Website on sexual health right launched

 IMPHAL, Aug 14 : A new website which deals with issues and problems related with sexual reproductive health right of youngsters between 14 and 28 years of age was launched today.

To mark launching of the website, a function was organised at Manipur Press Club under the joint aegis of SASO, AHSHA and FDDUO with support from the HIV/AIDS Alliance India.

The function was graced by NYKS Manipur Zonal Director Jackei Ruivah as chief guest, MACS (IEC) Deputy Director Dr RK Rosie as guest of honour and SASO General Secretary Y Sashikumar as president.

After launching the website www.sasoactionproject.org, Jackei Ruivah said that youth should be allowed to narrate their personnel experiences about their problems and issues as well as their wishes and aspirations before formulating any youth policy.

If the youth policy is formulated based on the needs and problems of youth, such policy would be beneficial to the targeted group and it would easier to implement.

Now that the website has been launched, youngsters can express all their problems, wishes, aspirations and suggestions without any difficulty. In this way, policy makers would find a lot easier to understand problems as well as aspirations of the youth, said Jackei Ruivah.

Dr RK Rosie said that the Manipuri society is oblivious to most of the problems and issues being endured by youngsters.

Very little has been taught about their sexual reproductive health rights and youngsters often find themselves bereft of adequate knowledge about the subject.

Almost all the hospitals in Manipur have no facility for youngsters to consult experts/doctors about their sexual reproductive health which means youngsters are facing lots of problems and difficulties.

Appreciating the initiative to open adolescent friendly health clinics under the National Rural Health Mission, Rosie said that the website launched today would go a long way in addressing the problems being encountered by the youth.

Y Sashikumar said that there is no comprehensive youth policy either at the State level or the national level.

For the State of Manipur, Youth Affairs and Sports Department has been working to frame a youth policy but the issue of sexual reproductive health right is out of the ambit of this policy.

Underscoring the huge roles of youth in any nation, Sashikumar called upon all to guide the youngsters on the right path.

~Sangai Express

E-Kiss (internet ainthawka in Kiss-na)

Khawvel thiemna a hung insang peia, mihriem dit zawng hai khawm a changkai ve peia. Internet khawvela chenghaiin ei sawr tangkai le thilthaw theitak tak hieng e-mail le video chat hai khawm dittawk ta lovin, hmun hla taka um inngaizawng hai in fawp theina ding E-Kiss (internet fetlenga in fawp theina hmangruo a nih) chu Japanese Scientist Nobuhiro Takahasi chun a siem suok tah niin Daily Mail chanchinbu chun 2011, May thla khan alo hril taa. Hi hmangruo hi Kajimoto Research Laboratory Japan ramah siem le ensin mek a nih. Khawvel ram changkang a police haiin an hmang hlak, Breathalyser ( Hi hmangruo hi, inrui sunga motor khal hai an manna hmangruo a nia, zu an inruia, an bau an ka a, zu rim an nam deu chun an hriet thei nghal hlak a nih). Hi e-Kiss khawm hi chu Breathalyser sin thaw dan entawna siem suok chu a nih.
E-kiss hi Naute nene nekna anga hmuom ding ani a, chu hmangruo chu a hmangtu ding mi pahni hai chun an nei veve a ngai ding a nih. Chu hmangruo an nei hnunga Internet fetlenga in kiss theina software pakhat an nei veve a ngai bawk. E-kiss hmangruo nau nene nekna anga siem chu hmuom anta, khingtieng ainthawka an lei le hmur in a hung suk vir dan ang ang in khingtieng panga mi khawm alo in vir ve pei ding a nih. Chu chun in kiss huna lei le lei intawk tir ang'n an lo hlimpui/inhawi anlo ti thei ve ding a nih. A tak taka in kiss ang chu ni naw sienkhawm, a ang thei dan ang taka siem chu a nih. Hi thil hi internet fetlenga taksa inthem/intawk theina tienga hmathuoitu (full person-to-person web experience) pakhat a lo ni ta a nih.

A siem dawktu pa Nobuhiro Takahashi chun hun sawtnawte hnunga hi hmangruo hi la suk changkang ni vat ata, in fawp hun, a zaia infawp le nasa deua in fawp hai, inthuok dan hai, thil inhnik hriet theina, lei a hul le hullo hai chen khawm hriet thei ala ni ding thu a hril. Hi hmangruo hi mipui vantlang hmang thei dinga zawr suok vat beisei a nih.

Ahnuoia video hi an demonstrate na a nih.

'Red Deer Cave' people, possibly a new human species?

[caption id="attachment_7821" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="An artist's reconstruction from Chinese fossils illustrates what may be a newly discovered human species, experts say."][/caption]

Newly identified partial skeletons of "mysterious humans" excavated at two caves in southwest China display an unique mix of primitive and modern anatomical features, scientists say.

"Their skulls are anatomically unique. They look very different to all modern humans, whether alive today or in Africa 150,000 years ago," said evolutionary biologist Darren Curnoe, the lead author of the study, from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The fossils found at excavation sites in Longlin Cave, in Guangxi Province, and the Maludong Cave, in Yunnan Province, indicate that the stone-aged people had short, flat faces and lacked a modern chin. They had thick skull bones, a rounded brain case, prominent brow ridges and a moderate-size brain.

They were dubbed the "Red Deer Cave" people because scientists say these prehistoric people hunted extinct red deer and cooked them in the cave at Maludong, where four of the five partial skeletal fossils were found.

Whether the Red Deer Cave people are indeed a new species indicating a new evolutionary line or whether they are a very early population of modern humans remains a controversial topic of discussion among scientists.

The team of Australian and Chinese researchers remains cautiously optimistic when it comes to classifying what they have unearthed.

"The evidence is quite fairly balanced at the moment. It's weighted towards the idea that the Red Deer Cave people might represent a new population, possibly a new species," Curnoe said.

Details of the discovery are published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

Archeological evidence dates these prehistoric hunters and gatherers to 14,500 to 11,500 years ago, indicating that for a sliver of time in East Asia, the Red Deer Cave people may have shared the landscape with modern-looking people who displayed the beginnings of farming.

Despite Asia being the largest subcontinent, the fossil record for human evolution remains slim. The vast majority of prehistoric archeology has focused on Europe and Africa, scientists say.

"Understanding the fossil records of East Asia is the missing link to our overall understanding of human evolution," Curnoe said.

The Maludong site had actually been excavated the first time by the Chinese in 1989. At that time, several bags of fossils were found, but it was only in 2008 that the site was studied and the remains analyzed by Curnoe and his team of researchers.

The age of the cave sites was determined by collecting sediment samples and tested using radioactive carbon dating.

At the Longlin Cave, the remains of a lower jaw set in a bed of sediment were found by a geologist back in 1979 and rediscovered in a the basement laboratory of one of the Chinese researchers in 2009. The bones first had to be removed from the sediment rock. Then, using a CT Scan 3D, models of the skull were made, showing both the prominent primitive and modern features.

Due to the uncertainty surrounding the human fossil record, paleoanthropologists say, more conclusive DNA testing is required.

Initial DNA testing conducted on the fossils did not show evidence of human DNA, but Curnoe and his team will push forward.

"If we are successful in extracting DNA, it will give us a really accurate understanding of precisely who these people are and where they might fit in the human evolutionary tree," he said.

"We are trying to understand the common story. What unites us all? Where do we come from? In understanding our evolutionary past, this might help us understand where we are today and where we might be going," Curnoe added.

~cnn

'Doomsday' ticks closer on nuclear, climate fears

[caption id="attachment_6352" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists created the "Doomsday Clock" as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end. Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the "Doomsday clock" one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists said Tuesday."][/caption]

Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the "Doomsday clock" one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists said Tuesday.

 

"It is now five minutes to midnight," said Allison Macfarlan, chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end.

The last decision by the group, which includes a host of Nobel Prize winning scientists, moved the clock a minute further away from midnight in 2010 on hopes of global nuclear cooperation and the election of President Barack Obama.

However, Tuesday's decision pushes the clock back to the time where it was in 2007.

"It is clear that the change that appeared to be happening at the time is not happening, not materializing," said co-chair Lawrence Krauss.

"And faced today with the clear and present dangers of nuclear proliferation, climate change and the continued challenge to find new and sustainable and safe sources of energy, business as usual reigns the norm among world leaders."

The clock reached its most perilous point in 1953, at two minutes to midnight, after the United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.

It was a far-flung 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 after the two signed the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announced further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

Increasing nuclear tensions, refusal to engage in global action on climate change, and a growing tendency to reject science when it comes to major world concerns were cited as key reasons for the latest tick on the clock.

The nuclear accident at Japan's Fukushima plant also highlighted the volatility of relying on nuclear power in areas prone to natural disasters, scientists said.

Robert Socolow, a member of the BAS science and security board and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, said a common theme emerged in the scientists' talks this year.

He cited a "worrisome trend, notably in the United States but in many other countries, to reject or diminish the significance of what science says is the characteristic of a problem."

"The world is in a pickle. Many people want to live better than they live now on a planet of finite size," he added.

The group said it was heartened by a series of world protest movements, including the Arab spring, the global Occupy demonstrations and protests in Russia which show people are seeking a greater say in their future.

However, there is plenty of uncertainty in the nuclear realm, and even a renewed START deal between Russia and the United States has not achieved the progress scientists would like, said BAS board member Jayantha Dhanapala.

"At a time when there are going to be elections in the United States, in Russia, in France, and a change of leadership in China, there is some uncertainty therefore about the nuclear weapons programs of these countries and the policies that the new leadership will follow," said Dhanapala, a former UN under-secretary general for disarmament affairs.

"The world still has approximately over 20,000 deployed nuclear weapons with enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants several times over," he added.

"We also have the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by terrorists and non-state actors and therefore the problem of nuclear weapon use either by accident or by design.... remains a very serious problem."

Executive director of the group, Kennette Benedict, highlighted the dangers of a continued world reliance on fossil fuels, noting that power plants built in this decade will spew pollution for the next 50 years.

"The global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in the Earth's climate," she said.

"The actions taken in the next few years will set us on a path that will be extremely difficult to redirect."

Krauss added that the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has reminded scientists of the risks of trading one form of energy for another in a risky environment.

"With damage to a nuclear reactor in Japan, the complex issue of the relationship between nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons and sustainable energy production without global warming has become even more complex."

Towards midnight: Doomsday clock since 1947

The movements of the symbolic Doomsday Clock, set up by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a prominent group of international scientists, together with reasons cited.

- 1947: Seven minutes to midnight

The clock first appears as a symbol of nuclear danger.

- 1949: Three minutes to midnight

The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

- 1953: Two minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.

- 1960: Seven minutes to midnight

Growing public understanding that nuclear weapons made war between the major powers irrational amid greater international scientific cooperation and efforts to aid poor nations.

- 1963: Twelve minutes to midnight

The US and Soviet signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty "provides the first tangible confirmation of what has been the Bulletin's conviction in recent years -- that a new cohesive force has entered the interplay of forces shaping the fate of mankind."

- 1968: Seven minutes to midnight

France and China acquire nuclear weapons; wars rage in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam; world military spending increases while development funds shrink.

- 1969: Ten minutes to midnight

The US Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

- 1972: Twelve minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

- 1974: Nine minutes to midnight

SALT talks reach an impasse; India develops a nuclear weapon.

- 1980: Seven minutes to midnight

The deadlock in US-Soviet arms talks continues; nationalistic wars and terrorist actions increase; the gulf between rich and poor nations grows wider.

- 1981: Four minutes to midnight

Both superpowers develop more weapons for fighting a nuclear war. Terrorist actions, repression of human rights, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Poland and South Africa add to world tension.

- 1984: Three minutes to midnight

The arms race accelerates.

- 1988: Six minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces; superpower relations improve; more nations actively oppose nuclear weapons.

- 1990: Ten minutes to midnight

The Cold War ends as the Iron Curtain falls.

- 1991: Seventeen minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union sign the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announce further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

- 1995: Fourteen minutes to midnight

Further arms reductions stall while global military spending continues at Cold War levels. Risks of nuclear "leakage" from poorly guarded former Soviet facilities increase.

- 1998: Nine minutes to midnight

India and Pakistan "go public" with nuclear tests. The United States and Russia cannot agree on further deep reductions in their nuclear stockpiles.

- 2002: Seven minutes to midnight

The United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Terrorists seek to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons.

- 2007: Five minutes to midnight.

North Korea's recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons," and the continued presence of 26,000 US and Russian nuclear weapons are cited.

- 2010: Six minutes to midnight.

President Barack Obama is hailed for helping to pull the world back from nuclear or environmental catastrophe, and leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to reduce their arsenals for the first time since 1945.

- 2012: Five minutes to midnight.

Global failure to take action against climate change, mounting nuclear tensions and an increasing tendency to reject science are cited as reasons for moving the clock.

~(c) 2012 AFP (physorg.com)

A mobile battery life of 15 years!

LONDON, JAN 10 (IANS): SpareOne’s mobile phone comes with a battery life of 15 years, whether you charge it or not and is designed for emergencies.

[caption id="attachment_6308" align="aligncenter" width="590" caption="SpareOne’s mobile phone comes with a battery life of 15 years, whether you charge it or not and is designed for emergencies."][/caption]

It runs on one AA battery, and claims to keep its charge for up to 15 years, something unthinkable for feature-laden phones with batteries that last only a few days.

The SpareOne can be programmed for instant access to phone numbers of key contacts, including emergency services in any location.
As the phone’s developer, XPAL Power, says: “It’s essentially designed to make and receive the most important calls, no matter what.”

The SpareOne’s is also able to automatically transmit its location via its mobile ID, plus has a built-in torch -- and unlike so many of today’s gadgets, it even comes with the AA battery included.

The new phone, unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is designed as a ‘backup’ phone you can keep in the glove compartment for emergencies.

The idea is that you can keep it there without worrying if it’s charged or not. Many modern mobiles will lose their charge over time, even if switched off. Its makers say that SpareOne is ideal to leave in the car for emergencies, or to pack in travel luggage – especially if you or your loved ones plan to go off the beaten track (or off-piste).

The SpareOne can be pre-programmed for instant access to phone numbers of key contacts, including the relevant emergency services in any location. That single battery offers a talk time of up to 10 hours.

As the phone’s developer, XPAL Power, says: “it’s essentially designed to make and receive the most important calls, no matter what”. The SpareOne’s is also able to automatically transmit its location via its mobile ID, plus has a built-in torch - and unlike so many of today’s gadgets, it even comes with the AA battery included.

Aakash booking hits record, 14 lakhs in 14 days

NEW DELHI, JAN 3 (AGENCIES): The online bookings for the world’s cheapest tablet, Aakash, have increased to 14 lakh units in only two weeks after it was opened for sale online on NCarry.com. Onlline booking of Aakash tablet had started on NCarry.com, an online shopping site, on December 15, last year.

The low-cost Android tablet comes with a price of Rs,499 along with Rs199 shipping charges for online booking although there are reports that the customers might also be given the option for cash on delivery.

The seven-inch touch screen tablet flaunts of features such as 256 megabytes of RAM, ARM 11 processor with the Android 2.2 operating system, two USB ports and HD-quality video. The current version of Aakash has a battery life of about 1.5 hours.

Bajaj unveils 4-wheeler, Renault-Nissan talks planned

NEW DELHI, JAN 3 (AGENCIES): Bajaj Auto Ltd launched its first-ever four-wheeled vehicle on Tuesday, saying the RE60 would target commercial users and three-wheeled vehicle owners in India, and that production could involve Nissan and Renault.

The unveiling of the four-seater RE60 ended months of rumours that have buzzed around India’s auto industry on the nature of the vehicle, which promises low carbon emissions and fuel efficiency, the company said in a much-anticipated launch.
The vehicle resembles an over-sized hatchback with an elevated roof .

Bajaj is India’s second-largest two-wheeled vehicle maker, and is the world’s leader in the three-wheeled vehicle segment, which includes the popular rickshaw taxis used across Asia’s third-largest economy.

France’s Renault SA and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co, who worked with Bajaj on developing what was slated to be an ultra low-cost minicar, will decide on co-operation on the RE60 in the next few days, Bajaj Managing Director Ravi Bajaj told reporters.

“At no point we intended to be contract manufacturers for Renault-Nissan... With small or big modification, we can supply to Renault-Nissan if they wish,” Bajaj said.
“They have not seen the product... If Renault-Nissan were to walk away, that is also fine with us.”

Renault-Nissan will view the vehicle for the first time at this year’s India Auto Expo, Bajaj added. The event, held once every two years, begins in New Delhi on Thursday.
The RE60 will be manufactured in Bajaj’s plant in Aurangabad in western India, and will be made available to customers in the next few months, Bajaj said.
Shares in the automaker, which opened strongly in anticipation of the RE60 launch, were up 0.3% at Rs 1480 in early afternoon trading. The overall market was up about 2%.

Facebook Timeline: Review

I've often joked that if something's not on Facebook, it didn't happen. Facebook's new Timeline feature makes that adage even more apparent.

Timeline is Facebook's new way of presenting you to the world. It replaces your traditional profile page - the one with your headshot and a smorgasbord of personal musings, photos and other items to share with friends. Instead of just a snapshot of you today, Timeline is supposed to be a scrapbook of your whole life.

But these highlights are culled from what Facebook sees as important - the stuff you and your friends have chosen to write or post photos about over the years. So it's crucial to spend time curating it, so your life doesn't come across as vain. If you're not careful, you also might reveal skeletons from your past to more recent friends.

Once you're ready for Timeline, you have a week to airbrush your life before it replaces your current profile. That's not a lot of time when you have (cough, cough) years of your life to go through. I suggest focusing on the years since you joined Facebook. You can always add photos from childhood later.

To set up Timeline, visit http://facebook.com/timeline . Facebook will force you to switch within a few weeks, so don't procrastinate.

MAKING A SPLASH

Start by choosing a cover photo, the image that will splash across the top. You can choose a sunset, your dog, a hobby, anything that reflects who you are. Keep in mind the dimensions are more like a movie screen than a traditional photo. A close-up portrait of your face won't work well, but one of you lying horizontally will.

Your old profile photo will still be there, but it'll be smaller.

If you haven't done so already, you can add where you've worked, lived and went to school. If you specify years - such as when you started a job - those items will be added to Timeline's stream of life events, even if they took place before Facebook's founding in 2004.

You can also add other life events to the stream, such as when you broke your arm and whom you were with then, or when you spoke your first word or got a tattoo. By adding them to Facebook, you signal that those things really did happen.

MORE ON THE STREAM

The timeline stream is your life on Facebook in reverse chronological order.

At the top are your recent status updates, comments from family and friends, photos you're in and events you've attended. As you scroll down, you'll get highlights from last month, then earlier in the year. Scroll down even further for last year, the year before that and so on. Click one of the "Show" links to get all posts from a particular month or year.

Posts will be more sporadic the further you go back. You'll see when you joined Facebook and the first post you ever made - mine was "Anick Jesdanun is wasting a lot of time on facebook."

Beyond that, you may see details about high school or college. A colleague even saw the birth of her younger brother listed, after having told Facebook which of her friends were her siblings.

The bottom simply says "Born" with your birth date and birthplace, if you've chosen to share that.

This may come across as a big privacy breach, but keep in mind that people could have seen many of those posts before by continually hitting "Older Posts." The difference is most people wouldn't bother. With Timeline, you can jump more quickly to older posts.

Another thing to consider: Although your privacy settings remain the same, your list of friends has likely grown over the years, and your definition of friends has probably broadened to include parents, bosses and random flings at weddings. Someone you didn't know in 2008 would suddenly have easier access to something you posted then.

CURATING YOUR LIFE

You can change who has access to which posts. Perhaps you'd want to narrow an embarrassing photo from Thanksgiving to family members who were there. You might want to delete other posts completely or hide them so that only you can see them.

You can change the date on a post. For example, if you had waited a week to tell the Facebook world that you broke up with someone, you can change the date to reflect when all the screaming and crying took place. You can also add where you were, retroactively using a location feature that Facebook hadn't offered until recently.

For major events in your life, you can click on a star to feature them more prominently.

You'll likely feel overwhelmed when you see your Timeline for the first time. Years-old posts made by people you're no longer friends with are still there. Musings on a trip or a long-forgotten event suddenly lack context. Your life may also come across as duplicative, such as when multiple friends post similar photos from the same party.

Here are a few tips:

- Start with your older posts. You were probably experimenting with Facebook then, and most of those could go into hiding. Plus, those are the ones you'd need to be most careful about because you had reason to believe only a few friends would see them.

- Find the button for Activity Log. Click that to see all of your posts at a glance and make changes to them one by one. Open Facebook in a new browser tab first, though. Every time you switch between the log and the timeline stream, Facebook resets to a default view rather than let you return to where you were. So have one tab for the log and the other for the stream.

- Think carefully about what you want to highlight when people scroll through your past. Facebook has a secret formula for determining which items are included in your highlights, using such factors as how many friends commented on a post. That may not necessarily be what you want to showcase.

Unfortunately, getting the stream to look right is difficult.

There's no easy way to highlight something Facebook's formula didn't pick, without starring it such that it gets splashed across the page. I also couldn't find a good way to remove something from the highlights without hiding or deleting it completely. There are events I wouldn't consider major, but would want people to see if they took the time to browse through my past.

There also ought to be a way to star or hide posts in batches.

And oddly, Facebook includes stuff posted by others, but it doesn't include items you've posted on other profiles. Older posts come across as one-sided without the back and forth for context.

MOVING FORWARD

Overall, I like the concept behind Timeline. I got a nice stroll down memory lane, and I enjoyed stalking my friends and uncovering their pasts, too.

I just wish it were easier to customize, and I don't appreciate being rushed. Facebook spent months developing Timeline and rolling it out to its 800 million users. Why give us just seven days?

If you're not ready to start Timeline, you can still view Timelines your friends have already activated. Just keep in mind that Facebook eventually will force you to switch, so you might as well do it now if you have the time.

You might also want to take this as an opportunity to clean up your presence on Facebook. Review your privacy settings and get rid of friends who don't need to be there.

~ANICK JESDANUN, AP

Aakash tablet goes on sale for Rs 2500 online

NEW DELHI: Datawind, the maker of the world's cheapest tablet has put up for sale about 30,000 tablets online at a price of Rs 2500 each, with a delivery period of seven days.

The seven inch tablet with Android 2.2 is now available through its portal aakashtablet.com. "We have put up on sale about 30,000 tablets online, which will have a cash on delivery of 7 days. We have achieved pre-sale orders of about 400,000 tablets from individuals and corporates. But current supplies will only be limited for individual buyers," Datawind CEO and founder Suneet Singh Tuli told ET.

Aakash's next commercial version called the Ubislate 7, which has a faster processor, is slated to be launched late January. Ubislate 7 is set to have a 700 Mhz processor compared to the 366 MHz processor in Aakash. Ubislate 7 will be priced at Rs 3000 for sale online.

Datawind though seems to be struggling with customer service issues for online retail, even though the sale is only for a limited number of tablets.

According to sources, the Indian government is also planning to provide a new specification for Aakash, which may come with a faster processor and better battery life. The current version of Aakash has a battery life of about 1.5 hours. An email to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, which is supplying the tablets to schools and colleges remained unanswered.

The government till now procured only 10,000 tablets. It has still not procured the remaining 90,000 tablets for distribution in schools and colleges, even as other nations have expressed interest to the government for similar low-cost computing initiatives.

~ET bureau

Sun’s ‘killer flare’ won’t end earth: NASA

WASHINGTON, NOV 13 (IANS): For all the doomsayers predicting that the world will come to an end in 2012, at least one of the potential reasons for earth’s destruction has been knocked off. US space agency NASA has said a gigantic solar ‘killer flare’ will not devastate earth.

Many people have been worrying about the gigantic ‘killer flare’ which could be hurled by the sun and finish off life on earth. But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says there simply isn’t enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles away.

Given the fact that solar activity is currently ramping up its standard 11-year cycle, there is a belief that 2012 could be coinciding with such a flare.

But this same solar cycle has occurred over the millennia. Anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum with no harm. Besides, the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in late 2013 or early 2014, not 2012, according to a NASA statement.

This is not to say that space weather can’t affect our planet. The explosive heat of a solar flare can’t reach our globe, but electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles can.

Solar flares can temporarily affect signal transmission from, say, a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to earth causing it to be off by many yards. Another phenomenon produced by the sun could be even more disruptive.

Known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), these solar explosions propel bursts of particles and electromagnetic fluctuations into earth’s atmosphere.

Those fluctuations could induce electric fluctuations at ground level that could blow out transformers in power grids. The CME’s particles can also collide with crucial electronics onboard a satellite and disrupt its systems.

In an increasingly technological world, where almost everyone relies on cell phones and GPS controls not just your in-car map system but also airplane navigation and the extremely accurate clocks that govern financial transactions, space weather is a serious matter.

But it is a problem the same way hurricanes are a problem. One can protect oneself with advance information and proper precautions. During a hurricane watch, a homeowner can stay put ... or he can seal up the house, turn off the electronics and get out of the way.

PSLV-C18 puts four satellites in orbit

Along with Indo-French satellite Megha-Tropiques, PSLV-C18 rocket on Wednesday successfully placed in orbit three nano satellites —VesselSat1-1 from Luxembourg, SRMSat from SRM University, Chennai, and Jugnu from IIT, Kanpur

[caption id="attachment_4997" align="alignright" width="318" caption="PSLV-C18 lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Wednesday. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan"][/caption]

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C18) demonstrated its reliability once again when it put successfully four satellites in orbit on Wednesday. The satellites were: Megha-Tropiques, an Indo-French satellite to study the weather and climate in the tropical region of the world; SRMSat built by the students of SRM university, near Chennai; Jugnu, built by the students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur; and Vesselsat from Luxembourg. This was the 19th consecutively successful mission of the PSLV out of 20 launches from 1993.

It was a flawless a mission with the PSLV-C18 rising from the first launch pad at the spaceport at Sriharikota at the scheduled time of 11 a.m. As the vehicle sped up from the launch pad, it disappeared briefly into the clouds to knife out into the sky again. Applause broke out in the Mission Control Centre as the four stages of the vehicle ignited on time and fell into the Bay of Bengal. At the end of more than 21 minutes of flight, the PSLV-C18 first catapulted the 1,000 kg Megha-Tropiques satellite into a precise orbit at an altitude of 867 km. The satellite was slung into orbit at a velocity of more than 26,000 km an hour. A few seconds later, SRMSat flew out, followed by VesselSat and Jugnu.

Consistency

K. Radhakrishnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organistion (ISRO) called it “a grand success". P.S. Veeraraghavan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said the latest success demonstrated the consistency of the PSLV rocket. S. Ramakrishnan, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO, described the flight as “one more magnificent mission from the PSLV.”

Dr. G. Raju, project Director, Megha-Tropiques, said the satellite’s solar-panels had deployed and the satellite was in good health. The satellite would have a life-span of five years. T.K. Alex, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, said that even though SRMSat and Jugnu were small satellites, they were complex spacecraft built by the students.

Predicting the monsoon

Megha-Tropiques, with four scientific instruments, will help in predicting the Indian monsoons, floods, cyclones and droughts, besides estimating the weather in the short-term and climate in the long-term in the tropical countries of the world. The 11-kg SRMSat will address the problem of global-warming and the pollution levels in the atmosphere by monitoring the carbon-dioxide present there. The 3-kg Jugnu isa remote-sensing satellite that will minor vegetation and water-bodies. VesselSat will help in locating ships cruising in the sea-lanes of the world.

~The Hindu

 

The $35 tablet, made in India

Sonia Bhaskar, October 4, 2011: It has been a cause of curiosity, speculation and even ridicule in the world of technology. Some called it a revolutionary product, some called it a dream that will never be realized. Others simply wrote it off, calling it vaporware, saying making a tablet in $35 is impossible, since the touchscreen itself costs that much.

But the initiative undertaken by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development is all set to be realized tomorrow.

The Ministry is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the final product lives up to the hype and expectations surrounding the $35 tablet.

NDTV Gadget Guru has been following the evolution of this tablet right fro'm the prototype stage. We believe that the final product will be very different fro'm what the world has seen or knows about it till now. It will be interesting to see how close the final price of the tablet will be to the much touted $35 mark. It will no doubt be the cheapest tablet and have a shockingly low price, but our guess is that it will be priced slightly higher than the $35 mark.

It will retain the positives of the original concept behind this device. The fact that it is assembled here in India will give it the "Made in India" tag. The fact that it will pack in a lot of content targeted primarily at students but not restricted to this consumer base alone. It has the potential to make internet and its benefits accessible to a population where computer and internet penetrations are still very low.

Our fear, is that there will be some compromises on the hardware front to keep the price in check. The screen is sure to be a resistive one. And like the prototype we saw it is going to be a wi-fi only device for now. The first lot of the tablets released may not have the camera and the stylus (which we had seen in the prototype last year).

But the makers of the tablet believe that once the volume of production picks up, they will be able to provide upgrades to the hardware and also pack in more feature within this price.

Kapil Sibal and his team behind this project, believe that the roadmap ahead is to take this Made in India product out into the international market to benefit people, especially students across the globe, particularly in developing countries.

 

~NDTV

Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBCNews

The three researchers' work has led to an expanding knowledge of our Universe

Three researchers behind the discovery that our Universe's expansion is accelerating have been awarded this year's Nobel prize for physics.

Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess of the US and Brian Schmidt of Australia will divide the prize.

The trio studied what are called Type 1a supernovae, determining that more distant objects seem to move faster.

Their observations suggest that not only is the Universe expanding, its expansion is relentlessly speeding up.

Prof Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded half the 10m Swedish krona (£940,000) prize, with Prof Schmidt of the Australian National University and Prof Riess of Johns Hopkins University's Space Telescope Science Institute sharing the other half.

'Weak knees'

Prof Schmidt spoke to the Nobel commitee from Australia during the ceremony.

"It feels like when my children were born," he said.

"I feel weak at the knees, very excited and somewhat amazed by the situation. It's been a pretty exciting last half hour."

The trio's findings form the basis of our current understanding of the Universe's origins, but raises a number of difficult questions.

In order to explain the rising expansion, cosmologists have suggested the existence of what is known as dark energy. Although its properties and nature remain mysterious, the predominant theory holds that dark energy makes up some three-quarters of the Universe.

But at the time the work was first being considered, no such exotic explanations were yet needed.

"It seemed like my favourite kind of job - a wonderful chance to ask something absolutely fundamental: the fate of the Universe and whether the Universe was infinite or not," Prof Perlmutter told BBC News.

He led the Supernova Cosmology Project beginning in 1988, and Prof Schmidt and Prof Riess began work in 1994 on a similar project known as the High-z Supernova Search Team.

Their goal was to measure distant Type 1a supernovae - the brilliant ends of a particular kind of dense star known as a white dwarf.

Because their explosive ends are of roughly the same brightness, the amount of light observed from the supernovae on Earth should be an indication of their distance; slight shifts in their colour indicate how fast they are moving.

At the time, the competing teams expected to find that the more distant supernovae were slowing down, relative to those nearer - a decline of the expansion of the Universe that began with the Big Bang.

Instead, both teams found the same thing: distant supernovae were in fact speeding up, suggesting that the Universe is destined for an ever-increasing expansion.

Prof Perlmutter said the fact that the two teams were rivals was probably best to set the scene for a surprising outcome.

"It was fierce competition in those last four or five years of the work," he said.

"The two groups announced their results within just weeks of each other and they agreed so closely; that's one of the things that made it possible for the scientific community to accept the result so quickly."

That result in the end sparked a new epoch in cosmology, seeking to understand what is driving the expansion, and Prof Perlmutter is enthusiastic that such fundamental problems have been highlighted by the Nobel committee.

"It's an unusual opportunity, a chance for so many people to share in the excitement and the fun of the fact that we may be on to hints as to what the Universe is made out of. I guess the whole point of a prize like this is to be able to get that out into the community."

Commenting on the prize, Prof Sir Peter Knight, head of the UK's Institute of Physics, said: "The recipients of today's award are at the frontier of modern astrophysics and have triggered an enormous amount of research on dark energy."

"These researchers have opened our eyes to the true nature of our Universe," he added. "They are very well-deserved recipients."

The Nobel prizes have been given out annually since 1901, covering the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

Monday's award of the 2011 prize for physiology or medicine went to Bruce Beutler of the US, Jules Hoffmann from France and Ralph Steinman from Canada for their work on immunology.

This year's chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday.

 

~BBC

Reliance triples data download limit for 3G subscribers

NEW DELHI, SEPT 9 (IANS) : Telecom services provider Reliance Communications Friday launched a special festival scheme for its 3G customers, offering triple data download for the cost of a single plan.

Under the scheme, pre-paid customers can download 75 MB of data for `20 (valid for a day) or 1.5 GB for `408 (valid for a month), said a company release. Post-paid customers can download 300 MB for `100 or 1.5 GB for `399 (both valid for a month).

The offer is available in all the 333 towns of the 13 3G circles of the company. Customers can subscribe to it through R World, retail outlets, or SMS.
“To let people enjoy the festive season, we have decided to offer the triple ‘dhamaka’ to our customers,” Reliance Communications Delhi and NCR hub head Khurshed Ahmed said.

1 mosquito coil equals 100 cigarettes: Expert

NEW DELHI, AUG 31 (IANS):Smoke emitted from one mosquito repellant coil is equivalent to those of 100 cigarettes, thus causing harm to a large number of people in India, an expert said Wednesday.

“Not many people know about it, but the damage done to your lungs by one mosquito coil is equivalent to the damage done by 100 cigarettes. This was according to a recent study conducted in Malyasia,” said Chest Research Foundation director Sandeep Salvi.

He was speaking at the conference ‘Air Pollution and Our Health’, organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) along with the Indian Council for Medical Research and the Indian Medical Association.

Salvi said there is a lack of awareness about the impact of air pollution on human health.
Pointing out the “lack of research culture” among Indian doctors, Salvi said that indoor air pollution too is a health risk factor.

Participants at the event, which included doctors and health researchers, also spoke about vehicular air pollution in the capital.
According to estimates, about 55 percent of Delhi’s population lives within 500 metres from main roads - and is, therefore, prone to a variety of physical disorders.

“The vehicular pollution is a major concern for the environment. The rising incidents of genetic disorder have a lot to do with air pollution. India loses one million children under five because of respiratory problems every year,” said Sanjeev Bagai, the chief executive officer of Batra Hospitals.
He said industries also contribute to the air pollution and these need to be shifted out of the capital.

DoT monitoring social networking sites–Facebook,Twitter profiles no longer private

August 11, 2011: In a development that could impact all Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut or Tweeter, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has been directed by the Home Ministry of India to ensure effective monitoring in such sites.

This was stated by Milind Deora, the Minister of state for Communication and Information Technology in a written statement in the Rajya Sabha. Mr. Deora confirmed that the Department of Telecom (DoT) had received a letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directing it to monitor all networking sites. This was done to ensure that cyber security is strengthened and all data in social networking sites accessible to the intelligence agencies.

This step by the ministry though being welcomed by many is set for some criticism. Two reasons why this might face some challenges are:

Definition Unavailability – There is no actual definition on the extent of monitoring that security or intelligence agencies can carry out in someone’s Facebook or Orkut profile. Unlike phone tapping which has trapped many culprits, there is no specific hard rules or guidelines to monitoring some one’s social networking profile and his private posts/ messages.

Loss of Time and Energy – If the authorities wants to go through each and every status update, tweet or “ what is in your mind”,  they are set for huge loss of resource, time and energy. For example, the United States Department of Defense has budgeted as high as 42 million dollars recently to monitor social networking sites, so as to identify terrorist threats and other security concerns. Millions and zillions of messages, status updates flows in and out from the profiles and the best thing that can be done is focusing on specific people (based on evidence or history).

It is to be mentioned that most popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook shares private information on their servers only when a court order is issued to do so. Besides, as per policy of Twitter if a user’s profile or private information is shared with Government authorities or security agencies, the user is informed.

 

~Times of Assam

 

Human mind has reached the limit of intelligence?

London: The human mind may have reached its limit of intelligence, as a research has suggested that the humans are presently as smart as they are ever going to be.
Scientists have said that even the cleverest people might not get any brighter since our grey matter has stopped evolving.

And it is all down to physics. The structure of our brain and how much energy it uses are key to the theory, The Sun reported Sunday.

One part of the theory is that scientists reckon brain cells cannot get much smaller than they are at present - meaning there will not be any further space for more of them.

It is also thought the number of connections between brain cells cannot rise much more due to the amount of energy they consume.

Research has shown that the better connected the parts of the brain, the higher a person's IQ.
The theory's another part is the amount of energy used by brain cells. It states that the brain only accounts for two percent of a person's body weight - but uses 20 percent of our overall energy.

It means if we turned any smarter - by having more brain cells or connections between them - the impact on our body's power supply would be immense.

"We have demonstrated that brains must consume energy to function and that these requirements are sufficiently demanding to limit our performance and determine design," said Simon Laughlin, professor of neurobiology at Cambridge University.

According to Ed Bullmore, professor of psychiatry at Cambridge, all of us have "to pay a price for our intelligence".
"Becoming smarter means improving connections between different brain areas but this runs into tight limits on energy, along with space for the wiring," Bullmore said.

Laughlin also feels the brain evolution could go into reverse if human circumstances change - for instance if there were a shortage of food.

He said: "The fact that brains both expand and contract during evolution shows that the optimum balance changes with circumstances."

~IANS

India successfully launches GSAT-12

India on Friday successfully launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-12 onboard a powerful variant of homegrown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C17, from the spaceport in Sriharikota.

In a textbook launch, Indian Space Research Organisation’s workhorse PSLV lifted off from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 4.48 pm at the end of the 53-hour countdown and placed the 1,410 kg GSAT-12 into orbit about 20 minutes later.

“I am extremely happy to state that the PSVL-C17 GSAT12 mission is successful. The launch vehicle injected the satellite very precisely into the intended orbit,” a beaming ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan announced.

On its 18th successful mission in a row, the PSLV zoomed into cloudy skies as scientists broke into cheers at the mission control centre here, 90 km from Chennai.

GSAT-12 was injected into an elliptical Transfer Orbit of 284 km perigee (closest point to Earth) and 21,000 km apogee (farthest point to Earth).

Subsequently, the onboard Liquid Apogee Motor would be used to place the satellite in a circular orbit.

GSAT-12, aimed at augmenting the capacity in the INSAT system for various communication services like tele-education, tele-medicine and Village Resource Centres, would be co-located with INSAT-2E and INSAT-4A satellites.

This was the second time in its 19 flights that the PSLV has been used for launching a communication satellite after Kalpana-1 in 2002.

ISRO used the most powerful XL configuration with six extended solid strap-on motors carrying 12 tonnes of solid propellant as against nine tonnes for the standard PSLV for Friday’s flight. A similar configuration was used for launching India’s maiden Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission in 2008.

ISRO chose its reliable launch vehicle PSLV in the face of failures of two previous GSLV flights in April and December 2010 that dealt a blow to the missions to place GSAT-5 and GSAT-5P into orbit causing transponder shortage.

Launch of GSAT-12, equipped with 12 Extended C-band transponders, is expected to partly meet the country’s growing demand for transponders in a short turnaround time.

The satellite, with a mission life of about eight years, and the PSLV together cost about Rs 200 crore.

Mr. Radhakrishnan said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has extended his warm congratulations to the ISRO team on the successful launch of GSAT-12.

He said in the coming months ISRO would undertake a series of PSLV missions for launching several satellites.

According to him, the GSAT-12 would cater to tele-medicine and tele-education services and ‘more importantly’ provide support for disaster management.

The ISRO chief also said the space agency had an agenda for a reliable GSLV cryogenic stage (indigenous) “which will happen in a year.

“The ISRO team will pursue this with grit and determination.”

India’s ambitious home grown cryogenic stage programme has met with failures of two GSLV rockets -- in April and December 2010.

Lauding the efforts of ISRO team, Union Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy said this launch would help the country in meeting requirement for more transponders.

ISRO officials said the GSAT-12 and all parameters were 'healthy’.

~PTI(The Hindu)

Facebook founder now richer than Google founders

BOSTON: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal fortunes have soared, thanks to investment fund GSV Capital's recent stake in the social networking site which has put the Harvard dropout at a worth higher than Google founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Earlier this week, GSV Capital Corp bought 225,000 shares in Facebook at an average price of USD 29.28 each.

This stake values the popular social networking site at about $70 billion.

Based on the new investment, Zuckerberg in turn is worth approximately $18 billion, a report in Time magazine said.

"With the new valuation, Zuckerberg has one-upped Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, whose fortunes are estimated to have dropped," the Time report said.

This estimate makes Zuckerberg the third-richest man in the technology sector in the world, only behind Microsoft's Bill Gates and Oracle's Larry Ellison.

While Gates is estimated to be currently worth $56 billion, Ellison is the world's fifth-richest billionaire at $39.5 billion.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg's net worth stood at $13.5 billion.

He had already shot past Apple's Steve Jobs last year and has now passed Google's Brin and Page, whose fortunes are now estimated to have dropped to $17 billion from $19.8 billion in March.

~PTI

Indian users to get Facebook Credits

New Delhi: Facebook will launch a payment system, Facebook Credits, for Indian users, who could spend the virtual currency across various games or applications they use on the popular website from Friday.

A virtual currency, Facebook Credits is already popular among gaming enthusiasts in many other countries, including the US.

"Facebook will introduce a new payment system, Facebook Credits, in India from July 1," an authorised spokesperson told PTI.

Facebook Credits enables fast and easy transactions across games on the social networking site and would benefit about 2.5 crore Facebook subscribers in the country.

The users would be able to enter their payment information once and can buy, earn and spend safely across various games or applications they use on Facebook.

"Starting July 1, we will require all social game developers on the Facebook canvas platform to process payments through Facebook Credits," Facebook Platform Marketing Manager Deb Liu wrote on the company's official blog in January.

This will also help various brands, which use the medium of Facebook to retail them goods through their social pages. "Facebook Credits is currently used in more than 350 applications from 150 developers, representing more than 70 per cent of virtual goods transactions volume on Facebook," Liu had said.

Facebook Credits would also offer incentives such as early access to product features, premium promotion on Facebook, premium targeting for ads and access to new co-promotion opportunities.

Many developers such as Zynga, Playfish, CrowdStar, Digital Chocolate, PopCap and Arkadium have already adopted Facebook Credits for in-game virtual goods.

~PTI