2009-03-13
北京猿人再老20萬歲 最新測年法技術發現
北京猿人再老20萬歲 最新測年法技術發現
3月13日 星期五
Charles Darwin The Theory Of Evolution
【明報專訊】北京 猿人較之前所知「老」了20多萬歲！中國科學家採用最新測年法技術發現，周口店北京猿人生活在距今約77萬年前，這比之前認為的50萬年前說法，提早了20多萬年，顯示北京猿人可在冰河時期的寒冷環境下繁衍生息。
研究刊登在最新一期《自然》雜誌上。研究負責人、南京師範大學地理科學學院沈冠軍教授說，這次他採用了一種名為「鋁鈹埋藏測年法」的技術，對北京猿人發現地——周口店第1地點的石英砂和石英質石製品進行了測量，測定結果為距今77萬年，誤差8萬年。
小冰河時期 古猿人仍能生存
美國 學者評論說，最新測定成果，將北京猿人的生存時間推向了一個更寒冷的年代。與大約50萬年前相比，77萬年前地球要寒冷許多，那時正處於一個小冰河時期。新測定結果將使學術界對古猿人在寒冷氣候下的生存能力，有新的認識，還為研究北京猿人用火等問題提供了線索。
沈冠軍說，目前在人類起源問題上，「非洲 起源說」和「中國古人類自成體系說」也存在爭議，這次將北京猿人生存時間推前，總體有利於中國古人類自成體系的假說，有助在東亞建立一個更可信的人類進化年表。
世上不少考古遺址多用鉀氬法測定年代，但中國的考古遺址中缺少這一方法所需的火山灰。今次沈教授所採用的鋁鈹埋藏測年法，可填補中國考古研究的技術空白。沈冠軍說，將採用該測年法，研究重慶巫山龍骨坡、河北泥河灣等古人類遺址的年代。
新華社 /路透社
Man survives Niagara Falls plunge
Man survives Niagara Falls plunge
BBC NEWS
2009/03/12
Travel Agency
A man has survived despite plunging 180ft (55m) over Niagara Falls and spending 45 minutes in freezing waters resisting his rescuers.
The unnamed man was seen by tourists to scale a wall and leap into the rapids above the falls.
Shortly afterwards he was spotted in the water near the base of the falls clinging to a log.
The man was eventually pulled from the icy waters and taken to hospital with hypothermia and a head injury.
Canadian officials said he was in a critical condition.
Rescue team
A specially trained falls rescue team had rushed to the man's aid after receiving reports of him going over the Horseshoe Falls, one of Niagara's three waterfalls.
However, the man - who was naked - swam away from them toward the middle of the river, police said.
A private helicopter was called in and used the force of its rotor blades to blow him closer to shore.
Firefighter Todd Brunning and another rescue worker then swam about 60 yards, grabbed the man and pulled him to safety, officials said.
Mr Brunning said the man was conscious but unable to talk.
“ It appeared he didn't want to come into shore. I thought he was an idiot to be honest with you ”
Witness Phil Richmond
Local resident Phil Richmond, who witnessed the rescue, told The Toronto Star that the man clearly didn't want to be saved.
"It appeared he didn't want to come into shore. I thought he was an idiot to be honest with you," he said.
"It looked like he was swimming, like he was one of those polar bear nuts who swim naked. I didn't realise he had gone over the falls."
It is against Canadian law to go over Niagara Falls, but police would not say if the man would be charged.
Very few people who have been swept over the falls have survived.
In 2003, American tourist Kirk Jones plunged over the Horseshoe Falls in what he claimed was "a spur of the moment act", and lived.
In 1960 a seven-year-old boy also survived the fall after the boat he was in capsized upstream.
BBC NEWS
2009/03/12
Travel Agency
A man has survived despite plunging 180ft (55m) over Niagara Falls and spending 45 minutes in freezing waters resisting his rescuers.
The unnamed man was seen by tourists to scale a wall and leap into the rapids above the falls.
Shortly afterwards he was spotted in the water near the base of the falls clinging to a log.
The man was eventually pulled from the icy waters and taken to hospital with hypothermia and a head injury.
Canadian officials said he was in a critical condition.
Rescue team
A specially trained falls rescue team had rushed to the man's aid after receiving reports of him going over the Horseshoe Falls, one of Niagara's three waterfalls.
However, the man - who was naked - swam away from them toward the middle of the river, police said.
A private helicopter was called in and used the force of its rotor blades to blow him closer to shore.
Firefighter Todd Brunning and another rescue worker then swam about 60 yards, grabbed the man and pulled him to safety, officials said.
Mr Brunning said the man was conscious but unable to talk.
“ It appeared he didn't want to come into shore. I thought he was an idiot to be honest with you ”
Witness Phil Richmond
Local resident Phil Richmond, who witnessed the rescue, told The Toronto Star that the man clearly didn't want to be saved.
"It appeared he didn't want to come into shore. I thought he was an idiot to be honest with you," he said.
"It looked like he was swimming, like he was one of those polar bear nuts who swim naked. I didn't realise he had gone over the falls."
It is against Canadian law to go over Niagara Falls, but police would not say if the man would be charged.
Very few people who have been swept over the falls have survived.
In 2003, American tourist Kirk Jones plunged over the Horseshoe Falls in what he claimed was "a spur of the moment act", and lived.
In 1960 a seven-year-old boy also survived the fall after the boat he was in capsized upstream.
Are Google's Behavior-Based Ads a New Privacy Concern?
Search Engines
Are Google's Behavior-Based Ads a New Privacy Concern?
By Nicholas Kolakowski
2009-03-12
Google Adsense
Google’s new interest-based advertising may lead to increased revenues for the search company, but privacy advocates have a list of new concerns for Google. Yahoo and other search-engine companies already use a variant of this sort of advertising, called “behavioral targeting,” in order to increase their advertisers’ chances of success. However, now that Google has entered the mix, privacy advocates fear they have more to worry about.
Google has raised privacy concerns with its newly launched interest-based advertising, which displays ads based on users' previous searches and page views. Also known as "behavioral targeting" or "online behavioral targeting," the method has privacy advocates up in arms over Google collecting massive amounts of user data.
While search engines use this type of technology, the fact that Google is now testing it has raised additional privacy concerns from those that see the search engine giant as already collecting too much personal information on its users. However, some others are defending Google, saying the company already has controls in place to control how personal data is used and collected.
The new Google advertising system, currently in beta, links "categories of interest" to the user’s browser, allowing targeted ads to appear even when the user is looking at a page totally unrelated to the ad’s subject matter. For example, someone who has spent months looking at pages about mini-notebooks will find ads for mini-notebooks appearing even when they’re on a site unrelated to PCs.
Google’s search rival Yahoo has already introduced its own application based on behavioral targeting, called Search Retargeting, which focuses display advertising based on users’ search histories. Search Retargeting, announced on Feb. 24, was anticipated by analysts as having the potential to draw massive privacy protests, but pushback from privacy advocates so far seems minimal.
For years, search engine companies have struggled to reassure the public that whatever information they collect is not being abused. This has led to much hand wringing about how long they should retain user data.
On Dec. 17, Yahoo announced that it could cleanse its system of user log data within 90 days. By contrast, Google has publicly stated that its data retention time is nine months.
Resource Library:
Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel for Google, argued in a blog posting on March 11 that the privacy policy behind the company’s interest-based ads provided "meaningful transparency and choice," with the company drawing a line at data-mining potentially sensitive categories for ad revenue.
"To provide greater privacy protections to users, we will not serve interest-based ads based on sensitive interest categories," she wrote. "For example, we don’t have health status interest categories or interest categories designed for children."
Users will be able access the individual interest categories associated with their browser via a tool called Ad Preferences Manager and add or delete specific ones.
"Access to the profile is something we’ve been promoting for years, and what we’ve been hearing from companies is that it would be too difficult for consumers; Google has essentially disproved that," Alissa Cooper, chief computer scientist for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in an interview. "On the ad profile and ad access front, they’ve moved the ball forward."
Cooper also believes, though, that Google could stand to buttress its privacy protection in other areas – particularly with regard to its cookies. At the moment, Google users have the ability to delete their interest-based advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network, curtailing Google’s tracking; but there’s a catch.
"The cookie is only specific to the ads that Google is serving," Cooper said, which still leaves users potentially open to other search engines that utilize cookies for behavioral tracking.
And even though there are plans to label the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and YouTube with information on how those ads are served, Cooper feels those labels could be more intensive.
"They talked about labeling the ads, which is something we’ve been talking about for a long time, and a link on the ad is a good idea," Cooper adds. "But it’s unclear about whether having an ad with a link that says, 'Ad by Google' will be effective for people wanting to see how they can defend their privacy."
Some analysts believe that Google is doing an effective job of being cautious with users' privacy.
Berin Szoka, a fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and director of the Center for Internet Freedom, suggests that Google’s piling-on by some privacy advocates could be somewhat unwarranted, and that the company gives "consumers more granular control over their own privacy preferences by developing better tools."
"Because these services [and their competitors] are all free, Google has to compete in what economists call 'non-price terms'—such as privacy," Szoka wrote in a research report distributed on March 11. "So, Google has a lot to lose by alienating its users and a lot to gain by being seen as a leader in privacy protection."
"It’s no accident that Google was a late-comer to the OBA [Online Behavioral Advertising] market, lagging behind Yahoo in particular," Szoka added in the paper. "The most likely reason Google has taken its time in rolling out an OBA product is that Google is subject to a unique level of scrutiny by privacy advocates by virtue of its size. Being the 'big kid on the block,' Google has to be especially careful not to appear to be 'Big Brother.'"
Even if Google has no interest in becoming Big Brother, it still seems focused on becoming truly big.
Despite CEO Eric Schmidt’s announcement, at Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco on March 3, that Google was "not immune" from "very, very tough" economic conditions, the company seems determined to push into new and untested areas.
Schmidt also decided to push Google to the forefront of the U.S. renewable energy debate, arguing that his company has a clean energy plan that will cut greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2030.
On March 11, Google announced the release of Google Voice, an application that not only consolidates all of a user’s phones onto a single number, but also transcribes voicemail and makes it available for download.
Google Voice is an updated version of GrandCentral, a service that Google acquired in July 2007.
Earlier in March, Google unveiled new features for its Google Health solution, which now allows users to share their public medical profiles with trusted contacts.
Are Google's Behavior-Based Ads a New Privacy Concern?
By Nicholas Kolakowski
2009-03-12
Google Adsense
Google’s new interest-based advertising may lead to increased revenues for the search company, but privacy advocates have a list of new concerns for Google. Yahoo and other search-engine companies already use a variant of this sort of advertising, called “behavioral targeting,” in order to increase their advertisers’ chances of success. However, now that Google has entered the mix, privacy advocates fear they have more to worry about.
Google has raised privacy concerns with its newly launched interest-based advertising, which displays ads based on users' previous searches and page views. Also known as "behavioral targeting" or "online behavioral targeting," the method has privacy advocates up in arms over Google collecting massive amounts of user data.
While search engines use this type of technology, the fact that Google is now testing it has raised additional privacy concerns from those that see the search engine giant as already collecting too much personal information on its users. However, some others are defending Google, saying the company already has controls in place to control how personal data is used and collected.
The new Google advertising system, currently in beta, links "categories of interest" to the user’s browser, allowing targeted ads to appear even when the user is looking at a page totally unrelated to the ad’s subject matter. For example, someone who has spent months looking at pages about mini-notebooks will find ads for mini-notebooks appearing even when they’re on a site unrelated to PCs.
Google’s search rival Yahoo has already introduced its own application based on behavioral targeting, called Search Retargeting, which focuses display advertising based on users’ search histories. Search Retargeting, announced on Feb. 24, was anticipated by analysts as having the potential to draw massive privacy protests, but pushback from privacy advocates so far seems minimal.
For years, search engine companies have struggled to reassure the public that whatever information they collect is not being abused. This has led to much hand wringing about how long they should retain user data.
On Dec. 17, Yahoo announced that it could cleanse its system of user log data within 90 days. By contrast, Google has publicly stated that its data retention time is nine months.
Resource Library:
Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel for Google, argued in a blog posting on March 11 that the privacy policy behind the company’s interest-based ads provided "meaningful transparency and choice," with the company drawing a line at data-mining potentially sensitive categories for ad revenue.
"To provide greater privacy protections to users, we will not serve interest-based ads based on sensitive interest categories," she wrote. "For example, we don’t have health status interest categories or interest categories designed for children."
Users will be able access the individual interest categories associated with their browser via a tool called Ad Preferences Manager and add or delete specific ones.
"Access to the profile is something we’ve been promoting for years, and what we’ve been hearing from companies is that it would be too difficult for consumers; Google has essentially disproved that," Alissa Cooper, chief computer scientist for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in an interview. "On the ad profile and ad access front, they’ve moved the ball forward."
Cooper also believes, though, that Google could stand to buttress its privacy protection in other areas – particularly with regard to its cookies. At the moment, Google users have the ability to delete their interest-based advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network, curtailing Google’s tracking; but there’s a catch.
"The cookie is only specific to the ads that Google is serving," Cooper said, which still leaves users potentially open to other search engines that utilize cookies for behavioral tracking.
And even though there are plans to label the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and YouTube with information on how those ads are served, Cooper feels those labels could be more intensive.
"They talked about labeling the ads, which is something we’ve been talking about for a long time, and a link on the ad is a good idea," Cooper adds. "But it’s unclear about whether having an ad with a link that says, 'Ad by Google' will be effective for people wanting to see how they can defend their privacy."
Some analysts believe that Google is doing an effective job of being cautious with users' privacy.
Berin Szoka, a fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and director of the Center for Internet Freedom, suggests that Google’s piling-on by some privacy advocates could be somewhat unwarranted, and that the company gives "consumers more granular control over their own privacy preferences by developing better tools."
"Because these services [and their competitors] are all free, Google has to compete in what economists call 'non-price terms'—such as privacy," Szoka wrote in a research report distributed on March 11. "So, Google has a lot to lose by alienating its users and a lot to gain by being seen as a leader in privacy protection."
"It’s no accident that Google was a late-comer to the OBA [Online Behavioral Advertising] market, lagging behind Yahoo in particular," Szoka added in the paper. "The most likely reason Google has taken its time in rolling out an OBA product is that Google is subject to a unique level of scrutiny by privacy advocates by virtue of its size. Being the 'big kid on the block,' Google has to be especially careful not to appear to be 'Big Brother.'"
Even if Google has no interest in becoming Big Brother, it still seems focused on becoming truly big.
Despite CEO Eric Schmidt’s announcement, at Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco on March 3, that Google was "not immune" from "very, very tough" economic conditions, the company seems determined to push into new and untested areas.
Schmidt also decided to push Google to the forefront of the U.S. renewable energy debate, arguing that his company has a clean energy plan that will cut greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2030.
On March 11, Google announced the release of Google Voice, an application that not only consolidates all of a user’s phones onto a single number, but also transcribes voicemail and makes it available for download.
Google Voice is an updated version of GrandCentral, a service that Google acquired in July 2007.
Earlier in March, Google unveiled new features for its Google Health solution, which now allows users to share their public medical profiles with trusted contacts.
2009-03-10
大象中伏 恒指霎時大跌
大象中伏 恒指霎時大跌
(星島)3月10日 星期二
Hong Kong Mortgage Loan Services
(星島日報報道)恒生指數重磅股滙控（005），昨天在競價時段慘被「質」低，直接拖低整體大市表現；恒指「插水式」在市後交易，進一步跌至一一三四四點收市，下跌點數由下午四時的三百二十九點，在短短十分鐘後擴大至跌五百七十六點，全日跌幅近百分之五，單是滙控的跌幅，已令恒指跌四百零九點。
滙控昨天急跌對恒指的影響，原本可以較小，但由於恒指成分股比重剛於上周五收市後大「執位」，滙控比重由原來僅逾百分之九，重新提升至一成半的上限，遂令該股對恒指變動的影響力突然被放大。滙控股價昨天「插水」逾兩成四後，在恒指比重已由一成半急回至不足一成二，比重排名再度屈居於中移動（941）之後；滙控在本周三收市後為除供股權的因素作調整，粗略估計，屆時其比重應可增加約三個百分點，只要滙控股價不再急挫，仍有望於本周四重拾最重磅藍籌的地位。
昨天滙控遭大戶顯着「競」低前，股價在正常交易時段已受壓，還「累街坊」連帶影響其他本地金融股捱沽，被摩根大通唱好、料股價在六十二元應有支持的恒生（011），便跌近百分之九，報六十七元，東亞（023）與中銀香港（2388）分別跌百分之七點二六與百分之四點五五，齊登上藍籌跌幅榜十大；宏利金融（945）也再跌百分之八點五，報五十七元。
相反，中資股表現相對「硬淨」，國企指數僅回五十九點，報六七二五點，主板成交僅三百五十八億元。
金融股弱勢，雖然影響整體大市表現，但證券界人士對短期後市暫未看得太淡。新鴻基金融策略師彭偉新認為，滙控昨天是遭大戶刻意「質」低，受此影響的恒指收市價也不能作準，認為只要恒指今日能重返一一六○○點，即下跌走勢底部支持位，大市短期內尚未至要下試去年十月造出的低位，一○六七六點。
泓福資產管理研究部主管鄧聲興也樂觀地相信，滙控昨天收市價三十三元，應是短期底部，儘管以現時市場氣氛，難以排除恒指短期或要失守萬一點的可能性，但應毋須再試一○六七六點的低位。
從資金流向分析，情況則不太樂觀。花旗引述市場統計指出，離岸亞洲股票基金在截至上周三止的一周，資金流走達十一億美元 ，國際股票基金贖回大增八倍，新興股市基金由兩周前有一億三千二百萬美元流入，變成流出三億一千四百萬美元，整體贖回是自去年十月中以來的高位。花旗相信，由現在至第二季的三個多月內，有很大機會重現資金以數以十億美元計的速度流走。
U盤噩夢 滙控33元
U盤噩夢 滙控33元
(星島)3月10日 星期二
Hong Kong Bank
(星島日報報道)近期股價積弱的滙豐控股，昨天在競價時段出現跳崖式下挫，在最後一刻由三十七元急墮，以三十三元震撼價收市，跌幅逾兩成四，是有紀綠以來滙控最大的單日跌幅。值得留意的是，三十三元的超低競價盤，早在上周五已經出現，但當日未能成交，昨天卻巧合地以三十三元收市，掀起造市疑雲。一向不評論個別事件的證監會，昨天亦罕有地表示，會就滙控事件向有關人士查詢。
雖然滙控在香港急挫，但昨天在外圍卻稍稍回升，滙控在倫敦早段稍為回升報三十七點六元，在美國 的預託證券則報三十七點四六元，升四點四六元。
滙控昨天下挫十元五角，而自從本月二日公布業績及宣布供股以來，滙控已經累積下跌接近二十四元，即是在一個星期之內蒸發了逾二千九百億元的市值。在滙控股東當中，有兩成至三成是來自香港，換言之港人財富在過去一周亦蒸發了五百八十億元至八百七十億元。
滙控上周五在美國預託證券已率先跌穿四十元大關，昨天開市後不足半小時，便跌破四十元關口，大部分時間都在三十七元至三十八元之間上落，至四時的正常交易時段收市，仍報三十七元七角。到了競價時段，本來都在三十七元浮沉，但在最後時刻，股價卻突然狂瀉至三十三元，令全日跌幅擴大至二成四，共跌去十元五角。根據港交所 的資料，滙控在競價時段成交活躍達三億九千萬元，相當於滙控昨天全日總成交的百分之八點三。以三十三元收市價來說，如果計及供股除權因素，除權價將會調整為三十一元五角，與二十八元供股價愈來愈接近。證券界認為隨着滙控股價貼近供股價，供股變得不划算。
至於滙控股價大跌的原因，市場上有多個說法，包括滙控的供股包銷商可能先沽售手上的貴貨甚至沽空，再以包銷供股的機會低價平倉獲利。有市場人士認為，近期滙控在倫敦的股價持續低於在香港的股價，導致國際投資者進行套戥，即是在香港沽滙控然後在倫敦買，導致滙控在香港沽壓大增。
另一個可能性，是大戶以滙控收市價作為賭具，在場外對賭，因此做淡的大戶不惜在競價時段「嘜價」。分析員及學者認為，倘若同時沽空滙控及擔任供股分包銷商，原則上並無不合法，中文大學財務學系副教授蘇偉文認為，最多只是操守出現問題而已，事實上亦難以證明動機。
面對股價似全無承托地下跌，滙控在香港的管理層昨日盡出，為供股計畫護航。滙豐亞太區主席鄭海泉表示，據了解供股反應良好，他亦希望股東可繼續支持滙控。雖然滙控在美損手，但鄭重申滙控未來會集中發展新興市場。滙豐亞太區行政總裁霍嘉治亦表示管理層已經就供股計畫作出詳細解釋，而滙控有一班長期擁躉，希望他們可繼續支持滙控。滙豐銀行執行董事王冬勝說供股計畫進展順利，亦不認同昨日股價下跌會影響供股計畫的吸引力。
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