Google bans email sale
Google鈥檚 trial release of Gmail has sparked a trade in email addresses. The accounts were originally issued by invitation only, but now about 2000 addresses, including bush04@gmail.com and kerry04@gmail.com, are up for auction on eBay. Google has now banned the sale of its email addresses for 鈥渦nauthorized commercial purposes鈥�.
Fastest route
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A machine that directs internet traffic has been named the world鈥檚 fastest by Guinness World Records. The Cisco Systems CRS-1 router pushes data at the rate of 92 trillion bits per second. The entire printed contents of the US Library of Congress could be downloaded in 4.6 seconds 鈥� a job that would take a dial-up modem nearly 82 years.
Bad foundation
Permanent make-up in which micro-pigments are tattooed onto lips, eyelids and eyebrows can trigger problems that include swelling, blistering and scarring, and granulomas, the US Food and Drug Administration warned on 2 July. Consumers reported the reactions after being tattooed with certain inks supplied by the American Institute of Intradermal Cosmetics.
Icy heritage
The Arctic has its first World Heritage Sites. Ilulissat ice fjord in Greenland and Wrangel Island off north-eastern Siberia appear on the revised World Heritage List announced on 30 June.
Polio vaccine reinstated
The Nigerian state of Kano has once again said it will resume vaccinating children for polio this week, with a vaccine produced in an Islamic country. Claims that a western vaccine would make Muslim girls sterile halted vaccination last year with tragic results: 257 Nigerian children have been left paralysed by polio this year, and the disease has re-invaded 10 other African countries where it had been eliminated.