IndiDot: Saturday, July 23, 2011

Saturday, July 23, 2011

6.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Northeastern Japan

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 hits northeastern Japan says Japan’s Meteorological Agency. The same region devastated by March’s massive quake and tsunami.

The quake struck at 1:34 pm (0434 GMT) off the Pacific coast of Miyagi prefecture, around the same area as the giant March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the United States Geological Survey said.

The quake did not cause fresh damage to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to its operator Tokyo Electric Power.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, while the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was "no destructive widespread tsunami threat" although a local tsunami could result from a quake of this size.

The quake was centered 25 miles (40 kilometers) below the sea bed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Miyagi prefecture — in the same area where more than 22,000 people were killed or went missing after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Lady GaGa and Cher Prepares For Duet

Lady GaGa and Cher are preparing for a Duet. Cher has recorded a song for her new album that was written by Lady Gaga.

Cher had previously dispelled rumours that the two would collaborate on a new single for her album, but after expressing her want to join up with the fellow global superstar, it appears that arrangements are being made! Squeee!

Cher tweeted to some of her (we’re sure overly) ecstatic fans: “Can’t wait til GaGa puts her Voice on The Greatest Thing She Will Rock it so FKNG HARD!”

According to the grapevine, Cher’s new album will be country themed. Although, after hearing Lady Gaga’s The Greatest Thing, we highly doubt that.

Cher invited mixed reviews for the barely there body she sported in one particular music video, and Lady Gaga has sparked controversy for just a few of her outfits (need we remind you of the meat suit), so we’re very excited to see the outfits this new music video will produce!

With Gaga’s music taking a slightly more camp turn, we’re sure the duet will spark a disco hit that’ll get the heat office sprinting to the dance floor, and much to her fans delight, it’ll be Cher’s first solo single in 10 years! Although we’re sure that if she could turn back time, she would’ve released more singles (GUFFAW).

Jurassic Park -4 Coming Out in Two or Three Years

The fourth movie in the Jurassic Park" blockbuster series will be coming out in two or three years. Legendary director Steven Spielberg announced this on Friday at Comic Con in San Diego. Spielberg directed the first two movies in the franchise before Joe Johnston directed the 2001 feature.

“We have a story,” Spielberg said in front of nearly 6000 fans. “We have a writer who is writing the treatment and hopefully we are going to make Jurassic Park 4 in all of our foreseeable futures, hopefully in the next two or three years.”

Also confirmed is that the movie will be shot in 3-D. Spielberg confirmed the news while he was on the panel for the movie The Adventures of Tintin, which releases in December of this year. Spielberg was joined on stage by former The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who is the producer for Tintin.

The original Jurassic Park in 1993 had a total worldwide gross of $915 million. To this day, it still rakes in the top 20 of the worldwide grossing films of all-time. The 1997 release, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, took a dip four years later with nearly $620 million, a drop of 32%.

Jurassic Park III, as is the usual pattern for follow-up films, dropped to nearly $370 million, a drop of 40% from its predecessor and a drop of 60% from the original film.

July 23 Celebrates National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

The International Dairy Foods Association celebrates - July 23 is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day. So if you love vanilla, get ready to celebrate the occassion.

Although no one has been credited with the invention of ice cream, we do know that its origins date as far back as the second century B.C. Today, ice cream is a more than $21 billion industry in the U.S.

Want the "scoop" on vanilla ice cream? Here are five fun facts:

1. 12 pounds of milk is needed to make one gallon of ice cream.

2. Vanilla ice cream was served to immigrants arriving at Ellis Island as part of their "Welcome to America" meal.

3. Madagascar grows 80 percent of the vanilla beans used in ice cream production around the world.

4. The difference between French vanilla and traditional vanilla ice cream? French vanilla contains egg yolks, which is why it has a more yellow appearance than traditional vanilla.

5. Carvel Ice Cream in Vernon, Shady Glen in Manchester, The Dairy Bar in Windsor, and The Collins Creamery in Enfield all serve vanilla ice cream. The UConn Dairy Bar and Dzen's on Ellington are also popular ice cream stops.

Staff Selection Commission Recruitment 2011 : Stenographers Examination 2011

Staff Selection Commission Recruitment 2011 : Stenographers (Grade C, Grade D) Examination 2011

Date of Exam: 16.10.2011
Closing Date : 12.08.2011

Commission will hold a Combined All India Open Examination for recruitment to the posts of Stenographer Grade ‘C’ and Grade ‘D’ for which 12th Standard Pass from a recognized board/university is the minimum qualification. The Examination will comprise of a Written Objective Type Examination followed by Skill Test in Stenography at 100 w.p.m. and 80 w.p.m. respectively.

The Commission will not undertake detailed scrutiny of applications for the eligibility and other aspects at the time of written examination and, therefore, the candidature is accepted only provisionally. The candidates are advised to go through the requirements of educational qualification, age etc. and satisfy themselves that they are eligible before applying. Copies of supporting documents will be sought only from those candidates who qualify for the skill test. When scrutiny is undertaken, if any claim made in the application is not found substantiated, the candidature will be cancelled and the Commission’s decision shall be final.

Candidates may contact following Regional Help Lines for clarifications, if any, in respect of filling/submitting applications :
(i) SSC(NR), New Delhi - 01164715222, 01165570666
(ii) SSC(CR), Allahabad - 08765214571, 08765214572
(iii) SSC(SR), Chennai - 09445195946, 04428251139
(iv) SSC(WR), Mumbai - 09869730700, 07738422705
(v) SSC(ER), Kolkata - 09477461228, 09477461229
(vi) SSC(MPR) Raipur - 09407921504, 09407921505
(vii) SSC(KKR), Bangalore - 09483862010, 09483862020
(viii) SSC(NWR), Chandigarh - 08699111498, 08699103985
(ix) SSC(NER), Guwahati, - 09864217001, 09435711335

check more details at www.ssc.nic.in

Google is working on Gmail and Google+ integration

Google is working on Gmail and Google+ integration. But before implementing their own ideas, they would like to do some brainstorming with other Google+ / gmail users.

Mark Striebeck – Engineering Manager for Gmail frontend has posted the following on Google+.

As you can imagine, we are working on several Gmail / Google+ integrations. But similar to some of my Google colleagues, I want to use the creativity and momentum here for some larger brainstorming in a Hangout on Tuesday, July 12 at 3pm (PDT).

I’m pretty sure that all of you use some email client – many probably Gmail. But regardless of the client:
- What email features would make it easier to interact with Google+?
- How could we integrate Google+ features into Gmail?
- How can we integrate social concepts in Gmail to make the email experience itself better?

Normally a hangout is limited to maximum 10 participants. Most of the time hangouts by Google fill up in fraction of seconds. Not sure how much people they are going to take for this hangout, no matter what it’s going to fill out fast. Since this is an Google+ hangout, it’s going to be limited to Google+ users.

How long Google+, Twitter, Facebook Took to Reach 20 Million Users

How long Social Networking sites Google+, Twitter, Facebook took to reach 20 million users

20 million people Joining Google's New Social Networking Site Google+ in 24 days currently being an invite-only service.

Google+ may still have some way to go to equal Facebook’s 700 million users and Twitter’s 200 million, but 20 million unique visitors to the new social networking site in the space of just three weeks isn’t a bad way to start. Of the 20 million, five million were inside the US. The Google+ iPhone app released on Tuesday is sure to boost numbers further.

The new service allows members to create a variety of groups, called “circles,” enabling them to share information and content with only the people they choose. One circle could be made up of co-workers, while another might consist entirely of family members.

The statistics, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, come from web analytics company comScore, who based its results on a “global measurement panel” of two million Internet users.

Speaking about the findings, vice president of industry analysis at comScore, Andrew Lipsman, commented: “I’ve never seen anything grow this quickly. The only other site that has accumulated as many new visitors in a short period of time is Twitter in 2009, but that happened over several months.”

What makes the figures all the more remarkable is that the new social networking service is currently open only to those who receive invites. “Right now, we’re testing with a small number of people,” the Google+ homepage says, “but it won’t be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone.” We can safely assume that the line on the graph will go through the roof when the doors open to all.

The long-term plan for Google+ is to integrate it with other Google services such as YouTube and Gmail. When that happens, it’ll become a service to be reckoned with and will likely begin to make big gains on competitors such as Facebook and Twitter.

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