Kapurthala, March 22: A science city here today opened a unique gallery on Dinosaurs, the first of its kind in the country, on its fifth annual day celebrations.
Inaugurating the Dinosaur park and a gallery showing different movements of the now extinct animal with the help of electronic devices, Pushpa Gujral Science city Director General R S Khandpur said the concept for it was indigenously developed.
Shimla, March 22: The unique and richly varied geo-heritage wealth of Himachal Pradesh would be showcased in a museum of international standards to come up at Kasauli in Solan district.
Announcing this at a meeting here today, state tourism director Arun Sharma said the geo-heritage museum would go a long way in creating mass awarness about the mineral wealth available in the state.
He said geo-tourism and eco-tourism were expected to take a big leap in Himachal with launch of geo-parks all over the state.
Hyderabad, March 22: Notwithstanding the recent failure of the interceptor missile test, the first phase of the indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence System to intercept and destroy incoming enemy missiles of less than 2,000-km range is expected to be deployed in two years.
Disclosing this to The Hindu recently, V.K. Saraswat, Director-General, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, said the first phase would be made operational through the new concept of ‘capability-based deployment.’
New Delhi: Sky gazers in the capital are looking forward to watch the spring equinox Saturday – when the sun shines directly overhead as viewed from the earth, making the night and day equally long.
According to scientists, equinox marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and the word ‘equinox’ is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). Around the equinox, the night and day are approximately equally long.
New York, March 20: Thousands of Facebook users got duped when they fell for an email scam that asked them to change their passwords. The users got an email with the subject “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Support” and in the body of the email they had a link and/or an attachment to change the passwords.
Mumbai, March 19: Nuclear weapons are “weapons of peace” which act as a deterrent, says former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar. When India tested its nuclear bombs in 1974 and 1998, sanctions were imposed by many countries but for “us it became a real opportunity and our research and development today has reached a robust level” in some of the technologies, Kakodkar said at a function yesterday.
Shanghai, March 19: US Internet giant Google will close its business in China next month and may announce its plans in the coming days, Chinese media reported on Friday, after rows over censorship and hacking.
The China Business News quoted an official with an unidentified Chinese advertising agency as saying Google would go through with its threatened withdrawal on April 10, but that Google had yet to confirm the pull-out.
The agency is a business partner of Google, the report said.
New Delhi, March 18: Five telecom service operators, led by market leaders Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, have submitted their applications for the radio frequency spectrum for third generation telephony, officials said Thursday.
The government has also received applications for broadband services from QuLCOMM, Tata Communications, Tikona and Vodafone. The other three firms that have applied for 3G spectrum are Tata Teleservices, Britain-based Vodafone and Etisalat from the Gulf.
New Delhi, March 18: Global software giant Microsoft Corp will launch the latest version of its popular application suite MS Office 2010 for Indian users in June, a top official said here Thursday.
“The Office 2010 will be available for both businesses and consumers in June,” Microsoft Corp’s India chairman Ravi Venkatesan told reporters here on the sidelines of an seminar on social inclusion here.
Washington, March 18: According to reports, the FBI agents are very much a part of the online social networking world, and have a lot of fake profiles on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the popular microblogging site Twitter too. They have a good presence on the social networking sites and are using it fully, to gather information about the suspects, and also to communicate with the unsuspecting suspects too.
London, March 18: Though humans wouldn’t miss a chance to swim with dolphins, the aquatic mammals don’t return the sentiment.
British experts have found that dolphins suffer at the hands of tourists eager to dive in alongside them, reports in.com.
A study of the bottlenose species living off the coast of Zanzibar found the animals were experiencing ‘incredible’ stress from packed pleasure boats.
New Delhi, March 18: National Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda Wednesday said India needs around 100 million broadband connections and the government is focused on connecting 250,000 panchayats across the country through broadband.
“We have today about 10 million broadband connections for a country of a billion people, which is no good. Ideally this country needs 100 million broadband connections. If I say 100, even 80 or 70 million is good enough,” Pitroda, who is also known as father of India’s telecom revolution, said,
San Francisco, March 18: Tired of flipping through hundreds of cable channels to find something to watch? Google may be able to help you.
The web search giant has teamed up with Intel, Sony and Logitech to develop a new television platform that the company hopes will extend its dominance from computers and cellphones to televisions, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Mumbai, March 18: Two new viruses have hit Indian cyber space this month, of which one is said to be thwarted.
A rogue anti-virus named ‘Personal security’ has been flooding cyberspace via emails which grab the attention of those receiving it as the subject line states ‘personal security’. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT) announced a security alert regarding this virus on March 11.
Washington, March 17: Chinese firms selling advertising space on Google’s search pages have demanded clarity about the Internet company’s plans in China, warning they will demand compensation if it shuts its Chinese portal.
The warning from Chinese online advertising sales companies comes amid signs that Google Inc may soon move to close Google.cn, more than two months after it hit back against sophisticated hacking attacks from inside China and said it was no longer willing to offer a censored search engine.
New Delhi, March 17: Robot-OperatesA non-profit 170-bed charitable hospital run by the Muljibhai Patel Society for Research in Nephro-Urology, The Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital, commonly known as Nadiad Kidney Hospital, is on the verge to purchase the Rs. 10 crore da Vinci robot. It is a four-armed US-made robot, which has been designed to operate intricate prostate and kidney surgeries.
New Delhi, March 16: A test of India’s ballistic missile defence capabilities failed on Monday when an incoming Prithvi, simulating a hostile missile, veered off course and plunged into the Bay of Bengal seconds after being launched from a mobile launcher.
The advanced air defence (AAD) interceptor missile did not get the required command for lift-off as the target swerved off-track due to an onboard system malfunction.
New York, March 16: Twitter is working on a way to allow Chinese users to sign up to the social networking site in their own language, a co-founder of the site said Monday night, but access to the popular site remains blocked in the country.
Jack Dorsey said at a panel that Twitter is “hard at work” on allowing users to register in Chinese. Dorsey was responding to a question from Chinese avant-garde artist Ai Weiwei.
Ai has been an outspoken critic of Chinese authorities and their continuing efforts to impose censorship. He said he spends about eight hours a day on Twitter.
New Delhi, March 16: Methane gas is bubbling up from the black-coloured stew, and the water smells horrible.
The holy river Yamuna, once teeming with life, is practically dead, yet a homeless man is rinsing his mouth with the noxious liquid.
Under a nearby bridge, scavengers on a self-made raft are fishing out votive offerings that drivers throw from their cars to Yamuna, which is worshipped by Hindus as a goddess.
Washington, March 16: The US government has unveiled a new plan for high-speed internet access that will give the US “the fastest and most extensive wireless network in the world,” according to an executive summary of the proposal released on Monday by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The plan formulated by the FCC heralds a revolution in US communications by recognizing broadband internet as the country’s major telecommunications platform, after decades in which the telephone and television broadcast networks held the top spots.
Atlanta, March 15: Many people in the US with leaky heart valves soon might be able to get them fixed without open-heart surgery. A study showed that a tiny clip implanted through an artery was safer and nearly as effective as surgery, doctors reported on Sunday.
The device is already on sale in Europe, and its maker, Abbott Laboratories, hopes to win approval to sell it in the US in 2009. Elizabeth Taylor reportedly got one last year – the 77-year-old told fans about it on Twitter.
Austin, March 15: Mobile social networking ruled on Saturday as the techno-hip at South By South West (SXSW) used location-based services on smart phones to track down everything from panels to parties.
Foursquare and Gowalla duelled for supremacy here while fresh rivals such as Tweetsii and Toodalu vowed to eclipse them.
FourSquare and Gowalla launched in 2009 at SXSW, a renowned gathering of musicians, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs quick to find creative uses for new internet technologies.
Paris, March 15: The brains of psychopaths could be hardwired to seek reward even when the consequences are life-threatening to others or themselves, according to a study released on Sunday.
A naturally-occurring chemical, dopamine, plays a key role in some forms of pathologically violent behaviour and drug addiction, the study found.
Previous research has focused on what psychopaths tend to lack – fear, empathy and the ability to maintain normal relationships.
Atlanta, March 15: Key results from a landmark federal study are in, and the results are disappointing for diabetics: Adding drugs to drive blood pressure and blood-fats lower than current targets did not prevent heart problems, and in some cases caused harmful side effects.
A decade ago, the federal government launched the three-part study to see whether intensely lowering blood sugar, blood pressure, or fats in the blood would reduce heart attacks and strokes in diabetics.
Cape Town, March 15: Quietly, in the engine of the economy, a bunch of computer nerds are hoping to change the country, one business at a time.
“Yes, I’m a geek,” SpaceAge’s Chris Welham told News24. “But we have a unique strategy for small businesses – our goal is to create solutions for businesses.”
SpaceAge, launched in 1994, develops what call “unique solutions” for small to medium enterprises (SMMEs) that effectively outsources the company’s information systems.