非 - Fei1 - Not, Un-

非常 - Fei1 Chang2 - Not Common — Unusual, Exceptional

Reuters - Emerson Larkin, 23, just reaped
$400 selling two characters for Blizzard Entertainment’s “World
of Warcraft” after investing nearly 75 online gaming hours
creating them.

AFP - Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, on a visit to Croatia said she was "disappointed" with Zagreb's cooperation with the UN tribunal despite some "positive developments," ahead of an EU decision on starting long-delayed membership talks with the Balkan state.

Reuters - Electronics retailer Best Buy Co.
Inc. has begun testing the sale of used video games in
a handful of its stores, Piper Jaffray analyst Anthony Gikas
said in a client note on Friday.

Posted by Brian L. Fisher, Associate Curator of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences

At a time when the power of information technology doubles every 12 to 15 months and extends to capture every scrap we have, digitizing biodiversity information is a final frontier for IT. It’s an essential step to ensure society maintains and hopefully increases bio-literacy. Toward this end, there’s Antweb. It’s a project from the California Academy of Sciences that has incorporated the Google Earth interface to provide location-based access to the diversity and wonder of ants: from your backyard to the Congo Basin.

As society advances, literacy increases and bio-literacy decreases. If you’re illiterate, you may view a library as thinly sliced stacks of firewood; a Google search engine is meaningless. If you are bio-illiterate, a forest is at best a green blob to be consumed. If you are bio-literate, you see the diversity of the forest and understand that each animal, each plant, tells a story and has a place.

Google has helped us achieve free and democratic access to information, but now, with Google Earth, it’s taken an important step to promote bio-literacy. Together with other institutions in the Bay Area, Google is uniquely poised to take on this enormous task.

There are two ways people need to access information on biodiversity: either have a name for which they want more information, or they are at a location and want to know what they will find there. On Antweb, you can access information about ants via location ? and Google Earth allows for any scale of access via location. So you can be in Santa Clara County and see what ants you are likely to find. Soon you will be able to create a field guide for ants in any location defined in Google Earth.

We tried to get NASA?s help to develop such a system for years with their mapping expertise and data, but Google Earth answered the call first. I am so impressed with Google that I have named an ant I recently discovered in Madagascar Proceratium google. Its bizarrely-shaped abdomen is an adaptation for hunting down obscure prey: spider eggs. Here’s what it looks like.

I hope that Google will continue applying its skills to serve biodiversity data to conservation planners and the general public. Google has given us a tool to connect the 6 billion people on earth with our remaining biodiversity. Antweb welcomes any form of collaboration to help achieve this goal ? and may the ants be with you.

Reuters - Sony (6758.T) has apologized for an
advertising campaign for its PlayStation game console which
featured a young man wearing a crown of thorns with the slogan
"Ten years of passion."

SiliconValley.com - “This is how kids played video games when I was growing up.”

PC World - CTIA speakers describe multiplayer games and music options of the near future.

韭 - Jiu3 - Leek

Not to be confused with 漏 - Lou4 - Leak.

AP - In an effort to deliver the ultimate sensory experience, most top video games marry earthshaking sounds with high-quality graphics. It's a goal that often falls a bit short.

Reuters - Sony Computer Entertainment
Inc.’s (6758.T) PlayStation video game console has won an Emmy
Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences, the company said on Thursday.

Reuters - Sony Computer Entertainment
Inc.’s (6758.T) PlayStation video game console has won an Emmy
Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences, the company said on Thursday.

AP - John G. Roberts Jr., a conservative protege of the late William H. Rehnquist, succeeded him Thursday and became the nation's youngest chief justice in two centuries, winning support from more than three-fourths of the Senate after promising he would be no ideologue.

Reuters - Potential 2008 Democratic
presidential contender Sen. Russ Feingold has made an early
appeal to anti-war activists and set himself apart from
possible rivals by calling for a pullout of U.S. troops from
Iraq by the end of next year.

Posted by Hunter Walk, Product Manager

How many Googlers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, if you use solar power. We just had our first Google Environmental Fair to help introduce employees to various sustainable practices, low impact living and natural products. This event kicks off an ongoing worldwide effort by Google to bring environmental best practices to our offices and employees. Companies are finding that “going green” isn’t just good for the earth but can lead to, say, superior design or healthier lifestyles.

Earlier this year Google further encouraged responsible energy technologies by offering a cash incentive to employees who decide to purchase a fuel-efficient vehicle. The net result? I’m guessing that the Mountain View Googleplex has the highest concentration of Toyota Priuses in the Northern Hemisphere. As an added bonus to the environmental benefits, California hybrid owners can now drive in the carpool lane without needing additional passengers. Score! Of course with a parking lot full of similar-looking cars one must take steps to stand out. I’m thinking Twenty-Twos and flames.

Actually, the most appropriate car accessory might be one offered by another Environmental Fair participant, a Terrapass. Donations to this progressive organization are used to “eliminate the equivalent of your car’s carbon dioxide pollutions” through financing projects which reduce industrial emissions. So whether you’re driving a new fuel-efficient vehicle or a more traditional car, you can leave a smaller environmental footprint.

It’s called Computational Theology. It only took about a year!

888 Holdings Plc, the world’s largest Internet casino operator, sold shares worth 147.7 million pounds ($261 million) in an initial public offering to fund expansion. The company sold 84.4 million shares at 175 pence each, less than 888 Holdings

Online gaming firm 888 has seen its shares fall by 3.5p in London trade, after launching at 175 pence, a price valuing it at around £590m ($1bn). Institutional dealers started trade on Thursday, with full trading on Monday. The firm is the la

The Bounty Tournament at www.DoylesRoom.com has become such a great success that is back again this week with the top prize of $25,000. Don’t miss this unparalleled event and win the amazing prize that will be awarded to the player that can knock