11-digit mobile numbers soon?

New Delhi, April 04: There is no consensus yet among the major service providers on the issue of an early migration to an 11-digit sequence

The unprecedented growth of cellular telephony in India has forced a rethink on the national mobile numbering plan much earlier than anticipated.

Now, technology to see through fog

Washington, April 03: Engineers have developed a new technology that will enable pilots to peer through fog and doctors to see more precisely into the human body without surgery.

Developed by Princeton engineers, the method relies on the surprising ability to clarify an image using rays of light that would typically make the image unrecognisable, such as those scattered by clouds, human tissue or murky water.

PC maker, inspiration for Microsoft dies in US

Atlanta, April 02: Henry Edward Roberts, a developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died yesterday in Georgia. He was 68.

Roberts, whose build-it-yourself kit concentrated thousands of dollars worth of computer capability in an affordable package, inspired Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen to come up with Microsoft in 1975 after they saw an article about the MITS Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics.

To scientists, laughter is no joke — it’s serious

Washington, April 02: So a scientist walks into a shopping mall to watch people laugh. There’s no punchline. Laughter is a serious scientific subject, one that researchers are still trying to figure out.

Laughing is primal, our first way of communicating. Apes laugh. So do dogs and rats. Babies laugh long before they speak. No one teaches you how to laugh. You just do. And often you laugh involuntarily, in a specific rhythm and in certain spots in conversation.

YouTube redesigns website to keep viewers captivated

San Bruno, April 01: Google-owned YouTube rolled out a major redesign aimed at clearing out visual noise and capturing the attention of viewers at the superstar video-sharing website.

“We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter,” Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman said as he provided an in-depth look at the revamped YouTube home page which was fully rolled yesterday.

“Changes are based on how people actually use YouTube.”

India plans to launch 10 satellites every year

Bangalore, March 31: Indian space scientists and engineers are bracing up to launch an average of 10 satellites per year to meet the rising demand for various space applications, including communications and remote sensing, a top space scientist said.

‘We are planning to launch 10 satellites per year, beginning fiscal 2010-11. We have a series of satellites and launch vehicles at various stages of preparation,’ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told IANS.

Yahoo email accounts hacked in China, Taiwan

San Francisco, March 31: Yahoo email accounts of some journalists and activists whose work relates to China were compromised in an attack discovered this week, days after Google announced it would move its Chinese-language search services out of China due to censorship concerns.

Several journalists in China and Taiwan found they were unable to access their accounts beginning March 25, among them Kathleen McLaughlin, a freelance journalist in Beijing. Her access was restored on Wednesday, she told Reuters.

Big Bang experiment on; LHC smashes protons, record

London, March 30: A new era began for the scientific community on Tuesday as the much delayed ‘Big Bang’ experiment kicked off successfully after a delay of 18-months. The protons have been successfully collided inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva and the experiment has been declared successful.

“This is physics in the making, the beginning of a new era, we have collisions at 7 TeV (teralectronvolts),” said Paola Catapano, a scientist and spokeswoman at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, referring to the record energy levels achieved.

CERN Big Bang machine hoping for first high energy collisions

Geneva, March 30: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), also known as the Big Bang machine, was being ramped up Tuesday morning for its first collision at the highest energy levels ever recreated.

With everything in place, scientists were hoping it was just a matter of time before the historic collision – expected to simulate the moment just after the Big Bang – takes place, with optimists expecting the moment to occur within hours or days.

Google goes it alone in China censorship fight

Washington, March 28: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a major speech on Internet freedom two months ago, called on US technology firms not to support online censorship.

“I hope that refusal to support politically motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of American technology companies,” Ms Clinton said. “It should be part of our national brand.”

U.N. panel suspends 2 more carbon emissions auditors

United Nations, March 27: The reputation of a Kyoto Protocol carbon finance scheme was dealt another blow after a UN climate panel late on Friday suspended the third emissions cut verifier in 15 months, and partially suspended a fourth.

The scheme’s executive board suspended emissions auditors TUEV SUED and partially suspended Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) after spot checks at the companies’ offices revealed procedural breaches.

The board, an arm of the UN’s climate change secretariat, said it will work with TUEV SUED and KEMCO to ensure timely resolution of the issues.

NASA to launch its next shuttle April 5

Washington, March 27: NASA managers gave the green signal to launch the shuttle Discovery April 5 amidst reports that it could extend the shuttle programme till 2011.

NASA managers completed their all-day flight readiness review Friday and said there were “no unresolved” issues that could prevent or delay the mission, set to take off on Easter Monday.

“We are ready to fly,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations.

Prithvi-II, Dhanush test-fired successfully

Bhuwaneshwar, March 27: Prithvi-II’ ballistic missile, which has a maximum range of 295 km, was successfully test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 15 km from here, off the Orissa coast early today.

The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was test fired at around 0548 hours from a mobile launcher from the ITR launch complex-3, defence sources said.

Some women born bad mums – study

Washington, March 26: As bad mothers dominate headlines, neurological research from the United States raises the question of whether a bad mother switch in the brain can be detected, and if so, whether neglectful or abusive behaviour could be prevented.

According to scientists at Richmond University in Virginia, women develop a set of “maternal neurons” that operate like “bad mother/good mother” switches in the brain.

Universe expansion ‘is speeding up’

London, March 26: Astronomers have claimed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, after studying thousands of galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope.

In its research, an international team has analysed nearly 446,000 galaxies to map the matter distribution and the expansion history of the universe, proving again that Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is indeed correct.

And the astronomers clearly found that the universe was indeed growing faster and faster with time, as predicted by Einstein.

Universe expansion ‘is speeding up’

London, March 26: Astronomers have claimed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, after studying thousands of galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope.

In its research, an international team has analysed nearly 446,000 galaxies to map the matter distribution and the expansion history of the universe, proving again that Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is indeed correct.

And the astronomers clearly found that the universe was indeed growing faster and faster with time, as predicted by Einstein.

Videocon launches’below one paisa’ GSM Mobile service in TNs

Chennai, March 25: The Videocon Group, one of India’s leading global business conglomerates, today announced the launch of its GSM Mobile service in the Tamil Nadu circle with “below one paise effective tariff” and unviled its plan to invest around Rs 14,000 crore in Videocon Mobile Services over the next three years.

Announcing this at a press conference here, Mr Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman Videocon Group said the company has drawn up plans for one of the fastest sequential roll-outs covering 100 key cities/ towns over the next 100 days across the country.

Chinese boy gets ELEVEN extra digits removed

Beijing, March 25: This boy from China, suffering from a rare medical condition known as polydactyly (Greek for ‘ many fingers’), recently had a surgery to remove 11 extra fingers and toes — from the 31 he was born with.

The unnamed six- yearold from Shenyang, in China’s north- east, underwent the operation at Shenyan Hospital after he increasingly found himself the object of ridicule by his peers in school.

Two more US Internet companies pull out of China

Washington, March 25: After Google, two more American internet companies announced their decision to pull out of China because of internet freedom restrictions and censorships imposed by the Chinese authorities on them.

Appearing before a Congressional committee, Christine Jones, executive vice president of Go Daddy, which runs the world’s largest domain name service, said the company will no longer register new Web Sites in China.

People’s addiction to networking sites on rise

Chicago, March 25: People’s addiction to social networking sites is fast on the rise, according to a study which said an increasing number of Facebook and Twitter users check their accounts first thing in the morning while some look at their social media messages even while having sex.

The study conducted by consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo said 53 per cent of people surveyed check their Facebook/Twitter accounts as soon as they get up in the morning, even “before getting out of bed”. Nearly 31 per cent say “this is how I get my morning news“.

Move over brain-mapping and narco; face may provide the clue

Allahabad, March 25: Facial contours of an individual can give accurate clues on personality traits like propensity to indulge in crime and aptitude for a particular job, psychologists have claimed.

A study in this regard is being conducted here with sponsorship from the University Grants Commission.

A team of psychologists have come up with the theory that the human face is composed of about 270 different geometrical patterns, the size and alignment of which may determine how a particular individual is likely to behave and respond to stimuli.

Brazil fines Google for not censoring dirty jokes

Sao Paulo, March 24: A Brazilian court has fined US Internet giant Google for not blocking pages of dirty jokes on its social networking site Orkut.

The court in the northern state of Rondonia yesterday ordered Google to pay 2,700 dollars for each day that the pages remained up, and told it to stop similar material being posted.

It rejected Google’s argument that the company did not have the technical means or employees needed to police Orkut, a Facebook-like community that has its biggest following in Brazil.

Bike who gives fire

Londona, March 24: It is the ultimate road rage revenge vehicle – a scooter that fires 12ft flames.

Colin Furze rigged his 60mph bike with a rear-facing flamethrower because he was fed up with drivers cutting him up.

It works by pressing a button on the handlebar.

‘It’s a lot of fun and firing the flames makes me feel like James Bond,’ said the plumber, 30, from Stamford in Lincolnshire.

Nintendo announces 3-D revolution for video games with the 3DS

Los Angeles, March 23: Nintendo is set to release a new 3-D handheld gaming system.

The 3DS, a successor to Nintendo’s popular DS, is to be fully unveiled at this June’s E3 video game conference in Los Angeles.

Details of how the 3DS will work are slim, but Nintendo said the console would incorporate 3D technology without the need for players to wear special glasses.

The 3DS will also be compatible with all DS and DSi software.

Nintendo said this new portable machine will “succeed” the DS series. As of December 2009, the DS console has sold 125 million units worldwide.

Google.cn is now Google.com.hk, China says promise violated

Beijing, March 23: Google has “violated its written promise” and is “totally wrong” for stopping the censoring of its Chinese language search engine results and blaming China for alleged hacker attacks, a government official said Tuesday morning as the internet giant moved its search engine site to Hong Kong.