Technology

Washington, April 09: Two astronauts from the shuttle Discovery began a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Friday, working on an ammonia tank on the outside of the International Space Station, NASA said.

Mission specialists Clayton Anderson and Rick Mastracchio left the shuttle’s airlock today for the first of three space walks during the 13-day mission to resupply the space station.

Mastracchio, the lead spacewalker, was seen in images beamed to Earth working on an ammonia tank on the outside of the space station, which will be replaced with a new tank.

London, April 09: Illegal downloaders could soon be banned from using the internet for life after a controversial bill was passed in the UK’s Lower House of Parliament.

Sky News reported the Digital Economy Bill aims to stop people from illegally downloading copyrighted material from the internet, but critics argue it could have far greater powers and be used to censor and block free speech by ruling politicians.

The bill was rushed through the legislature before the dissolution of Parliament next Monday, ahead of next month’s national election.

Cairo, April 09: A conference of countries that want antiquities returned from abroad ended on Thursday with a wish list of priceless relics housed in Western museums, but it fell short of drafting an action plan.

The two-day conference in Cairo drew representatives from 25 countries, many of them former colonies, who say their heritage has been stolen.

Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said seven of the countries drew up a list of artefacts they wanted back, and the remaining countries were given one month to add items to the list.

New Delhi, April 09: Experts today identified the material which led to a “very powerful” radiation in a west Delhi industrial area as Cobalt-60, the exposure to which left five persons injured including one seriously.

Scientists from the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Narora Atomic Power Station also scanned Mayapuri Industrial area this morning to examine whether there was any other source of a similar emission in the vicinity.

Washington, April 09: NASA may not be going to the moon anytime soon and its space shuttles are about to be retired, but it could conceivably increase the number of agency jobs under a new reorganisation, NASA’s chief has said.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden yesterday said that because NASA has more money overall, it should have more jobs compared to the previous administration’s plans for a moon mission. But more of those jobs will be on research into airplanes and climate change.

New Delhi, April 09: A newly discovered asteroid passed by earth early Friday but experts say it possessed no danger to the planet.

Earlier, the NASA Spaceguard team at the Catalina Sky Survey have recently spotted an asteroid – ‘2010 GA6’ – which was set to pass at its closest point to the earth at 04:36 AM.

However, experts said it does not pose any danger to the planet as at the time of the closest approach, the asteroid will be about 359,000 kms away from the earth.

Cape Canaveral, April 09: Two astronauts are spacewalking outside the International Space Station.

Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson, members of Discovery’s visiting crew, ventured out early Friday on the first spacewalk of their mission. They will remove a new ammonia tank from the shuttle and disconnect the station’s old tank that supplied the cooling system. It will take three spacewalks to complete the job.

London, April 09: Scientists monitoring the Arctic ice cap report an increase in the amount of sea ice that is two years old or more in the region, but they are also warning that the spread of ice is still low compared with the amount seen in past decades.

Newyork, April 09: Microsoft is all set to launch a phone that aims towards social networking sites and has a thing or two of the smartphone features that includes the hardware of its own.

As the reports of Wall Street Journal report, Sharp is supposed to be the manufacturer for the upcoming range of phones but the credits for designing the handset and the software undoubtedly goes to Microsoft.

California, April 09: Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad devices will soon be able to run more than one programme at a time, an ability that phones from Apple’s rivals already offer and that iPhone owners have long sought.

The changes mean that users might be able to listen to music through the Pandora programme and check a bank account online simultaneously. Currently, users must return to Apple’s home screen, effectively quitting the open programme, before starting a new task.

New Delhi, April 08: New Delhi – India is scheduled to launch an advanced communications and navigation satellite using for the first time a cryogenic engine developed by its own scientists, news reports said Thursday.

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) – which is to put the satellite into orbit – is powered by the cryogenic engine. Its launch is scheduled from the country’s Sriharikota spaceport on April 15, the CNN-IBN news channel reported.

With a successful launch, India will join the US, Russia, France, Japan and China, who have also developed that technology.

Montana, April 08: Glacier National Park has lost two more of its glaciers to climate change and many of the rest may be gone by the end of the decade, a government researcher has said.

Warmer temperatures have reduced the number of named glaciers in the northwestern Montana park to 25, Dan Fagre, an ecologist with the US Geological Survey said yesterday.

“When we’re measuring glacier margins, by the time we go home the glacier is already smaller than what we’ve measured,” Fagre said.

Oslo, April 08: US scientist James Hansen has won the Sophie Prize for environmental work for his efforts to educate the world on climate change and its effects, the award’s foundation announced on Wednesday.

Hanson “has played a key role for the development of our understanding of human-induced climate change,” the foundation said.

The foundation noted that Hansen had as early as 1988 “presented results for the American Congress testifying to the probability that human-induced climate change was a threat to the planet.”

Paris, April 08: Astronomers on Wednesday said they may have explained the riddle of a dimming star that has perplexed skygazers for nearly two centuries.

Located 2,000 light years from Earth in the northern constellation Auriga where it is one of the brightest stars, Epsilon Aurigae has triggered controversy ever since astronomers first noted in the 1820s that its light bizarrely halved in intensity for 18 months.

The phenomenon was later found to occur once every 27.1 years, sparking theories about what was the cause.

Paris, April 07: Biologists have reported the spectacular discovery of a species of giant lizard, a reptile as long as a full-grown man is tall, and endowed with a double penis.

The secretive but brightly-coloured beast, a monitor lizard, is a close cousin of the Komodo Dragon of Indonesia.

But unlike the fearsone Dragon, it is not a carnivore, nor does it feast on rotting meat. Instead, it is entirely peaceable and tucks into fruit.

Dubbed Varanus bitatawa, the lizard measures two metres in length, according to the account, published by Britain’s Royal Society.

Bhubaneswar, April 06: Targeting to provide electricity to about 3,000 villages in remote areas by using solar power, Orissa government today said it would spend Rs 200 crore for the project.

The target was to be met within the next three years and tribal villages in remote and Naxal-hit districts would be given priority, an official said after attending a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The villages left out from the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutkaran Yojana (RGGVY) and Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana (BGJY) would be covered under the solar power project, the official said.

Washington, April 06: As your eyes alight for the first time on a skyscraper in a foreign cityscape, a disembodied voice whispers in your ear the phone number of a posh restaurant on the top floor.

Or this: You have been spotted on the street by an old friend whose name suddenly eludes you. But even before there is time to shake hands, a glance at your smartphone reveals her identity and the date of your last encounter.

Welcome to the world of augmented reality, the here-and-now enhancement of everyday experience through virtual, interactive technology.

New Delhi, April 06: First it was gobar gas ( biogas generated from cow dung) that revolutionised renewable energy in rural India. Now it is the turn to harness urine.

The pee, that raises quite a stink, is going to undergo a sea change thanks to the efforts of a scientist from the Delhi Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT).

Scientists believe that urine smells when it gets oxidised.

The idea is to trap the urine and, with it, the smell.

Sydney, April 06: Australia’s leader Tuesday voiced anger over a coal carrier which ran aground and spewed oil over the pristine Great Barrier Reef, as officials probed alleged short cuts through the world heritage site.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the Chinese-owned Shen Neng 1’s accident “outrageous” and warned the badly damaged ship, which is stranded on a shoal, remained a serious threat to one of the world’s great environmental treasures.

Cape Canaveral, April 06: The US space shuttle Discovery blasted off Monday toward the International Space Station for a historic mission that put more women in orbit than ever.

NASA initially hailed a near-perfect launch but later said an antenna used to transmit television pictures back to Earth that is also an integral part of the radar docking system had failed to work when the shuttle reached orbit.

Bangalore, April 06: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has come under criticism from promoters of an Israeli astronomical satellite for allegedly delaying its launch and shifting the blame on schedule slippages.

Tauvex comprises three ultra-violet band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency (ELOP), with Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics providing the software and science and mission planning.

Its flight date on board an Indian launcher was first supposed to be in late 2005 and has continually slipped.

Texas, April 06: A new auditorium in Texas A&M university’s two new physics buildings has been named for renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

Mr. Hawking attended a Monday dedication ceremony at the school about 160 km northwest of Houston. Mr. Hawking first came to A&M in 1995 and has visited regularly since 2003.

He lent his name to the new auditorium, while Texas oilman George Mitchell donated $35 million of the nearly $83 million price tag for the physics buildings.

Nukus, April 05: The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet’s most shocking environmental disasters, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday as he urged Central Asian leaders to step up efforts to solve the problem.

Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the sea has shrunk by 90 percent since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region.

New Delhi, April 05: Laws abused to intimidate activists, scribes in conflict zones

When does downloading a document from the Internet land you in jail? In the strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir, the Official Secrets Act (OSA) can do the trick. Like it did for journalist Iftikhar Gilani back in 2003.

When does calling upon “Dalits, women, minorities, farmers and adivasis to build organisations in order to fight for their rights” (among other things) qualify as sedition? In the police notice to Dr. Rati Rao, vice president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, it does.

Mohali, April 04: In a rare case of cross-breeding, a yellow tigress gave birth to a cub fathered by a white Royal Bengal Tiger at Chhatbir Zoological Park in Mohali district, officials said.

However, the gender of the cub, born on Saturday, was not yet known as the seven-year-old tigress has not yet fully removed the placenta from her baby’s body, which visibly lacks white genes.

The park officials are quite optimistic about its survival.