MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (Reuters) - Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday introduced a personalized Google home page, pitting the most-used Web search site even more directly against its rivals Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) MSN portal.
The personalized Google home page integrates other already available Google features such as its e-mail service Gmail, news, weather, stocks, driving directions, movie listings and the like.
Virtually all of Google’s revenue comes from search related advertising.
The personalized home page is the first fruit of an internal project Google calls Fusion that seeks to tie together, in an easy-to-use and seamless way, Google’s various product offerings.
Google said its personalized home page is only available now in a beta, or test, version at http://labs.google.com
Digital cameras are the technology miracle of the decade. Two photographers in New York State have taken this a step further, applying spy satellite technology to revolutionise architectural photography. Ian Hardy went to meet them.
Captured using custom-made equipment, these photos can be blown up to billboard size and still look as good as a 10 by eight-inch print.
Tom Watson says: "This is a 144 megapixel camera. It writes a 140Mb file.
“If you compare that with the average consumer digital camera, it’s about 100 times more data.”
It takes a minivan full of technology. The large format camera is mounted on a sturdy, wind-resistant tripod. A laptop and 80Gb hard drive are also part of the kit.
BENFICA CONQUEST ITS 28? HEADING the PARTY 11 YEARS LATER
the Benfica finished the 11 years of jejum and conquered 28? champion heading. The fleshes-color had tied up to with the Boavista in the Bessa (1-1) and had guaranteed the heading for ga?dio of the thousands of benfiquistas that had believed until the o end equip and if they had dislocated until the a Invicta to see the consecration. Sim?o (38 ') inaugurated the marker and ?der (42 ') made ties up to it
Schroeder proposes early election after poll defeat
After losing one election German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder must now prepare for another - and this time his political future is at stake. His Social Democrats were heavily defeated by the opposition Christian Democrats in yesterday’s state election in North Rhine/Westphalia - a party stronghold for four decades. His hard-hitting social and…
European Foreign Ministers have been meeting in Brussels to try to iron out differences on how much money each country should contribute to the European Union’s budget. As several countries fight over the plans for the union’s spending between 2007 and 2013, Britain looks set to be in the thick of it. Its much-cherished rebate is under attack from…
Three Romanian journalists and their translator held hostage for almost two months in Iraq have now been released and are on their way home. Their abductors had set a deadline for their execution of April 27 unless Romania withdrew its 800 troops from the Iraq. The Romanian government made clear it would not pull its forces out of the country. As…
Belated post…CNN Friday, May 20, 2005 Posted: 11:39 AM EDT (1539 GMT)
(CNN) – Dramatic new data from the December 26, 2004, Sumatran-Andaman earthquake that generated deadly tsunamis show the event created the longest fault rupture and the longest duration of faulting ever observed, according to three reports by an international group of seismologists published Thursday in the journal “Science.”
“Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second; a moderate sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 and 600 seconds,” said Charles Ammon, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State University.
The quake released an amount of energy equal to a 100 gigaton bomb, according to Roger Bilham, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado.
And that power lasted longer than any quake ever recorded.
Scientists estimated the average slippage (ground movement up and down) along the entire length of the fault was at least 5 meters (16.5 feet) – with some places being moved nearly 20 meters (50 feet).
Special to CNN.com, Thursday, May 19, 2005 Posted: 4:58 PM EDT (2058 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) – More than 70,000 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) attendees have crammed into the L.A. …
Nintendo may have been the most vague when it came to unveiling its next video game console, but it’s certainly banking on its next Zelda adventure to be the biggest game launch of 2005 on any platform.
“The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” for the GameCube is an epic adventure that once again stars a young farm boy, Link, who must set out on foot, horseback and even on all fours as he can transform himself into a wolf. With the help of a mysterious and magical companion named Midna, our hero must travel into the darkened land of Hyrule to face an evil that has enshrouded the land.
Similar to past games in this popular series, puzzle-solving and character interaction is as important as combating enemies and super big boss fighters.
The highest functions of our brains, including a carefully orchestrated sequence of complex cognitive skills in specific parts, handle the lowest form of wit such as sarcasm, a new research suggests.
According to investigations by scientists from the University of Haifa, areas of the brain that decipher sarcasm and irony also process language, recognise emotions and help understand social cues, the Guardian newspaper reported.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday voted to establish new penalties for purveyors of Internet “spyware” that disables users’ computers and secretly monitors their activities.
Schroeder faces confidence motion ahead of elections
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder appears set for a mid-September showdown with his conservative rivals after his shock decision to bring forward federal elections by a year. According to his office, Schroeder will seek a vote of confidence on July 1: the necessary legal step before he can dissolve parliament and hold a general election…
Final campaigning is underway in the run-up to France’s cliff-hanger referendum on the European Union’s new constitution. Opinion polls show the charter has a strong chance of being rejected this Sunday. But surveys also indicate around one in four voters still…
Data from the European statistics office Eurostat has established that Italy has violated European Union budget deficit limits laid down in the bloc’s Growth and Stability Pact. The news has prompted the European Central Bank to call on high spending states to focus on improving their public finances. Eurostat found Italy with a deficit…
BAR HARBOR, Maine - Jackson Laboratory researchers have found new information about a brain disorder called porencephaly that most often affects infants. Scientists at the Bar Harbor lab pinpointed a genetic mutation that causes the abnormality in humans as well as in lab mice.
Porencephaly occurs only rarely, Gould and John said. Affected infants usually are identified within a year after birth. They display symptoms such as delayed growth and development, partial paralysis, poor muscle tone, seizures and abnormally large or small heads.
Affected individuals may also have poor speech development, seizures and mental retardation.
Such symptoms are known to be associated with cerebral hemorrhage ? uncontrolled bleeding from vessels that supply the brain. But why some individuals develop cerebral hemorrhage around the time of birth has been poorly understood until now.
If we continue with current rates of species extinction, we will have no chance of rolling back poverty and the lives of all humans will be diminished.
That is the stark warning to come out of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), the most comprehensive audit of the health of our planet to date.
Organisms are disappearing at something like 100 to 1,000 times the “background levels” seen in the fossil record.
…
MA BIODIVERSITY SYNTHESIS
-The last 50 years have seen the biggest biodiversity upheaval in human history
-Over half the world’s biomes (vegetation types) have experienced about 20-50% conversion to human use
-The rates of change have been greatest in tropical and sub-tropical dry forests
-Some 35% of mangroves and about 20% of corals have gone
-Across a range of taxonomic groups, species are in decline
…
The MA has identified possible solutions - from significant shifts in consumption patterns and better education, to the adoption of new technologies and a large increase in the areas enjoying protection.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rounded off a trip to the United States by announcing that he intends to free 400 more Palestinian prisoners. The gesture was made in Washington in a speech to the most powerful US pro-Israel group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.Israel released 500 prisoners in February as part of…
Arab web site claims Qaeda leader in Iraq is wounded
An Arab website claiming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been wounded is causing much speculation. The as-yet unverified report says Zarqawi, who is the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was injured fighting in the west of the country earlier this month. While good news for the US, Arab expert, Paul Eedle is more cautious:"The history of Islamist…
WASHINGTON - The CIA is conducting a war game this week to simulate an unprecedented, Sept. 11-like electronic assault against the United States. The three-day exercise, known as “Silent Horizon,” is meant to test the ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet disruptions over many months, according to participants.
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The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a fictional new alliance of anti-American organizations that included anti-globalization hackers. The most serious damage was expected to be inflicted in the closing hours of the war game Thursday.
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The CIA’s little-known Information Operations Center, which evaluates threats to U.S. computer systems from foreign governments, criminal organizations and hackers, was running the war game. About 75 people, mostly from the CIA, along with other current and former U.S. officials, gathered in conference rooms and pretended to react to signs of mock computer attacks.
The European Union is on the verge of launching an unprecedented exercise in public consultation.
At stake is the approval of its first constitution by all 25 member states. About 10 countries will hold referendums, with the first one in Spain on Sunday.
But no one knows what will happen if, over the next year or so, one or more countries actually reject the EU constitution.
Last Updated: Thursday, 26 May, 2005, 12:20 GMT 13:20 UK
Russian papers are describing Wednesday’s major power cut in Moscow in apocalyptic terms, with several papers dubbing it “the end of the world”.
“The most terrifying thing was that the resuscitation systems switched off,” the paper quoted one hospital receptionist as saying.
“The lights went out during operations, and the doctors had to use battery-powered torches.”
One eyewitness told Kommersant of the scene when the power failed inside a metro station.“Suddenly the lights went out. People started to walk down the escalators. A huge number of people gathered on the platforms, everybody standing in darkness”, she said.
“Russia’s systems are so worn-out that the country exists in a permanent state of latent technical catastrophe,” the paper concludes.