Traffic Payout

Rebuilding the road that reconnects Oso, Darrington and Arlington begins with the people most affected by its absence. Together with Snohomish County, we have been working with those who lost loved ones and the communities and tribes affected to shape our plans for short-term access to and from Darrington and the clearing and rebuilding State Route 530.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve met with families, communities and tribes to listen to their priorities, concerns, comments and questions so that we could use that information to help us move forward. Based on those conversations, we were able to work with our partners at Seattle City Light to open the access road with a plan that fits within the needs of the community, such as daytime access for logging trucks, and around the clock availability for commuters. This short-term solution is a start. For many, this road is one small step back to a new normal.

Last night, we returned to Darrington to follow-up with the community as more work remains to fully reconnect Darrington in the long term.

Snohomish County updates
Snohomish County, in partnership with local geology experts, continues to monitor the slide area. Small pieces of the hill near the edges of the slide continue to slough off, which is expected. In addition, crews expect to complete their widening of the pilot channel for the river today, April 30. The new channel ranges in width from 60 to 80 feet. County engineers and river experts are studying at what the river will do this fall during high water flows, and how the slide has and will continue to affect fish runs. 

The Seattle City Light Access  road is open to LOCALS or those with business ties to local communities
Many folks are already seeing their commute times drop significantly now the emergency bypass road is open. We heard a number of suggestions going forward for how to manage the access road including revising the current schedule and watering down the road to prevent dust. Since this is Day Two, we are still keeping an eye on the traffic using the road to see if additional adjustments are needed. We will keep the local communities posted if there are changes to the schedule. Our SR 530 webpage will be updated with any new developments and provides information on using the access road.

Clearing SR 530
We provided an update on the contract for removing material from SR 530. That contract will remove roughly 90,000 cubic yards of material – which equates to nearly 9,000 dump truck loads of material, or 9 times the amount of concrete used to build CenturyLink Field. Bids close today and we hope to have a prime contractor in place by May 5.

Rebuilding SR 530
The long-term reconstruction of SR 530 is complex. The slide changed the entire geography and hydrology of the area. The river is in a different place and the soils around the roadway have changed considerably. All of these factors are being considered as we move forward in reconstruction. As a result, we will need to raise the height of the new road 10 to 20 feet in places to meet the new natural challenges of the area.

We will use a design-build contract for highway reconstruction. Part of the goal in that contract is determining a way to get people moving on the highway as it is reconstructed. Our goal is to award the contract by the end of May and have work start in early June. The beginning of that work will focus on the design of the new road and the goal is to open the road to both lanes of traffic by early October.

Why are we rebuilding SR 530 along the existing alignment?
Funds from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will reimburse rebuilding the road on its current alignment. If we built it elsewhere, we would need to find funding to do that work and that would take a considerable amount of time and legislative action.

In addition, the existing alignment is the best option relative to the river’s location and other areas where past slides have occurred.

Many have also asked if we can add shoulders and turning lanes. These are considered improvements to the road and may not be reimbursable. FHWA emergency funds allow for replacing a roadway as it was. This means, improvements must be agreed upon by both us and the FHWA. Raising the highway is also considered an improvement, however FHWA recognizes that the new road must be raised to accommodate the changes in conditions within the valley. We will continue to work on ‘betterments’ and update the community when we have news to share.

Local employment and contracting opportunities
There are a number of guidelines that we must follow to use federal funding. We know communities want the work to clear and rebuild the highway to remain local. While we can’t give preferential treatment to locals or incentivize prime contractors to hire local, we can work with prime contractors to create opportunities for sub-contractors. We will arrange a meet and greet forum for the prime contractors to meet with local interested subcontractors.

We know this is a priority to the communities and will continue to work on this important issue.
Please check our webpage to keep up-to-date with employment and contracting opportunities.

Every year, phones and tablets get better, and more of you are starting to use your mobile devices not just to view, but also to create and edit content. And while the Drive app is a convenient place to store your stuff, we want to make it easier for you to quickly find, edit and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the go. Starting today, you can download new, standalone mobile apps for Docs and Sheets—with Slides coming soon. Need to find a spreadsheet? Go to the Sheets app. Need to create a document? Go to the Docs app. They’re all right there at your fingertips.

When you open the new apps, you’ll see your most recently edited files, which means less time searching and scrolling.

The apps also come with offline support built in, so you can easily view, edit and create files without an Internet connection. Now, if you have a brilliant idea for a best-selling novel while traipsing through the Amazonian rainforest (or you know, something more probable, like during flight takeoff)...no problem. You can jot down your idea in the Docs app on your phone, even when you’re offline.

You can get the apps on Google Play [Docs] [Sheets] and in the App Store [Docs] [Sheets]. If you don’t have time now, over the next few days you’ll be prompted to download the apps when you go to edit or create a document or spreadsheet in your Drive app. And of course, you’ll still be able to use the Drive app to view and organize all of your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos and more.

So enjoy the Amazon—we’re looking forward to buying that novel someday. And in the meantime, just remember: even if a crocodile eats your phone, your files are safe in the cloud!

Posted by Brian Levee, Product Manager

Allot Communications announced that "Rami Hadar, President and CEO of Allot, will retire during the second quarter of 2014 and will be replaced by Andrei Elefant [pictured], currently Allot's VP Product Management and Marketing. Mr. Hadar will remain a member of the company's board of directors".

Mazal Tov to Andrei, with whom I had the pleasure of working several years closely together!


"

After Netflix signed its first agreement with Comcast (see "Comcast and Netflix - BFF ("no preferential network treatment")" - here) ad reported "Netflix Reports Slower Speeds for Verizon" (here) it was reported that they are also in talks with AT&T and Verizon (See "Netflix: First we take Comcast, then we take AT&T and Verizon; How Much it Costs?" - here).

Sam Gustin reports to the TIME that "

In February, we asked K-12 students across the country to doodle about the one thing they’d invent to make the world a better place—and we were amazed by their curiosity and creativity. For many students, environmental issues were top of mind, resulting in impressive and artistic doodles depicting water and air purification or turning garbage into flowers. Another common theme was really smart robots; they clean up garbage or help students with their homework. Others created possible solutions for solving obesity or eliminating world hunger. And we saw some thoughtful ideas around time travel and goggles that help you see the world from another person’s point of view so you can truly understand them.

From more than 100,000 creative ideas, we’ve selected the best one from each state with the help of our guest judges. Today, we’re celebrating the 50 state winners—little ones just six years old to high school seniors—at their schools from Fort Paine, Ala. to Moorcroft, Wyo., and from Anchorage, Alaska to Plant City, Fla. We’ll reveal the winning artists in front of their classmates, teachers and parents and, in some places, their local mayors or elected officials.

Now it’s your turn to cast a vote for your favorite Doodle. Starting today through May 9, you can go to the Doodle 4 Google site to help select one winner for each age group. On May 21, we’ll host all 50 state winners at our headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., where we’ll reveal the five age group finalists as well as the national Doodle 4 Google winner.

Then, for the first time ever, the national winner will get to hang out with our team in Mountain View and animate their doodle. You’ll see the spiffed-up version on our homepage on June 9. For now, don’t forget to vote!

Posted by Ryan Germick, Doodle Team Lead

Zettics (see "Citrix Adds Zettics' Big Data Analytics to ByteMobile" - here) announced it has ".. acquired Velocent Systems. The combined entity will provide a subscriber-centric, real-time analytics suite that integrates data usage, network performance, and customer experience metrics into a single, unified view for the operator. Having these data sets in one solution will allow operators to

By Ann Briggs

Governor Inslee has proclaimed May as Bike Month (pdf 140 kb) in Washington in support of the national campaign. This is a great opportunity to dust off the bicycle that’s been sitting in your garage and give cycling for transportation a try.

Cyclists travel over the Hood Canal Bridge

You’ll feel better knowing that you’re helping to reduce carbon emissions, getting some exercise and saving money on fuel and parking, as well as reducing wear and tear on your vehicle.

There are Bike Month activities taking place all across the state. Our partners at Washington Bikes have a list of bicycle commuter challenges in communities statewide. Here is a list of key dates you’ll want to keep in mind:

• May 1 – 31, National Bike Month
• May 7, Bike to School Day – keep an eye out for children on bikes
• May 12 – 16, Bike to Work Week
• May 16, Bike to Work Day

Whether you’re a seasoned rider or just starting out, you’ll want to check out WSDOT’s bike webpage for tips on bicycle commuting, rules of the road, safety tips, maps and other resources.

Zia Askari reports to Telecom Drive that "India’s biggest service provider, Bharat Sanchar Nagam Limited or BSNL is all set to enhance its data services with the help of a Policy and Charging Rules Function or PCRF solution by Chinese telecom equipment major, ZTE" - See also "BSNL Plans to Offer New 4G Services for Indians by March 2015" - here.

Anupam Shrivastava [pictured], Director Consumer

Jaywalking pedestrians. Cars lurching out of hidden driveways. Double-parked delivery trucks blocking your lane and your view. At a busy time of day, a typical city street can leave even experienced drivers sweaty-palmed and irritable. We all dream of a world in which city centers are freed of congestion from cars circling for parking (PDF) and have fewer intersections made dangerous by distracted drivers. That’s why over the last year we’ve shifted the focus of the Google self-driving car project onto mastering city street driving.

Since our last update, we’ve logged thousands of miles on the streets of our hometown of Mountain View, Calif. A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area. We’ve improved our software so it can detect hundreds of distinct objects simultaneously—pedestrians, buses, a stop sign held up by a crossing guard, or a cyclist making gestures that indicate a possible turn. A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can’t—and it never gets tired or distracted.

Here’s a video showing how our vehicle navigates some common scenarios near the Googleplex:

As it turns out, what looks chaotic and random on a city street to the human eye is actually fairly predictable to a computer. As we’ve encountered thousands of different situations, we’ve built software models of what to expect, from the likely (a car stopping at a red light) to the unlikely (blowing through it). We still have lots of problems to solve, including teaching the car to drive more streets in Mountain View before we tackle another town, but thousands of situations on city streets that would have stumped us two years ago can now be navigated autonomously.

Our vehicles have now logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles, and with every passing mile we’re growing more optimistic that we’re heading toward an achievable goal—a vehicle that operates fully without human intervention.

Posted by Chris Urmson, Director, Self-Driving Car Project

Some statements and slides from a recent Vodafone webinar on LTE (here):







Carrier aggregation: Initial deployments in Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal to date; Speeds up to 300Mbps achieved







VoLTE: We will begin enabling VoLTE in Europe from H1 2014 and deployed in many markets in next 12 months
 
eMBMS - enabling the broadcast of video and content over 4G - 1st live eMBMS

TeleGeography reports that ".. demand for international bandwidth grew 39 percent to 138 Tbps in 2013, a 4.5-fold increase from the 30 Tbps of bandwidth used globally in 2009.Internet backbones remain the primary users of international bandwidth, accounting for 75 percent of demand in 2013. However, the drivers of international bandwidth demand are changing. 

As private network operators,

A new research by Radware reveals that ".. while 75% of the top 100 retail websites employ a Content Delivery Network (CDN), the median home page takes a full second longer to become interactive than the median page that does not use a CDN .. Radware’s latest research shows that the median time to interact (TTI) for CDN enabled sites was 5.7 seconds compared to the median TTI of 4.7 for non-CDN

  
After several days of conflicting new of the future of Net Neutrality in the US, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler [pictured] decided to "Set the Record Straight", in a post to the FCC official blog. the bottom line - "It is my intention to conclude this proceeding and have enforceable rules by the end of the year".

And the rules are:


That all ISPs must transparently disclose to their subscribers

From Lupita topping the People 50 to LaMarcus dropping 46, it’s time to look again at the top trending items on Google Search.

The games we play
The NBA and NHL playoffs both kicked off in earnest this week, and searches for hockey and basketball topics lit up the scoreboard. In fact, the Chicago Blackhawks occupied a post in Google’s Hot Searches list every day but one since last Friday. The defending Stanley Cup champions are playing a tight (and, as of Wednesday, tied) series against the St. Louis Blues; they also drew controversy this weekend when stories emerged of the Blackhawks taunting Blues captain David Backes after a hit that got the Hawks’ Brent Seabrook suspended.

In the NBA, it was all about the big plays. Searches for the OKC Thunder’s Kevin Durant peaked after he made a ridiculous four-point play while (and I don’t use this word lightly) literally falling out of bounds on Tuesday. The last time Durant came close to this level of search interest was on January 30, after a 12-game 30+ point scoring streak. And the Portland Trail Blazers’ LaMarcus Aldridge was on fire on the court and on Google, scoring more than 40 points in his team’s first two playoff games against the Houston Rockets… on the road—making him one of only three players ever to do so. On a more somber note, searches were also high for longtime sideline reporter Craig Sager, who revealed on Sunday that he has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

Moving to the diamond, [pine tar] was the top searched topic overall on Wednesday after Yankees’ starting pitcher Michael Pineda was caught red-handed (and sticky-necked) using the substance, a violation of MLB rules, while elsewhere in the American League the Angels’ Albert Pujols hit his 500th career home run. And during Monday’s Boston Marathon (a trending topic both this week and last), Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the race in more than 30 years, making him a “breakout,” with nearly 1,000% increase in search interest over the last year on Google Search.

Stranger than fiction
Alongside searches for Easter and Earth Day, there were a few unconventional celebrations this week. Dyngus Day, a Polish-American holiday taking place on Easter Monday and similar to Poland’s Śmigus-Dyngus and Hungary’s Vízbevető, was a top topic in search on Monday (O.K., so it wasn’t the top topic, but it was top of mind for many). Traditionally celebrated by boys throwing water over girls, in the U.S. Dyngus Day celebrations include parades, traditional foods and polka music. Whatever its origins, interest in Dyngus Day has been growing steadily the past two years since barely registering on Search in 2012.

What the… powdered alcohol?! That’s what some people were thinking when they searched for [Palcohol], a powder that turns water into alcoholic drinks. It was approved by U.S. regulators earlier in the month, but this week the decision was rescinded. And when a 15-year-old boy caught a ride from San Jose, Calif., to Hawaii in an airplane wheel well, stunned searchers came to Google looking for images of wheel wells to understand how someone might survive such a feat—especially without the beverage cart.
Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [chekhov gun first act] and [hedgehogs in costumes]

Central Washington University biology professor Kris Ernest, center, works with her small mammal team in the Price Creek area adjacent to Interstate 90 in August 2013. The team's research is part of the ongoing I-90 wildlife monitoring project which will help guide the installation of wildlife crossing structures. Photo courtesy of CWU.

By Barbara Arnott, Central Washington University

We all know why the chicken crossed the road, but do we know why the cougar crossed or how?

In an effort to protect animals and motorists near Snoqualmie Pass, researchers at Central Washington University are monitoring and researching wildlife along the Interstate 90 corridor. The project is the largest study of its kind ever conducted in the United States.

In 2008, we entered into a partnership with CWU where our agency funds the research performed by CWU faculty and students at animal crossing zones on a 15-mile stretch of interstate. WSDOT uses the data gathered by CWU to establish a baseline to measure against past construction and to refine project designs so the habitat at the crossing locations will connect the largest number and variety of species.

More than 20 large wildlife crossing structures—including three major overpasses at two locations—are proposed between Hyak and Easton as part of the ongoing I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East project.

For the past seven years, CWU researchers have focused on fish, amphibians, and small mammals. They’re discovering critical information about what species inhabit the project area and are learning how the freeway affects animal behavior and survival.

If you would like to learn more about the important work CWU researchers are performing, stop by the CWU Museum of Culture on the Environment and check out the newest exhibit: How did the Cougar Cross the Road? Restoring Wildlife Passages at Snoqualmie Pass. The exhibition is located on the first floor of Dean Hall on D Street in Ellensburg and runs through spring 2015.

Watch a YouTube video of the CWU team’s work.

A recent Sandvine case study presents their deployment at Econet Wireless Zimbabwe - "Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is using Sandvine’s Usage Management product with plug-and-play capabilities that will enable them to roll out new revenue-generating services for their pre-paid and post-paid subscribers. 

Sandvine was selected based on our ability to fulfill the technical requirements of usage-based

Some slides from AT&T's Q1 2014 earnings:









See "Quarterly Earnings — 1Q 2014" - here.

For 21 years, Take Your Child To Work Day has helped kids understand what moms and dads do all day after they leave the house. And even if kids don't realize it at the time, it also serves an important role in helping youngsters learn about what kinds of jobs they could do when they grow up. Unfortunately, not all kids are lucky enough to get these opportunities.

Today, we’re giving kids everywhere a chance to “visit” some of the world’s most exciting workplaces. Working with Forbes, Connected Classrooms is hosting 18 virtual field trips to places like the Georgia Aquarium, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Stanford National Lab and the Chicago Bulls locker room, using Google Hangouts. Professionals from all walks of life will discuss their day-to-day roles and how they got there, so students—regardless of budget or geography—can be exposed to a wide range of careers and get excited about their future.

The full list of events is available on Forbes’ site, but here’s a preview of what you can expect:

• Learn about careers in government with U.S. Senator for Connecticut, Eric Murphy
• Watch the behind-the-scene production of the morning bell ceremony at NASDAQ
• Hear how chef Keizo Shimamoto created the ramen burger sensation
• Get an inside look at running a magazine with Forbes editor Randall Lane
• See how YouTube celebrity chef, Laura Vitale, runs her own online cooking show
• Explore monster movie making with the Stan Winston School of Special Effects

We hope you’ll tune in at 6am PT for the first career hangout, and check out Connected Classrooms throughout the day for new, live field trips.

Posted by Lisa Jiang, Google+ Education Partnership Lead

According to information released by Infonetics Research from its Service Provider Deep Packet Inspection Products report "Operator spending on deep packet inspection (DPI) solutions grew 23% to $728 million in 2013, and is forecast by Infonetics to top $2 billion in 2018 .. Sandvine leads 2013 DPI market share, buoyed by a surge of new customers and a number of follow-on orders; Allot, Cisco,

1. Don’t Offend: Avoid actions which could enrage other drivers, such as cutting them off, driving slowly in the passing lane, tailgating, or making gestures which could be viewed as obscene or threatening.
2. Don’t Engage: As the saying goes, “It takes two to tango,” and it takes both drivers to escalate a situation into road rage. If you notice a hostile driver, steer clear by avoiding eye contact, increasing your distance, and going for help if needed.
3. Adjust Your Attitude: Leave as much time as possible to get to your destination, and remind yourself that you're not in a race. Also, remember that other drivers' actions have nothing to do with you and shouldn't be construed as personal. Most importantly, if you think you have a problem with anger on the road, ask for help! 

For more information on aggressive driving and road rage, please take a look at our brochure, Road Rage: How to Avoid Aggressive Driving, and visit traffic-payout.org. 

If you’ve ever dreamt of being a time traveler like Doc Brown, now’s your chance. Starting today, you can travel to the past to see how a place has changed over the years by exploring Street View imagery in Google Maps for desktop. We've gathered historical imagery from past Street View collections dating back to 2007 to create this digital time capsule of the world.

Now with Street View, you can see a landmark's growth from the ground up, like the Freedom Tower in New York City or the 2014 World Cup Stadium in Fortaleza, Brazil. This new feature can also serve as a digital timeline of recent history, like the reconstruction after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Japan. You can even experience different seasons and see what it would be like to cruise Italian roadways in both summer and winter.

Forget going 88 mph in a DeLorean—you can stay where you are and use Google Maps to virtually explore the world as it is—and as it was. Happy (time) traveling!

Posted by Vinay Shet, Google Street View Product Manager

Just because Earth Day is over doesn’t mean we’re done doing good things for the planet. Yesterday we announced our biggest renewable energy purchase yet: an agreement with our Iowa utility partners to supply our data center facilities there with up to 407 megawatts of wind energy.

Today, we’re taking another step towards a clean energy future with a major new investment. Together with SunPower Corporation we’re creating a new $250 million fund to help finance the purchase of residential rooftop solar systems—making it easier for thousands of households across the U.S. to go solar. Essentially, this is how it works: Using the fund ($100 million from Google and $150 million from SunPower), we buy the solar panel systems. Then we lease them to homeowners at a cost that’s typically lower than their normal electricity bill. So by participating in this program, you don’t just help the environment—you can also save money.

SunPower delivers solar to residential, utility and commercial customers and also manufacturers its own solar cells and panels.They’re known for having high-quality, high reliability panels which can generate up to 50 percent more power per unit area, with guaranteed performance and lower degradation over time. That means that you can install fewer solar panels to get the same amount of energy. And SunPower both makes the panels and manages the installation, so the process is seamless.

This is our 16th renewable energy investment and our third residential rooftop solar investment (the others being with Solar City and Clean Power Finance). Overall we’ve invested more than $1 billion in 16 renewable energy projects around the world, and we’re always on the hunt for new opportunities to make more renewable energy available to more people—Earth Day and every day.

Posted by Rob Parker, Renewable energy team

According to recent announcements it seems the even DPI products, with their intense packet processing, are going towards NFV and virtualization in general purpose servers.

Vendors do state that it will take time (see "Allot Launched the New Service Gateway" - here and "Sandvine CEO Bullish on IBM Relations; SDN and NFV will Take Time" - here) - but is this the end of Network (or Packet)

Part of honoring Earth Day is celebrating the people who dedicate their lives to protecting our planet’s most vulnerable species. You’ll find one of those people in the tall grasslands of Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, where Sabita Malla, a senior research officer at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is hard at work protecting rhinos and Bengal tigers from poaching. She spends her days collecting data about wildlife in order to track the animals, assess threats, and provide support where needed. Now, she’s getting help from something a bit unexpected: Google Glass.

Last year, WWF started exploring how smart eyewear could help further its conservation mission in the Arctic and the Amazon as part of the Giving through Glass Explorer program. Now they’ve brought it to Nepal to see how it could help monitor wild rhinos. Take a peek:

Rhino monitoring can be a slow process, especially in habitats with tricky terrain, but data collection is crucial for making the right conservation decisions. Most parts of Chitwan National Park are inaccessible to vehicles, so Sabita and her team ride in on elephants, and have been collecting health and habitat data using pencil and paper.

Now custom-built Glassware (the Glass version of apps) called Field Notes can help Sabita do her work hands-free instead of gathering data in a notebook. That’s helpful for both accuracy and safety when you’re on an elephant. Using voice commands, Sabita and other researchers can take photos and videos, and map a rhino’s location, size, weight, and other notable characteristics. The notes collected can also be automatically uploaded to a shared doc back at the office, making it easier to collaborate with other researchers, and potentially a lot faster than typing up handwritten notes.

This is just one example of a nonprofit exploring how Glass can make their critical work easier. Today, we’re looking for more ideas from you.

If you work at a nonprofit and have an idea for how to make more of a difference with Glass, share your ideas at g.co/givingthroughglass by 11:59 PDT on May 20, 2014. Five U.S.-based nonprofits will get a Glass device, a trip to a Google office for training, a $25,000 grant, and help from Google developers to make your Glass project a reality.

To learn more about Google.org's ongoing collaboration with World Wildlife Fund, visit this site.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org

An informational RFC by Randell Jesup [pictured], Mozilla "attempts to describe a set of requirements that can be used to evaluate other congestion control mechanisms in order to figure out their fitness for this purpose, and in particular to provide a set of possible requirements for proposals coming out of the RMCAT  [RTP Media Congestion Avoidance Techniques] Working Group".



Some of the

With the recent announcements of high-end DPI product (Allot's ServiceGateway Tera, Sandvine PTS 32000), I updated the DPI Products page (here).

Please do not hesitate to inform me if any of the details are not correct!

 Amdocs released new "research into mobile traffic, showing an almost complete shift from voice to data. based on the analysis of more than 4 million voice and data connections from more than 100,000 mobile devices at some of the busiest network locations around the world in the past twelve months. 




Key findings include:

2013 was the busiest year to date for mobile networks. Traffic doubled

As we say here -"if it is free, give me two". So it is true also for "Sponsored Data", according to a recent survey by Citrix.

"The survey of adult smartphone and tablet owners, conducted by Wakefield Research found that a majority of subscribers say they exceed their mobile data quota (and watching Video is not the prime reason!) – even more fear exceeding it" 




82 percent fear the data

What did you search for this week? What about everyone else? Starting today, we’ll be sharing a regular look back at some of the top trending items on Google Search. Let’s dive in.

From afikomen to 1040EZ
People were looking for information on Palm Sunday and Good Friday ahead of Easter; searches for both days were even higher than searches for the Pope himself. Turning to another religious tradition, with Passover beginning on Monday we saw searches rise over 100 percent for Seder staples like [charoset recipe], [brisket passover] and of course [matzo balls]. Alongside these celebrations, U.S. citizens observed another annual rite of spring: taxes were due on April 15, leading to a rise in searches for [turbotax free], [irs] and (whoops) [turbotax extension].

But what made this year different from all other years? A rare lunar eclipse known as the “blood moon,” when the Earth’s shadow covers the moon, making it look red, and which occurred on Tuesday. There were more than 5 million searches on the topic, as people were eager to learn more. (Hint: if you missed seeing the blood moon this time around, keep your eyes on the sky in October. This is the first lunar eclipse in a “lunar tetrad,” a series of four total lunar eclipses each taking place six lunar months apart.)
Say goodbye and say hello
This week marked the first anniversary of last year’s Boston Marathon bombing, and commemorations led searches for the term [boston strong] to rise once again. And just yesterday, we were saddened by the passing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian writer best known for his masterpiece “100 Years of Solitude”—not to mention responsible for high schoolers across the U.S. knowing the term “magical realism.” On a happier note, former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton announced she’s expecting.

Entertainment that makes you go ZOMG
“Game of Thrones” fans—at least those who hadn’t read the books—were treated to a bombshell in this past Sunday’s episode when (spoiler alert) yet another wedding turned murderous. Searches for [who killed joffrey] skyrocketed as people struggled to process the loss of the boy king we love to hate. On the more sedate end of the Sunday TV spectrum, we welcomed back AMC’s “Mad Men,” which continues to provide viewers with plenty of innuendo, allusion and fashion to chew on—and search for—in between episodes.

The trailer for the highly anticipated film version of “Gone Girl” dropped this week—vaulting searches for [gone girl trailer] nearly 1,000 percent—as did a clip from another book-to-movie remake, “The Fault in Our Stars.” Between these two films we expect no dry eyes in June and no intact fingernails come October. At least we’ve got something funny to look forward to: as news broke this week that Fox 2000 is developing a sequel to the 1993 comedy classic "Mrs. Doubtfire," searches on the subject have since spiked.
And that’s it for this week in search. If you’re interested in exploring trending topics on your own, check out Google Trends. And starting today, you can also sign up to receive emails on your favorite terms, topics, or Top Charts for any of 47 countries.

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [gossip girl vulture recaps] and [tron bike lights]

Ulticom announced the "deployment of its Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) in the Entel S.A. mobile network. The Ulticom DSC will smooth multivendor interworking and IMSI-based Diameter routing, including load balancing with optimized transaction persistence, for Entel Online Charging (OCS) applications.

The Entel deployment utilizes Ulticom’s proprietary Service-Oriented Routing™ technology,

By Meagan McFadden

It took less than 48 hours to remove the snowshed, which is a lot faster than we originally thought it would take. So now you’re probably wondering why is I-90 still down to a single lane in each direction? Well there is still a lot of work to do. Removing the snowshed was just one piece; the other piece includes building detours, which is a lot like building a brand new roadway, but we only get three weeks.  We have to excavate material, haul in crushed rock, lay down asphalt and stripe the lanes. Closing a lane in each direction gives us more room to build the detours. Working between a rock and a lake creates a pretty confined work area.



We know I-90 is a major east-west transportation corridor in our state and that’s why we chose to do this work in April when traffic volumes are at their lowest and the weather is typically willing to cooperate. Unfortunately, construction doesn’t always take a holiday and this weekend is a good example. However, we are trying to limit the delays by opening two lanes eastbound on Friday and two lanes westbound on Sunday. If you have plans to travel this weekend and you want to avoid major delays, travel before 8 a.m. or wait until after 8 p.m. You can also check out our travel graphs online. You can also take another route like US 12 over White Pass or US 2 over Stevens Pass.

The good news, all lanes will be open by April 25. Construction will still be going on and you will run into some delays and of course closures at night for rock blasting. So make your trips a little easier this summer and plan ahead by using our tools:

• Visit the What’s Happening on I-90 Web page for up-to-date information on construction projects, traffic impacts, travel graphs and to sign up for email updates.
• Visit the Snoqualmie Mountain Pass Web page for real-time travel information and to view traffic cameras.
• Check the weekly Construction Updates and Traffic pages for region-wide updates.
• Tune into the Highway Advisory Radio at 1610 AM and 530 AM.
• Follow us on Twitter @snoqualmiepass.
• Call the I-90 construction hotline at 888-535-0738 or 511.

For more than five years, we’ve provided free and inexpensive teacher professional development trainings in computer science education through Computer Science for High School (CS4HS). In this program, Google provides funding and support for experts to create hands-on professional development training in CS education for K-12 educators. The goal is to arm teachers with the knowledge they need to help their students succeed in the field. The program has already trained more than 12,000 teachers, and reached more than 600,000 students—and we’ve gotten great feedback over the years (a 95% satisfaction rate!).

It’s been a great success, but there is still much more to do. So this year, we’re taking the first steps toward extending CS4HS across the globe. We’re piloting CS4HS projects in Latin America for the first time—an area where computer science education is often mistaken for computer literacy (think word processing, typing, or changing settings on your operating system rather than robotics or coding a game). We’re also introducing eight new online workshops, so teachers no longer need to be located near a CS4HS event to get quality training.

It’s not just the “where” we’re expanding, but the “when,” as well. We’re now providing new resources for teachers to get ongoing, year-round help. Our Google+ Community page hosts Hangouts on Air with CS industry leaders, Googlers, and top educators on a regular basis. And we’ve added a new Resources page with online workshops, tutorials and information on computational thinking, robotics and more. Finally, if you happen to be in the neighborhood at the right time, sign up for one of our in-person workshops available around the world in these locations:

Posted by Erin Mindell Cannon, Google Education Program Manager

For an inside look at the life of IRT, follow #goIRT as @wsdot_traffic live tweets from the road between 6 to 10 a.m. Friday, April 18.

By Mike Allende

We’ve been known to refer to our Incident Response Team as “our super heroes.” It’s easy to see why. Whether it’s a flat tire, a major collision or a mattress in the middle of the freeway, our IRT workers always seem to be ready to help get things cleared and traffic moving again.

I recently had a chance to spend some time with IRT member John Perez and he insists they aren’t super heroes. They’re out there because they want to help people, he said, and they appreciate that most people are happy to see them arrive on the scene.

IRT is always ready to push a disabled vehicle off the highway and get traffic moving.

If you’ve driven our highways long enough, there’s a good chance you’ve gotten assistance from IRT. Maybe you need a gallon of gas to make it to the filling station. Maybe you were shaken up by a fender-bender in the middle of Interstate 5. As the “Morning Guy” on our WSDOT Traffic Twitter account, I have the pleasure of watching IRT every morning, zipping around our highways and trying to keep traffic moving as steadily and safely as possible.

I also get to field and send on Twitter comments from motorists, like “I’m sure IRT has that cleared up by now. Great Seattle resource, they are awesome,” and “The IRT folks are indeed super heroes.”

IRT heads towards a car fire to help keep traffic safely away.

IRT works closely with the Washington State Patrol to clear the highway as quickly and safely as possible in order to minimize congestion and enhance motorist and responder safety. That often means stepping out into fast-moving traffic with nothing protecting them except a helmet. With Work Zone Awareness Week just behind us, I thought a few tips from IRT about how you can help them help you might be helpful.

John, who handles incident response primarily on State Route 520, said drivers should stay in their car and stay strapped in until help arrives, because it’s going to be safer inside the vehicle. Be sure to call 911 just to be sure help is on the way.

One of the main challenges of responding to a blocking situation is that traffic around the stall or collision often doesn’t slow down. So…slow down and give our team a chance to work. If you want lanes to reopen, give IRT space and let them do their job so they can get traffic back moving again.

IRT has to handle many jobs, including picking up someone’s lost laundry.

If possible, it’s always a great idea to drive your car out of traffic, either to the shoulder, gore point or exit off the highway and wait there for help to arrive. Sometimes a driver simply needs someone (IRT or the State Patrol) to tell them it’s OK to move, or they need some help guiding them to safety.

Sometimes a car is stuck and needs a push. John said there are times when a driver does not want an IRT truck to push the car to the side for fear of damage, but that shouldn’t be a worry. Our IRT trucks have a layer of Teflon on the front that they use to push a car to the shoulder or gore point. The most damage is likely to be a black smudge that can be wiped off. Trust our IRT, listen to their instructions, put the car in neutral (don’t hit the brakes!) and you and your car will be fine.

Who does the Army call when it needs help? Mighty IRT!

Running out of gas on the freeway can be embarrassing. But remember, IRT is only interested in getting you and traffic back moving, not to judge or lecture. So be up front about what’s going on so IRT can get things cleared quickly.

Collisions and stalls happen on our highways. There’s no real way around it. But we’re lucky to have our outstanding IRT ready to go when trouble calls. Follow their tips and give them some space, and they can help keep our highways moving as smoothly as possible. Oh, and don’t forget to add a “Thank you.” Even super heroes appreciate that.