Latheef's Web Log

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 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. Link

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...

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...

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 loca...

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 ...

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 peo...

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, bu...

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 ...

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. Link

Siamese Sisters

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 ...

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...

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. Link

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 ".

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...

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 tha...

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 th...

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. Full Story

Link

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. Link

Watch

Link

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 (UA...

Thanks

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. Thanks

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...

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 ...

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 sa...

Here are some amazing balloon creations! Link

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. Source

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. Source

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. Source

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 F...

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 ...

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 effec...

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 Full Story

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. Thanks

Thanks

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...

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 ...

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. Link

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. Full Story