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India: Land of many cell phones, fewer toilets (AP) : Technet |
- India: Land of many cell phones, fewer toilets (AP)
- India backs off on Blackberry ban threat (AP)
- The Macalope Weekly: Gates! (Macworld)
- Apple Sues Motorola Over Patents in Mobile Phones (PC World)
- Language no barrier for bilingual rapper Pitbull (Reuters)
- Demonstrators flock to Washington for comics' 'Sanity' rally (AFP)
- Turkey lifts YouTube ban after more than 2 years (AP)
- Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART] (Mashable)
- Lawsuit claims NYC stole 9/11 DNA software secrets (AP)
- Court orders lifting of Turkey YouTube ban: reports (AFP)
| India: Land of many cell phones, fewer toilets (AP) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 09:02 PM PDT MUMBAI, India – The Mumbai slum of Rafiq Nagar has no clean water for its shacks made of ripped tarp and bamboo. No garbage pickup along the rocky, pocked earth that serves as a road. No power except from haphazard cables strung overhead illegally. And not a single toilet or latrine for its 10,000 people. Yet nearly every destitute family in the slum has a cell phone. Some have three. When U.S. President Barack Obama visits India Nov. 6, he will find a country of startlingly uneven development and perplexing disparities, where more people have cell phones than access to a toilet, according to the United Nations. It is a country buoyed by a vibrant business world of call centers and software developers, but hamstrung by a bloated, corrupt government that has failed to deliver the barest of services. Its estimated growth rate of 8.5 percent a year is among the highest in the world, but its roads are crumbling. It offers cheap, world-class medical care to Western tourists at private hospitals, yet has some of the worst child mortality and maternal death rates outside sub-Saharan Africa. And while tens of millions have benefited from India's rise, many more remain mired in some of the worst poverty in the world. Businessman Mukesh Ambani, the world's fourth-richest person, is just finishing off a new $1 billion skyscraper-house in Mumbai with 27 floors and three helipads, touted as the most expensive home on earth. Yet farmers still live in shacks of mud and cow dung. The cell phone frenzy bridges all worlds. Cell phones are sold amid the Calvin Klein and Clinique stores under the soaring atriums of India's new malls, and in the crowded markets of its working-class neighborhoods. Bare shops in the slums sell pre-paid cards for as little as 20 cents next to packets of chewing tobacco, while street hawkers peddle car chargers at traffic lights. The spartan Beecham's in New Delhi's Connaught Place, one of the country's seemingly ubiquitous mobile phone dealers, is overrun with lunchtime customers of all classes looking for everything from a 35,000 rupee ($790) Blackberry Torch to a basic 1,150 rupee ($26) Nokia. Store manager Sanjeev Malhotra adds to a decades-old — and still unfulfilled — Hindi campaign slogan promising food, clothing and shelter. "Roti, kapda, makaan" and "mobile," he riffs, laughing. "Basic needs." There were more than 670 million cell phone connections in India by the end of August, a number that has been growing by close to 20 million a month, according to government figures. Yet U.N. figures show that only 366 million Indians have access to a private toilet or latrine, leaving 665 million to defecate in the open. "At least tap water and sewage disposal — how can we talk about any development without these two fundamental things? How can we talk about development without health and education?" says Anita Patil-Deshmukhl, executive director of PUKAR, an organization that conducts research and outreach in the slums of Mumbai. India's leaders say they are sympathetic to the problem. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist credited with unleashing India's private sector by loosening government regulation, talks about growth that benefits the masses of poor people as well as a burgeoning middle class of about 300 million. He describes a roaring Maoist insurgency in the east — which feeds in large part on the poor's discontent — as the country's biggest internal security threat. Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress Party, has pushed laws guaranteeing a right to food and education, as well as a gargantuan rural jobs program for nearly 100 million people. But as many as 800 million Indians still live on less than $2 a day, even as Mumbai's stock exchange sits near record highs. Many fear the situation is unsustainable. "Everybody understands the threat. Everybody recognizes that there is a gap, that this could be the thing that trips up this country," says Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of the Mahindra & Mahindra manufacturing company. Private companies have tried to fill that gap, and Tata sells a 749 rupee ($16) water purifier for the poor. Mafias provide water and electricity to slumdwellers at a cost far higher than what wealthy Indians pay for basic services. "For every little thing, we have to pay," says Nusrat Khan, a 35-year-old maid and single parent who raises her four children on less than 3,000 rupees ($67) a month and blames the government for her lack of access to water and a toilet. The government is spending $350 million a year to build toilets in rural areas. Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of the Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, estimates the country needs about 120 million more latrines — likely the largest sanitation project in world history. "Those in power, only they can change the situation," says Pathak, who claims to have helped build a million low-cost latrines across India over the past 40 years. "India can achieve this — if it desires." In the slums of Mumbai, home to more than half the city's population of 14 million, the yearning for toilets is so great that enterprising residents have built makeshift outhouses on their own. In Annabhau Sathe Nagar, a raised latrine of corrugated tin empties into a river of sewage that children splash in and adults wade across. The slum in east Mumbai has about 50,000 residents and a single toilet building, with 10 pay toilets for men and eight for women — two of which are broken. With the wait for those toilets up to an hour even at 5 a.m., and the two-rupee (4-cent) fee too expensive for many, most people either use a field or wait to use the toilets at work, says Santosh Thorat, 32, a community organizer. Nearly 60 percent have developed piles from regularly waiting to defecate, he says. Conditions are far worse in Rafiq Nagar, a crowded, 15-year-old slum on the lip of a 110-acre garbage dump. Most of the slumdwellers are ragpickers who sort through heaps of trash for scraps of plastic, glass, metal, even bones, anything they can sell to recyclers for cash. A pungent brew of ripe garbage and sewage blows through the trash-strewn streets, as choking smoke from wood fires rolls out the doorways of windowless huts. Children, half clothed in rags, play hopscotch next to a mysterious gray liquid that has gathered in stagnant puddles weeks after the last rainfall. Just beside the shacks, men and women defecate in separate areas behind rolling hills of green foliage that have sprung up over the garbage. Children run through those hills, flying kites. Khatija Sheikh, 20, splurges to use a pay toilet in another neighborhood 10 minutes away, but is never sure what condition it will be in. "Sometimes it's clean, sometimes it's dirty. It's totally dependent on the owner's mood," says Sheikh, whose two young children use the street. Her home is less than five feet from an elevated outhouse built by a neighbor that drops sewage next to her walls. Since there are no water pipes or wells here, residents are forced to rely on the water mafia for water for cooking, washing clothes, bathing and drinking. The neighborhood is rife with skin infections, tuberculosis and other ailments. A large blue barrel outside a home is filled with murky brown water, tiny white worms and an aluminum drinking cup. To fill up two jerry cans costs between 40 ($.90) and 50 ($1.10) rupees a day, about one-third of the average family's earnings here. "If the government would give us water, we would pay that money to the government," said Suresh Pache, 41, a motorized rickshaw driver. Instead, it has issued demolition notices throughout the slum, which sits illegally on government land. Pache, whose home was razed 10 times, jokes that the destruction is the only government service he can count on. Yet the world of technology has embraced the slumdwellers with its cheap cell phones and cut-rate calling plans that charge a sliver of a penny a minute. Pache bought his first phone for 1,400 rupees ($31) four months ago. Since then, his wife, a ragpicker, found two other broken models as she scoured the garbage dump, and he paid to have them repaired. He speaks with fluency about the different plans offered by Tata, Reliance and Idea that cost him a total of 300 rupees ($6.70) a month. Now, when his rickshaw breaks down, he can alert his wife with a call. She uses her phone to tell the recyclers where she is in the dump so they can drive out to her, saving her the time and effort of dragging her bag of scraps to them. Mohan Singh, a 58-year-old bicycle repairman, says his son uses their 2,000 rupee ($45) Orpat phone to play music and talk to relatives. Thorat, the community organizer, shows photographs of his neighborhood and videos of a pre-school he started on his Nokia cameraphone, while his second phone rings in his pocket. Sushila Paten, who teaches at the pre-school, organizes a phone chain with her Samsung to instantly mobilize hundreds of people in the streets when violent thugs show up demanding "rent" from the squatters. In fact, the spread of cell phones may end up bringing toilets. R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, one of India's most revered companies, says the rising aspirations of the poor, buttressed by their growing access to communications and information, will put tremendous pressure on the government to start delivering. People already are starting to challenge local officials who for generations answered to no one, he says. "I think there are very, very dramatic changes happening," he says. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India backs off on Blackberry ban threat (AP) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 06:23 AM PDT MUMBAI, India – India has followed the United Arab Emirates in backing off from a threat to ban popular services on Blackberry devices, amid growing global concern over access to encrypted information. The Ministry of Home Affairs said Friday that Research in Motion Ltd., the Canadian maker of the smart phones, has agreed to an interim arrangement for lawful interception of Blackberry messenger services — an instant messaging application — and pledged to provide a final solution by January. "Accordingly, the ... services will continue to be available," the ministry said in a statement. Citing national security concerns, India had threatened to ban corporate e-mail and messenger services by August if Research in Motion didn't come up with a way for the government to monitor them. It then extended the deadline to October. It remains unclear what solution the parties may have reached over encrypted corporate e-mails. RIM, whose competitive edge rests on ensuring security to its global users, has given no details of the possible concessions that led the UAE and India to back off from their October deadlines for access. The company said in a statement that it is optimistic about reaching a final solution with Indian regulators. RIM said it had not changed the security architecture for corporate e-mail and that it does not make special deals on access with individual countries. India is now asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just RIM — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect Gmail provider Google Inc. and Internet phone company Skype SA. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Macalope Weekly: Gates! (Macworld) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 07:00 AM PDT [Editors' Note: Each week the Macalope skewers the worst of the week's coverage of Apple and other technology companies. In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.] No, not Bill Gates. Who cares about that frumpy sweater-wearing poster child for an anti-slouching campaign? No, the Macalope's talking about Apple -gates. You know, the Apple scandals everyone loves to talk about. The smash summer hit ANTENNAGATE (the AP Style Guide insists that all -gates be capitalized to maximize the scandalous implications) was followed by the lackluster sequel GLASSGATE, but don't worry! There's still a lot of life in this franchise! IPAD ROTATION CONTROLGATE In the realm of usability nerdery, the Mac nerd has no peer. It's a feedback loop. People who like things to be well-designed are attracted to Apple products, which then reinforce the ethic. The Macalope has long considered starting a class action suit against Apple for ruining his enjoyment of anyone else's products. Maybe that's why Steve Jobs has indicated the company intends to make a rare misguided design change and change the functionality of the side switch on the iPad from an orientation lock to mute. Lex Friedman's already laid out why this is a bad idea and his view was echoed across the Apple Web world. It's not the first time Apple's done something bass-, trout- or some-other-river-fish-ackwards. We all remember TRANSLUCENT MENU BARGATE don't we? ("IT WAS HELL," RECALLED A SURVIVOR). And all it took was a massive amount of caterwauling (some of it involving actual cats) to get Apple to make it a configurable setting. Then again, people complained about Command-N changing from making a new folder in OS 9 to making a new Finder window in OS X and look where that got them. Most of those people are dead now. Apple has been known to listen to user outcry from time to time, though. Much like the apocryphal workers of old, perhaps we need to throw our iPads into the machinery in protest. Figuratively speaking of course. [whispers to iPad] The Macalope would never hurt you. Shhh. Other Apple -gates in the news If usability isn't your thing, well, first of all what are you doing here? But second, maybe one of the many other Apple -gates will pique your interest. There are so many to choose from! There's WHITE IPHONE GATE, FALLING MARGINGATE, SECRET DEVELOPER SUMMITGATE, IPHONE SCREEN LOCKGATE and so many more! Collect them all and trade them with your friends! (OK, the last one is actually embarrassing.) Coulda, shoulda, woulda What about CASH ON HANDGATE? The Macalope subscribes to several jerktastic weekly technology e-mail blasts so you don't have to and sometimes he wonders if he doesn't do too much for you. This week's most eye-roll-inducing title, brought to you by the fine folk at eWeek and Apple's large cash balance, is: Why Apple Should Buy Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo If you're thinking the only rational answer is "because just burning that amount of money would look frivolous" then you've got more horse sense than eWeek's Clint Boulton. And the horse he rode in on. In typical eWeek style, however, the tease is more salacious than the article. While the e-mail blast title reads as above, the actual article title is: Apple Could Buy Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Others with Its $51B LAME. BAIT AND SWITCH. ONE STAR. Boulton sagely notes Yahoo "may be a stretch." No, Clint, the Macalope being able to scrape $1,400 together to buy a tricked out MacBook Air "may be a stretch." Apple buying Yahoo is more the worst kind of technology industry fantasy porn imaginable. Like a lot of porn, it's easy to see how one partner would enjoy it (Yahoo, Digg, ARM) but hard to see how the other one would (Apple). Boulton's other suggestions make you wonder if this trip was really necessary. Imagine the marriage of EA's games with the iPhone and the iPad. Ooh, yeah! Why, it'd probably look… something like this. If only we could imagine something like that! In fairness to Boulton and the other speculators out there, Steve Jobs got this ball rolling in the latest quarterly conference call by implying Apple wanted to save its cash for potential "strategic opportunities." The Macalope really wishes he hadn't, though. Idle speculation is the devil's workshop. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple Sues Motorola Over Patents in Mobile Phones (PC World) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 04:30 PM PDT Apple filed two lawsuits against Motorola and Motorola Mobility late Friday in a US federal court, claiming violations of its patents in multiple Motorola cell phones, including the Droid line. According to the October 29 filings in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin -- first reported by the blog PatentlyApple -- Apple is accusing Motorola of infringing on six patents, three of them focused on touchscreens. The products that it claims include the infringing technology are Motorola's Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm. Earlier this month, Motorola Mobility filed suit against Apple asking the US District Court in Delaware for a declaratory judgment that Apple had no rights to sue it for infringing 12 patents that it said Apple has asserted in targeting Android-phone maker HTC. None of those 12 patents are being invoked by Apple in its suit filed Friday. Motorola also filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Apple charging violations in the iPad, iTouch and iPhone products. Apple is seeking a jury trial and compensatory damages. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language no barrier for bilingual rapper Pitbull (Reuters) Posted: 29 Oct 2010 09:47 PM PDT MIAMI (Billboard) – During an early afternoon in Miami in January, over drinks with two local radio program directors, the conversation turned to rapper Pitbull. "He should come over and join us," said one, and impulsively picked up his cell phone and dialed. No more than 20 minutes later, there was Armando Christian Perez, aka Pitbull -- sans entourage or management -- chilling over martinis in a nearly empty restaurant overlooking Biscayne Bay. Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" was peaking on the charts, and his face was plastered on billboards that were popping up all around Miami. Still, Pitbull seemed immune to the celebrity. This was his town, his turf, his place to stroll about as he pleased. He was, after all, a performer who had hustled his way to popularity, unabashedly seeking out DJs and artists, distributing mixtapes, endlessly posting online, playing parties and doing charity appearances. There seemed to be nothing too big or too small for Pitbull to do. More than nine months later, that frenzy of activity is set to explode. In the year since the gimmicky "I Know You Want Me" (a remix of the song "75 Street Brazil," by Nicola Fasano featuring Pat Rich) became a worldwide hit, Pitbull has become ubiquitous. Look at the charts and you'll see that his melange of dance beats, borrowed hooks, catchy phrases and entreating, party-flavored raps have become must-haves for an ever-growing list of superstars, from Enrique Iglesias and Shakira to Usher and T-Pain. "You always have to be relevant," Pitbull says, defending his habit of releasing records seemingly any time, any place. "I've never been a traditional artist. I'm a survivor. And for me it's kind of scary when people try to make plans." MULTIPRONGED PLAN But now there is a plan. On Tuesday (November 2), Pitbull releases his first all-Spanish-language set, "Armando" (so named after his father), with the bilingual "Planet Pit" due in early 2011. Intertwined with the albums are two major sponsorship deals featuring Pitbull's image and music. One, for Kodak's Easy Share cameras, includes 15-second TV spots with Pitbull, Drake and Trey Songz. Pitbull's spots feature his single "Hey Baby" from "Planet Pit," featuring T-Pain. The second deal has Pitbull as the face and voice of Dr Pepper's 2011 Spanish-language marketing campaign, "Vida a la 23." Pitbull will be featured in the "Vida" radio and TV spots with the song "Good Times (Vida 23)," which he wrote specifically for the campaign. Plans are under way to make the track the second single from "Armando," coinciding with the launch of the campaign in January. The simultaneous push in two languages may be what finally clinches Pitbull's popularity at all levels. For although his singles are extraordinarily successful -- "I Know You Want Me" has sold 2.5 million downloads in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- his album sales haven't always kept pace. Pitbull's top-selling set was his 2004 debut, "Miami," which has sold 634,000 copies, according to SoundScan. But his two latest, 2007's "Boatlift" and 2009's "Rebelution," which included "I Know You Want Me," have sold fewer than 200,000 copies each in the United States. "Any superstar, particularly in rap, appears on 50 million records, but the hits are the ones that shine through," says Bryan Leach, president of Polo Grounds Music, which partnered with Pitbull's Mr. 305 Records to release his English-language albums through Sony's RCA/J Records. In Pitbull's case, Leach adds, "whether it's the current single from the 'Armando' album or 'Hey Baby' from ours, we just need to be very clear and make sure each album has its own identity." As a white, light-eyed Cuban-American who raps, Pitbull is an anomaly. The urban audience initially eluded him, but has now embraced him, thanks in part to the company he keeps. "He was ahead of his time," Leach says. "If you look at what's popular in rhythm and pop radio, it's stuff that's fun, and Pit's been making those records his entire career. People are a lot more open now to the music he's always made. And he also brings his own twist, making huge pop records in Spanglish." "I have known Pit for years and have always respected his hustle and talent," T-Pain says. "He's one of the few artists that really understands the music and business sides of this industry." UNPRECEDENTED SUPPORT Pitbull is featured on two current top 10 singles on the Hot 100: Enrique Iglesias' "I Like It" and Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love." And while the singles "Bon, Bon" from "Armando" and "Hey Baby" from "Planet Pit" are still bubbling under the charts, the setup for Pitbull's two upcoming albums is unprecedented for him. In fact, Pitbull says, he's never had the full muscle of a major label behind him before, much less in Latin America, where Sony is in charge of the album release. Nor has he ever had sponsorship deals before. "And the beauty is showing how major corporations want to be involved with people whose last names are Gutierrez, Perez. People whose names end with a 'z,'" Pitbull happily says on a recent afternoon at a recording studio in Davie, Fla., where he plays tracks from both of his upcoming albums. The atmosphere is one of controlled chaos, with a steady stream of people -- from members of his team to fans to a camera crew -- filtering in and out. Although the finishing touches are still being applied to "Planet Pit," "Armando" is a done deal; it's rich with dance beats, cultural references and sly humor. First single "Bon, Bon," for example, samples "Me No Speak Americano," the Yolanda Be Cool hit that DJ Buddha, head of Mr. 305 Records, first heard in Europe. On top of the beat, Pitbull spoofs Lady Gaga, saying, "I'm not Alejandro, Roberto or Fernando. I'm Armando." The album also turns around the Cuban classic "Guantanamera," "not just modernizing it, but making it also -- how should I say -- humorous," Pitbull says, referring to lyrics that coax a farm girl to leave shyness behind and catch up with the times. There's also a collaboration with Cuban-American heartthrob JenCarlos Canela on the latter's song "Tu Cuerpo." "Every track has its own way of coming together, but essentially, I just say, 'I like this,' and Buddha says, 'You're crazy,'" Pitbull says with a laugh. "And I say, 'I don't care.'" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Demonstrators flock to Washington for comics' 'Sanity' rally (AFP) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 06:45 PM PDT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turkey lifts YouTube ban after more than 2 years (AP) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 12:37 PM PDT ISTANBUL – Turkey said Saturday that it was lifting a ban on YouTube more than two years after it blocked access to the site because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder. Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, who is in charge of Internet issues, said the government has been in touch with Google, which owns YouTube. There was no longer any reason to ban the video-sharing site, he said, as the offending videos had been removed. "In the end, common sense prevailed. The reasons for the YouTube ban do not exist anymore," Yildirim said. "The ban has been removed," Yildirim said on NTV television. "But we didn't get here easily, we have been through a lot in the process. I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its organization in Turkey within the limits of law in the future." Turkey's telecommunications authority banned access to YouTube in May 2008 after users complained that some videos insulted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the country in 1923. It is a crime in Turkey to insult Ataturk. The country has implemented reforms as part of a bid to join the European Union, but still faces questions about its record on free expression. The country began blocking access to websites in 2007, after parliament adopted a law against cyber crime in an effort to curb child porn, prevent the dissemination of terrorist propaganda and stamp out illegal gambling. More than 6,000 sites have been banned in Turkey according to Engelli Web, a site that monitors blocked pages. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART] (Mashable) Posted: 30 Oct 2010 07:49 AM PDT Sports and entertainment were top-of-mind for Tweeters this past week as the NBA kicked off its season, the UFC found a new champion, and Taylor Swift released her third record. If you were poking around Twitter on October 22, you may have been wondering why you didn't have off from work on what is obviously a sacred observance for many Internet faithful: INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. Revelers were so passionate that their capitalized tweets locked the holiday in at number six for the week. A series of natural disasters rocked Indonesia over the past few days, prompting concern throughout the network, and trending the topic at number eight for the week. In other news, Justin Bieber (hallowed be thy name) is coming out with a musical 3D movie (take that Captain EO!), and a teaser trailer released on Tuesday prompted the entire Internet to ask, "Seriously?" The Bieb returned to the chart at number nine after a three week absence. Curious about the rest of this week's top Twitter topics? Scroll on down to the complete chart below, which is compiled by our friends over at What The Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart. You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section as well as read more about this past week's trends on What The Trend.
Top Twitter Trends This Week: 10/23 - 10/29 |
| Rank | Topic | Top Index This Week | Intensity | Description |
| #1 | NBA | 1 | 2 | The NBA season has started, and the Lakers' win took the top mention among tweets. Other trends were the NBA debut of number one pick Blake Griffin, who lost along with the Los Angeles Clippers to the Portland Trail Blazers. |
| #2 | UFC | 1 | 2 | Brock Lesnar, former UFC champion, lost his title to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121. |
| #3 | Taylor Swift | 1 | 2 | Taylor Swift released her third album "Speak Now" and fans are quite excited. |
| #4 | NFL | 2 | 2 | The somewhat-disliked Cowboy's quarterback Tony Romo was injured this week, leading to mentions of his replacement Jon Kitna. |
| #5 | Soccer/Football | 1 | 2 | In European football, the match between Excelsior and Ajax, and the Dutch football match between PSV and Feyenoord, were top mentions. |
| #6 | Caps Lock Day | 1 | 1 | Why isn't the caps lock TT in actual caps? TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. #INTERNATIONALCAPS. |
| #7 | The Hobbit (Movie) | 4 | 1 | Martin Freeman (recently seen in the British Sherlock Holmes TV series) will be playing Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming Peter Jackson film The Hobbit. |
| #8 | Indonesian Natural Disasters | 1 | 1 | Numerous disasters have occurred in Indonesia, including the flood in Jakarta, the eruption of Mount Merapi, and the recent earthquake and tsunami in Mentawai. People are both requesting and saying their prayers for the nation. |
| #9 | Justin Bieber | 1 | 1 | A teaser trailer for Justin Bieber's Never Say Never 3D movie was released this week. |
| #10 | Sony | 3 | 1 | Sony announced that it will no longer make the Walkman cassette. |
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ricardoinfante
Lawsuit claims NYC stole 9/11 DNA software secrets (AP)
Posted: 30 Oct 2010 01:39 PM PDT
NEW YORK – A software company that helped identify the remains of 9/11 victims is accusing the New York City Medical Examiner's Office of handing its secrets over to the FBI.
A Manhattan federal judge has been asked to decide if the lawsuit, filed in March by the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Gene Codes, can go forward, The New York Times reported Saturday. New York City has filed a countersuit claiming Gene Codes didn't meet its contractual obligations.
Gene Codes' software, known as the Mass-Fatality Identification System, helped the city analyze and organize the DNA of victims of the terrorist attack. Both sides signed a three-year contract in 2002, for which the city said it paid $13 million.
The company claims that after the contract expired, New York refused to pay it to maintain the system, then gave the FBI proprietary information once the system crashed. The city claims Gene Codes had agreed to upgrade the system for free after the city's initial investment, and when the company didn't follow through, it was necessary to move the information to the FBI's database.
In court filings, the city claimed it had co-created the system by giving the company access to its database of 9/11 victims' DNA data and giving the company guidance on system updates.
___
Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
Court orders lifting of Turkey YouTube ban: reports (AFP)
Posted: 30 Oct 2010 11:31 AM PDT
ANKARA (AFP) – A Turkish court on Saturday ordered the lifting of a three-year ban on Internet video website YouTube, media reports said, but thousands of other sites are still blocked.
Access to YouTube was barred in September 2007 by a court in Sivas, eastern Turkey, after an individual complained of clips disrespectful to the revered founder of the modern state, Mustafa Kemal Atataturk.
The ban was extended on different occasions by media authorities, the most recently in June, prompting a complaint from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at Turkey's wholesale censorship of websites.
NTV television channel said the court in Ankara had lifted the YouTube ban on Saturday because the offending videos had been removed.
Before the ban YouTube was the fifth most popular site in Turkey, according to date bank Alkexa Internet.
On June 4 Turkey also blocked access to more than 30 Google sites, which Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said had been reconfigured to enable Internet users to access YouTube.
The minister also said that Turkey had fined YouTube 15.6 million euros (21 million dollars) for never paying taxes in Turkey in spite of earnings made from advertising.
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul has however come out against censorship of the Internet and called for a revision of Turkish laws.
Blocked sites tend to be those relating to sensitive subjects of "national dignity", including Ataturk, the army and minorities such as the Kurds. Bloggers who speak out indelicately on such topics also risk punishment.
In a message to Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in June, the OSCE's media freedom representative Dunja Mijatovic said, "I ask the Turkish authorities to revoke the blocking provisions that prevent citizens from being part of today's global information society."
Mijatovic also called for "a very much needed reform" of Turkey's so-called Internet Law, as it "considerably limits freedom of expression and severely restricts citizens' right to access information."
It is "a worrisome indicator that instead of allowing free access to the Internet, new ways have emerged that can further restrict the free flow of information in the country," she said.
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