Information.This Technology trusted capable create new job in range four years forwards (2013).
IDC predict, industries IT will become locomotive economic progress. This industry estimated capable creates 75,000 units new business until years 2013 later. Means, every years field kerjaakan increases 3 percent annually.
"Within avoid economic breakdown currently, innovative technologies will have pivotal role will supports productivity and allows creation local business new. This would make IT capable create employment and supports sustainable economic growth, "says CEO Microsoft Steve Ballmer, like quoted through AFP, Tuesday (6/10/2009).
RESEARCH This held IDC its initiator Microsoft for determines the effects IT industry involving 52 state. Result this research enough represent 98 percent condition IT globally. Even findings also indicates condition expenditure IT worldwide.
IDC estimating, expenditure IT in 52 country will grow least 3 percent annually, or thrice higher like income bruta between this and year 2013.
Interestingly for Microsoft, findings IDC also preach that most expenditure IT will contributed by purchases software. Cost purchases software will increased approximately 4.8 percent annually.
"IT indeed gives us opportunity to perform things more and software represents one thing supports developments IT," says Corporate Affairs Communcation Manager Microsoft Scott Selby.
Information Technology - Indonesia must returned rewarded achievements bad matter technology industry informatika (TI). This time Indonesia must fell ranking within competitiveness index technology industry IT.
Results research conducted Economics Intelligent Unit (EIU) sponsored BSA, placed Indonesia statistic do 59 world, fell one rankin from study results previously in year 2008.
"Research This shows if country that has legal resolute toward rights intellectual property generally will excel in competitiveness index IT," clearly Director BSA Asia Pacific Claro Parlede, moment press conference in Hotel Sultan, Jakarta, Wednesday (14/10/2009) .
Research which has entered third year this by comparing developments TI in 66 countries to view extent competitiveness index TI in these countries.
19 from 20th countries top ranking in list competitiveness index TI years ago, returned enter into ranks countries most competitive.
"Five countries with TI most competitive in Asia Pacific are Australia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and New Zealand," pursued Claro.
"Very important for governments supports innovation and take steps to stimulate results sectors Information.This Technology IT in attracting investors" augment.
When thinking into future, most people considering current technological and how these technologies correctable or more developed in years upcoming.
Imagine if your phone behaves like a remote that controls your whole life.
Imagine if remote was skilled save history your life become devices you can use to bring your memory back into life when you need.
This all device and developments currently continuously developed by scientists and researchers from worldwide. Phone technology cellular expected far more advanced during ten years or more.
In fact, it's not entirely unreasonable to imagine seeing a mobile phone that can memorize your travel itinerary and ensure that everything is ready on the road, booking airline tickets and even train and give you the absolute best route to reach your destination on time.
Imagine phone will control central heater home you so you stay warm even before you rise from bed in morning days or provide authority emergency with information your house if system home safety you already triggered.
Many phone cellular currently equipped for handle files music, videos and many aspects other entertainment. Imagine if you have which phone worked with entertainment systems your home and discover programs interests you and then automatically downloading those programs for you.
Phone futuristic this will also knew directly how handle calls your incoming. If someone conduct calls that not want talk (missed call) or when you already got promise, hence automatically will directs calls to message those voice based your schedule and gives you summaries text for phoned and why.
Phone cellular this will like owning assistant virtual within pocket your. And, enhance technologies and new developments created every years so have phones like this during near This not too artificial.
Other technologies will also see growth and perkembangan.Memiliki ability to heal diseases even before they strike or technologies to inculcate vital organs to save lives is things that has developed constantly during several years.
Technology surrounding medical research substantively more advanced than it even twenty years ago. Cancer could someday truly not curable cares kinds or how far advanced this disease found.
Or, might become one diseases individual received immunization when they young, so they never contagious diseases actual. Vehicles maybe actually could hovering above ground generate far faster and more efficiently ways to traveling.
Technology of the future remains to be seen but we can assume at the level that things have changed in the past, things would be much more developed in future.
Technology future may not yield any from things this but possibility that they will better.
Considering what world now compared what had 100th year ago he stood for good reason that future technologies will brings us into things never we merasakanya.
Information Technology - Microsoft launches Office 2010, and this includes a version for Windows telephone. This has new tools to sharing documents and ensure they visible as expected.
Like predecessor, suite this application allows users editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and there also version OneNote.
A often attention when retrieve files created on desktop into mobile device is that several formats will disappear within transferring. Microsoft Office Mobile promised that 2010 will maintain formats rich, like tables, graphs and graphs SmartArt.
For those of you who often connect with a laptop and likes listening to music, this is suitable for the latest gadgets you have. This time to introduce Logitech Laptop Speakers Logitech Z205 2010.
Speakers with the concept of patch on my laptop. With clip-on design and lightweight, you can easily use, when lap, bed, terrace, anywhere and anytime.
Laptop Speakers Logitech Z205 has a 2 drivers sound, built-in amplifier and crystal clear sound quality. Can be connected directly to a USB port, can be mounted on the top of the laptop monitor. And these audio devices can be used on a computer applying Windows operating system and Mac.
Spesifikasi dari Logitech Laptop Speaker Z205 :
- USB port | USB connectivity - Bekerja dengan Windows ® dan Mac OS ® - Dimensi (H x W x D): 64 mm x 180 mm x 34,33 mm (2,52 in x 7,09 in x 1,35 in) - Speaker - Kabel USB - Protective travel case - Dokumentasi pengguna
Music can make everyday we become more colorful. With the presence of Laptop Speakers Logitech Z205 you can listen to music from a laptop with the audio quality produced is not lost as on desktop computers.
Laptop Speakers Logitech Z205 2010 is already available on Amazon with a price range of 32.99 USD or about 330 thousand rupiah. Interested to have it?
General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 1900 – US version Size Dimensions 114 x 57 x 10 mm, 66 cc Weight 127 g Display Type TFT, 16M colors Size 320 x 240 pixels, 2.36 inches - Full QWERTY keyboard - Five-way scroll key Ringtones Type Polyphonic, Monophonic, MP3, True Tones Customization Download Vibration Yes Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall Call records Detailed, max 30 days Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 8GB, hotswap - 110 MB internal memory - 128 MB SDRAM Memory - ARM 11 369 MHz processor Data GPRS Class 32, 100 kbps HSCSD Yes EDGE Class 32, 296 kbps 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP Infrared port Yes USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB Features OS Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML Games Java downloadable Colors White Steel, Grey Steel Camera 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus, video(VGA 22fps), flash; secondary videocall camera - Built-in GPS receiver - A-GPS function - Java MIDP 2.0 - MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player - Office applications - FM radio - Push to talk - Voice command/dial - PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing - Built-in handsfree Battery Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BP-4L) Stand-by Up to 410 h Talk time Up to 10 h 30 min
Full HD 21.5-inch Touchscreen IDTI. In CeBIT 2010, IDTI (Integrated Digital Technologies) Taiwanese company launches IDTI's 21.5-inch Touchscreen Full HD Display, the latest 21.5-inch Full HD full-screen touchscreen (not PC) equipped with an HDMI input / D-Sub and supports Microsoft Windows 7 OS.
For each purchase comes with a stylus to work on screen. IDTI Full HD 21.5-inch touchscreen with a price of about $ 300.
Tak salah bila Facebook semakin hari semakin heboh dengan aplikasi yang baru tiap harinya. Dan ini adalah aplikasi yang lawas yang mungkin bisa bermanfaat. Yaitu cara memasang Aplikasi SMS Gratis di Facebook. Ikuti ya..!!! :) Pertama : Tentunya log in disini Kedua : buka http://apps.facebook.com/chatsms lalu Allow acces Ketiga : Klik Add to Profile Keempat : Lihat Profile, apakah sudah masuk aplikasi Chat SMS tersebut.
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
Add KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
Using 1/2-cup measuring cup coated with cooking spray, divide warm cereal mixture into portions. Using buttered hands shape each portion into ghost shape. Decorate with coconut, frosting and/or candies. Best if served the same day.
Footnotes
MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS
In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Follow steps 2 and 3 above. Microwave cooking times may vary.
For best results, use fresh marshmallows.
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme can be substituted for marshmallows.
Diet, reduced calorie or tub margarine is not recommended.
Store no more than two days at room temperature in airtight container. To freeze, place in single layer on wax paper in airtight container. Freeze for up to 6 weeks. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
Add KELLOGG'S® RICE KRISPIES® cereal. Stir until well coated.
Divide warm mixture into sixteen 2 1/2-inch muffin-pan cups coated with cooking spray. Shape mixture into individual cups. Cool. Remove from pans.
Before serving fill with pudding, ice cream or frozen yogurt. Top with ice cream topping, whipped topping or nuts, if desired. Serve immediately.
Footnotes
MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS:
In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Follow steps 2 thru 4 above. Microwave cooking times may vary.
Note: For best results, use fresh marshmallows.
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme can be substituted for marshmallows.
Diet, reduced calorie or tub margarine is not recommended.
Store no more than two days at room temperature in airtight container. To freeze cups, place in single layer on wax paper in airtight container. Freeze for up to 6 weeks. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before filling.
RICE KRISPIES TREATS® is a registered trademark of Kellogg NA Co. for cereal-based snack food.
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
Add KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool slightly. Using cookie cutters coated with cooking spray cut into leaf shapes. Decorate with frosting for leaf veins and outlines. Best if served the same day.
Footnotes
MICROWAVE DIRECTIONS:
In microwave-safe bowl heat butter and marshmallows on HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Follow steps 2 and 3 above. Microwave cooking times may vary.
For best results, use fresh marshmallows.
1 jar (7oz.) marshmallow creme can be substituted for marshmallows.
Diet, reduced calorie or tub margarine is not recommended.
Store no more than two days at room temperature in airtight container. To freeze, place in layers separated by wax paper in airtight container. Freeze for up to 6 weeks. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
In a small bowl, combine the honey, mustard, rosemary, ground black pepper, lemon zest and garlic. Mix well and apply to the lamb. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Place lamb on a rack in a roasting pan and sprinkle with salt to taste.
Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and roast for 55 to 60 more minutes for medium rare. The internal temperature should be at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C) when taken with a meat thermometer. Let the roast rest for about 10 minutes before carving.
Synopsis: In "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.
New Moon & Cast Among The Nominees For The 2010 MTV Movie Awards
in Anna Kendrick, Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, New Moon, New Moon Cast, Remember Me, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The 2010 MTV Movie Awards voting begins today March 29th! The Twilight Saga New Moon and cast have numerous nominations!! Check them out! Best Movie
The Twilight Saga New Moon
The Runaways Best Kiss
Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson The Twilight Saga New Moon
Emilie de Ravin & Robert Pattinson Remember Me
Kristen Stewart & Dakota Fanning The Runaways
Taylor Swift & Taylor Lautner Valentine’s Day Best Female Breakout Star
Anna Kendrick Up in the Air Best Female Performance
Kristen Stewart The Twilight Saga New Moon
Kristen Stewart The Runaways
Dakota Fanning The Runaways Best Male Performance
Robert Pattinson The Twilight Saga New Moon
Taylor Lautner The Twilight Saga New Moon
Robert Pattinson Remember Me Global Superstar
Kristen Stewart
Robert Pattinson
Taylor Lautner
Voting begins now until April 9th on MTV Movie Awards! Go VOTE!! NOW!! The 2010 MTV Movie Awards will air on MTV June 6th, 2010!
It kinda worries me because it may split the votes between the actors’ and their other films and then someone else will win!! ACK! Who will you vote for in all the categories?
[Source: MTV. Thanks CullensDIL & CFsten!}
EDIT! This is to choose the five nominations! But keep voting!!! PLUS, you can write in a nomination!!
Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan ended a visit to Kenya Friday, calling on the country's leaders to resolve their political disputes and to implement the proposed new constitution. As the country prepares to vote in a referendum on the document, politicians are still locked in a debate about its contents.
Speaking to journalists at the end of his four-day visit, Annan stressed the importance of Kenya's parliament members reaching a consensus on the constitution.
He said the country needed a united leadership in the lead-up to the referendum and called on leaders to put aside their differences to ensure the vote ushers in a new era of governance.
"There must be a unity of purpose to ensure effective decision-making within the coalition government. The cooperation of the leaders will be especially important in the post-referendum period," said the former U.N. chief.
Annan has stepped in to heal a rift between the country's president and prime minister that has threatened to put the coalition government on the brink of collapse. He urged President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to settle their differences over the suspension of cabinet ministers accused of mismanaging public funds.
The former U.N. chief said it was critically important that all Kenyans have the chance to vote in the referendum. With registration underway for a new electoral roll, he said every member of the public should be able to take part in the process. "I strongly encourage all Kenyans to register as soon as possible, remembering that every vote counts," he said.
Annan mediated the talks that ended widespread ethnic violence in Kenya following the disputed presidential election in December 2007. He has consistently warned the country's leaders to implement key reforms agreed as part of the power-sharing deal, or face a return to political chaos in the run up to the next election in 2012.
He also stressed the importance of fulfilling its commitment to trying suspects of violent crimes committed during the post-election violence and expressed concern over reports of the intimidation of potential witnesses and human rights defenders, and of extra-judicial killings.
Annan said that 2010 could be an historic year for Kenya, if it unites and works for its interests as a whole. "This is a year that Kenya could have a new constitution; a solid base for land reform; a new electoral law and a fresh voter registration list - not to mention other major reforms," he said.
He finished by appealing to the country's leaders again to work together, and with the people, to achieve these goals. History, he said, will judge them harshly if they allow the opportunity to slip.
Human Rights Watch says the massacre that took place last December in the Democratic Republic of Congo was previously unreported.
28 March 2010 Democratic Republic of Congo Photo: VOA Share This
A U.S.-based rights group says rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 321 villagers in a previously unreported massacre last December.
In a report issued Sunday, Human Rights Watch says Lord's Resistance Army rebels began a four-day killing spree on December 14 in at least 10 villages in the DRC's northeastern province of Haut Uele.
The group says most of the massacred villagers were men who were tied up, attacked with machetes, and had their skulls crushed with axes. It says the dead included a 3-year-old girl who was burned to death.
Human Rights Watch says the LRA rebels also abducted at least 250 people from the villages, including 80 children.
The group says the rebels forced many of the children to kill other children who disobeyed rebel rules.
HRW's senior Africa researcher, Anneke Van Woudenberg, says the massacre is one of the worst ever committed by the LRA in its 23-year history.
LRA leader Joseph Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges.
A U.N. official confirmed the massacre and said the world body is investigating.
U.N. investigation chief Liliane Egounlety told the Reuters news agency it has confirmed 290 deaths so far.
U.N. officials say it has taken a long time to carry out the investigation because of the remoteness of the area.
The LRA originally was based in Uganda but now also operates in an area straddling the borders of the DRC, the Central African Republic and Sudan. The rebels are accused of killing, kidnapping and mutilating thousands of people.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the unfortunate night watchman who continues to encounter living and breathing museum exhibits in Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian, 20th Century Fox's tent-pole sequel from director Shawn Levy. Scott Frank, Robert Ben Garant, and Thomas Lennon provide the script, with Chris Columbus returning to handle producing duties. Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Hank Azaria join the returning cast of Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, and Owen Wilson in the 1492 and 21 Laps Entertainment co-production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the unfortunate night watchman who continues to encounter living and breathing museum exhibits in Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian, 20th Century Fox's tent-pole sequel from director Shawn Levy. Scott Frank, Robert Ben Garant, and Thomas Lennon provide the script, with Chris Columbus returning to handle producing duties. Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Hank Azaria join the returning cast of Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, and Owen Wilson in the 1492 and 21 Laps Entertainment co-production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Labels Adventure (2) Asia Travel (15) travel (1) Thursday, March 25, 2010 Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg
Labels Adventure (2) Asia Travel (15) travel (1) Thursday, March 25, 2010 Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg It’s that time of year again. Residents of Virginia, and regular visitors to Colonial Williamsburg know it well. It’s neither Christmas nor Thanksgiving. It’s not New Year’s. No, it’s all these things and more rolled into one. It’s time again for the Grand Illumination.
Illumination is a series of events running throughout the holiday season in America’s largest living history museum, beginning with one huge night of fireworks, music, and entertainment on December Sixth, 2009. Ticket holders for the museum, hotel and resort guests, local residents, and pretty much anyone else is welcome to participate in this series of events at little or no cost
. From Illumination night, through about the first week of January, 2010, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will maintain a schedule of special events including plays, dinners, and special holiday tours for guests who purchase tickets, but the best parts of this wonderful tradition in WIlliamsburg are still 100% free of charge.
Imagine a mile long stretch of town preserved and restored from the eighteenth century. Now imagine it adorned by historically accurate holiday decorations, candles in every window and bonfires. Imagine Colonial Williamssburg’s Fife and Drum Corps playing, carolers singing, canon fire, and fireworks. Anyone who has never been to Williamsburg for Grand Illumination has never truly experienced everything this historic town has to offer.
While the big night, December 6, is the kickoff for this amazing event, the entire holiday season will be punctuated with events every night. Guests staying in resorts in and around town will have to option to purchase tickets for certain events and be able to indulge in others at no cost. Among the most fascinating of the events that will be ongoing are the smaller illuminations of sections of Colonial Williamsburg
Throughout December, torches will be lit, muskets and canon fired and music played while certain sections of the historic area are interpreted for guests who follow the lighting of historic buildings one by one.
While reservations at Colonial Williamsburg for hotel space and dining are often booked as far as a year in advance for this series of events, there are a variety of hotels, resorts, and time shares in the surrounding area that can accommodate guests at any time of the year and schedules of special events for Grand Illumination are easy to obtain from your hotel or Colonial Williamsburg’s visitor center.
Add to all these wonderful events the fact that for the first time, Bush Gardens Williamsburg will be operational throughout the holidays in 2009 . The Park is offering something called “Christmas Town.” While some of the rides will be closed due to the cooler weather, others will be running and the entire park will be decorated for the holiday season with several unique shopping opportunities available.
If you have never seen Williamsburg, Virginia during the the holidays why not come out, bundle up, grab some hot cider, and enjoy a tradition that can become your family’s special Christmas event for years to come.
The Hurt Locker is a 2008 film. It follows a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty as members of a U.S. Army EOD unit in Iraq and follows their tour together as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them. The film was shot in Jordan, within miles of the Iraqi border.
It was first released theatrically in Italy in 2008, when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. After being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in North America, it was picked up for distribution in the United States by Summit Entertainment. It was released in the United States on June 26, 2009, in New York and Los Angeles. The independent film received a more widespread theatrical release in the United States on July 24, 2009. Because the 2008 film was not originally released in the U.S. (at least in an Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles) until 2009, it was eligible to be judged for that year's awards, the 82nd Academy Awards held in 2010.
The Hurt Locker earned awards and honors from critics' organizations, festivals and groups. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bigelow, who became the first woman to win the award. The film also swept the 2010 BAFTA Awards, winning best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound. The Hurt Locker is the lowest-grossing movie to ever win the Academy Best Picture award.
Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. The film is set in the year 2154, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi—a sentient humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to the genetically engineered Na'vi and human hybrid bodies used by a team of researchers to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999, but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film Work on the language for the film's extraterrestrial beings began in summer 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006.
Avatar was officially budgeted at US$237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production, and at $150 million for promotion. The film was released for traditional two-dimensional projectors, as well as in 3-D, using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D and IMAX 3D formats, and also in 4-D. The stereoscopic filmmaking was touted as a likely breakthrough in cinematic technology.
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released overseas on December 16 and in North America on December 18, to critical acclaim and commercial success. The film broke several box office records during its release and became the highest-grossing film of all time in North America and worldwide, surpassing Titanic, which had held the records for the previous 12 years. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion. Following the film's success, Cameron stated that there will be a sequel. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three, for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction.
Opposition Republicans plan to fight back against health care legislation and take back congressional seats in November.
26 March 2010
Photo: AP
President Obama signs the health care bill at the White House Tuesday
Tip: To download a copy of this story, right-click on the MP3 link at the top right of the page and save it.
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
Earlier this week, President Obama won a major political victory with congressional passage of his health care reform plan. He and congressional Democrats made history with the reform legislation. Among other things, it will extend health insurance coverage to thirty-two million Americans now without it.
Mister Obama had made health care his top goal after his election in two thousand eight. The president and his Democratic allies in Congress finally won the battle after more than a year.
BARACK OBAMA: “We did not avoid our responsibility, we embraced it. We did not fear our future, we shaped it.”
How big a win this was for President Obama? Many political experts see passage of the health care reform bill as historic. Ross Baker is at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
ROSS BAKER:" This is something, after all, that first came to the attention of the American public one hundred years ago when a national health insurance program was proposed by President Theodore Roosevelt, and successive presidents, mostly Democrats but not all, have favored it."
Stephen Hess is a Presidential Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
STEPHEN HESS:"It's a big deal. How big a deal you have to measure piece by piece but clearly it is the first major change in our health care system since nineteen sixty-five so that's a long time coming."
Mister Hess says the success of Barack Obama's presidency largely depended upon this vote.
STEPHEN HESS:"This is a very great victory for President Obama. This was his first year in office and in many ways he really staked his whole four-year presidency on the success in this vote on healthcare."
However, the new law is also considered a political risk. Most Democrats in Congress supported the measure. But all the Republicans opposed it. Opinion studies in recent days show the public is generally divided on the new law. A USA Today-Gallup poll shows a small majority believe the new health care plan is a good thing.
The health care debate also fueled the rise of the so-called Tea Party movement. The loosely organized group of activists opposed the health care plan as too much government involvement in the economy.
Congressional Democrats have been the targets of threats and destructive acts following the health care vote. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says at least ten members of Congress have received threats to themselves or their family members in recent days.
Republicans have promised to make the health care reform law a major issue in mid-term Congressional elections in November. Their goal is to defeat Democrats who supported the measure and then repeal, or cancel, the law. Republican Senator John McCain spoke to ABC News.
JOHN MCCAIN: “The American people are very angry. And they do not like it and we are going to try to repeal this, and we are going to have a very spirited campaign coming up between now and November and there will be a very heavy price to pay for it.”
In addition, officials in more than ten states plan to fight the health care law in court. They say the law violates the United States Constitution.
And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. You can read, listen and comment on our reports on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.
Hollywood and Bollywood Form Alliance to Fight Piracy
Anjana Pasricha | New Delhi 26 March 2010
Photo: AP
From left, Bollywood actors Arjun Rampal, Kangana Ranaut, Priyanka Chopra and Marathi actor Upendra Limaye, seen, during the National Film awards, in New Delhi, 19 Mar 2010
The world's two biggest film industries - Hollywood and the Indian Hindi language movie industry known as Bollywood - have come together for the first time to fight film piracy in India.
Piracy has long been a problem in India, where hawkers sell illegally duplicated CDs and DVDs of popular Hindi movies for about $1. Internet piracy is also rampant as increasing broadband speeds allow faster downloads.
The scale is huge. A recent study put the losses of the Indian film industry in 2008 due to infringement of copyright laws at nearly $1 billion.
Now the Motion Picture Association of America and seven Indian companies say they will work together to stamp out piracy in India - one of the world's biggest movie markets.
"That is a very significant step to showing that all players are serious about fighting this problem collectively, everyone realizes, both the Hollywood and Bollywood studios realize this is a collective problem, and now we have to work collectively to solve the biggest challenge that we face together," said Rajiv Dalal, who heads the Motion Picture Association's office in India.
The two industries will work with law enforcement agencies and movie theaters to target camcorder piracy, online piracy and the sale of pirated DVDs. They will also lobby for the creation of more effective laws to tackle copyright infringement.
There has been increasing collaboration between the world's two biggest film industries.
In recent years, Hollywood studios have ventured into the Indian entertainment market to tap business in a country of over a billion people with a voracious appetite for films. They have opened production houses in India, and entered into joint ventures with Indian film companies.
Rajiv Dalal says the two industries are collaborating in several areas.
"There is no longer this divide between Hollywood and the Hindu studios or Hollywood and Bollywood, because we are doing a number of co productions with the Hindi studios, a number of joint television ventures, so pretty much if the market rises we all rise, if the market falls, we all fall," he said.
A recent example of collaboration between the two film industries is the hit Hindi film, "My Name is Khan". It was produced by two Indian companies, and distributed by Fox Studios in India and the United States.
Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning co-star in new film about the groundbreaking all-girl rock band of the 1970s
Alan Silverman | Hollywood 26 March 2010
Photo: Courtesy of Apparition; Photo credit David Moir
From left to right: Dakota Fanning, Mickey Petralia, Michael Shannon, Alia Shawkat, Scout Taylor-Compton, Stella Maeve and Kristen Stewart in “The Runaways”
They hit the music scene 35 years ago with a burst of teenaged energy and budding sexuality. Their story begins in 1974 outside a music club on Hollywood's Sunset Strip when 16-year-old Joan Larkin adopted her stage name and screwed up her courage to approach legendary rock producer Kim Fowley.
"I'm Joan Jett. I play guitar. Electric guitar." "Oh. Joan Jett - that's a cool name. You guys got a demo?" "No …no guys. I want to start an all-girl rock band."
Courtesy of Apparition; Photo credit David Moir
Kristan Stewart stars as Joan Jett in "The Runaways"
That band, "The Runaways," only stayed together about five years, but in that half decade proved the conventional wisdom in the music industry - that women could not rock - was wrong. Jett, executive producer of the film, says it gets most of the important details right.
"It's a story that is based on a real band that existed," she says. "It follows what 'The Runaways' did. There are a lot of real things in there, but there are embellishments. There are timeline shifts … more than anything, those little details are a little different, but nothing that makes it hard for me to watch at all."
"Of course they had to take some liberties, but I think it's pretty darned close," says Cherie Currie who was barely 15 when she became lead singer of "The Runaways" and later wrote an autobiography - "Neon Angel: A Memoir of A Runaway" - with details of the band's beginnings that became part of the movie:
"To me it's just miraculous," she says. "Wow, 35 years later and all the hell that we went through and for people to finally get that is really a gift. I still haven't been able to wrap my brain around it. I'm very grateful."
Dakota Fanning, who has grown up in front of movie audiences - she was barely seven years old when she co-starred with Sean Penn in "I Am Sam" in 2001 - plays the racy and sometimes reckless Cherie.
"One of the reasons I wanted to do this movie was to do something different than I've done before and to have people see me in a different way than just being in 'I Am Sam' and being younger," she says. Certainly it was tough going to those places but, at the same time, the gritty parts and tough parts are the best parts and the parts I was most excited to do because that's when Cherie is really raw and open and you see her vulnerability and her innocence that she still has even though she has been through some crazy times."
Courtesy of Apparition; Photo credit David Moir
Joan Jett (Kristan Stewart), Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), and Robin (Alia Shawkat) practice in “The Runaways”
For the role, Fanning had to learn to sing like a rock star; and Kristen Stewart, who portrays Joan Jett, also learned to play Jett's in-your-face guitar licks.
"We both were really concerned about getting the music right," says Stewart. "They have a very distinctive sound. It's not just singing. It's not just trying to sound good. It's trying to sound like them.
Italian-born photographer and music video director Floria Sigismondi makes her feature film debut with "The Runaways" - both directing and writing the script; but she adds that to make it work, her stars had to work hard at recreating the raw energy of the original band.
Courtesy of Apparition; Photo credit David Moir
Floria Sigismondi, Director, “The Runaways”
"I had two weeks with Kristen; I knew she could play guitar and she was already practicing on her own," she says. "She already had recorded a little bit so I knew that she would come in prepared. I had about a month with Dakota and I put her in front of a live band for many rehearsals. Then when everybody got together I did numerous rehearsals as a band. So by the time I was filming they had already bonded and already knew what it was like to be in a band. I felt really confident on that level and so did they. I think that was really important. By the time we got to 'Cherry Bomb' they really excelled. We had a month of shooting and by that time they were a band."
"The Runaways" also features Stella Maeve, Scout Taylor-Compton and Alia Shawkat in the band; and Michael Shannon plays rock impresario Kim Fowley, who can still be seen on Sunset Strip looking for fresh talent.
Report Calls for Radical Changes on Eve of Global Agriculture Conference
Joe DeCapua 25 March 2010
“I think there is a general consensus in the scientific community that they have done good research, but they really have not had poverty reduction directly on their minds."
On Sunday (March 28th), the first Global Conference on Agriculture Research for Development opens in Montpellier, France. The meeting aims to address the challenges to food security, including high prices, poverty and climate change. On the eve of the conference, a new report’s been released on how to help meet those challenges.
The report is funded by many international organizations and development agencies. The lead author of the report, Uma Lele, is a former World Bank senior adviser. She calls the meeting a great opportunity for change and says not since the early 1970s has the need for agricultural reforms been so great.
gcard 2010
“Until 2007, there were declining real commodity prices, production was increasing and there was generally a sense that we were accomplishing something. I think the food price increases of 2007 and the financial crisis of 2008 really jogged people into action…that there had been a great sense of complacency about investment in agricultural research and development,” she says.
An opportunity for chang
The report, Transforming Agricultural Research for Development, outlines the problems facing the expected 1,000 participants at the Montpellier meeting.
“Lots of poor people. Nearly a billion people are food insecure today. The Millennium Development Goals are not likely to be reached by 2015. So I think the world communities and those who are concerned about poverty are saying that this is a wonderful time again to try and do some which is similar to what happened when the CGIAR was formed,” she says.
Forty years ago, widespread fears of famine and hunger in poor countries led to the creation of CGIAR, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. It’s an international partnership whose mission is to “achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy, and environment.”
CGIAR recently implemented some reforms it says will revitalize it to meet new challenges.
Nevertheless, Lele says new thinking and “radical changes” are needed in 2010.
“I think there is a general consensus in the scientific community that they have done good research, but they really have not had poverty reduction directly on their minds,” she says.
She says new technologies “need to be mobilized to benefit the poor.”
Also, G8 countries are no longer the only major players. Emerging economies, such as India and China, now have greater roles in development, contributing to scientific and technological advances. And with more players, there’s more competition for resources, land and bio-fuels.
Lele says, “So the idea is to bring them all together to see whether collectively they can address these problems better than just working in a very fragmented environment.”
Talk is cheap
Lele estimates it will cost about $80 billion dollars a year to implement all the reforms needed to ensure food security for a rapidly growing world population. That’s double what’s been spent before. But the former World Bank senior adviser warns it’s not enough to make funding pledges.
“G8 countries have pledged $20 billion over the next three years, for instance. You know, in the past, these pledges haven’t materialized. So I think one of the first things that should happen is the pledges should materialize. That’s the least that can happen,” she says.
And she says national governments must not only do a better job of investing in domestic agriculture, they must also increase those investments.
“Climate change and commodity prices and all these things now require that we spend a lot more resources to address problems, which are going to be much more complicated in the future than they have been in the past,” she says.
The new report says global population will reach nine billion by 2050, up from the current six billion. Most of the increase is expected in developing countries.
The first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development runs from March 28th through the 31st.
Space shuttle being transported at the Kennedy Space Center
The U.S. space shuttle program comes to an end this year, and a debate is underway over what should replace it. The retirement of the shuttle fleet could result in massive job losses in Florida.
Thousands of workers protest in Titusville, Florida over plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs at the nearby Kennedy Space Center.
Space shuttle worker Alan Newton expects to lose his job when the shuttle program ends this year. "I'm planning on doing whatever I have to to find another job. As much as I don't look forward to it, I do know that I'm going to have to," he said.
Since NASA put a man on the moon in 1969 Florida has been the hub of American space exploration.
The region around the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral even calls itself The Space Coast.
The U.S. government estimates NASA boosted Florida's economy by around $4billion in 2008, and generated more than 40,000 jobs.
The Dixie Crossroads restaurant in Titusville depends on business from space workers. Its owner, Lauralee Thompson, says she is worried about a future without the space shuttle. "People don't tend to go out and eat a lot when they don't have a lot of money. So, you know, the impending layoffs at the Cape are a major concern for us," she said.
Political and business leaders are scrambling to find ways to soften the economic impact of the layoffs, meeting recently in Orlando to discuss options.
One projection indicates that 23,000 jobs with direct or indirect ties to the space industry, could be lost in Florida within a year.
Mark Nappi from United Space Alliance, NASA's largest shuttle contractor, says job cuts at the Kennedy Space Center could be just the beginning. "For every job that's created by the space program, there are jobs that are affected by that. If I lose my job and I'm not out buying cars, I'm not using the doctor, I'm not going to restaurants. Obviously there's a trickle effect out into the economy so there's a loss of jobs as a result," he said.
Some shuttle workers had hoped to get jobs developing a rocket and capsule to take astronauts back to the Moon by 2020.
But the Obama administration says it wants to scrap the program, known as Constellation, following an independent panel's finding that NASA lacks the resources to see it through.
Instead, the White House favors using private operators to carry astronauts into orbit.
Shuttle worker Jeffrey Bell argues NASA should continue with Constellation. "Let's not have to rely on other countries and private industry. Let's keep the jobs, let's keep the community, and let's move forward," he said.
Space Florida, the agency responsible for developing the state's aerospace sector, says it is trying to attract new industries that use space-based technologies.
President Frank DiBello predicts workers will be able to find jobs once the shuttle program ends. "It's an available pool of skilled labor talent that other industries covet. We want to be able to apply them to new generation space programs, but also we intend to diversify Florida's economy," he said.
Some of these NASA workers claim efforts to redeploy their skills in other areas come too late with just four shuttle missions remaining.
President Obama is set to visit Florida in April to host a conference on his administration's plans for space.
