Jun 03

Starul hollywoodian Brad Pitt, pasionat de arhitectură, va fi designerul unui complex hotelier de cinci stele situat în Dubai.FRANCE-CINEMA-CANNES-FILM-FESTIVAL-OCEAN 13

Proiectul va fi "conÅŸtient social" ÅŸi va fi un model mondial pentru protejarea mediului, potrivit telegraph.co.uk.

Ansamblul va cuprinde un hotel de lux de 800 de camere ÅŸi un complex de divertisment ÅŸi relaxare ÅŸi va găzdui evenimente strălucitoare ÅŸi gale de premii. Nu se ÅŸtie încă unde va fi construit.

Pitt, în vârstă de 44 de ani, va face parte din echipa de designeri ÅŸi spune că proiectul sprijină concepÅ£iile sale în legătură cu "arhitectura prietenoasă cu mediul".

"Cariera mea este actoria, însă arhitectura este pasiunea mea. Acesta este primul meu proiect de construcÅ£ie major ÅŸi nu mi-a luat mult timp să mă decid", a spus actorul.

"Planurile vor fi făcute publice în următoarele luni, dar puteÅ£i deja să vă aÅŸteptaÅ£i la ceva nu numai uimitor, dar ÅŸi foarte atractiv pentru vizite sau cazare", a mai spus acesta.

Starul nominalizat la premiul Oscar ("Armata celor 12 maimuÅ£e", 1995) este de multă vreme pasionat de arhitectură ÅŸi în prezent sprijină construirea a 150 de locuinÅ£e în Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, zonă distrusă de uraganul Katrina.

Citeste mai mult - Mediafax.ro

written by Andrew

Jun 03

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Internet search leader Google Inc is expanding an existing service to let businesses customize the search results that visitors see when they search for information within their own sites.

Instead of offering visitors to a particular website the same slice of search results they find by searching Google.com, the new Google Site Search Service lets website owners show previously untracked pages deep inside their sites.

The new Google service is hosted on Google’s network of computers instead of requiring customers to install and maintain search equipment of their own. Google aims to improve the search quality of sites with rich content but cluttered ways of finding information lodged within the sites.

Site Search is the new name for Custom Search Business Edition, which Google introduced in late 2006.

It adds business integration features through a machine-readable computer programming interface, the option to turn off advertisements, a more tailored look-and-feel for searching the site and technical support via e-mail or phone.

"Google Site Search is targeted more for businesses and government sites that want search but don’t want to display ads," Nitin Mangtani, a product manager in Google’s Enterprise division, said in a phone interview.

Hundreds of thousands of website publishers rely on Google’s AdSense program to offer classic Google Web search. They make money running advertisements from Google’s network of online advertisers.

Site Search is an alternative to the Google Search Appliance, which Google offers to sites wishing to maintain their own search services inside their own data centers. Google counts more than 10,000 active Search Appliance customers.

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written by Andrew

Jun 03

CHICAGO - Bravery in the face of cancer? Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has given it new meaning. Few things require as much courage as being wide awake and aware, lying perfectly still for hours, while surgeons methodically slice out bits of your brain. kenedytumorawake

Kennedy did just that, in an unusual operation Monday at Duke University Medical Center to treat his cancerous brain tumor.

His surgeon said the operation met its goal: removing as much of the tumor as possible to give the radiation and chemotherapy he’ll face next a better chance to help.

The 76-year-old senator now will likely be given medicine to prevent brain swelling and seizures — common complications — and watched for signs of bleeding that could lead to a stroke.

His doctors say no permanent neurological problems are expected — and that may be thanks to the daring surgery he chose.

Most people are out cold, or awake just for part of it.

It starts with surgeons cutting through the scalp, drilling into the skull to remove a bone flap, and slicing open the dura, a leathery membrane, to expose the brain. It’s not known if Kennedy was awake during this part of the operation.

The tumor usually is not on the surface, so doctors must find a safe path through the brain to get to it, said Dr. Matthew Ewend, neurosurgery chief at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

To avoid cutting through vital areas controlling speech, doctors often return the patient to consciousness and stimulate tissue in the planned surgical path with a probe.

"We’ll have them do language tests like hold up pictures, name objects, repeat words, hold a conversation," Ewend explained.

After that, the patient is usually put back under while the tumor is cut out, which takes about three to four hours.

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written by Andrew

Jun 03

CHICAGO - Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton heaved toward the finish line in their exhaustive Democratic presidential odyssey with Obama poised to claim victory and Clinton facing the prospects of having to abandon a quest that once seemed a sure shot but became one of long odds. usa_politics

And although Tuesday’s primary-season ending contests in South Dakota and Montana won’t decide the Democratic nomination, the closing of the polls could open the floodgates to dozens of superdelegates — members of Congress and other party leaders — long anxious to throw their support to Obama.

That could decide the nomination in a matter of days.

"Once the last votes are cast, then it’s in everybody’s interest to resolve this quickly so we can pivot. We’re less than three months away from our convention. So we’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of bringing the party together," the Illinois senator said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday as he campaigned in Michigan, a general-election battleground.

Obama said there were a lot of superdelegates who have been private supporters of his but wanted to respect the process by not endorsing until the final primaries were done.

And while both candidates forged ahead on Monday in full-bore campaigning, neither Obama nor Clinton planned to be in either primary state on election night.

In a defiant shot across the GOP bow, Obama, who returned to hometown Chicago late Monday, planned to hold his wrap-up rally in St. Paul, Minn., at the arena that will be the site of the Republican National Convention in September.

Clinton returned to New York, the state she represents in the Senate, planning an end-of-primary evening rally in Manhattan after a grueling campaign finale as she pushed through South Dakota on Monday.

The former first lady has given no hint of quitting the race, and she has said repeatedly she may continue her candidacy even beyond the end of the primaries.

"I’m just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word," she said at a restaurant in Rapid City in one of her final campaign stops. Polls suggested Obama would win both South Dakota and Montana.

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written by Andrew