Bringing self-driving cars to NASCAR

Ever since mankind could go fast, we have longed to go faster. And ever since we’ve done work, we have longed to have someone else, or something else, do that work for us. You might already be familiar with our self-driving car project. We’ve spent years working on a tough engineering problem—how to create a hardware and software system capable of gathering and interpreting massive amounts of real-time data and acting on that knowledge swiftly and surely enough to navigate innumerable varieties of crowded thoroughfares without ever once (among other human frailties) exploding in a fit of road rage at the guy who just cut hard left across your lane without even bothering to flash his blinker.

Well, our autonomous cars have now been test-driven (or rather, test-ridden) for more than 200,000 miles without a single machine-caused mishap. And today we're moving the project one great leap forward with Google Racing, a groundbreaking partnership with NASCAR to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing. We think the most important thing computers can do in the next decade is to drive cars—and that the most important thing Google Racing can do in the next decade is drive them, if possible, more quickly than anyone else. Or anything else.

Find more photos on our Google+ page

The program remains in its infancy; we’ll surely face numerous testing and competitive hurdles before our first car peels out into a NASCAR race. But I couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities. NASCAR’s ambitious technology investments—from driver safety to green initiatives—and the sport’s spirit of challenge, effort and execution all beautifully embody our most deeply held values as a company. Having skidded around a parking lot last week myself, I’m pretty sure that none of those test miles were as hard as it will be for one of our cars to hold its own in a field of 43 jacked-up, 800-horsepower beasts screaming down a straightaway within inches of each other at upwards of 200 miles per hour. I can't imagine a more exciting challenge for our team than to race our autonomous vehicles against their carbon-based competitors.

Find more photos on our Google+ page

Larry and I have always believed in tackling big problems that matter, and we’re surer than ever that self-driving cars are one of them, capable of changing the world in all kinds of truly important ways, like reducing traffic and accidents by driving more efficiently, making correct split-second decisions and never shifting their focus off the road to check a map, text a friend, apply rear-view mirror mascara or dip a piece of tekka maki into a lid of soy sauce jostling over on the passenger seat. I hope that today’s announcement of Google Racing will mark another step along this path, and spur innovations that improve the daily lives of people all over the world. Or at the very least offer us a few cool new thrills on hot weekend afternoons.

Update Apr 1, 10:05 a.m.: As you probably guessed—no, Google Racing isn’t real. We were really happy to work with NASCAR on this April Fools' joke. The technological advancements this sport has made in the last decade are impressive and while we won’t be providing self-driving cars to compete in the races, we look forward to working together with NASCAR in the future on projects like their YouTube channel. What better way to drive change?

Posted by Sergey Brin, Co-founder

3 Template Blogger dengan Desain Unik & Canggih

Posting ini agak special menurut saya, karena untuk pertama kalinya saya me-review dan share beberapa template Blogger unik, menarik, dan sangat modern dalam hal desain blog.

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The Big Tent, and big ideas, arrive stateside

The Internet has transformed society in so many ways, and that’s bound to continue. The aim of our Big Tent events is to bring together people with diverse views to debate some of the hot-button issues that transformation raises.

This week we hosted our first Big Tent event stateside at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. The theme was Digital Citizenship, and over the course of the day we discussed child safety online, the most effective ways to incorporate technology with education and what governments and civil society can do to maintain a responsible and innovative web.

The policymakers, commentators and industry members who attended heard from a variety of speakers, from child prodigy and literacy evangelist Adora Svitak to filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain. Wendy Kopp, the CEO and founder of Teach for America, gave a keynote about the need to integrate technology into education thoughtfully, not as a panacea, but rather within a greater context that supports critical thinking and other crucial curriculum goals. In a fireside chat with David Drummond, Jennifer Pahlka, the founder and executive director of Code for America (which takes the idea of skilled service from Teach for America and applies it to programmers) laid out her vision for a growing corps of young coder volunteers with an “agile, maker-and-doer mentality” that can help local governments better serve their citizens, and help citizens better participate in their democracy. “Instead of a chorus of voices,” she said, “I’d like to see a chorus of hands.”

We also launched a new Big Tent YouTube channel with a collection of content from past Big Tents and information about upcoming events around the world. Visit the channel to watch speaker videos, participate in the debate via the comments, get more information on the presenters and see how different communities approach many of the same issues. Stay tuned for future Big Tents, both here and abroad.

Posted by Katharine Wang, Policy Analyst

Learning independence with Google Search features

Searches can become stories. Some are inspiring, some change the way we see the world and some just put a smile on our face. This is a story of how people can use Google to do something extraordinary. If you have a story, share it. - Ed.

We all have memories of the great teachers who shaped our childhood. They found ways to make the lightbulb go off in our heads, instilled in us a passion for learning and helped us realize our potential. The very best teachers were creative with the tools at their disposal, whether it was teaching the fundamentals of addition with Cheerios or the properties of carbon dioxide with baking soda and vinegar. As the Internet has developed, so too have the resources available for teachers to educate their students.

One teacher who has taken advantage of the web as an educational tool is Cheryl Oakes, a resource room teacher in Wells, Maine. She’s also been able to tailor the vast resources available on the web to each student’s ability. This approach has proven invaluable for Cheryl’s students, in particular 16-year-old Morgan, whose learning disability makes it daunting to sort through search results to find those webpages that she can comfortably read. Cheryl taught Morgan how to use the Search by Reading Level feature on Google Search, which enables Morgan to focus only on those results that are most understandable to her. To address the difficulty Morgan faces with typing, Cheryl introduced her to Voice Search, so Morgan can speak her queries into the computer. Morgan is succeeding in high school, and just registered to take her first college course this summer.



There’s a practically limitless amount of information available on the web, and with search features, you can find the content that is most meaningful for you. For more information, visit google.com/insidesearch/features.html.

Posted by Glen Shires, Speech Technology

Holidays on my mind

I really need a holiday - all this sunshine has made me realise that it has been way too long since I left these shores and experienced a change of scene. I love the Balearic Islands and was lucky enough a couple of years ago to visit Menorca, Majorca's baby sister but no less beautiful. Menorca holidays can be a week long or a simple weekend - this is what I saw in just a weekend...

Our weekend trip to this small and often overlooked jewel of the Balearic islands started at the ancient port of Mahon where a catamaran trip around the coast gave us instant understanding of the history of the island. This former British colony still owes much of its way of life to that period, and the little towns and ports that cluster along the island fringes have a colonial feel that is as much British as it is Spanish.

Back at the port our first stop was a visit to the Gin Xoriguer distillery, one of two remaining on the island. Similar to the gin back home, Menorcan gin has an underlying smokiness from the pine used in heating and distillation. Today Menorcans drink it mixed with bitter lemon, and it has been the national drink of the island for several centuries.

Our first afternoon was spent walking in the beautiful Albufera des Grau nature reserve found northwards along the coast from Cap de Favartix. Home to much wildlife, this is off the beaten track enough to allow real appreciation of the wilder side of the island. The waters of the bay run very shallow, making it the perfect bathing spot for families with young children.

What strikes you most is how green Menorca is in comparison to its island neighbours. Underdeveloped in comparison to Mallorca or Ibiza, here the tallest things are the electricity pylons, and the architecture is a mix of old Britain and ancient Spain. The roads are well kept, the air is fresh and clean and there is a British order to the colonial style buildings along the quaysides. Hacienda style houses sit proud high on the hillsides with their characteristic Menorcan wooden gates.

History
Menorca is an ancient island and has almost more prehistoric sites than anywhere else in the world. Dotted on the landscape are ancient burial grounds and the remnants of small clusters of dwellings. One of the most intricate that we visited is found at Torre d'en Gaumes on the southern coast of the island. As we sat among the olive trees all we could hear was the wind, making it a perfect place to unwind with a picnic of local produce and Menorcan cheeses.

Beaches and bays
Menorca is known for the wealth of beaches and bays to visit, in fact there are more beaches here than on Mallorca and Ibiza put together.  Climbing up winding roads we passed narrow streets of whitewashed houses clinging to the hillside, with their brightly-coloured washing dancing in the breeze. Old men taking in the last light of the day meet on street corners to hold the same discussions they have, no doubt, been having for centuries. Down in the bay the most dominant thing is a large outcrop of rock - a small island linked to the mainland by a footbridge with a small selection of bars, restaurants and a supermarket or two.

Other highlights
The highest point on the island is Monte Toro in Es Mercadal. which offers stunning views across the island. This is the spiritual centre of Menorca, with a church that houses a 17^th century wooden carving of the Virgin Mary that has become a pilgrimage focus for those in search of help and solace. Back down at sea level we found ourselves in the ancient capital, Ciutadella, with its elegant facades, cobbled streets, town square and small port. Bars and boutiques find a home under the arched alleyways - perfect for a refreshing glass of cava as the day drew to a close. Here too is home to one of the best fish restaurants on the island, Café Balear. Seafood is their speciality and whether it was squid, mussels or fresh hake served in garlic butter, each morsel melted in the mouth.

Don't miss
Cova d'en Xoroi - a nightclub high up on a cliff within a labyrinth of caves.

A visit to the Xoriguer gin factory - produced in the same way for 300 years and tasting of the pine smoke used to distil it.

Shopping in the open air markets - these are found in most of the towns around the island.

Albufera des Grau, a large natural paradise that is protected by UNESCO.

Why not book a Menorca holiday today?

This is a sponsored post.

Let’s fill London with startups...

London has become one of the world's great digital capitals. The Internet accounts for eight percent of the U.K. economy and has become, in these days of tough public finances, a welcome engine of economic growth.

We believe there is even more potential for entrepreneurs to energize the Internet economy in the U.K., and to help spur growth, today we’re opening Campus London , a seven story facility in the east London neighborhood known as Tech City. Google began as a startup in a garage. We want to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs to be successful by building and supporting a vibrant startup community. Our goal with Campus is to catalyze the startup ecosystem and build Britain's single largest community of startups under one roof.



The U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon. George Osborne MP, launched Campus at this morning's official opening. The Chancellor toured the building, meeting some of the entrepreneurs currently making their home in Campus and learning more about their innovations, ranging from fashion trendsetting websites to personalized London leisure guides. He then flipped the switch on a commemorative graffiti plaque.

Campus is a collaboration between Google and partners Central Working, Tech Hub, Seedcamp and Springboard. It will provide startups with workspace in an energizing environment and will also host daily events for and with the community. We will run a regular speaker series, alongside lectures and programing, as well as provide mentorship and training from local Google teams.

Visitors will have access to a cafe and co-working space, complete with high speed wifi. We welcome members of the startup community: entrepreneurs, investors, developers, designers, lawyers, accountants, etc. and hope that this informal, highly concentrated space will lead to chance meetings and interactions that will generate the ideas and partnerships that will drive new, innovative businesses.

The buzz around Campus from within the startup community has meant that today, on day one, Campus is already at 90% capacity, with more than 100 people on site and an additional 4,500 who have signed up online to visit.

We are looking forward to getting to know the community. East London is emerging as a world-leading entrepreneurial hub, and we’re excited to be a part of it. Take a photo tour of Campus here, and if you’d like to learn more, visit us at www.campuslondon.com.

Let’s fill this town with startups!

Posted by Eze Vidra, Head of Campus London

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy blog)

Crossing the 50 billion km mark and giving Google Maps for Android a fresh look

Every day, millions of people turn to Google Maps for Android for free, voice-guided GPS navigation to guide them to their destination. So far, Navigation on Google Maps for Android has provided 50 billion kilometers of turn-by-turn directions, the equivalent of 130,000 trips to the moon, 334 trips to the sun, 10 trips to Neptune or 0.005 light years! When getting to your destination matters most, Google Maps for Android will get you there:




A new look for Navigation on Android 4.0+ phones
In today’s release of Google Maps 6.5 for Android we’ve redesigned the Navigation home screen in Android 4.0+ to make it easier to enter a new destination or select from recent and favorite locations by swiping left or right.

Left: New Navigation home screen   Right: Navigation in Google Maps for Android

Crisper, faster maps for high pixel density devices
If your device has a high pixel density screen, such as those on Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, Droid Razr and others, you’ll now get higher resolution map tiles that take better advantage of the pixels-per-inch on your screen. The result is a crisper, less cluttered map that is easier to read:

Left: Previous style Right:New style in Google Maps 6.5 for Android

Compare our new map on the right to the previous map on the left. The road network is easier to see, less obstructed by labels, and has more color contrast. At more zoomed-in levels, you’ll notice a more controlled amount of maps labels to avoid cluttering the map and blocking out street names. The new style also helps maps react faster to panning, zooming and twisting.

You'll start seeing the new style as you navigate around new areas on the map; however, you can see these changes immediately by clearing your cache from the Maps settings.

Pick your preferred public transit mode and route option
Google Maps 6.5 for Android now lets you choose to prioritize a particular transit mode (such as the bus or subway) and route option (like taking the recommended route, one with fewer transfers or one with less walking). Whether you just need to get somewhere as fast as possible, or you want to avoid the risk of a missed connection or you prefer not to tire your legs, you can get the transit directions that best suit you. Transit directions and schedules are available for 475 cities around the world.

To start using Google Maps 6.5 for Android, download the update from Google Play. Learn more about how to use other great features of Google Maps for Android on the redesigned Google Maps YouTube channel that has 12 new videos available today.

Posted by Harlan Hile, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

Giving you more insight into your Google Account activity

Every day we aim to make technology so simple and intuitive that you stop thinking about it—we want Google to work so well, it just blends into your life. But sometimes it’s helpful to step back and take stock of what you’re doing online.

Today we’re introducing Account Activity, a new feature in your Google Account. If you sign up, each month we’ll send you a link to a password-protected report with insights into your signed-in use of Google services.

For example, my most recent Account Activity report told me that I sent 5 percent more email than the previous month and received 3 percent more. An Italian hotel was my top Gmail contact for the month. I conducted 12 percent more Google searches than in the previous month, and my top queries reflected the vacation I was planning: [rome] and [hotel].

Click the image for a larger version

Knowing more about your own account activity also can help you take steps to protect your Google Account. For example, if you notice sign-ins from countries where you haven’t been or devices you’ve never owned, you can change your password immediately and sign up for the extra level of security provided by 2-step verification.

Account Activity is a complement to other tools like the Google Dashboard, which shows you what information is stored in your Google Account, and the Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you control the way Google tailors ads to your interests.

Give Account Activity a try, and tell us what you think by clicking on the “Send feedback” button in the lower right corner of your report. Over the next few months, we plan to incorporate more Google services. Meanwhile, we hope this feature helps you better understand and manage your information on Google.

Update March 30: Added information about related tools.

Posted by Andreas Tuerk, product manager

Shu Uemura Kimono a la Mode

It's Spring! At last and nothing is more spring-like than the traditional blossom paintings of Japan. Perfect timing then for an art collaboration between beauty company Shu Uemura and contemporary kimono artist Mamechiyo.

I went to an event the other evening to be introduced to this gorgeously collectable range of emblematic cleansing oils and UV under base mousses, each with a different spring bloom design. And check out that gorgeous palette design too!

I'm a fan of Shu Uemura anyway so having a couple of these to grace my bathroom shelves makes me so happy and I really do like the products too.

The cleansing oil is a bit of a legendary product and a bottle is sold every 15 seconds around the world. It was developed when Shu Uemura, while working backstage at the Hollywood Movie Studios in the 1950's discovered a cleansing oil called UNMASKED. He was so impressed by it's efficacy and the fact that it was so popular with the starlets of the time that he dedicated himself to advancing the potential of this iconic cleansing oil.

Take a train through the Swiss Alps with Street View

For the first time, you can ride a train on Street View. Through a partnership with UNESCO and Rhaetian Railways, we captured 75.8 miles/122 km of the famous UNESCO World Heritage Albula/Bernina railway line with Street View cameras. Starting today, in addition to accessing the imagery from directly within Google Maps, you can also find the collection in our new gallery.

View Larger Map

Like our trip to the Amazon, this Swiss mountain journey also began last year, when we attached the Street View trike to the wagon of a Rhaetian Railway train. From the very front of the train, the trike took 360-degree images along the expansive track.

See in Gallery

You can watch the video of how we did it here, and for more Street View collections around the world, visit our updated Street View gallery.

Enjoy the ride!

Posted by Raphael Leiteritz, Product Manager, Google Maps

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

Explore Mandela’s archives online

Last year we announced a $1.25 million grant to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory to help preserve and digitize thousands of archival documents, photographs and videos about Nelson Mandela. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory (NMCM) is committed to documenting the life and times of one of the world's greatest statesmen and spreading his story to promote social justice throughout the world.

Today, the Mandela archive has become a reality. Along with historians, educationalists, researchers, activists and many others around the world, you can access a wealth of information and knowledge about the life and legacy of this extraordinary African leader. The new online multimedia archive includes Mandela’s correspondence with family, comrades and friends, diaries written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa. The archive will also include the earliest-known photo of Mr. Mandela and never-before seen drafts of Mr. Mandela's manuscripts for the sequel to his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

We’ve worked closely with the NMCM to create an interactive online experience which we hope will inspire you as much as us. You can search and browse the archives to explore different parts of Mandela’s life and work in depth: Early Life, Prison Years, Presidential Years, Retirement, Books for Mandela, Young People and My Moments with a Legend.

For example, you might be interested in Nelson Mandela’s personal memories of the time he was incarcerated and click into the Prison Years exhibit. You can immediately see a curated set of materials threaded together into a broader narrative. These include handwritten notes on his desk calendars, which show, for example, that he met President F.W. De Klerk for the first time on December 13, 1989 for two and a half hours in prison; the Warrants of Committal issued by the Supreme Court which sent him to prison; the earliest known photo of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island circa 1971; and a personal letter written from prison in 1963 to his daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, after their mother was arrested, complete with transcript.

From there, you might want to see all the letters held by the archive, and click “See more” in the letters category, where you can discover all personal letters or use the time filter to explore his diaries and calendars written between 1988 and 1998, where you can see that in the last page of the last diary, he met with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda to exchange ideas about the situation in northern Uganda. If you were a researcher, you can search through various fragments of Madiba’s memory that relate to Ahmed Kathrada, his long-time comrade, politician and anti-apartheid activist, where you can find photos, videos, manuscripts and letters that relate to him.

Finally, by clicking into the exhibit, My Moments with a Legend, you can go beyond Madiba’s personal materials to get a diverse perspective through photos, videos and stories, via the memories of people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, F.W. De Klerk and Nomfundo Walaza, a community worker.

The Nelson Mandela Digital Archive project is an initiative by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the Google Cultural Institute, which helps to preserve and promote our diverse cultural and historical heritage. Some of our other initiatives include the Art Project, digitizing the Dead Sea Scrolls and bringing the Yad Vashem Holocaust materials online.

You can start exploring the Nelson Mandela archive right now at archive.nelsonmandela.org. We hope you’ll be inspired by this influential leader—the face of South Africa’s transition to democracy.

Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Product Manager, Google’s Cultural Institute

A new kind of summer job: open source coding with Google Summer of Code

It's only Spring Break for most college students, but summer vacation will be here before you know it. Instead of getting stuck babysitting your little sister or mowing your neighbor's lawn, apply for Google Summer of Code and spend the summer of 2012 earning money writing code for open source projects.

Google Summer of Code is a global program that gives university students a stipend to write code for open source projects over a three month period. Accepted students are paired with a mentor from the participating projects, gaining exposure to real-world software development and the opportunity for future employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

For the past ten days, interested students have had the opportunity to review the ideas pages for this year’s 180 accepted projects and research which projects they would like to contribute to this year. We hope all interested students will apply! Submit your proposal to the mentoring organizations via the Google Summer of Code program website from today through Friday, April 6 at 19:00 UTC.

Google Summer of Code is a highly competitive program with a limited number of spots. Students should consult the Google Summer of Code student manual for suggestions on how to write a quality proposal that will grab the attention of the mentoring organizations. Multiple proposals are allowed but we highly recommend focusing on quality over quantity. The mentoring organizations have many proposals to review, so it is important to follow each organization’s specific guidelines or templates and we advise you to submit your proposal early so you can receive timely feedback.

For more tips, see a list of some helpful dos and don’ts for successful student participation written by a group of experienced Google Summer of Code administrators, our user’s guide for the program site, Frequently Asked Questions and timeline. You can also stay up-to-date on all things Google Summer of Code on our Google Open Source blog, mailing lists or on Internet relay chat at #gsoc on Freenode.

To learn more about Google Summer of Code, tune in to the Google Students page on Google+ next Monday, April 2 at 3:30pm PT for a Hangout on Air with open source programs manager Chris DiBona. He'll be talking about Google Summer of Code with other members of the open source team at Google. Submit your questions about the program between now and next Monday using the hashtag #gsochangout, and Chris and the open source team will answer them live during the Hangout On Air.

Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until April 6!

Posted by Carol Smith, Open Source Team

Measuring to improve: comprehensive, real-world data center efficiency numbers

To paraphrase Lord Kelvin, if you don’t measure you can’t improve. Our data center operations team lives by this credo, and we take every opportunity to measure the performance of our facilities. In the same way that you might examine your electricity bill and then tweak the thermostat, we constantly track our energy consumption and use that data to make improvements to our infrastructure. As a result, our data centers use 50 percent less energy than the typical data center.

One of the measurements we track is PUE, or power usage effectiveness. PUE is a ratio of the total power used to run a data center to the amount used to power the servers. For instance, if a data center has a PUE of 2.0, that means that for every watt of energy that powers the servers, another watt powers the cooling, lighting and other systems. An ideal PUE would be 1.0.

In 2011, our trailing 12-month average PUE was approximately 1.14—an improvement from 1.16 in 2010. In other words, our data centers use only 14 percent additional power for all sources of overhead combined. To calculate this number we include everything that contributes to energy consumption in our data centers. That means that in addition to the electricity used to power the servers and cooling systems, we incorporate the oil and natural gas that heat our offices. We also account for system inefficiencies like transformer, cable and UPS losses and generator parasitic energy draw.

If we chose to use a simpler calculation—for instance, if we included only the data center and the cooling equipment—we could report a PUE as low as 1.06 at our most efficient location. But we want to be as comprehensive as possible in our measurements. You can see the difference in this graphic:

We’ve been publishing our PUE quarterly since 2008—in fact, we were the first company to do so, and are still the only one. Our numbers are based on actual production data taken from hundreds of meters installed throughout our data centers, not design specs or best-case scenarios. One way to think of it is comparing a car manufacturer’s mileage estimates for a new model car to the car’s real-life miles per gallon. We’re measuring real-world mileage so we can improve real-world efficiency.

Our 2011 numbers and more are available for closer examination on our data center site. We’ve learned a lot through building and operating our data centers, so we’ve also shared our best practices. These include steps like raising the temperature on the server floor and using the natural environment to cool the data center, whether it’s outside air or recycled water.

We’ve seen dramatic improvements in efficiency throughout the industry in recent years, but there’s still a lot we can do. Sharing comprehensive measurement data and ideas for improvement can help us all move forward.

Posted by Joe Kava, Senior Director, data center construction and operations

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel book vs film

Certainly hyped up recently, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel seems to be an aquired taste. My younger colleagues in the office simply loved it and thought it hilarious, but I should have taken note of my colleague who is nearer me in age who was left singularly unimpressed, before heading out on Saturday night to my local Vue cinema.

Films are rarely if ever as good as the book - and it probably didn't help that I finished the book on Saturday afternoon so it was fresh in my memory, but still, what on earth had they done to the storyline?

Okay it's still set in a hotel in Jaipur and the characters are roughly the same but they have swept aside the subtle back stories of each character and in some cases rewritten their story entirely. And not to the films advantage either! Without spoiling either the book or the film too much for you (though I fear I've already spoilt the film) leaving out the integral reason for each character being the way they are and allowing you more insight into the family dynamics they have left behind, means that the film is a slightly patronising, thin, rom-com that doesn't stretch the wonderful caste in any way and relies heavily on the obvious in terms of characters. Indians are portrayed as either headwaggling lower-caste extras from It Aint Half Hot Mum or highly educated and desparate to learn more about England (because let's face it England is so wonderful isn't it). And why is the hotel set up in the first place? This is an integral part of the book and isn't even covered in the film...

I can watch Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton until the cows come home and really it's only their wonderfully warm and real performances that elevate this film at all. It is beautifully shot but it certainly aint no Monsoon Wedding.

Read The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel if you want a great story and characters that engage and that you will actually care about. If you don't read the book then wait for the film on DVD or Sky is my advice. Beautifully shot but a bit of a missed opportunity alround really...

80 Years of Revlon!

Revlon is 80 this year so Happy Birthday Revlon! Created in 1932 by Charles Revson and in the midst of the Great Depression, Charles and brother Joseph along with Charles Lachman (who contributed 'L' to the Revlon name) set up the company and swiftly became innovators in the field of cosmetics and beauty. At this time the only shades of nail enamel were clear and it was Charles Revson who added pigments to create coloured varnishes and by 1933 launched nail enamels to complement the seasonal trends - The Revlon Reds were born!

In 1939 the concept of matching 'lips and tips' was created which set the standard for Hollywood's most glamorous era and is still considered glamorous today. Revlon Red was the first colour and there have been so many since - amazingly the exact same colour is still in existance today and is still a popular seller. So when you paint your nails with Revlon Red you will still be using the same colour as our grandmothers and greatgrandmothers - there's something quite comforting about that!

Revlon Red gets some 1040's inspired design inspiration

Revlon Red and some new contenters

The Master and Margarita - Complicite at The Barbican

Where do I start with this? The Master and Margarita has always been one of my favourite books. It was recommended to me by my mother when I was about 20, I read it, couldn't put it down and it's been on my bookshelf ever since.

It was written by Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov in 1939 but, due to the political control over literary publications at the time, it wasn't published until 1966 long after his death in 1940. To say it's a complex novel is something of an understatement.  It's magical, thought provoking and highly complicated. The main story is about the Devil and his entourage (including a talking cat) arriving in Moscow and creating havoc. It's also a take on organised religion and how it's lost it's way, and is about self-sacrifice, love, revenge, guilt, actually I could go on and on with a list of topics featured in this novel.
It travels from Moscow to Jerusalem, bringing in Pontius Pilate condemning Jesus to death, alongside parties in hell and literary meetings in Moscow.  It's the story of a novelist stuck in a lunatic asylum and his mistress and the question of whether everything is really preordained.

It's complex, skips hither and thither through time and storylines and yet is a wonderfully compulsive read that you remember long after the final page. No-one has successfully turned it into a play or film though some have considered it seriously (including Andrew Lloyd-Webber who looked at doing a musical version). Complicite and it's director Simon McBurney have met the challenge head on and using the huge theatre space at London's Barbican Theatre, have produced a work that is heart stopping in its visual impact, and takes you through the story at quite a pace. The music ranges from Shostakovich to The Rolling Stones giving added drama and rhythm to the movement of the ensemble. Three hours is a long time to sit through a play and I must admit the first half of an hour and 45 mins did leave me a bit numb with a desire to walk around for the full interval. The second half brings everything together and from the moment the actors appear back on the stage they've got you on the edge of your seat until the end.

Sadly it's now unlikely you'll get a ticket although it is running to April 7th but I would queue all night for returns. If you like physical theatre and especially if the book is on your favourites list then you mustn't miss this treat.

Dining in the Dark

I had heard all about the experience of 'dining in the dark' so when I was invited to experience it for myself  I was really intrigued. Then I saw the date and discovered that I couldn't make it! Gutted I asked my friend Colette to report back....

Here is what she found -
I was invited to a secret product launch at London Restaurant DansLe Noir. If you haven’t heard from it before it’s a restaurant where you dine entirely in the dark as they believe that by dining in the dark you will take part in a unique experience that will shake up your senses and make you re-evaluate your perception of taste and smell.

When we arrived there was a bar which was light- a relief to be honest! There was definitely a buzz of anticipation between us all as we arrived and when everyone was there we were asked to line up in a certain order and place our hands on the shoulders of the guest in front. We were then introduced to our waiters and waitresses who were all blind. They needed us to be in name order so they knew which guest they were dealing with – clever!

So hit the darkness we did, we were led through to another room through a curtain and ‘bang’ when that closed it was total pitch black. There were lots of nervous giggles as we awaited instructions of what to do next.

We were very reassured by our waiter/guide who you knew not only was familiar with the dark space we were about to enter but also totally comfortable with the darkness and knew exactly how to guide you and tell you what you needed to hear about the unknown surrounding you.

We were guided to our tables, finding the chair and not falling off it was the next challenge. We were then advised that in front of us on the table was cutlery, a glass and a plate. I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face which was such a strange feeling!

Plates of food were then brought out but we weren’t told what they contained – you had to find the food then try it! This took a while to master and your senses are left to do their thing. This encouraged lots of discussion about the food and ingredients and was interesting to see how different people perceive the taste of something when just left to their senses.

Lots of delicious mystery plates later we were then led back through to the light again to discover the surprise ingredient. Plates included seared Wagju Beef on curly kale and Jerusalem artichoke puree, purple sprouting broccoli with horseradish Mornay sauce, and for the main event the dessert Fruity chocolate-cherry and frozen yogurt made with our secret ingredient of the night – Alpro! In fact all the dishes had Alpro products in them using Alpro single soya cream, Alpro original soya milk and Alpro Fruity & Creamy Cherry soya yogurt. 

So the whole evening was about getting people to take a new look at Alpro.  Alpro have launched a healthy indulgence in the form of Fruity & Creamy twin-pack's which are made from soya (so are much more healthy than dairy) and come in either Cherry or Peach.

Each pot has only 125 calories and is also free from artificial colours, sweeteners or preservatives. They are really creamy (yes I picked up a pack when I came across them in the supermarket) and I will be buying them again especially as they are just £1.09 for a twin pack.

Ideas worthy of space travel: The YouTube Space Lab global winners

Can you teach an old spider new tricks? Could better understanding alien superbugs cure diseases on Earth? These are the questions that will be asked by the two winning experiments of YouTube Space Lab, the science competition that challenged students from 14 to 18 years old to design a science experiment that could be performed in space. Your votes and our expert judges chose the winners from thousands of entries from around the world. Experiments submitted by Dorothy and Sara, from Troy, Mich., U.S. (winners in the 14-16-year-old age group) and Amr from Alexandria, Egypt (winner in the 17-18-year-old age group) will be performed aboard the International Space Station and live streamed to the world on YouTube.

Meet Amr from Alexandria, Egypt

Global Winner, 17-18-year-old age group:

Watch his entry: “Can you teach an old spider new tricks?”

Meet Dorothy and Sara from Troy, Mich., U.S.

Global Winners, 14-16-year-old age group:

Watch their entry: “Could alien superbugs cure diseases on Earth?”

Sunita Williams—the NASA astronaut who’ll fly to the International Space Station later this year and perform the winning experiments live on YouTube—announced the global winners at a special ceremony in Washington, D.C., where the six regional winning teams were gathered. While in Washington, all the teams also took a ZERO-G weightless flight and a private tour of the the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum.

In addition to having their experiments performed in space, Amr, Dorothy and Sara get to choose between one of two awesome space adventures: a trip to Japan to watch their experiment blast off in a rocket bound for the ISS or, once they’re 18 years old, a week-long astronaut course in Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts.

Subscribe to the YouTube Space Lab channel for all the best space playlists and to check out video of the winners on their ZERO-G flight. Stay tuned for the live stream from space, which will take place later this year.

Posted by Zahaan Bharmal, head of marketing operations in EMEA

Visit the Amazon on World Forest Day with Street View

Last August, a few members of our Brazil and U.S. Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams were invited to the Amazon Basin to collect ground-level images of the rivers, forest and communities in the Rio Negro Reserve. Today, on World Forest Day, we’re making those images available through the Street View feature on Google Maps. Now anyone can experience the beauty and diversity of the Amazon.

Tributary of the Rio Negro - View Larger Map

Take a virtual boat ride down the main section of the Rio Negro, and float up into the smaller tributaries where the forest is flooded. Stroll along the paths of Tumbira, the largest community in the Reserve, or visit some of the other communities who invited us to share their lives and cultures. Enjoy a hike along an Amazon forest trail and see where Brazil nuts are harvested. You can even see a forest critter if you look hard enough!

Amazon Rainforest - View Larger Map

This project was made possible in partnership with the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS), the local nonprofit conservation organization that invited us to the area. We used the Street View trike and a tripod camera with a fisheye lens—typically used to capture imagery of business interiors—to capture both the natural landscape and the local communities. In all, more than 50,000 still photos were stitched together to create these immersive, 360-degree panoramic views:

Many areas of the Amazon, including Rio Negro Reserve, are under the protection of the Brazilian government with restricted access to the public, so we hope that this Street View collection provides access to this special corner of the planet that many of us otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to experience. Together with FAS, we’re thrilled to help everyone from researchers and scientists to armchair explorers around the world learn more about the Amazon, and better understand how local communities there are working to preserve this unique environment for future generations.

To do this directly from maps you can go to Brazil map and drag Pegman to the Rio Negro River

Start exploring this portion of the Amazon and other collections around the world on the updated Street View site and gallery.

Posted by Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Project Lead for Google Street View in the Amazon

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

Tips Menulis Artikel Blog Berkualitas dan Penuh Ide

Beberapa hari yang lalu, saya mendapatkan pesan pribadi di Facebook dari seorang sobat Blogger. Begini isinya:Gimana biar postingan kita itu bisa panjang dan berisi kaya di blog agan rata-rata di blog agan postingannya panjang panjang dan emang harus semua di baca karena itu informasi penting, nah gimana tipsnya gitu biar kalimatnya itu banyak, saya selalu kehabisan ide kalo buat postingan ?

Ovarian Cancer Month - e.l.f. cosmetics

Coming through Oxford Circus the other day I passed two women collecting for Ovarian Cancer which reminded me that March is indeed Ovarian Cancer Month and that I had received a press release about e.l.f cosmetics who have produced a limited edition 'Target gift bag'.

The limited edition bag contains a selection of amazing products, including an all over colour stick, cream eyeliner and a dazzling purple polish, all for just £5. £1 from every gift bag purchased throughout the month of March will be donated to Target Ovarian Cancer.

Clare Horwood, head of fundraising at Target Ovarian Cancer, said “A lot of women with ovarian cancer feel better when they look good.

“We’re thrilled to have the support of e.l.f. during Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, which will raise vital funds for our work in supporting women with ovarian cancer.”

The gift bag is being launched this week and is available online at Eyeslipsface.

Visit Target Ovarian Cancer for more information about symptoms and the charity’s work.

Five common SEO mistakes (and six good ideas!)

Webmaster Level: Beginner to Intermediate

To help you avoid common mistakes webmasters face with regard to search engine optimization (SEO), I filmed a video outlining five common mistakes I’ve noticed in the SEO industry. Almost four years ago, we also gathered information from all of you (our readers) about your SEO recommendations and updated our related Help Center article given your feedback. Much of the same advice from 2008 still holds true today -- here’s to more years ahead building a great site!

If you’re short on time, here’s the gist:

Avoid these common mistakes

1. Having no value proposition: Try not to assume that a site should rank #1 without knowing why it’s helpful to searchers (and better than the competition :)

2. Segmented approach: Be wary of setting SEO-related goals without making sure they’re aligned with your company’s overall objectives and the goals of other departments. For example, in tandem with your work optimizing product pages (and the full user experience once they come to your site), also contribute your expertise to your Marketing team’s upcoming campaign. So if Marketing is launching new videos or a more interactive site, be sure that searchers can find their content, too.

3. Time-consuming workarounds: Avoid implementing a hack rather than researching new features or best practices that could simplify development (e.g., changing the timestamp on an updated URL so it’s crawled more quickly instead of easily submitting the URL through Fetch as Googlebot).

4. Caught in SEO trends: Consider spending less time obsessing about the latest “trick” to boost your rankings and instead focus on the fundamental tasks/efforts that will bring lasting visitors.

5. Slow iteration: Aim to be agile rather than promote an environment where the infrastructure and/or processes make improving your site, or even testing possible improvements, difficult.

Six fundamental SEO tips

1. Do something cool: Make sure your site stands out from the competition -- in a good way!

2. Include relevant words in your copy: Try to put yourself in the shoes of searchers. What would they query to find you? Your name/business name, location, products, etc., are important. It's also helpful to use the same terms in your site that your users might type (e.g., you might be a trained “flower designer” but most searchers might type [florist]), and to answer the questions they might have (e.g., store hours, product specs, reviews). It helps to know your customers.

3. Be smart about your tags and site architecture: Create unique title tags and meta descriptions; include Rich Snippets markup from schema.org where appropriate. Have intuitive navigation and good internal links.

4. Sign up for email forwarding in Webmaster Tools: Help us communicate with you, especially when we notice something awry with your site.

5. Attract buzz: Natural links, +1s, likes, follows... In every business there's something compelling, interesting, entertaining, or surprising that you can offer or share with your users. Provide a helpful service, tell fun stories, paint a vivid picture and users will share and reshare your content.

6. Stay fresh and relevant: Keep content up-to-date and consider options such as building a social media presence (if that’s where a potential audience exists) or creating an ideal mobile experience if your users are often on-the-go.

Good luck to everyone!

Written by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead

Upcoming changes in Google’s HTTP Referrer

Webmaster level: all

Protecting users’ privacy is a priority for us and it’s helped drive recent changes. Helping users save time is also very important; it’s explicitly mentioned as a part of our philosophy. Today, we’re happy to announce that Google Web Search will soon be using a new proposal to reduce latency when a user of Google’s SSL-search clicks on a search result with a modern browser such as Chrome.

Starting in April, for browsers with the appropriate support, we will be using the "referrer" meta tag to automatically simplify the referring URL that is sent by the browser when visiting a page linked from an organic search result. This results in a faster time to result and more streamlined experience for the user.

What does this mean for sites that receive clicks from Google search results? You may start to see "origin" referrers—Google’s homepages (see the meta referrer specification for further detail)—as a source of organic SSL search traffic. This change will only affect the subset of SSL search referrers which already didn’t include the query terms. Non-HTTPS referrals will continue to behave as they do today. Again, the primary motivation for this change is to remove an unneeded redirect so that signed-in users reach their destination faster.

Website analytics programs can detect these organic search requests by detecting bare Google host names using SSL (like "https://www.google.co.uk/"). Webmasters will continue see the same data in Webmasters Tools—just as before, you’ll receive an aggregated list of the top search queries that drove traffic to their site.

We will continue to look into further improvements to how search query data is surfaced through Webmaster Tools. If you have questions, feedback or suggestions, please let us know through the Webmaster Tools Help Forum.

Posted by John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst, Switzerland