Longfellow's Blog

Key staging posts in YouTube history.

2010-04-18T04:14:00.000-07:00

YouTube, the online video site, marks its fifth year this week. Here are some of the key staging posts in its history.

February 2005: YouTube founders, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim begin work on a video sharing site - they all met at PayPal

April 2005: First video uploaded to YouTube - a video of Jawed at San Diego Zoo

November 2005: YouTube secures first round of funding with Sequoia Capital for $3.5m

December 2005: Official Launch (8m videos watched a day)

February 2006: 15m videos watched a day; 20,000 uploaded a day

May 2006: Mobile video uploads released

July 2006: 65,000 new videos uploaded every day, site passes 100m video views per day

August 2006: YouTube launches first advertising concepts - Participatory Video Ads (PVA) and Brand Channels

Autumn 2006: YouTube signs deal with three major music labels (Sony BMG, Warner, Universal)

October 2006: YouTube partners with first major network (CBS) Begins testing Content Id tool to protect copyrighted material

October 2006: YouTube partners with Audible Magic to create audio identification technology

October 2006: Google acquires YouTube for $1.65bn, says its revenues are “not material”

November 2006: YouTube signs first major sports deal with NHL

January 2007: estimated that YouTube is consuming as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in 2000

March 2007: Viacom, owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, launches $1bn law suit against Google and YouTube for “illegally” showing hit shows. YouTube insists it has followed the rules contained in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

May 2007: First known instance of a Rickroll - prank links that send you to a video of Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up

May 2007: Premier League threatens legal action against YouTube for alleged copyright infringement. Again YouTube says it operates within copyright law.

May 2007: First users offered commercial partnerships with YouTube

May 2007: YouTube and EMI form partnership

January 2008: 10 hours of video uploaded every minute. YouTube bandwidth costs estimated at £1m a day

May 2008: 13 hours of video uploaded every minute. Forbes magazine estimates YouTube revenues at $200m a year

June 2008: YouTube integration into Sony Bravia TV

July 2008: YouTube integration in TiVo

October 2008: 5 hours of footage uploaded every minute

January 2009: President Obama launches channel on YouTube

February 2009: Pope launches channel

May 2009: 20 hours of video uploaded every minute

July 2009: 3D Launch

October 2009: Live-stream of U2 concert

October 2009: Channel 4 agrees YouTube deal to put all its catch-up tv on the site

October 2009: Chad Hurley reveals in a blog that YouTube has exceeded 1billion views per day

December 2009: 5 agrees similar partnership to Channel 4

January 2010: YouTube video rentals launch

March 2010: 24 hours of video uploaded per minute

March 2010: YouTube begins streaming Indian Premier League cricket worldwide

March 31: YouTube launches new, cleaner design to encourage viewers to stay on the site for longer

Browsing histories appear online

2010-04-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Users of the Winny filesharing service are thought to be particularly at risk from the Kenzero virus, which originated in Japan.

The Trojan virus is hidden inside some video files of explicit Hentai anime, which are shared across the Winny network. Once an unsuspecting computer user has downloaded the video file to their machine, the virus executes, popping up an installation screen that prompts the computer user to type in personal information.

The virus then takes screengrabs of a user's browsing history, and publishes a list of all the sites they have visited online. A dialog box or email is then sent to the user, demanding a credit card payment of around £10 to remove the list from the internet.

"We've seen the name before in association with the Zeus and Koobface Trojans," Rik Ferguson, a security adviser at Trend Micro, told the BBC. "It is an established criminal gang that is continuously involved in this sort of activity."

Computer users have been advised to ensure their antivirus, firewall and security software is up to date, and that they have downloaded any security patches for their operating system. Users who receive emails or dialog boxes demanding payment to settle alleged copyright infringement or for the removal of browsing histories are advised to ignore the demands, and instead to use an anti-malware scanner to check for suspicious files on their PC.

--By Claudine Beaumont,16 Apr 2010

Browsing histories appear online

2010-04-16T07:53:00.001-07:00

Camel toe happens to all of us!

2010-04-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Cameltoe is a slang term that refers to the outline of the labia majora seen through tight clothes.Male organs showing through clothes at the crotch may be called moose knuckle.

The causes of cameltoe are not always obvious.Cameltoe commonly occurs as a result of wearing tight fitting clothes, such as jeans, shorts, hotpants, or swimwear.Due to a combination of anatomical factors, the snugness of the fabric in the region surrounding the cleft of venus may result in the area of the crotch taking on the appearance of the forefoot of a camel or other even-toed ungulate.

However, some fashion analysts have also identified clothing design as a cause, rather than its size. Cameltoe may thus be exacerbated by jeans or other garments with a tight central seam that serves to divide the labia majora.

"Oh man, her pants were on so tight, that I could see her camel toe."
Damn she got a bigg ass camel toe.
"Her vagina must have been really hungry; look at that camel toe."
"She had a camel toe.....I thought about how badly I wanted to rub her pussy, but I had to keep calm."
My four year old turned around really fast and ran into this chick's camel toe, when he turned back around he had a hoof print on his forehead

Facebook Farm Town game hit by virus

2010-04-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Security experts have advised Farm Town's 9.6 million Facebook players to perform an immediate virus scan on their computers, after it was discovered that the site had been serving up adverts infected with malware.

SlashKey, the company behind Farm Town, warned that some of the adverts appearing around the game contained fake antivirus alerts, and were designed to con players in to believing their computer was infected with a virus. Players would then click on the advert to purchase antivirus software, but the site would trick them out of their credit card details.

Sophos, a computer security company, said that hundreds of Farm Town users had reported problems, but that many other users could unknowingly be affected by the scam.

"Poisoned adverts appear to be trickling onto their PCs from a third-party advertising network," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Players of games like Farm Town are not all geeks, and might easily fall hard and fast for a bogus security warning – straight into the hands of hackers.

"Rather than SlashKey simply asking its players to report offending adverts when they appear, the company should disable third-party Farm Town adverts until the problem is fixed. Doing anything less is surely showing a careless disregard for the safety of its players," he said.

"Until the makers of Farm Town resolve the problem of malicious adverts, my advice to its fans would be to stop playing the game and ensure that their computer is properly defended with up-to-date security software."

Cluley said that so-called "scareware" attacks were on the increase. Hackers and fraudsters have been buoyed by the success of previous campaigns, and have found consumers can be easily tricked in to clicking on legitimate-looking links.

Boy runs up £900 Farmville debt

2010-04-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

He also raided his own savings to drum up £288 to maintain his virtual farming empire on Farmville, a game that is played through the Facebook social networking site.

The youngster borrowed his mother's credit card to spend a further £625 on virtual coins and other goods to help increase his yield of moneymaking virtual crops.

A 12-year-old boy ran up more than £900 in debt when he stole his mother's credit card to make in-game purchases in Farmville

But his spending was quickly noticed by his mother, who noticed mysterious transactions on her account and cancelled her card. Facebook has terminated the youngster's account.

But the family has been told by Zynga, creator of Farmville, and Facebook, which hosts the game, that the money will not be refunded, because the youngster lives at the address to which the card is registered. Her credit card company said it would be able to refund the cash if she reported her son to the police.

"He would be cautioned and I have been told that this caution would stay with him," the mother told the Guardian. "Obviously, the idea of a stupid farm simulation jeopardising his future earnings is not something I want to consider."

Farmville has an estimated 80 million players worldwide, with around 30 million people logging on every day to tend to their virtual farms and nurture crops.

Google buyout of AdMob faces legal challenge

2010-04-10T00:47:00.000-07:00

US regulators are poised to block Google’s proposed acquisition of the mobile advertising company AdMob. The decision would restrict the search giant’s intention to extend its dominance of the internet advertising market.

Lawyers at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are likely to recommend that the Government halt the deal on anti-trust grounds. There are concerns that Google would use AdMob, the leading supplier of adverts that run on smartphones and other mobile devices, to gain a controlling position in a crucial new technology sector.

Reports indicated that the commission had assembled an internal litigation team to prepare for a challenge to the deal. “The staff believes there is a significant competitive problem and they are prepared to make a recommendation to sue,” a source told Reuters.

The move comes as Google, which generated 97 per cent of its $23.7 billion revenue last year from advertising, faces a growing list of investigations in the US and Europe on issues of competitiveness.

Regulators have been reviewing the AdMob deal for months. Google announced the proposed acquisition in November and said in December that it had received a second request for information from the FTC.

Google is betting that the acquisition will enable it to make healthy profits from mobile users, thanks to the rise of smartphones that can browse the web.

AdMob is the world’s biggest mobile advertising platform. The company claims to serve more than 8.5 billion mobile banner and text adverts per month across thousands of mobile websites and applications in more than 160 countries.

Google said that the acquisition would enhance its expertise and technology in the sector. Its Android operating system for mobile phones is used by many smartphone makers and it has launched its own Nexus One handset.

Senator Herb Kohl, the chairman of the anti-trust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week sent a letter to the FTC urging “close scrutiny” of the deal.

“This acquisition, if consummated, would combine Google, with a dominant share of internet search and internet search advertising ... with AdMob, the leading provider of advertising to mobile devices commonly known as ‘smartphones’,” he wrote.

Google argues that there are more than a dozen mobile-advertising networks that provide healthy competition. “While we’re continuing to work with the FTC, there is overwhelming evidence that mobile advertising will remain competitive after this deal closes,” a spokesman said.

In February the European Commission launched a preliminary anti-trust inquiry into Google after three companies complained that the US giant’s dominant search engine penalised potential competitors and kept advertising prices artificially high.
--Mike Harvey

How to become the net’s biggest draw

2010-04-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

1984: Mark Zuckerberg is born in White Plains, New York.

2004: In February, Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm. The site is for students with Harvard email addresses only, but by March it has added Stanford, Columbia and Yale. By December Facebook has 1m users.

2005: Facebook raises $12.7m from Accel Partners. It adds high schools and international school networks. By December it has 5.5m users.

2006: Facebook raises $27.5m from Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and others. Facebook Mobile is launched. By the end of the year it has 12m users.

2007: Facebook opens a virtual gift shop and advertising becomes a growing part of the business. Developers are invited to make applications for the site. In October Microsoft pays $240m for a 1.6% stake in Facebook, valuing the company at $15 billion. Microsoft squeezes out Google to do the deal. User numbers pass 50m.

2008: Facebook passes the 100m mark. It opens Spanish and French sites and a translation service for 21 languages. The US presidential debates are co-sponsored by ABC News and Facebook.

2009: Even Facebook isn’t immune to the stock market rout. Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian group, makes a $200m investment that values the company at $10 billion. However, the number of users continues to soar — to more than 350m by the end of the year — and Facebook makes its first profit.

2010: For the week ending March 13, Hitwise says Facebook.com passed Google.com, making it the biggest draw on the net for the whole week for the first time in its history. The company now accounts for 17% of the time people spend online in Britain and America, according to Nielsen. User numbers have passed 400m. Profits are thought to be $1 billion a year. Speculation mounts that Facebook will start looking to raise more money from a stock market float.

One-third of Brits prefer catching up with family online

2010-04-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

Look who’s talking - or not. Nearly a third of Brits use cell phones, e-mail and social networking sites like Facebook to communicate with their loved ones, rather than actually sitting down to converse, according to a study reported in the Daily Mail.

One in five people surveyed say they keep track of their family by checking Facebook and MySpace, and 30% of the participants believe their relatives know more about their life because of social media and digital technology.

The study of 3,000 people, commissioned by the makers of Flip MinoHD camcorder, revealed that the average Brit engages in just six face-to-face conversations with other family members per week.

More than 1 in 10 say they don’t ever have meaningful face-to-face talks with their relatives. They turn to Twitter to talk to family members, leaving an average of two posts weekly for their kin, the study reports. They also make half a dozen phone calls each week to family members to catch up.

"It seems people are now more likely to send an e-mail to a relative filling them in on their daily activities, or even leave a post on their Facebook wall," said Gareth Jones, UK and Ireland region manager for Flip Video at Cisco. "Modern technology has made it easier than ever to keep in touch with our friends and family."

--BY Rosemary Black

Five reasons it all went wrong for Bebo

2010-04-08T04:47:00.000-07:00

So, Bebo's up for sale or closure, just two years after its $850m acquisition by AOL. What went wrong?

1. MONEY

It doesn't make any. "Social networking sites all have this problem," says Nate Elliott, principal analyst with Forrester Research. "They cannot figure out how to make money. Even Facebook claims only to break even." Social networking sites encourage users to post images, video, music and more, all of which costs money to host on servers. The hope is that sheer volume of users will prove appealing to advertisers, which has not proved to be the case (see below).

2. USER DISTRIBUTION

On the face of it, Bebo is still a popular site. It is particularly strong in Europe, with over 1 million active users in Ireland and 6 million users in the UK. It has only 10 million users in the United States, however, compared with Facebook's 100 million. This uneven distribution of users makes Bebo's rivals more useful as a way of keeping in touch with people around the world.

3. PARENTAL CONCERN AND USER EXPERIENCE

Bebo was designed to appeal to 13- to 24-year-olds by its founder Michael Birch, which created its own problems. As tales of paedophile internet stalking created panic in the media, parents became reluctant to allow their offspring unfettered access to the site. In addition, one of the most frequent complaints from Bebo users was the amount of dubious spam e-mail and messages they received.

4. ADVERTISING

In common with other social networking sites, Bebo failed to attract advertisers, who are reluctant to associate themselves with user-generated content. Advertisers prefer to pay to create their own microsites to build relationships with their audience, and will look to get the most bang for their buck, which - again - is not available via Bebo, owing to uneven global penetration.

5. IT BELONGS TO 'THE MAN'

Many internet users - particularly those of Bebo age - like to think of themselves as being free of the offline corporate society. Cultivating an independent, free-thinking image is an essential ingredient for internet success, as evidenced by the success of Google and the problems Microsoft has faced in making inroads online. Part of the reason for Facebook's phenomenal success is its perceived independence. When a corporate giant such as AOL takes over, it can, for many users, act as a deterrent, an uncomfortable reminder of the corporate nature of the modern world they are trying to escape online.

--By Nigel Kendall,April 07, 2010

Twitter 'could build its own client'

2010-04-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

Fred Wilson, a major investor in Twitter, wrote a blog post that made reference to the demise of General Computer, a company that made hard drives for Apple computers, but which "faded away" when Apple started building hard drives in to its computers.

He said that many developers building third-party clients for Twitter risked falling in to the same trap.

"Much of the early work on the Twitter platform has been filling holes in the Twitter product," he wrote.

"It is the kind of work General Computer was doing...Some of the most popular third-party services on Twitter are like that. Mobile clients come to mind. Photo-sharing services come to mind. URL shorteners come to mind. Search comes to mind. Twitter really should have had all that when it launched, or it should have built those services right in to the Twitter experience."

He said that developers should shift their focus away from building services such as mobile clients and address shorteners, and should instead concentrate on social gaming, enterprise, discovery and analytics.

"That's what I'd like to challenge entrepreneurs and developers out there to focus on," he wrote. "I think the time for filling the holes in the Twitter service has come and gone. It was a great period for Twitter and its third-party developers. I believe we are entering a new phase now.

"[Twitter] is a large company now with the resources to service the ecosystem in ways it never could before...it's time for Twitter and its developer ecosystem to work together to create entirely new things that will shape the internet in the coming years. I'm excited to see it happen."

Wilson has not expanded on the points made in his blog, and has refused to comment on whether Twitter will be introducing its own desktop clients, plugins and services that until now have traditionally been provided by third parties.

But a source close to one third-party developer told Business Insider that Twitter would almost certainly launch some of its own rival products. "Twitter is going to do mobile apps and URLs," the source said. "Bit.ly, TwitPic and Tweetie are now considered 'core' to the platform. They will either be bought or competed with."

Twitter was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

--By Claudine Beaumont, 08 Apr 2010

Samsung launching all-in-one PCs

2010-04-07T15:30:00.001-07:00

Samsung is launching a new range of all-in-one computers, its first foray in to the desktop computing market. The U250 and U200, which will go on sale in May through PC World, run Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7 Home Premium.

Samsung has not yet announced full pricing details for the two computers, but the U250 is thought to feature a 23in touch-screen monitor which supports full high definition. The U200 will boast a slightly smaller display, and will be HD-ready, capable of playing content at 720p.

The monitors can be wall-mounted or stood on a desktop, and the touch-screen interface is said to be ideally suited to photo-editing, gaming and watching movies.

"I don't think the Samsung touch-screens will be huge, but it will certainly appeal to a section of the market," Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner told PC Pro. "Desktops have never disappeared, they've just been take over in the mid-price sector by notebooks and netbooks...but it's become one of those devices which are a central part of a multi-PC household."

All-in-one PCs have become increasingly popular in recent years, as manufacturers seek new ways to make the traditional desktop computer smaller and more compact, and better suited to use in a communal family setting.

Admit it Facebook, Twitter is cooler

2010-04-04T05:15:00.001-07:00

The day Zuckerberg finally granted us access I stayed up all night uploading all my personal information and flicking through photos of everyone I'd ever fancied. It's embarrassing to admit, but that spring day really did have a profound impact on university life. The student newspaper ran a double-page spread on Facebook for three straight weeks and a friend even missed a final-year exam because she was so enthralled.

Then, I checked Facebook every day, probably every hour. Now I only log on once a week to store photos. That makes me a drain on Facebook's profits, as the cost of digital storage is arguably its biggest expense.

Facebook is in danger of dropping out of public consciousness for two reasons. One, the site has annoyed some users by changing its privacy settings for the benefit of advertisers. Two, competition has emerged.

Just as Facebook's arrival ended the ascendancy of MySpace and Bebo, Twitter, the microblogging service, is killing Facebook. I have Twitter on my work PC, my laptop and two mobile phones. I check my Twitterfeed on the bus, at home, on the golf course and in the pub.

While Twitter refuses to divulge how many people have signed up, Biz Stone, its co-founder, said earlier this month that registrations increased by 1,500pc last year and 4bn "Tweets" were posted in the first three months of 2010. Internal documents obtained by TechCrunch show the site is aiming to sign up 1bn users by 2013 when it hopes to be raking in profits of $111m on revenue of $1.54bn (£1.01bn). Twitter will celebrate its seventh birthday in 2013. Facebook, which claims 400m users, turns seven next year.

I believe Mr Zuckerberg may have missed the boat. In 2007, Microsoft bought a 1.6pc stake in Facebook that valued his Harvard dorm-room creation at $15bn. Facebook once was the wunderkind of the tech world, with takeover offers flying in from all sides. But Zuckerberg held out. Last year, Facebook was valued at $10bn when Russia's Digital Sky Technologies bought a near-2pc stake for $200m.

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world's largest advertising group, has questioned whether social networking sites are suitable for advertisers because they are "less commercial phenomena, they are more personal phenomena". Oh, if only Zuckerberg had taken the cash while we all still believed the hype.
--By Rupert Neate

Schoolchildren 'failing to read books'

2010-03-27T18:14:00.001-07:00

Most students fail to read complete novels at school after being presented with short extracts and worksheets to practice comprehension and sentence structure, it was claimed.

The National Union of Teachers said the decline was being fuelled by the widespread closure of school libraries to save money.

Next week, the union will use its annual conference in Liverpool to call for dedicated space in the timetable to be created to give children more opportunity to “read for pleasure”.

Alan Gibbons, the children’s author, who will address the meeting, said an over-reliance on short extracts risked undermining children’s grasp of classic works by Dickens and Shakespeare.

Speaking before the conference, he said: “Schools use extracts to spot the metaphor or the simile, instead of allowing children to read whole books.

“We have seen a real increase in the technical dismantling of literature with the specific aim of hitting targets and doing well in exams.”

He added: “One of my daughters came home to tell me she was doing Great Expectations as part of her GCSEs.

“It turned out that all they were doing was reading chapter one, when the character Magwitch first appears, and then skipping to chapter 39, when he reappears, to compare the two scenes.

“They also watched the David Lean film version which, despite being a very, very good film, doesn’t even have the same ending as the book.

“It was a completely ludicrous exercise. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not literature.”

Mr Gibbons, who wrote the bestselling Shadow of the Minotaur, told how one secondary school class he visited was asked to scan part of Macbeth for scenes that “fitted with the theme of ‘ambition’ because the teacher thought it was going to be in their exam”.

“There was no attempt to read the thing or understand it,” he said.

Research last year by Heinemann, the educational publisher, found half of schools admitted regularly failing to finish novels such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Treasure Island, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and Goodnight Mr Tom because “whole book teaching was not a priority in class”.

Mr Gibbons has already led a campaign of children’s authors to protest against Sats tests in primary schools.

He has also written to the Government ordering extracts of his books to be removed from worksheets, insisting that novels “should not be used to bludgeon kids with comprehension”.

In a debate next week, NUT activists will say that all children should be given a designated entitlement to read in the school timetable.

Pupils in England and Wales should also be given automatic exposure to a wider range of texts, they will claim, and the union will back a campaign against the closure of school and community libraries.

Kevin Courtney, NUT deputy general secretary, said the regime of Sats tests and league tables has had a “stultifying effect on reading in schools”.

“The emphasis has been on moving children away from reading books for pleasure and turning the whole practice of reading into a broken-down, atomised skill set,” he said.
--By Graeme Paton,Published: 10:00PM GMT 26 Mar 2010

Ten ways to beat the stealth taxes

2010-03-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

There are ways to protect yourself from these stealth taxes and guard some of your income and assets from another raid on the middle class and wealthy.

1. SWITCH INVESTMENTS TO YOUR SPOUSE
This works if one partner is either not working (and therefore a non-taxpayer) or a basic-rate taxpayer, while the other partner is a high earner. So you switch income-bearing investments into the lower-rate payer's name so you avoid income tax at the highest rate. Such assets could be a share portfolio, buy-to-let investment or unit trusts.

The biggest savings will be made with a partner paying the new 50pc tax (on income above £150,000 a year) who has a non-working spouse. But it only applies to married couples.

2. USE CAPITAL GAINS ALLOWANCES
The capital gains tax allowance per person is set at a relatively high level of £10,100 this tax year and many taxpayers fail to use this limit. For those who regularly fail to utilise the exemption, you can move assets that generate an income into capital growth investments instead. After all, why pay tax at 40pc or even 50pc when you can pay it at 18pc – the current CGT rate?

For those who have bulging share portfolios or have sold a large asset and used up their CGT allowance, make sure you use your spouse's allowance by transferring assets into their name.

3. PAY INTO YOUR PENSION
One of the most efficient ways to claw back tax paid is a pension contribution. Any money you pay into your pension will automatically be topped up by 20pc by the Government. So every £80 you pump into your pension will be increased to £100.

And higher-rate taxpayers can claim back 40pc of pension contributions. Those caught by the 50pc tax rate will be able to claim back 50pc tax relief.

Not only does this become a very tax-efficient way to save, it can take a slice of your pre-tax salary away from the taxman. This could mean dropping down a tax bracket from higher to basic, or it could mean getting your personal allowances back.

The £6,475 personal allowance all working adults get before they start paying income tax will disappear on April 6 for those earning more than £100,000. But it will be eroded gradually, so you lose £1 of allowance for every £2 you earn above £100,000. So those earning £100,000 to £112,950 should try to move out of this bracket as, in effect, they're paying 62pc tax on this amount.

Anyone with income below £130,000 can make pension contributions of 100pc of their income. But above £130,000 and you are limited to making £20,000 a year contributions.

Tom Mcphail, a pensions expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ''You could also use up the pensions allowance of your spouse and your children. You can put £3,600 into a pension for each of them. And they can claim back tax relief as well, even if they're not working.''

4. TRUST YOUR CHILDREN
Naomi Smith, tax partner at accountants Grant Thornton, said: ''I would say to 50pc taxpayers who have children approaching university age to consider setting up a discretionary trust for their children. Up to £325,000 can be paid in without a lifetime inheritance tax charge, by each parent. The trust will pay tax at 50pc however, if the funds are distributed to the children to support them at university, the children will most likely be non-taxpayers, and can hence recover the full 50pc tax credit. This is far better than keeping the £325,000 invested in your estate and paying 50pc tax on the income.''

This does not work for young children, only those who have reached 18 with the parents continuing to support them.

Ms Smith said given the set-up costs involved – about £3,000 for solicitor and accountancy fees – only those planning on putting in assets of at least £200,000 should consider such a trust.

5. KEEP YOUR PAPERWORK
You have a £325,000 inheritance tax limit that you can combine with a married or civil partner to give you a total tax shelter of £650,000. You need to keep all your paperwork to make sure you are entitled to this nil rate band on the death of a partner.

Ms Smith said: ''This is particularly important if one partner dies a long while before the other. The surviving spouse has to prove what happened when their partner died and what inheritance tax liability they had. You will need to pull together all the paperwork yourself.''

6. SALARY SACRIFICE
If you want to get yourself out of a particular tax bracket or to lower your tax bill, you could make a pension contribution from your pre-tax income. This is the most popular form of salary sacrifice. For example, if you earn £100,000 and make a £20,000 pension contribution you will only pay income tax on £80,000. Other forms of salary sacrifice include health care and life insurance.

Not only is your income tax liability reduced, but so are your national insurance (NI) contributions. You pay NI at 11pc on any income between £5,721 and £43,875. This will go up to 12pc from April 6. Income above £43,875 will pay 1pc NI, which will go up to 2pc in the new tax year.

Speak to your employer about salary sacrifice and if you can pay more into the company pension scheme. Your employer will also save money by doing this as they will pay less NI on your income. Employers have to pay 12.8pc of your salary to the Government in NI contributions.

So a pension contribution will reduce your income and therefore the NI you pay, along with that of your employer, so everyone is a winner. You could ask your employer to pay some of the NI savings it makes into your pension instead.

7. TRANSFER YOUR BONDS
Many investment bonds trigger what is known as a chargeable event and therefore an income tax liability. This is normally when the bond matures. You can normally take up to 5pc of your money out of the bond each year without paying tax. But when a chargeable happens you will typically pay income tax on any profits. Many bond investors think when they sell a bond it's liable for capital gains, but normally it triggers an income-tax liability. You can get around this by transferring the bond to your spouse before you cash it in, assuming they are taxed at a lower rate.

8. GIVE WITH 'WARM HANDS'
You can reduce the value of your estate for IHT purposes by giving some of it away to relatives. You can make gifts to your children and as long as you survive seven years after doing so, these gifts will not be liable for IHT. This is attractive if your estate is hovering above the £325,000 threshold.

But be aware this giving with ''warm hands'' means you are handing over your assets and will no longer have a legal claim on them.

Or you can give away up to £3,000 a year and if you die within seven years of the gift you will not be liable for IHT. There are also one-off situations where you can give away more with no future liability. For example if your child marries you can give £5,000 IHT-free.

Small gifts of up to £250 are allowed on special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas.

9. DON'T GET WOUND UP
If you have already set up a discretionary trust for your children this will be liable for 50pc tax on any income its generates from April 6. Grant Thornton is finding lots of clients panicking and asking to wind up the trust. But its advice is not to be too hasty.

If you paid some of these funds out now to beneficiaries by April 5 you would avoid the new 50pc tax (although you are still liable for 40pc income tax) but the whole trust does not have to be wound up. If the trust does end up paying 50pc tax this can be recovered where the funds are distributed to a beneficiary who pays tax at a rate below 50pc.

10. COMPANY OWNERS
There is more room for manoeuvre if you and your spouse have set yourself up as a company, when it comes to avoiding stealth taxes. You can stall payments of salaries and dividends and leave as much money in the company as possible until you need it.

But make sure you are set up as a company, not a partnership, as different rules apply. A partnership will pay tax at the highest rate of the partners on all profits whether they are taken or stored in the company. This could leave you open to a 50pc tax charge on profits you make. Inheritance tax is charged at 40pc for estates worth more than £325,000.

A couple can put allowances together so their estate has to be worth more than £650,000 before they pay IHT. The threshold will be frozen for four years, meaning about 650,000 more families will pay IHT.

Income tax starts becoming payable once earnings reach £6,475 if you are of working age. This limit rises to £9,490 for pensioners aged 65 to 74, and £9,640 for those aged 75 and older. The upper limit for the 20pc income tax band will stay at £37,400. Above this and you will pay 40pc tax.

And from April 6, once earnings exceed £150,000, there is the new tax band of 50pc.
--By Justin Harper

Dell threat to leave China

2010-03-26T21:24:00.001-07:00

Go Daddy Group, which sells internet domain names, said it would stop offering new ".cn" domain registrations in China, following the introduction of new regulations.

The Chinese government has said that anyone wishing to buy a website name in China will now have to provide full photo identification.

Go Daddy made the announcement during a committee hearing of the United States Congress dubbed "Google and Internet Control in China: A Nexus between Human Rights and Trade".

Christine Jones, Go Daddy's executive vice president, told the committee that the company was "concerned for the security of individuals" and that the new regulations would have a "chilling effect" on new domain name registrations.

Chris Smith, a Republican Congressman for New Jersey said: "Google fired a shot heard around the world and now a second American company has answered the call to defend the rights of the Chinese people."

Meanwhile, Dell, the world's third-largest PC company by sales, hinted that it may be considering switching its operations from China to India.

Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive of the company, made the suggestion in a meeting with Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister.

Mr Singh told the Hindustan Times: "This morning I met the chairman of Dell Corporation. He informed me that they are buying equipment and parts worth $25 billion from China (£16 billion). They would like to shift to safer environment with a climate conducive to enterprise with security of legal system."

The news came as Dell's first plant in India, in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, made its first export shipment. The plant has the capacity to make a million computers a year. So far, most of the plant's production has gone to the Indian domestic market, but it has now begun shipping to the Middle East. According to the Indian media, tax breaks given to Dell make it cheaper for the company to supply the Middle East, Africa and Europe out of India, rather than China.

A spokesman for Dell said the company had no imminent plans to pull out of China, however. "Mr Dell believes India also has an opportunity of becoming a hardware manufacturing hub, generating employment and adding to the country's impressive growth. Dell has not made any plans to shift its component spend at this time," he said.

Meanwhile, the fall-out from Google's departure from the mainland has begun in earnest, with China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile operator, announcing that it will remove the Google search function from its new Android-based mobile phones.

"We are willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law... we don't have any co-operation with Google currently," said Lu Yimin, China Unicom's president.

Unicom is the first company to drop its alliance with Google, alongside TOM Online, a Hong Kong-based internet company owned by the family of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man and a key ally of the Communist government.
--By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

Investment trusts: 8 of the best

2010-03-26T05:39:00.003-07:00

We enlisted the help of three investment professionals who monitor and use investment trusts regularly, for their tips on what is hot and what is not.

To make it easier for you we have categorised them, so there are trusts for a cautious investor, trusts that should make decent core holdings and trusts that are speculative - where gains could be bumper, but so could the losses.

Here are the thoughts of Mick Gilligan of Killik & Co, Charles Cade of Numis Securities and Nick Sketch of Rensburg Sheppards.

Ruffer Investment Company
This is an absolute-return fund and one of the few long-only funds deserving of the label. Jonathan Ruffer and Steve Russell have done a brilliant job of preserving capital in bad markets and making money in good markets. They still have only 50pc in equities, and should materially outperform cash on deposit over the next five years, whether markets are "good" or "bad". What more does a cautious investor want?

BlackRock Hedge Selector

The fund has an absolute-return mandate and seeks to produce consistent returns with no formal risk or volatility target, although these have historically been low – since inception in April 2004 it produced an annualised return in excess of 17pc.

Perpetual Income & Growth
A mainstream UK equity fund with a cautious stance. Its attractions are based on excellent management, a decent dividend, lower charges than similar unit trusts and the ability to take "income" in a form that will be taxed as capital distributions.

Utilico Emerging Markets

This AIM-listed fund aims to provide long-term capital growth by investing predominantly in infrastructure, utilities and related sectors, mainly in the emerging markets. We like the resilient characteristics of the underlying portfolio earnings and the growth potential associated with emerging markets. We see this as an attractive entry point.

SVM Global

Invests in all the areas that make up small slices of most portfolios, or are ignored altogether – such as property, private equity, emerging markets, commodities and hedge funds. The management team is strong and highly incentivised by owning the stock themselves.

Aberforth Smaller Companies

The managers were positive at the start of 2009, introducing gearing of 10pc. Even so the fund has underperformed in the rally over the past 12 months as it avoided financially stressed companies with weak balance sheets. However, we believe it remains well placed to benefit from a pick up in merger and acquisition activity among smaller companies over the next year. The fund is currently trading on a discount of 14pc and pays an attractive yield of 3.7pc.

Eurovestech

For investors who fancy a punt this AIM-listed fund invests in a diverse range of internet and technology-related business across Europe. The holdings in the portfolio are relatively mature assets, having been held and developed by Eurovestech for almost 10 years. This raises the possibility of significant sales of assets and subsequent return of shareholder capital.

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity

Vietnam has been growing strongly ever since the government adopted a policy of increased economic liberalisation in 1986. GDP growth has averaged 7.2pc per year over the past decade, driven by foreign investment and a low-cost entrepreneurial workforce.

Vietnam was one of the best performing global markets in 2006-07, but collapsed in 2008 and remains 55pc below its peak. As a result, there has been little interest from foreign investors who have focused instead on China. However, we believe that valuations in Vietnam now look attractive.

Best places to have a midlife crisis

2010-03-26T05:39:00.001-07:00

If you're bored with your life and looking to shake things up, Lonely Planet has come up with 10 destinations where you can reinvent yourself and feel young again. The list is from Lonely Planet's 1000 Ultimate Experiences book.

1. DUBAI, UAE

It's time for a new outfit, which means an expedition to Dubai. Fashion is serious business in this shopping-mall heaven, where small and flashy togs can be stuffed into designer handbags. To finish the look, eye-punishing displays of glittering gold line the streets of Dubai's gold souq. Over 25 tons of the stuff are on display in the city's jewelry-shop windows. Choose from earrings, rings, necklaces or bracelets - the more ostentatious the better.

2. ROUTE 66, USA

Search for freedom on the open highway with a road trip across the USA. It requires a Harley or a classic convertible, and plenty of 'issues' to resolve. Take your pick from a multitude of interstate routes, but to travel in the footsteps of film, literary and music legends it has to be well-worn and iconic Route 66, from Chicago to Santa Monica. Do take a movie camera to record your trip. Don't forget to fill up with gas.

3. MONTE CARLO, MONACO

Dust off your tux and brush up on the slick one-liners as you join the jet set, Bond-style, in Monte Carlo. The beautiful people out-glamour each other from their million-euro yachts moored along the harbor, as international businesspeople monitor their investments from this secure tax haven. Visitors to the casino glint with gold, like the sun on the Med. The Monte Carlo Rally in January and the Monaco Grand Prix in May offer adrenalin-fueled breaks from spending cash.

4. RISHIKESH, INDIA

If your crisis is one of faith, take your pick of places in which to have a spiritual epiphany: St Peter's in Rome, Lhasa in Tibet or Mecca in Saudi Arabia could help you find your calling. But we reckon the ideal spot is Rishikesh, on the banks of the sacred Ganges in the foothills of the Himalaya. It's lined with ashrams, and holy men mingle with tourists and the odd celeb. This was the Beatles' favorite center of Hindu philosophy and learning, and it's nicknamed the yoga capital of the world.

5. LAS VEGAS, USA

You've realized what your first wedding was missing: an Elvis impersonator, matching polyester pantsuits and a partner you'd only just met. So it's time to take a gamble of a different sort with a second/third/seventh wedding in Vegas. It offers more than 30 places to say 'I do', and over 100,000 couples take their vows here each year, including more than a handful of celebs. The Little White Wedding Chapel is open 24 hours, so when your eyes meet over a crowded poker table, there's no need to bother waiting before tying the knot.

6. PHUKET, KUALA LUMPUR, MANILA, MUMBAI

Fed up of peering in the mirror, jiggling your wobbly bits and wishing everything was a little further north? Considering a little nip and tuck or two, but worried about showing your post-op bruises in public? Cheap prices coupled with recuperation in the sun is making surgery in Phuket, Kuala Lumpur or Manila increasingly popular. India is the daddy of them all. Today state-of the-art facilities make a facelift or a hip replacement a short inconvenience before relaxing by the beach.

7. MACAU, China

Cashing in the pension fund and remortgaging the house might just be enough to get you in the door of Crown Casino, Taipa Island, Macau. Boasting six stars and more than 200 gaming tables, the casino's not shy about the number of noughts involved. For those with pockets smaller than China, there are another 27 casinos to choose from. These include the grandly decked-out Emperor Palace Casino on the peninsula - featuring plenty of marble and as much gold on the brick floor as on the gamblers themselves - or the famous, lively Casino Lisboa.

8. SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND

It's not too late to fulfill that dream of being a racing driver, temporarily at least. Crowds have watched heroes like Senna, Prost and Stewart hurtle around the legendary Silverstone track, home of the British Grand Prix, since the 1950s, and you can recreate it with a power test drive. Imagine the cheers as you burn rubber in a Ferrari, slide into corners in an old single-seater or test a 4WD on something more taxing than the streets of Islington. Just don't try this on the school run.

9. PETRA, JORDAN

Petra, setting for much of 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, looks like it should only exist in films. A narrow canyon winds to its iconic entrance, carved from deep-rose colored sandstone. As you enter, you're greeted by the intricate facade of the famous Khazneh (Treasury), fictional home of the Holy Grail. The site contains plenty more to explore, including the Temple of the Winged Lions, still in the process of excavation. Today the only hazards are bumping shoulders with the other 3,000 visitors; poisoned arrows, rolling balls of rock and snake pits are usually avoidable.

10. SYDNEY & MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

For centuries humans have pitted themselves against beasts to prove their worth, from rather one-sided trophy hunting to careering down side streets at the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Something a little more equal and up close is diving with sharks, and for that you should head to Australia. For those with no diving experience, tank dives in Melbourne's aquarium and Sydney's oceanarium give a chance to watch these predators glide past soundlessly, eyeing you up as a potential meal. Friends and family can watch your "bravery" via a glass viewing screen.

Google ends censored search in China

2010-03-23T03:38:00.001-07:00

Not even Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder and the man reportedly driving this tough new stance with China, is sure how this story will play out.

As he told the New York Times, after two rounds of "back and forth" with the Chinese authorities, Google is still unclear how the Chinese will react .

"There's a lot of lack of clarity," he said, "Our hope is that the newly begun Hong Kong service will continue to be available in mainland China." Before adding: "The story's not over yet."

At the time of writing – midday on March 23 in Beijing – Chinese internet users were still able to access the re-routed search service on the Hong Kong page which carried a note in Chinese saying "Welcome to Google Search in China's new home."

However, searches from within China for sensitive topics, such as "Tiananmen Square Incident" were still blocked to internet users in mainland China thanks to the Great Firewall.

The question now being asked is whether the Chinese government will move to further punish Google by blocking the re-routed Google.cn site, at the cost of highlighting the extent of internet censorship in China to its own public.

The initial reaction from China's State Council Information Office was hostile, describing the decision to halt censoring as "totally wrong", apparently rendering flimsy Mr Brin's hopes (disingenuous or otherwise) that the Hong Kong search would be allowed to continue unmolested.

While some analysts see the Hong Kong strategy as a potentially elegant compromise to an apparently intractable dispute, others like Dr Mathew McDougall, CEO of SinoTech Group, one of China's leading online advertising agencies see an inevitable new round of confrontation ahead.

"It looks to us as if Google has thumbed its nose at China with this Hong Kong strategy. They've tried to be clever by exploiting a legal loophole, but that's surely going to anger the authorities.

"We're already taking bets in the office as to how long the Hong Kong-routed Google.cn stays open. My take is that the Chinese will close it down by the end of the day."

In practice, that will mean blocking the Google.cn domain name in China, so that Chinese internet users will simply receive a 'page not available' message when they attempt to log on to Google.

However, as Rebecca MacKinnon, Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre points out in her blog, such a move would only highlight the extent censorship in China .

"If they [the Chinese government] are smart they will just leave the situation as is and stop drawing media attention to their censorship practices," she writes.

"The longer this high profile fracas goes on, the greater Chinese Internet users awareness will be about the lengths to which their government goes to blinker their knowledge of the world." If China was to take that course of action, users would then have to wait and see what impact it would have on other Google services such as Gmail, Google maps and music downloads.

Many analysts believe that China, which has a history of backing down in the face of angry internet users, would not risk the wrath of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of users by blocking access to those services.

However at the moment nothing is impossible. The ball is now in China's court; as Sergey Brin so correctly observed, "The story's not over yet."
---By Peter Foster in Beijing

Facebook ousts Google in US popularity

2010-03-23T03:36:00.001-07:00

Facebook has become the most visited website in the United States as millions of people turn to the social networking site to play online games.

The social networking site has seen phenomenal growth around the world and for the first time surpassed Google.com for a whole week in the US last week, according to the web analytics firm Hitwise.

The milestone indicates how important a gateway to the web social networks, in particular Facebook, are becoming.

Facebook has more than 400 million regular users worldwide, about half of whom visit the site every day to check their updates, post photos and, increasingly, play online social games.

The growing popularity of simple games such as FarmVille, which has more than 83 million players worldwide, has breathed added life into social networks and hold out the prospect of huge profits for Facebook and companies such as Zynga and Playfish as gamers use real money to buy virtual goods inside the games.

Google reacted to the threat of Facebook by launching its own social network within its Gmail service last month. But Google Buzz has got to a rocky start as users complained about privacy concerns.

Google's earlier attempt in 2004 at a social network called Orkut has only ever been really popular in Brazil.

Hitwise said that the market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185 per cent last week as compared with the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9 per cent during the same timeframe.

Facebook’s home page saw 7.07 per cent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 per cent. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14 per cent of all US Internet visits last week, Hitwise said.

Facebook.com has been the most visited US website before: it reached the No 1 spot on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as on the weekend of March 6 and 7. But last week is the most sustained lead it has attained.

In the UK, Facebook still lags some distance behind Google, partly because Google's market share of internet search is so much greater. Google.co.uk had 9.34 per cent of visits while Facebook had 6.01 per cent.

The Hitwise figures do not include searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar and do not cover visits to other Google websites for services such as Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps.

Taking all these Google properties into account, the internet search company is still way out in front, accounting for 11.03 per cent of US website visits last week with Yahoo! properties second.

The US accounts for only 30 per cent of Facebook's global users. The company is continuing its policy of expansion overseas and is opening its first office in India to help it to tap the increasing popularity of social networking in the country

The office will be located in the southern city of Hyderabad and work along similar lines to other operation centres in the United States and Ireland, with online advertising and support teams

Facebook's director of global online operations, Don Faul, wrote on the firm's blog: "In India alone, we've seen rapid growth and now have more than eight million people there actively connecting on Facebook."

The Top 5 games on Facebook

1: FarmVille

With over 83 million monthly users, the developer Zynga’s build your own farm simulation game is a genuine Facebook phenomenon. Players pay for seeds, animals and interior décor in both virtual and real currencies. Virtual currency is generated by trading crops with other players, while new additions can be purchased with real money or virtual currency.

2: Birthday Cards

Not strictly a game, but an application with 47 million users that organises all your friends’ birthdays, prompts you with reminders and allows you to send free or paid for cards, and gifts. Developed by RockYou!

3: Café World

Another world-building application from Zynga which, like FarmVille, puts you in charge of a business which you can expand or allow to go bankrupt. 30.6 million users per month.

4: Texas HoldEm Poker

Zynga again, with a traditional poker game where chips are purched for real money, though considerably less than in the real world. 26.8 million users.

5: Happy Aquarium

Yet another heavy-maintenance creature-associated game, this time with fish. Developed by CrowdStar, it has 26.1 million users per month.

Figures accurate as of end February 2010. Source: insidesocialgames.com

How to stay safe on a gap year

2010-03-21T00:40:00.001-07:00

Peter Slowe, founder of Projects Abroad

“If you’re taking a trip on your own for the first time, it’s important to be aware. People are in danger of being mugged at tourist venues or being conned out of their money.

"My advice: always travel in a group (especially if you’re a younger gapper), always check your insurance (expensive insurance does not necessarily mean better insurance), and always make sure you do some research before you go – such as whether you need a mosquito net, what medicines you might need or the appropriate dress code for the country you’re visiting.”

Ian French, father of Georgia French who died in Peru, and founder of GapAid

“The most common dangers facing gap year travellers are usually quite minor – losing your passport, money, airline tickets, mobile phone or iPod. Then there are the more dangerous risks – of robbery, rape, or even kidnapping. You hear of people being marched to cash machines to empty their bank accounts.

"A gapper in a developing country is like a walking advert for ‘get rich quick’. You’ve got a watch, a mobile phone, a credit card and some money, and that is often more than some of the people in that country earn in a year. Secondly, it’s all about preparation.

"If you simply turn up somewhere you are going to have a problem. Do you know what language they speak? Do you know what the weather is going to be like? Have you sorted out accommodation? Checking these really basic things will make your trip a much better experience.”

Marcus Watts, founder of Gapforce

“As a gap year organisation we find some of the biggest problems are medical (for instance, going to a doctor where they are possibly using dodgy needles) but it’s also important that people are prepared for what they’re actually going to be doing. It’s amazing some of the complaints we get – we have actually had people complaining that the sun is too hot or the sand is too sandy!

"It’s all about getting people emotionally prepared for their trip. My main advice would be to treat wherever you are overseas as you would the UK. You wouldn’t get in a car with someone in the UK, so don’t do it there just because it’s a smiley chap from Fiji who lives on a desert island.

"And don’t leave your wallet on the bar just because it’s a nice little African place and everyone’s being friendly.”

Madeleine Wright, a student who recently spent three months in Ghana on a volunteer project

“My personal experience of getting ill while I was volunteering in Ghana made me realise how important caring for your health is when you’re living somewhere with a completely different climate and eating food you’re not used to.

"Always drink enough water (but never tap water unless you’re sure it is safe to do so) and don’t drink too much alcohol – you’re in unfamiliar territory and you need to be extra vigilant.

"From a safety perspective, always go out in groups and make sure you tell at least one person where you are headed.”
--By Katie Evans

technorati claim code

2009-09-06T02:19:00.001-07:00

w7e84tnpdf

Sick

2009-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Say the word ‘sick’ and what’s the first thing that comes to mind? A time when you were off school or work, maybe, or perhaps when you had too much to drink, or ate something that had gone off?

You might be surprised, then, to hear that in fact, for many young people today, ‘sick’ is used as an adjective to describe something good, amazing or cool. “That game was sick!” or “He’s got a sick car.”

The dictionary publisher Harper Collins has enlisted the help of social networking site, Bebo, which has 10.5 million UK users, to vote on which new slang words should be included in the 30th edition of their dictionary. The words which users will be asked to vote on were chosen by a panel of 14 – 18 year-olds. ‘Sick’ was one of the words on the shortlist, a reflection of its widespread use among today’s teenagers in Britain. It is part of a wider trend of words which have taken on an additional meaning, in this case changing from an originally negative meaning to something more positive. Other examples of this are ‘bad’ (meaning good of course), or ‘wicked’ (see Series 2).

This inversion of the meaning of words can lead to some confusion for anyone who’s been around a bit longer and is used to the more conventional meaning of the word. You know the word ‘sick’ can mean something negative or positive, depending on the context, so you might occasionally hear someone say ‘That’s sick!’ and just for a moment ask yourself, hmmm, I wonder, do they mean ‘good’ or ‘bad’?---Jim Pettiward

20个Plcmc系列儿童英语故事

2009-04-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Yurinuri系列英文儿歌

2009-04-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

几个不错的小学英语教学资源网站

2009-04-15T06:35:00.001-07:00

PEP小学英语http://www.171english.cn/pep.asp
外研社新标准小学英语http://www.171english.cn/nse.asp
牛津小学英语http://www.171english.cn/oxford.asp

PEP 4 Unit 2 What time is it?全套课件

2009-04-15T02:39:00.001-07:00

PEP 4 Unit 3 Is this your skirt?课件

2009-04-15T02:38:00.001-07:00

A Let's do--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/aletsdo.htm
A Let's learn--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/aletslearn.htm
A Let's talk--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/aletstalk.htm
A Read and write--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/areadandwrite.htm
B Let's chant--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/bletschant.htm
B Let's learn--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/bletslearn.htm
B Let's talk--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/bletstalk.htm
B Read and write--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/breadandwrite.htm Mainscene--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/mainsecne.htm
Story Time--http://www.171english.cn/cai/pep/book4/unit3/storytime.htm

原版英语学习资料

2008-12-20T20:47:00.000-08:00

搜集到一些英语原版学习资料，希望对大家的教学与培训有所帮助：http://www.171english.cn/html/quote/英语经典语录（名言、谚语、座右铭）http://www.171english.cn/html/kingenglish/The King's English 在线阅读http://www.171english.cn/html/learnit/index.shtml.htmBBC-Grammar and vocabularyhttp://www.171english.cn/html/grammar/Grammar Q & A Archivehttp://www.171english.cn/html/literacyTerms/Glossary of literacy terms

2009年中考英语复课备考提荐网址

2008-08-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

2008年各地中考英语试题集锦

2008-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

这里收集了很多2008年全国各地的中考英语试题真题,全部都是WORD格式,http://www.171english.cn/zongkao.asp

芦溪英语教学网-Luxi English Language Teaching

2008-04-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

中小学英语教学教育资源与交流
芦溪英语教学网http://www.171english.cn/ (pr=4)主题：基于新课标理念下中小学英语教育教学资源与交流　功能：新教材同步教案，同步练习，期中期末试题，课件交流，优秀论文，教材培训，英语课程标准解读，英语素材，中考指导，能力竞赛专题等特色：免费教育教学资源，是江江西省第二届优秀文体类网站等　对象：中小学英语教教师与学生部分栏目介绍：
新闻中心｜人教新目标｜译林牛津版｜精彩说课｜中考专栏｜小学英语｜在线教研｜专家引领｜教材培训
时文选读｜湘教仁爱版｜外研新标准｜课件展示｜竞赛指导｜英语百科｜经典歌曲｜课标解读｜课题交流

Sceneries Around Wugong

2008-04-16T05:24:00.000-07:00

1、九龙山景区风光
Scenery of Nine-Dragon Mountain Scenic Area
九龙山景区在武功山的东南端，古为南方佛教重要弘法场所。很多驴友都喜欢选择从九龙山开始武功山的穿越之旅。这里还没有开发，没有游步道，只有空旷的山野，甘甜的山泉，延绵的草甸，这些足可以给你留下极好的印象。一般从九龙山攀登到金顶需用六小时左右。
Scenic area of Nine-Dragon Mountain is situated in the southern of Wugong Mountain, which was the promised land of Taoist and Buddhist in ancient times. It is the best choice for travel fans to start from Nine-Dragon Mountain. Without toured footpath for non-developed, but the spacious mountains and plains, the sweet mountain spring and the extensive meadow will make you an excellent impression on you. Generally It will cost you about six hours to go against if you choose to climb from Nine-Dragon Mountain to Golden Peak.
2、金顶景区风光
Scenery of Golden Peak Scenic Area
金顶是武功山景区的最高峰，海拔1918.3米，是江西省境内的最高峰。从底庵到达中庵，再经无日谷或经吊马桩上金顶，景点众多，目不暇接。在金顶看高山草甸是首选之地，晨昏雨后你能置身于金顶，云雾升腾，云海翻滚，气势磅礴，云脚缓步，青山拂沙，群峰时隐时现，宛若进入了瑶池仙境和九重洞天。
Golden Peak is the highest point within the boundary of Jiangxi Province and Scenic Areas of Wugong Mountain as well with the elevation 1918.3 meters. There are so numerous scenic spots that your eyes can’t take them all in, while arriving at Golden Peak from the bottom hut to the middle hut, through No-Sun Grain or the Horse-Hitching Post. It is your first choice to enjoy the scenery of meadow on Golden Peak. You seem to have come into a fairland when you are indulged into Golden Peak after rain or while morning or disk. Peaks are in or out of your sight with cloud and fog rising.
3、红岩谷景区风光
Scenery of Red Rock Valley Scenic Area
红岩谷景区长近四公里，峡谷深幽，植物茂盛，是天然的次生林带，谷内流泉飞瀑比比皆是，其中落差最大的瀑布“金壶洒酒”，高达120米，瀑布轰鸣、飞流直下，气势壮观。情侣瀑布是两条并行而下的瀑布，它的名字，令红岩谷多了一份浪漫和温情。这里，瀑布众多，令游客目不暇接。还是观花、赏松、踏草的好去处。
The scenic area of Red Rock Valley is nearly four kilometers long along with deep and quite canyon and exuberant plants, which is natural secondary forest belt. The waterfalls will meet your eyes everywhere, the maximal of which is called “Golden Kettle Sprinkles” which reaches as high as 120 meters. During the period of plentiful water field, the waterfall roars, flows to stretch down swiftly with momentum grand sight. The couple waterfall, going side by side, is the one that is separated by about one meter. It brings so much romantic and warm flavour because of its naming. There are so many waterfalls that visitors eyes can’t them all in. Also, here is a good destination for watching flowers, admiring pine trees, trampling grass.
4、发云界景区风光
Scenery of Fayun Boundary Scenic Area
发云界海拔1628米，是武功山脉第六高峰。乡村公路直通山脚，一个美丽的小村映入眼帘，象是进入了世外桃园，我曾惊叹，这里是中国最美的小山村。攀登发云界没有游步道，小道蜿蜒在原始森林中，穿梭在瀑布、险峰之间。约经三小时艰难攀登到达山顶“九鳅落湖”，这里四面是平缓的山丘，广袤的高山草甸，高昂的黄山松。这里是野营的好地方，夜晚躺在草甸上，听着小溪的流水潺潺，看着天上的星星闪闪，令人心旷神怡。
Fayun Boundary is the sixth high peak of Wugong Mountain’s chains with elevation 1628 meters. The rural road directs to the mountain foot. A beautiful small village heaves in sight as if you are entering the extra mundane peach garden. I once exclaimed surprisely that here is the most beautiful small mountain village in China. Without tour footpath while climbing Fayun Boundary, but the small path winding in the virgin forest and shuttling back and forth between waterfalls and dangerous mountain peaks. You arrive at the summit “nine dorados to fall the lake” after about three hours’hard climbing, around which is the gentle massif, the boundless meadow, and the soaring yellow pinus montana. Here is the good place for camping. Lying in the meadow at night, listening to the running water’s murmur and looking at the sparkling stars in the sky will make you completely relaxed.
5、药王庙景区风光
Scenery of Yaowang Temple Scenic Area
药王庙景区坐落在万龙山境内，这里保留着原始生态，生长了很多珍贵的树种，富有诗意的竹林，竹香沁人，武功山的巨型灵芝就生长在这里。药王庙景区是长七公里的峡谷，水量充足，谷内山涧瀑布比比皆是，众多的瀑布，极有气势，三叠泉瀑布、神农潭瀑布、药王庙瀑布尤为壮观。从药王庙可以到达发云界和羊狮幕景区。
Yaowang Temple Scenic Area is situated within the boundary of Wanlongshan, which retains the primitive ecology with many kinds of precious tree and poetic bamboo grove that will seep you while entering the bamboo fragrant. Here is also the growing place of the giant ganoderma lucidum. Yaowang Temple Scenic Area is a valley with seven kilometers long, and is a place with sufficient water volume and stream waterfall everywhere. Waterfalls such as Sandie Spring、Shennong Pool、Yaowang Temple Waterfall are especially magnificent. You may arrive at Fayun Boundary and Lion-Sheep Screen Scenic Area from Yaowang Temple.
6、羊狮幕景区风光
Scenery of Lion-Sheep Screen Scenic Area
羊狮幕风景区在武功山的最北端，以怪石、陡崖著称。每逢天气突变，云浮山顶，如帷幕悬挂天际，变幻莫测，似羊似狮因而得名。主峰海拔近1700米，峰峰竞相挺拔，嵯峨罗列，景色各异，气象万千，是典型的喀斯特地貌。羊狮幕的原始森林和茫茫竹海也是难得的一景。
Lion-Sheep Screen scenic spot ins situated in the northmost part of Wugong Mountain, which is noted for its strange stones and high cliffs. It is so called Lion-Sheep Screen because it seems like a sheet or a lion when there is an abrupt change in the weather, which may lead to floating cloud on mountaintop just like a curtain covering suspending in the sky. The main peak of Lion-Sheep Screen is about 1700 meters above sea-level. The peaks vied with one another based on its height and straight and marvelous mountain splendour, which is a typical Karst landform. The boundless bamboo sea of Lion-Sheep Screen is also a god-given scenery.
(from--http://www.171english.cn)

On top of the world at Mount Wugong

2008-03-29T00:45:00.000-07:00

Wugong Mountain, one of the three renowned mountains in ancient times in South Central China, covers an area of over 120 square kilometres and contains the highest peak in Jiangxi Province: White Crane Peak. It reaches 1,918.3 metres in elevation and is very famous, attracting many people to climb it.
There are many terraces in front of the mountain. In spring, farmers prepare the land. The way they work has not changed since the time of their ancestors. Even today, they plough fields with a buffalo. A long way from the terraces is a peaceful village.
The first sight on the mountain is clouds embracing the peak. From the bottom to the top takes at least three hours, unless you are an expert climber. Don't forget to take enough water because what is sold on the top of the mountain is very expensive. Green trees and grass grow everywhere along the path.
Some of the paths are paved with pebbles. It's said that walking on the pebbles is good for your health. I imagine numerous children and elderly people sometimes take off their shoes and walk on the pebbles.
On the mountainside, many boxes were hung on trees. At first, we thought they were artificial nests for birds. But the locals told us they were for short-tail monkeys and this place was named "Monkey Valley."
In the spring, the short-tailed monkeys forage for bamboo shoots on top of the mountain. In August, bamboo shoots season is over, so they return to the valley and eat the food local people put into boxes.
A small wooden restaurant can be found at the bottom of the valley, offering meals, soft drinks and fruits.
On the top of White Crane Peak, the scenery is very picturesque, with a vast grassland that looks like waves.
Red Rock Valley which is famous as a wild region with luxuriant aged trees is a most spectacular natural phenomenon and Yangshimu is well known as a fascinating scenic area. Four altars are scattered around the peak.
The mountain has a long history. It has been considered a holy place since the journey of Ge Xuan and Ge Hong, two famous masters of Taoism. The altars were built in the period of the Dongwu Dynasty (229-280) and used as a place to offer sacrifices to gods or ancestors. They are very special in China because of their peculiar architectural style.
Many refined scholars and poets, such as Xu Xiake and Liu Zhengqi, also went to Wugong mountain and wrote poems here. Liu Zhengqi, a poet from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), praised it after climbing it. Standing at the peak is like standing on top of five mountains.
(from:http://www.171english.cn)

建站体会之友情链接篇

2007-08-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

本人一直是用着免费空间，各方面毫无展进，至今仍旧是菜鸟级网络爱好者．自用上天寻的免费空间后，逐对建站之类的事情有了些兴趣，诸如ＳＥＯ之类的．并对着从论坛他人那儿学来的招数一一进行尝试，收益良多．乘着这几天有些空隙,写一点东西想与各位建站的菜鸟们共享．说实在话，建站之初，对相互链接是不太感兴趣的，一门心思放在网站http://www.171english.cn/的更新，优化和ＳＥＯ上，并取得了些成绩（见下图），有差不多半数以上的来访集中在搜索引擎上．

是否可能增加其他方面的来访呢？比如来自其他网站．这时才想起交换链接这个常用的手段．我对友情链接这件事，比较慎重，因为不想因为不当的友情链接，导致自身站的ＰＲ值等受不良影响．因此在选择友情链接时，先把握如下几点：１．首先应是同类教育教学网站（不想链得太杂）２．在搜索引擎中进行关键字搜索（如英语教学，英语论坛等），依次从高到低选择对象．３．选定链接对象后，再进http://www.webmasterhome.cn/进行查询，包括ＰＲ值，排名，其他搜索引擎的收录情况等，进行筛选．４．确定要链接的对象后，先做好对方的链接，然后向对方提出链接申请．在建站初期，与其他网站进行友情链接，是一件不太容易的事．由于新的域名还未获得ＰＲ值，常常因此被其他网站拒绝，这要有一定的心理准备．因此，相提醒想与他人互换友情链接的网站，按对方的惯例提出申请，不能死搅蛮缠，不要有那种不达目的誓不罢休的劲，这样只会令他人反感，同时要做到不亢不卑，被拒绝一次，不再提出第二次．

江西省政府就解决中小学学生班额过大教师缺编问题下发通知

2007-08-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

日前，经省政府同意，江西省人民政府办公厅转发了省教育厅、省发改委、省财政厅、省编办《关于解决中小学学生班额过大教师缺编问题的意见》（赣府厅发[2007]58号），就解决中小学学生班额过大教师缺编问题提出了目标要求和具体措施。《意见》指出，解决中小学学生班额过大、教师缺编问题是各级政府的重要职责。各市、县（区）政府要按照《义务教育法》的要求，将义务教育经费纳入财政预算，依据教职工编制标准、工资标准、学生人均公用经费标准等，及时足额拨付义务教育经费，确保学校的正常运转和校舍安全。《意见》提出了全省解决中小学学生班额过大、教师缺编问题的总体要求是：“十一五”期间，基本解决中小学班额过大问题和教师缺编问题，即：小学班级人数不超过45人、初中和高中班级人数不超过50人，并按照国家、省规定的编制标准配备所需的教职工。具体步骤为： 1、2007年秋季开学，新入学的初中、高中生，每班不应超过56人，小学每班不应超过45人（如确因本学区内生源过多、学校办学条件不足，经县级教育行政部门批准可适当放宽，但最多不得超过中学的班级人数）； 2、2008年秋季开学，新入学的初中、高中生，每班不应超过50人，小学生每班不应超过45人（确有特殊因难的，经县级教育行政部门批准可放宽到50人）； 3、从2009年秋季开学起，全省小学每班人数不超过45人、初中每班人数不超过50、高中每班人数不超过50人，达到国家规定的班额要求。《意见》提出了全省解决中小学学生班额过大、教师缺编问题的具体措施。一是合理规划中小学布局，统筹安排建设资金。县级以上地方人民政府要根据本行政区域内居住的适龄儿童、少年的数量和分布状况等因素，执照国家有关规定，制定、调整学校设置规划。新建居民区需要设置学校的，应当与居民区的建设同步进行。要统筹安排农村中小学校舍维修改造、网点布局调整和农村初中改造等资金，有步骤、有重点地解决农村中小学大班额问题。二是切实加强中小学教职工编制管理，不断充实农村教师队伍。各级政府和有关部门要根据今年省编委办、省教育厅、省财政厅联合下发了《关于进一步加强全省中小学教职工编制管理的通知》要求，认真测算出县（市、区）范围内的中小学教职工总量，并按规定的程序报批。县级教育行政部门要统筹区域内城乡教育发展，真正实现教师资源在县域内的统筹配置。坚决避免一些学校超编、另一些学校空编，城镇学校超编、农村学校教师紧缺的现象。教育、编制、人事、财政部门要认真清理中小学教师队伍中的各类在编不在岗人员，坚决清退不具备教师资格的中小学代课教师，切实解决一些学校“超编缺人”问题。三是严格学校招生管理，合理配置教育资源。各市、县（区）政府和教育行政部门要合理划定学区，保障适龄儿童、少年就近免试入学。要通过对经费投入、师资配备和班子建设等的调控，努力推进区域内义务教育均衡发展。要加大对薄弱学校的改造力度，努力办好每一所学校。四是建立健全报告制度，加大督导检查力度。各级教育行政部门要及时掌握中小学生的变化情况，全面掌握适龄儿童、少年入学情况，建立中小学班额和教师队伍状况报告制度。出现班额过大和教师不足情况，要及时报告当地政府，并采取措施加以解决。各级教育行政部门和教育督导机构要把中小学学生班额和教师编制问题作为检查和督导的重要内容。省教育厅每年要会同有关部门对全省中小学学生班额和教师队伍状况进行专项检查，发现问题要及时督促地方政府、教育行政部门和学校进行整改。对解决中小学学生班额过大和教师缺编问题工作力度大、措施实、效果好的市、县（区），要予以表彰和奖励；对整改不及时、不达标的，要通报批评。
(来源:芦溪英语教学网 http://www.171english.cn/Shownews.asp?ThreadID=2345 www.171english.cn)

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