Amazon prepares for online taxesAmazon.com employees have developed a tax figuration system in the event that the company will have to tax online shoppers internationally and at home, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and European Patent Office documents.
Patent No. 20060036504 is for a tax figuration system that classifies retail items, automatically and dynamically imports the tax code for that classification of item depending on destination, and then assigns taxation to that item being delivered.<... (more)
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There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998For many years now, human-caused climate change has been viewed as a large and urgent problem. In truth, however, the biggest part of the problem is neither environmental nor scientific, but a self-created political fiasco. Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that diffe... (more)
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Iran Asks Russia to Help Send Man Into Space — ExpertIran wishes to send a man into space. The country plans to ask Russia for help and Russia is not opposed to the idea, a Russian expert said on Tuesday.
“The idea of the first spaceflight by an Iranian is very attractive to Iran in the light of the country’s ambitions to become a key state not only in the region but in the whole Islamic world,” the director of the Russian Centre for Modern Iranian Studies, Rajab Safarov, was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying while o... (more)
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NASA Chooses New Spacecraft to Search for Water on MoonWASHINGTON -- NASA will send a second spacecraft to the moon with the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled for October 2008. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite will travel independent of the orbiter to search for water ice.
The spacecraft, proposed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will fly as a secondary payload on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle that will launch the orbiter from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
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NASA To Crash Craft Into Moon CraterAs part of the plan to put robot explorers -- and, later, people -- on the moon, NASA will crash a spacecraft into the lunar surface in 2008. The explosion should be visible from Earth.
A team announced Monday that an additional mission, known as LCrOSS, has been added to the first planned flight of the long-term lunar project, which will send the Lunar Reconnaisannce Orbiter on a mapping project.
NASA said that the LRO launch vehicle had extra space, so proposals w... (more)
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Weaponization of space will have unpredictable consequencesThe United States has promised to make public in the next few months its new space doctrine, which allows for the deployment of weapons in outer space.
Colonel Anthony Russo, chief of the U.S. Strategic Command's space and global strike division, said the time was ripe for clearly stipulating the Pentagon's responsibility for the security of the national space group. Space-based laser and kinetic energy weapons will be used against those who create obstructions to U.S. satellites.... (more)
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Human version of bird flu is unlikely says chief scientistThe chances of the avian flu virus mutating into a form that spreads between people is "very low", the Government's chief scientific adviser said yesterday.
Professor Sir David King made the statement as an increasingly worried public reported thousands of sightings of dead birds over the weekend.
Almost 3,500 people called the Department of Rural Affairs last Friday and Saturday and tensions among the public also increased after details of a leaked government conti... (more)
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'100 bird flu outbreaks' in BurmaBird flu has spread in Burma with more than 100 outbreaks across the country, a UN official has said.
He Changchui of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a press conference the situation was "more serious than we imagined".
He said the outbreaks were mainly in the central district of Mandalay and the northern district of Sagaing.
On 13 March Burma confirmed its first case of H5N1 since November 2004 and the number subsequently rose t... (more)
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Hope over laser 'that melts fat'A laser which melts fat is being developed by scientists.
Experts from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US said it could be used to treat heart disease, cellulite, and acne.
The laser is able for the first time to heat up fat in the body without harming the overlying skin.
Using the Free-Electron Laser at selected wavelengths, scientists were able to heat the fat up, which was then broken down and excreted by the body.
Professo... (more)
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First Knights Templar are discoveredLONDON: The first bodies of the Knights Templar, the mysterious religious order at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, have been found by archaeologists near the River Jordan in northern Israel.
British historian Tom Asbridge yesterday hailed the find as the first provable example of actual Knights Templar.
The remains were found beneath the ruined walls of Jacob's Ford, an overthrown castle dating back to the Crusades, which had been lost for centuries.
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Uranium’s Effect On DNA EstablishedThe use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities.
Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effect... (more)
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Military May Soon Have "Star Trek" Force Shield to Protect Soldiers, VehiclesThe US military is experimenting with a defense system that is effective in neutralizing rocket-propelled grenades. The system creates a "force shield" that will protect soldiers and military vehicles. It's likened to the defensive shield seen in the sci-fi "Star Trek" TV series and movies, although this system is strictly for a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
The first tests of the Trophy Active Protection System in the US were successfully completed last month by the US Naval S... (more)
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ESA Announces Gravity-Modification BreakthroughThe European Space Agency announced the results of an experimental test in which a superconductor rotating at 6,500 rpm is shown to gain acceleration as the result of what is believed to be a gravity-modification effect.
Kirkland, WA (PRWEB) March 29, 2006 -- The European Space Agency announced on March 21st the results of an experimental test in which a superconductor rotating at 6,500 rpm is shown to gain acceleration as the result of what is believed to be a gravity-modi... (more)
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Birds test negative for avian fluTests on nine birds for avian flu in Scotland have proved negative following the discovery of the H5N1 strain in a dead swan.
A Scottish Executive spokeswoman was unable to say if the total number of birds being tested is still 14, or if that number has increased or diminished since yesterday.
The deadly H5N1 strain of the disease was confirmed in a dead swan in the coastal village of Cellardyke, Fife, yesterday. H5N1 can be fatal to humans but has not been known to... (more)
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Alaska Gold Mine Threatens Pristine Waters, WildernessThe gold-mining industry is on the verge dumping waste in otherwise unpolluted waterways with government approval, but conservationists say regulators are letting corporations do an end-run around long-standing environmental protections.
Environmentalists in Alaska renewed a court battle against government regulators on Wednesday, seeking to upend a mining permit they say would destroy a pristine lake and stretch a regulatory loophole enabling mining companies to fill water bodies with to... (more)
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Where worlds collide: Landfill to pollute what ''could well be the cleanest ground water on earth''TINY TOWNSHIP—Gord Leonard slows his pickup to a crawl and points a finger out the window toward a piece of prime farmland gone to weed. He points from the road because he and others have been warned that setting foot on the property will land them in trouble.
Behold, Site 41 — the "Unbelievable Site 41," according to a nearby protest sign — a moniker that may conjure, for some, visions of secretive military testing, Martians and flying saucers beneath a Nevada s... (more)
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Net neutrality fans lose on Capitol HillIn a modest victory for broadband providers, a highly anticipated bill in the U.S. Congress does not include specific rules saying that some Internet sites must not be favored over others.
Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican who heads the committee responsible for telecommunications legislation, released the text Monday and said that a hearing had been scheduled for Thursday at 10 am ET.
"This bill will produce an explosion of opportunity for American workers, and A... (more)
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Scientists start restoration of the Great Sphinx of GizaThe statue was carved out of the surrounding limestone and is believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians in the third millennium BC.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities is carrying out the work, with scientists hoping to rectify what they call previous mistakes in the restoration of the monument.
Zahi Hawas, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the Sphinx had suffered the greatest damage when restoration workers used cement to the half-man, half... (more)
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More birds tested for deadly fluTests are being carried out on more birds after Britain's first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found in a dead swan in Scotland.
Scottish rural affairs minister Ross Finnie said they were dealing with the case in "proportion" and did not want to "turn a drama into a crisis".
Experts are warning the swan is unlikely to prove an isolated case.
Surveillance zones are being enforced around Cellardyke, Fife, where the dead swan was found ei... (more)
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It’s Enough to Take Away Your Appetite: Documentary takes an alarming—if one-sided—look at genetically modified foodsIn 1997, Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser was spraying weeds on his property with the herbicide Roundup when he discovered that some did not die. Monsanto, Roundup’s maker and owner of some 11,000 seed patents, concluded that Schmeiser’s plants were actually “Roundup Ready” canola, its own product. Soon Schmeiser, a lifelong seed developer, found himself the defendant in a lawsuit for patent infringement. It mattered not that Schmeiser never actively sought to use the seed... (more)
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When what happens on MySpace doesn't stay on MySpaceUntil a few weeks ago, Paul Marszalek's MySpace.com page had photos of him and his friends partying, dancing and drinking alcohol.
Not anymore.
Marszalek, 18, a University of Illinois-Chicago freshman, deleted his MySpace Web page after becoming nervous that law firms where he was applying for internships might see the photos.
"You never know who's looking at it," he said.
Marszalek isn't being paranoid.
What you post onl... (more)
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