Hancock tops the box office for July 4 - 6, 2008.

Sony Pictures' Hancock tops the box office with $66 million. Hancock took in $100.4 million during Wednesday to Sunday's holiday weekend opening, and $107.3 million if including Tuesday night's preview. Last weekend's top movie WALL-E takes second with $33.4 million. Here is the rest of the top ten from this past weekend found on eonline:

1. Hancock, $66 million
2. WALL-E, $33.4 million
3. Wanted, $20.6 million
4. Get Smart, $11.1 million
5. Kung Fu Panda, $7.5 million
6. The Incredible Hulk, $5 million
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $3.9 million
8. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, $3.6 million
9. Sex and the City, $2.3 million
10. You Don't Mess With the Zohan, $2 million

Mozilla's Firefox 3 sets a new Guinness World Record.

In one 24 hours span Mozilla's Firefox 3 web browser had 8 million software downloads, the most downloads ever when Firefox 3 debut. Firefox is an open source web browser that is free to download and has top of the line security and performance.

With Microsoft displaying its desire to expand its presence in the Internet by contemplating acquiring Internet search engine Yahoo and releasing its experimental Internet Explorer 8 web browser the record for most downloads is a big boost for Mozilla as its web browser continues to prosper.

The Firefox web browser's main competition in the web browser market is Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari browser.

Firefox is similar in performance and appearance to Internet Explorer and its security with processing downloads from the Internet and web site security is one of the best in the web browser market.

I use Firefox most of the time and I have not had security issues. After downloading there is a clear open or remove dialog box that refers to the download that was checked for viruses and security breaches.

For a free copy of Mozilla's Firefox click on the button in the sidebars.

(source: Reuters.com)

Fireworks cost much more this Fourth of July.

Fireworks for The Fourth of July cost a lot this year. Fireworks companies are facing hardships with costs in materials and transportation of goods. The price for some fireworks manufacturers have risen to up to 30% and since most of the warehouses are located in China there is an extra cost with transportation taxes.

Most of the fireworks business in America come from sales of small explosives such as whistlers and roman candles. The APA estimates Americans spend $930 million each year on fireworks, that has actually gone up from estimates of $610 million in 2000.

The fireworks shows on the Fourth of July are conducted by companies on the display side of the industry and estimate sales each year of about $15 million. The smaller fireworks companies are going through difficult times with rising costs and some of them are closing down.

Fireworks companies need to make subtle changes to the way shows are conducted. To do this companies are using cheaper explosives, changing the tempo of their shows and shortening the time of the programs.

(source: CNN Money.com)

The mystery of the Stradivarius sound could be found.

For the past 300 years musicians and scientists could not uncover the mystery of the impeccable sound quality that the Stradivarius violin emits. The classical Cremonese violins resonate a sound that has not been able to be recreated in violins today.

Now a violin maker from Arkansas and a Dutch doctor have discovered the mystery of the Stradivarius sound. By using a computer program that calculates lung densities they were able to analyze the violin's physical properties.

They found the different densities of the wood effected the sound vibrations in the violins. They showed that the variation of density between Stradivarius violins were lesser than variations between Stradivarius violins and modern violins. A Stradivarius is made of maple and spruce wood that grew 300 years ago in Europe.

Although this was not a definitive proof of how the superior sound quality of a Stradivarius differs from a modern violin there is hope that this information could help in creating a modern violin that is similar to a Stradivarius.

(source: Reuters.com)

Updates on Yahoo - Microsoft and Yahoo - Google.

The markets are buzzing about talks being re-opened with Microsoft and Yahoo. It was reported by The Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is in search for partners to contribute to the purchase of Yahoo. These partners who could be News Corp.'s Myspace and Time Warner's AOL, it is speculated, would acquire some of Yahoo's many assets as Microsoft would secure Yahoo's top assets, its search engine business with other assets.

These talks come after Yahoo announced that discussions with Microsoft were over. Yahoo offered a deal for $33 or $34 per share to Microsoft in Mid-May. It was an offer that was not accepted before in previous talks by Yahoo and was not agreed upon by Microsoft. The final offer at $37 per share was later rejected by Microsoft also and Yahoo declared that talks were ended in Mid-June.

Yahoo also announced a deal with Google that would share advertising revenue. The deal included waiting until September to begin in order for antitrust officials time to investigate the deal. The wait was needed as The Washington Post reported a formal antitrust investigation has be opened by The U.S. Justice Department to see if this constricts competition between them.

Investigators will request documents from Google, Yahoo and other companies in the Internet industry during the investigation. Google and Yahoo are 1 and 2 in the search engine business and represent about 75% of market.