WORLD INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES

2011-05-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Uno Iii Streetbike Kicks Into Gear

Let's look at the latest installment from the UNO team, aptly named the UNO III Streetbike.

This bike looks incredible, and will surely help in impressing your friends, once you've gotten used to the controls.

The UNO III Streetbike is not marketed towards kids, not exlusively down to the steep £8,500, but due to the fact that it does look genuinely quite dangerous.

What makes this bike unique is its ability to switch between a two-wheeled dicycle into a three-wheeled sports bike. This can be done with a quick flick of a switch, and can be switched back again if neccessary just as easily.

The UNO III looks almost like some sort of transformer as it sits on its two back wheels, powered by internal gyros which control the stability of the bike, allowing it to remain upright and safe even through the sharpest of turns.

As you build up speed, the third wheel folds out automagically, whilst the back wheels both slide backwards to convert the bike into a fully functioning street bike.

Charging up the bike will take approximately four hours, allowing for a 30 mile range to be enjoyed.

In motorcycle mode, the bike can reach 30mph and in UNO mode the maximum speed that can be reached is 15mph.

2011-03-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

3-D Batteries Charge Faster

A new battery system could benefit electric vehicles by decreasing their battery charging time drastically.

The system, developed by researchers at the University of Illinois, combines the quick release power of a capacitor with the battery's ability to store large amounts of energy.

By forming the thin film of the battery's active material into a 3-D structure, the battery's storage capacity has been increased.

The new battery can also charge and discharge up to 100 times faster than conventional batteries.

In addition to applications with electric vehicles, the new technology could also allow mobile devices to recharge in seconds and lead to the development of lasers or defibrillators that don't need to warm up between pulses.

2011-01-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

Smartfish Engage Keyboard

An on-going two year production from manufacturers Smartfish has finally been completed and is soon ready to be unveiled.

The keyboard, previously known as the Pro Motion and Ergomotion, has been revamped with an elegant all-black finish and boasting a 150 dollar price tag.

The keyboard exhibits an internal motor which adjusts the two halves of the keyboard based on the individuals typing frequency.

The adjustments made help combat fatigue, an effort developed in collaboration with The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

The keyboard looks impressive, and the ideas behind the self-adjustement mechanism sound very sophisticated.

Until the keyboard is officially released, we're not sure how it feels to use - but stay tuned for more information when it becomes available.

2010-12-31T10:13:00.000-08:00

Solar powered vehicles

Solar powered vehicles are beginning to be developed and introduced as our modern world goes 'green'. In a bid to create the best solar powered vehicle, to participate in the 2010 American Solar Challenge, a 1100 mile race from Tulsa to Chicago, emerges the Centaurus 2.

The Centaurus 2, made by The Solar Vehicle Project team, looks to be powered by three wheels with the driver off the vehicle positioned off center.The Centaurus is approximately three feet tall, sixteen feet long and six feet wide.

The car weighs around 400 pounds, which in comparison to a conventional car is rather light and should contribute towards improved aerodynamics.The solar cells only appear to cover half of the car's casing. The entire casing may be covered by the time the car is ready to compete, depending on how much energy the car needs to absorb, store and generate.

It's always good to see developments in more environmentally friendly products, and although this is just one concept, there are sure to be other solar powered vehicles being developed at this same time, in preparation for the American Solar Challenge.

2010-12-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

CUBA'S EMBARGO

Cuba the unloved step child of the caribbean who’s been locked in the cellar for 50 years.. Come on let it out!!

Cuba the largest of the Caribbean countries, home to over 11 million people, but still ignored by the US goverment.

President Kennedy hastily drew up an embargo on the Cuba in 1962 after the Soviet inspired government gained power; Communism’s Agenda was apparently to “take over the world” this is why America put an end to it all, After all the Americans don’t want world acclamation they just wish to spread Godly work and Spirit……………

the US started trading again with China in 1979 who are openly a communist influenced country… a little unfair I think so! China owns the largest percent of US treasury bonds and could bring down the world trade markets by dumping a small percent of them; basically china has the U.S balls in a grip!

China’s is by far a much more dangerous country but where’s there Embargo??

Yet again since the 1980′s the US has been trading with Russia who is the largest and most bitter cold war enemy there is, Russia has vast pockets of natural gases which used to heat the majority of Europe. whilst Khrushchevs treacherous reign thousands of innocent people died as they tried to leave the country, but that doesn’t matter as long as the US are getting a good deal.

If Barack Obama wanted to lift the Embargo all it would take is a lift of a pen, to be honest a soviet reformation isn’t looking promising as Fidel Castro is a frail old man who soon will be dead, the US should give Cuba a break and lift the barriers especially as the US is dealing with far more larger and dangerous fish such as China.

2010-12-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

GADGETS

In 2010, gadgets, and the people who use them, just couldn't sit still. Mobile devices from smartphones to tablets to ever-affordable e-readers made it easier than ever to work, play, surf, and chat on the go, while new motion control systems got gamers off the couch and breaking a sweat.

After months of speculation about a slate-like device, Apple kicked off the year in a big way with the iPad, consolidating the Netbook, e-reader, gaming device, photo frame, and iPod into an affordable mobile supergadget--and leading to an avalanche of apps to keep on-the-go consumers plugged in and entertained.

Non-Apple-ites waiting for an Android counterpunch to the iPad got their wish this summer, when the Dell Streak, which walks the line between smartphone and tablet, finally made its way to U.S. shores. Samsung followed with another Android contender, the Galaxy Tab, and several other companies, including Acer, Asus, and LG, announced their own plans to jump into the Android tablet pool soon.

In other news (yes there was some), Research In Motion took the wraps off its first tablet offering, the BlackBerry PlayBook, while Dell, with its Inspiron Duo, re-confirmed that Windows 7 convertible tablets aren't dead yet.

Tablets weren't the only high-profile gadgets sporting Android, of course. After a slow start, Android phones started arriving fast and furiously this year, with handsets like the HTC Evo 4G (Sprint's first 4G phone); Moto Droid X; and Samsung Galaxy S series among those leading the pack.

Not content to let Android and iOS devices steal the smartphone thunder, Microsoft revamped its problematic Windows Mobile operating system, introducing Windows Phone 7 and an international cast of Windows Phone 7 handsets. RIM also came out with an overhaul of its mobile operating system, calling it BlackBerry OS 6.

And now back to Apple, which unleashed the iPhone 4--and what soon came to be known as "antennagate." Following the outcry over reported signal issues, the company handed out free cases to allay concerns about the design of the phone's antenna and its effect on the wireless signal. In the end, though, iPhone 4 sales may have been hit harder by the phone's lack of a Verizon connection than by any antenna issues.

Mobile wasn't the word just for gadgets though. Consumers also kept moving, literally, thanks to motion sensor systems like the PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect that showed up to take on the Wii and get gamers on their feet.

2010-12-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

RADIO

Radio was a great achievement in the terms of communication between people. Radio was not a direct or immediate invention.

One can call radio as one of the effects of the telephone and telegraph inventions. The inventors of telephone and telegraph had already introduced the technology of wire-to-wire communication.

Thus, the inventor of radio based his invention on the technology of telephone and telegraph. This invention did not happen all of the sudden. The discovery of radio waves actually set the platform for the invention of radio. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves that can carry information in the form of pictures, sound and other details.

Various people contributed towards the invention of the radio.In the 1800s, a physicist from Scotland had predicted radio waves. Then, after this, another physicist from Germany actually proved the existence of radio waves. He showed that radio waves are same as light or heat waves. Then, the invention of telegraphy with wireless technology took place.Nicola Tesla a Serbian Scientist made the basic design of the radio in the year 1892. He also designed a Radio Controlled Robotic Boat.

Sir Oliver Lodge brought considerable improvement in the design of a coherer that was a primitive form of a radio signal detector. He is the first person to transmit a radio signal successfully.The invention of radio is definitely a great milestone in the history of America. This invention enabled us to listen to the news on a very broad basis. The way the news was conveyed on the radio was completely different from that printed in the daily newspaper. Very few of us know how these radio signals actually travel.

In fact, in the present world most of us would definitely know how a computer works but are completely unaware about how the radio functions. The invention of Radio was a huge step in the field of technology. Since the time it was invented most of us have forgotten how useful a radio can prove to be even in the present world where computers and laptops have taken over everything. However, some of them still find radio to be the best part of their lives. Those in their 80s and 90s love to talk about it mainly to their grandchildren.The sound that you usually hear coming out of your radio speakers is mainly due to the transmission of radio signals. This is due to the process known as modulation.

The modulations of Electromagnetic waves transmit the signals at a low frequency. The oscillating electromagnetic fields emit electromagnetic radiation. These radiated waves go through a process of modulation in regards to the frequency, amplitude and pulse width. The waves then transform into sound that is responsible for carrying information.

The invention of radio made it easy for a common person to hear the world news. Radio was the most widely used device, even though telegraph and telephone were invented during the same period.

The invention of Audion, the first radio tube responsible for improving the clarity brought about a complete new generation of radio. This was a time when people could enjoy their favorite music on the radio.

2010-10-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

Treatment from Dermatologist Garland

In major disease such as skin cancer, if you can diagnosis in initial stage of development then it may possible for you to cure it. In such major disease it is very important that you consult expert and experienced Dermatologist. This is essential because when you go to experienced skin consultant then they will provide you proper guidelines through systematic diagnosis.

Our expert team of Dermatologist in Garland recognized such disease due to there long time practiced in Dermatology. Precise Dermatology Diagnosis on Right Time by Dermatologist, GarlandNeed for accurate diagnosis on right time saves many patients life.

Therefore it is advisable that you consult known Dermatologist with having expertise in all type skin disease. Skin is very sensitive organ in the body and need highest care. If your skin is in good health then it enhances your personality. Nowadays people are very careful towards their natural outlook. If you have any skin problems then you have to consult efficient Dermatologist who can give you precise treatment and do not mislead for expensive treatment.

As team of proficient Dermatologist, Garland, we offer unmatched diagnosis solutions for any of your skin problems for patients of all ages. We provide affordable and most precise Dermatology diagnosis and treatment to cure our valuable patients. We strive hard to cure our patients by providing significant diagnosis for speedy recovery. We study your case in details before physical examination, discuss with other Dermatologist consultant as and when needed for serious problems. We explain our patient in details about their problem, type of diagnosis and possible treatment. After patient get ready for treatment mentally, we start our treatment. We built confidence in them and prepare them mentally strong for any surgical treatment.

Medical and Surgical Dermatology Services in GarlandOngoing latest invention in medical science is boon for human being. Due to latest technology for curing skin related disease is become miracles for human being. Using latest technology for skin surgery can change the complete outlook of a person. You can enhance your personality by different type of skin treatments.

Only thing you should consider before hiring any Dermatologist is that he should be well experienced and expertise in kind of treatment you are looking for. If you are looking for Dermatologist in Garland then you dont need to go further. We have experienced and expertise in diagnosis and curing various type of skin related problem. We offer esthetic, assure and tender medical and surgical Dermatology in Garland. Our specialized team of Dermatologists in Garland offers most effective curing solution for comprehensive skin diseases such as detection and treatment of skin cancer (abnormal "mole pre-cancer lesions, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma).

Our expert and qualified Dermatologists in Garland also offers treatment for other common skin related problems such as warts, cysts, irritated moles/keratoses, acne, rosacea, psoriasis, eczema, allergic skin reactions, and other skin diseases. We have patients from different states of the country and we offer them most esthetic and tender care.

We understand our patient"s need, convenience and their valuable time. Contact Dermatologist in Garland for comprehensive medical and surgical Dermatology.

2010-09-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

TITANIUM SCREW

The construction industry is an area which develops along with the technology. Mainly, the professionals in the construction industry always look for the best reliable materials to use with their construction products.

The titanium screw is a latest invention to the construction industry, and lots of construction people use it in order to improve the quality of their product.Basically, the elements used to manufacture titanium screw are really unique with compare to other screws available in the industry.

Furthermore, the durability and the life time of such titanium screws have very good standards. Because of this situation, people who are dealing with construction and industrial industry have identified the value of such titanium screws. Therefore, now we can see a great improvement of titanium screws in the industry.

However, the prices of titanium screws are a little bit higher than the other screws available in the industry. However, it is worth using titanium screws for various constructions as you don’t have to do time to time replacements and renovations due to breakage and rusting of screws you have used. In addition that, these titanium screws have a very good resistance against the rusting, and it is very important.

Moreover, these titanium screws are available with various sizes and designs, which can be used for your customized requirements. So it is an added advantage for you as you don’t have to stick to one type of titanium screw as you have the opportunity to select these titanium screws from a mass number of screw manufacturers and providers.

2010-09-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

Condenser Microphone

Condenser microphone is one of the latest inventions that are very useful in our day-to-day life. These are devices that convert sound into patterns of electricity current. Today, we see that many big organizations are successful by using the condenser microphone in many areas of their work. Huge equipments in the office that occupy lots of space have been now replaced with these sophisticated condenser microphone. Now, with the usage of condenser microphone we are able to utilize the space efficiently and develop more business. condenser microphone are used extensively in many offices irrespective of their nature of business. We can see that the condenser microphone play a dominant role in banks, hospitals and call centers to name a few.

condenser microphone are very useful during meetings and conferences. They are also used for video conferencing and business recording. The usage of these condenser microphone makes working easier and it also helps to create reliable records for future references. One of the varieties of condenser microphone called miniature condenser microphone, combined with digital recorders , are useful in business meetings, lectures and music recordings. As a result, one can easily understand the importance of condenser microphone not only in business, but also in entertainment.

Condenser microphone come in varied models like ear bud condenser microphone, ear-worn condenser microphone, headsets, Bluetooth condenser microphone, convertible condenser microphone, cellular adapters and one can choose according to their needs. The invention of condenser microphone has enabled us to do our work in a much better and faster way than we did earlier. Nowadays, telephones headsets come with built in amplifiers and are used in many call centers and offices. The usage of condenser microphone has increased the productivity and quality there by increasing the overall business.

One of the most famous Bluetooth wireless headsets is the GN Netcom 6110. This is the first Bluetooth headset that gives seamless, hustle-free communication: freedom both at home and in the office. Generally, the condenser microphone are very handy, flexible and can be used anywhere without any restrictions. There are various categories of condenser microphone - wireless hand held condenser microphone, desk top condenser microphone, wired hand held condenser microphone and computer condenser microphone. condenser microphone are widely used in medical and business transcription.

2010-09-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

Dxg 5d7v Worlds First 3d Video Camcorder

With the world beginning to get to terms with HD equipment, it is only fitting that the world's first 3D enabled pocket camcorder has been launched.

Courtesy of DGX, no glasses are required to appreciate the 3D imagery, utilising the 3.2-inch LCD camcorder display, on the included 3D 7-inch media player.

The camcorder also takes 2D images and video, but the 3d feature will be the persuasive selling point.

The camcorder includes touch-screen technology and a remote control allowing you to view and control your video content and still images quickly and effortlessly.

Here are the technical specifications:

DXG 3D Media Player Specifications:

Dimensions: 8.39" (W) x 5.41" (H) x 0.94" (D)LCD: 7" Parallax-Barrier Auto-Stereoscopic (Glasses-Free)

TFT DisplayResolution: 800×480Display Effects: Normal, black and white, Sepia, Lens DistortionVideo Format & Resolution: MPEG4, AVI, 720×480p at 30fps

Audio & Image Format: MP3; JPEGControl Format: Touchable Keys, Remote ControlAudio & Video Output: AVOUT, Earphone Stereoscopic

OutputStorage: Supports SD/MMCPower Supply: 5V DC, 2A

Output Interface: USB 2.0

The DGX 3D camcorder is available from www.hammacher.com for $599.99.

2010-09-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

Centaurus 2 Solar Powered Vehicle

Solar powered vehicles are beginning to be developed and introduced as our modern world goes 'green'.

In a bid to create the best solar powered vehicle, to participate in the 2010 American Solar Challenge, a 1100 mile race from Tulsa to Chicago, emerges the Centaurus 2.

The Centaurus 2, made by The Solar Vehicle Project team, looks to be powered by three wheels with the driver off the vehicle positioned off center.

The Centaurus is approximately three feet tall, sixteen feet long and six feet wide.

The car weighs around 400 pounds, which in comparison to a conventional car is rather light and should contribute towards improved aerodynamics.

The solar cells only appear to cover half of the car's casing.

The entire casing may be covered by the time the car is ready to compete, depending on how much energy the car needs to absorb, store and generate.

2010-08-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

INDIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance .... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again."

The day when India woke up to freedom back in 1947 was a day of great celebration. A country got rid of her foreign yoke and became a sovereign nation, she celebrated her sovereignty on this day - the triumph of numerous martyred souls. It was a day of fulfillment, it was the day of a new beginning, a birth of a nation.On the stroke of midnight, a country came into life again as the british handed over the governance of India to the Indian leaders.The long and difficult struggle had borne fruit at last, though the happiness was marred by the fact that the country was divided into India and Pakistan and the violent communal riots had left the countries permanently scarred. That was the price that India paid for her dearly bought freedom. The british government declared the country independent and left for their own shores.

On the 15th of August, 1947, India became completely independent. It was on this historic date that Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime Minister of India, unfurled the Indian tricolor on the ramparts the magnificent Red Fort, symbolically marking the end of the british colonial rule.

2010-07-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

D Box Mfx Seats

With all the progress and advancements in visual displays, including HD 3D, it's refreshing to see something else considered in an effort to improve the cinematic experience.

The technology I'm talking about is the D-Box seat, revealed at the 2009 CES, but only now being installed in cinemas.The seat essentially moves with the film. Speakers are fitted to the seat, to deliver a better sound, with more clarity.

In South Jordan, one of the District's Megaplex's is going to host an entire theater with the D-Box seats built in.28 D-Box MFX seats will be included in the auditorium, which equates to four rows, and will be the very first movie theater to offer such seats.

The seats and theater are hoping to be finalised and ready in time for the opening of Walt Disney's The Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time, with the D-Box seats being the hottest seats in the house.

I'm sure these seats will prove to be successful and this will be a stepping stone for cinemas worldwide to install similar technology, thus improving the cinematic experience for the public. Moving seats, as well as improved 3D technologies, will greatly improve the film experience and make it much more realistic and enjoyable.

Doxie Portable Scanner

2010-05-02T04:21:00.000-07:00

Doxie Portable Scanner

At first glance this does not look like a scanner. Light, compact and an unconventional shape would excuse you from making this assumption.

This, however, is not intended to lie in your office, but has been made with portability in mind. Take it with you on your business travels, allowing for quick and easy duplicating of any documents needed. The product was revealed three months ago, but has only now started being shipped.

The Doxie scanner retails at $129, and is likely to prove a trusty companion for all your business expeditions.The scanner is extremely lightweight, weighing in at a mere 10.9 ounces. It is also USB powered, allowing you to scan paper directly to PC's, Macs and a selection of web apps such as Acrobat, Flickr and Google Docs.

With no power cable required, simply plug in the USB cable and you're ready to scan. The Doxie scanner will scan any document in full colour up to 600 dpi, and could not be simpler to use - simply press the DOxie 'Heart' Button on the scanner and scanning will begin.

The features of the Doxie scanner include;* Color scanning at up to 600 dpi with automatic page detection

* Lightweight, ultra-portable design with included case

* Doxieʼs Heart Button: innovative multi-action button for one press scanning and sharing

* Included software for simple scanning and direct cloud sharing

* Direct integration with popular desktop and web apps like Google Docs, Picasa, and more

* Free Doxie Cloud service for turning paper into postable URLs for instant sharing and web-based access on iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices

* Automatic cropping, rotation, contrast, and image cleanup for crisp, clean scans

* Advanced photo editing with direct support for the Picnik online photo editing suite

* Save as PDF, JPEG, or lossless PNG

MALTHUS WAS RIGHT

2010-04-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

MALTHUS WAS RIGHT

John Hawks has an excellent post rebutting some misinformation and confusion on the part of Colin Blakemore, an Oxford neurobiologist.

Blakemore asserts that:
* There was a sharp spike in cranial capacity ~200,000 years ago, on the order of 30%
* And, that the large brain was not deleterious despite its large caloric footprint (25% of our calories service the brain) because the “environment of early humans was so clement and rich in resources”

Hawks refutes the first by simply reposting the chart the above (x axis = years before present, y axis = cranial capacity). It’s rather straightforward, I don’t know the paleoanthropology with any great depth, but the gradual rise in hominin cranial capacity has always been a “mystery” waiting to be solved (see Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language and The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature).

Blakemore may have new data, but as they say, “bring it.” Until then the consensus is what it is (the hominins with the greatest cranial capacities for what it’s worth were Neandertals, and even anatomically modern humans have tended toward smaller cranial capacities since the end of the last Ice Age along with a general trend toward smaller size).

WORLD OIL

2010-03-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

WORLD OIL

There is a need to accelerate the development of alternative energy fuel resources in order to ensure energy security and reduce emissions, says a paper just published in the journal Energy Policy.

The age of cheap oil has now ended as demand starts to outstrip supply as we head towards the middle of the decade, says the report. It goes on to suggest that the current oil reserve estimates should be downgraded from between 1150-1350 billion barrels to between 850-900 billion barrels, based on recent research. But how can potential oil shortages be mitigated?

Dr Oliver Inderwildi, Head of the Low Carbon Mobility centre at the Smith School, said: 'The common belief that alternative fuels such as biofuels could mitigate oil supply shortages and eventually replace fossil fuels is pie in the sky. There is not sufficient land to cater for both food and fuel demand. Instead of relying on those silver bullet solutions, we have to make better use of the remaining resources by improving energy efficiency. Alternatives such as a hydrogen economy and electric transportation are not mature and will only play a major role in the medium to long term.'

Nick Owen, from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, added: 'Significant oil supply challenges will be compounded in the near future by rising demand and strengthening environmental policy. Mitigating the oil crunch without using lower grade resources such as tar sands is the key to maintaining energy stability and a low carbon future.'

The Smith School paper also highlights that in the past, political and financial objectives have led to misreporting of oil reserves, which has led to contradictory estimates of oil reserve data available in the public domain.

Sir David King, Director of the Smith School, commented: 'We have to face up to a future of oil uncertainty much like the global economic uncertainty we have faced during the past two years. This challenge will have a longer term effect on our economies unless swift action is taken by governments and business. We all recognise that oil is a finite resource. We need to look at other low carbon alternatives and make the necessary funding available for research, development and deployment today if we are to mitigate the tipping point.'

The report also raises the worrying issue that additional demand for oil could be met by non-conventional methods, such as the extraction of oil from Canada's tar sands. However, these methods have a far higher carbon output than conventional drilling, and have been described as having a double impact on emissions owing to the emissions produced during extraction as well as during usage.

Wii Fit Push Up Bars

2010-03-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Wii Fit Push Up Bars

The Wii balance board has long been in need for a useful addon, and this push-up bar is meant to deliver just that.

Unfortunately, this set of bars are extremely vulnerable, being held in place using your weight alone and a couple of cheap foam strips acting as "grips" which essentially don't do much gripping at all.

The design is sloppy and cheap looking and any significant pressure on the bar will result in it falling to pieces.

The bar fits onto your existing balance board and is compatible with Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus.

The $25 CTA Digital Wii Push Up Bar does, however, offer us the chance to look at the following video which is just about as cringe worthy as the product itself.

Barcode

2010-03-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Barcode

Perhaps one of the most under rated inventions belongs to the barcode. Barcodes aren't given much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently implemented, in a working fashion, in 1970.

A small food store owner decided one day that keeping records of the inventory of his stock and their associated prices was an extremely laborious process and so, in 1948, he took it upon himself to contact The Drexel Institute of Technology in a bid to work towards a feasible solution. Bernard Silver rose to the challenge and set out to investigate this problem, and began working on a solution involving an automatic way of keeping track of items which had been sold.

Bernard Silver and a group of students from the institute realised their answer in the form of ultraviolet rays, ink and a scanner.The system did work initially, but possessed two major negatives. The system was incredibly costly making implementation on a large scale much more economically draining and the system was also notorious as being unstable.

If the invention was to become commonplace in grocery stores, these two problems had to be ironed out to provide a more viable solution.The patent for the bar code system was filed by Silver and one of his students, Woodland. The patent was not granted immediately; in fact it took three years for the patent agency to grant their invention patent for the bar code, occurring on 7th October, 1952.

The invention of the barcode is patent number 2,612,994, Classifying Apparatus and Method, the official title of the patent.Despite this patent being issued, the system was still not welcomed by the majority of store owners. It wasn't until 1966, that the system began creeping its way into more and more grocery stores. This system was soon criticised, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly coded items. In 1970, Logicorn developed Universal Grocery Products Identification code (UGPIC), soon shortened to Universal Identification Number (UPC). It was Marsh's superstore in Troy, which was the very first store to install this sophisticated barcode reading system and its popularity has soared ever since, obviously now commonplace in all types of stores worldwide.

The first product to have ever been added to the barcode system was a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum.The invention of the bar code may not appear as complex, ground breaking, or as revolutionary as many other inventions, but few have been as understated, yet so effectively time-saving, efficient and manageable.

Internet

2010-03-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

Internet

The Internet is something which many of us now take for granted, but the invention of the Internet, is still recent. The Internet is essentially a network connecting thousands of smaller networks into a single global network.

The Internet model and the Transmission Control Protocols used to implement the idea were developed in 1973 by Vinton Cerf, an American computer scientist. His project was backed by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), directed by Robert Khan, an American engineer.

The Internet initially was used to connect University networks and research labs within the United States.

The World Wide Web, as we now know it, was developed in 1989 by Timothy Berners-Lee, an English scientist, for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)."The design of the Internet was done in 1973 and published in 1974. There ensued about 10 years of hard work, resulting in the roll out of Internet in 1983. Prior to that, a number of demonstrations were made of the technology - such as the first three-network interconnection demonstrated in November 1977 linking SATNET, PRNET and ARPANET in a path leading from Menlo Park, CA to University College London and back to USC/ISI in Marina del Rey, CA." . - Vinton CerfThe Internet is better described as an interconnection of various computer networks which enable each connected machine to communicate directly.

Smaller Internets exist, called Intranets, which are typically used within a single organisation.The Internet grew to phenomenal levels over a short period of time. In 1996, more than 25 million computers had been connected to the Internet across 180 different countries.

The Internet makes use of gateways to connect separate networks to a single network. Gateway interconnections are established across telephone lines, optical fibres and radio links. New networks can be added by welcoming new gateways into the network. Data sent from one machine is tagged, using a unique address which identifies that particular machine, and to ensure the information is sent to the correct destination.

Addressing is crucial to the success of the Internet and commonly uses the dotted decimal approach, for example 168.124.1.0. This address is often associated with a web address, with the numeric address and the URL paired up in an addressing table, to eradicate the need to remember number strings. Once data is sent from one machine, the data travels from gateway to gateway until it reaches the network belonging to the destination machine.

The Internet has no central repository, and therefore is unique in its methodology.The Internet Protocol is a key element to a successful Internet. The Internet Protocol determines how a gateway receives a request and what to do with that request once received. The Transmission Control Protocol then verifies that the information has been sent and received successfully, allowing the data to be re-sent if an error occurs during transmission.The Internet has changed our world bringing a wealth of information to our fingertips.

The sharing of information has accelerated with the introduction of the Internet, with new, fresh content accessible second after second. More applications are being introduced to the Internet, and with the rising popularity of Internet enabled phones, the Internet will only continue to grow at a tremendous rate opening up thousands more opportunities to all of us.

The invention of the Internet is indeed, one of the most recent revolutionary inventions which have been a major success and welcome addition to our world.

Drug Addiction and Relapse

2010-02-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

Drug Addiction and Relapse

The study's findings, available in the Journal of Neuroscience, are the first to directly link addiction with the process, called neurogenesis, in the region of the brain called the hippocampus.

While the research specifically focused on what happens when neurogenesis is blocked, the scientists said the results suggest that increasing adult neurogenesis might be a potential way to combat drug addiction and relapse.

"More research will be needed to test this hypothesis, but treatments that increase adult neurogenesis may prevent addiction before it starts, which would be especially important for patients treated with potentially addictive medications," said Dr. Amelia Eisch, associate professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study. "Additionally, treatments that increase adult neurogenesis during abstinence might prevent relapse."

Increasingly, addiction researchers have recognized that some aspects of the condition -- such as forming drug-context associations -- might involve the hippocampus, which is a region of the brain associated with learning and memory. Only with recent technological advances have scientists been able to test their theories in animals by manipulating the birth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus of the adult brain.

Physical activity and novel and enriched environments have been shown in animal studies to be good for the brain in general, but more research is needed to see if they can increase human adult neurogenesis.

Dr. Eisch and her colleagues used advanced radiation delivery techniques to prevent hippocampal neurogenesis. In one experiment, rats were allowed to self-administer cocaine by pressing a lever. Rats with radiated brains took more cocaine and seemed to find it more rewarding than rats that did not receive radiation.

In a second experiment, rats first self-administered cocaine and then received radiation to decrease neurogenesis during a period of time that they were without drugs. Rats with reduced neurogenesis took more time to realize that a drug lever was no longer connected to the drug dispenser.

"The nonirradiated rats didn't like the cocaine as much and learned faster to not press the formerly drug-associated lever," Dr. Eisch said. "In the context of this experiment, decreased neurogenesis fueled the process of addiction, instead of the cocaine changing the brain."

Dr. Eisch said she plans to do similar studies with other drugs of abuse, using imaging technology to study addiction and hippocampal neurogenesis in humans.

"If we can create and implement therapies that prevent addiction from happening in the first place, we can improve the length and quality of life for millions of drug abusers, and all those affected by an abuser's behavior," she said.

2010-02-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

SCANNER BOOK

What do you get if you cross a scanner with a book? Well, erm, one of these I guess.

This idea seems a little bizarre, but it is definitely unique and actually makes a rather bland looking scanner look slightly more impressive.

A scanner has been modified to appear like a book, and charted his progress on his own website.

Being tired of the boring aesthetics of a flatbed scanner, DataMancer took it upon himself to solve this issue, and add a degree of style to it.

By hollowing out a book, the scanner was placed inside, and I'm assuming that any type of book can be used to suit your own personality.

It's always the strangest ideas that seem to achieve the highest attention, and I wouldn't be surprised to see scanner modifications popping up all over the internet fairly soon.

How about a scanner, disguised as a coffee table, or a scanner disguised as a lamp shade?

Ok, now we're being silly.

Canon X Mark I Calculator Goes Green

2010-02-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

Canon X Mark I Calculator Goes Green

Canon have delivered the X Mark I calculator, which not only looks very polished, but is environmentally friendly, being made entirely from recycled materials.

The display panel is made exclusively of recycled Canon Digital Camera Prism Preconsumer materials.

Following the success of the design of Canon's Powershot Digital Camera range, the calculator incorporates a similar look and feel.

The X Mark I is 100 percent solar powered, is loaded with increased memory capacity and hosts a variety of sophisticated function keys including Cost-Sell-Margin, Grand Total, Backspace and Sign Change.

This calculator is perfect for office or home use, appearing light, slim, durable and appreciates the environment.

The Canon X Mark I will retail at $29.99 and will be available in both black and white.

Neuroimaging Can Spot Schizophrenia Before It Manifests

2010-01-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

Neuroimaging Can Spot Schizophrenia Before It Manifests

Psychology researchers at the Tel Aviv University in Israel, frustrated with what they consider to be unsatisfactory results of medications for schizophrenia, set out to find biological markers for the disease that could be seen through neuroimaging prior to the onset of the disease.
"Pharmacological treatments for schizophrenia remain unsatisfactory, so clinicians and researchers like myself have started to dig in another direction," says Professor Ina Weiner, lead researcher. "The big question asked in recent years is if schizophrenia can be prevented."
People assume that schizophrenia is inherited, as it is associated with many genes in the human genome. But actually, the presence of familial schizophrenia is not enough to determine that it will occur in offspring because there are environmental links to schizophrenia as well. One of those links can be the presence of an infection in the womb during pregnancy.

Because schizophrenia does not manifest itself until after puberty or later in adulthood, the disease is not treated until it appears. Professor Ina Weiner and Doctors Yael Piontkewiz and Yaniv Assaf undertook a study of rats in which the experimental group was given a viral mimic known to cause schizophrenia. The researchers then followed changes in rats' brains via neuroimaging during their development and could see the progression of the disease in the brain scans.

The researchers discovered that the schizophrenia-induced rats developed abnormal lateral ventricles and hippocampus. After treatment with commonly prescribed medications, risperidone and clozapine, the lateral ventricles and the hippocampus returned to normal size. The best time to treat the rats with these drugs, Professor Wiener noted, was during their adolescent periods, several months prior to them reaching full maturity.

The results encouraged the researchers to extrapolate that perhaps tracking high risk pubescent teens through neuroimaging and treating them before the onset of schizophrenia could delay or even eliminate their chances for developing the mind-altering disease.

Laser Cosmos Brings The Universe Into Your Room

2010-01-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Laser Cosmos Brings The Universe Into Your Room

Just occasionally a product comes along that simply blows us away. We get to see a lot of crazy and sometimes brilliant inventions, but Laser Cosmos is without a doubt the most superb one we've seen. There is no product out there that comes even close to the sheer excellence of this galactic wonder - sorry to sound quite so effusive, but really, it's staggering.

Imagine lying in your room, and having the ceiling whipped away to reveal the vast outreaches of the cosmos whirling overhead, complete with misty blue nebulae (which you can turn on and off!) and the occasional shooting star. Fully adjustable and requiring no set up, this super powerful space projector scatters a random panoply of sparkling green stars that will fill any room from the tiniest bedroom to the largest warehouse with a crystal clear animated star display.

What's so clever about this (apart from everything of course) is that it seems so three-dimensional, the varying brightness of different stars makes some seem close and others to come from distant galaxies.Created from powerful green laser and holographic technology, a display this bright and clear has never been available before. It's utterly mesmerising, and had us transfixed for hours (literally). Whether you're zoning out to music, throwing a party or just chilling, this stunning cosmic light show is like nothing we've ever seen before.

Truly one of the most amazing light shows you will see anywhere.

Features

* Romantic, mesmerising star and cloud projector.

* The Laser Cosmos will fill any room, no matter how big or small with a carpet of stars, blue clouds (optional), and even shooting stars.

* The Laser Cosmos itself is shaped like a funky 3D star.

* The Laser Cosmos can be pivoted to any angle.

* A Laser Stars projector lens.

* A cloud formation projector lens.

* A cloud brightness control.

* The projector is self-focussing.

* For best results use in total darkness.

* Use for no more than four hours at a time (the On/Off switch is helpful here).

* Suitable for ages 8 years+.

* Requires a mains adaptor (UK adaptor included).

* Size: 29 x 25 x 20cm.

Dorm Vault Laptop Case

2010-01-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Dorm Vault Laptop Case

That laptop is your entire life! It's got all your papers on it, your music - maybe even pictures of you and your girlfriend at Spring Break! You know... those pictures.You might think that a cable-lock would be adequate to secure your laptop, but not only can those things just be clipped off with a cheap bolt-cutter, someone can still turn on and use your laptop without even removing it! No - that's not really security.

A big metal box with a lock (simple), that bolts to your dorm-furniture from the inside (ingenious)! With the lid closed and locked, the wing-nuts that hold the vault in place get locked in with your valuables. It's one of those "gah, I wish I had thought of that" things.Big enough to hold a 17" laptop and accessories, you could even put a portable drive or two in there, your phone - even your wallet if you were so inclined.Now you don't have to worry about whether or not your roommate is trustworthy.

As they say, good locks make good neighbors. Or, is that fences? Doesn't matter - it still applies!Features

* Rugged steel construction* 16' x 13" x 5"* Weighs 9 pounds

* Laptop Safe for Dorm Room or Apartment

* Attaches to Furniture* Holds up to 17" laptops and Personal Accessories

* Comes with mounting brackets, multiple-size bolts, wingnuts and combination lock

COMPUTERS

2010-01-14T18:07:00.000-08:00

COMPUTERS

Personal computers are now commonplace in most homes throughout the world, and are relied on heavily by both individuals and businesses. The invention of the computer is relatively new, emerging into our lives relatively late in the 20th century. The technology to build such intricate and sophisticated systems was simply not available prior to this, though advancements in microelectronics made the vision of a computer a realistic one.

The two innovations in electronics which allowed for this were the integrated circuit, which was manufactured in 1959, and the microprocessor, which appeared in 1971. The integrated circuit allowed the internal memory solutions to be shrunken down into manageable components, whereas the microprocessor reduced the size of a central processing unit down to a single chip.

The microprocessor revolutionised electronics as we know it, a small silicon chip which can process thousands of simultaneous calculations, and replace the need for thousands of independent transistors. Developed by Ted Hoff, in California, part of the Intel Corporation, the microprocessor opened up new opportunities for machines, as the processor itself was capable of handling large flows of data, performing logical calculations and almost behaving with intelligence.

The first desktop computer system was manufactured for person use in 1974, courtesy of Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS). The computer was termed Altair, and retailed for as little as $400. The popularity of the Altair soared to unimaginable heights, everyone appearing keen to sample this new machine. This sparked a whole host of computers being developed by other companies, or by young ambitious entrepreneurs.

The first well known and reputable company to produce their own computer was Tandy Corporation, which launched its own model in 1977. This model proved a hit, and became the most popular of the computers on the market at that time for two main reasons. It included a keyboard, to improve input, and also included a cathode ray tube to provide a CTR monitor. It also allowed information to be stored on cassette tapes, and was also programmable.

A couple of engineers, Stephen Wozniack and Steven Jobs, then began their own business venture which would become known as Apple Computers. The pair manufactured the Apple I, which was a homemade microprocessor, from Jobs' parents' garage of all places. The Apple I was then marketed to the public and was later sold to electronics enthusiasts and hobbyists. This led to the creation of Apple Computer, Inc., and in April, 1977, the Apple II was launched, the world's first personal computer system.

The system was designed exclusively by the Apple team and included a keyboard and most notably colour graphics. The Apple II retailed at $1290.Apple introduced brand new features to its computer system, expandable memory, disk-drive systems, improved data storage, and the aforementioned colour graphics. Apple Computers became the fastest growing business in American business history, with rival companies being set up as a result of Apple's huge success.1981 saw IBM introduce their model of microcomputer, generically named the IBM PC.

The 16-bit microprocessor prompted cravings for faster and more powerful processors. In the middle of the 1980's, a few more improvements were introduced to the computer world. 32-bit computers were revealed, which allowed for enough power to prove beneficial in a small to medium business environment.User friendliness was targeted as key for most computer users, and the development or a Graphical User Interface certainly epitomised this. The GUI, replaced the requirement of entering complex commands, and brought in a much simpler 'point and click' strategy. Douglas Engelbart created an "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System": which effectively became the "mouse", which has obviously has remained a standard with modern day PC's.

Voice recognition software now exists to rival mouse input, and computer technology continues to grow at earth shattering speeds, which opens up exciting ideas for the not so distant future of computers.The invention of the computer was clearly one of the most revolutionary inventions ever to grace the business world.

DVD to iPod Converter 5.0

2010-01-03T01:54:00.000-08:00

DVD to iPod Converter 5.0

About DVD to iPod Converter software:E-Zsoft DVD to iPod is the best iPod DVD Converter software, Convert and rip DVD movie and play them on your iPod/iPhone with excellent Video/Audio quality.

Transfer to iTunes/iPod/iPhone Directly.

So easy to use and fast in speed! Whether you are an experienced user or a beginner, DVD to iPod Converter software will make the task of converting DVD to iPod, transfer and copy MP4 Video to iPod/iTunes/iPhone a breeze!What's New? - DVD to iPod

Easily convert all kinds of DVD to iPod and directly transfer movies to your iPod 30G 80G 160G, E-Z DVD to iPod is your best choice!

500% FAST DVD to iPod Converter Speed. Optimize P4 & AMD CPU and auto detect CPU types to select the most effective conversion algorithm.

DVD to iPod full supports all iPod Devices (iPod Video, iPod Classic, iPod Touch)

Grace Stand Improves Laptop Usability

2009-12-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

Grace Stand Improves Laptop Usability

Thanks to our increasing need for mobility and instant access to information, laptop computers are no longer a luxury - they are a necessity.

However, we're paying a price for convenience. The ergonomical side effects of constantly using a laptop may carry serious health risks.The GRACE STAND corrects this problem, providing a unique, portable and flexible surface for adjusting your laptop into an ergonomically correct position.

Inventor Karel Strydom was inspired to create the GRACE STAND during a long-distance flight, when he noticed a man hunched uncomfortably over a laptop, with the screen at an awkward angle and insufficient lighting on the keyboard.

In our brave new world of mobile technology, physiotherapists, chiropractors and optometrists are treating more and more laptop-related injuries. These include disorders such as Repetitive Strain Injuries, Cervical Posture Syndrome (Kyphosis), Cervical Headaches, Rhomboid Muscle Strain or Spasm and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Furthermore, laptop use also causes visual discomfort, forcing users to invest in expensive multi-focal lenses.It is vital that these issues are addressed in both work and home environments - and the GRACE STAND offers the perfect solution.

2009-12-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Jesus was born a Palestine Jew. He was born of Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem without impregnation and out of immaculate conception. He was meek and humble. He remained as innocent as a child throughout his life. He was tolerant, kind and merciful. He was a Yogi of the East though he preached in Palestine.

Jesus welcomed and embraced the sinners, the despised and the harlots and purified them. He comforted them and gave them solace and peace. He raised the fallen. He brought relief and rest to the broken-hearted.

Jesus said: "Unless you become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of God". To Jesus, God was a loving Father. Jesus' watchword was love for God and fellowmen.
"Have faith in God. The Lord is our God. Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The love of God manifests in the love of man." This is the central teaching of Jesus.

Jesus was a world teacher, a prophet and Messiah. His Sermon on the Mount is nothing but the practice of Sadachara or right conduct. It corresponds to the practice of Yama-Niyama of Raja-Yoga, the Eightfold Path of Lord Buddha. It is marvellous, inspiring and soul-stirring.
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. How humble he was! He said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shalt inherit the earth".

Lord Krishna washed the feet of the guests in the Rajasuya-Yajna performed by King Yudhishthira. Avataras or mighty souls perform such actions. Should you not learn lessons from those great persons ? Lord Krishna, the mighty Lord of the three worlds, took delight in washing the feet of the guests. Should you not learn to be humble ? How haughty and proud you have become ! You are puffed with vanity and intoxicated with pride when you possess a little money, a small car and a small estate. You think you are a mighty emperor and walk with arrogant steps and treat others with contempt. You think too much of yourself and your position in life. In reality, your officeship has created in you a slave mentality and a fear of losing your position !
Christ's message has always been: "Love thy neighbour as thyself". He said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within thee. His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Be not anxious. Seek ye first His Kingdom. Everything will be added unto thee". He was the way, the truth and the light, for all men to follow.

Jesus Christ laid stress on love of God and love of fellowmen, and the need for repentance or a change of heart, for entry into the Kingdom of God. He instructed people to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. He said that a contrite heart was necessary in order to receive God's forgiveness.

"The Kingdom of God is within thee. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto thee." This is the foundation upon which the ethics of Jesus has been built.
Jesus recommended prayer as a means to seek the Kingdom. He said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more gifts unto your children, how much more good things shall your Father who is in heaven give to them who ask Him ?".
Jesus said: "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, 'Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment'. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment". In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled up. Those who seek the Kingdom of God within themselves will find Him, and therefore, 'All things would be added'." "Overcome evil by good." Jesus prescribed this great rule for his followers and the world at large. This is only the practice of Ahimsa or non-violence which purifies and softens the heart. Ahimsa is a form of truth only.

Lord Jesus retired after baptism into the wilderness beyond the Dead Sea. He disappeared at the age of thirteen and reappeared in his thirty-first year. During this period, from his thirteenth to his thirty-first year, he came to India and practiced Yoga. Thereafter he preached for about two or three years and passed into the Great Beyond.

Jesus left Jerusalem and reached the land of Indus in the company of merchants. He visited Varanasi, Rajgriha and other places in India. He spent several years in Hindustan. Jesus lived like a Hindu or a Buddhist monk, a life of burning renunciation and dispassion. He assimilated the ideals, precepts and principles of Hinduism. Christianity is modified Hinduism only, which was suitable for those people who lived in the period of Christ. Really speaking, Jesus was a child of the soil of India only. That is the reason why there is so much of similarity between his teachings and the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. Some Christians do not believe in this account of the Lord's "missing period." They argue it is not specifically mentioned in the Bible.

In matters connected with persons who lived as far back as nearly twenty centuries ago, there is bound to be slight divergence of view. The Old Testament naturally cannot contain any reference. The New Testament consists of Gospels, etc., written by His Disciples, after He was enlightened. It is obviously futile to search for a reference about the period preceding this,-which was the period during which he travelled in India where he got initiation from sages and seers-in accounts of His actions written by people who could never have had any knowledge of His earlier days. It has been the belief of many historians that at some time during the missing period Jesus travelled in India. Anyway there is nothing untenable in this view, and its acceptance would only strengthen the bonds of love between the East and the West, and promote good will between the two hemispheres, which is the Mission of the Lord.

Jesus preached on earth the divine and perfect love. He spoke very highly of gifts and charity. He said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive. Give thy heart's best treasures. From fair nature learn. Give thy love and ask not. Await not a return. And the more thou spendeth from thy little store, the more will God give thee. He will give thee a double quantity".
Jesus said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto the treasure hid in a field which a man hath found. He selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field".

Jesus Christ was crucified and yet he is living now. He has immortalized his name. None can silence his voice. His voice has been speaking through centuries. Jesus said: "Come into the Kingdom by selling all ye have and distributing it to the poor". Men have not adhered to his message, but his voice has not been silenced.
Jesus was a perfect Yogi. He did many miracles. He stopped the waves of the ocean. He gave sight to blind people. He cured lepers by mere touch. He fed a large multitude with a small loaf of bread.

Lord Christ was crucified. He accepted death with great joy in order that others might live. What a magnanimous soul! He had learnt to die cheerfully for His children. His last words are an example to the world. He said: "O Lord! Forgive those people who are torturing me and putting me to death, for they know not what they do". How noble! His hands were tied to the cross and nails were hammered into them. In this state he prayed for the people who were tormenting him. What a large and forgiving heart he had! Jesus was an embodiment of forgiveness or Kshama. That is the reason why he still lives in our hearts and why millions of people now worship him.

Jesus set an example to man to overcome evil by good. The cross of Jesus will remain for all time as the supreme example of this doctrine: "Return good for evil". Jesus surrendered himself completely to God. He knew that God changed the heart of the unjust through the suffering of the just.

The life of Jesus displays a silent yet supreme heroism in the face of the most determined opposition, persecution, and misunderstanding. And he has set an example how a true seeker repulses the temptations on the spiritual path. Long before the outward drama of crucifixion, Jesus had voluntarily crucified himself spiritually by annihilating the lower self and living a purely divine life. Jesus declares: "Ye cannot serve both God and Mammon". In other words, his teaching implies: Detach; attach. Detach yourself from the material objects of this transient world. Attach yourself to the eternal spiritual treasure of Atman. Christ thus teaches us the great way of going beyond all sin and sorrow.

Jesus was God Himself. The Holy Scripture reminds us of this fact again and again. Yet, why did he have to endure so much of persecution and suffering ? Could he not have overwhelmed his foes by a mere exercise of his divine will ? Yes. But the supreme incarnation of love that Lord Jesus was, he had willed it that his own life would be an example for people to emulate. Therefore he behaved like any other human being; and while so doing, fully demonstrated in his own brief but eventful life the great Sermon that he gave on the Mount.

After Jesus was crucified, he was restored to life. The resurrection or the rising again from dead was, according to Jesus, and ineffable condition in which all bodily limitation was transcended. It was a condition of being perpetually in the presence of God. Jesus was a fully developed Yogi and sage. He had no identification with the physical body. He identified himself with the Supreme Soul. He said: "I and my Father are one".

True, Lord Jesus bled on the Cross for the redemption of his people. Today, from his eternal seat in the Kingdom of God, his divine compassionate heart bleeds even more profusely. For, the people of his time were ignorant of the Law and they erred; but the people of the modern world have the resplendent light of Lord Jesus' life and teachings illumining the path of righteousness, and yet, they wantonly walk the path of darkness, ignorance, sin, selfishness, sensuousness, and misery. If his merciful heart bled for the ignorant sinners, how much more would it not bleed for the sins of those who err, ignoring His light !

Is this the way in which you would like humanity to show its gratitude to the Saviour ? No, a thousand times no. It is never too late to mend. Study the Gospels again. Meditate on the resplendent, spiritually glowing, divine form of Lord Jesus. How sweet, how compassionate, how gentle and loving he was ! And yet, he showed no leniency towards himself. He turned resolutely away from Satan - not that he could ever be tempted, but to set an example before us.

Trials and temptations come but to be overcome by the brave. Tests and trying situations come to strengthen your mind and purify your heart. They are, as it were, the wise men that discover the Jesus in you. To succumb to these trials is weakness. To fast, to pray, to discriminate, and to overcome these obstacles with the help of the grace of the Lord is spiritual heroism. When the victory is achieved, to feel, to realize, and to proclaim that it was the Lord's grace that enabled you to attain victory is real meekness. Meekness is virtue; weakness is sin. Learn this great lesson from the life of Lord Jesus.

Study the Sermon on the Mount again and again. Meditate upon it. Choose the Lord's instructions one after the other, month after month, and endeavour diligently to put them into practice. Thus will you grow into a worthy child of Lord Jesus. Thus will you reincarnate Lord Jesus in your own heart. There are many today who truly and sincerely follow the teachings of the Saviour. In their hearts has Jesus reincarnated, to guide you, to lead you to the Kingdom of God, where he has his supreme seat.

Golf Car

2009-12-20T16:02:00.000-08:00

Golf Car

Golf is often associated with old men who have nothing better to do than fill their time, hitting a small ball across miles of land. But, the game is played by everyone, and a new company have catered for the hardcore golfer, willing to invest heavily into their pasttime.

Golf can be relatively expensive at the best of times, with the correct clubs, correct bag, correct balls and a course membership.Well add on top of all that another $17,499 and you will also be able to afford this new exclusive and revolutionary golf car. Made by Garia, who have a reputation as having a very meticulous attention to design and luxury, the car features an inbuilt refigerator, hand stitched seats and a customisation service in which you can select the exact colour you desire.

The car also exhibits a double wishbone front suspension, typically found in sports cars, as well as hydraulic brakes on all four wheels. This isn't just a golf cart, this is a total machine.Designed by Danish designer Anders Lynge, the Garia Golf Car pushes the boundaries for golf cars, and offer a fantastic vehicle for the most keen golfers.

GOOGLE

2009-12-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

GOOGLE

A search engines is a program that searches the Internet and finds webpages for the user based on the keywords that you submit. There are several parts to a search engine such as:
search engine software including: boolean operators, search fields, display format, etc.
spider software
a database
algorithms that rank results for relevancyThe very popular search engine called Google was invented by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google was named after a googol - the name for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros - found in the book Mathematics and the Imagination by Edward Kasner and James Newman. To Google's founders the name represents the immense amount of information that a search engine has to sift through.

Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and BackRubIn 1995, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University as graduate students in computer science. By January of 1996, the pair began collaborating on writing a program for a search engine dubbed BackRub, named after its ability to do back link analysis.

Next, fueled by the rave reviews that BackRub received, Larry Page and Sergey Brin began working on Google. Operating out of their dorm rooms, the pair built a server network using cheap, used, and borrowed PCs. They maxed their credit cards buying terabytes of disks at discount prices. They tried to license their search engine technology, however, after failing to find anyone that wanted their product at an early stage of development, Page and Brin decided to keep Google, seek more financing, improve the product, and take it to the public themselves.
Let Me Just Write You a CheckThe strategy worked and after more development Google finally became a hot commodity. Co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Andy Bechtolsheim said after a quick demo of Google, "Instead of us discussing all the details, why don't I just write you a check?"

The $100,000 check was made out to Google Inc., however, Google Inc. as a legal entity did not exist yet. Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated within two weeks, cashed that check, and raised $900,000 more for their initial funding.

In September of 1998, Google Inc. opened in Menlo Park, California and Google.com, a beta search engine, was answering 10,000 search queries every day.

Touch Sensitive Faucet

2009-12-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

Touch Sensitive Faucet

This gadget may not be particularly ground-breaking but it certainly does offer a very valuable benefit to those in the kitchen.

We've all been in the scenario of having our hands full, and needing to contort ourselves just to turn on the tap, to wash our hands.Well, let me introduce to you the touch sensitive faucet.

Both the spout and handle are touch sensitive, so one small touch on either part will cause the water to fall.

The faucet comes in two different styles, the chrome finished faucet and the stainless steel version, which will cost slightly more.

The faucet can clevery differentiate between a touch and a grab, so temeperature levels are not going to constantly fluctuate.

The chrome faucet will cost you $495, whilst the stainless steel version will cost you $547. Both available from Delta Faucet

Stress Watch

2009-11-23T16:36:00.001-08:00

Stress Watch

This watch not only looks fantastic, but serves a great purpose which really should have been invented before now. But alas, it is now available.

The stress watch is aimed at busy people, with hectic lives, as it monitors stress levels throughout the day, and indicates your levels via a black bar graph on the screen.

The blues and greens indicate a mellow mood, compared to pinks, reds, and oranges which indicate a stressed out individual.Thankfully, the watch also tells the time (as you may expect), so you will never miss an appointment or meeting, though these meetings may cause your stress levels to soar.

Once the stress levels hit a peak, you can take a rest and watch as your levels (hopefully) begin to drop.The device is currently only a prototype, but one which many, many people would like to see come into production. Myself included.

HTC Touch Pro Smart Phones

2009-11-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

HTC Touch Pro Smart Phones

HTC has always come up with pleasant surprises for its mobile users. For those who wish to own stylish and high-tech mobile models, there’s good news coming up: HTC Touch Pro mobile phone has stepped in to the mobile scene.

At first glance, one can easily guess how truly and efficiently it would perform in the hands of mobile users. A fabulous build and an impressive design is what describes this brilliant mobile model by HTC in the best way. Expect a lot from it to deliver as it has endeavored to ease you with some contemporary facilities.

The first attribute to mention is the look and feel of this mobile phone model. It imbibes quite a robust build with impressive dimensions of 102 X 51 X 18.1 mm. The handset is extremely lightweight which you can easily carry in your pocket wherever you go. Certainly the dazzling appearance makes it look smart and cool in your hands.

The HTC Touch Pro mobile is integrated with a touch screen TFT display that accompanies 65k color contrast. The screen is 2.8 inches wider having a pixel resolution of 480 X 640 pixels. You will be startled to discover some amazing features like Handwriting recognition, touch FLO 3D finger swipe navigation, touch sensitive navigation controls and accelerometer sensor to have easy auto screen rotate facility.

HTC Touch Pro mobile imbibe some of the impressive sound alerts including MP3, WMA, ringtones, downloadable polyphonic along with a powerful vibration feature. HTC mobile has a wonderful camera resolution with 3.5 mega pixels accompanying an autofocus and LED flash feature. A VGA video call camera come up as a bonus to the set and is a pleasant surprise for those who wish to experiment with their mobile photographing experience.

This mobile model is not an exception when it comes to basic features. Like all other HTC mobiles, this HTC mobile model is also bundled with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 professional. It is a perfect kit to get handy with various types of messaging including text, MMS, e-mail and to have threaded view of messages. It has FM stereo with RDs support. It incorporates a standard Li-ion battery that offers an uninterrupted call time of 8 hours chat and standby time of 406 hours

Cold Fusion Is Hot Again

2009-11-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

Cold Fusion Is Hot Again

Twenty years ago it appeared, for a moment, that all our energy problems could be solved. It was the announcement of cold fusion - nuclear energy like that which powers the sun - but at room temperature on a table top.

It promised to be cheap, limitless and clean. Cold fusion would end our dependence on the Middle East and stop those greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. It would change everything. But then, just as quickly as it was announced, it was discredited. So thoroughly, that cold fusion became a catch phrase for junk science.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to oblivion - for many scientists today, cold fusion is hot again. "We can yield the power of nuclear physics on a tabletop. The potential is unlimited. That is the most powerful energy source known to man," researcher Michael McKubre told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.

McKubre says he has seen that energy more than 50 times in cold fusion experiments he's doing at SRI International, a respected California lab that does extensive work for the government. McKubre is an electro-chemist who imagines, in 20 years, the creation of a clean nuclear battery. "For example, a laptop would come pre-charged with all of the energy that you would ever intend to use. You're now decoupled from your charger and the wall socket," he explained.

The same would go for cars. "The potential is for an energy source that would run your car for three, four years, for example. And you'd take it in for service every four years and they'd give you a new power supply," McKubre told Pelley.

Energen Wave Power

2009-11-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

Energen Wave Power

The Energen Wave Power device is a new invention that uses the motion of near shore ocean surface waves to create electricity. It is an attenuating wave device designed for efficiently extracting all the energy available from a single wave over a large surface area. It has a simple robust design that will enable it to withstand harsh sea conditions. The design of the generator allows for single or modular installations. Modular installations will reduce costs making power generating sites more financially viable. The size of each generator can be changed to accommodate regional wave conditions to maximise power output and reduce energy unit costs.
All proprietary power generating equipment is housed in the parallel floating pontoons, providing essential protection from the harsh corrosive sea conditions. All hydraulic and electrical power generating equipment are standard and readily available.

The Energen device consists of a series of semi-submerged cylindrical pivoting torque tubes connected to two large cylindrical pontoons. The wave-induced movement of these torque tubes is resisted by a hydraulic system which pumps high pressure oil through hydraulic motors. The hydraulic motors drive electrical generators to produce electricity.

A 50th scale model has been tested at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Stellenbosch and using actual wave data off the South African coast it is estimated that a single device will produce 1.4Mw of power, or 979Gw hours of electricity per annum.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

2009-11-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to medical articles for long term implantation, including blood and tissue contacting medical articles for long term implantation.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Various medical articles are known that comprise porous polymeric regions. One particularly beneficial method for forming such medical articles is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,972 to Wong, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference to the extent that it does not conflict with the present disclosure, in which medical articles are made by a procedure in which fibers are wound on a mandrel and overlying fiber portions are simultaneously bonded with underlying fiber portions. For instance, a polymeric solution can be extruded from a spinneret, forming filaments which are wound onto a rotating mandrel, as the spinneret reciprocates back and forth relative to the mandrel. The drying parameters (e.g., drying environment, solution temperature and concentration, spinneret-to-mandrel distance, etc.) are controlled such that some residual solvent remains in the filaments as they are wrapped upon the mandrel. Upon further evaporation of the solvent, the overlapping fibers on the mandrel become bonded to each other.

Vascular grafts are examples of porous polymeric medical articles, which may be made using the above and other methods. Certain vascular grafts, including small diameter vascular grafts (e.g., grafts with a diameter of 6 mm or less), are known to have very poor long term patency.
Intraluminal stents are commonly inserted or implanted into body lumens, for instance, into a coronary artery after a procedure such as percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (“PCTA”). An example of one such stent 100 is illustrated in FIG. 5. Such stents are used to maintain the patency of the coronary artery by supporting the arterial walls and preventing reclosure or collapse thereof, which can occur after PCTA. Such stents 100 may also have a polymeric coating from which an antiproliferative agent is released to inhibit re-narrowing or restenosis of the blood vessel, which can occur in some patients due to smooth muscle cell proliferation after implantation of the stent 100. Ideally, endothelial cells will grow from the artery wall and over the drug eluting stent struts 100s to form a confluent layer of endothelial cells, particularly after the drug is either completely eluted or the dosage has dropped below an effective antiproliferative level, for example, to prevent smooth muscle proliferation from occurring.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the present invention, medical articles for long term implantation are provided which include the following: (a) first and second body contacting (e.g., tissue and/or body-fluid contacting) porous polymeric layers; (b) a polymeric barrier layer disposed between the first and second porous polymer layers; and (c) a reinforcement element.

An advantage of this aspect of the present invention is that medical articles may be provided, in which the surface pore size and/or porosity can be readily varied, depending on the application at hand.

Another advantage of this aspect of the present invention is that medical articles may be provided which have good biocompatibility, including medical articles that are substantially non-thrombogenic and non-immunogenic.

Another advantage of this aspect of the present invention is that medical articles may be provided in which fluid leakage (e.g., blood, serum, etc.) may be minimized upon puncture of the medical article (e.g., during suturing, AV needle puncture, etc.)

Another advantage of this aspect of the present invention is that medical articles may be provided, in which compliance may be varied from application to application.

Another advantage of this aspect of the present invention is that tubular medical articles may be provided, which have enhanced kink resistance and compression resistance as well as good compliance.

According to another aspect of the present invention, tubular medical articles for long term implantation are provided, which comprise: (a) a reinforcement element; (b) a blood contacting porous polymeric layer having a surface energy ranging between 20 and 30 dynes/cm disposed over an inner surface of the reinforcement element and; and (c) an additional porous polymeric layer formed over an outer surface of the reinforcement element.

An advantage of this aspect of the present invention is that tubular medical articles may be provided, which have good biocompatibility, for example, in the case of tubular vascular articles, encouraging the formation of a covering layer of endothelial cells at their inner surfaces.

Dorm Vault Laptop Case

2009-11-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

Dorm Vault Laptop Case

Let's face it - your roommate is nice enough. Seems trustworthy. Only eats his food, and doesn't touch your stuff. But do you really trust him with everything? Would you trust him with your wallet? Your phone? Your laptop? That laptop is your entire life! It's got all your papers on it, your music - maybe even pictures of you and your girlfriend at Spring Break! You know... those pictures.You might think that a cable-lock would be adequate to secure your laptop, but not only can those things just be clipped off with a cheap bolt-cutter, someone can still turn on and use your laptop without even removing it! No - that's not really security.

What you need is some serious armor. Something that can lock your lappy down, keeping it physically safe from pilfering hands, as well as potential data-thieves.What we found is so simple and yet totally ingenious. A big metal box with a lock (simple), that bolts to your dorm-furniture from the inside (ingenious)! With the lid closed and locked, the wing-nuts that hold the vault in place get locked in with your valuables. It's one of those "gah, I wish I had thought of that" things.Big enough to hold a 17" laptop and accessories, you could even put a portable drive or two in there, your phone - even your wallet if you were so inclined.Now you don't have to worry about whether or not your roommate is trustworthy. As they say, good locks make good neighbors. Or, is that fences? Doesn't matter - it still applies!

Features

* Rugged steel construction* 16' x 13" x 5"

* Weighs 9 pounds

Laptop Safe for Dorm Room or Apartment

Attaches to Furniture

* Holds up to 17" laptops and Personal Accessories

* Comes with mounting brackets, multiple-size bolts, wingnuts and combination lock

Mini Soccer Shaped Fan

2009-11-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

Mini Soccer Shaped Fan

For soccer fans everywhere, looking forward to the World Cup next year in South Africa, there have been a series of soccer shaped fans manufactured.

These solar powered fans are soccer-shaped and provide a touch of relief from the warm Summer weather.

This clever, solar-powered Soccer-shaped fan circulates the air to help reduce the temperature without the need for standard electricity.It is handy and easy to use.

The blades will spin as long as the round fan is opened and the sunlight falls on the solar panel. The solar fan is really a must for soccer fans or people going out.

The price of this item is £7.41.

Native American Inventions

2009-11-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

Native American Inventions

West Coast First Peoples consider that the first totem pole was a gift from Raven. It was named Kalakuyuwish, "the pole that holds up the sky." The totem poles were often used as family crests denoting the tribe's descent from an animal such as the bear, raven, wolf, salmon, or killer whale.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "There are seven principal kinds of totem pole: memorial, or heraldic, poles, erected when a house changes hands to commemorate the past owner and to identify the present one; grave markers, house posts, which support the roof; portal poles, which have a hole through which a person enters the house; welcoming poles, placed at the edge of a body of water to identify the owner of the waterfront; mortuary poles, in which the remains of the deceased are placed; and ridicule poles, on which an important individual who had failed in some way had his likeness carved upside down."

GLOBAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS

2009-11-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

GLOBAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Constellations of Low-orbiting satellites hold the key to today's flexible global telephone networks. These systems integrate satellite communications with existing land-line and cellular networks to provide truly global coverage from a mobile phone.

This enables people in remote areas, even those on tiny pacific islands or high in the Himalayas, to keep in touch with the rest of the world. Satellite systems are the next logiccal step in the mobile-phone resolution that swept the world in the late 1990s.

Iridium was the first system to offer a commercial service. It was conceived and developed by the US electronics company Motorola and began operation on 1 November 1998. The system was named after the 77th chemical element in the Periodic Table, as there were originally to be 77 Satellites in the network.

Other networks offering a similar service include Globalstar, which operates with a constellation of 48 satellites.

MEASURING TIME

2009-11-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

MEASURING TIME

All Timekeeping devices depend on counting a regularly-repeated phenomenon. The earliest timekeeping devices were based on daily, monthly, or yearly cycles of the sun or moon. Most modern clocks are based on repeated mechanical or electronic oscillations (vibrations).

The more frequent the vibrations, the greater the potential accuracy of the clock. The crystal in a quartz watch typically vibrates at 32,768 hertz (32768 times a second), so it keeps better time than a pendulam clock, whose pendulam typically swings twice a second.

The most accurate time keeping devices are atomic fountains, which are based on oscillations of caesium atoms. Global communication, technologies, such as computer networks and broadcasting, rely on the world using one accurate time standard. This is called UCT (Universal Coordinated Time) and is based on the average time signal received from over 200 atomic clocks worldwide.

The more we rely on high technology for precise timekeeping, the more vulnerable we become to problems with that technology, for example the bug that threatens to strike at the beginning of the new millennium.

EMERSON CT

2009-11-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

EMERSON CT

As a world supplier of AC & DC drives, controls and drives systems, Emerson CT has continually strengthened their design and development capabilities to provide optimum industrial automation solutions with high level technical performance and flexibility for customers in various industries like textile , printing , machine tools, and elevator etc throughout china.

Emerson CT will showcase a wide range of AC & DC drives, servos, HMI, PLC and drive control solutions as well as their vast experiences in the textile industry.

DTC SYSTEMS

2009-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

DTC SYSTEMS

DTC System (Honk Kong) is an agent of serveral manufacturers products for the china market, including Deatacolor's computer color matching and quality control systems, and Autofoam's foam fininshing systems.

It also sells laboratory dispensers, dyeig machines and dye house integration systems.

LATEST VERSION OF WEBFOLIO LAUNCHED BY GERBER

2009-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

LATEST VERSION OF WEBFOLIO LAUNCHED BY GERBER

Gerber Technology, a supplier of automated CAD/CAM and PLM solutions for the sewn products and PLM solutions for the sewn products and flexible materials industry, released webfolio 2.0, part of its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution for the digital design, collaboration and creation of collections.

Gerber Technology's webfolio 2.0 functions as a globally accessible solution enabling designers to organize and create content in a digital environment and effectively communicate information with internal associates, customers and vendors.

This new product is easy to learn and operate allowing it to rapidly become an essential tool within a designer's tool kit, as it can be used as a stand-alone product or easily integrated with Gerber;s webPDM product. This robust and intuitive format is the ideal solution for the creation, organisation and management of apparel collections, the company says.

APS AND DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

2009-11-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

APS AND DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

The advanced photo system was announced in 1995 as a breakthrough in photographic technology. Developed over five years by a consortium of film and camera manufacturers(Kodak,Sony, Nikon, Fuji, Canon, Minolta), the APS was designed to maximize the quality of images taken by amateur photographers, and to overcome some of the most common problems encountered.

The key to this new system is the "smart" film with its drop-in and automatic load cassette. The film contains a magnetic strip, which records information specific to each shot, such as lighting conditions, magnification, date and time, and communicates this data to the processing equipment in the minilab.

Once processed, the photographer receives a set of index prints, the photographs in any one of three different print sizes, and the developed film stored within the original cassette. APS film can be directly scanned and digitized, allowing the new system to bridge the gap between conventional 35mm film and digital photography.

INTERACTIVE TELEVISION

2009-11-08T04:33:00.000-08:00

INTERACTIVE TELEVISION

The future of Television is undoubtedly digital. Television of video signals can be converted from their normal analogue form (continuously varying) into a digital form, which consists of a series of definite pulses rather like Morse code.

Digital signals can be transmitted , compressed and manipulated by computers without any unwanted 'noise' affecting data. One of the advantages of digital technology is that video data can be manipulated to make interactive television possible.

Interactive 'video on demand (VOD) services allow users to watch the material of their choice from a large central video vault. A digital server enables many users to watch the same film, starting at different times, by sending the video data in small "packets" to them.

Other services include news programmes, games, music and electronic shopping. With the latter, the user 'strolls' through a virtual shop and uses a credit card to buy items, which are then delivered to the home within days.

WORLD WIDE WEB

2009-11-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

WORLD WIDE WEB

Since 1993, The World Wide Web(WWW) has become one of the fastest growing communication systems in history. Consisting of an expanding pool of 'pages' created by companies, associations, and individuals, it is accessible to anyone connected to the internet.

Two features of the Web make it appealing. The first is the non-linear method of presenting information known as 'hypertext'. This enables users to jump between documents of subject-related material at the click of the mouse. The second is the multimedia format of web pages, which can be designed using sophisticated graphics, sound and animation and displayed on-screen by a program called a 'graphical browser'.

Since the development of the browser, the Web has become more sophisticated and easier to use and interest in the WWW has exploded.

TRAMS AND BUSES

2009-11-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

TRAMS AND BUSES

As City populations exploded in the 1800s, there was an urgent need for mass transportation.

Trams were an early solution. The first trams, like buses, where horse-drawn, but in 1881, electric street tramways appeared in Berlin, Germany. Electric trams soon became widespread throughout Europe and North America. Trams run on rails along a fixed route, using electric motors that receive power from overhead cables. As road networks developed, motorized buses offered a flexible alternative to trams.By the 1930s, they had replaced tram systems in many cities.

City buses typically have doors at both front and rear to make loading and unloading easier. Double-decker designs are popular occupying the same amount of street space as single-decker buses but able to transport twice the number of people. Buses are also commonly used for inter-city travel and touring. Tour buses have reclining seats, large windows, luggage space, and toilets. Recently as city traffic has become increasingly congested many city planners have designed new tram routes to run alongside bus routes as part of an integrated transport system.

FERTILIZATION

2009-11-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

FERTILIZATION

Fertilization is the fusion of male and female gametes(sex cells) to produce a zycote(embryo). Following pollination the pollen grains that contains the male gamets are on the stigma, some distance from the female gamete (ovum) inside the ovule. To enable the gametes to meet, the pollen grain germinates and produces a pollen tube, which grows down and enters the embryo sac ( the inner part of the ovule that contains the ovum). Two male gamets, travelling at the tip of the pollen tube, enter the embryo sac. One gamete fuses with the ovum to produce a zygote that will develop into an embryo plant. The other male gamete fuses with two polar nuclei to produce the endosperm, which acts as a food store for the developing embryo. Fertilization also initiates other changes: the integument forms a testa around the embryo and endosperm ; the petals falls off; the stigma and style wither; and the ovary wall forms a layer around the seed. Together the pericap and seed form the fruit, which may be succulent. In some species, apomixis can occur: the seed develops without fertilization of the ovum by a male gamete but endosperm formation and fruit development take place as in other species.

DOON WALKING

2009-11-07T15:48:00.000-08:00

DOON WALKING

Delhi based Surekha Narain, known for her heritage walks around the capital, is set to bring her expertise to the Doon Valley trip to Dehradun.

Those interested will get to visit the acclaimed, lush century-old estate of the Forest Research Institute and its beautiful buildings, the Indian Military Academy and also get to walk around Doon School's campus. That's not all: the walk encompasses Tibetan monasteries, the havells of Old Dehradun, the surrounding forests of the valley and even a trip to an NGO involved in the education and empowerment of women and children in the village of Purkal.

Finally, nature lovers will be guided by local experts on tree or bird walks.

SETEX SCHERMULY TEXTILE COMPUTER

2009-11-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

SETEX SCHERMULY TEXTILE COMPUTER

Setex will bring to ShanghaiTex 2009 the Secom controller family with enhanced features for better productivity.

The task for the new family was to create a "universal" controller, which is easy-to use and can release the features needed for the task. Special focus was placed on productivity in today's complex production environments.

For Setex OrgaTEX users, more benefits are revealed on the controller, including reduced downtime cost, user management with RFID technology, graphical stop reasons tracking, and paperless workflow.

To save the environment, the Secom controllers are manufactured against RoHS (restriction of Hazzardous substances) conformity, Setex says.

NEW JEANS USING DOW XLA FIBER LAUNCHED

2009-11-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

NEW JEANS USING DOW XLA FIBER LAUNCHED

Dow Fiber Soltions, a business unit of The Dow chemical company, partnered with Paige Premium Denim to launch a next generation Dow XLA fiber in an exclusive "Paigeaholic" Jean.

Dow fiber solutions describeds Dow XLA as the world's first and only olefirn based stretch fiber, offering benefits for the treatment, durability and comfort of denim.

Dow fiber solutions has aggressively penetrated Dow XLA fiber in the denim market with premier partners at all levels of the supply chain, from world-class denim textile mills to globally recognized consumer brands. Holiday watson, global public affairs and brand leader for Dow fiber solutions explained that these collaborative partnerships play an important role to influence other global brand leaders to use Dow XLA fiber to bring differentiated value to the market.

FADIS

2009-11-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

FADIS

Fadis offers machinery to prepare yarns, in the form of packages or hanks. This year, Fadis will present the Sincro M, new innovation of winding machiner with precision crossing and electronic yarn guide which can reach speeds up to 2000 m/min (mechanical speed up to 2500 m/min).

With the Sincro M machine, it is possible to produce FAPP low density packages (Fadis Precision Package), which allow for wide retraction margins of the yarn during the dyeing phase, thus keeping a high residual elasticity percentage of the elasticized yarn. Therefore, with this technological system and other machines of Fadis, it is possible to obtain qualitative results quite similar to hank dyeing but with the same simplicity and economy typical of yarn package dyeing, the company says.

The fundamental innovation of these machines is the use of the precision crossing with electronic yarn guide and positively driven swift instead of a positively driven bobbin. With the "precision crossing with positively driven swift" technology, it is possible to obtain FAPP with a controlled yarn laying, without patterning, which are a guarantee for good unwinding at a constant tension, thus allowing to keep elasticity and a high performance during subsequent production phases, according to Fadis.

BRUCKNER

2009-11-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

BRUCKNER

Presented by Bruckner, the new Power-Frame stenter generation is characterized by the proven and patented Split-Flow air circulation system achieving an optimum temperature distribution across the complete dryer length and width. This is important for heat-setting processes and in the end decisive for the quality of the fabric. An easy reproducibility of production data is ensured with the Multicontrol Plus machine control, and more than 500 different recipes can be memorized. The preparation times are short and a uniformly high fabric quality with heat-setting processes is ensured.

With the newly developed energy-saving systems, Bruckner achieved to make the stentering processes even more profitable, the company says. Additionally, the dryer concept newly designed by Bruckner allows to increase the production output by up to 25% with an energy consumption that has been reduced simultaneously by 25%. The more intense combination of suction and air circulation allows a homogeneous drying across the fabric width/fabric thickness and thus an optimum fabric quality with the best achievable residual shrinkage, the company says.

HYPING SCIENCE

2009-11-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

HYPING SCIENCE

When a two-decade-long search for an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection has been a failure, the pressure to hpe and provide spin to make results of a trial look successful increases. More so as only two trials have managed to reach Phase III, the final step in testing a vaccine. Aidsvax, the first Phase III vaccine trial done on more than 5000 volunteers in Thailand, was found tobe a failure in November 2003. The phase II Merck trial in2007 not merely failed; it is increased the risk of HIV infection in those vaccinated. Unsurprisingly, the pressur to make the latest phase III trial conducted in Thailand on more than 16000 volunteers seem successful became overpowering. How else to explain the compulsions behind the positive portrayal of the Thai trial (RV144) results on September 24? It was announced that the trial using two different vaccines in a prime-boost regimen produced a modest preventive effect of 31 percent in those who received the vaccine. What followed was euphoria among those working in the HIV vaccine field; this was the first time vaccine was found to have the long-sought-after preventive effect.

The euphoria gave way to disappointment when the full results were announced in Paris on October 20 and published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine. The paper contained other data (intention to treat, and per protocol) not mentioned in the initial announcement; and they failed to show a statistically significant protective effect. Why did the sponsors who were aware of these data in September not disclose them? The modified intention to treat analysis which was not part of the original protocol design, was added six months before the data were analysed. This design helped remove seven volunteers who tested positive thereby increasing the odds of a successful outcome. Unlike other HIV vaccine trials, this one had 76 per cent of individuals at low- and moderate risk. The trials claim to success was based on moderate protection seen in those at low and moderate risk and not in those at high risk of infection. This Vital information was withheld initially. By cherry picking the positive results, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) one the sponsors of the trial, has laid itself open to the charge of breaching the ethical norms for reporting clinical trial results. Hyping results and imparting spin to the interpretation of trial data is clearly detrimental to science, and is not something expected from a nodal agency responsible for oversight.

WEATHER

2009-11-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

WEATHER

Weather is defined as the Atmospheric conditions at a particular time and place; climate is the average weather conditions for a given region over time.

Weather is assessed in terms of temperature, wind, cloud cover, and precipitation, such as rain or snow. Fine weather is associated with high-pressure areas, where air is sinking.

Cloudly, wet changeable weather is common in low-pressure zones with rising, unstable air.

Such conditions occur at temperate latitudes, where warm air meets cool air along the polar fronts. Here, spiralling low-pressure cells known as depressions (mid-latitude cyclones) oftern form.

A depression usually contains a sector of warmer air, beginning at a warm front and ending at a cold front. If the two fronts merge, forming an occluded front, the warm air is pushed upwards.

An extreme form of low-pressure cell is a hurricane ( also called a typhoon or tropical cyclone), which brings torrential rain and exceptionally stron winds.

EAR

2009-11-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

EAR

The Ear is the organ of Hearing and Balance. The outer ear consists of a flap called the auricle or pinna and the auditory canal.

The main functional parts - the middle and inner ears - are enclosed within the skull. The middle ear consists of three tiny bones, known as auditory ossicles, and the eustachian tube, which links the ear to the back of the nose.

The inner ear consists of the spiral-shaped cochlea, and also the semicircular canals and the vestibule, which are the organs of balance.

Sound waves entering the ear travel throught the auditory canal to the tympanic membrane (eardrum) where they are converted to vibrations that are transmitted via the ossicles to the cochlea.

Here the vibrations are converted by millions of microscopic hairs into electrical nerve signals to be interpreted by the brain.

CRETACEOUS PERIOD

2009-11-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

CRETACEOUS PERIOD

The Mesozoic Era ended with the Cretaceous Period, which lasted from 146 to 65 million years ago.

During this period, Gondwanaland and Laurasia were breaking up into smaller land-masses that more closely resembled those of the modern continents. The climate remained mild and moist but the seasons became more marked.

Flowering plants, including deciduous trees, replaced many cycads, seed ferns, and conifers.

Animal species became more varied, with the evolution of new mammals, insects, fish, crustaceans, and turtles.

Dinosaurs evolved into a wide variety of species during Cretaceous times; more than half of all known dinosaurs - including Iguanodon, Deinonychus, Tyrannosaurus, and Hypsilophodon - lived during this period.

At the end of the Cretaceous period, however, dinosaurs became extinct. The reason for this mass extinction is unknown but it is thought to have been caused by climatic changes due to either a catastrophic meteror impact with the Earth or extensive volcanic eruptions.

THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2009-11-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Architecture of the Early 2oth Century is notable for radical new types of steel-and-glass buildings - particularly skyscrapers - and the widespread us of steel-reinforced concrete.

The steel-framed skyscraper was pioneered in Chicago in the 1880s but did not become widespread until the first decades of the 20th century.

As construction techniques were refined, skyscrapers became higher and higher; for example, the Empire State Building of 1929-1931 has 102 storeys.

Many buildings of this period were constructed from lightweight concrete slabs, which could be supported by cantilever beams or by pilotis (stilts), as in the Villa savoye.

The early 20th century also produced a great variety of architectural styles, some of which are illustrated opposite. Despite their diversity, the styles of this period generally had one thing in common; they were completely new, with few links to past architectural styles.

This originality is in marked contrast to 19th century architecture much of which was revivalist.

PADDLE WHEELS AND PROPELLERS

2009-11-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

PADDLE WHEELS AND PROPELLERS

The invention of the steam Engine in the 18th Centuary made mechanically driven ships fitted with paddle wheels or propellers a viable alternative to sails. Paddle wheels have fixed or feathered floats, and the model shown below features both types.

Feathered floats give more propulsive power than fixed floats because they are almost upright at all time in the water.

Paddle wheel were superseded by the propeller on ocean-going vessels in the mid-19th century.

Prpellers are more efficient, work better in rough water, and are less vulnerable in collisions.

The first propellers were two-bladed but later three- and four bladed versions are moe powerful; the shape and pitch of blades have also been refined over the years.

At the beginning of the 18th Century, tillers were susperseded on many larger ships by the ship's wheel as a means of steering.

MODERN MECHANICS

2009-11-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

MODERN MECHANICS

A typical Modern car has several thousand individual mechanical components.

These are assembled to form the car's various mechanical systems; engine and exhaust, transmission, steering , suspension, and brakes.

To ensure that each system functions properly, components are manufactured to extremely fine tolerances - to within a five hundredth of a millimetre ( about on ten thousandth of an inch) in some cases.

The Earth's Crust

2009-11-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Earth's Crust

The Earth's crust is the solid outer shell of the Earth. It includes continental crust ( about 40 kilometers thick) and oceanic crust ( about six kilometers thick).

The crust and the topmost layer of the mantle form the lithosphere. The lithosphere consists of semi-rigid plates that move relative to each other on the underlying asthenosphere ( a partly molten layer of the mantle).

This process is known as plate tectonics and helps explain continental drift. Where two plates move apart, there are rifts in the crust. In mid-ocean, this movement results in sea-floor spreading and the formation of ocean ridges; on continents, crustal spreading can form rift valleys.

When plates move towards each other, one may be subducted beneath ( forced under ) the other. In mid-cean, this causes ocean trenches, seismic activity, and arcs of volcanic islands. Where oceanic crust is subducted beneath continental crust or where continents collide, land may be uplifted and mountains formed.

Plates may also slide past each other -along the san Andreas fault, for example. Crustal movement on continents may result in earthquakes, while movement under the seabed can lead to tidal waves.

HONK KONG BUZZ

2009-11-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

HONK KONG BUZZ

With a top tourist destination like Hong Kong - perennaially alive with cultural activities, entertainment, nightlife and shopping - one would think that there really is no 'best time' to visit it.

Wrong. There is no better time to visit the place than now. The Hong kong Tourism Board has specially orgainsed a host of cultural programmes, events, discounts and deals to lue tourists.

Vacationers can witness the Hong kong International Kung Fu Festival, which celebrates this martial arts form with a carnival, competitions, films and exhibitions.

There's also the Hong kong Book Fair and the Food Exhibition where visitors can sample international cuisines and note the latest dining trends. The younger lot needn't fret - Hong kong Disneyland has fun-filled activities for kids.

Plus serious food lovers will love the special food and wine options on offer at some of the best restaurants in town courtesy of the fact that 2009 has been earmarked as the Hong kong food and wine year.

MOON WATCH (50)

2009-11-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

MOON WATCH (50)

To Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Speedmaster - the watch worn by Buzz Aldrin on the moon - Omega has released three limited - edition models: the Stainless steel (7969 pieces), 18 -carat gold and the platinum version ( 69 pieces each), the last of which comes for a whopping RS 35,78,100.

The elegant timepiece features a case body as well as hour and minute hands in platinum.

ANCIENT ROME

2009-11-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

ANCIENT ROME

In the early periods of the Roman Empire, extensive use was made of an ancient Greek architectural ideas, particularly those of the Corinthian order.

As a result many early roman buildings such as the Temple of vesta - closely resemble ancient Greek Buildings.

A distinctive Roman style began to evolve in the first century AD. This style developed the interiors of buildings ( the Greeks had concentrated on the exterior) by using arches, vaults and domes inside the buildings, and by ornamenting internal walls. Many of these features can be seen in the Pantheon.

Exterior columns were often used for decorative, rather than structural, purposes as in the Colosseum and the Porta Nigra.

Smaller buildings had timber frames wiht wattle and daub walls, as in the mill.

Roman architecture remained influential for many centuries, with some of its principles being used in the 11th century in Romanesque buildings and also in the 15th and 16th centuries in Renaissance buildings.

DRAWING

2009-11-04T07:17:00.000-08:00

DRAWING

Drawings can be finsihed works of Art, or preparatory studies for paintings and other visual arts.

They can be made using a wide variety of drawing instruments such as pencils, graphite sticks, chalks, charcoal, pens and inks and silver wires.

The most common drawing instrument is the graphite pencil.

A graphite pencil consists of a thin rod of graphite mixed with clay, encased in wood.

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing instruments. It is produced by firing twigs of willow, vine or other woods at high temperatures in airtight containers.

Erasers can be used to rub out marks made by drawing materials such as graphite pencils or charcoal, or to achieve a particular effect - such as smudging.

Fixative is often applied - using a mouth diffuser or aerosol spray fixative - to prevent smudging once a drawing is finished.

Silver lines can be produced by drawing silver wire across specially prepared paper a technique known as silverpoint. The lines are permanent and cannot be erased. In time the silver lines oxidize and turn brown.

SPINE

2009-11-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

SPINE

The Spine has two main functions:

It serves as a protective surrounding for the delicate spinal cord and forms the supporting back bone of the skeleton.

The spine consists of 24 separate differently shaped bones (vertebrae) with a curved, triangular bone (the sacrum) at the bottom.

The sacrum is made up of fused vertebrae; at its lower end is a small tail-like structure made up of tiny bones collectively called the coccyx.

Between each pair of vertebrae is a disc of cartilage that cushions the bones during movement.

The top two vertebrae differ in appearance from the others and work as a pair; the first, called the atlas, rotates around a stout vertical peg on the second, the axis.

This arrangement allows the skull to move freely up and down, from side to side.

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

2009-11-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

The Respiratory system supplies the oxygen needed by body cells and carries off their carbon dioxide waste.

Inhaled air passes via the trachea (windpipe) through two narrower tubes, the bronchi, to the lungs.

Each lung comprises many fine, branching tubes called bronchioles that end in tiny clustred chambers called alveoli.

Gases cross the thin alveolar walls to and from a network of tiny blood vessels.

Intercostal (rib) muscles and the muscular diaphragm below the lungs operate the lungs like bellows, drawing air in and forcing it out at regular intervals.

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES 2009 -NATURAL SITES

2009-11-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES 2009 -NATURAL SITES

Two Natural sites in Europe also got on the list.

The Wadden Sea, Stretching from Germany to the Netherlands, is one of the last remaining large-scale undisturbed inter-tidal ecosystems in the World.

Far away from the sea, Italy's Dolomites count as one of the great European mountain ranges.

Many of the world's finest mountaineers, including Reinhold Messner trained here.

LA GRANDE BRADERIE DE LILLE, FRANCE

2009-11-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

LA GRANDE BRADERIE DE LILLE, FRANCE

One of Europe's biggest flea markets, the ' Grande Braderie' in Lille dates back to medieval times.

On the 5th and 6th September of each year, 200 km of pavements are taken over in an outdoor market, with everyone from dealers to grandmas selling everything from attic junk to genuine antiques and paintings.

One million visitors attend, with bargains sure to be found.

Tank School, Brandenburg, Germany

2009-11-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

Tank School, Brandenburg, Germany

If you have ever wanted to get behind the wheel of what the bulk of the Indian Army's armoured divisions scoot around on, here's your chance.

Near Brandenburg, Germany, a former East German army tank driver decided to fix up a few rusting Russian T-55 Tanks.

In 2003 he opened his' tank school ' to the paying public, but it's only last year that the media picked up the story.

You can't fire the cannons but you can dress up in battle gear and roar your beast of war around a muddy field.

SEA QUEEN

2009-11-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

SEA QUEEN

Kochi had a royal visitor last month.

The cruise liner - until recently the largest in the world, and still the longest- is going around the world, in 80 days.

Kochi was one of the 20 destinations on the cruise. Freedom of the seas, as the largest ocean liner, it still holds many other records.

The liner boasts of the first planetarium at sea, the first suites with private lift access, the largest library at sea, the largest ballroom with the largest dance floor, the longest jogging track and the most extensive wine cellar at sea.

Many visitors preferred to go on the famous backwater cruises, while other shopped.

It is estimated that the passengers spent a whopping Rs 2.5 crore in the 24 hours that the ship was anchored here.

Kochi has become the favourite port call for cruise vessels.

As many as 32 cruise liners have berthed at the port since the beginning of the tourist season.

ALL ABOARD

2009-11-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

ALL ABOARD

India has jumped aboard the Trans-Asian Railway bandwagon by ratifying the UNESCAP- supported inter-governmental Agreement.

Indian Railways will build the 315km link between Jiribam in India and Moreh in Myanmar.

Myanmar will pitch in with some of the RS 1,100 Cr that will be required.

The 81,000 km long Trans Asian railway is a link between 32 Asian Countries from Russia to Singapore and Indonesia and Turkey and Iran to Korea.

With the new link expected to be complete by 2015, the dream of an uninterrupted rail journey from Indonesia to Turkey and onward to Europe will be a reality.

BIG WHEEL

2009-11-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

BIG WHEEL

Modelled on London's Eye and rising to 60m, Eye on Malaysia is the largest portable wheel in the world.

Offering an entirely new perspective of Kuala Lumpur, the Eye provides fabulous views all the way across Lake Titiwangsa to KL Tower.

The viewing wheel is made up of 42 airconditioned gondolas, 39 of which are equipped to carry 8 passengers apiece.

For those who need pampering, there's even a special VIP Gondola fitted with plush leather seats, a mini fridge, a DVD player and plasma screen.

Make the most of your 12 min ridel.

WOMAN'S WORLD

2009-11-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

WOMAN'S WORLD

The WOW (Women on Wanderlust) club was set up to provide the perfect solution for women who want to travel, but don't like the idea of travelling alone.

For ladies who want to travel alone or with other men, the club is arranging a trip summer to Greece or Istanbul.

The Nine-day tour will take in such Turkish delights as a cruise on the Bosphorus, sightseeing at the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace, and shopping at the Grand covered Bazaar.

The Greece Segment will feature visits to the Acropolis, Temple of Poseidon, Hadrian's Arch and the like, as also trips to Delphi and the islands of Santorini and Mykonos.

NEW BATTERY-POWERED BRA

2009-11-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

NEW BATTERY-POWERED BRA

A hi-tech bra which can boost a women's breasts by an entire cup size while she sleeps has been unveiled in the US.

The computerised bra works by creating a vacuum in small domes in the cups of the bra that gently stretch and pull the breast tissue. The breast cells respond by developing new breast iitissue.

Powered by a tiny battery, the bra's makers Biometrics claim it has no negative side-effects and say that after 10 weeks of use a woman will find her breasts have grown by a whole cup size.

It has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration after initial clinical trials.

UNIVERSITIES LEADING THE WAY IN TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

2009-11-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

UNIVERSITIES LEADING THE WAY IN TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

Kentucky's universities have also jumpted on the high-tech bandwagon in a big way. Noting that three-quarters of economic growth in the U.S today is the result of technological advances, nearly all of which comes from university based research, the state's institutions of higher learning are becoming increasingly technology-driven.

In an article in The Lane Report, a Lexington business publications, University of Kentucky President Lee Todd, Jr., commented on the university's aggressive efforts to achieve "Top 20" status as a research institution, an effort that has been further enhanced by the annoucement that the university recently surpassed the $ 1 billion mark in its fundraising efforts.

"The future of the American economy lies in the commercialization of university-driven research ," says Dr. Todd. " We can no longer compete in the low-wage economic sectors where China, India and other Asian and Latin American countries can offer cheaper land and cheaper labor," he says, adding that"we must compete with innovation, and in the 'brain game,' universities must lead the way."

In its effort to lead the way, the UK Board of Trustees has approved the establishment of the Institute for Workplace Innovation (iWIN) to improve work environments for Kentucky-based companies. Among the proposed services are creating a corporate roundtable of top employers to discuss developing and maintaining high-quality work environments; conducting research on Kentucky's workforce and the practices of Kentucky-based employers; and engaging the business community in adopting innovative workplace practices by offering services such as executive and management coaching and organizational consultation.

THE LOW COST OF DOING BUSINESS

2009-11-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

THE LOW COST OF DOING BUSINESS

When thinking about bocation ( or relocating) a business, the cost of doing so looms large -- or in the case of Kentucky, small. Kentucky has the second-lowest overall cost of doing business in the eastern U.S., according to the Web site Economy.com, while the update of The North American Business Cost Review, which measures the cost of doing business based on a State's Unit labour cost, tax burden and energy, ranks it as the fifth-lowest nationally in the overall cost of doing business. Just where does Kentucky's competitive edge lie?

For the sixth year in a row, the state, with its wealth of natural resources, has offered the lowest industrial electrical rates in America, averaging $0.033 per kilo watt-hour(kwh), compared to the national average of $ 0.053 per kwh, as noted by the U.S Energy Information Administration.

In addition to its competitive edge in energy costs, Kentucky's coal production (third in the nation for the past 50 years, producing upto 119 million tons in one year alone), plentiful water from the state's vast network of lakes, rivers and streams, and its extremely competitive natural gas prices ensure an abundant local supply of fuels to keep utility costs low.

Combine that with a wide range of tax and financial incentives and innovative licensing and marketing assistance programs, and never has such high qulity come at such a low cast. By issuing the state's first comprehensive energy strategy , geared to developing Kentucky's energy resources in a responsible manner while at the same time maintaining environmental integrity, Governor has taken steps to ensure the state's low cost energy future.

LEXINGTON.KY

2009-11-02T06:45:00.000-08:00

LEXINGTON.KY

A stay in the Bluegrass lets you sample traditions as deep as the limestone on which they were built.

Discover world-reowned horse farms, explore centuries-old bourbon distilleries, and tour our many historic homes.

With a strong economy, an educated workforce, the nation's third lowest electric utility rates, affordable housing and high quality of life, the Bluegrass is the ideal place to locate a business.

Lexington - rated one of America's premiere cities by Forbes Magazine.

ACRYLICS

2009-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

ACRYLICS

Acrylic Paint is made by mixing pigment with a synthetic resin.

It can be thinned with water but dries to become water insoluble.

Acrylics are applied to many surfaces, such as paper and acrylic-primed board and canvas.

A variety of brushes, painting knives, rollers, air-brushes, plasic scrapers, and other tools are used in acrylic painting.

The versatility of acrylics makes them suitable for a wide range of techniques. They can be used opaquely or-by adding water - in a transparent, watercolour style.

Acrylic mediums can be added to the paint to adjust its consistency for special effects such as glazing and impasto (ridges of paint applied in thick strokes) or to make it more matt or glossy.

Acrylics are quick-drying, which allows layers of paint to be applied on top of each other almost immediately.

ELECTRIC AND HIGH SPEED TRAINS

2009-10-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

ELECTRIC AND HIGH SPEED TRAINS

The First Electric Locomotive ran in1879 in Berlin, Germany.

In Europe, electric trains developed as a more efficient alternative to the steam locomotive and diesel -electric power.

Like diesels, electric trains employ electric motors to drive the wheels but, unlike diesels, the electricity is generated externally at a power station.

Electric current is picked up either from a catenary (overhead cable) via a pantograph, or from a third rail.

Since it does not carry its own power-generating equipment, an electric locomotive has a better power-to-weight ratio and greater acceleration than its diesel-electric equivalent.

This makes electric trains suitable for urban routes with many stops. They are also faster, quieter, and less polluting.

The latest electric French TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) reaches 300 kph (186 mph); other trains, like the London to Paris and Brussels"Eurostar", can run at several voltages and operate between different countries.

Simpler electric trains perform special duties- the "People Mover" at Gatwick Airport in Britain runs between terminals.

PLANT VARIETY

2009-10-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

PLANT VARIETY

There are more than 300,000 species of plants.

They show a wide diversity of forms and life-styles, ranging, for example, from delicate liverworts, adapted for life in a damp habitat, to cacti, capable of surviving in the desert and from herbaceous plants, such as corn, which completes its life-cycle in one year, to the giant redwood tree, which can live for thousands of years.

This diversity reflects the adaptations of plants to survive in a wide range of habitats.

This is seen most clearly in the flowerign plants (phylum angiospermophyta), which are the most numerous, with over 250,000 species, and the most widespread, being found from the tropics to the poles.

Despite their diversity, plants share certain characteristics; typically, plants are green and make their food by photosynthesis; and most plants live in or on a substrate, such as soil and do not actively move.

Algae(kingdom Protista) and fungi (kingdom Fungi) have some plant-like characteristics and are often studied alongside plants, although they are not true plants.

The Milky Way

2009-10-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

The Milky Way

The Milky ways is the name given to the Faint Band of Light that stretches across the night sky.

This light comes from stars and nebulae in our galaxy, known as the Milky way Galaxy or simply as " the Galaxy".

The Galaxy is shaped like a spiral, with a dense central bulge that is encircled by four arms spiralling outwards and surrounded by a less dense halo. We cannot see the spiral shape because the Solar System is in one of the spiral arms, the Orion Arm (also called the Local Arm).

From our position, the centre of the Galaxy is completely obscured by dust clouds; as a result, optical maps give only a limited view of the Galaxy. However, a more complete picture can be obtained by studying radio, infra-red, and other radiation.

The Central bulge of the Galaxy is a relatively small, dense sphere that contains mainly older red and yellow stars. The halo is a less dense region in which the oldest stars are situated; some of these stars may be old as the Galaxy itself (possibly 15 billion years). The spiral arms contain mainly hot, young, blue stars, as well as nebulae (clouds of dust and gas inside which stars are born).

The Galaxy is vast, about 100,000 light years across ( a light year is about 9,460 billion kilometres); in comparison, the solar system seems small, at about 12 light hours across (about 13 billion kilometres).

The entire Galaxy is rotating in space, although the inner stars travel faster than those further out.

The Sun, which is about two-thirds out from the centre, completes one lap of the Galaxy about every 220 million years.

ARECHES AND VAULTS

2009-10-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

ARECHES AND VAULTS

Arches are curved structures used to bridge spans and to support the weight of upper parts of buildings, such as domes, as in St. Paul's Cathedral and the antique temple.

The Voussoirs that form an arch support each other and convert downwards force of the weight of the building into an outward force.

This Outward force is in turn transferred to buttresses, piers, main types of Vault.

A barrel vault is a single vault, semicircular in cross- section; a groin vault consists of two barrel vaults intersecting at right-angles; a rib vault is a groin vault reinforced by ribs; and a fan vault is a rib vault in which the ribs radiate from the springing point( where the arch begins ) like a fan.

BOOKS

2009-10-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

BOOKS

Through the process of BookBinding today is usaually mechanized, some books are still bound by Hand.

The pages of a book are printed on large sheets of paper called sections, or signatures.

When folded, sections usually make 8, 16, or 32 pages.

To assemble a hand-bound hardback book, the binder first places the folded sections in the correct order within the endpapers.

Next, he or she sews the sections together along the spine edge using strong thread and then pastes them with glue for extra strength.

After trimming the pages, the binder puts the book in a press and hammers the spine to round it.

The binder then glues one or more linings to the spine. The cover, or case, comes last.

To make this, teh bookbinder sticks cover boards to the endpapers, front and back and then covers them with cloth or leather.

CD - ROM

2009-10-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

CD - ROM

A CD-ROM is a type of Compact Disc (CD) that can be used to produce images on a computer screen. Rom Stands for Read only Memory, which means that the digitally recorded data registered in pits on the surface of the disc is fixed and cannot be altered or replaced.

The CD is loaded into the CD-Rom player, where the data on the spinning disc is read by a laser.

CD-Roms are different from vinyl records in that they are not read along a spiral groove, from outer circumference to inner edge; instead each image or piece of information has a co-ordinate on the disc, which is located by the laser.

Information picked up by the laser is relayed to the computer, where it is translated into the text and images that appear on screen.

The information is relayed through a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), which processes the electronic impulses between the disc drive and the computer system.

The User can move around the program by clicking on different parts of the screen with a mouse ( a hand-held tool with a clicking button whose movement on its pad is mimicked by an icon on the screen).

The image in the viewing area can be changed by clicking on the active scrolling button; this moves a rectangular panel down the scrolling figure in the navigational panel.

Clicking on active text will provide a new screen with more information, either in the form of text and diagrams, or as narrated animated sequences.

ICE HOCKEY

2009-10-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

ICE HOCKEY

Ice Hockey is played by two teams of six players on an ice rink, with a goal net at each end.

The obect of this fast, and often dangerous, game is to hit a frozen rubber puck into the opposing team's net with a ice hockey stick.

The game begins when the referee drops the puck between the sticks of two players from opposing teams, who " face off".

The rink is divided into three areas: defending, neutral, and attacking zones.

Players may move with the puck and pass the puck to one another along the ice, but may not pass it more than two zones across the rink markings.

A goal is scored when the puck entirely crosses the goal-line between the posts and under the crossbar of the goal.

A team may field up to 20 players although only six players are allowed on the ice at one time; substitutions occur frequently.

Each game consists of three periods of 20 minutes, divided by breaks of 15 minutes.

RUGBY

2009-10-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

RUGBY

Rugby is played with an Oval Ball which may be carried, thrown or kicked.

There are two codes of rugby.

Rugby Union is an amature game played by two teams of 15 players. They can score points in two ways; by placing the ball by hand over the opponents goal-line(a try, scoring four points) or by kicking it over the crossbar of the opponent's goal ( a conversion of a try scoring two points; a penalty kick, scoring three points; or a drop-kick, scoring three points).

Rugby League developed from the Union game but is played by 13 players at amature and professional levels.

In League games, a try scores four points; a conversion of a try scores two points' a drop goal scores three points, and a penalty kick scores two points.

Scrummages occur in both forms of the game when play stops following an infringement.

WORLD WAR I AIRCRAFT

2009-10-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

WORLD WAR I AIRCRAFT

When World war I started in 1914, the main purpose of military aircraft was reconnaissance.

The British-bult BE 2, of which the BE 2B was a variant, was wellsuited to this duty; it was very stable in flight allowing the occupants to study the terrain, take photographs, and make notes.

The BE 2 was also one of the first aircraft to drop bombs.

One of the biggest problems for aircraft designers during the war was mounting machine-guns.

On aricraft that had front-mounted propellers, the field of fire was restricted by the propellers, the field of fire was restricted by the propeller and other parts of the aircraft.

The problem was solved in 1915 by the Dutchman Anthony Fokker, Who designed an interrupter gear that prevented a machine-gun from firing when a propeller blade passed in front of the barrel.

The German LVG CVI had a forward-firing gun to the right of the engine, as well as a rear-cockpit gun, and a bombing capability.

It was one of the most versatile aircraft of the war.

EFFECTS OF GLITTERING

2009-10-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

EFFECTS OF GLITTERING

Glitter is a collection of small objects made up of plastic chunks or sheets, metal foils and synthetic chemicals like titanium dioxide with surface area in the range of about one square millimeter or less and painted with metallic or iridescent paints so as to reflect light. Often the paint has a colour and so the reflected light acquires the specific colour.

The tiny objects are often not perfectly planar but have randomly twistted bends so that each of the surfaces reflect light in the directions suitably conditioned for the reflection to occur.

Some stones are seen to glitter because they have tiny reflecting particles embedded below a transparent layer of the stone near the surface.

The transparent layer also can disperse the light into its component colours to fall on the reflecting surface in slightly different directions; this has the effect of glittering from the same spot in differing colours in different directions. In the artificial glitters also such effects are produced for the desirably rich coloured glittering.

As we have seen, glittering is observed as a result of reflection of light from oriented reflecting surfaces.

The differently coloured rays fall on the culet surfaces cut in very many different directions. The high refractive index causes total internal reflection, sending the rays back to emerge from the gem in several directions causing the observed glittering.

THE EXPANSION OF SAIL

2009-10-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

THE EXPANSION OF SAIL

By this Century, Sailing ships had become fast and effective floating fortresses.

The navies of the north European powers competed with each other by building heavily-armed fighting ships called"men-of-war".

The distinctive round stern of the ship below, with its open gallery, balcony and elaborate wood carving is typical of the period.

Hulls around this time were semicircular in cross section, although many boat designers were soon to return to the V-shaped hulls used by the vikings.

Ships of the period carried more sail than ever before.

A labyrinth of rigging supported the masts and yards from which the profusion of square sails were set.

Ships grew higher as extra masts were fitted above the lower mast, and the bowsprit became longer to allow the ship to carry staysails, spritsails, and jibsails. Ships went into battle in single file, so that broadsides from the multiple decks of guns would have maximum effect.

Ships were classified by rates, the rating of a vessel depending on how many guns it had.

A First rate ship had more than 100guns.

The guns fired solid round shot, usually made of Iron.

MODERN BODY WORK

2009-10-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

MODERN BODY WORK

The Body of a Modern Mass -Produced Car is built on the monocoque(single-shell) principle, in which the roof, side panels and floor are welded into a single integral unit.

This bodyshell protects and supports the car's internal parts.

Steel and glass are used to construct the bodyshell, creating a unit that is both light and strong.

Its lightness helps to conserve energy, while its strength protects the occupants.

Modern bodywork is designed with the aid of computers, which are used to predict factors such as aerodynamic efficiency and impact-resistance.

High technology is also employed on the production line, where robots are used to assemble, weld and paint the body.

COASTLINES

2009-10-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

COASTLINES

Coastlines are among the most rapidly changing landscape features.

Some are eroded by waves, wind, and rain causing cliffs to be undercut and caves to be hollowed out of solid rock.

Others are build up by waves transporting sand and small rocks in a process known as longshore drift and by rivers depositing sediment in deltas. Additional influences include the activities of living organisms such as coral, crustal movements and sea level variations due to climatic changes.

Rising land or a drop in sea level creates an emergent coastline, with cliffs and beaches stranded above the new showline.

Sinking land or a rise in sea level produces a drowned coastline, typified by fjords (submerged glacial valleys) or submerged river valleys.

FREE BORDERS INC

2009-10-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

FREE BORDERS INC.

Asians reach out to the world

The growth story of the emerging Asia would remain incomplete without embracing the phenomenon of outsourcing. Not only India and China has monopolised it, but"next-step destinations" like Phillippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore are becoming the global epicentres by renovating the traditional business developed countries.

Not only this, developed countries like France and Switzerland have an overwhelming number of Japanese residents. The new Asia truly seems to be on the wind-side of the market with its inherent competence and growing share in skilled manpower.

Asia has passed on the message to the world that by focusing business processes and service quality, one can optimise earnings and amplify growth. It's really red hot and going to be hotter in Asia. And detractors stay away.

CONSTANT CONSTANTS? SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE ANSWER

2009-10-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

CONSTANT CONSTANTS? SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE ANSWER

Scientists are delvinga as far into the past as possible to establish whether the constants of nautre have changed at any time during the existence of the universe. For this they are analysing the light from the quasars.

Lightwaves from the quasars began their journey shortly afther evolution of the cosmos and have now reached the earth. while they were on their way, the universe expanded and in the process their wavelengths stretched and their colour shifted towards the red end of the spectrum. The extent of this 'redshift' indicates the time taken for the light to travel. On its journey, whenever the light passed through gas clouds, atoms in these clouds absorbed specific wavelengths of the light. this meant that electrons were catapulted to a higher orbit, the position of which depends on the fine structure constant alpha. If alpha had a different value earlier, other wavelenths would have been absorbed than those present in gas clouds today.

Such clouds are simulated in the laboratory in order to compare the light that passes through them with the light from the cosmic objects. Since absorption by atoms imprints a kind of barcode on the light, the comparison of 'old' barcodes with 'new' ones should establish whether the fundamental constant alpha has changed or not

AVERT A FUEL CRISIS

2009-10-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

AVERT A FUEL CRISIS

We all groan when the government hikes the petrol prices - yet again - but few of us know how to hoard this combustible commodity.

One strategy: See what's holding you back, like a luggage rack.

Unless you use it regularly, ditch it, because they create aerodynamic drag.

Reason: Air flows over the roof, and when the cruising speed hits 60mph what you have up there is going to diminish mileage.

Another option: Open the trunk and remove everything you don't need on a daily basis or in an emergency (Hint:Keep the spare tire and jack).

The more your car has to haul, the more fuel it'll burn. That's also one reason some automobile experts recommend filling your tank just halfway.

Finally, use an energy conserving oil that has friction-reducing additives. This can cut fuel consumption by over 2 1/2 percent.

LIQUID THERMOMETERS

2009-10-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

LIQUID THERMOMETERS

A rough idea of the temperature of an object can be made out with our sense of touch, but it is not an object can be made out with our sense of touch, but it is not an accurate method of measuring temperature. A thermometer is a device used to measure the temperature of substances.

The first thermometer was constructed by Galileo in 1593. It was an air thermometer based on the thermal expansion of air. Later Newton developed a liquid thermometer and suggested the need for fixed points. Gabriel Fahrenheit developed a mercury thermometer in1720 while Anders Celsius constructed a mercury-in-glass thermometer in1742.

A thermometer works on the principle that substances expand on heating and contract on cooling.

Mercury or alcohol is used as thermometric liquids. These liquids expand uniformly when they are heated. For measuring low temperature alcohol is used, as mercury freezes at -39oC.

The thermometer consists of a thick glass tube of uniform bore. At one end of the tube, is a small narrow bulb which contains mercury. The air from the glass tube is completely removed and the other end is sealed.

MEDIEVAL CHURCHES

2009-10-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

MEDIEVAL CHURCHES

During the middle ages, large numbers of churches were built in Europe. European churches of this period typically have high vaults supported by massive piers and coloumns.

In the 10th Centuary, the Romanesquarestyle developed. Romanesaue architects adopted many Roman or early Christian architectural ideas, such as cross-shaped ground-plans-like that of Angouleme Cathedral (opposite) - and the basilican system of a nave with a central vessel and side aisies.

In the mid-12the Centuary, flying buttressses and pointed vaults appeared. These features late became widely used in Gothic architecture.

Bagneux Church has both styles: a Romansquare tower and a Gothic nave and choir.