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The productivity of US workers in the first three months of 2007 rose by less than first estimated, revised figures from the Labor Department have shown.Average output per employee grew just 1% on an annual basis in the period, down from the initial 1.7% finding.

Official data has already shown that US economic growth from January to March was the weakest in four years.

Labour costs also rose more than expected, increasing expectations US interest rates will remain on hold.

Revised figures showed that unit labour costs rose by 1.8% in the first quarter, up from the initial estimate of 0.6%.

However, this was still well below the 8.9% surge reported in the last three months of 2006.

The US Federal Reserve next meets to consider interest rates on 27-28 June, and most analysts expect rates to remain at 5.25%, where they have been for the past year.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke did nothing to change this opinion when he said earlier this week that while the US would continue to enjoy moderate economic growth this year, inflation remained “somewhat elevated”.

US productivity rose by 2.1% in the last quarter of 2006

 International Business Machines Corp. said on Friday it is releasing software that can predict the spread of infectious diseases among countries

The software has been donated to scientists and public health officials to better plan responses to health crises like bird flu. Software developers can customize the program — called the Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler or STEM — to suit particular diseases and populations.

STEM is part of a global pandemic initiative formed by IBM and more than 20 public health institutions worldwide, IBM said

When you watch a movie in a theater you expect certain things for your money. You expect a large movie screen that makes it easy to get lost in the movie. You also expect really high quality surround sound that makes every noise clearer and more exciting. Finally, you expect the movie to be wider than it is tall because only then can you watch the entire area that was filmed. All of these aspects together make it worthwhile to spend the money to go to a theater and to put up with being crowded in with a bunch of other people who might not all turn their cell phones off. What is really great about being alive right now is that a very close approximation of the movie experience is now possible at home. Of course, unless you have a spare hundred thousand at home, you won’t be getting an incredibly large television screen. (Even seventy thousand only gets you one as large as a king sized bed). But, since you won’t be sitting at the back of a movie theater far from the screen, you won’t need quite as large of a screen either. The common HD television sizes are plenty to make you feel quite absorbed by the movie while still leaving room in your living room for some other furniture. And, the really important thing is to get your entire high definition television system set up, including a rocking sound system, so that your home experience most closely matches a theater experience.

Just like movie theaters, high definition television offers you the chance to watch your programming in high quality, high resolution format with a wide screen viewing area and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. These factors ensure the highest quality home viewing experience currently possible and are a huge step up from the standard definition television that used to be our only choice.

Of course, to really enjoy HDTV movies on a home system, you also need to have a large choice of movies to watch. This is where Dish Network comes in. Dish Network has quite a few high def channels devoted entirely to movies, some of them even concentrating on just one genre. Monsters HD is where you are likely to find movies like Frankenstein and Jason, while Guy TV is more likely to offer John Wayne. Channels like Universal, Majestic, HDNet Movies, and World Cinema are the best places for a variety of genres, and these channels also offer both old and newer movies. The newest movies, and commercial-free to boot, are on the high def premium movie channels like HBO. These channels, however, are only available within the Platinum HD programming package. Dish Network Satellite TV also has a large selection of pay per view and Dish on Demand movies in the high definition format. These are much cheaper and more convenient than trying to get a movie from a movie rental place, and, if you don’t have a HD DVD player, these are the best way to get the newest HD movies.

Though high definition television seems like it was made to play movies, once you experience how much better it is than standard definition television, you will probably want to watch your other entertainment in the format too.

There are a lot of benefits to modern TV technology, and there’s no way to see all of them better than by taking full advantage of HDTV in your home entertainment center. If you’re like a lot of Americans though, you probably don’t really know how to take full advantage of HDTV. You probably know that a new flat screen high definition television set would look great in your living room. You probably also know that because of their wide 16:9 aspect ratio screens, HDTV sets are great for watching movies on DVD in their wide screen format. Unfortunately, you’ve also probably found yourself confused by the fact that there are new high definition DVD’s coming out because you thought that all DVD’s played movies in high def. Unfortunately this simply isn’t the case. Yes movies on DVD do look good on a high def TV set, but that doesn’t mean that those movies are actually in HDTV. In fact, there are two other criteria required for video to meet the standards of high definition. The first and most obvious of these criteria being that HDTV has to have the16:9 aspect ratio already mentioned, but in addition to that, HDTV programming also has to have a significantly higher resolution- a picture made up of either seven hundred and twenty or one thousand and eighty horizontal lines of resolution- and have a native audio format of Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. While normal TV programming and normal TV sets can deal with the wider screen format and the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, normal TV’s simply aren’t capable of displaying resolutions of more than four hundred and eighty horizontal lines of resolution.

All of this means that in order to take full advantage of that stylish new flat screen HDTV that you covet so much, you’ll also have to get a special programming package that has high definition television programming. That said, Dish Network Offers a great source for just such a programming package for several reasons. First, Dish Network’s smallest High Def programming package contains twenty six HDTV channels. That’s far more than most cable TV providers offer and at least three more HDTV channels than the closest competitor offers. Another reason to subscribe to Dish Network for HDTV programming is because it also provides high def satellite receivers for everyone who subscribes to a High Definition Television programming package. Another reason to subscribe is because Dish Network’s service isn’t limited geographically by cable networks. That means that you can get your HDTV programming and normal TV programming just about anywhere from Dish Network.

While movies are a large part of what people associate with high definition television-and definitely a large part of the HDTV programming that’s supplied by Dish Network- Dish Network Satellite TV also offers channels that bring you sports coverage, news, special interest programming, and even cartoons and reruns in high definition. This is a tremendous variety of HDTV programming compressed into relatively few channels. It’s also worth pointing out that Dish Network’s HDTV programming packages also have plenty of normal TV channels so that you don’t have to miss the TV shows that you’ve come to love, but haven’t made the switch over to high def yet. All of this makes Dish Network a great choices for the HDTV programming that you need.

Indian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) firms signed major real estate deals Monday worth more than $20 billion during a visit by the ruler of Dubai, including plans to build two massive townships in India.

India’s largest real estate developer DLF said that it inked a $20 billion deal with UAE’s Nakheel to build two townships in India, with an initial investment of $5 billion each in the next three years.

“We have signed a 50:50 joint venture with Nakheel to develop integrated townships,” said a DLF executive, who asked not be named.

The townships would be full-sized cities near the capital New Delhi and in western Maharashtra state, another company official said.

The executive, speaking on the sidelines of meetings with Indian business leaders by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum, said the townships would cover 40,000 acres of land, of which 70 percent has already been bought. Construction will begin by the end of 2007, the official said.

The firm said a press conference planned Monday to announce details of the deal had been canceled but confirmed the agreement was signed.

“We had plans to announce [the details] in the presence of UAE officials but they had a change of plans,” the executive said, indicating that the UAE officials h