The U.S. government is considering the sale of Plum Island, famous as a site for biological weapons testing and all manner of disease study. It’s home to a defunct government lab, a light house and a beach, but you could easily picture zombies and super soldiers strolling the grounds. The sale of Plum Island, located near Long Island, New York, is being spurred by the government deciding to move its operation to Kansas. The new lab will cost something to the tune of 650 million. The old one? Why, Plum Island could sell for as little as $50 to $80 million, U.S. Rep. Timothy Bishop told the [...]

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The government has directed PTA to close down the related link on Facebook about blasphemous caricatures. According to sources, the government has asked the PTA that Facebook has hurt the emotions of Muslims with the publication of blasphemous caricatures. So, this kind of website cannot be given access in Pakistan. According to sources, PTA has started taking necessary steps in this regard to block the related link on Facebook.

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Mapping agency Ordnance Survey launches a new service this week offering free and unrestricted access to many of its maps for the first time. Following extensive public consultation, OS OpenData is set to be launched by Communities Secretary John Denham today. Denham hoped it would attract “a new wave of entrepreneurs” to reuse the OS’ mapping data in new and innovative ways and help to place the UK at the “cutting edge of a digital revolution”. Wider cultural change Mr Denham said the new scheme was part and parcel of changes which, “signal a [...]

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With just weeks to go before Election 2010, the hustings have become high-tech. It seems that you can’t call yourself a modern politician if you’re not spamming social networks and launching your own iPhone app. That’s all style, though. What about the substance? What are the big parties’ plans for technology once they’re elected? Can we take them seriously, or should we just vote for the Pirate Party instead? Let’s find out. Better the devil you know? It isn’t hard to work out what Labour’s all about: it’s about to ram the Digital Economy [...]

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Google and the Chinese government have been going back and forth for a while now, with China wanting Google to continue censoring its search results (with a number of Google’s sites, such as Blogger and YouTube, blocked entirely), while Google has been resistant to keep doing so. The search giant’s hesitation, pinpointed in a post on Google’s official blog, came after “Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties” for nefarious purposes. Today, Google has come to a decision and announced that [...]

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A new government website which vows to cut through the bureaucracy that makes managing things like tax credits and pensions a pain has been announced. MyGov is a customisable site, created using the wonders of open source, which allows everyone in the UK to fashion a homepage for their own needs. A successor to DirectGov, MyGov allows you to do things like sort out a doctor’s appointment, apply for a school or get a new passport quicker and easier. According to Gordon Brown, who outlined the site in his Building Britain’s Digital Future speech, “MyGov marks the end of the one-size-fits-all, [...]

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that he is pumping £30 million of tax payers’ money into a new internet-based research arm. Called the institute of web science, the organisation is to look into ways the web can help UK businesses. It will be headed up by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and web science guru Professor Nigel Shadbolt. Brown announced the new initiative in his Building Britain’s Digital Future speech, noting: “I can announce the first £30m to support the creation of a new institute, the institute of web science – based here in Britain and working with government [...]

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A new Government review recommends all UK libraries should offer free internet access, Sunday opening and a promise to provide any book in the national book collection. Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge, has warned this week that “the context in which libraries operate is changing starkly and at speed” and that British citizens should get library membership entitlement from birth. The new government review also suggests that commercial partnerships with companies such as Starbucks should be investigated further and that libraries should not be allowed to charge for ebooks. The review [...]

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Chinese state media outlets have accused Google of having a political agenda in ‘groundlessly accusing the Chinese government’ of supporting hacking attacks, it emerged this week. In a commentary signed by three Xinhua writers, the Chinese state news agency attempted to defend the government’s web censorship, which Google has cited as a reason it may quit China. Google versus China “Regrettably, Google’s recent behaviors show that the company not just aims at expanding business in China, but is playing an active role in exporting culture, value and ideas,” read [...]

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Nissan’s commitment to building the UK’s ‘first mass-market electric car’ has been welcomed by the government, who will hand the company a £20.7 million grant as it produces the LEAF. Nissan will invest 420 million to safeguard and create more than 500 jobs in Sunderland for both the production of the LEAF and a new battery plant, with plans to make 50,000 vehicles and 60,000 batteries a year starting in 2013. The LEAF, already being produced in two other countries, is a five-seater hatchback which Nissan claims will offer the same space performance and practicality [...]

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