The mad scientists at Mozilla went back into the lab after releasing Firefox 3 and have cooked up something that may be even more impressive. Teaming up with Adaptive Path, Mozilla wants to introduce the Aurora concept browser

Aurora was designed with the intent of creating what the Web of the future will look like. Featuring an integrated Web and desktop environment, Aurora functions in three dimensions on the desktop.

The Aurora concept browser is part of the recently launched Mozilla Labs initiative. Keeping to its open-source roots, Mozilla is throwing open the doors for contributors to work with their teams to help shape the direction of the Web.

“Today we’re calling on industry, higher education and people from around the world to get involved and share their ideas and expertise as we collectively explore and design future directions for the Web,” states the Mozilla Labs blog.

“Our goal is to bring even more people to the table and provoke thought, facilitate discussion, and inspire future design directions for Firefox, the Mozilla project, and the Web as a whole.”

In a video released on the Mozilla Labs blog, the Aurora concept Web browser is demonstrated in the interactions between two people working in separate offices who are surfing the Web at the same time. At first, Aurora seems to be a normal browser as Jill looks for the latest Cubs score. Alan, in a different location, sends Jill a text message and the two of them begin discussing rainfall for their farms.

Then things really start to look different.

The Aurora concept browser is separated from current Web browsers in its integration with the desktop. When looking at a Web page, the page is framed by four distinct elements that make a browsing experience easier and more intuitive.

On the top of the screen, called the Shelf, users have access to frequently used objects. The History Stack, on the left of the screen, gives users a reverse chronological set of recently used objects. The User Stack, on the right of the screen, is a reverse chronological temporary storage space for things users want to keep on hand. The Wheel, at the bottom of the screen, gives users a visual reference for all the objects they are actively connected to.

Next, Aurora gives us the Spatial View, which organizes things on the Web as objects and stores them as they were the last time Jill accessed them. As Jill moves along the Z axis—going back in time through her history—she finds the weather report from the last time she accessed the page. After refreshing the page, the Aurora browser allows Jill to grab data from a Web page and send it to Alan.

In the Spatial View, the power of the Wheel becomes apparent. All the information that passes through the Aurora browser is analyzed and semantic similarities are noted. These similarities then form the basis for the content clusters in the browser.

We’ll soon find out. The signs are awfully encouraging: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set an ambitious time frame of July to get legislation on the floor. Instead of fighting tooth and nail against any changes, representatives of the health care industry have pledged to cut cost increases by 1.5 percent per year, potentially saving $2 trillion over the next 10 years. And even some businesses are nominally on board: Obama met with executives from enormous companies that have successfully cut their own health care costs, including Safeway, Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft.

Still, trouble lurks just below the surface. This week, the Obama administration reported that the recession has decimated the funds for Medicare and Social Security. Both funds are now expected to run out of money years earlier than had been predicted. It may be true that the fragility of both systems simply underscores the need for reform, but critics will use their problems as an attack line, and it could be a good one.

Also, the health care industry may find it easier to be on board now, before there are too many specific details about the reforms. The odds are quite good that they’ll hate the most important component of reform – the establishment of a public insurance program, in addition to existing private plans – and lobby hard and dirty against it. We’re not looking forward to watching “Harry and Louise, Part Two.”

Finally, neither Congress nor the president has spelled out an answer to the most nagging question about health care reform: how we’re going to pay for it. This is no small question. Independent experts have put the cost for reform at about $1.5 trillion over 10 years, and much of that has to be paid up-front. How the country pays this bill is likely to be one of the toughest negotiation points of the discussion.

We’re not enthused by the prospects of the few ideas that have been floated thus far. Taxing sugary soft drinks, for instance, would do great things to lower the nation’s sky-high rates of obesity and diabetes. Unfortunately, it may be politically impossible: Last year, New York’s governor, David Paterson, got clobbered when he suggested it for his state. How many industries can the administration afford to infuriate on the way to getting this reform passed? Some members of Congress also want to tax employer-provided health care benefits. Obama opposed such taxes during his campaign, and for good reason: They’ll encourage employers to dump their employees on the public payroll.

There are good ideas for raising revenue, like reversing tax breaks on flexible-spending accounts, but they might get lost in the din. If he wants this to get done right, Obama is going to have to engage Congress on every aspect of the legislation. Unfortunately, for now, the White House is being relatively quiet on specifics, preferring to let Congress hash out the details. You’d think Obama would have learned his lesson with the stimulus package. That legislation almost got derailed because Obama wasn’t paying enough attention to the projects legislators were trying to fund in the name of “stimulus.” The country can’t afford to take that kind of risk with health care.

But back to those encouraging signs: Both Congress and Obama seem to recognize how important it will be to win the battle of public opinion. In recent speeches, Obama has correctly pointed out that escalating health care costs are a large part of the reason for the federal deficit. Congress, meanwhile, has latched onto the language of “choice” and “affordability,” two words that resonate well with the public.

This last point goes deeper than marketing: Americans are deeply unhappy with the current health care system, but they’re also terrified that the government might make the wrong changes. There won’t be any reforms if Congress and Obama don’t find ways to assuage Americans’ fears about being able to continue their relationship with a family doctor, or getting the medications they need for a health condition.

For the health care industry to get on board, even if it’s only in theory, suggests that it realizes the old scare tactics won’t work this time. But new ones might – so Obama and Congress had better make sure they get this right.     Link…

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“We remain with one last choice – to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people,” wrote Selvarasa Pathmanathan in the statement. “We have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer.”

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse already declared final victory Saturday in his country’s 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tigers, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for an independent Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka since 1983. They complain of discrimination and ill treatment at the hands of the island’s Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

Mr. Rajapakse was greeted on his return home by supporters waving flags and setting off firecrackers.

“My government, with the total commitment of our armed forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation finally defeated the LTTE militarily,” Rajapakse said.

According to The Times of London, on Sunday night, the Sri Lankan military killed 70 of the remaining fighters from the Tigers who were holding tens of thousands of civilian hostages in a shrinking patch of jungle territory.

The government claims to have freed all hostages, which AFP reports number between 20,000 and 50,000.

According to the Associated Press, the Tigers have been confined to a 1.2 square mile patch of jungle after the government gained control of the island’s entire coastline “for the first time in nearly a quarter century,” cutting off a possible sea escape for LTTE leaders. The remaining Tiger territory is being heavily shelled.

Despite Rajapakse’s claims of victory, serious concerns remain about the humanitarian costs of the fighting as well as the whereabouts and possible future plans of the insurgency’s leaders, whose location is unknown.

The International Committee of the Red Cross called the scene of the weekend fighting “an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,” according to The Times, which says that 7,000 civilians have died since late January.

A government doctor in the area said hundreds of wounded civilians, many of them dying from their injuries, had crowded into a makeshift hospital that he was forced to abandon two days ago because of shelling. “They are dying without proper treatment,” said Thurairajah Varatharajah. “Dead bodies are all lying on the floor. We are unable to bury or clear them. It is a very pathetic situation.”

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The army said 10,000 desperate civilians fled the area yesterday. They risked being shot by both sides, but in the past few days have paddled across a lagoon on rubber tyres, or waded through its chest high waters to the relative safety of army lines.

While a conventional military defeat would be a serious setback to the Tamil Tigers, it might not spell the end of the insurgency that has cost tens of thousands of lives, reports The New York Times. In the past, LTTE leaders have vowed to continue their battle for an independent state as a guerrilla war should they lose on the battlefield.

It was unclear whether the leaders of the rebellion, including its elusive founder, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, were still trapped in rebel territory, had fled or had bitten into the cyanide tablets they carry around their necks in case of capture.

The Press Trust of India cites “unconfirmed reports” that as many as 300 LTTE fighters committed mass suicide “after troops zeroed in on them.”

Reuters notes that the Tigers were “founded on a culture of suicide before surrender.” It also reports that there are suspicions that Tamil leader Prabhakaran may have committed suicide, it says, “after a massive explosion was heard inside a bunker.”    Link…

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