Existing home prices fall

Alhtough home sales are up in October, the median home price fell by a record amount. Analysts forecast more price declines in coming months as the once-booming housing market undergoes a painful correction.

Chief economist for the Realtors, said he expected home prices to continue falling for the rest of the year as sellers, accustomed to the booming market conditions of previous years, reluctantly cut their prices.

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Canada Debt Free in 15 Years

Canada, benefiting from their large oil reserves outside of the Middle East, will try to use its revenue to become the first Group of Seven nation to eliminate its net debt within next 15 years, joining countries such as Australia and Finland that are already net debt free.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines net debt as total obligations of all levels of government, minus assets such as government pension funds.

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Most Web Users Buying Gifts Online

Some 80% of American Internet users say they'll be buying gifts online this holiday season, according to an AOL Shopping/Zogby poll released Tuesday.

What's more, 24 percent of netizens expect to spend most of their gift budgets online, the poll revealed.

"These findings clearly show that US Internet users are shopping online more during the holiday season because of convenience, selection and price," AOL Vice President Robert Hayes said in a statement. "The average consumer is starting to see the advantages of online shopping over the traditional brick and mortar store."


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Walmart.com was down on Black Friday

Due to a "higher than anticipated traffic surge", wallmart.com resulted blank pages, delays or other problems. Site is back to normal now.

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Kazakh says Borat creator deserves prize

A Kazakh writer called on the Kazakh Club of Art Patrons to give Baron Cohen its annual award, according to a letter published by the Vremya newspaper Thursday.

Baron Cohen's fictional character Borat "has managed to spark an immense interest of the whole world in Kazakhstan, something our authorities could not do during the years of independence," said Asip-uly.

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HIV infection rate is rising

The spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues unabated, with the number of persons infected rising once more in some countries which had been thought to be beating the disease, according to the U.N.

There are now 39.5 million living with HIV infection, according to the annual UNAIDS report, released ahead of World Aids Day on December 1, and 4.3 million of those were infected in 2006. That is 4,00,000 more than were infected in 2004.

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Podcast use rising but still small

More Americans are listening to podcasts, but very few do so every day. The Pew Internet and American Life Project said Wednesday that 12 percent of Internet users have downloaded a podcast, an increase from 7 percent earlier in the year.
However, only about 1 percent said they download a podcast on a typical day — unchanged from the survey earlier this year. The rest do so less frequently, perhaps only once.

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AOL to Offer Live Webcast of Jay-Z "PlayPump" Charity Concert

AOL Music LIVE announced on Tuesday that it will offer a live webcast of a charity concert featuring hip-hop artist Jay-Z, proceeds from which will go to purchase PlayPump water systems for rural communities and schools. The PlayPump draws clean drinking water from underground through a pump that doubles as a children's merry-go-round. The "H 2 the Izzo" concert will be broadcast live on AOL on Friday, Nov. 24 at 10:00 p.m. ET.

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Study: 1% of All Websites Are Pornographic;

According to the findings of a U.S. government study, about 1% of all websites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit, the Associated Press reported. The study was conducted in association with a court case challenging the government's 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which would have compelled explicit site owners to secure proof of age before allowing Americans to enter their sites.

The study also found that 6% of all searches yield at least one explicit site, and the "most popular" searches returned an explicit site result nearly 40% of the time. However, about 50% of all explicit sites are hosted outside the U.S., where the COPA law would not be enforceable.

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Britney Spears Sex Tapes for Sale?

Britney's soon-to-be ex-husband Kevin Federline is threatening to sell a four hour sex tape the couple made soon after getting married, unless she pays as much as 26 million dollars for the tape and for dropping his claims for sole custody of the couple's two children.

The reports coincided with the release on the internet Monday of a video clip purporting to be taken from the tape, showing a woman looking a lot like the once-innocent star performing oral sex.

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Year-end computer glitch worries NASA

Space shuttle Discovery was moved to the launch pad Thursday to await a launch that could be as early as Dec. 7 -- an effort to avoid potential New Year's Eve computer glitches.

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Fake YouTube Scam Hits 1,400 MySpace Pages

Fake YouTube video players have begun show up on MySpace this week, trying to con users into downloading adware.

They are distributing software from Zango, the adware company that just agreed to a $3 million settlement over its unfair and deceptive adware installations.

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No Heart Risk for Women Who Favor Protein Over Carbs

According to recent medical research, women who follow protein diets as recommended in the South Beach and Zone diets, do not increase their risk of coronary heart disease, according to researchers here.

And women who consume low-carbohydrate diets that emphasize vegetables rather than animals as the source of protein and fat may be rewarded with a moderate reduction in risk of heart disease.

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Borat Film Banned in Russia as `Offensive'

Russia banned the comedy film "Borat", a spoof movie depicting a misogynist, anti-Semitic, homophobic reporter from Kazakhstan, over concern it could offend audiences.

`We decided not to grant this film a cinema license because there are moments in the film which could offend some viewers' religious or national sensibilities," Yuri Vasyuchkov, head of the film licensing department at Russia's Moscow-based Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency, said today by phone.

Note: All of a sudden Russian becomes very moral :). Meanwhile, they don't mind to discriminate against Georgians and prosecute reporters for the free speach.

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Microsoft on schedule to ship consumer Vista editions in January

Microsoft will release Vista to consumers on January 30th. Businesses will get their copies by the end of November.

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Britney Spears files for divorce

Britney Spears and her husband, Kevin Federline, have filed for divorce, court officials in Los Angeles say.

Spears, 24, who married 28-year-old Federline in 2004, will seek custody of their two children, court papers say.

The documents cited "irreconcilable differences" for the divorce.

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Microsoft video entertainment strategy for the Xbox 360 revealed.

Beginning on November 22, Xbox 360 owners will be able to buy and rent over 1,000 hours of programming using the new Xbox Live Video Marketplace. It will include programming from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. "CSI," "South Park," "Batman Forever," and "Nacho Libre" are a few of the titles that will be offered by year's end. At launch, TV shows will be offered as download-to-own, while movies will only be available as 24-hour rentals.

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Blockbuster Adds In-Store Exchanges to Online DVD Rental Service

Blockbuster announced on Wednesday that it has altered its online DVD mail order rental service so that subscribers can now either return movies through the mail or to participating Blockbuster stores. For each online rental exchanged in a store, customers will receive a free in-store movie rental. All of Blockbuster's 1.5 million online subscribers will automatically be upgraded to the new Blockbuster Total Access service. "Customers shouldn't have to choose between renting online versus in-store, and they should never have to be without a movie," said Blockbuster chairman and CEO John Antioco.

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Record companies sue New Jersey kids

Five record companies are suing the children of a New Jersey soccer mom who refused to pay them money when she was accused of downloading music. Patti Santangelo is a "computer illiterate parent" whom the record companies accused of downloading infringing music and from whom they demanded $7500. Santangelo had never downloaded anything, so she refused. The record companies sued her. She defended herself.

Now Warner Music, EMI, Sony BMG and Vivendi Universal are suing her children, alleging that they are the infringers. It's apparently a publicity stunt, as the record companies leaked the news of the suit before they served the children with papers.

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Eat, drink and be thin?

Obese mice got the benefits of being thin without the pain of dieting when they consumed huge doses of red wine extract, according to a landmark study.

It's far too early to know if this would work in people, scientists said. But several were excited by the findings.

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Tom Cruise and MGM to form new United Artists in L.A

Tom Cruise united with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. to resurrect United Artists, the movie studio founded 87 years ago by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and others, MGM said on Thursday.

The partnership, under which Cruise would star in and produce films for UA with his production partner, Paula Wagner, comes about two months after the bitter end of Cruise's 14-year production deal with Paramount Pictures. Wagner will serve as chief executive of the United Artists.

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Microsoft Vista, Office and Exchange launch on Nov 30

The Microsoft Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 has been scheduled for November 30.
There will be an event in Canada to mark the official launch of the suites worldwide, according to a Microsoft Canada spokesperson.
She said a specific date has not been finalized yet for the consumer launch of the products, but it will happen early next year.

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The world will run out of seafood by 2048?

According to a study by an international group of ecologists and economists, the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates.

The paper, published in the journal Science, concludes that overfishing, pollution, and other environmental factors are wiping out important species across the globe, hampering the ocean's ability to produce seafood, filter nutrients and resist the spread of disease.

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Apple Launches Latino Section on iTunes Store

Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of iTunes Latino, a dedicated area within its U.S. iTunes Store that will showcase Latin music, music videos, TV shows, audiobooks and podcasts. The section will include Spanish-language TV programming from Telemundo and its Latino youth network, mun2, such as "Pasion de Gavilanes," "El Cuerpo del Deseo," "Decisiones" and "mun2: The Immigration Special."

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Internet Explorer 7 looks very promising!

It's been five years since the last redesign of the popular browser. And most of the new features have long been available elsewhere..

New IE 7 additions are improved security that have been a problem for this software for a long time.

The overall design is changed; no more the row of menu choices at the top of the window - no more File, Edit, or other familiar items. Nearly all the menu choices have been duplicated by icons.

Other features include fraud alerts, automatic Web site updates (RSS feeds), and tabbed browsing, which keeps a collection of Web pages within a single window.

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Microsoft Debuts Windows Media Player 11

Microsoft announced the release of Windows Media Player 11, the latest version of its audio and video player software. The company said features of the new player include a visually-driven interface that incorporates thumbnail and album art; an instant search function that provides results that narrow with each keystroke; and audio fingerprinting capabilities that recognize and import track information for unidentified or misnamed audio files.

Windows Media Player 11 also features integration with URGE, MTV's digital music service, and support for more than 200 portable and home networking devices.

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Google Buys Wiki Service JotSpot

Google continues to acquire social applications; they’re announcing that they’ve acquired JotSpot, the wiki service founded in 2004 by Joe Kraus, who originally founded Excite. As was the case with previous acquisitions, they’ve temporarily closed Jot to new signups - new users will need to join a waiting list while they migrate the service to Google’s systems. JotSpot will also become completely free.

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