Maldives cabinet makes a splash

The Maldives government has made an eye-catching plea for climate change action by holding the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting.

Politicians from the Indian Ocean island nation donned scuba gear this morning to send a message to world leaders ahead of December’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

The nation’s president Mohammed Nasheed has voiced fears the archipelago will be swamped by raising sea levels unless action is taken to reduce carbon emissions.

The Maldivian cabinet held a meeting underwater to highlight the need for action on climate change

Big fish: President Mohammed Nasheed arriving at the meeting

The 30-minute cabinet meeting held six metres below sea-level was intended to show what the future could hold for the Maldives.

The 350,000 inhabitants of the country live on 1,192 coral islands an average of only 2.1 metres above the ocean.

Ministers communicated using hand signals and white boards as they signed a document calling on all countries to cut their emissions.

It read: ‘We must unite in a world war effort to halt further temperature rises. Climate change is happening and it threatens the rights and security of everyone on Earth.

‘We have to have a better deal. We should be able to come out with an amicable understanding that everyone survives. If Maldives can’t be saved today, we do not feel that there is much of a chance for the rest of the world.’

President Nasheed was already a certified diver but most of the cabinet have had to take diving lessons in recent weeks in preparation for the meeting.

Zoona Naseem, president of Divers Association Maldives, said: ‘None of the ministers have ever been diving before, except the defense minister, and all of them are very enthusiastic.’

Nasheed has already announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people if the 1,192 coral islands are submerged. He has promised to make the Maldives the world’s first carbon-neutral nation within a decade.

As he emerged after the meeting, he said: ‘We are trying to send our message to let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change isn’t checked.’

Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed and his ministers signed a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon dioxide emissions

If the Maldives cannot be saved today we do not feel that there is much of a chance for the rest of the world President Mohamed Nasheed

President Nasheed was already a certified diver but most of the cabinet have had to take diving lessons in recent weeks in preparation for the meeting.

Zoona Naseem, president of Divers Association Maldives, said: ‘None of the ministers have ever been diving before, except the defense minister, and all of them are very enthusiastic.’

Nasheed has already announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people if the 1,192 coral islands are submerged. He has promised to make the Maldives the world’s first carbon-neutral nation within a decade.

As he emerged after the meeting, he said: ‘We are trying to send our message to let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change isn’t checked.’

At the UN Copenhagen conference countries will negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which controlled carbon emissions.

Wealthy nations want broad emissions cuts from all countries, while poorer ones say industrialized countries should carry most of the burden.

On Friday the Maldives ministers went diving for rehearsals of the meeting off the island of Girifushi, about 20 minutes by speedboat from the capital, Male.

Three of the 14 in the cabinet had to miss the underwater meeting because two were not given medical permission and another was abroad.

The pie’s the limit

Who’ll eat all the pies? One MILLION fruit puffs put on eBay with opening bid of 99p

A cancelled supermarket order of more than one million fruit pies were put on eBay  today with an opening bid of just 99p.

If all the puffs, which were originally destined for Asda, were to be placed side by side there would be enough to stretch from London to Bournemouth.

Furthermore, it would take a family of four eating one pie a day each, 746 years to munch their way through the job lot of 1,090,000 frozen mixed fruit puffs.

The seller prefers the winning bidder to pay by Paypal... or should that be Pie-pal?

Pressplay Ltd, who specialise selling on surplus or unwanted goods, started the ten-day online auction with an opening bid of 99p for the entire 76-tonne load.

They hope someone will jump at the ‘rare opportunity’ to acquire the 70gram pies, which would reach 90,000ft if stacked on top of each other.

A spokesman for the company said the 13,000 cases of 84 pies equates to 130 pallets loaded onto five articulated lorries. They are currently in storage in Warwickshire.

Pressplay, of Great Dunmow, Essex, are a major player of eBay. They have more than 4,000 items up for auction at any one time.

Luke Schonenberger, company e-commerce manager, said: ‘This is quite possibly the most bizarre and largest thing we have ever had to sell.

‘Most of us think it will make people laugh and it will be a ten-day auction and we’re hoping for a bit of a bidding frenzy.’

Unfortunately the hungry bidder will have to find a way to get them back home as the  states that the ‘buyer is to collect.’ And then there’s the small question of storage…

Fancy one million pies? You can bid by clicking on the eBay website

Skate Group Takes ‘Tetris’ to the Streets

It was only a matter of time, really, before mankind witnessed the glorious nexus of extreme sports and classic video games. And, much like other, similarly epoch-making events, the fruits of such a marriage could not have been more sublime.

Some skaters from San Francisco have put together a stunning video of their escapades, in which they cavort up and down the hills of the city on their boards, with massive, neon-illuminated ‘Tetris‘ “blocks” attached to their heads (video after the break). The visuals of the brilliant neon against a San Fran street-scape are mesmerizing, while a pulsating electro score and elegant editing only heighten the sensory experience. Perhaps most impressive is the skaters’ ability to somehow interlock themselves into a ‘Tetris’ mosaic at the end.

It’s always refreshing when someone toys with the standard ‘Tetris’ medium in new, aesthetically pleasing (or sometimes bizarre) ways. This particular rendition of reality video gaming certainly isn’t replicable by the uncoordinated, non-glow-stick-owning population, at large. But the fact that an entire mini-genre of viral performance art has sprouted up around a cultural touchstone as basic and technologically ancient as ‘Tetris’ speaks, above all, to the astounding game’s astounding timelessness. As with a contemporary hip-hop artist sampling a classic Motown hook, any nod to and reinvention of a bygone era never fails to bring a smile to our faces.

Mozilla launches SeaMonkey 2.0 RC1 internet suite

Mozilla’s SeaMonkey is a utility that bundles a whole slew of internet activities into one application. It’s a web browser, email application, IRC client, and an HTML editor. And it’s inching toward version 2.0. Mozilla pushed out SeaMonkey 2.0 Release Candidate 1 this weekend.

If the concept of an all-in-one internet app sounds familiar, that’s because that’s what Mozilla originally did, in the days before there was a Firefox web browser or Thunderbird internet client. While development of that first Mozilla application stopped long ago, SeaMonkey brings the idea back to life.

I first looked at version 2.0 back when it was still in beta this summer. The release candidate build features a number of bug fixes and is generally more stable than the beta. It also feature the ability to reopen closed browser windows, delete/cut bookmarks from the bookmark search view, and it features a Thunderbird-style tabbed mail client.

There’s also a long list of new features since SeaMonkey 1, including support for RSS and Atom feeds in the MailNews component, an improved password manager, an updated web page rendering engine, customizable toolbars in MailNews, and a web browser component that behaves more like Firefox.

SeaMonkey is an open source, cross-platform application that’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Vacuum maker Dyson unveils its latest household device – a fan with no rotor

He is the man who brought us the vacuum cleaner without the bag. Now Sir James Dyson has unveiled his latest household invention – the fan without the rotor. Called the Dyson Air Multiplier, it is able to create a powerful, cooling breeze seemingly from thin air.

Breezy does it: The Dyson Air Multiplier promises a smoother flow of air

Launching the product yesterday, Sir James explained that he got the idea while developing his Air Blade hand dryers, which force air though a tiny slit to ‘brush’ water from wet hands. ‘We noticed that the hand dryer was drawing in a lot of air from its surroundings,’ he said. ‘So we started to think about how we might be able to put this effect to use. We thought about creating an air moving device with no propeller or fan blade. Three years of development plus another year of testing later and this is the result.’ The Air Multiplier works by pushing air through a 1.3millimetre-wide slit that runs along its circumference.

As it is forced through the circle, the volume of travelling air increases by up to 15 times and its speed rises to 22mph. Crucially, according to Sir James, the resulting air flow is smoother than that produced by normal fans. He said: ‘The amount of air it produces is up there with the very best of fans. We are not claiming that you get more air. But it’s much better quality. ‘Because there are no blades to “chop up” the air, it doesn’t annoy you and it doesn’t buffet you. But it cools you as it is a constant air stream. ‘The machine comes in two sizes and a range of metallic colours. All models cost £199. Like most desk fans, it can oscillate through 90 degrees, but unlike other fans it has a dimmer-switch control. And, of course, there are no rotor blades to get covered in dirt – or endanger the fingers of curious children. The Air Multiplier, already available in specialist design shops and Harrods and Selfridges department stores, will be widely stocked across the country early next year. Estimated to be worth around £500million, Sir James, 62, became one of Britain’s best-known inventors after the success of his bagless vacuum cleaner in the 1990s.

Ukraine will get burned by FIFA after England flare nightmare

Ukraine can expect a FIFA fine for the behaviour of fans who attacked England goalkeepers Robert Green and David James with a barrage of flares. The FA will lodge a complaint this week after making their anger clear to the FIFA delegate at the game in the Dnipro Arena, a venue infamous for hostile fans.

Holy smoke: Rio Ferdinand tries to look unconcerned as flares thrown on the pitch explode behind him

‘FIFA have to decide something about this,’ said England manager Fabio Capello. ‘It’s no good to keep starting the game again. It is difficult for the concentration.’ Ukraine are co-hosting Euro 2012 with Poland but are in danger of losing venues to their neighbours. The tournament was to be played at eight grounds – four cities in each country – but Kiev is the only Ukrainian venue which has so far been passed fit. Three others – Khrakiv, Lviv and Donetsk – have until the end of next month to prove they can handle the event and Saturday’s episode is unlikely to work in their favour. The game had to be stopped twice so stewards and firemen could remove the smoking missiles from the pitch. Green was forced from his goal in the first minute when 15 flares were thrown from behind his goal. When James came on after Green’s red card, his arrival triggered another cascade from Ukraine fans who had no problem smuggling the objects in due to slack security. One flare struck James, who remained remarkably calm. ‘I’ve been told I was hit,’ he said. ‘I noticed the ones in front of me. What’s the problem?’ Capello and captain John Terry stressed they were not blaming supporters for England’s defeat, which ends a 100 per cent record in the qualifying campaign.

‘The flares were offputting, probably more so for Greenie,’ said Terry. ‘But we’re not going to look at the flares as an excuse.’ Substitute Carlton Cole also claimed England’s black players were subjected to racist chanting by Ukraine fans. He said: ‘One or two players mentioned it. If it’s true, it is outrageous and should not happen.’ UEFA had said before the game that they would be monitoring the Ukraine supporters as England striker Emile Heskey had endured monkey chants in the old Eastern Bloc before, most notably, in Slovakia in 2002 and Croatia last year.

Daily Mail

Google Street View released for Canada and the Czech Republic

Huzzah! Google Street View has finally been released in Canada (and the Czech Republic). This Canadian blogger is pretty excited, since it has been a long time coming. There’s something surreal about finding your own house in Google Maps, then actually looking at your front door.

For people who have never used Google Street View, the functionality isn’t immediately obvious. To enable it, you have to drag the icon of a man that is above the zoom slider to a place on a street. The experience is pretty surreal the first time you do it.

Though this might just seem like a whiz-bang feature that looks cool but doesn’t have a real-world application, imagine you’re trying to get to an important appointment in an office building you’ve never been to before. Imagine how much easier it would be to find your way if you already know what the building looks like.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Firefox 3.6 beta coming next week

Mozilla is set to launch the first beta version of Firefox 3.6 on Tuesday, October 13th. The next version of the popular Firefox web browser will include faster Javascript handling, built-in bookmark synchronization, and support for new light weight themes.

For the most part, Firefox 3.6 will look a lot like version 3.5 of the browser. Mozilla is holding off on a major visual refresh until Firefox 4.0 is released sometime next year. But the update should bring a better session restore, improved page rendering, and overall faster performance and better stability.

As you can see from the screenshot of Firefox 3.6 Alpha above, Mozilla has also built a new tab-switching feature into the browser which allows you to see previews of each page. In order to enable this feature, you’ll need to futz around with the about:config menu.

Happy Teachers Day

5 October is a day to celebrate teachers and the central role they play in guiding children, youths & adults through the life-long learning process. This year, World Teachers’ Day will focus on the role of teachers within the context of the global financial and economic crisis and the need to invest in teachers now as a means to secure post-crisis regeneration.

It is critical, during these difficult times, to seek mechanisms that protect the teaching profession. It is also crucial, despite the crisis, to ensure that investment in teachers is sufficient and proportionate to the demands made upon them. It is the teaching force with its knowledge, experience and foresight which can bring new insights to global solutions. Happy teachers day to the all Teachers.

Truth About Twitter!

Women Rule the Social Web

According to an infographic by Information is Beautiful. The stats, compiled by Brian Solis from Google Ad Planner data, show that equal numbers of men and women use sites like LinkedIn, DeviantArt and YouTube.

When it comes to sites like Flickr (), Facebook (), Twitter (), FriendFeed (), MySpace () and Bebo (), however, women outnumber men. In fact, there’s only one major holdout for men on the social web: social news site Digg (), where 64% of users are male.

That the Digg population is largely male should come as no surprise, but what about the other stats? Are women just more social in general, or is there some other explanation?

Time-Waster: So you think you know Helvetica?

Earlier in the month we covered Cheese or Font – a fantastic perpetually-running time-waster that challenges you to choose whether the name displayed refers to a cheese or a font. However, the web is buzzing (at least, in some circles) about a far more nerdy variant: Helvetica vs Arial in Ironic Sans’ “So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?” quiz.

You’re shown 20 logos, each rendered in both Arial and Helvetica. All you have to do is correctly select the logo that was originally rendered in Helvetica. Of course, you shouldn’t be referencing any materials during the test – though you’ll have to fight temptation as there’s some incredibly tricky logos in there, particularly later on when the test throws in a couple of full-capital logos that hide some of Helvetica’s easily-identifiable characteristics.

If you’re feeling brave, take the quiz and be sure to let us know your score in the comments!.

Download Squad

Google Wave

According to the official Google blog, 100,000 invitations to Google’s most hotly-anticipated new service, Google Wave, are going out today. Wave is being touted as a communication tool that reimagines the way email should work. When Download Squad took a look at Wave back in May, Lee explained it this way:

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You’ll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch.

So, who’s getting invited to use this next-generation communication tool? Well, it helps if you signed up early for an invitation and wrote the Wave team a message offering to give feedback. If you’re a developer who’s been using the developer preview of Wave, you might also get an invitation, and some are going out to paying customers of Google Apps.

In their blog post, the Google Wave folks stress that – if you do land an invitation – you’re not going to be playing with a finished product. Wave is still missing some crucial features, and bugs are going to be par for the course until the team starts using the feedback from these 100,000 new users to start identifying problems. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to directly invite friends to Wave, but you will be able to nominate them for invitations.

Do you have a Wave invitation yet? What do you think of the service so far?

Flickroom: Desktop browser for Flickr

Flickroom is an application that lets you interact with photo-sharing site Flickr from your desktop without opening a web browser. Flickroom is based on Adobe AIR, which means you need AIR to be installed in order to run the application. But it also means that Flickroom is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

The program lets you login to your Flickr account and view photos in your own photostream or those of your contacts or groups. You can also use the search feature to find images from all Flickr users, upload your own images, save images from Flickr, add comments, notes, or share images via Twitter.

I have to say, I’m not that impressed with Flickroom’s tools for discovering photos from users that aren’t your contacts. I find the Flickr web interface much easier to navigate for that activity. But Flickroom has an attractive user interface and handy tools for keeping up to date with your contacts’ activities.

Flickroom also has a few odd features like an integrated chatroom where you can communicate with other Flickroom users. But since the program is still in beta, I suppose any chance to leave feedback for the developer and other users is a good thing.

Let the Panda Die Out, Naturalist Says

Gentle, slow-moving and cuddly, the giant panda attracts millions of visitors to zoos across the globe. In its native Chinese habitat, however, the species has a population estimated at just 1,590.

Addressing the fate of the giant panda, BBC television host and noted zoologist Chris Packham made controversial remarks in an interview with the U.K.’s Radio Times, The Times Online reported.

“‘Here is a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-du-sac. It’s not a strong species,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, it’s big and cute and a symbol of the World Wide Fund for Nature and we pour millions of pounds into our panda conservation. I reckon we should pull the plug. Let them go, with a degree of dignity.'”

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Packham’s comments were welcomed with a quick rebuke from World Wide Fund for Nature’s chief scientific adviser Dr. Mark Wright, the Times Online said.

“Chris has taken an irresponsible position,” Wright said. “Pandas face extinction because of poaching and human pressures on their habitat. They have adapted to the area in which they live and if left alone, they function perfectly well.”

Hours after making his comments on the giant panda, Packham was interviewed by the British newspaper the Mirror, and offered the following apology.

“I really upturned the apple cart with what I said and I’m sorry I upset people. But I am glad it has raised a debate and that was always my intention. I don’t hate pandas, I love cuddly animals. I love all animals.”