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It is still considered young and a new media, but it turns 40 today. INTERNET, the networking technology that started from a small room by connecting two computer systems today connects billions around the globe despite the political boundaries governing the nations.

This middle-aged technology was created with the intentions to form an open network that could facilitate free exchange of information. But, it was never thought to have enveloped the human existence with social networking, blogging, tweeting, shopping or haven to the World Wide Web.

September 2, 1969, ARPANET, the forerunner of INTERNET was developed when two computers at University of California, Los Angeles were connected to share some useless data on an experimental military network by Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA. And, today it stands as one of the most essential medium of communication that has become an inevitable part of human lives.

Later in 1970s Vint Cerf, often referred to as ‘father of internet’ built TCP/IP and email, crafted by Ray Tomlinson followed with multiple networks to connect.

Till 90s access to INTERNET was not an easy task, till Tim Berners-Lee formulated the Web, a part of INTERNET that made the task to connect resources spread across different locations an effortless activity. This followed the Dot com crash which represented the darker side of the INTERNET.

Despite these, overcoming the initial failures INTERNET has emerged out as a winner in every sphere. Even after 40 years of existence it has a wide scope for innovations and potential to grow which have never crossed a normal mind.

Growth is also accompanied by surfacing of cybercrimes – spam, phishing, hacking, denial of service, etc. Even though we expect INTERNET, the combatant to fight these rivals and breakthrough the barriers to rise and shine. Happy Birthday INTERNET!

The U.S. economy isn't feeling the holiday cheer this year, as sluggish growth and the prolonged housing crisis fail to let up.

The rate of existing home sales plunged a record 8.6% in November, with falling prices faring no better, a real estate trade group said Tuesday.

The report is a blow to the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department, which have been acting aggressively to bring down mortgage rates and revive the U.S. housing market. Thus far, the effort has yielded mixed results at best, and the Census Bureau and realtors' figures are expected to reflect more of the same: declining sales.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said the median home price fell 13.2% on an annual basis, down for a fifth straight month to $181,300. It was the largest drop since the current data series began in 1968 and probably the largest since the Great Depression, said Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

The pace of sales fell to a 4.49-million-unit annual rate. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting home resales to set a 4.90-million pace. October's figure was revised downward to 4.91 million, from 4.98 million.

"The quickly deteriorating conditions in the job market, stock market and consumer confidence in October and November have knocked down home sales to another level," Yun said.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index reading of confidence for December rose to 60.1, from November's 55.3. Don't get too excited, though: The report noted that, absent the gain due to unusually steep pre-holiday price discounts, the sentiment index would be virtually unchanged.