WHAT TREE DID YOU FALL FROM?

Find your birthday and then find your tree. This is really cool and somewhat accurate. Then send it to your friends, including the one that sent it to you, so they can find out what tree they fell from, but don't forget to change the subject line to your tree. Find your tree below and see what you are like...

Jan 01 to Jan 11 - Fir Tree
Jan 12 to Jan 24 - Elm Tree
Jan 25 to Feb 03 - Cypress Tree
Feb 04 to Feb 08 - Poplar Tree
Feb 09 to Feb 18 - Cedar Tree
Feb 19 to Feb 28 - Pine Tree
Mar 01 to Mar 10 - Weeping Willow Tree
Mar 11 to Mar 20 - Lime Tree
Mar 21 (only) - Oak Tree
Mar 22 to Mar 31 - Hazelnut Tree
Apr 01 to Apr 10 - Rowan Tree
Apr 11 to Apr 20 - Maple Tree
Apr 21 to Apr 30 - Walnut Tree
May 01 to May 14 - Poplar Tree
May 15 to May 24 - Chestnut Tree
May 25 to Jun 03 - Ash Tree
Jun 04 to Jun 13 - Hornbeam Tree
Jun 14 to Jun 23 - Fig Tree
Jun 24 (only) - Birch Tree
Jun 25 to Jul 04 - Apple Tree
Jul 05 to Jul 14 - Fir Tree
Jul 15 to Jul 25 - Elm Tree
Jul 26 to Aug 04 - Cypress Tree
Aug 05 to Aug 13 - Poplar Tree
Aug 14 to Aug 23 - Cedar Tree
Aug 24 to Sep 02 - Pine Tree
Sep 03 to Sep 12 - Weeping Willow Tree
Sep 13 to Sep 22 - Lime Tree
Sep 23 (only) - Olive Tree
Sep 24 to Oct 03 - Hazelnut Tree
Oct 04 to Oct 13 - Rowan Tree
Oct 14 to Oct 23 - Maple Tree
Oct 24 to Nov 11 - Walnut Tree
Nov 12 to Nov 21 - Chestnut Tree
Nov 22 to Dec 01 - Ash Tree
Dec 02 to Dec 11 - Hornbeam Tree
Dec 12 to Dec 21 - Fig Tree
Dec 22 (only) - Beech Tree
Dec 23 to Jan 01 - Apple Tree

TREES (in alphabetical order)

Apple Tree (Love)
quiet and shy at times, lots of charm, appeal, and attraction, pleasant attitude, flirtatious smile, adventurous, sensitive, loyal in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, many talents, loves children, needs affectionate partner.

Ash Tree (Ambition)
extremely attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes to play with fate, can be very egotistic, reliable, restless lover, sometimes money rules over the heart, demands attention, needs love and much emotional support.

Beech Tree (Creative)
has good taste, concerned about its looks, materialistic, good organization of life and career, economical, good leader, takes no unnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetime companion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.).

Birch Tree (Inspiration)
vivacious, attractive, elegant,friendly, unpretentious, modest, does not like anything in excess, abhors the vulgar, loves life in nature and in calm, not very passionate, full of imagination, little ambition, creates a calm and content atmosphere.

Cedar Tree (Confidence)
of rare strength, knows how to adapt, likes unexpected presents, of good health, not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, a great speaker, determined, often impatient, likes to impress others, has many talents, industrious, healthy optimism, waits for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.

Chestnut Tree (Honesty)
of unusual stature, impressive, well-developed sense of justice, fun to be around, a planner, born diplomat, can be irritated easily, sensitive of others feelings, hard worker, sometimes acts superior, feels not understood at times, fiercely family oriented, very loyal in love, physically fit.

Cypress Tree (Faithfulness)
strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give but doesn't necessarily like it, strives to be content, optimistic, wants to be financially independent, wants love and affection, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered at times, can be unruly and careless, loves to
gain knowledge, needs to be needed.

Elm Tree (Noble-mindedness)
pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not to forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, likes making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humor, practical.

Fig Tree (Sensibility)
very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent, hates contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be, loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, sexually oriented, great sense of humor, has artistic talent and great intelligence.

Fir tree (Mysterious)
extraordinary taste, handles stress well, loves anything beautiful, stubborn, tends to care for those close to them, hard to trust others, yet a social butterfly, likes idleness and laziness after long demanding hours at work, rather modest, talented, unselfish, many friends, very reliable.

Hazelnut Tree (Extraordinary)
charming, sense of humor, very demanding but can also be very understanding, knows how to make a lasting impression, active fighter for social causes and politics, popular, quite moody, sexually oriented, honest, a perfectionist, has a precise sense of judgment and expects complete fairness.

Hornbeam Tree (Good Taste)
of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is not egoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads a reasonable and disciplined life, looks for kindness and acknowledgment in an emotional partner, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with its feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions, very conscientious.

Lime Tree (Doubt)
intelligent, hard working, accepts what life dishes out, but not before trying to change bad circumstances into good ones, hates fighting and stress, enjoys getaway vacations, may appear tough, but is actually soft and relenting, always willing to make sacrifices for family and friends, has many talents but not always enough time to
use them, great leadership qualities, is jealous at times but extremely loyal.

Maple Tree (Independence of Mind)
no ordinary person, full of imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-confident, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, has many complexities, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

Oak Tree (Brave)
robust nature, courageous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does not like change, keeps its feet on the ground, person of action.

Olive Tree (Wisdom)
loves sun, warmth and kind feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathetic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.

Pine Tree (Peacemaker)
loves agreeable company, craves peace and harmony, loves to help others, active imagination, likes to write poetry, not fashion conscious, great compassion, friendly to all, falls strongly in love but will leave if betrayed or lied to, emotionally soft, low self esteem, needs affection and reassurance.

Poplar Tree (Uncertainty)
looks very decorative, talented, not very self-confident, extremely courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, great artistic nature, good organizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership seriously.

Rowan Tree (Sensitivity)
full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

Walnut Tree (Passion)
unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egotistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but often admired, ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, no compromise.

Weeping Willow (Melancholy)
likes to be stress free, loves family life, full of hopes and dreams, attractive, very empathetic, loves anything beautiful, musically inclined, loves to travel to exotic places, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with when pressured, sometimes demanding, good intuition, suffers in love until they find that one loyal, steadfast partner; loves to make others laugh.

Facts About Human Hair..

On average, a man spends about five months of his life shaving.

On average, a hair strand's life span is five and a half years.

On average redheads have 90,000 hairs. People with black hair have about 110,000 hairs.

Next to bone marrow, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body.

In a lifetime, an average man will shave 20,000 times.

Humans have about the same number of hair follicles as a chimpanzee has.

Hair will fall out faster on a person that is on a crash diet.

The average human head weighs about eight pounds.

The reason why some people get a cowlick is because the growth of their hair is in a spiral pattern, which causes the hair to either stand straight up, or goes to a certain angle.

The reason why hair turns gray as we age is because the pigment cells in the hair follicle start to die, which is responsible for producing "melanin" which gives the hair colour.

The big toe is the foot reflexology pressure point for the head.

The loss of eyelashes is referred to as madarosis.

The longest human beard on record is 17.5 feet, held by Hans N. Langseth who was born in Norway in 1846.

The fastest growing tissue in the human body is hair.

The average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.

Hair and fingernails are made from the same substance, keratin.

Hair is made from the same substance as fingernails.

Eyebrow hair lasts between 3-5 months before it sheds.

The first hair dryer was a vacuum cleaner that was used for drying hair.

A Russian man who wore a beard during the time of Peter the Great had to pay a special tax.

Everyday approximately 35 meters of hair fiber is produced on the scalp of an adult.

Brylcreem, which was created in 1929, was the first man's hair product.

Ancient Egyptians used to think having facial hair was an indication of personal neglect.

A survey done by Clairol 10 years ago came up with 46% of men stating that it was okay to color their hair. Now 66% of men admit to coloring their hair.

A lifespan of an eyelash is approximately 150 days.

What Happens To Human Body During Electric Shock?

When a human is shocked, the electricity is attempting to use his body to reach the ground. The reaction to these shocks can range from minor to very serious.

Muscle Contractions
When a person is first shocked by a surge of electricity, his muscles will contract temporarily until the connection with the source is broken. In the case of a serious, prolonged shock, the person may lose the ability to perform voluntarily actions. 

Burns
One of the most common reactions of the body to an electric shock is a burn on the point of contact, such as the hand, foot or lips. The area will be become charred or red in color.

Heart Attack
The surge of energy through the body during an electrical shock can alter the person's heart beat and possibly cause cardiac arrest.

Pain
An electrical shock can cause severe chest or abdominal pains in a person. There could be internal injuries that he is not aware of, which is why a doctor visit is important after a serious shock (500 volts or more).

Warning
Though electric tasers are commonly used by law-enforcement agents to simply subdue suspects, there have been cases of death. In one case, a man died after being tased because he had cocaine in his system. The reaction of his body to the cocaine caused an extreme reaction to the shock.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5597594_human-reaction-electrical-shocks.html

How Pensions Can Get Out of the Red

This summer’s revelation that New Jersey had misled the public about the health of its state pension funds is only the latest incident in a looming nationwide crisis. 

Public pensions at the state and local level are underfunded by more than $1 trillion; in many cities, pension obligations will soon consume a quarter or more of the annual budget — money that will be unavailable for parks, libraries, street maintenance and public safety.

Part of the problem is that pension funds need significant new financing to cover the growing number of retirees. But the real issue is the lack of incentive to improve pension performance. What we need, then, is a federal program that combines stimulus with serious fund reform.

The pension-fund crisis is rooted in the intersection of excessive optimism by fund managers and the funds’ influence on the political process. Funds regularly overestimate their future performance: Calpers, California’s giant state pension fund, assumed, and still assumes, it will earn 7.75 percent annually on its investments; in fact, its returns over the last decade were, on average, less than half of that.

But Calpers wasn’t left holding the bag. Instead, it was able to force the state to increase its contribution to the fund; indeed, the state’s 2010 share will be about five times what it was forecast to be in 1999.

The Calpers case is hardly unique; the same story has been repeated across the country. Often, though, pension funds — including, until recently, New Jersey’s — have been able to hide their liabilities behind clever, nonstandard accounting methods.

This charade can’t last. Eventually debt-heavy governments will begin to default, which will disrupt the municipal bond market by blocking access to new capital for even the most credit-worthy public institutions. Ultimately, Washington may have to add local governments to the list of institutions it must bail out, next to banks and car companies.

But given how poorly pension funds have managed themselves, the federal government can’t simply hand out checks. Instead, borrowing a page from the Education Department’s Race for the Top initiative, which provides money to states that propose significant reforms for their public school systems, it should strike a grand bargain with city and state pension funds: in exchange for capping their liabilities and adopting better management practices, they could cover their costs through tax-free, federally guaranteed securities.

Here’s how it would work. A city, county or state facing insurmountable pension costs would appeal to the Department of Treasury for relief. As a first step, it would have to adopt standard accounting practices to accurately portray its current and expected financial health, including realistic projections of its investment returns and the discount rates on its debt.

Second, the applicant would have to take action to assure it can meet the debt service on its bonds, including placing a permanent cap on its pension liabilities. This means raising the retirement age, increasing employee contributions and preventing employees from manipulating their salaries in the last years before retirement to increase their pensions; it would also mean restructuring the fund’s health-care spending, which has been a significant drain.

Finally, the fund would have to move all new employees to 401(k) retirement plans, which have fixed employer contributions and therefore reduce future taxpayer liabilities.

In exchange, the Treasury would authorize the fund to issue tax-free “pension protection” bonds which, for a fee, would be guaranteed by the federal government. Proceeds from the bond sales would cover its liabilities, providing a quick resolution to the underfunding crisis.

Today’s bond market is the perfect environment in which to introduce a new security like pension-protection bonds. With their tax-free status, a federal guarantee, accurate accounting and the promise of a permanent fix, these securities might even be priced lower than Treasury bills, which are yielding 3.8 percent for 30-year bonds.

A Race to the Top for public pensions would offer something for everyone. The federal government would get a voluntary, low-cost way to avoid paying trillions down the road. Cities and states could cap their pension liabilities and close their funding gaps with inexpensive long-term debt, allowing them to get back to the business of providing needed services. And public-employee unions would get a federal guarantee behind their increasingly uncertain pension benefits.

The Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative has been a bold experiment in education reform. The White House and Congress now have the opportunity to apply the same idea to the public-pension crisis. Otherwise, chaos is just around the corner for our cities, counties and states.

Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles, was the California secretary of education from 2003 to 2005. Alexander Rubalcava is the president of an investment advisory firm.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/opinion/16riordan.html?ref=opinion

1 in 3 Adults Now Have Apps on Their Phones-Many Don't Use Them

Adult cell phone users who use apps are younger, more educated and more affluent than other adults. Over the last few weeks, the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been looking at how adults use technology, and a new report released today focuses on app usage among this age group. According to this report, apps are not indispensable for most adults. While about 35% of U.S. adults now have apps on their cell phones, only 24% of adults actually use them. About a tenth of all U.S. adults doesn't even know if their phones can run apps.

Looking at the total range of things adults use their phones for, app usage tends to be relatively unimportant. While a lot of adults use their phones to take pictures (76%), send or receive text messages (72%), access the Internet (38%) and play music (33%), only 29% use apps. Unsurprisingly, adults who are more comfortable with technology in general also tend to use more apps on their cell phones. Clearly, there is still a large untapped market out there among adults. After all, more than 80% of adults currently own a cell phone, yet only 24% of them use apps.

Sadly, the researchers did not ask those who didn't download apps why they weren't interested in them. Kristen Purcell, the associate director for research at the Pew Internet Project, speculates that "it is clear that this is the early stage of adoption when many cell owners do not know what their phone can do. The apps market seems somewhat ahead of a majority of adult cell phone users."

App Amnesia: People Don't Know How Many Apps They Have

Among those adults who have used apps, half have actually paid for for them and they typically have around 10 on their phones, though there is clearly a group of very heavy apps users out there as well. Interestingly, most cell phone users - and especially those over 50 - don't actually know how many apps they have.

Only about 60% of all app users actually organize their apps so that their favorites are easily accessible. While Apple's new folders in the iOS 4 are a nifty feature for heavy users - there is clearly also a large market of users who only use a small number of apps and see no need to actually organize them in tidy little folders.

Most Popular Apps

Games are the most popular apps among adults (60%), closely followed by news and weather (52%), navigation (51%) and social networking apps 47%).

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/09/14/14readwriteweb-1-in-3-adults-now-have-apps-on-their-phones-83207.html?ref=technology

How Do People Use Their Smartphones?

Advertisers take note: People who have phones with Android operating systems are more likely to open an advertisement inside an app than are iPhone users. That, at least, is what the Nielsen Company says in a new report that it released on Monday about how people use mobile apps.

The report is the result of the company’s Mobile Apps Playbook survey of 4,000 people, which Nielsen embarked upon last December. It opens with a dose of realism, saying that “most Americans can’t imagine leaving home without their mobile phones,” and pointing out that one in four of the respondents own a smartphone that is “more powerful than the computers initially used to send men to the moon.”

What did the respondents do with these phones? Download a lot of apps. As of June 2010, according to the report, 59 percent of the smartphone owners surveyed, and nearly 9 percent of the feature phone users, said they had downloaded a mobile app in the last month.

The respondents also are playing a lot of games. The report states that 61 percent of smartphone owners surveyed said they had bought and used a game within the past month.


They’re checking the weather, too. After games, the second most-used category of apps on the mobile phone were weather related, with 55 percent of phone owners surveyed using such applications, the report said. The smartphone owners surveyed also like mapping and navigation apps, social networking programs that access Facebook and Twitter, and music-related apps, according to Nielsen.

The respondents in the survey rarely download instant messenger apps and those used to make Internet voice over phone calls, the report found.

When comparing the different applications based on the type of phone used, the results were almost uniform across platforms.

Facebook, The Weather Channel, Google Maps and the music service Pandora were in the top five apps used on the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Windows Mobile platforms.

In a blog post on the company’s Web site, Nielsen said, “One of the main challenges facing apps publishers is making sure consumers discover their apps.” And so Nielsen asked the phone owners how they discover and find new apps.

According to the researchers, 40 percent of those surveyed said they found new programs directly on their phones, while 36 percent said they heard about new apps from friends and family.

In addition to the finding about how Android and iPhone users treated advertisements on their phones, the report found that teenagers were “much more receptive than their elders” in engaging with mobile advertising inside an app, with 58 percent of teenagers telling the Nielsen researchers that they look at mobile ads.

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/report-looks-at-trends-with-mobile-apps/?ref=technology

Competitor Sues Google Over Location Software for Smartphones

Skyhook Wireless, which makes software that shows smartphone users where they are on their phone’s maps, filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming Google had persuaded Motorola and another phone manufacturer to break contracts with Skyhook and use Google’s competing service. 

In a separate suit, also filed Wednesday, Skyhook accused Google of infringing on Skyhook’s patented methods of determining location.

The two companies are fighting for the lead in the nascent but promising business of location-based data that uses GPS or Wi-Fi signals to locate phone users. These services not only direct people to businesses, but collect information about where people are. That is valuable information that lets marketers direct advertising to people where and when they are most likely to buy.

“People view it as the next frontier, the next place to get the attention of the consumer,” said Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group, a technology research company. “It’s not big now, but we believe it to be the next consumer battleground.”

Skyhook’s interference suit against Google, filed in Massachusetts Superior Court in Suffolk County, accuses Google of intentionally disrupting Skyhook’s business relationships. It says Google has notified cellphone makers that they need to use Google’s location service as a condition of using Google’s Android smartphone operating system.

The complaint claims that Andy Rubin, Google’s vice president for engineering, gave Sanjay K. Jha, chief executive of Motorola’s mobile devices division, a “stop ship” order, preventing Motorola from shipping phones with the Android operating system using the Skyhook software, called XPS.

The complaint charges that the Skyhook software had already been tested by Motorola and had completed the Google approval process.

“It’s very hard to meet compliance when Google keeps moving the goal post,” said Ted Morgan, Skyhook’s chief executive, in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Google declined to comment. Motorola did not respond to requests for comment.

Skyhook, based in Boston, said that it had a nearly identical experience with a second company referred to only as “Company X” in the complaint. The suit said that Skyhook’s licensing agreement with Company X was announced July 2, the date Skyhook announced its agreement with Samsung Electronics. Samsung declined to comment.

In the patent suit, filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts, Skyhook claims that Google violated four of Skyhook’s patents that gave it an advantage over competitors.

Competition to control location data is escalating because of the potential size of the market. “Regardless of how you calculate the number, the size of the opportunity is enormous,” said Alistair Goodman, chief of Placecast, a San Francisco location-based mobile marketing company.

Early research also shows mobile marketing to be highly effective at reaching consumers, said Mr. Goodman, whose company lets people sign up for alerts that appear on their phones when they are near the store of a client company or a site that company thinks will interest its customers.

“In aggregate, 65 percent of people in the programs made purchases, and 79 percent say the service was valuable,” Mr. Goodman said. “They didn’t see it as advertising or marketing.”

The value of the data surpasses the placing of ads on phones. It also allows companies to make inferences about a phone owner’s wealth, lifestyle and shopping preferences, which is also sought by marketers.

“We learn pretty interesting things, for instance who prefers Wal-Mart over Target, or Walgreens over CVS, who is split, which stores they will travel to get to,” said Thaddeus Fulford-Jones, chief of Locately, a location analytics company.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/technology/16phone.html?ref=technology

California Budget Crisis

California's financial problems, including a projected budget deficit of $20 billion, are as outsized as the state itself.

The state has been running out of money for over a year. It began making deep cuts in spring 2009 and has in total reduced spending by some $30 billion over two fiscal years to schools, colleges, health care, welfare, corrections, recreation and more.

In May, California voters soundly rejected five of six ballot measures designed to keep the state solvent through the rest of the year. The Legislature and the governor then failed to break their deadlock by a budget deadline of July 1. As a result, the state ran out of cash. The state's controller began printing i.o.u.'s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments. California lawmakers, their state broke and its credit rating shot, finally sealed a deal with Mr. Schwarzenegger on July 20 on a plan to close the $26 billion budget gap.

At no point in modern history had the state dealt with its fiscal issues by retreating so deeply in its services. The deal contained $15.6 billion in cuts, about $2.1 billion in borrowing, $3.9 billion in new revenues and about $2.7 billion in accounting maneuvers like shifting a payday into the next fiscal year, which Gov. Schwarzenegger had claimed he would not brook.

Despite the cuts the state was back in preliminary discussions in January 2010 on how to close a projected $20.7 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins in July 2010. State officials were pledging to push hard for as much as $8 billion from the federal government.

Source : http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/california/budget_crisis_2008_09/index.html

BP Well May Be Sealed Soon

With BP close to intercepting its stricken Gulf of Mexico well with a relief well, the government said Wednesday that the final sealing of the once-gushing well might occur this weekend.

Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who is leading the federal response effort, said in a briefing in Kenner, La., that the relief well was within 25 feet of the interception point, nearly 13,000 feet below the seabed. Drilling resumed on Monday after being suspended for several weeks while the company replaced pressure-control equipment atop the well.

Once the interception occurs, engineers will assess the condition of the stricken well’s annulus, the space between the casing pipe and the surrounding rock. Admiral Allen said it was expected that a decision would then be made to pump cement into the annulus to create a final seal.

“Four days from now, it could be all done,” he said.

The well leaked an estimated 4.9 million barrels, or about 205 million gallons, of oil into the gulf after the Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploded and sank in late April. No appreciable amount of oil or gas has leaked since July 15, when valves on a newly installed cap at the wellhead were closed.

Boeing Plans to Fly Tourists to Space

Boeing said Wednesday that it was entering the space tourism business, an announcement that could bolster the Obama administration’s efforts to transform the National Aeronautics and Space Administration into an agency that focuses less on building rockets and more on nurturing a commercial space industry.

The flights, which could begin as early as 2015, would most likely launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida to the International Space Station. The Obama administration has proposed turning over to private companies the business of taking NASA astronauts to orbit, and Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas won an $18 million contract this year for preliminary development and testing of a capsule that could carry seven passengers.

Current NASA plans call for four space station crew members to go up at a time, which would leave up to three seats available for space tourists. The flights would be the first to give nonprofessional astronauts the chance to go into orbit aboard a spacecraft launched from the United States. Seven earlier space tourists have made visits to the space station, riding in Russian Soyuz capsules.

“We’re ready now to start talking to prospective customers,” said Eric C. Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures, the space tourism company based in Virginia that would market the seats for Boeing.

Boeing and Space Adventures have not set a price, although Mr. Anderson said it would be competitive with the Soyuz flights, which Space Adventures arranged with the Russian Space Agency. Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, paid about $40 million for a Soyuz ride and an eight-day stay at the space station last year. But the prospects that anyone buying a ticket will get to space on an American vehicle hinge on discussions in Congress about the future of NASA.

As the era of the space shuttle winds down — two, perhaps three shuttle flights remain — a clash of visions over what should come next has kept the space agency adrift for much of the past year. An authorization bill written by the House Science and Technology Committee to lay out the direction of NASA for the next three years would largely follow the traditional trajectory for human spaceflight. It calls on NASA to build a government-owned rocket — likely the Ares I, which NASA has been working on for five years — for taking astronauts to the space station and then a larger one for missions to the Moon, asteroids and eventually Mars.

The competing vision, embodied in President Obama’s 2011 budget proposal for NASA, focuses instead on investing in companies like Boeing that want to develop the space equivalent of airlines. NASA would then just buy seats on those rockets to send its astronauts to the International Space Station.

Competition, the thinking goes, would drive down the costs of getting to space, leading to a profitable new American industry and freeing more of NASA’s budget for deep-space missions.

Advocates of the free enterprise approach are rallying to block the House version of the NASA authorization bill, which provides only $150 million a year over the next three years for the private-sector space travel initiative, which is known as commercial crew.

Bob Werb, chairman of the Space Frontier Foundation, was blunt in his assessment of the House bill. “I think it’s awful,” he said. “It’s leaving NASA with way more pork than program. I see that as a disaster for the agency.” Mr. Werb’s group is urging its supporters to register disapproval with their Congressional representatives.

By contrast, the president’s budget proposed $6 billion over five years for the commercial crew program.

At Wednesday’s news conference, Boeing officials said that the federal government would have to pay much of the development costs in order for the effort to succeed. “This is an uncertain market,” said John Elbon, program manager for Boeing’s commercial crew effort. “If we had to do this with Boeing investment only and the risk factors were in there, we wouldn’t be able to close the business case.”

The tight constraint, of course, is money.

Last year, a panel led by Norman R. Augustine, a former chief executive of Lockheed Martin, concluded that the ambitious program started under President George W. Bush to establish a permanent moon base was “not executable” because of inadequate financing. In fact, the panel could not devise any program that could send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit and still fit within the $100 billion allocated to the human spaceflight program in the fiscal years of 2010 through 2020. It offered several alternatives that would require an extra $30 billion over the next decade.

Mr. Obama’s budget request for 2011 sought a modest increase in NASA over all, to $19 billion, but kept the budget projections for the human spaceflight program almost unchanged from the levels that the Augustine panel found inadequate. The panel said that without an increase, the United States should scale back its space ambitions.

“With that budget,” Mr. Augustine said in an interview this summer, “I still think there is no really meaningful space exploration program that involves humans.”

The administration worked around the budget shortfall by proposing the cancellation of the entire moon program, known as Constellation, including the Ares I rocket and the Orion crew capsule. Instead, NASA would essentially take a five-year hiatus from large-scale development initiatives and instead work on new technologies that could make the task of space exploration easier and cheaper.

The House Science and Technology Committee, in its effort to squeeze NASA’s human spaceflight program into the budget box, deleted almost all the money from commercial crew and large-scale technology demonstration projects and applied it to slimmed-down Constellation rockets.

Last month, the Senate passed its version of the NASA authorization bill, which is more of a compromise. It provides less for commercial crew in the first three years than the president’s request, but the longer-term plan is to provide the same $6 billion, spread over six years instead of five. It cancels the Ares I rocket and instead directs NASA to begin development of a heavy-lift rocket and indicates that the design should be based on space shuttle technologies, a boon for those contractors.

However, some experts like Scott Pace, a former NASA official who now heads the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said the Senate bill might be repeating the mistake of asking NASA to do too much with too little money. The Senate bill provides less money for development of a larger heavy-lift rocket than the House does for completing the Ares I, already well under development.

“I respect the need for political compromise,” Dr. Pace said of the Senate bill, but added, “It takes some programmatic risk. It spreads itself out too much.”

Staff members of the House science committee have been meeting with their counterparts on the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation seeking a middle ground. House leaders could move forward with the science committee’s bill or substitute the Senate bill or a compromise.

If no final NASA authorization emerges, the Senate and House appropriation committees would decide what to include in NASA’s 2011 budget and could end up with something closer to the original Obama proposal.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/science/space/16nasa.html?ref=us

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation now offers you the Mercedes-Benz experience

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is still basking in the glow of the award recently received from the Union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, for being the best public sector unit in infrastructure development, transportation and urban mobility in 2009.

Now, the state transport corporation, besides making travel comfortable, is also aiming at allowing the common man a ride in style.

Mercedes-Benz buses acquired by the KSRTC began plying to Mysore and Shimoga from Bangalore on Wednesday. The corporation is considering extending the services further. But will such services remain affordable? The state’s transport minister, R Ashoka, is sanguine: “The KSRTC won the India Pride Award for making travel safer, more comfortable and affordable. These measures go towards making the corporation serve people better.”

The keys of the luxury coaches were handed over to state transport minister R Ashoka by the managing director and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz India, Wilfried G Aulbur at the Vidhana Soudha. Managing director of the KSRTC, Gaurav Gupta, was also present. Riding the new Mercs will not cost a passenger very much more than the Volvo buses that are already part of the KSRTC’s fleet.

Travelling to Mysore by the Airavat Volvo bus costs Rs250. Travelling that distance by the cheapest service offered by KSRTC costs Rs90. The Mercedes-Benz ride will be priced at Rs260. Getting to Shimoga from Bangalore on the Volvo bus costs Rs400. The ride for that route on the Merc is priced at Rs426.

Gaurav Gupta, MD, KSRTC, proudly proclaims: “What we offer is better than the comfort of a personal car. It is a service that you can rely on. A large number of people already take the Volvo bus to different destinations; they will now have a little more choice.”

Commuters have received the announcement of the introduction of the Mercs with excitement and anticipation. “I am a native of Mysore. I am glad that now we can travel in more comfortable buses. I expect the coaches will be more strong, and the ride more smooth. As for the fare, I find it quite reasonable. What matters to me is the timing. If the rides can be taken at a time that suits me, I would surely hop onto the Merc,” says Prerna Sonthalia, finance manager of a software company in the city.

“I’d like to experience that ride, though I don’t think I can afford to take it very frequently,” says Shobha Hunasavadi, who works as a technical person in a media house.

“I’m keener on safety and comfort. So I sure will try out the Merc,” says Hemalatha DS, an academic consultant.

There are 10 Mercs in the KSRTC fleet. Depending on how popular the buses are, there is a possibility that more Merc buses will be acquired. The Mercs plying on city roads on a trial basis have attracted a good response. Each of these coaches was priced atRs68 lakh. Rides from the city to Hyderabad (at Rs780), Chennai (Rs620) and Tirupati (Rs400) are also set to start.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_karnataka-state-road-transport-corporation-now-offers-you-the-mercedes-benz-experience_1438718

How secure is your e-mail password?

Call me your e-mail security guinea pig.

The other day I was talking to Hugh Thompson, adjunct professor of software security at Columbia University and founder of consultancy People Security, about his research related to online privacy and he mentioned how easy it can be to hijack someone's e-mail account. So, I challenged him to try to steal mine.

Over the course of an hour, I watched as he mined the Internet for information about me that could be used to reset passwords on Web-based e-mail services, plucking tidbits from a variety of search and other sites to create quite a surprising dossier. I decided to share the experience (with a few omissions) in the hopes that other people will test how easily they could be stalked online so they can better protect their e-mail and other Web accounts.

Access to an e-mail account opens up access to all sorts of other information that could be used to steal someone's identity and drain bank accounts, open up credit cards, and even take out loans in their name. 

It's not just personal information at stake in e-mail accounts. Use of weak password-reset security questions is believed to have allowed someone to access the Yahoo e-mail account of a Twitter employee last year and then use that to access the person's Google Docs account where there was sensitive corporate information.

In agreeing to the project, Thompson had already done some homework and had a list of specific security questions that the major Web-based e-mail providers use. The questions include a mix of preference questions, like what is your favorite book, musician, town, and restaurant. Easy questions as they may seem on the surface, they are subject to change as peoples' tastes change. For instance, you are likely to have a different favorite movie every couple of months or at least likely to forget what your original answer was. These aren't always easy for a stalker to find either, unless the target happens to be a blogger who shares a lot of personal information. It's the same for the category I'll call "firsts," such as what was your first pet's name, teacher's name or job.

Then there are the fact-based questions that are easier to find from public databases, such as the hospital you were born at, the street you grew up on or the town, your first phone number, high school you attended, last four digits of your Social Security number, mother's birthplace and grandfather's occupation.

Finally, there are the questions that people don't usually remember or tend to have handy so they are less likely to choose them. These include what is your primary frequent flier number or library card number.

Armed with a list of common questions from Gmail, Yahoo, Live Mail and AOL, Thompson knew what information to look for. Using a Web-based conferencing system, I was able to watch his screen as he traversed the Internet. His first stop was Google where he typed in my first and last name. (All Thompson knew about me at the onset was my first and last name and that I work at CNET.)

Thompson went straight to my LinkedIn profile where he learned where I went to college and details of my past work experience. He then searched for me on a people search engine called Pipl.com and came across references for city, state, age, middle name, address and phone numbers. He found additional addresses on 123people.com.

On Intelius.com, another site that offers some basic information for free but charges for additional data, he came across other people with the same last name who were supposedly associated with me and their ages. (Most but not all of the information uncovered in this experiment was accurate.) By comparing information on the various sites and cross checking purported relatives and addresses, Thompson was able to guess which state I grew up in and what cities I have lived in.

Then Thompson called in the big guns--Ancestry.com. The site, which is designed for people creating family trees and doing genealogy research, pulls data from a host of public databases and provides more information than the free searches on the other sites but charges a subscription, of course. There is also a 14-day trial offer.

On Ancestry.com he had to guess at the birth year after learning my age on a different site but not knowing the exact date and took an educated guess at the city of residence too. Voila! Up came a birth date, a bunch of previous addresses, and even at least one phone number.

Someone could easily take the address information to figure out answers to some of the preferential security questions by using Google Street View to zoom in on bars, restaurants, and other hangouts in the immediate vicinity, said Thompson, who also is chair of the RSA Conference. "The longer you lived at an address, the more interesting those searches are," he said.

Then he used Ancestry.com to search on one of the names linked to me and that he suspected was my mother because of the associated ages. "Your mother is the most interesting relative for us to look up because her name typically tells us what your maiden name is, but it also is a gateway to find out who her parents were," Thompson said. "If we know their names then we know what your mother's maiden name was."

A common address between mother and subject also indicates the childhood home address. "That's valuable for password reset questions that ask what street you grew up on," he said. "Then you can search the addresses for the schools that are nearby and then go on Classmates.com and bring up teachers by year at that school."

Thompson then went back to Google to see if I had a resume online, but that proved to be a dead end. Resumes have a wealth of personal information, including e-mail addresses, phone numbers, addresses and college. Outdated resumes are even more valuable, according to Thompson.

Following the e-mail trail
Satisfied with the amount of biographical information he had accumulated on me, Thompson then decided to see what e-mail addresses he could find. Since e-mail services allow you to reset your password by sending a message to your alternate e-mail address, getting the earliest e-mail address for someone is key because that is the one most likely to offer up security questions. If it's a school e-mail address, that is even better because those security questions are likely to be the least secure, he said. The idea is to follow the trail of e-mail addresses as far back as possible. Corporate e-mail addresses, meanwhile, aren't much help because they typically reset passwords internally through the corporate IT department.

Since I was in school before e-mail was popular (now you know I'm no spring chicken!) there was no school e-mail address for me. If there had been one, Thompson said he would have searched for the school on Classmates.com and checked for the domain there and guessed what my e-mail address would have been. He also could have looked for public records associated with possible student loans to get an e-mail address that way, he said.

Thompson guessed that I would have a Gmail address and that as an early adopter it would follow a particular, simple format. But when he tried to reset the password, the system offered to have password reset information sent to my alternate e-mail address or phone number. Gmail provided enough of the other e-mail address to figure it out and a few letters of the cell phone that could be compared against phone numbers uncovered on the people search sites. He then would have had to hack my cell phone or otherwise get physical access to it in order to get to the text message and choose the password he wants in order to hijack my account.

Thompson and I ran out of time, but I went ahead and finished the process and tried to reset the password on my alternate e-mail account. I struck gold--from an attacker's point of view--in that it did ask security questions instead of referring me on to yet another e-mail address. But two of the three questions it asked (which I must have created) were unlikely to appear in any public databases and were not based on preferences. I'd share them with you, but then I'd have to kill you. (Just kidding. See below for some suggestions.)

The third security question asked was (yikes!) my mother's maiden name, which Thompson had not yet uncovered but would have eventually if we had had more time.

I compared the accurate information uncovered by Thompson with the list of about 30 or so security questions that the e-mail providers offer as default questions and found that about eight of them would have easily been answered and another four probably could have been.

Phew! Safe enough--for now
Because of the time constraint and the fact that I write about computer security issues and am thus more likely to be more security-conscious, Thompson did not hijack my e-mail account. But the experiment was fascinating, nonetheless. It showed how easily a stranger can dig up all sorts of information on someone. And it showed just how easy to guess many of the password-reset security questions are.

Thompson recommends that people conduct this experiment on their own identity to see what the results are and how secure their e-mail accounts are. And I would suggest the same. Then, either choose the safest default questions or, better yet, create your own, if that is an option.

When selecting a question option, think of an event in your life or a fond memory that is not going to be found on a public document and which you won't likely forget. Choose something that you haven't exposed to the public in a blog, Facebook posting or other online site. And think about specifics related to that memory, like a person, place or thing. Avoid referencing anything that can change over time such as a preference or feeling. Then set the question based on that.

When I realized the amount of information Thompson had amassed on me in a relatively short period of time, I was shocked and a little nervous. It's fine for someone I trust to be trawling the Internet for details of my personal life, but if he could do this so could someone else.

Audi S5 Sportback review

Audi has slotted its 3.0-litre supercharged V6 engine into the S5 Sportback to create a luxurious performance hatchback.

What do you get if you cross a four-door, five-seat saloon with a two-door, four seat coupé? The answer, it would appear, is the Audi A5 Sportback, a five-door, four-seat solution to a problem that never really existed.

At first glance the A5 Sportback has always looked suspiciously like an excuse to make a big car a touch less practical than it really needs to be, for which buyers then get charged a premium.

For example, a popular model such as the 2.0 TDI 143PS attracts a £965 premium over an identically engined A4, but for what? It's not like one's a distinctly premium product and the other isn't. 

It's not like the A5 Sportback shines when it comes to driving dynamcis either. To date its engine range has been competent but entirely uninspiring and the handling predictably safe and steady, as tends to be the way with almost all things Audi.

Now, however, the German manufacturer has created an A5 Sportback to lust after thanks to the inclusion of its 3.0-litre supercharged V6 engine. Borrowed from the S4 and S5 Cabriolet, the unit peaks at 328bhp and 325lb ft and is matched to a seven-speed S-tronic gearbox and four-wheel drive.

With those sorts of stats it's no surprise to hear that the S5 Sportback is something of a rocket ship, hitting 62mph from a standstill in 5.4 seconds and running on to its electronic limiter at 155mph.

The real key to this engine though, is the accessibility of the power, or rather the torque, that's on offer. Raw figures show that it peaks from 2,900- all the way through to 5,300rpm, but in truth it feels as if everything's there from tickover. Few cars make overtaking as easy.

S5 embossed leather seats add sense of occasion to the cabin, while the exterior styling is beefed up by the usual enormous wheels, and overly aggressive front spoilers.

Yes, it tends cause people to move over on the motorway, but one suspects they aren't thinking good thoughts about you as they do so.

The S5's exciting straight-line pace isn't quite matched by how it performs in corners, this - like so many Audis - being a car that throws in all the right ingredients (lots of grip, well-weighted steering, good brakes) and yet never quite manages to wrap them up into a package that makes you want to drive just for the hell of it.

Audi's complicated driver sports differential and dynamic steering upgrades help, but the S5 still doesn't offer quite the same levels of driver satisfaction as its S4 sibling.

While the latter can be teased into gentle oversteer the S5 prefers to grip, grip and grip some more. Admirable from a safety point of view, but not the last word in fun.

There's an argument, therefore, that the better handling and - in terms of people carrying abilities - more practical S4 makes more sense, as well as being £3,600 cheaper.

What the S5 does do is finally make some sense of the whole "Sportback" genre, removing any sense of the mundane from a car whose very reason for being should be to stand out from the crowd. As befits a £40,000 executive wagon, it is exclusive, luxurious and extremely fast.

So let's add another factor into our initial question: What do you get if you cross a four-door, five-seat saloon with a two-door, four seat coupé and a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 engine? The answer is a very fine car indeed.

THE FACTS

Tested: 3.0-litre, V6 petrol, supercharged, seven-speed S tronic gearbox, all-wheel drive

Price/on sale: £39,425/ Now

Power/torque: 328bhp @ 5,500-7,000rpm/325lb ft @ 2,900-5,300rpm

Top speed: 155mph

Acceleration: 0-62mph in 5.4secs

Fuel economy: 30.1mpg (Combined), 20.9mpg (Urban)

CO2 emissions: 219g/km

VED band: K (£550 first year)

Verdict: Supercharged engine adds welcome sparkle to Sportback concept. A very desirable car.

Telegraph rating: Five out of five

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car-manufacturers/audi/8003858/Audi-S5-Sportback-review.html

Do men and women really think alike? Michael Deacon agrees

If our brains are the same, that means men must be socially programmed to be feckless and crude. That can't be right, says Michael Deacon.

Contrary to received wisdom and many studies, men and women have practically identical brains – or so says Professor Gina Rippon, a leading neuroscientist at Aston University. I do hope Professor Rippon doesn't tell my wife this. I have a nervous suspicion that the only reason my wife tolerates my untidiness, my laziness and my procrastination when it comes to any household task is that she assumes this is how all men are hard-wired to behave. I daren't think what she might do if she realises that these defects are purely mine.

Actually, though, I'm not sure I agree with Professor Rippon. I believe that there are certain ways in which the brains of men and women do work differently. There must be a reason a man will ignore the symptoms of cancer yet groan and wail as if his cold were the flu. There must be a reason he can tell you Leeds United's first-choice midfield from their title-winning season of 1991-1992, even though he doesn't support them, and yet can't tell you the birth weight of his own children. There must be a reason he will bin unread the instruction booklet of any electronic trinket he buys, yet devote hours to reading about the specifications of cars he will never own.

I suppose Professor Rippon might argue that the behaviours I've listed have nothing to do with the workings of the brain – and that, instead, they're due to the different ways men and women are shaped by society. That may in part be true, but tell me this: why would society want me, and all other men of my acquaintance, to be blind to the chaos of worn socks, old newspapers and unboxed CDs we've allowed to accumulate in our respective spare rooms? 

Why would society want us to be unable to think of any useful reply when a woman says, "No, no, that's fine" to a suggestion she plainly disagrees with? Why would society want us to empty the loose change from our pockets on to the nearest household surface every evening, rather than simply spend it, like women do? (A while ago, a male colleague got round to counting the coppers he'd unthinkingly deposited around his flat during the past couple of years. They came to more than £200. That's what home is to a man: a madly disordered bank vault.)

Society doesn't benefit from these exclusively male failings; nobody raised us in the hope we'd turn out feckless and insensitive. We're like that because of our brains. It's their fault. (There we go, shifting the blame – classic male tactic.)

I'm not saying every stereotype about the male mind is true. This idea that, compared with women, we're clear-headed, decisive, no-faffing pragmatists is nonsense – one of the wonderful things about marriage, it seems to me, is that it frees a man from ever having to make another decision.

Everything, from where we live to what we have for breakfast, is decided by my wife, and I couldn't be more relieved about it. If I'd stayed single, I'd never have made any life-altering or even mildly risky decisions: never have bought a house, never have had the bathroom done up, never have taken a foreign holiday, never have had a haircut costing more than £7. Self-satisfied stagnation, that's the male way: rubbing our hands in the smug warmth of our rut. The item of clothing I wear most often is a fraying blue zip-up top I bought in 2002. She's working on its disposal.

I know it's not politically correct to say there are mental and psychological differences between men and women. At this rate, the day may come when it's not politically correct to say there are physical differences between them, either. But – in my pig-headed, narrow-minded, and horribly male way – I'm going to go on thinking it.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8001380/Why-would-society-want-men-to-be-blind-to-their-worn-socks.html

BP lacked 'basic safety' in North Sea before Gulf of Mexico oil spill, HSE investigation finds

BP was subject to an investigation in the North Sea which found new staff were not trained to “basic safety standards” – six months before its Gulf of Mexico accident.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) began its inquiry after a complaint by a worker on the Clair rig off the Shetlands, near to where BP is about to begin deepwater drilling.

The conclusions, sent to BP executives in a letter in October last year, found “training of some new personnel to basic safety standards was ineffective”.

The letter, obtained by The Daily Telegraph under Freedom of Information laws, added there was “evidence of a culture among your contractors, Seawell (up to senior levels of management), of working outside of procedures, permit or permit conditions”. 

Investigators also criticised BP for its response to the inquiry, saying “did not appear to identify the significance of issues raised by the complainant once they were put to you by HSE”.

According to the letter, there are four examples of incidents on North Sea rigs in 2008 and 2009 where BP failed to learn lessons after investigations.

It comes as Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, prepares to be questioned on Wednesday by a panel of MPs on UK deepwater drilling.

Tim Yeo, chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, said training of North Sea staff was of key interest to the inquiry.

“There are some extremely important aspects of training that do need improving,” he said.

Another committee member, Tom Greatrex, said he is “concerned about the difference between rhetoric and reality” over North Sea safety.

Steve Walker, head of the offshore division at the HSE, said work permits and training were a “pretty central part of major hazard control”.

A response to the investigation from BP central office told the HSE that its processes had been reviewed and improved by November.

A reply to the HSE from the head of operations at Clair said: “Your letter provoked consternation amongst the Clair offshore team, who strongly refute the allegations set out in your letter.”

A BP spokesman said: “Clair has an excellent safety track record and has recently achieved six years of operation without any injury that has resulted in a day away from work.”

Records show that four out of five of BP’s North Sea installations inspected last year were issued with warnings for failure to comply with regulations on oil spills

Better training was a recommendation in BP’s internal report last week into what caused the Deepwater Horizon rig to sink, killing 11 men and triggering a giant oil spill.

Steve Rae, Seawell, VP International drilling, said that Seawell had cooperated fully with the investigations. "These investigations did not result in any improvement notice being raised or issued against Seawell. Seawell, who have been recognised for their best in class safety performance over the last three consecutive years by IADC North Sea Chapter, have the highest regard for all health and safety related matters and take all such investigations as very serious."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8002986/BP-lacked-basic-safety-in-North-Sea-before-Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-HSE-investigation-finds.html

Schwarzenegger's daughter writes self-help book

Katherine Schwarzenegger, the 20-year-old daughter of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has published a book in which she encourages young women to have confidence in themselves.

Miss Schwarzenegger reveals that as a teenager she felt "fat and ugly" and had to be reassured by her parents that she was not.

In her book, Rock What You've Got: Secrets to Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty From Someone Who's Been There and Back, she criticises the pressure society puts on young women to look "perfect."

She also says altered images of women in magazines are "not reality" and that she wants to inform young girls in America that they shouldn't try to look like that. 

Miss Schwarzenegger said she had been "freaked out" by her own appearance in high school and tried various fad diets, adding: "I want to let girls know they are not alone with the changes and doubts about their body."

In the book she also describes life in the Schwarzenegger family, including how her father and mother, journalist Maria Shriver, kept their children out of the public eye and allowed them to be "normal kids."

She said: "I had the best relationship with my Mom. I still do. I talk to her four times a day. I also have an amazing relationship with my Dad. I talk to him about boys, about going out, about what I'm interested in, about business."

In the book Miss Schwarzenegger describes how her father would remove unhealthy food from the kitchen when he was getting ready for a film role.

"I look back on my Dad cleaning out the fridge, taking out the ice cream, and I think that's hysterical," she told the New York Post.

She said her only act of rebellion as a child had been dying her hair black and getting her ears pierced, but it failed to make her parents angry.

Miss Schwarzenegger, currently a student in California, said her action star father still exercises twice every day and once told her: "You can't get anything done in a day if you get up past 5.30am."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8003361/Schwarzeneggers-daughter-writes-self-help-book.html

Porn site owner sold Twitter user name to Israel for 'thousands of pounds'

The pornographer sold the @Israel username to the Israeli government’s foreign Ministry last month for a price that included “five zeroes”.

The Spaniard, who is now based in Miami, Florida, created the account for free in 2007, when Twitter was still in its infancy.

It has been largely dormant in recent months until the “feed” started becoming subjected to a barrage of anti-Semitic comments from users who thought it belonged to the Israeli government. 

He told Spain's Publico newspaper that he set up the account under just his first name to avoid contact with a former girlfriend.

Mr Melendez, who runs “adult” website, then approached Israel, firstly as a joke, before they ended up negotiating a sale price.

"My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the state of Israel," he told the New York Times.

He did not sell it directly, as the practice is banned by the company. The government was advised by Twitter officials on how to undertake the sale on August 26.

Instead he allowed the Israelis access to his password before they closed it down and reopened it later with different user details.

It has allowed the Israeli foreign ministry to change its username @israelMFA account to @Israel.

Four days later the State of Israel sent out a message that read: "The IsraelMFA twitter account name has been changed to @Israel. Look for us here: twitter.com/israel."

Paul Hirschson, deputy consul general for Israel in Miami, confirmed the Israeli government wanted to obtain the @Israel account.

“Once we decided that we wanted to use the name Israel in our Twitter account we started to look for who had it," the diplomat said.

“It was not important to know who he was and what he used the account for. We needed to have the name of Israel because we are the state of Israel.

"The fact that this man had other activities it was not something that we were aware of at all.”

Mr Hirschson did not disclose the purchase price but he added it was a "reasonable" sum.

"He said he wanted to take his wife and children to a nice restaurant for a good dinner," he added.

Yigal Palmor, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, later denied the asking price was “six figures”.

He said the selling price was significantly lower than what was originally asked for.

“I won’t go into the details of the negotiations, but originally he asked for a five-digit sum and all we paid him was $3,000, period,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

Israel is expected to use the account as part of its multimedia public relations campaign aimed at improving Israel's damaged image overseas.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8003895/Porn-site-owner-sold-Twitter-user-name-to-Israel-for-thousands-of-pounds.html

Investment advice: Can gold go for $2,000?

After gold hits another record high, the Telegraph's Robert Miller ask Evy Hambro, the manager of BlackRock's Gold and General fund, whether the investment fundamentals of the precious metal can take it to $1,300 an ounce in the short term and then hit $2,000.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financevideo/yourmoneytheirhands/8004026/Investment-advice-Can-gold-go-for-2000.html

Google engineer fired for privacy breach after 'stalking and harrassing teenagers'

A Google engineer, David Barksdale, has been fired for breaching its privacy policies, the search engine giant admitted, after claims he stalked and harassed teenagers.

The 27 year-old, a “site reliability engineer” based in Kirkdale, just north of Seattle, allegedly spied on several minors' Google accounts without their consent.

The search engine giant, based in Mountain View, California, confirmed on Wednesday that Barksdale was sacked for violating Google's “strict internal privacy policies”. It declined to provide further details.

But according to reports in America, the engineer allegedly accessed the accounts of four teenagers without their knowledge. It remains unclear how many accounts he accessed. 

Barksdale, a self-described "hacker, reportedly met the teenagers at a technology conference in Seattle earlier this year.

In one incident, he accessed call logs from Google Voice, Google's online phone service, between a 15 year-old and his new girlfriend.

Barksdale then demanded to know details about the relationship, but when the teenager, who has not been named, refused he then accessed his account.

After retrieving the girlfriend's name and phone number, Barksdale then threatened to call her, reported Gawker, an American-based technology website.

According to the site’s sources Barksdale's actions "did not appear to be sexual in nature" but "demonstrated extraordinarily questionable judgment”.

The company’s site reliability engineers can access sensitive company data in order for them to be able to respond to technical problems.

The disclosures come amid a row over the handling of private information collected by Google, the world's leading Web search engine and Facebook, which has more than 500 million members.

After the site broke the story, Google confirmed the engineer had been sacked in July after his actions were reported to the company via email.

"We dismissed David Barksdale for breaking Google's strict internal privacy policies," Bill Coughran, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, said in a statement.

“We carefully control the number of employees who have access to our systems and we regularly update our security controls.

"For example, we are significantly increasing the amount of time we spend auditing our logs to ensure the controls are effective.”

He added: "That said, a limited number of people will always need to access these systems if we are to operate them properly, which is why we take any breach so seriously.”

Barksdale admitted to Gawker that he had been fired, but declined to say why.

"You must have heard some pretty wild things if you think me getting fired is newsworthy," he said.

Earlier this year Google was at the centre of a global privacy storm after it admitted that its Street View cars had mistakenly collected information sent over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks.

It was subjected to a series of international investigations over the crisis after it admitted recording information broadcast via unsecured wireless networks in family homes.

Eric Schmidt, its chief executive, admitted the company had blundered in the row.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8003925/Google-engineer-fired-for-privacy-breach-after-stalking-and-harrassing-teenagers.html

World’s Top 10 Worst Countries to Visit

Here we will be taking a look at the world’s worst and most dangerous countries.

Iraq
You are surprised that Iraq is in the number 1 spot? Venture into the Sunni Triangle and it is like taking your life with your own hands. If you really want to visit Iraq you should go to the north of the country, where Kurds are a little less dicey for the adventurous traveler. I doubt if Iraq will ever leave my number one spot.

Afghanistan
This country is one of the top most dangerous countries, following the promise of good times to come. A few years ago two Japanese teachers were killed after venturing into the wild southern regions. Many parts of Afghanistan are falling back under the sway of extremists and it is very likely that you will experience its own fair share of terror attacks.

Somalia
Remember the movie by Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down? It is a movie that bought the ugly conflict in Somalia for mainstream viewing. It is also good to mention that they have no central government and that has been happening since 1991. Somalia is a nice country but if you are planning to travel there, I suggest that you hire your own heavily armed guards. Daily rates for the guards vary from a couple of hundred bucks or several hundred bucks, depending on whom you hire. Failure to do so, may result in death.

Thailand
When we hear the name Thailand we usually portray a nice exotic country with wonderful beaches, exotic drinks and a good, cheap nightlife. But that is not the case. But don’t take me wrong, it is not dangerous because of mobs and a high criminal rate (yes, you can find some). It is on the list only because of the Tsunami that hit a few years ago. Hundreds of people died and that made future tourists think twice before they plan to visit this exotic place.

Sudan
The ongoing tension with the government and rebels is what makes this country one of the most dangerous. Not to mention the government backed genocide. Murder and rapes are the two most common things that one can face in Sudan especially if you are in the area of Darfur. If you want to travel to the north make sure you get travelling permits, but for the south no. One should also mention that the south has finally come to peace after the tireless efforts of the late John Darang.

Indonesia
This country is not dangerous per se, but there are so many elements of danger that it made the top 10 list. A few years ago there was the Bali bombing and also the Tsunami hitting. If you are a journalist you have to be very careful, as usually those are the targeted people.

Chechnya
It does not get many tourists but sometimes journalists are forced to go there and it is a one country that journalists fear the most. A few years ago they captured a school and held hostages just to show how far they can go.

The Palestinian Territories
Despite efforts to make their country better, this country has been doing nothing but going from bad to worse and therefore it makes it a bad place to travel to. A few years ago two people who were there to educate children were captured and later released.

Uganda
For a lot of years the Lord Resistance Army have made the region a no-go for travelers. The LRA are known for being the most evil, cold blooded murders on the planet. And it is good to mention that they force children to murder their own family members as part of the indoctrination.

Niger
Niger is the world’s second most poor country. It is a famine stricken country and there are hundreds of people dying everyday due to malnutrition. The horror is not of being murdered or raped, but it is seeing all these children being starved to death, unless food aid arrives soon.

Source: http://trifter.com/practical-travel/tips/worlds-top-10-worst-countries-to-visit/