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31 October 2010

Collection of Vitamins for Health

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28 October 2010

Race-Track on the Roof


This is the old 5 story Lingotto building in Lingotto, Turin, Italy. At one time, when owned by Fiat, it was the world's largest car factory.

Car production started at ground level and as each car reached another stage of completion, it was moved up another floor until it reached the rooftop, hopefully finished, and ready to be raced around the test track on top of the factory.
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25 October 2010

Inhaling Chocolate

French chef Thierry Marx and Harvard professor of biomedical engineering David Edwards have invented a way to consume chocolate without calories. Le Whif is an aerosol inhaler  that provides a puff of fine chocolate powder every time you get the cocoa urge. Each inhaler contains about 200 milligrams of chocolate powder, less than 1 calorie of chocolate, with four puffs per container.
To use, you place the device between your lips and inhale and the particles land on your tongue and the sides of your mouth, where you can taste them best. When you eat a chocolate bar, in contrast, much of the chocolate passes quickly through your mouth without spending much time on your taste buds. Le Whif allows you to inhale and savor. It comes in chocolate, chocolate mint and chocolate raspberry.
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22 October 2010

Marko Casalan, 8, is officially world's youngest IT Whizz

Marko as deemed the Mozart of Computers by the Macedonian press after passing Microsoft's exams for IT professionals

While the other elementary school pupils skim through their comics in the break between classes, Marko Calasan takes out his copy of Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server Network for a light read. At the age of 8, Marko has become the world’s youngest certified computer system administrator and was deemed the Mozart of Computers by the press after passing exams for IT professionals with the computer giant Microsoft.

In theory, he could now get a job maintaining complex office computer networks, even though he has not yet completed the third grade in his native town Skopje, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. “The Microsoft officials gave me computer games and DVDs with cartoons when I passed the exams because I am a child. That was nice, but I’m not really interested in those things,” young Marko told The Times.

 “I’d like to be a computer scientist when I grow up and create a new operational system.”

His parents, who are IT experts and run a computer school for children, are considering sending Marko abroad to a specialised institute of learning for gifted children, as none exists in Macedonia.  “Marko displayed exceptional learning abilities at a very early age. He was able to replicate a computer operation after only reading about it on the internet. Now we ask him for help when we have some IT related problem at work,” Marko’s mother, Radica Calasan, 38, told The Times. She and her husband Milan, 37, are planning to publish a book on computer education for small children based on Marko’s development, which, they believe, could at least in part be replicated by other children of his age.

“He is obviously extraordinary gifted, but children above the age of 6 could learn much more about computers than generally assumed,” Mrs Calasan said. At school, Marko’s favourite subject is maths, and in his spare time he browses internet forums for IT professionals and participates in debates about complex computer engineering problems. Apart from his unlikely hobby of training Thai boxing, he has got a keen interest in physics and astronomy and was unable to sleep because of excitement on the night before the much-feared experiment aimed to recreate Big Bang conditions at the underground facility of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research or CERN in Switzerland.

The experiment failed because of technical problems, but Marko is confident that it will eventually prove to be a scientific breakthrough. “The media said it could cause the end of the world,” he said, “but there was never any danger of that.” 

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19 October 2010

50 things that are being killed by the internet

The web is changing the way we work, play and think 

Below we have compiled - in no particular order - 50 things that are in the process of being killed off by the web, from products and business models to life experiences and habits. We've also thrown in a few things that have suffered the hands of other modern networking gadgets, specifically mobile phones and GPS systems.

Do you agree with our selections? What other examples can you think of? Please post your comments on the bottom of the story – we hope include the best suggestions in a fuller list.

1) The art of polite disagreement
While the inane spats of YouTube commencers may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have "agendas". 


2) Fear that you are the only person unmoved by a celebrity's death Twitter has become a clearing-house for jokes about dead famous people. Tasteless, but an antidote to the "fans in mourning" mawkishness that otherwise predominates.

3) Listening to an album all the way through
The single is one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the internet – a development which can be looked at in two ways. There's no longer any need to endure eight tracks of filler for a couple of decent tunes, but will "album albums" like Radiohead's Amnesiac get the widespread hearing they deserve?


4) Sarah Palin
Her train wreck interviews with NBC's Katie Couric were watched and re-watched millions of times on the internet, cementing the Republican vice-presidential candidate's reputation as a politician out of her depth. Palin's uncomfortable relationship with the web continues; she has threatened to sue bloggers who republish rumours about the state of her marriage.


5) Punctuality
Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up to the pub on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudenesses of the connected age.


6) Ceefax/Teletext
All sports fans of a certain age can tell you their favourite Ceefax pages (p341 for Test match scores, p312 for football transfer gossip), but the service's clunking graphics and four-paragraph articles have dated badly. ITV announced earlier this year that it was planning to pull Teletext, its version.


7) Adolescent nerves at first porn purchase
The ubiquity of free, hard-core pornography on the web has put an end to one of the most dreaded rights rites of passage for teenage boys – buying dirty magazines. Why tremble in the WHSmiths queue when you can download mountains of filth for free in your bedroom? The trend also threatens the future of "porn in the woods" – the grotty pages of Razzle and Penthouse that scatter the fringes of provincial towns and villages.


8) Telephone directories
You can find Fly Fishing by J R Hartley on Amazon.


9) The myth of cat intelligence
The proudest household pets are now the illiterate butts of caption-based jokes. Icanhasreputashunba ck?


10) Watches
Scrabbling around in your pocket to dig out a phone may not be as elegant as glancing at a watch, but it saves splashing out on two gadgets.


11) Music stores
In a world where people don't want to pay anything for music, charging them £16.99 for 12 songs in a flimsy plastic case is no business model.


12) Letter writing/pen pals
Email is quicker, cheaper and more convenient; receiving a handwritten letter from a friend has become a rare, even nostalgic, pleasure. As a result, formal valedictions like "Yours faithfully" are being replaced by "Best" and "Thanks".


13) Memory
When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the "mere" storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity.


14) Dead time
When was the last time you spent an hour mulling the world out a window, or rereading a favourite book? The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist.


15) Photo albums and slide shows
Facebook, Flickr and printing sites like Snapfish are how we share our photos. Earlier this year Kodak announced that it was discontinuing its Kodachrome slide film because of lack of demand.


16) Hoaxes and conspiracy theories
The internet is often dismissed as awash with cranks, but it has proved far more potent at debunking conspiracy theories than perpetuating them. The excellent Snopes.com continues to deliver the final, sober, word on urban legends.


17) Watching television together
On-demand television, from the iPlayer in Britain to Hulu in the US, allows relatives and colleagues to watch the same programmes at different times, undermining what had been one of the medium's most attractive cultural appeals – the shared experience. Appointment- to-view television, if it exists at all, seems confined to sport and live reality shows.


18) Authoritative reference works
We still crave reliable information, but generally aren't willing to pay for it.


19) The Innovations catalogue
Preposterous as its household gadgets may have been, the Innovations catalogue was always a diverting read. The magazine ceased printing in 2003, and its web presence is depressingly bland.


20) Order forms in the back pages of books
Amazon's "Customers who bought this item also bought..." service seems the closest web equivalent.


21) Delayed knowledge of sporting results
When was the last time you bought a newspaper to find out who won the match, rather than for comment and analysis? There's no need to fall silent for James Alexander Gordon on the way home from the game when everyone in the car has an iPhone.


22) Enforceable copyright
The record companies, film studios and news agencies are fighting back, but can the floodgates ever be closed?


23) Reading telegrams at weddings
Quoting from a wad of email printouts doesn't have the same magic.


24) Dogging
Websites may have helped spread the word about dogging, but the internet offers a myriad of more convenient ways to organise no-strings sex with strangers. None of these involve spending the evening in lay-by near Aylesbury.


25) Aren't they dead? Aren't they gay?
Wikipedia allows us to confirm or disprove almost any celebrity rumour instantly. Only at festivals with no Wi-Fi signals can the gullible be tricked into believing that David Hasselhoff has passed away.


26) Holiday news ignorance
Glancing at the front pages after landing back at Heathrow used to be a thrilling experience – had anyone died? Was the government still standing? Now it takes a stern soul to resist the temptation to check the headlines at least once while you're away.


27) Knowing telephone numbers off by heart
After typing the digits into your contacts book, you need never look at them again.


28) Respect for doctors and other professionals
The proliferation of health websites has undermined the status of GPs, whose diagnoses are now challenged by patients armed with printouts.


29) The mystery of foreign languages
Sites like Babelfish offer instant, good-enough translations of dozens of languages – but kill their beauty and rhythm.


30) Geographical knowledge
With GPS systems spreading from cars to smartphones, knowing the way from A to B is a less prized skill. Just ask the London taxi drivers who spent years learning The Knowledge but are now undercut by minicabs.


31) Privacy
We may attack governments for the spread of surveillance culture, but users of social media websites make more information about themselves available than Big Brother could ever hoped to obtain by covert means.


32) Chuck Norris's reputation
The absurdly heroic boasts on Chuck Norris Facts may be affectionate, but will anyone take him seriously again?


33) Pencil cricket
An old-fashioned schoolboy diversion swept away by the Stick Cricket behemoth


34) Mainstream media
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News in the US have already folded, and the UK's Observer may follow. Free news and the migration of advertising to the web threaten the basic business models of almost all media organisations.


35) Concentration
What with tabbing between Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and Google News, it's a wonder anyone gets their work done. A disturbing trend captured by the wonderful XKCD webcomic.


36) Mr Alifi's dignity
Twenty years ago, if you were a Sudanese man who was forced to marry a goat after having sex with it, you'd take solace that news of your shame would be unlikely to spread beyond the neighbouring villages. Unfortunately for Mr Alifi, his indiscretion came in the digital age – and became one of the first viral news stories.


37) Personal reinvention
How can you forge a new identity at university when your Facebook is plastered with photos of the "old" you?


38) Viktor Yanukovych
The Orange Revolution in Ukraine was organised by a cabal of students and young activists who exploited the power of the web to mobilise resistance against the old regime, and sweep Viktor Yushchenko to power.


39) The insurance ring-round
Their adverts may grate, but insurance comparison websites have killed one of the most tedious annual chores


40) Undiscovered artists
Posting paintings to deviantART and Flickr – or poems to writebuzz – could not be easier. So now the garret-dwellers have no excuses.


41) The usefulness of reference pages at the front of diaries
If anyone still digs out their diaries to check what time zone Lisbon is in, or how many litres there are to a gallon, we don't know them.


42) The nervous thrill of the reunion
You've spent the past five years tracking their weight-gain on Facebook, so meeting up with your first love doesn't pack the emotional punch it once did.


43) Solitaire
The original computer timewaster has been superseded by the more alluring temptations of the web. Ditto Minesweeper.


44) Trust in Nigerian businessmen and princes
Some gift horses should have their mouths very closely inspected.


45) Prostitute calling cards/ kerb crawling
Sex can be marketed more cheaply, safely and efficiently on the web than the street corner.


46) Staggered product/film releases
Companies are becoming increasingly draconian in their anti-piracy measure, but are finally beginning to appreciate that forcing British consumers to wait six months to hand over their money is not a smart business plan.


47) Footnotes Made superfluous by the link, although Wikipedia is fighting a brave rearguard action.

48) Grand National trips to the bookmaker
Having a little flutter is much more fun when you don't have to wade though a shop of drunks and ne'er-do-wells


49) Fanzines
Blogs and fansites offer greater freedom and community interaction than paper fanzines, and can be read by many more people.


50) Your lunchbreak
Did you leave your desk today? Or snaffle a sandwich while sending a few personal emails and checking the price of a week in Istanbul?


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16 October 2010

Memorable Events in Pictures PART - III

 A Japanese Macaque sits in the snow after climbing out of a hot spring in Yamanouchi.
 
Excess gas is burned off near workers at the Rumala oil field, south of Basra, 260 miles south of Baghdad.
 A water bombing helicopter releases a load on a property at Nutt Road in Londonderry outer western suburbs of Sydney.
 Santa Claus is surrounded by sharks, turtles, stingrays and hundreds of other colourful marine animals as he makes his daily visit to the Melbourne Aquarium.

A swimmer jumps into the icy waters of a river on a snowy winter day in Taiyuan, eastern China.

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13 October 2010

The Top Ten Harmful Viruses & Anti Viruses

In simple terms, a virus can aptly be called a virtual disease which affects a computer system and makes it sick, forcing to act in a manner undesired by the user. No good deed goes unpunished, and with the joys and leisure that were brought by the computer, along came the viruses to ruin all the fun. There are billions of viruses out there, big and small. But there were some that stood out and ruined things for us in a spectacular fashion. Below is a list of 10 of the deadliest virus which create havoc in the virtual as well as the real world. 
 
I love you
The three words that can at most motivate you to cross the seven seas - or at least tempt you to open en email. This very temptation was the downfall of many computer users when this multipurpose- multi skilled virus hit the web. It had the ability to replicate itself via IRC chat and email, transfer and hide itself in different files and folders, and infect the registry keys once you opened an email in you inbox declaring “I Love You”. The virus thought to be originated somewhere in the Philippines, caused damage which was estimated to be around $8-10 billion.
Melissa
The creator of this virus received a 20 month jail sentence and a $5000 fine. Generated over a decade ago, this clever piece of virtual disease operated through Microsoft Outlook. This is how it worked: you receive an email titled “Here is the Document you asked for” from an unknown sender, you got infected as soon as you opened the email, and the virus would replicate and delivers itself to the top 50 people on your list without you getting a hint of it. Some major US government departments were hit and the damage is thought to be around $1 billion at least. A 20 month jail sentence well deserved.
  
MyDoom
MyDoom was instigated somewhere in mid 2004 and it actually prompted US senator to propose the creation of a “National Virus Response Centre”. The virus attacked in two phases; the first phase infected different Operating Systems, creating inroads and backdoors and making them vulnerable to external users. Once this problem was sorted out, the MyDoom struck again after few months, this time targeting the Search Engines like Google, slowing them down considerably, and crashing a few.
Nimda 
Spell it backwards and you will understand its prime targets: yes, the ‘Admin’ and servers. It was basically a worm and has the record of being the fastest ever virus to spread; it took only 22 minutes to break into the list of top ten most deadly viruses of all times. It basically targeted internet servers and websites, creating a mass crater through which thousands of computers were affected at the same time. Once infected, the systems became exposed to open attacks by the outsiders.
 
Code Red 
Damages of almost $200 million a day, and affecting the computers inside the White House are the degree of achievements of this virus. It subjugated the Windows by acting as a buffer overflow, sending humongous amount of information to the computer so that it spilt over, eventually forcing a shut down by overlapping the memory of the computers. The problem wasn’t solved until Microsoft issued a revival package to cater for this virus.
SQL Slammer/Saphire
Another swiftly spreading virus, it hit 75,000 computers in the first 10 minutes of its inception, taking down and severely damaging numerous American Banks, Security systems and organizations, and Airline networks. And the virus wasn’t just privy to the US; it ruthlessly damaged the internet capacity of South Korea for at least half a day. The damage was estimated around at least a billion dollars.
Storm Worm 
One of the latest and most recent viruses to strike the internet, the Storm Worm employed a similar strategy to the one used by the Melissa; the mail’s title mentioned a current natural disaster like an earthquake (but most often a storm). Once the email was opened, the virus spread around like wild fire, affecting registries and documents across the hard disk. It turned out to be a mother-virus, instigating numerous hidden programs in the background which made the PC vulnerable and enticing to hackers.
Klez 
With the mix characteristics of a virus, worm and a Trojan horse, Klez gave the antivirus programs a real headache by simply disabling them and making them look like a joke. However this is only the beginning of its trickery; after it was thought it be defeated, it was taken over, decoded and customized by black hat hackers (hackers who specialize in unauthorized penetration) . Its ability was enhanced by providing it with the capability to "spoof" from the user's address book and make it look like that an email came from them, increasing the chances of the receiver opening the email and becoming the next casualty.
Sasser
Damaging the computer through network ports, Sasser mostly targeted Windows 2000 and XP. It’s main casualties were the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) which had all its satellite communications jammed for hours , U.S. Airlines which had to reschedule its flights because of the worm had depleted their computers, a Finnish insurance company which was forced to close down 130 of its offices on emergency basis, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Post were all badly affected as well. However its unique feature was that it did not spread through emails, but rather observed computers and kept a look out for their vulnerabilities. On the basis of its knowledge, it would scan random IP addresses from the database and send itself to the next victim.
  
Autorun  
This virus primarily targeted USBs and flash drives and established them as its major source of movement and propagation. It affected networks and all the computers present on them. Once affected, the folder options would be disabled, the task manager too would be unavailable and the virus itself would become the system administrator. The virus would replicate itself in all the folders, therefore eating up useful space on the hard disk and making it eventually extremely slow. The loss was in terms of useful data on millions of computers across the world. 
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10 October 2010

Memorable Events in Pictures PART - II

 An elite team from the Highlanders (4 Scots) during a patrol competition in the Atacama desert.
 The horn of a bull breaks off as it crashes into a wall before a bullfight at the Plaza de Acho bullring in Lima.
Skyscrapers under construction are seen in Dubai's Marina area.
  A boy plays in a garbage dump in Mumbai in a file photo released to coincide with the first day of the climate talks in Copenhagen.
 Philippines Air Force helicopter drops leaflets in Basilan province, offering rewards to villagers for assistance in catching 28 fugitives.

A part of a sunken Isis temple is lifted out of the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria, Egypt.

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07 October 2010

British 'Safari Jet' into a open platform

There are some people who want the comforts of home with them - even when 'roughing it' on safari in Africa. For these five-star campers, BAE Systems and Design Q have come up with the ultimate in travel luxury.
The four-engined Avro Business Jet Explorer Four has been designed to land on short runways and uneven landing strips, delivering its wealthy passengers directly into wildlife areas.
Then, with the flick of a switch, a door on the side of the jet opens and a viewing platform extends from the fuselage - offering spectacular open-air views.


Inside the aircraft, a galley kitchen can deliver gourmet meals to an eight-seat dining area, and large sofas fold out to provide on-board beds.
To top it all off, once passengers have had their fill of the good life and wildlife in any given area, they simply transform the aircraft back into its 'flying mode' and jet off to the next destination.

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04 October 2010

Memorable Events in Pictures

 Bizarre ice formations are seen on the banks of a mountain stream near Fuessen, in Bavaria.
 The statue of Christ the Redeemer is seen during sunset in Rio de Janeiro.
 Clowns pose for a photo during an annual pilgrimage at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
 A worker dries salted fish at a fishing village in Jakarta, Indonesia.
 A NASA image shot from the Hubble shows hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent region in the Large Magellic Cloud galaxy.

Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier calves blocks of ice near the city of El Calafate, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz.

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01 October 2010

Amazing Armored Animals

 
Indian Rhinoceros
These massive beasts have some noticeable physical differences from their African relatives. Their segmented hide looks like a formidable coat of natural body armor. It functions a bit like one also: Flexible skin between the thicker hide “plates” allows them to shift as the rhinoceros moves.
 
Three-banded armadillo
The skin is modified to form a double-layered covering of horn and bone over many of the surfaces. Three-banded armadillos are blackish brown in color. Most animals have three moveable bands, although some possess only two, and others may have four.  Members of the genus Tolypeutes are the only armadillos that can completely enclose themselves in their own shell by rolling into a ball.
 
Thorny Devil
The Thorny Devil is on average about 20 cms long, and they feed on a wide variety of ants. An intimidating array of spikes cover the entire upper side of the body, these thorny scales are a defence against predators. Camouflage and deception may also be used to evade predation. Despite its appearance, it is totally harmless.
 
Pangolin
The pangolin (also called the scaly anteater) is an unusual mammal that is covered with tough, protective scales made of keratin. The pangolin has scales that cover everything except the belly, snout, eyes, ears, and undersides of the limbs. The pangolin has short legs with huge claws; it uses its claws to dig into ant hills and termite mounds. The sticky tongue is up to 27 inches long. The pangolin ranges from 24-62 inches long. The pangolin has no teeth. The long tail is prehensile; the pangolin can even hang from its tail.


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