YouTube Video Problems in Firefox

Recently I was having problems watching YouTube videos in Firefox 3. It played for a few seconds but after that it freezes on the screen and when reloaded it said “video is unavailable”. But with a quick fix, this problem was solved easily.

It was extremely frustrating, some videos played fine, but most froze on the screen. Initially I thought there was a conflict between Windows XP SP2 pack and the Adobe Flash player. But a Google search of this problem provided a quick solution and now the videos in YouTube work fine.

This user tried uninstalling Firefox but the problem remained and he also tried removing codex pack, the videos didn’t work. But thankfully, CNet.com found a solution for it.

The problem lies with the Adobe Flash Player. If you have Adobe Flash Player 9.0 version, then you should uninstall it with a free Revo Uninstaller. Search for Adobe Flash Player in Revo and remove this flash version and connected files.

Then install the new Adobe Flash Player 10 beta version from the link here. Before you install the new flash player, close all the Firefox browser and Thunderbird windows.

After installation, run the Firefox again, the videos in YouTube run smoothly without any hiccups.

HTC's Android Phone 'Dream' revealed

Google’s mobile operating system Android appears to be released soon via HTC’s Dream phone via T-Mobile brand. The new phone shows a variety of features as seen in the Apple's iPhone 3G.

Previously videos of the Dream phone were shown to the public but were too blurry except for the one added here. The video shows BBC's Darren Waters interviewing Andy Rubin, current Director of Mobile Operations at Google about this new Android phone.

The phone has a 3G touch screen prototype, can be browsed just like the iPhone but also has a track ball at the bottom, so one can move the screen without touching the screen. Andy demonstrates the web browser and applications capabilities of the Dream with Street View as an example. He also shows a demo of the popular game “Quake”.

Now there are more pictures of the same phone shown here. The photos were obtained from a Chinese forum.

Dream Phone from T-Mobile with Android OS.

Engadget.com (Public Domain)

Dream phone from T-Mobile.

Engadget.com (Public Domain)

Google also has released a new Android SDK version for developers so that they can start building applications for Dream and other Android phones that will come into market soon. Google will also have a new App store for the developers to list their applications for Android phones.

The phone looks great, has a built in keyboard, which many iPhone owners miss and want in their phones. Now even small companies can fight the big Apple with Android Mobile Operating System.

Get 26 Free MP3 Songs in Amazon.com

Here are the complete list of songs you can get for free at Amazon.com for a limited time:


1. Energy by The Apples In Stereo. Album: New Magnetic Wonder
2. Possession (Piano Version) by McLachlan. Album: Possession (Piano Version)
3. Make Me (Album) by Heart. Album: Make Me
4. Motel Blues by Loudon Wainwright III. Album: Recovery
5. Black Winged Bird by Nina Persson. Album: The Cake Sale
6. Better Get To Livin' by Dolly Parton. Album: Backwoods Barbie
7. Take A Break Guys (Free Track) by Brian Setzer. Album: A Swingin' Christmas
8. If You Leave by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. Album: Architecture, Morality & More
9. 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Album: 100 Days, 100 Nights
10. Murder in the City by The Avett Brothers. Album: Murder in the City
11. Asking For Flowers (Amazon Exclusive Version) by Kathleen Edwards. Album: For Flowers (Amazon Exclusive Version)
12. Dead Sound by Raveonettes. Album: Lust Lust Lust
13. Free for All [Explicit] by Ted Nugent. Album: Sweden Rocks
14. GfC by Albert Hammond Jr. Album: GfC
15. Your California by Parker Brothers. Album: First, Best, Last
16. My Dog's Still Walkin' by Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King. Album: Blood Brothers
17. Watermelon Time by Marcia Ball. Album: Peace, Love & BBQ
18. The Golden State by John Doe. Album: A Year In The Wilderness
19. Criminal by Justin Nozuka. Album: Criminal
20. Strange Victory, Strange Defeat by Silver Jews. Album: Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
21. Coffee Rag by Jeremy Lyons & The Deltabilly Boys. Album: FestivaLink.net
22. Missing Something by AutoVaughn. Album: The Cycles
23. Freedom Park by Marah. Album: 20,000 Streets Under The Sky
24. Toll Free by Plastilina Mosh. Album: All U Need Is Mosh
25. Heartstrings by H20 Soul. Album: Essentiall H20 Soul
26. Aulochrome by Joel Miller. Album: Tantramar

To get one free song every week, you can also subscribe to this Amazon.com subscription.

Thanks to Freebie Fanatics for this offer.

YouTube Adds Captions And Subtitles Feature In Videos

YouTube has added the closed captioned feature in videos, which will help the hearing disabled users and foreign language speakers. To add the captions, the user has to upload a separate captions file with the video.

YouTube earlier added annotations feature in videos to explain more background information about the video, explanations or links for further information. Google also added a speech-to-text technology for a small number of videos (political videos) and hopefully it will extend that to all videos. They added this feature to make the videos available in Google search. Now, they have added closed captioning feature, which is already available in Google Video.

Last month, Google showed a demo of a speech-to-text technology that automatically captions videos, but this doesn't work well for any kind of video. Even if the captions are provided by users or they are automatically generated, they will improve the quality of search results.

After you download the video, you can click the “Captions and subtitles” sections and upload the captions file.

YouTube explained this feature in its blog:

"Captions and subtitles make videos accessible to a wider audience by allowing folks who can not otherwise understand the audio track to follow along, especially those who are hard-of-hearing or speak other languages. Captions are in the same language as the video's audio track. Subtitles are in a different language,"

This will help the videos to get more views in other countries.

YouTube added support for closed captioning, a feature that was already available at Google Video. If you edit one of your videos, you can click on the "Captions and subtitles" section and upload a captions file.

To add closed captions and subtitles, YouTube has provided a number of sources here. Though I would have liked Google offer the same feature in YouTube itself.

YouTube supports two closed captions format, SubViewer (*.SUB) and SubRip (*.SRT). YouTube allows more than 120 language options for subtitles.

To activate the closed-caption feature click the arrow at the bottom of the video and you will see a “CC” button. Click it to see the captioning. You can do the same sequence to disable captioning also. If there are subtitles in other languages, you will see that option also in that menu.

Click the arrow menu to see captions and subtitles

Googlesystem.blogspot.com (Public Domain)

For now the embedded videos do not show the caption feature, so click the link here (MIT Physics Lecture), Japanese Animation video and a Top Gear Clip with French Subtitles to see the captions.

Five Great Sites for Free Samples

Free samples are a good way to test the product before we spend our actual money. There are number of sites that offers free samples but are not quite obvious to the public, the links or phone numbers are hidden in their websites. For example to get free samples in Walmart.com, you won't find the free samples link, http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples-And-Trials.aspx.

Not only you can get free grocery items, you can also get other products like books, t-shirts, posters, bags, software, medicine, instruments etc.,

The free samples are trial sizes but some last for weeks.

Here are 5 great sites you can get free samples, all they need is your address and email address.

1. Walmart.com

Wal-Mart has free samples, free trials, free music offers now and then, so check this link frequently. You can get samples ranging from hair products, soaps, lotions, kitchen bags, medicine, food, deodorant and more items.

2. TotallyFreeStuff.com

This has a wider range of samples than Wal-Mart and is restricted not in just one site but many. You will find posters, stickers, magnets, t-shirts, food, and more.

3. TheFreeSite.com

This website has the most offers from a wide variety of sources. You get plenty of free sample offers, screen savers, games, etc.

4. Craigslist.org

If you are patient with Craigslist you may find plenty of free stuff or great bargains for homes. You can find excellent furniture, bikes, puppies, and more. You get great offers than eBay, plus you can see them before you buy.

5. Thunderfap.com

This site provides number of services besides free samples and geared towards professionals with sites and services. It offers free products, magazines, downloads, books etc.

Updated: More Sites offering Free Samples.

6. FatWallet.com

I recently found this, it is a great site with lots of free offers and great rebates and deals. All these deals added by users only.

7. Proctor & Gamble

PG offers tons of products and this link will provide you with more free sample offers from them directly. They also will provide coupons for it. This is a reliable site to visit.


If you know any more free and reliable sites, please add your comments. Also, if you have used any of these sites, please let us know your feedback. I have used Wal-Mart.com sometimes, they deliver as promised.

Reference: Associated Content.

How the YouTube Looked in 1985

You want to know how the "YouTube" video looked in the 1980's, watch the hilarious video.

The concept was a miserable failure.

First, they accept only video submissions via mail. Secondly, they accept videos only in "Betamax" or in "VHS" format, both of which are outdated now.

If you want to subscribe to any video channels, you have to phone in subscribe to the channels. If you want to watch it, you have to wait for 15 days for the videos to arrive by mail.

Thank god for the Internet, the modern YouTube is not that excruciatingly difficult. :)

Reference: Phillip Lenssen's Blog.

Scientists know why 'Mama' and 'Dada' are baby's first words

Scientists claim they have found out why baby’s first words are often “mama” or “dada”. Similar baby responses are seen in other languages as well.

One main reason the baby always says the word “mama” and “dada” is because of the close proximity of both the parents. The languages in the many cultures have also made it easy by creating words for mothers and fathers with patterns of repeating sounds making it easy for the babies to say those words according to the scientists.

To prove this scientifically, brain scans were taken of 22 newborns (with age 2 days to 3 days) when they listened to recordings of words with repeating (“mubaba” and “penana”) and non-repeating (“mubage” and “penaku”) sounds. The research was led by University of British Columbia post-doctoral fellow Judit Gervain.

The scientists found the babies’ brain activity increased in their temporal and left frontal areas whenever the repeating sounds were played. The words with non-adjacent repetitions didn’t cause any distinctive responses in the brain.

Hence, the scientists believe the words, “mama” and “dada” (or “papa”) is chosen aptly to teach a baby and this ability is hard-wired inside the human brains to recognize repeating sounds.

Gervain told Reuters:

"It's probably no coincidence that many languages around the world have repetitious syllables in their 'child words,'"

E.g. the word "papa" in Italian and "tata" (grandpa) in Hungarian.

Gervain added:

"The language center of most right-handed adults is located on the left side of the brain…This is consistent with our finding with newborn babies and supports our belief humans are born with abilities that allow us to perceive and learn our mother tongue systematically and efficiently."

The study will be published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In most languages there are repeating sounds but in some languages there are no repetitions in words like in Spanish it is “Madre” and “Padre”. Though the shortened versions of it is easy to pronounce “ma”.

Watch Videos In The Firefox Sidebar As You Browse With YouPlayer

Do you like to watch videos a lot at the same time browse other sites? If yes, you should try YouPlayer, a Firefox extension. After you install the extension and restart the browser, you can watch all of your favorite videos in the side bar.

After you install the extension, you will see "YP" at the bottom of the Firefox browser. Click "YP" to start watching the videos.

It is one of the must have Firefox extensions. It does so many things besides watching the video.

1.) Supports Many Video Sites.

You can not only watch the YouTube videos, but also Google Videos, Daily Motion, Metacafe and MySpace. There is a small search window at the bottom of the sidebar and you can search the videos by choosing any one of these video sites.



2. Drag and Drop Links.

As you are watching the video, you can browse and search for other videos and add the favorite ones to the song you are listening to and it remembers the list every time you restart. Just drag the video link and drop it just below the video you are watching as shown in the picture here. When you want to watch the video either you can watch it in the side bar in a smaller screen or right click the link to watch it in a new tab (a bigger screen).



3. Play FLV files from your computer.

You can use YouPlayer to play your video files as well. Just open the files in the new window as shown and drag and drop the links. You can add it to the existing lists or a new one. However it supports only .flv video formats, other video formats (.avi) are not allowed.



4. Customize the Play Order in the Lists:

Once you created the list by adding various videos, you can either play in sequence or in random or repeat or in a loop form as shown below.



5. Download the Videos:

This YouPlayer not only allows playing videos but also allows you to download them to your hard drive. Right click the video link and click the "Download" button.



This is a great extension to have in Firefox and watch or listen to your favorite videos on the background.

Special thanks to Abhijheet from Makeuseof.com for this tutorial.

Ziggurat: A Pyramid In Dubai Will House 1 Million And All Natural Powered

'Ziggurat' pyramid will house 1 million.

Inhabitat.com (Public Domain)

Dubai is building another masterpiece structure in a pyramid named “Ziggurat” that will house nearly 1 million people and self-sustain with all natural energy sources.

Like the pyramids of the Mayans and Egyptians, this new pyramid structure in Dubai is a giant one, will cover 2.3 square kilometers (0.88 square miles) and will be able to sustain a community of up to 1 million.

The “Ziggurat” is named after the temple towers of the ancient Mesopotamian valley, a terraced pyramid structure with successively receding stories. It will be a carbon-neutral structure.

Ziggurat is scheduled to be open for the upcoming Cityscape Dubai event that runs from October 6 to 9 this year.

It is a green building powered by solar, wind and natural sources and is capable of running completely off the grid according to the Timelinks, a Dubai-based pioneering environmental design company, who are in charge of this building.

'Ziggurat' pyramid is fully powered by natural energy sources.

Inhabitat.com (Public Domain)

The building boasts an efficient public transportation system that will run horizontally and vertically.

According to the International Institute for the Urban Environment, the technologies incorporated into the Ziggurat project will make it a viable metropolis, and Timelinks has responded by quickly patenting the design and technology developed for the project.

The future will look something like this Ziggurat when there is limited land space and increasing growth in population.

Unlike western countries, Dubai and United Arab Emirates are preparing for a future that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels is instead investing in massive green buildings and residential homes.

No More Free Lunch in Google For Employees?

Google was rated “Best Place to Work” for two years in a row. One of the main reasons cited by its workers was the free food they were offering. But now Google plans to cut some of the free food options.

In the previous article, “Google's Gigantic Food Budget: $7,530 Per Employee, $72 Million A Year” we saw Google was spending nearly $30 per employee per day for food.

But now Google is feeling the costs and wants to cut the food budget according to a Google employee. The employee told Valleywag that Google is cutting the evening meals:

"Google has drastically cut back their budget on the culinary program. How is it affecting campus? No more dinner. No more tea trolley. No more snack attack in the afternoon."

According to the employee, Google will announce these changes to Googlers (Google employees) today. Despite this cut, Googlers are still fed more than any other company.

Google uses this food benefits option to recruits new employees and even Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google promised shareholders they would rather add perks than cut them. But changes have occurred already.

In 2004, the founders wrote:

We provide many unusual benefits for our employees, including meals free of charge … We are careful to consider the long term advantages to the company of these benefits. Expect us to add benefits rather than pare them down over time. We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.

Why the sudden change of mind? One main reason is the outside management Bon Appétit, which has clashed with Google and many Google Chefs have quit and joined Facebook. As a result the Googleplex is understaffed and Google doesn’t want to pay more for Bon Appétit’s additional staff.

Valleywag also speculates that Google may be cutting the food expenses after Sergey Brin complained that too many Googlers are misusing the free food benefits.

But will these changes affect the employees’ morale and their job performance, we have to wait and see. In the future, Google should follow the Hebrew proverb, "Promise little and do much".

A DVD camcorder from Panasonic for $170 only

Panasonic mini-DVD camcorder VDR-D210. Photo: Cnet.com.

Circuit City is selling Panasonic DVD camcorders for only $170 including shipping. It is has some basic features and good for first time buyers.

The prices for DVD camcorders used to start at $600 but now the prices are falling down with new technologies on the horizon. Panasonic, which used to sell high-priced DVD camcorders are now selling in the low price range also.

Circuit City will now sell Panasonic VDR-D210 mini-DVD camcorder for $169.96 including free shipping. You have to add sales tax in your local state if Circuit City has a store. At other places it costs $50 more.

According to Cnet.com, the mini-DVD camcorder is an entry-level camcorder with some nice basic features such as 32 X optical zoom, a 2.7 inch LCD, optical image stabilization and a compact design.

However, this model doesn’t have still-image capture and it has a low image and video quality because of the low megapixel CCD sensor (0.68 megapixels). The recording time is limited with the use of mini-DVDs and transferring them to PC might be a problem.

For complete specifications of Panasonic VDR-D210 Camcorder click here.

Cnet in the end said it is an inexpensive entry level DVD camcorder for those who want quick videos. But if you want added features you have to pay more.

Also, check out Christopher Hogg’s Flip video review, which can go head to head with this Panasonic camcorder. The Flip Ultra player seems to be more compact and cheaper.

Chef Without An Appetite

Haeinsa temple in South Korea. Photo: Discover Korea.

I read this great quote, which is very important when we do any job. Without passion, we are just wasting our time and others. And also, without interest, the job we do is usually under-par. It is better to do it right great or not do it all. So, have passion in anything you do.

"What sort of experience can a writer have it if she doesn't feel passion. It's like a chef without an appetite."

- Haruki Murakami in Sputnik Sweetheart.
For other great quotes, click here.

Nurturing is Always Good

Cherry Blossoms in Japan. Photo reference.


"What's nurtured grows well"

- A Japanese saying quoted in Haruki Murakami in Sputnik Sweetheart.

American Prayer - Great Song by Bono and Dave Stewart

It is a great song written by Dave Stewart and U2's Bono.

Here are the lyrics, iTunes Link and Video Link.

This is the time to finish what you started
This is no time to dream
This is the room
We can turn off the dark tonight
Maybe then we might see
This is my American Prayer
American Prayer
This is the land
The land that keeps your feet from getting wet
And this is the sky over our head
Remember that what you see depends on where you stand
And how you jump will tell you where you're gonna land
This is my American Prayer
American Prayer

Chorus:
My oh my, let's not get tired
Let's not kick at the darkness
Let's make the light brighter
These are the hands
What are we going to build with them?
This is a church you can't see
Give me your tired and poor and huddled masses
You know they're yearning to breathe free

Lyrics from U2.

Kevin Rose: Apple Will Release New iPod Nano Soon

Newly Redesigned iPod Nano. Photo KevinRose.com.

Digg founder Kevin Rose claims that Apple will release new iPod Nano models soon next month. Already stores like Target have started displaying “discontinued” signs for existing iPod Nano models.

Kevin Rose in his blog shows off the new iPod Nano redesign and claims that Apple will replace the old iPod Nano with the newly redesigned one that looks curvy and with a bigger screen.

Apple usually introduces new iPods during the month of September and signs are already appearing at the stores with “discontinued” for existing iPod Nano models, which usually means new Apple models according to Cnet.com.



Kevin Rose said Apple will introduce these new iPod Nanos sometime between now and the end of next month. He doesn’t reveal from where he got this information from. Apple is usually very secretive about its products.

Rose also added that iPod Touch will however remain the same except for the new software 2.1 and iPhone 3G will be upgraded later with this software. And Apple will update its iTunes software to 8.0 version.

The new design looks nice but I think many will favor either iPod Touch or iPhone 3G, both of which have more features than just the songs and videos.

Cat survives high-speed emergency ambulance ride

A cat in Queensland took an innocent nap on the roof of an ambulance of her owner’s. But it rode a ride of its lifetime, when the ambulance was called out for an emergency and was taken for a 13 km ride with speeds of up to 100 km/h.

The cat named “Chloe” belonged to the paramedic Myles White, heard a funny sound after the ride was over and he looked up and saw his frightened cat sitting on the roof of the ambulance.

Myles and his team had to go pickup a six-year-old patient in Oak Beach in north Queensland from Port Douglas. It was a 13 km (8.07 miles) ride and they went non-stop with top speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 miles per hour).

When they reached the patient’s place, somebody told them there is a cat in the ambulance roof. Myles looked up and saw his cat.

He told Sydney Morning Herald.

"The road to Oak Beach is quite windy and it was lights and sirens all the way…I cannot believe that she managed to stay on and survive…When I took her down, she was all fluffed up and her eyes were a bit blown out and she did a big 'Help, get me off' meow."

In the end everyone found it funny including the sick girl, who needed emergency help.

If it were a dog, it wouldn’t have minded the ride but for the poor cat it must have been a nightmare.

E-mail Addresses That Will be Tiresome to Give Out Over the Phone

Some e-mails are easy to spell over the phone but even then saying the @ sign and .com part, people hearing it get confused and you have to say them at least a few times, so that they receive it correctly.

But trying having names like the following and imagine you spell them over the phone:

MikeUnderscore2004@yahoo.com
MikeAtYahooDotCom@hotmail.com
Mike_WardAllOneWord@yahoo.com AAAAAThatsSixAs@yahoo.com One1TheFirstJustTheNumberTheSecondSpelledOut@hotmail.com

It will be a nightmare. So before you decide to have a new email address, just mull it over and see it is OK to spell and pronounce.

Scientist discovers an extinct insect on eBay

A scientist saw a curious item on eBay and decided to purchase for £20 ($37.51), which turned out to be favorable for him, it was an extinct insect encased in amber.

Scientists have made similar discoveries in the past where the creatures gets trapped in the wood resin and becomes fossilized. This aphid insect was trapped in a similar way more than millions of years ago.

Dr. Harrington, who works at the world famous Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire bought the fossil from a man in Lithuania. Dr. Harrington sent the sample to fossil aphid expert Professor Ole Heie in Denmark. Heie confirmed that it was a new discovery and it belonged to an extinct type of aphid.

The 3-4mm (0.12-0.16 inches) insect is encased in a 40-50 million-years-old piece of amber about the size of a small pill.

Initially Dr. Harrington wanted to name this extinct insect after eBay but since the science community doesn’t allow frivolous names, it was named after him by his fellow scientist, Professor Heie.

Dr. Harrington told Telegraph:

"I had thought it would be rather nice to call it Mindarus ebayi…Unfortunately using flippant names to describe new species is rather frowned upon these days."

Professor Heie has named the new species Mindarus harringtoni after Dr Harrington.

Dr. Harrington added:

"It's not uncommon to find insects in amber... but I'm not sure that one has turned up on eBay that has been undiscovered before. It's a rather unusual route to come by,"

Instead of looking for new insects and creatures in the field, you can find it on eBay.

This is Named Google Too But Doesn't Search

Marina, an user in Flickr has a cat named "Google". She wrote in Philipp Lenssen's blog:

“yes, I’ve a cat called Google, I’ve named it so because ’google’ has a musical sound, and because I’m a great Google-user too !!”

Here are some pictures of the cat named "Google".


Click the image to leave a comment for Marina in Flickr.






It will do everything but search. :)

Read Wall Street Journal For Free Without Subscription

To read all the articles in Wall Street Journal, you need to subscribe it for $79 a year. But if you just want to browse an article or two and don’t need a subscription, then you have to try other methods described in this article.

But before that here is an example:

Try reading this Wall Street Journal article “Microsoft Enlists Jerry Seinfeld In Its Ad Battle Against Apple“ directly.

You will be able to see only a partial article. In order to read the full article, try any of the following methods:

1. Google News:

a. Visit Google News Link http://news.google.com

b. Type “Microsoft Enlists Jerry Seinfeld In Its Ad Battle Against Apple“ in the search area.

c. You will see the Wall Street Journal link, click the link to see the full article.

Wall Street Journal allows Google to access its website in a method via “First Click Free” to by pass user registration and subscription requirement.

So, find the Wall Street Journal article you like and then go to Google News to access the full WSJ article.

2. Digg.com:

It works the same way as Google News, but you won’t have much choice like Google News, but whenever you see a Wall Street Journal article cited by a Digg Post, you will be able to access it for free. Wall Street Journal allows any user to see its article via Digg.com gateway.

3. Firefox Add-on Refspoof:

This is the complex method of the three. This is useful when the above two methods don’t work.

1. Go to WSJ.com.
2. In the refspoof toolbar's "spoof:" field, type "digg.com."
3. Also in the refspoof toolbar, click the R icon, and select "static referrer."
4. That's it. Click around the site; the WSJ thinks each click is coming from Digg. The WSJ is now yours for free!

That’s it, you can browse and read any article in Wall Street Journal for free. You can also access other paid articles from other publications the same way but some may not work.

Firefox Add-On Refspoof

A connection between colony collapse disorder and pesticides?

Bumble Bee. Photo: Flickr.com/photos/dr_television/

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) believes there is a connection between the colony collapse disorder of bees and the pesticides used in crops. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is refusing to show the documents about this connection.

The colony collapse disorder (CCD) of bees is a worrying concern for the food industry, without the bees, we will face severe food shortages. With food shortages, we will see a big rise in food prices.

Commercial honey bees pollinate about 90 of the country's crops, valued at $15 billion. One third of the U.S. diet is dependent on the honey bees. Apples, peaches, pears, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, cherries, berries, peppers, squash, soybeans, almonds, cashews, and sunflowers all require or benefit from honey bee pollination. With CCD all these products will suffer massively.

A number of factors have been attributed to the colony collapse disorder and one of them is the parasitic mite, which affects the bees considerably. But there is no confirming theory of which factor primarily causes the CCD.

NRDC believes there is a positive connection between the CCD and the pesticides used in crops. They think EPA has enough documents to support this theory, but EPA is not releasing the documents to NRDC or to the public. To force EPA to release the documents, NRDC has filed a lawsuit in the federal court in Washington DC.

Bayer CropScience made a pesticide named Clothianidin, a new class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids for crops. But before they were granted the release to sell in the market, Bayer was asked to submit studies about the product’s impact on bees. NRDC wants these documents, but EPA refuses to produce it.

Entomologists studied this pesticide independently and found drastic results. One entomologist told Environment News Service (ENS):

"There is conflicting information about the affects of neonicotinoids on honey bees, and different chemicals in this class are known to vary in their toxicity to bees, however the EPA identifies both imidacloprid and clothianidin as highly toxic to honey bees."

Even the EPA factsheet of the product shows the following:

"It has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators through the translocation of clothianidin resides in nectar and pollen. In honey bees, the affects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal and/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects on the queen."

And when Clothianidin is combined with other fungicides, the toxic levels of neonictinoid increases over 1,000 times and poses even more dangers for honey bees according to a North Carolina State University reported in the ENS.

Clothianidin was banned this May in Germany due to concerns about its impact on bees. France has banned it for the past few years. In the U.S. it is still being used as we speak.

History

The Temple of Bel. Photo Mounir Soussi Idrissi.

History:

Life is a history of many,
Geography is a history of land formations,
Mathematics is a history of mysteries in numbers,
Science is a history of Universe phenomena,
Astronomy is a history of a vast Space,
Botany is a history of plant nature,
Zoology is a history of animal kingdom,
Language is a history of human vocabulary,
Music is a history of joy overtures,
Arts is a history of freedom expressions,
Medicine is a history of the human machine,
Charity is a history of human love,
Engineering is a history of technology revolution,
Business Management is a history of product revolution,
Sports is a history of physical ingenuity,
Architecture is a history of design intelligence,
Textiles is a history of fashion civilization,
There are others who are as important history of special things,
Uncover all to make a discovery in life,
Need all to face the history in future.

- Chris Veerabadran from "Life No Random".

One percent of Australia's geothermal energy can produce 26,000 years of Electricity

Geothermal Energy Principle. Photo: Treehugger.com.

Australian scientists claim just by harnessing one percent of the country’s untapped geothermal energy from underground could produce 26,000 years worth of clean electricity power.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter and primarily uses coal power to generate nearly 77% of its electricity. But recently the government wants to invest in more renewable sources.

The government announced today that it will allocate A$50 million (US$43 million) to help develop new technology to convert geothermal energy into electricity.

Resource Minister Martin Ferguson told Reuters:

"Geothermal energy which is sometimes known as hot rocks has got a huge potential for Australia, both as a solution to climate change and in terms of national energy security,"

The power is generated from geothermal sources by pumping water below the ground and the water is heated by the high heat source. The hot water is converted to steam, which then drive the turbines to generate power and electricity.

The earth central core (is about 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and the surrounding cores are very hot, but drilling to the center is impossible with current technologies. Luckily for the scientists, the geothermal sources are not far off from the grounds. Geoscience Australia, a governmental organization mapped the countries geothermal sources using the temperature recordings from oil and energy drilling firms’ recorded data from 5,722 petroleum and mineral boreholes. Some sources are located just five kilometers (three miles) from the ground.

Geoscience Australia’s Anthony Budd told Reuters:

"One percent of reserves would produce 26,000 years of energy supplies,"

Budd said “hot rocks” must be at least 150 degrees Celsius to generate electricity power and they have located a number of geothermal sources across Australia at a depth of one (0.60 miles) to five kilometers (three miles). And if they drill deeper, the temperature is even higher and can generate even more power.

A report by the Australian Geothermal Energy association said that the country can produce 2,200 megawatts of power by 2020, fulfilling 40% of the country’s electricity needs.

The total costs for a 10 to 50 megawatts power producing plant would cost A$120 (US$104.52) per megawatt hour, but for a 300 megawatts power plant, it would cost A$80 (US$69.68) per megawatt hour. These costs are the lowest for any renewable energy method according to the report.

The government wants to reduce the carbon emissions so it is trying to find more renewable energy option. Australia alone produces about 1.5 percent of the world’s carbon emissions because of its high reliance on coal power. Per capita wise Australia is the world’s biggest per-person polluter nearly five times more than China.

Initially the government will try different geothermal technologies to harness the power but later will determine the best one for other geothermal plants.

Google and others are also working on this Geothermal technology here in the U.S. Google invested $10 million in Enhanced Geothermal Systems. They estimate that by using this geothermal technology, just 2% of the heat below North America could meet the current energy needs of the country.

Be Careful When You Access Gmail Through a Public Computer

A hacking group has developed a tool that will steal the identity information of the user, who logs on to their email account in an unsecured Gmail link, http://mail.google.com.

Previously, we saw Google added a safety feature in Gmail, so we can browse the web safely. This feature can be activated in the “Settings” page and choosing the “always use https” option in the “General” tab.

But, it appears not everyone has changed this setting, still many are using the unsecure Gmail link http://mail.google.com instead of the secure link https://mail.google.com. And if you still insist on using unsecured links, there is plenty of software that can sniff out downloaded information wirelessly from other computers.

At DEFCON, a conference of hackers, a hacking group has developed a tool that will steal ID sessions. Once they steal the ID session, they can log on to the Gmail without any authentication (Gmail remains open for 48 hours until we log out) and change the account settings easily. The hackers at the DEFCON conference mainly demonstrate the vulnerabilities before someone takes advantage of it and reports it to the businesses to take corrective action.

The reason Google still uses unsecure link for its email services is because of the speed of its email services. The unsecure link allows faster access of emails compared to secure link. Google is letting the users decide whether they want secure or unsecure links. But Google should make it secure for everyone as default. If others don’t like the speed then they can change it themselves but they should face the consequences if their information gets stolen.

If you haven’t changed your Gmail settings then do so by clicking the “Settings” and choosing the option “Always use https” in the “General” tab.



Add security to Gmail.
Gmailblog.blogspot.com


There is also a Note2email.com service, where you can send emails anonymously and safely in public.

Browse safely with the new Google feature in Gmail

Google added a safety feature in Gmail that will let you browse safely on the Web. The security feature is available in the “settings” link.

When you browse on the Web in a place like a coffee shop, even when no one is using your computer, there is software that will be able to sniff the downloaded data from another computer easily in the same network.

It is better to use the secure version (https://mail.google.com) instead of the regular version (http://mail.google.com) of Gmail. Also, other free web mail services uses unsecured version.

Today, Gmail has announced a new security feature. To make this feature default, just log on to your Gmail account and click the “settings” link at the top of the page. And change the settings as shown in the picture below:


Add security to Gmail.
Gmailblog.blogspot.com


The reason Google didn’t provide this earlier is because the secure version takes a longer time to download to send the encrypted data. So you may see the Web pages download slowly initially.

Google Apps business users also can use the security feature for all of their users.

Another great potential benefit with this security feature is how it will make all the Google products secure. When you log on to Gmail, you will see a number of related Google links at the top. When you click any one of them, like “Documents”, then you will get a secure “Documents” version.

I use "Customized Google" Firefox extension for some time now; they make the Gmail secure by default.

Coldplay: "Death Will Never Conquer" Free Download Limited Time

Colplay is on a nationwide tour, to celebrate their tour with fans, they are giving a free download of their song "Death Will Never Conquer". It is only 1 minute 15 seconds song but has a nice tune to it.

The lyrics for the song "Death Will Never Conquer":

If sweet death
Should ever conquer me
Let me know
Boys, let me know
If you hear him coming
Won't you let me flee
Let me go, boys, let me go

One day
Death is gonna conquer me
I'll be down
Where the waters flow
I hope sweet Heaven
Is a place for me
Let me know
Boys, let me know

If sweet death
Should ever conquer me
Take me down
To some place below
If you hear him coming
Won't you set me free
Let me go
Boys, let me go

If you hear him comin'
Won't you say for me
That I just
Don't want to go

You can download the song legally from Coldplay site at http://www.coldplay.com/song.html.

They require an e-mail address and country to get the free download.

Muxtape Music Service Shut Down By The RIAA

Muxtape Logo. Photo courtesy Muxtape.com.

Muxtape, an online music service which let you share your favorite songs with friends in a social network. RIAA gives them a legal notice to shut it down.

37signals.com called Muxtape as “dead simple, absolutely clear, quenches a common thirst of sharing songs with friends, can’t mess-up easy” service. Muxtape is a free service and provides an easy interface to upload songs and share with friends. Users can upload up to 12 songs. Muxtape is like an online jukebox type of service.

Though, Muxtape allows sharing with friends, it allows only listening of songs doesn’t let others to download the songs. It has a unique encrypted security feature that doesn’t let anyone to download the song. And it provides a link option for every song uploaded to Muxtape, if the user likes the song they can buy the music from Amazon.com. Muxtape was sort of helping the artists unlike other music services, which doesn’t offer any protection for the artists.

But unfortunately RIAA doesn’t care about it and sent a legal notice to shut down Muxtape.
When you visit Muxtape, you will receive the following message:

Publish Post

Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.

Kristen from Mashable.com said only RIAA has the rights to upload the majority of the available music anywhere. And neither the individual customers who bought the songs nor Muxtape have any rights to upload the songs. So, even if the individual customer bought the entire music album, he or she cannot put it in their site or anywhere else according to RIAA’s viewpoint.

There will be another victim soon, Pandora, an online radio station, said they will shut down their music service. RIAA is demanding a high royalty rate for every song heard in Pandora.

It is another victory for RIAA, who has no clue about the new web. They would rather see innovation die for money and greed.

Solar cell technology breaks world record for efficiency

Government researchers have developed a technology, which will make the solar cell more efficient in converting the sun’s energy into electricity.

Department of Energy researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado have developed this new technology. Their new solar cell will convert a record 40.8 percent of incident sunlight into electricity.

Previously, bulk of the incident solar rays went as waste, now nearly 41% are harnessed improving the solar efficiency considerably.

The researchers modified the solar cell as follows. They grew the solar cell upside down on a wafer of gallium arsenide rather than thick germanium, and then removed the wafer.

This modification helps them to create flexible and lightweight solar cells, which can be used for land as well as space applications.

The previous record was 40.7 percent, which was developed by researcher John Geisz and his team and based on Mark Wanlass’ design of multi-junction solar cells with random spacing between the atoms.

The 0.1 percent improvement may look small, but when you have a whole array of solar cells for miles, the efficiency will add up considerably.

Hopefully, they will develop this design commercially, so we can reap the benefits right away.

Previously, we have seen just 0.3% of collected sun’s energy in Sahara will provide enough power for entire Europe. With improved and efficient solar cells, it can even help power other parts of the world also besides Europe.

LEGO Unveils The Largest Set With Taj Mahal

LEGO is releasing the largest set ever with the new “The Taj Mahal”, which has 5,922 pieces and costs $299. The set will be released next month.

Gone are the days, when you can assemble the LEGO in hours, this new set will surely take days to get it built.

Previously LEGO released the “Millennium Falcon” with 5,195 pieces but the new “The Taj Mahal” will have even more with 5,922 pieces. The “Millennium Falcon” was sold for $499.

From the product details of “The Taj Mahal”:

The famous Taj Mahal palace of India is known all over the globe for its incredible beauty and elegance. Now you can recreate this modern wonder of the world for yourself! Designed for experienced builders, the LEGO Taj Mahal model features advanced building techniques, rare elements and colors, and realistic details of architecture. With over 5,900 pieces, the Taj Mahal makes an awesome addition to any LEGO collection!

The Taj Mahal has a complex set of features, the minarets, domes, arches, stairs etc. Assembling them will be fun and equally challenging.

More pictures of the LEGO Set:

The Taj Mahal LEGO set
Shop.Lego.com (Public Domain)



Top View of the Taj Mahal LEGO set
Shop.Lego.com (Public Domain)



The product will ship mid-September and measures 20 inches wide and 16 inches tall.

The LEGO set looks beautiful, once you build it you can decorate it in your living room.

Israeli scientists can find water pollution by listening to plants

Scientists in Israel can detect the water pollution levels and health of the plant just by listening to how the plants respond in water.
The scientists shine a laser beam at the algae plants to stimulate the photosynthesis. The algae releases the oxygen during the photosynthesis, the excess heat is shot back into the water creating sound waves. If the water is polluted, the photosynthesis in algae is affected and the sound waves are different depending on the water conditions. By listening to the sound waves, the scientists are able to determine the quality of water and health of the plant. 

This research is carried out by Zvy Dubinsky, an aquatic biologist at Israel’s Bar Ilan University and his team. Zvy told Reuters: 

"It is a red light, telling us that something is beginning to go wrong with the quality of water…Algae is the first thing to be affected by a change in water quality."

Previously, one has to do testing at various times manually by taking samples of water and testing to find various chemicals. The methods commonly employed were chemical and radio carbon testing. This "listening" method will eliminate the need for manual testing once the system is fully developed. 

Dubinsky said nearly 44 percent of the world’s population live in areas where water source is limited despite Earth being covered mostly in water. He said the need for testing the water quality quickly, cheaply and accurately becomes vital compared to existing time-consuming methods. 

Algae is a major provider of oxygen for Earth, during photosynthesis they release oxygen into the air. Depending on the algae condition in water and the rate of photosynthesis, heat is generated by the algae when laser beam is focused on them. The heat bounces back into the water and creates sound waves. This sound wave is measured by an underwater microphone and then the health of the algae plant and the water quality are calculated. 

Co-author for this study and researcher Yulia Pinchasov told Reuters: 

"Algae suffering from lead poisoning, like waste discharged from battery and paint manufacturing plants, will produce a different sound than those suffering from lack of iron or exposure to other toxins," 

Since the algae grows everywhere, this method can be easily administered and water pollution levels can be quickly measured. The instrument measures only one square meter in dimension. 

Dubinsky and his team plan to develop a commercial product within the next two years. 

They have reported this study in the recent journal Hydrobiologia.

Life Mountain

Mt. Shashta, USA.


"In the mountain of life,
Sin is a downhill,
Remorse is an uphill."

- Chris Veerabadran in "All Are One".

Top 75 Best Romantic Movies

These are some of the movies you should watch with your wife or lover. They love it and they love it even more when you watch these movies with them.

1. Notebook
2. Beaches
3. Legally Blonde
4. Pretty Woman
5. Notting Hill
6. Dirty Dancing
7. When Harry Met Sally
8. Titanic
9. Fried Green Tomatoes
10. Steel Magnolias
11. Sleepless in Seattle
12. Family Stone
13. Miss Congeniality
14. Thelma & Louise
15. There's Something about Mary
16. Moonstruck
17. Boys on the Side
18. Ever After
19. While You Were Sleeping
20. Kate and Leopold
21. You've Got Mail
22. Return to Me
23. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
24. Sweet Home Alabama
25. 50 First Dates
26. Crossroads
27. For the Boys
28. Pay It Forward
29. The Bridges of Madison County
30. Mystic Pizza
31. Bridget Jones' Diary
32. Calendar Girls
33. Love Actually
34. Cries & Whispers
35. Party Girl
36. My Best Friend's Wedding
37. About A Boy
38. Romeo & Juliet
39. Terms of Endearment
40. Hitch
41. A Walk to Remember
42. Charlie's Angels
43. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
44. Legends of the Fall
45. The Wedding Planner
46. Where the Heart Is
47. Knocked Up
48. Dances with Wolves
49. Secrets & Lies
50. The Princess Bride
51. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton
52. Something's Gotta Give
53. Shallow Hal
54. Untamed Heart
55. The American President
56. 13 Going on 30
57. Mean Girls
58. Chicago
59. Romy and Michelle's Highschool Reunion
60. I am Sam
61. An Officer and a Gentleman
62. If Lucy Fell
63. Message in a Bottle
64. Urban Cowboy
65. Autumn Sonata
66. Maid in Manhattan
67. What Dreams May Come
68. Happily Ever after
69. The Sweetest Thing
70. The Joy Luck Club
71. Never Been Kissed
72. Shadowlands
73. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
74. City of Angels
75. Moulin Rouge

There are other movies that are not in the list such as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Fools Rush In, Say Anything, Groundhog Day, Notting Hill and some more I will add later.

Next time, when your lover says "Honey, let us watch a movie", don't respond with "let's watch Dracula or Friday the 13th" :) save that for later and choose one from the list or your own.

If you have any good movie or movies that is not in the list, leave a comment.

Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

- Albert Einstein

For more great quotes click here.

Michael Phelps wins the sixth Olympic gold medal with another world record time

Michael Phelps broke another world record today and won his sixth Olympic gold medal by winning the 200 meters individual medley swimming event.

Phelps is determined to break Mark Spitz’s record haul of seven gold medals in one Olympics. He is not only near the total but he has won all his six events in record time. He has two more events left to break Spitz’s record haul. 

Phelps won the 200-metre individual medley with a time of 1:54.23 minutes and broke his previous world record time of 1:54:80, which he set at the U.S. Olympics trials. Ryan Loclite, his teammate, won the bronze medal. 

The other two events are 100 meters butterfly and 4 x100 meters medley relay. In the 100 meters butterfly event, he has not set any world records so far. But with the pace he is going at in Beijing, he might win them both. 

With Phelps’ gold medal, the U.S. gold tally reached 14 with China leading all countries with 22 gold medals. 

Phelps’ teammates also won gold medals today. Rebecca Soni won in 200 meters breaststroke and Loclite won in 200 meters backstroke. 

Britta Steffen of Germany won the 100m freestyle event and gave her country the eighth gold medal. 

It was another superhuman effort from Phelps. To compete almost every day and win every event he participates in (and in record time) is unbelievable.

Send Emails Anonymously Without Login And Password

When you are in a public computer, you are scared to enter your real username and password because others might steal it from a variety of ways. Sometimes you don't remember your password but want to send an urgent email to your friend, you will be at a loss, the email has to wait. Some other cases you just want to send emails anonymously.

To get all this done, use Note2Email. It is a simple web form that sends emails anonymously quickly. When you visit Note2Email, you will see the below screenshot.





To send an e-mail just follow these steps:

1. Enter the Email address you want the message sent to (it could be yours also to check an article or send a remainder).
2. Title - Subject of the Email
3. Note - Just type the message here
4. Encryption Key - Optional you can enter an encryption key to make the message secure. Here are the instructions to make an encrypted message.
   
5. Choose Logo - To prevent spam, they ask you to choose "Note2Email" logo.
6. Send - Click the "Send It" key once you are done.

That's it you are ready to send emails anonymously, safely and quickly online.

Body of Lies - Trailer

Based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius' 2007 novel about a CIA operative, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), who uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan. When Ferris devises a plan to infiltrate his network, he must first win the backing of cunning CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) and the collegial, but perhaps suspect, head of Jordanian intelligence. Although ostensibly his allies, Ferris questions how far he can really trust these men without putting his entire operation - and his life - on the line.

HitMeLater.com Forwards Your Emails Later

Are you tired of managing your incoming emails? Then you should try “Hit Me Later”, a free email service that will forward your emails hours or days later than when you received them.

Email management is a necessary one these days. When you sign up to so many services, responding to customers and friends and to sort out the spam messages, it will take many hours to respond or take an action to every email.

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington receives around 23,000 emails on a daily basis. Imagine sorting out and responding to each email; it will take many days. There are a number of email management methods and one of them is HitMeLater, which will forward your emails at a time convenient to you.

It works as follows:

Just forward any email to 24@hitmelater.com and we'll resend it to you 24 hours later.

You can replace "24" with any number or day. For example, forward it to 4@hitmelater.com and you'll get it back four hours later. Send it to wednesday@hitmelater.com and we'll send it back to you the first Wednesday morning after today.

If you try to use any other messages, HitMeLater sends a polite message back to you reading “We’re not sure what you want”.

To answer the email on Sunday, forward the email "sunday@hitmelater.com" or to answer it in the evening at 6 p.m., forward the email to "18@hitmelater.com".

HitMeLater is a free service and doesn’t require any registration. All the controls are done in your email account settings, where you forward your emails to HitMeLater. Or you can individually forward the emails you want to respond later by forwarding it to HitMeLater.

They claim you won’t receive any spam messages from them.

HitMeLater is a simple Web 2.0 service, and it's easy to use and doesn't require a download or installation

Facebook Is The World’s Largest Social Network And Fastest Growing

Facebook has now become the World’s largest social network and also growing at a record pace worldwide according to comScore statistics.

Facebook has surpassed MySpace and is now the World’s largest social network with 132 million unique visitors in June and its visitors are increasing at 153 percent annually. MySpace saw a dip and grew only 3 percent, even other social networks grew more like Hi5 (100 percent), Friendster (50 percent), Orkut (41 percent) and Bebo (32 percent) according to comScore. 

MySpace used to be twice as big as Facebook last year in the world, but now Facebook has surpassed it. 

Facebook is also growing in North America with nearly 49 million visitors a month (growing at 38 percent rate). In Europe, Facebook is seeing a high growth rate with 35 million visitors and growing ten times as fast. But in other regions, Facebook is adding users at phenomenal rates, in Middle East and Africa (403 percent growth), in Asia Pacific (458 percent growth) and in Latin America (10,555 percent growth). 

One reason for the sudden increase in the users is due to additional language options, which Facebook added recently according to TechCrunch. 

Facebook users worldwide and growth rate.

Techcrunch (Public Domain)




A Plot of social networks growth rate
Techcrunch (Public Domain)



The only countries it is unable to grow faster is in China and Japan, once it conquers that Facebook will become a bigger force in the web than what it is now and separate itself from MySpace.

Download ZoneAlarm ForceField For Free, Today Only

Download ZoneAlarm ForceField For Free Today

ZoneAlarm.com (Public Domain)

ZoneLabs, makers of the popular anti-virus and firewall software, is giving away licensed copies of ZoneAlarm ForceField for free. This offer is available today only.

ZoneAlarm ForceField helps you to browse the Web safely in a private environment, and protects your identity from phishers and key loggers. It provides an additional layer of security protection beyond your Firewall software.

It also helps block unauthorized downloads and software installations like the pop-ups (see our previous coverage for more info). Another unique aspect of this program is the fact it erases surfing history, including cookies, history, websites you visited, forms you entered etc., so no one can misuse your information at a later date. This is made possible by letting you browse in a virtual environment that is safe from hacking.

To download a ForceField license for 1 year, visit this link and enter your e-mail address. ZoneAlarm will send the download link with the license key code.

Safari browser offers private browsing, but for Internet Explorer and Firefox users, this is a good program to have.

UK researchers create 'Heart Robot" that displays emotions

More Information about 'Heart Robot'

Instead of a robot with just fixed mechanical movements, UK researchers have created a handmade robot that displays dynamic human emotions.

The “Heart Robot” was created by David McGoran from the University of the West of England. The robot shows dynamic human emotions, it relaxes when someone strokes it or cuddles it.

Instead of just mechanical parts, this “Heart Robot” is a puppet-like robot. It responds to sound, light and movement and reacts with eye movements, change in heart beats and breathing.

The robot is made of soft plastic and wrapped in cotton fabric. The robot has a main nervous system made up of five computers and motors through which it is able to move hands and eyelids. It also controls the heart beat with either faster or slower beatings depending on the stress level. A cuddling activity relaxes the robot and its heart beat slower in response.

David McGoran told BBC:

“We are hoping that people will feel an emotion in response to the robot and that this will inspire them to find out more about robotics.”

This robot is rudimentary for now but holds a lot of promise.


Heart Robot.


Also, the video show a spider-like robot made by Matt Denton of Micromagic Systems. This robot is able to recognize faces and moves accordingly.

Both robots are being displayed at the London Science Museum until July 31st.

For more information about Heart Robot, visit their site here.

7 Blunders That Threaten Your Identity Online

Cyber-Crime. Photo: Gearsandwidgets.com

Consumer Reports cautions Internet users to avoid the seven mistakes when shopping or browsing on the Web. The solutions include using different passwords, refraining from clicking pop-up ads and avoiding emailed account links.

Cyber crooks are proliferating, thanks to leaky operating systems that are open to easy attacks. Consumer Reports offers the following mistakes consumer make when they go online.

1.) Assuming Your Security Software Is Protecting You

New computers are loaded with virus software but they are available only for a limited duration; customers often neglect upgrading it. In a study last fall, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the software maker McAfee found that nearly half the users polled didn’t update their virus software but assumed they were protected. As a result, they are prone to attacks from outsiders and customers assume their virus software will protect them against such attacks. Only problem is the virus software is old and doesn’t have the latest updates.

Remedy: You have to constantly update your virus software or set your virus software to regular updates.

2.) Accessing an Account Through an Email Link

The email will look legitimate and appear to have come from PayPal or eBay or Bank of America saying your account has been suspended and need an immediate reply via a link. Only the link doesn’t go to these sites instead goes to sites in other countries that have fake information. Since you are not aware whether the site is fake or not, you enter the information and the hackers get it easily. They then use that information to access your actual accounts in PayPal or eBay and steal your funds.

Remedy: If the email requests you to update the account instead of clicking the link, go to the main website address in the browser and see whether your accounts really need updating or not. If you receive fake e-mails, you can report it or forward it to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org. Also, use Firefox 3 because it will warn you when you visit fake sites.

3. Using a Single Password for All Online Accounts

This is a no-no; this just make it easy for hackers to not only attack one account but multiple accounts in various sites. Nine percent of home internet users use the same password from a recent study done by Consumer Reports.

Remedy: Use a different unique password, don’t use the same password and have alphanumeric characters (no alphabets only or no numbers only passwords). Use Roboform or 1Password (for Macs) to manage your passwords -- they do a great job and provide complex passwords and help you use it across various sites easily.

4. Downloading Free Software

Don’t download free software from ads or sites you are not aware of. Most of them pass virus and other spyware without your knowledge. They slow down your computer plus they may steal information as well. It may be free to download but it will be costly later for your computer.

Remedy: Download software only from legitimate sites like Download.com, which are tested before they are made available for public. Also, check the user reviews because they provide a ton of information about the software.

5. Thinking Your Mac Shields You From All Risks

Macs are also frequently attacked now; it is just not the PC that interests hackers. Consumer Reports found Mac users also fall prey to phishing scams at the same rate as Windows users.

Remedy: Don’t just use Safari in Macs; they don’t have any phishing protection. Instead use Firefox 3 for Mac or Opera. There is also a free anti-phishing toolbar for Macs such as McAfee Site Advisor or FirePhish.

6. Clicking on a Pop-up Ad That Says Your PC Is Insecure

Some sites have pop-ups and warn you that your PC is not safe. But clicking those pop-ups will just make it worse by adding virus and spyware that may cripple your computer.

Remedy: Use Google Toolbar, which has a free add-on blocker. When you download it for the first time, it will ask you whether it should block the pop-ups. Say yes, and later you can change it depending on the sites.

7. Shopping Online the Same Way You Do in Stores

We use lot of precautions when we shop at neighboring stores, but online we are carefree. Instead of trusting too much, be watchful. The price may be cheaper by shopping at a small store, but later that store may use your credit card information and misuse it.

Remedy: Use a separate card when you shop online and have a minimum balance. This account should be different from your main account and not connected. Even if they steal it, they can only steal less. Use online financial programs like Mint.com, which checks up your cards on a daily basis and warns you via SMS or e-mail if there are unusual activities. Banks should do that, but they usually report after days of theft.

I have done these mistakes in the past, but now I am more careful.

Steve Jobs: 60 million iPhone apps downloaded in just one month

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs told Wall Street Journal that they have sold more than 60 million applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch in just a month.

Apple reported earlier that it sold more than 1 million iPhone 3G and 10 million applications in just three days of introduction. Now it says it has sold more than 60 million applications with an average of 2 million applications per day.

The applications do a variety of tasks that one does in a computer, making iPhone a small computer-like device.

Most of the applications are free but others sell for $0.99 or more. One application “I am Rich” sold for $999.99, all it did show a diamond on the screen. After three days Apple removed it and gave no reason for it.

Steve Jobs gave the following figures to Wall Street Journal:

1.) Revenues from application were $30 million. For every application sold in iTunes, 70% goes to the developers and 30% goes to Apple.
2.) If sales remain at current pace, Apple is expected to make more than $360 million in a year just from applications.
3.) Sega which sells its games in iPhone also made nearly 9 million dollars during this period. It sold more than 300,000 copies of Super Monkeyball game ($9.99) in 20 days.
4.) Steve Jobs said there will be a rich variety of applications for iPhones, which will help them differentiate from other smartphones such as Blackberry, Palm, Microsoft Mobile devices in the future.

Jobs told the Wall Street Journal:

“This thing’s going to crest a half a billion, soon…Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time…. I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software.”

Jobs also confirmed to WSJ that they have a kill switch that gives Apple the capability to turn off the applications remotely if they consider it as a malicious application. The developers are not too happy about it but Jobs wants to protect customers first.

Once the user becomes more familiar with iPhones, they will download even more applications. I don't have an iPhone but I have added some essential applications for future use like book reader, mobile banking, radio, Paypal, Google Mobile, Mobile News, Twitter and more.

Microsoft bans the word 'Tibet’ in Hotmail, Live, MSN e-mail accounts

New York Times reports Microsoft is not allowing users to have the word “Tibet” as their usernames either as a whole word or part of a another word. If the user wants to have Tiberisgreat@hotmail.com, Microsoft says they are not allowed or not available.

A user told New York Times that Microsoft is not allowing the term “Tibet” in the username for their e-mail accounts in Live.com, Hotmail.com and MSN.com. New York Times checked to see whether it is true or not, it got the same results as the user reported it first. I tried the same with similar results.

When you enter the term Tibetisgreat@hotmail.com, Microsoft says the username is not available as shown below:

Microsoft bans the word Tibet in Live account.

Cgullworld.blogspot.com (Public Domain)

But when I tried DalaiLama1@hotmail.com, Microsoft allows it however.

Microsoft allows the word 'Dalai Lama' however.

Cgullworld.blogspot.com (Public Domain)

New York Times speculates that Microsoft is trying to please the Chinese regime by not allowing the word “Tibet”. The article rightly asks: But would the Chinese regime really feel threatened by the creation of, say, ILoveTibet@hotmail.com? And even if it did, would Microsoft really agree to help perpetuate that insecurity?

Microsoft responded to New York Times and said that it doesn’t allow usernames that conflicts with companies. For example it doesn’t allow the word “Tib” in the username so that it doesn’t cause confusion with TIB Bank in Florida and also to protect users from those not affiliated with TIB Bank (to stop phishing scams). But in this case Tibet is the name of the place, how can the user get confused with it and think that the user represents Tibet?

After the article was reported, Microsoft changed its policies by changing the statement from “contains a word or phrase that is not allowed” to just “not available” in order to minimize the controversy.

I tried the same trick in Google to see whether they also comply with China, but it worked as shown below:

Gmail allows the word 'Tibet' in the username.

Cgullworld.blogspot.com (Public Domain)

It is absurd to ban the word “Tibet”, everyone loves something why can’t they love Tibet? If Microsoft bans the word “Tibet” then they should ban “China”, and other countries and places also.

Wall Street Journal praise Obama's Economy Policy

More than 75,000 attend Obama's rally.

Wall Street Journal in a surprising twist praises Barack Obama’s economy policy. Obama said oil prices can be reduced with a strong dollar currency in the international market.

The old Wall Street Journal talks about politics only in terms of business point of view, mostly had fewer articles. But with Rupert Murdoch in charge, it has plenty of politics news recently with the presidential elections only months away. It has Karl Rove, "the man who refuses to go before House despite the subpoena" as one of the editors and with a strong Republican views in his editorials.

In a WSJ editorial, they praise Barack Obama for favoring a strong dollar currency to help reduce oil prices. In a town hall forum in Parma, Ohio, Barack Obama told the forum attendees how the U.S. can help reduce oil prices.

"If we had a strengthening of the dollar, that would help…The way to strengthen the dollar is for us to get our economy back in shape."

WSJ says this should have been the biggest news last week. But most were distracted by
“Paris Hilton”, “tire inflation” and “the affair”.

The Bush administration and Federal Reserve blame the high oil prices on the supply and demand, despite the falling demand due to slower global growth and Obama’s views are at odds with either of them with a “strong dollar” concept.

WSJ said in the editorial:

This conveniently absolves the Fed and Bush Treasury of responsibility for the consequences of what has been their destructive and all but explicit dollar devaluation strategy. If the Illinois Senator rejects greenback debasement, that's the best news to date about Obamanomics.

Obama hopes strengthening the dollar would help the economy by reducing the inflation in food and energy prices.

WSJ said Americans know the dollar is weak when the Canadian loonie is worth more than the dollar. The U.S. Dollar had more buying power and used to be equal to more than 1.4 Canadian Dollar only a few years ago.

In the coming days, both candidates' economic policies will be scrutinized, they better have a good one.

Women want liposuction on their shoulders to have the 'Keira look'

Actress Keira Knigtley. Photo: Keiraknightleyworld.com.

Besides the availability of numerous plastic surgeries for other parts of the body, women now want to have liposuction on their shoulders to have a “Keira Knightley Look”.

Plastic surgeons in New York have reported that many women are seeking to have a perfect shoulders and want to undergo liposuction to make it look slender like actress Keira Knightley’s and singer Madonna‘s.

The surgeons say women want the fat in their shoulders to be stripped off to make it a more toned and sinewy appearance. Recently they are getting more requests from the United Kingdom according to Dr. Douglas Steinbrech.

The plastic surgery procedure for shoulder will cost between £2,000 ($3,838) and £5,000 ($9,596). The shoulders will be injected with a local anesthetic before they do this procedure.

Incisions about five millimeters (0.20) are cut in the natural creases and shadows of the shoulders and the fat is vacuumed out with a curved suction wands. Other procedures might use lasers to break up and melt the fat cells first before they vacuum the excess fat.

Dr. Steinbrech however said this procedure is for women in great ship and very trim. He told Daily Mail:

They maybe go to the gym three or five days a week but there are a few areas that the gym can't reach, such as their shoulders, knees and ankles. It is not a procedure I perform on obese women.'

He said the surgery is pain-free and patients can return to work within a few days. He claims 80 percent of the swelling goes down within two weeks and the bruising on their shoulders disappear within ten days.

Barbara Jemec, consultant plastic surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminister Hospital hopes that this procedure doesn’t come to UK. She told Daily Mail:

'It sounds a bit extreme. There are other places where fat is much more visible on women's bodies and shoulders can scar easily…The likes of Keira Knightley and Madonna have skinny shoulders because they are skinny all over. I think in this country we are moving away from women having to be stick-thin. A woman who looks normal and healthy is much better.'

It is sad women want to look like Keira but don’t want to be like Keira, who refuses do any plastic surgery or even allow photo manipulation of her pictures.

Get a Free Movie Rental Every Monday And Wednesday During August With Redbox

A Redbox Movie Kiosk.

Redbox is offering a special promotion this August month besides their weekly free movie rental option Mondays. If you are not familiar with Redbox, it is similar to Blockbuster only Redbox offers DVD via self-service.

Redbox is situated in McDonald’s, Albertsons and grocery stores nationwide. Entertainment Merchants Association ranks Redbox as the fifth largest DVD rental company.

I have used Blockbuster, Netflix and I can say that Redbox is as convenient as them. It offers the latest movie titles for only $1 a 24-hour day (and return it before the following night), which is far cheaper than other DVD services.

Redbox offers movies via a self-service vending kiosk and getting movies is very easy with touch screen buttons. Each Kiosk can hold over 600 DVDs with 70 to 200 titles, which are updated on a weekly basis.

You can rent the movie for $1 a day, but if you want to keep it for more than a day, then you just pay $1 for every additional day. If you keep the movie title for more than 25 days you can keep the movie for yourself along with the case. You can also reserve movies via online, but you can get them directly from the kiosks.

You can pay for the movie via a debit or credit card and all they need is your e-mail address as your account number. They will send confirmation when you rent or when you return the movie. Returning the movie is also very easy and much simpler with a simple return box slot located in the same kiosk.

To find the nearest location of Redbox near you click here.

Now the most interesting part. To get a free rental movie for trial basis click this signup link and enter your e-mail address, they will send you a code, which you can use to get your free movie rental.

If you have a mobile, you can signup via their SMS alerts, which provides free codes every Monday and you can get one free movie every week.

For the August month, Redbox is offering us more, besides free Mondays, it gives free codes for Wednesdays also. So, you get two free movies every week for the month of August.

When you rent the movie, just enter the free code when you pay, Redbox won’t charge your debit or credit card.

Here is the signup link.

Home Tip # 3: How To Clean Your Bathroom Quickly And Efficiently?

A Clean Bathroom. Photo: Realsimple.com

Bathroom cleaning takes only a few minutes if you do them regularly, if you postpone it, it will take hours. Follow the below tips to clean your bathroom quickly and efficiently.

In order to clean the bathroom you need a good set of cleaning solutions and equipment. Here are some supplies you should keep in the bathroom.

Supplies to Keep in the Bathroom

· Clorox Disinfecting Wipes: for cleaning sinks, tubs, tile, and the toilet exterior.

· Method Daily Shower Spray (www.methodhome.com for store locations): to prevent soap-scum buildup on shower walls. It's slightly more expensive than supermarket brands, but it smells much better, and the bottle is attractive enough to be left in view.

· OXO Good Grips Household Squeegee (above, $8): for cleaning the shower door and mirrors. I also use squeegee to when the mirrors get foggy with steam. It doesn’t occupy space and does a great job.

· Toilet brush with caddy.

· Clorox ReadyMop: for floors.

· Soft Scrub with Bleach: for scrubbing the tub and tile.

· OXO Good Grips Scrub Brush ($6): for scrubbing the tub and tile. I use both the brush and the Brillo Soap pads, they are very good in removing tough stains in bath tub and floors.

· Bleach or an all-purpose cleaner: to use in the toilet-brush caddy.

· Windex Glass and Surface Wipes: for mirrors and chrome.

They may look too many supplies, but each has a good use for it and will keep your bathroom fresh and clean.

Next step, the hard part but if you do them regularly, it will be easy for you. Postponing only makes the work tough and also will spread disease if more members use your bathroom. This is one job you can’t neglect.

Bathroom Cleaning To-Do List

Every Day

· Wipe out the sink (30 seconds).

· Wipe the toilet seat and rim (15 seconds).

· Swoosh the toilet bowl with a brush (15 seconds).

· Wipe the mirror and faucet (15 seconds).

· Squeegee the shower door (30 seconds).

· Spray the entire shower and the curtain liner with shower mist after every use (15 seconds).

Every Week

· Scrub the tub (three minutes).

· Scrub the tiles (five minutes).

· Mop the floor (two minutes).

· Wipe the switch plates, doorknobs, and doorjambs (one minute).

· Empty and wipe out the wastebasket (30 seconds).

Every Season

· Take down the shower curtain, then launder it according to the care instructions.

· Empty, weed, and clean the medicine cabinet (20 minutes).

· Perform the following procedure for the tub and sink.

1. Fill sink to the rim with very hot water; add one cup regular bleach. Soak for one hour.

2. Drain and rinse thoroughly.

3. Scrub with Ajax, Bon Ami, or baking soda.

4. Be sure to rinse thoroughly.

5. Shine with Windex or another glass-cleaning spray. Dry thoroughly.

For bathtubs, I use soap pads mostly and wipe every nook and corner and then use a bucket of water and hold them across the walls and let the water flow from the top. This will rinse away all the soap and dirt, your bathtub will look very shiny.

Hope these tips are useful.

Related Articles:

• Home Tip # 2: How to Keep Your Teeth Clean and Sparkling White
• Home Tip # 1: Socks as Floor Protectors

Musharraf faces impeachment in Pakistan

The ruling coalition government in Pakistan is planning to begin impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf. They need at least two-thirds majority to impeach.
Musharraf and his allies were defeated in February's election and a government was formed jointly by the opposition parties Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and PML-N party.

After he lost the elections, Musharraf gave up control of the army last year but still retains the power to dissolve parliament.

Now the party leaders Asif Ali Zardari (the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto) from PPP and Nawaz Sharif from PML-N made the announcement after three days of talks. They want to begin impeachment proceedings against Musharraf, but will need a two-thirds majority.

Previously Musharraf said he would rather resign than get impeached. He was planning to attend the opening ceremony in China, but because of this situation, he has cancelled the trip.
Nawaz Sharif announced the impeachment move at a press conference in Islamabad and told the audience:

"We have good news for democracy. The coalition believes it is imperative to move for impeachment against General Musharraf…He has worked to undermine the transition to democracy."

But if Musharraf dissolves the parliament, the ruling government cannot impeach him. If he dissolves however, it will lead to further violence in Pakistan and more chaos. Musharraf's situation is comparable to Zimbabwe's Mugabe, despite losing the election, he still wants to rule Pakistan.

Mr. Sharif added:

"Pakistan cannot afford to see democracy derailed, this is not the same Pakistan as was the case in the 1980s and 1990s. People will not accept it now."

Before the impeachment proceedings begin, Musharraf first faces votes of confidence in the national and four provincial assemblies.

Musharraf also fired several judges during the emergency after the assassination of Bhutto. Sharif promised once the proceedings end successfully, he and the government will restore the judges back to their original jobs.

No leader in Pakistan has been impeached so far, so this is a very new territory for the ruling government.

The next few months will determine the political future in Pakistan, whether democracy will reign or whether military rule will rise again like in the past. Since Pakistan's independence in 1947, half the years were ruled by military leaders. Musharraf has still a large influence over the military.

Hiroshima marks 63rd nuclear bomb anniversary today

Hiroshima city marked the 63rd anniversary of the world's first nuclear bombing. The Mayor pleads with the U.S. to abolish nuclear weapons in the world.

About 45,000 people including the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and the Hiroshima City Mayor attended the anniversary held at a memorial to the dead. They offered special prayers at 8:15 am, the exact time in 1945 when a single nuclear bomb from the Enola Gay U.S. aircraft dropped it on the city.

The bomb killed more than 140,000 people and injured tens of thousands of others with severe radiation burns.

The Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba doesn't want the incident to happen again and urged United States, which is one of three countries that oppose a UN resolution submitted by Japan calling for a unilateral ban of nuclear arms to endorse the ban.

He told the audience:

"We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival,"

Akiba said the impact of the bombings is still felt by the survivors, many of them over 75 now. The city plans to launch a study to understand the psychological impact of the experience.

"This study should teach us the grave import of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished,"

Many children gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome for a lantern march. The survivors burned incense before the dawn broke.

11-year-old school girl Honoka Imai told the service.

"Children who evacuated buildings or went to work at factories on that day have not returned 63 years on... the atomic bomb deprived them of normal life,"

Most countries have attended the ceremony via their representatives, but the U.S. Britain, France and North Korea have never attended the ceremony, all of them have nuclear arsenal.

Three days later Nagasaki will repeat a similar service, which was bombed on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 people.

Since then many countries like Pakistan, India, Israel and others have developed nuclear bombs and others like Iran, Saudi Arabia, also want to develop their own bombs. The nuclear bombs the many countries have now are hundred or thousand times more powerful.

Hope Hiroshima and Nagasaki incidents don't repeat again, if they do it will be far more deadly and devastating as if these incidents were not deadly enough.

Telegraph, UK has more pictures here from this anniversary.

Researchers: Even Viruses Get Virus Bugs Too

The viruses that cause colds and fevers in human are found to have bugs too, small viruses attack them as well according to French researchers.

Virologists from France watched one type of virus invading another virus and stole its DNA material from the host and made copies of its victim’s DNA to pass it on to the next generation.

Eugene Koonin, a virologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information and co-author of the findings told Nature:

"It's not the first time such a satellite pair was discovered, but this host-parasite pair is unique…It's the first time that these viruses have actually exchanged genes."

It doesn’t solve our current health problems, but it just gives us an idea what happens in the world of viruses.

The virus that invades others is a miniscule one and it contains 21 genes. The French scientists named the virus “Sputnik” after the Russian spacecraft.

The Sputnik virus belongs to “mimivirus” category and initially it infected bacteria like other viruses but later the researchers found that it invaded the “mamavirus”.

Once it gets into the “mamavirus” it hijacks the host’s genetic machinery, which Sputnik uses to make copies of the mamavirus’ genes and adds to its own. When this occurs, the mamavirus gets crippled and is unable to replicate, in other words it gets sick.

Koonin and his team also found that Sputnik’s genes appear to come from an unknown viral family, distantly related to already found viruses. The genes in them were similar to those found in oceanic water samples taken by the J. Craig Venter Institute.

The University of British Columbia marine virologist Curtis Suttle told Nature that Sputnik and related viruses can also pass genes to others as they steal them from others. He thinks that these viruses could be major players in global systems. But Koonin cautions, there are no tangible evidence at this point to support that theory.

Bernard La Scola, a University of the Mediterranean virologist and co-author of the paper, suggested that the future application of Sputnik-like viruses could be used to target viruses that infect humans. If they can do that to attack or destroy AIDS viruses, then it will be great news for the many suffering from HIV/AIDS.

But Koonin said it will be difficult to do this in humans, who have viruses that are too small to have parasites in them. He said so far no single human virus with parasites has been found. Human viruses will get a break until scientists find other means to attack them.

Koonin and his team found the Sputnik virus in one of the French cooling towers.

To know more about this virus study, visit the Nature journal website.

Google offers free music downloads only in China

Google.Cn Website in China.

Google is launching a music search engine in China and will give users free downloads for copyrighted songs. The artists get paid from the ad revenues split between the music industry and the music download site Top100.cn.

Users in China can search for their favorite music artists and their albums at Google.cn and then can download the music free of charge from the Top100.cn site. Previously a music search will provide only buy links and lyrics, but now users can listen or download the music free.

The music artists will get paid from the ad revenues at the Top100.cn site and split between them and the music industry.

This effort is to curb online piracy and will help the musicians in the thriving China market, which has the largest number of internet users in the world.

Google said in a press release.

"We believe this partnership will help foster a thriving and legitimate music business in China by providing music labels and publishers with a new channel to distribute, promote and monetize their valuable music content,"

This Google Music service however will not be available in other countries, where Google doesn't have the same rights.

In China, Google is ranked number 2 in search and has only 26% share compared to Baidu, which has a dominant 63% of the search market share.

Google wants to change that. Recently Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google's China division announced plans in April to hire additional 200 staff to strengthen their search engine. Google plans to become number 1 in China within the next five years.

What works in the U.S. may not work well in China, but at least Google is flexible and trying to change their strategy.

MIT designers plan to build $12 computer

 Laptop for Children.

MIT designers want to build a low cost computer for $12 to help developing countries. They plan to build it at one tenth the cost of Negroponte’s “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) project.

MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte launched the OLPC in 2005 to provide $100 laptops for children in third world countries. The price of the same laptop have risen to nearly $200. MIT Designer’s want to build a laptop cheaper than OLPC’s for $12.

Derek Lomas, Jesse Austin-Breneman and his team of designers plan to develop it and display it at this month’s MIT International Development Design Summit.

Lomas told Boston Herald:

“We see this as a model that could increase economic opportunities for people in developing countries…If you just know how to type, that can be the difference between earning $1 an hour instead of $1 a day.”

One may wonder that it is impossible to create such a computer, but there is a $12 computer in India, which has a cheap keyboard, Nintendo-like console and can be connected to TVs to run games and simple programs.

Lomas saw this device and wants to improve it with latest technologies and do the same in the U.S. He and his team want to rebuild old Apple II computers and redesign it to run latest programs and applications.

The six-member team at the MIT Conference plan to connect the computer to the web through cell phones and also add memory chips to store the data and programs.

The group is working with an Indian non-profit organization and plan to supply them the first redesigned computer. The charity will use the device to train village “micro-loan” officers.

The team also has members from Brazil, Ghana and India, who are planning to do market research for the new computers in their countries.

Austin-Breneman, a 25-year-old MIT graduate and a mechanical engineer.

“We think we can develop a really good educational tool that could give kids exposure to keyboards, typing and mouse usage at an early age,”

Once they develop a simple OS, there are thousands of computers that are thrown away daily, which can be recovered, redesigned and then distributed to third world countries. Since most of the applications are available online, all they need is a basic device that connects to the web. Some of the children who end up using them may turn out to be a MIT grad in the future. There is also a project in India, where the students want to build a $100 laptop.

Thailand bans Grand Theft Auto IV

Thailand bans the “Grand Theft Auto IV” video game after a teen murders a taxi driver, who claims he was mimicking the game.

The 18-year-old high school student murdered a taxi driver and confessed to the police. He told the police that he was trying to copy a scene from the “Grand Theft Auto IV” game.

New Era Interactive Media, the video game publisher in Thailand has ordered the retailers to stop selling the “Grand Theft Auto IV”. They said they will replace the game with another video game title.

The boy tried to steal the taxi first and then he fought with the 54-year-old driver and killed him. He then put the driver’s body in the back seat and tried to steer the cab backwards out of a Bangkok street.

The teen faces death penalty if he is found guilty.

Bangkok police Captain Veerarit Pipatanasak told BBC:

"He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game…He wanted money to play the game. His parents, who work as civil servants, did not have enough money to give him."

Thailand's Culture Ministry has issued several regulations recently to tighten the video games like Grand Theft Auto. They have imposed stricter age ratings and have restricted the game playing hours in arcades.

Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the ministry's Cultural Surveillance Centre told BBC:

"This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse. Today it is a cab driver, but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner."

Because of one guy, they want to ban the entire game, but there are hundreds of murders like this, they don’t blame other industries. The other murders could have been incited by violent movies or shows or news articles or even family violence. I have friends who play this game, but they don’t go and try to imitate the game in the real world, they are studying at the university to become engineers.

How To Wake Up From Bed And Feel Fresh In Minutes?

When you wake up, you feel grumpy or feel too tired or lazy for a minimum hour or two. If you are a parent, waking up children and getting them ready to go to school is a work by itself.

I used to think if you like something or if you love your job you should feel fine getting up without any problems. But I found lately even when you love your job a full 100 percent; there is still a problem to get fully adjusted in the morning.

So, to feel invigorated right away no matter whether you like the job or not or you like to go to school or not, try this simple exercise. This is from an e-book called “1 Minute Yoga™”. I do this simple yoga-like exercise every day; it just takes less than a minute.

Instructions:

When you should do it: Early mornings on an empty stomach or before you go to bed.

How to do it:

· Sit up

· Bring your legs close to your chest

· Place the hands under the thighs for support

· Come down slowly continuing to hold the hands under the legs

· Make sure the head doesn't hit the floor

· By pressing the legs, come up again

Repeat the above for five times. It is like a rocking motion similar to the wooden horse ride we used to play when young.

· Now do the movement sideways like a Tanjore Doll

Benefits: Good massage for the back.

That’s it, you will feel fresh and ready and in minutes you will feel awake and can do the various tasks without any problems. If you have time you can do the below exercise also, which will help energize you with the blood flowing through your entire body.

And after you finish the above exercise do the below one by leaning the legs against the wall for a few minutes, will let the blood flow from your legs to the brain make it more active than before. Will help both your sleep in the night and be active during the day.

The second one may be hard for some but it is not hard, you can put a pillow behind your back to help elevate the legs.

After you do either the first or both the exercises, you will feel rejuvenated and won't feel the same grumpiness you used to feel before, I guarantee it. I do this everyday for the past few months, I feel great every morning and that too without drinking any coffee.

Please leave comments if you find this useful and helps you waking up easily.

Ref: “1 Minute Yoga™

YouTube Will Show Beijing Olympics in Africa, Asia, Middle East

The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Google’s YouTube are
partnering to broadcast the Beijing Olympics 2008 to Africa, Asia and
Middle Eastern countries.

YouTube will show daily highlights and news segments of Beijing Olympics 2008 to Nigeria, India and 75 other countries, where broadcasters don’t have exclusive arrangement with IOC.




These highlights however won’t be available in countries, such as the
U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan and European countries, which have their
own broadcasting rights for the Olympics.




Timo Lumme, director of TV and marketing services at the IOC told Guardian:

"The IOC's priority is to ensure that as many people as possible get to experience the magic of the Olympic games,"

NBC, which is the exclusive broadcaster for the US, will show 2,200 hours of live events across 25 sports on NBCOlympics.com, but will be available only for the U.S. because of broadcasters' restrictions from other countries.




Africa, India and other countries will be very happy to get the
latest Olympic updates online. It will boost viewership in YouTube
significantly, but Google doesn’t have a good advertising in place for
its video sites.



The Olympic video segments will begin Aug. 6 and will air throughout
the games' 17-day run. Google might create a separate Olympics channel,
I will update the link as they are available.

World's smallest snake 'thin as spaghetti' discovered

Leptotyphlops carlae snake. Photo BBC.com.

In one of the Caribbean islands, Scientists discover a new snake species, which is as thin as a spaghetti noodle. It measures an average 10 cm (4 inches) in length.

The snake named “Leptotyphlops carlae” is the smallest known snake species in over 3,100 known varieties. It was discovered on the Caribbean island of Barbados by Dr. Blair Hedges, a biologist from the Penn State University in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hedges found this snake beneath a rock in a threatened forest region. He claims this is the smallest a snake can evolve to be. He and his wife, a herpetologist, who studies snakes and other reptiles found other snakes from the same group but found only two females among them.

The snakes eat termites and produce a single, massive egg. Other snake species produces 100s of eggs at once, whereas this variety produces only one. The newborn have half the adult’s body weight when they hatch.

This new discovery is described in the journal of Zootaxa.

This snake variety can be found only in the Caribbean regions. Previously scientists discovered this particular species but identified them wrongly as a different species. Specimens of this snake species are available at the London’s Natural History Museum and in the museum in Martinique.

Dr. Hedges was able to use DNA analysis to find out the differences between this snake species and others, and classify them separately as “Leptotyphlops carlae”.

The future however for this newly discovered species looks bleak, most (95%) of the Barbados region are becoming treeless and the remaining forest regions will also end up in a similar fate soon with growing population and tourism industry.

Because the snakes produce only one egg at a time, the chances of becoming extinct also increases with less regions to forage.

The reason the snake produces just one egg is to make the young ones grow quickly, too smaller a growth size say with two eggs will not be enough body weight for them to survive on their own. With one egg, the size of the young one grows to half their parent’s weight. Thus, Dr. Hedges thinks this size will be the theoretical minimum limit in snakes.

The Top 10 Glaciers In The World

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

The top 10 Glaciers in the world, we must see in this beautiful Earth. The order of glaciers are in no particular order, but every one is a must see travel site. If you have been to any of them please add your comments.

The first one is Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina. It is located 48 miles from the Argentine town of El Calafate, the Perito Moreno Glacier is an exception in the area: Of the 50 or so southern Patagonian glaciers, only three are advancing, and Perito Moreno is one of them. Three viewing areas allow tourists to get safely up close and personal with the mass of ice. Lucky visitors witness huge chunks of ice breaking from the glacier and plummeting into Lake Argentino.

Reference: MSNBC.com.

Perito Moreno Glacier

Glacier Bay, Alaska

Alaska is home to more than 100,000 glaciers. More than 2,000 of these are substantial in size, says Bruce Molnia, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey who has been studying glaciers and other topics related to global water supply for more than 40 years. Glacier National Park is one of the best places to view a number of the large glaciers. Glacier Bay Lodge is the only accommodation within the park, and from it, visitors travel by boat through the bay, seeing numerous major glaciers in one day, including the spectacularly massive Margerie and Grand Pacific.

Glacier Bay, Alaska

Furtwängler Glacier, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Of the world's receding glaciers, Mount Kilimanjaro's are among the most highly publicized. During the last century, they have lost more than 80 percent of their mass, and scientists predict that they will be gone sometime in the 2020s. Furtwängler Glacier, near Kilimanjaro's summit, is perhaps the most notable of these disappearing glaciers. Once they are gone, the mountain that inspired Ernest Hemingway will be permanently altered.

Furtwängler Glacier

Pasterze Glacier, Austria

Resting at the foot of Austria's tallest mountain, the Pasterze Glacier is today about five miles long—the largest of Austria's 925 glaciers. However, Pasterze could lose up to 60 percent of its mass by 2100. For now, though, visitors can take in a magnificent view of both glacier and mountain by taking the Grossglocknerstrasse mountain road (open only in summer) to Kaiser-Frans-Josefs-Hohe, which maintains a large visitors center.

Pasterze Glacier, Austria

Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland

Anyone who ever wondered how Iceland got its name would likely find the answer in the fact that the country's largest glacier alone covers more than eight percent of the country. Near the Vatnajökull Glacier's center, several active volcanoes make for a contrasting landscape. For example, visitors can visit hot springs located within the glacier's ice caves.

Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland

Yulong Glacier, China

China's Yulong Glacier has been receding steadily since the early 1980s, but it is still one of the most popular attractions in the Yunnan Province. It's not necessarily easy visiting the glacier—the high altitude of the final climb to the observation deck leaves many visitors gasping for air. Some even make the climb with small oxygen bottles.

Yulong Glacier, China

Fox and Franz Josef, New Zealand

Although sibling glaciers Fox and Franz Josef retreated for much of the 20th century, they are currently advancing, thanks to the area's recent heavy precipitation. They are also unique among the world's glaciers in that they extend down the mountains and into a temperate rainforest. Visitors can experience the glaciers in any number of ways, including by helicopter and on foot, where it is often possible to explore the many tunnels and crevasses.

Fox and Franz Josef, New Zealand

Athabasca Glacier, Canada

Part of the Canadian Rockies' Columbia Icefield, a system of glaciers that straddles the Continental Divide, the Athabasca Glacier has already lost half its volume and continues to recede. Still, it is currently almost four miles long. Although the most popular glacier in North America for tourists, it is also one of the more dangerous—visitors are cautioned not to set foot on the ice without a guide.

Athabasca Glacier, Canada

Biafo Glacier, Pakistan

Biafo Glacier is located in the Karakoram Mountain Range (sometimes considered part of the Himalayas, where glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate). Tourists looking for a challenge can hike on the remote glacier for several days to reach the ten-mile wide Snow Lake. Along the way, they are treated to sights of rare flora and fauna, as well as to the mountain peaks of Pakistan.

Biafo Glacier, Pakistan.

Antarctica

Tourists are heading to Antarctica's countless mountains, bays and glaciers in record numbers—nearly 35,000 are expected to visit this year, up from barely 10,000 a decade ago. Ironically, it is the melting ice brought on by global warming that is allowing these increases. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators was formed in 1991 with the purpose of establishing guidelines for environmentally responsible tourism to the continent.

Antarctica     

Washing machine uses a cup of water, a pinch of detergent and 1,000 plastic chips

The machine soon to be launched in 2009 by Xeros Ltd., uses just a cup of water, a pinch of detergent and about 1,000 small plastic chips (reusable) to wash clothes.

The washing machine was designed by researchers at the Leeds University in England and will be marketed by Xeros (means dry in Greek). Xeros Ltd. was founded by Stephen Burkinshaw, a professor of textile chemistry. The new washing machine will use only 2% of the water and consume 2% energy of a conventional washing machine.

The washing cycle in UK consumes 13 percent of daily household water, so the new machine will offer considerable water savings. Also, it uses just 2% of the energy of a conventional machine. Since they come out of the machines in a dried state, the clothes don’t require additional energy intensive drying machines.

Burkinshaw told Reuters:

"We have shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains, including coffee and lipstick, while using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional washing machines,"

The washing process in this new machine works as follows:

After the clothes are loaded, a cartridge at the back of machine adds about 45 pounds (20 kg) of plastic chips to the load. A cup of water containing the detergent is then added to this load. The water dissolves the dirt. The chip then absorbs the water and thus making the clothes wash and dry as well inside the machine. After the cycle is finished a grill at the bottom of the machines opens and collects the chips to be used for the next washing cycle.


Washing process for the new machine. Photo: Physorg.com

The chips will last about 100 loads of laundry or last about six months for an average family. Xeros has not released what these chips are made of or how much they will cost and how can they be disposed of safely. If it is reasonable then many might buy this machine and save water & energy costs.

According to Xeros, the prices of the new machines will not differ much from the conventional machines in the stores.

Toyota Launches Winglet, a Segway Like Vehicle

Toyota Winglet. Credit Toyota Motors

Toyota Motor is planning to launch a Segway like vehicle called the “Winglet” and appears to be a better streamlined vehicle than its competitor.

Toyota unveiled this vehicle “Winglet” this Friday with a size (18 inches wide and 10 inches long) similar to the size of an A3 sheet of paper. The small unit houses an electric motor, two wheels, and internal sensors and guides the vehicle based on the rider’s position.

The “Winglet” has a parallel link mechanism that lets riders go forward, backward and turn by shifting the body’s position and weight. Cnet said this might help them maneuver tight spaces.

It has a maximum speed of 3.7 mph compared to Segway’s 12.5 mph. The Winglet comes in three sizes, 18 inches to 3 feet 8 inches with adjustable handle bars that can rise to different height levels. It takes approximately one hour to charge the vehicle. The small “Winglet” weighs only 22 pounds and can be folded easily in a bag.

Toyota plans to release this in 2009.

It looks better than Segway but I hope others don’t use this in paths meant for running, cycling and walking and act like they are exercising.

Phoenix Lander Provides a Great Panorama of Mars

ThePhoenix Lander has sent more than 400 images around its landing site.NASA has combined them to provide a panoramic view of the Mars.

The video and the Quicktime movie link hereshow a fantastic panoramic view of how Mars really like including theexcavated icy areas. NASA scientists have stitched the images to makeit look like a real video provides great insight about the surface ofMars in the north polar region of Mars.

NASA website reports about the panorama:

The full-circle panorama in approximately true color showsthe polygonal patterning of ground at the landing area, similar topatterns in permafrost areas on Earth. The center of the image is thewestward part of the scene. Trenches where Phoenix's robotic arm hasbeen exposing subsurface material are visible in the right half of theimage. The spacecraft's meteorology mast, topped by the telltale windgauge, extends into the sky portion of the panorama.

The panorama contains more than 100 distinct camera positions andimages were captured with three different filters (to get a true colorof the surroundings) at each position.

Here is the glimpse of the Panorama. See also the Quicktime movie link which has high resolution images.


A panorama as seen from the Phoenix Lander

Nasa.gov.

Click this link for a larger high resolution image.

Frito-Lay and others agree to reduce carcinogens in potato chips

The food manufacturers agreed to reduce levels of cancer-causing acrylamide in potato chips and will pay a fine to the Californian government.

California State Government sued H.J. Heinz Co., Frito-Lay, Kettle Foods Inc., and Lance Inc. in 2005, after they failed to comply to post warning labels on products with carcinogens.

On Friday, the four managers agreed to settle instead of going on trial and gaining bad publicity. They paid $3 million in fines and reduce the acrylamide levels in potato chips and in French fries within the next four years.

Attorney General Jerry Brown said this settlement is a victory for public health.

Acrylamide forms naturally in the starchy foods such as the potato chips and French fries, when they are baked or fried. Studies on Acrylamide have shown that it causes cancer in lab animals and also affects nerve damage to workers who are exposed to high levels of acrylamide. The Food and Drug administration is trying to establish whether acrylamide in food poses a health risk for humans.

Michele Corish, an attorney for Lance, which produces Cape Cod chips told Reuters:

"Everybody's trying to figure out how to lower levels (of acrylamide) without significantly, adversely affecting taste,"

Corish said her company will start producing this modified snacks right away and will distribute them nationwide not just in California. Also, the attorney general office had told earlier that Cape Cod chips levels of acrylamide are already near the compliance level, however its “Robust Russets” variety contains 25 times the acceptable amount. Corish said they have stopped producing the “Robust Russets” variety.

Frito-lay will pay the bulk of the settlement about $1.5 million, Kettle Foods will pay $350,000, Heinz, which sells frozen fries and tater tots will pay $600,000 and Lance will pay $95,000.

California had also sued McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Procter & Gamble over acrylamide levels in their products in 2005. Those lawsuits were settled also and they agree to post a warning and reduce the levels of acrylamide.

Check for the new warning labels when you buy the potato chips next time.

A Path To Success

I saw the Dr. Phil TV show, I am not a regular for this show, but I stumbled upon one of his TV episodes. He talked about how obsessed some parents are and want their children to succeed and put too much pressure on their children. He said there is a point you have to let the children go on their paths. Of course they will mistakes on the way but they know how to correct it themselves and said this great quote I liked it that summed it up best.

"It’s not about you,” Dr. Phil stresses. “You’re saying, ‘I need to know I did the right thing.’ It’s not about you. What you should be saying is, ‘I hope that she makes the right decision.’ And if she doesn’t make the right decision, you know what? She’ll correct. Life is not a success-only journey."

For more about Dr. Phil, check this Wikipedia article.

Tug of War

Coral Reef in Australia. Photo National Geographic.


"Character in one is a tug of war between the good and the bad,
The result shows their true character."

- Chris Veerabadran in All Are One.

'Major discovery' from MIT may revolutionize solar energy

Click the Image to Play the Video.

MITresearchers have solved a major barrier to large-scale solar powergeneration by storing energy for later use when the sunlight is at aminimum.

Previously, solar power was able to generate energy only during theday. Storing the excess energy for later use was extremely expensive.While scientists are solving it step by step, MIT researchers havefound a novel way of harnessing the excess energy and using it laterinexpensively.

Dr. Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT,and his team developed a unique method using abundantly available,non-toxic natural materials to store the energy and use them later.

They developed their work by studying the photosynthesis in plants.Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, havedeveloped inexpensive and efficient catalysts. Once the solar panelsreceive the sun’s energy, this catalytic process will split the waterinto hydrogen and oxygen gases, which can be later recombined inside afuel cell. When the sunlight is at a minimum for solar powergeneration, the fuel cell takes over and creates carbon-freeelectricity like the sun’s energy and can be used to power the home orrecharge the electric cars.

Daniel Nocera wrote in his paper in the July 31 issue of Science:

This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about foryears…Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now wecan seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.

MIT researchers novel addition to solar power.

Mit.edu (Unknown)

MIT researchers use catalysts with solar power.

Mit.edu (Unknown)

One catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrodeplaced in water. When electricity is generated by solar power, it runsthrough the electrode, cobalt and phosphate and creates an oxygen gas.Another catalyst, such as platinum, produces hydrogen gas from thewater. This process duplicates the water splitting reaction that occursduring the photosynthesis in plants.

Other advantages with these catalysts are they can be used to storeenergy from any other process such as energy from wind turbine, hydroelectric or any other power generation. And it works at roomtemperature in neutral pH water. Thus, it makes the whole processinexpensive compared to expensive storage battery solutions.

Nocera said we are not taking advantage of sunlight to solve theworld’s energy problems. He said in one hour there is enough sunlightto provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.

James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis called thisdiscovery a “giant leap”. He told MIT: "This is a major discovery withenormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind…Theimportance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens upthe door for developing new technologies for energy production thusreducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the globalclimate change problem."

Nocera hopes to implement this technology very soon and said withinthe next 10 years, this system will be integrated in many homes andelectricity-by-wire will become a footnote in history.

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and bythe Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this springto launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to expand thelarge-scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.

The efficiency of solar panels have improved considerably coupled withthis discovery; solar power has a bright outlook except for someill-advised politicians.

Europe also announced earlier to power the entire Europe using solar power generated from just 0.3 per cent of Saharan sunlight.