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Wipro Chairman Azim H Premji has contended that economic recession may intensify as the nation goes forward and called for a strong foundation to counter the recession.
"The situation is tough and the situation will continue to get tougher. We are coming into a situation of a reset of the world with a situation which is going to get ruthlessly tough," said Premji at the meet of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) 2008, a non-profit organisation, (TES 2008).
He further said the Indian enterprises were in crucial times on account of the current economic recession.
Besides dwelling on recession, he spoke about entrepreneurship through the journey of Wipro and the cultures that create fertile ground for entrepreneurs.
’Integrity and unflinching commitment to values is what builds the backbone for a strong business," Premji added.
TiE summit is complemented by over 500 entrepreneurs getting insight and direction into their plans in 70 hours of exclusive one-on-one and many one-to-one mentoring through the experts of entrepreneurship and exclusive networking opportunities right across the three days.
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Microsoft is supposed to release an emergency patch for Internet Explorer today, hoping to fix a significant problem they’ve discovered. Apparently all versions of IE (even the near complete 8 in beta) are having some trouble with “remote code execution”, which we’re not completely sure about, but others say that it lets attackers (bad people) obtain (steal) personal information (passwords, usernames) from unsuspecting users on otherwise legitimate sites. Apparently the ill use has primarily been utilized thus far for stealing online gaming codes, but has potential to steal other important things.
The patch will be made available today at 1 p.m. EST from the Microsoft Download Center and Microsoft Update site. Get it. Get it soon.
Analysts are suggesting that you try a variety of work-around fixes for the time being, or utilize a different browser. But even alternative browser enthusiasts typically have a copy of IE on hand because IE seems to be necessary for certain things. So we suggest you get the patch update, and in the meantime. Del.Icio.Us Tags:
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Before the days of smartphones, Palm owned the Personal Digital Assistant market to the extent that Palm Pilot was the term most people used to refer to a PDA, regardless of the manufacturer. Once cell phones and PDAs merged to become smartphones, Palm’s position diminished compared to the likes of BlackBerry and the Apple iPhone.
Now Palm is poised to release its new OS, code named Nova, at the January 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Palm is very tight-lipped about the features to be expected with the Nova OS, but the overwhelming message that has been getting through is that its aim is to bridge the gap between iPhone and BlackBerry. There seems to be no intention to go head-to-head with iPhone or BlackBerry.
Palm is also expected to release new handheld devices in 2009 that will use the Nova OS. Today, the firm’s lower end Centro devices operate on the Palm OS which has had very little updating over the past couple of years. The high-end, more business oriented Treo uses the Windows Mobile OS.
While welcoming the competition and hoping for exciting innovations, we have to recognize that Palm’s gamble is a big one. Aiming for the gap between the iPhone and BlackBerries may have been a pretty big target a year ago but now the gap has been packed rather tightly by the iPhone which has greatly enhanced its viability as a business device and BlackBerry which has made enormous strides to provide the entertainment and personal features that consumers demand. The gap is further crowded by newer devices such as the Google Android OS based T-Mobile G1 and Windows Mobile devices like the Samsung Omnia.
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| The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long. |
| The longest cells in the human body are the motor neurons. They can be up to 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) long and run from the lower spinal cord to the big toe. |
| There are no poisonous snakes in Maine. |
| The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles. |
| The largest man-made lake in the U.S. is Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam. |
| The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the world. |
| A new born blue whale measures 20-26 feet (6.0 - 7.9 meters) long and weighs up to 6,614 pounds (3003 kg). |
| The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914. |
| The Virginia opossum has a gestation period of only 12-13 days. |
| The Stegosaurus dinosaur measured up to 30 feet (9.1 meters) long but had a brain the size of a walnut.
| The largest meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. It is 4,150 feet across and 150 feet deep.
| The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
| Skylab, the first American space station, fell to the earth in thousands of pieces in 1979. Thankfully most over the ocean. |
It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.
| Human jaw muscles can generate a force of 200 pounds (90.8 kilograms) on the molars. | Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| Tremendous erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a result the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years. |
| 40 to 50 percent of body heat can be lost through the head (no hat) as a result of its extensive circulatory network. |
| A large swarm of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) can consume 20,000 tons (18,160,000 kilograms) of vegetation a day. |
| The largest telescope in the world is currently being constructed in northern Chile. The telescope will utilize four - 26 ft. 8 in. (8.13 meters) mirrors which will gather as much light as a single 52 ft. 6 in. (16 meters) mirror. |
| The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons (10,896 kilograms), is 43 feet (13.1 meters) long, and cost $2.1 billion to originally build. |
| The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime. |
| The largest flying animal was the pterosaur which lived 70 million years ago. This reptile had a wing span of 36-39 feet (11-11.9 meters) and weighed 190-250 pounds (86-113.5 kilograms). |
| The Atlantic Giant Squid’s eye can be as large as 15.75 inches (40 centimeters) wide. |
| Armadillos, opossums, and sloth’s spend about 80% of their lives sleeping. |
| The starfish species, Porcellanaster ivanovi, has been found to live in water as deep as 24,881 feet (7,584 meters). |
| The tentacles of the giant Arctic jellyfish can reach 120 feet (36.6 meters) in length. |
| The greatest tide change on earth occurs in the Bay of Fundy. The difference between low tide and high tide can be as great as 54 ft. 6 in. (16.6 meters). |
| The highest temperature produced in a laboratory was 920,000,000 F (511,000,000 C) at the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in Princeton, NJ, USA. |
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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The most powerful laser in the world, the Nova laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA, USA, generates a pulse of energy equal to 100,000,000,000,000 watts of power for .000000001 second to a target the size of a grain of sand.
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| The fastest computer in the world is the CRAY Y-MP C90 supercomputer. It has two gigabytes of central memory and 16 parallel central processor units. |
| The heaviest human brain ever recorded weighed 5 lb. 1.1 oz. (2.3 kg.). |
| The deepest part of the ocean is 35,813 feet (10,916 meters) deep and occurs in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. At that depth the pressure is 18,000 pounds (9172 kilograms) per square inch. |
| The largest cave in the world (the Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia) is 2,300 feet (701 meters) long, 980 feet (299 meters) wide, and more than 230 feet (70 meters) high. |
| The hottest planet in the solar system is Venus, with an estimated surface temperature of 864 F (462 C). |
| The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knee. |
| The first electronic digital computer (called ENIAC - the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was developed in 1946 and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes. |
| The leg muscles of a locust are about 1000 times more powerful than an equal weight of human muscle. |
| The cosmos contains approximately 50,000,000,000 galaxies. |
| There are between 100,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 stars in a normal galaxy. |
| Sound travels about 4 times faster in water than in air. |
| Scientists have discovered that copper pollution of the atmosphere occurred about 2500 years ago. This was discovered by analyzing ice cores from Greenland. The pollution was attributed to the Romans who used copper for military purposes and to produce coins. |
| Hydrofluoric acid will dissolve glass. |
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| If you could throw a snowball fast enough, it would totally vaporize when it hit a brick wall. | |
| Boron nitride (BN) is the second hardest substance known to man. |
| The female Tarantula Hawk wasp paralyzes a large spider with her sting. She then lays her eggs on the motionless body so that her developing young have a fresh supply of spider meat to feed on. |
| The seeds of an Indian Lotus tree remain viable for 300 to 400 years. |
| The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter “J”. |
| Velcro was invented by a Swiss guy who was inspired by the way burrs attached to clothing. |
| Hershey’s Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it’s kissing the conveyor belt.
| If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long. |
| The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. |
| Super Glue was invented by accident. The researcher was trying to make optical coating materials, and would test their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light through them. When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn’t get the prisms apart. |
| No matter its size or thickness, no piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. |
| A car traveling at 80 km/h uses half its fuel to overcome wind resistance.
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| Knowledge is growing so fast that ninety per cent of what we will know in fifty years time, will be discovered in those fifty years. |
According to an old English system of time units, a moment is one and a half minutes. |
| The typewriter was invented in 1829, and the automatic dishwasher in 1889. |
| The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier. |
| When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour. |
| By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you can’t sink in quicksand. |
| Ten minutes of one hurricane contains enough energy to match the nuclear stockpiles of the world. |
| Most gemstones contain several elements. The exception? The diamond. It’s all carbon. |
| Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man. |
| Which of the 50 states has never had an earthquake? North Dakota. |
| When hydrogen burns in the air, water is formed. |
| Sterling silver contains 7.5% copper. |
| Cars were first made with ignition keys in 1949. |
| J.B Dunlop was first to put air into tires. |
| Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, also set a world water-speed record of over seventy miles an hour at the age of seventy two. |
| It is energy-efficient to turn off a fluorescent light only if it will not be used again within an hour or more. This is because of the high voltage needed to turn it on, and the shortened life this high voltage causes.
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world. |
| Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead. |
| The Earth’s average velocity orbiting the sun is 107,220 km per hour. |
| There is a high and low tide because of our moon and the Sun. |
| The United States consumes 25% of all the world’s energy. |
| Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave. |
| There is enough fuel in a full tank of a Jumbo Jet to drive an average car four times around the world. |
| The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set with the lunar rover. |
| If you could drive to the sun -- at 55 miles per hour -- it would take about 193 years |
| The moon is one million times drier than the Gobi Desert. |
| Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11’s lunar module landed on the moon. |
| A Boeing 707 uses four thousand gallons of fuel in its take-off climb. |
| The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. So, if placed in water it would float. |
| Since 1959, more than 6,000 pieces of ’space junk’ (abandoned rocket and satellite parts) have fallen out of orbit - many of these have hit the earth’s surface.
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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- It takes 70% less energy to produce a ton of paper from recycled paper than from trees.
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| Every year in the US, 625 people are struck by lightning. |
| Hawaii is moving toward Japan 4 inches every year. |
| The rocket engine has to supply its own oxygen so it can burn its fuel in outer space. |
| The North Atlantic gets 1 inch wider every year. |
| Oxygen is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, waters, and atmosphere (about 49.5%) |
| A stroke of lightning discharges from 10 to 100 million volts & 30,000 amperes of electricity. |
| A bolt of lightning is about 54,000°F (30,000°C); six times hotter than the Sun. |
| Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe (75%). |
| The average distance between the Earth & the Moon is 238,857 miles (384,392 km). |
| The moon is 27% the size of the Earth. |
| The Earth weighs 6.6 sextillion tons, or 5.97 x 1024 kg. |
| The center of the Sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million °C). |
| Sunlight takes about 8 minutes & 20 seconds to reach the Earth at 186,282 miles/sec (299,792 Km/sec). |
| The highest temperature on Earth was 136°F (58°C) in Libya in 1922. |
| The lowest temperature on Earth was -128.6°F (-89.6°C) in Antarctica in 1983. |
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| The temperature can be determined by counting the number of cricket chirps in fourteen seconds and adding 40. |
| House flies have a lifespan of two weeks. |
| Chimps are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror. |
| Starfish don’t have brains. |
| The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. |
| Shrimp’s hearts are in their heads. |
| Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie. |
| The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds |
| Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards. |
| Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. |
| Porcupines float in water. |
| An ostrich’s eye is bigger that its brain. |
| An iguana can stay under water for twenty-eight minutes. |
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. |
| The pupil of an octopus’ eye is rectangular. |
| Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. |
| The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk. |
| Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sideways, like scissors, to extract the juices from the food. |
| Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards. |
| A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. |
| Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. |
| A cat’s jaws cannot move sideways. |
| Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day. |
| Armadillos can walk underwater. |
| There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world. |
| Certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. |
| Only humans sleep on their backs.
|
Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| 15 million blood cells are produced and destroyed in the human body every second. |
| Every minute, 30-40,000 dead skin cells fall from your body. | |
| The brain uses more than 25% of the oxygen used by the human body. |
| If your mouth was completely dry, you would not be able to distinguish the taste of anything. |
| There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth. |
| Muscles are made up of bundles from about 5 in the eyelid to about 200 in the buttock muscle. |
| Muscles in the human body (640 in total) make up about half of the body weight. |
| The human body has enough fat to produce 7 bars of soap. |
| The human head is a quarter of our total length at birth, but only an eighth of our total length by the time we reach adulthood. |
| Most people blink about 17,000 times a day. |
| Moths have no stomach. |
| Hummingbirds can’t walk. |
| Sea otters have 2 coats of fur. |
| A starfish can turn its stomach inside out. |
| A zebra is white with black stripes. |
| The animal with the largest brain in relation to its body is the ant.Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
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| Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper. |
| Giraffes are unable to cough. |
| Sharks are immune to cancer. | |
| Despite the hump, a camel’s spine is straight. |
| Cheetah’s can accelerate from 0 to 70 km/h in 3 seconds. |
| A giraffe’s neck contains the same number of vertebrae as a human. |
| The heart of giraffe is two feet long, and can weigh as much as twenty four pounds. |
| On average, Elephants sleep for about 2 hours per day. |
| Lobsters have blue blood. |
| Shark’s teeth are literally as hard as steel. |
| A mosquito has 47 teeth. |
| Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen make up 90% of the human body. |
| Seventy percent of the dust in your home consists of shed human skin |
| Fish are the only vertebrates that outnumber birds. |
| A cockroach can live for several weeks without its head. |
| The average human produces a quart of saliva a day -- about 10,000 gallons in a lifetime |
| Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die. |
| The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother’s womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born.
Ants do not sleep.
| Nearly a third of all bottled drinking water purchased in the US is contaminated with bacteria. |
Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over 1 million descendents. |
An Astronaut can be up to 2 inches taller returning from space. The cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity.
| The oldest known fossil is of a single-celled organism, blue-green algae, found in 3.2 billion year-old stones in South Africa. |
The oldest multicellular fossils date from ~700 million years ago. |
The earliest cockroach fossils are about 280 million years old. |
Healthy nails grow about 2 cm each year. Fingernails grow four times as fast as toenails. |
20/20 vision means the eye can see normally at 20 feet. 20/15 is better; the eye can see at 20 feet what another eye sees at 15 feet.
| The average person has 100,000 hairs on his/her head. Each hair grows about 5 inches (12.7 cm) every year. |
| There are 60,000 miles (97,000 km) in blood vessels in every human. Also See,
- Science Facts for You - Part 01
- Science Facts for You - Part 02
- Science Facts for You - Part 03
- Science Facts for You - Part 04
- Science Facts for You - Part 05
- Science Facts for You - Part 06
- Science Facts for You - Part 07
- Science Facts for You - Part 08
- Science Facts for You - Part 09
- Science Facts for You - Part 10
- Science Facts for You - Part 11
- Science Facts for You - Part 12
|
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Earth’s trip around the sun - our year with all its seasons - is about 365.2422 days long, which we round to 365 to keep things simpler. But every four years, we add 0.2422 x 4 days (that’s about one day) at the end of the month of February (extending it from 28 to 29 days) to fix the calendar.
Likewise, a "leap second" is added on to our clocks every so often to keep them in synch with the somewhat unpredictable nature of our planet’s rotation, the roughly 24-hour whirl that brings the sun into the sky each morning.
Historically, time was based on the mean rotation of the Earth relative to celestial bodies and the second was defined from this frame of reference. But the invention of atomic clocks brought about a definition of a second that is independent of the Earth’s rotation and based on a regular signal emitted by electrons changing energy state within an atom.
In 1970, an international agreement established two timescales: one based on the rotation of the Earth and one based on atomic time.
The problem is that the Earth is very gradually slowing down, continually throwing the two timescales out of synch, so every so often, a "leap second" has to be tacked on to the atomic clock.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is the organization that monitors the difference in the two timescales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted or removed when necessary. Since 1972, leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years - the most recent was inserted on Dec. 31, 2005.
In the United States, the U.S. Naval Observatory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology keep time for the country. The Naval Observatory keeps the Department of Defense’s Master Clock, an atomic clock located in Washington, D.C.
The new extra second will be added on the last day of this year at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time - 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time.
Mechanisms such as the Internet-based Network Time Protocol and the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) depend on the accurate time kept by atomic clocks.
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European Union leaders have unanimously agreed a deal on tackling climate change, which would see EU greenhouse-gas emissions drop to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.
Nine eastern European countries had threatened to veto the deal over the proposal to auction off emission permits. Until now, European nations were given a certain number of permits to emit greenhouse gases. Under the next phase of the European trading scheme, the permits were to be auctioned off to the highest bidders, providing an extra incentive for reducing emissions.
The eastern European nations worry that auctioning would cripple their industry, which relies heavily on coal - the most polluting fossil fuel.
Under the final agreement, coal-dependent nations with low GDP per capita will get free permits equal to up to 70% of their current average annual emissions. This "privilege" will cease in 2020.
These companies will also be able to import a higher portion of cheaper emissions offsets from developing countries to help meet EU targets.
The leaders also agreed to earmark 300 million permits - worth between 4.5 billion and 6 billion euros - for carbon capture and storage technology.
Without high-level agreement, the European trading scheme, which underpins the first international carbon-trading market, risked stalling and carbon traders were relieved at the outcome of this week’s summit.
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Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.
The moon’s average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Friday, 12th December 2008, night it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA.
Tides will be higher Friday night, too. Earth’s oceans are pulled by the gravity of the moon and the sun. So when the moon is closer, tides are pulled higher. Scientists call these perigean tides, because the moon’s closest point to Earth is called perigee. The farthest point on the lunar orbit is called apogee.
The moon will rise Friday evening right around sunset, no matter where you are. That’s because of the celestial mechanics that produce a full moon: The moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, so that sunlight hits the full face of the moon and bounces back to our eyes.
At moonrise, the moon will appear even larger than it will later in the night when it’s higher in the sky. This is an illusion that scientists can’t fully explain. Some think it has to do with our perception of things on the horizon vs. stuff overhead.
Try this trick, though: Using a pencil eraser or similar object held at arm’s length, gauge the size of the moon when it’s near the horizon and again later when it’s higher up and seems smaller. You’ll see that when compared to a fixed object, the moon will be the same size in both cases.
You can see all this on each night surrounding the full moon, too, because the moon will be nearly full, rising earlier Thursday night and later Saturday night.
Interestingly, because of the mechanics of all this, the moon is never truly 100 percent full. For that to happen, all three objects have to be in a perfect line, and when that rare circumstance occurs, there is a total eclipse of the moon.
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Archaeologists have found what they say is the oldest brain ever discovered in Britain, or at least the shriveled remnant of one, in a decapitated skull that dates back more than 2,000 years.
Inside the skull, the scientists found "a yellow substance which scans showed to be shrunken, but brain-shaped," according to a University of York statement.
"I’m amazed and excited that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin," said Philip Duffey, a neurologist at York Hospital who scanned the skull.
The researchers do not claim the brain is the oldest in the world, as some news reports suggested.
The skull was found in a muddy pit unearthed during excavations on the site of the University of York’s campus expansion at Heslington East and is thought to have been a ritual offering. Nobody is sure how the brain remained preserved for so long.
Here’s how the noggin was first noticed: York Archaeological Trust dig team member Rachel Cubitt reached in and, while she cleaned the soil-covered skull’s outer surface, "she felt something move inside the cranium. Peering through the base of the skull, she spotted an unusual yellow substance."
"The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare," said Sonia O’Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford. "This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide."
O’Connor called it the oldest brain found in Britain and "one of the earliest worldwide."
One might think the oldest preserved brains would come from Egyptian mummies, but the minds of mummies were typically removed and discarded. "The brain was removed by carefully inserting special hooked instruments up through the nostrils in order to pull out bits of brain tissue," according to an Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on Egyptian mummies.
The mystery of the British brain’s preservation could be cracked with more research. For instance, another oddity is that there was no skin or other tissue remaining, Duffey said.
"I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition," Duffey said.
It is not unheard of for soft biological tissue to be preserved over long periods of time. In 2005, scientists announced they had discovered 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex blood vessels. And the 5,200-year-old "Iceman" mummy, found in 1991 in the European Alps, has yielded a wealth of tissue.
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OLD habits, however brutal, die hard. It’s six years since Egypt banned female genital mutilation but still it continues. And FGM is unlikely to stop as long as religious leaders condone it and parents believe their daughters will otherwise be disadvantaged.
Mohamed Bedaiwy of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio interviewed 3730 Egyptian girls aged 10 to 14. Eighty-five per cent of the girls had been subjected to FGM since it was outlawed, almost two-thirds of them by non-medical personnel.
"Female genital cutting is a deep-rooted practice in Egyptian culture, and it will take more than a law to change it," says Bedaiwy.
His colleagues in Egypt also interviewed the girls’ parents, who said they disobeyed the law to comply with religious and traditional beliefs and curb the sexual drive of their daughters.
There have been reports of punishments meted out to doctors, including fines, imprisonment and suspension of their right to practise, but there’s no record of who and how many.
Counselling parents and religious leaders is the only way to eradicate FGM in Egypt. Paul Van Look of the World Health Organization says that a significant number of families within a community will have to "make a collective, coordinated choice to abandon the practice so that no single girl or family is disadvantaged by the decision".
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Misconception: Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is evil and must be avoided at all costs
First off, MSG is a naturally occuring substance found in things like tomatoes, mushrooms, and seaweed. It was first isolated and presented in pure powder form in 1907 and 1909 respectively. MSG is a flavor enhancer that excites the fifth taste sense umami (the others being salt, sweet, sour, bitter). MSG is to umami, as sugar is to sweet. Another term for umami (and a relatively good description of it) is “savory”. When you add MSG to a bland soup or stock, it can greatly increase the flavor and add a roundness that can not be obtained elsewhere. Most fine chefs will use natural MSG when possible - through the inclusion of tomatoes or mushrooms, but many will also use the powder directly.
It is a myth that MSG makes you ill - thanks to media scares around the world, people have an great horror of MSG, but those self-same people have no problems scoffing chips and other fast-food and pre-packaged foods, almost all of which contain it. The English “ready-made” gravy granules “Bisto” contains a large amount of MSG, as do many seasonings and sauces that are available at the supermarkets of the world. MSG is E number E621 and is labelled as “flavour enhancer 621″ in Australia and New Zealand.
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The whole world is scared of China made "black hearted goods"
Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China?
Let me tell! u ... the first 3 digits of barcode 690.691.692 is made in CHINA.
Do not ever buy it for your own health?
471 is Made in Taiwan
This is a human right to know, but often people are ignoring this and never educate themselves, therefore we have to rescue ourselves, before buying any product in the market. Do Remember this.
00-13: USA & Canada
20-29: In-Store Functions
30-37: France
40-44: Germany
45: Japan (also 49)
46: Russian Federation
471: Taiwan
474: Estonia
475: Latvia
477: Lithuania
479: Sri Lanka
480: Philippines
482: Ukraine
484: Moldova
485: Armenia
486: Georgia
487: Kazakhstan
489: Hong Kong
49: Japan (JAN-13)
50: United Kingdom
520: Greece
528: Lebanon
529: Cyprus
531: Macedonia
535: Malta
539: Ireland
54: Belgium & Luxembourg
560: Portugal
569: Iceland
57: Denmark
590: Poland
594: Romania
599: Hungary
600 & 601: South Africa
609: Mauritius
611: Morocco
613: Algeria
619: Tunisia
622: Egypt
625: Jordan
626: Iran
64: Finland
690-692: China
70: Norway
729: Israel
73: Sweden
740: Guatemala
741: El Salvador
742: Honduras
743: Nicaragua
744: Costa Rica
746: Dominican Republic
750: Mexico
759: Venezuela
76: Switzerland
770: Colombia
773: Uruguay
775: Peru
777: Bolivia
779: Argentina
780: Chile
784: Paraguay
785: Peru
786: Ecuador
789: Brazil
80 - 83: Italy
84: Spain
850: Cuba
858: Slovakia
859: Czech Republic
860: Yugoslavia
869: Turkey
87: Netherlands
880: South Korea
885: Thailand
888: Singapore
890: India
893: Vietnam
899: Indonesia
90 & 91: Austria
93: Australia
94: New Zealand
955: Malaysia
977: International Standard Serial Number for Periodicals (ISSN)
978: International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN)
979: International Standard Music Number (ISMN)
980: Refund receipts
981 & 982: Common Currency Coupons
99: Coupons
With more and more milk products from China and Taiwan having problem. We really got to check where the things are produced. Here is a way to differentiate Taiwan made products and China made products : by looking at first three digits of its Bar Code.
If the 1st 3 digits are 690, 691 or 692 - China made
If the 1st 3 digits are 471 - Taiwan made
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Unveiled on Monday by the USB Implementers Forum, the USB 3.0 spec can theoretically support data-transfer speeds of up to 4.8Gbps - 10 times the speed provided by USB 2.0.
The new standard, also known as SuperSpeed USB, is also expected to be more power-efficient than its predecessor.
"SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology," Jeff Ravencraft, the president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the industry group that promotes USB technology, said in a statement on Monday. "Today’s consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone, from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user."
The USB-IF hopes USB 3.0 will be built into computers from late 2009, with consumer products using the specification starting to appear the following year - or roughly a decade after USB 2.0 made its appearance. According to the industry group, the first such products will include external hard drives, flash drives, digital cameras and personal media players.
The specification was designed to be backwards-compatible with earlier iterations of USB.
Companies that were instrumental in developing USB 3.0 include Intel, HP, Microsoft, ST-NXP Wireless, NEC and Texas Instruments. Intel had taken the lead in the specification’s development, but only made a draft specification available to companies such as AMD and Nvidia in August of this year. Prior to that release, there had been concerns that the USB 3.0 specification would be forked into divergent versions.SuperSpeed USB 3.0 unleashed
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A new front has opened in the ongoing arms race between Apple and iPhone hackers, with one hacker group making the iPhone boot with a Linux 2.6 kernel.
The announcement of the successful kernel porting was made on the Linux on the iPhone blog, complete with instructions and source code.
Although a bootloader, kernel and a Busybox terminal are able to be loaded - many features of the iPhone remain unimplemented: touch screen, sound, accelerometer, and networking. Input to the terminal must be made via a USB interface from another device that the iPhone is attached to.
The group that ported the kernel is derived from the iPhone DevTeam group which has been responsible for jailbreaking previous iPhone software.
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A UK-led mission to put a satellite in orbit around the Moon which could one day enable lunar colonists to use mobile phones to communicate with each other has inched a step closer to blast off.
The British National Space Centre (BNSC) has announced it will undertake a technical feasibility study of the MoonLITE mission. The study will report with a full mission schedule and costs late next year. Depending on the outcome, the Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecom Experiment mission could launch by around 2014, the BNSC said.
The plan for the mission is to put a satellite in orbit around the Moon for use as a telecoms station, relaying data from a network of geophysical instruments on the Moon’s surface back to Earth.
The instruments will gather data on the strength and frequency of moonquakes and the thickness of the crust and core. They will also be able to determine whether organic material or water is present in the Moon’s polar regions.
In addition to relaying this scientific data back to Earth, the satellite system should also ensure a full four-bar mobile signal for lunar colonists living in a Moon base which NASA wants to build after 2020.
Minister of state for science and innovation, Lord Drayson, said the mission could resolve fundamental questions about the composition of the Moon.
The BNSC said no decision will be made to proceed with, build or launch MoonLITE until the study has reported its findings.
A tender process for the feasibility study contract will run until March 2009. The study itself is expected to take nine months and will be supported by NASA - which is assessing any potential contribution it could make to the science and technology of the mission.
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At the 150th commemoration of the Irish Famine held at Cork, Ireland, I vividly recall the mayor of the city telling the audience: "How barbarian was the society then that at a time when people were dying of hunger and starvation, corn was being loaded in ships for export to neighbouring Britain." Nearly 160 years after that great tragedy, the world is preparing a fertile ground for yet another, more sinister and barbaric act. This time, the world is witnessing a race to invest in overseas farmlands and turn them into food estates.
In the name of food security, what is worrisome is that the global food production and distribution channel is actually getting into the hands of a few international agribusiness companies with ties to hedge funds. With large populations being displaced world over from such land takeovers, and with World Bank aggressively promoting it, control over the food chain is increasingly being passed into the hands of private investment. Many of the food and financial companies investing in farmlands around the world are also bringing in their own farm workers, production technology and equipment.
It is happening around the world. In India, Karnataka is preparing to lift restrictions on purchase of farm land in what appears to be a misguided attempt to attract investments. Meanwhile, about 15 companies, led by the public-sector State Trading Corporation (STC), and including Gujarat Ambuja, Ruchi Soya industries and Jhunjhunwala Vanaspati Ltd., are in the process of leasing 10,000 hectares of productive farmlands in Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil in Latin America, mainly to cultivate soybean and oilseeds. Indian companies are also moving into Burma to undertake production of pulses, and buying palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Australia and Canada are next on the land shopping list.
National laws are being suitably amended. The Indian Ministry of Food and Agriculture is backing the outsourcing initiative. The Reserve Bank of India through the Exim Bank is contemplating a change in the existing laws to provide loans to these companies to purchase land abroad. Not only in India, national laws are also being rewritten elsewhere - in Argentina, Mongolia, Australia, Russia, and many other nations - to facilitate the purchase of land overseas or allow foreign companies to buy land within their own borders.
In Pakistan, now in the throes of a food crisis, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani showed exuberance after his return from a state-visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-June. After all, in exchange for the desperately needed foreign investment, he had reportedly offered to sell thousands of hectares of productive farmlands. Meanwhile, Qatar is preparing to outsource its food production to Pakistan’s Punjab, where nearly 25,000 villages are faced with displacement. Saudi Arabia is also planning to acquire a 1.6 million hectares food estate in Merauke in Indonesia to produce rice for export back home.
Saudi Arabia is not the only Gulf country looking for land elsewhere. A Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been constituted - with membership from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates - scouting for overseas land in return for investments. Land deals have already been struck with Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Thailand and Burma in Asia; Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey in central Asia/Europe; and Sudan and Uganda in Africa. Realising that oil revenue alone cannot feed their populations, as seen in the recent global food crisis when food disappeared from the supermarket shelf, Gulf countries are investing for future food security needs.
China is emerging as a major player in this land grab. After having increasingly divested its farm population from agriculture and moving them into the cities, China is now on a land buying spree. With some 30 land deals already known to have been signed, mostly in Africa, Central Asia, Australia and the Philippines, China has also prepared an agricultural policy on outsourcing food production. Most of these deals are being executed in a hush-hush manner. Interestingly, while China is looking for land outside its territory, agribusiness companies from Japan, South Korea and America are taking control over its own agribusiness activities
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The population shift in China - pushing farmers out of agriculture and moving them into the cities - has taken a heavy toll of the social fabric, marred by social unrest, often bloody. China Daily, the official organ of the Chinese government, had reported a massive increase in rural protests - from 10,000 a year some 11 years back to over 75,000 in 2005-06, which means roughly 250 protests a day. Rapid industrialisation in the countryside had played havoc with a sustainable farming system, thereby necessitating the search for farmland outside the country. India too, in a blind race to catch up with China, is following the same faulty prescription.
Egypt, which recently was faced with food riots, stirred a hornet’s nest, when it was divulged that a deal was underway to lease 840,000 hectares - amounting to 2.2 per cent of Uganda’s farm land - for wheat and maize production to be shipped back. Ironically, at the same time, Egyptian farmers in Qena district were fighting a long-drawn battle to recover 1600 hectares of land owned by a Japanese agribusiness giant, Kobebussan. Many other countries face the same dilemma - while they are looking for land elsewhere, their own farmlands are being taken away by foreign companies.
According to a report, Seized: The 2008 Land Grab for Food and Financial Security prepared by the Barcelona-based GRAIN, food corporates from Japan - including Asahi, Itochu, Sumitomo and Mitsubishi - have between 2006-08 leased and purchased land in China, Brazil, Africa, and central Asia for organic food production. No wonder, with Japan not allowing corporates to own farmland, these companies are looking for greener pastures everywhere. South Korea, where the government is supporting outsourcing, is buying land in pristine Mongolia, thereby threatening one of the world’s naturally endowed ecosystems.
Financial companies and others have even been using bailout packages from various governments to move into this land grab. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are eyeing a takeover of China’s livestock industry. Morgan Stanley has purchased 40,000 hectares in the Ukraine, where Landkom, the British investment group has also bought 100,000 hectares. The two Swedish investing firms, Black Earth Farming and Alpcot-Agro, have purchased 331,000 hectares and 128,000 hectares of farm land in Russia, respectively. South Korean giant Daewoo has brought in the mother of all land-grabbing deals; this month it unveiled a plan to farm some 1.3 million acres in Madagascar - half the size of Belgium - to produce corn and palm oil.
The political economy of food is certainly being rewritten, with grave implications in store. The global financial meltdown had privatised the profits, and socialised the losses. Outsourcing food production will ensure food security for the investing country, and leave behind a trail of hunger, starvation and food scarcities for the native populations. Only the environmental tab of the highly intensive farming - devastated soils, dry aquifers, and an ecological system runied by chemical infestation - will be left for the host country to pick up.
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According to a University of Kentucky study that included 132 women who sought breast lifts or augmentation, in direct contrast to what many women may believe, breastfeeding does not cause saggy breasts.
It is noteworthy of mention that most of the women in question had been pregnant at least once and nearly 60 percent had breastfed at least once.
The BBC News reports that researchers analyzed each woman’s medical history, height and weight, smoking habits, and pre-pregnancy bra cup size. They found no difference in extent of breast sagginess between women who’d breastfed and those who hadn’t.
Nonetheless, it should be pointed out that the study authors did conclude that pregnancy itself was a factor.
The degree of sagginess increased each time a woman was pregnant. Smoking was another factor that contributed to breast sagginess.
To quote study author Dr. Brian Rinker, the BBC News reported that he says: "Smoking breaks down a protein in the skin called elastin, which gives youthful skin its elastic appearance and supports the breast."
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A new study finalizes research that changed guidelines around the world regarding when HIV-infected babies should begin drug therapy.
Based on preliminary findings released last year, several health agencies like the World Health Organization now advise doctors to begin HIV treatment early in babies, instead of waiting because of fear that the medications will do more harm than good.
"Given good health care, these babies can survive and grow up to become parents themselves," said study lead author Avy Violari, who directs pediatric clinical research at the University of Witwatersrand’s Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, remains a major health problem for babies worldwide, with an estimated 500,000 HIV-infected infants born in 2006.
In 2007, researchers assigned 377 HIV-positive infants in South Africa to one of three different HIV treatments. The babies, aged 6 to 12 weeks, began either immediate drug therapy for 40 or 96 weeks, or weren’t given medication until symptoms appeared.
The researchers stopped the trial in 2007, because survival rates were greatly improved among those children who received early treatment. Infant mortality was reduced by 76%, and HIV progression by 75%, the study said.
Death rates among those who got early treatment were similar to those among infants who weren’t HIV-infected, said study co-author Dr. Diana Gibb, a professor of epidemiology at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit in London.
After the trial was stopped, those babies assigned to receive delayed treatment got early treatment instead.
The initial findings were released in July 2007. The study confirming those findings was published in the Nov. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Violari said HIV-infected babies are at higher risk of dying even if they show no symptoms of infection. And laboratory tests don’t do a good job of predicting who will end up getting sick, Violari said.
"Young infants are very different than adults or even children in their immune function and in their susceptibility to other dangerous illnesses," Violari said. "That is why they need treatment immediately once diagnosed."
Early treatment not only combats HIV sooner, it has other positive effects, Violari said. "Early treatment protects the brain from HIV, so not only do they survive, but they are likely to have less developmental problems than other babies who didn’t get early treatment," Violari said.
Still, early treatment isn’t a cure for the epidemic of HIV among babies in developing countries. "It will be much easier to implement these findings in the West, where few babies are HIV infected," Violari said. "In many developing countries, many infants are not identified early enough or are identified too late or die before they even had an HIV test."
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Google Friend Connect is now available in beta. This service lets webmasters add social features to their sites by simply copying and pasting a few snippets of code. The company explains ’Friend Connect’ makes it easy for anyone to sign in to a website, share a little bit about themselves through a personal profile, discover other people with similar interests, invite their contacts and interact with friends.
The Friend Connect service also lets users log in using an existing account from Google, Yahoo!, AOL or OpenID. Similarly, one can choose to either establish a new profile or use profiles and friend sources from other social networks that have opened up their services, like Plaxo and orkut. Friend Connect also includes YouTube videos in your comments.
"Friend Connect’s goal is to facilitate an open social Web. Using open standards like OpenID and OAuth, Friend Connect makes it simple for people to instantly interact with one another on the sites that they already love to visit. Additionally, websites that use Friend Connect become OpenSocial containers, capable of running applications created by the OpenSocial developer community," concludes Google.
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Every Sunday morning, the renowned Delhi-based Islamic scholar and thinker Maulana Wahiduddin Khan addresses a group of his disciples, speaking on various issues. His lecture on November 30 focussed on the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. This is a translation of the lecture by Yoginder Sikand, with some slight modifications that were needed to clarify certain points.
On November 26, Mumbai witnessed the worst kind of terror attack. Ten terrorists entered several buildings and indiscriminately fired at people, leaving behind several dead and wounded.
According to a tradition, at the time of the Prophet there was a man whose only concern was to speak negatively of the Prophet and spread wrong ideas about him. The son of this man became very angry and asked the Prophet to allow him to kill his father. The Prophet told him not to do that, as then people would say that the Prophet allowed killing among his people. The lesson which can be inferred from this incident is that anything, which defames the name of Islam should not be done. These incidents are mentioned in books but people fail to infer or draw lessons from them as they do not engage in deep study.
In the Jewish Talmud there are many stories. In one incident, the Prophet Moses prayed to God: "O! God, take anything away from my followers but do not take away their wisdom." God replied: "O! Moses, if we decide to take away something from a community, it is their wisdom that we take away."
Today, many Muslims have lost their wisdom, as is evident from the events which have taken place recently. Those Muslims who are said to be involved in terrorism in Mumbai gained nothing. In Palestine, the Arabs have been fighting for the last 60 years and have not achieved anything. In many places Muslims have resorted to suicide bombings, although suicide is unlawful in Islam. This is a result of deterioration and lack of wisdom. Those who are behind these suicide attacks are not afraid of accountability and the fact they will have to stand in front of God after death.
What is the reason for this madness and how did it originate?
The reason for this madness is hatred. Hate can make a man do anything. Hate began from Satan. When God created Adam, He asked the angels and Satan to bow before Him. Satan however, did not bow and consequently, God said to him: "You and your followers will go to hell." Satan had developed such hate for man that despite knowing that he will be cast into hell, he did not obey God’s command. Hate is so blinding that it can take one to hell.
I have studied in Muslim seminaries, madrassas and have participated in numerous Muslim gatherings, and in many of these places hatred and pride is instilled in the minds of Muslims. They are taught: ’We are the caliphs and vice-regent of God on earth."
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TO CRUSH the virus, test everyone for HIV and treat those who have it immediately.
That’s the conclusion of Charles Gilks of the World Health Organization, and his colleagues, who calculated the impact that such action would have in South Africa, which has a very high prevalence of HIV. They worked out that treating everyone with the virus with antiretroviral drugs would reduce incidence from 20 per 1000 people to just 1 per 1000 within 10 years. That’s because the drugs keep levels of the virus in the blood down, making people less infectious - even if they have unsafe sex.
Although giving these drugs to vastly more people would initially be very expensive, Gilks calculates that within 20 years, the costs would be less than continuing with the existing strategy of only treating people who already have symptoms, as many more people would have HIV by that time.
The strategy would have the most impact in the developing world, where prevention is geared towards safe sex and circumcisions, rather than expensive drugs.
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Free wireless internet access for everyone in the US could soon become a reality, but it all depends on the outcome of a vote at the US agency charged with regulating telecommunications.
The current chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, is championing the proposal, which would see the winner of an auction of the currently public radio spectrum having to set some aside for free internet access.
Were that plan to become reality, it could bring the benefits of internet connectivity to groups currently being left behind by the broadband age and shake up the market for mobile wireless devices, like cellphones and laptops. The scheme faces several hurdles, however.
The cellphone industry is arguing that requiring a company to provide free internet is not a feasible business model for most firms. Few would fancy their chances at funding the necessary infrastructure in a recession-hit economy, they argue.
Free-speech advocates are also wary, because it has been made clear that the operator would be obliged to block pornography and other offensive content from the service.
"Everybody likes the concept - free broadband, free access to the internet - but in practice, the way the model is set up, it may present problems," said Ben Scott, policy director of advocacy group Free Press.
Wireless network provider T-Mobile contends that the free internet proposal would lead to interference with the adjacent wireless spectrum, for which it paid $4.2 billion in 2006 to bolster its cellphone services.
The FCC’s office of engineering and technology has said, though, that there would be no significant interference with other airwaves.
Martin, a Republican, must now persuade his four fellow commissioners to back his idea. Analysts say the two other Republicans are likely to oppose the proposal.
The two Democrats that complete the commission have previously sided with Martin, but their position is now uncertain. Since they stand to gain more power when president-elect Barack Obama takes office in January, they may decide to start calling the shots early and make a stand.
Obama has already appointed a review team to reform the FCC, and will also pick a new chairman to lead the agency.
So, Martin is running out of time to fulfil his dream of free wireless internet for all US citizens. The upcoming meeting, likely to be scheduled for 18 December, will probably be his last chance.
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Even if we turn to clean energy to reduce carbon emissions, the planet might carry on warming anyway due to the heat released into the environment by our ever-increasing consumption of energy.
That’s the contentious possibility raised by Nick Cowern and Chihak Ahn of the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at Newcastle University, UK. They argue that human energy consumption could begin to contribute significantly to global warming a century from now.
Cowern and Ahn considered an emissions scenario proposed by James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and others. Under this scenario, which envisages greenhouse gases being cut significantly through phasing out coal over the next 40 years, Cowern and Ahn calculate that the greenhouse effect will start to diminish by 2050, stabilising the climate.
But things may not go according to plan. The energy we generate and consume ultimately ends up being dissipated into the environment as heat. This input is relatively small today but might become significant in the next century, Cowern and Ahn suggest.
Their calculations show that if global energy use increases at about 1 per cent per year - slower than in the recent past - then by 2100, the heat dissipated could become significant enough to cancel out the benefits of cuts in emissions.
Being aware of this potential problem should inform what types of clean energy we adopt, say the pair. Nuclear power has the most harmful effect in that it releases energy that is otherwise locked up. Solar power is better as it exploits energy that the Earth is absorbing anyway, though Cowern and Ahn point out that solar cells tend to absorb more energy from the sun’s rays than Earth’s surface does, some of which ends up warming the local environment. One way round this could be to develop solar cells which absorb only the most energetic frequencies in the sun’s rays. This could be done using "wide band gap" photovoltaic cells, containing layers that reflect low-frequency rays back. In the meantime, the cleanest energy options are wind and tidal power, say the researchers, as these tap into energy flows already present on Earth without significantly affecting them.
Cowern and Ahn’s argument is logical, says Jonathan Gregory, a climate expert at the University of Reading, UK. "Human energy dissipation is currently small compared with other factors, but you can imagine it becoming much bigger." However, he adds that energy production would need to grow significantly for the effect to kick in. "It’s fair to ask if we could ever produce so much power," he says.
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Tainted animal feed. Spinach scares. Peanut butter recalls. Food safety has been big news lately, which is making many people think twice about what’s on their plates.
While food safety controls are being tweaked, here are 15 tips on making your food safer, from the market to the table.
1. Consider your source. Eating locally grown food is becoming more popular, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safer than supermarket produce.
Just because you grow it in a farm down the street, it doesn’t make it any safer or worse than any other produce that you get.
At farmers markets, you may get the chance to meet and talk with the people who produced your food.
Farmers markets have become more common, with 4,385 U.S. farmers markets in 2006, up from 1,755 farmers markets in 1994, according to the USDA.
Eating food shipped from overseas? The melamine-tainted animal feed ingredients came from China. But that doesn’t mean that all imported food is suspect.
2. Map your supermarket route. Don’t cruise the store aisles aimlessly. Gather nonperishable items first, fresh or frozen goods last. That strategy minimizes the time that perishable goods sit in your shopping cart instead of in a freezer or refrigerator.
3. Be choosy. Select fresh produce that isn’t bruised or damaged. Check that eggs aren’t cracked. Look for a clean meat or fish counter and a clean salad bar. Don’t buy bulging or dented cans, cracked jars, or jars with loose or bulging lids. If fresh-cut produce (such as half a watermelon or bagged salad mixes) is on your shopping list, choose those that are refrigerated or surrounded by ice.
4. Pack it up. At the grocery store, bag fresh fruits and vegetables separately from meat, poultry, and seafood products.
Bring an ice chest to keep frozen or perishable items if it will take more than an hour to get those items home.
No ice chest? If it’s hot outside, put the groceries in the air-conditioned passenger area of your car instead of putting them in the trunk, which may not have air-conditioning.
5. Keep your kitchen clean. Wash your cutting boards, countertops, refrigerator, pots, and utensils regularly in hot, soapy water, especially after they’ve been in contact with raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
6. Check your cutting boards. They shouldn’t have lots of cracks and crevices where bacteria can lurk.
7. Sanitize. The FDA recommends periodically sanitizing your cutting boards, countertops, and kitchen sink drain with a homemade mixture of one teaspoon of chlorine bleach to one quart of water.
Sponges and dishcloths can house bacteria, so wash them weekly in hot water in the washing machine.
8. Store your food properly. Refrigerate frozen and perishable items as soon as possible.
Don’t store foods near household chemicals or cleaning products. Some produce -- like onions and potatoes -- don’t need to go in the refrigerator, but don’t store them under the sink, where they could be damaged by leaky pipes.
9. Check the refrigerator and freezer temperature. Set the refrigerator temperature to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, set the freezer to zero degrees Fahrenheit.
Use a refrigerator thermometer to check those temperatures periodically.
10. Wash your hands. Before you handle food, lather up with soap and hot water, washing your hands for at least 20 seconds. Repeat after handling produce, meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs.
11. Wash fruits and vegetables in running water. A small scrub brush may help, but don’t use soap or other detergents to wash produce.
What about produce washes? "All of these solutions and washes may have some applications but studies show that washing with water is as safe as anything else," says Pillai, who calls water the "most effective, the safest, and the cheapest" way to wash produce.
12. Thaw foods in the refrigerator, not on the countertop. It may take longer, but it’s safer.
13. Cook foods thoroughly. Use a meat thermometer to make sure meat is fully cooked. Never put cooked meats on an unwashed plate or platter that has held raw meat.
14. Store leftovers safely. Refrigerate leftovers in tight containers as soon as possible and use them within three days. When in doubt, throw it out.
15. Maintain perspective. "There’s no such thing as a zero risk," says Pillai. "There’s no such thing as a sterile product."
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In women, factors such as hormonal changes, diet, illness, or use of certain medications can trigger the growth of excess or unwanted hair.
Excess hair (hirsutism) in women often appears in the places where men have body hair, such as the upper lip and chin, the chest (including around the nipples), the tops of the shoulders and the lower abdomen. The excess hair is usually coarse and dark (different from the fine hair that some women have on their upper lip, chin, breasts and stomach). The hairs also grow longer than normal so, for example, hairs on the upper lip may grow to 1 cm long instead of remaining short, fine and fair.
To remove or minimize its appearance, try follow these suggestions:
Bleach the hair so that it is less visible.
Shave, wax, pluck or chemically remove the hair.
Use electrolysis, a procedure in which an electric current is used to prevent hair from growing. But several treatments may be required.
Remove hair with laser treatments.
Lose weight. This can affect hormone levels, and in turn, reduce hair growth.
Electrolysis is probably the best method of getting rid of the unwanted hair long term (possibly permanently). Electrolysis is a slow process, because each hair is dealt with separately and it may take months or years of treatment before all the unwanted hairs disappear.
A fine needle is inserted into the hair root, which is then destroyed by a chemical reaction and by heat.
Electrolysis treatment can be uncomfortable. It is important that you use a qualified practitioner.
Treatments are given 2 weeks apart (to allow the skin to recover), and the whole process may take 6-9 months.
Check that the practitioner uses new, disposable (not simply re-sterilized) needles.
If it is too expensive for you, contact your local college of further education - they may have training courses for beauticians where you could be treated by trainees who will be supervised and have good equipment.
Home kits for electrolysis are not a good idea; the current used is too low to destroy the hair root, so the effect is similar to plucking.
Electrolysis is unsuitable for anyone with a heart pacemaker.
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