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Scientist Predicted Italy Quake

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:34:57 +0000

Gioacchino Giuliani a researcher who works for the National Institute of Astrophysics, had forecast a devastating earthquake for March 29, posting his findings on the Internet and alerting authorities.

Vans with loudspeakers drove around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after Giuliani, from the National Institute of Astrophysics, predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

“I want apologies from Boschi (Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology,) and Bertolaso (Guido Bertolaso, the civil protection chief), on behalf of all those who died today,” he said. “My prediction unfortunately proved correct.”

Sallie Mae To Add More Jobs To U.S.A

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:29:51 +0000

Sallie Mae announced that it will bring 2,000 jobs to the U.S. within the next 18 months as it shifts call center and other operations from overseas.

SLM Corp, as the company is legally known, said on Monday
it plans to add staff over the next 18 months in call centers,
information technology and operations support across the United States. A spokeswoman said the company will pull jobs from
India, Mexico and the Philippines.

Sallie Mae runs offshore operations including loan originations, servicing and collections — involving both applications processing and call centers — in Pune and Bangalore, India and in Baguio, Philippines.

Skype Sparked Net Neutrality Debate

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:24:05 +0000

Skype’s iPhone application last week started the debate on wireless net neutrality.
Consumer rights organization The Free Press has asked the Federal Communications Commission to apply its 2005 Internet Policy Statement—otherwise known as the FCC’s principles of net neutrality—to wireless Internet services, as well as more-traditional wireline broadband services. The reason? Mobile operators’ seeming unwillingness to open their data networks to services like Skype which would compete with their existing voice offerings.
In Europe, special interest group Voice on the Net (VON) Europe asked European policymakers to adopt laws that ensure consumer can access internet calling services on any public network, according to Reuters. The group, whose members include Skype, Google, Intel and Microsoft, are arguing that carriers who block VoIP applications are restricting consumer choice.

Carrie Underwood’s Night Out

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:15:41 +0000

Carrie Underwood became the seventh female to win the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year award Sunday (4/5), ending Kenny Chesney’s four-year reign.
Incidentally, at the

ACM Awards 2009, she also won ACM Top

Female Vocalist award as well, so all in all, it was a big night for the former American Idol, as it would have to be so that the country music star was not upstaged by the Carrie Underwood red dress she wore during her performance of her latest hit single, “I Told You So.”

Other winners included Sugarland for Top Vocal Duo, Julianne Hough for Top New Artist and Album of the Year winner Taylor Swift, for “Fearless.” The award-performance-award-performance cadence of the three-hour show gave 20 artists a chance to shine for a national audience. Miley Cyrus on “The Climb,” and Rascal Flatts on “Here Comes Goodbye” were among the show’s standouts.

Miller To Work For Arizona

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:11:23 +0000

According to a source, Miller scheduled a Monday afternoon meeting with his staff, at which point he is expected to finalize the decision. The source said Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood called Miller early Monday after having been rejected and “significantly changed” the offer, which was initially around $2 million per year for seven seasons.
Last year Miller signed a contract extension at Xavier through the 2017-18 season, reportedly worth more than $800,000 a year. It’s unclear how much UA offered, but FoxSports.com reported it was at least $2 million a year.

“All I can confirm at this moment is that I remain very optimistic that Sean Miller will be Xavier’s head basketball coach as we move forward,” Bobinski said in a text message sent at 11:48 p.m. Sunday.

Miller met with University of Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood in Albuquerque, N.M., regarding the men’s basketball coaching vacancy.

Bone Repairing With An Injection

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:06:23 +0000

The patient’s own stem cells, harvested from their bone marrow may soon be to patch up damaged bones and joints anywhere in the body.
British scientists are testing injectable stem cells that can be guided around the body with a magnet.
Professor Al Haj successfully grew bone in mice using the stem cell nanoparticles and plans to use the promising new treatment next on goats. Researchers were able to guide the injected stem cells in mice to the damaged areas to generate bone and cartilage growth.
The technique combines the patients own bone marrow stem cells with donor bone cells to patch-repair damaged bones that would otherwise need treatment with metal plates and pins.

Trial opens for gunman in Mumbai attacks

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:38:52 +0000

The sole surviving alleged gunman who brought terror to Mumbai admitted today he was from Pakistan and allegedly “laughed” as charges that could see him hanged were read out.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, was one of ten heavily armed gunmen who ran amok in India’s financial capital in November in a series of coordinated commando-style raids that claimed more than 170 lives. He was the only one to be captured alive.

Judge M.L. Tahiliyani asked Mr. Kasab to identify himself and asked him where he was from. Mr. Kasab replied that he was from Faridkot, in the Pakistani province of Punjab.

Judge Tahiliyani asked Mr. Kasab whether he could see him clearly through the video link, and then he introduced himself as the judge conducting the trial. Mr. Kasab, who looked relaxed and was dressed in a gray tunic and loose pants, said, ‘‘Namaste,’’ a greeting derived from Sanskrit that is popular in South Asia.

The judge was expected to announce a date for the next hearing later Monday.

World’s Cheapest Car On The Road

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:28:50 +0000

It was hardly the new-car launch Ratan Tata might have hoped for. About six months overdue, the $2,000 Nano won’t actually be delivered until July. The plants where the five-seater was to be built are still unfinished.

It’s been the most awaited car in the world and the delay in putting it on the road – due to the relocation of its production facilities – only increased the sense of anticipation.

There’s been an apprehension that Tata’s self-imposed price target of 100,000 rupees ($1,979, £1,366) would make the Nano an apology of a car and sceptics expected a glorified golf cart.

However, after driving the Nano in the western Indian city of Pune – home to Tata Motors – on the highway and rural back roads, it’s turned out to be quite the opposite.

The Nano feels significantly more expensive than it is and a car you certainly won’t be ashamed to sit in.

Geithner unveils Toxic Assest Plan

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:23:21 +0000

Timothy Geithner took the wraps off a long-awaited key component of the Obama administration’s bank rescue plan Monday, detailing a public-private partnership to buy up the so-called toxic assets that are polluting bank balance sheets.
Recall that the Treasury Secretary sorely disappointed the market on Feb. 10 when all he did was pay lip service to the program, which is intended to help banks cleanse toxic assets from their balance sheet, but failed to offer any specific details as to how that process would work.

Now, there is at least some context behind the plan. Whether there is substance to it remains to be seen.

Under Geithner’s plan, taxpayer money and private-sector investment will flow into the Public-Private Investment Program. The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will help provide low-cost financing to subsidize the purchases of distressed bank assets. The Fed will bolster purchases of mortgage-backed securities, the pools of mortgages that are bundled and sold to investors as mortgage bonds. The FDIC will support financing for purchases of mortgage-related loans.

Jade Goody: tributes from across the world

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:38:39 +0000

The Prime Minister has led tributes to Jade Goody from public figures ranging from royalty to celebrities.

Gordon Brown said: “I was deeply saddened to hear the news of Jade Goody’s death.

“She was a courageous woman both in life and death and the whole country has admired her determination to provide a bright future for her children.”

No other occupant of the Big Brother house achieved such national status once leaving the house, but for Jade Goody, it was this one TV programme that determined her rise to fame and her subsequent fall.