Venture capital funds have invested in social networking sites and news portals in China only to find that the Chinese government isn’t willing to let information flow too freely around the Mainland. But how about commercial goods? Is e-commerce the logic replacement for the emphasis on information in the the Internet sector?

The published a report earlier this week on how e-commerce is “gaining a foothold” in China. According to the article:Fifty-five million of China’s Internet users shopped online last year for a total turnover of 59.4 billion yuan (8.25 billion dollars), according to the China Internet Research Centre in Beijing.

That is up from 43 million online shoppers in 2006, when the value of transactions stood at 4.3 billion dollars, the centre said - and an even larger jump from the 62 million dollars spent online in 2000.Maybe online shopping will prove to be a less politically sensitive area for venture capital and private equity to dabble in over the next few years in China….

By:  Greg Cruey                        Source

Like it or not, fake images are everywhere and have become a part of today’’s culture. Thanks to the popularity of digital cameras and the availability of desktop imaging software that allows users to easily manipulate images, fake images have become commonplace, especially on the Internet.

A fake image can be defined as an image of an object or scene that wasn”t captured as the image would imply. In general, fake images are created to generate a deception, but not all fake images are bad. Identifying fake images can be straightforward if you know a few tricks.

By:  Gerard                        Source

Are you having trouble taking pictures underwater? Instead of taking them with mere water-resistant cameras, you might want to try the Digital Underwater Camera Mask from Liquid Image.

The Digital Underwater Camera Mask is a camera in a scuba mask. There is a little targeting area to let you know where to shoot your 5 Megapixel shots. There is an external LED light to let someone else know you're taking a shot.

For just $99, you can have 16MB worth of internal memory, and there is a microSD as well. You can download the pictures to your USB, and enjoy.

Via Krunker

By:  Mark Rollins                        Source

Back in September, I did a blog entry looking at Jeff Skilling’s attempts to get either a retrial or acquittal.

He has again asked to be free on bond while his case is appealed and you can read the second written part of Skilling’s appeal of his conviction on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors right here.

. The 161 page document lays down a number of challenges in a number of areas, including the so-called “ostrich instruction” where jurors were told to consider whether Ken Lay and Skilling, who was sentenced in October 2006 to more than 24 years in prison for his role in the collapse of Enron, deliberately avoided learning about any crimes at the company. Skilling’s lawyers say that instruction was “inexcusable”.

“If Jeffrey Skilling is to be held accountable for what happened at Enron, if he is to become the poster child for corporate fraud in this country, then give him a fair trial. A trial based on recognized theories of criminal law. A trial in a disinterested community, in front of a dispassionate judge and impartial jury. A trial where witnesses are not afraid to appear and give testimony. A trial where the jury is given all the right law. A trial where justice can be done. He asks for no more. Every one of Mr Skilling’s convictions must be overturned.”

The critical part to remember here is that last year, the court threw out most of the convictions in an Enron-related case involving four ex-Merrill Lynch executives charged with helping push through Enron’s sham sale of three power barges in order to boost the company’s earnings. At the time, the three-judge panel said panel said the executives were doing what Enron wanted them to do, did not profit at its expense and, as a result, did not deprive Enron of “honest services.”

The document argues that Skilling was acting in the best interests of the company which means the “honest services” allegations have no place. “Where the employee’s conduct is designed to further the employer’s stated interests, even a fiduciary breach or other wrongful act committed in furtherance of that design does not constitute the crime of honest-services fraud,” the document says.

“They are going to ride the ‘honest services’ horse as far as they can,” Wayne State University Law School professor Peter Henning told the Houston Chronicle.

By:  leon                        Source

It’s hard to say if the new “Bionic Woman” TV show will be renewed, and if it isn’t, that will not sit well with the people of Great Britain.

The show stars home grown, Michelle Ryan, seen here beating the pooh out of the air.

Who cares; she looks good doing it.

Michelle had a significant role in a very popular British show, “Eastenders”, which was reported to have been one of the late Princess Diana’s favorite shows.

My wife and I used to watch it too, years ago, on Canadian TV, when we had a huge satellite dish. It was quite good and Ryan was very mature and poised for a 16-year-old.

So this explains why the few episodes of the new “Bionic Woman” are a big hit across the pond.

The recent writers strike certainly didn’t help the show’s future but perhaps this British interest in “The Bionic Woman” will give it a boost.

Image Source:www.talk2myshirt.com

By:  jim                        Source

ManagedQ’’s goal is to be the Internet’’s first search application dedicated to helping you manage your entire search experience: from the keyword, to results, to previewing, to refinement and repeating with a new query.

ManagedQ starts with a keyword, but from there on everything is different. Firstly, each result comes with a large screenshot to give you a better idea of what’’s on the other end of that link. The entire result is then downloaded to your browser and scanned to find the important ideas and concepts, presenting them to you in what is called the Executive Summary.

By:  Gerard                        Source

CarMax recently announced the most popular colors in vehicle searches on its Web site for February, and leading the pack is black.

More than a third of the searches (36 percent) were for black vehicles, over twice as many as the next most popular color, which was white at 17 percent.

It appears with new paint blends and a wide array of colors to choose from, it’s still as simple as black and white!

By:  Jeff Bressler                        Source

Do you live alone?

Most singles do, and I came across an article that talked about how great it is to live by yourself. I have to say, I agree!

After all, there is nothing like coming home after work and just eating a bowl of cereal for dinner if you want to. Or jumping right into the bath along with some candy for the mind (a chick lit book of some sort) and a glass of wine.

Plus if you live alone you have the option to have visitors…. or not, depending on your mood.

Listen, if you’re single right now, there are probably times when you wish you had someone to keep you company in the apartment…. but you gotta admit that being single (and living alone) can be pretty darn satisfying.

By:  Cherie Burbach                        Source

“Christophe Honore’’s Love Songs is in many ways a conscious rediscovery of the tradition of the French musical, engaging most specifically with Jacques Demy’’s masterful The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” writes David McDougall in the Auteurs” Notebook. “Love Songs uses the same three section titles as Umbrellas, but like the rest of the film’’s explicit Demy-references they are put to an independent purpose. Which is to say, Honore keeps his homage mainly in his back pocket, leaning less on postmodern form than on postmodern social mores.”

“The musical numbers are restrained and not especially showy, but their tact makes them feel more rather than less self-conscious,” writes AO Scott. “Still, for all its imperfections, Love Songs is a worthy and intriguing experiment, the latest sortie in an international rescue operation aimed at saving musical cinema from extinction or self-parody. Like other movies that have been involved in this undertaking - Once, say, or Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Mr Honore’’s film is likely to inspire ardent love among its admirers. The rest of us may envy their passion.”

Updated through 3/24.

By:  dwhudson                        Source

When we were hiking along our unmarked southern property line and we were stumbling down a steep hillside toward the seasonal creek, I came across a turtle shell among the rocks.

We commonly find bleached turtle shells all over Roundrock. I’d read once that a healthy forest in Missouri can support up to ten turtles an acre. Given that Roundrock is 80+ acres, that comes to 800 turtles in my forest. Let’s say a more likely number is 100 turtles at Roundrock — 100 turtles that have no regard for property lines, so they probably come and go as they please. Except when they come to a stop.

What you see above is the “skin” of a turtle shell. The bleached part of the shell was connected, but only barely. I was able to lift off this skin. I found the whole arrangement resting on its side against a rock on the steep hillside. I think there is a story in that.

I’ve found this particular tableau once before in my woods on another steep hillside near the shelter tarp. I’m pretty sure I know what happened. The turtle was crawling about farther up the hillside and somehow slipped, rolling down the hill as a result. I suspect this is not really a problem for a turtle since the shell is suited to a few bumps, and certainly it would not achieve any great velocity on the tumble. Unfortunately, when the turtle came to rest after its roll, it was on its back or side and could not right itself.

The first shell I found like this was actually wedged into a pair of rocks, and though the poor turtle probably had at least two of its feet on the ground, it couldn’t get itself loose. The unfortunate turtle above looked as though it was fully on its back but resting against a rock in such a way that it couldn’t work itself back over.

You know the rest of the story. The turtle either starved or baked to death. Predatory insects soon arrived. All that is left to tell the story is an empty shell.

That part of me that understands this is part of the circle of life consoles the rest of me that is saddened by this story, but it isn’t doing a very good job. In a way I feel like a bad steward that I hadn’t been roaming my land, on the lookout for this very kind of problem so I could correct it. In another way I realize that letting the natural way of things follow its course is exactly the way a good steward of the land should operate.

Still feel a bit sad though. I don’t suppose it was a sudden end, after all.

(Also, sorry about the blurry photo above. The lighting was good, so I expected to get a good macro shot. I suppose the camera had a little trouble focusing on the glossy surface of the inside of the shell skin. The tiny display window on the back of the camera sure doesn’t give you any indication of this kind of focusing problem. Apologies.)

Missouri calendar:

Purple martins arrive this week.
Mourning doves begin nesting.

Today in Missouri history:

The Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, performed the first of six concerts in St. Louis on this date in 1851. Her promoter was P.T. Barnum.

By:  Roundrockjournal                        Source