Canada's newest coin glows in the dark

Invisible during the day, the Pachyrhinosaurus's skeleton glows in the dark

The Royal Canadian Mint just can't sit still. Like a hyperactive kid, it has revamped Canadian cash, first introducing plastic bills and then killing the penny. Now it wants people to play with glow-in-the-dark quarters.

he mint's latest collectible coin features a dinosaur whose skeleton shines at night from beneath its scaly hide.

It's actually two images on one face, which could be a world's first. The other side depicts Queen Elizabeth. Her Majesty does not glow in the dark.

Made of cupronickel, the coin has a face value of 25 cents but is much larger than a regular Canuck quarter.

It shows an artist's rendering of Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a 4-ton, 26-foot dinosaur discovered in Alberta in 1972. It's the first in a four-coin series of photo-luminescent prehistoric creatures.

The mint says the skeleton can best be seen after the coin is exposed to sunlight, or to fluorescent or incandescent light for 30-60 seconds, adding that the luminescence won't fade with time.

The glowing novelty is a first for the mint, but sadly it won't be for general circulation.

The dino's mintage is limited to 25,000, and collectors who want to count their dinosaurs at night will have to pony up to the tune of $29.95. Canadian, of course. It launches April 16.

The shiny Pachyrhinosaurus may not be as cool as New Zealand's Star Wars, but at least it can keep you company in the dark.

And if the mint can do something similar for coins in circulation, I might just enjoy wearing wearing holes in my pockets with them.

News by Yahoo

Read current news at http://bbc-cnn-worldnews.blogspot.com

Keeping up with the Ridges

Sally and Jaime Ridge garnered plenty of attention at Sonny Bill

New Zealand is to set to get its very own version of hit US TV show Keeping Up with the Kardashians with Sally Ridge and daughter Jaime set to star in their very own reality show.

It's understood Sally and Jaime, 18, will feature in a TV3 show in the vein of the E! Channel hit which has seen millions of viewers worldwide following every moment of the Kardashian clans' made-for-TV lives for the last five years.

When contacted this afternoon Jaime said she had ''no comment to make''.

When asked if that meant the show wasn't happening she repeated the statement.

Media Works today refused to confirm or deny the show would screen.

"There is nothing imminent along these lines, but it's not our policy to comment on what is or isn't in development."

Keeping Up with the Kardashians initially centred around superstar siblings Kim, Kourtney and Khloe and their manager mum Kris. Lesser parts were played by brother Rob, stepfather Bruce Jenner and his children Kendall and Kylie along with Kourtney's long-term boyfriend Scott Disick.

Later the show grew to include the daughters' basketball playing husbands - Khloe is married to Lamar Odom and Kim had a brief 72 day marriage to Kris Humphries - and several spin-off versions of the series were created where the siblings took their luxury lives on the road to other cities - the last being New York. The seventh season is due out shortly.

While the Ridge women don't have the international pull of the Kardashians, there are some comparisons between their socialite lives where celebrity status has come through marriage and good looks.

Kris Kardashian is twice married. Her first husband, Robert, was a famous lawyer who helped defend O.J Simpson. Her current husband is a former decathlon gold medallist.

Sally Ridge was married to former All Black and New Zealand Warriors player Matthew Ridge before she switched sporting codes and took up with former Black Cap Adam Parore.

Daughter, Jaime, was involved with budding New Zealand hockey rep Dwayne Rowsell, then left him heartbroken when she took up with All Black and New Zealand heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Bill Williams.

That relationship was almost as short lived as Kim and Kris' and by New Zealand standards garnered as much publicity.

Like Kris and Kim, Sally and Jaime are inseparable.

When Williams had his February title bout, both mum and daughter were ringside. On Sundays the pair often feature side-by-side in the social pages where Sally has been chaperoning her daughter for years.

And the Ridges, like the Kardashian's who own fashion stores Dash, are also into fashion.

Sally is a former interior designer and owned failed underwear company James & August and her daughter is a model.

News by Stuff

Read current news at http://bbc-cnn-worldnews.blogspot.com

Megaupload file-sharing site shut down

Megaupload charged users a fee to upload large files anonymously

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site's founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.

The US Justice Department said that Megaupload's two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.

"This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime," said a statement posted on its website.

In response, hackers targeted the US Department of Justice and FBI websites.

The FBI website is intermittently unavailable due to what officials said was being "treated as a malicious act".

The hackers' group Anonymous said it was carrying out the attacks.
Third-party sites

The charges included copyright infringement, conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering.

A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the Hong Kong-based firm be seized.

The Justice Department said that more than 20 search warrants had been executed in nine countries, and that approximately $50m in assets had been seized.

It claimed that the accused had pursued a business model designed to promote the uploading of copyrighted works.

"The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content and publicised their links to users throughout the world," a statement said.

"By actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicise infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicise such content on the Megaupload site.

"Instead, the indictment alleges that the conspirators manipulated the perception of content available on their servers by not providing a public search function on the Megaupload site and by not including popular infringing content on the publicly available lists of top content downloaded by its users."

Before it was shut down the site posted a statement saying the allegations against it were "grotesquely overblown".

"The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay," it added.

"If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch."
Blackouts

The announcement came a day after thousands of websites took part in a "blackout" to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

The US Chamber of Commerce has defended the proposed laws saying that enforcement agencies "lack the tools" to effectively apply existing intellectual property laws to the digital world.

Industry watchers suggest this latest move may feed into the wider debate.

"Neither of the bills are close to being passed - they need further revision. But it appears that officials are able to use existing tools to go after a business alleged to be inducing piracy," said Gartner's media distribution expert Mike McGuire.

"It begs the question that if you can find and arrest people who are suspected to be involved in piracy using existing laws, then why introduce further regulations which are US-only and potentially damaging."

News by BBC

Read current news at http://bbc-cnn-worldnews.blogspot.com

Gambhir moves up in the ICC Rankings

Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has moved up in the ICC Rankings to his career best of 4th spot.This was mainly because of his splendid show in New Zealand against the Kiwis.He played exceptionally well and he was main element for India's win the Test series.He played the longest innings by an Indian in abroad to save the second test against the Black Caps.

Along with Gambhir even Dhoni got raise in his rankings.Sachin and Dravid retained there respective positions.With all the Indian players performing Team Indian looks hungry for more.
vinyl shutters

NewZealand Team for T20 World Cup

New Zealand selectors have announced the team for the T20 World Cup.This team has some power hitters.Jesse Ryder,Rose Taylor,Jacob Oram and Martin Guptill.So watch out fro this team.Recently they won both the matches against the current World Champions India.They are a better team than they look on paper.The picture is when they won against the World Champions recently

TEAM

Daniel Vettori (Captain),
Brendon McCullum (Wicket Keeper)
Jesse Ryder
Martin Guptill
Ross Taylor
Jacob Oram
James Franklin
Kyle Mills
Neil Broom
Ian Butler
Nathan McCullum
Peter McGlashan
Iain O’Brien
Scott Styris and
Brendon Diamanti

Is Dhoni fit for the 3rd Test against NZ ??

India are on the verge of creating history by winning a Test series in NewZealand after 41 years.This Indian team has very solid batting line up and the best pace attack.India lead the series 1-0.Dhoni's presence in the team can be a huge boost.Especially the way he carries himself and his team his refreshing to see.

STATISTICS
India has either won or drawn its last 5 outings in the Test scenario.They have won against the best team Australia in this period

NewZealand on the other hand has had 2 heavy defeats.One obviously is against India in the first Test and other is against Australia.

VERDICT

India look to be clear favorites to win the series provided they play some good cricket.I personally feel if M.S.Dhoni his back in the side it is India all the way.JAI HO India !!!!

India win a Test Match after 33 years in NZ

India outplayed NZ in all departments to win a test match in NZ after 33 years.The star for the Indian Team was definitely the Master Blaster with bat who scored 165 odd runs.He was the main element of reason for India getting a lead of more than 200 runs in 1st innings and undoubtedly the Man of the Match.The New Zeland downfall started in there 1st innings when they where 60 for 6.Even after two great centuries by NZ players,one by the captain Vettori and another by Jesse Ryder they could not be on par with this strong Indian line up.

Indian off-spinner Harbhajan was at the element of his best and he claimed 6 wickets in the 2nd innings.After this Nz where totally out of the match.Needing just 39 runs in the 2nd innings to win Indian openers came to the center.For a change Dravid accompanied Gambhir .It did not take long for them to finish the game with a day still to spare.Thus this is one of the emphatic wins for India and they will remember this for years to come.

Sachin The Master Blaster

Sachin Tendulkar scored 163 and helped India to win the third ODI by 58 runs against New Zealand.Sachin was finally retired hurt for 163.If h had been there who knows he could have got to 200 and broken a other record.The ground was small and Sachin took full advantage of that.

This was Sachin's first century on New Zealand soil which helped India to score a mammoth 392 for four off their allotted 50 overs .The match was closely fought at the beginning of the NZ reply.They played really well.They scored 334 but they where all-out in 45 overs.So India leads the 5 match series with a 2-0 win with still 2 matches to be played.

New Zealand calls off Paksitan tour

New Zealand Cricket officials confirmed that they will cancel the tour of Pakistan.They told that still they are ready to have the match in a neutral venue.They also said that no team will be ready to go to Pakistan at least in the near future.

The attack on the Srilankan cricketers has also raised a serious questions about the 2011 World Cup which is going to be hosted by the four Asian Countries Pakistan,India,Srilanka and Bangladesh.The World Cup venues are basically on rotational basis and the next on line is Australia and NewZealand.Security is the biggest concern.Let us wait and see what decision has been taken on this.