BBC
correspondent Matthew Price has been travelling across America looking
at the effects of the recession on the country. In the last of his
reports he talks to businesses in Seattle to find out whether the city
might be able to help the US innovate its way out of its economic
difficulties.
How to test your home's energy efficiency
Do you know how many miles per gallon you get out of your home?
In the same way people have dropped Hummers in favour of hybrids, people want to be smart with money and energy
Aaron Goldfeder, Evoworx
That is the question that Aaron Goldfeder is trying to help people answer.
"Most car owners are familiar with the miles per gallon of their car," he says.
"People don't know what kilowatt hours their home uses, and even if they did they wouldn't know what it means."
Aaron is one of the founding partners of a firm called Evoworx, and
he is part of a new generation of entrepreneurs who might, just might,
help transform the US economy.
At their offices in Seattle, which more than many places in the US
is associated with environmentally sustainable innovation, Evoworx is
aiming to help people retrofit their homes so they waste less energy. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8021213.stm>
Silicon Valley crown up for grabs
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Information technology has driven globalisation and innovation, say many
Silicon Valley's place as a centre of innovation and a major force in the global economy is waning.
So says Tom Siebel, hi-tech veteran and founder of Siebel Systems.
"I think Silicon Valley has been toppled from its pedestal," he told
BBC News. "I think information technology is much less important in the
global picture today than it was even 10-20 years ago."
Mr Siebel makes his judgement based on his years and experience in
the computer industry. His career began in the 1970s and he made his
name while working at database giant Oracle.
From there he started Siebel Systems which specialised in software
for large corporations and grew to employ 8,000 people. In 2005, he
sold it to Oracle for $5.85bn (£3.9bn).
For him, the Valley has had an unparalleled effect on innovation.
"What happened in the information technology revolution in the last
20 years was very much about making the world a better place," he said.
"We have honestly applied information technology to change the way
people work, the very fundamental nature of business processes, and the
way people entertain themselves and communicate.
"Productivity levels are higher. People are healthier. People are
happier. The world is a better place as a result of what happened here
with information technology. It was a great privilege to be able to
participate in that," said Mr Siebel.
Power shift
But, he said, the past is done and it is time to look forward.
"I spent the bulk of my career in the IT marketplace. It was a very
exciting place but I don't think it will be as important in the next
two decades as in the last two.
Mr Siebel wants to leave the world in a better situation than he found it
"I think the areas where people will be making a difference and
making important social and economic contributions will be in the area
of energy and bio-engineering."
Worryingly, Mr Siebel said not many in the Valley have realised that their influence is waning.
"While there will be contributions in bio-technology and
bio-engineering and energy technology that will come out of the Valley,
I do not believe it will have the type of global leadership position in
those areas that it did in information technology," he said.
History lesson
Not everyone shares Mr Siebel's views.
"Of course Silicon Valley as an epicentre still really matters," said hi-tech guru Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media.
"There are great universities here, great companies and access to
capital," he said. "It may not be in IT per se but I think there is
still some great value in the further reaches of Web 2.0, sensor data,
collective intelligence, and cloud computing.
The meth problem is one of the projects Mr Siebel now devotes time to
"I don't think it is over yet for Silicon Valley," he said.
Also leaping to defend the Valley was John Hollar, the boss of the Computer History Museum.
"I think Silicon Valley will remain the jewel in the crown for a
very long time," he said. "It is not the only jewel but there is a way
that business gets done here, a way that innovation is executed that is
really a very special thing.
"There are places all over the world that would like very much to be
the next Silicon Valley," he said "It is the standard against which all
those things are measured. It's unique and there are reasons to be
optimistic about its place for a long time to come." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8003499.stm>
Swiss bank refuses US tax request
UBS is the largest bank in a famously secretive system
Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has
asked a US court not to go ahead with a tax case involving more than
50,000 US customers with Swiss accounts.
UBS told a federal court in Florida it would violate Swiss laws
on banking secrecy if it provided the information on its clients.
The US suspects 52,000 Americans of using UBS accounts to hide almost $15bn of assets and unpaid taxes.
Switzerland only recently signed up to global rules on bank data sharing.
It decided in March to ease banking secrecy and fully
adopt accepted tax standards. The government agreed to begin
negotiations with the US and Japan on tax co-operation.
Standing firm
Correspondents say the US case involving UBS is a sign it is
stepping up its campaign against tax evasion - and directly challenging
the tradition of Swiss banking secrecy.
The Internal Revenue Service, which administers tax in the US, has
taken out a civil suit to force UBS to reveal the identities of 52,000
American customers suspected of holding accounts totalling $14.8bn.
The
court would be substituting its own authority for that of the competent
Swiss authorities, and therefore would violate Swiss sovereignty and
international law
Swiss government statement
However, the bank has now told the court that it cannot hand over the information without violating Swiss law.
UBS says no specific evidence has been presented against its clients, meaning it is unable to waive bank secrecy rules.
"Switzerland's laws prohibit the release of confidential information
to foreign governments when the request has not been made through
authorised inter-governmental channels," the country's government said.
"If the court were to order UBS to produce evidence from
Switzerland, and backed that order with coercive powers, the court
would be substituting its own authority for that of the competent Swiss
authorities, and therefore would violate Swiss sovereignty and
international law," it added.
Earlier this year, UBS did cave in to US demands in a separate case involving about 300 customers.
The bank agreed to pay more than $700m in an out of court settlement.
US and Swiss officials have begun negotiations on a new tax treaty that Washington hopes will help it track tax evaders.
Prosecutors said they no longer felt they were able to win the case
The US has moved to dismiss a case
against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of conspiring to pass
defence secrets to unauthorised persons.
Prosecutors had said Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman intended to disclose the details to Israel and to the media.
But the government said it was unlikely to win the case and that trial could exposed classified information.
Critics said the case had been a bid to criminalise commonplace exchanges between journalists and politicians.
Mr Rosen and Mr Weissman, formerly working for the
influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), were the
first lobbyists to be charged under the Espionage Act of 1917.
Acting US attorney Dana Boente said that when the charges were first
filed, "the government believed it could prove this case beyond a
reasonable doubt based on the statute".
But he said that after the Judge TS Ellis demanded that prosecutors
proved the men intended to harm the US with their actions, there was
now a "diminished likelihood the government will prevail at trial".
In the statement to the court, Mr Boente asked that they dismiss the
indictment given the "inevitable disclosure of classified information
that would occur at any trial in this matter".
'Hardship'
Lawyers for the two men said the decision was "a huge victory for
the First Amendment", which constitutionally guarantees the right to
free speech in the US.
The Associated Press reported Baruch Weiss as saying that a
prosecution victory would have set a precedent for journalists seeking
sensitive information to face possible prosecution.
But Mr Weiss said the four-year process had been a "tremendous hardship" for the two men, who were dismissed by Aipac in 2005.
Former defence analyst Lawrence Franklin was sentenced to 12 years
and seven months in jail in 2006 for disclosing classified information
to Mr Rosen and Mr Weissman. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8029884.stm>
Asia 'must cut export dependency'
China and India backed Mr Kuroda's calls to boost domestic demand
Asian governments must cut reliance on
export-driven growth and spend more to cut poverty, Asian Development
Bank (ADB) finance officials have said.
Countries must restructure to focus on domestic demand as they
grapple with economic chaos, the banks' annual meeting in Indonesia was
told.
Asian economies are slumping as demand for their products falls during the worst global slump since World War II.
The downturn is set to keep tens of millions of people trapped in poverty.
'Greater resilience'
Asia's main export markets had experienced a "massive contraction in
demand" since the implosion of the US mortgage market triggered the
global banking crisis last year, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told a
seminar at the meeting.
He said the knock-on effects had been interest rates on bonds rising
and Asian currencies depreciating as foreign capital was taken out of
emerging markets.
Economic stimulus packages produced by the likes of China and Japan
to boost their economies would not be sufficient in the long-term he
added.
"Over the longer term, developing Asia is starting the process of
rebalancing growth from excessive dependence on external demand to
greater resilience on both consumption and investment," he said.
"Already there are signs that domestic consumption is remaining strong in Asia and may well lead the way out of this downturn."
These are some of the images that have been created
By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Rome
Rome's underground Christian, Jewish and pagan burial sites, the Catacombs, date back to the 2nd Century AD.
There are more than 40 of them stretching over 170km (105 miles).
But, until now, they have never been fully documented, their vast scale only recorded with handmade maps.
That is now changing, following a three-year project to create the
first fully comprehensive three-dimensional image using laser scanners.
It is not a virtual image, it is not animation - what you are seeing is real data
Dr Norbert Zimmerman
A team of 10 Austrian and Italian archaeologists, architects and
computer scientists have started with the largest catacomb, Saint
Domitilla, just outside the Italian capital.
The tunnels, caves, galleries and burial chambers of Saint Domitilla stretch for about 15km (9 miles) over a number of levels.
At a time when Christians, in particular, were persecuted, the Catacombs became a relatively safe place to bury the dead.
The soft, volcanic tufa rock was an especially workable, yet
durable, material that was burrowed out over the course of nearly three
centuries.
Yet, because of concerns about safety, only about 500m (1,640ft) are accessible to the public today.
Scanner
The new, moving, images of this entire underground system will
change all that and open up this beautiful subterranean world in a way
that it has never been seen before.
The scanner sends out millions of light pulses that bounce off every surface
The leader of the project, Dr Norbert Zimmerman of the Vienna
Academy of Sciences, was behind the idea to use laser scanners to
record every part of the Catacombs.
His scanner, which looks like a cylinder on a tripod, stands a metre
or so high and is a piece of kit you usually find in the construction
industry.
Gone are the days when archaeologists just used shovels, brushes and sieves to unearth the past.
The scanner has been placed in hundreds of different locations in the Catacombs.
It turns slowly, sending out millions of light pulses that bounce
off every surface they come into contact with. The light pulses rebound
back into the scanner and are recorded on a computer as a series of
white dots, known as a "point cloud".
Gradually, every wall, ceiling, and floor is bombarded with the dots, enabling the computer to build up a picture of each room.
Paintings which have not been seen in nearly 2,000 years are now visible
Eventually, the computer completes a 360-degree, three-dimensional,
moving image of that room, with every surface looking like it is made
up of small white dots.
At the same time a camera on the scanner takes a picture of each
surface. That information is also fed into the computer enabling colour
to be added to "fill in" the dots. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8027650.stm>
How satellites could 'sail' home
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News
The booms can be inflated with gas but need then to be made rigid
Satellites and spent rocket stages
could soon deploy "sails" to guide them back to Earth much faster than
they would otherwise fall out of the sky.
With space becoming ever more crowded, there is a need to remove
redundant objects that could pose a collision threat to operational
missions.
Extending a sail on an old spacecraft would increase drag and pull it into the Earth's atmosphere to burn up.
Major European space firm EADS Astrium says the scheme has great potential.
"It is an interesting solution, especially for the
satellite that has no propulsion system at the end of its life," Brice
Santerre told BBC News.
Santerre and colleague Max Cerf have been working on what they call the Innovative DEorbiting Aerobrake System (IDEAS).
The concept involves extending booms and sheeting from spacecraft to
increase the amount of drag they experience from the residual air
molecules still present at altitudes up to even 750km (470 miles)
"The principle of aerobraking is to increase the surface over mass
ratio of an orbital object, to accelerate the fall-out by increasing
the drag on the system," Mr Santerre said.
"To do that, we need to deploy a very light structure. That's why we
chose to use 'gossamer structures'. These are composed of booms and
very thin membranes." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8029899.stm>
In search of Europe: France
The
EU's eastward enlargement seems to have few fans in France, where fears
about competition for jobs and declining French influence in Europe are
widespread, the BBC's Jonny Dymond reports.
JONNY DYMOND
I'm Jonny Dymond and I've said goodbye to the BBC Brussels bureau for
the next few weeks. I'll be taking the temperature in nine EU member
states before the European Parliament elections on 4-7 June. I'm going
to ask voters what they think of the EU and what their priorities are.
Join me on the trip!
There is always something of a paradox about France and the EU.
If you listen to French leaders - local, regional or national - the EU is France's destiny.
After all, was it not a French creation? Does the European flag not
flutter from tens of thousands of town halls across the land?
And was not the French presidency of the Union last year a triumph
that reminded lesser countries (all 26 of them) just how these things
should be done?
Economic unease on the streets of Nancy
But if you talk to French citizens - of all classes and ages - there
are doubts, hesitations, questions about the EU that reflect French
insecurity about both the direction of the EU and France's place within
it.
There is nothing like the angry scepticism you find in Britain.
But there is genuine mystification about how what was once a cosy,
pretty much French-led club is now a sprawling organisation with 27
members, where France has to work hard to get herself heard. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8024829.stm>
Jerusalem Diary: 4 May
Father David Neuhaus, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, sometimes finds a discreet welcome at a reform synagogue
By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem
HEBREW CATHOLICS
It is evening prayers. In a small hall in Jerusalem, the service is
being conducted in Hebrew. Some of the words - indeed some of the
prayers - chime exactly with those of a synagogue prayer-book. But this
is a Catholic Mass.
There are, it is estimated, more than one billion Catholics around
the world. Within the Middle East, the great majority celebrate Mass in
Arabic. A tiny sliver - about 400 - celebrate Mass in Hebrew.
Leading the service this evening is Father David Neuhaus. Hebrew, he
says, has the distinction of being the first language, other than Greek
or Latin, in which the Vatican allowed Mass to be said.
I
had to then deal with what it meant for a Jew to join a church which is
perceived by the Jewish people as one of the enemies in the history of
the Jewish people
Father David Neuhaus
That was in 1956, almost a decade before the decision was taken to
allow Mass to be celebrated in any language. The argument, from the
petitioners to the Vatican, was that Hebrew was one of the three
languages used to inscribe Jesus's cross.
A few days before conducting the evening Mass, Father Neuhaus
relates his own, remarkable story in measured and thoughtful tones.
We are sitting in the garden of the Pontifical Biblical Institute,
in the centre of Jerusalem - the end to a convoluted journey.
David Neuhaus's parents were German Jews who fled the Nazis and
settled in South Africa. As that country descended deeper into the grim
mire of apartheid, the teenaged David was sent to Israel, to continue
his schooling. There he met a "powerful, mystical" Russian Orthodox
nun, and he discovered Jesus.
"I had to then deal with what it meant for a Jew to join a Church
which is perceived by the Jewish people as one of the enemies in the
history of the Jewish people."
A compromise was struck within David's family. Everyone would draw
breath, and wait. David's will did not waver. At the age of 26, he was
baptised.
But he insists that through that period, and since, he has integrated what he calls "my two identities".
"I feel very strongly historically, socially, ethnically - in all
senses other than religiously - a Jew. And then, integrating with that,
who I am as a person in relationship with God. And it's not easy. There
are no simple solutions."
Some of the community to whom Father Neuhaus ministers, as one of
the five vicars of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, are Catholics who
are living for a short time in Israel, and who want to attend a Mass in
the local language; some are expatriates who have married Israelis; and
some, as with him, have converted from Judaism.
Did he, I asked him, still go to synagogue? A pause. "I do go,
discreetly," Father Neuhaus replied. And then a laugh: "Now I'm saying
it [in] public." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8032339.stm>
Hollywood battling 'DVD copying'
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
The movie studios have described RealDVD as "StealDVD"
Hollywood has locked horns with the technology industry over who will control digital entertainment and how it is watched.
The six big film studios say a program called RealDVD violates copyright.
This week a San Francisco court could decide if DVD users can make personal backups the way people do with audio.
"The consumer should have the same fair use rights to copy DVDs just
as they have for the last decade with music," said Bill Hankes of
RealDVD.
RealDVD, which is made by RealNetworks, allows DVD
owners to make digital copies of their discs onto a computer or laptop
hard drive for their own personal use without having to pay extra.
Downloadable versions of many movies are available online, and some
studios let users make a digital copy of a movie onto a computer by
paying more for an "expanded edition" of a DVD.
Many believe this means the consumer is being made to pay twice.
Kevin Hunt who writes the Electronic Jungle column for the Baltimore
Sun said: "For 11 years, since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) made it illegal to bypass any digital rights management
protection system, the movie and music industries have fought a war
ostensibly against piracy.
"In reality, it has been a war against the consumer, designed to
make people pay more than once for the same song or album or movie."
'Steal DVD'
At the heart of the case the movie studios, represented by the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), claim that RealDVD is
illegal under the DMCA.
Figures show the DVD market in the US was worth almost $22bn in 2008
The Association said the software bypasses the copy protection built
into DVDs meaning that users could copy a DVD and share it around. The
studios have described the product as "Steal DVD."
The real fear being expressed is that the technology would enable people to "rent, rip, and return" DVDs.
These are the terms used to describe someone who rents a DVD, copies
the content onto a hard drive and returns the movie without ever paying
for the unauthorised copy.
"Our objective is to get the illegal choices out of the marketplace
and instead focus constructively with the technology community on
bringing in more innovative and flexible legal options for consumers to
enjoy movies," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general
counsel, MPAA told the BBC in an e-mail statement.
RealNetworks, which makes RealDVD, claimed that in actual fact the company has enhanced the security of the product.
"We have added an extra layer of security encryption, the same the
government uses, to ensure piracy is not a possibility," said RealDVD
spokesman Mr Hankes.
A digital version made using RealDVD can only be played on the computer that made the copy.
The DVD Copy Control Association, which is primarily responsible for
the copy protection of DVDs and also suing RealNetworks, told the BBC
it would not comment until the case is resolved. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8027907.stm>
Male 'contraceptive jab' closer
Monthly injections of testosterone lowered sperm count
A male contraceptive jab could be as effective at preventing pregnancies as the female pill or condoms, work shows.
The monthly testosterone injection works by temporarily blocking
sperm production and could revolutionise birth control, experts
believe.
In trials in China only one man in 100 fathered a child while on the
injections, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
reports.
Six months after stopping the jabs the men's sperm counts returned to normal.
Family planning campaigners welcomed the news and said
they hoped an injection would give couples more choice and enable men
to take a greater share of the responsibility for contraception.
At the moment the onus is on the woman and men do not have that much choice
But experts said more trials were needed to check the safety of the jab.
Previous attempts to develop an effective and convenient male
contraceptive have encountered problems over reliability and side
effects, such as mood swings and a lowered sex drive.
Despite the injection having no serious side effects, almost a third
of the 1,045 men in the two-and-a-half year trial did not complete it
and no reason was given for this. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8033218.stm>
Beetroot 'may cut blood pressure'
Root vegetable, and potential lifesaver?
Drinking 500ml of beetroot juice a day can significantly reduce blood pressure, UK research suggests.
The key beneficial ingredient appears to be nitrate, which is also found in green, leafy vegetables.
The researchers found that in healthy volunteers blood pressure was reduced within an hour of drinking the juice.
The study, by Barts and the London School of Medicine
and the Peninsula Medical School, could suggest a low-cost way to treat
hypertension.
Drinking
beetroot juice, or consuming other nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a
simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system
Professor Amrita Ahluwalia Barts and The London School of Medicine
Previously the protective effects of vegetable-rich diets have been attributed to their antioxidant vitamin content.
While it took less than an hour to note a reduction in
blood pressure in the beetroot juice tests, it was more pronounced
after three to four hours and a degree of reduction continued to be
observed for up to 24 hours, the report published on the online journal
Hypertension said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7228420.stm>
In China, much is made of age and experience. The more you have of both, the better.
Chairman Mao ruled into his 80s. Deng Xiaoping only got started as
China's leader when he was in his mid-70s. Before China's current
leader Hu Jintao took over in 2002, there was some worried discussion
here that he might be too young because he was just 60. (He got the job
anyway.)
In this country, there's also plenty of reverence for the right
qualifications. If you're the health minister, you are expected to be a
doctor. If you're the defence minister, you're expected to be pretty
good with a gun.
Ideally,
you bury yourself away in obscure pursuit of your specialist subject
for 30 years, in order to come out the other end as a grizzled, trusted
public expert.
So, what was this country to make of a visiting climate change
minister from Britain who was just 39 and who wasn't even a scientist?
This point clearly intrigued the audience listening to Ed Miliband on
Monday morning at Peking University.
After he delivered a speech on climate change, Mr Miliband was twice
asked about the fact that he wasn't a scientist or even an
environmental expert - he studied politics, philosophy and economics at
university.
His answer to the students: "Your basic point about me - that I'm
not a scientist - maybe that is one aspect of politics in Britain,
which is that people get appointed to jobs where they don't necessarily
have expertise. But what do I hope to try and bring to this?... I hope
that the skill politicians have - the only skill maybe - is the ability
to try and persuade people."
On Mr Miliband's adopted subject of climate change, China will need plenty of persuading.
In December, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen in order to negotiate a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
China has made it clear that it's willing to co-operate with action
to stop global warming. But it insists that as a developing nation, it
cannot accept any cap on its emissions. Since China is now reported to
be the world's largest carbon emitter, this is a pretty critical point.
Neil Wallace reveals the inner workings of Goce's ion engine
Europe is set to launch one of its most challenging space missions to date.
The Goce satellite will map minute variations in the pull of gravity experienced across the planet.
Scientists will use its data to improve their understanding of
how the oceans move, and to frame a universal system to measure height
anywhere on Earth.
The super-sleek spacecraft will go into orbit on a modified
intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in
north-west Russia.
This is the most beautiful satellite that has ever been built
Lift-off for the Rockot vehicle is timed for 1421 GMT on Monday.
Most satellites launched into space are ugly boxes. The European Space Agency's (Esa) Goce satellite is very different.
"This is the most beautiful satellite that has ever been built -
and for good reason," enthused one of the scientists who conceived the
mission, Reiner Rummel, from the Technical University of Munich,
Germany.
Goce's striking good-looks are a requirement of the extremely testing environment in which it will have to operate.
The arrow shape and fins are necessary to keep the spacecraft
stable as it flies through the wisps of air still present at an
altitude just under 270km.
This orbit is much lower than for most Earth observation
missions but will be essential if Goce is to sense the very subtle
gravity anomalies that exist across the planet.
"Our current knowledge of the Earth's gravity is incomplete," explained Danilo Muzi, Esa's Goce programme manager.
"Gravity is the force we experience daily; it keeps our feet on
the ground. But there is this general misconception that it is constant
everywhere on the globe, which is not true. If we go to the North Pole
we will weigh more than if we are at the equator."
Goce data will be used to construct an idealised surface called a geoid
This extraordinary phenomenon is explained in part by the shape of
the planet. It is not a perfect sphere - it is flatter at the poles,
fatter at the equator. Its interior layers are also not composed of
uniform shells of homogenous rock - some regions are thicker or denser.
This leads to an irregular distribution of mass; and as
everything that has mass is pulled by gravity, its tug becomes
irregular, too.
The variations, though, are miniscule - almost imperceptible.
Meeting the measurement challenge in itself resulted in two
years' delay for the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation
Explorer (Goce). Engineers have had to work through immense technical
difficulties. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7935621.stm>
Web founder looks to big changes
Mobile phone Web access will benefit the developing world, says Sir Tim
The founder of the World Wide Web says the pace of innovation on the web is increasing all the time.
Marking the 20th anniversary of his proposal to create the web,
Sir Tim Berners-Lee said "new changes are going to rock the world even
more".
The future of the web lies in mobile phones, he said at the
research centre in Switzerland where he was working when he proposed
the web.
He also warned of user profiling on the internet and the risks of "snooping".
Sir Tim was working at the Cern nuclear research
centre, near Geneva, in March 1989 when he proposed to his colleagues a
hypertext database with text links that would help scientists around
the world share information quickly.
His supervisor described the proposal as "vague, but exciting"
and the next year Sir Tim wrote the software that allowed users access
to information on the already-existing internet.
In
developing countries it's going to be exciting because [mobile phones
are] the only way that a lot of people will actually get to see the
internet at all
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Speaking to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan Jones,
Sir Tim credited scientists around the world with helping to build the
web.
"Creative people all over the planet started to get involved
and I'd get these random e-mails from people in different fields and
different countries who decided the web would be a good idea if
everybody did it, so they would do it." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7943319.stm>
Lawmaker slams Cojuango's plan to "donate" Luisita lands
03/14/2009 | 03:39 PM
MANILA, Philippines —
Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano on Saturday assailed the
Cojuangcos plan to donate 50 hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita to be
converted into a national training and billeting center for athletes,
calling the move as “a plot to weaken and undermine farmers’ legitimate
claim over the contested lands."
Mariano issued the statement after Philippine Olympic Committee (POC)
president Jose Cojuangco revealed plans “to donate" part of the vast
property owned by the Cojuangco family to serve as site for a National
Training Center.
POC spokesman Joey Romasanta said the Cojuangco group of companies
would put up some 50 hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita for 50-year
lease at P1 a year.
“It is highly deplorable that the Cojuangcos are arbitrarily deciding
on what to do with Hacienda Luisita. The lands belong to the farmers
and farm workers long denied of their rightful claims over the lands,"
says Mariano.
He said that “Cojuangco’s pretense of generosity appears to be a plot
to weaken and undermine farmers and farm workers’ legitimate claim over
the contested lands."
“This move would pave the way for the massive conversion of lands in
the Hacienda. In fact, they have already converted more than 500
hectares," the lawmaker said.
Mariano said the “bogus" Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
and Joint Resolution No. 1 passed by Congress in December last year,
which removed even the token compulsory acquisition scheme triggered
moves of big landowners to strengthen their grip over vast tracts of
lands.
“The sham CARP that was further emasculated by Joint Resolution No. 1
reinforced moves by big landlords to keep their lands, like the
Cojuangco's Hacienda Luisita, away from actual distribution," said
Mariano, author of House Bill 3059 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill.
“In 1989, then President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino’s administration
placed the 6,400 hectare Hacienda Luisita under the CARP’s stock
distribution option (SDO) scheme, instead of distributing the lands.
Under the CARP’s SDO, the Cojuangcos have not only managed to evade
their decades-old responsibility but have also gotten rid of all legal
obstacles to their ownership of the hacienda," he added.
In December 2005, a year after the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the
Department of Agrarian Reform and the Presidential Agrarian Reform
Council cancelled the SDO in Hacienda Luisita.
Yahoo is to close its personal web hosting site GeoCities later this year.
In a statement, the firm says it will no longer be accepting new
customers and will focus on helping "customers build new relationships
online".
Yahoo bought GeoCities for $3.57bn at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999.
At its peak, GeoCities boasted millions of active accounts, but it
has since fallen out of fashion, with users migrating to social
networking sites.
Yahoo says that existing GeoCities accounts will remain
live for now, although it stresses that users should start looking for
alternative sites.
"You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage
anyone interested in a full-featured web-hosting plan to consider
upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service," the firm
said in an online post.
The closure of GeoCities spells the end of Yahoo's free hosting,
although other services - such as e-mail accounts - remain unaffected.
Rupert Goodwins, editor of the ZDNet website, said the closure of GeoCities was the end of an era.
"I think GeoCities was the first proof that you could have something
really popular and still not make any money on the internet.
"It was a fascinating experiment in the pre-industrial era of the
internet, but after the initial exuberance on what the web could do, it
turned out to be more complicated than just giving them free hosting.
"You need to give users tools to actually do things and make things
simple, one of the reasons sites like Facebook and MySpace are so
popular," he said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8016211.stm>
Facebook users say yes to changes
Facebook members were invited to vote on the changes
Facebook users have voted to back changes which give them control over data and content they post on the site.
Early results suggest 75% of those who voted support the proposals.
The vote was triggered by changes Facebook made to its terms and conditions in February.
The move drew fire because it appeared to hand the social network
site ownership of images, videos and data that users posted on profile
pages.
Low turnout
In response to the criticism, Facebook withdrew the changed terms,
wrote a new set and invited its 200 million members to make their views
known.
The new terms return control of what is done with data put on the
site to users and give them the right to ask for it to be deleted if
they stop using Facebook.
In total about 600,000 people took part in the week-long vote.
Initially, Facebook said it would only adopt those new terms if 30% of
its members voted in support of them.
However, writing in a blog posting on Facebook announcing the early
results, Ted Ullyot, Facebook's legal chief, said it would adopt them
anyway.
"You can expect to see the new documents on the site in the coming weeks," wrote Mr Ullyot.
He said a preliminary count suggested 74.4% backed the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.
The results are now being assessed by an external auditor to produce a final count.
Mr Ullyot expressed disappointment that there was not a bigger
turnout but acknowledged that the exercise was a first for both
Facebook and its members.
Future votes on changes to how the site operates, which are
enshrined in the new terms, will have a threshold of less than 30% for
any alterations to be made binding.
At 1745 daily an Amtrak Cascades train pulls out of Vancouver and heads south to the US.
Sleek but not speedy: US trains are restricted in how fast they can go
It is scheduled to arrive in Seattle, in Washington State, four
hours and 20 minutes later. Even allowing for customs at the border it
is hardly a speedy way to cover 157 miles (252km), although the scenery
is nice.
But if Washington State's Department of Transport succeeds in
grabbing some of the cash on offer from the other Washington - 2,300
miles away - the Pacific Northwest could yet see some of the best rail
services in the US.
America's long-distance network fell into long-term decline in the
1930s. But Barack Obama - encouraged by his rail-enthusiast Vice
President Joe Biden - wants the once-mighty railroad to make a
contribution to economic rebirth. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8010221.stm>
'I just wanted to look like her'
By Rowan Bridge
BBC Radio 5 Live
Janet Cunliffe on why she decided to change her image
Walking through Burnley town centre with Janet and Jane Cunliffe,
you immediately notice the number of people staring at them as they
walk past.
In their white jeans (size six), matching tops, peroxide blonde hair
and rather heavy make-up, they appear somewhat out of place amongst the
Tuesday lunchtime crowd in the former Lancashire mill-town.
At one point, one of the people walking past sniggers once they're behind us.
"Yes, we get a bit of that," Jane, who's 29, says.
Janet, it's fair to say, doesn't look - or dress - like your average 50-year-old.
"People think we must be sisters, or related in some way, but they'd never believe we were mother and daughter," she says.
'Like my sister'
But her ability to fool people about her age hasn't come cheap.
Janet reckons she's spent £12,000 on surgical enhancement.
"I was a 34A/B and now I'm 34DD. I had my upper eyes lifted and
lower eyes, I had my nose reshaped and my lips filled with filler.
"I decided to do it because I was feeling low at the time, I'd just
come out of a long-term relationship, so just to boost my confidence.
She looks like my sister and I'm happy for her
Jane Cunliffe, daughter
"My daughter inspired me at the time, so I just wanted to look like
her and to make me feel a lot more youthful and to give me some
confidence."
Jane's initial reaction was perhaps not surprising.
"I went mad. It were the dangers I was scared of for her. I didn't
want her to change her looks, but she's happy now. I'm proud of her
that she's feeling more confident in herself.
"She looks like my sister and I'm happy for her."
The two of them shop for clothes together. and will often find
themselves wearing matching or complementary outfits when they go out
together.
As they rifle through their wardrobe of clothes Janet pulls out one of their dresses to show me.
"There is a purple dress here that we bought in America that we both
liked and we both wear it. It's a nice clingy dress and I think it
looks great on both of us.
One Hereford cow could transform world food production
The genome of a female Hereford cow
has been sequenced, which could be a starting point for major
improvements in the agricultural industry.
Analysing this blueprint of DNA code for the chemical building
blocks of the animal is revealing the unique role that many of the
genes play.
The information is likely to have a major impact on livestock breeding.
The study, published in the journal Science, was a six-year effort by more than 300 scientists in 25 countries.
Cattle now join an elite group of animals to have had
their genome sequenced - a group that includes humans, other primates
and rodents.
"We chose to study the cow genome because these animals are of such
immense importance to humans," explained Richard Gibbs from Baylor
College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center, a leading
contributor to the project.
This could be used to come up with ways to reduce the environmental impact of cattle, such as greenhouse gases released by herds
Richard Gibbs
Baylor College of Medicine
By comparing the results to other sequenced genomes, including that
of humans, the researchers discovered how cows could help inform
research into human health and disease.
"We found that cows are much more similar to us than rodents are," said Professor Gibbs.
Roger Harrabin reports on the principle, the practice, and the controversy of carbon capture
The UK government has given a massive boost to world ambitions to
develop clean-coal technology. It announced a decision that will herald
a new generation of coal-fired power stations in the UK - but all of
them will have to have their CO2 emissions partially captured by
cutting-edge technology.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has finally come of age. After
years of skulking in the shadows of disbelief it is about to claim its
place in the sun.
CCS has been championed by industries who stand to gain from it and
by a few greens who reasoned it was the only technology which allowed
China and India to burn the black stuff under their feet without
sending emissions spiralling even higher.
It was distrusted by many mainstream environmentalists who saw it is
a dangerous diversion from cleaner, renewable technologies.
Those fears have not completely evaporated - but it was significant
to see green groups congratulating the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband,
for his leadership and vision, whilst harbouring residual doubts.
The CCS announcement was historic. Looking through the archive, I
heard a TV reporter in 1969 intone that Drax in North Yorkshire might
be the last coal power station to be built in the UK, as nuclear became
the fuel of the future. And no new coal power station has been
commissioned in Britain for more than 30 years.
Most energy experts now agree that coal has to play a part in
securing energy diversity - especially with the intermittency of wind
and uncertainty of nuclear new-build.
Building conventional coal stations would torch the UK's climate targets - so carbon capture was the only way out.
That solution was foreseen by few people in government five years
ago. It has taken an impending crisis in energy and climate to focus
minds on the need to fund the technology, probably with a direct levy
of a few percent on bills, and - crucially - to insist that it is
fitted.
Pioneering plants
Some important questions remain over the technology. I believe that
it will prove feasible, if costly. The US has been injecting CO2 into
rock to extract oil for decades.
I have visited three plants pioneering the technology - Polk in
Florida where coal is "cooked" to produce gas and dust; Schwarze Pumpe
in Germany where CO2 is captured in a pilot project by scrubbers in the
chimney; and In Salah in the Sahara where BP is pumping its CO2
emissions into desert rocks.
They all appear to be working fine as components of the CCS process,
and it is likely that they will work together in the UK for the whole
process.
Some greens have been asking what happens if the CO2 leaks. But the
CO2 will be locked into tiny cavities in the same sorts of porous rock
that hold natural gas.
Microsoft said it expected another tricky quarter.
Microsoft has said sales in the first
three months of 2009 fell 6% from the previous year - its first
quarterly drop in 23 years as a public company.
The world's largest software maker said profit dropped by 32% to $2.98bn (£2bn). Sales slipped to $13.65bn.
Microsoft makes most of its profit selling the Windows operating system and business software such as Office.
However demand has been hit by falling sales of personal computers as consumers and businesses trim spending.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told the BBC
World Service that its results had been "impacted" by the downturn in
the world economy.
He also admitted the company would have had less total sales "than we would have had before the downturn".
"We expect the weakness to continue through at least the next
quarter," said the firm's chief financial officer, Chris Liddell.
Microsoft - which became a public company in 1986 - has been looking at ways of cutting costs.
In January, it said it would cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, including 1,400 immediately.
'Controlling costs'
Microsoft's fall in profit was more severe than analysts had been expecting.
"There's stuff to be happy with - they're controlling costs and
getting that under control," said Kim Caughey, a senior analyst with
Fort Pitt Capital.
The bad thing is demand and consumer preference seems to have affected their top line
Kim Caughey, Fort Pitt Capital
"The bad thing is demand and consumer preference seems to have affected their top line."
Shares in Microsoft rose by 4% in after-hours trading - possibly
reassured by comments from the firm that it was on track to release the
next version of its operating system, Windows 7, during its 2010
financial year. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8015623.stm>
Oklahoma coping better than most
BBC
correspondent Matthew Price, who is travelling across the US to see how
Americans are coping with the recession, finds that Oklahoma is
weathering the economic storm better than most. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8016829.stm>
Can Twitter survive the hype cycle?
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, San Francisco
Oprah Winfrey tweets live on TV while Twitter boss Evan Williams looks on
During the election, Barack Obama proved to be something of a
trailblazer in using social media tools, such as Twitter, to get his
message out and rally support.
Now American celebrities are the latest group to join the Twitter party.
The queen of TV chat shows, Oprah Winfrey, has taken Twitter to new
heights. But nagging questions remain over Twitter's potential to be a
successful business and be more than just another zeitgeist term for
social media.
Right now we have plenty of time and plenty of money in the bank and patient investors
Biz Stone, Twitter
Oprah joined the social networking group last week when she sent her
first tweet live on air and brought Twitter into the living rooms of
ordinary Americans.
"It was a brilliant coup," said Ann Handley of Marketing Profs, who
is also a regular twitterer with more than 28,000 followers.
"A week ago I would ask my non-geek friends if they had ever heard
of Twitter and they would say no. Today they know exactly what I am
talking about and it's all down to Oprah," Ms Handley told the BBC.
Works like The Siesta (1879) by JF Lewis reflect a western fascination in the East
By Sylvia Smith
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Giving the negative connotations of the term "Orientalist" in
this post-colonialist world, one might expect the opening of the first
major exhibition of British Orientalist art in the Gulf to be a
controversial event.
In fact the 85 oil paintings, sketches and water colours that make
up the Lure of the East exhibition, have elicited little else apart
from curiosity and delight in the Emirate of Sharjah.
The works, first displayed at Tate Britain, have travelled via
Turkey to the Gulf following a roughly similar route to that taken by
many British artists who made their way to the Orient in the 19th
century.
These early adventurers brought back images that stirred the
European imagination showing scenes of a very different way of life;
one that lured many of the artists to stay on for prolonged periods.
No Muslim woman would ever have dressed like that. It is just playing up to a fantasy. But to us it is irrelevant
Hemadi, Iraq-born artist
According to Manal Ataya, the director general of Sharjah Museums Department, the exhibition will bridge cultural gaps.
"We know that these paintings can be viewed as controversial," she explains.
"But we see them in a positive light. It is fascinating to see
places in the Muslim world that now no longer exist. We are lucky to
have such accurate records of the architecture of the time. In many
cases they are the only records we have."
Hung in a series of rooms on the ground floor of the Sharjah Art
Museum, the works reflect the West's fascination with life in the East
in the last two centuries.
More details
She looks like my sister and I'm happy for her
