Brad Pitt tops list of celebrities most dangerous to search for.

According to a study by Internet security firm McAfee, online search for information about your favorite celebrity, may not be as innocent as it may sound. An army of malicious sites offering everything from celebrities related items like ringtones, wallpapers, free music download etc is awaiting and trying to entice you to click onto their sites. Once there, you will be exposed to all sorts of malices running the gamut from spyware, adware to viruses or even identity thief with enticing offers. Topping the list is actor Brat Pitt who when searched for "screensavers", yielded 50% malicious Web sites ready to take you for a spin. Following is singer Beyonce whose ringtones searches can lead to sites attempting to steal your personal identification.

For more, see PRnewswire.com

China's milk contamination crisis creates opportunities for "wet nurses."

In China, the crisis created by the discovery of the deadly chemical melamine in the country milk's supply, has revived the old profession of wet nurse in which a woman feeds her own breast milk to someone else child. With women poised to earn as much as $2,500 a month -more than most people earn monthly- supplying milk to others' children, the business of wet nurse is said to be booming there.
Many nursing women are posting ads online and signing up at housework agencies across the country to offer their services.

For more, see McClatchydc.com

New law to require the country of origine on most food labels.

Starting on September 30, a new rule will require supermarkets and other big food retailers to label or display the country of origin for most food products.The new rule is part of the Farm Bill passed earlier this year.But not all foods sold in grocery stores will be covered, there will be some exceptions including processed foods like breaded chicken or packages of mixed vegetables. Another set of exemptions will apply to food products sold in small stores and places like butcher shops, restaurants and school cafeterias. Also, meat, nuts and produce that were that in the supply chain before September 30, do not have to be labeled with the country of origin. Overall, food producers will have a six month grace period; after that, they can be subject to a $1,000 fine per violation.

For more, see wptv

World Federation of Adverisers against the Google/Yahoo deal.

According to the Wall-Street Journal, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has joined the rank of trade organizations opposed to the proposed deal between Google and Yahoo. The proposed deal would have let Google sells search ads on Yahoo with the proclaimed goal to serve better targeted ads. It would guarantee Yahoo a least $800 million a year in payments from Google. The WFA expressed its opposition to the deal in the form of a written argument to the European Competition Commission which is already investigating the matter following a previous complaint by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
In the U.S., the National Association of Advertisers has already expressed its opposition to the deal for fear that it will give Google, control of nearly 90% of the online advertising market.
The U.S. justice Department is actually reviewing the deal at the request of the the two companies involved who voluntarily agreed to delay its implementation.

For more, see Mediapost.com

Netflix teams with CBS and Disney to stream TV shows.

To add to its online library of Television shows available to its subscribers, Netflix just struck a deal with CBS and Walt Disney Co. The new deal covering shows ranging from CSI to Hannah Montana will allow Netflix subscribers to watch them over the Internet a day after they originally aired on TV.
The new deal comes on top of Netflix one year old program that let monthly DVD rental subscribers paying $8.99 or more, watch television shows and movies online at no additional cost.

For more, see bizjournal.com

Hannah Montana on MadTV



For more, see portfolio.com

Fire-sprinklers system mandated in new homes.

At its national annual meeting in Minneapolis, the International Code Council which sets the residential building code used in most of the U.S., voted to make fire sprinklers system mandatory in new one and two family homes and townhouses nationwide starting in January 1st 2011.

For more, see Firehouse

Adobe Creative Suite 4 to debut today.

Software maker Adobe System is to announce today the launch of the latest version of its notoriously known Web-publishing software, the Creative Suite series. The new version called Creative Suite 4, is in fact a collection of 13 individual software including Photoshop for photo editing, Dreamweaver and Flash for Web-sites design, InDesign for desktop publishing and Illustrator for video editing etc. The new software is loaded with tools and shortcuts designed to make creative professionals' jobs, easier.
The different products in the new CS4 are more integrated with one another which will offers more possibilities to design more dynamic Web sites that combine different types of media like animation or live video. It is said to run 20% to 50% faster than the previous version and will cost between $1,699 and $2,499 depending on the bundle package. The new software should be available for purchase next month.

For more, see InformationWeek

Axe chocolate man ad deemed too hot for India.

A television advertisement for Axe men's deodorant stirred a big controversy in India, prompting government officials to order it suspended. In the ad, a man is transformed into a walking chocolate figurine after spraying himself with Axe's Dark Temptation deodorant. As he goes by his daily life, women, most of them scantily dressed, can't resist him. They threw themselves at him, licking and biting off various parts of his body. The one bite that seemed to have broken the camel's back is the one of the man's butt by a woman sitting in a commuter bus.The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting suspended the ad after receiving one complaint and has referred the matter to the Indian Advertising Standards Council which has yet to take a position.

See for yourself.

Symantec launches Norton 2009 Internet Security Suite.

Symantec one of the world leader in Internet security protection softwares, just launched its 2009 Norton Internet Security Suite with a lot of improvements.
The new product tested by PC Magazine, is getting a lot of praises. It is said to be less intrusive on your operative system which means you will see fewer of those those pesky pop-pup. It boots much faster and according to the magazine, the new Norton anti virus and spyware protection, "is extremely effective."
The new security software is packed with other neat features like a warning message against fake or malicious Web sites and the capability to securely enter your passwords and other identification on Web sites. It's anti spasm feature for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express which is set to the the default position, may be one of the only weak points of the new software.
The new Norton costs $70 with the possibility to install it on three PCs and comes with one-year subscription to its updates; the cost after the first year is $60. It is only available for PCs running Windows XP and Vista at least for now and for the first time, comes with free phone support.

For more see PC Magazine

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 praised.

Unveiled at the end of last month in a beta or testing form, Microsoft newest browser Internet Explore 8 is loaded with a lot of new features. One of them is a Web mapping system that is part of what are called accelerators or in simpler terms, shortcuts. When your cursor is over a web address on a Web site, one accelerator drops down a menu bar of different Web mapping services. When you click on one them, the address is mapped for you. Another neat feature is the way Web sites are opened in separates tabs that look like different browsers themselves. That design has the advantage to isolate different Web sites so that if one of them is an unscrupulous one, it will be unable to crash the whole browser.
But certainly, the biggest draw of the new Microsoft browser, will be it's private browsing mode called InPrivate. With that mode, you can browse all you want with no worries of your activities being tracked.

For more, see USATODAY.

Shutterfly starts offering photoblogging platform.

With little fanfare, photo-sharing site Shutterfly announced last month a new service called Share Sites which is a customizable online photo album doubled with photoblogging capabilities. The new service will allow users to create themes centered photo-albums on pages that can be made public or viewed upon invitation only; users can invite friends to post their own pictures next to theirs, creating a collaborative work. And just like in any modern blog, visitors of someone public site can leave comments, participate in polls or forums. The service is linkable to YouTube for videos viewing only, but Shutterfly said it will add direct video uploading capabilities, soon.
Over all, the service is very impressive even for seasoned web users, and easy to use for fairly new ones.

For more, see ReadWriteWeb.com

Metallica new Album leaked online.

Metallica new album "Death Magnetic", the first in years and set to be released this Friday, has been leaked online where it was posted after one copy was allegedly sold at a record store in France. But in an interview to a San Francisco radio station, Lars Ulrich the band's drummer said he was not upset about the leak and everybody is happyrybody is happy.

For more, see internetnews.com

Small Book Publishers to enter the Digital Age.

Last week, books publisher Perseus Book Group announced the lunch of a new digital publication service called Constellation in partnership with several big publishing and technologies companies. The new service will allow easier access to digital book publishing to small and independent publishers who can not afford it.
Among the companies involved, are Google with its Google Book Search Feature, Sony with its Sony Reader, Barnes & Nobles etc.

For more, see NYT.

U.S. teenage birthrate highest among developped nations.

In the light of Sarah Pailin's news of her pregnant daughter, an UNICEF report dating back to 2001, revealed some interesting facts. First off, the U.S. teenage birthrate was the highest among developed nations and second off, only one other country, Hungary, has as many teenage abortions as the U.S.
For some experts, the figures are puzzling given the fact that girls in the U.S. are not the most sexually active among the same group of nations.

For more, see NYT.

Federal Reserve's beige book points to a soft economy.

The combination of high prices, weak job market and consumers cut back in spending, contributed to a slow economic growth in the final days of July and into August according to the latest beige book just released by the Federal Reserve Bank. According to the book, released on Wednesday, "the economy spent the summer in a rut, with consumers feeling little relief from the government's tax rebates."

For more, see Chicago Tribune.com

Pole Dancing studio denied a permit by township.

With the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union, a Pennsylvania women has sued a Township named Adams for violating her First Amendments rights when it denied her permit to operate a pole-dancing studio. The women, whose day job is computer system analyst, said what she is teaching is an art form and a respectable and recognized form of exercise. She also claimed that despite classed titles like "Stiletto Strut" and "power Lap Dancing," her audience is strictly made of fully clothed students with no paying spectators. But the zoning board denied her appeal despite the testimonies of several students clients, included a grandmother.

For more, see ABC News

CNBC joins in with LinkedIn.

Trying to draw from each other's strength, CNBC the business news channel and LinkedIn the social networking site for business executives, have brokered a partnership deal. The deal calls for CNBC to air community generated content such as surveys and polls from LinkedIn's nearly thirty million members and to make LinkedIn networking tools available to cnbc.com users.
In return, CNBC will provide its programming, articles, blogs, financial data and video content to LinkedIn.
The clear winner here is CNBC who will be able to offer its advertisers, a highly targeted audience. To alleviate some fears of lost of privacy by its members, LinkedIn said that CNBC will not have access to its members' profile information, at least for now.

For more, see Reuters.

Aston Martin gives a sneak into the upcoming 77 Sport car.

British sports-car maker Aston Martin just revealed glimpse of its much hyped new model set to topple the Bugatti Veyron launched in 2005, as the world most expensive car. The new Aston Martin now known only as One 77, get its code name from the fact that only 77 units will be built. It is said to be made of carbon fiber and aluminum and is set to go onto production as early as 2009 with a sticker price in the neighborhood of $1.8 million. The car has its own web site and can be previewed at www.one-77.com.

For more, see Cnet.com

Canada said to be on verge of recession.

New figures out last week reveal Canada's economy barely grew in the second quarter, victim of the decline of US demand for Canadian goods. The gross domestic product expanded only by just 0.1 per cent over the quarter, much less than what the Bank of Canada and most forecasters have predicted.

For more see Reed Construction Data.

Japan to roll up stimilus plan.

The Japanese government unveiled Friday a series of economic measures meant to rescue the stagnent economy. They include an income tax cut, fuel subsidies and government loans to small and mid-size business for a stimilus pacjage worth Y11,500bn about $18 billion. This will be the country 15th in sixteen years.

For more, see FT.

Russia spells five guiding principles in World affairs.

Foollowing its invasion and pullout of Georgia, Russian President Dmitri A. Medveded spelled his government's five guiding principles in foreign policy in a speech Sunday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, one day prior to an European summit on Russia, EU relations.
Those principles are: Russia observance of International law; rejection of what he calls United States dominance of world affairs in a "unipolar" world; to seek friendly relations with other nations; to defend Russia citizens and business interests abroad; to claim Russia sphere of influence in the world.

For more, see BBC