Canada is the most web-addicted nation on the planet.

Canadians spend more time on the web and its offshoots - Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – than people anywhere else in the world.

They are neck and neck with Indians for the number of Facebook accounts, says a report.

According to comScore, the leading online measurement service, Canadian online users log in more than 2,500 minutes a month, followed by Israelis with about 2,300 minutes. Users in a few other countries cross the 2,000-minute mark.

Giving figures for the month of April 2010, comScore said nearly 68 percent of the Canadian population was online, compared to 62 percent in France and the United Kingdom, 60 percent in Germany, 59 percent in the U.S., 57 percent in Japan, and 36 percent in Italy.

In this country which leads the world in internet access, Canadians also lead the world in various offshoots of the web – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, according to the report.

“In Canada, YouTube per capita consumption of video is No. 1 in the world. It’s just absolutely crazy in terms of how passionate Canadians are about YouTube,” the Canadian Press quotes Chris O’Neill, Canada’s Country Director for Google, as saying.

According to him, more than 21 million Canadians out of its population of 34 million visit YouTube each month, compared to 147 million Americans in a population of over 310 million. But considering the U.S. has 10 times Canada’s population, Canadians are way ahead on a per capita basis, says the report. Canadians also watch more videos each month, with an average of 147 as compared to 100 per U.S. viewer.

With more than 17 million Facebook users, Canada has more than half of its population hooked to this socializing web site.

India and Canada are neck and neck for the 9th and 10th positions on the list of countries with the most Facebook accounts, according to the report.

Though no figures are available for Twitter accounts in Canada, their number has jumped 75 percent since the beginning of the year, according to Twitter. In fact, Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber, who is just 16, has more than 6.4 million followers on Twitter.

The year 2010 is almost certain to rank in the top three warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

A WMO statement said the global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2010 (January–October) is now estimated at 0.55 degrees Celsius plus or minus 0.11 degrees Celsius above the 1961–1990 annual average of 14 degrees Celsius. At present, 2010′s nominal value is the highest on record, just ahead of 1998 and 2005.

The data also indicates that the January-October 2010 temperatures are near record levels. The final ranking of 2010 will not become clear until data are analysed in early 2011. Preliminary operational data from November 1 to 25 indicate that global temperatures from November 2010 are similar to those observed in November 2005, indicating that global temperatures for 2010 are continuing to track near record levels.

From 2001 to 2010, global temperatures have averaged 0.46 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, 0.03 degrees Celsius above the 2000-09 average and the highest value ever recorded for a 10-year period. Recent warming has been especially strong in Africa, parts of Asia, and parts of the Arctic, the Saharan/Arabian, East African, Central Asian and Greenland/Arctic. Canada sub-regions have all had 2001-10 temperatures 1.2 to 1.4 degrees Celsius above the long-term average, and 0.7 degrees Celsius to 0.9 degrees Celsius warmer than any previous decade. Surface air temperatures over land were above normal across most parts of the world.

Pakistan experienced its worst flooding owing to exceptionally heavy monsoon rain. The event principally responsible for the floods occurred from July 26 to 29, when four-day rainfall totals exceeded 300 mm over a large area of northern Pakistan. There were additional heavy rains further south, from August 2 to 8, which reinforced the flooding.

More than 1500 lives were lost and over 20 million people displaced as large parts of Pakistan’s agricultural land were inundated. In terms of the number of people affected, the United Nations rated the floods as the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history. The total monsoon season rainfall for Pakistan was the fourth-highest on record and the highest since 1994.

Summer rainfall was above normal in western India and China experienced its most significant monsoon flooding since 1998, with south-eastern China and parts of the northeast most severely affected. The latter floods extended to the Korean Peninsula too. These floods, directly as well as through land-slips in China, claimed more than 1400 lives in Gansu Province in China.

However, monsoon season rainfall averaged over India was only 2 per cent above normal, and it was well below normal in north-eastern India and Bangladesh, which had its driest monsoon season since 1994.

Only limited land areas had below-normal temperatures in 2010, the most notable being parts of western and central Siberia in Russia, parts of southern South America, interior Australia, parts of northern and western Europe, eastern China and the southeast United States. It was the coldest year since 1996 for the northern European region, and since 1998 for northern Asia, mainly due to below-normal temperatures during winter.

A number of northern European countries are also likely to have had their coldest year since 1996, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Norway.

Finally free from the clutches of Myanmar’s (Burma) ruling generals and the lonely life of house arrest they subjected her to, Aung San Suu Kyi now finds she cannot escape from herself.

At the headquarters of her currently-outlawed political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), images of her are everywhere: on posters, calendars and pamphlets, T-shirts and earrings.

As she poses politely for photos, the Guardian asks who the golden bust behind her represents. “It’s supposed to be me,” she says. “I wish people wouldn’t make busts or posters of me, it is a very strange thing to be looking at yourself all the time. It’s not like this at my house, I promise you. I have pictures of my children.”

The building is filled to overflowing; a hundred conversations reverberate off the peeling wars and concrete floors. Today, there are more people than chairs, and those left without crouch against walls.

Across the road, perched on conspicuous orange motorbikes, the government’s spies are kept busy, watching through camera lenses and binoculars. But Aung San Suu Kyi is unconcerned about the attention from the military’s special branch. They will be her companion every day she is free.

“That is for them to worry about. I can only do what I feel I need to do, what I can do for the people of Myanmar,” she says. “They will follow me, I cannot stop that. I cannot worry.”

Aung San Suu Kyi is 65, but looks 20 years younger. A hint of grey at her temples is the only physical sign of the strains of two decades spent resisting a brutal military regime. She has a piercing gaze, and her response is deliberate when pushed about the government’s overt, hostile attention. She is not frightened that she could be detained again — a fate that has befallen her for 15 of the last 21 years.

“It is not a fear, it’s a possibility that I live with. I understand that is the situation, and I have to accept it. They have done it before, and it is very possible they will do it again, but it is not something I fear every day. It is my situation.”

It is nearly a week since military officials came to her door at 54 University Avenue, Yangon (Rangoon), and told her she was free, noting perversely, her good behaviour.

Since then, she has been almost constantly in meetings of one sort or another. Diplomats and journalists have formed a queue to her door. She has taken phone calls from presidents and prime ministers. She has met with NLD party elders to discuss strategy and legal challenges.

But she has stopped too, amid the throng of admirers, to talk to people on the street, old women who claim kinship, children who have a flower for her.

She has spoken with her sons by phone every day — something she could never do before, though there is no word on when she will be allowed to see them — she has visited the high court to appeal against her party’s disbanding, and visited an HIV/AIDS shelter. Everywhere she goes, she is mobbed.

She talks candidly about her years under house arrest, saying it was “far, far easier” than the time currently being served by Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners. They must be freed before any real progress will be made, she insists.

Reluctantly, she concedes that there were moments of pessimism. “Despair is not the right word, but there were times that I would worry … a lot, not so much for myself, for my situation, but for the future of the country.”

But she has little time for introspection and none for self-pity. The overwhelming feeling during the last seven-and-a-half years she spent confined to her damp, two-storey home was, she says, that “there weren’t enough hours in the day”.

“I had to listen to the radio for six hours every day, just to make sure I caught all of the Myanmarese programmes, just so I could keep up with what was going on. Because if I missed something, there was no one to come to tell me ‘did you hear about’ I needed to keep myself informed.” She read, for work and pleasure, biographies and spy novels were favourites, and she meditated regularly. “And then there was the house to run and to maintain.”

She laughs at the ridiculous lengths the junta went to in its ad hoc imprisonment. “I was both prisoner and maintenance woman,” she says, mimicking a feeble effort with a hammer.

“No one was allowed to come to fix the house. I had to fix everything that went wrong. The two people I was with (her live-in maids, a mother and daughter) were completely non-mechanical and non-electrical, so I had to learn with great difficulty how to do these things.” She was not always successful. For several days following cyclone Nargis in 2008, the trio lived by candlelight.

But she is less interested in reflecting on the years of isolation than on what happens next in her country.

Internationally, Aung San Suu Kyi’s release has been described as Myanmar’s “Mandela moment”, comparing it to the day in 1990 when Nelson Mandela walked free from prison in South Africa. She is wary of the comparison.

“I think that our situation is much more difficult than South Africa’s.  South Africa had already made some movement towards democracy when Mandela was released. Here in Myanmar, we are nowhere near that. We haven’t even begun.” South Africa’s fault line was clear-cut, apartheid was based on race, she says. “Colour is something that everyone can see straight away. Here, it is less obvious who is who, because we are all Myanmarese. It is Myanmarese discriminating and oppressing Myanmarese.

“I have often thought everything would be much easier if all the NLD supporters were coloured purple. Then it would be obvious who is being jailed and who is discriminated against. And the international community would be angered more easily, they could easily say ‘you cannot discriminate against the purples.’” Where Myanmar goes from here is unclear, she says, “we are a country in limbo.”

She realises the power of her freedom to the people of Myanmar, though she is always conscious that there are many others in her movement, and thousands still in prison. “I don’t believe in one person’s influence and authority to move a country forward. I am honoured by the trust people have in me, but one person alone can not bring democracy to a country.

“Change is going to come from the people. I want to play my role … I want to work in unison with the people of Myanmar, but it is they who will change this country.”

Christmas, the season of gifts and travelling has people shopping over the internet day and night. Along with them are also the cybercriminals working hard to hack consumer information, their money and identities.

McAfee, the anti-virus software solution for home and business users warns of the scams that could sadden your holiday season.

It is called the “Eleven Scams of Christmas“…

1) iPad Offer Scams - Apple iPad is one of the most sought after gadget of the year and is one of top products on a shopper’s list. Taking advantage of this, scammers are announcing offers of free iPads. The consumers are asked to purchase different products and then provide their credit card number for the free iPad. Another scam is that it will make users take up a quiz to win a free iPad for which the consumers need to provide their cell phone number to receive the results. In actuality they are signed up for a cell phone scam that costs $10 a week.

2) Distress message scam - This is a travel scam which sends out SOS messages to phones of family and friends requests them to transfer some money as they are lost in an unfamiliar place and want to get back home. According McAfee labs the scam will rise in the travel season.

3) Fake Gift Cards - The recent Facebook scam is one such example of fake gift card scam. It offered free $1,000 Best Buy gift card to the first 20,000 people who signed up for a Best Buy fan page which helped cybercrooks to gain personal information of the users . They then used it to sell it to the marketers or use it as Id theft.

4) High-paying or Work-at-home jobs - These holiday job offer links promise you jobs by taking your personal information, such as your email address, home address and Social Security number to apply for a fake job.

5) Phishing SMS texts - This is also called as “smishing” where SMS messages appear to be sent from your bank or an online retailer saying that there is something wrong with your account and you have to call a number to verify your account information. Cybercrooks know that people are more vulnerable to this scam during the holiday season as consumers are doing more online shopping and checking bank balances frequently.

6) Suspicious Holiday Rentals - During peak travel times when consumers often look online for affordable holiday rentals, cybercrooks post fake holiday rental sites that ask for down payments on properties by credit card or wire transfer.

7) Recession scams - McAfee Labs has seen a significant number of spam emails advertising pre-qualified, low-interest loans and credit cards if the recipient pays a processing fee, which goes directly into the scammer’s pocket.

E-card scams - E-cards are a convenient and earth-friendly way to send greetings to friends and family, but cybercriminals load fake versions with links to computer viruses and other malware instead of cheer. According to McAfee Labs, computers may start displaying obscene images, pop-up ads, or even start sending cards to contacts that appear to come from you.

9) Low Price traps - Shoppers should be cautious of products offered at prices far below competitors. Cyber scammers use auction sites and fake websites to offer too-good-to-be-true deals with the goal of stealing your money and information.

10) Charity scams - The holidays have historically been a prime time for charity scams since it’s a traditional time for giving, and McAfee Labs predicts that this year is no exception. Common ploys include phone calls and spam e-mails asking you to donate to veterans? charities, children’s causes and relief funds for the latest catastrophe.

11) Dangerous Holiday Downloads - Holiday-themed screensavers, jingles and animations are an easy way for scammers to spread viruses and other computer threats especially when links come from an email or IM that appears to be from a friend.

You can now catch up with the British Monarchy on social networking website ‘Facebook’.

The Royal Family members, who are already regular users of micro-blogging site ‘Twitter’ and video-sharing site ‘YouTube’, have now set up their own Facebook page.

The ‘British Monarchy’ page features pictures, news videos and speeches from Queen Elizabeth II, king-in-waiting Prince Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, apart from other Royals, the media reported.

In fact, its creation is a collaboration between the Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and the Royal Collection.

Buckingham Palace has said that it’s not a personal profile page, but users can “like” the service and receive updates on their news feed. The page will also feature the Court Circular, recording Queen’s previous day’s engagements.

The Royal Family’s launch of the Facebook page follows the introduction of the Monarchy’s Twitter account in 2009.

Facebook has become a global Internet phenomenon since it was started by Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.

Defying an age bar on Mt. Everest climbers imposed by two countries, a nine-year-old Nepali boy is set to attempt to scale the world’s highest peak. If he succeeds, he will break the world record for the youngest climber set this year by a 13-year-old American schoolboy.

Tseten Sherpa, a third grader from Dolakha district in northern Nepal, has begun practising for his big feat next year, his father and wellknown Everest climber Pemba Dorjee Sherpa said. On Wednesday, Tseten climbed Mt. Ramdung, a 5,925-metre peak in Dolakha, as a practice run for the 8,848-metre Mt Everest next summer.

However, there is an insurmountable barrier that the nine-year-old will have to overcome first. As per Nepal’s laws, only a climber above 16 years is allowed to climb Mt Everest from the Nepal side. To circumvent the age bar, intrepid teenaged climbers had in the past chosen the northern route through Tibet.

In 2003, Nepali schoolgirl Ming Kipa Sherpa became the youngest person at the age of 15 to summit the world’s highest peak.

However, this year the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which regulates all mountaineering expeditions in China-controlled Tibet, issued new climbing rules, putting an age bar on Everest expeditionists.

As per the new rules, a climber has to be at least 18. Also, for the first time prescribing an upper age limit, the association said a climber older than 60 will not be allowed to attempt the peak.

The decision came after the Chinese authorities drew a lot of flak this year following Californian schoolboy Jordan Romero‘s bid to scale Mt. Everest. Though Jordan pulled off the feat in May and became the youngest Everest hero ever, the debate his attempt triggered made the Chinese authorities come up with new regulations to pre-empt such bids in future.

Pemba’s attempt to wrest away the record from the American schoolboy has met with disapproval by Nepal’s mountaineering officials.

“Tseten lives in Dolakha and therefore may climb a local mountain under the care of his father,” said Nima Norbu Sherpa, acting president of Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) that promotes mountaineering in Nepal. ”However, the current government regulations in both Nepal and Tibet indicate that he will not be issued a permit to climb Mt. Everest. Even if he does it, the feat will not be given official recognition as long as these age limits remain in place.”

Ang Tsering Sherpa, immediate past president of the NMA, said climbing the Everest without a government permit was a punishable offence. ”The permit fee is about $70,000,” he said. “The fine will be double that. And the inability to pay the fine could result in imprisonment.”

Famous mountaineers, including Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay became the first man to set foot on the Everest, had always criticised the new fad to climb Mt Everest to set new records, calling it a trophy-hunting expedition that went against the true spirit of mountaineering.

U.S. President Barack Obama today said India is now a world power and the two countries can work together on issues like counter-terrorism to promote peace, stability and prosperity for the whole world.

He said he has undertaken the trip to India to strengthen what is already an incredible friendship that would be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century, to build on commercial ties and strengthen cooperation in bilateral relations and international economy. Mr Obama was talking to reporters after a ceremonial reception given to him at the forecourt of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhawan formally kick starting his official visit.

“My hope is that during these discussions between myself and Prime Minister, myself and President and other members of the Indian delegation, we will be able to build on the commercial ties that we already have, to strengthen cooperation in bilateral relations and international economy.” He said that the two countries would be able to focus on issues like counter-terrorism in order to ensure that both the U.S. and India are secure well into the future.

“Given that India is not simply an emerging power but now it is a world power, U.S. and India can work together to promote international principles, rules, relations between nations they can promote peace, stability, prosperity not only for just two nations but for the whole world,” he said.

President Barack Obama’s India visit has been successful in creating thousands of jobs for Americans; which was one of the major factors for the shellacking received by his Democratic party in mid-term polls, U.S. media said on Sunday.

“Days after reaping the political consequences of a poor economy, President Obama announced a set of measures Saturday to increase trade between the U.S. and India, his first stop on an Asian tour focused largely on promoting economic growth at home,” The Washington Post said.

“Obama’s remarks placed the U.S. economy at the centre of his first extended foreign trip this year, and highlighted the political challenge he faces in promoting economic policies abroad that divide Americans at home, including many within his own party,” the daily said.

“Eager to fend off any criticism that he’s globe trotting just days after a disastrous midterm election, President Obama unveiled about $10 billion in new contracts for US exports to India on Saturday as he launched an aggressive push to show his trip to Asia will deliver jobs back home,” CNN said. Even before a midterm election dominated by concerns about stubborn unemployment, the image-conscious Obama White House designed this trip as a job-generator, the CBS news reported.

“As the administration sought ‘deliverables’, it packaged a series of trade deals, including many that were already in the pipeline. The White House said the agreements dominated by aircraft sales would create about 54,000 jobs at home,” it said. Any improvement in the dismal jobs picture is welcome but economists have estimated it will take 300,000 new jobs each month to have an impact on an unemployment rate hovering around 10 per cent.

“The White House is in the midst of a post-election outreach to business, hoping to thaw chilly relations with business leaders and organisations. White House officials brought forward the leaders of Pepsico, Honeywell, AES, and the McGraw-Hill Companies to vouch for the sincerity of the U.S. president’s efforts to promote U.S. exports in India and other parts of the growing Asian market,” The Wall Street Journal said.

“Obama Boosts Indo-U.S. Economic Ties,” it said.

“President Obama, fresh off a stinging electoral defeat for Democrats, opened a 10-day tour of Asia on Saturday with a courtship of corporate America, including private meetings with American business executives… and an announcement that he will lift longstanding restrictions on exports of closely held technologies to India,” The New York Times reported.

The Associated Press new dispatch from Mumbai, with headline, “Obama: India creates, not poaches jobs,” was carried widely by American newspapers.

The final launch of the space shuttle Discovery was delayed on Tuesday after a problem with an electrical system was discovered during pre-launch engine tests. The launch is now aimed for Thursday if NASA engineers can fix the problem.

Having lasted three times as long as most vehicles used by Earth-bound individuals, Discovery will launch as the U.S. space agency NASA retires the ageing shuttles and begins to transition routine flights to commercial providers. The launch was already delayed for two days because of repairs of helium and nitrogen leaks in one of the shuttle’s engine pods and subsequent inspections.

The mission will deliver the last major U.S. contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) — an extra room — along with supplies, including a human-like robot, known as Robonaut 2 (R2), the first-such robot ever sent to space.

The oldest vehicle in the operating space shuttle fleet, Discovery entered construction in 1979 and blasted off into space for the first time in 1984.

After Discovery’s planned 11-day mission, the workhorse of the fleet will have spent nearly a year in orbit, made more flights than any other shuttle and carried more crew members.

In February, the shuttle Endeavour is slated to make the absolutely last shuttle programme flight to the ISS, although NASA is pushing for funding for another flight for Atlantis in summer 2011.

Yesterday, i.e. on Tuesday, 09th September, 2010, the world celebrated the space station’s 10th birthday — the longest period of time of continuous human habitation outside Earth’s atmosphere.

The three Russian and three U.S. astronauts who currently live aboard the International Space Station celebrated the occasion with a special meal and a congratulatory call from NASA administrator Charles Bolden.

Bolden spoke of the “toehold in space” provided by the orbiting station and the international cooperation used to create it. “As we enter the station’s second decade, our path forward will take us deeper into space and expand humanity’s potential farther,” he said. “The lessons we learn on the station will carry us to Mars and beyond. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to the six crew members on orbit and all the teams over the years that have helped us get to this milestone day.”

It began on November 2, 2000, when an American and a Russian astronaut floated side by side into the IIS that orbits more than 300 kilometres above the Earth’s surface. The project was born out of the death of the Cold War, as the U.S. and Russia began cooperating. The first ISS component, Russia’s Zarya module, was launched in 1998. The ISS just last week barely squeaked out its claim to “longest habitation in space”, when it beat out the longevity record of the Russians’ long experiment on the Mir.

“The space station’s crowning glory is that it’s made the world a smaller place,” said John McCullough, head of NASA’s flight director office. The station’s first crew was made up of Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev and American commander Bill Shepherd. In the intervening decade, some 200 people have spent time on board, 15 countries have helped build it and more than 600 experiments have been conducted.The ISS permanent crew was expanded to six people last year, for the first time including representatives of all the space agencies involved in the project — the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.

“It’s an amazing spacecraft and the feat we have accomplished as a team with our international partners is perhaps the most difficult thing ever accomplished by humankind,” said NASA ISS programme manager Mike Suffredini. Much of the international effort has focussed on building the station. Including its solar panels, the ISS is nearly as long as a football field. The liveable space is the equivalent of a five-bedroom house.

Cost estimates for more than a decade of international work and planning invested in the station range from $35 billion to $160 billion. The craft has been assembled in pieces in space, with most of the heavy lifting done by the U.S. space shuttle, which is capable of carrying aloft huge components. That alone is an engineering accomplishment, since those pieces were constructed around the world and had never been in the same room together before being connected in space.

The station is now largely complete and even had a “picture window” installed earlier this year that allows astronauts a 360-degree view when protective shutters are lifted.

The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to be on its way to the station later this week and will bring the last U.S. component to the station. The new room to be installed during the mission was built by the Italian Space Agency and has been in space before in a different guise — as the cargo-fetching Leonardo module. NASA, which owns the module, has transported things to and from the Earth in it, and has outfitted it anew to be installed as a permanent “multipurpose” part of the station.

The U.S. space agency plans to retire the ageing shuttle fleet next year, with one more mission planned and another possible if funding comes through.

“It wouldn’t have happened without the space shuttle, absolutely,” said Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Centre, where shuttles launch for their trips to the ISS. Shuttle proponents have expressed concern that without it, there will be no craft large enough to take large equipment to the station. Only the Russian Soyuz will be available to shuttle astronauts aloft.

NASA has used that argument in pressing for another flight, which has secured approval albeit without the money to back it up. The final shuttle flights have been aimed at stocking the ISS with spare parts for repairs. In August, for example, part of the cooling system broke. It was fixed through emergency spacewalks that replaced a cooling pump using the spare parts on board.

U.S. lawmakers also recently approved support for the ISS through at least 2020, much to the relief of its international partners. It had earlier been scheduled to be de-funded and then de-orbited in 2015. That’s also good news for scientific experimentation that can now get into full swing once the focus on ISS construction is complete, NASA says.

“We should believe and think about the fact that we will explore beyond low Earth orbit and this really was the first step in that endeavour,” Suffredini said.