Sunday's game. The commercial featured several queries being typed into Google's search field, beginning with "study abroad paris france" to "translate tu es très mignon" and ending with "how to assemble a crib." The ad closed with the message: "Search on."
Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) ad stood out, and not just because of its schmaltzy content amid mostly slapstick ads and commercials featuring men with no pants. It was more surprising that Google was putting itself out there since the search giant is notorious for largely refusing to advertise itself.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has said on many occasions that his company's dominant market share (nearly 66%, according to comScore) was earned by quality of searches, not by advertising.

Even as competitors like Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) and Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) Bing have launched expensive cross-platform ad campaigns, Google has stayed relatively mum. Google did run several television ads in May 2009 for its Chrome browser; but those ads never mentioned the company's main search tool.

Google ads, though few and far between, are becoming increasingly prevalent. They have appeared on the radio, billboards and the Internet. In fact, "Parisian Love" came from a series of similar YouTube videos called "Search Stories" that Google posted over the past three months.
0:00 /2:13Why Google ran a TV ad

But on Saturday, Schmidt tweeted that "Hell has indeed frozen over," urging Super Bowl watchers to pay attention to the ads in the third quarter. After the game aired, Schmidt posted a comment on Google's blog, explaining the ad's origin.

"We didn't set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search," Schmidt said. "We liked this video so much, and it's had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience."

Schmidt said that the original intent of "Parisian Love" and the half dozen other Search Story ads was "to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact."
Why now?

Some analysts think there may have been an ulterior motive.

"Google has had its designs on selling ads on television, and it is beginning to develop an interesting business there," said Andrew Frank, Google analyst at Gartner. "Google ... is coming to grips with the fact that the Internet can't persist as a disconnected medium that doesn't interact with other media."

Frank suggested that Google used the ad in part to show potential advertisers that the search company is not afraid of TV. That's important Google begins to ramp up its Google TV Ads network, a service that allows advertisers to put commercials on television through the company's AdWords program.

But there were other outside motivations as well, Frank said. He said Google has been feeling some pressure from Bing and Yahoo's new campaigns, as well as Apple's successful advertising (now that Google is becoming increasingly competitive with Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500).

Microsoft has said that it was prepared to spend about $100 million on advertising for Bing, which debuted last June. Since then, Bing has gained several points of market share (to about 11% from 8% in June), though it hasn't come close to Google's dominant share.

In a Super Bowl in which CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) was selling 30-second spots for as much as $3 million, even a one-minute ad didn't cost Google nearly what Microsoft was spending.

As a result, some advertising analysts think that Google was taking a relatively safe risk at reaching a wider audience.

"It's a big change for Google, but in terms of Google's budget, it's not 'big change,'" said Tobe Berkovitz, professor of advertising at Boston University. "Yes, we're in the digital era, but people are consuming content in a huge variety of ways, one of which is still the screen in the living room."

Berkovitz thought the Super Bowl, the most-watched TV event in the country, was an obvious choice for Google's first television ad, but he doesn't expect to be inundated by Google ads any time soon.

Instead, he thinks Google will pick and choose times where it can stand out.

"If they were smart, they'd want to pick something like the NCAA basketball championship, and they could do ads that relate to schools that are playing," Berkovitz said. "Like the Super Bowl, it would be nimble, and it would get a reaction of, 'Hey, that was pretty clever.'" To top of page

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source: Cnn.com

Worlds Fastest Computer

2010-02-09T00:41:00.000-08:00

Roadrunner - Roadrunner is miles ahead of the competition

On the dawn of 25 May 2008, IBM unveiled their gentle giant- the ‘roadrunner’. Do not mistake it with the cute little cartoon character that your children enjoy watching on TV, the roadrunner is actually the worlds fastest computer at present, and it is capable of processing 1.7 petaflops. On May 25th, the computer had achieved 1.06 petaflops, making it the worlds fastest computer. This lean and hungry machine is not a child’s toy and it is priced at an eye-popping amount of $133 million.

Built by IBM at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, this is truly a one of its kind supercomputer, primarily because of the fact that this machine is built mostly on commodity parts, available off the shelf at any hardware store. The worlds fastest computer boasts of some great design techniques, which have made it one of the marvels of modern engineering and computer architecture.

Built for the National nuclear security administration department, this computer has 12,960 IBM powerXcell 8i CPUs in conglomeration with 6,480 AMD opteron microprocessor systems. These systems are connected via a new technique of CPU-Processor connection, known as the infiniband, using blade server architecture. Running on Fedora and Red hat enterprise editions, the worlds fastest computer is as easy to work with as any other computing device. Designed to predict the vulnerability and the safety of America’s ageing nuclear weapons, the worlds fastest computer computes the reaction of nuclear components and ingredients as time progresses. The roadrunner is a massive machine, and occupies almost 550 square meters of space.

The main area where the worlds fasts computer differs from a lot of other super computers is the fact that it uses a combination of two architectures wherein each AMD 64 opteron processor is combined in a hybrid architecture with a ‘cell’, manufactured by IBM using its patented ‘power architecture’ technology.

The building process of the roadrunner was divided into three broad phases. The first phase was concerned with the development of a cluster, on a smaller scale, of the AMD 64- Cell combination and to check its feasibility on a larger scale. The second phase was primarily concerned with building a prototype using the clusters developed in the first phase. The third phase was dedicated to reach a peak performance, which was aimed to be measured in petaflops. Additional clusters, architectural enhancements and some additional powerXcell systems were arranged in order to breach the petaflops limit. Thus the worlds fastest computer was born on May 25th, 2008.

Containing two different kinds of processors, one being for calculations and the other for performing normal computer functions (such as bootstrapping, process scheduling and memory management), the worlds fastest computer is an architectural marvel. The two cores of computations in the worlds fastest computer are the AMD opteron and the IBM powerXcell. While the Opteron runs at 1.8 GHz, the PowerXcell runs at 3.2 GHz. The roadrunner utilizes a total of 122,400 cores, with roughly 6,000 coming from the Opteron and the rest coming from the PowerXcell.

The computational unit of the roadrunner is the ‘triblade’, which consists of two dual core opterons with 16 GB of RAM and four powerXcells, containing their own additional 16 GB of RAM. The complete CU or the computational unit is the main unit of computation in the roadrunner and consists of 180 such triblades, with each of these triblades connected to a 288 port Voltaire infiband switch. The Panasas file system is implemented through twelve system servers. Each triblade, therefore, has to pass though one of these servers to access the Panasas files system.

The overall structure which emerges out as the complete roadrunner model consists of eighteen CUs, or connected units, which are connected through a second infiniband switch. The whole architecture is a mammoth structure and is testimony to the huge computing potential of the worlds fastest computer, setting it far apart from the rest of the competition.

Stunning Moonbow Arches over Dramatic Volcanic Landscape

2010-02-08T18:32:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 9 Februari 2010

The moonbow arches over Haleakala crater on Maui Island, Hawaii, and (below) how it looks during the day

KOMPAS.com - A hazy colourful arch appears to float between the fog and a star-studded sky in this stunning image. We've all seen rainbows emerge after a downpour but few of us will have witnessed, let alone recorded, a 'moonbow' such as this.

The remarkable photograph was taken by Wally Pacholka, a renowned 'astrophotographer' as he looked over a volcanic crater on Maui Island in Hawaii.

The 61-year-old former accountant, who specialises in taking pictures of dramatic night skies over America's national parks, came across the sight as he stood 10,000ft above sea level on the rim of the Halkeakala crater.

'This was my seventh evening there, having hiked inside the 12 mile rim to rim crater a few days back,' he told MailOnline.

'I was very fortunate to see this, but in a way I created this fortune as I was always out there.'

This night-time phenomena was created not by the Sun but by light reflected off the Moon. The fog hanging above the volcano's crater acted as the white canvas.

Mars can also be seen in this dazzling image, glowing orange high in the sky (top left of image). The red planet dominated the sky at the end of January as it neared its opposition and came the closest it had been to Earth for two years.

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source: kompas.com

Valentine's Day Launch for Web Speed-Dating Venture

2010-02-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 9 Februari 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald

Date with destiny . . . Skyecandy founder Melonie Ryan.

By JULIA TALEVSKI

KOMPAS.com - Skyecandy is a new venture that combines video chat with speed dating. The Skype-based application will be officially launched on Valentine's Day for Skype users to hook up globally.

Speed-dating sessions run every six minutes and each date lasts for five minutes, with a minute in between enabling singles to answer yes or no. If both vote yes, you can continue to communicate on Skype.

Singles can also rate dates, record thoughts about dates using the reminder notes tool and send a post-speed-date note to someone they fancied. Skyecandy users can choose to disclose their personal information or remain anonymous.

The online video speed-dating service is the brainchild of Melonie Ryan. She came up with the idea after viewing a documentary about speed dating and being contacted at random by people wanting to start a conversation on Skype.

"I was surprised at how many random people wanted to chat through Skype," Ryan says.

She stresses Skyecandy maintains a zero-tolerance policy on unsavoury use of the service and heavily moderates photographs.

The 24-hour service has been in beta mode for the past six months and already has more than 10,000 members globally.

Sydney civil engineer Abhi Kirpan decided to give the service a go. So far, he's managed to make friends with people in Indonesia. "A lot of people don't have time to socialise," Kirpan says. "It gives you a good chance to speak to people in a more comfortable environment and there's no pressure."

The basic matching service is free for Skype users. Down the track, Ryan plans to add refined matching features such as searching for people with specific hair colour or religious backgrounds. However, users will be charged to use those extra features, Ryan says.

=================

source: kompas.com

What was Written on Sarah Palin's Hand?

2010-02-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 9 Februari 2010

Crib sheet: Sure enough, closer examination of video footage showed Mrs Palin did indeed have some handy buzzwords written on her palm

KOMPAS.com - She chided Barack Obama for his frequent use of the teleprompter - but Sarah Palin proved she is not above using a handy reminder over the weekend. The former vice presidential candidate was speaking at the first ever national 'Tea Party' convention on Saturday when she sneaked a quick - and not so subtle - peek at notes written on her hand.

The embarrassing moment was caught on film during a question-and-answer session after Mrs Palin gave a rousing speech to activists at the rally in Nashville, Tennessee, on the weekend.

It came just minutes after she gave the keynote speech to the convention, during which she said in reference to Mr Obama: 'This is about the people ... and it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter.'

Mrs Palin, seated on stage, used the microphone she was holding in a clumsy attempt to disguise the fact that she was peering at her crib notes. Close ups of the video footage showed that she had written in her palm 'energy', 'budget cuts' (with the word 'budget' then crossed out), 'tax', and 'lift American spirits'.

The questions had been pre-screened, giving the former Alaska governor time to study up on the answers. She was ridiculed by bemused political commentators and on the Internet. 'I guess the next time meanie liberal elites like Katie Couric ask Palin what she reads, she can say, "My hand,"' blog Politicsusa.com wrote.

Gawker.com was even more baffled by the incident: 'Did this woman seriously write notes on her hand to assist in the answering of questions she was given in advance? And did she do so minutes after criticizing the President for being fond of his teleprompter? *FACEPALM*.... This is just straight up EMBARRASSING.'

However the blip did not appear to dent her popularity at the event, where organisers had paid her $100,000 to speak. A coy Mrs Palin appeared to use the event to pit herself as a serious challenger to Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential campaign.

When asked on stage about 'President Palin', she would only smile - prompting the crowds to start changing 'Run, Sarah, run!'

And in an interview with Fox News later on, she said it would be 'absurd' for her not to run if given the opportunity.

'I would be willing to if I believe that it's right for the country,' she said.

However she did insist that she was willing to support competition in the race for the Republican nomination, saying she wanted the 'cream of the crop to rise'.

After Saturday's convention it seemed clear that Tea Party activists - a hard-right conservative core of Americans who effectively derailed Mr Obama's health reforms last summer with grassroots protests - are in favour of President Palin.

'I believe in this movement ... America is ready for another revolution,' she said as the crowd roared its approval. 'This movement is about the people. Government is supposed to be working for the people.'

Then noting Democrats' recent electoral losses just a year after Mr Obama was elected on promises of hope and change, she mocked: 'How's that hope-y, change-y stuff workin' out for you?'

She repeatedly mocked Mr Obama as being soft on terror - and made it clear she has him in her sights.

She slammed his 'lack of experience' during the Fox News interview.

'In the campaign, we tried to bring attention to the fact that Obama had really not a lot of experience,' she said.

'And I do say that my executive experience, as an administrator, as a team manager if you will was, and so was John McCain's as a matter of fact, was stronger and we had more experience than Barack Obama did in terms of managing huge multi-billion dollar budgets and thousands of employees ... and that hasn't changed.

'I think that President Obama with all due respect, his lack of experience is really made manifest in the way that decisions are made in the White House today,' she added.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Mrs Palin, Republican candidate John McCain's running mate, was derided by Democrats and in much of the press for her own lack of experience - particularly in areas of foreign policy.

Many Conservative critics claimed it was her lack of experience that hampered Mr McCain in the battle against Mr Obama.

Mrs Palin resigned from her office as governor of Alaska last year before completing her first term.

For Tea Partiers, her shortcomings do not seem to matter.

The convention in Nashville brought together hundreds of activists from the group, which takes its name after the 1773 Boston Tea Party revolt against taxation from England.

The activists hope to make a splash in the 2010 congressional elections and beyond - most likely with Sarah Palin at the forefront.

The group made headlines last year with often highly-charged protests against Mr Obama's healthcare reform drive, a $787billion economic stimulus package and other initiatives.

The convention is the latest sign that the diffuse movement is attempting to transform itself into a political machine that can get out the vote for conservative candidates.

All 435 seats of the House of Representatives and more than a third of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs in November. Democrats have majorities in both chambers.

Mrs Palin encouraged activists to get out and support candidates who shared their values. Her speech was frequently interrupted by bouts of thunderous applause.

Referring to mounting debt and government programs, Mrs Palin said: 'What they are doing ... They're sticking our kids with the bill. And that's immoral. That's generational theft.'

The three-day event had been plagued by infighting, pullouts and criticism of tickets costing more than $500.

But the appearance of Mrs Palin, the darling of the U.S. conservative movement, raised its profile.

Her speech made frequent appeals to patriotism and faith - and she effectively used her folksy, Washington-outsider rhetoric to lambaste Mr Obama and his Democratic Party.

Her audience waved flags and erupted in cheers during multiple standing ovations during the keynote address.

But, aside from broad conservative principles like lower taxes and a strong national defence, it was short on her own policy ideas that typically indicate someone is seriously laying the ground work to run for the White House.

Indeed, Republican observers say she's seemingly done more lately to establish herself as a political celebrity focused on publicity rather than a political candidate focused on policy.

Catering to her crowd, Mrs Palin talked of limited government, strict adherence to the Constitution, and the 'God-given right' of freedom.

She said the 'fresh, young and fragile' movement is the future of American politics because it's 'a ground-up call to action' to both major political parties to change how they do business. 'You've got both party machines running scared,' she said.

Mrs Palin suggested that it should remain leaderless and cautioned against allowing the movement to be defined by any one person.

'Let us not get bogged down in the small squabbles. Let us get caught up in the big ideas,' she said, though offered few of her own.

===================

source: kompas.com

Study Skills: How to improve your concentration

2010-02-08T03:03:00.000-08:00

Causes of lack of concentration

One of the main causes of missing of what you are reading is a lack of concentration. When your attention wanders words slip by and leave you with little memory of what you have read. You may go through the motions of reading and studying, sometimes for hours at a time but end up with poor results.

Not being prepared to read and study
A lack of interest in the material
The material is too difficult
A lack of motivation
A lack of suitable goal
Too much noise or activity around you
Emotional problems
Being tired
Having to much to do

A major cause of not concentrating is not being interested in the work.If you are studying something you really want to, your attention generally will remain keen. However, when yu are reading something that you consider dull or boring, you will usually find it difficult. This is probably because you didn't prepare yourself properly to work on the task. If your lack of concentration is due to being tired or not being motivated, you may have to postpone the work until a more suitable time. Certainly a wise use of available time to read and study is one of the best remedies.

Fear of failure is another reason for poor concentration. Often the thought of failing an exam or assisgnment starts to take more time than the actual study and this in turn adds to your worry.

Here is a list of suggestions which will help you improve your power of concentration

1. Select a place you like to study and where there are few distractions

2. Plan your study time so that you will have enough time to finish your work.

3. Make sure that you have all the materials and resources you need to finish the assignment.

4. Develop a positive mental attitude to the task ahead. Think about finishing your work and try to do well.

5. Remember your purpose for studying and make this your goal. Question yourself about what you are studying and then read actively for the answers.

6. Work in short sessions of forty to fifty minutes and take regular breaks to avoid getting tired.

7. Make notes and summaries of the main points you are studying and refer to them to check your progress

8. Break your work into smaller units of study and mark each unit off as you complete it.

Take Action!

2010-02-08T01:04:00.001-08:00

Be Different and Make Difference!

2010-02-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

The power of Passion

2010-02-08T01:02:00.001-08:00

Self Motivation

2010-02-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

Goes on Sale --> The SUPER-TOMATO That May Reduce The Risk of Prostate Cancer

2010-02-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

Senin, 8 Februari 2010

The Moruno tomato, which is grown in Spain, has twice the normal levels of cancer-fighting lycopene and a higher vitamin C content than other varieties

By Luke Salkeld

KOMPAS.com - Is there nothing the humble tomato can't do? Not satisfied with being a hangover cure, a good source of vitamin C and great for your skin, the little red fruit is now tackling cancer.

Touted as a 'super superfood' for its ability to reduce the risk of prostate cancer, the Moruno tomato has twice the normal levels of a natural cancer-fighting substance and as much vitamin C as a similar-sized orange. And, from today, it's all yours for £1.50 for a 280g pack in the Tesco Finest range.

The Moruno, which took Spanish scientists two years to develop and is the result of cross-breeding 2,000 varieties, has double levels of lycopene, which gives tomatoes their red colour, and which scientists have linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer.

Lycopene is more easily absorbed into the bloodstream when the tomatoes are cooked with certain oils, such as olive oil.

In a recent study, more than 1,000 men with prostate cancer had their post-diagnosis diets examined. Patients who had tomato sauce more than twice a week had a 44 per cent lower risk of the disease spreading.

The cancer is less likely to spread when patients ate large amounts of tomatoes and oily fish, according to American researchers.

Tesco's tomato buyer Ashleigh McWilliams said yesterday: 'Tomatoes are already considered superfoods because they have so many health giving qualities. However, the Moruno, because of its very high lycopene and vitamin C levels, may actually qualify as being the first super superfood.'

She added: 'Tomatoes have naturally high levels of lycopene, but this naturally-bred are genetically programmed to age at a faster rate.' variety has double the level of standard ones.

'But besides its exceptional nutritional content, the Moruno tastes great and has thick, juicy flesh. And, gram for gram, it has as much vitamin C as an orange.'

Last week scientists unveiled a tomato which is said to stay fresh for 45 days - three times longer than the conventional version. Researchers 'turned off' the genes linked to the production of ripening enzymes.

The researchers believe the same process could be applied to other fruits, but the need for extensive safety testing means it will be years before the GM fruits go on sale in British supermarkets, if ever.

Tomato Facts

A laboratory study found that lycopene has a similar effect to the cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins.

Tomatoes contain high levels of beta-carotene, an antioxidant that supports the immune system and helps maintain healthy skin and tissue lining. They are packed with antioxidant flavonoids and vitamin E, both of which are essential for heart health, and are a good source of potassium.

One medium-size tomato provides 50 per cent of the recommended daily dose of vitamin C.
Analysis of the Mediterranean diet suggested that cooking tomatoes with olive oil further improves their potency.

Lycopene and beta-carotene are broken down by heating, and are soluble in oil but not water, so cooking tomatoes in olive oil prepares these beneficial chemicals perfectly for absorption by the body.

Other research suggests that lycopene may enhance chemical communication between the cells, which helps to regulate unusual cell growth and may even reverse the process by which a tumour becomes malignant. Tomatoes are also rich in the antioxidant lutein, which is believed to protect the retina from free radical damage.

source: kompas.com

Facebook Redesign Emphasises Games, Apps

2010-02-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Senin, 8 Februari 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald

Facebook Redesign

KOMPAS.com - Facebook is redesigning its site yet again, this time to better emphasise applications, games and search. Links and items have moved around the home page as Facebook tries to streamline navigation and make games and apps stand out more.

The latest evolution continued over the weekend after Facebook started rolling the changes out on Friday, the company's sixth birthday. The changes were being made in stages, so not all users were seeing them right away. The world's largest online social network has continuously morphed its home page as it's grown from a closed hub for college students to a web and mobile destination for 400 million people worldwide.

Past changes have sparked protests from many users, though Facebook says it makes them to serve its audience better. Facebook says that it conducts months of testing and that many users request such changes. With the latest redesign, links to friend requests, messages and comment notifications are no longer scattered around and now reside on the top of the page.

On the updated site, the search box stands out more. Microsoft, which powers Facebook search and advertising, said in a blog post that search results on the social site will go beyond just links to include "richer answers combined with tools that help customers make faster, smarter decisions."

Under a new agreement, Microsoft will run text ads next to Facebook search results worldwide, rather than only in the U.S. as was the case before. However, Microsoft loses the right to sell display ads — the online billboards that command more money than search ads, but aren't as lucrative yet. Facebook will now sell those ads directly.

Facebook's chat feature also becomes more prominent with the redesign. Users can now see friends who are currently online without clicking on a link. This doesn't include all friends, only the ones they communicate with often.

There are also new links on the left that take users to online dashboards where they can organize games and applications and find new ones by seeing what their friends use. Games such as "Farmville" and "Mafia Wars" have surged in popularity on Facebook.

source: Kompas.com

George Aditjondro Sued for Flicking Book on Politician

2010-02-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

Senin, 8 Februari 2010

KOMPAS IMAGES/DHONI SETIAWAN

Author of "Cikeas Octopus", George Junus Aditjondro, during the pre-launch of the book, at Doekoen Coffee, South Jakarta, Dec. 30, 2009.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - South Jakarta district investigator is examining George Junus Aditjondro, Monday. He will be examined as suspect for the abuse of Ramadhan Pohan, member of the House of Rep. As reported, during the pre-launch of his book, George flicked his book on the politician's face.

South Jakarta district police chief Great Comr. Gatot Edy when contacted on Sunday confirms the probe agenda. The district police chief claimed that the police has sent a summons for the probe as suspect to George's residence in Yogyakarta.

His status as suspect has been decided after the police examined a number of winesses and evidences, such as the visum and the video recording when the incident happened. When asked regarding George's claim that the summons hasn't been received, the police chief answered, "We've sent the letter last Wednesday to his home in Yogyakarta."

The police are investigating George for violations of Chapter 335 of the Criminal Code regarding objectionable act and also Chapter 352 regarding mild abuse. George flicked the member of the Democratic Party during the pre-launch of his book, whose full title is "Unravelling the Cikeas Octopus behind Century Bank's Scandal", at Doekoen Coffee, South Jakarta, December 30, 2009. (SAN/C17-09)

source: Kompas.com

Watch "THE TOURNAMENT" Online

2010-02-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

English with English subtitles

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What Really Motivates Sperm

2010-02-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

Minggu, 7 Februari 2010

Live Science

KOMPAS.com - In high-school health class films, sperm cells are shown zooming around with quick flicks of their tails, but they only jump into action when they are in the right chemical conditions – usually that's in the female reproductive tract. Researchers have now figured out the precise chemical switch that turns on the sperm's motors, which could lead to the development of new treatments for infertility.

Scientists have long known that sperm's activity level depends on the internal pH of the sperm cell —a measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is. They start out with acidic insides when in the male reproductive tract, but once they enter the female tract, their internal environment becomes alkaline and off they zoom toward the egg.

That pH change occurs because the sperm release protons (acids are compounds that will donate a hydrogen ion — also known as a proton — to another compounds, called a base).

"The concentration of protons inside the [sperm] cell is 1,000 times higher than outside," said Yuriy Kirichok of the University of California, San Francisco, who was on the team that made the discovery. "If you just open a pore, protons will go outside. We identify the molecule that lets them out."

Sperm still in the male reproductive system are quiescent since there is no egg to go in search of. Kirichok likens them to balloons inflated with protons instead of air. If you open a hole in the sperm cell, protons will readily flow out.

The team has shown that each sperm's flagellum (or tail) is covered in many so-called Hv1 proton channels. When the channels are activated by external cues, the flood gates open and protons escape from many pores at once.

Kirichok said there are many conditions that open up the Hv1 pores, including alkaline conditions and the removal of zinc outside the cell.

They also open when exposed to the endocannabinoid known as anandamide, a substance that is present in both the male and female reproductive tracts and that may be at particularly high levels in the vicinity of the egg.

source: kompas.com

That raises an interesting possibility, Kirichok said, because endocannabinoids are natural lipids that influence the activity of neurons. They are so named because they act on the same receptors that the active component of marijuana does. It remains to be shown, but that connection might explain why marijuana has been linked to male infertility.

"Marijuana likely activates sperm prematurely, leaving them burnt out in a matter of hours," Kirichok said. So instead of lying dormant until they enter the female reproductive tract, they may start moving around in the testes, expending all of their energy.

Perhaps most importantly, the newly discovered Hv1 channel may allow for new ways to modify the activity of sperm in either direction, Kirichok said. In fact, many key biochemical reactions in sperm depend on their internal pH levels, including the initial activation of sperm, hyperactivation once near the fallopian tubes, and the reaction in which enzymes are released to penetrate the egg.

"All of these events are essential to fertilization," Kirichok said. "You can imagine now that [if] we know the molecule responsible we could block it to prevent activation and fertilization as a kind of male contraception." On the other hand, you might also give some sperm the extra boost they need to make it to their goal.

Internet Job Ads Grow in January

2010-02-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Minggu, 7 Februari 2010

(ABC News: Giulio Saggin)

More jobs are being advertised online, strengthening the chances of an interest rate rise

KOMPAS.com - The number of jobs advertised on the internet in January grew faster than in the previous two Januarys, indicating that employers were feeling more confident, according to the latest Olivier Job Index.

The index rose 3.5 per cent in January. Vacancies were now up 14.02 per cent in the past six months but still down 22.13 per cent since this time last year.

Olivier Group director Robert Olivier said December and January were always volatile months for jobs, so the data had to be interpreted cautiously.

"But the signs are clear, new jobs are being advertised," Mr Olivier said.

"These results suggest employers remained confident, despite widespread fears of another interest rate rise."

Vacancies for full-time and part-time positions rose but casual vacancies fell. Jobs in human resources, training, administration and marketing rose, which indicated that confidence was returning.

Trades and services jobs lifted 10.39 per cent, growing well in Western Australia and Queensland. Accounting was the worst performing sector, dropping 8.58 per cent.

Jobs in law and information technology were flat. Western Australia showed the strongest growth among the states - up 7.47 per cent, powered by strength in the resources sector.

The Olivier Job Index surveyed 127,823 positions vacant on commercial job sites on average each week in January.

source: kompas.com

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 20->The Crossroads of Destiny

2010-02-06T06:48:00.002-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 19->The Guru

2010-02-06T06:48:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 18->The Earth King

2010-02-06T06:47:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 17->Lake Laogai

2010-02-06T06:46:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 16->Appa's Lost Days

2010-02-06T06:45:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 15->The Tales of Ba Sing Se

2010-02-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 14->City of Walls and Secrets

2010-02-06T06:42:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 13-->Journey to Ba Sing Se - Part 2: The Drill

2010-02-06T06:41:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 12-->Journey to Ba Sing Se - Part 1: The Serpent's Pass

2010-02-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 11-->The Desert

2010-02-06T06:38:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 10--> The Library

2010-02-06T06:37:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 9--> Bitter Work

2010-02-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 8--> The Chase

2010-02-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 7--> Zuko Alone

2010-02-06T06:32:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 6--> The Blind Bandit

2010-02-06T06:31:00.001-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 5--> Avatar Day

2010-02-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 4--> The Swamp

2010-02-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 3---> Return to Omashu

2010-02-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

AVATAR Season 2 Chapter 2 ---> "The Cave of Two Lovers"

2010-02-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Time Management

2010-02-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

Time is one of the most valuable resources that we have, because you cannot replace it or get it back. Once it is gone, it is gone.

That is why you need to start incorporating time management techniques to stop wasting your time on a daily basis.

These are the top 10 ways you will save time by cutting waste out of your schedule:

1. Failing to Stop and Think: When you spend too little time in preparation, you are forced to spend too much time in execution. The time you invest in collecting, compiling, and organizing your thoughts before you begin a project pays off in time savings and in the quality of the outcome.

2. Multitasking: This is an extremely ineffective way to apply time management skills. In fact, researchers say that when you multitask you are making your brain take time to switch to a different skill set and a different memory experience.

Even thought, sometimes multitasking is not optional, here are some ways to avoid being on this situation:

a. Turn off your cellphone or the ringer on the land line, or forward your phone to go directly to voice mail, when you are working on something important.

b. Set your email program so you are not notified every time you receive a new message.

c. Log off from Facebook and Twitter

d. Set aside blocks of uninterrupted time for your work.

3. Working without brakes: Be aware that there is a point where your focus and concentration start to fall dramatically. You should take frequent breaks but for very short durations.

4. Demanding Perfection: This is not a way to apply time management resources, because the amount of time, effort, energy, and emotion required to achieve perfection dramatically reduce production. You are much better off investing your time and energy in starting something new than focusing on perfection.

5. Worrying and Waiting: These are two time wasters that can undermine your success and happiness in life. Worry usually comes from dwelling on factors that you cannot control. Also, if you are spending time worrying, you are not spending time on ways you can prepare or avoid such factors.

a. What am I really worrying about?

b. What can I do about it?

c. What will I do about it?

d. When will I take action?

6. Hooking up to the tube: According to the Nielsen Company, the average person watches more than 28 hours a week of TV. Think how much further away your business will be, if you would invest that time into time management strategies and growing your business.

7. Surfing the Web: The internet is an incredible time management and time saving resource, but it is also a storehouse of useless information. When using the internet for research or information-gathering, it pays to stay focused on your mission: What are you in search of?

8. Getting caught up in junk mail undertow: As if it were not enough to be inundated with credit cards offers, catalogs, and direct marketing materials in your mailboxes, now your e-mail in-boxes are slammed with unsolicited tidings, commonly known as spam. Some statistics shows that the average person wastes too much time sitting through both paper and electronic mail to make sure they do not miss critical correspondence. Getting off all these lists is more of a challenge than it ought to be, but it is something you should think on doing.

9. Killing Time in Transit: If you do a lot of driving or currently use public transportation, you may want to consider how to use in a productive way all the time waste sitting on traffic or commuting. There are many audio programs you could use to turn you down time into learning time.

10. Spending time with negative people: One way to bring down your energy level, reduce your enthusiasm, darken your outlook, slow your productivity, and drain your glass from half full to almost empty is to invest your time in negative people. The more you reduce the influence they have on your life, the happier and more productive you

Carry On!!

2010-02-06T03:13:00.001-08:00

Carry On!!
By Robert W. Service.

It's easy to fight when everything's right,
And you're mad with the thrill and the glory;
It's easy to cheer when victory's near,
And wallow in fields that are gory.
It's a different song when everything's wrong.
When you're feeling infernally mortal;
When it's ten against one, and hope there is none,
Buck up, little soldier, and chortle:

Carry on! Carry on!
There isn't much punch in your blow.
You're glaring and staring and hitting out blind;
You're muddy and bloody, but never mind.
Carry on! Carry on!
You haven't the ghost of a show.
It's looking like death, but while you've a breath,
Carry on, my son! Carry on!

And so in the strife of the battle of life
It's easy to fight when you're winning;
It's easy to slave, and starve and be brave,
When the dawn of success is beginning.
But the man who can meet despair and defeat
With a cheer, there's a man of God's choosing;
The man who can fight to Heaven's own height
Is the man who can fight when he's losing.

Carry on! Carry on!
Things never were looming so black.
But show that you haven't a cowardly streak,
And though you're unlucky you never are weak.
Carry on! Carry on!
Brace up for another attack.
It's looking like hell, but - you never can tell;
Carry on, old man! Carry on!

There are some who drift out in the deserts of doubt,
And some who in brutishness wallow;
There are others, I know, who in piety go
Because of a Heaven to follow.
But to labor with zest, and to give of your best,
For the sweetness and joy of the giving;
To help folks along with a hand and a song;
Why, there's the real sunshine of living.

Carry on! Carry on!
Fight the good fight and true;
Believe in you mission, greet life with a cheer;
There's big work to do, and that's why you are here.
Carry on! Carry on!
Let the world be the better for you;
And at last when you die, let this be your cry:
Carry on, my soul! Carry on!

Don't Quit

2010-02-06T03:11:00.001-08:00

I can

2010-02-06T03:07:00.000-08:00

Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve. Dream great dreams and make them come true. Do it now!

You are unique. In all the history of the world there was never anyone else exactly like you, and in all the infinity to come there will never be another you. Never affirm self-limitations. What you believe yourself to be, you are.

To accomplish great things, you must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost - put foundations under them. Yes you can. Believing is magic, you can always better your best. You don’t know what you can do until you try.

Nothing will come of nothing. If you don’t go out on a limb, you're never going to get the fruit. There is no failure except in no longer trying. Hazy goals produce hazy results. Clearly define your goals. Write them down, make a plan for achieving them, set a deadline, visualize the results and go after them. Just don’t look back unless you want to go that way.

Defeat may test you; it need not stop you. If at first you don’t succeed, try another way. For every obstacle there is a solution. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. The greatest mistake is giving up. Wishing will not bring success, but planning, persistence and burning desire will.

There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract all the necessary ingredients. Success is an attitude. Get yours right. It is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen.

I CAN!

Somebody

2010-02-06T02:47:00.000-08:00

Somebody
By Jeff Yalden

Somebody is very proud of you.
Somebody is thinking of you.
Somebody is caring about you.
Somebody misses you.
Somebody wants to talk to you.
Somebody wants to be with you.
Somebody hopes you aren't in trouble.
Somebody is thankful for the support you have provided.
Somebody wants to hold your hand.
Somebody hopes everything turns out all right.
Somebody wants you to be happy.
Somebody wants you to find him/her.
Somebody is celebrating your successes.
Somebody wants to give you a gift.
Somebody thinks that you ARE a gift.
Somebody hopes you're not too cold, or too hot.
Somebody wants to hug you.
Somebody loves you.
Somebody admires your strength.
Somebody is thinking of you and smiling.
Somebody wants to be your shoulder to cry on.
Somebody wants to go out with you and have a lot of fun.
Somebody thinks the world of you.
Somebody wants to protect you.
Somebody would do anything for you.
Somebody wants to be forgiven.
Somebody is grateful for your forgiveness.
Somebody wants to laugh with you.
Somebody remembers you and wishes that you were there.
Somebody is praising God for you.
Somebody needs to know that your love is unconditional.
Somebody values your advice.
Somebody wants to tell you how much they care.
Somebody wants to share their dreams with you.
Somebody wants to hold you in their arms.
Somebody wants YOU to hold them in your arms.
Somebody treasures your spirit.
Somebody wishes they could STOP time because of you.
Somebody praises God for your friendship and love.
Somebody can't wait to see you.
Somebody loves you for who you are.
Somebody loves the way you make them feel.
Somebody wants to be with you.
Somebody wants you to know they are there for you.
Somebody's glad that you're his/her friend.
Somebody wants to be your friend.
Somebody stayed up all night thinking about you.
Somebody is alive because of you.
Somebody is wishing that you noticed him/her.
Somebody wants to get to know you better.
Somebody wants to be near you.
Somebody misses your advice and guidance.
Somebody has faith in you.
Somebody trusts you.
Somebody needs you to send them this letter.
Somebody needs your support.
Somebody needs you to have faith in them.
Somebody will cry when they read this.
Somebody needs you to let them be your friend.
Somebody hears a song that reminds them of you.
YOU ARE SPECIAL!

Use Your Imagination to Find Success

2010-02-06T02:45:00.000-08:00

Use Your Imagination to Find Success

Visualize what you want.
See it, Feel it, Believe in it.

Your mind is a mental workshop.
You can build anything in it.
Make your mental blueprint,
And begin to build.

The beginning is in your imagination;
First think, then organize your thoughts into plans
Then transform your thoughts into reality by taking some positive action.

Use your imagination to perceive your reality,
Even when it is not fully materialized.

You must first see it clearly in your mind
Before you can do it.

First visualize and then actualize your way
To success.

You really can live your dreams.
All you need to do is try.

Winners Are People Like You

2010-02-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

Winners take chances Like everyone else, they fear failing, but they refuse to let fear control them.

Winners don't give up. When life gets rough, they hang in until the going gets better.

Winners are flexible. They realize there is more than one way and are willing to try others.

Winners know they are not perfect. They respect their weaknesses while making the most of their strengths.

Winners fall but they don't stay down. They stubbornly refuse to let a fall keep them from climbing.

Winners don't blame fate for their failures, nor luck for their successes.

Winners accept responsibility for their lives.

Winners are positive thinkers who see good in all things. From the ordinary, they make the extraordinary.

Winners believe in the path they have chosen even when it is hard, even when others can't see where they are going.

Winners are patient. They know a goal is only worthy as the effort that is required to achieve it.

Winners are people that believe in themselves. They make this world a better place to be.

You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be

2010-02-06T02:34:00.000-08:00

You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be
by Donna Levine

There is inside you
all of the potential to be whatever
you want to be
all of the energy to do whatever
you want to do.

Imagine yourself as you would like to be,
doing what you want to do,
and each day, take one step
towards your dream.

And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue,
hold on to your dream.

One morning you will awake to find
that you are the person
you dreamed of
doing what you wanted to do
simply because you had the courage
to believe in your potential
and to hold on to your dream.

Be Thankful

2010-02-06T02:30:00.000-08:00

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.

Anything is Possible

2010-02-06T02:11:00.000-08:00

If there was ever a time to dare,
to make a difference,
to embark on something worth doing,
IT IS NOW.
Not for any grand cause, necessarily...
but for something that tugs at your heart,
something that's your inspiration,
something that's your dream.
You owe it to yourself to make your days here count.
HAVE FUN.
DIG DEEP.
STRETCH.
DREAM BIG.

Know, though, that things worth doing seldom come easy. There will be good days.
And there will be bad days.
There will be times when you want to turn around,
pack it up, and call it quits.
Those times tell you
that you are pushing yourself, that you are not afraid to learn by trying.

PERSIST.
Because with an idea,
determination, and the right tools,
you can do great things.
Let your instincts, your intellect,
and your heart, guide you.

TRUST.
Believe in the incredible power of the human mind.
Of doing something that makes a difference.
Of working hard.
Of laughing and hoping.
Of lazy afternoons.
Of lasting friends.
Of all the things that will cross your path this year.

The start of something new brings the hope of something great,

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

Achieve Your Dreams

2010-02-06T02:06:00.000-08:00

Achieve Your Dreams

Life is what happens while you are making other plans.

A person of words and not deeds is like a garden full of weeds.

It's better to be trusted than liked, Underpromise - Overperform.
The key to happiness and success is to have a dream.
All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.
You always pass failure on the way to success.

You have to wake up in order for your dreams to come true.
Don't let lack of praise nip you in the bud.
The surest way to go broke is to sit around and wait for a break.
The only thing worse than an alarm going off is the one that doesn't.

An ego trip won't get you anywhere.
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just that little extra.
If you want the rainbow you gotta put up with the rain.
Count your age by friends, Count your life by smiles.

A natural tendency is to want to be understood rather than understand.
Don't prepare for rainy days without enjoying today's sunshine.
Keep your heart a little softer than your head.
Don't think there are no crocodiles just because the water is calm.

Stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
Growing old is when fun is a lot more work.
Never insult a crocodile until you've crossed the river.
If you don't lie down no one can walk on you.

If you think things improve with age attend a class reunion.
A good scare is sometimes worth more to a man than good advice.
Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.
We have two ears and one mouth, Think twice, speak once!

Experience is the best teacher because it's always on the job.
You're never fully dressed until you wear a smile.
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
The greatest mistake you can make is to be afraid of making one.

Happiness is the journey not the destination.
People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.
Does your employer consider you profit or overhead?
Look at life through the windshield not the rear view mirror.

To succeed do the best you can, where you are, with what you have.
Don't let your voice mail be "voice jail" to your callers.
A man without humor is like a car without shock absorbers.
Wisdom is what's left over after we smarten up.

Many people quit looking for work when they finally get a job.
About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.
Don't wait for your ship to come in swim out to it.
Every job is a self portrait of those who did it.

Talk less - Say more.
Love at first sight saves a lot of time.
Autograph your work with quality.
You can only control two things your attitude and your activity.

Remember, there's nothing more constant than change.
If you tell the truth sooner or later somebody's going to find out.
Experience is the one thing you can't get on easy payments.
Remember change and change for the better are two different things. be on the level and you won't go downhill.

All play and no work, does not work.
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
A liar needs a good memory.
Dream of worthy accomplishments and stay awake to achieve them.

The only place success comes before work is the dictionary.
You can be happy without needing others to agree with you.
You are not late until you get there.
Glory comes from daring to begin.

Have a back bone not a wish bone.
Give your troubles to God, He will be up all night anyway.
The greater part of progress is the desire to progress.
Happiness is the place between too little and too much.

Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Destiny is not a matter of chance it's a matter of choice.
Your children need your presence more than your presents.
Each of us has two ends a sitting end and a thinking end, Success depends on which we use.

Many spend half the time wishing for things they could have if they didn't spend half the time wishing.
For every person who climbs the ladder of success there are a dozen waiting for the elevator.
Happiness is a choice not a response.
God works with you, not for you.

If your dreams turn to dust vacuum.
Do it now, you become successful the very moment you start.
People may doubt what you say but they will believe what you do.
Success -Don't do what you like, Like what you do.

Watch "Dante's Inferno Animated" Online

2010-02-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Facebook Marks Sixth Birthday with New Home Page

2010-02-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

Jumat, 5 Februari 2010

blog.facebook.com

The left menu has been organized to make it easier for you to communicate with and discover content from your friends. You can now access your messages and other core features all in one place, to the left of your News Feed.

SAN FRANCISCO, KOMPAS.com - Facebook on Thursday marked its sixth birthday by simplifying its home page and holding an all-night “hackathon” to craft new software for the social networking website. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the online community is hitting another milestone with membership climbing to 400 million this week.

“So to celebrate six years of Facebook and the 400 million people on the service, we’re doing what we like doing most — building and launching products for people,” Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

“It’s rewarding to see that as Facebook has grown, people around the world are using the service to share information about events big and small and to stay connected to everyone they care about.” The new home page began rolling out worldwide late Thursday.

Changes include modifying the Top Menu to make it easier to find new messages, notifications, and requests. An Applications Dashboard will let members see the latest programs used by themselves or friends, and a Games Dashboard is dedicated for playing.

“Whether in times of tragedy or joy, people want to share and help one another,” Zuckerberg said as he looked back at the six years since he and Harvard University classmates created the social networking service. “This human need is what inspires us to continue to innovate and build things that allow people to connect easily and share their lives with one another.”

source: kompas.com

As 'Extremely Rare' Meteorite Falls to The Earth --> Fireball Lights up The Irish sky

2010-02-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Jumat, 5 Februari 2010

Daily Mai

KOMPAS.com - Sightings of a fireball blazing across the sky were reported across Ireland last night. People from across the country witnessed the spectacle, which happened at around 6pm.

It is thought the fireball was a space rock travelling at a 100,000 miles per hour, or the equivalent of a small atomic bomb blast in the skies. David Moore of Astronomy Ireland said: 'This is a huge event.'

Mr Moore said those who saw it were facing inland at the time which indicated it landed on ground and not at sea. One man in County Kildare who witnessed the fireball said he thought it was an aeroplane coming out of the sky.

Valentia Coastguard said it received several calls ranging from County Kerry, to the midlands and Northern Ireland over the sightings. Joss Scott was driving along the Glenshane Pass when she spotted the fireball.

'It was a very bright green, with an orange trail coming from it,' she said.

'It was travelling at fantastic speed, very high up in the sky, and it was heading north.

'It then went behind these black clouds over the Sperrins, towards Dungiven, then there was this large orange flash, so I'm not sure if it landed somewhere around there.

'It was quite a spectacle,' she said.

Terry Moseley, from the Irish Astronomical Association, said such an occurrence was 'extremely rare' and said there was a chance that some of it may have survived and fallen to earth as a meteorite.

'What it probably was is a small asteroid, which is a piece of space rock which has collided with the earth and burned up at very high atmosphere,' he explained.

'It seems to have travelled over most of Ireland, roughly from south to north and there is a possibility that a meteorite fell at the end of that, possibly somewhere in County Armagh.'

The last time a meteorite hit Ireland was in 1999 and the rock was retrieved in County Carlow. It sold for 500 dollars per gram, and Astronomy Ireland is urging anyone with sightings to record it on their website, astronomyireland.ie.

Meteorites are fragments of rock that fall to Earth from space. Having broken away from a larger body, they can measure anything from a fraction of a millimetre to the size of a football pitch and bigger.

As they enter the earth's atmosphere they glow due to the friction and flash across the sky before crashing to the ground.

source: kompas.com

Is the 'Avatar' concept really possible?

2010-02-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

February 3, 2010 9:07 a.m. EST

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) contemplates the avatar body he will inhabit via brain signals in the Oscar-nominated "Avatar."

(CNN) -- Now the highest-grossing film ever, "Avatar," has captivated millions of viewers with its picturesque scenery, extraterrestrial battles, and nature-loving, blue-skinned aliens.

The premise of the film is that humans can enter the world of these 10-foot aliens, called the Na'vi, by way of half-human, half-Na'vi hybrids. A high-tech interfacing mechanism allows a human to remain inert while controlling one of these avatar hybrids just by thinking.

Not only does the human manipulate the avatar's movements and speech, but he or she also experiences life -- every sensation, feeling and emotion -- through the eyes of the hybrid, as if consciousness were transferred.

Scientists say we are many decades, even centuries, away from making this kind of sophisticated interaction possible, if it can be done at all. But the fundamentals of components required to create this complicated system of mind-controlled avatars are already in the works, and have useful applications in medicine.

"We're starting to understand the basic building blocks, but the biggest challenges will be emotion and thought -- how to make another organism think what you think, to feel what you feel -- because those networks are much more difficult to sort out," said Dr. Brian Litt, associate professor of neurology and bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

See which films have been nominated for Academy Awards

Moving remote objects by thinking

Although nothing as complex as manipulating a creature through thought has been done, scientists working on allowing handicapped people to move prosthetic limbs with their minds are making headway. This idea actually played a role in the movie: Protagonist Jake Sully was in a wheelchair in his human body, but could walk, run and jump as his avatar.

One demonstration has been shown by Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University, who is working on robotic leg braces. In 2008, his group got a monkey in North Carolina to mentally control the walking patterns of a robot in Japan.

This was done by implanting electrodes in the brains of two rhesus monkeys. The electrodes recorded how cells in the brain's motor and sensory cortex responded to walking on the treadmill at various speeds. The monkeys' legs also had sensors to record walking patterns.

Researchers used all this information to predict the exact speed of movement and stride length of the legs, and uploaded that information to a robot in Japan, getting the robot to move in synch with a monkey thousands of miles away in real time. Even when the treadmill was turned off, a monkey continued making the robot walk just by thinking for a few minutes.

Another arena is one of virtual reality: controlling an avatar in a video game with your mind. Jaime Pineda, cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, is working with a brain-computer interface that allows participants to move a car around a racetrack, fly a plane and do other virtual tasks on a screen, simply by thinking. The mental training for this takes about four to six hours, he said.

"It is based on the motor parts of your brain. That's what we're recording from, and so if you think about moving, it's actually as if you are actually moving," he said.

Apart from the entertainment value, Pineda sees this as a future therapy for autistic children. The theory is that because people with autism have less conductivity between various parts of the brain, participating in mind-controlled video games may normalize those circuits. Results from his lab show improvement in social interaction and other behaviors after 10 or 20 weeks of playing the game in the lab.

Uploading information

For an "Avatar"-style brain-computer interface, an enormous amount of data would have to be transferred from the person to the avatar extremely quickly, Litt said.

Here's what's possible now: Scientists such as Gerwin Schalk at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center have harnessed the brain's electrical impulses to have people mentally type their thoughts using electrodes on the surface of the head. The rate is typically seven words per minute. In one epileptic patient who had electrodes already on the brain for clinical purposes, the record was 20 words per minute.

This kind of technology is useful for people who are paralyzed and cannot communicate, Schalk said. His research group also works on using electrodes to extract specific information from the brain such as people's actual actions, imagined actions and intended actions -- even how they move individual fingers.

The research "has changed that widespread assumption that it's not really impossible to acquire detailed information from the brain in humans," Schalk said.

Understanding brain networks

In order to construct a high-tech interface that would allow two-way communication between an avatar and a person, there must be a better understanding of the brain itself, Litt said.

Litt's group studies the brain's networks involved in epilepsy. The researchers are looking at the abnormal circuits to figure out the basic units of the brain that generate seizures. They have licensed intellectual property for a device that can improve epilepsy by stimulating specific brain regions, potentially eliminating the need for surgery.

"I see tremendous possibilities for more and more ability to unlock these networks," he said.

Transferal of sensations and emotions

The area of this "avatar science" that will be most difficult to sort out is being able to feel and think as the avatar, Litt said.

Today there are auditory prostheses called cochlear implants that encode signals that allow people to hear who could not otherwise, as well as rudimentary visual aids. It is also possible to stick a pin in a particular part of someone's brain and induce sensations of various temperatures, pressures and even pain levels, just by stimulating certain neural circuits.

"But there's a far cry from doing that to being able to make somebody feel an emotion or see something," Litt said.

The technical hurdles, including transferring huge amounts of information extremely rapidly and building devices to both extract signals from the brain and inject signals into the brain, are significant, he said.

Clearly, people aren't going to be able to climb into personal pods and use their brains to remotely control 10-foot-tall creatures any time soon. Andrew Schwartz, neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, added in an e-mail that it is not even clear what "consciousness" is. There's no rigorous definition, and how it looks in the brain is unknown.

"It's a wonderful movie, but it shouldn't be taken as anything but fantasy," he said.

source : CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/03/avatar.technology.science/index.html?hpt=C1).

Doctor casts new light on cat that can predict death

2010-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

By Belinda Goldsmith Belinda Goldsmith – Tue Feb 2, 12:00 pm ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) – When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.

But Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar's abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.

Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, "Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat" will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.

"After the New England Journal article you got the feeling that if Oscar is in your bed then you are dead, but you did not really see what is going on for these family members," said Dosa, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

"I wanted to write a book that would go beyond Oscar's peculiarities, to tell why he is important to family members and caregivers who have been with him at the end of a life."

Dosa said Oscar's story is fascinating on many levels.

Oscar was adopted as a kitten from an animal shelter to be raised as a therapy cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, which cares for people with severe dementia and in the final stages of various illnesses.

SIXTH SENSE?

When Oscar was about six months old the staff noticed that he would curl up to sleep with patients who were about to die.

So far he has accurately predicted about 50 deaths.

Dosa recounts one instance when staff were convinced of the imminent death of one patient but Oscar refused to sit with that person, choosing instead to be on the bed of another patient down the hallway. Oscar proved to be right. The person he sat with died first, taking staff on the ward by surprise.

Dosa said there is no scientific evidence to explain Oscar's abilities, but he thinks the cat might be responding to a pheromone or smell that humans simply don't recognize.

Dosa said his main interest was not to delve further into Oscar's abilities but to use Oscar as a vehicle to tell about terminal illness, which is his main area of work.

"There is a lot to tell about what Oscar does, but there is a lot to tell on the human level of what family members go through at the end of life when they are dealing with a loved one in a nursing home or with advanced dementia," he said.

"Perhaps the book is a little more approachable because there is a cat in it. We really know so little about nursing homes, and this tries to get rid of this myth that they are horrid factories where people go to die."

Dosa said the story of Oscar, who is now nearly five years old, initially had sparked a bit more interest in families wanting to send their loved ones to Steere House.

Oscar has even been thanked by families in obituaries for providing some comfort in the final hours of life.

But he said Oscar remains unchanged by the attention, spending most of his days staring out of a window, although he has become a bit friendlier.

"The first time I met Oscar he bit me. We have warmed over the years. We have moved into a better place," said Dosa.

"I don't think Oscar is that unique, but he is in a unique environment. Animals are remarkable in their ability to see things we don't, be it the dog that sniffs out cancer or the fish that predicts earthquakes. Animals know when they are needed."

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100202/stage_nm/us_books_cat;_ylt=AsIDTXsNhtbWkXvC8nX29B4DW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTJoaXJzZ2htBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwMjAyL3VzX2Jvb2tzX2NhdARwb3MDOARzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2RvY3RvcmNhc3Rzbg--

Study: Vegetative Brains Show Signs of Awareness

2010-02-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

Kamis, 4 Februari 2010

AFP

By MALCOLM RITTER

NEW YORK, KOMPAS.com – Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and have even communicated with one of them — findings that push the boundaries of how to assess and care for such people.

The new research suggests that standard tests may overlook patients who have some consciousness, and that someday some kind of communication may be possible.

In the strongest example, a 29-year-old patient was able to answer yes-or-no questions by visualizing specific scenes the doctors asked him to imagine. The two visualizations sparked different brain activity viewed through a scanning machine.

"We were stunned when this happened," said one study author, Martin Monti of Medical Research Council Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England. "I find it literally amazing. This was a patient who was believed to be vegetative for five years."

Ever since a research paper four years ago showed apparent signs of awareness in a vegetative patient — one who was included in the new study — families of patients have been clamoring for brain scans, said Dr. James Bernat of Dartmouth Medical School, a spokesman for the American Academy of Neurology.

In fact, a spokeswoman for a patient advocacy group said the organization will urge families to ask about the type of brain imaging used by the researchers.

But experts said more study is needed before the specialized brain scans could be used routinely. "It's still a research tool," Bernat said.

Experts also emphasized that only a few tested patients showed evidence of awareness. And they said it is not clear what degree of consciousness and mental abilities the signs imply.

They also noted that the positive signals appeared only in people with traumatic brain injury — not in patients whose brains had been deprived of oxygen, as can happen when the heart stops. Terri Schiavo, the vegetative woman at the center of a national controversy before her feeding tube was removed and she was allowed to die in 2005, suffered oxygen deprivation.

The new work, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, came from researchers in Britain and Belgium. One author is Dr. Steven Laureys at the University of Liege in Belgium.

He made headlines in November by showing awareness in Rom Houben, a 46-year-old man who had been diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years. (Houben was excluded from the new study because he could not keep his head still enough in the brain scanner to produce a usable scan; his awareness was revealed by bedside behavioral tests).

The new study used brain scanning called functional MRI, or fMRI, for 23 patients in a vegetative state and 31 diagnosed as minimally conscious.

Patients are diagnosed as being in a vegetative state if they are tested and found unable to do such things as move on command or follow a moving object with their eyes. (Their eyes are open; in contrast, comatose people's eyes are closed.) Minimally conscious patients show signs of awareness, but they are minimal and intermittent.

While in the fMRI scanner, the patients were asked to imagine two situations. One was that they were standing on a tennis court, hitting a ball to an instructor; the other was that they were navigating familiar streets or walking from room to room in their homes. The two tasks produce different patterns of brain activity in healthy people.

The study found those patterns appeared in five patients when they were asked to imagine the scenes. Four of those patients had been diagnosed as vegetative.

"It just says how much we can learn from looking directly at somebody's brain," Monti said.

But he said the results cannot be taken to indicate how commonly a vegetative brain holds hidden signs of awareness. And the findings certainly don't mean all vegetative patients have that capacity, he said.

The 29-year-old, who had been injured in a traffic accident, was asked simple questions about his life, such as "Is your father's name Alexander?" He was told to answer "yes" or "no" by thinking about one or the other of the imagined scenes about playing tennis or navigating streets or his home. For five of the six questions, his brain activity matched the correct answer.

Monti and Laureys said it is not clear whether such patients have the mental capacity to answer more important but complicated questions, such as whether they wish to go on living.

"I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to tackle this," Laureys said.

Laureys also said fMRI technology isn't practical for routine assessments of vegetative patients or for enabling communication. So he is working to develop a more portable and less expensive approach based on sampling brain waves.

Now that communication has been demonstrated, it brings an urgency to finding ways to capitalize on that ability, said Dr. Nicholas Schiff at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Schiff is collaborating with Laureys and others on such research.

Some experts, like Dr. Ross Zafonte of Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study, said the brain patterns also don't reveal anything about whether patients have retained significant memory and other important mental abilities.

"But it's provocative and exciting because this is a cohort of people that everybody had given up on, and now there's reason to say ... there might be something there to manipulate," he said.

Maybe brain scans could identify patients with a better chance than others to improve with specialized treatment, he said.

Susan Connors, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America, an advocacy group, said the study means there's hope for people with brain injury.

She said her group will now add fMRI testing to the list of things they recommend families ask about after a serious brain injury.

Connors said some people might want to use such brain scans to help them decide whether to keep a loved one with a brain injury alive. But that shouldn't be the deciding factor, she said, adding that families are still going to have to rely on the person's wishes, religious and cultural beliefs and medical advice.

"This is going to give us more information, but it's not going to give us the final answer," she said.

source: kompas.com

Obama to Show Family His Indonesian Past on Visit

2010-02-02T23:16:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 2 Februari 2010

AFP

Barack Obama

By NINIEK KARMINI

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — President Barack Obama will take his family on a journey back to his boyhood in Indonesia, where he played games on the sweltering tropical streets of the capital and learned a foreign language. Details are still being finalized for the trip in late March, but Obama will spend more time in Indonesia than any other American leader, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told reporters in Jakarta Tuesday.

Indonesia, where terrorists have carried out five major strikes since 2002, is a key U.S. ally in the fight against Islamist extremism. Obama will have discussions with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected in July. While on his first overseas travel this year, Obama also will head to Australia for talks with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and stop in the U.S. territory of Guam to meet U.S. military personnel on the island.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush stopped over for a night in Indonesia in November 2006, when hundreds of protesters denounced U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like in many countries, Obama enjoys widespread popularity in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population.

Many Indonesians believe Obama will mend ties between the West and the Middle East strained by unpopular wars. Obama, whose mother married an Indonesian, went to elementary school in the capital from 1967 to 1971.

Former classmates and teachers hope to hold a reunion for the man they remember from nearly four decades ago as a chubby, active kid they called “Barry”. “It certainly is an honor for us that there was a student in this school who is now the American president and will motivate our students to study harder and be a leader,” said Hasimah, the principal of the Menteng 1 public school.

Like many Indonesians she has one name. Obama’s sister, Maya, was born in Indonesia, where they first lived in a humble home with chickens and ducks in the backyard before moving up to a Dutch colonial-style house in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Jakarta.

source: kompas.com

Watch "Hachiko: A Dog's Story" Online

2010-02-02T19:45:00.001-08:00

English with English/Japanese subtitles

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"Onion Head" Collection

2010-02-01T21:56:00.001-08:00

At The Grammy Awards --> Michael Jackson's Children Prince and Paris Steal The Show

2010-02-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 2 Februari 2010

Spectacular: Beyonc, Jay-Z and her nephew Juelz Knowles, Beyonce and Jay-Z wear 3-D glasses for the special film dedicated to Michael Jackson

KOMPAS.com - It was a stand out moment that many considered to be the highlight of the Grammy awards, and one that the rest of the night's performers were hard pushed to top. With their late father absent from proceedings, Michael Jackson's children Prince Michael and Paris took to the stage at the Staples Centre to accept the lifetime achievement award on their father's behalf.

Accompanied by three of their cousins, Prince Michael, 12, and his 11-year-old sister wore black suits with red armbands and red stripes down the seam of their trousers in tribute to the pop superstar. The show-stopping appearance was punctuated by a speech by his eldest child who, looking remarkably mature and no longer with the longer hairstyle he kept before his father's death, thanked Jackson's fans for their support.

Prince told the audience: 'We are proud to be here to accept this award on behalf of our father, Michael Jackson. First of all we'd like to thank God for watching over us these last seven months and our grandma and grandpa for their love and support.

'We'd also like to thank the fans, our father loved you so much because you were always there for him.

'Our father was always concerned about the planet and humanity, through all his hard work and dedication he has helped through many charities and donated to all of them.

'Through all his songs, his message was simple: love. We will continue to spread his message and help the world.'

Paris added: 'Daddy was supposed to be here. Daddy was going to perform this year but couldn't.

'Thank you, we love you daddy.'

It was the second time Paris' voice had been heard. She first spoke at Michael Jackson's memorial in July last year which, incidentally, was held at the same venue - the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.

The emotional moment occured as Jackson's sister Janet was on stage with the children. Paris appeared, and took the microphone to announce to the audience: 'Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine.

'And I just want to say I love him so much.'

The children appeared after a rendition of Michael Jackson's Earth Song, performed live by Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson.

A special 3-D video montage accompanied the rousing performance - the special film was made for the King Of Pop's This Is It series of London concerts. Audience members, including the many celebrity guests, sported 3-D glasses to watch scenes of nature and children as the five singers sang the emotive Jackson hit.

Is It The End of The World?

2010-02-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

Selasa, 2 Februari 2010

More than 11billion cubic feet of sand had been dredged up for the ambitious project

KOMPAS.com - This is how the world looks like according to ambitious engineers in Dubai, but it is starting to look rather ragged around the edges. The stunning image of the man-made archipelago was taken by an astronaut far above our Earth on the International Space Station.

It shows the World Islands development (on the right), sitting in shallow waters just off Dubai's coast. When the project was launched in 2003, it was hoped that celebrities and the super-rich would snap up the 300 islands, which made up a map of the globe. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were even said to be thinking about buying Ethiopia.

Nakheel Properties created the foundations within five years, from 11billion cubic feet of sand and 47 million tonnes of rock. However, now it looks like the project will never be completed.

According to Nasa's Earth Observatory website: 'Little to no infrastructure development of The World is apparent in this astronaut photograph.'

Work inside the man-made lagoon stopped last year and the World Islands' website went ominously quiet. The last update is from 1 October 2008, announcing the completion of the foundations. Then in November 2009, Dubai World, which owns Nakheel Properties, asked for a delay to repay $26billion in debt.

While officially the project has just been delayed, the islands are rapidly merging together and also appear to be sinking. There is hardly better news for the Palm Jumeirah, seen on the left of the top picture. The centrepiece £800m Hotel Atlantis opened with much pomp in 2008.

The luxurious resort includes a giant aquarium and even has a £13,000 a night suite. It prompted Joe Cita from Nakheel's to predict: 'Palm Jumeirah in and of itself will become one of Dubai's major tourist attractions.'

But a number of hotel developers, including Donald Trump, have since shelved their developments on the Palm due to the global recession. Dubai's development has long been criticized by environmental activists, who say the construction of artificial islands hurts coral reefs and even shifts water currents. They point to growing water and power consumption.

The image was captured on January 13, 2010, by a member of the ISS Expedition 22 crew. He used a £3,000 Nikon D2Xs digital camera with a focal length of 400 mm to take the photograph. It was then enhanced to improve contrast.

Astronauts are asked to take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public. This seems particularly appropriate considering the huge public interest in what could be Dubai's greatest folly.

source: kompas.com