Ford to slash 10000 more jobs

Ford Motor Co. said Friday that it plans to cut 10,000 more salaried jobs, offer buyouts to all of its U.S. hourly workers and shut down two more plants as it expands its restructuring plan designed to rein in expenses and restore the struggling automaker to profitability.

The company said in a news release that it would shutter a stamping plant in Maumee, Ohio, in 2008 and an engine plant in Essex, Ontario, in 2007. That is in addition to previous plans for 14 plant closures.

In addition, Ford said an assembly plant in Norfolk, Va., will close in 2007, a year earlier than previously announced and will see a shift reduction in January. Also, an assembly plant in St. Paul, Minn., which is scheduled to close in 2008, will have a shift reduction in 2007.

Ford said it would complete its cuts of 25,000 to 30,000 hourly jobs by the end of the 2008, four years ahead of its previous target.

Vista to create 50000 jobs in Europe

"A Microsoft-sponsored study found that Vista will be a boon to European economy, as it 'will create more than 50,000 technology jobs in six large European countries and will lead to a flood of economic benefits for companies there,' News.com reports. Europe will see a total of 1.2 mln paychecks thanks to the new operating system: 'In the six countries studied, more than 150,000 IT companies will produce, sell or distribute products or services running on Windows Vista in 2007 and will employ 400,000 people, IDC said. Another 650,000 will be employed in the IT departments of businesses that rely on Vista.'"


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Spam fighter hit with $11 million judgment

The manager of a popular blacklist used to block spam was hit with a multimillion-dollar judgment on Wednesday, but the order may not be enforceable.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has ordered Spamhaus to pay $11,715,000 in damages to e360insight and its chief, David Linhardt, who had sued the U.K.-based organization earlier this year over illegal blacklisting.

The court also barred Spamhaus from causing any e-mail sent by e360insight or Linhardt to be "blocked, delayed, altered, or interrupted in anyway" and ordered Spamhaus to publish an apology for that states that Linhardt and his company are not spammers, according to a copy of the order.

Read more on ZDnet by clicking the title link

Steve Irwin on Video

The Steve Irwin 'Crocodile Hunter' video watch is on. Even as the icon was laid to rest, the questions and comments are continuing to flow in with strong opinions on whether or not the public should watch the video of the man being killed in a tragic accident that just happened to be filmed.

Just from the e-mail here alone - it appears the answer is yes for about 65% of the correspondence to The National Ledger.

***

The BBC reports:

Steve Irwin made a career partly based on taking risks with wildlife. His death this week at the barb of a stingray on Australia's Barrier Reef was filmed, and in a Sydney Morning Herald poll 40% of the 24,000 or so respondents thought it should be shown.

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Explore Mars

Have you ever explored Mars. This is your chance. Just click on any of the pictures below to get going. Explore the whole of Mars, mountains, space shuttles, terrains and more. Move your mouse for more details

Man spends 48 hours without heart

Louis Quarterman appeared with his doctor at a news conference this week. He has been in intensive care at Jackson Memorial Hospital since the operation in June, the Miami Herald reported, but Dr. Si Pham said he is now ready for a transfer to rehab.

Quarterman received a transplanted kidney at the same time.

Pham removed Quarterman's heart 48 days before the surgery because the immunosuppressive drugs he needed to take were speeding the failure of his kidneys. Until he received the transplant, machines kept Quarterman's blood circulating.

"His body went through a lot," Pham said. "He did remarkably well."

Quarterman had his first heart transplant at age 49. That heart gave out 12 years later.

Learning Science the fun way

This is just a fun way of learning things. This science tutorial designed in flash is really a wonderful material for kids learning science for the first time. To get started click the picture below. Then leave some time for the flash movie to load. Then navigate through the numbers 1,2,3 etc., Also watch out for the "Did you know that" section at the bottom which refreshes every time you navigate through. The contents of the movie also seems to be changing over a period of time. All in all a compact movie with a lot of science information.

Dangerous Zidane

You all might have seen the headbutt episode of Zinedine Zidane during the 2006 Football World cup. This flash movie is just an exaggerated version of the same. Just don't take it seriously. Its all for fun.

Disk storage up 4.3%

Disk storage up 4.3% in Q2 2006 by ZDNet's ZDNet Research -- External controller-based disk storage rose 4.3% in Q2 2006 over Q2 2005 to reach a total of $3.6 bln. Network Appliance saw the fastest growth, with revenue up 22.2% over 2005 to reach $271.0 mln, giving it seventh position overall, Gartner reports.

Terrific art work

These are paintings drawn on the surface of the vehicels. These drawings are given 3D touch so that they look real and they too look real. This is stunning art work which should be appreciated.
Is this a container or a train?????

Is it a mobile library. Sorry you are wrong. Lets the books be careful

Just the image of an aquarium drawn beautifully. So close to reality

Hey, where is they driver. This is too confusing and brilliant too.

Be careful with the Pepsi bottles. But don't worry, they may not fall over on you.

This leather bag is a bit too big to hold

What could happen if the beer falls over?????


This is not my original work and I just cannot trace the webpage from where I took this stuff.

The lighter side

Things to do when you are bored in the office

Ø Form a detective agency to find out that who is quitting next.

Ø Make blank calls to your Boss.

Ø Count your fingers (and toes if you get bored).

Ø Rearrange the furniture, i.e. flick someone else chair just to irritate him/her.

Ø Send mails from MS-mail to your Internet mail (and immediately get to the internet and see who reaches first, you or your mail?) and read them there, and note down the time they take to reach there.

Ø Watch other people changing their facial expressions while working and try changing your expressions also.

Ø Try to stretch status meetings as longer as possible, just by asking silly doubts.

Ø Have work breaks in between tea.

Ø Have a two-hour lunch; it's a big social occasion.

Ø Read jokes and send jokes.

Ø Revise last week's newspaper.

Ø Hold "How fast my computer boots" competitions.

Ø Practice aiming the coffee cup into the dustbin.

Ø Compile "How to waste your day"

Ø Pick up phone and dial non-existing numbers

Ø Make faces at strangers in office.

Ø Count maximum no of applications your computer can open at a time.

Ø For Win NT/95 users.... Move things to Recycle bin and restore them.. Then repeat this process.

Ø Look at someone & try to imagine how(s) he might have looked when(s) he was 5 years old.

Ø Learn to whistle.

Ø Make full use of the comfortable chair and tables provided and take a nap.

And if you are still getting bored:
Just forward this to everyone

New light Blackberry

Those who don't mind carrying a paperweight already have plenty of options for "smart" phones that do more than just make calls. The rest of us are stuck with a sad compromise between size and function. To lessen our compromise, here comes Blackberry Pearl

The Pearl, named for its glowing navigational trackball, is the first BlackBerry geared more fully toward consumers. It's the first with a digital camera and a slot for a MicroSD mini-disc to store songs, photos and video games -- the sort of recreational functions that RIM has stoically deemed nonessential or even counterproductive for the corporate user market.

RIM is launching the Pearl through T-Mobile USA. The normally $300 device will go for $200 with a two-year contract and $250 with a one-year contract.

Weighing just 3.2 ounces, the candy bar-style phone is a palm-friendly 2 inches wide, 4.2 inches tall and 0.6 inch thick. By contrast, the RAZR and its non-flip cousin, the SLVR, both weigh about 3.4 ounces and are roughly equal to the Pearl in width and thickness. And despite its smallness, the Pearl's screen measures nearly 2.2 inches diagonally, or just 0.4 inch less than on a full-sized Blackberry.
The little round trackball may seem silly to ardent fans of RIM's signature trackwheel, which has been positioned on the side of every BlackBerry beeper, PDA and phone since the beginning.

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Cheaper Xbox from Microsoft

Microsoft Co. is set to release a cheaper, bare-bones version of the Xbox 360 video game console in Japan to boost flagging sales ahead of the arrival of new machines from rivals later in the year.

The Japanese unit of U.S.-based Microsoft Corp. will launch a Xbox 360 console on Nov. 2 that comes without the 20-gigabyte hard drive and other accessories included with the standard version

The low-end version, already sold as the Xbox 360 Core System in the United States and Europe, will sell for 29,800 yen ($255) -- about 10,000 yen ($86) less than its standard version.Players don't need a hard drive to run most Xbox 360 games, unless they want to save games midway, and can buy a 20-gigabyte hard drive for about 9,500 yen ($80) or a smaller memory stick for 3,200 yen ($27).

Sales of Xbox 360 in Japan have been sluggish in Japan, at 158,000 units as of Sunday from its release late last year, according to Enterbrain Inc.Microsoft's announcement came after rival firm Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Wednesday its PlayStation 3 will go on sale in November in the United States and Japan, but fewer units will be available for the launch dates.

Worldwide, Sony expects to ship only 2 million units of its much-awaited update to the popular game console instead of 4 million as originally planned, Sony Computer chief Ken Kutaragi said Wednesday.Another competitor, Nintendo Co., is set to introduce its Wii game console within the year.

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Intel to cut 10500 jobs

Intel said it will eliminate 10,500 jobs -- about 10 percent of its work force -- through layoffs, attrition and the sale of underperforming business groups as part of a massive restructuring.

The Santa Clara-based company said most of the job cuts this year will come from its management, marketing and information technology ranks, and will expand in 2007 to include manufacturing, design and other segments.

The cuts are expected to save the company $3 billion per year by 2008. Severance costs are expected to total $200 million.
Intel is fighting to reverse sinking profits and make it more efficient as it seeks to regain market share stolen by smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

"These actions, while difficult, are essential to Intel becoming a more agile and efficient company, not just for this year or the next, but for years to come," Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a statement.
About 5,000 of the affected positions have already been cut or will be eliminated this year through a previously announced management layoff, the pending sale of two businesses, and attrition, said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.
The company plans to cut about 2,500 more jobs by the end of the year. The remainder will be shed in 2007, when Intel's head count will settle around 92,000, Mulloy said.

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China lead factory poisons 2000+

More than two thousand Chinese villages are being treated in hospital(a lot of them being critical) due to lead poisoning by a local lead smelting plant. This include 300 innocent childern. The villagers had traveled from their northwestern province of Gansu to a hospital in Xi'an in neighboring Shaanxi because hospitals near their three villages had insisted they were fine.

"We don't trust local hospitals because they said our lead concentration levels were normal, so we traveled to somewhere further away," Liu Jiangtao, from surrounding Hui county, was quoted as saying. "Everyone from our village has gone there."

County government officials told Reuters only two villages were close to the lead smelter and the county was still investigating how many people had been poisoned.

These type of incidents are getting more and more common in China where environmental issues are neglected in the name of industrialisation, gloabalisation and quick profits. Inspite a lot of protests, these issues still remain to be addressed. This is a shame inspite of China being a Communist country catered to the welfare of the people.

Courtesy:Reuters

Google's image labeller

At last, Google seemed to have sought human help to sort out Google images.

Google is asking surfers with time on their hands to help it categorize and label the images indexed by its search engine, building a database of knowledge about the contents of the images.

The company launched a new online game on Friday, Google Image Labeler, which it describes as "a fun way to help us organize all the images on the Web." In the game, two randomly selected players are each shown the same image, plucked at random from Google's search index, and given 90 seconds to suggest as many keywords or phrases as they can to describe it. They score points if any of their descriptions match.

Google's image search engine currently returns results based on captions and other text adjacent to images on Web pages, without reference to the content of the images themselves. The game will allow it to improve the performance of the search engine by returning results based on the players' descriptions of the images.

Find more on this in the PC World Magazine article

George Bush Inbox

Have you ever thought of who would be sending emails to the US President George.W.Bsuh.
Just look at this gimmick which you would like.
Hope, this is made in Adobe Photoshop. Looks good. Hope you guys enjoy it.
Click on the picture to get a bigger view.
For the full version, click here.
I recommend all seeing the full version.

Under water hotel in Israel

This is a underwater restaurant in Israel. This is situated 6 metres below the sea surface. Of course, you read it right, 6 metres below the surface of sea. One of the most stunning attractions in Israel. Just scroll down to see more images and stunning picturesque

Commercial satellites

Its long time that satellites are launched only by Governments. Commercial satellites are getting more and more popular, spurred by the television appetite.
Recently, Eutelsat the world's third largest satellite manufacturer report an impressive gain in profits.

BBC World, CNN and Al Jazeera are among the 2,100 TV channels broadcast by Eutelsat's constellation of satellites.

Its most recent satellite, Hot Bird 8, went into orbit in August.

Launched by a Russian Proton rocket, Hot Bird 8 is set to become operational in October, broadcasting 950 digital channels to 110m homes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, the company said.

Discussing the improved results, Guiliano Berretta, Eutelsat's CEO, said that over 80% of the company's sales came from digital video, data and broadband markets.

He added that the firm would also look to become a majority shareholder in Spanish satellite operator Hispasat, in which it holds a 27.7% stake.

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The world's largest commercial satellite producer is Boeing.
From providing the platforms that launched DIRECTV and the satellite television broadcast industry in 1994 to Navy UHF satellites that support military operations in Afghanistan today, Boeing 601s have proven their remarkable versatility again and again. Seventeen customers in nine countries have ordered a total of 84 Boeing 601s built by Boeing Satellite Systems, the satellite design and manufacturing arm of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, and they continue to leave an enduring mark on the shape of today's world.

Read more on Boeing

Calderon may be the next Mexico president

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg)
Felipe Calderon will probably be named Mexico's next president when a federal court makes its final ruling on the validity of the July 2 vote today.

There is less than a one-in-a-million chance that the court will do anything other than certify Calderon's victory,'' said Todd Eisenstadt, a professor of government at American University in Washington.

The court's seven justices are scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. Mexico time (9 a.m. in New York) to decide whether to certify election results that showed Calderon, a former energy minister, won the contest by 243,934 of the 40.9 million valid votes cast.

Mexico's benchmark 10-year peso bond rose to a two-week high yesterday and the peso gained on expectations Calderon, 44, will be confirmed as the country's next president.

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