Internet Brands acquires Wikitravel

Internet Brands, Inc, an operator of media and e-commerce sites for "large ticket" consumer purchases, announced the acquisition of Wikitravel and World66, two leading community travel guides of up-to-date, traveler-focused content. The sites are growing exponentially, collectively attracting more than 2 million visits per month, more than triple a year ago.

Both websites utilize wiki-based collaborative editing technology, and are built on the principle that travelers often get their best information from other travelers. The Wikitravel website offers more than 12,700 travel guides in 10 languages, with contributors working together to continually enhance the site's content. World66 delivers nearly 80,000 articles on more than 19,000 destinations all over the world. The sites have extraordinary community participation, currently receiving as many as 10,000 editorial contributions per week—meaning that on average a new addition to the travel guides arrives every 60 seconds, 24 hours per day. This rate of participation is also rapidly increasing.

Internet Brands will be investing in technology and other resources to help the sites continue to rapidly scale.

"Thanks to our active community, Wikitravel has had tremendous success, and this partnership is the best way to make the investments needed to take the site to the next level," said Evan Prodromou, Wikitravel co-founder. "Internet Brands has extensive experience with content-rich sites and is attuned to the unique needs of a community-driven site."

"We're delighted to join forces with the Wikitravel and World66 communities," said Bob Brisco, CEO, Internet Brands. "The sites are blessed with a large group of talented, passionate community leaders, and we look forward to helping by providing the needed infrastructure and support so the sites can grow even more rapidly."

"We believe that this arrangement will make the projects stronger," said Richard Osinga, co-founder and CEO, World66. "World66 and Wikitravel have complementary strengths, and Internet Brands brings the vision and resources to move ahead much more quickly."

Wikitravel founders Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins will continue to lead the Wikitravel site and community and will guide the integration of the World66 community. The founders of World66 will also stay closely involved with the project.

Both Wikitravel and World66 will continue to evolve under the collective guidance of the user community. "We look forward to working with the communities to develop new features, applications and content," said Prodromou. Both sites are open content travel guides available under a Creative Commons license.

Cool Birthday

LONDON Apr 19, 2006 (AP)— Queen Elizabeth II has invited 99 guests to Buckingham Palace Wednesday, and she won't need to ask anyone's age. All share the queen's birth date April 21, 1926. The queen has laid on a three-course meal for 70 women and 29 men who, like her, will celebrate their 80th birthday on Friday.

"It has always been a standing joke in the family that I've never been invited to the queen's birthday party, what with us being born on the same day, never thinking it would actually come true," said Betty Kay of Doncaster in northern England, one of the invited guests.

Prospective banquet guests were nominated by themselves or relatives, and 99 were chosen to represent all parts of the country.

Edna Richards of Wolverhampton said she was a firm supporter of the monarchy, and admired the queen for maintaining a busy schedule.

"I think she is a marvel. I don't know how she does it all. Being the same age I know how she must feel," Richards said.

Amid the excitement surrounding the birthday celebrations, the queen's cousin told the British Broadcasting Corp. that she is "perfectly sure" the monarch will never abdicate the throne.

"It's not like a normal job, it's a job for life," Margaret Rhodes was quoted by the BBC as saying.

Buckingham Palace said Rhodes' remarks reflected the longtime position of the queen and there was no change in her decision to forgo retirement.

"These are the questions that are asked around these big events," said a Buckingham palace spokeswoman speaking on condition of anonymity in line with palace policy. "There is no question of the queen abdicating. She will carry on as normal."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Brands in 'Treasure Hunters' to Be Used by Globe-Trotting Contestants

New Reality Series Gives Marketers Chance to Show Off Wares
Brands in 'Treasure Hunters' to Be Used by Globe-Trotting Contestants

LOS ANGELES -- Search engine Ask.com has partnered with the producers of NBC's upcoming "Treasure Hunters" to show off the site's enhanced features and market the revamped brand. Contestants will also carry Motorola phones, drive Toyota Tundra trucks and Highlander SUVs, make travel arrangements through Orbitz.com, use Dell computers and services from Visa as well. full story

Local Web Spending Predicted To Reach $5.8 Billion

by Wendy Davis, Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 6:05 AM EST

LOCAL ONLINE AD SPENDING SURGED to $4.8 billion last year, a 78 percent increase from 2004's $2.7 billion, according to a new report by Borrell Associates. The report further predicts that online ad spending this year will climb 21 percent to reach $5.8 billion. "Last year's growth spurt was reminiscent of that seen at the height of the dot-com frenzy in 1999-2000, when many local media companies had just finished building out their Web sites and began selling online advertising in earnest," stated the report, "What Local Web Sites Earn: 2006 Survey."

For the study, Borrell examined revenues at 2,266 local media properties, including 696 daily newspapers, 148 weeklies, 1,154 radio stations, 437 TV stations, and 24 independent local sites. Borrell defined "local online advertising" as "advertising placed by locally based businesses for locally focused online messages."

Online revenues last year at newspaper sites came to an estimated $2 billion, up from $1.19 billion in 2004. On average, online revenue totaled 4 percent of all revenue for 10 of the largest newspaper Web sites--up from 1 percent four years prior. By contrast, Web sites of TV stations generated just $283 million, up from $119 million in 2004; but Borrell predicts that figure should grow quickly as online video grows more commonplace, thanks to increasing broadband adoption.

By and large, newspaper sites were profitable last year, according to the report, but the average site lost market share within its designated market area; the average site controlled an estimated 14.8 market share last year, down from 18 percent in 2004. Borrell proposed that the dwindling market share stems from the growing importance of search. "Local advertisers are turning to national search engines to reach local consumers--the same audience that local media companies have traditionally controlled," states the report.

Real estate, help wanted, and car ads have become more important to newspaper sites in the last year, according to the report. Last year, ads in those three categories accounted for 75 percent of online revenue, up from 70 percent in 2004.

At TV stations, automotive ads accounted for 25 percent of online revenue, up from 18 percent in 2004; real estate was the second single largest source of online revenue, generating a little more than 15 percent of online ad dollars, while health care was third, accounting for slightly less than 15 percent of online revenue.

Cool -- Satnav Launches SatGuide

The James Bond Car: Satnav Launches SatGuide
Swapnil Bhartiya, EFY News Network	(2 Rating)
(Wednesday, April 19, 2006 10:36:24 AM)
Even if you don't know the directions, the device will guide you to your destination.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006:  New Delhi: You take the driving seat of your car, enter the destination on a pocket PC-based touch screen navigation device installed in the vehicle, and without worrying whether you know the directions or not, gun the engine. The device will guide you to your destination.
It seems we are talking about James Bond's Aston Martin or BMW cars. Not at all. This is as real as anything, and it could be your car as well. SatNav Technologies (P) Ltd., a Hyderabad-based IT products company, has launched India's first navigation system, called SatGuide, with Bangalore map data. SatGuide is a pocket PC-based, touch screen navigation device, which enable users in Bangalore to navigate around the city quickly and with ease, without taking their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel. Satnav Technologies has partnered with Nippon Audiotronix to make the product available across all leading showrooms across Bangalore. Commenting on the launch, Sandeep Arora, national sales manager, Nippon Audiotronix, said, " We are pleased to offer India's first navigation system, SatGuide, to the people of Bangalore, and are positive that the system, one of the most popular hi-end technology-backed product in the city, will be of great use to the people." Any user of a vehicle installed with SatGuide has to enter the destination address in the unit prior to starting, the device will then suggest the best possible route, display a map on the screen of the navigation device and then prompt the user through voice commands on the directions to take, in order to reach the destination. The in-built GPS receivers receive signals from three of the 24 GPS satellites orbiting the earth and thus ascertain the exact position of the automotive. At the same time, sensors in-built in the unit record every movement, registering even the slightest change of direction. Additionally, SatGuide navigation system is built in with a comprehensive database of 22 categories, including public utility, emergency services and entertainment locations, among others, which will help the user - whether he is looking to go to a nearby ATM or is in the emergency need of locating a hospital - to reach the closest destination through the shortest possible route.

half-billion-year-old Worm droppings

Prehistoric Worm Droppings Found

AFP

Ancient Worm Lived in the Sea

April 14, 2006 — Swedish scientists have found half-billion-year-old droppings thought to be from an aquatic worm and hope the discovery will contribute to the understanding of prehistoric ecosystems, researchers announced on Wednesday.

"We have found fossilised excrement dating back 500 million years," Lund University researcher Fredrik Terfelt told AFP.

"This is a unique discovery, at least in this part of the world," Terfelt said, adding that older coprolites, as fossilised dung is known, dating from the Cambrian period of 542-500 million years ago have been found in China.

Terfelt's team has not been able to confirm which animal produced the droppings, but thinks it may be from a small worm belonging to the chaetognath family, an aquatic worm known as an arrow worm which could grow to 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) in length.

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"We do not know much about ecosystems that are this old, so this find will give us an idea of how organisms interacted," Terfelt said.

For example, the discovery shows that the worm exclusively ate two types of small invertebrates.

The shape of the fossil, its clear demarcation from surrounding rocks, its density, and high phosphorus content all suggest that it is excrement, Terfelt added.

The discovery was made in 2003 in Andrarum in the southeastern province of Skaane, but "was left on a shelf" and it was only six months ago that researchers began to study it, Terfelt said.

The Coptic Texts Unveiled : the Gospel of Judas

Picture: AP Photo/Mannie Garcia |

The Coptic Texts Unveiled

An exhibit containing actual artifacts of the Gospel of Judas is shown at The National Geographic Society in Washington on Thursday, April 6.

April 10, 2006 — History's great betrayer Judas Iscariot was actually a loyal disciple who simply followed Jesus's orders, according to a manuscript which has resurfaced after nearly 1,700 years.

Made in 300 A.D. in Coptic script on 13 sheets of papyrus, both front and back, the document is believed to be a translation of the original Gospel of Judas, written in Greek the century before.

Presented on Thursday by the National Geographic Society at a news conference in Washington, D.C., the Gospel of Judas was discovered in the Egyptian desert near Beni Masar in the 1970s.

After appearing on the Egyptian antiquities market, it circulated in Europe and in the United States. It then moldered in a safe-deposit box at a bank in Hicksville, N.Y., for 16 years before being bought in 2000 by a Zurich dealer.

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The fragile document was restored, authenticated, and translated. It will ultimately be returned to Egypt and housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo.

"This is a dramatic discovery, the most significant biblical find in 60 years, " said Terry Garcia, National Geographic Society Executive Vice President for Mission Programs. "It enhances our knowledge of the history and theological viewpoints of the early Christian period."

The original Gospel of Judas was probably written by a group known as the Gnostics, members of a 2nd Century A.D. breakaway Christian sect, who gave a positive value to all the negative figures in Christian scriptures.

Indeed, they believed that Judas was the most enlightened of the Twelve Apostles.

The first known reference to a Gospel of Judas was in around 180 A.D., when bishop Irenaeus of Lyon condemned it as heretical in a treatise.

Irenaeus established that there should be just four approved Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

According to the four official gospels, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for "30 pieces of silver," identifying him with a kiss in front of Roman soldiers.

A Different Tale
But the Gnostic account tells a completely different story: Judas betrayed Jesus at Jesus' request.

By enabling the crucifixion, Judas made it possible for Jesus to save mankind from its sins, said the manuscript.

"These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion, and demonstrating how diverse — and fascinating — the early Christian movement really was," Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, said.

The text begins by saying that it is the "secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover."

It goes on to describe Judas as Jesus' closest friend. The key passage comes when Jesus tells Judas, "you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."

According to Rodolphe Kasser, one of the world's preeminent Coptic scholars, who translated the document, the passage means that Jesus needed someone to free him from his human body.

He preferred that "this liberation be done by a friend rather than by an enemy," Kasser said.

Authenticated on five fronts — radiocarbon dating, ink analysis, infrared photography, contextual evidence and paleographic evidence — the text has been confirmed to be a genuine Coptic manuscript.

But according to Robert Eisenman, Professor of Middle East religions and archaeology at California State University Long Beach and author of the best-selling "James the Brother of Jesus," the main issue is not to establish that the document is a genuine Coptic text.

expand Original Text

"The main point is whether there was ever a 'Judas' as the Gospels portray him or, for that matter, a real 'Jesus,'" he said.

"This manuscript, as well as the Gospels, has nothing to do with real history per se. They are rather pieces of Hellenizing creative writing. Few of the characters mentioned in the Gospels are verifiable as real persons rather than 'Mystery Religion' prop-pieces," Eisenman told Discovery News.

According to the scholar, the whole character of 'Judas Iscariot' is generated largely out of whole cloth.

He is a symbolic character, meant to be both hateful and hated and, as such, "he has been eminently successful both religiously and historically."

"It is yet another deleterious case of literature being mistaken for history. People should come to terms with the almost completely literary and ahistorical character of a large number of figures of the kind of this 'Judas', including 'Joseph of Arimathaea,' 'Mary Magdalene,' and many others," Eisenman said.

"In the process, they should admit the historical error of malevolent-intentioned caricature and move forward into the amelioration of rehabilitation. If this Gospel does anything, at any rate, it at least moves this process forward," Eisenman said.