Lion Cells

Founded in 2006, this Silicon Valley start-up aims to make small but powerful lithium ion batteries--which discharge energy as lithium ions move from an anode to a cathode--for power tools, but also has its eye on larger devices like motorcycles and cars. The three-pronged sell: higher energy density (the amount of charge the battery holds), higher power density (strength to rev up larger devices) and increased cycles (the number of times the battery can be recharged). The batteries also offer a vent to release potentially dangerous pressure that builds up from heat generated by those bouncing ions. Backed by Battery Ventures, Lion licenses its technology from SRI, a non-profit sponsor of technology development. According to Chief Executive Jeff Depew, the company's products should hit the market in 2009, if not sooner.

Dubai to Build World’s Largest Arch Bridge

Dubai is set to spend $817-million on building the world’s largest arch bride, at 617-feet tall and 1-mile in length. Expect it to be in service by 2012.

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Robot as good as real dog at easing lonely hours

A friendly dog can make older people feel less isolated--and it appears to make little difference if that wagging tail belongs to a robot doggie or the real thing. Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri compared a 35-pound floppy-eared mutt named Sparky with Aibo, a far-from-lifelike robot dog, to see how residents of three U.S. nursing homes would respond.
"The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments," said Dr. William Banks, a professor of geriatric medicine who worked on the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
Banks said pets have been shown to help older people feel less isolated. "It really improves loneliness considerably," he said in a telephone interview.
But many senior citizens are too frail to care for a pet or have had to give up their own animals when they went to the nursing home. "They really miss that bond," he said.
Banks and colleagues decided to see if a faux fido might offer some comfort.
The researchers studied 38 nursing home residents who were divided into three groups. One got regular visits from Banks' pet Sparky, another got visits from the Aibo Entertainment Robot, a shiny robot dog formerly made by Sony that used artificial intelligence to interact with its environment and express emotion.
The third group got no visits from either dog.
Banks said he had been sure Sparky would have the edge, but to his surprise, both dogs provided virtually equal comfort after seven weeks of visits.
While Aibo has been discontinued, Banks thinks similar robots could offer companionship for older people and might even be programmed to keep tabs on their owners, alerting emergency workers of a sudden fall.
"Loneliness is common in nursing homes," Banks said. "Robots may be very useful for people who cannot for whatever reason have access to a living dog."
Story Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.

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Seeds of Future Agriculture Enter Doomsday Deep Freeze

A barren, treeless island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard may prove to be the last, best hope of agriculture in warmer, more fertile parts of the world. The first batch of 100 million of the most important agricultural seeds were placed into the doomsday repository there today. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is buried deep within a frozen mountainside near the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen that perpetually cools it to –18 degrees Celsius (–0.4 degree Fahrenheit) with or without permafrost. Built to withstand all foreseeable disasters, including a recent earthquake that was the biggest in Norwegian history, it has room to protect at least 4.5 million samples (2.25 billion seeds) in its three man-made caverns.
"The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world's crop diversity," says Cary Fowler, executive director of the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust, which led the project. "Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population.
"Rice was the first staple to be stored in the vault—strains from 104 countries around the globe. Sealed in airtight foil packages and encased in boxes, the seeds will remain viable but dormant in the low temperature and humidity conditions.
Wheat, maize, potato, bean and even watermelon seeds will be placed in Svalbard in coming weeks. All told, 268,000 different varieties from Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Syria, among others, will be the first to enter the deep freeze.
The vault is designed to protect against global-scale disasters—human or natural—that could potentially wipe out agriculture. Similar local seed banks have allowed farmers to recover from recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as provided new varieties capable of growing in changed conditions, such as rice strains that thrive in fields that had been inundated with saltwater after the Asian tsunami in 2004.
"Gene banks are not seed museums but the repositories of vital, living resources that are used almost every day in the never-ending battle against major threats to food production," says Emile Frison, director general of Bioversity International. "We're going to need this diversity to breed new varieties that can adapt to climate change, new diseases and other rapidly emerging threats.
"Such gene banks are themselves vulnerable. For example, a typhoon in 2006 wiped out the Philippines's national rice seed repository. "Unfortunately, these kinds of national gene bank horror stories are fairly common," Fowler says.The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is meant to be the backup of last resort, stocked with copies of different crops from national seed storage facilities. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Germplasm System plans to send more than a million seeds to the vault, including sweet pepper, squash and tomatoes.In the vault's cold isolation, the seeds can keep for hundreds and thousands of years—the grain sorghum alone can last for 20,000 years—effectively allowing agriculture to be restarted in the event of a global calamity, such as nuclear war or catastrophic climate change. But the vault will require some vestiges of human civilization to persist, if only to build the transportation to bring the seeds back out of their new icy home."The world's crop gene pool contained in seeds is essential for increasing crop productivity; mitigating climate change, pests and diseases; and ensuring a genetic resource base for the future," said Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in remarks prior to the opening of the vault. "Seeds are the vehicle of life."

Treasure hunters dig for Hitler's gold

DEUTSCHNEUDORF, Germany (CNN) -- Digging has resumed at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are almost 2 tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room, a prize taken from a Russian castle during World War II.

Treasure hunters began drilling again Tuesday to try to locate the lost Nazi gold.

Heinz Peter Haustein, one of the two treasure hunters and a member of Germany's parliament, said: "We have already hit a hollow area under the surface, it's filled with water and we are not sure if it is the cave we are looking for."
Digging was stopped more than a week ago amid safety concerns, as authorities and the treasure hunters feared that the shaft might collapse and that the cave -- if it is there -- may be rigged with explosives or poisonous booby traps.
At a news conference Friday, Christian Hanisch, the other treasure hunter, said that geological surveying equipment had located a possible cave about 30 feet under the surface containing "precious metals that can only be either gold or silver. The instruments would not have reacted to any other metal like copper." See photos from hunt for lost Nazi gold »
Hanisch pointed out that his father, who was a navigator in the Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force, was one of the troops said to have been involved in hiding art, gold and silver as the Nazis realized that they would lose the war.
He said that when his father died, he left coordinates leading to the spot in Deutschneudorf.
"It's not about getting the reward," Hanisch said at the site. "I just want to know if my father was right and if my instincts were right."

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American University in Dubai streamlines student records

The American University in Dubai (AUD) has streamlined its student record processing, with the deployment of a document management system,
The university has integrated Perceptive Software's ImageNow document management solution with its existing CampusVue administration system, to provide secure management of electronic documents.
The system also includes solutions for document capture and workflow, to improve productivity in the university's administration.
Frank Seifaee, information technology services manager at the AUD said: "Our students records system was a very paper-heavy process. Because documents have to be viewed across different departments we wanted to find a more efficient way of providing controlled access. ImageNow meets all our needs - it's quick to implement, simple to use and has an affiliation with CampusVue.
"Perceptive Software's director of sales, EMEA, Paul Hunt, said: "We're delighted to add The American University in Dubai to our international client list. Perceptive Software is already a leading document management solution for the higher education sector in the U.S., and it's good to know our reputation is spreading on a global scale."

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Roadside cameras that detect BLOOD will catch lone drivers who abuse car-sharing lanes

Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains.
The latest snooping device on the nation's roads aims to penalise lone drivers who abuse car-sharing lanes, and is part of a Government effort to combat congestion at busy times.
The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.
The system's inventors believe it will catch out motorists who try to fool existing CCTV road cameras by placing mannequins in passenger seats or fixing photographs to windscreens.
It will at first be used to police car-sharing lanes in Leeds, but councils across the country have already expressed an interest in using them.
Professor John Tyrer, who headed the Loughborough University team which created the device, said it would reduce congestion.
"It allows you to automatically count people," he said.
"That pools through to the congestion charging, so they can charge differently or reduce the rates dramatically if you've got more people in the cars."
But motoring organisations claim the cameras are a further intrusion on private lives and say car-sharing lanes – which are already in operation in Birmingham and Leeds and are being built on the M1 in Hertfordshire – do not work.
AA president Edmund King said: "Most of us work flexible hours. We don't go to work or come home from work at the same time.
"Car-sharing lanes are incredibly difficult to enforce and, if not many people use them, they're actually a waste of road capacity."
Roads Minister Rosie Winterton said last night she encouraged "innovative solutions" to the problems created by congestion.

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A mysterious dark energy fills the universe

Dark energy makes the universe fly apart like a runaway freight train and keeps space-time flat as a pancake, but what is it?
Hypothetical 'dark energy' is the most popular way of explaining why the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. Dark energy plays a massive part in shaping our reality however nobody seems certain of what the dang stuff actually is. Future space missions hope to solve this mystery and shake up our current understanding of the universe.
The discovery of 'Dark Energy'
In 1998 two rival groups of scientists embarked on research projects to measure the effects of gravity on the expansion of the universe. Since the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, the universe had been expanding. What was unknown was would this expansion go on forever. Was there too little mass in the universe to slow down the expansion - and it would continue forever? Or was the amount of mass in the universe sufficient to not only slow down the growth of the universe, but to eventually pull it all back together to one point?
Both teams got startling results. Instead of slowing or continuing at a steady rate, the universe was expanding faster and faster. A mysterious energy was causing the universe to fly apart.
We have since established that the acceleration of the expansion of the universe begun about 9 billion years ago when dark energy dominated the force of gravity and begun to push the universe apart at an ever increasing rate. These findings were understandably shocking to scientists who thought it most likely we lived in a universe which was gently slowing down due to gravitational attraction.

How do scientists determine how fast the universe is expanding?
Scientists use 'standard candles' to measure the rate of expansion of the universe. These are objects which we know always have the same total brightness. The most reliable standard candles are type 1a supernovae. These are created when a white dwarf star consumes matter from a neighbouring star until it reaches a certain critical mass and it suddenly explodes into a supernova. Because the mass of a star which becomes a Type 1a supernova is always the same, we know how bright the explosion which follows will be - and as well, the characteristic pattern of the dimming of this light.
By measuring how much fainter the light from a Type 1a supernova appears to us on earth we know how far away it must be. However, we still need a way to measure the rate at which these standard candles are moving away from us. To do this, scientists look at the redshift of the light they emitted from the parent galaxy in which the Type 1a supernova appeared. Redshift is the effect of the 'stretching' of light which has travelled a long distance to reach us.
We know that light always travels at the same speed through a vacuum - and that this speed doesn't change over time. However, the amount of energy in the light does change. If the object which emits the light is moving away from us, the wavelength of the light will be 'stretched' which means the energy of the light is decreased. An analogy for this is the change in sound you hear when an ambulance passes. When it begins to move away from you the sound waves are 'stretched' which makes the pitch of the siren lower. The faster the ambulance moves away from you, the more the pitch will change. Distant galaxies are moving away from us as the universe expands, so the light they emit is 'stretched' so it's energy is reduced. The further away the object is from us here on earth, the faster it is moving away from us so the lower the energy of the light we receive.
The scientists who were researching the expansion of the universe in 1998 found that when they compared the light from distant Type 1a supernovae to the redshift of the light in the galaxy in which it was located that it was dimmer than expected. Something was causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate! A 'dark' unknown energy was at work.

Is our universe 'flat'? Read on to learn more...

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Etisalat sets up SMS spam blocking service

Etisalat is taking steps to block the flow of SMS spam, with the deployment of a spam blocking solution from Irish mobile security company Etisalat customers to be protected from mobile spam with AdaptiveMobile solution AdpativeMobile.
The UAE telco will roll out AdaptiveMobile's PolicyFilter SMS to automatically cut out spam sent from outside the Emirates, to protect Etisalat's 6.4 customers from unwanted text messages. The solution has been customized to screen both English and Arabic language messages, although it will only block spam SMS sent from outside the country.
Essa AlHaddad, Etisalat's chief marketing officer commented: "Etisalat is extremely vigilant towards the protection of the individual and we rely heavily on the technology delivered by companies such as AdaptiveMobile to offer our customers total peace of mind. Our subscribers do not want to receive SMS SPAM and Etisalat's pro-active approach to security compels us to continually look at measures that can be adopted to maintain the quality of service on our network and that will support us in ensuring the well-being and satisfaction of our customers."
Lorcan Burke, AdaptiveMobile CEO said: "As mobile operators worldwide continue to vie for customer attention, it is key that customers can feel instantly comfortable and protected through their choice of provider. These sorts of products can give an immediate competitive advantage within such a crowded market."

How to Increase Your Metabolism

If you've trying to lose weight and think your metabolism might be the culprit, there are changes you can make to improve it. But with the commercialism surrounding "metabolism-enhancing" products, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction (or advertising) and pin down techniques that are scientifically proven to change one's metabolism.

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Siamese Sisters

Siamese Sisters

Laughometer measures

For those who believe laughter is the best medicine, now there is a way to measure the dosage. Researchers at Kansai University have developed a machine that can scientifically measure the quantity of a person’s laughter, as well as distinguish between the real and the fake.
The laughter measurement system, which the researchers say will help scientists conduct more detailed research into the physiological effects of laughter on the immune system, relies on a series of electrode sensors that monitor the tiny amounts of bioelectricity generated by certain muscles that flex when you chuckle. The sensors, which attach to a person’s cheeks, chest and abdomen, take 3,000 measurements per second. Sensor data is relayed to a computer, where it is analyzed by special software that determines the nature of the laugh and assigns a numerical score based on the quantity.
The laughter quantity is expressed in terms of “aH” — a unit of measurement developed by the research team. According to chief researcher Yoji Kimura, a Kansai University professor, 1 second of explosive laughter amounts to 5 aH.
The system distinguishes between real and fake laughter by closely monitoring the movement of the diaphragm — the thin sheet of muscle extending across the bottom of the rib cage, which separates the chest organs from those of the abdomen. According to Kimura, the diaphragm does not vibrate significantly when a person pretends to laugh, even when the person’s voice and facial expression appear genuine. On the other hand, when one laughs at something they truly find funny, the diaphragm generates 2 to 5 distinct vibrational waves per second.
At Kansai University on February 21, the researchers publicly demonstrated the system by measuring the laughter of a 30-something-year-old woman and her 5-year-old daughter as they watched a performance by Yoshimoto comedians. The mother, who apparently found no humor in the comedy routine, experienced only slightly more than 0 aH of laughter, while her amused daughter experienced a hearty 42 aH.
The researchers, who spent over a year developing the system, are aiming to create a portable version of the system for use in health and entertainment devices.

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Iran brought 'global powers to their knees' over N-plan

Tehran: The Iranian president said on Wednesday Iran's determination to continue its disputed nuclear programme had brought major powers "to their knees".
In another defiant speech ahead of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran due tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would ignore calls by major powers to halt sensitive nuclear work that has led to two rounds of UN sanctions.
"The Iranian nation will not allow any power to trample even on its smallest [national] right," he said in a televised address to a rally in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.
As well as worrying the West, Ahmadinejad's uncompromising speeches have stoked concerns among moderate politicians in Iran ahead of a March parliamentary election.
Former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, who is running for a parliament seat, said in remarks published yesterday he had quit the post of negotiator over "differences on management mechanism" with Ahmadinejad. He did not elaborate.
The UN nuclear watchdog report was expected to be out tomorrow.
IAEA chief Mohammad Al Baradei has cited "good progress" in resolving outstanding issues although diplomats said the inquiry looked unlikely to be completed by tomorrow.
UN Security Council members will scrutinise the details in his report before finalising a draft for a third and broader round of sanctions, which is now being considered.
"The Iranian nation will to continue nuclear work has won over the will of big powers ... [and] brought them to their knees," said Ahmadinejad, to chants from the crowd of "Death to America" and "Nuclear energy is our obvious right".
"Today [IAEA], which is legally in charge of this case, has prepared a report and announced that Iran's activities are legal and there is no diversion," Ahmadinejad said. "Big powers should respect the agency and its findings."
IAEA has clarified a series of issues under a transparency deal reached with Larijani last August.
Larijani told the Financial Times that Iran had responded to IAEA to show the country's nuclear plans were peaceful. "We have finished answering all their ... questions," he said.
But a senior diplomat close to IAEA said the last and toughest issue remained under discussion - alleged links under military supervision between uranium processing, high explosives tests and design work on missile warheads.
Diplomats said they did not expect this file, also known as "weaponisation" of nuclear materials, to be resolved by the time of IAEA report.
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Etisalat offer 100GB per month 3.5G data package

Etisalat announced today an increase in bandwidth caps and decrease in cost of their 3.5G mobile broadband service. Customers currently using their 400MB per month package (AED 495 per month) and 1GB package (AED 995 per month) will automatically be upgraded to a 100GB service for AED 460 per month.

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Fun Time

An Italian, French and Indian went for a job interview in England .
They were told that they must compose a sentence in English with three main words: green , pink and yellow .
The Italian was first: "I wake up in the morning. I see the yellow sun.
I see the green grass and I hope it will be a pink day."

The French was next: " I wake up in the morning, I eat a yellow banana,
a green pepper and in the evening I watch the pink panther on TV.


Last was the Indian: "I wake up in the morning, I hear the phone
" green green", I " pink " up the phone and I say "yellow ".

Drinking tea may help reduce clogged arteries

Women who drink tea may be protecting themselves from a build-up of artery-clogging plaque, and as a result lowering their risk for heart disease and stroke.Researchers in France analysed ultrasound measures of carotid artery plaque among 6597 people (2,613 men and 3,984 women), aged 65 years or older in relation to tea drinking and other dietary habits, and medical and personal history obtained during in-person interviews conducted from 1999 to 2001. Carotid plaques were evident in 44 per cent of female non-tea-drinkers, in nearly 43 per cent of women who reported drinking 1–2 cups of tea daily, and in only about 34 per cent of those who reported drinking three or more cups per day. The association between fewer instances of carotid plaques and increased daily tea consumption was independent of other dietary habits, major vascular risk factors, age, area of residence and education. But the data did not include information about the types of tea consumed or the duration of tea drinking among participants. It was surprising that no association was found between tea consumption and carotid plaques in men.The findings suggest that older women who drink at least three cups of tea a day are less likely to have plaque in the carotid arteries in their neck than those drinking less tea. However, further research is warranted to find out why the association occurred only among women and not men.
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Missile strikes ailing U.S. spy satellite

A missile fired from a Navy ship struck an ailing U.S. spy satellite Wednesday night and probably succeeded in destroying a toxic fuel tank on board.
The SM-3 missile was fired from the USS Lake Erie in the Pacific at about 7:26 PST and collided with the satellite about 130 miles above the ocean, the Pentagon said in a statement.
"Due to the relatively low altitude of the satellite at the time of the engagement, debris will begin to reenter the earth's atmosphere immediately," the statement said. "Nearly all of the debris will burn up on reentry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should reenter within 40 days."
"Confirmation that the fuel tank has been fragmented should be available within 24 hours," it added.
However, the Associated Press cited an unnamed defense official close to the situation who said officials monitoring the operation saw what appeared to be an explosion, apparently from the fuel tank.
The Pentagon announced last week that President Bush had decided the Navy would try to shoot down the satellite before it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere because its fuel tank contained approximately 1,000 pounds of hazardous hydrazine.
However, some countries had expressed doubts about the operation, with some such as Russia characterizing the operation as little more than a thinly veiled arms test.
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TRA warns Etisalat and du on pricing policy

The UAE's Telecom Regulatory Authority has called on Etisalat and du to avoid pricing techniques such as cross subsidisation and "hooking" customers with long-term contracts, which breach the TRA's price control policy.While the TRA fell short of accusing the operators of attempting to implement illegal pricing policies, it confirmed that it has been forced to reject more than 17% of Etisalat's requests to introduce new marketing offers or service charges.HE Mohamed Al Ghanim, board member and director general of the TRA, said: "The TRA had to review 113 price requests from Etisalat in 2007 that encompass 944 price reviews. Out of the 113, 17.7% were rejected because they did not comply with the PCP, 18.6% were returned to sender because the applications were not complete, where 63.7% were approved."Al Ghanim added that the telecom operators must comply with the TRA's price control policies, and that the operators have to acquire TRA approval when they want to change the prices of their existing services or when they want to provide new services."The PCP aims at protecting the consumers...through preventing practices that may endanger competition such as cross subsidization, hooking the consumers with long-term contracts, pricing some services with less than their actual cost, and other similar practices that contradict with the concept of fair competition," Al Ghanim said.

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BlackBerry blackout still unexplained

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- The company that makes the ubiquitous, addictive BlackBerry smart phones said Tuesday it was still looking into what caused the second widespread service disruption in less than a year.

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The New 7 Wonders

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How to Clean a Sponge

Using the kitchen sponge to clean the table, the dirty counter and possibly the stains on the floor can be dangerous and unhealthy. While the sponge might appear to be clean, sponges can contain 10,000 bacteria, including E. coli and salmonella, per square inch.[1] How do you know you're not harboring germs, yeast, and spores in your sponge? Clean them at least every 3 to 4 days using one of the following effective cleaning methods.

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Amazing "Cloth Physics" Simulator

Watch

paper sculpture

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Indians among most dissatisfied employees in Gulf

Dubai: Indian and Pakistani workers in the Gulf nations are the most dissatisfied with their current employment among all expatriates, initial results of a new survey have showed.
According to a salary survey being conducted by the Arabian Business website, 69 per cent of Indian and Pakistani workers said they were most dissatisfied with their current employment and likely to quit their jobs this year.
Only 16 per cent of Indian and 13 per cent of Pakistani workers said they were less likely to switch jobs, the website said in a report on Sunday.
Around 7,000 workers have responded to the survey till now.
"Gulf businesses face a tough year ahead trying to retain staff, with more than two-thirds of employees indicating they are more likely to leave their job this year than in 2007," the report stated.
It said data collected so far shows a sharp decline in job loyalty across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, led by Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
While Indian and Pakistanis were at the top of the job dissatisfaction table in most GCC countries, in the UAE, South Africans, at 71 per cent, were more likely to change companies in the coming year.
There are around five million expatriate Indians across the six Gulf nations.
In Saudi Arabia, expatriates from Britain were the most likely to seek a new job in 2008 with more than one in 10 indicating an increased likelihood of finding new employment, the report said.
At the other end, Bahrain registered the highest level of company loyalty, but over half of employees still said they planned a job switch this year, compared to just 20 per cent that said they were more likely to stay put.
With the currencies of most of the GCC countries being pegged to the tumbling US dollar, the attractiveness of the region for expatriate workers has gone down in the last couple of years.
"Inflation surged to record highs across the Gulf last year, hitting 14 per cent in Qatar, 7.6 per cent in Oman, 6.2 per cent in Kuwait, six per cent in Saudi Arabia and 4.9 per cent in Bahrain," according to the report.
In the UAE, inflation hit a record 19-year high of 9.3 per cent in 2006. According to analysts, it may soar up to 12 per cent this year.
The full results of the survey are expected next week

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And now a lion riding a horse

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World’s Largest Swimming Pool

You’re looking at the world’s largest swimming pool in the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Algarrobo, Chile. The pool’s more than 1,000 yards (914 m) long, covers 20 acres and holds about 66 million gallons (250,000 m3) of water:The man-made saltwater lagoon has been attracting huge crowds to the San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, on Chile’s southern coast, since it opened last month.Its turquoise waters are so crystal clear that you can see the bottom even in the deep end.It dwarfs the world’s second biggest pool, the Orthlieb – nicknamed the Big Splash – in Morocco, which is a mere 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. An Olympicsize pool measures some 50 yards by 25 yards.Chile’s monster pool uses a computer- controlled suction and filtration system to keep fresh seawater in permanent circulation, drawing it in from the ocean at one end and pumping it out at the other.
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FATHER FORGETS

FATHER FORGETS W. Livingston Larned condensed as in "Readers Digest"
Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.
There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.
At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"
Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive-and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!
Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped.
You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightended with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.
Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding-this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.
And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!
It is feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy-a little boy!"
I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

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Largest diamond in galaxy predicts future of solar system

Astronomers discovered the largest diamond of all times in space. The weight of the precious stone reportedly makes up ten billion trillion trillion carats or five million trillion trillion pounds).
Largest diamond in galaxy predicts future of solar system
BREAKING NEWS

The space diamond is virtually an enormous chunk of crystallized carbon, 4,000 kilometers in diameter. The stone is located at a distance of 50 light years from Earth, in the Constellation Centaurus.
Scientists believe that the diamond is the heart of an extinct star that used to shine like the Sun. Astronomers have already dubbed the space diamond as Lucy in a tribute to the Beatles song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.’
"You would need a jeweler's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond!" says astronomer Travis Metcalfe (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), who leads a team of researchers that discovered the giant gem.
The cosmic stone completely outclasses all diamonds that have ever been found on Earth. The largest diamond weighing 546 carats was found in South African Republic. The diamond, The Star of Africa, resides in the Crown Jewels of England. The Star of Africa was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a 3,100-carat gem.
Lucy, also known as BPM 37093, is actually a crystallized white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon and is coated by a thin layer of hydrogen and helium gases.
The white dwarf is not only radiant but also harmonious. It rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations. "By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth. We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.
Astronomers say that our Sun will die in five billion years and become a white dwarf too. About two billion years after it will turn into a similar diamond that will continue to sparkle in the center of the solar system forever.

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THE SUCCESS OF MARRIAGE

Once upon a time a married couple celebrated their 25 th marriage anniversary. They had become famous in the city for not having a single conflict in their period of 25 years.
Local newspaper editors had gathered at the occasion to find out the secret of their well known 'happy going marriage'.

Editor: ' Sir. It's amazingly unbelievable. How did you make this possible? ' Husband recalling his old honeymoon days said: ' We had been to Shimla for honeymoon after marriage. Having selected the horse riding finally, we both started the ride on different horses.

My horse was pretty okay but the horse on which my wife was riding seemed to be a crazy one.
On the way ahead, that horse jumped suddenly, making my wife topple over. Recovering her position from the ground, she patted the horse's back and said 'This is your first time'.

She again climbed the horse and continued with the ride. After a while, it happened again. This time she again kept calm and said 'This is your second time' and continued.

When the horse dropped her third time, she silently took out the revolver from the purse and shot the horse dead !!
I shouted at my wife: 'What did you do, you psycho. You killed the poor animal. Are you crazy?' .. She gave a silent look and said: 'This is your first time!!!'.' Husband: 'That's it. We are happy ever after. '

Balloons!!

Here are some amazing balloon creations!

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Wonderful Tensegrity structures

Tensegrity structures are visually stunning and their combination with computer enhanced structures is creating renewed interest for architectural applications.Buckminster Fuller coined the term tensegrity when he saw sculptures by Kenneth Snelson and realized that rigid component geodesics were a special case of perfectly balanced compression and tension. Tensegrity refers to structures where compression members (rods) are only connected to each other by tension members (cables). The end result is that the structures appear to float in air.Despite the fact that tensegrity structures are fantastically efficient, few have been built since they tend to have a single point of failure and need adjustment. Recently however, schemes which combine the intelligence of computing and tensegrity structures have lead to proposals of very large scale structures including sky scrapers.Here are our favorite tensegrity links from around the web. Vote for yours.

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Sony's tiny XDV-D500 and XDV-G200 Bravia TVs

Let's break it down TV junkie. Sony's new ¥38,000 (about $355) XDV-D500 features a 3-inch, 432 x 240 pixel resolution display with 160-degree viewing angle, 500:1 contrast, and a battery capable of about 8-hours of TV reception. It can even record up to 10 hours of scheduled programming to 2GB of internal memory. The itty bittier XDV-G200 brings a 2-inch LCD to the show, AM/FM radio too, then ditches the EPG and recording function. This is Japan mind you, so these sets receive digital 1Seg TV -- in other words you can kiss your import fantasies goodbye.

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Sony's tiny XDV-D500 and XDV-G200 Bravia TVs

Let's break it down TV junkie. Sony's new ¥38,000 (about $355) XDV-D500 features a 3-inch, 432 x 240 pixel resolution display with 160-degree viewing angle, 500:1 contrast, and a battery capable of about 8-hours of TV reception. It can even record up to 10 hours of scheduled programming to 2GB of internal memory. The itty bittier XDV-G200 brings a 2-inch LCD to the show, AM/FM radio too, then ditches the EPG and recording function. This is Japan mind you, so these sets receive digital 1Seg TV -- in other words you can kiss your import fantasies goodbye.

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Iran fires rocket from space center

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran fired a rocket from its newly inaugurated space center Monday, laying the groundwork for what it says will be the future launch of its first domestically produced satellite, the semi-official FARS news agency reported.

The "Researcher One" rocket is designed to carry a satellite into a low earth orbit.
The report said the rocket was launched "into space." But similar previous technological achievements announced by the Islamic republic have been greeted with doubt by analysts.
Monday's launch came a short time after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the center Monday, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
Ahmadinejad said Iran's first step in the field of space technology had been taken wisely and precisely, IRNA reported.
"With the launch, Iran has joined the world's top 11 countries possessing space technology to build satellites, and launch rockets into space," state TV said.
In February 2007, Iran announced the launch of "its first satellite into space," the state-run Iranian Students News Agency reported at the time. But the satellite did not reach orbit.
Monday's report did not say how high the research rocket had climbed to.
Space is considered to begin at 60 miles (100 kilometers) above ground. Ham radio satellites orbit from 100 miles up, while communication, weather and global-positioning satellites fly at an altitude of between 250 and 12,000 miles, according to The Associated Press.
Amid fears in the West that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, some experts believe Iran's space program is possibly a cover to improve its military ballistic missiles

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Dutch unveil robot to fill car gas tank

Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit in their car while attendants braved windswept gas stations to fill their tanks may yet see the full-service days return--compliments of a Dutch robot.
Dutch inventors unveiled on Monday a $111,100 car-fueling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.
A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, carefully opens the car's flap, unscrews the gas tank cap, picks up the fuel nozzle, and directs it toward the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.
Credit: Intion Development Here is the TankPitstop in action. To see it in action, watch this TankPitstop video on Intion Development's Dutch-only Web site.
"I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. 'If a robot can do that, then why can't it fill a car tank?' I thought," said developer and gas station operator Nico van Staveren. "Drivers needn't get dirty hands or smell of petrol again."
He hopes to introduce the "TankPitstop" robot (see video) in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year. It works for any car whose tank can be opened without a key and whose contours and dimensions have been recorded to avoid scratching.
Asked whether he would trust his car to a robotic garage attendant, Jelger De Kroon, filling his black Alfa Romeo at a nearby gas station, said, "Why not? I guess I could keep my hands free and clean, but I'd hope they have good insurance."

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Japanese study clears mobiles of brain cancer risk

Using a mobile phone does not increase your risk of brain cancer, according to a new Japanese study that is the first to consider the effects of radiation on different parts of the brain.
The finding adds to the growing body of evidence that mobile phones are safe.
Scientists at Tokyo Women's Medical University compared phone use in 322 brain cancer patients with 683 healthy people and found that regularly using a mobile did not significantly affect the likelihood of getting brain cancer.
They also studied the radiation emitted from different types of phones to assess the affect on different areas of the brain.
"Using our newly developed and more-accurate techniques, we found no association between mobile phone use and cancer, providing more evidence to suggest they don't cause brain cancer," Naohito Yamaguchi, who led the research, said.
His team's findings were published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Scientists around the world have been monitoring the effects of radio-frequency fields on human health for around 60 years.
Public concern over the safety of mobile phones has grown as more and more adults and children rely on them for everyday communication, although the evidence to date has given the technology a clean bill of health.
Despite an explosion in mobile phone use around the world since the 1980s, the number of cases of brain cancer has hardly changed.
A few studies have shown an association between mobile phones and cancer but the majority have found no link. The largest study to date, involving 420,000 people, showed no association with any type of cancer, even after 10 years of use.
"So far, studies have shown no evidence that mobile use is harmful, but we can't be completely sure about their long-term effects. Research is still ongoing," said Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information.

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How Our Genomes Control Diversity

Two research efforts have determined DNA recombination mechanisms that underlie population diversity, how it happens and where in the genetic code it occurs
By Nikhil Swaminathan

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World’s Hairiest Man Looking For Love

Attention ladies! Yu Zhenhuan who holds the dubious record as the hairiest man in the world, is looking for new love:
Yu Zhenhuan, recognised in 2002 as the world’s hairiest man by the Guinness Book of Records, is using an online dating agency.
"I was amazed to see his picture there, since I’d been hearing he was going to get married soon. So I called the media," says the person who broke the story, and who wants to remain anonymous.
Yu, 29, confirmed: "We got to know each other through the internet, and had been seeing each other for three years. Unfortunately our relationship has come to an end."
And he added: "My whole body is covered with hair, and my parents are worried I won’t be able to find a wife. Many girls are shocked when they see me in person.
"I feel like King Kong, hideous, but with a soft and tender heart," he told Zhejiang Online.

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Jennifer Maestre’s Pencil Sculptures

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Giant “Spider” Found on Mercury

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.
Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger probe and unveiled Wednesday help support the case that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury and that it is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges. But other images are surprising and puzzling.
The spidery shape captured in a photo is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image shows what looks like a large crater with faint lines radiating out from it.
Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has often been compared to Earth's dull black-and-white moon. But the new photos, which reveal parts of Mercury never seen, show the tiny planet is more colorful and once had volcanic activity.
With the help of NASA high-tech enhancement, Messenger photos showed baby blues and dark reds.
"It has very subtle red and blue areas," said instrument scientist Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University, which runs the Messenger mission for NASA. "Mercury doesn't look like the moon."
The last time a NASA spacecraft went to Mercury was Mariner 10 in 1975. It took pictures of just 45 percent of the planet.
Messenger, which will do a couple more flybys of the planet before going into a long-term orbit, already has taken pictures of another 30 percent of Mercury, Prockter said. The rest will be seen eventually.
Planetary scientist Robert Strom, who was part of both the Mariner 10 and Messenger teams, said, "This is a whole new planet we're looking at."
And Prockter noted "there are some features we haven't been able to explain yet."
Example No. 1 is what scientists are calling "the spider." It is in the middle of a basin formed billions of years ago when space junk bombarded an infant Mercury.
Mariner had only seen part of the crater. When Messenger took a look with sharper cameras and a better angle, it photographed this odd central plateau jutting up, about half a mile high with dozens of tiny ridges radiating out.
It is as if "something is pushed up," said MIT planetary scientist Maria Zuber, who is part of the science team.
Prockter guessed that it could be remnants of a volcano. Other scientists think the leg-like features could be the same ridges seen all over Mercury.
First seen in the 1970s, the ridges now seen more widely provide evidence that Mercury is contracting, the scientists said.
Scientists had theorized that as the core of Mercury cools, it contracts and the whole planet shrinks. That was even a 19th Century theory for why Earth had mountains, but one that later proven wrong, Solomon said. But with Mercury that seems to be the case. As the planet shrinks, a bit of crust is pushed over another, forming what Prockter calls "wrinkle ridges."
Besides having what looks like the leftovers from volcanoes, Mercury has at least one crater that seems to be filled with what would be that planet's version of lava, Prockter said.
NASA launched the $446 million Messenger on its nearly 5 billion-mile mission in 2004. It will fly by Mercury two more times, this October and September 2009, before settling into orbit around in 2011. Messenger will take pictures, measure the planet's tenuous atmosphere, hills and valleys and unusual magnetic field — Mercury is the only solar system planet other than Earth to have a magnetosphere.
Quirky Mercury is one of the bigger question marks in the solar system, probed not nearly as much as Mars, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn.
Strom, a retired University of Arizona scientist who worked on Mariner 10, said that as he awaited Messenger's flyby earlier this month, "I couldn't sleep at all. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve."
Only he had to wait 30 years for his presents. It was worth it, he said: "What I saw was astounding to me."

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Seawater spray can cure children’s colds

A dose of nasal spray made from seawater from the Atlantic Ocean can ease symptoms of cold in children.While saline washes have long been recommended as the treatment of cold, few people know that seawater can provide the same results. It could be that the salt water has a simple mechanical effect of clearing mucus, or it could be that trace elements in the water play some more significant role, the exact reason why such a solution works is still not known. To assess the efficacy of nasal sea water in relieving symptoms of cold, Czech researchers studies 390 children with uncomplicated cold or flu symptoms. Some of the children were given standard treatments such as nasal decongestants. Others received those same medications plus the saline nasal wash. This study lasted for 12 weeks in the winter of 2006. The children given salt-water spray got it six times a day initially and three times a day in the latter half of the study. The results indicated that the noses of children given the spray were less stuffy and runny the second time they were checked. And eight weeks after the study began, those in the saline group had significantly fewer severe sore throats, coughs, nasal obstructions and secretions than those given standard treatments. Moreover, fewer children in the saline group had to use fever-reducing drugs, nasal decongestants and mucus-dissolving medications or antibiotics. And to add to this further, children who used the salt spray were sick less often and missed fewer school days.Thus, for parents worried about how to treat children's colds, the answer may be a dose of salt water.

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A Hamburger? That’ll be 15 Million Zimbabwe Dollars.

Forget the glitzy restaurants of New York and London: only in Zimbabwe would a hamburger actually cost millions of dollars.
The central bank of the southern African country has a issued a 10million Zimbabwe dollar note. The move increases the denomination of the nation's highest bank note more than tenfold.
Even so, a hamburger in an ordinary cafe in Zimbabwe costs 15 million Zimbabwe dollars.

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The Real Identity of the Mona Lisa

We’ve finally found out (for sure) the identity of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa:
Some suggested the master artist had amalgamated a variety of subjects to create his ideal woman, used his mother for a model, or even posed himself.
However, academics at Heidelberg University say scribbled notes in the margin of a book 500 years old are the evidence that proves the woman with the strange half-smile, whose portrait hangs in the Louvre in Paris, is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Giocondo, a Florentine merchant.
Many aficionados have long supposed La Gioconda, as she was also known, was the sitter, from comments made by Giorgio Vasari in 1550.
But Vasari’s identification was made 50 years after Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa, and, the university said he was noted for elaborating the truth.
Now notes written by Agostino Vespucci, who knew Leonardo, found in the university library, confirm the sitter as Lisa del Giocondo.

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