Firms in data row deny wrongdoing

Several firms accused of subscribing to a secret database of building workers' details have denied any wrongdoing.

The Information Commissioner says a firm called the Consulting Association flagged up workers who had raised safety concerns or who had union links.

Balfour Beatty and Amec said they did not condone "blacklisting". Emcor and Laing O'Rourke denied discriminating against workers on any grounds.

The Department for Business said it would consider outlawing blacklisting.

This would happen if evidence showed it was going on, a spokesman said.

Unions have called on the government to act swiftly to pass anti-blacklisting regulations which were prepared in the 1990s but never introduced.

BY : BBC NEWS

Spacecraft blasts off in search of 'Earths'

By A. Pawlowski
CNN

(CNN) -- NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft just before 11 p.m. Friday in a mission that the agency says may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself.

This image shows part of the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft will be pointing.

The Kepler spacecraft blasted into space on top of a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The telescope will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.

"This is a historical mission. It's not just a science mission," NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler said during a prelaunch news conference.

"It really attacks some very basic human questions that have been part of our genetic code since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked the question: Are we alone?"

Kepler contains a special telescope that will stare at 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years as it trails Earth's orbit around the Sun.

The spacecraft will look for tiny dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front of it -- an event called a transit.

The instrument is so precise that it can register changes in brightness of 20 parts per million in stars that are thousands of light years away.

"Being able to make that kind of a sensitive measurement over a very large number of stars was extremely challenging," Kepler project manager James Fanson said.

"So we're very proud of the vehicle we have built. This is a crowning achievement for NASA and a monumental step in our search for other worlds around other stars."

U.S. reaches out with cell phone game

From Charley Keyes
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Who says diplomacy is always serious business? Sometimes it's a game.

The U.S. State Department says the game is intended to bridge cultures and break down barriers.

The latest U.S. attempt to win hearts and minds in the Middle East and Persian Gulf is a cell phone game called X-Life.

The State Department is spending $415,000 for the project, hoping it will help people improve their English skills and learn about the United States.

"It is just one small part of our outreach," said Tim Receveur of the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs.

The free game rolled out last week and is starting slowly, with only 120 players so far.

"We've had Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran as our biggest customers so far," Receveur said. "We're starting to see it pick up."

Word is spreading through social networking sites such as Facebook and mySpace, and a formal publicity push may come later.

The goal is to have 10,000 people tapping away on X-Life in 12 months, says Ali Reza Manouchehri, CEO of the company that designed the game.

Cell phones are far more available than computers in the region. Eventually the game may be made available both online and by cell phone.

The State Department says the game was developed to bridge cultures, encourage exchanges and break down barriers.

Obama picks US information chief

US President Barack Obama has named Vivek Kundra as his chief information officer.

When Mr Kundra takes up his role, he will decide which technologies the Obama administration uses to govern and how they will be deployed.

He will build on the broad use of technologies, such as the web, used by President Obama's campaign team during the US elections.

Mr Kundra will be in charge of a budget thought to total $70bn (£49bn).

Currently Mr Kundra works as head of technology for Washington DC - a role in which he championed Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as better ways for administrators to communicate with citizens.

In a statement about Mr Kundra's appointment President Obama said: "I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations."

When he starts his job, Mr Kundra will work alongside whoever is picked to act as a President Obama's chief technology officer. A decision on who will take on that role is expected soon.

Speaking after his appointment, Mr Kundra said he wanted to ensure the US has "the ability to run an open, transparent, participatory and collaborative government."

Mr Kundra said he would explore how government could use so-called "cloud computing" which would involve much greater reliance on web-based resources.

He also planned to create a data.gov website through which US citizens would get much easier access to official statistics and other government information.

BY: BBC NEWS

Winged luxury submarines 'fly' underwater

By Steve Almasy
CNN

(CNN) -- Most people have had dreams of flying. Graham Hawkes had dreams of flying -- underwater.

The Deep Flight Super Falcon made its maiden voyage in San Francisco Bay in September.

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Hawkes has been in the business of building underwater craft for more than a decade. In the early days, his company, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, built vehicles for researchers and moviemakers.

But in the past few years, the ultrarich have increasingly looked for cool playthings for their ocean adventures.

What better toy to have on the end of your 200-foot yacht than a submarine capable of diving to 1,500 feet below the sea's surface?

Whoops. Did we say submarine? It's a submersible that can "fly" underwater.

The Deep Flight Super Falcon looks like a fighter jet, with its thin body, two seats, two sets of wings and two tail fins.

"We just had to tear up everything we knew about submersibles and start again on winged subs -- underwater flying machines," Hawkes said.

He said Deep Flight submersibles are designed to be more agile than any creature living in the ocean -- with the exception of dolphins. The company says that because of the wings, the Super Falcon can go barrel-rolling with dolphins while traveling at speeds much faster than other private submarines.

Al Gore says domain .eco logical

The former US vice president, Al Gore, is backing the creation of a new green .eco domain name.

Dot Eco applied to create the domain which would then be used to host sites supporting environmental causes.

"This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the internet as a whole," said Mr Gore.

Dot Eco plans to apply to ICANN - the regulatory body that oversees domain names - for the creation of .eco later in 2009.

Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his campaign on climate change and an Oscar for his film An Inconvenient Truth - a documentary about global warming - is the co-founder and chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Dot Eco said it had entered into an "integrated partnership" with Gore's group to secure the .eco domain.

"We fully support Dot Eco in its efforts to secure the .eco top level domain through the ICANN application and look forward to working with them to promote .eco," said Mr Gore.

The firm said proceeds from the registration would be used to fund research on climate change and other environmental issues.

BY:BBC NEWS