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What spider could construct such a massively creepy web?

There are times when you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in this eerie spider web.

Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the sprawling spider web is a big attraction for some visitors, while others will not go anywhere near it.

Now entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of the web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard (182-metre) stretch of trail in a North Texas park.


The webs bring to mind the terrifyingly large spiders featured in the Harry Potter movies

"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles (72 kilometres) east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."

Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.

"I've been hearing from entomologists from Ohio, Kansas, British Columbia - all over the place," said Mike Quinn, an invertebrate biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who first posted photos online.

Herbert A. "Joe" Pase, a Texas Forest Service entomologist, said the massive web is very unusual. "From what I'm hearing it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.

But John Jackman, a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University, said he hears reports of similar webs every couple of years.

"There are a lot of folks that don't realise spiders do that," said Jackman, author of "A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas."

"Until we get some samples sent to us, we really won't know what species of spider we're talking about," Jackman said.

Garde invited the entomologists out to the park to get a firsthand look at the giant web.

"Somebody needs to come out that's an expert. I would love to see some entomology intern come out and study this," she said.

Park rangers said they expect the web to last until fall, when the spiders will start dying off.

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Mathematicians Sum Up Jessica Alba's Sexiness: It's in Her Walk

Jessica Alba, the film actress, has the ultimate sexy strut, according to a team of Cambridge mathematicians.

The academics found that it is the ratio between hips and waist that puts the sway into a woman's walk - and the nearer that ratio is to 0.7, the better.

This ratio provides the body with the right torso strength to produce a more angular swing and bounce to the hips during the walking motion.

Therefore, a woman with a 25in waist and 36in hips would have just the right proportions to carry off a sexy swagger as she walks.

The Jessica Alba sashay beat off competition from Kate Moss, Angelina Jolie and even Marilyn Monroe, whose walk along a railway platform in Some Like It Hot is one of the most famous in film history.

While Monroe was a fraction off the target ratio with 0.69, the Cambridge team said that Alba had the perfect proportions.

Therefore, a woman with a 25-inch waist and 36-inch hips would have the exact proportions to carry off a sexy sway.

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Total Lunar Eclipse Visible in U.S.

The Earth's shadow will creep across the moon's surface early Tuesday, slowly eclipsing it and turning it to shades of orange and red.

Aug. 28: The moon glows red during a lunar eclipse seen in Sydney, Australia.
Aug. 28: The moon glows red during a lunar eclipse seen in Sydney, Australia.

The total lunar eclipse, the second this year, will be visible in North and South America, especially in the West. People in the Pacific islands, eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand also will be able to view it if skies are clear.

People in Europe, Africa or the Middle East, who had the best view of the last total lunar eclipse in March, will not see this one because the moon will have set when the partial eclipse begins at 4:51 a.m. EDT. The full eclipse will begin an hour later at 5:52 a.m. EDT.

An eclipse occurs when Earth passes between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun's light. It is rare because the moon is usually either above or below the plane of Earth's orbit.

Since the Earth is bigger than the moon, the process of the Earth's shadow taking a bigger and bigger "bite" out of the moon, totally eclipsing it before the shadow recedes, lasts about 3 1/2 hours, said Doug Duncan, director of the University of Colorado's Fiske Planetarium. The total eclipse phase, in which the moon has an orange or reddish glow, lasts about 1 1/2 hours.

The full eclipse will be visible across the United States, but East Coast viewers will only have about a half-hour to see it before the sun begins to rise and the moon sets. Skywatchers in the West will get the full show.

In eastern Asia, the moon will rise in various stages of eclipse.

During the full eclipse, the moon will not be completely dark because some light still reaches it around the edges of the Earth. The light is refracted as it passes through our atmosphere, scattering blue light — which is why the sky is blue — but sending reddish light onto the moon.

"When someone asks why is it [the moon] red, you can say because the sky is blue," Duncan said.

The next total lunar eclipse occurs Feb. 21, 2008, and will be visible from the Americas, Europe and Asia.

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Weirdest Accidents of All Time










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Magazine Illusions






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World's tallest women

In 1976 Sandy Allen was declared the “world’s tallest woman - living” by Guinness Book of World Records. Allen is a towering lady at 7′ 7 1/4″. Amazingly this is not far beyond the recognized world’s tallest living man - Xi Shun (7′ 8.95″). Allen has since spent her life traveling around the world encouraging people that it is OK to be different. Allen was born in 1955, at age 22 she underwent surgery to stop her growth. Without this she would have continued to grow and suffer further medical problems associated with gigantism.


At age 11, she had already grown to 188 cm, and was 203 cm at age 15. Her parents, poor peasants from the Chinese province of Anhui, sold her to a circus, where she was enslaved as an attraction during her adolescence. Later, she returned to her mother (who, surprisingly enough, is only 4 ft 8 in tall), where she is still living now.

Yao Defen of China, (born 15 July 1972), claims to be the tallest female in the world. She states that her height is 2.36 meters (7 ft 8 in) tall and that she weighs 200 kg, though this has yet to be confirmed by Guinness World Records. Her gigantism is the result of a tumor that is located within her pituitary gland. She is currently under observation in Shanghai and is expected to undergo surgery to remove the tumor in 2007.

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World's Biggest Biceps

Introducing the biggest biceps in the world! The guy's name is Greg Valentino. Building the world's biggest biceps is not an easy task! Greg has been working his huge biceps for over 20 years. Obviously to get the world's biggest biceps Greg has been using alot of steriods. Greg has the world's biggest biceps and biggest arms at over 28 inches! (71cm!)






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‘World's fattest mouse’ appears immune to diabetes

The “world’s fattest mice”, genetically engineered to overproduce a key hormone, weigh five times as much as normal mice do – but bizarrely do not develop diabetes, reveals a new study. The findings shed light on how current diabetes medications work and point to new drug targets to treat the disease, say the study's researchers.

A mouse (pictured on the left) engineered to overproduce the hormone adiponectin weighs 100 grammes – five times as much as a normal mouse (pictured on the right)

Philipp Scherer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, US, and his colleagues studied mice that had been genetically engineered to overeat. The mice gorged on food because they lacked the ability to produce an important appetite-suppressing hormone called leptin.

The researchers then bred a subgroup of these leptin-deficient mice to overproduce another key hormone that gets released by fat cells, called adiponectin, by about threefold. Under normal circumstances, an increase in adiponectin levels signals that an animal has entered "starvation mode" because it has not eaten for some time.

All of the leptin-deficient mice ate non-stop, but those bred to overproduce adiponectin packed on almost twice as much weight by the end of the 20-week experiment.

Location, location, location

Whereas a normal, healthy mouse weighs about 20 grammes, the mice lacking leptin weighed roughly 60 grammes. The adiponectin over-producers weighed about 100 grammes.

"It's probably the most obese mouse that's ever been reported," Scherer says of their particular mouse strain.

Interestingly, none of the rodents that made extra adiponectin developed symptoms of diabetes, such as high blood sugar. By comparison, all of the other leptin-deficient mice developed this disease during the course of the experiment.

When Scherer and his team examined the distribution of body fat within the mice, they found that the obese rodents with an abundance of adiponectin had a great deal of fat stored under the skin, but very little fat within organs such as the liver.

This unusual allocation of fat might explain why the animals remained in good health – extra fat in the liver can make the organ less sensitive to insulin, thereby leading to diabetes.

Scherer firmly believes that the distribution of fat can make all the difference in terms of whether obesity will lead to diabetes. "It's a little bit like real estate; it's location, location, location."

Sudden death

Adiponectin appears to help the body store fat under the skin by increasing the number of fat cells there.

Notably, in the weeks following the formal end of the experiment, about 10% of the mice that overproduced adiponectin experienced sudden death. But this was due to the fact that their vital organs stopped functioning under the crushing weight of their fat, not because of a particular disease.

Some of the 100-gramme mice also developed enlarged hearts, which in humans can predispose people to heart failure.

The new findings might lead to new ways of treating diabetes in the future, says Scherer. He notes that many drugs currently used to treat diabetes lead to an increase in adiponectin levels in patients.

Scherer says that giving adiponectin itself would not work well since the protein gets broken down very quickly in the body. But he adds that scientists might want to look for compounds that can act directly on the adiponectin signalling pathway to migrate fat out of the liver of obese patients.

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First Olympic bullet trains arrive in Britain

The first of the 140mph Japanese bullet trains that will go into service on the UK rail network in 2009 arrived in Britain.

The six-car Hitachi Class 395 train reached Southampton on board a roll-on, roll-off ferry.

The bullet trains will be used by the Southeastern train company for domestic services on the soon-to-be-completed final section of the Channel Tunnel Rail link from Kent into central London.

The trains will also play a key role in 2012 London Olympics transport provision by taking spectators from St Pancras station in London to the Olympics site at Stratford, east London, in just seven minutes in a service to be known as the Olympic Javelin.


All aboard: The first of four bullet trains is unloaded at Southampton

St Pancras International station is due to open in November 2007.

Manufactured in Kasado, Japan by Hitachi, the train which arrived today is the first of four which will be delivered over the coming months.

The remaining 25 trains will arrive in 2009 in time for the start of the new services in December of that year.

Alistair Dormer, general manager at Hitachi Rail Systems London, said: "Hitachi is delighted to deliver the first Class 395 train to the UK, on time and on budget.

"Today is a major milestone for Hitachi and for everyone involved in the Class 395 project. We now look forward to working with our partners to complete testing and delivering the trains ready for service in 2009."

The new-look St Pancras station opens in November 2007

Southeastern managing director Charles Horton said: "The arrival of the first high-speed train into the UK is great news. When these trains enter service, they will slash journey times across the region, encourage more people to travel by train and bring new standards of comfort and reliability.

"They will also play a key role in providing fast and easy access to the London Olympic Games at Stratford in 2012, with a journey time to and from London St Pancras of just seven minutes. Our ambition to create a growing railway for a growing region has taken an important step forward."

Artist's impression of the new train in action

Recently, the Government announced that Hitachi UK was one of three organisations shortlisted to compete to build a new generation of express trains for the UK's rail network in a contract expected to be worth around £4 billion.

Hitachi Europe is up against Alstom-Barclays Rail Group and the Express Rail Alliance - a consortium involving four companies, including Bombardier and Angel Trains.

Fact box
1. Using both high-speed and existing lines, journeys to St Pancras will be slashed after two years of trials from 83 to 37 minutes from Ashford, 102 to 61 minutes from Canterbury, and 98 to 63 minutes from Dover.

2. In the mid-Seventies, British Rail's Intercity 125 was outpaced only by the Japanese, but since then Britain has stayed at 125mph and been overtaken by 186mph railways around the world.

3. The new trains will be quicker than any service except Eurostar.

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It's Chew! Gum Is 5,000 Years Old

Discarded chewing gum may be the bane of town centre pavements across the UK - but imagine finding a piece that's a jaw-dropping 5,000 years old.

That's just what student Sarah Pickin discovered during an archaeological dig recently.

The 23-year-old was on a volunteer programme on the west coast of Finland when she found a piece of Neolithic chewing gum - a chewed cob made from birch bark tar.

Sarah, who studies at Derby University, also uncovered part of an amber ring and a slate arrow head at the Kierikki Centre.
All the items will be on display at the centre after they have been analysed in laboratories.


Sarah's tutor, Professor Trevor Brown, an expert in heritage and conservation, said: "Birch bark tar contains phenols, which are antiseptic compounds.

"It's generally believed that Neolithic people found that by chewing this stuff if they had gum infections it helped to treat the condition.

"It's particularly significant because well defined tooth imprints were found on the gum which Sarah discovered."


Sarah said: "I was very excited to learn more about the history of the items.

"I'm keen to work in this area in the future so the experience has stood me in good stead."

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The world’s fastest, smallest mobile chip


Seoul: South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor announced it has developed the world’s fastest and smallest one-gigabyte chip for mobile phones.

The new chip is capable of processing 1.6 GB of data per second, the company said.

The company added that the chip – which can be applied to “ultra-small electronic devices and memory products” – would start production on a large scale in early 2008.

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The cycling jacket with built-in brake lights and indicators

It's every cyclist's nightmare - it's dark or getting that way, you have just given a hand signal, but will other road users have seen it?

Well, they will now, thanks to an innovative jacket with flashing indicators on the sleeves and brake lights in the back.

Its inventor Michael Chen has landed a design award for the high-tech coat and hopes to find a manufacturer to produce it on a mass scale.

Amber indicators are triggered to flash by a "tilt-switch" when the wearer raises their arm to give a hand signal.

And a device called an "accelerometer" is used to turn an LED, woven into the jacket's back, green when the rider is moving forward or red when they apply the brakes.

London-based Mr Chen, 28, got the idea watching cyclists in the capital. He said: "There is a lot of hostility from bus and cab drivers towards cyclists.

"Cyclists are brave. It is so dangerous without bike lanes. When I visited Korea last year, I noticed their cities had better bike lanes than London."

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the jacket being road tested...

The right signals: Inventor Michael Chen with a cyclist modelling his high-tech coat

According to the latest official statistics, 148 cyclists were killed on roads in the UK in 2005 - up ten per cent on the previous year - and thousands more were injured.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety blamed the increase on more inexperienced cyclists taking to the roads.

Now Mr Chen, who studied design engineering at Middlesex University, hopes his jacket will make cycling safer.

He said: "My prototype had lights taped to it that everyone thought was pretty ugly. But when I put the wiring inside, it looked more normal.

"Riding around London, people wave and chase me down the street, asking, 'Where did you buy that jacket?'"

The invention has already impressed British judges of the prestigious James Dyson design awards, who chose Mr Chen for a first prize of £2,000. His jacket will now go through to the global stage of the competition.

Mr Chen hopes the jacket be on sale by Christmas, for about £100.

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Beans illusion

Can you find the human face which is hidden in these coffee beans?

Doctors have concluded that if you can find the face in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people.

If you find the face between 3 seconds and 1 minute, your right half of the brain is developed normally.

If you find the face between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein.

If you have not found the face after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger!


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Hollywood Top Ten Actress

The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list-06 of Hollywood’s highest-earning actresses has been released.

1. Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman, makes $16 mil-$17 mil. What she should be earning: -$1 mil. That's right, I'm saying that Nicole should be paying film companies to hire her, not the other way around. That's because she's poison at the box office, the female equivalent of Sean Penn. Women dislike her, men don't think she's sexy, and those Chanel ads induce nausea. My guess is Nicole's rate dates back to Sony Pictures overpaying her for that bomb Bewitched. Since then, she's been doing smaller films, but is signing for studio projects right now. Note to majors: save your $$$ and hire Reese or Angelina.

2. Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon, $15 mil. What she should be earning: $25 mil. Reese can do no wrong. Women love her, men love her, the camera loves her. And she's smart: when she was looking for a new agency, she lamented not owning her Legally Blonde character because it'll be Broadway bound. Which doesn't mean all her films are great, but she's always great in them. She opens a movie. 'Nuff said.

3. Renee Zellweger

Renee Zellweger, $15 mil. What she should be earning: $5 mil. Renee doesn't open movies, unless the material is Bridget Jones-cloned. She's fine as the wife or girlfriend, but then her price needs to be cut by a third. Worse, audiences are getting sick of her changing hair color whenever she changes parts. That's a dye job, not an acting job. Sadly, she's lost her once winning girl-next-door quality; now she's trying to be a fashion diva. Ugh.

4. Drew Barrymore


Drew Barrymore, $15 mil. What she should be asking: $3 mil. Drew has never been able to open a movie, and she never will. That doesn't mean she isn't sweet onscreen, but lately her roles have been too saccharine. If only she'd bring back that Poison Ivy edginess she once had. Women like her but they don't want to be her (or even briefly married to Tom Green), whereas men don't think she's hot anymore. Drew's price should go up when she grows up.

5. Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz, $15 mil. What she should be asking: $7 mil. Put her in a bikini, and she's worth it. Put her in a chick flick (In Her Shoes, The Holiday), and she's not. Everyone finds her sexy, but women don't like her. (It's jealousy. And not just because of Justin.) Plus, she simply doesn't have much range as an actress from the neck up.

6. Halle Berry

Halle Berry, $14 mil. What she should be asking: $5 mil. Once she lost her shot at launching a new franchise as 007's Jinx, she lost what should have been her biggest paydays. Alas, she's now the wrong side of 40, and Hollywood is cruel that way.

7. Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron, $10 mil. What she should be asking: $10 mil. A smart actress, surrounded by smart people, doing smart roles. Just don't fuck it up with too many vanity projects like North Country.

8. Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie, $10 mil. What she should be asking: $25 mil. There's no one hotter and cooler right now than Angelina onscreen and off (just ask the stalkarazzi), but that could change if she starts auditioning for sainthood by making too many message movies. Let's hope she's too bad-ass for that.

9. Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst, $8 mil-$10 mil. What she should be asking: $1 mil. Eventually, the Spider-Man franchise will end. Marie Antoinette dying in theaters didn't help her price. She was an idiot not to star in Bring It On sequels for big bucks. She's not sexy enough and she won't age well with audiences. This is a career about to end.

10. Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston, $8 mil. What she should be asking: $1 mil. She's not a movie star. She's a TV star. Big difference. Most of all, she's not an interesting actress. She can't open a movie, and her choice of material is abysmal. Sure, The Break-Up did okay business, but that was because of Vince and in spite of her. Soon she'll be lucky to score the next Lifetime movie.

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Google AdSense to distribute videos

Short Internet videos from the creator of the animated TV show "Family Guy" and Raven-Symone, star of the Disney Channel show "That's So Raven," will be distributed over Google Inc's AdSense network.

Media Rights Capital, the financing company that backed last year's film "Babel," is supporting the two projects. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The programmes will appear in a video box that a user would click on to start. The box will be packaged with banner advertising and video ads that will appear either before or after the programming.

The videos will be distributed to numerous Web sites served by AdSense, which places targeted advertising across the Internet. AdSense signed a similar distribution deal last year with Viacom Inc's MTV Networks.

Media Rights Capital will work with Google to target Web sites most appropriate for its content, the company said.

"We feel this partnership answers the question of how best to reach viewers online, because the Web is fragmented into millions and millions of viewing destinations," said Asif Satchu, co-chief executive of Media Rights Capital.

Seth MacFarlane, creator of "Family Guy," will produce short videos featuring new characters, while Raven-Symone will be in a "how-to" show, the company said.

The company said the distribution deal was preferable to aggregating content on one site. Distributing content through AdSense means the videos reach a broader audience, which would include new sites as they pop up.

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Scientists unlock the secrets of the Rubik's cube

Remember the Rubik's Cube? That little box of multi-coloured squares that you could only complete by carefully steaming off all of the stickers and then re-sticking them in the right positions?

A team of US scientists has used a powerful number-crunching supercomputer to work out that the minimum moves needed to complete a Rubik's Cube from any starting position, is 26, one less than the previous record.

In reaching this figure Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman from Northeastern University in Boston developed algorithms that can be useful for all kinds of different applications from scheduling air flights to determining how proteins will fold.

Scroll down for more...


The Rubik's cube was a huge success in the 1980s - despite the frustration it caused

As a Rubik's Cube has approximately 43 billion billion (43,000,000,000,000,000,000) possible positions it would have taken too long for even the most powerful supercomputer to work through all of the different configurations.

So Kunkle and his advisor Gene Cooperman developed some clever mathematical and computational strategies to make the puzzle more manageable.

They programmed the supercomputer to arrive at one of 15,000 half-solved solutions. They knew they could fully solve any of these 15,000 cubes with a few extra moves.

The final results showed that any disordered cube could be fully solved in a maximum of 29 moves, but that most cubes could be completed in 26 moves.

Many mathematicians still believe that it should take only 20 moves to solve any Rubik's cube, but no one has been able to prove this theory yet.

Failing that, a steaming kettle and some deft fingerwork should do the trick.

At this year's Caltech 2007 competition American Rubik's Cube expert Dan Dzoan broke the world record for one-handed cube-solving by completing one in an incredible 17.9 seconds.

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Hilton Creates Frenzy With Clothing Line

LOS ANGELES - Police and city workers were called in to handle the crowd and a lane of traffic was closed as Paris Hilton unveiled her clothing line Thursday at a trendy boutique.

The heiress, author, singer, perfume designer and reality-TV star unveiled the line at Kitson, a boutique known for its celebrity clientele. The lane was closed for pedestrians' safety, a city spokesman said.

Clad in a gold sequin mini-dress, Hilton, 26, emerged from a black SUV to a throng of fans who spilled into the street. Inside the store, Hilton was all smiles.

"It's a dream come true to have my own clothing line," she said. "It's just Paris style: fun, bright and flashy."

The collection, which Hilton described as "really comfortable" and "really affordable," includes shoes, T-shirts and jeans. Hilton said she spent a year submitting and approving designs.

"It's just from my closet to their closets," she said. Additional pieces will be released next month, she said.

The heiress also discussed other newsy matters in her life: her pregnant pal, Nicole Richie ("She's going to be a great mom," Hilton said), and the pending sale of her Hollywood Hills home.

"I'm going to miss my house because I love it. I really designed it to be my perfect taste," she said. "But too many people know where I live and I'd rather be in a gated community."

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The world's strangest laws

Did you know it's illegal in France to name a pig Napoleon? Or that in Ohio you're not allowed to get a fish drunk? Alex Wade celebrates the spirit of the silly season with a list of the world's most ridiculous laws

Did you know that in France it is forbidden to call your pig Napoleon?

25- It is illegal for a cab in the City of London to carry rabid dogs or corpses.

24- It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

23- It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.

22- In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.

21- Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.

20- In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle.

19- In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk.

18- Royal Navy ships that enter the Port of London must provide a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower of London.

17- In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants – even, if she so requests, in a policeman’s helmet.

16- In Lancashire, no person is permitted after being asked to stop by a constable on the seashore to incite a dog to bark.

15- In Miami, Florida, it is illegal to skateboard in a police station.

14- In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation.

13- In the UK, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day.

12- In London, Freemen are allowed to take a flock of sheep across London Bridge without being charged a toll; they are also allowed to drive geese down Cheapside.

11- In San Salvador, drunk drivers can be punished by death before a firing squad.

10. In the UK, a man who feels compelled to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his rear wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.

9- In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on Sundays can be jailed.

8- In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long.

7- In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset.

6- In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

5- In Boulder, Colorado, it is illegal to kill a bird within the city limits and also to “own” a pet – the town’s citizens, legally speaking, are merely “pet minders”.

4- In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.

3- In London, it is illegal to flag down a taxi if you have the plague.

2- In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals but is forbidden from looking directly at them during the examination; he may only see their reflection in a mirror.

1- The head of any dead whale found on the British coast is legally the property of the King; the tail, on the other hand, belongs to the Queen - in case she needs the bones for her corset.

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World’s tiniest art

This image from IBM shows an atomic-sized image resulting from scientific work at IBM’s labs. Made of 48 iron atoms using IBM’s low temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscope, this tiny work of art will be featured in an exhibition in the US titled ‘The Art of Invention’.

While experimenting with materials that might make up future computer chips and storage components, IBM scientists built images with individual atoms such as this stadium-shaped ‘Quantum Corral’

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The Top 10 Weirdest Keyboards ever

Keyboards come in many shapes - from the simplest computer grey $9.99 standard 102-key keyboard to variants that seem to come straight out of a Star Trek episode. Here's our Top 10 list of the weirdest keyboards ever.

10. Roll-up keyboard

This keyboard has the same measurements as a standard 102-key keyboard, but there's a big difference. You can roll this one up and put it in your pocket. Nice.

9. The wrist keyboard


This one might be useful if you're in the need to type stuff while doing practical work in tough climates - but if you would wear this keyboard at the office, you might be considered a bit geeky.

8. Maltron 3D Ergonomic Keyboard


Things are starting to get a bit more weird, ey? Getting used to this keyboard isn't something you'll do in 10 minutes or so - it will take a while for sure. But if you have medical problems with your hands, this might be a good choice since it's a very ergonomic keyboard. It looks very weird though!


7. The SafeType keyboard


Just take a look at this one. Do you understand how to use it? The idea is that your hands and arms shall be in a more relaxed position while working with the SafeType compared to a traditional keyboard.


6. Virtual Laser Keyboard


Wow, it's heating up, don't you agree? This is more cool than weird though. This laser gadget projects a virtual keyboard on a table or other suitable material, and then interpret your finger movement and pass them on to your PDA or whatever you have it connected to. Cool.

5. The frogpad


The frogpad is a tiny, tiny keyboard - or it would be more suitable to call it a keypad actually. The manufacturer say that you can get up to 40 words per minute if you practice between 6 to 10 hours with it. Any idea why they are calling it a frogpad?

4. The Twiddler 2


What do you say about the Twiddler 2? It looks to be quite painful to use, or what do you think? According to the testimonials at their site, it will take you 'a weekend' to learn typing 30 words per minute, so the frogpad wins that round.

3. The Orbitouch

This one could be a leftover from Area 51, or a prop from the set of any science fiction movie. Wonder how it works? Here's what the manufacturer say: "The orbiTouch creates a keystroke when you slide the two domes into one of their eight respective positions. You type the different characters by sliding the domes to create letters and numbers. The orbiTouch also has an integrated mouse, so moving the domes gives you full mouse and keyboard capability!" The target group for this keyboard is of course people who have limited or no motion in their fingers or hands, and that's a very good thing - but anyway, it's a weird keyboard.

2. The Datahand


This product is aimed for people who get pain in their hands from typing with a traditional keyboard - and that's a good thing. It's still looks like a very strange keyboard. Everytime I see this one I think of the movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, don't know why. I love this one - the keyboard, not the movie.

1. The Tidy Tippist

Isn't this one lovely? The keyboard is hidden inside a decorative, washable tablecloth. The electronic is woven into a fabric, which finds itself between layers of water resistant felt as sandwich material. The soft felt surface makes it a pleasure for fingers to tip - a cosy keyboard. Awesome, hehe.

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Nail biters to be treated in a special treatment centre in the Netherlands

The world's first treatment centre for nail biters is to open in the Netherlands next month.

Director of the new centre in Venlo, Alain-Raymond van Abbe of the Institute for Pathological Onychophagy (IPO) says he and his team have invented an aid to make nail-biting impossible.

"This is the first place ever to tackle this very serious problem," he explained. "We are expecting clients from all over the world."

He said initial trials had been almost 100 per cent successful and that people attending the centre could expect to be completely cured within four weeks.

"The treatment has been successful for 98 per cent of the first trial patients. Very few fall back into the habit," he said.

There are about 2 million people who bite their nails in the Netherlands, according to officials at the centre.

Studies have shown that as many as 15 per cent of adults, 33 per cent of young children and 45 per cent of adolescents bite their nails.

The centre fits a special device to the hands that allow normal activities but prevent nail biting, and at the same time gives patients extensive therapy and counselling to get them to stop.

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Nokia Recalls 46 Million Phone Batteries

Nokia warned Tuesday that up to 46 million batteries used in some of its cell phones could be faulty and pose a risk of overheating.

The advisory applies to batteries manufactured by Matsushita from December 2005 to November 2006, the world's largest mobile phone maker said. Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan is one of several suppliers that have together made some 300 million BL-5C batteries.

The lithium-ion battery is one of 14 different types of battery used in Nokia phones.

Nokia said 100 incidents of overheating of the Matsushita-made BL-5C batteries have been reported worldwide, but added that "no serious injuries or property damage have been reported."

"Consumers with a BL-5C battery subject to this advisory should note that all of the approximately 100 incidents have occurred while charging the battery," the Finnish company said. "According to Nokia's knowledge this issue does not affect any other use of the mobile device."

Nokia said it will swap out all affected batteries.

Last year, Sony Corp. recalled more than 10 million laptops after it discovered that lithium-ion batteries used in them could overheat and catch fire. The recalls included notebooks made by other major computer makers, including Dell Inc., Lenovo Inc., Apple Inc. and Acer Inc.

Nokia sells products in 130 countries and employs 110,000 people worldwide. In the second quarter, it sold 100 million mobile devices, claiming a 38 percent share of the global market.

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Major World Markets Rebound

Major world markets rebounded Monday, regaining some territory lost in a global plunge last week, as central banks continued a steady supply of liquidity to soothe rattled investors.

Minutes after Wall Street opened in the United States, the Fed said that it would add at least $2 billion in liquidity in a one-day repurchase.

The European Central Bank, which injected another 47.67 billion euros ($65.3 billion) into the banking system to ease fear in the credit markets, said conditions were "normalizing" _ but some analysts said the bounce could be a short one with continuing worries about a credit crunch.

The Bank of Japan also acted again, injecting 600 billion yen ($5 billion) into money markets to try to bring more stability to the markets.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 2.6 percent to 6,194.70 points, France's CAC-40 gained 1.8 percent to 5,546.11, while Germany's DAX Index advanced 1.5 percent to 7,452.73.

Still, some analysts were cautious. The FTSE-100 lost 3.7 percent on Friday _ its biggest percentage drop in four years.

"It would be naive to think the worst is behind us," said David Jones, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Charles Stanley analyst Jeremy Batstone agreed, saying Monday's rebound was unlikely to mark the end of the volatility.

"This entire period of economic expansion has been built on a vast amount of debt," he said. "Increase the cost of that debt, tighten loan conditions and one might be in for a bit more than just risk aversion."

The Nikkei 225, benchmark for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, edged up 0.2 percent to 16,800.05, recouping some of Friday's drop as investors bought back into stocks with strong earnings. Hong Kong's blue chip Hang Seng Index rose 0.45 percent to 21,891.10. South Korea's benchmark stock index rose 1.1 percent to close at 1,849.26.

But there was no firm conviction the volatility of the last few weeks has ended.

"The Hong Kong market is in directionless trade. Aftershocks of U.S. subprime mortgage woes are likely to continue rippling through markets in the Asia-Pacific region," said Peter Lai, director of DBS Vickers Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Yutaka Miura, manager at Shinko Securities in Tokyo, said gains Monday weren't expected to be very big, and most investors kept one eye on the U.S. markets.
"This was mainly a technical rebound from Friday," he said.


The Dow Jones industrials closed out a volatile week Friday, ending with just a 31-point loss for the day and managing to post a gain for the week. On Thursday the Dow had fallen 387 points and extended a series of triple-digit moves that began in late July.

Wall Street opened higher Monday after the Federal Reserve and other central banks added more cash to their banking systems, helping investors set aside some concerns about credit tightness.

Just before the market opened, Goldman Sachs Group announced it had lined up $3 billion in additional funding for one of its biggest hedge funds that has seen its value plunge amid market volatility. The investment bank said its Global Equity Opportunities fund "suffered significantly" as global markets sold off on worries about debt and credit.

Last week, the U.S., European, Australian and Japanese central banks poured funds into money markets as stocks dropped on concerns over U.S. mortgages.

The ECB had provided 95 billion euros ($130 billion) in funds to banks on Thursday and injected a further 61 billion euros ($83.6 billion) on Friday. On Friday, the Bank of Japan injected 1 trillion yen ($8.39 billion; 6.15 billion euros) into money markets to curb rises in a key overnight interest rate.

The chief economist of Germany's DekaBank, Ulrich Kater, said on N24 television that central banks "have the liquidity bottleneck under control."

"It is they who can supply the markets with liquidity ... and they did so to the degree that was necessary last week, and continue to do so," he added. "That of course helps to calm the markets. The markets will continue to function."

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The World Trade Center site in New York, in September of 2001.

These photos were taken at Ground Zero, the World Trade Center site in New York, in September of 2001.

They were taken by someone named "Ed" who was allowed into the area by a member of the emergency response crew, at a time when all civilians -- including most journalists -- were forbidden to enter the area. As a result, these photos are among the few close-ups ever taken of the World Trade Center site so soon after the 9/11 attacks.

The person who submitted these pictures had originally been under the impression that they were taken on September 13, 2001, but recent examination of other Ground Zero photos suggest that in fact the photos on this page were taken later in September, perhaps ten days after 9/11.

This satellite photo, for example, was taken on September 15, 2001 and shows that the West Side Highway, which runs alongside the west edge of Ground Zero, had still not been fully cleared of debris at the time the photo was taken. Yet the photos on this page show the same street substantially cleared of debris, which means they must have been taken several days afterward.

This image of Ground Zero taken by photographer Joel Meyerowitz and published in his book Aftermath was taken on September 23 and shows the debris cleared away to a somewhat greater degree than in the photos here, meaning that the Meyerowitz photo was taken perhaps a couple of days later. Other rare Ground Zero images from the time also suggest that these "Ed" pictures -- while still unique -- were most likely taken nearer to September 21, 2001, and not on September 13 as was originally reported.

We apologize for the confusion. In any event, here are the photos, which remain a powerful testimony to the destruction of 9/11:


Overview of the wreckage looking west.

Overview of the wreckage looking east.

Overview of the wreckage looking northwest.

Overview of the wreckage looking north.

A scene from inside the Bankers' Trust lobby.

The wreckage of the North Tower.

Overview of the site.

Overview of the site looking west.

View of the Bankers' Trust building.

View of the punctured Financial Center.

Another view of the punctured Financial Center.

The center of the site.

More smoke drifting over the wreckage.

A surviving footbridge.

A view from street level.

Police and troops guarding the site.

Wreckage seen through plate glass.

Cranes beginning to work on the cleanup.

Another street-level scene.

Workers at Ground Zero.


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Top Photos From Around The World

Fireworks light up the skyline of Singapore's financial district during celebrations for the city-state's 42nd year of independence.

Activists from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wearing skull masks and dressed in black hooded costumes, representing "horsemen of the apocalypse", pose for the photographers as they demonstrate outside Smithfield meat market in central London. The activists protested outside the market where meat has been bought and sold for more than 800 years, to highlight the "pestilences" resulting from factory-farm methods of rearing animals and advocating vegetarianism as the solution.

Indian Paramilitary soldiers chase a Kashmiri protester during a demonstration against the arrest of Kashmiri girl Naseema Akhtar, in Maloora, on the outskirts of Srinagar, India. Paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of angry protesters demonstrating against the arrest of Akhtar.

An young Iraqi girl peeks out as women pilgrims line up for a security checkpoint leading to the shrine of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim in the primarily Shiite Kazimiyah neighborhood of north Baghdad, Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims went for the annual march, to commemorate the eighth-century death of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, a key Shiite saint.

Family members watch sarcophagus of animal statues with bones of some 14 corpses are burnt during a mass cremation ceremony in Sukawati, Bali, Indonesia. The previously buried corpses have to be dug up and placed in a temporary shrine in the ceremony for cremation. Balinese believe the ceremonial burning of the corpses of the dead liberates their souls so that they can enter the higher world and free for reincarnation into better beings.

Kashmiri protesters run over burning tires during a protest against the arrest of a girl by paramilitary soldiers in a raid in Maloora, on the outskirts of Srinagar, India. Paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of angry protesters demonstrating against the arrest.
Protestors burn an effigy of "Wal-Mart" during a demonstration, in New Delhi, India. A broad alliance of small shop owners, trade unions and left-wing activists planned rallies across India on Thursday to protest moves by Wal-Mart and other foreign mega stores to enter the Indian market.

South Korean protesters burn North Korean flags during an anti-North Korea rally against two Koreas summit near the President House in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea insisted Thursday that this month's summit with North Korea would help efforts to rid the communist nation of nuclear weapons, while Washington said the international focus on disarming the North remained with six-nation talks that include the U.S. and regional powers.

Protesters burn an effigy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during a rally in celebration of the International Day for Indigenous People in Manila as a member of the tribal Filipinos looks on. The protesters called for justice for victims of political killings and the stop of mining operations that had encroach into their ancestral lands of tribal Filipinos. Text on mock shield reads, "End the U.S.-Arroyo regime".

Bangladeshi women hold relief material, as others await their turn outside a relief center in Munshigonj, about 12.5 miles south of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, Bangladesh. More than two weeks of monsoon rains across much of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal have flooded rivers and inundated plains, killing at least 457 people and stranding some 19 million more, officials said.

Pope Benedict XVI gestures to the faithful during a special audience for Spanish pilgrims, from the balcony of his residence in Castelgandolfo, on the outskirts of Rome.
A man jumps over a collapsed pavement as he passes cars and rubble piled up by flood waters, following a flood due to heavy rainfall in Roche, western Switzerland. Continuing rainfall caused floods in many parts of Switzerland on Wednesday, although the weather situation seems to be improving.
A wildlife ranger examines Franska, a Slovenian brown bear released last year in the Pyrenees as part of a repopulation effort, which is lying on a road outside Viger, a village in southern France near Lourdes. Franska was killed Thursday when it was hit by a car. Brown bears nearly disappeared from the Pyrenees in the 1980's, and the last native brown bear to the region, Cannelle, died in 2004. A repopulation effort in 1996 introduced a few more brown bears to the mountainous region on the French-Spanish border, and environmental officials introduced five Slovenian brown bears last year. Franska and the other four captured the hearts of many French. Farmers, however, staged protests, fearing attacks on their flocks.

Investigators talk in the entrance of a restaurant, which was the stage of an overnight shooting in Vancouver, Canada. Two people were killed and six hospitalized with gunshot wounds after two masked men burst into a Chinese restaurant in Vancouver early Thursday morning and sprayed it with bullets.

National Cadet Corps members participate in a torch rally during the August Kranti Divas celebration, marking the Quit India movement and to commemorate 150 years of the First War of Independence, in Ahmadabad, India. India will celebrate its 60th Independence Day on Aug. 15.

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60 Interesting Facts of World & Earth

1- Earth is the only planet on which water can exist in liquid form on the surface.

2- Antarctica is the highest, driest, and coldest continent on Earth.

3- The dormant volcano Mauna Kea (on the Big Island of Hawaii) could be considered the tallest mountain in the world. If you measure it from its base in the Hawaiian Trough (3,300 fathoms deep) to its summit of 13,796 feet, it reaches a height of 33,476 feet.

4- Earth is referred to as the BLUE PLANET. WHY? Because from space, the oceans combined with our atmosphere make our planet look blue.

5-
The world’s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1557 in central China, more than 830,000 people were killed.

6- The World’s largest hot desert is the Sahara in North Africa, at over 9,000,000 km², it is almost as large as the United States.

7- Earth travels through space at 66,700 miles per hour.

8- Mount Everest 8850 meter (29035 ft) Nepal/China is the tallest mountain.

9- The sunrays reached at the earth in 8 minutes & 3 seconds.

10- Only 11 percent of the earth's surface is used to grow food.

11-
The coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.

12-
About 70% of the world’s fresh water is stored as glacial ice.

13-
Only 3% water of the earth is fresh, rest 97% salted. Of that 3%, over 2% is frozen in ice sheets and glaciers. Means less than 1% fresh water is found in lakes, rivers and underground.

14-
The warmest sea in the world is the Red Sea, where temperatures range from 68 degrees to 87.8 degrees F depending upon which part you measure.

15-
The hottest planet in the solar system is Venus, with an estimated surface temperature of 864 F (462 C)

16-
Angel Falls in Venezuela is the worlds highest waterfall, The water of Falls drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).

17-
Asia Continent is covered 30% of the total earth land area, but represent 60% of the world’s population.

18-
The total surface area of the Earth is 197 million square miles.

19-
El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922 - the hottest ever measured.

20-
A 1960 Chilean earthquake was the strongest earthquake in recent times, which occurred off the coast, had a magnitude of 9.6 and broke a fault more than 1000 miles (1600 kilometers) long.

21-
The lowest dry point on earth is the Dead Sea in the Middle East is about 1300 feet (400 meters) below sea level.

22- The Largest Ocean of the World is the Pacific Ocean (155,557,000 sq km), It covers nearly one-third of the Earth's surface.

23- The distance from the surface of Earth to the center is about 3,963 miles (6,378 kilometers).

24- The saltiest sea in the world is the Red Sea with 41 parts of salt per 1,000 parts of water.

25- The Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall (979 meters / 3212 ft.), three times the size of the Eiffel Tower.

26- The Earth is the densest major body in the solar system.

27- The age of the earth is Loudly proclaimed by the scientific establishment of evolution believers and the mass media as being around 4.6 billion years old.

28- Baikal Lake in Russian Fed. is the deepest lake (5315 ft) in the world.

29- Lightning does not always create thunder. In April 1885, five lightning bolts struck the Washington Monument during a thunderstorm, yet no thunder was heard.

30- The Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia is the largest cave in the world is 2300 feet (701 meters) long, 1300 feet (400 meters) wide, and more than 230 feet (70 meters) high.

31- The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii is the largest volcanoon on Earth. It rises more than 50,000 feet (9.5 miles or 15.2 kilometers) above its base, which sits under the surface of the sea.

32- Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead.

33- One-tenth of the Earth's surface is always under the cover of ice. And almost 90 per cent of that ice is to be found in the continent of Antarctica.

34- The coldest seas are found near the poles such as the Greenland, Barents, Beaufort, Kara, Laptev & East Siberian Seas found near the north pole & Weddell & Ross Seas found in the south poles. The Baltic Sea is also considered one of the coldest seas.

35- The Nile River in Africa is the longest river (6,825 kilometers) of the earth.

36-Caspian Sea, Asia-Europe is the major lake (371,000 sq km) in the world.

37- Depending upon the amount of salt in the water, sea water freezes at about 28 degrees F.

38- The most dangerous animal in the world is the common housefly. Because of their habits of visiting animal waste, they transmit more diseases than any other animal.

39- The Peregrine Falcon around 200mph (320 km/h) is the fastest bird on the planet, the top speed recorded is 242.3mph (390 km/h).

40- The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.

41-The deepest hole ever made by humans is in Kola Peninsula in Russia, was completed in 1989, creating a hole 12,262 meters (7.6 miles) deep.

42- Total fertility rate of the world is 2.59 children born/woman.

43- An African woman's lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy related causes is one in 16, in Asia, its one in 65. In Europe, its one in 1,400.

44- There are roughly 4,000 known minerals, although only about 200 are of major importance.

45- About 400 billion gallons water is used worldwide each day.

46- Aluminum cans take 500 years to break down.

47- Total fertility rate of the world is 2.59 children born/woman. Niger is 7.46 (highest), India is 2.73, US is 2.09 & Hong Kong is 0.95 only (Lowest).

48- Northern Mariana Islands is only the country where death rate (2.29/1000) is lowest in the world.

49- Earth's oceans are an average of 2 Miles deep

50- Shanghai, China is the largest city by population (13.3 million) in the world.

51- English is the second most spoken language (Native speakers 512 million) & the first is Chinese Mandarin (more then 1 billion speakers).

52- The flower with the world's largest bloom is the Rafflesia arnoldii. This rare flower is found in the rainforests of Indonesia. It can grow to be 3 feet across and weigh up to 15 pounds.

53- At least 1,000 million grams, or roughly 1,000 tons of material (dust) enters the atmosphere every year and makes its way to Earths surface.

54- The gravity on Mars is 38% of that found on Earth. So a 100 pounds person on Earth would weigh 38 pounds on Mars.

55- The world’s population has been increased 3.1 billion in last 40 years.

56- Global Positioning System (GPS) is the only system today that can show your exact position on the Earth anytime, in any weather, no matter where you are!

57- The water that falls on a single acre of land during one inch of rainfall, it would weigh 113 tons that is 226,000 pounds.

58- 180 million nos. of Valentine’s Day cards exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion.

59- Plastics take 500 years to break down.

60- Each year, more than 500,000 women (approximate 1 every minute) die from pregnancy related causes. The vast majority of these deaths occur in developing countries.

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Global warming will step up after 2009


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday.

Climate experts have long predicted a general warming trend over the 21st century spurred by the greenhouse effect, but this new study gets more specific about what is likely to happen in the decade that started in 2005.

To make this kind of prediction, researchers at the Met Office made a computer model that takes into account such natural phenomena as the El Nino pattern in the Pacific Ocean and other fluctuations in ocean circulation and heat content.

A forecast of the next decade is particularly useful, because climate could be dominated over this period by these natural changes, rather than human-caused global warming, study author Douglas Smith said by telephone.

In research published in the journal Science, Smith and his colleagues predicted that the next three or four years would show little warming despite an overall forecast that saw warming over the decade.

"There is ... particular interest in the coming decade, which represents a key planning horizon for infrastructure upgrades, insurance, energy policy and business development," Smith and his co-authors noted.

The real heat will start after 2009, they said.

Until then, the natural forces will offset the expected warming caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, which releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

'HINDCASTS' FOR THE FUTURE

"There is ... particular interest in the coming decade, which represents a key planning horizon for infrastructure upgrades, insurance, energy policy and business development," Smith and his co-authors noted.

To check their models, the scientists used a series of "hindcasts" -- forecasts that look back in time -- going back to 1982, and compared what their models predicted with what actually occurred.

Factoring in the natural variability of ocean currents and temperature fluctuations yielded an accurate picture, the researchers found. This differed from other models which mainly considered human-caused climate change.

"Over the 100-year timescale, the main change is going to come from greenhouse gases that will dominate natural variability, but in the coming 10 years the natural internal variability is comparable," Smith said.

In another climate change article in the online journal Science Express, U.S. researchers reported that soot from industry and forest fires had a dramatic impact on the Arctic climate, starting around the time of the Industrial Revolution.

Industrial pollution brought a seven-fold increase in soot -- also known as black carbon -- in Arctic snow during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientists at the Desert Research Institute found.

Soot, mostly from burning coal, reduces the reflectivity of snow and ice, letting Earth's surface absorb more solar energy and possibly resulting in earlier snow melts and exposure of much darker underlying soil, rock and sea ice. This in turn led to warming across much of the Arctic region.

At its height from 1906 to 1910, estimated warming from soot on Arctic snow was eight times that of the pre-industrial era, the researchers said.

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Tiny village possibly holds the world's tallest man

PODOLIANTSI, Ukraine (AP) — At age 33, Leonid Stadnik wishes he would stop growing.

He's already 8 feet, 4 inches.

Recent measurements show that Stadnik is already 7 inches taller than Radhouane Charbib of Tunisia, listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest living man. He's also gaining on the 8-11 Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in history.

Yet for Stadnik, the prospect of becoming a record-holder would be little comfort.

"My two-year-old suit's sleeves and pants are now 30 centimeters (12 inches) shorter than I need," said Stadnik. "My height is God's punishment. My life has no sense."

Stadnik's height keeps him confined to this tiny village 130 miles west of the capital, Kiev.

"Taking a public bus for me is the same as getting into a car's trunk for a normal person," he said.

Stadnik's unusual growth began after a brain operation at age 14, which is believed to have stimulated his pituitary gland. Since then, life just keeps getter harder.

Although he once was able to work as a veterinarian at a cattle farm, he had to quit three years ago after his feet were frostbitten because he wasn't able to afford proper shoes for his 17-inch feet.

This month, he finally got a good pair, paid for by some local businessmen. Their $200 cost was the equivalent of about seven months' worth of the tiny pension that Stadnik receives in the economically struggling country.

Stadnik sleeps on two beds joined lengthwise and moves in a crouch through the small one-story house that he shares with his mother Halyna.

His weight of about 440 pounds aggravates a recently broken leg, and he suffers from constant knee pain.

Despite his aches, he tries to keep himself busy with the usual routine of country life. He works in the garden, tends the family's cows and pigs, and helps neighbors with their animals.

To relax, he cultivates exotic plants and pampers his tiny, blue and yellow pet parakeet with his huge hands.

Bronyslav, a neighbor who refused to give his last name, described Stadnik as the "most unselfish, diligent man of a pure soul."

His friends, in turn, treat him with the same sort of soft good humor. They're trying to organize a trip for him to the Carpathian Mountains to show him that "there's something in the world taller than you," Bronyslav said.

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Plane passenger 'hid monkey under hat'

Passengers on a flight from Florida to New York were amazed to see a monkey climb out from under a man’s hat and perch on his ponytail.

He had apparently smuggled the monkey – a marmoset – on board when he began his journey in Peru. Officials can’t understand how he managed to avoid detection during a stopover of several hours at Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

Fellow passengers asked the man “if he knew he had a monkey on him” according to an airline spokesman. The monkey spent the rest of the journey on the seat beside him.

He was questioned by police when the flight landed at La Guardia airport in New York and the monkey was taken into quarantine.

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Woman has pencil in head for 55yrs

A WOMAN has had an 8cm pencil removed from her skull - 55 years after it got stuck there.

Margaret Wegner, 59, tripped when she was four and saw the pencil she was holding "disappear" into her skull.

But doctors throughout the years deemed surgery to remove it too risky despite her frequent crippling headaches.

Margaret, of Dessau, eastern Germany, said: "Finally I had enough."

She had a scan and doctors in Berlin removed most of the pencil, which was dangerously close to her optic nerve.

Thankfully Margaret's sight is unaffected but the doctors were unable to remove 2cm of tip as it was surrounded by nerves.

Husband Ulli, 55, a famous boxing coach, said: "She's as brave as she has been these last 55 years."

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Scientists draw code of ethics for robotics

Seoul: With the advent of robots in the service sector – from those guarding borders to those caring for the elderly – their interaction with humans is on the rise.

Now, South Korea – which has set an ambitious goal of a robot in every home by 2013 – is attempting to draw up a code of ethics for robotic technology.

“We are setting rules on how far robotic technology can go and how humans live together with robots,” said Kim Dae-Won, a professor at Myongji University who heads a team of 12 scientists, doctors, psychologists and robot developers that is writing what it believes will be the world’s first Robot Ethics Charter.

It will be released by year’s end.

“A society in which robots and humans live together may come soon, probably within 10 years,” Dae-Won said.

Many scientists expect the use of babysitting or dishwashing robots by 2050.

The Korean charter will set guidelines to curb the use of robots for undesirable or dangerous purposes.

“The purpose of this charter is to find ways of coexistence between humans and robots, not to restrict the development of robotics,” Kim said.

Key considerations include ensuring that humans maintain control over robots, preventing their illegal use, protecting data acquired by robots and ensuring they can be clearly identified and traced.

Military robots will require separate rules not covered in the charter, Kim said, as the question of legal liability may create hurdles.

Future Robots, now South Korea last year unveiled a high-tech, machine gun-toting sentry robot designed eventually to support troops guarding their borders.

Min Young-Gi, a manager of the Korea Advanced Intelligent Robot Association set up by manufacturers, does not oppose a charter but noted: “The robot industry requires practical guidelines, not a broad, non-binding declaration.

” The association forged a deal with a nursery school chain in July to provide 8,000 network robots that are programmed to play with or teach kids, and provide extra security.

Korean scientists have developed a variety of robots – some devoted to work and others to play.

The state-run Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed EveR-2 Muse, a robot version of a woman in her 20s who can hold a conversation, sing a song, make eye contact and express emotions.

Claiming a breakthrough, KAIST said in July it had developed an artificial brain system which enables a robot to make a decision based on context, or check its surroundings before opting how to behave.

Also, about 300 Korean scientists are working on developing robot caregivers which could tackle chores and monitor the health of the elderly. The project is due for completion in 2013.

Sim Hag-Bong, director of the Commerce Ministry’s Robot Industry Division, said the proposed charter “reflects our determination to secure the upper hand in the field of service robots.”

Like a fish to water

Inspired by the efficient swimming motion of fish, researchers are building a mechanical fin that could forever change the way robotic submarines are made

Propeller-driven submarines, or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), currently perform a variety of functions, from mapping the ocean floor to surveying shipwrecks.

But a US-based team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hopes to create a more manoeuvrable, propeller-less underwater robot by mimicking the action of the bluegill sunfish. The robot could be used for military tasks such as sweeping mines and inspecting harbours.

“If we could produce AUVs that can hover, turn, store energy, and do all the things a fish does, they’ll be much better than the remotely operated vehicles we have now,” said James Tangorra, an MIT postdoctoral associate working on the project.

The researchers chose to copy the bluegill sunfish because of its distinctive swimming motion, which results in a constant forward thrust with no backward drag.

Tangorra and his team have built several prototypes of a mechanical fin that successfully mimics the sunfish fin. They reported the successful testing of their most recent fin, which is made of a cutting-edge polymer that conducts electricity, in the June issue of the Bioinspiration & Biomimetics journal.

Learning from nature

Work at George Washington University by Dr Meliha Bozkurttas was crucial to the fins built at MIT, said Tangorra. Bozkurttas broke down the fin movement of the sunfish into 19 components and analysed which ones are critical to achieving the fish’s powerful forward thrust.

“We don’t want to replicate exactly what nature does,” said Tangorra. “We want to figure out what parts are important for propulsion and copy those.

”The fin is able to replicate two motions that the researchers identified as critical to the propulsion of the sunfish fin: the forward sweep of the fins and the simultaneous cupping of the upper and lower edges of the fin.

Swimming with currents

The latest fin is made of a thin, flexible polymer material that conducts electricity.
When an electric current is run across the base of the fin, it sweeps forward, just like a sunfish fin. By changing the direction of the electric current, the researchers can make the fin curl forward at the upper and lower edges.

The researchers’ new approach, using the polymer, could eliminate the need for electric motors.

“This gives us the potential to build machines or robots in a manner closer to how nature creates things,” said Tangorra.

In future research, the team plans to look at interactions between different fins and between fins and the body. That will help in adapting nature’s principles to designing robotic vehicles, Tangorra said.

“To be appropriate for AUVs, you can’t just look at these as propeller replacements,” he added.


Right: Professor Ian Hunter (standing), and James Tangorra in MIT’s Bioinstrumentation Lab are working to create a robotic version of the bluegill sunfish’s fin. Such a robotic fin, like the one Tangorra is holding, could improve the manoeuvrability of autonomous underwater vehicles. Left: A bluegill sunfish swims in a laboratory tank near a prototype of a robotic fin designed with the fish’s fin as a guide

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Cat grows wings after being sexually harassed

A Chinese woman claims her cat has grown wings.

Granny Feng's tom cat has sprouted two hairy 4ins long wings, reports the Huashang News.

"At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings," she said.

Feng, of Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, says the wings, which contain bones, make her pet look like a 'cat angel'.

Her explanation is that the cat sprouted the wings after being sexually harassed.

"A month ago, many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow," she said.

However, experts say the phenomenon is more likely down to a gene mutation, and say it shouldn't prevent the cat living a normal life.

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Seven-year-old girl finds condom in a Happy Meal

A seven-year-old New Zealand girl was given a condom in a gift that came with a so-called "Happy Meal" at a Wellington McDonald's outlet, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

"I was pretty horrified, really," grandfather Rowan Hatch told the Dominion Post after he had found the condom in its unopened plastic wrapper inside a small sports bag that came with a meal he bought for Maia Whitaker.


"The fact my granddaughter was going to look in the bag and find this thing - it was going to be difficult to explain, really. She's only seven."

The restaurant manager swapped the bag for a pencil case, and a McDonald's spokesperson said the incident was being investigated,

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THE 101 WEBSITES THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

HERE it is - the list of 101 websites no one's browser should be without.

The directory of life-changing sites covers everything from finding love or getting divorced to signing up as a volunteer overseas.

You can even use it to find the right place to improve your education, research family trees or plan for retirement. The list was compiled by experts from Which? magazine, who scoured the Web to identify the top self-help sites.

Spokeswoman Abigail Wararker said: "We've been amazed at the number of life-changing websites out there. It's been a real challenge to get the list down to 101."

Births, deaths, marriages and divorce

1. www.babycentre.co.uk

2. www.bbc.co.uk/relationships

3. www.dateline.co.uk

4. www.divorceaid.co.uk

5. www.gro.gov.uk (General Register Office)

6. www.netmums.com

7. www.weddingchaos.co.uk

8. www.soyouvebeendumped.com

Health

9 . www.besttreatments.co.uk

10. www.cancerhelp.org.uk

11. www.drfoster.co.uk

12. www.dipex.org (Database of Patient Experiences)

13. www.eatwell.gov.uk

14. www.mind.org.uk (mental health charity)

15. www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

16. www.nhsdirectory.org (alternative therapies)

17. www.nhs.uk

18. www.patientopinion.org.uk

Moving Home

19. www.dfes.gov.uk/performance tables (school tables)

20. www.landreg.gov.uk/propertyprice

21. www.themovingservice.com

22. www.nethouseprices.com

23. www.rightmove.com

24. www.upmystreet.com (local area guide)

Ethical

25. www.ethicalgifts.co.uk

26. www.carbonfootprint.com

27. www.freecycle.org

28. www.recyclenow.com

29. www.taichifinder.co.uk

30. www.yogapages.co.uk

31. www.walkit.com

Change of Career

32. www.bvca.co.uk (venture capitalist list)

33. www.homeworking.com

34. www.trevorbaylisbrands.com (for inventors)

35. www.monster.co.uk (recruitment)

Family Finance

36. www.banksafeonline.co.uk

37. www.channel4.com/money

38. www.cccs.co.uk (Consumer Credit Counselling Service)

39. www.callcredit.co.uk (or www.equifax.co.uk or www.experian.co.uk)

40. www.financialombudsman.org.uk

41. www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk

42. www.fool.co.uk (advice site)

43. www.impartial.co.uk (financial advisors)

44. www.morningstar.com (stocks and shares)

45. www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox

46. www.trustnet.com (investment funds)

47. www.unbiased.co.uk (independent financial advice)

Charity donations

48. www.donateapc.org.uk (donate old computers)

49. www.do-it-org.uk (help local charities)

50. www.justgiving.com (donations)

51. www.uktransplant.org.uk

52. www.worldcommunitygrid.org

Planning for retirement

53. www.laterlife.com

54. www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

55. www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk

56. www.veteransagency.mod.uk

Community

57. www.bigbarn.co.uk (local producers/markets)

58. www.blogger.com

59. www.chatdanger.com (online security)

60. www.myspace.com

61. www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork (local area action)

62. www.e-voice.org.uk (neighbourhood group)

Government

63. www.number10.gov.uk

64. www.direct.gov.uk

65. www.hmrc.gov.uk

66. www.writetothem.com (write to local M)

Leisure/knowledge/hobbies

67. www.tadalist.com (make a to-do list)

68. www.1901censusonline.com

69. www.ebay.com

70. www.ehow.com (how-to advice)

71. www.genesreunited.co.uk

72. www.howstuffworks.com

73. www.archive.org (old versions of websites)

74. www.learndirect.co.uk

75. http://lii.org (virtual library)

76. www.lulu.com (publish your novel)

77. www.open.ac.uk (Open University)

78. www.gutenberg.org (download classic books)

79. www.youtube.com

80. www.wikipedia.org

Travel/charity

81. www.doitforcharity.com

82. www.earthwatch.org

83. www.thorntree.lonelyplanet.com (travel forum)

84. www.tripadvisor.com

85. www.responsibletravel.com

86. www.vso.org.uk (Voluntary Service Overseas)

87. www.wayfaring.com (maps)

Legal advice/consumer rights

88. www.advicenow.org.uk

89. www.citizensadvice.org.uk

90. www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk

91. www.lawsociety.org.uk (www.lawscot.org.uk in Scotland)

92. www.oft.gov.uk (Office of Fair Trading)

93. www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

Which? Websites

94. www.which.co.uk/books

95. www.which.co.uk/kidsfood

96. www.which.co.uk/bankcharges

97. www.switchwithwhich.co.uk

98. www.which.co.uk/gardening

100. www.which.co.uk/flightrights

101. www.which.co.uk/currentaccounts

AND DON'T FORGET No.102 - THE INDISPENSABLE http://immenseknowledge.blogspot.com/

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Rising from the ashes

After years of planning and past failed attempts, NASA spacecraft, Phoenix, took off to explore Mars; probe will study Martian landscape to pave the way for human visitors

A robotic dirt and ice digger blasted-off Saturday on a 422 million-mile journey to Mars that NASA hopes will culminate next year in the first ever landing within the red planet’s Arctic Circle.

The Phoenix spacecraft, which lifted of in an unmanned Delta rocket at 5:26 am EDT (2:56 pm Indian Standard Time), is expected to reach the planet’s northern polar region in May, next year.

“It’s a wonderful morning to go to Mars,” said Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, USA.

If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will set down on the Martian Arctic plains on May 25, 2008, and spend three months scooping up soil and ice samples for analysis.

The probe’s robotic arm is about 7.5 feet long, and is equipped with a drill and other instruments, to bore down into the ground for samples.

The work will be done within the body of the lander. Phoenix’s lab includes eight ovens to bake samples so that a gas sniffer can detect vaporised gases.


The Phoenix Mars Lander won’t be looking for evidence of life on Mars but rather traces of organic compounds in the samples, which would be a possible indicator of conditions favourable for life.

If organic compounds are present on Mars, they’re more likely to have been preserved in ice. That’s why NASA is aiming for the planet’s high northern latitudes, where ice is certainly lurking just beneath the surface.

Only about six inches of soft red soil should cover the ice there, and so the digger shouldn’t have to probe too deeply, NASA scientists believe.

The experiment should tell scientists several things about Mars’ water, including whether it once was liquid and whether it contains any organic molecules. Both conditions would substantially increase the chances that Mars was suitable for life to develop.

The Risk Factor

Mars landings are especially risky. Only five of the 15 US, Russian and European attempts have worked, all of them American successes beginning with the 1976 Viking touchdowns.

Prior to this $420 million mission, NASA had never attempted to land a spacecraft on Mars at such a high northern latitude. A lander intended for the red planet’s South Pole went silent immediately upon arrival in 1999.

That failure prompted NASA to cancel a 2001 lander mission. The parts from that scrapped mission were used for Phoenix, thus its name, which alludes to the mythological bird that rises from its own ashes.

Paving the way for humans

Phoenix should help pave the way for human visitors, especially if it confirms the presence of water ice in large amounts near the pole, said Michael Meyer, NASA’s lead Mars scientist. That would be a tremendous resource, he noted. But if organic matter is indeed found, it could pose a dichotomy: “As Mars gets more interesting, you may not want to send humans right away until you learn a little bit more about the red planet and find out whether or not life ever got started there.”

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Guinness World Records


Loudest Burp

WHO:
Paul Hunn

WHAT:
104.9 dB
WHERE:
London, UK
WHEN:
July 20, 2004

The world's loudest burp measured from a distance of 2.5 m (8ft 2 in)and 1 m (3 ft 3 in) high, read 104.9 dB on a certified and calibrated class 1 precision measuring noise level meter, and was achieved by Paul Hunn (UK) at the offices of Guinness World Records, London, UK, on July 20, 2004.











Tallest Woman - Living

WHO:
Sandy Allen

WHAT:
2.31 m (7 ft 7 in)
WHERE:
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
WHEN:
As of 1999


Sandy Allen was a 2.95-kg (6.5-lb) baby, and her abnormal growth began soon after her birth in June 1955. By the age of 10 she stood 1.905 m (6 ft 3 in) tall, and was 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) by 16 years old. Sandy had a dream to break free of a world, that she felt she had outgrown. In her first letter to Guinness World Records in 1974 she wrote, "I would like to get to know someone that is approximately my height. It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life." The accolade did help to bring about a reversal of fortunes for the Indiana secretary. First, there was an offer from film director Federico Fellini to take a role in his film Casanova in 1975, and then her first date with a 7-ft Illinois man. On July 14, 1977, she went into hospital for a pituitary gland operation to stop further growth. Nowadays poor circulation and weak leg muscles mean she is dependent on a wheel chair.

How do babies suddenly start talking?



Washington: It’s called the “word spurt,” that magical time when a toddler’s vocabulary explodes, seemingly overnight.

Now, US research offers a decidedly un-magical explanation: Babies start really jabbering after they’ve mastered enough easy words to tackle more of the harder ones.

This explanation, published Friday in the journal Science, is far simpler than scientists’ assumptions that some special brain mechanisms must click to trigger the word boom.

Instead, University of Iowa psychology professor Bob McMurray contends that what astonishes parents is actually the fairly guaranteed outcome of a lot of under-the-radar work by tots as they start their journey to learn 60,000 words by adulthood.

“Sometime before the first birthday comes that first word, perhaps ‘mama.’ A month or so later comes ‘da-da.’ Now, it may seem like it took the baby almost a year to learn the first word and a month to learn the second. Not so. Baby had been working on both the whole time,” he says

Up to age 14 months, on average, words pop out here and there. Then comes an acceleration; and after they can say 50 or so words, there’s often a language explosion, sometime around 18 months, McMurray says.

So what sparks the spurt?

McMurray, using a computer model, found that toddlers are working to decipher many words at once, in what is called parallel learning.

Consider: If Mom asks, “Please pass me the plate,” and the child sees a fork, a spoon and some round thing, by age 2, most will match the new word to the unknown object, by eliminating the words they know to refer to the fork and spoon.

McMurray says, as toddlers acquire many words, the process of elimination for new ones becomes easier, and vocabulary accelerates. He emphasised the importance of word repetition in helping these toddlers turn loquacious.

“Children are soaking up everything,”

McMurray said. “You might use ‘serendipity’ to a child. It will take that child maybe hundreds of exposures, or thousands, to learn what ‘serendipity’ means. So why not start early?”

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Google working on own-brand handset to grab share of $11bn mobile adverts


Google is angling for a huge slice of the potential $11 billion (£5.4 billion) mobile advertising market with the launch of a “Google phone” especially tailored to its services.

The internet search giant is understood to be developing a handset that is customised to showcase its products, such as its search engine, e-mail and Google Maps.

The GPhone, about which the Californian group has already held talks with mobile operators, including Spain’s Telefónica, is aimed at helping it to secure a chunk of the rapidly growing mobile advertising market.

It hopes to replicate its runaway success with internet advertising by acting as “broker” for mobile advertisements.

The failure of 3G services on mobile phones and a lack of “web friendly” handsets has held back the market for mobile advertising.

However, with phones becoming ever more sophisticated and mobile network speeds faster – more than 20 per cent of UK mobile subscribers are expected to have access to the mobile internet at broadband speeds by the end of this year – mobile is now seen as the next battleground for advertisers.

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, the marketing group, recently highlighted the growing importance of mobile. Figures compiled by WPP suggested that mobile phones will account for a 5 per cent share of all advertising spending in Britain by 2010. Research by Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that the market for advertising on mobile phones is set to be worth more than $11.3 billion annually in 2011.

A Google-branded phone could go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone, which is set to be launched in the UK before Christmas.

Mobile is deemed so valuable in part because of the targeting that the devices allow. Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, said recently that mobile phone ads are “twice as profitable or more than nonmobile phone ads because they are more personal”.

Google has already brokered deals with mobile phone companies, including Vodafone, the British operator.

Google’s search engine also comes preloaded on handsets made by companies including Samsung and LG.

However, some mobile companies are thought to have been reluctant to hand over too big a share of their revenues to Google.

This year some operators, including France Télécom, which owns Orange, held talks about creating a search engine to challenge the likes of Google and Yahoo!. Google is now hoping to create its own branded and designed handset and to develop more advanced services for phones.

Sources familar with Google said that any notion of a Google phone was “speculative”. A spokesman for Google in the UK said: “We are partnering with almost all the carriers and manufacturers to get Google search and other Google applications on to their devices and networks.”

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Top 10 Views from an Astronaut-Photographer


Top 10 Views from an Astronaut-Photographer

Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the ISS took more than 24,000 pictures out the window. Here are his 10 favorites.

Number 10: Progress approaches the International Space Station

Backdropped by the blackness of space and Earth's horizon, an unpiloted Progress supply vehicle approaches the International Space Station. The Progress 17 resupply craft docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module as the Station flew 225 statute miles over the equator west of Africa.

Number 9: Beijing, China


The large city Beijing (Peking), China is featured in this image photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the International Space Station.

Number 8:
New York City


Manhattan Island and its easily recognizable Central Park are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 10 crewmember on the International Space Station. Some of the other New York City boroughs (including parts of Queens and Brooklyn) are also shown, as are two small sections of the New Jersey side of the Hudson River (left).

Number 7: The Himalaya Mountains


The Himalaya Mountains are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 10 crewmember on the International Space Station.


Number 6:
Cape Cod National Seashore


The northernmost parts of the Cape Cod National Seashore are featured in this image photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the International Space Station.

Number 5: Chinese Launch Complex


Chinese Launch Complex at Jiuquan is featured in this image photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the International Space Station.

Number 4: The Great Wall of China and Inner Mongolia


The Great Wall of China and Inner Mongolia are featured in this image photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the International Space Station.

Number 3: Algerian desert


The Algerian desert is featured in this image photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the International Space Station.

Number 2: Lake Nasser

Egypt's Lake Nasser, centered roughly at 22.64 degrees north latitude and 32.45 degrees east longitude, was captured with an electronic still camera by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao onboard the International Space Station. Sunglint on the lake makes it more easily visible.

Number 1: Full Moon

A full moon is visible in this view above Earth’s horizon and airglow, photographed by Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao on the International Space Station.

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World's First Cryochick Hatches At Audubon

NEW ORLEANS -- He's less than two months old, but a Mississippi sandhill crane is already making history.

Researchers at the Audubon Institute said the crane is the world's first cryochick -- a bird created by fertilizing an egg with semen that had been frozen.

The male chick hatched June 20 at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species.

According to the Audubon Institute, Mississippi sandhill cranes are endangered, with fewer than 100 found at or near the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge in Gautier, Miss.

Disappearing habitat is believed to be the primary reason for their reduced numbers.

The Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species has released more than 130 chicks to the refuge over the past 10 years. The chicks are raised by a staff member carefully trained to mimic natural crane feeding and dressed in a crane costume.

The cryochick chick will be raised the same way and will be sent to the refuge when it is older.

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World’s largest carpet



A view of the handmade carpet at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran on Tuesday.
Iran has unveiled what it said was the world’s largest handwoven carpet, worth $5.8 million and larger than a football pitch, to be laid out in a United Arab Emirates mosque.

Iranian officials say the 6,000 square-metre carpet is the biggest handmade carpet in the world and will be carried to the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE


The biggest hand-woven carpet in the world has been unveiled in Iran. The sumptuous masterpiece, which measures 5,625 square metres (60,500sq ft), is almost big enough to cover the football pitch at Wembley Stadium (7,140 sq m).


The carpet is called the Qasr al-Alam (The Palace of the World) and took Ali Khaliqi, an Iranian artist, eight months to design. It was woven by 1,200 women, aged between 15 and 60, over 16 months. Working in three villages in northeastern Iran, they tied 2.2 billion knots and used 38 tonnes of the finest mothproof wool and cotton. They were supervised by 50 men acting as technical experts.


The carpet, worth £2.8 million ($5.5 million), will grace the floor of the main prayer hall in a huge mosque in Abu Dhabi named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the late President and founder of the United Arab Emirates. Given the unprecedented size of the carpet, it had to be knotted on nine looms and the nine pieces will be stitched together in Abu Dhabi.





Photographers had to board helicopters yesterday to capture the magnificent carpet in full when it was revealed for the first time on an open-air prayer ground in Tehran.
Several lorries were needed to haul the carpet to the location and it will be taken to the UAE in two aircraft.


The predominantly green and cream carpet features the traditional Persian motifs of swirling vines and five medallion centrepieces. Twenty-five colours were used incorporating 20 different natural dyes.

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125 Interesting Real Facts

1 -69% Americans use Internet & 5.5% Indians only.


2 -El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922 - the hottest ever measured.


3 -Plastics take 500 years to break down.


4 -America has 30.30% airports of the world & India has only 0.70%.


5 -There are roughly 4,000 known minerals, although only about 200 are of major importance.


6 -The total surface area of the Earth is 197 million square miles.


7 -Crocodile only animal & reptile that sheds tear while eating.


8 -The world’s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1557 in central China, more than 830,000 people were killed.


9 -Angel Falls in Venezuela is the worlds highest waterfall, The water of Falls drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).


10 -The sunrays reached at the earth in 8 minutes & 3 seconds.


11 -8.7 million of United State residents who were born in Asia.


12 -The world’s population has been increased 3.1 billion in last 40 years.


13 -180 million nos. of Valentine’s Day cards exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion.


14 -3,467 Nos. of confectionery nut stores in the United States, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine’s Day.


15 -4% people drink cold drink daily.


16 -Traffic lights are being used before the invention of motor car.


17 -More than 50 million Americans said they had a disability; for 32.5 million of them, the disability was severe.


18 -About 40% Proportion of all Valentine card purchases which parents account for.


19 -First Stock Exchange of America was in Philadelphia & it was established in 1791.


20 -Girls however are slightly more likely than boys to use home computers for e-mail, word processing and completing school assignments than playing games.


21 -A normal person laughs five times in a day.


22 -Approximate 300 million film tickets are sold every year in India.


23 -In Britain 70% mothers go for work.


24 -More artists live in California than any other state in the United States. There are 10,000 arts organizations in California.


25 -Alfred Southwick developed the idea of using electric current & Professionally he was a Dentist (MDS, DDS).


26 -A man says average 4850 words in 24 hours.


27 -The world's populaton is approximately 6.53 billion (2006), India & China represent 36.92% of the world's populations.


28 -Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo kabushikigaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.


29 -40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.


30 -315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.


31 -Chocolate can be killed dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.


32 -Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.


33 -Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.


34 -Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.


35 -There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.


36 -Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors.


37 -Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.


38 -The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!


39 -By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.


40 -Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.


41 -Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.


42 -The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.


43 -Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.


44 -Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.


45 -The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.


46 -To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.


47 -The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.


48 -The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.


49 -The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.


50 -Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.


51 -The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.


52 -Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".


53 -It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.


54 -In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".


55 -A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.


56 -We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.


57 -Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.


58 -Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.


59 -Brains are more active in sleeping than watching TV.


60 -Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.


61 -When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka.


62 -There are more chickens than people in the world.


63 -The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.


64 -There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.


65 -The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.


66 -The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each morning.


67 -The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.


68 -The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.


69 -Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.


70 -The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.


71 -Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.


72 -You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.


73 -A normal person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.


74 -Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.


75 -The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.


76 -When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.


77 -Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.


78 -A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded


79 -Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang Yourself."


80 -Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.


81 -"Bookkeeper" is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.


82 -The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every Letter in the English language.


83 -If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction


84 -China has more English speakers than the United States.


85 -Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.


86 -Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.


87 -An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.


88 -Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.


89 -Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.


90 -According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.


91 -The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu - a New Zealand hill.


92 -If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.


93 -Scientists in Australia's Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.


94 -More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.


95 -Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.


96 -Coca-Cola was originally green.


97 -The most common name in the world is Mohammed.


98 -There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.


99 -TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.


100 -Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!


101 -You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.


102 -It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.


103 -The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.


104 -If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.


105 -Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.


106 -111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321


107 -If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.


108 -If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.


109 -If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.


110 -Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this? Ans. - Honey


111 -A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.


112 -A snail can sleep for three years.


113 -All polar bears are left handed.


114 -American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.


115 -Butterflies taste with their feet.


116 -Elephants are the only mammal that can't jump.


117 -In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.


118 -On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.


119 -Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.


120 -Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.


121 -The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.


122 -The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.


123 -Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.


124 -The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.


125 -Most lipstick contains fish scales.

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