Kentucky Derby

by Alex on August 28, 2008 · Filed Under Sports · 1 Comment 

Kentucky Derby

Grade 1 Race
Kentucky Derby

“The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports”
Location Churchill Downs
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Inaugurated: 1875
Race type Thoroughbred
Website: 2007 Kentucky Derby
Race information
Distance 1¼ miles
Track Dirt, Left-handed
Qualification 3-year-old
Weight Colt/Gelding: 126 lbs (57.2 kg)
Filly: 121 lbs. (54.9 kg)
Purse US$2 million
Bonuses: US$ 200

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is over one and a quarter miles (2 km) at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57.2 kg) and fillies 121 pounds (54.9 kg).[1] The race is known in the United States as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” for its approximate duration, and is also called “The Run for the Roses” for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in the US and typically draws around 155,000 fans. It is the single oldest annually held sporting event in the entire South. Read more

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Muhammad

by Melissa on August 26, 2008 · Filed Under history · Comment 

Muhammad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

“Muhammad” in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman.[1]

 

A 16th-century Ottoman illustration depicting Muhammad at the Kaaba. Muhammad's face is veiled, a practice followed in Islamic art since the 16th century. Read more

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Liviu Librescu

by Margaret on August 25, 2008 · Filed Under history · 2 Comments 

Liviu Librescu

Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007; Hebrew: ליביו ליברסקו) was a Romanian born and educated Israeli-American scientist and academic whose major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics. His most recent position was Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech.[3] The 76-year-old Holocaust survivor was shot and killed in the Virginia Tech massacre while holding off the gunman at the entrance to his classroom so his students could escape through the windows.[4]
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Joost

by Alex on August 20, 2008 · Filed Under Technology · Comment 

(pronounced ‘juiced’) is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa).

Joost began development in 2006. Working under the code name “The Venice Project,” Zennström and Friis have assembled teams of some 150 software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, Leiden and Toulouse. Joost’s CTO is Dirk-Willem van Gulik.[1]

Joost

The teams are currently in negotiations with FOX networks. It has signed up with Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions (Indianapolis 500, IndyCar Series) and production company Endemol for the beta.[2] In February 2007, Viacom entered into a deal with the company to distribute content from its media properties, including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures.

Company representatives have gone on record as saying the name should be pronounced as “juiced”, unlike the Dutch first name Joost, which is pronounced ‘Yohst.’

Technology
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.

The program is based on P2PTV technology and is expected to deliver (relaying) near-TV resolution images. It turns a PC into an instant on-demand TV without any need for additional set top box. News updates, discussion forums, show ratings, and multi-user chat sessions (often linked to the active stream/channel) are made possible through the use of semi-transparent widget overlays.

The current version of the software is based on XULRunner and the audio management re-uses the ZAP Media Kit. The peer to peer layer comes from the Joltid company, which also provided the peer to peer layer of Skype. The video playback utilizes the CoreCodec, CoreAVC H.264 video decoder.

[edit] Financing

[edit] Joost development

As co-owners of Skype, Friis and Zennström received part of a $2.6 billion cash payment when eBay acquired Skype in 2005, which easily covered the development and marketing cost of their Joost venture. Just a week after launching the service, the founders announces that they have raised additional $45 million. Sequoia Capital, which backed Yahoo, Google and YouTube; Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype; Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon; and CBS, the US media group, have all taken “small minority” stakes in the start-up. Viacom is also understood to be among the partners, although the nature of its backing has not been disclosed.

[edit] Content distribution

As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.

The Joost service will be ad-supported, with advertising analogous to that shown on traditional TV, according to CEO Fredrik de Wahl.[4]

[edit] Availability

Currently, the software is in an open beta stage; an invite is required to become a user. However, a new stage of the beta was announced on May 1st, and all users were given unlimited invitations.[5] Linux is not yet supported.

[edit] Programming Content

Viacom Inc. and Joost entered into a content provider agreement for the Joost platform on February 20, 2007. Under the agreement divisions of Viacom (including MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures) will license their “television and theatrical programing” to Joost.[6] This came shortly after Viacom requested 100,000 potentially infringing videos to be removed from YouTube.com, which showed a preference by Viacom for the Joost platform over YouTube.[7]

Joost also currently has licensing agreements in place with Ministry of Sound TV, Warner Music, the production company Endemol[8], Diversion Media[9], CBS[10] and CenterStaging’s rehearsals.com[11]. On May 1, 2007, Joost signed a deal to distribute NHL content, including full game replays of the Stanley Cup Finals, and vintage games.[12]

[edit] Channels

The Joost applications includes three special channels What’s Popular, Search, and Joost Suggests which offers services, like searching the channel list or gathering statistics about channels, that can be used to find a channel that can be viewed. Apart from that, it also lists a number of channels serving various genres of content.[13]

[edit] History

[edit] Timeline

* 2006, October: The Venice Project announced.
* 2006, December: Invitation-only beta testing began.
* 2007, January 16: Officially announce real name, “Joost”[14]
* 2007, February 17: Macintosh beta testing began
* 2007, February 20: Viacom announces that it will be a “key partner” in television programming for Joost.
* 2007, March 7: CHUM Television announces its partnership with Joost to provide content, the majority of which to come from MuchMusic.
* 2007, April 5: Joost opens the newest beta version 0.9.1 to many new users, however bugs prevail and problems with playback now exist.
* 2007, April 10: Joost releases beta 0.9.2 to remove a hard-coded security certificate. Previous versions no longer run.
* 2007, April 24: Joost releases beta 0.9.4
* 2007, May 1: Joost releases beta 0.10.1 , granting existing beta users the ability to invite up to 999 peers to try Joost.
* 2007, May 9: Joost releases beta 0.10.2

[edit] See also

* Internet television
* Democracy Player
* TVUPlayer
* Babelgum
* Zattoo

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Amazon Kindle

by Sandy on August 17, 2008 · Filed Under Amazon Kindle, Business, Entertainment, Gadgets · 2 Comments 

Amazon Kindle is an ebook reader which uses an electronic paper display, reading Amazon’s proprietary Kindle format (AZW format), and connects by downloading content over Amazon Whispernet, which uses the Sprint EVDO network. The Kindle does not need access to a computer. Whispernet is accessible through Kindle free of charge. The day that the Kindle was released, the Kindle Store had over 88,000 digital titles available for download. The initial sale of the Kindle sold out in 5.5 hours.

Technical specifications

The Kindle features a 6″ diagonal, 4-level grayscale electrophoretic display (E Ink material) with a resolution of 600×800 pixels (167 ppi), although the largest graphic image that can be displayed without being resized is 450×550 pixels. It measures 5.3 inches × 7.5 inches × 0.7 inches (134.5 mm × 190 mm × 19 mm) and weighs 10.3 oz (295 g). The Kindle’s internal storage capacity is 256 MB, shipping with 180 MB free. A SD memory card expansion slot is present, officially supporting up to 4GB which implies support for SDHC. It has 64 MB of RAM. The battery lasts roughly two days with wireless on, and one week with wireless off. The battery charges in about two hours. A USB 2.0 port (mini-B connector) is available for connecting to a computer (where it acts as a USB flash drive). The Kindle features a headphone jack and one-year warranty. The device runs on a modified version of Linux based on the 2.6.10 kernel.

Content

The internal memory of the Amazon Kindle can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles. Users can download content from Amazon in the proprietary Kindle format (AZW), or load unprotected Mobipocket (PRC, MOBI) or plain text content. Amazon offers an email-based service that will convert HTML, DOC (Microsoft Word), JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP documents to AZW. It also supports audio in the form of MP3s and Audible 2, 3, and 4 audiobooks, which must be transferred to the Kindle over USB or on an SD card.

Users can download content through the Kindle Store. The Kindle Store is accessed through Whispernet, over Sprint’s EVDO network, which Amazon provides free of charge. New releases and New York Times bestsellers are offered for approximately $10. Classics like Bleak House sell for around $1.99, with free samples available of the first chapter of each book. Subscriptions to newspapers cost between $5.99 and $14.99 per month, magazines between $1.25 and $3.49 per month, and blogs for $0.99-$1.99 per month. Users can send documents to a conversion service which will send a Kindle-formatted file to the device directly for $0.10 or to a personal e-mail account for free. Users can transfer converted documents from a computer to the Kindle via a USB cable or an SD card for free. Access to Wikipedia is offered at no additional charge.

Digital Text Platform

Concurrently with the Kindle device, Amazon launched the Digital Text Platform, a system for authors to self-publish directly to the Kindle. Currently in open beta, the platform was promoted to established authors by e-mail. Authors can upload documents in several formats for delivery via Whispernet and charge between US$0.99 and $200 per download. The authors receive 35% of revenues based on their list price, regardless of discounts by Amazon.

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Diet enacts law to reduce air pollution in big cities

by Alex on August 15, 2008 · Filed Under World · Comment 

TOKYO — The Diet enacted a revised law Friday aimed at reducing motor vehicle emissions by tightening regulations on the construction of department stores, offices and other facilities in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. The revised law on vehicle-emitted nitrogen oxides and particle matters is designed to regulate those facilities, which may generate heavy vehicle traffic.

The revised law empowers prefectural governors to formulate and implement antipollution measures such as building flyover roadways at intersections or other designated areas polluted heavily with nitrogen oxides and particles from vehicle emissions that cause asthma. It requires reporting to governors projections of gas emissions and plans for reducing emissions before building facilities such as hotels and theaters that may draw vehicles.

In addition, trucking and transport companies in areas surrounding the designated ones are required to work out measures to cut vehicle emissions such as reducing the number of their entries into such areas.
Tokyo

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Bullying Stories

by Bethany on August 14, 2008 · Filed Under social · Comment 

So, what is Bullying Long Term Effects and Bullying Stories Blog about. It’s actually been 28 years in the making for me. I am currently working on a documentary film about the long term effects of bullying. With this blog, I am hoping to collect your stories and start to share in what I believe to be the long term effects that being bullied or being a bully has on us as adults. This isn’t the kids perspective, but an adult perspective on how those informative years affect how we are as adults today: our fears, our attitude, and our memories of childhood.

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Lauren Nelson helps nab child preditors and pedophiles

by Robert on August 13, 2008 · Filed Under Current Events · Comment 

Lauren Nelson is a beauty queen from Lawton, Oklahoma who holds the Miss America 2007 title. Nelson is the second consecutive Miss America and sixth in the history of Miss America to hail from this state.

Miss America Lauren Nelson

Nelson was Miss Teen Oklahoma 2004, and in this role, she performed at the 2005 Miss America Pageant.[2] En route to Miss America, she won the Miss Oklahoma State Fair local title and then competed in the Miss Oklahoma pageant for the first time on June 11, 2006, and was crowned Miss Oklahoma 2006, for which she received a $16,000 scholarship. At age nineteen, she was the youngest contestant to become Miss Oklahoma.

Nelson went on to represent Oklahoma in the Miss America 2007 pageant broadcast on CMT from the Aladdin Resort and Casino on January 29, 2007. She won a preliminary swimsuit award on Thursday night, becoming her state’s first Swimsuit preliminary award since 1955. At the conclusion of the live telecast, Nelson was crowned the 82nd Miss America. She succeeds Jennifer Berry, of Jenks, Oklahoma, in the first occurrence of consecutive winners from the same state since 1959-1960.

A graduate of MacArthur High School, Nelson is a student at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is also a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. She is a member of Centenary United Methodist Church in Lawton, Oklahoma. Her goal is to become a Broadway performer. Her Miss America talent was a vocal performance, and her platform issue is “Be NetSmart – Protecting Kids Online”. She receives a $50,000 scholarship award along with the title.

In a recent article she expressed support for Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.[3]

Nelson recently teamed up with host John Walsh on the FOX television show America’s Most Wanted to assist in the apprehension of potential child predators. Initial reports as of May 1, 2007, stated that she did not plan to return to testify against those predators that were apprehended, putting the prosecution’s case in jeopardy. [4] However, she appeared to change her mind later that day, and it is reported that she will testify against the perpetrators.

Source: Wikipedia

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Immigration

by Seth on August 12, 2008 · Filed Under Current Events, Politics · 1 Comment 

Immigration

Although human migration has existed throughout human history, immigration in the modern sense refers to movement of people from one nation-state to another. Immigration implies long-term permanent residence (and often eventual citizenship) by the immigrants: tourists and short-term visitors are not considered immigrants (see expatriates). However, seasonal labour migration (typically for periods of less than a year) is often treated as a form of immigration. The global volume of immigration is high in absolute terms, but low in relative terms. The UN estimated 190 million international migrants in 2005, about 3% of global population. The other 97% still live in the state in which they were born, or its successor state.

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Bebo

by Robert on August 10, 2008 · Filed Under Technology · Comment 

Bebo is a social networking website, designed to allow friends to communicate in various ways. It has developed into an online community where users can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another, and is similar in format to MySpace, Xanga, and Yahoo! 360. The site was founded in January 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi Birch. It was given a major relaunch in July of that year.

Bebo is the 89th most popular English-language website (at 2 May 2007) according to Alexa Internet. In the United States, Bebo was the fastest growing social networking site in June 2006 according to Hitwise, Inc. Bebo also announced on March 17, 2007 that it was the most popular website in the Republic of Ireland. Bebo as a keyword was also listed as the number one term most representative of search trends on Google in 2006.
Bebo
Features

Once a user has registered an account, they edit and maintain their own profile page using online forms. The top of a user’s profile contains information about the user, which would typically include their name, a customizable profile image (often a photo of the user), and some miscellaneous information under various headings. Although default headings are provided, many users create their own to reflect their own interests.

Profiles include; a whiteboard, in which other users can draw pictures with a variety of colors using a system called ffArt, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user’s friends. These are all publicly viewable, unless the user selects the “Private Profile” option, which limits access to the profile to friends specifically added by the user.

Profiles are also capable of including quizzes, slide-shows of images uploaded by the user, polls for their friends to vote in, photo albums, blogs with a comments section for others’ responses, a list of bands (see below) of which the profile-holder is a “groupie” and a “Flash Box”; which plays video, often linked from popular Internet site YouTube, or uploaded directly to Bebo’s servers. Members can also add “widgets” which are more graphically rich components provided by an external site — typically something like a slide-show of the member’s photos with some transition effect applied.

Bebo Bands

On 11 July 2006, “Bebo Bands” was launched On this section of the site, bands or solo artists are able to create a profile showcasing their music. Along with undiscovered talents, it has a section called “New Music Only on Bebo” linking to established artist pages including Paris Hilton, Matt Willis, Orson, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, The Kooks, Lily Allen, and others.

The band pages include; a band member list which is similar to the friends list on a normal profile, a list of “groupies” (fans who have added the band as though it were a friend), an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo’s media player, or to be added to other user’s playlists. These songs can be grouped by the band into albums, along with cover-art. All band members can edit the content of the band profile.

Although the Bebo Band section is intended for use by musical groups, the facility is also used by many to form clubs or societies, or as unofficial fan pages for established bands.

Controversy

Concern has been raised about potential risks to children from pedophiles accessing personal information contained in profiles. This can, however, be prevented by making one’s profile private. A survey of two million profiles by Bigulo.com found that one in three publicly accessible profiles belonged to children under the age of eighteen.

In March 2006 Norfolk County Council is believed to have become the first LEA in the United Kingdom to order all schools in its authority to block the website from school computers due to its being used for “unsavoury activities”.

In March 2006 in Derry, Bebo was used to organise a sectarian fight under the guise of a cross community football match.

Source: Wikipedia

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