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It’s not just houses among gum trees on ¼ acre blocks under threat from the supposed death of the Australian Dream; a report shows man’s best friend is also victim to a shift in where and how we live.

Dog and cat ownership is down across Australia, according to a report from the Australian Companion Animal Council that found high-density living, changing lifestyles and government legislation to blame.

The ACAC paper found that in the past decade Australia’s dog population has decreased by at least 14per cent and its cat population has dropped by about 10 per cent, as latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows a decline in the rate of home ownership and rise human population.

Queensland figures from the Office of Economic and Statistical Research reflected the national downturn in pet ownership, with dog ownership in the state falling by 2.1 per cent from 2008 to 2010 as cats dropped by 1.4per cent.

The ACAC paper found slightly more than half of the state’s households accommodated cats and/or dogs in 2010.

And though pooches were more popular than pussies overall, Brisbane was among the survey regions with the lowest proportion of households with dogs.

Speaking from the inaugural Putting Pets Back Into Our Lives thinktank in Sydney, ACAC president Kersti Seksel said the steady decline in pet ownership had brought a $6.02billion pet-care industry to its knees.

But it wasn’t just commerce at risk as communities without pets were worse off as well, Ms Seksel said.

“There’s been lots of research showing pets are not just good for an individual’s physical health and mental health – if you own a dog for instance, you’re less likely to be lonely and more likely to get physical exercise – but you’re also more likely to interact with your community,” she said.

“All pets are down, but we’re focusing particularly on a decline in cat and dog ownership because there’s a lot of research that demonstrates the valuable relationships they share with owners.”

Ms Seksel said the costs associated with maintaining pets, difficulty in finding care during holidays, time constraints and moving to rented accommodation, particularly apartments, were the most common reasons why people no longer included animals in their households.

“There’s a perception that renting or apartment living don’t work with owning a dog but that’s just not true,” she said.

“If you look at America, you see that dog ownership in small space is fine as long as you’re caring properly for the pet.”

A change in Australia’s favourite breed of dog reflected a shift to inner-city living Ms Seksel said, with the diminutive Maltese ousting the German Shepherd from the top spot that the larger dog enjoyed 10 years ago.

Ms Seksel said the 150 participants in today’s Putting Pets Back Into Our Lives conference, including the RSPCA, hoped to find suitable solutions to the problem.

“Whether it’s changing the laws and regulations around pet ownership or educating the public about finding the right pet for them, we want people to realise just how good owning a pet can be,” Ms Seksel said.

Story source: www.domain.com.au

A meeting on Thursday between the British government and Internet communications firms was friendly, not confrontational, according to people from the organizations that took part in the meeting.

At the meeting, the government “did not seek any additional powers to close down social media networks,” the British Home Office, the government’s home security department, said in a statement. “The discussions looked at how law enforcement and the networks can build on the existing relationships and cooperation to crack down on the networks being used for criminal behaviour.”

Spokespeople for the British Home Office declined to provide additional details about whether it broached the issue of imposing limits social media.

The gathering took place about two weeks after British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that the government should impose limits on the “free flow of information” when it’s “used for ill.” “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them,” he said then.

Twitter took the brunt of the blame immediately following the violent rioting and looting in England. However, people mostly used private lines like BlackBerry Messenger to organize, rather than Twitter or Facebook, later reports found.

“RIM continues to maintain an open and positive dialogue with the UK authorities and continues to operate within the context of U.K. regulations,” a RIM spokeswoman said in a statement late Thursday. “It was a positive and productive meeting, and we were pleased to consult on the use of social media to engage and communicate during times of emergency.”

The U.K. was still entertaining the idea of limiting social media usage shortly before Thursday’s meeting. In a statement released beforehand, the Home Office said: “We are working with the police to see what action can be taken to prevent access to those services by customers identified as perpetrators of disorder or other criminal action.”

Instead of detailing plans to block criminals’ access to networks, police and government officials solicited advice from those in attendance about how to monitor the sites, the organizations said. Spokeswomen for the Home Office and for Facebook described the meeting as “constructive.”

“We welcome the fact that this was a dialog about working together to keep people safe rather than about imposing new restrictions on Internet services,” the Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement. She noted that Facebook already has rules in place to punish illegal activity on the site.

A Twitter spokeswoman said that governments and police rely on its service to distribute alerts. “We are always interested in exploring how we can make Twitter even more helpful and relevant during times of critical need,” she said in a statement after Thursday’s meeting.

Story by Mark Milian, CNN

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While propensity to click-through on Facebook is positively correlated with age, propensity to like is not, according to data released in August 2011 by Facebook marketing consulting firm SocialCode. Age has a strong positive effect on whether a user will click, but has a less pronounced opposite effect on the likelihood of them becoming a fan of a page.

Fifty-plus-year-old users, the oldest segment in the study, are 28.2% more likely to click through and 9% less likely to like than 18-29-year-old users, the youngest group observed. Compared to the rest of the younger population, 50-plus users see a 22.6% higher CTR and 8.4% lower like rate.

Interestingly, CTR by age rises much more directly than like rate by age falls. CTR rises almost continuously as user age progresses, rise in an almost direct line as users age, with a minimal plateau inside the 30-39-year-old age bracket.

However, the like rate shows some strong fluctuation before plummeting once the user enters the 50-plus bracket. Among 18-to-29-year-olds, the like rate is about 39.5%, and then dips to about 38.5% in the 30-t0-39-year-old demographic.

However, the like rate jumps back to its highest point of slightly more than 39.5% among 40-to-49-year-olds. It then dramatically drops to slightly more than 36% in the 50-plus group of Facebook users.

Overall, women are 11% more likely to click on an ad than men. Like rates, however, are almost even for men and women, with men actually 2.2% more likely to like an ad than women.

In addition, when broken down by age, age has a much more pronounced effect on CTR for women than it does for men, whereas for men there is a stronger effect on like rate than for women.

For women, CTR is 31.2% higher for the 50 plus age group compared to 18-29-year-olds, whereas men only see a 16.2% difference. Compared to all age groups, 50-plus women’s CTR is 22% higher, compared to a 16.4% difference for males.

However, the oldest male segment has an 11.7% higher like rate than the youngest segment, and 9.5% higher like rate than all age groups. Women only see 7.2% and 7.9% differences, respectively.

Consumers are tapping into their networks of friends, fans, and followers to discover, discuss and purchase goods and services in ever-more sophisticated ways, according to an August 2011 advisory from consumer trends firm trendwatching.com. As a result, trendwatching.com advises it’s never been more important for brands to make sure they too have what it calls the “F-Factor,” with “F” standing for friends, fans and followers.

trendwatching.com identifies five key ways the F-Factor influences consumer behavior:

1. F-Discovery: How consumers discover new products and services by relying on their social networks.
2. F-Rated: How consumers will increasingly (and automatically) receive targeted ratings, recommendations and reviews from their social networks.
3. F-Feedback: New ways in which consumers can ask their friends and followers to improve and validate their buying decisions.
4. F-Together: How shopping is becoming increasingly social, even when consumers and their peers are not physically together.
5. F-Me: How consumers’ social networks are literally being turned into products and services.

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Google has struck its biggest ever deal – to buy Motorola’s smartphone and tablet business for $12.5 billion in cash.

Both companies say the move will give a ‘supercharge’ to Google’s Android platform.

Android-based devices, which include Motorola’s smartphones and tablets – are the major rivals to Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

As such, the acquisition appears to be a decisive effort by Google to tackle to dominance of Apple head on.

Under the deal, Google will buy Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share, a price that is 63% over the closing value of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday.

‘Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,’ said Google chief executive Larry Page.

‘Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers.

‘I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.’

Analysts said access to Motorola’s intellectual property had clearly been a major motivating factor behind Google’s purchase.

‘What Google are actually buying here is not a mobile phone business at all,’ said Ben Rooney, technology editor at the Wall Street Journal.

‘What they are buying is this enormous suite of patents that Motorola – which is one of the oldest mobile phone companies out there – has built up over the years.’

The 17,000-strong patent portfolio which will pass into Google’s hands would shield it well in the ongoing patent war between smartphone and tablet makers, he added.

Following a split eight months ago, Motorola is a company of two parts.

As well as the ‘Mobility’ arm, which makes phones and tablets, it also has a ‘Solutions’ division, which develops technology systems for industry.

Mr Page admitted Google did not have experience with manufacturing devices, and as such planned to run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

However he stressed that Google had a strong track record with acqusitions, having made 120 purchases in the past few years.

In order for the deal to go through, Google needs the approval of Motorola Mobility shareholders and competition regulators.

It said it was confident the acquisition would be cleared because it protected the future of Android, which is an open-source platform used by several other mobile device makers.

Yet this situation may prove to be an obstacle.

Other smartphone handset makers who use Android will want reassurance that the platform will not simply be tailored to Motorola’s requirements in future, analysts warned.

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Facebook lawyers have revealed evidence they say proves a New York man fabricated a contract that he says entitles him to part ownership of the $US50 billion ($A47.68 billion) social network.

Included in an after-hours court filing is an image of a two-page contract signed by Paul Ceglia of Wellsville, New York, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, recovered by forensics experts from Ceglia’s computer.

The image is blurry and difficult to read but appears only to refer to a street-mapping database Ceglia hired Zuckerberg to work on in 2003 – and not Facebook.

Ceglia’s lawsuit against Zuckerberg is based on a contract that he says shows that when he hired Zuckerberg for the streets project, he also invested $1,000 in the then-Harvard University student’s fledgling Facebook idea on the condition he’d own half if it expanded.

From the beginning, Facebook has said the contract submitted by Ceglia was doctored. Now, lawyers said, they’ve got the original, retrieved from embedded electronic data.

Facebook alluded to the find as ‘smoking gun’ evidence in earlier court filings but was barred from publicly identifying it by a confidentiality order which has since been modified.

‘This smoking gun evidence confirms what defendants have said all along: the purported contract attached to the complaint is an outright fabrication,’ lawyer Orin Snyder of Gibson, Dunn Crutcher LLP, wrote on Monday.

Ceglia’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lake of San Diego, did not respond to an emailed request for comment from The Associated Press on Monday night. Ceglia is in Ireland, according to emails he’s written to his hometown newspaper, the Wellsville Daily Reporter.

In court papers filed last week, Ceglia’s lawyers took issue with Facebook’s claims that Ceglia had concealed certain documents.

‘No good-faith basis has been shown for such an accusation,’ Lake wrote.

He said Cegla had complied with the court’s instructions to turn over all of his computers and electronic media as part of the discovery process in the case.

Zuckerberg’s lawyers say six removable storage devices containing files entitled ‘Zuckerberg Contract’ and ‘Facebook Files’ are missing.

The lawyers are scheduled to appear before US Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio in Buffalo on Wednesday to argue a series of motions. Ceglia wants the judge to compel Facebook to turn over emails between Ceglia and Zuckerberg captured from Zuckerberg’s Harvard account from 2003 and 2004.

He’s also asked that the case be sent to mediation for possible settlement to avoid protracted proceedings.

Facebook wants the judge to require Ceglia to produce the original electronic version of the contract and other electronic files and to allow further ink sampling from a hard-copy version of the contract.

Zuckerberg’s lawyers oppose mediation as ‘pointless,’ saying the only resolution to the case they’re willing to accept is to see it thrown out.

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