vendredi 6 mai 2011

FC BARCALONA Puyol: "We want the league title as soon as possible"

Puyol doesn’t want any surprises and would like to win the league title as soon as they can, and if possible on Sunday against Espanyol. The captain also spoke about the Wembley final, Manchester United, and the rumblings after the last clásico.

 

What you can do today, don’t leave for tomorrow. Carles Puyol subscribes to that saying, and would like win the league title on Sunday, so they’ll have much more time to prepare for the Wembley Champions League Final. "We definitely want to win the league as soon as possible and we’d like to do it this Sunday because a lot of people have already decided that we’ve won it" said Puyol.

This Sunday is the derby at the Camp Nou. Espanyol need the 3 points to keep their options intact of playing in Europe next season. Puyol believes that this doesn’t necessarily make them more dangerous: "They’ll come here as always, with lots of enthusiasm. They have a very good team and they always give us problems. I don’t think it’ll be any different from other seasons”.

jeudi 5 mai 2011

Shakira a confirmé sur son site internet qu'elle participera à la prochaine édition du festival Mawazine et donnera un spectacle à Rabat, le 28 mai prochain.

L’artiste colombienne y précise que l’entrée au concert qu’elle va donner à Rabat sera gratuite. Seules quelques places seront payantes et Shakira offre la possibilité aux intéressés d’acheter leurs billets en ligne.

Le site officiel de la chanteuse colombienne rappelle également que le tube de Shakira "Waka Waka" dans sa version anglaise et espagnole, a été regardé par un milliard de personne sur YouTube.

 

Google Envelopes !

Designers Rahul Mahtani & Yofred Moik from the Industrial Design program at Syracuse University came up with this concept called Google Envelopes. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to map the course of mail and how it can tell a story? They came up with Google Envelopes, which can be sent through G-Mail itself. It’s only a concept, but totally viable and something people can immediately understand.

Toyota i -Unit Personal Mobility Concept


Woah, a Flash Gordon driving suit may be obligatory with this one. Toyota, perhaps straining for a natural metaphor, says the open “i-unit” design is inspired by the leaf. They say it “converts sunlight into life energy, seeks to express the power of the unknown, the logic of living things and the simple beauty of waste-free functionality.” The body is built using environmentally friendly plant-based materials such as kenaf.

The “i-unit” is intended to offer personal mobility in an ultra-compact size with variable positioning, enabling the passenger to move among other people in an upright position in low speed mode. A low center of gravity that ensures stable handling when the vehicles recline in high speed mode.

Terrafugia : It's a Bird! , It's a Plane! No, It's a Car

Everyone has a flyng car, meals come in pill form entirely and the word is ruled by damn dirty apes. “Such words in the Austin Power Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me when he was asked what comes to mind living in the decade 1960 – an imagined that the 21st century will contain cars that float and can terbang.Tak only imagine, people are already trying to create a vehicle that can fly at the same time and driven on the highway. Even this effort has been made since the beginning of the 20th century, precisely in 1910 by Waldo Waterman. However, the efforts of the visionaries are not yet fully known successful. Remain many technical problems that must be met before the vehicle is worthy of being called “The Flying Car.”
But now, a glimmer of light began to appear at the end of the tunnel. One hundred years after the Waterman, a small aircraft company called Terrafugia Inc.. introduced a flying car called Transition. Looking at its shape, Transition looks like a plane that was forced to be driving on the highway. Promising technical specifications. Saved Rotax 912S 100 hp engine which is placed in the middle of the chassis. In airplane mode, the machine will rotate the propeller 4 blade Q-Tip is located in the rear. When a car, the engine will be connected with the transmission has a maximum speed of 185 km / h and distance, as far as 787 km. Alias, not far behind with an average of dragonfly flight class. What about the performance of the highway? Well not bad-very bad. Peak speed is only 105 km / h, but given the rules as well as traffic conditions that exist today, that much seemed sufficient numbers. Amazingly, its fuel consumption is economical with figures terbilant 14.9 km / liter.
Change the mode of the plane into a car was simply done from inside the cabin. Transition only takes 30 seconds to fold or open wings. Well, in a folded condition. Transition has a dimension not unlike a giant sedan. The length of 6 meters, 2.3 meters wide and 2 meters high. Clearly enough to inhabit the garage mansion, beach house, or luxury home owners. Good again, what is presented Terrafugia not a dream. The first delivery to the consumer will be next 18 months. “Sure Richard Gersh. Vice President – Business Development Terrafugia Inc.. This is obviously different from the project Moller M400 Skycar is still not finished and is now discredited. Terrafugia has proven that their products can indeed be used. In March 2009, Transition prototype called The Proof of Concept successfully performed its first flight in front of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).

Tornado-proof car going for $100,000 on eBay

I always thought tornados were cool, until I saw them ripping parts of Alabama to shreds. Storm chaser Steve Green's armored Tornado Attack Vehicle — a car capable of being driven into a tornado without killing you is now up for auction on eBay.

What will the Tornado Attack Vehicle's $100,000 "Buy it Now" price get you? Actually, quite a value. You'll be receiving a Jeep with a 700-horsepower V8 engine, 16-gauge steel panels coated with impact-resistant polyurethane, bulletproof M10 Lexan windows and wheel wells, windshield with three coats of DuPont Mylar film and a hydraulic system that keeps the car from being blown over. It's almost like owning a mini-tank.

The estimated value of the car and its five years worth of upgrades is pegged at over $500,000, so getting a freak machine like this for one fifth of the price could be considered cheap.

Green is selling the Tornado Attack Machine to "draw attention to his plan for harnessing geothermal energy from Yellowstone National Park's caldera." Looks like a good car for a good cause. Head on over to eBay if you want to check out the full details on the auction. You never know when you might need a car for when a tornado strikes out of nowhere.

 

Nano Camera: World's smallest video camera lives up to its superlative

How small can video cameras get? Very small, it turns out. This medical camera from Medigus is apparently the world's smallest, and at 0.99mm wide, I believe it.

The camera is designed to show doctors what's going on inside your body without having to get in their themselves. And they're hoping to make it even smaller, as every little bit counts in such scenarios.

But of course I'm sure we'll see even smaller cameras developed for these purposes get placed in cellphones, where size is also important. Probably not this small, but still.

Via CNET

 

mercredi 4 mai 2011

New Sony Android Tablets Ripen Before Honeycomb

Sony is finally getting into the Android tablet game, announcing on Tuesday two new Honeycomb tablets expected to launch this fall. Codenamed the S1 and S2, both devices will offer a unique design style. The S1 resembles a folded magazine for easier handling, while the S2 sports a pair of 5.5-inch displays in a clamshell form factor. Sony hopes to leverage its media ecosystem and connectivity with other Sony digital devices to help its new tablets stand out from the Android crowd.

 

Both tablets will support Sony’s Qriocity music service for audio and video and are compatible with Sony’s PlayStation Suite for playing first-generation PSP titles, much like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play handset. The tablets can access the Sony Reader store for e-books, and of course, can use the Google Android Market for third-party applications. The S1 can double as a remote control for Sony BRAVIA television sets by way of an integrated infrared radio or share media through DLNA support

 

From early looks at the two devices, Sony appears to be doing everything right: unique design, a wide ecosystem of supporting activities and compatibility with other household devices. But that won’t guarantee success, because two factors are out of Sony’s — and every other Android tablet maker’s — control.

For starters, Honeycomb is still buggy and, as I argued last week, has been surpassed by the hardware it runs on. Google needs to make the Android tablet platform better performing, more usable and more stable. The second issue is that developers haven’t yet embraced Honeycomb to build tablet-optimized applications, which is going to take time. That actually could bode well for Sony, which unlike LG, Samsung, Acer, ASUS and others, is waiting until the fall to enter the tablet market, and the Honeycomb situation could improve considerably between now and then.

One other aspect that challenges Honeycomb tablet sales is the connectivity option. Some consumers balk at purchasing a tablet while committing to a two-year data plan contract. Sony says both the S1 and S2 “are WiFi and WWAN (3G/4G) compatible,” which indicates these devices will be sold through cellular carriers, or sold direct through Sony and tied to carrier plans.

Clearly, it’s too early to peg Sony’s S1 and S2 as either successes or failures. By fall, the tablet market will have matured, and it’s highly likely Honeycomb will have as well. Assuming that does happen, Sony is at least lining up its devices to be ready, and doing its best to make sure the factors that are under its control are taken care of.

 

We've been hacked: Sony finally blames 'external intrusion' for PlayStation Network outage

After almost four days of disruption, Sony has admitted that outside hackers are responsible for a major PlayStation Network outage.

But mystery still surrounds who is responsible - as the primary suspect, the Anonymous group, has denied all responsibility.

The outage, which began on Wednesday, is affecting more than 70 million gamers worldwide, who use the network to play video games against friends online, stream movies and shop.

Sony has admitted that 'external intrusion' - or hacking - has led to the shutdown of PlayStation Network

Gamers can still play on the site but they cannot challenge others to play with them - a major component of the network.

Patrick Seybold, Sony's senior director of corporate communications and social media, released an online post apologising for the outage, and admitting the breach of security.

He said: 'An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.

'We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience.

We didn't do it: Members of the hackers group Anonymous, with their trademark masks, at an event in Los Angeles. The group has denied all responsibility for the Sony shutdown

Sony said that it had shut the network down voluntarily 'in order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward'.

But the statement made it clear that a hacker or hackers were instrumental in the network's shutdown.

The finger of suspicion pointed to the Anonymous group, which has publicly vowed vengeance for the company taking legal action against two hackers, including George Hotz.

But the group, which also has connections to WikiLeaks, has said it had nothing to do with the intrusion.

In a statement on its website, Anonymous said: 'For once we didn't do it.'

It went on to accuse Sony of 'taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact that the outage is actually an internal problem with the company's servers'.

While there is clearly work being done from outside, Experts are starting to believe that Anonymous is telling the truth.

PCWorld's Keir Thomas said the phrasing Sony used - talking of an 'external intrusion' - indicated that the attack wasn't a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which is one of Anonymous's most popular weapons.

He wrote: 'Instead, this seems to be an individual breaking into the network and this is probably why it's taking so long to clean-up - Sony has to trace every corner of their systems affected by the hacker and repair it or restore files.'

Sony has not said when users could expect to have their network back.

Gadhafi paid millions to U.S. firms to polish his global image

(CNN) -- Just a few years before becoming embroiled in fighting a rebellion, Moammar Gadhafi was spending millions of dollars a year to wage a PR campaign to burnish his global image as a statesman and a reformer, confidential documents show.

The mercurial leader hired The Monitor Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, to execute a public relations strategy that included paying think-tank analysts and former government officials to take a free trip to Libya for lectures, discussions and even personal meetings with Gadhafi starting in 2006.

According to a 2007 memo from Monitor to Gadhafi's intelligence chief, the campaign was to "enhance international understanding and appreciation of Libya... emphasize the emergence of the new Libya... [and] introduce Muammar Qadhafi as a thinker and intellectual."

The price: $3 million a year, plus expenses, for work that included consulting, briefings, analyses, and a steady stream of high-profile visitors to Libya -- at least one a month.

The memos were posted online by the National Conference of the Libyan Opposition.

Eamonn Kelly, senior partner at Monitor Group, is heading an internal investigation at the company. He said the visitors program was only a small part of a wider campaign to help build civil society there.

The vast majority of the work, he says, was bringing leadership training and expertise to the country, aimed at "promoting reform, improving the economic prosperity of the country and the people, modernizing the government and helping to heal the very broken civic society."

"We were not working for Gadhafi, we were working for Libya," Kelly said.

After one year's work, a 2007 memo from Monitor touted the results, including a dozen high-profile visitors, ranging from interviewer David Frost to eminent professors such as Francis Fukuyama, fellow at Stanford University. Monitor also took credit for positive media coverage and also highlighted a half-dozen positive articles written by some of the participants they sponsored.

For example, Benjamin Barber wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post entitled, "Gaddafi's Libya: An Ally for America?" and Andrew Moravcsik wrote a piece for Newsweek called, "A Rogue Reforms."

Although the firm had vowed to "provide operational support for publication of positive articles on Libya," there is no indication any of the pieces were written at Monitor's behest.

Instead, participants in the program who were reached by CNN say they believed they were being paid for the lectures they gave and the coaching they offered. They said they agreed to go because they were curious about Libya at a time when the regime had taken several positive steps toward the West and appeared to be open to change.

Barber points out that, starting in 2003, Libya "came out of the cold, thanks to Bush administration overtures: rejoined the West, made war on al Qaeda, started imprisoning al Qaeda warriors, paid (Lockerbie) reparations of $1.3 billion, and yielded their weapons of mass destruction."

Barber, an academic whose books on political theory include the best-seller "Jihad vs. McWorld," says he now wants to see Gadhafi driven out. But at the time, Barber tells CNN, "we thought -- and I think Monitor thought -- it was an opportunity to work at internal reform."

Another distinguished academic, Harvard's Joseph Nye, said he accepted the paid trip because "Gadhafi appeared to be changing his policy -- and introducing new ideas could further reform."

After he met with Gadhafi, Nye wrote an op-ed for The New Republic that contained both praise and criticism of the dictator.

Several other program participants, including Fukuyama and Harvard's Michael Porter, did not reply to inquiries.

Some of the visitors who met with Gadhafi later briefed American officials, according to Monitor's memo, including "senior officials in the White House" and "senior government officials" at the State Department and the Department of Defense.

The Monitor Group claimed that after they sponsored two trips to the country by former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, "he briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on his visits to Libya."

Cheney did not reply to an inquiry, but Perle told CNN he did not "brief" Cheney on Libya and that it was mistaken to suggest he had done any lobbying for Libya.

Still, the possibility that paid visitors later briefed government officials has Paul Blumenthal at The Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group that has reported on the subject, saying the firm should have registered as lobbyists for a foreign country.

"They really wanted these intellectuals to be able to influence policy on Libya," says Blumenthal, to talk to "people in the State Department and the Defense Department, and really convey the sense that Libya was this great new open place."

The Monitor Group has received an inquiry about their work from the Justice Department, according to Kelly.

Monitor also offered, in a letter to Gadhafi's intelligence chief, a 22-page proposal for a book about Gadhafi, to be produced for $2.9 million in fees and expenses. The book would cover Gadhafi's "ideas on democracy," the outline said, "so that the West gains a more accurate and balanced understanding of his actions and ideas."

The book project never reached fruition, and Monitor said in a statement the proposal was "a poor decision" that the firm seriously regrets.

But overall, said Kelly, Monitor stands by its main body of work. "We were working in a very different period, a period of promise, and we are heartbroken that that period clearly has ended."

Monitor wasn't the only U.S. firm that Gadhafi's regime engaged. In 2008, as Monitor's work was coming to a close, Libya retained a more traditional lobbying firm, The Livingston Group, led by former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Louisiana.

The firm lobbied State Department officials and members of Congress for Libya in 2008 and 2009, introducing Libya's U.S. ambassador to dozens of members of Congress. Libya initially paid the firm $200,000 a month, but after a year, the billings had dwindled to just $30,000 a month.

Livingston declined an interview with CNN, but he told CNN affiliate WVUE that he ended the contract shortly after Gadhafi gave a hero's welcome to Lockerbie conspirator Abdelbeset al Megrahi upon his release from prison in Scotland. "That was just a bridge too far, and we had to fire the client," he said.

And before Livingston and Monitor, starting in 2004, Gadhafi's government engaged lobbyist Randa Fahmy Hudome during its effort to get Libya accepted in the international community and taken off the State Department's list of nations who sponsor terrorism. Libya paid her firm more than $3 million over the course of three years, she said.

"It certainly was not about money," Hudome said. "It was about national security principles at the time."

 

Bin Laden's daughter says she watched killing her father

Abbottabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- One of Osama bin Laden's daughters has told Pakistani interrogators that she saw her father be shot and killed by U.S. forces, a senior Pakistani intelligence source said Wednesday.

The daughter, believed to be 12- or 13-years-old, was among those left behind at the compound after Monday's U.S. raid, the source said.

Pakistani officials are interrogating a number of people left behind, the source said.

Among them were two or three women, including one believed to be bin Laden's wife -- a 29-year-old Yemeni citizen, the source said.

U.S. officials have said bin Laden's wife was in the room with him and rushed at U.S. special forces, who then shot her in the leg. U.S. officials have not publicly identified the wife nor anyone else at the compound aside from bin Laden.

Eight or nine children were also left behind, the Pakistani intelligence source said.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that members of bin Laden's family were "in safe hands and being looked after in accordance with law. Some of them needing medical care are under treatment in the best possible facilities. As per policy, they will be handed over to their countries of origin."

The Pakistani intelligence source told CNN Wednesday that four men at the compound were killed in addition to bin Laden: bin Laden's son, two men who were brothers, and an unknown man. That conflicts with information provided by the White House, which said Tuesday that three men and one woman were killed in the operation, in addition to bin Laden.

Bin Laden had 500 euros (about $745) in cash and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed, a congressional source present at a classified briefing on the operation Tuesday told CNN Wednesday. Another congressional source also said bin Laden had money sewn into his clothes.

Questions are mounting about why Pakistan failed to locate or bring bin Laden to justice.

According to two sources at the briefing Tuesday, CIA Director Leon Panetta told lawmakers that Pakistani officials either "were involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be."

The senior Pakistani intelligence official said there is now "total mistrust" between the United States and Pakistan, and that if Panetta made such a statement, it is "totally regrettable. (Panetta) of all people knows how much we have been doing."

In an interview with TIME magazine, Panetta said "it was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets."

Sen. Richard Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thinks many Pakistanis might have known where bin Laden was, including people in the government.

"This is one reason we did not inform the Pakistanis of our actions," he said Tuesday, noting "there were probably many who were very uncomfortable about the presence likewise."

Sardar Latif Khosa, governor of Pakistan's populous Punjab province, said Wednesday that bin Laden was not only responsible for deaths in the United States but also for the deaths of thousands of Pakistanis.

"Osama's hands were colored with the blood of innocent people. How could we give shelter to him?" he said.

Still, some people around the world mourned bin Laden's death. In Indonesia, the hardline Islamic Defenders Front planned a prayer service for bin Laden Wednesday, two days after the world's most wanted terrorist was killed in attack at his compound in Pakistan.

In a text message to the media, the Islamic Defenders Front announced its service will take place in Jakarta. The radical Indonesian Muslim group is known for attacking Jakarta nightclubs and threatening Westerners, according to Jane's Terrorism & Security Monitor.

Meanwhile, Americans -- and the rest of the world -- await the possible release of a post-mortem photo of bin Laden, which could both silence skeptics of and inflame passions against the United States.

Panetta said Tuesday he thinks a photograph of bin Laden's body will be released at some point, but that it is up to the White House to make the final call.

"I just think it's important, they know we have it, to release it," Panetta said.

A senior administration official told CNN that no decision has been made yet as to whether to release the photo.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, said he was conflicted over whether the administration should release an image of bin Laden.

"It's something that we're gonna have to work through," Rogers said. "We want to make sure that we maintain dignity, if there was any, in Osama bin Laden, so that we don't inflame problems other places in the world, and still provide enough evidence that people are confident that it was Osama bin Laden."

Officials have said DNA testing shows it was bin Laden who was killed.

But the Taliban questioned the assertion.

"(U.S. President Barack) Obama has not got any strong evidence that can prove his claim over killing of the Sheikh Osama bin Laden," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed said Tuesday. "And secondly, the closest sources for Sheikh Osama bin Laden have not confirmed" the death.

Investigators are poring over a lode of materials gathered from bin Laden's compound, homeland security advisor John Brennan said.

The haul includes 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks, DVDs and thumb drives, a senior U.S. official told CNN. The materials might provide clues on al Qaeda members and potential plots for future attacks.

Obama plans a visit Thursday to New York City's "ground zero," where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. The towers fell in September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers flew commercial planes into them. Former President George W. Bush was invited to attend, but declined to join Obama.

"President Bush will not be in attendance on Thursday," Bush spokesman David Sherzer said. "He appreciated the invite, but has chosen in his post-presidency to remain largely out of the spotlight. He continues to celebrate with all Americans this important victory in the war on terror."

 

Some Animals you'd swear were aliens (but are really from Earth)

Rosy-Lipped Batfish These fish get around mainly by walking on the ocean floor. Or should we say streetwalking the ocean floor?
Angora Rabbit This adorable Turkish critter probably wishes it could go to a distant planet to get away from all that over-petting.

Star-Nosed Mole This mammal is native to parts of Canada and the United States. It has nasal tentacles, which probably means its nose is self-picking.