Google Hosts Africa Conference

“Building the conversation between Silicon Valley and Africa.”, is the mission statement of BarCamp Africa. The organizers expects grass roots changes can be made by building awareness using this event. Google has offered to host this gathering on their beautiful Mountain View campus. What is a BarCamp? It is a gathering to share and learn in an open environment with discussions, demos and interaction among participants. BarCampAfrica 2008 will be held on Oct 11th.

Michael Moore Releases Slacker Uprising Movie Free

Michael Moore has released his movie Slacker Uprising free streaming for US and Canadian residents. “This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans. The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November.” ,says Michael Moore. “Slacker Uprising” chronicles the 62-city tour he did leading up to the 2004 election. For those who don’t download there is a DVD available for $9.95. In his blog Moore says its one of his contributions to help get out the vote November 4th and he gives permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). His last movie “Sicko” brought in $24.5 million domestically.

Adobe Unveils PhotoShop CS4

Adobe today announced Adobe PhotoshopCS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, the highly anticipated, new editions of the professional industry standard software for digital imaging. Photoshop CS4 will be available as stand-alone applications or key components of the Adobe Creative Suite 4. CS4 for Mac OS X on Intel based and PowerPC based systems and for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista platform are scheduled to ship October 2008. Estimated price for Adobe Photoshop CS4 is US$699.

Judge Ordered Cheney to preserve records

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered Vice-President Dick Cheney to preserve a wide range of records from his time in office. A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is suing Cheney and the Executive Office of the President in an effort to ensure that no presidential records are destroyed or handled in a way that makes them unavailable to the public.

T-Mobile G1 with Google’s Android.

T-Mobile today unveiled the highly anticipated T-Mobile G1, the first mobile phone built around Google’s open-source, Linux-based Android platform. The T-Mobile G1 has full touch-screen functionality and a QWERTY keyboard. The phone has a dedicated, physical Google search button and comes pre-loaded with Google maps and an innovative “Compass” mode. The G1 also includes Wi-Fi and integrates with Amazon’s music service. The phone will support multiple browser windows. The G1 has a couple of other things the iPhone omits: copy and paste functionality and a so-called MMS program, which sends photos to other phones without using email.

Antidepressants And Birth Defects

A recent research in Université de Montréal by a team headed by Dr. Anick Bérard found that antidepressants have no effect on foetal development. The study confirms that expectant mothers can safely use prescribed antidepressants during their first trimester. The research team gathered data from the Quebec Pregnancy Registry and analyze the records of 2,329 new mothers diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and treated with antidepressants.

LGBTQs have High Brand Loyalty.

LGBTQ (also GLBT) is referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans gender/transsexual people. According to a new study LGBTQ community has a high brand loyalty for the companies they view as gay friendly and they also tend to provide a lot of negative word of mouth if they have had a bad experience with a company. The study also revealed that, Starbucks, Target, Showtime, Bravo, HBO, Apple, and Subaru have a good reputation among LGBTQ community.

Bill Gates Invests in Bio Fuels

The San-Diego based Sapphire Energy, is trying to make second generation bio fuels out of algae. The company hopes to make the fuel can be made available commercially in three to five years for a cost of $50 to $80 per barrel. It plans to produce about 10,000 barrels a day, and last May it announced that it succeeded in creating “ASTM-certifiable 91 octane gasoline”, the premium fuel at the pump, from algae. Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment is putting money in the firm.

Ancient Recipe Recommends Wine For Longer Life

An 18th century recipe discovered in an old manuscript found among the shelves of a pharmacy in Asciano near Sienna in Italy, says concoction of honey, cherries and secret herbs infused in a full Chianti wine is a secret for longer life. De Munari who found the recipe,brewed the beverage, and came up with a “low-calorie, highly digestive alcoholic infusion which tasted delicious.” The main ingredient in the elixir is the Sangiovese grape, which is the soul of Chianti wine. Chianti is Italy’s most famous red wine, which takes its name from a traditional region of Tuscany where it is produced.

Malaysian PC Teaches Koran

Malaysian PC vendor FTEC System released a new version of Classmate computer bundled with Al-Tasneem’s Digital Al-Qur’an software. The vendor release the version to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Classmate PC is based on Intel’s low-cost Atom processor and designed for children. Approximately 52% of Malaysia’s population is Muslim, which is the official religion of the state.

Secret Green Community Saved.

A secret Green community that was only discovered during an aerial survey of a Welsh national park,UK will not be demolished after it was finally approved. The inhabitants secretly built the sustainable village and lived there unnoticed until the aerial survey was carried out in 1998. The village relies on solar power and a wind turbine for electricity, and has compost toilets, reed beds, a workshop and a hay barn.

Brad Pitt donates $100,000 To Support Gay Marriage

Hollywood star Brad Pitt, one of the most generous celebs, donated 100,000 U.S. dollars to fight Proposition 8, California’s November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. “Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn’t harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8,” Pitt said. Earlier in the week, Brand and Angelina contributed 2 million dollars to create a center for Ethiopian children affected by Aids and tuberculosis.

BlackBerry to Boost Mac Support

BlackBerry maker RIM plans to release a set of new tools which will address a number of longstanding complaints from Mac users. Currently, some of the important functions offered by BlackBerry Desktop software for Windows is not available for Mac. New Mac tools are expected to be released during the first half of next year.

TATA launches BlackBerry In India

While security issues arising from the BlackBerry service is still under investigation by Indian government, Tata Teleservices, a mobile services company in India, launched BlackBerry mobile services. The Indian government requested RIM earlier this year to provide access to e-mails and other communications sent or received on BlackBerry devices. But RIM denied the request saying the encrypted information send across the BlackBerry infrastructure cannot be read by anyone even it self.

Apple Issues Safety Alert for Power Adapter.

Apple on Friday announced the Ultra compact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program. Apple says under certain conditions the new ultra compact Apple USB power adapter’s metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating the risk of electric shock. Apple recommends users who are using the ultra compact adapter that came with their iPhone 3G to stop using them immediately until they receive a new, redesigned adapter.

Obama Sets another record.

Obama’s convention speech set a record number of view ship in American politics. Now Obama’s campaign set a new record for presidential fund raising in a single month, by collecting $66 million from donors in August. Adding more than 500,000 new donors during the month, his campaign said it has now received contributions from more than 2.5 million people. Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate, raised $47 million in August, more than double his previous best fund raising month. Will he set another record on November election?

Local People Freed School Chidren from Militants

In North western Pakistan, militants took about 300 school children hostage and the students were freed by local people later. Three militants were involved in the incident, after fierce cross-firing between local people and militants, two militants blew themselves up and the other one ran away. The people in that area have formed committees to expel the Taliban.

Listen Music on Yahoo Search.

Yahoo launches a new feature on its search pages which allows users who search for an artist with available content on Yahoo! will be able to listen to songs by the artist right on that page. The Yahoo Search music playback is powered by Rhapsody and offers full-song playback for more than 5 million tracks. Each user can listen to 25 free full-length tracks every 30 days. Once 25 songs have been played, users can subscribe to the Rhapsody Unlimited streaming service or continue to listen to an unlimited number of 30-second samples until the next month begins. Yahoo!’s FoxyTunes Player enables the on-demand, web-based playback of music within Yahoo! Search and throughout Yahoo! Music.

You Can Spot More Aggressive Men By Their Faces

According to Canadian scientists, men with wider faces are more aggressive. Men have wider faces than women, and the differences start emerge at puberty when testosterone levels increases. Testosterone is tied with aggression, which led to a link between aggression and wide faces. But the face width is not linked with aggression in women. The size of the faces have been shaped by evolution to signal aggressiveness to others.

US embassy in Yemen bombed

Yemen At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on the US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa by a suicide bomber and armed fighters. The attack is suspected to be carried out by al-Qaeda. George Bush, the US president, said the attack was a bid by extremists to drive the United States out of regions like the Middle East. Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. It is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the world.