Dead teen’s mom testifies in cyberbullying trial

By GREG RISLING
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tina Meier often sat with her daughter while she was online to ensure nothing fishy was happening. Lori Drew wanted to find out what kind of nasty rumors were being spread about her daughter.

Both women — once neighbors and friends — have been described as protective mothers worried about their children.

But as her trial opened Wednesday, Drew watched as Meier recounted from the witness stand how her 13-year-old daughter, Megan, committed suicide in 2006 after receiving cruel messages from a boy whose identity was later revealed to be an Internet hoax.
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Epidemiologist who specializes in animal-related diseases at Colorado

One again state health officials have confirmed the first two human cases of West Nile virus for the 2008 season. The cases were reported from Boulder and Logan counties. Both patients are recovering from their illnesses.

According to John Pape, an epidemiologist who specializes in animal-related diseases at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, “West Nile virus can be avoided by eliminating mosquito breeding grounds in back yards, wearing insect repellent and using other methods to avoid mosquito bites when outdoors.”

The cooperative surveillance conducted by state and local health departments, started on June 1, has shown Culex mosquito populations are still low but increasing. Historically, populations of Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile virus, start to rapidly increase in July as Read more

Goodwood Aero Club Vintage Fly-In and Air Display

Goodwood Aero Club Vintage Fly-In and Air Display, being held over the May Bank Holiday weekend of Sunday 25 and Monday 26 May at the historic ex-Battle of Britain airfield.

Amongst the many aircraft in attendance and displaying in the West Sussex skies will be the Great War Display Team, buzzing around in an exhilarating dogfight, recreated in First World War Sopwith and Fokker biplanes and tri planes.

Contrasting with these small yet excitingly agile aircraft will be a huge Douglas DC-6A Cloud master, the legendary 1950s airliner which is widely regarded as the best piston-engined commercial aircraft. The 1958-built example at Goodwood – call sign Sierra Alpha – has had a long career flying all over the world, and more recently has had a cameo role in 007’s Casino Royale film. Read more

Modern – Top 10 Cellphone Tech Tropes To Look Our For At CES 2008

It’s an industry in transition, hoping to surge its way past the iPhone’s frothing wake of hype into the new year. Fresh handsests, coming attractions and, hopefully, loads of cool prototypes will be on show at CES this week. Read this for the prim ‘n’ proper short form, but read on for a look at the sexy stuff we really want to see at CES.

Google Android Prototypes
The only scene worth watching in Robocop 2 is the one where Robocop replacements are being demonstrated to the company brass. This is the same deal, but with phones.

Intel Menlow Gear
Intel is readying the ground for the next-generation of mobiles, and we’re not talking about bandwidth: these things have chipsets and other hardware to upgrade, too, progress hobbled for years thanks to efficiency and power consumption issues. We’d love to get a closer look at what Intel has in its labs. Read more

Google dials into the cell phone market

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

SAN FRANCISCO – Confirming its long-rumored foray into the mobile market, Google said Monday it is developing a free cell phone software package so the Internet search leader can more easily peddle ads and services to people who aren’t in front of a PC.

While the announcement ended months of speculation about the Mountain View-based company’s cellular ambitions, the first phones equipped with Google’s so-called “software stack” still won’t be available until the second half of 2008.

And Google won’t be making the phones, nor does it plan to stamp its prized brand on the devices. Instead, it will work with four cell phone manufacturers who have agreed to use Google’s programs in their handsets. Consumers will have to buy a new phone to get the Google software because the bundle wasn’t made for existing handsets.

Engineers have been working on the software for three years, dating back to a Silicon Valley Read more

EU: Roaming cap cuts cell phone bills

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Mobile phone bills in Europe have been slashed by as much as 60 percent since the EU placed a cap on roaming charges over the summer, the European Commission said.

The European Union set a price ceiling of 0.49 euros (69 cents) per minute for making a mobile phone call when abroad and 0.24 euros (34 cents) for receiving one, plus value-added tax, saying that operators were reaping massive profits from unjustifiably high roaming charges.

The so-called Eurotariff, in place since July 30, reduced phone bills for millions of Europeans.

“By Aug. 30, around 200 million EU consumers had already switched to the Eurotariff,” the commission said in a statement. It estimated more than 400 million EU citizens took advantage of the new rates by the end of September.
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State ‘brokerage’ for small-business health plans set

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed into law a bill that will create a state-run health insurance “brokerage” through which some small businesses will be able to buy group health insurance. The effort amounts to a pilot program that could lead to far-reaching health-care reforms.

House Bill 1569, referred to as the Washington state Health Insurance Partnership, is intended to pool together employer, employee, and state money so that employers with low-income workers can offer more health-care coverage options to their employees, says state Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle, who introduced the bill. The goal of the program, similar in concept to one enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature last year, would be to make health insurance available to more Washingtonians, particularly those who work for small businesses, Cody says.

“This would allow employers to choose plans that would be right for everybody, not have to do the work of finding plans themselves, and have better offerings for their employees,” she asserts. Read more

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