Science

Washington, July 07: Microsoft has taken the rare step of warning about a serious computer security vulnerability it hasn’t fixed yet.

The vulnerability disclosed yesterday affects Internet Explorer users whose computers run the Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating software.

It can allow hackers to remotely take control of victims’ machines. The victims don’t need to do anything to get infected except visit a website that’s been hacked.

Washington, July 07: A common contaminant present in consumer products, including cosmetics, may be causing an alarming rise in premature births, according to a new study.

Phthalates are commonly used compounds in plastics, personal care products, home furnishings (vinyl flooring, carpeting, paints etc.) and many other consumer and industrial products.

Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (SPH) found that women who deliver prematurely have, on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared to women who carry to term.

London, July 07: It’s often said that the spark of genius lurks hidden within all of us. And, now scientists have claimed that a “thinking cap” which could enhance the brain’s ability to learn has moved a step closer.

A team at the University of British Columbia came to this conclusion after it carried out a study which found that magnets could boost brain power.

In fact, the scientists discovered that the ability of the brain to learn a task and remember was greatly enhanced when a magnetic pulse was applied to the premotor cortex ie, the area of the brain just behind the forehead.

Melbourne, July 07: Astronomer Galileo Galilei may have discovered Neptune in 1613234 years before the planet was officially found, according to a new theory. Prof David Jamieson of the University of Melbourne has claimed in his theory that the notebooks of Galileo from some 400 years ago contain concrete evidence that he had discovered a new planet in 1613, which is now known as Neptune.

Istanbul, July 07: Women in Turkey use the net more interactively than men, as the majority use Web sites for shopping and social utility networks, according to a survey carried out by the BBDO advertising agency.

The survey has attracted much attention from Web experts as its results, which were published in the daily Milliyet last week, have suggested that men design the Web for men, and that women, as consumers, use the services for stereotypical female interests such as shopping and gossip sites.

Washington, July 07: The release of Windows 7 this October is likely to have the computer world abuzz. But will notebook users be feeling the joy, too?Every new operating system seems to render yesterday’s hot notebook computers virtually worthless for running the latest and greatest operating system, so notebook owners have a right to be skeptical. Microsoft claims that Windows 7, though, was built with notebooks in mind. Read on to find out what that means.

Q: Do I need to get the fastest notebook available to run Windows 7?

Washington, July 07: Global positioning system (GPS) technology has so far been limited to helping you locate yourself on a map or figure out the best route to your destination.

Last month, two out of 12 local companies made it to the semi-finals of the APAC 2009 Navteq Global LBS Challenge, a competition held by United States-based digital map provider Navteq, which aims to find more innovative uses for GPS.

If you are prone to losing your mobile phones or would like to share your location while broadcasting a live video web stream, these companies have something unique to offer you.

San Francisco, July 07: Time spent online by children aged between two and 11 in the US has surged by 63 percent in the last five years, according to a new study.

The average time spent online per month by children in the US has increased from nearly seven hours in May 2004 to more than 11 hours in May 2009, marketing information company Nielsen said in its report released Monday.

In comparison, time spent online for the overall US population grew 36 percent in the same period.

London, July 07: The wife of the new head of Britain’s spy agency has posted pictures of her husband, family and friends on internet networking site facebook, details which could compromise security, a newspaper said on Sunday.

Sir John Sawers is due to take over as head of the Secret Intelligence Service in November. The SIS, popularly known as MI6, is Britain’s global intelligence-gathering organisation.

Shanghai, July 07: Independent information about deadly riots in China’s remote northwest filtered out on Twitter, YouTube and other internet forums on Monday, frustrating government efforts to control the news.

The communist authorities who built the so-called Great Firewall of China raced to stamp out video, images and words posted by Internet users about the unrest on Sunday which, officials said, left at least 140 people dead.

Geneva, July 07: The head of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, said Monday that the global economic crisis was causing people to ditch healthy foods and that this would lead to health problems.

“When money is tight, the first thing that drop out of the diets are the healthy foods,” said Chan, adding that these are “almost always more expensive” than processed items.

This was particularly true in the developing world, where chronic diet related diseases were on the rise, she noted.

Johannesburg, July 07: Mobile technology and broadband need to be considered to latch onto “first class, real time” service delivery, KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Ina Cronje said on Monday.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Durban, Cronje stressed that the utilisation of technologies was paramount to maximise benefits from services for government planning.

“In order to utilise the mobile platform, we as KwaZulu-Natal need to ensure that there is a pipeline of appropriate skills to develop the required mobile applications,” Cronje said.

Berlin, July 06: German Chancellor Angela Merkel affirmed through a spokesman Monday her support for nuclear power, despite an electrical fault that shut down one of Germany’s 12 nuclear power stations two days earlier. A short-circuit knocked out the Kruemmel plant near Hamburg on Saturday. It had been under repair after its main transformer had caught fire two years ago.

With a general election less than 12 weeks away, Merkel, who was a physicist before entering politics, has been calling for existing nuclear plants to be kept in service for rather than be prematurely shut down.

Sydney, July 06: The tropical zone is expanding into what have been humid temperate climate zones, according to a review of scientific data.

The authors of a recent study concluded that the effects of a pole-ward expansion of the tropical and subtropical zones were immense, manifesting a variety of social, political, economic and environmental outcomes.

The study has been conducted by Joanne Isaac, post-doctoral fellow at James Cook University (JCU), with Steve Turton, professor at its School of Earth and Environment Sciences.

Johannesburg, July 05: Increased access to the internet via cellphones has increased the risk of being targeted by the viruses and hackers that prowl the internet. Security experts today all concur that cellphones are the least protected devices in the entire computing arena leaving them at the mercy of internet evils.

The need for cellphone protection has jolted security software companies such as Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab into action to focus aggressively on mobile security development for both consumers and businesses using cellphones as an internet source.

Brussels, July 05: Researchers are using bluetooth technology to observe the meanderings of tens of thousands of festival-goers at a top European rock festival, hoping their findings will launch a new generation of tracking devices.

The team from the University of Ghent in Belgium believes the research could yield new satellite navigation applications for the retail and security sectors.

Washington, July 05: The warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean has long been known to affect weather around the world, but researchers now say it may come in two forms with different impacts.

The traditional El Nino tends to reduce the number of Atlantic hurricanes. But a form Georgia Tech University scientists call El Nino Modoki can lead to more hurricanes than usual in the Atlantic Ocean. Modoki, from Japanese, refers to something that is “similar but different”.

New York, July 05: Cassy Hayes and Jasmine Coleman were among the first fans to arrive outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles where Michael Jackson was brought and later pronounced dead.

How had Hayes, 25, and Coleman, 21, heard the news so quickly?

Twitter.

The two young women had learned about Jackson’s health like so many who get their news nowadays: by reading the ever-flowing feed of real-time information on the microblogging service.

London, July 05: A rare pygmy hippopotamus has been born at Edinburgh Zoo, officials said on Friday.

Leishan, a West African word meaning “gift”, was born to Otto and Ellen on May 9, the zoo said.

Pygmy hippos are found only in West Africa, where they are now critically endangered.

Their primary threat is the loss of their forest habitat due to the timber industry and they are hunted extensively for their meat.

“Ellen is proving to be a great mum to Leishan,” said Darren McGarry, animal collection manager at the zoo.

Sydney, July 05: Australia on Saturday welcomed the first elephant ever born in the country with the arrival of a 100kg male calf at a Sydney zoo, keepers said.

The calf, yet to be named, was born at the harbourside Taronga Zoo just after 03:00 (17:00 GMT) to a 12-year-old Asian elephant named Thong Dee, the zoo’s director Guy Cooper said.

“(Staff) were with her throughout the night and have been sleeping at the barn to support Thong Dee the instant she went into labour,” Cooper said.

Washington, July 05: Recently, Symantec rolled out its beta versions of the upcoming 2010 releases, to the public. A novel protection model codenamed Quorum is featured in the new version, which will put a heavier focus on reputation-based malware detection.

Going by a Norton statement, the reputation model can detect zero-day malware that’s never been seen before, although it won’t replace the existing signature-based detection for known threats.

Hanover, July 05: Simply adjusting the brightness of your laptop’s display can go a long way toward conserving battery life.

It’s just one of the simple steps computer users can take to get the most battery life out of their laptop, since the portable computers can use a lot of power.

The tip comes from German computer magazine, c’t. Drawing on advice from experts, it also suggests doing without a screen saver, since they also use up unnecessary energy.

—–Agencies

Munich, July 05: PC users should clean out the fans on their computers before the summer really heats up. The dust that collects on the fans over time can reduce their effectiveness in cooling, leading to computer crashes from overheating.

The easiest option is to simply vacuum the dust away from areas like the air intake grille on the rear of the PC, reports Munich- based Gamestar magazine. The vacuum head shouldn’t be held too close to the fans, however. Otherwise, the rotor bearings could be damaged.

—–Agencies

Washington, July 04: Sliding windows and menus might look cool, but in Windows, they’ll slow you down.

You can turn off animation effects in Windows to get some snappiness back. Right-click My Computer and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

In Vista, select Advanced System Settings, and in XP, click the Advanced tab. Click Settings in the performance box, and remove the check mark next to anything that says animation, slide, or fade.

Kolkata, July 04: India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-II is likely to be launched by 2013, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said Saturday.

“Chandrayaan-II should take place by 2013. Our first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-I, has given us a substantial understanding about entering the moon’s orbit. But ensuring the safe landing of the rover on the lunar surface is still an obstacle,” Nair told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony here.