Rated Top Ten

The News Today Online reports here: Boracay Island, Aklan — The Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Department of Tourism and the Aklan Provincial Government are optimistic that business will be good in this island resort after it regained its old title as one of the world’s top ten beaches.

Dubbed as the top ten best beaches in the world are: 1.) Copacabana, Brazil; 2.) Waikiki, Hawaii; 3.) Cancun, Mexico; 4.) Surfers Paradise, Australia; 5.) Negril, Jamaica; 6.) South Beach, Florida; 7.) Natadola Beach, Fiji; 8.) Boracay Philippines; 9.) Tenerife, Canary Islands and 10.) Phi Phi Island, Thailand.

NewsFactor reports here at Yahoo News: The Nintendo Wii video game console continued its remarkable performance in April, with U.S. sales that far outpaced its next-gen rivals, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. According to figures compiled by NPD Group, the Wii sold 360,000 units in April compared to 174,000 Xbox 360s and just 82,000 PlayStation 3s.

The Top Ten HDTV Flat-Panel LCD TVs in this week’s Bestellers List at Amazon, see The Top Ten HDTV Flat-Panel LCD TVs here for more info including some reader reviews in our online store (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

The Top Ten HDTV Flat-Panel LCD TVs:

• Sony KDL-40V2500 40″ Bravia V-Series 1080p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT4065F 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT5265F 52″ 1080p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT4665F 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV
• Sharp Aquos LC42D62U 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT4661F 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT4061F 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT2653H 26″ LCD HDTV
• Toshiba REGZA 42HL67 42″ 720p LCD HDTV
• Samsung LNT3253H 32″ LCD HDTV

PC World reports here at Yahoo News: High-definition TV may still be far from the norm in many countries, but that isn’t stopping engineers at Japan’s public broadcaster from pushing ahead with development of Super Hi-Vision, a system they hope will eventually replace HDTV. Last week engineers at NHK’s (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) Science and Technical Research Laboratories showed off their most recent work on the technology.

BBC News reports here: More than 25,000 fans have gathered for a convention to mark 30 years since the release of Star Wars in US cinemas. Check out the special offer on Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen Edition with Bonus Disc) here in our store.

The Top Ten DVD’s this week from the Bestellers List at Amazon, see more details of all The Top Ten DVD’s here in our store (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

The Top Ten DVD’s This Week are:

• Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series
• Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (Widescreen Edition)
• The Secret (Extended Edition)
• Pan’s Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series)
• Smallville – The Complete Sixth Season
• Heroes – Season 1
• Letters from Iwo Jima (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• Scrubs – The Complete Fifth Season
• Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]
• The O.C. – The Complete Fourth Season

Computer pioneer Michael Dell returned earlier this year to the company he founded as a 19-year-old. SPIEGEL spoke with him in this interview about his plans for the future, how Dell approaches China and what secret products he might have up his sleeve next.

A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason. At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism.

We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate’s thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration’s disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions.

How did we get here? How much damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As The Assault on Reason shows us, we have precious little time to waste.

Gore’s larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason’s enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life’s work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking. For more on The Assault on Reason see this page here.

BBC News reports here: Scientists say there is no evidence to suggest a link between the use of wi-fi and damage to health.