One in 200 stars has habitable Earth-like planets surrounding it – in the galaxy, half a billion stars have Earth-like planets going around them – that’s huge, half a billion. So when we look at the night sky, it makes sense that someone is looking back at us. – Michio Kaku
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Monday, 23 November 2015
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Do You Know . . . Fact about your Lifeless Friend
This is the era of technology . where lifeless particles have been ruling over our mind & sometimes on our body lol .
Mobile phone is one of them , nowadays called Smartphone . it's a lifesaving technology there is no doubt about that . But some way it's making peoples lazy . Since the day Smartphone entered in our life . Peoples completely depending on it to remember contacts, plans & what to do next, hence they are losing their ability to calculate & Remember the thing manually . . while Some other people think that they will became smarter by having Smartphone , which is actually not . .
So let's know few fact about Smartphone & it's origin
The very first Smartphone was
IBM Simon Personal Communicator![]()
The Simon Personal Communicator shown in its charging base
BrandBellSouth Designed by IBMDeveloperIBM
ManufacturerMitsubishi Electric Corp.
Compatible networksAMPSFirst releasedAugust 16, 1994Availability by country
United StatesAugust 16, 1994(BellSouth Cellular)DiscontinuedFebruary 1995Units sold50,000PredecessorAngler (code name)SuccessorNeon (code name)TypeSmartphone
Form factorBrickDimensions
8 in (200 mm) H2.5 in (64 mm) W1.5 in (38 mm) D
Weight18 oz (510 g)
Operating systemDatalight
ROM-DOSCPUVadem 16 MHz, 16-bit, x86-compatibleMemory1 MBStorage1 MB
Battery7.5V
NiCadData inputs
MicrophoneTouchscreen with stylus
Display4.5 in × 1.4 in (114 mm × 36 mm), 160px x 293px monochrome backlit LCDConnectivity
2400-bps
Hayes-compatiblemodem33-pin connector9600-bps Group 3 send-and-receive faxI/O connection portPCMCIA type 2
While the First Mobile phone was invented by Martin Copper
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Few Basic Things Of English (Helpful for those who want to learn Spoken English)
Especially in India there are many people who can't speak English properly . . That's the reason why they feel uncomfortable & uncompleted when they interact with modern people . Hence to compete with the modern world thy spent lot of money to learn English .
But for those who can't spent Here are few basic points containing details about Tense & Aspects . which will be Helpful to Start learning . .
Aspects of the present tense:
Present simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I eat"
Present progressive(progressive, not perfect): "I am eating"
Present perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I have eaten"
Present perfect progressive(progressive, perfect): "I have been eating"
(While many elementary discussions of English grammar classify the present perfect as a past tense, it relates the action to the present time. One cannot say of someone now deceased that he "has eaten" or "has been eating". The present auxiliary implies that he is in some way present (alive), even if the action denoted is completed (perfect) or partially completed (progressive perfect).)
Aspects of the past tense:
Past simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I ate"
Past progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I was eating"
Past perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I had eaten"
Past perfect progressive(progressive, perfect): "I had been eating"
Aspects can also be marked onnon-finite forms of the verb: "(to) be eating" (infinitive with progressive aspect), "(to) have eaten" (infinitive with perfect aspect), "having eaten" (present participle or gerund with perfect aspect), etc. The perfect infinitive can further be governed by modal verbs to express various meanings, mostly combining modality with past reference: "I should have eaten" etc. In particular, the modals will and shall and their subjunctive forms would and should are used to combine future or hypothetical reference with aspectual meaning:
Simple future, simple conditional: "I will eat", "I would eat"
Future progressive, conditional progressive: "I will be eating", "I would be eating"
Future perfect, conditional perfect: "I will have eaten", "I would have eaten"
Future perfect progressive,conditional perfect progressive: "I will have been eating", "I would have been eating"
. . . The above article was about 3 types of Tenses & their Aspects . . These are for starting only . . as First lesson of study . to study more wait for next articles . . Thank you
Friday, 16 October 2015
Nayaksp : A great place to find mental peace Ratnagiri
Ratnagiri a place where i've founded myself is located in the Jajpur district in the state of Orissa, is a renowned Buddhist holy destination. The place consists of several important Buddhist sculptures spotted around the hills. According to some excavations, the history of the region is associated with 6th Century AD and the Gupta Dynasty.
As per an excavation, a huge monastery at Ratnagiri dates back to the Mahayana sect. It also revealed that the kings like Ashoka of the Gupta dynasty publicized Buddhism in this area. There has been found a number of other hints of Buddhism, including the Monastery, Stupas, Chaityas, among others. Ratnagiri is believed to be a superb destination of learning for the Budhism of Tantric cult that is Vajrayana. The region also witnessed the blossoming of the Kalchakrayana, as clued by Tibetan Buddhist texts.
MAJOR ATTRACTIONS:
The Stupas
Ratnagiri is dotted with several Stupas, displaying a bright picture of Buddhism in the ancient India, the period it flowered in its full. Furthermore, they very strongly say Ratnagiri is the only site with such gigantic Stupas. It was helped by villagers who added Stupas located at nearby places into the region.
The Monasteries
The monasteries located here portray the glorious past of Ratnagiri and the vicinity area to the visitors. The stylishly-built monasteries signify the cultural richness of history of the region in terms of Buddhism. The Ratnagiri monastery displays 24 cells, a large courtyard, a shrine in the front, a lobby and more than that.
The Motifs
The motifs, referred as Kunjalata and Patralata in Oriya, indicate the process of cultural transfer and adoption of stuffs from Buddhism in Orissa. People can observe several art and style trends in Orissa alike that of Buddhists.
CONNECTIVITY:
Ratnagiri is well-connected by air, rail and road transport. Its closest airport is Bhubaneswar networked to all the important cities across India. Its nearest Railway Station is Cuttack, 70 km far from Ratnagiri and networked with all the important stations in the country. Ratnagiri also can be approached by road from Cuttack via direct and regular buses running between the two destinations.
Thursday, 15 October 2015
Konark a Beauty
Built in the thirteenth century, it was conceived as a gigantic solar chariot with twelve pairs of exquisitely-ornamented wheels dragged by seven rearing horses. The temple comprised a sanctum with a lofty (presumably over 68 m. high) sikhara, a jagamohana (30. m. square and 30. m. high) and a detached nata-mandira (hall of dance) in the same axis, besides numerous subsidiary shrines. The sanctum and the nata-mandira have lost their roof. The nata-mandira exhibits a more balanced architectural design than that of other Orissan temples. The sanctum displays superb images of the Sun-god in the three projections which are treated as miniature shrines. The sanctum and the jagamohana together stand on a common platform studded with an intricate wealth of decorative ornaments and sculptures, often of a highly erotic type.
The roof of the jagamohana, made of horizontal tiers grouped in three stages with life-size female sculptures of matchless charm and delicacy adorning each stage, the whole surmounted by two stupendous crowning members, produces a picturesque contrast of light and shade and is unparalleled for its grandeur and structural propriety. Majestic in conception, this temple is indeed one of the sublimest monuments of India, notable as much for its imposing dimensions and faultless proportions as for the harmonious integration of architectural grandeur with plastic elegance.
Mayadevi Temple :- To the west of the main temple are the remains of temple no.2 popularly called the temple of Mayadevi, believed to have been one of the wives of Lord Surya. But the presence of the sun images as parsvadevata in-situ indicate its dedication to the sun god, built earlier than the main Sun temple. The temple facing east, consists of a sanctum (deul) and a porch (Jagamohana) standing over a raised platform, façade of which is relieved with ornamentation. The superstructures of the sanctum and porch are missing. The interior of the porch is notable for their sculptural treatment while the sanctum is devoid of any deity. Stylistically, the temple is assignable to circa late eleventh century AD.
Vaishnava Temple:- The small brick temple facing east in south-west corner of the compound was discovered in 1956 during the sand clearance. Also called temple no.3 is pancharatha on plan. It consists of a deul and a Jagamohana but with the superstructure is missing and devoid of any exterior decoration. Images of Balarama and two parsvadevatas of Varaha and Trivikrama were unearthed (now displayed in Archaeological Museum, Konark) proving its Vaishnava affiliation. The temple is datable to circa eleventh century A.D.
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Thursday, 14 May 2015
How to make Oxygen on mars..?
Nasa Looks to Make Oxygen on Mars Using Microbes
Future human missions to the Red Planet may not have to carry heavy oxygen cylinders with them. Scientists are working on ways to produce the life gas on Mars itself. Nasa is looking at creating ecosystems able to support life, for future human missions.
As part of this goal, it is funding Indiana-based company Techshot Inc. to research a solution that will produce oxygen that won't rely heavily on the Earth for future Martian colonies, www.ign.com reported.
"This is a possible way to support a human mission to Mars, producing oxygen without having to send heavy gas canisters," Eugene Boland, chief scientist at Techshot, was quoted as saying.
"Let's send microbes and let them do the heavy lifting for us," he added.
Techshot's experiments are carried out in a "Mars room" which simulates Mars' atmospheric pressure, day-night temperature changes and the solar radiation.
Using Martian soil, the scientists test the feasibility of using ecosystem-building pioneer organisms to produce oxygen. The organisms could also remove nitrogen from the Martian soil.
Boland believes habitable biodomes that "enclose ecopoiesis-provided oxygen through bacterial or algae-driven conversion systems" could exist on the Martian surface in the near future.
Nasa says its goal of landing astronauts on Mars in the 2030s is vital for obtaining evidence of life.
Nasa's Curiosity rover recently found evidence of fixed nitrogen and carbon-containing organic molecules -ingredients for life - on Mars' surface.
It is also now thought that ancient Mars held waterways and vast oceans covering its northern hemisphere.
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Cheapest microcomputer CHIP
Meet Chip, the 'World's First $9 microcomputer
Next Thing, the company that launched OTTO (a hackable gif camera) last year, is now back on Kickstarter with its $9 (approximately Rs. 575) microcomputer, called Chip. The Chip is an Open Hardware microcomputer of the type popularised by the Raspberry Pi, with a single circuit board the size of a credit card and no screen or keyboard; though it can be connected to a monitor and keyboard and put to use. The company touts that the Chip is the "world's first $9 computer". At the time of writing, the Kickstarter campaign of Next Thing had crossed the $50,000 (approximately Rs. 32 lakh) goal and was around $620,000 (approximately Rs. 4 crore) mark.
For a pledge of $9, backers will get the Chip microcomputer single circuit board and is expected to start shipping in December this year. Backers can opt for an optional VGA adaptor or HDMI adaptor by shelling out extra $19 and $25 respectively. Both optional adaptors are expected to start shipping in May next year. Importantly, the Chip unlike other similar microcomputers comes with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity built-in.
It's worth noting that Next Thing's plan is not just limited to the Chip and extends to the PocketChip (see above), which makes the single circuit board portable. It features a 4.3-inch (272x470 pixels) touchscreen with resistive touch; QWERTY keyboard; 5 hour battery backup with a 3000mAh battery, and sports a rugged injection molded shell. Backers will have to pledge for $49 to get the PocketChip, which is also expected to start shipping worldwide May next year.
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Some of the key specifications of Chip microcomputer include 1GHz Allwinner 'R8' A13 processor; Mali-400 GPU; 512MB of RAM (DDR3); 4GB of built-in storage; a USB port; a Micro-USB port with OTG functionality support; a microphone jack that doubles as a composite video-out; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0. The Chip also comes preloaded with various open source software including the LibreOffice, for working on documents; Chromium browser, to surf the web, and Scratch, a coding tool to learn the basics of programming by making stories, games, and animations. It is based on an open source operating system.
Explaining the motive behind Chip, Dave Rauchwerk, one of Next Thing's founders, told DIY publication Make, "The $9 becomes really interesting when lots of people can help make it awesome. We wanted to find a way to not only give everyone access to it but to give them the ability to participate in this process of developing it."
"Success for us is them seeing what we've done and being excited about it and backing it," Rauchwerk added.
Next Thing's Chip microcomputer is seen as a direct competitor to Raspberry Pi 2 Model B priced at $35, which was launched in February.
Monday, 11 May 2015
We are the Most advanced Civilisation in The Universe
No Evidence of Advanced Civilisations in 100,000 Galaxies, Say Scientists
After searching 100,000 galaxies for signs of highly advanced extraterrestrial life, a team of scientists using observations from Nasa's WISE orbiting observatory has found no evidence of advanced civilisations in them.
The team also discovered some mysterious new phenomena in our own Milky Way galaxy.
"The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonized by an advanced space-faring civilisation, the energy produced by that civilisation's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths," said lead researcher Jason T. Wright, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Centre for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University.
Freeman Dyson, a theoretical physicist, had proposed in the 1960s that advanced alien civilizations beyond Earth could be detected by the tell-tale evidence of their mid-infrared emissions.
It was not until space-based telescopes like the WISE satellite that it became possible to make sensitive measurements of this radiation emitted by objects in space.
Roger Griffith, researcher at Penn State and the lead author of the paper, scanned almost the entire catalogue of the WISE satellite's detections - nearly 100 million entries - for objects consistent with galaxies emitting too much mid-infrared radiation.
He also examined and categorized around 100,000 of the most promising galaxy images.
"This research is a significant expansion of earlier work in this area," said Brendan Mullan, director of the Buhl Planetarium at the Carnegie Science Centre in Pittsburgh.
"As we look more carefully at the light from these galaxies, we should be able to push our sensitivity to alien technology down to much lower levels and to better distinguish heat resulting from natural astronomical sources from heat produced by advanced technologies. This pilot study is just the beginning," Wright concluded.
The study will be published in Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Saturday, 9 May 2015
Facebook & women
Women, Don't Get 'Thinspired' on Facebook
Viewing images of extremely thin women on Facebook and other social media platforms can trigger body dissatisfaction and eating disorders among women, reveals a new study. Such images, often cropped to remove heads or focus on specific body parts, lead young women to think that is what they should look like.
Imagine a teenage girl or even a young woman looking for inspiration using terms such as attractive, fit or pretty.
"She will likely find images of headless, scantily clad, sexualized women and their body parts on social media," said Jannath Ghaznavi from the University of California, Davis.
For the study, Ghaznavi and associate professor Laramie Taylor examined about 300 images from Twitter and Pinterest postings that used the terms "thinspiration" and "thinspo" to tag images and ideas promoting extreme thinness and often casting eating disorders in a positive light.
Images from Twitter, popular among younger audiences, were most likely to be cropped to remove heads and focus on specific body parts compared to Pinterest.
"This could prompt these girls and women to resort to extreme dieting, excessive exercise or other harmful behaviours in order to achieve this thin ideal," Ghaznavi added.
Repeated exposure to such content can result in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes.
The paper was published in the journal Body Image: An International Journal of Research.
Friday, 1 May 2015
END OF A MESSENGER
Nasa's Messenger Probe Crashes on Mercury After 11-Year Mission
An unmanned Nasa spacecraft has crashed on the surface of the planet Mercury, after it ran out of fuel following a successful 11-year mission, the US space agency said Thursday. The MESSENGER probe short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, and issued a final farewell on Twitter shortly before its demise at 3:26 pm (1926 GMT).
"Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye to all my friends, family, support team. I will be making my final impact very soon."
Shortly after, the official @MESSENGER2011 Twitter account posted another image of Mercury's surface, with the caption: "MESSENGER's LAST ACT? THAT'S SMASHING!"
The image was not of Mercury's fall. Nasa has said previously that there could be no real-time pictures of the impact, which would take place on the side of the planet facing away from the Earth.
But the US space agency confirmed that the probe had indeed crash-landed.
"A Nasa planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end Thursday when it slammed into Mercury's surface at about 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second) and created a new crater on the planet's surface," the agency said in a statement.
The spacecraft itself was just about three meters long.
The crater it would cause was expected to be 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter, Nasa said.
The mission, which launched in 2004, had achieved "unprecedented success," with its top discovery being that Mercury had lots of frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters on the planet closest to the Sun, the US space agency said.
"Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating MESSENGER as more than a successful mission," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for Nasa's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
"The MESSENGER mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission analyzing the exciting data already in the archives, and unravelling the mysteries of Mercury.
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
How memories are made
Insight Into How Memories Are Made Could Herald Alzheimer's Treatments
Researchers have gained fresh insights into the changes at molecular and cellular level in the brain while forming memories.
The findings can help people with Alzheimer's get back their memories, the researchers said.
Every time we make a memory, somewhere in our brain a tiny filament reaches out from one neuron and forms an electrochemical connection to a neighbouring neuron.
The filaments that make these new connections are called dendritic spines and, in a series of experiments, the researchers report that a specific signalling protein, Asef2, plays a critical role in spine formation.
This is significant because Asef2 has been linked to autism and the co-occurrence of alcohol dependency and depression.
"Alterations in dendritic spines are associated with many neurological and developmental disorders, such as autism, Alzheimer's disease and Down Syndrome," said lead researcher Donna Webb, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University.
"However, the formation and maintenance of spines is a very complex process that we are just beginning to understand," Webb said.
Neuron cell bodies produce two kinds of long fibres that weave through the brain: dendrites and axons.
Axons transmit electrochemical signals from the cell body of one neuron to the dendrites of another neuron.
When one of the dendritic filaments makes contact with one of the axons, it begins to adhere and to develop into a spine.
The axon and spine form the two halves of a synaptic junction. New connections like this form the basis for memory formation and storage.
Autism has been associated with immature spines, which do not connect properly with axons to form new synaptic junctions.
However, a reduction in spines is characteristic of the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. This may help explain why individuals with Alzheimer's have trouble forming new memories.
"Once we figure out the mechanisms involved, then we may be able to find drugs that can restore spine formation in people who have lost it, which could give them back their ability to remember," said Webb.
The findings were published in Journal of Biological Chemistr
Monday, 27 April 2015
Few things that you should never do in life
We all use to live in a world of competition. Where we always need to prove ourself better than others & some time the best . Cause the generation we are living in is all about showing off .
I think all of us might have experiance a time where all of our attempt to impress a person (really close to our heart) result neagatively . Which lead a relationship towards brak up or make us ashamed .
To prevent all this kind of things we must know what we should do or don't .
Here are few of the things we should never do
* Mess with another man's automobile. We don't care
if he stole your wife, your job, and your dog. It's
blasphemy.
*. Send an angry e-mail. Have the huevos to pick up
the phone or, better yet, have a téte-à-téte. Fireworks
aren't just for Independence Day.
* Dismiss a woman who shows any interest in
watching baseball with you. She wants you bad.
* Snoop through her e-mail, closets, or medicine
chest. There's probably nothing there you need to
worry about. But rest assured, you'll find something
you don't want to see.
*. Keep a home-run ball hit by the opposing team. Or
one hit by any player on the juice. We don't care if
it's worth millions. Throw it back or you're a traitor.
*. Forget an undershirt. Go ahead, let 'em see you
sweat. Just don't let 'em see sweat creeping out from
your underarms like dark, foreboding tunnels to your
moistened soul.
*. Four words: inner-thigh adductor machine. It
might be a tough-to-reach muscle group, but there's
never been a better way to strain your self-esteem.
*. Talk politics or religion with new friends. And if
you consider sports one of the two, leave that off the
table as well.
*Talk salary. The more you make, the easier it is to
cheapen your image.
* Have that extra drink. You know, the one that
takes you from hilarious to hyena. Always respect
your tippling point.
*. DIY plumbing. You think it looks easy. Then your
house falls down. Water, like Hulk Hogan's wife, is not
to be flirted with.
* Leer. Sure, her buttons are quivering to rein in her
pendulous bosoms. Sure, it looks "cold in here. " And
sure, each giggle causes her chest to sway
suggestively. But "pervert " isn't a label you can just
peel off.
* Argue with a cop. You were caught. Own up. Accept
defeat. The only thing you win in that battle is a
humid cell and a roommate nicknamed Stabby.
*Hang anything—your cellphone, your keys—on
your belt. You'll never get laid again. True story.
* Pluck your brows. It's okay to groom. It's okay to
like a woman who grooms. It's not okay to groom like
a woman.
* Go tanning. Forget skin cancer. Being trapped
between heating elements is for cheese.
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Do not ignore your pee
The toilet bowl is more than just a body-waste
receptacle. If you know what to look for, it can be a
diagnostic tool.
Your Pee Is Cloudy
The forecast: bacterial infection, especially if there’s a
foul smell or burning sensation. The cloudiness is a
byproduct of white blood cells working to fight germs.
Your Pee Is Bloody
Blood can signal an enlarged prostate or kidney stone
or even cancer. Have it checked out right away.
Your Pee Is Frothy or Foamy
There’s too much protein in your pee, which means
your kidneys aren’t doing their job of filtering it out.
This could signal the start of diabetes or kidney
disease.
Your Pee Is Brown or Rusty
Rust-hued urine can be a bacterial calling card. Blood
sometimes looks brown. The same color change can
also be caused by bilirubin, a liver byproduct that can
signal liver disease.
If you notice any of these in your pee, don’t freak out,
but do schedule an appointment with a doctor or
urologist.
Saturday, 25 April 2015
Would Carbon dioxide be the Future fule . . .!!!
University of california, Berkeley's artificial photosynthesis turns
carbon dioxide into future fuel
Whenever a scientific discovery claims to have solved
one of the world's most critical issues, it's hard not to
get a little bit excited. Today, our hopes are riding high
on the news that Berkeley's University of California might have just
worked out how to solve the problem of climate
change. Working in collaboration with the Department
of Energy and the University of California, researchers
have developed a system that captures carbon dioxide
and turns it into chemicals that can be used to make
plastics, drugs and, even better, biofuel.
Put simply, the system is an artificial form of
photosynthesis using a series of semiconducting
nanowires and genetically engineered E.coli bacteria.
Whereas a plant would absorb carbon dioxide and
produce sugar and oxygen, this system creates
acetate, a building block for various organic
compounds.
In terms of its practical applications, the team can
already extract promising if not yet useful quantities of
each substance. For instance, the process kicks out a
26 percent yield of butanol (biofuel), 25 percent
amorphadiene (base component for anti-malaria drugs)
and 52 percent amounts of PHB (biodegradeable
plastic).
With more time, money, research and some luck, the
team hopes to get those figures up to a level where
the technology is commercially viable . If the system
can be then created on a large enough scale, the
carbon in the atmosphere could be captured and
converted into a sustainable green gas for your vehicle
that wouldn't require pulling more fossil fuels out of
the ground.
Yogurt not gonna make you healthy
A study involving more than 4,000 people has found
no link between the regular intake of yogurt and
improvement in physical health.
"The regular consumption of yogurt is not linked to
health-related quality of life," said lead author Esther
Lopez-Garcia from Autonomous University of Madrid,
Spain.
The study carried out in Spain evaluated whether
there is a link between the regular consumption of
yogurt and the physical and mental improvement in
health-related quality of life (HRQL).
The three-and-half-year-long study involved 4,445
Spanish adults.
"In comparison with people who did not eat yogurt,
those who ate this dairy product regularly did not
display any significant improvement in their score on
the physical component of quality of life and
although there was a slight improvement mentally,
this was not statistically significant," Lopez-Garcia
noted.
Until now, several research papers have suggested
that the consumption of yogurt could influence HRQL
either directly or indirectly.
For the experts, one of the reasons may be because
it is rich in calcium, protecting the bones and which
could help to combat osteomuscular illnesses -- one
of the conditions with greatest negative impact on
the quality of life.
Also, more specifically, its intake has been
associated with lesser weight increase and a lower
rate of cardiovascular diseases.
The new study was published in the Journal of the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Friday, 24 April 2015
Why Android peeing on apple . . . !!!
Android Bot Peeing on an Apple Logo in Google Maps
Google has been known to do crazy things with its Maps -like letting you play Pac-Man on any street - but this one is rather out of left field even by Mountain View's wacky standards.
Open Google Maps in your browser and visit this spot near the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi and you'll be greeted by the image of a giant Android bot peeing over Apple's logo. Is this an easter egg left there by an over-enthusiastic Google developer in the hope it would never be discovered? Or is this some kind of crazy bug? Well, as it turns out, it's none of the above.
Google has a tool called Map Maker that lets anyone submit data for Google Maps. The most likely explanation is that the image is a Map Maker submission by someone who clearly likes taking the piss out of Apple and its fans.
A Google spokesperson gave Mashable Mashable pretty much the same explanation. "Even though edits are moderated, occasionally the odd inaccurate or cheeky edit may slip through our system," he said in a statement to Mashable. "We've been made aware of the issue and are working on getting it removed."
However, at the time of filing this report, the image was still visible on Google Maps app as well as desktop. While Google may not have had anything to do with the image, the fact that it found its way on to Google Maps is an embarrassment for the company and a clear failure of its review process. Team Android, which first reported the 'bug', also points us to the spot inside Google Maps where someone has left Google a reminder that its "review policy is crap."
GET READY TO WELCOME THE INVISIBLE MAN . . .
'Invisible Man' Created in Swedish Lab
Swedish scientists have created for the first time in the lab a perceptual illusion of having an invisible body among humans. The experiment involved 125 participants standing up and wearing a set of head-mounted displays.
The participants were then asked to look down at their bodies but instead of their real bodies, they saw empty space.
To evoke the feeling of having an invisible body, scientists touched participants' body in various locations with a large paintbrush while, with another paintbrush held in the other hand, exactly imitating the movements in mid-air in full view of the participants.
"Within less than a minute, the majority of the participants started to transfer the sensation of touch to the portion of empty space where they saw the paintbrush move and experienced an invisible body in that position," explained Arvid Guterstam, lead author from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.
In a previous study, the same team showed that the same illusion can be created for a single hand.
"The present study demonstrates that the 'invisible hand illusion' can, surprisingly, be extended to an entire invisible body," he noted.
To demonstrate that the illusion actually worked, the researchers would make a stabbing motion with a knife toward the empty space that represented the belly of the invisible body.
The participants' sweat response to seeing the knife was elevated while experiencing the illusion but absent when the illusion was broken.
"It suggests that the brain interprets the threat in empty space as a threat directed toward one's own body," the authors noted.
In another experiment, the team examined whether the feeling of invisibility affects social anxiety by placing the participants in front of an audience of strangers.
"We found that their heart rate and self-reported stress level during the 'performance' was lower when they experienced the invisible body illusion," Guterstam noted.
The results are interesting because they show that the perceived physical quality of the body can change the way our brain processes social cues.
The results suggest that the feeling of invisibility changes our physical stress response in challenging social situations.
The power of invisibility has long fascinated man and inspired the works of many great authors and philosophers such as renowned science fiction writer H.G. Wells who wrote "The Invisible Man".
Recent advances in materials science have shown that invisibility cloaking of large-scale objects such as a human body might be possible in the not-so-distant future.
The article appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
Thursday, 23 April 2015
The Devloping Indian space technology
India getting mature in Space Science
Former Isro chairman K. Radhakrishnan has said India is the "role model" in the world in harnessing space research and explorations for the benefit of the common man. "The vision of Vikram Sarabhai, our founder, was that this high technology (space science) should be beneficial for the people of this country, for the governance of this country and that is what we have been doing in this area. I am happy to say India is a role model in the whole world in how space can be used for benefits of the people in this country," Radhakrishnan said at an event here on Wednesday evening.
He was conferred the annual national award, the P.C. Chandra Puraskaar, by the P. C. Chandra Group.
In his address he stressed on how space science (satellite systems and communication) has helped fishermen, farmers and disaster managers in India in early warnings and other services.
During Radhakrishnan's tenure as the chief of the space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation, India created history by becoming the first country to enter Mars orbit in maiden attempt on September 24, 2014 after a nine-month voyage through the inter-planetary space from Earth.
India also became the first Asian country to have entered the Mars sphere of influence (gravity) in its maiden attempt as a similar mission by China failed in 2011.
Describing India as a "major player" in space technology and explorations, the Padma Bhushan recipient said the Mars' mission's success sparked interest in science and space exploration among children in India.
"It was not only the prestigious position that we did it at one go but it kindled the young generation of the country. The children were there in the school together looking at this event and to me that is a great contribution that we have done to the country and we made all Indians proud that India can do it on its own," said Radhakrishnan, the current chairman, Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, in West Bengal.





