DomainCrawler

The DomainCrawler project started in October 2006 when Rickard Vikström had a vision of creating a database with domain/SEO-related information that, in contrast to other sites, also focused on a wide variety of ccTLDs.

During about a years time, we accumulated a large list of domain names and developed tools to gather information about them. In November 2007 we launched version 1.0 which was a really limited version compared to the services which we offer now

Carbon tax to fuel online stores: retailers

ANRA represents Australian retail businesses with a turnover of over $100 million a year, including Coles, Woolworths, Franklins, Bunnings Warehouse, Just Jeans and Jay Jays.

Speaking to ZDNet Australia at the hearing into the economic structure and performance of the Australian retail industry today, the CEO of ANRA, Margy Osmond, said that a carbon tax would see consumers go offshore to get better prices, leaving Australian bricks-and-mortar businesses to suffer with high costs and low sales — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Is our News Limited?

In Britain, the phone-hacking scandal has put Rupert Murdoch’s media empire under unprecedented scrutiny. Questions are being asked about News Corporation’s influence over British democracy — its capacity to make and break prime ministers and to set the policy agenda of the day.

In Australia, similar questions must also be asked. News Limited controls 70 per cent of our nation’s media, representing the greatest concentration of media ownership in the democratic world.

The question for politicians and the community in this context is whether this huge concentration of media ownership and dwindling diversity is in the public interest. We can all argue about what constitutes media bias and what doesn’t, but with less and less diversity of media coverage and opportunities for journalists to dig deeper into an issue, proper scrutiny of policymakers of all stripes and persuasions is in fact limited — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Anti-Piracy Lobby Misleads Aussie Press for Three-Strikes Campaign

Undeterred by a stream of negative PR from recent WikiLeaks revelations, the anti-piracy lobby machine once again scored favourable headlines in Australia today. In its push to get ISPs onboard for a three-strikes system to warn copyright infringers, lobby group IPAF released a study that reveals how immensely effective this would be. However, the entire press release is a cheap marketing trick with mispresented research results that actually prove the opposite.

The MPA(A) is trying to get a tight grip on piracy in Australia, mainly through affiliate groups such as AFACT. Recently published cables by Wikileaks revealed how Hollywood is secretly pushing their agenda down under.

After the failed attempt at making ISP iiNet responsible for the copyright infringements of its file-sharing customers, the anti-piracy lobby groups are now once again calling for a three-strikes system. Today a new study surfaced which, on the surface, suggests that these warnings would be very effective as a deterrent — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Jelly batteries: Safer, cheaper, smaller, more powerful

A new polymer jelly could be the next big step forward for lithium batteries.

The jelly replaces the volatile and hazardous liquid electrolyte currently used in most lithium batteries.

Researchers from the University of Leeds hope their development leads to smaller, cheaper and safer gadgets.

Once on the market, the lithium jelly batteries could allow lighter laptop computers, and more efficient electric cars — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Glow cat: fluorescent green felines could help study of HIV

It is a rite of passage for any sufficiently advanced genetically modified animal: at some point scientists will insert a gene that makes you glow green. The latest addition to this ever-growing list — which includes fruit flies, mice, rabbits and pigs — is the domestic cat.

US researcher Eric Poeschla has produced three glowing GM cats by using a virus to carry a gene, called green fluorescent protein (GFP), into the eggs from which the animals eventually grew.

This method of genetic modification is simpler and more efficient than traditional cloning techniques, and results in fewer animals being needed in the process.

The GFP gene, which has its origins in jellyfish, expresses proteins that fluoresce when illuminated with certain frequencies of light. Poeschla, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, reported his results in the journal Nature Methods.

This function is regularly used by scientists to monitor the activity of individual genes or cells in a wide variety of animals. The development and refinement of the GFP technique earned its scientific pioneers the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2008.

In the case of the glowing cats, the scientists hope to use the GM animals in the study of HIV/Aids — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Transforming Opium Poppies Into Heroin

Heroin’s long journey to America’s streets begins with the planting of the seed of an opium poppy. The flower’s botanical name is papaver somniferum. The Sumerians called it Hul Gil, the ‘flower of joy.’

The flower is grown mainly by impoverished farmers on small plots in remote regions of the world. It flourishes in dry, warm climates and the vast majority of opium poppies are grown in a narrow, 4,500-mile stretch of mountains extending across southern Asia from Turkey through Pakistan and Laos. Heroin is also increasingly becoming an export from Latin America, notably Colombia — via PBS

I Don’t Care About Your Profits, And It Enrages Me That You Think I Should

Every time changes to the copyright monopoly are considered, the profits of major entertainment industry companies are at the centre of the discussion. Even the people who fiercely defend the right to share information freely are going to extreme lengths to argue that this will not hurt the revenues of the copyright industry. But why are these profits even relevant? Why should we care about the profits of these companies?

It is almost apologetic. Apologetic for defending the civil rights that our ancestors fought, bled and died to give us, their children and grandchildren.

Thinking about what hurts and doesn’t hurt sales misses the point entirely. A corporation’s profits must never be at the centre of policymaking, much less the centre of determining what fundamental civil liberties we have as free citizens — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Five arrests in slavery raid at Greenacre travellers’ site

Twenty-four men suspected of being held against their will have been found during a raid at a travellers’ site.

Four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of committing slavery offences in the raid at Greenacre travellers’ site, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, on Sunday.

The men, who are English, Polish and Romanian, were found in filthy and cramped conditions, police said.

Detectives believe some may have been there for up to 15 years — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Peer pressure is hardwired into our brains, study finds

The rewards outweigh the risks — when you’re in a group, anyway. A new USC study explains why people take stupid chances when all of their friends are watching that they would never take by themselves. According to the study, the human brain places more value on winning in a social setting than it does on winning when you’re alone.

Georgio Coricelli of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences led a multinational team of researchers that measured activity in the regions of the brain associated with rewards and with social reasoning while participants in the study entered in lotteries.

Their study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The Greatest Brandversations / Stefan Asafti

I have switched the slogans of the brands amongst themselves, the goal of this being to give them further meaning and to create a sort of a confusion. It is surprising how logos can influence other logos. The truth is that each pair of rivals has something in common, that something which has helped them to build one identity upon the other, this way becoming the biggest brands — via Behance Network

Do Not Resuscitate tattooed on Norfolk pensioner

An 81-year-old woman from Norfolk has had Do Not Resuscitate tattooed across her chest in case she falls ill and attempts are made to revive her.

Joy Tomkins had the message tattooed, along with PTO and an arrow on her back, earlier this year.

The former magazine company secretary said she could not bear to make beds and wash-up for another 20 years.

Despite having a living will for about 30 years, she said the tattoo meant there was be no excuse for error — via redwolf.newsvine.com

You have a right to record the police

All over America, police have been arresting people for taking video or making sound recordings of them, even though such arrests are pretty clearly illegal. Usually, the charges are dropped once the case becomes public, and usually that’s the end of it.

But sometimes things go farther, and in two recent cases, they’ve gone far enough to bite back at the police and prosecutors involved. We need more such biting — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Senator Introduces Online Security Bill

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, introduced a new bill Thursday that aims to protect citizens’ personal information from online data breaches. The bill would also punish companies that are careless with customers’ information.

The goal of the proposed law is essentially to hold accountable the companies and entities that store personal information and personal data and to deter data breaches, Senator Blumenthal said in a phone interview. While looking at past data breaches, I’ve been struck with how many are preventable.

The new bill, called the Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011, comes at a time when online privacy and security are hot topics in Congress. The White House has also been involved in discussions around new online privacy rules and legislation — via redwolf.newsvine.com