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Worlds's smallest bodybuilder.. at 9 Kg...India's very own

2008-02-15T04:03:00.005+05:30

At just 2ft 9in, Indian muscleman Aditya 'Romeo' Dev is the world's smallest bodybuilder.

Pint-sized Romeo is well-known in his hometown of Phagwara, India - for his ability to lift 1.5kg dumbbells - despite his overall 9kg body weight.

Every day, crowds flock to the local gym to the see the mini-muscleman in training.
Unlike many dwarfs, Romeo is well proportioned, with a head circumference of 15in and a chest measurement of 20in.

Romeo said: "I've been training as a bodybuilder for the last two years and by now I think I must be the strongest dwarf in the world.

"I have always been fit but since I started working out, I have become famous for my strength.

"My size has never stopped me. I train with dumbbells and do aerobics and dance. People are always pleased to see me. I have been invited on TV shows and dance on stage."
His trainer Ranjeet Pal spents hours helping his 19-year-old protege build his small muscles to perfection.

"Because of his small size, I don't assign him hard exercises. But Romeo trains more or less the same as anyone else and he's much more determined.

"When he first started, I insisted he did a month of basic exercises like aerobics, push-ups and basic gymnastics to prepare his body. "After that, I made lightweight dumbbells and taught him basic weight-lifting exercises to shape his biceps and triceps. His size and his weight were taken care of so that he never hurt himself."

Determined Romeo is hoping to have an entertainment career after performing in many local TV shows.

He said: "I earn good money through my dance and bodybuilding shows but being rich doesn't interest me.

"My dream is to travel a lot - I want to perform in London with my idol, Jazzy-B."

Hookah - Cigarette on Steroids and even deadly

2008-02-13T23:32:00.000+05:30

The sweet-smelling tobacco smoke wafts dreamily into the relaxed atmosphere of the hookah bar. Customers draw heavily from the water pipes in front of them, calm expressions on their faces, making easy conversation with friends.

Sound romantic?

It's anything but.

In the most recent issue of the medical journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, a study led by Dr. Stephanie Smith-Simone and colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond documents attitudes and behaviors of water pipe users — and makes some disturbing findings.

Water pipe use, also known as hookah or hukka, is becoming increasingly popular among American youth, particularly college students. Smoking in this way involves heating the tobacco to form smoke that then bubbles through water and into tubes from which one inhales the smoke.

It is estimated that more than 100 million people worldwide smoke tobacco using a water pipe, with use most common in the Middle East.

While the exact number of users of water pipe tobacco is not known in the United States, dozens of water pipe bars have opened in college towns and large metropolitan areas nationally. Most tobacco experts believe that this phenomenon is on the increase, but no national surveys have been done.

Like a Cigarette on Steroids

Water pipe tobacco comes in many varieties, with fruit flavors among the most popular. Unlike other forms of tobacco use, it appears that women are equally as likely to smoke hookah as men.

Water pipe smoking is by no means safe. Use of this product exposes the smoker to twice the amount of poisonous gas, carbon monoxide, and three times the amount of nicotine compared with one cigarette.

Water pipe smoke also contains more tar — the component of tobacco smoke that contains the cancer-causing chemicals — than cigarette smoke, although some experts argue that hookah smoke tar is less harmful than cigarette tar because it is not heated to the same degree.

There is no disagreement, however, that the worst cancer-causing chemicals — the so-called tobacco specific nitrosamines — are present in water pipe smoke. In addition, particles within the smoke irritate the lungs, causing inflammation that in turn can lead to bronchitis and emphysema. In fact, some evidence suggests that airflow rates among regular hookah smokers are reduced more frequently than among cigarette smokers.

And that is not the end of the story. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the length of hookah smoking sessions combined with the depth of inhalation expose smokers to 100 to 200 times the volume of a single cigarette. Moreover, hookah smokers can develop the same diseases as cigarette smokers, including heart disease and cancers of the mouth, lung and bladder.

Cancer development is not surprising because water pipe smoking causes DNA changes in the cells of these smokers compared to nonsmokers.

Safe Smoke? A Dangerous Misconception

Despite these scary risks, Smith-Simone and colleagues document relatively favorable attitudes toward water pipe smoking compared with cigarette smoking.

Their study surveyed customers from a water pipe café in Richmond as well as Internet users who logged on to HookahForum.com.

Sixty percent of participants reported first-time water pipe use at or before age 18. About one-fifth of those surveyed reported daily use, and more than half of the users stated that they owned their own water pipe, usually ordered via the Internet. More than 40 percent of users smoked 60 minutes or more at one session.

Most users were confident that they could quit easily.

More ominously, the majority of users felt that water pipe use was safer than cigarettes because the smoke passes through water before being inhaled.

But neither belief has been proven.

In fact, because water pipe use involves a greater exposure to nicotine than cigarette smoking, the likelihood of regular hookah smokers to become addicted is higher.

Furthermore, prolonged exposure to water pipe smoke increases the likelihood of health effects that have been documented in scientific studies.

Diet Soda May Sabotage Weight Loss Efforts

2008-02-13T23:27:00.000+05:30

People who drink diet soda in an effort to lose weight may be doing more harm than good according to a recent study conducted by the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University. In the study, rats given yogurt sweetened with zero calorie saccharin later gained more weight and put on more body fat than rats who ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar comparable to table sugar).

The study surmised that by breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body’s ability to regulate intake. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners. Because people have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners, human studies that don’t take into account prior consumption may produce a variety of outcomes. Three different experiments were conducted to explore whether saccharin changed lab animals’ ability to regulate their intake using various assessments, the most obvious being caloric intake, weight gain and compensation by cutting back.

India tests its first interceptor missile successfully..

2007-12-07T02:10:00.000+05:30

Indian Defence research organisation has once again proved why its one of the best in the world with the successful testing of Advanced Air Defence (AAD-02) which is in the same level of Patriot Missile systems of US(PAC-3).

ccording to Dr. Saraswat, the AAD-02 was capable of intercepting M-9 and M-11 class of missiles “which are with our adversaries.”

The AAD-02 was slightly better than the PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability) of the U.S. in terms of range and altitude. The direct hit compared very well with the PAC-3 in terms of accuracy.

Avinash Chander, Director, Advanced Systems’ Laboratory (ASL), Hyderabad, said, “I don’t think any country [other than India] was able to achieve a direct-hit in the first attempt” in endo-atmosphere. “The interceptor crossed the target missile at the correct point. The target missile went into fragments thereafter.”

The ASL, a DRDL unit, had contributed significantly to the mission.

The AAD-02 was specifically designed and developed by the DRDO for endo-atmospheric interception of an incoming missile at an altitude of around 15 km. It is a single-stage missile powered by solid propellants. It is 7.5 metres tall and weighs around 1.2 tonnes. It had a diameter of less than 0.5 metres.

M. Natarajan, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, who watched the two lift-offs and the interception live on a video-screen at DRDO Bhawan in New Delhi, likened the interception to “almost hitting a bullet with a bullet.”

The mission’s success had boosted the confidence of the DRDO scientists in networking an array of radars, optics, command, control and communication systems to track an incoming missile in real time, validate all the software computation and send the command to the seeker to home in on the target, he said.

The mission “signified the DRDO’s capability to network massive software with hardware actuation,” he added.

Mr. Natarajan called the interceptor “a totally new missile,” which had “a massive software integration and high manoeuvring capability.” The centrepiece of the interceptor was its seeker, a radio frequency device that passed on information on the position, velocity and direction of the target missile to the AAD-02.

The target missile is a modified single-stage Prithvi missile, fuelled by liquid propellants. It is 11 metres tall and weighs five tonnes. Its diameter is one metre.

On Thursday, the Army launched the target missile from Chandipur-on-Sea, Orissa, in an independent manner. The Mission Director for the target missile was Lt. Gen. (retired) V.J. Sundaram.

There were scenes of jubilation at the Mission Control Centre on Thursday soon after AAD-02 achieved a direct hit of the target missile at an altitude of 15 km in the endo-atmosphere.

Scientists cheered and hugged each other, while the younger members erupted into shouts of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “DRDO zindabad.”

There was prolonged applause and full-throated shouts of joy when the interceptor collided head-on with the target missile after performing deft manoeuvres.

Vodafone India website is hacked...

2007-11-06T18:45:00.000+05:30

It appears certain parts of the Vodafone India website has been hacked by people who call themselves the Turkish Republic.

I was checking some callertne links and Boom.. it seems the callertune section is redirecting a turkish website which displays this message. Though other sections of the site are working. The below links appear to be redirecting to the turks.

Wonder whether the hacking is not complete or still going on.

http://www.vodafone.in/_layouts/callertunes.aspx

On observing the site I found the following to be the source of main hack tool

http://www.vodafone.in/vodafone/PnS/Pages/services_callertunes.aspx

On looking at the code it appears, This page' s select menu points to the turkish site.

I will add other links soon.

The message displayed is
HACKED VODAFONE :) :) :) Your Security is Down
BY BoZKuRTSeRDaR
For Turkish Rebuplic
Damn! PKK/kadek Terrorism

Manage Ads feature is available to certain publishers from today..

2007-11-06T17:56:00.000+05:30

Check if the New Manage Ads tab is available in your setup tab. Then go ahead take a test ride.

Now during creation of a ad Google generates a unique id and name. Simply code the code as before and paste it in your site.You are ready to rock now.

Click manage ads tab and select the recently added ad(If you havent added anything after launch of this new feature no ads will be available in Manage ads)

Select it and edit it well Manage it to your wishes.

But to see the changes in your site it takes some time.

Ten diseases that cant be cured even now !!

2007-11-06T17:00:00.000+05:30

10. Ebola

Ebola is a virus of the family Filoviridae that is responsible for a severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever; outbreaks in primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees as well as humans have been recorded. The disease is characterized by extreme fever, rash, and profuse hemorrhaging. In humans, fatality rates range from 50 to 90 percent.
The virus takes its name from the Ebola River in the northern Congo basin of central Africa, where it first emerged in 1976. Outbreaks that year in Zaire (now Congo [Kinshasa]) and The Sudan resulted in hundreds of deaths, as did another outbreak in Zaire in 1995. Ebola is closely related to the Marburg virus, which was discovered in 1967, and the two are the only members of the Filoviridae that cause epidemic human disease. A third related agent, called Ebola Reston, caused an epidemic in laboratory monkeys in Reston, Virginia, but apparently is not fatal to humans.

9. Polio

Polio is known in full as poliomyelitis - also called infantile paralysis. It is an acute viral infectious disease of the nervous system that usually begins with general symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, fatigue, and muscle pains and spasms and is sometimes followed by a more serious and permanent paralysis of muscles in one or more limbs, the throat, or the chest. More than half of all cases of polio occur in children under the age of five. The paralysis so commonly associated with the disease actually affects fewer than 1 percent of persons infected by the poliovirus.
Between 5 and 10 percent of infected persons display only the general symptoms outlined above, and more than 90 percent show no signs of illness at all. For those infected by the poliovirus, there is no cure, and in the mid-20th century hundreds of thousands of children were struck by the disease every year. Since the 1960s, thanks to widespread use of polio vaccines, polio has been eliminated from most of the world, and it is now endemic only in several countries of Africa and South Asia. Approximately 1,000–2,000 children are still paralyzed by polio each year, most of them in India.

8. Lupus Erythematosus

Also often referred to simply as lupus, this is an autoimmune disorder that causes chronic inflammation in various parts of the body. Three main types of lupus are recognized—discoid, systemic, and drug-induced. Discoid lupus affects only the skin and does not usually involve internal organs. The term discoid refers to a rash of distinct reddened patches covered with grayish brown scales that may appear on the face, neck, and scalp. In about 10 percent of people with discoid lupus, the disease will evolve into the more severe systemic form of the disorder.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is the most common form of the disease. It may affect virtually any organ or structure of the body, especially the skin, kidneys, joints, heart, gastrointestinal tract, brain, and serous membranes (membranous linings of organs, joints, and cavities of the body.) While systemic lupus can affect any area of the body, most people experience symptoms in only a few organs. The skin rash, if present, resembles that of discoid lupus. In general, no two people will have identical symptoms. The course of the disease is also variable and is marked by periods when the disease is active and by other periods when symptoms are not evident (remission).

7. Influenza

Influenza, also known as the flu, or grippe, is an acute viral infection of the upper or lower respiratory tract that is marked by fever, chills, and a generalized feeling of weakness and pain in the muscles, together with varying degrees of soreness in the head and abdomen.
Influenza is caused by any of several strains of orthomyxoviruses, categorized as types A, B, and C. The three major types generally produce similar symptoms but are completely unrelated antigenically, so that infection with one type confers no immunity against the others. The A viruses cause the great influenza epidemics, and the B viruses cause smaller localized outbreaks; the C viruses are not important causes of disease in humans. Between pandemics, the viruses undergo constant, rapid evolution (a process called antigenic drift) in response to the pressures of human population immunity. Periodically, they undergo major evolutionary change by acquiring a new genome segment from another influenza virus (antigenic shift), effectively becoming a new subtype to which none, or very few, of the population is immune.

6. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare fatal degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease occurs throughout the world at an incidence of one person in a million; however, among certain populations, such as Libyan Jews, rates are somewhat higher. The disease commonly occurs in adults between the ages of 40 and 70, although some young adults have been stricken with the disease. Both men and women are affected equally. The onset of the disease is usually characterized by vague psychiatric or behavioral changes, which are followed within weeks or months by a progressive dementia that is often accompanied by abnormal vision and involuntary movements. There is no known cure for the disease, which is usually fatal within a year of the onset of symptoms.

The disease was first described in the 1920s by the German neurologists Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is similar to other neurodegenerative diseases such as kuru, a human disorder, and scrapie, which occurs in sheep and goats. All three diseases are types of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, so called because of the characteristic spongelike pattern of neuronal destruction that leaves brain tissue filled with holes.

5. Diabetes

Diabetes is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism characterized by impaired ability of the body to produce or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood.
There are two major forms of the disease. Type I diabetes, formerly referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and juvenile-onset diabetes, usually arises in childhood. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the diabetic person’s immune system produces antibodies that destroy the insulin-producing beta cells. Because the body is no longer able to produce insulin, daily injections of the hormone are required.
Type II diabetes, formerly called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and adult-onset diabetes, usually occurs after 40 years of age and becomes more common with increasing age. It arises from either sluggish pancreatic secretion of insulin or reduced responsiveness in target cells of the body to secreted insulin. It is linked to genetics and obesity, notably upper-body obesity. People with type II diabetes can control blood glucose levels through diet and exercise and, if necessary, by taking insulin injections or oral medications.

4. HIV/AIDS

AIDS is the byname of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome - a transmissible disease of the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV slowly attacks and destroys the immune system, the body’s defense against infection, leaving an individual vulnerable to a variety of other infections and certain malignancies that eventually cause death. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, during which time fatal infections and cancers frequently arise.

HIV/AIDS spread to epidemic proportions in the 1980s, particularly in Africa, where the disease may have originated. Spread was likely facilitated by several factors, including increasing urbanization and long-distance travel in Africa, international travel, changing sexual mores, and intravenous drug use. According to the United Nations 2004 report on AIDS, some 38 million people are living with HIV, approximately 5 million people become infected annually, and about 3 million people die each year from AIDS. Some 20 million people have died of the disease since 1981.

3. Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disorder of the lungs in which inflamed airways are prone to constrict, causing episodes of breathlessness, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness that range in severity from mild to life-threatening. Inflamed airways become hypersensitive to a variety of stimuli, including dust mites, animal dander, pollen, air pollution, cigarette smoke, medications, weather conditions, and exercise. Stress can exacerbate symptoms.
Asthmatic episodes may begin suddenly or may take days to develop. Although an initial episode can occur at any age, about half of all cases occur in persons younger than 10 years of age, with boys being affected more often than girls. Among adults, however, the incidence of asthma is approximately equal in men and women. When asthma develops in childhood, it is often associated with an inherited susceptibility to allergens, substances such as pollen, dust mites, or animal dander that may induce an allergic reaction. In adults, asthma also may develop in response to allergens, but viral infections, aspirin, and exercise may cause the disease as well. Adults who develop asthma may have nasal polyps or sinusitis.

2. Cancer

Cancer refers to a group of more than 100 distinct diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer affects one in every three persons born in developed countries and is a major cause of sickness and death throughout the world. Though it has been known since antiquity, significant improvements in cancer treatment have been made since the middle of the 20th century, mainly through a combination of timely and accurate diagnosis, selective surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapeutic drugs. Such advances actually have brought about a decrease in cancer deaths (at least in developed countries), and grounds for further optimism are seen in laboratory investigations into elucidating the causes and mechanisms of the disease.
Owing to continuing advances in cell biology, genetics, and biotechnology, researchers now have a fundamental understanding of what goes wrong in a cancer cell and in an individual who develops cancer—and these conceptual gains are steadily being converted into further progress in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of this disease.

1. The Common Cold

The common cold is an acute viral infection that starts in the upper respiratory tract, sometimes spreads to the lower structures, and may cause secondary infections in the eyes or middle ears. More than 100 agents cause the common cold, including parainfluenza, influenza, respiratory syncytial viruses, and reoviruses. Rhinoviruses, however, are the most frequent cause.
The popular term common cold reflects the feeling of chilliness on exposure to a cold environment that is part of the onset of symptoms. The feeling was originally believed to have a cause-and-effect relationship with the disease, but this is now known to be incorrect. The cold is caught from exposure to infected people, not from a cold environment, chilled wet feet, or drafts. People can carry the virus and communicate it without experiencing any of the symptoms themselves. Incubation is short — usually one to four days. The viruses start spreading from an infected person before the symptoms appear, and the spread reaches its peak during the symptomatic phase.

Source: listverse.com

Dandruff may soon be history..Dandruff causing fungus DNA decoded

2007-11-06T16:17:00.000+05:30

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/A_killing_provoked_by_littering_isnt_murder_SC/articleshow/2520489.cms

LONDON: Scientists conducting a research for Proctor and Gamble have decoded the complete DNA of a natural fungus responsible for dandruff, a genetic breakthrough that may lead to the elimination of the problem of the flaky skin condition.

Dr Thomas Dawson, who led the five-year study, believes that his team’s work may pave the way for more effective shampoos, lotions, and medicines to provide people respite from the problem of dandruff.

“We have been able to see how the fungus interacts with the skin, and that opens up all sorts of new targets for medication,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

According to the researchers, nearly all skin conditions are associated with yeast called Malassezia globosa, which lives on human skin.

They say that by feeding off natural oils in the skin, and by releasing a toxic by-product that can irritate the scalp, the fungus causes itchiness and clumps of dead skin that are noticeable on hair and clothes.

While medicated shampoos are available to deal with fungal infections, they are not 100 per cent reliable.

It was about five years ago that researchers found that Malassezia globosa was associated with the problem of dandruff. The genome for the dandruff yeast has just 4,285 genes written in nine million chemical ‘letters’ of DNA, tiny compared to that for humans.

During the study, the researchers grew ten litres of the yeast in a tank, froze it in liquid nitrogen before extracting its DNA, and then smashed it up into fragments.

The researchers read the DNA sequences of the pieces, and fed them into a powerful computer.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rugby tackle into fire leaves two men badly burned

2007-11-06T00:18:00.000+05:30

Two men are being treated for serious burns after falling into a fire they had lit at an Otago property.

Senior Sergeant Mel Aitken, of Dunedin police, said that the pair, thought to be in their early 30s, used petrol to light a fire at the back of a property in Mosgiel about 4am yesterday.

It appeared one of the men was still holding the petrol container when another man "rugby-tackled" him backwards into the fire, he told the Otago Daily Times.

The fuel spilled from the container and caught fire, burning both men.

Mr Aitken said one of the men suffered severe burns to his upper body, torso, and face, and the other had severe burns to his leg.

Police believe the men were drunk at the time.

"It looks like some antics went badly wrong," Mr Aitken said.

The men were taken to Dunedin Hospital for treatment.

Couple from Hell wins Halloween lottery

2007-11-06T00:16:00.000+05:30

HELL, Mich. - Life in Hell just got a little easier for John and Sue Wilson. The couple, who live in the unincorporated town 45 miles west of Detroit, were blessed with a $115,001 windfall from the Michigan Lottery.

They won the big prize in the Fantasy 5 drawing held Wednesday — that is, Halloween.

"How cool is that?" said Sue Wilson, 43, a teacher's aide. Her husband is an electrician.

The couple said they plan to use their winnings to pay off bills, make some home improvements, buy a video game system for their 13-year-old son and possibly visit relatives in Georgia.

Microsoft launches first ever rechargeable Keyboard and mouse..

2007-11-05T12:27:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has launched "a first time ever" rechargeable Keyboard and mouse pair.Interestingly Both keyboard and mouse have Battery status indicators. The 2.4GHZ technology allows freedom of moving around 30 feet.

This can be called an intelligent pair with ability to adjust power consumption and performance based on battery status. It remains to be seen in future whether Microsoft will put windows mini.. into its Keyboards as well (juz kiddin).

The product is available in Microsoft stores and at an online price of 299.95$ , you can buy this beauty if you have money to spend.

Forgot to mention the pair looks really cool.

Review by Admin
visit Microsoft Hardware for Detailed Info

Wi LAN has sued Apple,Intel,Dell,Sony,HP over patent infringement..

2007-11-05T11:54:00.000+05:30

WiLAN a canadian wireless network provider has sued 22 companies including Apple,Intel,Sony,Dell and HP over patents infringement in Wireless technology and power consumption in DSL products.The patent numbers are 5,282,222, RE37,802 and 5,956,323.
The suit also accused distributers like bestbuy.

In 2005 in a seperate filing WiLAN had out of court settlement with Cisco, where Cisco paid huge sums to buy the infringed patents of WiMax and antenna technology.Cisco also obtained license for WiLAN's products.

Other companies covered in the suit are Acer, Atheros Communications, Belkin International, Broadcom Buffalo Technology (USA), D-Link, Gateway, Infineon Technologies AG, Lenovo Group, Marvell Semiconductor, Netgear, Texas Instruments,Toshiba, Westell Technologies and 2Wire.

Click here for WiLAN's patents

King Tut's Gallery (Top 15 Most viewed pictures)

2007-11-05T09:03:00.001+05:30

'Employment exchanges to be online'

2007-11-05T08:19:00.000+05:30

Government has said it would make all state exchanges accessible online soon.

Many states including Delhi have already done this, Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes said at an awards ceremony here on Saturday night.

"The Employment News, the weekly paper is already online. This is a complete interactive website, wherein one can search jobs, download forms and apply for jobs also," he said.

This site enables the candidates to post their forms besides providing results of the recruitment exams, he added.

Referring to growing employment opportunities in IT sector, the Minister said that Information and Communication Technology has so far provided around 16 lakh jobs this year.

"India may become a super power in the next 15 years in the field of ICT by using its highly talented young workforce," he said, adding that the domestic IT market has touched 50 billion dollar mark this year.

Chipmaker Intel Technology India bagged the award for best processor and motherboard of the year, while HCL Infosystems won an award for best PC with Indian brand.

"The IT industry is really booming in India and offering high employment opportunities, especially to the youths today," Canon India Assistant Director Parveen Sahni said, adding that a considerable number of workers are less than 25 years of age.

MacBooks Move to Intel Santa Rosa

2007-11-05T08:18:00.000+05:30

Apple Computer has quietly moved its MacBook laptop line to Intel's Santa Rosa chipset.

The company is giving MacBook Pro users the option to upgrade to a 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor for an additional $250. Of course, those who want to use their Pros with 2.2- and 2.4-GHz chips, can continue doing so.
It is also giving both MacBook and MacBook Pro users the option to upgrade to a 250GB hard drive.

Santa Rosa is Intel's Gen-Next implementation of its Centrino wireless NB platform, and includes: a Core 2 Duo processor, 802.11n spec with data throughput of up to 74 Mbps over Wi-Fi network, 4 Mbytes of shared L2 cache, and front-side bus speed up to 800 MHz.

Significantly, MacBooks upgraded to Santa Rosa automatically get a video upgrade to Intel's GMA X3100 graphics processor, vis-a-vis their predecessors that feature Intel's slower GMA 950 processor.

And, Santa Rosa imparts a Turbo Memory feature that boosts hard drive performance with a flash-based cache.

New and improved MacBooks priced at $1,099 come with a 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo processor and an 80 GB hard drive. Those with a 2.2-GHz processor and 160 GB storage are priced at $1,499. Meanwhile, standard MacBook features include: a 13-inch display and 1GB memory.

"I raped the woman because of Spider Bite" says accused in court

2007-11-04T23:39:00.001+05:30

An Australian man who kidnapped and raped a woman blamed his actions on a spider, local media reported on Thursday.

Philip Spiers pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape, but told a court that the poison from a funnel-web spider bite had left him with a viral illness which led to his actions.

But a toxicologist told the New South Wales state District Court there was no medical evidence to suggest a spider bite could be responsible for anger and hatred.

Spiers, who kidnapped and raped the woman in 1997, was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years jail.

Living donkey meat ad sparks controversy

2007-11-04T23:26:00.000+05:30

A mangy donkey tied to a post all day in a Beijing street wearing an advertisement for a donkey meat shop run by his owner has sparked debate in the Chinese capital, a local newspaper said on Saturday.

The donkey is periodically moved around wearing its green and white coat advertising the store, but left on its own, given a few cobs of corn to eat, and surrounded by its own manure, the Beijing News said.

"It has caused controversy," the newspaper added. "Some people think that using the donkey is very interesting. Yet others worry it's not hygienic, and may affect the city's image."

The owner doesn't seem to care for all the fuss, the report said. "The aim is to attract customers. The effect has been great," it quoted the man, whose surname was given as Zhao, as saying.

Animal rights are still a strange concept to many Chinese, who enthusiastically consume donkey, horse, dog and even cat and think little of keeping those meant for the pot in terrible conditions.

Last year though, banner-wielding animal rights protesters swarmed into a restaurant serving cat meat in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and forced it to shut.

More than 3500 Chinese children named 'Olympics'

2007-11-04T23:00:00.001+05:30

The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China — it's such an important part of the national consciousness that nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Most of the 3,491 people with the name "Aoyun," meaning Olympics, were born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer Games, the Beijing Daily reported, citing information from China's national identity card database.

The vast majority of people named Aoyun are male, the newspaper said. Only six live in Beijing. The report didn't say where the others live.

Names related to the Olympics don't just stop with "Olympics." More than 4,000 Chinese share their names with the Beijing Games mascots, the "Five Friendlies."

The names are Bei Bei (880 people), Jing Jing (1,240), Huan Huan (1,063), Ying Ying (624) and Ni Ni (642). When put together, the phrase translates to "Beijing welcomes you!"

Chinese have increasingly turned to unique names as a way to express a child's individuality.

In a country with a population of 1.3 billion, 87 percent share the same 129 family names. That's why 5,598 people have the same name as basketball player Yao Ming and 18,462 share a moniker with star hurdler Liu Xiang, according to the Beijing Daily report.

Parents have turned to unusual combinations of letters, numbers and symbols when choosing their child's name, Li Yuming, deputy director of the National Language Commission, told the Xinhua News Agency in an August interview.

At least one couple wanted to call their child "1A," he said, while others use the e-mail address symbol (at), which in Chinese is pronounced "Aita," meaning "love him."

Loyal to the end..(picture of pet dog near dead body of owner)

2007-11-04T22:26:00.000+05:30

Orlando Cricket Player Shoots Opponent During Match

2007-11-04T17:29:00.000+05:30

An argument between several Indian men during a cricket match in Orlando led to an on-the-field shooting that seriously injured one of the players, according to police.

Orange County sheriff's deputies said they responded to a 911 call at 4:20 p.m. Saturday from a cricket match at Cyprus Grove Park and found Francis Singh, 36, shot in the abdomen.

Officers said Singh apparently became involved in a fight and threatened Devan Bascom, 37, with a cricket bat.

Police said Bascom then pulled a small semi-automatic gun and fired at Singh, hitting him at least once.

"The shooter was defending himself from an attack with a cricket bat which is simlar to a baseball bat but it's flat," Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Spike Hopkins said. "For this man to bring a firearm to a sporting event is odd but then again, he has the right to do so. He has a concealed weapons permit and if, in fact, he was protecting himself, he was authorized by law to do so."

Singh was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center and was undergoing surgery late Saturday.

There have been no arrests made in the case as the investigation continues.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

Software that can track your lost mobile phone

2007-11-04T17:22:00.000+05:30

Finding a lost cell phone is a just not an easy process. Informing service providers and lodging police FIRs don't really help you to trace your lost phone. So here is how you can yourself do the policing of your handset.

Jayprakash's mobile was stolen last month. But MicroTec's Lost Mobile Tracking System (LMTS) or got it back.

Till now, a new SIM in a stolen mobile is all that thieves needed to hide their crime. Try that with a LMTS phone and this is where you could land up.

Parag Sapra, LMTS says, "We have cases where people have got their phones back."

Here's how it works. Download the software on to your mobile and MicroTec's server records your number, two reference numbers and your e-mail ID.

If a thief makes a call with a new SIM, it messages and e-mails you his phone number and location. Impressed? It's up for grabs at www.microlmts.net.

Other players like Samsung take the game one step further. Their phones cannot only be tracked; they can be locked to prevent data misuse.

And if for a change, you are kidnapped with your phone, a single key fires text messages to your closest contacts.

Anti-theft and tracking features are useful. But in India, simply finding the thief doesn't guarantee getting your phone back.

That's why brands like Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson stress more on data security than just mobile tracking.

They let you lock your phone, or just your SIM or just specific files so no one messes with your precious data.

But since even they support downloadable tracking software, today, your phone's security is quite literally in your own hands.

Need a healthy heart? Brush teeth properly

2007-11-04T17:19:00.001+05:30

There is one more reason for you to brush your teeth properly and take good care of your gums now.

According to a latest medical find, good oral hygiene also ensures a healthy heart.

Says cardiologist, Max Hospital, Dr Praveen Chandra, “Of my daily heart patients 20-25 per cent have oral problems.”

So how exactly does brushing the teeth help the heart?

“Bacteria causing oral and cardiac problems are the same. Food particles stuck to teeth lead to bacterial growth which can reach heart,” says HOD, Dept of Dentistry, Max Hospital, Dr Ramesh Mathur.

Bleeding gums can also result in bacteria entering the bloodstream. Cardiologists warn that individuals with a particular heart problem are more prone to infections due to lack of oral hygiene.

“For those with valve problems oral health is very important,” says Dr Chandra.

Healthy gums and teeth are also important if you are looking at valve surgery.

Says Dr Mathur, “Such patients are made to first go through oral treatment otherwise new valve will also be infected and surgery will fail.”

So what is the to keep one’s teeth and gums healthy?

“Keep teeth clean, floss them and visit dentist. Dentistry is painless today,” says Dr Mathur.

So if you care for your heart all you need to do is follow all this and visit your dentist.

Teenage coin collector headed for Guinness

2007-11-04T17:03:00.001+05:30

15-year-old Deviprasad Mangaraj has attained worldwide fame for his hobby, which has resulted in his possessing the country's largest collection of antique coins.

The teenage numismatist has more than 40 thousand antique coins from 120 different countries and hopes to enter the Guinness Book of World Records soon.

But it's not just the love for records that keeps him going.

"By collecting such coins I am keen to make people aware of the history, important personalities and the period of those coins," says Mangaraj, who dreams of building a coin museum for children in Bhubaneshwar.

In this regard he was promised help by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then president APJ Abdul Kalam and the state government.

The US dollar is now worth 93 cents Canadian, lowest since the Civil War

2007-11-04T10:24:00.001+05:30

The Canadian dollar entered uncharted territory Friday after a monster employment report blew the roof off the upper limits for the loonie's potential.

With the economy pumping out 63,000 additional jobs in October and the unemployment rate plunging to 5.8 per cent - the best in 33 years - the dollar gained a full two cents in morning trading, peaking over $1.07 US.

The loonie, already soaring on high commodity prices, hit new records Friday, surging more than 1.9 cents to end the day at 107.04 cents US, its highest close on record. Earlier, the loonie traded as high as 107.3 cents US before cooling slightly as a new report showed U.S. employment also was healthy in October, gaining 166,000 jobs.

"That's a big move," said Bank of Montreal deputy chief economist Douglas Porter. "I think a reasonable near-term target now is $1.10, but there's no sign it's going to stop there."

The loonie has risen 22 cents this year alone against the U.S. greenback, making it the world's best-performing major currency. But it has also appreciated against the euro, Japanese yen, Brazilian real and other currencies, making goods imported from Europe, Japan and Brazil cheaper for Canadian consumers.

The rising level has benefited consumers booking U.S. vacations to the sunny south and cross-border shoppers flocking to U.S. border cities looking for bargains on everything from auto parts to CDs, shoes and clothes. It has also forced some Canadian retailers to lower their prices in response and helped more and more companies afford U.S.-built technology and machinery to boost productivity.

Opinions were mixed if the dollar has risen too fast, too high. Paul Gardner of Avenue Investment Management in Toronto said at best the economic fundamentals justified a loonie at par with the greenback, adding that much of the quick appreciation was based on speculation and an exaggerated view of the Canadian economy's strength.

Currency traders believe the stronger than expected jobless report Friday has made it less likely the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates, which means the rate spread between Canada and the United States will remain attractive in Canada's favour.

Gardner noted that while the jobs number may look impressive to foreign investors, a closer look would show that most of the gain was in government and social service jobs. As well, the market views Canada as an oil superpower, "when we're really more of a natural gas producing country," he said.

"Don't get me wrong, it's a great economy, but ... we're now nine months that the private sector hasn't created any jobs."

Gardner said the loonie is also being pushed up by investors fleeing the weakening U.S. greenback to foreign currencies, which has a disproportionate impact on the lighter-traded loonie.

But CIBC analyst Avery Shenfeld said attributing the rise to speculation does not detract from the real factors behind the surge.

"Speculators who push currencies or oil prices or anything else to levels they can't sustain, are speculators who lose money," he noted. "Speculators are not doing this in a vacuum, they are looking at underlying fundamentals that are very positive for the Canadian economy."

While the headline jobs number was five times higher than economists' consensus, analysts cautioned there was also some underlying weakness in the statistics.

All and more of the additional jobs came in the service sector, which gained 66,200 jobs, particularly in health care services and public administration. This boosted this sector's job growth to 3.2 per cent in the past 12 months, but so far this year, the goods producing side is actually down 0.5 per cent.

As well, public-sector employment growth outstripped the private sector by a ratio of six-to-one last month, or 38,000 to 6,500, some as a result of one-time additional hiring for the Ontario provincial election.

Meanwhile, the dollar-battered manufacturing sector registered another poor month in October, shedding an additional 3,500 jobs.

The tight labour market continued to apply pressure on wages as employers paid workers 4.1 per cent more for their hourly labour than a year ago, well above the 2.5 per cent inflation rate.

So far this year, the economy has created 346,000 new jobs, three-quarters in full-time positions and the vast majority in the public sector.

Porter said while the "jobs party" is good news for the domestic economy in terms of higher wages and consumer spending, "This is definitely not good news from a productivity standpoint, as employment has risen more in the past year (2.5 per cent) than real GDP (2.4 per cent)."

The dollar and jobs story also puts the Bank of Canada in the delicate position as it considers what do to with interest rates at it's next scheduled announcement on Dec. 4, particularly after the U.S. Federal Reserve Board cut its key rate another 25 basis points this week.

Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove met in Ottawa with Industry Minister Jim Prentice on Friday to ask for assistance for the auto sector. Referring to Thursday's announcement of 1,100 jobs layoffs at the Chrysler plant in Brampton, Ont., Hargrove said the dollar is only making a bad situation worse.

"We need a dramatic lowering of the interest rates," he said he told Prentice. "The Americans have already lowered interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in the last couple of months and we have done nothing."

Hargrove said many auto parts manufacturers signed contracts in the U.S. when the dollar was under 90 cents US, putting them in a precarious position today.

"This dollar coupled by this latest announcement by Chrysler could very well tip them into bankruptcy," he said. Prentice discounted applying pressure on the central bank on interest rates.

While bank governor David Dodge has shown no inclination of budging from the current stand still position, Gardner said the situation has changed dramatically since the bank's last announcement in October.

"The Bank of Canada said at $1.02 US that they were uncomfortable with the level of the currency, so they have to back it up with more than words," he said. "If we're at $1.07 and above for a couple of weeks and it looks like it will stay there, they may have to cut interest rates by a quarter point," he said.

In Toronto, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he is concerned about the rise in the currency and its impact on corporate Canada but won't intervene on the interest rate front.

"I'm always concerned about rapid acceleration of the currency because of its effect on business," he said after a speech. "Business tries to plan and it's very difficult for businesses to plan when they see volatility in the currency like that. Having said that, monetary policy is the responsibility of the Bank of Canada. I have regular discussions with the governor of the bank and I think their next date for rate-setting is the first week in December."

Flaherty said Canada's manufacturing sector remains vibrant and resilient despite the loonie's rise.

"Over the course of the last several years, we've seen resiliance in the Canadian manufacturing sector," he said. "In the auto sector, there is some weakness. In the forestry sector, there is certainly weakness. That has a lot to do with a reduction in demand in the US economy."

In Quebec, where the forest sector has been particularly hurt, provincial Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand said the Bank of Canada must follow the lead of the Federal Reserve and cut interest rates.

"The Bank of Canada isn't moving because it's afraid of inflation," Bachand said in Quebec City. "Inflation isn't our major worry."

It's the "rapid rise" of the loonie and this can put investments and exports in danger, he said.

Bachand said he will introduce a plan in the next few weeks to deal with the pain that Quebec's manufacturing industry is experiencing as a result of the high loonie.

Children & alcohol: Britain's deadly cocktail.. 40% raise in under age drinkers

2007-11-04T09:22:00.000+05:30

Record numbers of children are in treatment for alcohol abuse. Britain's drinking culture, combined with the sheer availability and affordability of alcohol, is taking a heavy toll of those most vulnerable to its effects.

An investigation by The Independent on Sunday has discovered that children as young as 10 are spending up to three years in treatment, ranging from residential rehabilitation to specialist counselling.

The new statistics, obtained from the National Treatment Agency, and published for the first time by the IoS, reveal a devastating picture of Britain's young people and children suffering from alcohol-related illness and self-destruction.

The number of under-18s in alcohol treatment programmes has soared by 40 per cent, from 4,781 in 2006 to 6,707 in 2007. The findings reveal the highest increases have been among 12- to 14-year-olds, up 62 per cent from 592 to 953.

Meanwhile, thousands of youngsters continue to be admitted to hospital each year for serious illnesses usually expected in ageing alcoholics: children aged 16 or under hospitalised due to drink have risen by a third in the past decade – from 3,870 in 1995/6 to 5,281 in 2005/6.

Health professionals are particularly concerned about the number of young girls drinking excessively and requiring treatment. Girls accounted for just under 60 per cent of all hospital admissions for alcohol.

Health professionals look with concern at the antics of high-profile figures who appear to glamorise excessive boozing. Daily coverage of celebrities such as Amy Winehouse, Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding and Lily Allen looking worse for wear does nothing to help matters, particularly among impressionable young girls. Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "Even I've heard of Amy Winehouse. Clearly it's highly inappropriate for young pop stars, looked upon as role models by young people, to be celebrating or boasting about their misuse of alcohol, and the 'Amy Winehouse factor' isn't helping the situation."

Girls are particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol, adds Professor Gilmore: "We know girls' bodies are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol than boys. Unless we can stop this heavy drinking culture among young girls, we're more likely to see women with serious liver disease at a younger age in the future."

Professor Roger Williams, director of the Institute for Hepatology, University College London, and physician for the late George Best, said: " Many young people say that they drink and feel perfectly fine, but they need to realise that the damage done by drinking is progressive. The number of under-18s admitted to hospital has gone up 15 per cent over the past decade, and deaths from cirrhosis are rising in younger age groups, with people in their 20s and 30s now being treated for liver failure."

Alarming as the latest statistics are, health campaigners describe them as a mere indication of the true picture. "This is the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 800,000 children below the age of 15 drinking regularly in the UK," said Frank Soodeen from Alcohol Concern. "Many of the young people who drink at hazardous levels require a depth of support that is simply not available in the current system. There are fewer than 150 residential detox beds available for under-18s, with much of that capacity provided by the private sector."

Continued price promotions, combined with a rise in incomes, means that alcohol has never been more affordable. And the explosion in child drinkers is being fuelled by a culture of drinking to get drunk, experts claim. " Of 15-year-olds, nearly two-thirds have drunk in the past four weeks, and around one in seven of those drinkers consumed enough to vomit. The reality is that about 30 per cent of all 15-year-olds think it is OK to get drunk once a week," said Professor Mark Bellis from the North West Public Health Observatory, and the Government's lead adviser on alcohol. "We need to tackle a youth culture in which drunkenness is commonplace, underage access to alcohol relatively easy and alternatives to drinking far too scarce."

The issue of young people and drink will be the focus of Alcohol Concern's annual conference on Wednesday, where calls will be made on the Government to set up a regulatory watchdog to force the drinks industry to do more to curb under-age sales of alcohol and help to stem the rising tide of teen drinkers. In a new report, the charity will call on the drinks industry not to advertise on television before 9pm. They say an independent regulatory body to police the drinks industry would result in a reduction in the amount of alcohol that continues to be sold to under-age drinkers. In addition, the report will call on the Government to set aside £1.6bn – 10 per cent of tax revenues from alcohol – to tackle the crisis.

Although still in its infancy, there are already 3,000 premises licensed for 24-hour drinking. Government thinking on 24-hour drinking is being reviewed amid fears that the promotion of cheap alcohol is leading to more alcohol abuse, and a report due out next summer will look at ways of controlling the activities of drinks companies.

British teenagers, along with those in Ireland and Denmark, are among the heaviest teenage drinkers in Europe. They are more likely to drink to get drunk and suffer from alcohol abuse than their European counterparts. One in four young people drink in parks or on street corners and there was a sharp increase of 77 per cent in the number of 16- to 17-year-olds being drunk and disorderly between 2004 (1,328 cases) and 2005 (2,354 cases).

Unable to work due to developing a drink problem when just 16, David James (not his real name) was one such statistic. He was repeatedly arrested for being drunk and disorderly, with his descent into alcoholism having begun when he left home at 16; he drank as a way to fit in with those around him. " Within months I was drinking five or six litres of cider every day. It was strong and only cost me £6 so I could afford it without a job," he said. "I wasn't old enough to be buying it myself so my friends would get it for me, but by the age of 17 I was getting served in shops as well. By this time I needed to drink was soon as I woke up. Otherwise the shaking and sweats wouldn't go away."

Desperate to stop drinking, the teenager from High Wycombe began seeing a counsellor through the Addaction charity last year. Now 19, he admitted that it is a daily struggle. "I'm talking about my problems rather than just drinking, though I still need a strong lager as soon as I wake up, but I'm down to five or six cans," he said. "I really want to stop and have a normal life. I want to get a job, sort things out with my family, find a stable place to live and a girlfriend, but it's hard. I still can't stop drinking completely and just wish I'd never started."

Despite protestations that local authorities have clamped down hard, the selling of alcohol to children remains widespread. Prosecutions at magistrates' courts for selling alcohol to children rose fivefold from 198 in 1995 to 1,084 in 2005. And there has been an explosion in the numbers of penalty notices issued for underage sales of alcohol – from 113 in 2004 to 2,058 in 2005.

The crisis has gone to the top of the political agenda, with the Prime Minister having described his concern over teenagers that drink, saying: " Binge-drinking and under-age drinking that disrupt neighbourhoods are unacceptable." He has warned that shops persisting in selling alcohol to children will lose their licences; he also urges councils to ban alcohol in trouble spots and calls on the industry "to do more to advertise the dangers of teenage drinking".

In 2003/04, a total of £217m was being invested in alcohol treatment and 63,000 people were receiving treatment for alcohol-related disorders. But this is a tiny fraction of the million alcoholics in Britain, not to mention more than eight million people who drink above sensible levels.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We have invested significantly in young people's substance misuse services through a ring-fenced local partnership grant – £24.7m for 2007/08 – and we are determined to go further by reducing the harm caused to young people by alcohol and educating young people and their parents on the very real harm it causes."

The stakes could not be higher, said Professor Williams. "The health consequences are simply too serious to be ignored."

The schoolgirl: 'When you start drinking you forget about the bad things'

"I started drinking when I was about 11 or 12," says Kayleigh from Esher, Surrey. "I had older friends who used to drink and it went from there. I was drinking beer, cider and bottles of wine and I used to drink about three times a week. It's too easy for children to get hold of – adults always have it in their house."

Alcoholism came early for the schoolgirl. Now 18, she knows only too well the addictive and damaging effects of drink. Her formative years were spent as a heavy drinker, turning up at school either hung-over or drunk, to the distress of her teachers. After her mother died three years ago, from deep vein thrombosis, Kayleigh's drinking became even worse. Living with a foster family, she started to drink almost every day, sometimes even stealing drink from shops to feed her addiction. "When you first start drinking, there is a buzz and you forget about the bad things. You just don't care about them any more, you're not so scared."

Kayleigh started counselling this April and now visits a weekly drugs and alcohol clinic run by young persons' charity Rainer.

"It all depends on whether you want to get better. They can't make you do it; they can only advise and help you."

Tennis coach jailed for sex acts with 'infatuated' girl, 13

2007-11-04T09:10:00.000+05:30

A tennis coach convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old girl she was training was jailed yesterday for two years and nine months. Claire Lyte, from Solihull, West Midlands, was convicted last month on four counts of sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl.

Lyte, 29, was also banned indefinitely from working with children following a two-week trial at Liverpool crown court during which the jury was told Lyte and the girl shared hotel rooms during tournaments. Lyte's solicitor later said she would appeal against the conviction.

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During the trial the jury was told that Lyte was caught performing oral sex on the child, a pupil at the Lawn Tennis Association academy, by the youngster's mother. She had also worn the child's knickers.

Judge Nigel Gilmour QC said Lyte's evidence was a "wicked" conspiracy against her victim's family. He criticised Lyte for trying to avoid justice by claiming the victim's mother invented allegations against her because the girl was not good enough to turn professional.

He also said Lyte's parents had lied in their evidence. "In attempting to escape conviction you alleged that three generations of the victim's family were all part of a wicked conspiracy to get you convicted of crimes you hadn't committed. The jury rejected those wicked allegations of yours. There wasn't and never has been such a conspiracy by the family. The jury accepted the victim and her family were substantial witnesses of truth and could be relied upon."

Of Lyte's parents, Colin and Gillian, he added: "I am sure your parents in all other respects are wholly admirable members of society, but have given lying evidence to the jury, no doubt at your request and encouragement."

Lyte had committed a breach of trust, he said. "The girl's family expected you to look after her and she was entrusted in your care. You corrupted that girl and advanced her experiences of sexual matters by some years."

The girl's consent was limited because she was an "infatuated 13-year-old".

"You welcomed her attention and encouraged it and then manipulated what had become her infatuation with you and did that for your own selfish sexual ends."

Outside court, Lyte's solicitor, Margaret Coall - flanked by the defendant's parents - confirmed the defence team were appealing. "Miss Lyte is devastated with the guilty verdicts. She has maintained her innocence throughout the proceedings and continues to do so."

Lyte had been convicted by 10-2 majority verdicts by the eight women and four men of the jury, who took nearly 12 hours to reach their decision.

In mitigation, her barrister, David Mason, said the victim, who is from Merseyside, had begun playing tennis again.

He said: "She is young enough to get back on track and, of course, have a fruitful career."

Folic acid in bread may pose multiple health risks

2007-11-04T09:07:00.001+05:30

London, Nov 01: Food scientists have warned that a plan to fortify bread flour with folic acid to reduce birth defects may indeed raise incidences of bowel cancer, and trigger problems for people with leukaemia and arthritis.

The Institute of Food Research has also said that it may take 20 years before the effects of increased consumption by millions of people become known.

"Fortifying UK flour with folic acid would reduce the incidence of neural tube defects. However, with doses of half the amount being proposed for fortification in the UK, the liver becomes saturated and unmetabolised folic acid floats around the blood stream,” the Daily Mail quoted Dr. Sian Astley of the institute as saying.

"This can cause problems for people being treated for leukaemia and arthritis, women being treated for ectopic pregnancies, men with a family history of bowel cancer, people with blocked arteries being treated with a stent and elderly people with poor vitamin B status,” she added.

The warning comes as the Food Standards Agency has approved putting folic acid in bread flour in belief that it would cut the rate of birth defects such as spina bifida in the unborn baby, which can cause serious disability. The Government has yet to make a final decision in this regard.

According to the researchers, the human body may struggle to break down folic acid in even half the amounts proposed for supplementing foods, suggesting that even two slices of fortified bread a day everyday could lead to problems in people who are not deficient.

"This has important implications for the use of folic acid in fortification, because even at low doses it could lead to over-consumption, with its inherent risks," said Dr. Astley.

She said that a liver flooded with folic acid might end up releasing it undigested into the blood, and that excess levels of folic acid in the blood could lead to bowel and breast cancer, and accelerate brain decline in some elderly people.

Dr Astley said 13million Britons did not eat enough folate, which could equally put them at risk of health problems, and as many as 900 pregnancies a year are affected by birth defects for the same reason.

"It`s a complicated and confusing issue. We want to encourage those who don`t eat enough to increase their intake, but we don`t want people eating too much in a sledgehammer approach to fortification. We have to work out the groups it might be helpful for," she said.

Beer is better than water after workout: Study

2007-11-04T09:04:00.000+05:30

LONDON: Sports enthusiasts now have a healthy reason for heading to a pub for a postmatch pint.

According to a research, a glass of beer is far better at rehydrating the body than water after exercise.

The sugar, salt and bubbles in a pint may help people absorb fluids more quickly, the study claims.

The study was conducted on 25 students of Granada University by Professor Manuel Garzon.

They were asked to run on a treadmill under stifling temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius until they were close to exhaustion.

Their hydration levels, concentrationability and motor skills were later measured by the researchers.

While half were given two half pints of Spanish lager to drink, the rest were provided water. Both groups were then allowed to drink as much water as they wanted.

Professor Garzon said the rehydration effect in the students who were given beer was slightly better than those given water.

The carbon dioxide in the drink helped quench the thirst quickly, while beer's carbohydrates replaced calories lost during physical exertion, Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

Based on the studies, the researchers recommended moderate consumption of beer - 500ml a day for men or 250ml for women - as part of an athlete's diet.

Beer contains malted barley, hops and yeast, which are rich sources of vitamins and minerals.

About a litre of water is lost for every hour of exercise in sweat. People who fail to rehydrate after exercise are more likely to feel tired, fuzzyheaded and suffer headaches.

Past studies had shown that sensible drinking of one or two units a day can reduce the risk of heart disease, dementia, diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Musharraf declares emergency in Pakistan

2007-11-04T00:14:00.000+05:30

link : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071103/ap_on_re_as/pakistan;_ylt=AlqhlN8faC5ZwMkvOye_5XWs0NUE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital. Paramilitary troops and police swarmed the capital.

His leadership threatened by the impending court ruling and an Islamic movement that has spread to the capital, Musharraf's emergency order accused some judges of "working at cross purposes with the executive" and "weakening the government's resolve" to fight terrorism.

Seven of the 17 Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. Police blocked entry to the Supreme Court building and later took the deposed chief justice and other judges away in a convoy, witnesses said.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a longtime rival of Musharraf who recently returned from eight years of exile, flew back to Pakistan from Dubai where she was visiting family and left the airport under police escort. Her house was surrounded by paramilitary troops.

The government halted all television transmissions in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV. Telephone service in the capital, Islamabad, was cut.

The order drew swift complaints from the United States and Britain — Musharraf's main Western allies. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged restraint on all sides and a swift return to democracy in Pakistan.

The United States "does not support extraconstitutional measures," Rice said from Turkey, where she was participating in a conference with Iraq's neighbors.

But, in justification, the emergency order said "the constitution provides no solution for this situation, there is no way out except through emergent and extraordinary measures," it said.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital. Paramilitary troops and police swarmed the capital.

The opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was flying from Dubai on Saturday. Her spokesman in London said she was already sitting in a plane at Karachi airport, waiting to see if she would be arrested or deported. Another party official said her flight was due to arrive later Saturday.

Seven of the 17 Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. Police blocked entry to the Supreme Court building and later took the deposed chief justice and other judges away in a convoy, witnesses said.

The government halted all television transmissions in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV. Telephone service in the capital, Islamabad, was cut.

A copy of the emergency order obtained by The Associated Press justified the declaration on the grounds that "some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive" and "weakening the government's resolve" to fight terrorism.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged restraint on all sides and a swift return to democracy in Pakistan.

The United States "does not support extraconstitutional measures," Rice said from Turkey, where she was participating in a conference with Iraq's neighbors.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and has been a close ally of the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has struggled to contain spreading Islamic militancy that has centered along the Afghan border and spread to the capital and beyond.

Pakistanis have increasingly turned against the government of Musharraf, who failed earlier this year to oust Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry — the chief justice replaced Saturday.

Rice said that to her knowledge, U.S. officials had yet to hear directly from Musharraf after his declaration.

"Whatever happens we will be urging a quick return to civilian rule" Rice told reporters traveling with her, and a "return to constitutional order and the commitment to free and fair elections."

Crucial parliamentary elections meant to restore civilian rule are due by January. Musharraf himself was overwhelmingly re-elected last month by the current parliament, dominated by his ruling party, but the vote was challenged. The Supreme Court had been expected to rule imminently on whether he could run for president while still serving as army chief.

Bhutto, seen by many supporters as key to a possible return to democracy, went to Dubai after being targetted by assassins in Pakistan last month. Suicide bombers attacked her homecoming parade after eight years in exile, killing more than 140 people.

She was sitting on a plane at Karachi airport Saturday after returning from Dubai, said Wajid Hasan, a spokesman.

"She is waiting to see if she is going to be arrested or deported," Hasan said from London, adding that he had spoken to the former Pakistani prime minister by telephone while her plane was on the tarmac in Karachi.

But Fahmida Mirza, an information secretary for her Pakistan People's Party, said Bhutto had not yet arrived. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

Musharraf's order allows courts to function but suspends some fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution, including freedom of speech. It also allows authorities to detain people without informing them of the charges.

Military vehicles patrolled and troops blocked roads in the administrative heart of the capital. Paramilitary troops behind rolled barbed wire blocked access to an official compound housing lawmakers — barring even wives, children and even a ruling party senator from entering. In Karachi, about 100 police and paramilitary troops surrounded Bhutto's house and a bomb disposal squad searched the building, witnesses said.

There were reports of gunfire in several districts of the city, but it appeared to be aerial firing, police said.

The emergency was expected to be followed by arrests of lawyers and other perceived opponents of the government, including civil society activists and possibly even members of the judiciary itself, a ruling party lawmaker said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Private Geo TV reported the arrest of the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan — a lawyer for Chaudhry in the case that led to his reinstatement in July.

With telephone lines cut, it was not possible to contact government spokesmen for confirmation.

Chaudhry and other judges drove out of the court building in a convoy of black cars over two hours after the emergency was declared, under police escort. They were being shifted to their official residences nearby. Officers stopped reporters from approaching.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was deported in September as he tried to return from exile, condemned the emergency and said Musharraf should resign. He also urged the people of Pakistan to rise against Musharraf.

"If you don't do it today, it will too late then," he told Geo TV from Saudi Arabia.

Google phone plans to be announced Monday

2007-11-03T23:26:00.000+05:30

The long-awaited announcement of Google's phone plans will occur earlier than expected, and not in the form previously laid out, says the Wall Street Journal. While it had been suggested that an announcement would come November 13th at the earliest, the Journal's sources say that it will mostly likely happen Monday, November 5th, and with different carriers. T-Mobile is still involved, but the other main party is said to be Sprint. Foreign carriers may be included, but have not been mentioned.

Google is again said to be working with cellular networks and phone makers to promote an "open" application platform, courting companies such as HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. With T-Mobile Google is claimed to be going even further, cooperating directly on building phones using its software. When the efforts of any of these collaborations might bear fruit remains unknown, but Journal proposes that the earliest date for sale of a Google-ready phone would be mid-2008.

Dinosaurs were killed by Volcanic eruptions in India

2007-11-03T15:00:00.000+05:30

A series of monumental volcanic eruptions in India may have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, not a meteor impact in the Gulf of Mexico. The eruptions, according to a press release by EurekAlert, which created the gigantic Deccan Traps lava beds of India, are now the prime suspect in the most famous and persistent paleontological murder mystery, say scientists who have conducted a slew of new investigations honing down eruption timing.

"It's the first time we can directly link the main phase of the Deccan Traps to the mass extinction," said Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller. The main phase of the Deccan eruptions spewed 80 percent of the lava which spread out for hundreds of miles. It is calculated to have released ten times more climate altering gases into the atmosphere than the nearly concurrent Chicxulub meteor impact, according to volcanologist Vincent Courtillot from the Physique du Globe de Paris.

Keller's crucial link between the eruption and the mass extinction comes in the form of microscopic marine fossils that are known to have evolved immediately after the mysterious mass extinction event. The same telltale fossilized planktonic foraminifera were found at Rajahmundry near the Bay of Bengal, about 1000 kilometers from the center of the Deccan Traps near Mumbai. At Rajahmundry there are two lava "traps" containing four layers of lava each. Between the traps are about nine meters of marine sediments. Those sediments just above the lower trap, which was the mammoth main phase, contain the incriminating microfossils.

Keller and her collaborator Thierry Adatte from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, are scheduled to present the new findings on Tuesday, 30 October, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. They will also display a poster on the matter at the meeting on Wednesday, 31 October.

Previous work had first narrowed the Deccan eruption timing to within 800,000 years of the extinction event using paleomagnetic signatures of Earth's changing magnetic field frozen in minerals that crystallized from the cooling lava. Then radiometric dating of argon and potassium isotopes in minerals narrowed the age to within 300,000 years of the 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary (a.k.a. Cretaceous-Paleogene) boundary, sometimes called the K-T boundary.

The microfossils are far more specific, however, because they demonstrate directly that the biggest phase of the eruption ended right when the aftermath of the mass extinction event began. That sort of clear-cut timing has been a lot tougher to pin down with Chicxulub-related sediments, which predate the mass extinction.

"Our results are consistent and mutually supportive with a number of new studies, including Chenet, Courtillot and others (in press) and Jay and Widdowson (in press), that reveal a very short time for the main Deccan eruptions at or near the K-T boundary and the massive carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide output of each major eruption that dwarfs the output of Chicxulub," explained Keller. "Our K-T age control combined with these results strongly points to Deccan volcanism as the likely leading contender in the K-T mass extinction." Keller's study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Deccan Traps also provide an answer to a question on which Chicxulub was silent: Why did it take about 300,000 years for marine species to recover from the extinction event" The solution is in the upper, later Deccan Traps eruptions.

"It's been an enigma," Keller said. "The very last one was Early Danian, 280,000 years after the mass extinction, which coincides with the delayed recovery."

Keller and her colleagues are planning to explore the onset of the main phase of Deccan volcanism, that is, the rocks directly beneath the main phase lavas at Rajahmundry. That will require drilling into the Rajahmundry Traps, a project now slated for December-January 2007/2008.

Pilots slept on overnight flight..Shocking News

2007-11-03T12:23:00.000+05:30

Two commercial pilots allegedly fell asleep on a flight between Baltimore and Denver, with one pilot waking up to "frantic" calls from air traffic controllers warning them they were approaching the airport at twice the speed allowed.

The March 2004 event, which was discussed during a Congressional hearing Wednesday, was reported by the captain on the flight on NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, which allows crew members to anonymously document incidents.

Details of the "red eye," or late night/early morning flight, including the airline, flight number, or number of passengers aboard are not included in the reporting system. It did note the type of airplane, an Airbus A319, which are flown by Frontier Airlines and United Airlines.

United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy told the Rocky Mountain News, which first reported the incident, that United did not fly a "red eye" between the two cities at the time and it had no reports of that incident.

Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas told the newspaper the airline had a "red eye" flight on the schedule at the time but could not find a report of the incident.

Federal Aviation Administration officials did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press after business hours.

"Last 45 mins of flt (flight) I fell asleep and so did the FO (first officer)," according to the narrative in the report.

The captain noted they were approaching a point where they were to begin their descent into Denver International Airport about 60 miles southeast of there at 35,000 feet, much higher than required, and at Mach .82, or 608 mph, instead of a required slower speed.

"I woke up, why I don't know, and heard frantic calls from ATC ... I answered ATC and abided by all instructions to get down. Woke FO (first officer) up."

He spiraled the jet down to a lower altitude as ordered, then landed "with no further incidents."

The pilot had been switched to three nights in a row of flying the overnight, eight-hour round trip.

While unable to find a report on the incident, Hodas said the airline has received similar reports in the past and have addressed them, noting that pilot fatigue is a bigger issue in the industry than the public realizes.

"We take safety very seriously and watch crew fatigue very closely," he said.

The company has a number of programs in place to prevent crew fatigue, including no-fault fatigue reporting in which a pilot who feels fatigued and is scheduled to fly can call and be relieved from flying.

Mom I found a secret room behind shelf..

2007-11-03T10:01:00.000+05:30

Kerri and Jason Brown discovered a secret room behind a bookcase containing a homeowner's worst nightmare — mold. Also in the room was a handwritten note: "You found it!" What the Browns found was a mold problem so serious the previous owner was forced to move, according to the note.

Fearing their young daughter's health, the Browns hired an environmental engineer who detected high levels of several types of mold, including a black mold fungus called Stachybotrys.

"It terrified me," Kerri Brown told WYFF-TV in Greenville. "I had heard reports of what it does for children, and I was terrified."

The Browns said a home inspection done before they bought it did not include a mold test.

The Browns filed a lawsuit claiming Century 21 Flynn & Youngblood, real estate agent Sue Bakx and Fannie Mae knew about the mold.

Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, bought the Brown's home for $75,000 and will be dropped from the lawsuit. The family plans to continue the suit against Century 21 Flynn & Youngblood and real estate agent Sue Bakx.

Both the company and the agent told the television station they didn't know anything about the mold. A telephone call to Century 21 was referred to Bakx, who did not immediately return a telephone message Friday.

Cremated son turns up alive..

2007-11-03T09:56:00.001+05:30

A mother cremated a body she thought was that of her dead son, only for him to turn up alive later, police said on Friday.

Gina Partington's 37-year-old son Thomas Dennison was reported missing last month and a body was found in Rusholme, Manchester, three days later.

The 58-year-old mother, from Urmston, Greater Manchester, formally identified the body as that of her son and, following an inquest, the body was cremated on October 30.

But police had actually found Dennison, living rough in Nottingham, four days earlier.

The case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to discover why Partington was not told of her son's discovery in the days before she attended the cremation.

Inquiries are continuing to formally establish the identity of the body, but Greater Manchester police said they believe they know who he is.

Next of kin have been informed.

Police said in a statement: "This set of circumstances is clearly distressing and urgent inquiries are ongoing to establish how this happened."

Mozilla, Microsoft At Odds Over Next JavaScript

2007-11-03T09:29:00.000+05:30

Mozilla Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich and Microsoft's Chris Wilson are trading heated rhetoric over the proposed next version of ECMAScript, better known as JavaScript.

Microsoft is quibbling with the ECMAScript Edition 4 effort, which is supported by Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser. "As I've frequently spoken about publicly, compatibility with the current web ecosystem -- not 'breaking the Web' -- is something we take very seriously," Wilson wrote on the Internet Explorer team blog this week. "In our opinion, a revolution in ECMAScript would be best done with an entirely new language, so we could continue supporting existing users as well as freeing the new language from constraints."

Eich is the creator of JavaScript, a programming language that has become a bedrock Internet technology, helping drive much of the rich content and information now common on the Web. Microsoft's implementation of it is known as JScript.

Wilson is the platform architect of Microsoft's Internet Explorer platform team. He wrote on his personal blog Wednesday that Microsoft's position has been misunderstood: "Sadly, this seems to be turning into an 'ES4: yes or no' battle. That's unfortunate, because I don't think anyone should settle into the trenches, and I don't think the other Microsoft guys ever intended to say "everything about ES4 is bad."

"I also think it's a shame that the response to any dissent has equated to shouting the dissenters down," he added.

Writing on his blog in response, Eich accused Wilson of spreading lies.

"You seem to be repeating falsehoods in blogs since the Proposed ECMAScript 4th Edition Language Overview was published, claiming dissenters including Microsoft were ignored by me, or 'shouted down' by the majority, in the ECMAScript standardization group," Eich wrote. "Assuming you didn't know better, and someone was misinforming you, you (along with everyone reading this letter) know better now. So I'll expect to see no more of these lies spread by you."

As for ECMAScript 4's purported shortcomings, Wilson wrote that the proposed new standard may result in complications and incompatibilities with existing Web sites and applications.

"As I understand it, on the other hand, the ES4 proposal introduces a lot of new language functionality that essentially changes the character of the language," he said. "I don't personally have a problem with that language as a language -- but I think grafting that different-in-character-language together with a compatible-and-performant implementation of the Javascript of today is both super-hard (if even possible) to get right, and is ignoring the bigger problems of language-for-web, namely interoperating with all the script that is out there."

Eich charged in turn that Microsoft's arguments are self-serving. "At best, we have a fundamental conflict of visions and technical values between the majority and the minority," he wrote. "However, the obvious conflict of interest between the standards-based web and proprietary platforms advanced by Microsoft, and the rationales for keeping the web's client-side programming language small while the proprietary platforms rapidly evolve support for large languages, does not help maintain the fiction that only clashing high-level philosophies are involved here."

LTTE's Soft face S P TamilSelvan Killed by Sri Lankan Military

2007-11-03T00:08:00.001+05:30

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan separatist group known for suicide attacks on political and military targets, lost their most prominent international representative today when the head of their political wing was killed in an airstrike by the Sri Lankan military, according to the guerrilla group.

The Tamil Tigers announced the death of the leader, S. P. Tamilselvan, along with those of five associates, in a news release issued early afternoon Sri Lanka time. The Sri Lankan military said he had been killed in Air Force strikes on an area called Thirivearu, near the rebel garrison of Kilinochchi, where the military said senior rebel leaders had gathered for a meeting. There was no independent verification available of exactly when he was killed, or where.

The killing further ratcheted up the stakes in Sri Lanka’s renewed quarter-century-long ethnic conflict between the majority ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government and the rebels, also known as the L.T.T.E.. For over a year, a series of open military attacks and counterattacks, suicide bombings and mysterious abductions has left no pretense that a 2002 cease-fire agreement, which Mr. Tamilselvan had helped draft, still holds.

The executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Policy Alternatives, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, said by telephone from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, that the assassination demonstrated the government’s “determined intent to prosecute a war and defeat the L.T.T.E.,” and so would vindicate the hard-liners on the rebel side.

“They are now the mirror image of each other in every respect,” he said of the two sides. “They are both in zero-sum mode. I would imagine the L.T.T.E. will want to hit back.”

The killing of Mr. Tamilselvan comes barely a week after a so-called Black Tiger suicide squad penetrated a military base in the central Sri Lankan city of Anuradhapura, killing 13 soldiers and destroying several military jets.

Mr. Tamilselvan was the highest ranking Tamil Tiger official authorized to meet with foreign journalists and diplomats until the Sri Lankan government effectively blocked foreigners from crossing from government to rebel-held territory last year. He had walked with a limp, with the aid of a cane, since a 1993 battle injury.

Sri Lankan state-run television news blamed Mr. Tamilselvan’s leadership for a string of bloody attacks on the Sri Lankan leaders, including former presidents and military leaders.

His death leaves the organization with no internationally known figure beyond its its elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Mr. Tamilselvan had also become chief negotiator for the rebel side since the group’s self-described ideologue, Anton S. Balasingham, fell ill and then died of cancer last December. But the sides have shown little desire to negotiate for some time.

After four years of lull, heavy fighting began in earnest in July, 2006, with a battle for the country’s multiethnic east. Tamil Tigers dug from their usual arsenal, setting off remote-controlled land mines and suicide bombers, killing suspected political rivals and forcibly recruiting ethnic Tamils into its fighting cadres, including children. Last March, they unveiled a new weapon: crudely assembled fighter planes, which conducted its first confirmed air raid on a military base next to the Colombo international airport, killing three Sri Lankan troops.

The government has continued its headlong march into war, despite stepped-up pressure on the government from abroad, including from the United States, one of its key allies.

Marriage without sex is anathema : Court

2007-11-02T23:59:00.000+05:30

Observing that marriage was "anathema" without sex, a local court has held that a person whose spouse is found to be HIV positive is justified in seeking a divorce.

Delivering the judgment, which is bound to kick up a controversy, additional district judge Rajnish Bhatnagar said that a person cannot live "happily" with a spouse who has AIDS or is HIV positive.

The judge thus granted divorce to a man whose wife is HIV positive, saying her ailment had prevented him from leading a "happy married life" as the disease is sexually communicable.

The court added that sex was an integral part of marriage and in this particular case, the husband was deprived of that enjoyment. "The HIV status of the wife no doubt resulted in non-enjoyment of sexual intercourse between the parties and marriage without sex is anathema," the court said.

The couple from Kerala had married in October 2000 and moved to the capital. Five months after their marriage, the wife was found to be HIV positive in a medical test conducted during her pregnancy. Tests showed the husband hadn't contracted the dreaded virus.

AIDS activists termed the decision to seek divorce as a matter of personal choice but expressed dismay over the negative impact the judgment would have on society's perceptions of HIV positive people.

Said Dushyant Meher, AIDS programme coordinator of Salaam Balak Trust, "This is a conflict between the rights of an HIVpositive person and a healthy person. In this case, the court has given precedence to the rights of the healthy person."

Protest in a Funeral and pay 10 million dollars..

2007-11-01T15:34:00.001+05:30

A federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland, Wednesday awarded $10.9 million to a father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of a fundamentalist church carrying signs blaming soldiers' deaths on America's tolerance of homosexuals.

A member of Westboro Baptist Church protests outside a veteran's hospital in Maywood, Illinois, in April 2006.

The family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder -- who was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq's Anbar province in 2006 -- sued the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, and its leaders for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Church members showed up at Snyder's funeral chanting derogatory slogans and holding picket signs with messages including "God Hates Fags."

They've picketed the funerals of dozens of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that God is punishing the United States because of its tolerance for homosexuality.

Al Snyder, father of the slain Marine, said he considered filing the lawsuit for a long time before going forward and that he hoped the judgment would make it harder for the church to continue such protests.

"It's hard enough burying a 20-year-old son, much less having to deal with something like this," he said, recalling that some of the other signs at the funeral included "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs." Watch the fallen Marine's father describe his reaction »

"As far as their picketing goes, they want to do it in front of a courthouse, they want to do it in a public park, I could care less. But I couldn't let them get away with doing this to our military," Al Snyder said.

Don't Miss
Text of the complaint
"Every day in court I would just think of Matt and have him on my mind and know that he was watching out for me."

Snyder's attorney told jurors to pick an amount "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again," according to The Associated Press.

The award includes $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages, a clerk in the judge's chambers said.

Lawyers for the church members argued Matthew Snyder's funeral was public and the First Amendment protects all points of view, even offensive ones, the AP reported.

Church founder Fred Phelps said the church would appeal the decision, adding it would "take about five minutes to reverse that thing." Watch Phelps laugh at the people trying to silence him »

"This will elevate me to something important," Phelps told reporters. "This was an act of futility."

Later, Phelps said the case was about "putting a preacher on trial for what he preaches."

"All it was, was a protestation by the government of the United States against the word of God. They don't want me preaching that God is punishing the country by killing their servicemen." Watch Phelps say freedom of speech is under fire »

The church had made a new sign to carry after the jury's decision, said his daughter, Margie Phelps.

"Our message is 'Thank God for 10.9 [million dollars],' " she said.

"By that mechanism [the award], the entire world will look over and see that America is doomed and that in doomed America there is no such thing as religious liberty."

The judgment would not change the message the group was carrying, said another of Phelps' daughters, church attorney Shirley Phelps-Roper.

"It's going nowhere," she said of the jury's decision. "This is a nothing. God is not going to stop killing your soldiers. He's not going to stop pouring his wrath out on this nation. America is doomed."

Church members were persecuted for their teachings and the court "mocked and scoffed at our religious beliefs," she said.

Phelps-Roper added that protests were planned later this week in Boston and Acton, Massachusetts, and in Norton, Kansas.

The group plans to protest a Veterans Day rally in Washington, she said.

Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church -- which has no connections with any mainstream Baptist organizations -- are longtime anti-gay protesters.

Before launching their protests at the funerals of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, they routinely picketed the funerals of gay people and those who died of AIDS.

Phelps and his followers also picketed the February 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., because of her support for gay rights.

Several states have implemented laws about funeral protests and Congress has passed a law barring protests at federal cemeteries

Top 10 Deadliest Animals of the world

2007-11-01T10:28:00.000+05:30

10 Poison Dart Frog

These pint sized frogs aren't for kissing. Their backs ooze a slimy neurotoxin that is meant to keep predators away. Each frog produces enough of the toxin to kill 10 humans.

9 Cape Buffalo

When faced with a predator, cape buffaloes charge head on. That's 1,500 pounds of beast topped off with two big, sharp horns. You're lucky if there's only one - the real danger comes when a herd of thousands stampedes in your direction.

8 Polar Bear

Sure they might look cuddly at the zoo, but in the wild they eat elephant seals for breakfast. Get between one and its cub and it could easily rip off your head with one swipe of its giant paw.

7 Elephant

Not every elephant is as friendly as Dumbo. Elephants kill more than 500 people a year worldwide. African elephants generally weigh in around 16,000 pounds - all the better to stomp you with - not to mention their sharp tusks.

6 Australian Saltwater Crocodile

Don't mistake this croc for a log! It can lay still in the water, waiting for passers by. Then, in the blink of an eye, it'll lunge at prey, pulling it under water to drown and dismember.

5 African Lion

Giant fangs? Check. Lightning quick? That too. Razor sharp claws? You betcha. Hungry? You better hope not. These big cats are near perfect hunters.

4 Great White Shark

Blood in the water can excite these sharks into a feeding frenzy, where they'll use all 3,000 of their teeth to bite anything that moves.

3 Australian Box Jellyfish

Also known as the sea wasp, this salad-bowl sized jellyfish can have up to 60 tentacles each 15 feet long. Each tentacle has 5,000 stinging cells and enough toxin to kill 60 humans.

2 Asian Cobra

While the Asian Cobra doesn't hold the title of most venomous snake, it does the most with what it has. Of the 50,000 deaths by snakebite a year, Asian Cobras are responsible for the largest chunk.

1 Mosquito

Most skeeter bites just make you itch. But some mosquitoes carry and transfer malaria causing parasites. As a result, these little pests are responsible for the deaths of more than two million people a year.

Why do Beasts Stick Together ?

2007-11-01T10:19:00.000+05:30

Source : Yahoo News

Social cliques among wild animals in the Serengeti are actually the glue that holds the ecosystem together and keeps population numbers stable.

A new study could explain why birds flock, wildebeest herd, bees swarm and fish school: They are less likely to become a predator's next meal if they stick together. Rather than a food-sharing issue, the reason for lion prides, for example, could have more to do with territory defense and protection of their young.

The tendency to "follow the crowd" and travel in packs is nothing new and anyone who has tried to exit a concert or sporting event knows, it's natural to follow others.

In fact, past research revealed herds that are "democratic," with more followers than leaders, are more likely to stick together. Gangs of ants were found in another study to be more aggressive than singlets. But how social groups can shape an ecosystem has been somewhat of an unknown until this Serengeti study.

"The greater the tendency to form groups, the higher the stability of numbers of both species over time," said lead author John Fryxell, an integrative biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada.

The research is detailed in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Nature.

Social beasts

Ecological theory generally describes how animal populations interact based on their individual numbers. For instance, an ecologist could say that as the numbers of plant-eating wildebeest soar so will those of their lion predators, with booms and crashes normally following.

In reality, observers see fewer population booms and crashes. That's because the playing field changes when the animals form groups such as lion prides or herds of wildebeest. (The study scientists defined a social group as occurring when animals live within an area of two hectares, or about five acres, of one another.)

"Traditional ecological models have erroneously predicted that predators would inevitably over-exploit their prey, leading to frequent population crashes," said Fryxell's co-author, University of Minnesota ecologist Craig Packer.

"Most highly vulnerable prey species form herds, swarms, schools or flocks," Packer said. "And group-living reduces predators' efficiency to the point where co-existence is likely to be the rule rather than the exception."

Serengeti dynamics

Fryxell, Packer and their colleagues examined a slew of data on predatory lions and their prey—plant-eating wildebeest—living along Africa's Serengeti Plains, including: four decades of reported observations on lion behavior and population numbers, data on lion-hunting behavior and success, and censuses of wildebeest and other herbivore herds in the area.

With the data, they used computer models to figure out how group-living by just the prey or predator, as well as by both species, would affect their respective populations and the ecosystem as a whole.

The ecologists found that when wildebeest prey aggregated in clumps, the lions were less likely to snag them, resulting in a lower consumption rate for each lion than when the wildebeest lived as individuals.

When both the lions and wildebeest formed groups, prey intake plunged even more. Compared with no-group ecosystems (all animals strewn across the Serengeti), grouping caused a 90-percent reduction in kill rates for lions.

The reduction was similar to what the researchers found for another predator-evading strategy—seasonal migration. Several prey species, including wildebeest and zebra, spend most of the year in areas far out of reach of a given lion pride. If practiced in tandem, with herds of wildebeest migrating, they could reduce being eaten by two orders of magnitude.

For the greater good

Even though lions in prides seem to get the short end of the stick (less food) compared with solitary lions, overall, the social cliques worked as ecosystem stabilizers, with both lion and wildebeest populations remaining relatively level over time.

In contrast, when both species wandered the plains singly, the models showed the numbers of individuals in both populations would be erratic and unstable, cycling from highs to lows and likely leading to the extinction of both predator and prey.

The results help to explain why the extinction of predators and prey, as predicted by some models, is not observed regularly in the wild, notes Tim Coulson of the Imperial College London, in an accompanying Nature article. Coulson was not involved in the recent study.

To get a better understanding of wildlife dynamics, ecologists should consider the effects of group formation, the authors say.

"People hadn't appreciated the degree to which group formation has implications. This work shows that perhaps we should take a closer accounting of grouping patterns," Fryxell said.

* Video: Massive African Wildlife Migration
* Top 10 Deadliest Animals
* Image Gallery: The World's Biggest Beasts

* Original Story: Why Beasts Stick Together

Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!

Breakthrough in growing eyeballs a new visonary idea for blind

2007-11-01T10:10:00.000+05:30

A genetic switch that gives tadpoles three eyes could allow stem-cell scientists to eventually grow human eyeballs or at least create replacement parts needed for repair jobs.

If scientists could grow eyeballs from stem cells in the lab, the process would be a boon to individuals with damage to cells within the eye, including retinal disorders.

"If you knew all the genes, and how to turn them on, that you needed to make an eye, you could start with very early embryonic cells and turn on all the right genes and grow an eye in a dish," said co-leader of the study Nicholas Dale, a neuroscientist at the University of Warwick in England.

"What I think is the more realistic possibility is to make precursor cells for different bits of the eye, which could then be transplanted and differentiate in-situ to replace damage to the retina or the lens or iris," Dale told LiveScience.

Scientists already had established the amphibian genes that initiate and direct eye development, which they refer to as Eye Field Transcription Factors (EFTFs). How these genes get activated in the right location at a certain time during development had been cloaked in mystery.

The new study, detailed in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Nature, suggests a nitrogen-bearing molecule sets off a series of steps that result in eye formation in frogs. The mechanism probably also applies to humans and other animals with eyes, the researchers say.

Dale and University of Warwick developmental biologist Elizabeth Jones, along with colleagues, discovered the eye-switch while investigating how "ectoenzyme" molecules located on the external surface of cells contributed to the development of locomotion in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). The biologists injected the molecules into frog embryos that comprised just eight cells.

One of the ectoenzymes triggered wonky eye development. When added to cells that would eventually form the head, the resulting tadpole sported three eyes instead of two. An even stranger sight resulted when they injected the ectoenzyme into other developing body cells. The molecule caused an additional "ectopic" eye, leading to tadpoles with a spare peeper growing out of the side, abdomen or even along the tail.

On a molecular level, the scientists say the enzyme converts a burst of the energy-carrying molecule ATP into ADP, which ultimately turns on the embryo's eye-making machinery.

The researchers think the same mechanism for triggering eye development applies across a wide range of species, including us. Mutations to the human equivalent of this enzyme lead to severe head and eye defects in humans.

* Video: Implant Helps Blind Cats See
* Top 10 Mysterious Diseases
* What is a Stem Cell?

* Original Story: Scientists Envision Growing Human Eyeballs

Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!

Chimpanzee who can speak in sign language dies...

2007-11-01T10:05:00.001+05:30

Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

Washoe, who first learned a bit of American Sign Language in a research project in Nevada, had been living on Central Washington University's Ellensburg campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words.

She died Tuesday night, according to Roger and Deborah Fouts, co-founders of The Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute on the campus. She was born in Africa about 1965.

She was taken to the veterinary hospital at Washington State University on Wednesday for a necropsy. Her memorial will be Nov. 12.

"Washoe was an emissary, bringing us a message of respect for nature," Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold, assistant director of the nonprofit institute, said Wednesday.

The Fouts went to Central Washington from Oklahoma in 1980 to create a home for Washoe and other chimps.

"The entire CWU community and the Ellensburg community are feeling the loss of our friend, Washoe, one of our daughters," said CWU President Jerilyn S. McIntyre.

Washoe also taught sign language to three younger chimps who remain at the institute, Central Washington spokeswoman Becky Watson said. They are Tatu, 31, Loulis, 29, and Dar, 31.

Washoe was the only chimpanzee at the institute born in Africa and was the matriarch of the chimpanzee family. She was named for Washoe County, Nev., where she lived with Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the University of Nevada, Reno, from 1966 to 1970.

Primate researcher Jane Goodall, in Roger Fouts' book "Next of Kin," noted the importance of the work with Washoe.

"Roger, through his ongoing conversations with Washoe and her extended family, has opened a window into the cognitive workings of a chimpanzee's mind that adds new dimension to our understanding," Goodall was quoted as saying.

In 1967, the Gardners established Project Washoe to teach the chimp ASL. Previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to imitate vocal languages had failed. Roger Fouts was a graduate student of the Gardners.

For Washoe to be considered "reliable" on a sign, it had to be seen by three different observers in three separate instances. Then it had to be seen 15 days in a row to be added to her sign list.

But there was controversy over whether the chimp was really using ASL. Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker has contended the notion that Washoe was the first non-human to acquire a human language was without scientific support.

Childhood Obesity and Hypertension fueled by TV viewing

2007-11-01T10:00:00.000+05:30

A new childhood obesity study links watching lots of TV to high blood pressure in obese children.

The researchers advise parents to heed recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) about limiting kids' TV time.

The AAP doesn't recommend TV for children aged 2 or younger. The AAP recommends no more than one to two hours per day of educational, nonviolent programs for older children.

Other tips include removing TVs from children's bedrooms and forbidding TV watching while eating, note the new study's authors, who included Perrie Pardee and Jeffrey Schwimmer, M.D., of the pediatrics department at the University of California, San Diego.

Television and Obese Children

Pardee, Schwimmer, and colleagues studied 546 obese kids and teens (average age: almost 12).

The children sought obesity treatment between 2003 and 2005 in San Diego, San Francisco, or Dayton, Ohio.

The kids had an average BMI (body mass index, which relates height to
weight) of 35.5, putting them in the top 5 percent of BMI for their age and sex.

The kids' parents reported how much TV their child watched on a typical day.
Children aged 8 and older helped their parents report TV time.

More than three-quarters of the kids -- 78 percent -- reported watching at least two hours of TV per day.

The children got their blood pressure recorded once for the study. Nearly half of the children -- 43 percent -- had a blood pressure reading that was in the hypertension range.

The heaviest children were the most likely to have a high blood pressure reading -- and to watch lots of TV.

Children who watched 2-4 hours of TV per day were 2.5 times as likely as kids who watch no more than two hours of daily TV to have high blood pressure.

Cause and Effect Unclear

The study, which is due to appear in December's edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, has some limits.

As an observational study, it doesn't prove cause and effect. That is, the findings don't prove that watching TV raised the kids' blood pressure; other factors may have been involved.

An editorial published with the study raises these questions for further research:

# Why is obesity increasing while TV viewing isn't increasing?
# Why does obesity increase in adolescence, when TV viewing decreases?
# Why do boys, who watch more TV than girls, show less obesity and more physical activity?

"Focusing on just one set of behaviors may not be enough," writes editorialist Stuart Biddle, Ph.D.

For instance, Biddle points out that turning off the TV doesn't make for a more active child if that child just starts playing computer games.

Biddle works at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England.

O+ve is really postive against Malaria..

2007-11-01T09:57:00.000+05:30

The most common blood type in Indians seems to provide better protection against the most deadly form of malaria. British scientists have found that people with blood group O - around 38% of the Indian population - are naturally protected from some of the most severe forms of the disease, which kills around two million people annually across the globe.

A team from Edinburgh University, with researchers in the US, Mali and Kenya, studied African children and found that those with this blood type were two-thirds less likely to experience coma or life-threatening anaemia conditions synonymous with severe malaria.

This discovery now brings hope of developing drugs which mimic the properties of red cells. In fatal malaria, it is often found that red blood cells infected by parasites block blood vessels which supply oxygen to the brain.

The malarial parasites arm the blood cells’ surface with proteins which stick to blood vessel walls. O and B are the commonest blood group among Indians. Nearly 32% of north Indians and 38% south Indians have O blood group.

"The finding that red cells present in O group blood play the major role in preventing malaria from worsening is a significant finding for India. Blood is made of antigens or proteins, some of which show protection against certain diseases. Why that occurs has not been scientifically proven yet but statistically, they have shown significant protection rates," blood safety specialist Dr Debasish Gupta said.

Edinburgh University's Dr Alex Rowe, whose finding was published in the journal 'PNAS' on Tuesday, said, "This explains why some people are less likely to suffer from life-threatening malaria than others and tells us that if we can develop a drug to reduce rosetting and mimic the effect of being blood group O, we may reduce the number of children dying from severe malaria."

The scientists found that malaria parasites recruit healthy RBCs to stick to the parasite, encasing the infected RBC inside a so-called rosette. It makes the blockage, and the disease, worse.

However, the team's findings suggest that group O RBCs do not easily join rosettes as the cells surface structure prevents it from sticking. The study suggests that reduced rosetting of malaria parasites is the reason why people with group O blood are less likely to suffer severe malaria.

"ABO blood group types were assessed on 567 blood samples from Malian children. We found that blood group O was present in only 21% of the severe malaria cases compared to 45% of other blood groups. Rosetting was shown to be significantly lower in parasite isolates from patients with blood group O compared to non-O blood groups," the study said.

Free calls on the web as 3 launches Skype phone

2007-10-29T18:50:00.000+05:30

Mobile phone company 3 today unveiled its Skype phone, which supports free calls over the internet.

The phone goes on sale in the UK on Friday, November 2. It will allow Skype users to make free calls and send texts, and will also work as a normal mobile phone.

The 3 Skypephone will be free to contract customers prepared to pay at least £12 a month on standard mobile calls. Pay-as-you-go users can pick up the phone for £49.99, and will also have to top up their account with at least £10 each month.

"To enable Skype to go mobile in this way brings free internet calls together with an affordable 3G handset. Mobile has the potential to massively increase access to internet calling," said Kevin Russell, chief executive of 3 UK.

3, owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, will use its own mobile network to carry VoIP (voice-over-internet protocol) calls. This should mean the service is better quality than mobile VoIP calls that are carried over the public internet.

3 has been working with Skype, owned by eBay, for well over a year and already offers the Skype service on its niche X-Series platform. There are thought to be around 2.5 million Skype users in Britain.

The 3 Skypephone will also be sold in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden.

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the year - Top 5 Pictures

2007-10-26T13:35:00.000+05:30

Taken in Botswana, this picture of a bull elephant kicking and spraying mud in a water-hole wins Ben Osborne from the UK the prize of Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007

Shell Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner Patrick Corning was only nine years old when he captured this image of three squirrel monkeys during a holiday with his parents in Costa Rica

Canadian Paul Nicklen's aerial image of male narwhal whales feeding was the winning photo in the competition's Animals in their Environment category

The artistic composition of this photo by David Tipling of two black grouse was specially commended by the judges, who spent three months sifting their way through more than 32,000 entries

Russian Sergey Gorshkov's close-up of a brown bear won the Animal Portraits category of the competition, organised by BBC Wildlife Magazine and London's Natural History Museum

Google Gives free IMAP access.. for Gmail

2007-10-26T12:54:00.000+05:30

Google today began giving its Gmail users access to IMAP, an e-mail protocol that allows users to synchronize their e-mail across multiple devices.

While Google's announcement is likely to be appreciated by users of Apple's iPhone (which supports IMAP) and business users, what's particularly noteworthy about the news is how Keith Coleman, Gmail product manager, describes Google's intentions.

"One of our core philosophies at Google is we don't want our users' data ever to be held hostage," Coleman said in a phone interview. "We want them to be able to take their data and do whatever it is they want to do with it. In the case of e-mail, that means taking their contacts to various devices, accessing their e-mail from any device or any e-mail client that they choose."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt voiced similar sentiments earlier this year. Apparently, his thoughts have become corporate talking points.

Google, in other words, is serious about not holding its users' data hostage. Think about that for a moment. It's not a common sentiment in an industry that has traditionally profited from imprisoning user data. Consider how for years mobile phone companies lobbied to prevent customers from being able to move their mobile phone numbers to competing mobile service providers.

"We started down that path in 2004 soon after launch, where we gave everyone free POP access and free auto-forwarding," Coleman continued. "POP is nice because it lets you download your mail to clients. Forwarding is nice because you can forward certain important messages to your mobile phone. You can even switch away from Gmail to another e-mail service really easily, if you want to do that."

It takes a big company -- big in the sense of confidence rather than revenue -- to give customers the freedom to walk away. Application users seeking escape from vendor lock-in typically have to look to competing vendors for the tools to free their data. Google's message is you're free to go.

Of course, the fact that between July 2006 and July 2007 Google's Gmail service saw its share of unique visitors in the United States grow by 79% -- compared with 6% and 2% growth posted by Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Hotmail -- according to comScore, makes it easy to be magnanimous.

And Gmail's growth is accelerating. ComScore figures indicate that between September 2006 and September 2007, the number of unique Gmail visitors in the U.S. grew by 93%.Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Mail and Windows Live Hotmail, which can boast over four times and two times more unique visitors last month than Gmail, respectively, grew only 7% and 0%.

Perhaps word has gotten out that Google takes no prisoners, so to speak.

Does Google fully live up to this aspiration across its entire product line? Not quite, but almost, as Google's Matt Cutts documented in a March blog post.

That's pretty cool.

Politicians are not National Assets : Delhi HC slams policticians

2007-10-26T12:10:00.000+05:30

Politicians are not national assets that need to be protected, the Delhi High Court observed on Thursday, adding that the security cover given to political leaders was often a nuisance for the common man.

"If there is a threat to the lives of the politicians, they should remain in the confines of their homes and offices," a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said.

"You should not let these men (politicians) to come out. Their presence in public places itself threatens the common men. I do not know why it has become a matter of prestige for them to move with 10-15 uniformed security personnel carrying lethal weapon."

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Rajiv Awasti on police reforms, seeking a division of the force into two wings to deal with law and order matters and investigation independently.

The court said people have been put in inconvenience due to the overwhelming presence of security guards accompanying politicians in public places.

"It has become fashionable and a status symbol. The more people (security men) surrounds these people (politicians) the more prestigious they feel. It is obnoxious that common men are forced to stay on the sidelines and are prevented to walk on the pavements when the politicians pass," the court said.

Earlier the court had asked the Home Ministry to state the names of the people who were provided with the VIP security in the capital. The ministry and Delhi Police had submitted a list of about 70 VIPs who were provided with security at the state cost.

The ministry and Delhi Police had also produced separately in sealed covers the lists of 355 and 27 people, who were provided personal security cover either for their position or threat perception respectively in the capital.

"When the security cover is given, the VIPs flaunt it. It has become a status symbol and fashionable to have security cover," observed the court.

"When common men are being killed in bomb blasts on the street, old people are strangulated in their houses, what is the reason of providing individual security to so many people?" the court questioned.

About 3,000 police personnel are engaged at a cost of more than Rs 20 crore to provide security to the VIPs in the capital, said advocate Awasti appearing in person.

Wealthy, healthy and aged 85: the women living ever longer

2007-10-26T12:04:00.000+05:30

Life expectancy for professional women has shot up by 30 months to 85 years in only the last four years, while the gap between the top and bottom classes has widened.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics published yesterday show that females in high-status, well-paid jobs such as medicine, law and finance are living longer than ever. Their counterparts in clerical and manual jobs, however, are struggling to keep pace as their lifestyles and life expectancy emulate their male colleagues.

Diet, drinking and smoking are taking their toll on women in the lower social classes but health experts suggest that females at the top are in better shape than ever, have quicker access to healthcare, are no longer dying from breast cancer and can afford better holidays. Some epidemiologists also suggest that women get a psychological boost from a high-status job where they are largely in control.

The figures show that the life expectancy at birth for women in the top social class, or those who married into it, jumped from 82.6 years in 2001 to 85.1 years in 2005, an increase of 2.5years. This rise is at a much faster rate than the rest of the past 30 years where life expectancy has gone up about two years in every ten. During the same period the life expectancy for women in the lowest social class — unskilled workers and labourers — rose from 77.9 to 78.1 years, an increase of only ten weeks.

In male mortality, the opposite appears to be happening. Life expectancy in men has been catching up with women over the past 30 years, but since 2001 the increase has dropped slightly and the gap between the social classes has slightly narrowed.

Life expectancy for men in the professional classes rose from 79.5 years in 2001 to 80 years in 2005. At the same time the life span for unskilled workers rose from 71.5 to 72.7 years. A similar picture occurs in life expectancy from the age of 65. A women in Social Class 1 now aged 65 was expected to live to 85 in 2005, but is now expected to carry on to 87. However, the corresponding figures for women in Social Class 5 only rose from 81.9 to 82.7 years.

Eric Brunner, a reader in epidemiology at University College London, could not fully explain the acceleration in life expectancy for woman in the top social classes in the past four years. But he said that access to cash and high self-esteem has a big impact on health and longevity. “Money, wealth and resources, particularly psychological, mean that women feel more in control of their lives.”

Women are also categorised in Social Class 1 if they are married to men working in the professions, so many of them may be able to take on part-time jobs or not work at all.

Alcohol, smoking, poor diet and better health services in earlier life would all be factors in the widening gap between the social classes.

“There are different smoking patterns in men and women over the last 40 years,” said Dr Brunner. “The peak mortality rates for men with lung cancer was in the early 1970s while the peak rate for women was in the mid-1990s.”

In addition, there was a much greater class divide in obesity levels among women, with far more obese females in the lowest classes. There is no significant difference among men.

Professor Mel Bartley, a director of the Economic and Social Research Centre, said that women in the top social classes were more likely to get breast cancer but now less likely to die from it. Better screening techniques and drug treatments such as Tamoxifen had had a huge impact on mortality in recent years.
Brian Johnson, a statistician for the ONS, said that the figures for Social Class 1 and Social Class 5 had a higher level of variation than the other larger social classes so it was difficult to tell if the data marked a trend or a blip. The 2001 figures had shown a slight shift downwards in female life expectancy and this data had now reverted to the general trend of growing life expectancy, he suggested. He pointed to the narrowing of the gap between the manual classes and non-manual classes in males, particularly those over 65, which he said was more reliable.

The figures also show that between 1972 and 2005, men and women in non-manual occupations had a greater increase in life expectancy at birth and at age 65 than those classified by manual occupations.

For men, there was an eight-year increase in life expectancy at birth in non-manual workers, who range from clerks, cashiers and retail staff to doctors and lawyers, compared with a 6.8-year rise for those for manual workers, who range from labourers and cleaners to plumbers and electricians. But for women the corresponding figures were only 5.2 years and 4.8 years respectively.

Unskilled female workers aged 65 can now expect to live 17.7 years more, on average, than they did between 1972 and 1976, while women in the top social class now aged 65 are expected to outlive their mid-1970s predecessors by 22 years. An unskilled man now aged 65 can expect to live 14.1 years longer than his counterparts did in 1972-76 — to the same age as the professionals of the day. A 65-year-old high-status man is now expected to live 18.3 years longer than he would have done 30 years ago.
Related Links

“There has been a longstanding difference in mortality in social classes, particularly between the highest and lowest classes,” said Mr Johnson. “But in women there is no evidence of further widening, and in men there is some tentative evidence of narrowing in the higher age groups.”

The definition

Life expectancy at birth for a particular social class and time period is an estimate of the number of years a newborn baby would survive if they experienced average mortality rates of that social class for that time period throughout their life

Source: Office for National Statistics

A divided society: how Britons fall into their seperate categories

1 This includes members of the top professions such as doctors, chartered accountants, lawyers, professionally qualified engineers and bankers who earn high salaries. Women who are married to men in these jobs will also be categorised in the top social class even if they do not work or work in a less skilled job.

2 This category covers managerial and technical jobs such as middle managers, journalists, school teachers, nurses, academics and computer technicians. They will earn less money and have more stressful jobs than those in the top social class. Women are more likely to be married and have children.

3 This group is split between skilled manual and non-manual. The latter category includes clerks, cashiers, call-centre operators, secretaries and retail staff who are on low salaries and generally have less control over their jobs. The former category of skilled manual workers includes plumbers, electricians, builders, drivers of goods vehicles and the supervisors of the above

4 These partly skilled workers include warehousemen, security guards, machine tool operators, care assistants, waiters and waitresses. They will typically be on low wages, work long hours and have little control over how or when they work.

5 This group of unskilled workers includes labourers, cleaners and messengers who will be earning not much more than the minimum wage. They and the group above them are much more likely to be heavy smokers and drinkers and prone to obesity and heart-related diseases. They will tend to be less capable of accessing quick health or social care.

Nokia's new mobile social Networking site targets at content sharing..

2007-10-26T12:03:00.001+05:30

Nokia has announced "Seek", the third dimension of its mobile sharing site called 'Mosh'.

'Mosh' is a two months old mobile social networking site focused on the sharing of mobile content. The service is available on all mobile devices and not just limited to Nokia devices.
"Seek" is the third phase in the evolution of 'Mosh'. The first was the ability to upload, and share content with a global audience; the second was downloading and customizing your device; and now "Seek", true-to-its-name, provides the ability to seek content and interact with the community.

Officially launching on December 14 this year, "Seek" will allow the global 'Mosh' community to connect with each other, and obtain content that is difficult to find elsewhere. Users can even get customized responses for their mobile needs.

"Seek" will allow users to not just share or ask for content, but also reply with suggestions or custom-created content.

According to Nokia, with "Seek", the possibilities are endless: mobile scavenger hunts, sponsored "Seek" competitions, or collaboration on applications by developers in India, Russia, and USA.

Kimi Raikkonen wins 2007 FIA Formula One World Drivers Championship

2007-10-21T22:48:00.000+05:30

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) won the 2007 FIA Formula One World Drivers Chamionship fighting out the defending champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Current Leader Louis Hamilton of McLaren.

1 Kimi - 110 points

2 Louis Hamilton - 109 points

3 Alonso - 109 point.

Though Hamilton and Alonso were in the same points, as Hamilton had more 2nd places(both were tied in no of 1st places as well) than Alonso so he was awarded second in the championship.

[updates will follow soon]

Brazilian Race result

Kimi finisht First 1

Mass 2nd

Alonso 3rd

Louis Hamilton 7th

Kimi Raikkonen came from seven points back, jumping over both two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and points leader Lewis Hamilton to win the 2007 Formula One drivers championship. He did it by capturing Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Carlos Pace. The No.6 Ferrari driver crossed the finish line 1.493 seconds ahead of teammate Felipe Massa.

The victory for Raikkonen, the man who replaced the legendary Michael Schumacher, was his series-leading sixth of the season and 15th of his F1 career. He is Ferrari's 15th World Champion and the first since 2004.

Hometown hero Massa brought the field to the green flag, but most eyes were keyed to the three-way battle for the drivers championship between rookie Hamilton, two-time defending champion Alonso and Ferrari's Raikkonen. The last time F1 had three man still alive for the title at the final event was in 1986 at Australia when Alain Prost beat out Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet.

Right from the drop of the green flag things worked against Hamilton. Massa led the field through the first turn, but Raikkonen slid around Hamilton. Then Alonso drew up beside Hamilton and took third place before they had completed three corners. Hamilton tried vainly to fight back, but ran wide and fell all the way to eighth place.

Was the rookie finally beginning to show his inexperience?

Hamilton regrouped and got one position back on the next lap slipping past Jarno Trulli for seventh.

Meanwhile, Massa and Raikkonen quickly moved away from Alonso building the lead to four seconds after a handful of laps. Hamilton was still working hard and took sixth place from Nick Heidfeld in turn one on lap seven.

Then disaster for Hamilton. He suddenly slowed on lap eight. Cars were flying past him as his McLaren sat idling. Finally the car got into gear and off he went, but he was now way down in 18th place more than 40 seconds behind the leaders.

Massa set fastest lap of the race on lap 11 to build his lead over Raikkonen to 1.8 seconds with Alonso nine seconds back.

Hamilton was making his way through the slower cars, but there were a lot of them and the climb was slow. By lap 15 Hamilton was only up to 12th place.

The first round of pit stops began on lap 20 with Robert Kubica and leader Massa. Raikkonen and Alonso a lap later but Hamilton stayed out having more fuel than the other championship contenders.

After 25 laps and the first pit stops, Massa's lead over Raikkonen was 3.4 seconds. The McLarens of Alonso and Hamilton were third and 13th, respectively. But the Ferraris were much faster and were almost 19 seconds ahead of Alonso.

Hamilton made his next stop with 35 laps to go. He cracked the top-10 on lap 39, but still 50 seconds behind the competition. At this points his goal would be fifth place locking out Raikkonen from winning the title yet hoping the Ferraris finish one-two. That would still give him the championship.

Just twenty-five laps remaining in the 2007 season and Raikkonen was in the "drivers seat" assuming the team would give the order to Massa to let him pass. The two Ferraris were more than 30 seconds ahead of Alonso and Hamilton was only up to eighth place.

Raikkonen was closing on Massa, the gap was just 1.5 seconds on lap 48. Another lap and he chopped off some more time. Massa pitted on lap 50 and Raikkonen now had clean air.

Could he build up enough of a gap to pit and keep the lead?

Raikkonen pitted on lap 53 after building the lead to 20.1 seconds and when he came out, he was still the race leader and in line for his first World Championship.

So it was up to Hamilton. He would have to finish in fifth or the title would get away from both Hamilton and McLaren. Hamilton had to make one more stop to fuel to the finish and it left him with an almost impossible task.

Hamilton set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 58 (1:12.506), he was certainly giving it his all. But he had three cars and more than 20 seconds to make up on Trulli, Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg if he was to hold on to the championship.

Trulli had to pit for fuel and Hamilton inherited seventh place. Two positions to go but just six laps remaining. But that was as far as the Englishman got.

Meanwhile, Raikkonen made no mistakes all day and won the first World Championship of his career. Raikkonen ended the season with 110 points, one better than Alonso (109) and Hamilton (109).

[mid race update] Kimi Räikkönen could win 2007 FIA F1 world championship..

2007-10-21T22:33:00.000+05:30

After the second pit stop Kimi Raikkonen(Räikkönen) muscled Massa to First position and Mass in 2nd , Alonso 4th and Lewis 8th positon in Grid after 45 Laps.

As it stands as long as Lewis doesnt reach 6th position and Alonso doesnt get to 2nd position
Kimi Raikkonen will win the championship.

Lewis Hamilton has a disastrous start in the Brazilian Grand Prix..

2007-10-21T22:16:00.000+05:30

Currently Massa 1, Kimi 2, Alonso 4, Louis Hamilton 9 after 36 Laps.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa took the lead in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos despite a big challenge off the line from team mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Räikkönen, who started from third on the grid, got round the outside of second-placed Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) and up alongside Massa, but had to yield, retaining second. Hamilton, who had to tap off as Räikkönen hesitated behind Massa, got pounced on by team mate Fernando Alonso who barged through into third place. Hamilton tried to fight back in turn 4, but ran wide and off the track, rejoining down in eighth place.

Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) also ran off the track but cheekily rejoined right in front of Sakon Yamamoto (Spyker-Ferrari) who rammed hard into the back of the Renault, showering her track with debris. Neither driver was hurt but both retired.

Hamilton began fighting his way up through the pack, taking Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) for sixth when on lap 8, his car suddenly slowed to a crawl and it coughed and spluttered for 30 seconds before suddenly coming back on song. Even though he set a personal best lap time on the next lap, he was down in 18th place and it looked as though the world title was Alonso's to be had.

On lap 14, Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault) running strongly in fifth place suffered yet another mechanical failure, retiring once again.

On lap 20, the running order was 1 Massa; 2 Räikkönen +2.9; 3 Alonso +12.1; 4 +18.3; 5 Heidfeld +28.2; 6 Trulli +29.8; 7 Rosberg +30.3; 8 Coulthard +33.2; 9 Vettel +40.5; 10 Button +47.0.

Race leader Massa pitted on the 20th lap, releasing Räikkönen into the lead and the Finn immediately set the fastest lap of the race so far - 1'12.665. On the next lap, Jenson Button (Honda) lost his transmission and retired his car to bring to an end an exceptionally uncompetitive year for the team. Rubens Barrichello was embarrassingly down in 13th place with a first pit stop still to be made.

Aussy sucks ..and Booing everytime when Symonds is in Picture..

2007-10-20T22:14:00.000+05:30

The scenes worsened and crowd behaviour became torrid, in the only T20 match of the India-Australia series.
The Aussies were welcomed with "Aussy sucks" chants and everytime the ball went to Symonds or when he came on to bat, the crowd was Booing, apparently nothing racist was said but still made fans like me really feel terribly bad at our hospitality.
Mumbai has seriously lost a plot in terms of hospitality, compared to places like Chennai where even Pakistan and Australia got standing ovation for their cricket.
This has worsened the media image of Mumbai and Indian crowd as a whole.

India won the match comfortably with Gambhir laying a strong foundation. Earlier Harbhajan was impeccable and conceded only 17 runs and took a wicket from 4 overs.
Gambhir 63(52)
Ponting 74(53)

Spiked : Picture of 50 spikes through a guys mouth..

2007-10-20T20:01:00.000+05:30

Spiked : Picture of 50 spikes through a guys mouth..

Picture of Britney's car running over a reporter.

2007-10-20T19:57:00.000+05:30

This image provided by TMZ.com reportedly shows a vehicle driven by Britney Spears running over the foot of a photographer working for the celebrity web site TMZ.com. Spears was driving away from a Beverly Hills, Calif., medical building, her car surrounded by photographers, when the incident occurred Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007 according to reports.

25 Secrets of Mona Lisa revealed..

2007-10-20T19:48:00.000+05:30

New images uncover 25 secrets about the Mona Lisa, including proof that Leonardo da Vinci gave her eyebrows, solving a long-held mystery.

The images are part of an exhibition, "Mona Lisa Secrets Revealed," which will feature new research by French engineer Pascal Cotte and debut in the United States at the Metreon in San Francisco. The Mona Lisa showcase is part of a larger exhibition called "Da Vinci: An Exhibition of Genius."

Cotte, founder of Lumiere Technology, scanned the painting with a 240-megapixel Multi-spectral Imaging Camera he invented, which uses 13 wavelengths from ultraviolet light to infrared. The resulting images peel away centuries of varnish and other alterations, shedding light on how the artist brought the painted figure to life and how she appeared to da Vinci and his contemporaries.

"The face of Mona Lisa appears slightly wider and the smile is different and the eyes are different," Cotte said. "The smile is more accentuated I would say."

Mona Lisa mysteries

A zoomed-in image of Mona Lisa's left eye revealed a single brush stroke in the eyebrow region, Cotte said.

"I am an engineer and scientist, so for me all has to be logical. It was not logical that Mona Lisa does not have any eyebrows or eyelashes," Cotte told LiveScience. "I discovered one hair of the eyebrow."

Another conundrum had been the position of the subject's right arm, which lies across her stomach. This was the first time, Cotte said, that a painter had rendered a subject's arm and wrist in such a position. While other artists had never understood da Vinci's reasoning, they copied it nonetheless.

Cotte discovered the pigment just behind the right wrist matched up perfectly with that of the painted cover that drapes across Mona Lisa's knee. So it did make sense: The forearm and wrist held up one side of a blanket.

"The wrist of the right hand is up high on the stomach. But if you look deeply in the infrared you understand that she holds a cover with her wrist," Cotte said.

Behind a painting

The infrared images also revealed da Vinci's preparatory drawings that lie behind layers of varnish and paint, showing that the Renaissance man was also human.

"If you look at the left hand you see the first position of the finger, and he changed his mind for another position," Cotte said. "Even Leonardo da Vinci had hesitation."

Other revelations include:

* Lace on Mona Lisa's dress
* The transparency of the veil shows da Vinci first painted a landscape and then used transparency techniques to paint the veil atop it.
* A change in the position of the left index and middle finger.
* The elbow was repaired from damage due to a rock thrown at the painting in 1956.
* The blanket covering Mona Lisa's knees also covers her stomach.
* The left finger was not completely finished.
* A blotch mark on the corner of the eye and chin are varnish accidents, countering claims that Mona Lisa was sick.
* And the Mona Lisa was painted on uncut poplar board, contrary to speculations.

In the larger picture, Cotte said when he stands back and looks up at the enlarged infrared image of Mona Lisa, her beauty and mystique are apparent.

"If you are in front of this huge enlargement of Mona Lisa, you understand instantly why Mona Lisa is so famous," Cotte said. He added, it's something you have to see with your own eyes.

David Copperfield (illusionist) house raided..

2007-10-20T19:44:00.000+05:30

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - FBI agents have seized nearly $2 million in cash from a Las Vegas warehouse owned by illusionist David Copperfield, local media reports said on Thursday.
The agents also took a computer hard drive and a memory chip from a digital camera system during Wednesday's late-night operation. The reports said the raid stems from an investigation in Seattle.

"We understand there is an investigation, are in touch with the investigators, and are respecting the confidentiality of the investigation," Copperfield's attorney David Chesnoff said in a statement cited by Las Vegas broadcasters.

The local CBS affiliate KLAS-TV quoted a source as saying the cash was stashed in a safe and that agents took the cash.

Copperfield, 51, whose real name is David Kotkin, is famed for stunts such as making the Statue of Liberty disappear and walking through the Great Wall of China. He is a regular performer at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas.

J. K. Rowling Says "Albus Dumbledore" Character is Gay

2007-10-20T19:24:00.000+05:30

Friday night, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore, mentor to the world-famous boy wizard and Hogwart's headmaster, is gay. During a question and answer session before a full house at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Rowling made the surprise revelation when a fan of the books asked the author whether Dumbledore would ever find "true love".

Rowling responded, "Dumbledore is gay."

Some in the audience reportedly gasped while others applauded. The author went on to explain that Dumbledore loved rival wizard Gellert Grindewald who he had long ago vanquished in battle. Said Rowling, "Falling in love can blind us to an extent." She then added, Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down" and that his love was his "great tragedy"

According to Rowling, she also revealed the truth about Dumbledore's sexual orientation during the filming of the sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. She had noticed a reference in the script indicating Dumbledore had once been interested in a girl and sent a message to director David Yates.

Friday night, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling "There's been speculation in the kids' lit community as to why Rowling's Harry Potter universe didn't include any gay or lesbian characters," said Brent Hartinger, author of the children's fantasy Dreamquest and also various young adult books about gay teens. "Was Rowling just clueless or indifferent about the topic? Or was she making some kind of statement — as hard as that is to believe, given how cool she seems to be on virtually every other social issue? This interesting news about Dumbledore answers these questions, but creates one more: why didn't his sexual orientation ever come up in the books, even in the passing?"

That is likely to be the question Rowling will face in the coming days.

While gay fans of the books will no doubt celebrate the news, the fact that the information is not found in any of the books or movies will likely diminish the revelation of the impact. As newsworthy as the revelation is, had it come at some point during the publication of one of the seven books, it would have likely generated a larger discussion about what it means.

Rowling is likely to face criticism on another front. The news that a major character is gay, in what is likely the most popular children's book series of all time, is almost certain to inflame the author's critics in some corners of the Christian community. Indeed, the Harry Potter books have already faced frequent criticism and calls to be banned for their use of magic. No doubt those critics will only take this news as more ammunition in their fight against the books.

Birth control pills for 11 year olds..

2007-10-20T19:22:00.000+05:30

At the King Middle School in Portland, Maine, medical workers are allowed to give the girls as young as 11 birth control pills without their parents knowing about it.

The school board in Portland voted 7-2 to make that happen. The rationale is that some kids will have sex and the school must try to reduce pregnancies. Also, parents must sign a waiver allowing their children to receive medical care at the school.

However, that medical care is kept secret from the parents, in the birth control area.

Now giving sixth grade girls the pill is dumb. It doesn't protect them from disease and tacitly says that sex at that young age is understandable.

This is foolish, ridiculous, and irresponsible. But in the secular progressive world. The SP doctrine is to quote, "empower children" and downgrade parental authority because some parents are bad.

Right now seven states: Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and New Hampshire have no parental notification laws concerning abortion. That means that if young girls in those states get pregnant, Planned Parenthood can set up the abortion and parents will never know.

The SPs love that. Like Vermont, Maine is a state where many Woodstock generation people have congregated and they are very active. A Portland newspaper today is supporting needles of drug addicts and a political cartoon in the paper promotes more rights for convicted sexual offender, both SP cornerstones.

It is ironic that the week my book "Cultural Warrior" comes out in paperback, intense culture battles erupt across the country. First the sacrilege in San Francisco, now the pill for sixth graders.

Portland's three middle schools have reported 17 pregnancies over the last four years. Not many, but too many. So the SP educators in Maine have decided to send a message because of about one pregnancy a year. And the kids get that message loud and clear. If you want to have sex at age 11, see the nurse.

And that's the memo.

Pinheads and Patriots

Last year, Washington state officials removed the nativity scene from the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia. Another absurd PC situation.

But Ron Wesselius would not let that stand. With the help from the Alliance Defense Fund, he sued the state, and now Washington has agreed to put the creche back for the Christmas season.

So, both Ron Wesselius and the Alliance Defense Fund are patriots. Way to stand up.

But Chris McGann is not. Reporting for the story — reporting this story for the ultraliberal and often inaccurate Seattle Post- Intelligencer. McGann writes, quote, "Bill O'Reilly, who equated [efforts to remove the nativity scene] in Washington and around the country with a liberal plot."

Of course, that is false and stupid. McGann has obviously not read "Culture Warrior" and does not deserve to. If you see him with it, take it away from him, because this guy is a pinhead.

Tell the truth, sir. It's in your job description.

Microsoft's next windows is mini...

2007-10-20T19:21:00.000+05:30

Operating Systems, Windows Operating System October 20th, 2007 (15 hours ago)

Microsoft talks about MinWin, the base for future operating systems

Software giant Microsoft has revealed that they are working on redoing the core kernel of the Windows OS to make it smaller as mobile devices become more essential in daily life.

This kernel is likely to become the base of the Windows 7 which would succeed Vista in the coming years.

This project has been named MinWin.

Eric Traut talked about this project: “A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that’s maybe a fair characterization, I have to admit. But at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of the operating system, is actually pretty streamlined.”

Microsoft has already stated that they aim to have a successor ready for the Vista OS by 2010.

Obesity can reduce 13 yrs of your life

2007-10-18T10:33:00.000+05:30

LONDON: Addicted to junk grub? Beware! Snacking on fast food and chomping in between meals can lead to weight gain and knock more than ten years off your life.

Yes, researchers in Britain have carried out a study and found that obesity is more dangerous than smoking as it can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years.

"We must fight the notion that the current obesity epidemic arises from individual over indulgence or laziness alone. We live in a consumer society which encourages us to eat. We have a sedentary lifestyle.

"It's an environment which means that if we just behave normally we will become obese. We may only put on a bit of weight a day but there are 365 days in the year," according to lead researcher Professor David King.

Prof King, the British government's Chief Scientific Adviser, and his team of 250 scientists have published their study in a report, titled Foresight, on Wednesday.

The researchers have observed that being obese with a body mass index of more than 30 knocks nine years off a person's life while men with a BMI of more than 45 face nearly 13 years less life.

According to their findings, obesity -- which is now seen as "normal" -- not only leads to diabetes and heart disease but can also cause cancer, apart from various chronic health problems.

The researchers have also pointed out that the design of many towns and cities is based around the needs of the car and suggested more should be done to ensure that it's easier to walk to encourage residents to take more exercise.

"This will need a major culture change. The obesity issue is getting worse every year and we have not got much time to act," Prof King wrote.

Food allergies linked to animals' proximity to humans, says study

2007-10-18T10:28:00.000+05:30

By Jess Halliday

Early exposure to food allergens may increase tolerance
Researchers develop new nut allergen test
Lactococcus strain may offer end to food allergies
Allergens: no room for mistakes
Peanut gene breakthrough may lead to allergen free nuts
Scientists look to 'desensitise' kids to food allergens

15/10/2007 - Scientists have found that the evolutionary distance of animal proteins to human proteins determines how likely they are to trigger a food allergy - research that could help with the development of free-from foods and allergy therapies.

The most common forms of food allergies in infants are cow's milk and hen's eggs. For adults, fish and seafood are the most common allergens.

Researchers led by Dr Clare Mills of the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, UK, used sequence-based homology methods to classify food allergens into families. They then performed in silico analyses to identify putative relationships in protein sequence, structure and allergenic properties.

"Overall we found that only an animal food protein that is less than 54 per cent identical to a human equivalent could become allergenic," said Mills.

In practical terms, she said this explains why people with a cow's milk allergy can often tolerate mare's milk, but not goat's milk, for instance. Proteins in horse milk can be as much as 66 per cent identical to human milk proteins, while known allergens from cows and goats are all less than 53 per cent identical to their corresponding human proteins.

Mills and her co-researchers also found that most of the major animal-derived food allergens can be classified into one of three protein families: tropomyosins; EF-hand proteins; and caseins.

Amongst the tropomyosins - proteins found in muscle tissue and deemed the most important family - they found a link between allergenicity and class of the animal from which it originates.

"Tropomyosins in mammals, fish and birds are at least 90 per cent identical to at least one human tropomyosin and none have been reported to be allergenic," said co-researcher Dr Heimo Breiteneder of the Medical University of Vienna.

"In contrast, the allergenic tropomyosins are all from invertebrates such as insects, crustaceans and nematodes and at most are only 55 per cent identical to the closest human homologue."

Next came the EF-hand proteins. The researchers found that those in birds and mammals are not allergenic to humans, while those in frogs and fish can be.

The third animal food allergen family, caseins, are all proteins from the milk of mammals. The researchers looked at milk from rabbits, rats and camels as well as sheep, goats, cows and horses.

"Animal food proteins lie at the limits of the capability of the human immune system to discriminate between foreign and self proteins", said Mills.

She explained that immune responses to some animal food allergens, such as the invertebrate tropomyosins, are almost a form of autoimmune response. This has a bearing on the potential for developing unanticipated autoimmune responses, especially in the development of recombinant allergens for immunotherapy.

Last autumn researchers from Amsterdam reported at the BA Festival of Science in Norwich that promising work is underway to develop a vaccine against food allergies, and that this could be available in as little as ten years.

According to Dr Ronald van Ree of Amsterdam University new techniques in genetic engineering are being explored to reduce the effect of allergenic proteins. The aim is to make these molecules safe enough to use in drugs that combat food allergies via the immune system.

In addition to the three main animal protein families, 14 small families consisting of up to three proteins were also identified by Mills' team.

The same team from Norwich and Vienna has previously conducted similar research on plant-derived allergens. In that case, they found that there are a restricted number of protein families, too.

But in contrast with plant food allergens, it is only animal proteins that have been seen to challenge the capability of the human immune system to discriminate between foreign and self-proteins.

According to market analyst Mintel the overall 'free-from' market has already enjoyed sales growth of over 300 per cent since 2000. The growing demand has opened up a new lucrative sector that many food makers are keen to exploit.

The term free-from includes a broad umbrella of allergens, but also elements that are thought to trigger an intolerance in some people rather than a full-blown allergy, such as wheat and lactose.

Source: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Eating Garlic boosts cardiovascular health

2007-10-18T00:10:00.000+05:30

TUESDAY October 16, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Eating garlic helps lower high blood pressure and protect against cardiovascular disease, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The study by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) showed the protective effect is determined by the amount of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced from garlic compounds when they interact with red blood cells in the body.
The UAB researchers found the released H2S led to relaxation of blood vessels, lowering the blood pressure and in rats the resulting H2S caused up to 72 percent relaxation of arteries. For humans, the effective dose is two cloves a day.
Early studies have showed that garlic provides protection against a myriad health conditions including diabetes and cancer.
The current study by David Kraus, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Biology and colleagues was meant to reveal the blood-pressure lowering and heart-protective effect of compounds from garlic known as polysulfides.
The study is believed to be the first to show garlic-derived polysulfides in the diet boost bodily H2S production.
“When these garlic compounds are metabolized to H2S in the vascular system, the H2S targets membrane channels and causes smooth muscle cells to relax,” Kraus said. “So a garlic-rich diet has many good effects, and H2S may be the common mediator.”
An early study by John Elrod and David Lefer, Ph.D., of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine published in PNAS that also showed H2S protected hearts from the tissue and cell damage often seen in patients who experienced in heart attack.
Kraus was cited as saying how hydrogen sulfide works to offer the protective effect is not entirely clear, but speculating that it limits oxidative damage to the cells. H2S, typical of the smell of rotten eggs, is a reducing agent that can neutralize some oxidative reactions.
“The role of garlic compounds in preventing platelet aggregation, which can trigger a heart attack or stroke, and in limiting cancer growth and the progression of several diseases is well documented,” Kraus said.
Further research is needed to understand how the garlic polysulfides work to relax the blood vessels.
A scientist affiliated with foodconsumer.org who was not part of the research team said that the relaxation of blood vessels by eating garlic is something that many people can experience. Some men with cardiovascular problems may find them more active in bedroom after eating garlic.

TCS hires 9,000 in Q3, full-year target at 35,000

2007-10-17T23:50:00.000+05:30

India’s largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services, plans to make a gross addition of nearly 9,000 people in the third quarter of the current financial year. In the second quarter ended September, the company had hired 12,523 people, helped by campus recruitment. “The company’s plan to hire 35,000 employees for the full year to March 2008 is on track,” executive director S Padmanabhan said on Tuesday.

The company is also planning to open training centres in smaller cities such as Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar with a capacity to train 5,000-10,000 people at a time. “We are looking to tap into the science graduates talent pool and train them to be engaged in TCS’s engagements though a training programme called Ignite,” Mr Padmanabhan said.

Through this programme, the company has already trained 500 such graduates in Chennai deployed within TCS. Further, it is looking to train more than 2,000 people by the end of next year in the southern city. The company expects to invest Rs 8-10 lakh per seat for its new centres. It expects to start at least one centre within the next year, according to CEO and MD S Ramadorai. The company now spends 2% of revenues on training.

TCS, which got more than half its revenue from the US in the September quarter, is also looking to hire more people in Latin America and North Africa to service clients in regions including Europe and the Middle East, Mr Padmanabhan said. It has put in place a hiring plan for 800 people in the US for 2007-08. It is also investing in improving the dual language skills for its employees by initiating training in regions like Morocco, Uruguay and Chile. TCS had about 5,500 employees in Latin America and was setting up a training centre in Morocco, where about 200 employees serviced French-speaking markets, he said. About 8.5% of its employees are foreign nationals, which the company hopes would improve in the coming quarters.

Mr Padmanabhan also said that wages for IT services employees rose by about 12-15% this fiscal year. However, he expressed the hope that wages would stabilise in the next fiscal.

TCS posted a 4.1% sequential growth in net profit to Rs 1,252 crore. Analysts noted that the employee numbers for the company looked good. “The strong employee guidance and deal flows would help the company through to FY09,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, president of equity at Religare.

Home Spray Use – A Leading Cause Of Asthma

2007-10-17T23:49:00.000+05:30

A recent study has brought out that making use of spray cleaners as little as once a week increased the asthma risk by nearly over 50 percent.
But whether or not the cleaning products or sprays are a key reason of asthma, or just a cause for people, who already have the problem (asthma), is not clear from this epidemiologic analysis that was issued in the October issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
But, the study researchers think that spray cleaners can be a reason of new-onset asthma, as the people included in this analysis didn’t have asthma problem or asthma symptoms at the beginning of the analysis.
Study lead author, Jan-Paul Zock, a research fellow at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona, Spain, said, “Cleaning sprays, especially air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass cleaners, had a particularly strong effect. The risk of developing asthma increased with the frequency of cleaning and number of different sprays used, but on average was 30 to 50 percent higher in people regularly exposed to cleaning sprays than in others.”
Zock cautioned that the crucial thing users should know is that cleaning sprays available for sale in all supermarkets are not risk-free, and their usage may also involve grave health problems.
Earlier study has detected a relationship between asthma and being employed as a professional cleaner. Further studies have also noticed a relation between respiratory signs and certain cleaning products, but Zock and his co-workers desired to study if normal household exposures to these products would have any effect on asthma growth.
Drawing on a 10-country database, known as the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, the scientists keyed out over 3,500 people without any asthma history or symptoms. All reported being responsible for the cleaning of their homes.

Symonds racially abused in Mumbai too

2007-10-17T23:30:00.000+05:30

MELBOURNE, October 17: After Vadodara and Nagpur, Andrew Symonds was racially abused in Mumbai too during Australia's final cricket One- dayer against India on Wednesday, claimed the local media here.

The Australian claimed that as Symonds walked out to bat, a hostile part of the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium greeted the towering all-rounder with cat calls and "distinct monkey calls". An Australian photographer took snaps of the hostile crowd, it said.

The daily also claimed that the abuse unsettled Symonds so much that the batsman, who has been in tremendous form in the series, fell to Murali Kartik for a first ball duck.

"The International Cricket Council's anti-racism code was instantly flashed on the screen, but Symonds seemed unsettled and was dismissed first ball," it said.

And while he was walking back to the pavilion, Symonds was greeted with another round of abuse, it claimed.

The newspaper also took a dig at BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty, who doubles up as the Board's anti-racism officer, for seeking proof of any such event.

"I was in Vadodara myself and there was so much noise the crowd was making. It is difficult to identify this particular section. They are chanting and shouting all the time. It's just media speculation. Unless there is some proof, how can you pick on it?" he was quoted as saying.

Earlier on Wednesday, BCCI President Sharad Pawar and his Australian counterpart Creagh O'Connor issued a joint statement, vowing to stand by the ICC Anti-Racism Code and asserting that racism has no place in cricket.

Indian tailenders steal unlikely victory

2007-10-17T23:27:00.000+05:30

Courtesy : Cricinfo

The stage was set for India's most loved cricketing son to bid adieu to his home crowd with the sort of innings that he often played to illuminate this venue for almost two decades. Instead, it was Murali Kartik, forever condemned to Indian cricket's fringes, who basked in the late-afternoon sunshine with a mesmeric spell of left-arm spin bowling, before taking part in the unlikeliest of rearguard actions to script a famous victory.

Australia's pace bowlers had bullied and toyed with India's top order, before a defiant 65-run partnership between Robin Uthappa and Harbhajan Singh gave India fleeting hope, but it was a stunning 52-run stand for the ninth wicket between Kartik and Zaheer Khan that gave India a consolation win in a series otherwise dominated by the world champions.

By one of those strange quirks of fate, the Kartik-Zaheer partnership mirrored the epic one between Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble in Bangalore 11 years earlier. A crowd that had become despondent with Uthappa's exit roused itself to cheer every forward defensive prod, every nudge and even every swipe that just evaded the outside edge.

Zaheer clouted Brett Lee for a straight six, and when Kartik edged one between keeper and slip for four, you sensed that the cricketing Gods were on India's side. Four leg byes off Mitchell Johnson settled it with four overs to spare, and fittingly, it was Kartik who was on strike.

Ricky Ponting's 57 had underpinned the Australian batting effort, and a late flourish from Johnson was also crucial in the context of a low-scoring encounter. At 64 for 6, with only the cavalier Uthappa left of the top order, abject humiliation was on the cards. But a 65-run partnership with Harbhajan spared a few blushes, before Michael Clarke and Johnson appeared to remove the last vestiges of resistance.

Even though the target wasn't an imposing one, it was imperative that India got a good start. They didn't, with Johnson inducing diffident edges from both Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik. Sachin Tendulkar, probably playing his final game at the to-be-renovated Wankhede, sparkled briefly, with two glorious cuts for four off Johnson, but the moment he played on to Lee, the writing was clearly legible on the wall.

Lee bowled at fearsome pace, but if anything, India's plight only worsened with the introduction of Nathan Bracken's medium pace. Showing superb control of swing and seam, Bracken had Yuvraj Singh edging behind before slanting one away from Mahendra Singh Dhoni to get the same result.

When Pathan edged to slip off James Hopes - there was no weak link to exploit anywhere - thoughts of victory receded into the far distance, and the cheers as Uthappa spanked two huge sixes rang almost as hollow as Indian claims to batting greatness.

The undoubted star of the day though was Kartik. Four years ago, he was India's best bowler in the TVS Cup that Australia won, but was never trusted enough to kick on to greater heights. On Wednesday, he showed just why he's India's most potent one-day spinner with a wonderful combination of teasing flight, guile and sharp turn.

The last time he played an international game in Mumbai, Kartik had been instrumental in India defending a paltry target of 107 in a dead-rubber, dismissing Ponting and Damien Martyn in the same over. The man who captained India to that improbable win, Rahul Dravid, may have been missing today but Kartik was again to the fore, on a hat-trick twice as he finished with the best figures by an Indian bowler against Australia.

The key moments came in the passage of play when Brad Hodge and Andrew Symonds were dismissed off successive deliveries. Symonds, the outstanding player of the series, came to the crease accompanied by a chorus of boos, and many more jeers and whistles followed him back after he cut a delivery to Tendulkar at short cover. The previous ball had seen Hodge's Indian nightmare continue, with Kartik angling one across to take the edge to slip.

It was respite that India needed after they had squandered the perfect start. Clarke was plumb first ball, but though Zaheer did little wrong, RP Singh started woefully at the other end, conceding four wides in his opening over. Adam Gilchrist struggled as the ball moved around, but Ponting was ruthless on the slightest bowling transgressions, driving, flicking off the pads and cutting with precision.

India's plight worsened when Zaheer was denied a second wicket as Gilchrist, on 2, edged one toward the slips. Uthappa could only get his fingertips to it. After a sedate start by his standards, Gilchrist appeared to be finding some touch with two fours in Pathan's opening over but when he subsequently slashed at one, Harbhajan took a running catch at third man.

With pace not doing the trick, and Ganguly's mixed bag not helping, Dhoni turned to his spinners, and Kartik certainly didn't disappoint. The otherwise wayward RP Singh also played his part with the crucial wicket of Ponting, coming round the wicket to induce an edge.

If Kartik's first double-whammy put India in charge, the second killed off Australian hopes of a large total. Brad Haddin, dropped moments earlier by Zaheer at deep midwicket, was trapped in front by the arm ball before Brad Hogg and Lee fell to the fourth and fifth balls of the over. Hogg was dubiously given out, caught at forward short leg, while Lee edged one to RP Singh at short gully.

By the time he ended a 22-run cameo from James Hopes, Kartik, his team-mates and the capacity crowd were beyond the clouds. But Johnson's 24-run cameo turned out to be a warning, and after dinner, it was back to terra firma with a thud as the three-time world champions illustrated their hatred of defeat. Fortunately for India, Kartik was intent on ensuring that his dream day didn't become a nightmare.

Pakistani army accused of killing 55 civilians

2007-10-11T20:15:00.000+05:30

A tribal leader today accused Pakistani forces of killing more than 50 civilians in the worst clashes near the Afghan border for years.

Maulana Nek Zaman, a local MP for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a hard-line religious party, said innocent people were killed in air strikes.

"We know that the army killed 55 innocent people, and they included women and children," Mr Zaman told the Associated Press.

"We know it because we buried them."

At least 50 people were killed on Tuesday when Pakistani F-16 jets and helicopter gunships attacked suspected militant positions in Epi village in North Waziristan.

Witnesses said the village bazaar was bombed in one of the deadliest attacks in five days of fighting that has left about 250 people dead. The army says up to 50 soldiers were among those killed.

The fighting has been the heaviest since late 2001, when Pakistan first sent in troops to the semi-autonomous tribal regions in support of the US campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Major General Waheed Arshad acknowledged reports of civilian casualties, but did not say how many may have died.

He blamed militants for firing on security forces from villagers' homes, making them legitimate targets.

"The basic fault lies with the militants. They used these houses for firing on security forces," Gen Arshad told the AP.

"Obviously when somebody fires on troops it becomes a legitimate target to be engaged. When engaged, the people who live there also suffer casualties."

He said about 50 foreigners were among the estimated 200 dead militants, including 25 Uzbeks and some Arab, Afghan and Tajik fighters.

Gen Arshad said there were between 600 and 700 militants in the area of the fighting, near the town of Mir Ali, about 2.5 miles from Epi.

The clashes marked an escalation in the violence that has troubled Pakistan's tribal regions since July, when the president, General Pervez Musharraf, ordered an assault on the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad. More than 100 people were killed.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have died in suicide attacks, bombings and clashes, fanning domestic opposition to Gen Musharraf's alliance with the US.

Mr Zaman was among the tribal leaders who helped broker a controversial peace deal last year between the government and the militants in North Waziristan to contain the violence.

The deal collapsed in July when Pakistani forces redeployed to key checkpoints in North Waziristan, a remote mountain area bordering Afghanistan.

US officials have criticised the agreement, claiming it grants a safe haven to al-Qaida and a strategic base for Taliban fighters to attack Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Elsewhere in north-western Pakistan, a bomb exploded in front of a barber shop in Karak, killing the shop owner.

Hours earlier, a bomb damaged two music shops.

In a Taliban-style campaign, militants in the region have warned barbers not to shave customers and threatened to close businesses selling music CDs and cassettes.

The hard-liners consider the practices un-Islamic.

Govt plans higher fees for rich to fund the poor

2007-10-11T20:12:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: If parents can pay higher school fees for their children, they may as well pay higher fees in colleges and universities too. The government is working out a plan to this effect.

The Human Resource Development Ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) are discussing the issue with vice-chancellors and state education secretaries at a two-day conference on higher education currently on in the Capital.While stressing that government's funding on education would increase substantially, the Planning Commission feels the contribution from students must also go up.

"We are thinking about revising the fees structure. Parents paying Rs5,000 fees in nursery and other classes cannot get subsidised education for their wards at the college and university levels. The rich must pay more so that only those who cannot afford higher education gain from the government subsidies," said Commission member Professor B Mungekar, in a clear indication of the government's plan to unveil a two-tier fee system soon.

During discussions on the funding and fee mechanism in higher education with the V-Cs of state, central, private and deemed universities at the regional conferences, it was strongly felt that fees could not be ridiculously low.

Currently, most students pay just 5% of their total education cost. The government plans to gradually hike fees to recover a maximum of 20% of operating expenses. It was agreed that a system of cross-subsidisation in the form of variable fees structure should be worked out where those who can pay are charged higher fees, while those who cannot get fee-waivers.

One of the proposals under consideration is a two-tier system under which students from private schools are charged higher fees, while the fee can remain low for those from government schools. The family's income certificate would also be taken into account.

The government would also increase the number of scholarships, loans, fellowships and fee-waivers to give needy students a boost. However, experts are sceptical about the implementation aspect of such a plan.

Suspended 14-year-old shoots 4, then kills himself at school

2007-10-11T20:04:00.000+05:30

A Cleveland 14-year-old who threatened to shoot up his school in retaliation for a beating did just that Wednesday, opening fire on teachers and students before killing himself.

Asa Coon, who was suspended from school for fighting Monday, walked into SuccessTech Academy with two guns, one in each hand, and blasted away as he strode down a fourth-floor hallway.

Two male teachers and two male students were hit but the gunman was the only fatality. A 14-year-old girl was hurt in the panicked stampede.

"I knew that dude was crazy," a classmate told TV reporters. "We used to say he going to come one day and shoot us up - but we never knew it was really going to happen."

Coon, a "Goth" who decked himself out in black nail polish, a trench coat and Marilyn Manson T-shirts, and who claimed to worship the Devil, had been beaten up for saying "f--- God," one student said.

Afterward, "he said he would shoot everybody dead," 10th-grader Aaron King told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"He's constantly yelling at his mom," neighbor Rachel Metzger told the paper. "He's pretty violent."

His rampage lasted less than three minutes. Coon shot himself before police arrived at the school, Cleveland Police Chief Mike McGrath said.

Coon was one of the handful of white students at the mostly black school for 250 high-achieving teenagers with a talent for technology. It's partly funded by Bill Gates. All 59 of last year's seniors went to college.

The scene at the school has become painfully familiar: Frantic parents running, shocked teens locked in group hugs or crying into cell phones, cops massing, stretchers coming out of schoolhouse doors.

King said he and his entire math class spent an hour huddled in a bathroom, hiding from a gunman they didn't know was already dead. "There must have been 40 kids or more in there. People were scared."