Can you fly a house with balloons?  The recent Pixar movie "Up" does, but it's animated.  In the "Up" production notes, Steve May, the film's supervising technical director, writes

"It was important to the film to have fairly realistic balloon simulations.  The balloons behave in a realistic way, although the notion of being able to fly a hosue with balloons is pretty preposterous.  We're not physicists but one of our technical directors calculated that it would take on the order of 20 to 30 million balloons to actually life Carl's house.  We ended up using [...] 20,622 when it actually lifts off."

LENEXA, Kansas, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

Today, SpreadsheetGear LLC announced the immediate availability of SpreadsheetGear 2009. With one safe managed assembly, SpreadsheetGear 2009 enables developers to easily add scalable ASP.NET Excel Reporting, dynamic Dashboards from Excel Charts and Ranges, powerful Windows Forms Spreadsheet Controls, comprehensive Excel Compatible Charting, the fastest and most complete Excel Compatible Calculations and much more.

LONDON, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The APM Group, which is responsible for the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Best Practice Qualifications, is celebrating the launch of PRINCE2 2009. To coincide with the launch of the new manual, APMG's accredited training organisations are now ready to deliver courses in the new version of the method. Examinations will be available in seven languages from 6th July 2009.

BRUSSELS, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Education International welcomes today's release of the OECD's first Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). As a consultative partner throughout the process, EI recognises the importance of this research which, for the first time, sought the views of classroom teachers around the world about their professional lives.

The TALIS survey offers unique insights into the attitudes of teachers about their working conditions, school leadership, professional development, collegial feedback and appraisal, and other important issues in schools everywhere, said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.

LONDON, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Fifth International Conference on Rare Earths, Hong Kong 17-19 November 2009

There have been some radical changes in the rare earth industry over the last twelve months. In the short term, the downturn in the global economy has led to the price of key rare earth oxides such as neodymium falling by more than 50%, as well as temporary plant closures.

SINGAPORE, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Mobile Broadband Satellite Service Delivers Fastest On-Demand Video Streaming Anywhere, Anytime

Inmarsat, the leading provider of mobile satellite communications services, today announced the launch of BGAN X-Stream in the Asia Pacific region, completing the global coverage for the new service. BGAN X-Stream offers broadcasters access to the world's fastest on-demand video streaming via satellite. The service was unveiled at CommunicAsia 2009 in Singapore, which attracts leading broadcast and telecommunications professionals from around the world.

CUPERTINO, California, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Campaign on Play's WAP Portal Bears First Fruit of Strategic Global Alliance Between Mobixell and OgilvyOne

SANTA CLARA, California, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

SAI Technology Inc. (SAI), a leading developer of advanced wireless and security technology solutions, announced it has introduced the world's first complete end-to-end LTE (Long Term Evolution) software protocol stack (PDCP, RLC, RRC, MAC PHY-MAC API's) and system infrastructure software that is openly available to customers and development partners.

Most LTE solutions today have been developed for in-house captive products, said Dr. Venkat Rayapati (CEO, SAI Technology Inc.). SAI has been a pioneer in the development of 4G wireless solutions. The launch of our new LTE software protocol stack builds on the strength of our earlier successful launch of the fixed and mobile WiMAX system technology products.

BOSTON, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Pitavastatin Represents Important Treatment Option for More Vulnerable Populations

New data presented today showed that pitavastatin is an effective treatment for the management of dyslipidaemia in elderly patients, with a similar safety and tolerability profile to low-dose pravastatin. The Phase III data were presented today by Kowa, at the XV International Symposium on Atherosclerosis in Boston.

EVANSTON, Illinois, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Increasing power of public health care payers drives need for significantly revamped sales models in Europe -

Despite rampant downsizing in the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical companies in Europe cannot rely solely on sales force reductions to drive future success. Instead, they must break with tradition and change how they sell to Europe's increasingly powerful public health care payers.

These are among the conclusions of a new report by global management consulting firm ZS Associates and eyeforpharma, a leading provider of pharmaceutical business intelligence and conferences.