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Yuvraj Singh diagnosed with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy in US

2012-02-05T03:15:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Yuvraj Singh, who played a stellar role in India's ODI World Cup triumph last year, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy in the United States.

The 30-year-old left-hander has been in US since last month being treated for what was earlier claimed to be a tumour in the lungs by his family.

But it has now been diagnosed as malignant and Yuvraj is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the Cancer Research Institute in Boston.

His physiotherapist Dr Jatin Chaudhary, however, assured that the ailment is curable and the batsman would be fit to resume cricket in May. His mother Shabnam Singh could not be reached while his former cricketer father Yograj refused comments on the matter.

"It is a rare tumour and is cancerous but it has been detected in stage one itself. Doctors had to decide whether to continue medication or go for chemotherapy but since parts of the tumour are just above the artery of his heart, there was a danger that while running it could burst. But it is 100 per cent curable," Chaudhary said.

"The doctors decided that he would have to undergo chemotherapy and he travelled to the US on January 26. End of March, he would undergo a CT scan and should recover by then. After that it is just some rehabilitation in April before he is fit to be back on the field in May," he added.

Yuvraj, who was Player of the Tournament in the World Cup last year with 362 runs, 15 wickets and four Man-of-the-Match awards, has also been taking ayurvedic medicines to battle the disease.

"After ayurvedic treatment only three cycles of chemotherapy are required. Initially when the cancer was diagnosed after a biopsy in October end, doctors feared that the treatment would be six cycles of chemotherapy," Chaudhary said.

"Thankfully no surgery is required, he is already a lot better than what he was and can't wait to be back on the cricket field," he said.

Chaudhary said the detection of cancer was delayed by wrong diagnosis by an Indian hospital.

"His first biopsy report was stolen from his car and the second from a hospital, I don't want to name, did not give the correct diagnosis. It was a Russian doctor who detected the cancer and after consultations with doctors in US, it was decided that Yuvraj would undergo chemotherapy," he said.

"Once he is done with chemo in March, his rehabilitation would be complete by April end and he would be perfectly fit to play in May," he added.

Yuvraj has played 37 Tests, scoring 1775 runs at an average of 34.80.

He has 8051 runs at an average of 37.62 from his 274-match ODI career, the highlight of which was his stellar role in India's World Cup triumph last year.

In 23 Twenty20s, Yuvraj has scored 567 runs at 31.50.

PTI

Delhi's high-rises vulnerable to Himalayan quake

2012-01-25T04:38:00.000-08:00

Bangalore: Tall buildings in Delhi will come crashing down if a strong earthquake occurs in the northwest region of the Himalayas, warns a research seismologist who had predicted the Sumatran quake that caused the deadly tsunami in 2004.

Buildings taller than 17 metres in the nation's capital are vulnerable even though the city is more than 300 km away from the Uttarakhand-Himachal region where scientists expect the next high magnitude earthquake, Pune-based Arun Bapat said.

Bapat, formerly head of the earthquake engineering department at the Central Water and Power Research Station, says his warning is based on a careful analysis of damage caused by the 7.9 magnitude Gujarat earthquake that occurred Jan 26, 2001, with its epicentre near Bhuj.

"Maximum destruction from an earthquake is normally confined to an area of 20 to 30 km radius from the epicentre," Bapat said.

"However, in the case of the Bhuj quake, extensive damage was caused in Ahmedabad, which is about 320 km from Bhuj." While tall buildings in Ahmedabad collapsed, the damage was minimal to buildings that had only two or three floors, he says.

The "distance effect" - where the damage is felt far away from the epicentre -- is characteristic of "Rayleigh waves" produced during an earthquake, explains Bapat.

He said there are about 100 tall buildings in the Delhi municipal area and an equal number in the nearby areas of Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, all of which need strengthening to protect against Rayleigh waves.

Unlike the "P" and "S" waves that travel through the body of the earth and cause damage close to the epicentre, the Rayleigh waves roll along the surface of the earth just like waves on the ocean and cause damage at a distance -- typically between 150 to 550 km from the epicentre, he says.

The damage due to Rayleigh waves occur at a distance because the "amplitude" or strength of these waves is higher far away from the epicentre than closer to it, says Bapat.

A situation similar to what happened in Ahmedabad during the Bhuj earthquake will be repeated in Delhi if an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or more occurs in Himachal or Uttarakhand, he says.

"Rayleigh waves from such an earthquake would definitely cause heavy damage to tall structures in Delhi and the entire National Capital Region (NCR)," he said.

According to Bapat, despite the Bhuj earthquake - that wreaked havoc in distant Ahmedabad -- the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has not revised the seismic code for tall structures to take into account the likely effect of Rayleigh waves.

The BIS code only provides guidelines for design and construction of buildings to protect them from the adverse effects of "S" waves but not Rayleigh waves, he said.

According to Bapat, during the 8.1 magnitude Mexican earthquake on Sep 19, 1985, Mexico City suffered extensive damage although the epicentre of this earthquake was located at a distance of about 530 km on the Pacific coast.

Again the 8.0 magnitude earthquake witnessed by Pakistan Oct 8, 2005, destroyed the tall buildings in Islamabad although the epicentre of this quake was about 150 km from the Pakistani capital.

These examples from the recent past in addition to the experience of Delhi's Qutab Minar during the powerful earthquake in the Himalayas Sep 1, 1803 -- when two upper floors of the 72-metre tall structure were dislodged -- are enough to give an idea of the "distance effect" on tall structures, Bapat said.

Mexico revised its seismic code after the 1985 earthquake damage and many countries including the United States, China and Japan have taken steps to protect the tall structures from possible damage due to Rayleigh waves, Bapat said.

"But the BIS is yet to initiate any action about revision of the seismic code in India," he said. "If no action is taken immediately, it is quite possible that the scenarios at Mexico City and Ahmedabad may be repeated in the NCR of Delhi."

Not only Delhi but all cities located at a vulnerable distance from potential epicentres of large magnitude earthquakes should make suitable provisions in the seismic codes, he said.

Other vulnerable cities which could see damage to tall structures from large magnitude earthquakes in northeast India are Kolkata as well as Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh, says Bapat.

"Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan could suffer from large magnitude earthquakes in the Himalayas and Hindukush while Mumbai and Karachi could possibly suffer damage due to a tsunami produced by an earthquake in the Makran coast."

IANS

Boyfriend dies trying to save his teen girlfriend

2012-01-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

A 20-year-old man has died after getting electrocuted while trying to rescue his girlfriend who had been killed in a roadside crash.

Shawn Whiting had spent the evening at the Mullaley Hotel near Gunnedah NSW with his girlfriend, Bronte Fordham and other friends.

Ms Fordham, 19, left the pub when it closed and started driving home on the Oxley Highway. It's believed she lost control of her yellow Mazda sedan at around 3:30am, crashing into a power pole.
Mr Whiting left about 30 minutes later and came across the vehicle. As he ran to the car to see what he could do he was electrocuted by power lines.

The tragedy wasn't discovered until another motorist came across the scene at 4:30am.
Inspector Fred Trench said: "He's got out to investigate and found the body of a male lying on some fallen powerlines."

After calling Triple-0, he realised there was another vehicle further into the paddock.
"While waiting, he's turned his own vehicle around to shine the headlights, because it was still dark, and he's seen another vehicle about 40m away, lying on its side in a paddock," Insp Trench said.
The witness found the body of Ms Fordham lying beside the wreckage.

The pair are believed to both be from the same town. News Limited reports the pair had grown up together as best friends and were now boyfriend and girlfriend.

News Limited & Yahoo News

Russia expresses sadness over Bhagwad Gita controversy

2011-12-20T01:05:00.000-08:00

Moscow In the wake of an uproar over a move to ban Bhagwad Gita in Siberia, Russia has expressed sadness over the development, saying it is "inadmissible" that a holy scripture is taken to court.
"It is strange that such events are unfolding in the beautiful university city in Siberia, as Tomsk which is famous for its secularism and religious tolerance," Alexander M Kadakin, Russian Ambassador in India said in a statement here.

"Well, it seems that even the lovely city of Tomsk has its own neighbourhood madmen. It is sad indeed.

"I consider it categorically inadmissible when any holy scripture is taken to the courts. For all believers these texts are sacred," the Ambassador said.

Kadakin said, "It is not normal either when religious books are sent for examination to ignorant people. Their academic scrutiny should be done at scientists' fora, congresses, seminars, etc. but not in courts."

India takes up Gita ban issue with Russian authorities

India has strongly taken up the issue of demand for banning Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, which a group linked to the Christian Orthodox Church has described as 'extremist', with the Russian authorities, Indian Ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra said.

"The matter has been taken up by the Indian Embassy in Moscow with the Russian government at senior official level, seeking its favourable and positive intervention in the matter," Ambassador Malhotra said, as the court in Tomsk postponed its ruling on the petition banning Bhagwad Gita as 'extremist' and allegedly 'sowing' social-discord in Russia.

Describing Bhagwat Gita as extremist, a group linked to the Christian Orthodox Church has demanded ban due to conflict of interests between the Russian followers of Lord Krishna and the local authorities in the Siberian region of Tomsk.

Malhotra personally and his mission here have been publicly expressed their support to the local chapter of International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

The final hearing in the Tomsk District Court is scheduled for December 28, as the Court agreed to seek the opinion of the Russian Ombudsman on Human Rights in Tomsk Region and of Indologists from Moscow and St Petersburg (all of whom favour dismissal of the case).

The case pertains to the legal relationship between a Russian registered socio-cultural organization and the local authorities. Nevertheless, the Embassy in Moscow has been publicly supportive and sympathetic in the matter.

Malhotra has maintained regular, close contact with top ISKCON representatives in Moscow, besides attending the Janamashtami celebrations at the ISKCON temple on August 21, and visiting the ISKCON temple with Minister of Tourism Subodh Kant Sahay on September 24.

Speaking in his capacity as the Chief Guest at last Janamashtami - the birthday of Lord Krishna - revered by the Hindus as Christmas by Christians, Ambassador Malhotra called the Gita "perhaps the most important scripture that you can find in the world which through Lord Krishna's message to Arjuna teaches us selfless service to God and humanity."

The translation by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, is, I believe, one of the best that you can find, because he gives you the words, the meanings, and the options to understand it as it was written - not through any intermediaries," he had said and allowed the defendants to produce his public remarks in their submission to the Tomsk Court.

ISKCON, Moscow, was also informally suggested by the Indian Mission to hire the best legal representation in Tomsk, co-opt established Russian Indologists to provide affidavits or evidence during the Court's proceedings.

Meanwhile, ISKCON has shelved its plans to set up a community near a village in Tomsk region, which is believed to be the root cause of friction between the local Orthodox Christians and followers of Lord Krishna, Tomsk.ru city news portal reported.

EI

Former Miss Venezuela dies of breast cancer at 28

2011-12-20T00:56:00.000-08:00

CARACAS: Former Miss Venezuela Eva Ekvall, whose struggle with breast cancer was closely followed by Venezuelans, has died at age 28.

Her family said Ekvall died Saturday at a hospital in Houston.

Ekvall was crowned Miss Venezuela at age 17 in 2000, and the following year she was third runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico. She went on to work as a model, actress and television news anchor.

She also authored a book, "Fuera de Foco" ("Out of Focus"), about her struggle with cancer, which included images by Venezuelan photographer Roberto Mata.

She told the newspaper El Nacional in an interview last year after the book was published that "I needed to send the message of the need for cancer prevention."

On the cover was a portrait in which she appeared with makeup and her head shaved. The book also included images of her while going through chemotherapy.

"I hate to see photos in which I come out ugly," Ekvall told El Nacional. "But you know what? Nobody ever said cancer is pretty or that I should look like Miss Venezuela when I have cancer."

At the time, she was hopeful of overcoming cancer and wanted to write more.

Ekvall's family said in a statement Sunday that her remains were being cremated in Houston on Monday and that a service is to be held in Venezuela once her remains are returned to the country.

Ekvall said in a 2007 interview published in Venezuelan news media that although her mother is Jamaican and her father is American of Swedish and Hungarian descent, "I feel more Venezuelan than anybody."

She was married to radio producer John Fabio Bermudez and had a 2-year-old daughter.

In her book, Ekvall had described her joy at the birth of her daughter saying "that happiness, although (the daughter) may not know it or understand it, keeps me alive today."

The book included emails that she wrote to friends providing updates on her treatment and thanking them for their support, as well as short essays by relatives and friends reflecting on her ordeal.

Her father, Eric Ekvall, recalled in the book that his mother, also named Eva, had died of the same type of cancer at age 39.

"Those who know Eva know she doesn't give up," he said of his daughter. "She fights for what she wants."

Her death brought an outpouring of condolences from Venezuelans, including from some prominent artists and politicians who praised her in messages on Twitter.

One drawing posted online depicted her as an angel with white wings and a pink ribbon on her chest.

Ekvall's husband posted a photo on Twitter Sunday showing a close-up of his hand holding hers, resting on a bed, with the words "Always together ... I love you wife."

AP

Bhagavad Gita faces 'extremist' branding, ban in Russia

2011-12-17T13:12:00.000-08:00

MOSCOW: Bhagavad Gita, one of the holiest Hindu scriptures, is facing a legal ban and the prospect of being branded as "an extremist" literature across Russia. A court in Siberia's Tomsk city is set to deliver its final verdict Monday in a case filed by state prosecutors.

The final pronouncement in the case will come two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Dec 15-17 official visit for a bilateral summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev consolidated bilateral trade and strategic ties and personal friendship.

The case, which has been going on in Tomsk court since June, seeks ban on a Russian translation of "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

It also wants the Hindu religious text banned in Russia and declared as a literature spreading "social discord", its distribution on Russian soil rendered illegal.

In view of the case, Indians settled in Moscow, numbering about 15,000, and followers of the ISKCON religious movement here have appealed to Manmohan Singh and his government to intervene diplomatically to resolve the issue in favour of the scripture, an important part of Indian epic Mahabharata written by sage Ved Vyas.

The ISKCON followers in Russia have also written a letter to the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi, calling for immediate intervention, lest the religious freedom of Hindus living here be compromised.

"The case is coming up for a final verdict on Monday in Tomsk court. We want all efforts from the Indian government to protect the religious rights of Hindus in Russia," Sadhu Priya Das of ISKCON and a devotee of a 40-year-old Krishna temple in central Moscow, told IANS.

The court, which took up the case filed by the state prosecutors, had referred the book to the Tomsk State University for "an expert" examination Oct 25.

But Hindu groups in Russia, particularly followers of ISKCON, say the university was not qualified as it lacked Indologists who study the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent.

The Hindus pleaded with the court that the case was inspired by religious bias and intolerance from a "majority religious group in Russia", and have sought that their rights to practice their religious beliefs be upheld.

The prosecutor's case also seeks to ban the preachings of Prabhupada and ISKCON's religious beliefs, claiming these were "extremist" in nature and preached "hatred" of other religious beliefs.

"They have not just tried to get the Bhagavad Gita banned, but also brand our religious beliefs and preachings as extremist," Das said.

The ISKCON devotees have taken up the matter with the Indian embassy in Moscow too for an early diplomatic intervention before things get worse and the court passes an adverse verdict banning the Bhagavad Gita and Krishna consciousness teachings.

In the Nov 1 letter addressed to Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji, ISKCON's New Delhi branch Governing Body Commissioner Gopal Krishna Goswami, said the prosecutor's affidavit claims Lord Krishna "is evil and not conforming to Christian religious view".

Goswami also urged Manmohan Singh to accord priority to the matter during his Moscow stay and take it up with the Russian authorities.

Indian diplomatic corps officials at the embassy here, who were unwilling to be named, told IANS that they have been following up the case since the time it was brought to their notice earlier this year.

They had also taken up the matter at the appropriate levels in the Russian government to get the case either withdrawn or get the defence to fight the case to obtain a favourable verdict.

Officials at the Indian Prime Minister's Office, who were part of the Indian delegation accompanying Manmohan Singh, confirmed to IANS the case and the letter they received from ISKCON in this regard.

"This matter is receiving the highest attention and the Indian embassy officials in Moscow have been instructed to follow up the case with the Russian authorities," they said.

IANS

100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body...

2011-12-06T01:38:00.001-08:00

100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body

The human body is an incredibly complex and intricate system, one that still baffles doctors and researchers on a regular basis despite thousands of years of medical knowledge. As a result, it shouldn’t be any surprise that even body parts and functions we deal with every day have bizarre or unexpected facts and explanations behind them. From sneezes to fingernail growth, here are 100 weird, wacky, and interesting facts about the human body.

The Brain

The human brain is the most complex and least understood part of the human anatomy. There may be a lot we don’t know, but here are a few interesting facts that we’ve got covered.

Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It’s due to the super-speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car.

The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.

The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power pretty darn impressive.

Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream. The brain only makes up about 2% of our body mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, making it extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So breathe deep to keep your brain happy and swimming in oxygenated cells.

The brain is much more active at night than during the day. Logically, you would think that all the moving around, complicated calculations and tasks and general interaction we do on a daily basis during our working hours would take a lot more brain power than, say, lying in bed. Turns out, the opposite is true. When you turn off your brain turns on. Scientists don’t yet know why this is but you can thank the hard work of your brain while you sleep for all those pleasant dreams.

Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream. While this may be true, don’t take it as a sign you’re mentally lacking if you can’t recall your dreams. Most of us don’t remember many of our dreams and the average length of most dreams is only 2-3 seconds–barely long enough to register.

Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. For years scientists and doctors thought that brain and neural tissue couldn’t grow or regenerate. While it doesn’t act in the same manner as tissues in many other parts of the body, neurons can and do grow throughout your life, adding a whole new dimension to the study of the brain and the illnesses that affect it.

Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Not all neurons are the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.

The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain. That doesn’t mean your head can’t hurt. The brain is surrounded by loads of tissues, nerves and blood vessels that are plenty receptive to pain and can give you a pounding headache.

80% of the brain is water. Your brain isn’t the firm, gray mass you’ve seen on TV. Living brain tissue is a squishy, pink and jelly-like organ thanks to the loads of blood and high water content of the tissue. So the next time you’re feeling dehydrated get a drink to keep your brain hydrated.

Hair and Nails

While they’re not a living part of your body, most people spend a good amount of time caring for their hair and nails. The next time you’re heading in for a haircut or manicure, think of these facts.

Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body. If you’ve ever had a covering of stubble on your face as you’re clocking out at 5 o’clock you’re probably pretty familiar with this. In fact, if the average man never shaved his beard it would grow to over 30 feet during his lifetime, longer than a killer whale.

Every day the average person loses 60-100 strands of hair. Unless you’re already bald, chances are good that you’re shedding pretty heavily on a daily basis. Your hair loss will vary in accordance with the season, pregnancy, illness, diet and age.

Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair. While it might sound strange, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that men’s hair should be coarser than that of women. Hair diameter also varies on average between races, making hair plugs on some men look especially obvious.

One human hair can support 3.5 ounces. That’s about the weight of two full size candy bars, and with hundreds of thousands of hairs on the human head, makes the tale of Rapunzel much more plausible.

The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest and shortest the slowest.

There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee. Humans are not quite the naked apes that we’re made out to be. We have lots of hair, but on most of us it’s not obvious as a majority of the hairs are too fine or light to be seen.

Blondes have more hair. They’re said to have more fun, and they definitely have more hair. Hair color determines how dense the hair on your head is. The average human has 100,000 hair follicles, each of which is capable of producing 20 individual hairs during a person’s lifetime. Blondes average 146,000 follicles while people with black hair tend to have about 110,000 follicles. Those with brown hair fit the average with 100,000 follicles and redheads have the least dense hair, with about 86,000 follicles.

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails. If you notice that you’re trimming your fingernails much more frequently than your toenails you’re not just imagining it. The nails that get the most exposure and are used most frequently grow the fastest. On average, nails on both the toes and fingers grow about one-tenth of an inch each month.

The lifespan of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average. While you quite a few hairs each day, your hairs actually have a pretty long life providing they aren’t subject to any trauma. Your hairs will likely get to see several different haircuts, styles, and even possibly decades before they fall out on their own.

You must lose over 50% of your scalp hairs before it is apparent to anyone. You lose hundreds of hairs a day but you’ll have to lose a lot more before you or anyone else will notice. Half of the hairs on your pretty little head will have to disappear before your impending baldness will become obvious to all those around you.

Human hair is virtually indestructible. Aside from it’s flammability, human hair decays at such a slow rate that it is practically non-disintegrative. If you’ve ever wondered how your how clogs up your pipes so quick consider this: hair cannot be destroyed by cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.

Internal Organs

Though we may not give them much thought unless they’re bothering us, our internal organs are what allow us to go on eating, breathing and walking around. Here are some things to consider the next time you hear your stomach growl.

The largest internal organ is the small intestine. Despite being called the smaller of the two intestines, your small intestine is actually four times as long as the average adult is tall. If it weren’t looped back and forth upon itself it wouldn’t fit inside the abdominal cavity.

The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet. No wonder you can feel your heartbeat so easily. Pumping blood through your body quickly and efficiently takes quite a bit of pressure resulting in the strong contractions of the heart and the thick walls of the ventricles which push blood to the body.

The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razorblades. While you certainly shouldn’t test the fortitude of your stomach by eating a razorblade or any other metal object for that matter, the acids that digest the food you eat aren’t to be taken lightly. Hydrochloric acid, the type found in your stomach, is not only good at dissolving the pizza you had for dinner but can also eat through many types of metal.

The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels. To put that in perspective, the distance around the earth is about 25,000 miles, making the distance your blood vessels could travel if laid end to end more than two times around the earth.

You get a new stomach lining every three to four days. The mucus-like cells lining the walls of the stomach would soon dissolve due to the strong digestive acids in your stomach if they weren’t constantly replaced. Those with ulcers know how painful it can be when stomach acid takes its toll on the lining of your stomach.

The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court. In order to more efficiently oxygenate the blood, the lungs are filled with thousands of branching bronchi and tiny, grape-like alveoli. These are filled with microscopic capillaries which oxygen and carbon dioxide. The large amount of surface area makes it easier for this exchange to take place, and makes sure you stay properly oxygenated at all times.

Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.The main reason for this is simply that on average women tend to be smaller than men and have less mass to pump blood to. But women’s and men’s hearts can actually act quite differently, especially when experiencing trauma like a heart attack, and many treatments that work for men must be adjusted or changed entirely to work for women.

Scientists have counted over 500 different liver functions. You may not think much about your liver except after a long night of drinking, but the liver is one of the body’s hardest working, largest and busiest organs. Some of the functions your liver performs are: production of bile, decomposition of red blood cells, plasma protein synthesis, and detoxification.

The aorta is nearly the diameter of a garden hose. The average adult heart is about the size of two fists, making the size of the aorta quite impressive. The artery needs to be so large as it is the main supplier of rich, oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. For most people, if they were asked to draw a picture of what the lungs look like they would draw both looking roughly the same size. While the lungs are fairly similar in size, the human heart, though located fairly centrally, is tilted slightly to the left making it take up more room on that side of the body and crowding out that poor left lung.

You could remove a large part of your internal organs and survive. The human body may appear fragile but it’s possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area. You might not feel too great, but the missing organs wouldn’t kill you.

The adrenal glands change size throughout life. The adrenal glands, lying right above the kidneys, are responsible for releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In the seventh month of a fetus’ development, the glands are roughly the same size as the kidneys. At birth, the glands have shrunk slightly and will continue to do so throughout life. In fact, by the time a person reaches old age, the glands are so small they can hardly be seen.

Bodily Functions

We may not always like to talk about them, but everyone has to deal with bodily functions on a daily basis. These are a few facts about the involuntary and sometimes unpleasant actions of our bodies.

Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph. There’s a good reason why you can’t keep your eyes open when you sneeze–that sneeze is rocketing out of your body at close to 100 mph. This is, of course, a good reason to cover your mouth when you sneeze.

Coughs clock in at about 60 mph. Viruses and colds get spread around the office and the classroom quickly during cold and flu season. With 60 mph coughs spraying germs far and wide, it’s no wonder.

Women blink twice as many times as men do. That’s a lot of blinking every day. The average person, man or woman, blinks about 13 times a minute.

A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball. No wonder you have to run to bathroom when you feel the call of the wild. The average bladder holds about 400-800 cc of fluid but most people will feel the urge to go long before that at 250 to 300 cc.

Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water. While we might typically think that urine is the liquid part of human waste products, the truth is that what we consider solid waste is actually mostly water as well. You should be thankful that most waste is fairly water-filled, as drier harder stools are what cause constipation and are much harder and sometimes painful to pass.

Feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day. With that kind of sweat-producing power it’s no wonder that your gym shoes have a stench that can peel paint. Additionally, men usually have much more active sweat glands than women.

During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Saliva plays an important part in beginning the digestive process and keeping the mouth lubricated, and your mouth produces quite a bit of it on a daily basis.

The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day. Even if you’d like to think you’re too dignified to pass gas, the reality is that almost everyone will at least a few times a day. Digestion causes the body to release gases which can be painful if trapped in the abdomen and not released.

Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. While many people find earwax to be disgusting, it’s actually a very important part of your ear’s defense system. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.

Sex and Reproduction

As taboo as it may be in some places, sex is an important part of human life as a facet of relationships and the means to reproduce. Here are a few things you might not have known.

On any given day, sexual intercourse takes place 120 million times on earth. Humans are a quickly proliferating species, and with about 4% of the world’s population having sex on any given day, it’s no wonder that birth rates continue to increase in many places all over the world.

The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. While you can’t see skin cells or muscle cells, the ovum is typically large enough to be seen with the naked eye with a diameter of about a millimeter. The sperm cell, on the other hand, is tiny, consisting of little more than nucleus.

The three things pregnant women dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Pregnancy hormones can cause mood swings, cravings and many other unexpected changes. Oddly enough, hormones can often affect the types of dreams women have and their vividness. The most common are these three types, but many women also dream of water, giving birth or even have violent or sexually charged dreams.

Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. While few babies are born with teeth in place, the teeth that will eventually push through the gums of young children are formed long before the child even leaves the womb. At 9 to 12 weeks the fetus starts to form the teeth buds that will turn into baby teeth.

Babies are always born with blue eyes. The color of your eyes depends on the genes you get from your parents, but at birth most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason behind this is the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye color.

Babies are, pound for pound, stronger than an ox. While a baby certainly couldn’t pull a covered wagon at its present size, if the child were the size of an oxen it just might very well be able to. Babies have especially strong and powerful legs for such tiny creatures, so watch out for those kicks.

One out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born. Nursing mothers may cringe at this fact. Sometimes the tooth is a regular baby tooth that has already erupted and sometimes it is an extra tooth that will fall out before the other set of choppers comes in.

A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. When only a small fraction of the way through its development, a fetus will have already developed one of the most unique human traits: fingerprints. At only 6-13 weeks of development, the whorls of what will be fingerprints have already developed. Oddly enough, those fingerprints will not change throughout the person’s life and will be one of the last things to disappear after death.

Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. All life has to begin somewhere, and even the largest humans spent a short part of their lives as a single celled organism when sperm and egg cells first combine. Shortly afterward, the cells begin rapidly dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.

Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep. Most people’s bodies and minds are much more active when they’re sleeping than they think. The combination of blood circulation and testosterone production can cause erections during sleep and they’re often a normal and necessary part of REM sleep.

Senses

The primary means by which we interact with the world around us is through our senses. Here are some interesting facts about these five sensory abilities.

After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp. If you’re heading to a concert or a musical after a big meal you may be doing yourself a disservice. Try eating a smaller meal if you need to keep your hearing pitch perfect.

About one third of the human race has 20-20 vision. Glasses and contact wearers are hardly alone in a world where two thirds of the population have less than perfect vision. The amount of people with perfect vision decreases further as they age.

If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it. In order for foods, or anything else, to have a taste, chemicals from the substance must be dissolved by saliva. If you don’t believe it, try drying off your tongue before tasting something.

Women are born better smellers than men and remain better smellers over life. Studies have shown that women are more able to correctly pinpoint just what a smell is. Women were better able to identify citrus, vanilla, cinnamon and coffee smells. While women are overall better smellers, there is an unfortunate 2% of the population with no sense of smell at all.

Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents. While a bloodhound’s nose may be a million times more sensitive than a human’s, that doesn’t mean that the human sense of smell is useless. Humans can identify a wide variety of scents and many are strongly tied to memories.

Even small noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by uninvited noise. The sound causes their pupils to change focus and blur their vision, making it harder to do their job well.

Everyone has a unique smell, except for identical twins. Newborns are able to recognize the smell of their mothers and many of us can pinpoint the smell of our significant others and those we are close to. Part of that smell is determined by genetics, but it’s also largely do to environment, diet and personal hygiene products that create a unique chemistry for each person.

Aging and Death

From the very young to the very old, aging is a necessary and unavoidable part of life. Learn about the process with these interesting, if somewhat strange facts.

The ashes of a cremated person average about 9 pounds. A big part of what gives the human body weight is the water trapped in our cells. Once cremated, that water and a majority of our tissues are destroyed, leaving little behind.

Nails and hair do not continue to grow after we die. They do appear longer when we die, however, as the skin dehydrates and pulls back from the nail beds and scalp.

By the age of 60, most people will have lost about half their taste buds. Perhaps you shouldn’t trust your grandma’s cooking as much as you do. Older individuals tend to lose their ability to taste, and many find that they need much more intense flavoring in order to be able to fully appreciate a dish.

Your eyes are always the same size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing. When babies look up at you with those big eyes, they’re the same size that they’ll be carrying around in their bodies for the rest of their lives. Their ears and nose, however, will grow throughout their lives and research has shown that growth peaks in seven year cycles.

By 60 years of age, 60-percent of men and 40-percent of women will snore. If you’ve ever been kept awake by a snoring loved one you know the sound can be deafening. Normal snores average around 60 decibels, the noise level of normal speech, intense snores can reach more than 80 decibels, the approximate level caused by a jackhammer breaking up concrete.

A baby’s head is one-quarter of it’s total length, but by age 25 will only be one-eighth of its total length. As it turns out, our adorably oversized baby heads won’t change size as drastically as the rest of our body. The legs and torso will lengthen, but the head won’t get much longer.

Disease and Injury

Most of us will get injured or sick at some point in our lives. Here are some facts on how the human body reacts to the stresses and dangers from the outside world.

Monday is the day of the week when the risk of heart attack is greatest. Yet another reason to loathe Mondays! A ten year study in Scotland found that 20% more people die of heart attacks on Mondays than any other day of the week. Researchers theorize that it’s a combination of too much fun over the weekend with the stress of going back to work that causes the increase.

Humans can make do longer without food than sleep. While you might feel better prepared to stay up all night partying than to give up eating, that feeling will be relatively short lived. Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived people, however, start experiencing radical personality and psychological changes after only a few sleepless days. The longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep is 11 days, at the end of which the experimenter was awake, but stumbled over words, hallucinated and frequently forgot what he was doing.

A simple, moderately severe sunburn damages the blood vessels extensively. How extensively? Studies have shown that it can take four to fifteen months for them to return to their normal condition. Consider that the next time you’re feeling too lazy to apply sunscreen before heading outside.

Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress. That high stress job you have could be doing more than just wearing you down each day. It could also be increasing your chances of having a variety ofserious medical conditions like depression, high blood pressure and heart disease.

A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated. While it might be gross to think about, the blood in the head may be enough to keep someone alive and conscious for a few seconds after the head has been separated from the body, though reports as to the accuracy of this are widely varying.

Muscles and Bones

Muscles and Bones provide the framework for our bodies and allow us to jump, run or just lie on the couch. Here are a few facts to ponder the next time you’re lying around.

It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Unless you’re trying to give your face a bit of a workout, smiling is a much easier option for most of us. Anyone who’s ever scowled, squinted or frowned for a long period of time knows how it tires out the face which doesn’t do a thing to improve your mood.

Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206. The reason for this is that many of the bones of children are composed of smaller component bones that are not yet fused like those in the skull. This makes it easier for the baby to pass through the birth canal. The bones harden and fuse as the children grow.

We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening. The cartilage between our bones gets compressed by standing, sitting and other daily activities as the day goes on, making us just a little shorter at the end of the day than at the beginning.

The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. While you may not be able to bench press much with your tongue, it is in fact the strongest muscle in your body in proportion to its size. If you think about it, every time you eat, swallow or talk you use your tongue, ensuring it gets quite a workout throughout the day.

The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone. The next time someone suggests you take it on the chin, you might be well advised to take their advice as the jawbone is one of the most durable and hard to break bones in the body.

You use 200 muscles to take one step. Depending on how you divide up muscle groups, just to take a single step you use somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 muscles. That’s a lot of work for the muscles considering most of us take about 10,000 steps a day.

The tooth is the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself. If you’ve ever chipped a tooth you know just how sadly true this one is. The outer layer of the tooth is enamel which is not a living tissue. Since it’s not alive, it can’t repair itself, leaving your dentist to do the work instead.

It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out than it did to gain it. Lazy people out there shouldn’t use this as motivation to not work out, however. It’s relatively easy to build new muscle tissue and get your muscles in shape, so if anything, this fact should be motivation to get off the couch and get moving.

Bone is stronger than some steel. This doesn’t mean your bones can’t break of course, as they are much less dense than steel. Bone has been found to have a tensile strength of 20,000 psi while steel is much higher at 70,000 psi. Steel is much heavier than bone, however, and pound for pound bone is the stronger material.

The feet account for one quarter of all the human body’s bones. You may not give your feet much thought but they are home to more bones than any other part of your body. How many? Of the two hundred or so bones in the body, the feet contain a whopping 52 of them.

Microscopic Level

Much of what takes place in our bodies happens at a level that we simply can’t see with the naked eye. These facts will show you that sometimes that might be for the best.

About 32 million bacteria call every inch of your skin home. Germaphobes don’t need to worry however, as a majority of these are entirely harmless and some are even helpful in maintaining a healthy body.

Humans shed and regrow outer skin cells about every 27 days. Skin protects your delicate internal organs from the elements and as such, dries and flakes off completely about once a month so that it can maintain its strength. Chances are that last month’s skin is still hanging around your house in the form of the dust on your bookshelf or under the couch.

Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute. While that sounds like a lot, it’s really just a small fraction of the cells that are in the human body. Estimates have placed the total number of cells in the body at 10-50 trillion so you can afford to lose a few hundred million without a hitch.

Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour. You may not think much about losing skin if yours isn’t dry or flaky or peeling from a sunburn, but your skin is constantly renewing itself and shedding dead cells.

Every day an adult body produces 300 billion new cells. Your body not only needs energy to keep your organs up and running but also to constantly repair and build new cells to form the building blocks of your body itself.

Every tongue print is unique. If you’re planning on committing a crime, don’t think you’ll get away with leaving a tongue print behind. Each tongue is different and yours could be unique enough to finger you as the culprit.

Your body has enough iron in it to make a nail 3 inches long. Anyone who has ever tasted blood knows that it has a slightly metallic taste. This is due to the high levels of iron in the blood. If you were to take all of this iron out of the body, you’d have enough to make a small nail and very severe anemia.

The most common blood type in the world is Type O. Blood banks find it valuable as it can be given to those with both type A and B blood. The rarest blood type, A-H or Bombay blood due to the location of its discovery, has been found in less than hundred people since it was discovered.

Human lips have a reddish color because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin. The blood in these capillaries is normally highly oxygenated and therefore quite red. This explains why the lips appear pale when a person is anemic or has lost a great deal of blood. It also explains why the lips turn blue in very cold weather. Cold causes the capillaries to constrict, and the blood loses oxygen and changes to a darker color.

Miscellaneous

Here are a few things you might not have known about all different parts of your anatomy.

The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream. It isn’t entirely clear to scientists why this is the case, but if you are opposed to having nightmares you might want to keep yourself a little toastier at night.

Tears and mucus contain an enzyme (lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria. This is to your advantage, as the mucus that lines your nose and throat, as well as the tears that wet your eyes are helping to prevent bacteria from infecting those areas and making you sick.

Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil. If you’ve seen the Matrix you are aware of the energy potentially generated by the human body. Our bodies expend a large amount of calories keeping us at a steady 98.6 degrees, enough to boil water or even cook pasta.

Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren’t. The chemicals and hormones released when you are afraid could be having unseen effects on your body in the form of earwax. Studies have suggested that fear causes the ears to produce more of the sticky substance, though the reasons are not yet clear.

It is not possible to tickle yourself. Even the most ticklish among us do not have the ability to tickle ourselves. The reasonbehind thisis that your brain predicts the tickle from information it already has, like how your fingers are moving. Because it knows and can feel where the tickle is coming from, your brain doesn’t respond in the same way as it would if someone else was doing the tickling.

The width of your armspan stretched out is the length of your whole body. While not exact down to the last millimeter, your armspan is a pretty good estimator of your height.

Humans are the only animals to produce emotional tears. In the animal world, humans are the biggest crybabies, being the only animals who cry because they’ve had a bad day, lost a loved one, or just don’t feel good.

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. This doesn’t have a genetic basis, but is largely due to the fact that a majority of the machines and tools we use on a daily basis are designed for those who are right handed, making them somewhat dangerous for lefties to use and resulting in thousands of accidents and deaths each year.

Women burn fat more slowly than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. Most men have a much easier time burning fat than women. Women, because of their reproductive role, generally require a higher basic body fat proportion than men, and as a result their bodies don’t get rid of excess fat at the same rate as men.

Koalas and primates are the only animals with unique fingerprints. Humans, apes and koalas are unique in the animal kingdom due to the tiny prints on the fingers of their hands. Studies on primates have suggested that even cloned individuals have uniquefingerprints.

The indentation in the middle of the area between the nose and the upper lip has a name. It is called the philtrum. Scientists have yet to figure out what purpose this indentation serves, though the ancient Greeks thought it to be one of the most erogenous places on the body.

Courtesy of: Yes, I Can't See You

India could be a future market for ‘flying car’, says maker

2011-11-05T03:38:00.000-07:00

A U.S.-based company which has designed and tested a ‘flying car’, is looking at India, Brazil and China as the future markets.

Carl Dietrich, co-founder of Terrafugia, a US-based company which has developed a ‘roadable aircraft’, told PTI that the company would be launching the product commercially at the end of the next year.

The aircraft-cum-car has foldable wings, which are tucked in when it is on the road, and it becomes compact enough to park in a home-garage, he said, adding that it coverts into a flying machine within 30 seconds.

Around a hundred people have already booked the car, priced at $ 2,79,000.

With a full tank, the car can fly for 460 miles at the speed of 110 miles per hour.

“After the US launch, we will spread in Europe,” Dietrich said, adding that India, Brazil and China would be the future markets.

Dietrich, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was here to participate in ‘Goa Think Fest -- 2011’, a three-day conclave which would conclude on Sunday.

The car is a workable commuting option, as building a short runway is cheaper than building a super-highway, he said.

PTI

Hang some of us if that helps: Kiran Bedi

2011-10-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

"Hang some of us if that helps", activist Kiran Bedi said today as she alleged a "pattern to defame" Team Anna members who are under the scanner for alleged misconduct. "There is obviously a pattern to defame every member of Team Anna. It has been systematic from day one," Bedi, who is facing allegations of overcharging institutions by inflating her travel expenses, told PTI.

"Team Anna is paying a personal cost for raising national concerns on rampant corruption and voter awareness to ensure the passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament," she said. Her response came as another activist Arvind Kejriwal was accused of depositing the donations for the Hazare campaign for a strong Lokpal in a private trust run by him. None of the prominent Team Anna activists were members of the trust. Noting that people are aware of the machinations of the detractors, she said it only underscores the need to stay focussed on the Winter Session of Parliament and ensure that the Jan Lokpal Bill is enacted. "It is evident why sensitive and reputed persons shy away from speaking up. Which leaves civil society without independent voices. This serves the vested interests," she said.

Bedi said the Hazare movement was of millions and there was a need for staying united. "After that hang some of us if that helps. If my saving for poor by means I followed is wrong I be punished. Same Lokpal can punish me. Distraction is being manipulated," she said.

PTI

Radioactive iodine hits 3,355 times limit in Japan

2011-03-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

OSAKA: The level of radioactive iodine in the sea off Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached its highest reading yet at 3,355 times the legal limit, Jiji press said Wednesday.

On Sunday, iodine-131 measuring 1,850 times the legal maximum were reported a few hundred metres (yards) offshore, up from 1,250 times the limit Saturday, but officials ruled out an immediate threat to marine life or to seafood safety.

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out the cooling systems of the Fukushima plant's six reactors -- triggering explosions and fires, releasing radiation and sparking global fears of a widening disaster.

Radiation from the plant northeast of Tokyo has wafted into the air, contaminating farm produce and drinking water, and seeped into the Pacific Ocean.

afp

'Supermoon' Rises: Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years Occurs Saturday Night

2011-03-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Space.com – Fri Mar 18, 4:15 pm ET

This story was updated at 3:32 p.m. ET.

Thanks to a fluke of orbital mechanics that brings the moon closer to Earth than that it has been in more than 18 years, the biggest full moon of 2011 will occur on Saturday, leading some observers to dub it a "supermoon."

On Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the moon will arrive at its closest point to the Earth in 2011: a distance of 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) away. And only 50 minutes earlier, the moon will officially be full. [Photos: Our Changing Moon]
At its peak, the supermoon of March may appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than lesser full moons (when the moon is at its farthest from Earth), weather permitting. Yet to the casual observer, it may be hard to tell the difference.

The supermoon will not cause natural disasters, such as the Japan earthquake, a NASA scientist has stressed.
Spotting the supermoon

The moon has not been in a position to appear this large since March 1993.

In December 2008, there was a near-supermoon when the moon turned full four hours away from its perigee – the point in its orbit that is closest to Earth. But this month, the full moon and perigee are just under one hour apart, promising spectacular views, depending on local conditions.

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation.
During the day or so before and after, most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full," with the actual shaded area of the lunar surface being so narrow – and changing in apparent width so slowly – that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it's present, or which side it is.

Supermoon making waves

In addition, the near coincidence of Saturday’s full moon with perigee will result in a dramatically large range of high and low ocean tides.

The highest tides will not, however, coincide with the perigee moon but will actually lag by up to a few days depending on the specific coastal location. For example, in Wilmington, N.C., the highest tide (5.3 feet) will be attained at 11:21 p.m. EDT on March 20.
In New York City, high water (5.9 feet) at The Battery comes at 10:49 p.m. EDT on March 21, while at Boston Harbor, a peak tide height of 12.2 feet comes at 1:31 a.m. EDT on March 22, almost 2 1/2 after perigee.

According to the Observer’s Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, residents of regions along the shores of the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada, the 10- to 20-foot (3- to 6-meter) swell in the vertical tidal range makes it obvious when the moon lies near perigee, regardless of clear skies or cloudy.

Any coastal storm at sea around this time will almost certainly aggravate coastal flooding problems.

Such an extreme tide is known as a perigean spring tide, the word spring being derived from the German springen – to "spring up," and is not, as is often mistaken, a reference to the spring season.

In contrast, later this year, on October 11, the full moon will closely coincide with apogee, its farthest point from the Earth. In fact, on that night the moon will appear 12.3 percent smaller than it will appear this weekend.

Big full moon's appearance is deceiving

And while this weekend’s moon will be – as the Observer’s Handbook suggests – the "largest full moon of 2011," the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.

When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon, it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous “moon illusion” combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view.

For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.

So … a perigee moon, either rising in the east at sunset or dropping down in the west at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost appears that you could touch it. You can check out this out for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset for your area by going to this website.
Happy mooning!

Space.com

50 Kg Of Ice Fell From The Sky, The Sensation Spread

2011-03-17T00:43:00.000-07:00

The phenomenon of abnormally large chunks of ice falling from a clear sky is giving rise to an interesting debate. Are they real? Are they from God? Are they a consequence of 'Global Warming'?

A 50 Kg of large ice shell dropped from the sky in Badly village of Hissar Distt. Haryana state, India. It has become talk of the town that how did the ice shell of such a weight fall off from sky?

The event occurred Wednesday morning in presence of many eye-witnesses who were working in the same farm when they noticed a large ice shell is coming straight from sky. It made huge noise when hit the ground. Local Police is investigating the whole matter at this moment in time but initial reports suggest some unusual and mysterious phenomena.

Just search GOOGLE and see how large chunks of ice shells are falling from a clear sky in the whole world. To everyone's surprise in a very amazing manner.

Lets see what other people have noticed in last few months:

Falling Ice hits Sleeping Woman

October 8, 2008, A major chunk of ice ripped through a home in York Township, Pa. The ice broke into 3 pieces. The home owner says the found pieces weighed over 6 pounds.

The FFA was called but as always, no comments from them.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Falling Ice Hits California Boy

Yesterday a bowling ball sized chunk of ice crashed into a southern California home hitting a young boy on the head. There is no real hard evidence whether it came from an aircraft or not, but the FFA is looking into it as always.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Megacryometeors hit Dubuque, Iowa today.

Falling ice hits Dubuque, Iowa, one weighing 50 pounds! Dubuque had clear skies at the time. Several other small megacryometeors hit nearby. No one was reported hurt.

The recent trend seems to indicate megacryometeors hit in mid winter and mid summer.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Falling Ice hits again in Florida!

Missed him by "that" much.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_608000/608903.stm

What Happens During a Nuclear Meltdown?

2011-03-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

How does a nuclear reactor work?
Most nuclear reactors, including those at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi generating station, are essentially high-tech kettles that efficiently boil water to produce electricity. They rely on harnessing nuclear fission—the splitting of an atom into two smaller atoms, which also yields heat and sends neutrons flying. If another atom absorbs one of those neutrons, the atom becomes unstable and undergoes fission itself, releasing more heat and more neutrons. The chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, producing a steady supply of heat to boil water, drive steam turbines and thereby generate electricity.

How much electricity does nuclear power provide in Japan and elsewhere?
With 54 nuclear reactors generating 280 billion kilowatt-hours annually, Japan is the world's third-largest producer of nuclear power, after the U.S. and France, according to data from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Fukushima Daiichi station, which has been hit hard by the March 11 earthquake, houses six of those reactors, all of which came online in the 1970s.

Worldwide, nuclear energy accounts for about 15 percent of electricity generation; Japan gets nearly 30 percent of its electricity from its nuclear plants. The U.S. produces more nuclear power overall, but nuclear constitutes a smaller share of its energy portfolio. About 20 percent of U.S. electricity comes from nuclear power plants, making it the third-largest source of electricity in the country after coal (45 percent) and natural gas (23 percent).

What fuels a nuclear reactor?
Most nuclear reactors use uranium fuel that has been "enriched" in uranium 235, an isotope of uranium that fissions readily. (Isotopes are variants of elements with different atomic masses.) Uranium 238 is much more common in nature than uranium 235 but does not fission well, so fuel manufacturers boost the uranium 235 content to a few percent, which is enough to maintain a continuous fission reaction and generate electricity. Enriched uranium is manufactured into fuel rods that are encased in metal cladding made of alloys such as zirconium.

Reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi station runs on so-called mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, in which uranium is mixed with other fissile materials such as plutonium from spent reactor fuel or from decommissioned nuclear weapons.

How do you turn off a nuclear reaction?
Sustained nuclear fission reactions rely on the passing of neutrons from one atom to another—the neutrons released in one atom's fissioning trigger the fissioning of the next atom. The way to cut off a fission chain reaction, then, is to intercept the neutrons. Nuclear reactors utilize control rods made from elements such as cadmium, boron or hafnium, all of which are efficient neutron absorbers. When the reactor malfunctions or when operators need to shut off the reactor for any other reason technicians can remotely plunge control rods into the reactor core to soak up neutrons and shut down the nuclear reaction.

Can a reactor melt down once the nuclear reaction is stopped?
Even after the control rods have done their job and arrested the fission reaction the fuel rods retain a great deal of heat. What is more, the uranium atoms that have already split in two produce radioactive by-products that themselves give off a great deal of heat. So the reactor core continues to produce heat in the absence of fissioning.

If the rest of the reactor is operating normally, pumps will continue to circulate coolant (usually water) to carry away the reactor core's heat. In Japan the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused blackouts that cut off the externally sourced AC power for the reactors' cooling system. According to published reports, backup diesel generators at the power plant failed shortly thereafter, leaving the reactors uncooled and in serious danger of overheating.

Without a steady coolant supply, a hot reactor core will continuously boil off the water surrounding it until the fuel is no longer immersed. If fuel rods remain uncovered, they may begin to melt, and hot, radioactive fuel can pool at the bottom of the vessel containing the reactor. In a worst-case meltdown scenario the puddle of hot fuel could melt through the steel containment vessel and through subsequent barriers meant to contain the nuclear material, exposing massive quantities of radioactivity to the outside world.

How can a meltdown be averted?
The Japanese plant's operators have made a number of attempts to cool the reactors, including pumping seawater into the reactor core to replenish the dwindling cooling fluid. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has also injected boric acid, an absorber of neutrons, into the reactors.

How does this incident compare with Chernobyl or Three Mile Island?
At present, three of the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi station are seriously crippled. Units 1 and 3 have experienced explosions that destroyed exterior walls, apparently from buildups of hydrogen gas produced by the zirconium in the fuel rods reacting with coolant water at extremely high temperatures—but the interior containment vessels there thus far seem to be intact. A third explosion was reported March 15 at reactor No. 2, and the situation there appears direr. Pressure in the suppression pool—a doughnut-shaped water vessel below the reactor—dropped after the explosion, indicating that the containment vessel had been compromised.

In reactor Nos. 1, 2 and 3 water levels dropped enough to leave the fuel assemblies temporarily uncovered; those fuel rods are presumed to have suffered damage. And a fire at a pool storing spent fuel rods at dormant reactor No. 4 is posing additional hazards to the few workers remaining at the site.

Japanese officials initially rated the incident a level 4, an "accident with local consequences," on the seven-tier International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), but Princeton University physicist Frank von Hippel told The New York Times that the Fukushima Daiichi situation is "way past Three Mile Island already." Three Mile Island, the highest-profile U.S. nuclear accident, was classified level 5—an "accident with wider consequences".

At that Pennsylvania nuclear station in 1979 a cooling malfunction combined with worker error led to a partial meltdown—about half of the reactor core melted and formed a radioactive puddle at the bottom of the steel pressure vessel. The vessel remained intact, but some radiation did escape from the plant into the surrounding environment.

The 1986 Chernobyl accident was far more devastating; it rates as a 7, or a "major accident," on the INES scale. In Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, a power surge caused an explosion in one of the plant's reactors, releasing huge doses of radioactive fallout into the air. Two plant workers died within hours, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; 28 more died in the following months from radiation poisoning. The fallout from Chernobyl was widespread, and the health effects of the disaster are difficult to quantify. A report from the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation found that 6,000 individuals who were under the age of 18 in Ukraine, Belarus or Russia at the time of the disaster had by 2006 contracted thyroid cancer, "a substantial fraction" of whom likely contracted the disease due to radiation exposure.

Scientific American

Fukushima Blast: Are Japan's Neighbors At Risk?

2011-03-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

A third, early-morning explosion at the Fukushima plant has damaged a reactor's steel containment vessel, releasing radioactive material that could, potentially, affect the region. As Japan's East Asian neighbors watch the winds, inspecting imported food products is just one of the ways they're keeping cautious.

Taiwan: Since the blasts, Taiwan's Atomic Energy Council (AEC) has been closely monitoring concentrations of radioactive materials in Japan. AEC Director Chen Yi-pin reports that so far, radiation levels in the country remain standard, adding that emergency measures would be taken upon the detection of abnormalities. Deputy Director of the council's Department of Nuclear Regulation Hsu Ming-te has noted that the day's prevalent winds make the chance of radioactive plumes wafting into Taiwan unlikely. The council's deputy minister, Shieh Der-jhy, has reiterated that residents ought not take iodine tablets, the unnecessary consumption of which could have negative side effects. And the organization also intends to increase the number of food inspections at local markets to ensure that goods being sold are not contaminated. Under usual circumstances, Taiwan's Radiation Monitoring Center inspects radiation levels in 20 alimentary items every two months.

Other Asian nations, among them China, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, South Korea Malaysia and Singapore, have also said that they will test food imported from Japan. Hong Kong's Secretary for Food and Health York Chow explained that dairy items, fruits and vegetables will be under particular scrutiny. “In case we detect anything, of course will ban those products,” he said. China's southern authorities are inspecting import venues in an effort to root out possibly contaminated consumer goods. Malaysia, which imports nearly 48,500 tons of fish, fruit, meat, beverages and cereal products from Japan every year, according to Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, is also being vigilant. So is the Philippines, though Fe Medina, spokeswoman for the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, said that “we are not recommending a ban on any food products from Japan and we don't think it's necessary."

Philippines: In Metropolitan Manila, checks for radiation exposure are being carried out by the state-run Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI). “We're monitoring the ambient air four times daily and, if needed, our response teams will do checks in other parts of the country,” PNRI director Alumanda dela Rosa told TIME. President Benigno Aquino, meanwhile, has ordered regular updates on the leaks in Japan and the welfare of Filipinos working there from various government agencies. In a news conference Monday, Aquino's deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte appealed to the public not to spread false information about the “already sensitive” scenario. Hoax mobile-phone text messages that a radiation leak had already spread to the Philippines reportedly caused one Manila university to suspend classes and send students home. And sales of an iodine-based antiseptic reportedly spiked in a number of drugstores in Manila after text messages, claiming to be health advisories from an international television network, said it protected against radiation exposure.

South Korea: The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reports that it plans to check, with food products, fish caught in waters that may be infected by Japan's radioactive leaks. “Inspections will be carried out on all products processed after Saturday, when the No.1 reactor at the nuclear power plant exploded,” the ministry said in a statement. “Radiation checks will be carried out once a week until April 30, and once a month in May and June.” Local experts, though, confirm that radioactive leaks are so diffuse that concentrations in plants and animals will not be high enough to make people ill. And the South Korean government has reassured its people that, due to the direction of regional winds, radiation levels in the country have not increased. Thankfully, the radiation emanating from Japan's nuclear plant is currently blowing out over the Pacific Ocean rather than drifting towards populated areas.

— With files from Natalie Tso and Alastair McIndoe from TIME

Radiation plume could reach Tokyo: U.S. scientists

2011-03-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

(Reuters) - If the containment at the nuclear power plant damaged by Japan's devastating earthquake fails, a potential radiation plume from a full core meltdown could reach Tokyo, a U.S. scientists' organization said on Tuesday.

Japan faces a potential catastrophe after a stricken nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.

The Union of Concerned Scientists also said a "jerry-rigged" cooling system at the Japanese plant would be hard to maintain if all workers there were evacuated.

Nuclear power and safety experts at the group said they were "very concerned" that ongoing activities at the plant would become more challenging for on-site workers. A larger radiation plume could travel hundreds of miles (km), the scientists said in a telephone briefing.

A crack in the containment vessel could allow radiation to exit the reactor in case of a core meltdown, the scientists said. They said the Japanese government should extend the evacuation zone around the troubled Fukushima Daiichi power station.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko I Reuters)

11 injured in nuclear plant blast in Japan

2011-03-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

The second hydrogen blast in three days has rocked Japan's earthquake-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and injuring 11 people.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said four army personnel and seven nuclear power plant workers were hurt when Unit 3 exploded.

Mr Edano said one of the workers was seriously injured but still conscious and the four military staff were only slightly hurt and had already returned to their unit.

Later in the day, another reactor at the plant lost its cooling capacity, raising the risk of another explosion.

The US said it had shifted its offshore forces away from the plant after detecting low-level radioactive contamination.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles offshore when it detected the radiation, which US officials said was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation.

It was not clear if the radiation had leaked during today's explosion. The blast was felt 25 miles away, but the plant's operator said radiation levels at the reactor were still within legal limits.

The explosion at the plant's Unit 3, which authorities have been frantically trying to cool after a system failure in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Mr Edano. The two disasters left at least 10,000 people dead.

Operators knew an explosion was a possibility as they struggled to reduce pressure inside the reactor containment vessel, but apparently felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid a complete meltdown. In the end, the hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere and set off the blast.

Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the plant, said radiation levels at Unit 3 were well under the levels where a nuclear operator must file a report to the government. On Saturday, a similar explosion took place at the plant's Unit 1, injuring four workers and causing mass evacuations.

Northwales

Cold comfort for 300,000 left homeless by quake

2011-03-14T03:48:00.000-07:00

Thousands of Japanese people who lost their homes in the earthquake are squeezing into classrooms and government buildings, enduring rumbling aftershocks and freezing temperatures.

According to Japanese Red Cross figures, 300,000 people were evacuated or displaced across north-east Japan and up to 70,000 of those have gathered at 200 shelters in the devastated area around Sendai.

The Red Cross is handing out blankets and other essentials, but food and water shortages are compounded by highway closures, an Australian spokeswoman said.

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, snow is forecast in parts of the north-east with temperatures as low as -2 degrees.

Aid agency Save The Children spokesman Ian Woolverton said he arrived in Tokyo yesterday and visited evacuees packed into primary school classrooms in Asahi, about 200 kilometres south of the worst hit areas.

"I went to one school where there were nearly 400 people sheltering in the classroom," Mr Woolverton said from Tokyo.

He said the people were generally "stoic" and were given food and water, but many were concerned clean water would run out.

Parents were also particularly concerned about how their children were coping with the disaster, he said.

"It's quite difficult for children in these situations; they get bored."

He said a lot of people were also sheltering in community centres and government buildings in the area.

"People are well drilled, they know where the evacuation centres are."

Save The Children sets up child friendly spaces in evacuation centres to occupy children and let parents have a rest.

Cold comfort for 300,000 left homeless by quake
Stephanie Gardiner
March 14, 2011 - 3:27PM

Utter devastation in Japan
Rubble and debris litter the horizon in parts of Japan after an historic earthquake and tsunami.
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Thousands of Japanese people who lost their homes in the earthquake are squeezing into classrooms and government buildings, enduring rumbling aftershocks and freezing temperatures.

According to Japanese Red Cross figures, 300,000 people were evacuated or displaced across north-east Japan and up to 70,000 of those have gathered at 200 shelters in the devastated area around Sendai.

The Red Cross is handing out blankets and other essentials, but food and water shortages are compounded by highway closures, an Australian spokeswoman said.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Vehicles sit on three-storey building after the tsunami that hit the town of Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: AFP
According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, snow is forecast in parts of the north-east with temperatures as low as -2 degrees.

Aid agency Save The Children spokesman Ian Woolverton said he arrived in Tokyo yesterday and visited evacuees packed into primary school classrooms in Asahi, about 200 kilometres south of the worst hit areas.

"I went to one school where there were nearly 400 people sheltering in the classroom," Mr Woolverton said from Tokyo.

This aerial shot shows a pleasure boat sitting on top of a building amid a sea of debris in Otsuchi town in Iwate prefecture today. Photo: AFP
He said the people were generally "stoic" and were given food and water, but many were concerned clean water would run out.

Parents were also particularly concerned about how their children were coping with the disaster, he said.

"It's quite difficult for children in these situations; they get bored."

A woman sleeps with a cat at an evacuation centre in Kawamatamachi, Fukushima Prefecture. Photo: AP
He said a lot of people were also sheltering in community centres and government buildings in the area.

"People are well drilled, they know where the evacuation centres are."

Save The Children sets up child friendly spaces in evacuation centres to occupy children and let parents have a rest.

Japanese residents queue for food in Sendai. Photo: AFP
"It gives parents a break from child minding while they focus on more pressing issues.

"It gives [children] a safe place to play."

Japan's Red Cross has sent out 86 medical teams, made up of 600 doctors and nurses. Thousands of nurses, trained in psychosocial support, are on hand to provide counselling, the spokeswoman said.

Stephanie Gardiner's article pubished in The Sunday Morning Herald

Japan earthquake: insurance firms left with crippling bill

2011-03-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

The cost of the devastating natural disaster could lead to global insurance losses of between £9bn and £21bn, risk analysts at AIR Worldwide predicted.

But the final bill will be higher as it does not yet include damage caused by the tsunami or potential claims against the radiation fallout.
The UK insurance industry could be hard hit as it is the third largest in the world and the largest in Europe, accounting for 8pc of total worldwide premium income.

Many of those losses will be felt by the British businesses that operate in Lloyd’s of London, one of the world’s largest insurance markets.
Chaucer, a small Lloyd’s of London insurer, is likely to face serious losses from the disaster because it specialises in insuring nuclear power plants and is one of the world’s biggest insurers of nuclear risk.

On Friday, shares in some of the UK’s largest insurers fell heavily as fears mounted their 2011 profits will be damaged by claims arising from the Japanese earthquake. Many of the Lloyd’s insurers are still absorbing losses from February’s earthquake in New Zealand.

Natural disasters of a similar scale have caused insurers to go bust in the past while corporate premiums invariably rise as they try to recoup the vast losses incurred.

The cost of hurricane Katrina to the Lloyd’s of London insurers was about £1.4bn.

However, many analysts said the growing threat of disaster from damaged nuclear reactors is unlikely to have much effect on the mainstream insurance business because of the way insurance for the nuclear power industry is structured.
Insurance policies often exclude certain factors from coverage, such as exclusions on earthquake damage in property insurance for nuclear reactors and exclusions on nuclear damage for home owners’ insurance policies.

What remains is likely to be an international liability pool, where reactor operators insure each other against claims in situations like this one. How deep that liability extends is unknown because Japan is not a party to major international conventions limiting the nuclear liability of operators.

“The scrambling of the reactor is a huge event that’s really difficult to model,” said Tom Larsen, a senior vice president at Eqecat, a risk modelling company. He added any impact was more likely to be felt by life insurers rather than property insurers that operate in the Lloyd’s of London market.

By Ben Harrington for The Telegraph

Quake that moved Japan by 2.4 metres

2011-03-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

JAPAN'S recent massive earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, appears to have moved the island by about 2.4 metres, the US Geological Survey said yesterday.

"That's a reasonable number," USGS seismologist Paul Earle told Agence France Presse: "Eight feet, that's certainly going to be in the ballpark."

Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake unleashed a terrifying tsunami that engulfed towns and cities on Japan's northeastern coast, destroying everything in its path in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan said was an "unprecedented national disaster".

The quake and its tectonic shift resulted from "thrust faulting" along the boundary of the Pacific and North America plates, according to the USGS.

The Pacific plate pushes under a far western wedge of the North America plate at the rate of about 83 millimetres per year, but a colossal earthquake can provide enough of a jolt to dramatically move the plates, with catastrophic consequences.

"With an earthquake this large, you can get these huge ground shifts," Earle said. "On the actual fault you can get 20 metres of relative movement, on the two sides of the fault."
He said similar movements would have been seen for Chile and Indonesia.

In December 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra caused a tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 people. An 8.8 quake off the coast of Chile in February 2010 killed more than 500.

There was not a similar ground shift in the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti in February 2010, Earle said.

"A magnitude 7.0 is much smaller than the earthquake that just happened in Japan," he said. "We've had aftershocks (in Japan) larger than the Haiti earthquake."

Kenneth Hudnut, a USGS geophysicist, said experts read data including from global positioning systems to determine the extend of the shift.

"We know that one GPS station moved, and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," he told CNN.

AAP

Why we can't predict earthquakes — tectonic or otherwise

2011-03-12T14:53:00.000-08:00

Scientists did not warn the people of Japan that an earth-quake would strike on Friday, and so countless lives that could have been saved were lost. And yet, we can be sure that most people will not blame the scientists. There will be no angry editorials, no anguished self-criticism, no legislative hearings into what went wrong. There never are after earthquakes.

That's a striking contrast with the aftermath of other sorts of major unpredicted events. The eruption of unrest in the Middle East. The global financial crash of 2008. The 9/11 attacks. The collapse of the Soviet Union. The Iranian revolution. In every case, there was widespread failure to see the event coming. And in every case, there was blame and recrimination.

Does that contrast make sense? Let's start with earthquakes.

As with so many natural phenomena, earthquakes are the product of what scientists call "complex systems," or systems which are more than the sum of their parts. Complex systems are often stable not because there is nothing going on within them but rather because they contain many dynamic forces pushing against each other in just the right combination to keep everything in place.

The stability produced by these interlocking forces can often withstand shocks. But even a tiny change in some internal condition at just the right spot and just the right moment can throw off these forces just enough to destabilize the system -and the ground beneath our feet that has been so stable for so long suddenly buckles and heaves in the violent spasm we call an earthquake.

There was a time when scientists thought that as they learned more about plate tectonics they would get better at predicting precisely when and where earthquakes would occur. That time has passed. We now know it is impossible to make time-and-place predictions in complex systems. The best we can hope to do is get an accurate sense of the possibilities and probabilities. And even that is a tall order.

But complex systems aren't found only in the natural world. Human systems are often complex systems. Economies, for example, are complex systems. The conclusion is obvious.

In fact, human systems may be even more unpredictable because the raw material of those systems isn't mere stuff. It's people. And since people can see, think, and talk to each other, a whole new level of complication and unpredictability is introduced.

Imagine it's this past January. You're Egyptian. The regime in Tunisia has fallen and you sense there may be protests against your government, which you loathe. Should you join in? This is when the guessing begins.

In The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, the sociologist Charles Kurzman demonstrated that the perceptions of the ordinary Iranians who brought down the Shah in 1979 were overwhelmingly dominated by uncertainty. Should I go to the protest? Should I join the strike? "It's a time when you don't know, literally, what tomorrow will bring," Kurzman says. "If you plan to go to a demonstration, you don't know if you're going to be the only one out there, or one in a sea of millions. Whether the police will shoot you, or join you in the streets protesting against the regime."

When everyone is desperately trying to guess what everyone else will do, rumours and emotions surge through the population like electric charges. Excitement gives way to terror in an instant. Despair to hope. And back again. "You can't read off people's attitudes from a year before, a month before, even a day before, and predict what they are going to do on any given day under these circumstances," Kurzman says. Nothing is certain until it happens.

Events like the fall of Egypt's Mubarak regime simply cannot be predicted. But still, whenever they happen, intelligence agencies are blamed. They were blamed after the Iranian revolution and the collapse of the Soviet bloc. They're being blamed now.

"We are not clairvoyant," a defensive James R. Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence, told a hearing of the U.S. house intelligence committee recently. Analysts were well aware that forces capable of generating unrest were present in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere. They said so often. But those forces had been present for years, even decades. "Specific triggers for how and when instability would lead to the collapse of various regimes cannot always be known or predicted," Clapper said. Given that all the turmoil in the Middle East began with the suicidal protest of a single Tunisian fruit seller, that is a considerable understatement.

Like seismologists, the best we can hope for is an understanding of the possibilities and probabilities. Often, that will be enough to make a big difference. We may not be able to predict earthquakes but we can create building codes that dramatically reduce damage and fatalities -as they undoubtedly did in Japan. Similarly, the few economists who "called" the crash of 2008 may not have delivered time-and-place warnings, but they did see that the apparent stability of the financial system belied potentially dangerous forces beneath. Had we regulated accordingly, things may have turned out very differently.

But please, let's stop blaming people for failing to predict the unpredictable.

Dan Gardner's for ottawacitizen.com

Web helps people locate loved ones in Japan quake

2011-03-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

TOKYO: Searching the Internet on sites such as Google, Twitter and their local variants has become more effective in finding loved ones than sifting through wreckage following Japan's devastating tsunami.

Frantic friends and relatives leapt onto their computers to find information about people who had not been heard from since the mighty wave crashed ashore on Friday.

Global web giant Google's person finder service had notched up over 45,000 records of people leaving messages seeking information on friends and family, or providing information about people in the disaster zone, by 1130 GMT.

The site was updating, in English and Japanese, by the hundred every few minutes.

A random search for the common Japanese surname "Sato" brought up hundreds of results, many of them for people living in Sendai - the city that faced the brunt of the thunderous body of rolling water.

Gunduzhan posted a message seeking Aki Sato, a dentist from Sendai who studied at Ohu University in Koriyama. A photo of the young woman was also posted on the site.

"Looking for Aki Sato," the post read. "Last heard from after earthquake but before tsunami."

Another post seeking Fatima Sato had some good news - "Mom is ok. She is on her way home."

The international and Japanese Red Cross also set up a similar site.

People in Japan and abroad can register names on the website or consult the list, while those in Japan can inform family and friends that they are safe and provide contact details.

And micro-blogging site Twitter was updating every second with messages of good will, of condolences and offering aid.

Hashtags, or labels that allow people to share and locate messages around a specific subject, #prayforjapan and #tsunami were soon joined by one named #radiation.

People used the new hashtag to update information on fears of meltdown following an explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

"Radiation's growing, they are collecting iodine. If wind blows too much may move it all to Russia, China, Phillipines & over the Pacific. But come on! It's not Chernobyl yet," wrote fabrykamagazine.

A service was also being shared on Twitter enabling people to donate to the Red Cross via text message, the donation being added to phone bills.

Some tweets were posted by international celebrities such as the American singer Lady Gaga, who launched a bracelet campaign to support the relief effort.

She asked her legion of fans - whom she calls "Little Monsters" - to buy a bracelet on her website with the message, "We Pray for Japan". All proceeds will go to relief efforts, she said.

Other pop stars offered condolences. R&B icon Alicia Keys wrote on her Twitter account: "My heart breaks for Japan."

And Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber called Japan "one of my favorite places on Earth".

On Facebook, the largest Japan Tsunami 2011 page had over 2,600 people saying they "liked" the page and scores of messages, plus links to some of the astonishing videos of when the tsunami hit.

But US computer security authorities warned that online scammers may seek to exploit the quake.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) told computer users to be wary of "potential email scams, fake antivirus and phishing attacks regarding the Japan earthquake and the tsunami disasters".

"Email scams may contain links or attachments which may direct users to phishing or malware-laden websites," US-CERT said in a statement.

"Fake antivirus attacks may come in the form of pop-ups which flash security warnings and ask the user for credit card information," it said.

"Phishing emails and websites requesting donations for bogus charitable organisations commonly appear after these types of natural disasters."

Phishing refers to attempts to steal user names, passwords and other personal information from unsuspecting victims, mostly through email or instant messages.

Useful links:

The English version of the Red Cross website was being set up at www.icrc.org/eng/familylinks-japan

The English version of the Google friend finder service can be found here: japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

Facebook's Japan tsunami page can be found here: www.facebook.com/#!/japan.tsunami.2011

AFP

Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

2011-03-12T06:51:00.000-08:00

December 12, 1952

A partial meltdown of a reactor's uranium core at the Chalk River plant near Ottawa, Canada, resulted after the accidental removal of four control rods. Although millions of gallons of radioactive water poured into the reactor, there were no injuries.

October 1957

Fire destroyed the core of a plutonium-producing reactor at Britain's Windscale nuclear complex - since renamed Sellafield - sending clouds of radioactivity into the atmosphere. An official report said the leaked radiation could have caused dozens of cancer deaths in the vicinity of Liverpool.

Winter 1957-'58

A serious accident occurred during the winter of 1957-58 near the town of Kyshtym in the Urals. A Russian scientist who first reported the disaster estimated that hundreds died from radiation sickness.

January 3, 1961

Three technicians died at a U.S. plant in Idaho Falls in an accident at an experimental reactor.

July 4, 1961

The captain and seven crew members died when radiation spread through the Soviet Union's first nuclear-powered submarine. A pipe in the control system of one of the two reactors had ruptured.

October 5, 1966

The core of an experimental reactor near Detroit, Mich., melted partially when a sodium cooling system failed.

January 21, 1969

A coolant malfunction from an experimental underground reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, releases a large amount of radiation into a cave, which was then sealed.

December 7, 1975

At the Lubmin nuclear power complex on the Baltic coast in the former East Germany, a short-circuit caused by an electrician's mistake started a fire. Some news reports said there was almost a meltdown of the reactor core.

March 28, 1979

Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, America's worst nuclear accident occurred. A partial meltdown of one of the reactors forced the evacuation of the residents after radioactive gas escaped into the atmosphere.

February 11, 1981

Eight workers are contaminated when more than 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant fluid leaks into the contaminant building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah 1 plant in Tennessee.

April 25, 1981

Officials said around 45 workers were exposed to radioactivity during repairs to a plant at Tsuruga, Japan.

April 26, 1986

The world's worst nuclear accident occurred after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It released radiation over much of Europe. Thirty-one people died iin the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Hundreds of thousands of residents were moved from the area and a similar number are belived to have suffered from the effects of radiation exposure.

March 24, 1992

At the Sosnovy Bor station near St. Petersburg, Russia, radioactive iodine escaped into the atmosphere. A loss of pressure in a reactor channel was the source of the accident.

November 1992

In France's most serious nuclear accident, three workers were contaminated after entering a nuclear particle accelerator in Forbach without protective clothing. Executives were jailed in 1993 for failing to take proper safety measures.

November 1995

Japan's Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor leaked two to three tons of sodium from the reactor's secondary cooling system.

March 1997

The state-run Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation reprocessing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, contaminated at least 35 workers with minor radiation after a fire and explosion occurred.

September 30, 1999

Another accident at the uranium processing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, plant exposed fifty-five workers to radiation. More than 300,000 people living near the plant were ordered to stay indoors. Workers had been mixing uranium with nitric acid to make nuclear fuel, but had used too much uranium and set off the accidental uncontrolled reaction.

AJ Software & Multimedia

Japan’s earthquake causes earth’s axis and Japan’s coast to shift

2011-03-11T20:41:00.000-08:00

USGS Dr. Dave Applegate says the Japan earthquake ruptured a 180 mile long by 50 mile wide section of the Earth's crust.
Scientists from the United States Geological Service answered questions from the public this afternoon, with some startling revelations made.

* The first tsunami wave in Samoa was reportedly one foot tall, but the seventh wave was much larger, indicating coastal areas shoudl remain on tsunami advisory well after the first wave hits, even if that wave appears small.
* 100+ aftershocks have rated 5.0 magnitude or more in Japan since the initial shake.
* Earth's axis has reportedly shifted ten inches as a result of the quake, and Japan's coast is said to have permanently shifted 2.4 metres.
* The quake was 900 times stronger than the quake that hammered San Francisco in 1989.
* Aftershocks from the Peru earthquake of almost a year ago are still felt to this day.
* Honshu earthquake occurred on ocean floor of the Pacific plate, bumping 250 miles of coastline.
* Shaking was felt as far away as China.
* The Honshu quake was not as large as the 1964 Alaska earthquake, but was comparable to the recent Chile earthquake.
* Tsunami waves that hit California earlier today washed three onlookers out to sea. Two have been recovered.
* St Louis, Missouri media outlets report that city has moved an inch as a result of the quake.
* Waves from the ensuing tsunami reached 32 feet high.

View video: Ruptured Japan.

View video: Japan declares state of atomic power emergency. Japan declares a state of atomic power emergency and races to evacuate residents near reactors while Tokyo braces for aftershocks.

View video: Buildings crumble in Japan quake. As people flee the trembling buildings amateur video shows debris crashing onto roads.

View video: The path of the tsunami. NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration animation of where the tsunami went/is going.

View video: Japan devastated after massive quake. Japan's most powerful earthquake on record floods large swathes of land, and sparks scores of fires across the country.

View video: Huge refinery fire after quake hits. An oil refinery near Japan's capital Tokyo goes up in flames after the country was hit by the biggest quake since records began.

View video:Tsunami waves close in on Japan. Triggered by a magnitude 8.9 quake early Friday morning tsunami waves are sweeping away homes and cars in northeastern Japan.

View video:U.S. oceanographer talks about tsunamis. Nathan Becker, an oceanographer at the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said the height of the waves could increase as they hit the coastline.

View video:Devastating quake hits Japan.A huge 8.9 magnitude quake hits Japan causing a ten meter high tsunami along parts of the country's coastline.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Japan+earthquake+factbox+Entire+Japan+coast+shifted+metres+earth+axis+moves+inches/4425617/story.html#ixzz1GMCctydr

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

How to save yourself and your loved-ones from Earthquake

2011-03-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

We certainly can't fight mother nature but some tips and Important Instructions are always helpful during or after earthquake.

Here are tips from the U.S. Geological Survey:

Earthquake emergency supplies (You should have)

1. Fire extinguisher
2. Adequate supplies of medications that you or family members are taking.
3. Crescent and pipe wrenches to turn off gas and water supplies.
4. First-aid kit and handbook.
5. Flashlights with extra bulbs and batteries.
6. Portable radio with extra batteries.
7. Water for each family member for at least two weeks (allow at least 1 gallon per person per day) and purification tablets or chlorine bleach to purify drinking water from other sources.
8. Canned and package foods, enough for several days, and mechanical can opener. Extra food for pets if necessary.
9. Camp stove or barbecue to cook on outdoors (store fuel out of the reach of children).
10. Waterproof, heavy-duty plastic bags for waste disposal.

How to plan for an earthquake

1. Make sure each member of your family knows what to do no matter where they are when earthquakes occur:
•Establish a meeting place where you can all reunite afterward.
•Find out about earthquake plans developed by your children's school or day care.
•Remember that transportation may be disrupted; keep some emergency supplies — food, liquids, and comfortable shoes, for example — at work.
2. Know where your gas, electric and water main shutoffs are and how to turn them off if there is a leak or electrical short. Make sure older members of the family can shut off utilities.
3. Locate your nearest fire and police stations and emergency medical facility.
4. Talk to your neighbors — how could they help you, or you them after an earthquake.
5. Take Red Cross First Aid and CPR training courses.

What to do during an earthquake

1. If you are indoors, stay there. (Get under a desk or table and hang on to it, or move into a hallway or get against an inside wall. Stay clear of windows, fireplaces, and heavy furniture or appliances. Get out of the kitchen, which is a dangerous place (things can fall on you). Don't run downstairs or rush outside while the building is shaking or while there is a danger of falling and hurting yourself or being hit by falling glass or debris.
2. If you are outside— get into the open, away from buildings, power lines, chimneys, and anything else that might fall on you.
3. If you are driving, stop, but carefully. Move your car as far out of traffic as possible. Do not stop on or under a bridge or overpass or under trees, light posts, power lines, or signs. Stay inside of your car until the shaking stops. When you resume driving, watch for breaks in the pavement, fallen rocks, and bumps in the road at bridge approaches.
4. If you are in a mountainous area— watch out for falling rock, landslides, trees, and other debris that could be loosened by quakes.

Things NOT to do during an earthquake

1. Do not turn on the gas again if you turned it off; let the gas company do it.
2. Do not use matches, lighters, camp stoves or barbecues, electrical equipment, appliances until you are sure there are no gas leaks. They may create a spark that could ignite leaking gas and cause an explosion and fire.
3. Do not use your telephone except for a medical or fire emergency. You could tie up the lines needed for emergency response. If the phone doesn't work, send someone for help.
4. Do not expect firefighters, police or paramedics to help you. They may not be available.

Do you know how to prepare for and survive a major earthquake? According to Department of Conservation scientists, it will be critical to have the right answer to that question somewhere in California sometime in the coming years.

Many people think having bottled water on hand is a good idea. That’s true, as long as you have enough. Many are certain that standing in a doorway during the shaking is a good idea. That’s false, unless you live in an unreinforced adode structure; otherwise, you're more likely to be hurt by the door swinging wildly in a doorway or trampled by people trying to hurry outside if you’re in a public place.

How to be Prepared

Electricity, water, gas and telephones may not be working after an earthquake. The police and fire departments are likely to be tied up. You should be prepared to fend for yourself for at least three days, preferably for a week.

You'll need food and water (a gallon a day per person); a first aid kit; a fire extinguisher suitable for all types of fires; flashlights; a portable radio; extra batteries, blankets, clothes, shoes and money (ATMs may not work); medication; an adjustable or pipe wrench to turn off gas or water, if necessary; baby and pet food; and an alternate cooking source (barbecue or camp stove). This list can also be applied to other disasters, such as floods or wildfires.

It’s also a good idea to decide beforehand how and where your family will reunite if separated during a quake and to conduct in-home practice drills. You might choose an out-of-the-area friend or relative that family members can call to check on you.

Securing water heaters, major appliances and tall, heavy furniture to prevent them from toppling are prudent steps. So, too, are storing hazardous or flammable liquids, heavy objects and breakables on low shelves or in secure cabinets.

Discuss earthquake insurance with your agent. Depending on your financial situation and the value of your home, it may be worthwhile.

During an Earthquake

If you're indoors, stay there. Get under -- and hold onto --a desk or table, or stand against an interior wall. Stay clear of exterior walls, glass, heavy furniture, fireplaces and appliances. The kitchen is a particularly dangerous spot. If you’re in an office building, stay away from windows and outside walls and do not use the elevator.

If you're outside, get into the open. Stay clear of buildings, power lines or anything else that could fall on you.

If you're driving, move the car out of traffic and stop. Avoid parking under or on bridges or overpasses. Try to get clear of trees, light posts, signs and power lines. When you resume driving, watch out for road hazards.

If you're in a mountainous area, beware of the potential for landslides. Likewise, if you're near the ocean, be aware that tsunamis are associated with large earthquakes. Get to high ground.

If you’re in a crowded public place, avoid panicking and do not rush for the exit. Stay low and cover your head and neck with your hands and arms.

After an Earthquake

Check for fire or fire hazards. If you smell gas, shut off the main gas valve. If there's evidence of damage to electrical wiring, shut off the power at the control box.

If the phone is working, only use it in case of emergency. Likewise, avoid driving if possible to keep the streets clear for emergency vehicles.

Be aware that items may fall out of cupboards or closets when the door is opened, and also that chimneys can be weakened and fall with a touch. Check for cracks and damage to the roof and foundation of your home.

Listen to the radio for important information and instructions. Remember that aftershocks, sometimes large enough to cause damage in their own right, generally follow large quakes.

If you leave home, leave a message telling friends and family your location.

What to Do During an Earthquake

Stay as safe as possible during an earthquake. Be aware that some earthquakes are actually foreshocks and a larger earthquake might occur. Minimize your movements to a few steps to a nearby safe place and if you are indoors, stay there until the shaking has stopped and you are sure exiting is safe.

If indoors

DROP to the ground; take COVER by getting under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture; and HOLD ON until the shaking stops. If there isn’t a table or desk near you, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building.
Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall, such as lighting fixtures or furniture.
Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes. Hold on and protect your head with a pillow, unless you are under a heavy light fixture that could fall. In that case, move to the nearest safe place.
Use a doorway for shelter only if it is in close proximity to you and if you know it is a strongly supported, loadbearing doorway.
Stay inside until the shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. Research has shown that most injuries occur when people inside buildings attempt to move to a different location inside the building or try to leave.
Be aware that the electricity may go out or the sprinkler systems or fire alarms may turn on.
DO NOT use the elevators.

If outdoors

Stay there.
Move away from buildings, streetlights, and utility wires.
Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops. The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings, at exits and alongside exterior walls. Many of the 120 fatalities from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake occurred when people ran outside of buildings only to be killed by falling debris from collapsing walls. Ground movement during an earthquake is seldom the direct cause of death or injury. Most earthquake-related casualties result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.

If in a moving vehicle

Stop as quickly as safety permits and stay in the vehicle. Avoid stopping near or under buildings, trees, overpasses, and utility wires.
Proceed cautiously once the earthquake has stopped. Avoid roads, bridges, or ramps that might have been damaged by the earthquake.

If trapped under debris

Do not light a match.
Do not move about or kick up dust.
Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing.
Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous amounts of dust.

From

http://www.fema.gov

U.S. Geological Survey

NASA Scientist Discovers Life Fossils in Meteorite

2011-03-06T23:13:00.000-08:00

A NASA scientist says he has found evidence of tiny fossilised bacteria on three meteorites and maintains the microscopic life forms are not native to Earth.

If confirmed, this research would suggest life in the universe is widespread and life on Earth may have come from elsewhere in the solar system, riding to our planet on space rocks like comets, moons and other astral bodies.

The study, published online in The Journal of Cosmology, is considered so controversial it is accompanied by a statement from the journal's editor seeking other scientific comment, which is to be published starting later today.

The central claim of the study by astrobiologist Richard Hoover is that there is evidence of microfossils similar to cyanobacteria - blue-green algae, also known as pond scum - on the freshly fractured inner surfaces of three meteorites.

These microscopic structures had lots of carbon, a marker for Earth-type life, and almost no nitrogen, Dr Hoover said in a telephone interview.

Nitrogen can also be a sign of earthly life, but the lack of it only means that whatever nitrogen was in these structures has decomposed out into a gaseous form long ago, Dr Hoover said.

"We have known for a long time that there were very interesting biomarkers in carbonaceous meteorites and the detection of structures that are very similar ... to known terrestrial cyanobacteria is interesting in that it indicates that life is not restricted to the planet Earth," Dr Hoover said.

Dr Hoover, based at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre in Alabama, has specialised in the study of microscopic life forms that survive extreme environments such as glaciers, permafrost and geysers.

He is not the first to claim discovery of microscopic life from other worlds.

In 1996, NASA scientists presented research indicating a 4 billion-year-old meteorite found in Antarctica carried evidence of fossilised microbial life from Mars.

The initial discovery of the so-called Mars meteorite was greeted with acclaim and the rock unveiled at a standing room-only briefing at NASA headquarters in Washington.

Since then, however, criticism has surrounded that discovery and conclusive proof has been elusive.

Dr Hoover's research may well meet the same fate, with another NASA researcher greeting the paper's claims with scepticism.

"Many scientists have examined thousands of meteorites in detail over the past 50 years without finding any evidence of fossil life," David Morrison, senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute at Ames Research Centre, said in an email to MSNBC.

"Further, we know a great deal about the conditions on the parent objects of the meteorites, which (not counting the few meteorites from the moon and Mars) were rather small, not at all like planets.

"I would therefore invoke Carl Sagan's famous advice that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

"At a bare minimum this would require publication in a prestigious peer-refereed scientific journal - which this is not. Cyanobacteria on a small airless world sounds like a joke. Perhaps the publication came out too soon; more appropriate would have been on April 1."

In a statement published with the online paper, the Journal of Cosmology's editor in chief, Rudy Schild, said in a statement: "Dr Richard Hoover is a highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA."

"Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis."

- Reuters

Contaminated IV fluid kills 12 pregnant women in Indian City Jodhpur

2011-02-25T20:29:00.000-08:00

This news surely makes a question and raises serious doubts about the health system of our country. In an appalling incident, 12 pregnant women died at a government-run Umaid hospital in Jodhpur, Rajasthan in the last 10 days after they were given contaminated intravenous (IV) fluids. According to the police and hospital, four more women were in critical condition and on Thursday they had to be put on ventilators.

The administration of Umaid hospital filed a criminal case against the IV manufacturer, Parental Surgical India Pvt Ltd, Indore and the local distributor Anshul Pharma.

Jodhpur police booked 2 companies under IPC Section 328 and seized the unused bottles of the IV fluid. The Rajasthan government issued an alert to all hospitals using the infected IV fluid and an order is also given for the enquiry.

The Health Minister of Rajasthan, Aimuddin Ahmad Khan told at Jaipur, “We have registered an FIR and sent the samples to a lab in Kolkata. We are waiting for the reports after which we will also go to the court.” Ashok Gehlot, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan said in a statement, “We’re getting the entire matter looked into. A probe has been commissioned. Strict action will be taken against those guilty.” A team of two members reached at Jodhpur on Thursday and have started a parallel investigation. The team checked labour room, wards, and operation theatre and also discussed with the committee (6 members) of Dr. S N Medical College, Jodhpur.

Dogs also celebrate Valentine’s Day!

2011-02-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Jesse, a Boykin Spaniel, one of six new breeds entered in the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show sit during a preview news conference in New York

Sukh Sandhu's JUST READER

This may sound outrageous but it’s actually true, this year dogs will also be celebrating Valentine’s Day. The 135th annual dog show by the Westminster Kennel Club is happening quite coincidently on 14th February 2011. The Westminster Dog show will start on the 14th of Feb and continue till the 15th. Many people are actually looking forward to attending the Westminster Dog show as opposed to celebrating Valentine’s Day in typical clichéd fashion.

This year the Westminster Dog Show 2011 is introducing 6 new breeds of dogs, bringing up the total count of dog breeds to 179. Westminster Dog show has been won by, one individual for 5 consecutive years. Johnny Avello is very confident that he may end up winning this year too. In case youre not planning to get chocolates for your significant other, you can take him/her to the Westminster 135th annual dog show where you will get to see amazing new dog breeds such as the Boykin spaniel, the Bluetick coonhound, the RedboneRedbone coonhound, the Cane Corso, the Icelandic sheepdog and the Leonberger.

All Voices :)

Human brain size decreased over the years but not the intelligence- say scientists

2011-01-02T23:12:00.000-08:00

A new study reports that the human brain size is decreased over the last 20,000 years. It is common to both genders worldwide. This decrease follows two million years of growth of the human cranium.

It is said that the male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cubic centimeters and eventually lost a size proportionate to a tennis ball. These changes have been happened in the last 20,000 years. This is reported in Daily Mail quoting Kathleen McAuliffe in Discover magazine.

It is also to be noted that the female brain has also shrunk by about the same proportion.

McAuliffe reported the comments made by John Hawks, an anthropologist who say that the human brain is decreasing in its size but it does not mean our intelligence is in decline as well.

Several theories have been advanced to explain the mystery of the shrinking brain. The other theory says that the human heads were large in size to survive in cold and outdoor activities. Another theory comes forward to explain the large size of brain in the earlier days were to cope with chewy diet of rabbits, reinder, foxes and horses and now the brain has shrunk in size as our food has become easier to eat, so our heads have stopped growing.

Ref: http://www.addingup.org

India loses Rs 24,000cr annually due to lack of toilets, hygiene: World Bank

2010-12-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The Indian economy loses nearly $54 billion (around Rs 24,000 crore) annually due to lack of toilets and poor hygiene, a World Bank study said on Monday.

In a study 'Economic Impact of Inadequate Sanitation in India', conducted by its South Asia Water and Sanitation unit, the multilateral body said premature deaths, treatment for the sick and loss of productivity and revenue from tourism were the main factors behind the significant economic loss.

"For decades, we have been aware of the significant impacts of inadequate sanitation in India," Christopher Juan Costain, the World Bank's head for South Asia's water and sanitation programme, told reporters. The cost of treatment for diseases due to poor hygiene was estimated at $38.5 billion (over Rs 17,000 crore).

"The report quantifies the economic losses to India, and shows that children and poor households bear the brunt of poor sanitation."

The Planning Commission had earlier estimated that although 49% of the country's urban population has access to sanitary excreta disposal facility, only 28% have sewerage system (partial without treatment facility in many cases) and 21% only low cost sanitary latrine facility. About 60% of the generated solid waste is collected and disposed of, of which only 50% sanitarily.

World Bank officials estimate there are 4.5 lakh deaths out of 57.5 crore cases of diarrhoea every year and a large segment of the country's 1.20 crore population defecates in the open.

Costain said the Indian economy loses $260 million (over Rs 1,000 crore) in tourism revenues due to poor sanitation as tourists are reluctant to come to India due to lack of sanitation facilities. "We all hear about people worrying over Delhi Belly, but tourists are reluctant to come here due to health concerns like this and this is losing India money," Constain said.

TNN
Picture: The Magnificent View of Kodaikanal
Kodaikanal is one of the most beautiful hill stations of India. It is proudly called as princess of hills with it's steepy mountains, rocks, dense forests and lovely lakes. This place is noted for kurinji flower which blooms for once in every 12 years. Kodaikanal is being visited by people from almost all parts of the world as it attracts by the bracing wind, enjoyable chill weather and many wonderful natural sceneries. The best time to visit here is summer months of April to May, however it is being visited throughout the year except September to December when it is raining heavily. It is situated on folded Western ghats of Palani hills in Tamil nadu, India at an altitude of about 2,133 m from mean sea level. Area is about 25 sq. km.

Mentally ill workers were sold to Chinese factory

2010-12-15T01:50:00.001-08:00

Beijing: Chinese authorities claim to have rescued a group of what they describe as "mentally ill workers enslaved in a factory" after being sold by a man who purportedly ran a beggars' shelter, state media reported on Wednesday.

Photographs broadcast on Sichuan TV showed images of the workers that were allegedly held in the construction factory.

Twelve workers, including eight who the officials claimed to be mentally ill, were sold to the Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory to work without pay, Sichuan TV said.

Chinese authorities claim that workers purportedly mentally ill were given the same food as the factory leader's dogs.

The workers were given no protective gear and forced to work in the bitter winter when other factories suspended operations.

Police on Tuesday arrested Li Xinglin, the head of the building materials factory in the far-western Xinjiang region who had fled on Sunday after Chinese media reports exposed the plant's working conditions, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

His son, Li Chenglong, was also arrested in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province, while the 12 purportedly mentally ill workers who he had taken with him, were placed in government custody.

At a news briefing in Xinjiang, local officials from Toksun County said they had arrested Li Xinglin and his son.

"At 1600 this afternoon, police have arrested Li Xinglin and his son, who is suspected of illegally forcing the disabled to work at Jiaersi factory, and they have rescued 12 mentally ill workers," Yang Jin, Vice executive leader for Toksun county, Xinjiang Province said.

Meanwhile, shelter owner, Zeng Lingquan was detained on Monday.

Sichuan TV filmed the bunk beds in Zeng's shelter in Dazhou, Sichuan Province.

Zeng was accused of selling people who lived in his shelter to the Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory in Toksun county.

Zeng Guohua, the brother of shelter owner, Zeng Lingquan, said the shelter had been approved by the government.

He showed Sichuan TV what he claimed was the documentation for the shelter.

China has had other cases of mentally disabled people being abused as labourers.

In May 2009, police in the eastern province of Anhui arrested 10 men for allegedly enslaving more than 30 mentally handicapped people who were forced to work at brick kilns.

Hundreds of brick kiln slaves, many of them handicapped, were freed in raids in 2007 in northern China.

Associated Press

Car thief scolds mom for leaving kid in car

2010-11-22T00:39:00.000-08:00

GALVESTON, Texas — A mother was criticized for leaving her son in her car by a man who stole her car, police said.

Galveston police said a 22-year-old woman and her boyfriend parked along Seawall Boulevard near 9th Street early Tuesday morning to go fishing.

They took their fishing gear down to the beach and then decided it was too cold for the toddler, investigators said.

The mother took the child back to the car, started the engine and heater, and then went back to the beach to help her boyfriend get the fishing gear, police said.
Investigators said a homeless man hopped in the car and took off, with the child inside.

A few minutes later, the car thief took the car back and yelled at the couple for leaving the child in the car, police said.

Detectives said the thief ran away on foot.

The district attorney decided not to file charges against the woman and her boyfriend for leaving the child in the car.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Racism in Australia at high level; COPS joked electrocution of Indian rail passenger could fix Melbourne's Indian "problem".

2010-10-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

SICK police officers have been caught joking about the electrocution of an Indian train passenger in a racist email scandal.

They circulated sickening video footage of the man being killed and suggested it could be a way to fix Melbourne's Indian student problem.

The Herald Sun has discovered some of the force's highest-ranked officers have been implicated in the scandal, which also involves pornographic material.

Three superintendents were nabbed during an investigation into the circulation of inappropriate emails through the police computer system.

Several inspectors have also been caught.

Emails probed by the Ethical Standards Department's Operation Barrot contain pornographic, homophobic, racist and violent material.

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland described the emails as "disturbing, offensive and gross".

One of the offending emails contained video footage showing the death of a man who was travelling on the roof of a crowded train in India.

When the train stopped at a station the man stood up and touched an overhead power cable. Onlookers screamed as he was electrocuted.

The email containing the shocking video began circulating in the Victoria Police computer system and racist comments were added, suggesting "this might be a way to fix the Indian student problem".

It came at a time when force command was trying to ease racial tension after a number of assaults and incidents involving Indians living in Melbourne.

Premier John Brumby yesterday criticised the actions of the police who circulated the racist material.

"This is completely offensive and contrary to the views and values at the heart of the Victorian community - tolerance and respect," he said.

A police spokesman said the emails were offensive.

"These are matters which demanded we took action. Some of the content was extremely offensive and we can't tolerate that within the ranks of Victoria Police," he said.

Federation of Indian Students spokesman Gautam Gupta said he was appalled.

"It is outrageous that police officers would joke about the death of anyone. I am really shocked. This is humour in very, very bad taste," he said.

None of the superintendents or inspectors caught during the sweep have been interviewed by ESD yet.

But the Herald Sun believes it has been unofficially suggested to two long-serving superintendents they should retire as soon as possible to avoid disciplinary action.

A sergeant, two leading senior constables and a senior constable have already been sacked and six other low-ranking police have been demoted or fined.

Healesville sergeant Tony Vangorp took his life in March after being suspended and being told he faced the sack over inappropriate emails.

Fifteen officers will be dealt with at disciplinary hearings in the next fortnight.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victoria-police-in-racist-email-scandal/story-e6frf7kx-1225936182709

Shimla declared fourth smoking-free city in India

2010-10-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

Shimla: Popular hill resort Shimla, once the summer capital of British India known for imported cigarettes and cigars, has been declared "smoking-free city".

Making the announcement at the state level Gandhi Jayanti function at the Ridge here, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said that Shimla would be the fourth city after Kottayam in Kerala, Chandigarh and Sikkim to be declared smoking-free".

"All district headquarters would be made smoking-free by the end of May next year and a sustain campaign would be launched against drugs, liquor and smoking", he added.

He said smoking in public places and sale of tobacco product had been banned within 100 yards radius of all educational institutions and selling tobacco or tobacco products to minors and direct or indirect advertisement of tobacco had been made an offence.

The Chief Minister also announced setting up of de-addiction centres at all district hospitals where five beds would be reserved for patients for de-addiction.

This facility is now available only in government medical colleges at Shimla and Tanda. Reiterating government's commitment to save the society, especially the youth, from all types of addictions, Dhumal said that in addition to strict legal provisions to curb drug addiction, overwhelming support of the society was imperative.

"An international agency in South East Asia had conducted a survey of Shimla town in May this year and found that 97 percent area of the town was smoking-free, warning hoardings were erected at 80 percent of public areas and no signs of cigarettes were detected in 94 percent of the area of the town," the Chief Minister said, adding over 4,000 persons had been challaned for smoking in prohibited areas and Rs. 8 lakh collected as fine from offenders.

PTI

60-70 percent drop in Indian students in 2010: Australian envoy

2010-09-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

Kolkata, Aug 28 (IANS) The number of Indian students going for studies to Australia would see a sharp drop this year for various reasons, Australian High Commissioner Peter N. Varghese said Saturday.
“We will see significant reduction in number of students going to Australia from India this year. The drop will be 60-70 percent compared to 2009. But I am confident we will rebuild the relationship in the coming years,” Varghese told a media meet.

The high commissioner was in the city to inaugurate the office of the Australian Trade Commission.

The reasons he cited behind the sharp decline were the changes in skilled migration programme of Australia, strengthening of the Australian dollar that made cost of education higher and lastly, the recent killings of Indian students in Australia that “had some deterrent effect”.

Nitin Garg, an accounting graduate from India studying in Australia was killed in January, while a three-year old boy Gurshan Singh was killed in March.

Varghese said to re-build the education business, Australia would emphasise more on institution-to-institution link in the future.

Among various courses, cookery and hair dressing are very popular programmes for Indian students going there.

‘Crook It’s Good To Be Bad ‘, Is A MOVIE About Racism in AUSTRALIA!

2010-09-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

August 31, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Emraan Hashmi’s next release “Crook It’s Good To Be Bad’ is going to deal with the serious issue of racism, which had occurred in Australia recently. Mohit Suri of “Kalyug’ fame will be directing the movie.

The director was quoted sharing an experience during one of his visits to Australia. Mohit said that he was once standing outside a 24-hour convenience store, which is situated in the Sunshine district of Melbourne. The most brutal attacks on Indians had taken place in that spot in Australia. Suri said that he was shocked to known how they beat up the Indian only because of color and religion.

As a sensible filmmaker, Mohit felt that it was his duty to raise voice on this issue. He informed that while leaving the store, he saw an ad on the window of the store that read, “Accommodation is available for the Indian students for Gujarati boys only’.

The director said that that particular ad was the starting point of the movie. He realized that the social evils like racism are part of all human heart. But it depends on an individual to decide whether it is good to turn bad in this current scenario or does one need to pay for being good.

“Crook It’s Good To Be Bad’ stars Emraan Hashmi, Arjan Bajwa of Fashion fame and new face Neha Sharma. In the movie, Emraan plays the guy, who has to decide to turn bad for good.

– Sampurn Wire http://www.thaindian.com

Australia very reliant on foreign students to prop up varsity funding

2010-09-25T05:56:00.001-07:00

Melbourne, Sept.8 (ANI): Australia has the highest proportion of international students enrolled in its tertiary institutions in the world, suggesting that it is highly reliant on this student community strata to attract funding to institutions of higher learning, according to an international study.

The OECD’s Education at a Glance report, released last night, found one in five students in tertiary education in Australia in 2008 was from overseas.

The Age quoted Ben Jensen, a former OECD analyst, as saying that while the report did not reflect the drop in international student visas (16 percent visa drop in fiscal 2009-10) after the immigration crackdown, it did reflect how reliant Australia was on foreign students to prop up university funding.

International students are a sensitive topic in Australia. Visa numbers plummeted 16 per cent last financial year following restrictions on access to permanent residency after completing courses such as cookery and hairdressing, a crackdown on disreputable colleges and attacks on Indian students.

Australia was ahead of Austria, which had 15.5 per cent foreign students, Belgium (8.6 per cent) and Canada (6.5 per cent) and well ahead of the OECD average of 6.7 per cent.

It was also more reliant on students to pick up the bill for tertiary education than most other developed countries.

Less than half of funding for tertiary institutions in Australia came from the public purse, with 55.7 per cent from private sources such as fees paid by international students.

On average in OECD countries, 69.1 per cent of tertiary education is paid for publicly, with the figure rising as high as 97 per cent in Norway and 96.5 per cent in Denmark.

The international education market is worth 18 billion dollars to the Australian economy and universities depend on fees from foreign students. (ANI)

Canada wants more talented Indians: Minister

2010-09-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

Chandigarh, Sep 9 (IANS) India has emerged as one of the top source countries of immigration to Canada and Ottawa is looking forward to more number of talented Indians who can contribute to its development.
“In 2009, India was the top source country of immigration to Canada and obviously Punjab was leading on this front,” Canadian Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney told reporters here Thursday evening.

“Over 32,000 permanent resident visas were issued to Indian nationals last year — an increase of 13 percent over 2008 and nearly 53 percent more than the three-year average from 1997 to 1999,” he said.

Kenney said that Canada has put no tab on the new immigrants coming to their country, as was done by other developed countries.

“Diplomatic relations with India are particularly very important and they are growing stronger. Canada is supporting the Indian nuclear industry that will help address its future energy needs. But I believe that most important thing is human connectivity and it is also deepening further every year,” said Kenney.

“We are maintaining a unique immigration programme as compared to other developed countries like the US, Britain and Australia. All of them have put a cut on the number of new immigrants but we have not done this,” he stated.

Talking about the study visas granted to Indian students, Kenney said: “Study visas have seen a steep rise. By the end of this year, it is estimated that the number of study visas would have tripled over 2008 levels.”

“To help Indian students settle in Canada after completing their studies, we have launched Canadian Experience Class (CEC) scheme. Last year, nearly 3,500 students availed this scheme and this year we are expecting around 500 Indian students to go for it,” he said.

Kenney said that Canada has been immensely benefited from the talent and hard work of Indians and around one million Canadians can trace their ancestry to India. “We are committed to grant more visas to Indians, who are interested to visit, study and to immigrate to Canada,” he said.

To assist residents of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, a Canadian consulate opened in Chandigarh in 2004.

“In 2009, Chandigarh-based consulate had issued over double the number of visitor visas than in 2004. In 2004, it issued 3,300 visas whereas this number rose to 10,040 in 2009,” said Kenney.

Victoria police launch operation to reduce crime against foreign, Indian students

2010-09-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

Melbourne, Sept 18 (ANI): Three people have been arrested in Melbourne during a state-wide operation to reduce anti-social behaviour and crimes against international students. The move may come as a bit of a relief to Indian students in Australia, especially after facing racially motivated attacks in the recent past.

The Herald Sun quoted Victoria Police spokeswoman Belinda Batty, as saying that one of them was arrested for assault and two for being drunk in a public place.

Over 75 police officers hit the streets, pubs and stations in Stonnington as part of Operation Guardian, which also empowers police to listen to the concerns of overseas students and help them rescue aggrieved ones from racist or any other attack.

Twenty public transport offences were recorded and more than 70 penalty notices were issues for traffic offences, the paper reports.

The operation has also run in Moreland, Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Dandenong, Melbourne, Kingston and Darebin.

In 2007-2008, 1447 Indians were attacked in Victoria. In May and June 2009, media reported a number of racially motivated attacks against Indians, especially students.

Rallies were organised in Melbourne and Sydney, and intense coverage of the perceived hate crimes commenced in India, being especially critical of Australia and Australian police services.

Over 1,000, mostly Indian students protested the violence in a demonstration in Melbourne last year. (ANI)

Irate students may not go home, lawyer David Bitel warns

2010-09-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

TENS of thousands of foreign students may try to stay in Australia illegally now that stricter rules have dashed their hopes of permanent residency.

"In two to three years' time, what the government will find is there will be tens of thousands of illegals out there," said Sydney immigration lawyer David Bitel.

"People are not just going to go (home). They had an expectation (of permanent residence). They're furious. They came here, they paid thousands of dollars."

He believed at least 100,000 students who had enrolled when the rules gave good reason to expect permanent residency could fail to qualify for a visa under the new regime.

Mr Bitel, from the firm Parish Patience and ex-president of the Refugee Council of Australia, said there were already signs of desperate students looking to refugee claims as a fallback.

Some of the Chinese staging a rooftop protest at Sydney's Villawood immigration detention centre were understood to have had student visas although commentators believed there were very few students in detention at the moment.

In February, then immigration minister Chris Evans announced new rules to make it much harder for would-be migrants to parlay low-value Australian diplomas and degrees into permanent residency.

The busiest fields, in what became a multi-billion-dollar trade, have been hairdressing, commercial cookery and business.

The full effect of Senator Evans's changes is yet to be felt, partly because of a grace period.

Population researcher Bob Birrell, whose work showed the poor English and job record of former students taken as skilled migrants, predicted a "great log jam".

The government had allowed a long queue of permanent residency applications to build up, yet it planned to keep cutting the number of places in the independent skilled migration category typically targeted by ex-students, Dr Birrell said.

The new policy favours employer and state sponsorship, as well as high-skill qualifications.

Overseas student numbers in vocational colleges rose from 53,301 in 2002 (a year after the Howard government allowed foreign graduates to stay to pursue permanent residency) to 231,452 last year. University numbers grew from 115,200 to 203,955 over the same period.

The Migration Institute of Australia's Maureen Horder said there were an estimated 147,000 ex-students in the permanent residency queue, although some were offshore.

She appealed for a "commonsense" approach to onshore ex-students, many of whom had skills, work and effective membership of the community.

"We invited them as our guests (under the old rules), then we slammed the door on them. Now, that's not very polite," she said.

Ms Horder said it was premature to predict an outbreak of overstayers since ex-students still had the grace period in which to seek work experience and sponsorship in the hope of securing permanent residency under the new rules.

But the government should act to head off any crisis.

"(Let's) come up with an approach that doesn't make these people vulnerable to overstay," she said.

She appealed to Julia Gillard to abandon Labor's "heavy-handed technique of hatcheting into the queue" of permanent residency applicants.

Before the election, Labor put up a so-called "cap and cull" bill that would allow the immigration minister to shorten the queue by cancelling visa applications.

Bernard Lane From: The Australian September 24, 2010

Fury over Indian students being ‘cheated’ following change in Oz residency laws

2010-09-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

Melbourne, Sept 24 (ANI): Thousands of foreign students, including Indians, might reportedly ignore the Australian government’s “cap and cull” bill that aims to cancel the visa applications of international students, and try to stay in the country illegally, especially once they realise that that the stricter rules would dash their hopes of applying for permanent residency.

According to The Australian, Sydney immigration lawyer David Bitel, said that the immigrants with the expectation of permanent residence, would not leave the country so easily.

“People are not just going to go (home). They had an expectation of permanent residence. They’re furious. They came here, they paid thousands of dollars. In two to three years’ time, what the government will find is there will be tens of thousands of illegals out there,” Bitel added.

He believes at least 100,000 students who had enrolled when the rules gave good reason to expect permanent residency could fail to qualify for a visa under the new regime.

Bitel, from the firm Parish Patience and ex-president of the Refugee Council of Australia, further stated that there were already signs of desperate students looking to refugee claims as a fallback.

Overseas student numbers in vocational colleges rose from 53,301 in 2002 (a year after the Howard government allowed foreign graduates to stay to pursue permanent residency) to 231,452 in 2009. University numbers grew from 115,200 to 203,955 over the same period.

The Migration Institute of Australia’s Maureen Horder said there were an estimated 147,000 ex-students in the permanent residency queue, although some were offshore.

“We invited them as our guests (under the old rules), then we slammed the door on them. Now, that’s not very polite,” she added.

Horder also said it was premature to predict an outbreak of overstayers since ex-students still had the grace period in which to seek work experience and sponsorship in the hope of securing permanent residency under the new rules. But the government should act to head off any crisis. (ANI)

New Australian visa force students to pay more, or go

2010-09-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Sydney, Sep 14 (IANS) Thousands of overseas Indian students enrolled in Australian universities, hoping to get permanent residence visa in Australia on the completion of their course, will now have to shell out thousands of dollars for another course or be compelled to go back home following changes to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) visa that came into effect on Sep 1.

"We feel betrayed as we structured our courses so as to be eligible for a permanent residence visa on the completion of our course. At the marketing events organised by universities, they clearly state that students would be eligible for permanent residency if they studied particular courses," said Yashwant Desai, who is enrolled in the Master of Science in Internetworking at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

Master of Science in Internetworking costs A$33,500 for an 18-month course including 12 units (subjects). The new visa regulations require two-year full time study. The option for Desai and thousands of other students is to either pack their bags and go back home or pay approximately A$15,000 more for another course.

"It is really unfair. It will be difficult to find a six-month course so we'll have to look for a one-year course, which will cost a lot more," says Dinesh Kakra from UTS.

Students, who started their courses in 2006 and 2007, will be evaluated under the new rules that came into force on Sep 1, not the rules that applied when they commenced.

"The new visa regulations should apply to students enrolling from September 1 and not students like me, who have almost completed their course of study," says Pulin Shah, who hails from Ahmedabad.

"With federal elections due later this year, we don't know when the visa rules may change again so instead of paying money in Australia, I would like to migrate to another country with the same opportunities and fair go policies," Shah adds.

Dispelling the perception that student visa was an easy way to migration, overseas Indian students say they are not looking for a permanent residence in Australia if they are allowed to work here on completion of their study and recover the money spent on exorbitant fees.

"As overseas students, we are not entitled to any of the benefits domestic students receive," says Desai, who hails from Mumbai.

A new visa category has been introduced for overseas students, who are unable to immediately qualify for GSM on completing their studies.

They will get a temporary 18-month visa with no work or study restrictions, but the main applicant must be under 45, have met the two-year study requirement in the last 6 months, have a suitable skills assessment in the nominated occupation and meet the English language threshold.

Jolan Patel, who is doing Master's in Information Technology which costs approximately AU$29,000, says, "This is my last semester, but for IT there aren't enough number of jobs available in Australia to match the thousands of students queuing for them."

In the year-to-date April 2007, as many as 40,010 Indian students have enrolled in Australian educational institutions, a growth of 55.1 percent from the previous year, according to the Australian Education International (AEI).

Desai says: "The courses offered by Australian Universities is value for money, but I would tell prospective students to weigh their options before deciding to come here for further study."

The growing influx of full fee paying Indian students is reaping rich dividends for Australia. Today, India is the second largest source of overseas students and a significant contributor to Australia's international education market, which is worth AU$9.8 billion to the national economy.

Australian colleges not refunding fees to Indian students

2010-09-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

Melbourne, Sep 24 (IANS) Many students from India’s Punjab state are facing frustration as they are being denied fee refunds by some colleges in Australia, and an educational consultant said that “we are sick and tired”.

The Indian students are seeking fee refunds as their visa applications were turned down. Many of the applicants had also decided to withdraw from the visa application process for various reasons.

Despite promises by the Australian government to make the fee refund from the ESOS Assurance Fund, the students concerned are yet to get their money back.

The ESOS Assurance Fund is managed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

“We are sick and tired of Australian and UK governments preaching to us about ethical practices while denying fees refunds to overseas students whose visa applications have been refused,” Harpreet Kamboj, an education consultant from Mohali in Punjab, told IANS.

“A number of colleges sitting on the hard-earned money of our clients are not being forced by the Australian government to make the refund as per the law while student visas are being refused for trivial reasons,” added Kamboj, who was here recently to pursue refund applications with Hales Institute in Melbourne.

According to the Australian law regulating overseas students, the college concerned should make the refund within 28 days of getting relevant information from a student.

Vipin Bajaj, another educational consultant from Mohali, said: “The Australian government has failed Indian students once again by not paying out of the ESOS Assurance Fund.”

“ESOS Assurance Fund managers are making payments to adjust those overseas students who are already in Australia and whose colleges have gone bankrupt in the recent past,” said Bajaj.

IANS

Racist and pornographic.100 Australian police face sack

2010-09-19T01:24:00.000-07:00

More than 100 Australian police officers face the sack over 'racist and pornographic' emails
:Chief Commissioner Simon Overland

'Offensive': Victoria police chief Simon Overland admitted officers had sent emails containing racist, homophobic and pornographic material

Shocking and offensive emails circulated by Australian police have resulted in more than 100 officers being investigated, with one sergeant who had been facing the sack using his own gun to kill himself.

The email scandal, which has rocked the state of Victoria's force and stunned a misbelieving public, involved the distribution of material that is understood to include a graphic image of an ethnic man being tortured and another featuring bestiality.

Chief Commissioner Simon Overland, Victoria's top policeman, admitted the 'offensive and shocking' emails contained racist, homophobic and pornographic material 'that I think would cause considerable concern to the community, were they to know that sort of material was being circulated.'

Mr Overland added:'They (the officers) know they are not supposed to misuse the email system. If they want to look at this type of material they can do it at home - pretty much everyone's got a computer at home these days.'

The investigation into the emails is said to have resulted in one of the officers, Sergeant Tony Vangorp, 47, shooting himself earlier this week at the Healesville police station, north of Melbourne.

An anonymous woman caller to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio programme today said her husband, who worked with Sgt Vangorp, had told her that the dead officer, a father of adult children, had been ordered to resign or he would be sacked and lose all his entitlements.

But Mr Overland said the claims were wrong and 'mischievous'.

'I'm not sure he was told that. It's one of the things that will have to be looked at. If he was told that, he certainly wasn't told that by me. It wasn't authorised by me.'

The email scandal follows months of controversy involving the Victorian force.

Last week the Legal Services Board released a report accusing many police of being racist towards Africans.

In a separate issue, the state's police faced three civil cases, including one in which a 22-year-old Somali man received more than £40,000 in compensation over an alleged assault.

There have also been claims that police were not doing enough to stop assaults on Indian nationals living in the country on temporary visas.

Victoria's Premier, Mr John Brumby, said racism in any form was unacceptable and against the law and he suggested the role of the Chief Commissioner was to remove any racism from the force.

But Mr Overland said he did not believe most officers were racist or that a culture of racism existed.

The officers who circulated the emails face varying degrees of disciplinary action, the most serious steps to taken against those who had added racist comments to the messages.

'This is about maintaining confidence in Victoria Police,' said Mr Overland.'How can a community have confidence in this organisation if we allow racist, sexist, pornographic and inappropriate material to circulate freely around the organisation?'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1260591/More-100-Australian-police-officers-face-sack-racist-pornographic-emails.html

Detention centre 'ripe for child sex abuse' in Australia

2010-09-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

REFUGEE advocates say both the immigration department and the minister knew there was a risk of child sex abuse occurring at detention centres housing cross-cultural families.
West Australian police have confirmed they are investigating allegations two children were sexually abused at a location in regional WA.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Nick Anticich said police had received a complaint about child sex abuse however due to privacy reasons would not go into detail.

"The child abuse squad has launched an investigation and is trying to verify the allegations," he said.

According to News limited, on Tuesday Child Abuse Squad detectives and specialist child interviewers flew to Leonora, the WA Goldfields town where a detention centre was established in June.

About 195 asylum seekers, including Afghans, Sri Lankans and Iranians and comprising of family groups are housed at the Leonora facility.

Victoria Martin-Iverson from the Refugee Rights Action Network said she had been aware of the allegations prior to media reporting.

Ms Martin-Iverson said she raised the potential risk of child sex abuse at Leonora with former immigration minister Chris Evans last month.

"I expressed to Mr Evans at a public forum the simple reality that we have families who are stressed and are in a situation where they have no power or control over who is with their children," she told AAP.

"That they are in no position to protect their children or deny access to their children. They created a situation which is ripe for abuse."

She said at the forum in Perth prior to the election, Mr Evans told her basically 'everything was fine' and rejected her comments.

Jack Smit of human rights group Project SafeCom said the immigration department and its minister had assured the public that those transferred to the centre were being placed in a safe and family-appropriate environment.

However they have now breached that commitment, Mr Smit said.

"They knew exactly what was promised to the Australian public about kids in detention and families in detention.

They have breached that agreement and now we have trouble," he told AAP.

"Really the minister as well as the immigration department is culpable of this happening.

"They've created circumstances which has enabled this kind of stuff. They're culpable to the extreme."

Mr Smit said the allegations demonstrated there was no consideration given to gender and cultural issues when the families were transferred to the Leonora facility.

As immigration spokesman said the department would not comment on police matters but stressed the safety and welfare of people in their care is the highest priority.

"Any allegations of inappropriate or criminal behaviour is treated extremely seriously and appropriate action is taken," he told AAP.

"For privacy reasons we are going to discuss issues relating to individuals in our care."

References:
- AAP
- News Corp is the parent company of the publisher of news.com.au
- Photo is from http://cosumnesoaksnews.com

Humans to blame for Earth 'facing mass extinction'

2010-09-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

THE world is facing a mass extinction event that could be greater than that of the dinosaurs, new Australian research shows.

Macquarie University palaeobiologist Dr John Alroy used fossils to track the fate of major groups of marine animals throughout the Earth's history.

He compiled data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, tracking the fate of marine animals during extreme extinction events some 250 million years ago.

The findings, published this week in the international journal Science, showed a major extinction event was currently underway that had the potential to be more severe than any others in history.

"Organisms that might have adapted in the past may not be able to this time," Dr Alroy said.

"You may end up with a dramatically altered sea floor because of changes in the dominance of major groups. That is, the extinction occurring now will overturn the balance of the marine groups."

The research shows a combination of human behaviour and climate change could have devastating affects on species across the planet.

"When there's mass extinction all bets are off and anything could happen," Dr Alroy said.

"So what we're basically doing as the human species collectively is we're running this gigantic experiment with nature."

There have been three major mass extinction events throughout history and biologists widely agree the world is currently suffering from another.

The last mass extinction was an estimated 65 million years ago when an asteroid smashed into Mexico and wiped out the dinosaurs, making room for mammals to thrive.

Dr Alroy said a new mass extinction wouldn't be the result of a single horrific event such as an asteroid hitting Earth.

Instead, it would be the result of a factors from introduced foreign species, run-offs from fertilisers and pesticides, pollution and deforestation, he said.

Climate change and an accelerated growth in the worldwide population were also playing a part.

But Dr Alroy said the current situation was not yet as bad as the worst mass extinction 250 million years ago, known as Permian-Triassic extinction or The Great Dying.

"It's safe to say that we have not yet lost nearly as much as what was lost during that event but it's also reasonable to say that we could end up losing as much as was lost in that event," he said.

"We're currently playing games with evolution on a epic scale.
"Really, really big mass extinctions happen very, very rarely and they have very important long-term consequences."

AAP
Pic: http://beyondgenes.com

Crook Movie deals with racism in Australia

2010-09-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

The upcoming crook movie starring Emran Hashi talks about a very serious issue that is in rage nowadays and that is the ill treatment meted out to Indian student in a nation like Australia.

The movie that has its complete title as ‘Crook It’s Good To Be Bad’ has its story backed on real life incidents that were noticed by the flick director Mohit Suri who saw some really brutal activities that were being followed with some Indian students when he was standing in a 24 hour convenience store located in the Melbourne, Sunshine district.

For Suri the entire incident was so taking that he was shocked as to what he had seen and that too something which was based on the religion and color of an individual’s skin. Suri was so much moved that he decided upon raising this issue in the public eye through his skills as a film maker and as a product of that is his new flick that not just talks about issues related to racism but also focuses on issues related to the phenomenon of good and bad spirits of an individual.

Emran Hashmi essays the role of the lead actor who has to decide in his life faced by traumatic situations as to whether he should turn bad to set things straight or follow the path of virtue to prove his righteousness. The producer of this film is Mukesh Bhatt, while music scores go to Pritam. The other actors of this flick include new comer Neha Sharma and Arjan Bajwa from Fashion.

No kiss please, we’re Indian!

2010-08-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

‘Don’t greet an Indian woman with a peck on the cheek’; ‘cover your knees and shoulders at holy places’… Well, the advisory is no Taliban diktat but a ‘set of etiquettes’ issued to the visitors of the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Organisers of the Games have compiled an extensive list of hints and tips for visitors to the October event, the guide providing a valuable insight into social moores as well as helping to avoid embarrassing situations.

Those visiting for the multi-sports gathering must understand that greeting an Indian woman with a peck on the cheek is frowned upon, public displays of affection are strictly off limits and they should not panic if strangers stare at them. Also, it is always safer to use bottled water while brushing teeth, discussing politics is fine but not religion, while knees and shoulders should be covered at holy places.

The guide puts a lot of stress on sartorial modesty and respecting local customs, especially important when visiting temples and religious sites, where trousers or full-length skirts should be worn and shoulders should be covered. Published on the official website (cwgdelhi2010.org) for the Games, organisers also explain that in Sikh temples your head must be covered and that the better-dressed tourists were likely to be the ones attracting the least attention. However, the guide does add: "Even in the most cosmopolitan Indian cities, the chances are that your different appearance might mean that you will be stared at. Please do not be offended, no harm is meant, it is just curiosity."

The traditional Indian Namaste, with folded palms, is advocated as a good way to win friends in Delhi while shaking hands with a woman, or greeting her with a kiss, might raise a few eyebrows.

“If she extends her hand, you must reciprocate but don't be the first to extend your hand,” is the advice for male tourists, who are also informed that a peck on the cheek is appropriate only when the woman in question is a model or beauty queen. The guide adds that Indians are prone to shake their heads during conversations and visitors should suppress their amusement if they find it funny. For those worried about hygiene, organisers say it is better to avoid public toilet facilities, which can be of dubious cleanliness, and carry tissues or wet wipes. — Reuters

China hit by 26,000 geological disasters this year

2010-08-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

BEIJING: With worst ever geological disasters hitting China in 2010, questions are being raised over the strategy to construct mega dams to divert river waters.

China recorded more than 26,000 geological disasters in the first seven months of this year, nearly 10 times the number in the same period last year, Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi said.

There were only 10,500 geological disasters in China in 2009. This year several counties were hit by mudslides engulfing several multi-storey buildings virtually burying the inmates alive.

In the massive mudslides in Zhouqu County, northwest China's Gansu Province this month 1,434 were killed and 331 were still missing.

Twenty three people were killed in Puladi Township in Gongshan in southwest China's Yunnan Province, two days ago.

Sixty nine others are still missing. Over 2000 people were killed and several hundreds missing in relentless floods this year so far.

Xu attributed the disasters to frequent extreme weather conditions such as severe drought and rainstorms, as well as to the impact of seismic activities and ruled out big dams like Three Gorges, which is the world's biggest dam of its kind responsible.

It was a misconception to blame the mudslides ravaging northwest China on hydropower plants the country has built along major rivers.

"The earthquake jolted many mountains which loosened the earth, the strong rain softened the slopes and landslides happen," Xu said.

He denied that the hydropower plants on Chinese rivers were to be blamed for the frequent mudslides, saying their construction and the disasters were only a coincidence.

"The recent mudslides were absolutely not related to the hydropower stations," he was quoted as saying in the official media here.

China has about 20,000 potential mudslide slopes, most of them in the west, Xu said.

His comments came as dams were increasingly being blamed for floods, landslides and earthquakes due to large scale diversion of river waters.

Besides this year's floods and mudslides, China experienced two major earthquakes during the last two years.

The earthquake in Sichuan province bordering Tibet in 2008 in which about 68,000 people killed.

This year yet another earthquake struck the neighbouring Qinghai where about 2700 people were killed.

Geological disasters such as landslides and mudslides cannot be adequately predicted by current scientific means, Zhang Zuochen, a geologist with China University of Geosciences said.

"We can only predict that a gully is vulnerable to a mudslide and that the disaster will occur under specific circumstances. But we cannot predict when it will occur," Zhang said.

News report: PTI
Pic: Freaking News

Militants Ask Sikhs In Valley To Embrace Islam Or Leave

2010-08-20T01:51:00.001-07:00

Srinagar: Sikhs in the Kashmir Valley have received anonymous letters from Islamic militants asking them to either embrace Islam and join the protests against civilian killings or pack up and leave the Valley. The 60,000-strong Sikh community is the single largest minority group in the Valley, says a Times of India report.

An organisation of Kashmiri Sikhs said that several community members have received these letters. "Community members have received unsigned letters at various places," said All Party Sikh Coordination Committee (ASCC) coordinator Jagmohan Singh Raina. He said the community has decided to stay put and fight these "evil designs" at a meeting in Srinagar on Thursday.

Raina quoted a letter as saying: "When you are enjoying the joys here, why can't you share the grief and sorrow of Kashmiris as well? We know you are afraid of bullets... Hold protests inside gurdwaras or leave Kashmir." He added, "Some letters have asked Sikhs to embrace Islam."

Raina urged both factions of the Hurriyat, JKLF and PoK-based United Jihad Council to take serious note of the threats to maintain amity and brotherhood in the Valley.

Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has reassured the Sikhs saying they shouldn't feel threatened and should ignore the "fake letters". He assured the community that nobody would force them to join the protests.

Earlier, Geelani has made an emotional appeal against forcing minorities to join the protests and said harming them would be like "inflicting a wound on his (Geelani's) body".

The state unit of Akali Dal (Badal) president Ajeet Singh Mastana described the threats as acts by anti-social elements. "The threats can't break us and reduce our love for our motherland," he said.

References: India Tv News

Manmohan Singh tops the list of 10 world leaders

2010-08-19T01:52:00.000-07:00

New York: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tops Newsweek magazine's list of 10 world leaders who have won respect and is described as "the leader other leaders love" though India figures at 78th place in the list of 100 best countries.

The Indian Prime Minister was described as a sophisticated former economist, who has played a key role in the country's emergence as one of the rising powers of the 21st century, engineering the transition from stagnant socialism to a spectacular takeoff in the global economy.

77-year-old Singh, who is into his seventh year in office, has played a "key role in India's emergence as one of the rising powers of the 21st century."

In an article titled "The Leader Other Leaders Love", the magazine said the economist-turned-politician Singh, engineered the transition "from stagnant socialism to a spectacular takeoff in the global economy."

"But it's Singh's unassuming personal style that really inspires awe among his fellow global luminaries, who praise him for being modest, humble, and incorruptible," the magazine said in the article.
It also quotes former International Atomic Energy Agency director-general and Egyptian presidential challenger Mohamed ElBaradei as saying that "the soft-spoken Singh is the model of what a political leader should be."

Besides Singh, British Premier David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud also figure in the list.

However, India figures 78 in the list of 100 best countries in the world with a score of 55.70 out of 100.

The rank was based on five categories of national well-being, education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness, and political environment.

References: CNN-IBN

Dad save me, Some Australians want to kill me!!!

2010-08-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

Ludhiana, August 14

"Dad save me, they have entered my home, they will kill me, please do something, please save me... ,” and the call disconnected. These were the last words of Rajveer to his father, the moment before he was attacked at his house in Brisbane, Australia, on August 8. He was brutally thrashed and strangulated before he was thrown near his house.

Kulwant Singh, father of Rajveer, tried to establish contact with his son but there was no response. After two hours of frantic calls, someone identifying himself to be an employee of a private hospital, responded to the call and told Kulwant that his son was on a ventilator and that chances of his survival were thin.

Last night, around 8:30 pm, friends of Rajveer broke the tragic news to his family that their son fell victim to the hate crime.

“My son had died on August 8, but the Australian authorities deliberately put him on a ventilator to cover up the issue,” said Rajveer’s father.

Kulwant, who runs a grocery shop, had spent all his savings to send him abroad. He had gone to Australia in December 2007, completed his hotel management course from an institute in Melbourne and later settled in Brisbane. At present, he was working in a restaurant.

Rajveer’s mother Manjit Kaur said he was planning to return to India. He had told that he would celebrate the Independence Day with them.

Kulwant Singh said, “Since these hate crime cases started taking place in Australia, I kept on asking him to return. But he insisted that such cases were taking place only in Melbourne. He used to say that Australia was a safe country. But he had to pay a heavy price for his error of judgment.”

His younger brother Harprabhjit Singh and sister Dolma Singh are still in a shock. Now another trouble is staring at the family as it does not have enough financial resources to pay the hospital expenses where Rajveer was admitted. The family has demanded the Indian Government’s intervention in the matter.

http://www.tribuneindia.com

“Fortress Australia” debate the latest blow to enrolments

2010-08-10T02:57:00.000-07:00

The election has come at just the wrong time for international education.

The Coalition has opened up yet another battle front for the besieged international education industry after the Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, turned international students into an election issue.

The Opposition’s new immigration policy, widely reported as an intention to slash student visas, introduced a new reputational problem – the perception that Australia’s leaders, along with some racist citizens, don’t want overseas students in their country.

Arguably the government had already established this perception through its migration reforms, along with both major parties’ obsessions with asylum seekers.

But Abbott focussed the spotlight on international students. In the process he created a new problem for an industry already under siege from the high dollar, the squeeze on student visas, reductions in skilled immigration and intensifying overseas competition – plus the considerable reputational damage already caused by college closures, migration-related rorts, exploitation of students and attacks against Indians and Chinese.

Abbott didn’t actually commit to cutting student visas, brushing the question aside in a press conference following the release of his immigration policy.

He also avoided the question during an interview with the 7.30 Report, saying only that he didn’t want international education to become a de facto route to migration. “We should be selling education, not residency,” he said.

Commentators believe student cuts would be inevitable if the Coalition were in a position to implement its policy, which involves cutting the net immigration intake by around 130,000 a year, while quarantining employer-nominated skills migration and temporary business visas.

“By far the largest contributor to net overseas migration are student entrants,” Abbott said during the press conference.

International Education Association of Australia president Stephen Connelly said the “conflation” of international education and the population debate was “particularly distressing and mischievous”.

“The fact is only 65,000 of 630,000 international students became migrants last year. The other 90 per cent go home, benefit their economies and develop good will towards Australia. We reap the benefit in trade and diplomatic terms.”

Universities Australia said it wanted a balanced immigration debate, not “fortress Australia”. It said universities had become “collateral damage” of perceptions that Australia no longer welcomed international students.

“Limiting the numbers of international students is not a solution to a perceived problem with migration,” it said in a statement.

“As we draw closer to an election, all our political parties must be clear on how they will support Australia’s reputation as a high quality and welcoming destination for university education.”

The Australian Council for Private Education and Training warned both parties that “short-sighted, reckless campaigns to cut migration” would have wide-reaching economic implications and lead to mass job losses across a 120,000-strong workforce.

“A race to the bottom where the winner is the party with the smallest migration program does not serve the country well in the eyes of our regional neighbours and trading partners. Nor will it provide for the continued economic growth that our political leaders crave,” said CEO Andrew Smith.

TAFE Directors Australia’s director of international engagement, Peter Holden, said he wanted a commitment from both political parties “to promote the quality end of the international education market”.

“It’s not enough to keep branding the whole industry based on the cash cow principle.”

by John Ross for http://www.campusreview.com.au

'The chicken came first, not the egg', scientists prove

2010-07-20T01:39:00.000-07:00

But now they believe they have cracked the conundrum of what came first: the chicken or the egg.
British researchers say the chicken must have come first as the formation of eggs is only possible thanks to a protein found in the chicken’s ovaries.

‘It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first,’ said Dr Colin Freeman, from Sheffield University, who worked with counterparts at Warwick University.

‘The protein had been identified before and it was linked to egg formation but by examining it closely we have been able to see how it controls the process,’ he added.

The protein – called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) – acts as a catalyst to speed up the development of the shell.

Scientists used a super computer called HECToR, based in Edinburgh, to ‘zoom in’ on the formation of an egg.

It showed OC-17 was crucial in kick-starting crystallisation – the early stages of forming a shell.

The protein coverts calcium carbonate into calcite crystals which makes up the egg shell, creating six grammes of shell every 24 hours.

Prof John Harding, also of Sheffield University, said the discovery could have other uses.
‘Understanding how chickens make shells is fascinating in itself but can also give clues towards designing new materials,’ he said.

Next challenge: Why did the chicken cross the road?

FIRST MUSLIM NATION - SYRIA BANS THE BURKA

2010-07-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

SYRIA has become the first Muslim country to ban the burka, claiming the face mask encourages Islamic extremism.

The Middle East country has outlawed the controversial clothing which has also been called degrading to women.

Government officials made the move despite the nation’s 22million population being 87% Muslim. It came after several European states launched similar measures.

France voted last week to outlaw the burka in public places and Spain looks set to follow after vowing to discuss the issue this week.

Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Holland are also on the verge of imposing bans.

Yet our Coalition Government has dismissed calls for a ban in Britain on the grounds it would breach human rights.

David Cameron and his Cabinet have come under pressure from Tory MP for Kettering Philip Hollobone, 45. He has refused to meet veiled constituents and wants a private members’ bill in place to make the burka illegal.

But Environment Minister Caroline Spelman says women feel “empowered” by covering their faces.

She said: “I don’t, living in this country as a woman, want to be told what I can and can’t wear. I’ve been out to Afghanistan and I think I understand much better as a result of actually visiting why a lot of Muslim women want to wear the burka.”

The decision to ban the burka in Syria, the birthplace of hate preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, 52, follows calls from parents and students worried that it could lead to religious extremism and support for al-Qaida.

The ban will take place first in universities with plans to extend it to everyday life.

A Government spokesman added: “We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering.”

But he said it would not affect women wearing a hijab, or headscarf.

Opponents of the ban say it violates freedom of religion and “demonises” Muslims.

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of British Muslim youth group the Ramadhan Foundation, said: “I have always supported the right of women to choose how they dress and any attempt to try to stifle the right of Muslim women, as shown by Philip Hollobone, will be strongly challenged.

“The uniqueness of this great nation is its freedom; the right how to dress, speak and live according to one’s own choice. That is why the right of Muslim women to wear the veil should be protected by this Government.”

But Kinda al-Shammat, law professor and women’s rights activist in Damascus, said the ban was in line with the Syrian belief in moderation.

She said the decision could be seen as a step by ministers to enforce its identity as a non-religious government.

Daily Star

Earth hit by mass extinctions 'every 27m years'

2010-07-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

For at least the last 500 million years, say Adrian Melott, an astrophysicist at the University of Kansas, and Richard Bambach, a palaeontologist at the Smithsonian Institute, there has been a burst of extinctions every 27 million years.

Periodic mass extinctions have been posited before, and it has been suggested that it means the Sun has a huge, dark neighbour which orbits it every 27 million years, each time knocking a shower of comets out of the Oort Cloud at the fringes of the solar system and sending them crashing into Earth. This hypothetical dark satellite was called "Nemesis".

But the regularity of the extinctions and the timescale they occur over - the 500 million years examined by Dr Melott and Dr Bambach is almost double that earlier studies have looked at - seem to rule that out.

This is because in the last 500 million years the Sun has had close encounters with many other, known stars. The gravitational pull of these stars would have affected the orbit of Nemesis, causing it to lose the regular 27 million year cycle. The peak should either have been slowly changed by up to 20 per cent, causing it to smear out over the aeons, or to suddenly change, giving two or more peaks on a single cycle. Instead, it is based around a regular 27 million year cycle, with a 99 per cent chance that it's not random chance. The researchers say: "Fossil data, which motivated the idea of Nemesis, now militate against it."

This implies that it is not a hidden celestial body, but something closer to home, since it is unlikely that anything in space would maintain such a regular heartbeat over so long a time.

The extinctions range from utter catastrophe, devastating the majority of species on Earth, to smaller ones like the most recent, which destroyed 10 per cent of known species. And while they happen once every 27 million years, they do not arrive on cue, but up to 10 million years either side of the due date.

However, there is no immediate panic. The last such event took place 10 million years ago, so there should be plenty of time to work out what is going on before the next one comes.

The paper is published in the journal Solar and Stellar Astrophysics. Story via The Register and Technology Review.

By Tom Chivers The Telegraph

INDIAN Policemen were among anti-Sikh rioters in 1984: Witness

2010-07-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: A woman, who lost five of her family members in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, today claimed before a Delhi court trying Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and others that she did not go to the police station after the incident as policemen were among the rioters.

"I did not want to go the police station because the police officials were among the rioters," Jagdish Kaur told Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta.

Recording her statement before the court, she said "I had lost faith in everybody and therefore I did not approach the Chief Minister, Home Minister or any other Minister in Punjab or any other authority."

To a question posed by counsel S A Hashmi, appearing for accused Balwan Khokhar, nephew of Sajjan Kumar, the 69-year-old witness said she came to know about CBI only when they approached her for recording her statement.

The witness, during her cross examination, claimed she saw the mob on the fateful day killing and burning alive of her three brothers Narender Pal, Raghuvinder Singh and Kuldeep Singh, which she had not recorded in her affidavit before different Commissions.

Earlier, before the court could resume proceedings relating to cross examination of witness, senior advocate R S Cheema, appearing for CBI, contended the affidavits and statements filed by the witnesses before Commissions set up under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, could not be used for the purpose of contradicting the testimony of the witnesses.

The arguments of CBI's advocate Cheema was opposed by the counsel for the accused who argued that the statements made before Nanawati and Rangnath Mishra Commissions formed the very basis for registration of the FIR and CBI had relied on those versions.

The court is conducting the trial against Kumar and others on a day-to-day basis.

Kaur had on July 3 identified Kumar and his nephew Khokkar, and other accused Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal as accomplices who had allegedly instigated mobs during the 1984 carnage.

Kaur's family members were killed in the riots that had followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The cross examination of Kaur remained inconclusive and would resume on July 15.

CBI had filed two chargesheets against Kumar and others on January 13 in the riots cases registered in 2005 on the recommendation of Justice G T Nanavati Commission which inquired into the sequence of events leading to the riots.

PTI

UFO scares the bejeezus out of Hangzhou, causes airport closure

2010-07-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Hangzhou's Xiaoshan airport was shut down for about an hour while airport authorities scrambled to figure out what unidentified flying contraption was hovering on their radars. Yep, a UFO closed down the Hangzhou airport.

According to a story that first appeared in Zhejiang Online, the UFO showed up on the airport's radar a little past 8:30pm. Suddenly, airport personnel saw a "shining light" in the air, later confirmed by passengers that were flying at the time.

Out of flight safety considerations, the airport suspended service from 8:41pm onwards and began an extensive aerial search. About an hour later, after not finding anything, they resumed service. The 56 minutes total of "no fly" time delayed 18 flights in total - about 2,000 passengers were stranded for a couple hours as Xiaoshan sorted through the jam.

Though airport spokesmen said the UFO was only visible to radars at the airport, several people around Hangzhou said they witnessed "a glowing object hovering in the afternoon sky and moving weirdly." One man managed to snap a picture of it before it suddenly disappeared.

So what was it? Some have theorized it was a private jet (Hangzhou serves as an easy tourist destination to rich folks from Zhejiang and Jiangsu), others say it was a piece of rocket debris, and at least one official has said it has a "military connection" - which is why more details of the incident can not be divulged.

References: China Daily

Delhi most unsafe for women, finds UN survey

2010-07-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

If you are a woman living in the Capital and you are perpetually scared of being sexually harassed, you're not alone. About 85 per cent of Delhi's women feel the same way, this according to a survey conducted by the Delhi government along with the United Nations and Jagori, an NGO.
The survey was conducted on more than 5000 women in the Capital. According to the study three out of five women reported facing sexual harassment even during the day and 50 per cent of the women interviewed said they were harassed on public transport.
Pragati from Delhi says: "It happens in buses mostly. People make all possible efforts to brush by you. People stalk you at times."

Sweta says: "Even if you are going to roadside market, sexual harassment is something right there."

The study stated that one of the major reasons why Delhi's women feel unsafe is because streets and bus stops are badly lit.
Kiran Walia, Women and Child Development Minister of Delhi says: "We are going to recommend installation of CCTVs to track it in the buses and we also want that sexual harassment should not be a bailable offence and stricter laws are being conceptualised even in the Parliament."
The solution says the Delhi government to have workshops to explain to the police, civic body officials as well as bus drivers and conductors.
That women don't feel safe in the Capital is not new. But these shocking figures that have come about, ironically in a study commissioned by the Delhi government, only makes it worse.

CNN IBN

'Easy' migration, fake certificate lures laid for students

2010-07-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

MIGRATION agents are taking advantage of the federal government's recent immigration changes to charge overseas students tens of thousands of dollars for what some say are bogus services.

A number of agents in Melbourne are now telling students they can migrate easily to countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the United States, for a fee.

Advertisements in the Indian press in Australia, and in flyers given to students at Flinders Street Station, boast of ''easy permanent residency'' in Canada.

One such company, Canada Express Migration, advertises ''100 per cent success in Canada migration''.

Canada Express consultant Saurabh Baid told The Sunday Age his company charged $9000 for Australian students to gain permanent residency in Canada.

''[The] Canadian government has opened their visas left, right and centre, basically,'' Mr Saurabh said.

''Basically, they're giving a visa to every genuine applicant who's got relevant work experience and qualifications.''

This claim could not be confirmed with the Canadian embassy, which declined to answer questions put by The Sunday Age.

Mr Saurabh's company, one of many ''selling'' Canadian migration, had seen 2500 students, mainly from India and Nepal, since Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced his visa changes in February.

Former student Tejashdeep Singh said other agents were charging up to $15,000 for fake certificates from restaurants or hotels in Canada confirming a person would be sponsored to work there.

''They're just selling dreams, saying it's not a problem,'' he said.

Mr Singh said it was one of many money-making activities by agents.

Others charged students $5000, sometimes in instalments, to lodge appeals to the Migration Review Tribunal.

Another agent, whose office is in Swanston Street, was telling students that, despite the new rules, designed by the federal government to cut down on ''back door'' migration, he could still get them permanent residency for a $12,000 fee, Mr Singh said. That agent boasted of a contact in the Immigration Department.

Sayed Kabir, of Kangaroo Immigration and Education Consultancy, offers students a $500 bounty for every fellow student they bring to him to change their course of study or their college.

Mr Kabir told The Sunday Age he had agreements with vocational colleges who pay him a commission for sourcing students, so he was able to ''give some back to the students''.

MICHAEL BACHELARD For The Age

I feel cheated, says Monica Bedi after ‘Desi Girl’

2010-07-02T23:47:00.000-07:00

Former Bollywood starlet Monica Bedi, who is the latest to be ousted from Imagine TV’s reality show ‘Desi Girl’, has lashed out against the producers for manipulating the footage of the show and depicting her in bad light.

‘When Rohit (Roy) asked me ‘Till what extent can you go to win the show?’, I had said: ‘Till any extent, but which is dignified and justified’. But on screen, it was only shown as ’till any extent’. That gave a wrong impression about me,’ Monica told IANS over the phone from Mumbai.

The 35-year-old is upset with the way the show has been handled, but clarified that she has nothing against the channel, Imagine TV.

‘Honestly, the reality show does not justify the word reality as there is nothing in the show that one could say is real. The show took a dirty turn when all the other contestant started playing mind games and targeted me as they knew I was a strong contender. They knew if they didn’t pull me out I would win the show,’ Bedi said.

‘Desi Girl’, hosted by popular actor Rohit Roy, started with eight glamour girls – Sambhavna Seth, Kashmera Shah, Roshni Chopra, Monica Bedi, Anmol Singh, Rucha Gujarati, Ishitta Arun and Aushima Sawhney.

Based in Sialba Majri village near Chandigarh city, it is a test for these urban girls to survive the tough village life.

Monica says she could have fought against her elimination, but chose not to, so that the village doesn’t get divided due to their temporary cat fights.

‘I am against the format of the show and the production house BBC who called me up from Mumbai and asked me to leave the show as it was not going according to their will,’ she added.

‘I knew I was the strongest but still I left the show because I knew we girls would eventually leave but the bitterness that was spreading across the village, could have left a deeper impact,’ she said.

After Monica’s walkout, the show is left with three finalists – Kashmera Shah, Ishita Arun and Roshni Chopra.

Monica has acted in films like ‘Pyaar, Ishq Aur Mohabbat’, ‘Jaanam Samjha Karo’, ‘Kaala Samrajya’, ‘Tirchhi Topiwale’ and ‘Jodi No.1′. She has also featured on reality shows like ‘Bigg Boss’ and ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’.

IANS

‘US investing heavily in ties with India’

2010-06-30T03:42:00.000-07:00

Washington: The US is investing heavily in its relationship with India as it believes that Indo-US ties is going to be the defining partnership of the 21st century, a top White House official has said.

"I don't think there's any question but that the relationship with India is going to be one of the most important relationships for the US over the next generation," said Larry H Summers, Director of National Economic Council.

"That's why we have invested heavily in that relationship and certainly, as (the US) President (Barack) Obama's intention to continue investing in that relationship," Summers said in response to a question after delivering remarks on technological opportunities, job creation and economic growth.

"You realize that a generation from now they will be two of the three largest economies in the world. And I think we have an enormous stake in our relationship," he said.

"My hope it will be one of a deepening flow of everything: A deepening flow of telecommunications, a deepening flow of student exchanges, a deepening flow of tourism, a deepening flow of foreign investment, a deepening flow of international trade, a deepening flow of diplomatic contact that discussed the architecture of evolving global system," Summers said.

PTI

New Delhi among 10 worst cities for commuters

2010-06-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

If you think your drive to work is bad then spare a thought for commuters in the cities of Beijing, Mexico City and Johannesburg which have come top in a global poll of the worst driving commutes in the world.
An IBM Commuter Pain Study of 8,192 motorists in 20 cities, released on Wednesday, found most commuters -- 67 percent -- said traffic has got worse in the past three years and it is making them sick and affecting how they do their job.
Rounding out the top 10 of the worst cities for commuters were Moscow, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, Milan, Buenos Aires, Madrid and London, with scores determined by up to 10 factors including commuting time, time stuck in traffic, and stress levels.

The survey found 65 percent of people driving to work every day say the journey makes them stressed, angry and reduces their sleep and family time while 29 percent said traffic was adversely impacting their performance at work or school.
Some cities came out worse than others with 22 percent of commuters in Mexico City taking more than an hour a day for a typical one-way trip to work compared to only two percent of commuters in New York or Madrid taking that long.
"Cities like Beijing and Mexico City have very long commutes and the uncertainty of the commute is high as one day it can take 45 minutes and the next day two hours," IBM's Global Lead for Intelligent Transportation Naveen Lamba told Reuters.

"This means a lot of time stuck in traffic and on occasions people just give up and go back home ... and it is not just the individuals affected but there is a cost for businesses and for the cities themselves. You have a cascading affect."

Lamba said this was the third annual commuter pain survey but this was the first global poll as the previous two had focused only on U.S. cities.

"When we focused on the United States, the cities you expect - like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago - came up as some of the worst commutes as these are cities where congestion is bad and commutes are long but in a global context they looked very efficient in terms of transportation," he said.

"Developing cities are growing so fast that you are seeing congestion building up very quickly as opposed to large cities in developed countries where congestion has taken decades to build up, giving officials more time to address the problem."

For example the number of new cars registered in Beijing in the first four months of 2010 rose 23.8 percent to 248,000, according to the Beijing municipal taxation office.

He said although Beijing topped the list, most commuters in the Chinese capital said the situation was improving after rapid growth in the city caused enormous congestion.

"In fact Beijing had the highest number of people who said the situation had got better in the past three years (48 percent)," said Lamba.

"Beijing has invested in adding to its transport infrastructure and subway system so we can see why travellers feel it is getting better."

The survey found the top frustrations among commuters were stop-start traffic, which bugged 42 percent of people, and rude drivers, who irritated 32 percent of commuters.

But despite the frustrations and the economic downturn, few commuters had changed the way they go to work with 84 percent saying the financial crisis had not stopped them driving to work.

"Even though commuters say the traffic is getting worse, for some reason people seem fond of their cars," said Lamba who hoped the information from the survey could be used by transport officials to better understand and manage traffic flow.

The other 10 cities involved in the survey were Paris, Toronto, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Berlin, Montreal, New York, Houston, Melbourne and Stockholm.

Pic: Funonthenet.in
Source: Reuters

Telestra network fault infuriates Melbourne businesses

2010-06-30T03:00:00.000-07:00

A Telstra update gone wrong has been blamed for a frustrating day for about 20 Melbourne businesses left with faulty email and internet facilities.

A furious employee of one of the businesses contacted The Agethis afternoon to report the problem after her latest contact with the telco.

"It's just been incredibly frustrating," the employee said.

The woman said her business, which she asked not be identified, first noted a problem about 7.45am and was initially told it would be fixed by midday.

Telstra had said the problem was caused by updates at the Exhibition Street exchange that had gone wrong, she said.

The problem left the business, which employed about 25 workers in Melbourne, unable to send emails or access the internet on the last day of the financial year.

In its latest call around 3pm, Telstra told the employee the problem had affected about 20 businesses and would be fixed by the end of the day.

"We're not sure if that means 5pm or midnight," she said.

"It's just ridiculous."

The outage is another blow to the telco, which yesterday infuriated punters unable to purchase tickets in last night's $50 million Oz Lotto draw.

Oz Lotto's ticket sales system went on the blink just after 1.30pm, affecting newsagents across Melbourne for more than an hour.

A Telstra spokesman said yesterday a number large Victorian customers, including some banks and government departments, experienced outages of up to two-and-a-half hours.

Customers' internet connections, telephones, other data services and about 20,000 ADSL services were affected by the outage, caused by a hardware failure about 1.20pm.

The spokesman said Telstra was not aware of any "significant issues" in Melbourne today but the company apologised if customers had been without service.

"Obviously, we want them to get back up and running as soon as possible," he said.

The Age.

Indian rupee set to get a new symbol

2010-06-24T02:42:00.000-07:00

The Indian rupee will soon join the elite club of major currencies like the dollar, euro, pound sterling and yen to have a unique identification symbol. The Cabinet will decide on the matter on Thursday and is likely to approve a symbol reflecting the Hindi alphabet standing for 'R'.

The proposal involves a list of 5 symbols for the Indian rupee drawn up by the Finance Ministry, which reflect India's ethos and culture. The 5-shortlisted signs are simple, easy to write and designed to appeal to Indian and international community.

The proposal, said to be prompted by the growing influence of the Indian economy in the global arena, involves a shortlist of five symbols for the Indian rupee drawn up the finance ministry, reflecting the Indian ethos and culture.
The rupee is only referred to by the abbreviation 'Rs' or 'Re' or sometimes as INR while major foreign currencies have their own distinct symbols, in addition to their abbreviations -- USD etc.

The same abbreviated forms -- 'Rs' or 'Re' -- are also used in neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The cheapest show on air in India: Desi Girl on NDTv Imagine

2010-06-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Great concept, fun filled reality show how girls who live in city adopt, accept as a challenge the culture, customs and traditions of an Indian village.
The show started with not very popular - Ishitta Arun, Anmol Singh, Rucha Gujarati, Aushima Sawhney and some very popular faces of Indian Bollywood and Television Industry– Roshni Chopra, Kashmira Shah, Sambhavna Seth and Monica Bedi.

NDTv Imagine has telecasted some of the great shows in past like – Ek packet umeed, Mein teri parchahyi hoon, Radha ki betiyaan etc. but from the last few days, the Tv channel has started concentrating on the presentation of some cheap shows including celebrity swaymvers (marriage shows). They are continuing their trend of showing poor quality, cheap shows with Indian Desi Girl.

Just after few episodes, the ugliness of the show-format emerged out in open, in every single episode the show has introduced some cheap gimmicks to prop up a really cheap, biased show. The show-format is extensively unfair and influenced. The show has different and biased rules for all girls in every episode, the host Rohit Roy, is not just unbearable but also awful. He has selected his favorites – Kashmira Shah and her gang of girls – Ishitta, Aushima, and Roshni for this reason his style of questioning to all the other contestants are different and unusual. He asks question to Ishita as why you should be in the show? And at the same time to Monica Bedi – why you should be out of the show. He steps in involving the major decisions of the judge celebrities to declare who are the winners and even doesn’t hesitate to comment on decisions – unfairly and unreasonably when judges select the deserving participant other than who are not in Mr. unfair Rohit Roy’s list of favorites. Absolutely ruthlessness.

The show has tried its best to defame Monica Bedi and Sambhavna Seth. Show has showed its viewers only one side of the story and it appears all the other girls are really nice and Sambhavna and Monica are wrong, when that is half-truth, yes they speak their minds but that do not categorize them as in the wrong boat of participants. Almost all the girls are plotting and planning but when it comes to Monica, and Sambhavna – Rohit has evidently mentioned on camera their names and said how they are badmouthing, backbiting and defaming other contestants – when they were speaking the truth. Girls have made a pact and all are against Monica and Sambhavna including the reality show’s production team.

This is a live example of how a production team and its host botched up a really interesting and promising show and unique concept.

Source: Stylo Aunty June-July, 2010.

Indian companies created 60,000 jobs in US, says report

2010-06-16T06:23:00.001-07:00

Although India has become synonymous with outsourcing, Indian companies created nearly 60,000 jobs in the US between 2004-09 through nearly 500 investment and acquisition deals worth USD 26.5 billion.
This fact was highlighted in a report, "How America Benefits from Economic Engagement with India,' released by influential Congressman Jim McDermott in the presence of India's Deputy Ambassador to the US, Arun Singh.

The study comes on the heels of US President Barack Obama ending tax incentives to US companies that move jobs outside the country. Instead, his government would route the incentives to those creating jobs inside the US, he had said last year.

"We will stop letting American companies that create jobs overseas take deductions on their expenses when they do not pay any American taxes on their profits," Obama had said. The report released yesterday investigates one specific aspect of globalisation of the American economy, namely, the United States-India business relationship.
During 2004-2009, 90 Indian companies made 127 greenfield investments worth USD 5.5 billion, and created 16,576 jobs in the US. Greenfield investments are investments made to start a new venture by constructing new operational facilities from the ground up.

The top three destination states for greenfield investments were Minnesota, Virginia and Texas, in that order.
It is noteworthy that the software and IT services sector, which account for bulk of the outsourcing deals,
received less than 15 per cent of the total investment. The investments mainly were in mining, manufacturing, and other industries, the report said.

The top three states in terms of jobs created were Ohio, Texas, and California, the report said. During 2004-09, 239 Indian companies made 372 acquisitions in the United States. The five US industrial sectors that received the most
greenfield investment were metals; software & IT services; leisure & entertainment; industrial machinery, equipment & tools; and financial services, accounting for almost 80 per cent of total greenfield investment in the US.

The report, jointly produced by University of Maryland, India-US World Affairs Institute and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, gives a comprehensive analysis of America's economic engagement with India during the period 2004 to 2009. A 2004 Goldman Sachs report had forecast that nearly six million US jobs would be shifted overseas to low-wage countries like India.

The Press Trust of India

Guilty verdicts 25 years after Bhopal disaster by an Indian court

2010-06-07T01:11:00.001-07:00

AN Indian court has found eight people guilty over the 1984 Bhopal gas leak, including the then-head of the company blamed for poisoning tens of thousands of people.

A lethal plume of gas escaped from a storage tank at the US-run Union Carbide pesticide factory in the early hours of December 3, 1984, killing thousands instantly in the world's worst industrial catastrophe.

Among those found guilty in the local state court today was the chairman of the Indian unit of US group Union Carbide, Keshub Mahindra.

All eight were to be sentenced at a later date.

They were originally charged with culpable homicide but - to the outrage of survivors and victims - the Supreme Court in 1996 reduced the charges to death by negligence with maximum imprisonment of just two years.

"Even with the guilty judgment, what does two years punishment mean?" said Sadhna Karnik, of the Bhopal Gas Victims Struggle group.

"They will be able to appeal against the judgment in higher courts," he said.

Government figures put the death toll 3500 within the first three days but independent data by the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) puts the figure at between 8000 and 10,000 for the same period.

The ICMR has said that until 1994, 25,000 people also died from the consequences of gas exposure.

Government statistics compiled after 1994 concluded that at least 100,000 people living near the factory in central Madhya Pradesh state were chronically sick, with more than 30,000 residing in areas with contaminated water.

Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide in 1999 but says all liabilities related to the accident were cleared in a $US470 million out-of-court settlement with the Indian government in 1989.

A statement released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the disaster said the settlement "resolved all existing and future claims" against the company.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a statement marking the 25th anniversary describing Bhopal as a tragedy that "still gnaws at our collective conscience" and vowed continued efforts to tackle the issues of drinking water and site decontamination.