Technology news updates

Ameriquest was one of the United States's leading wholesale lenders. Ameriquest was founded in 1979, in Orange County, California, as a bank, Long Beach Savings & Loan. The bank moved to Orange County in 1991 and was converted to a pure mortgage lender in 1994, renamed Long Beach Mortgage Co. In 1997, the wholesale part of the business (funding loans made by independent brokers) was spun off as a publicly traded company. Originally founded as a subsidiary corporation under the name Ameriquest Mortgage, it was now renamed Long Beach Mortgage, while the retail part of the business was renamed Ameriquest Capital and remained private. (In 1999, Washington Mutual purchased Long Beach Mortgage.) Ameriquest Mortgage was a private company held by ACC Capital Holdings, which was owned by Roland Arnall.

If you've watched TV or opened your mail lately, you know that there are plenty of companies eager to help you consolidate your loans to cut your payments in half," "lower your interest rates," and "help you get out of debt fast." Indeed consolidating your high interest loans and credit card debt into a single loan with a lower interest rate and more manageable payments makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. Many people who consolidate their loans end up paying far more than they would have otherwise and, in the case of home equity loans, an alarming number of borrowers end up losing their homes. Add to this the fact that many so-called "consolidation" programs aren't really consolidation loans at all, and debt consolidation, rightfully, has a bad reputation. Still, you may be able to benefit from consolidation if you explore your options and proceed with caution.

Benchmark lending was something I had never heard of. I did some research, and found it has to do with interest rates and banking, which seems to be a popular theme among high paying keywords. The benchmark rate is set by the Federal Reserve in the United States, and it is the interest rate the banks pay when they borrow money. That's right, your bank borrows money, too! They must have a certain amount of money on reserve, and when they don't they borrow money over a very short term (such as one night). So why is this term so valuable? Banks and mortgage companies seek out people who might need a loan. Banking makes it's money on loans, it's just a valuable business to be a part of when there are lots of customers. This price seems almost reasonable compared to many of the other keywords.
This page of Benchmark Lending information is intended to show you why it is a high paying keyword, so you might be able to understand what you'll need to know to make a website centered around it. Other sites just give you a list, I am just trying to explain why each keyword is on those lists. I do not claim to be a Benchmark Lending expert, and I encourage you to do your own research. The price for each keyword comes from a variety of high paying keyword lists, and I do not guarantee it is accurate at the time of your visit.

Benchmark lending was something I had never heard of. I did some research, and found it has to do with interest rates and banking, which seems to be a popular theme among high paying keywords. The benchmark rate is set by the Federal Reserve in the United States, and it is the interest rate the banks pay when they borrow money. That's right, your bank borrows money, too! They must have a certain amount of money on reserve, and when they don't they borrow money over a very short term (such as one night). So why is this term so valuable? Banks and mortgage companies seek out people who might need a loan. Banking makes it's money on loans, it's just a valuable business to be a part of when there are lots of customers. This price seems almost reasonable compared to many of the other keywords.
This page of Benchmark Lending information is intended to show you why it is a high paying keyword, so you might be able to understand what you'll need to know to make a website centered around it. Other sites just give you a list, I am just trying to explain why each keyword is on those lists. I do not claim to be a Benchmark Lending expert, and I encourage you to do your own research. The price for each keyword comes from a variety of high paying keyword lists, and I do not guarantee it is accurate at the time of your visit.

Wisconsin Lemon Law

Wisconsin Lemon Laws and the federal Lemon Law (the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act) provide for compensation to Wisconsin consumers of defective automobiles and trucks and other vehicles and products including motorcycles, RV’s, boats, computers and other consumer appliances and products. To qualify under the Wisconsin Lemon Law or the federal Lemon Law, you must generally have a product that suffered multiple repair attempts under the manufacturer’s factory warranty.








Lemon Law compensation can include a refund, replacement or cash compensation. If you think you qualify for a Lemon Law, click here for a free Wisconsin Lemon Law case review or for an immediate evaluation, simply fax your repair records to 866-773-6152. An experienced Lemon Law attorney will personally review your inquiry and records and quickly contact you for a free consultation.

Laser Hair Removal Washington DC

Laser hair removal in Washington DC is quickly becoming one of the most popular cosmetic procedures for both men and women. If you are sick and tired of shaving, waxing, or tweezing unwanted hair on a daily or weekly basis, and are looking for a more permanent solution, we have exactly what you need. Many men and women are turning to the latest trend in hair removal - the laser. For those interested in our revolutionary non-invasive procedure, here are all the facts that you need to know before you go under the light. This procedure has been hyped around the globe as the permanent solution to unwanted hair removal and has shown great promise in delivering on that claim. However, before investing your valuable time and hard earned money into Laser Hair Removal treatments, we suggest you do a little research.

The effect of removing unwanted hair by laser was first discovered by dermatologists in the late 1960s. Dermatologists discovered that during treatment for skin conditions with lasers, the removal of hair in the treatment area happened to be a side effect and because of this, lasers have been studied extensively for years for their hair removal effectiveness. Many different types of lasers have since been approved by the FDA and now professional treatments for Laser Hair Removal in Washington DC are available to all interested residents.

Today, Laser Hair Removal in Washington DC is one of the fastest growing non-invasive cosmetic procedures on the market. Last year alone, over one million individuals underwent laser treatments around the globe. At our Washington DC clinic, all of the technicians are trained and certified on the latest laser hair removal equipment; this guarantees professional Laser Hair Removal treatments each and every time you visit. To learn more about our approach to this extraordinary treatment, come in for a free and confidential consultation. We’ll give you all the information you need and get you set up for a series of Laser Hair Removal treatments at our Washington DC clinic that will leave you with nothing but hair free skin!

Register News Domains with Yahoo for $1.99 only!


Yahoo!, one of the giants in web marketing and solutions is giving away new domains for as low as $1.99 only. $1.99 is the current lowest market rate for any .com domain registration. This is the second time Yahoo! providing such lower rate domains with a clear intention to grab as much market share as possible. If you were looking for a cheap deal to buy lowest rate domains, this is the perfect time to buy and park domains. Make it fast as it’s a limited period offer. This cheap domain registration is expiring 30th June this year.

This offer is valid for new customers only. $1.99 domains are pretty cheap considering other domain service provider’s price menu. But Yahoo! will charge you more than the normal rate while renewing your domain name after one year. This is their policy to make the deal in a cheaper rate and then adjust the revenue during renewal. But you can always transfer your domain to another cheap domain registrars like Godady and enjoy further domain registrations for $7 per year.

y conducted by Harris Interactive® to determine what online adults look for when choosing an e-mail address and found some noteworthy results:

The majority of online adults (59 per cent) consider the most important attribute of an e-mail address to be that it is easy to remember.
When asked if they could choose any e-mail address for personal use, seven in ten online adults (70 per cent) would opt to have some portion of their name included 31 percent would want their last name included, 27 per cent would choose their first name, while 28 percent would prefer to have their nickname as part of their e-mail address.
Of online adults who indicated that they are not currently using their first choice e-mail address, over half (54 per cent) agree that they want their e-mail address to reflect who they are, and about half (48 per cent) would be at least somewhat likely to change addresses should their preferred choice become available.
"We recognize that people want an e-mail address that reflects who they are, whether they are signing up for an e-mail address for the first time, or simply updating their e-mail pseudonym to reflect the stage they are at in life," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail. "We are thrilled to be able to offer new Yahoo! e-mail domain choices to Internet users, along with the same great Web mail experience that hundreds of millions of people have already come to expect."

E-mail addresses at the new domains will have the same great Yahoo! Mail features as addresses at the yahoo.com domain, including:

Unlimited storage Yahoo! Mail provides all users with free unlimited e-mail storage2
Integrated Instant Messaging and Text Messaging Users can connect in real-time to their contacts with Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live® Messenger and send text messages to friends on the go, right from their Yahoo! Mail inbox
Protection from spam and viruses All of the same great protection that is built into Yahoo! Mail will apply to these new domains. Yahoo! uses advanced technologies and data from numerous sources to dramatically reduce the delivery of spam and phishing e-mails
Country-specific e-mail account When signing up for an e-mail account, users have the option of choosing localized country versions from each of the Yahoo! domains: yahoo.com, ymail.com and rocketmail.com
As always, a Yahoo! ID will work for everything across the Yahoo! Network, from checking e-mail to checking out Messenger, Flickr, Groups, Sports, Finance and more.

In many markets, Yahoo! will also help users transfer their e-mail and contacts to their new address and notify friends of their new e-mail address.

Users can learn more about and register for a new e-mail at ymail.com and rocketmail.com at http://mail.yahoo.com/.

About Yahoo! Mail
Launched in October 1997, Yahoo! Mail is the world’s largest, most popular free e-mail service. Yahoo! Mail helps people stay in touch at home, at work, or while traveling for business or pleasure, and is available in 22 languages. Yahoo! Mail is fully integrated with Yahoo!’s many other popular services to make it easy to access all the Internet services people need. Yahoo! Mail has recently received the Best of Web award from PC World, and was awarded Editors’ Choice by both PC Magazine and CNET.

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

About the Survey
This Yahoo! study was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive between June 2 and June 4, 2008 among 2,035 adults ages 18+. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the online U.S. adult population on the basis of Internet usage (hours per week) and connection type. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

ScienceDaily — Electromobility makes sense only if car batteries are charged using electricity from renewable energy sources. But the supply of green electricity is not always adequate. An intelligent charging station can help, by adapting the recharging times to suit energy supply and network capacity.
Germany aims to have one million electric vehicles -- powered by energy from renewable sources -on the road by 2020. And, within ten years, the German environment ministry expects "green electricity" to make up 30 percent of all power consumed. Arithmetically speaking, it would be possible to achieve CO2-neutral electromobility. But, in reality, it is a difficult goal to attain. As more and more solar and wind energy is incorporated in the power grid, the proportion of electricity that cannot be controlled by simply pressing a button is on the increase. In addition, there is a growing risk that the rising number of electric vehicles will trigger extreme surges in demand during rush hour.

"What we need is a smart grid that carries information in addition to power," says Dominik Noeren of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The structure of the grid has to change from a push system based on energy demand to a pull system based on production output. In Noeren's opinion, "electric cars are best equipped to meet this challenge." Introduced in large numbers, they have the capacity to store a lot of energy. On average, a car is parked for at least 20 hours out of 24. That is more than enough time to recharge them when the wind picks up or the demand for electricity is low.

Developed by Fraunhofer researchers, the "smart" charging station is a device that enables electric vehicles to recharge when the system load is low and the share of energy from renewable resources is high. In this way, load peaks can be avoided and the contribution of solar and wind power fully exploited. "For us, it is important that end consumers are completely free to decide when they want to recharge. We do not want them to suffer any disadvantages from the controlled recharging of their vehicles' batteries," Noeren emphasizes. That's why he favors electricity rates that adapt to the prevailing situation in the power grid -- ones that are more expensive in periods of peak demand and particularly cheap when there is a surfeit of renewable energy.

The person using the "smart" charging station could then choose between recharging immediately or opting for a cheaper, possibly longer, recharging time. If they go for the second option, all they need to do is enter the time when their vehicle has to be ready to drive again. The charging station takes care of everything else, calculating the costs and controlling the recharging process. Via the display the user can track the progress of recharging and also see the costs incurred and the amount of energy used.

The experts will be presenting their charging device at the Hannover Messe from April 19 through 23.

ScienceDaily — Automobile air conditioning systems do not run "free of charge." In fact in the hot parts of the world they can account for up to thirty per cent of fuel consumption. Even in Switzerland, with its temperate climate, the use of air conditioning systems is responsible for about five per cent of total fuel usage, rising to around ten per cent in urban traffic, as shown by a new study undertaken by Empa on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). Furthermore, two thirds of the additional fuel usage could be saved if air conditioning systems were simply turned off when the air temperature falls below 18 degrees Celsius
Car air conditioning systems require energy to compress the cooling agent, and the greater the degree of cooling required the more energy (i.e. fuel) they use. Little known, however, is the fact that these systems also used fuel when the outside air temperature is
cooler than in the vehicle. For this reason the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) gave Empa the task of investigating in detail the fuel consumption of six modern cars -- both diesel and petrol models -- with their air conditioning systems switched on and off under varying ambient temperatures and humidities.

The study, the results of which have just been published in the scientific journal "Environmental Science and Technology," shows that the fuel consumption of the test vehicles with air conditioning systems in operation increases with rising ambient air temperature and humidity, reaching a value of some 18 per cent on a typical Swiss summer day with an air temperature of 27 degrees and relative humidity of 60 per cent. In addition, the researchers noted that the air conditioning systems in cars with automatic transmissions (which today are the most widely sold models) only turn themselves off when the external temperature drops below 5 degrees, when the cooling system could ice-up. This occurs because air conditioning systems not only cool the air before blowing it into the vehicle interior but also dry it, so as to avoid causing condensation on the front windscreen when it rains, among other reasons. This is of course perfectly sensible and important for safe driving, but only when the air humidity is high, and not all the time -- as is currently the case.

Using the standard climate model defined by the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA, Bern*) and allowing for the measured increase in consumption (plus the use of the vehicle during the day), the average annual extra consumption of a petrol-engined car works out to 5.4 per cent. Differentiating between urban, suburban and motorway driving gives additional fuel usage values of 10, 2.8 and 1.3 per cent respectively.

It is known from physiological studies that the average driver feels comfortably warm when the air temperature around the head is 23 degrees. This means that if the outside temperature is below 18°C the car's air conditioning system could be turned off without any loss of comfort. For the petrol-engined vehicles investigated this would represent a saving of some two-thirds of the additional fuel usage, which is after all 3.6 per cent of the total consumption. When the outside temperature is higher, it is advisable to keep the air conditioning switched on since otherwise the heat may affect the driver's concentration and reduce safety.

With the diesel fuelled vehicles tested, the additional consumption due to the use of air conditioning, particularly for urban driving, is somewhat lower (2.7 per cent in total). The individual values for urban, suburban and motorway driving in this case are 4.5, 2.3 and 1.2 per cent respectively. The potential saving possible through switching off the air conditioning unit when the outside temperature falls below 18 degrees remains, however, two thirds of the additional consumption for the diesel vehicles tested.

If the entire Swiss automobile fleet is evaluated -- that is, including vehicles without air conditioning systems as well as older models with inefficient compressor units -- then a figure of 3.1 per cent of additional consumption is arrived at, assuming all air conditioning units are in use over the whole year. This drops to 1 per cent if air conditioning units are switched off when the ambient air temperature falls below 18 degrees. This simple measure could therefore result in a reduction in total fuel consumption of some two per cent across the whole country.

* The SIA standard climate model contains hourly weather data such as temperature and relative humidity over a compete year and is used by architects to calculate insulation and heating requirements for buildings.

MUNICH: Web browsers are the key to the internet. Without them the internet is an impenetrable black box.

Browsers may be among the most commonly used applications, but they also offer the greatest number of attack options for dangerous content on the net. To keep viruses, worms and other malware away from your computer when surfing, it's crucial to configure your browser for security.

The firewall on a DSL router is a good first step for protecting the computer during surfing, says Marco Rinne from the computer portal chip.de. But that doesn't hold true if your browser is out of date: “Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 no longer satisfy current security standards,” he says. For optimal protection, he therefore urges users to keep their browsers updated.

There are numerous security tools already present in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The pop-up blocker, for example, prevents more than just annoying ads. It also throttles other windows that can be used to sneak malicious software onto PCs. Phishing filters protect personal data against theft.

Firefox offers additional configuration options under the Settings item in the Security tab of the Options dialog box: this includes the ability to block risky or forged websites. It's also a good idea to prohibit websites from installing add-ons on their own. Similar settings are possible under Internet Explorer in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box, accessible from the Tools menu.

Computer owners should also activate all options for warning against attacks, advises Markus Linnemann, managing director of the Institute for Internet Security (ifis) at the Polytechnic University of Gelsenkirchen in Germany. This applies in particular to warnings about suspicious content to be displayed using ActiveX, Flash, or JavaScript.

Yet the warning mechanism on most browsers alone isn't usually enough, Linnemann says. Those who wish to be especially careful can, for example, use the Firefox add-on 'No Script,' which blocks all active content of a website by default and allows the user to decide which should be permitted. The problem is that most users are unable to determine which content represents a threat to their computer, Rinne msays.

\

A research analyst seems to have stumbled upon some knowledge about the rumoured BlackBerry tablet, and claims that it will feature a 7-inch touchscreen (the previous rumour had it pegged at a 8.9-inch screen), and a 1GHz processor, along with both back and front cameras for video chat. We’re starting to thing of Cisco’s Android 'mobile collaboration ablet", the Cius, and how it might be the biggest business competition that the BB tab might face in the future. The same analyst, an Ashok Kumar, also let on that the tablet would launch only by the end of 2010 at the earliest.

After a few leaked builds now and then, we finally get to have our hand on what we can call the 'official' Windows 7 SP1 beta. Yes, the service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is now up for testing at Microsoft TechNet site.

Apart from the hotfixes and security patches, the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 beta brings a handful of new features. The virtualization capabilities of Server 2008 R2 have been enhanced with the integration of some tools; the update also adds RemoteFX, an upcoming technology that enhances the visual capabilities of Remote Desktop clients. It also comes with a Dynamic Memory handling feature for the server edition. On the Windows 7 front, the update promises to add support for USB 3.0 and improve the performance of WiFi, Bluetooth and all other aspects of networking.

Despite being a hefty 1GB+ download, the update installs quicker than any other Windows Service Packs. You can download the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 beta from here, but it requites a technet membership for you to download.

London: TouchType has introduced a text prediction app called SwiftKey which could help the smartphone users by saving their time. It could make typing on touchscreen mobiles fifty percent faster than before. By using the language technology, the new innovation can predict the word which the user intends to type.

"The incredible technology underpinning our application completely changes the way mobile users interact with their smartphones," said Jon Reynolds, Chief Executive of TouchType. SwiftKey has language models that understand how words are combined within sentences. It adjusts itself by understanding the writing style of an individual and is available in various languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch and Swedish.
"We've analysed over 50 billion words in nine major languages to build the models that drive our prediction engine," said Ben Medlock, Chief Technical Officer,TouchType

ScienceDaily — It would make the perfect question for the popular television show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader:" What parts of the eye allow us to see? The conventional wisdom: rods and cones. The human retina contains about 120 million rods, which detect light and darkness, shape and movement, and about 7 million cones, which in addition detect color. Without them, or so we are taught, our eyesight simply would not exist. But that might not be true, according to a study -- published July 15 in the journal Neuron -- that provides new hope to people who have severe vision impairments or who are blind. A team led by biologist Samer Hattar of The Johns Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences found that mice that didn't have any rods and cones function could still see -- and not just light, but also patterns and images -- courtesy of special photosensitive cells in the rodents' retinas. Until now, it was presumed that those cells, called intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells, (or ipRGCs), didn't play a role in image formation, but instead served other functions, such as dictating when the animals went to sleep or woke up. (All mammals, including humans, have ipRGCs, as well as rods and cones.)

"Up until now, it was assumed that rods and cones were the only cells capable of detecting light to allow us to form images," said Hattar, who as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, studies mammals' sleep-wake cycles, also called "circadian rhythms." "But our study shows that even mice which were blind could form low-acuity yet measurable images, using ipRGCs. The exciting thing is that, in theory at least, this means that a blind person could be trained to use his or her ipRGCs to perform simple tasks that require low visual acuity." "Visual acuity" refers to the sharpness or clarity of a person's (or animal's) vision. Someone with so-called "20/20 vision" can see clearly at a distance of 20 feet what the "average" human being can see at that distance. In contrast, a person with "20/100" vision would have to stand 20 feet away from, for instance, an eye chart that the average person could read from 100 feet away. People with very low visual acuity (worse than "20/100" with corrective lenses) are considered "legally blind." In addition to providing hope for people with serious vision problems, Hattar's findings hint that, in the past, mammals may have used their ipRGCs for sight/image formation, but during the course of evolution, that function was somehow taken over by rods and cones. The study also concludes that, far from being homogenous, ipRGCs come in five different subtypes, with the possibility that each may have different light-detecting physiological functions.

To conduct the study, the team used a special system to genetically label cells and then "trace" them to the rodents' brains before subjecting the mice to a number of vision tests. In one, mice followed the movements of a rotating drum, a test that assessed the animals' ability to track moving objects. In another, the rodents were placed within a "Y"-shaped maze and challenged to escape by selecting the lever that would let them out. That lever was associated with a certain visual pattern. The mice that were blind -- they lacked rods, cones and ipRGCs -- couldn't find that lever. But those with only ipRGCs could. "These studies are extremely exciting to me, because they show that even a simple light-detecting system like ipRGCs has incredible diversity and may support low-acuity vision, allowing us to peer into evolution to understand how simple vision may have originally evolved before the introduction of the fancy photoreceptors rods and cones," Hattar said. Hattar's team worked on this study in collaboration with groups led by David Berson of Brown University and Glen Prusky of Weill Cornell Medical College. It was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

New research indicates that the interactions of microscopic organisms around a particular organic material may alter the chemical properties of the ocean and ultimately influence global climate by affecting cloud formation in the atmosphere. Justin Seymour, a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, is the lead author of a paper published in the July 16 issue of Science that describes how a relative of the smelly chemical that sea birds and seals use to locate prey, dimethylsulfide (DMS), may serve a similar purpose at the microbial scale, helping marine microorganisms find food and cycle chemicals that are important to

climate. "We found that ecological interactions and behavioral responses taking place within volumes of a fraction of a drop of seawater can ultimately influence important ocean chemical cycling processes," said Seymour.

Using microfluidic technology, the team of researchers led by Professor Roman Stocker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, recorded microbes swimming toward the chemical dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) as it was released into a tiny channel occupied by the microbes. The fact that the microbes actively moved toward the DMSP indicates that the tiny organisms play a role in ocean sulphur and carbon cycles, which exert a powerful influence on Earth's climate. How fast the microorganisms consume DMSP -- rather than converting it into DMS -- is important because DMS is involved in the formation of clouds in the atmosphere. This in turn affects the heat balance of the atmosphere. Seymour, Stocker, Professor Rafel Simó of the Institute for Marine Sciences in Barcelona, and MIT graduate student Tanvir Ahmed carried out the research in the MIT laboratory of Stocker, who pioneered the use of microfluidics and video microscopy in the study of ocean microbes. The new study is the first to make a visual record of microbial behaviour in the presence of DMSP.

"It's important to be able to directly look at an environment in order to understand its ecology," Stocker said. "We can now visualize the behavior of marine microorganisms much like ecologists have done with macro-organisms for a long time." To do this, the team recreated a microcosm of the ocean environment using a microfluidic device about the size of a flash drive with minuscule channels engraved in a clear rubbery material. The scientists injected DMSP into the channel in a way that mimics the bursting of an algal cell after viral infection -- a common event in the ocean -- then, using a camera attached to a microscope, they recorded whether and how microbes swam towards the chemical. The researchers found that some marine microbes, including bacteria, are attracted to DMSP because they feed on it, whereas others are drawn to the chemical because it signals the presence of prey. This challenges previous theories that this chemical might be a deterrent against predators. "Our observations clearly show that, for some plankton, DMSP acts as an attractant towards prey rather than a deterrent," said Simó, an expert on the role of DMSP in the sulfur cycle, "By simulating the microscale patches of the chemical cue and directly monitoring the swimming responses of the predators towards these patches, we get a much more accurate perception of these important ecological interactions than can be obtained from traditional bulk approaches."

"These scientists have used impressive technology to study interactions between organisms and their chemical environment at the scales they actually take place," said David Garrison, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s biological oceanography program. "The research will give us new insights on the workings of microbial assemblages in nature." The research also indicates that marine microorganisms have at least one behavioral characteristic in common with larger sea and land animals: we're all drawn to food. The team plans to extend the research from the laboratory to the ocean environment; the team is working on an experimental system that can be used on board oceanographic ships working with bacteria collected directly from the ocean.

JSW Energy, a part of the diversified Jindal Group, has earmarked an investment of Rs 8,000 crore in businesses across the power spectrum with plans to add over 2,000 MW of generation capacity in the current fiscal year. The firm, which went public last year, plans to commission its 1,200 MW plant in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri
district and a 945 MW plant in Rajasthan’s Barmer district this fiscal, JSW Energy's chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting here on Friday.

JSW Energy is also setting up plants in Chhatisgarh and West Bengal, totalling an installed capacity of 2,900 MW and expects to achieve financial closure for them this year, Jindal told reporters later.

The company will raise money for the expansion through debt and does not foresee "much difficulty" in getting it, Jindal said.

"Overall, our capex (capital expenditure) for the power sector will be around Rs 8,000 crore," he said, adding the company is concentrating on getting raw material linkages for its power plants. It is looking at acquiring assets both across the country and the globe.

"We need to have 20-million tonnes of coal in place in the next five-years. Currently, our reserves are 2-million tonnes...it's a huge task," Jindal said, adding a majority of the coal would come by acquiring assets in Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.

Francisco: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has pledged to donate the majority of his $13.5 billion fortune to charity.

Allen's pledge came just weeks after his former business partner, Bill Gates, and legendary investor Warren Buffet both called on other billionaires to commit to giving away at least half their fortunes.

"I want to announce that my philanthropic efforts will continue after my lifetime," said Allen, who has already given about $1 billion to charity over the years.

"I've planned for many years now that the majority of my estate will be left to philanthropy to continue the work of the foundation and fund non-profit scientific research."

"As our philanthropy continues in the years ahead, we will look for new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of future generations," said Allen, 57, in the statement.

Allen is the 37th richest man in the world, with $13.5 billion in assets, according to Forbes magazine. He founded Microsoft together with Gates in 1975 and left the company in 1983.

Allen was diagnosed in November with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and began chemotherapy.

"Paul has finished his treatments and as of now has no current medical issues," said David Postman, a spokesman for Vulcan Inc, Allen's investment group

," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Senate Republicans have blocked at least three Democratic initiatives to extend unemployment insurance, citing the need to curb government spending amid a record budget deficit.

"Think about what these stalling tactics mean for the millions of Americans who've lost their jobs since the recession began. Over the past several weeks, more than two million of them have seen their unemployment insurance expire," the president said.

Obama has made job creation his top domestic priority and has traveled repeatedly to the U.S. heartland to tout policies that lift hiring, including to Holland, Michigan, on Thursday for the groundbreaking of an electric car battery factory that has received federal dollars.

U.S. growth has resumed after the worst recession in decades, thanks in part to a $862 billion stimulus plan Obama signed last year.

But this recovery has been slow to produce new jobs, and his Democrats risk punishment by voters in congressional elections on November 2 unless he can start to curb unemployment now running at 9.5 percent.

Time is running out. A recent poll showed confidence in Obama's economic stewardship has flagged, and Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives in November. All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs, as well as 36 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate.

Frustratingly for the White House, its proposals to extend unemployment insurance, cut capital gains taxes on investments and set up a fund to boost lending to small businesses have been repeatedly blocked on Capitol Hill.

How did Leonardo Da Vinci manage to paint such perfect faces? For the first time, a quantitative chemical analysis done on seven paintings from the Louvre Museum of France, without disturbing any samples, explains why.
Da Vinci's paintings fascinate, partly due to a range of subtle optical effects that blur outlines, soften transitions and blend shadows, reports the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.Known as "sfumato", this technique is not only the result of the genius of the artist but also of technical innovations at the beginning of the 16th century.
Scientists used a technique called X-ray fluorescence, to determine the composition and thickness of each layer in the paintings (including Mona Lisa's) of Da Vinci, made through the 40 years of his career.
scientists have also found different recipes used by Da Vinci to do the shadows on the faces, according to a Laboratoire du Centre de Recherche statement.

These recipes are characterised by a technique (the use of glaze layers or a very thin paint) and by the nature of the pigments or additives.

In the case of glazes, thin layers of one to two micrometres (a micrometre is a millionth of a metre) were applied to obtain a total thickness of no more than 30 to 40 micrometres.

The study was led by the team of Philippe Walter, Laboratoire du Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Mus?es de France, in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the support of Louvre Museum.

New Delhi: After a collaboration for setting up the Indian Institute of Technology at Hyderabad (IIT-H), India and Japan are now starting a joint research venture to promote educational tie-ups.

According to the Japanese embassy, a five-year joint research project for 'Information Network for Natural Disaster Mitigation and Recovery' will be launched Sunday.

"The main objective is strengthening research collaboration between India and Japan in the field of natural disaster prevention and information and communication technology," said a statement from the Japanese embassy.

The project is designed to establish infrastructure for continuous data collection on earthquake and weather. It will also develop technical base for rescue and support for restoration and disaster recovery.

"The IIT-H will be a part of several Indian institutes that are forging tie-ups with Japanese educational institutions," the statement said.

ScienceDaily — What can a wide-eyed, talking robot teach us about trust?
A lot, according to Northeastern psychology professor David DeSteno, and his colleagues, who are conducting innovative research to determine how humans decide to trust strangers -- and if those decisions are accurate.

The interdisciplinary research project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is being conducted in collaboration with Cynthia Breazeal, director of the MIT Media Lab's Personal Robots Group, Robert Frank, an economist, and David Pizarro, a psychologist, both from Cornell.

The researchers are examining whether nonverbal cues and gestures could affect our trustworthiness judgments. "People tend to mimic each other's body language," said DeSteno, "which might help them develop intuitions about what other people are feeling -- intuitions about whether they'll treat them fairly."

This project tests their theories by having humans interact with the social robot, Nexi, in an attempt to judge her trustworthiness. Unbeknownst to participants, Nexi has been programmed to make gestures while speaking with selected participants -- gestures that the team hypothesizes could determine whether or not she's deemed trustworthy.

"Using a humanoid robot whose every expression and gesture we can control will allow us to better identify the exact cues and psychological processes that underlie humans' ability to accurately predict if a stranger is trustworthy," said DeSteno.

During the first part of the experiment, Nexi makes small talk with her human counterpart for 10 minutes, asking and answering questions about topics such as traveling, where they are from and what they like most about living in Boston.

"The goal was to simulate a normal conversation with accompanying movements to see what the mind would intuitively glean about the trustworthiness of another," said DeSteno.

The participants then play an economic game called "Give Some," which asks them to determine how much money Nexi might give them at the expense of her individual profit. Simultaneously, they decide how much, if any, they'll give to Nexi. The rules of the game allow for two distinct outcomes: higher individual profit for one and loss for the other, or relatively smaller and equal profits for both partners.

"Trust might not be determined by one isolated gesture, but rather a 'dance' that happens between the strangers, which leads them to trust or not trust the other," said DeSteno, who, with his colleagues, will continue testing their theories by seeing if Nexi can be taught to predict the trustworthiness of human partners

Sriharikota: Five satellites, including the advanced high resolution cartography satellite Cartosat-2B, were placed in orbit today after India's space agency ISRO successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from here.

"I am extremely happy to say PSLV 16 was a successful flight. All the satellites were injected precisely," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said.

ISRO's 230 tonne PSLV - standing 44 metres tall - soared towards the heavens from the spaceport here, about 80 km north of Chennai. The five satellites together weigh 819 kg.

Apart from its main cargo - the Cartosat-2B weighing 694 kg - the other satellites that the rocket put into orbit are the Algerian remote sensing satellite Alsat-2A (116 kg), two nano satellites (NLS 6.1 AISSAT-1 weighing 6.5 kg built by the University of Toronto, Canada and one kg NLS 6.2 TISAT built by University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland) and STUDSAT, a pico satellite weighing less than one kg, built jointly by students of seven engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Twenty minutes after blast off, the rocket first released the Cartosat-2B followed by Alsat-2A and the three small satellites.

This was the first successful launch after Radhakrishnan took over as ISRO chairman last year.

"Two more launches are planned in three months time. One will be PSLV and another will GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle)," he said.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was present at the launch, congratulated the ISRO scientists on the "perfect launch" and said: "ISRO makes the country proud."

Immediately after the ejection of the satellites, the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command) Network of stations there and at Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard in Sweden monitored their health. ISRO officials had some anxious moments in the run up to the launch.

Originally scheduled for launch May 9, ISRO decided to postpone it as it found "a marginal drop in the pressure in the second stage of the vehicle during mandatory checks" due to a faulty valve. At that time, the rocket was almost ready except for the loading of the satellites.

The rocket had to be dismantled to replace the faulty valve. The problem persisted even after the valve replacement here and ISRO sent the second stage (engine and other systems) back to its assembly centre to be dealt with.

Built to last for five years, the Rs.200 crore Cartosat-2B is India's 17th remote sensing satellite. It will augment ISRO's remote sensing data services along with the Cartosat-2 and 2A launched earlier.

The satellite's imagery can be used for preparation of detailed forest type maps, tree volume estimation, village/cadastral level crop inventory, town/village settlement mapping and planning for development, rural connectivity, canal alignment, coastal land form, mining monitoring and others.

"With the launch of Cartosat-2B, ISRO will have 10 remote sensing satellites in orbit - IRS 1D, Resourcesat 1, TES, Cartosat 1, 2 and 2A, IMS 1, RISAT-2, Oceansat 1 and 2," S. Satish, ISRO director (publications and public relations), told IANS.

India is a world leader in the remote sensing data market and earns a sizeable amount.

"The other remote sensing satellites that are slated for launch are RISAT (late 2010 or early 2011), Resourcesat and Megha-Tropiques," Satish added.

Indian Government has instructed the Department of Telcommunication to send notices to RIM, Skype, and Google to grant access to all communications that take place over their networks. Within 15 days, each of these companies will be required to open all the data, so that it can be read by the security and intelligence agencies. Else.....

It looks like we might join the Chinese and lay traditional marigold garlands on Google India Headquarters as the Government might ban these companies if they fail to comply. Although, taking into account the recent terrorist attacks, the Government's stance is justified to an extent. However, we feel that such negotiations must take place in the background. On the other hand, once in hands of Government officials, it wouldn't be surprising if one can get all your mail and data for a bunch of green notes. None of these companies has responded to the notices as of yet.

ScienceDaily — Researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Sheffield have applied computing power to crack a problem in egg shell formation. The work may also give a partial answer to the age old question "what came first the chicken or the egg?"
The answer to the question in this context is "chicken" or -- at least a particular chicken protein. There is however a further twist in that this particular chicken protein turns out to come both first and last. That neat trick it performs provides new insights into control of crystal growth which is key to egg shell production.

Researchers had long known that a chicken eggshell protein called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) must play some role in egg shell formation. The protein is found only in the mineral region of the egg (the hard part of the shell) and lab bench results showed that it appeared to influence the transformation of amorphous calcium carbonate (CaCo3) into calcite crystals. The mechanism of this control remained unclear. How this process could be used to form an actual eggshell remained unclear.

University of Warwick researchers Mark Rodger and David Quigley, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sheffield, have now been able to apply a powerful computing tool called metadynamics and the UK national supercomputer in Edinburgh to crack this egg problem.

Dr David Quigley from the Department of Physics and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, said: "Metadynamics extends conventional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and is particularly good at sampling transitions between disordered and ordered states of matter."

Using these tools The Warwick and Sheffield researchers were able to create simulations that showed exactly how the protein bound to amorphous calcium carbonate surface using two clusters of "arginine residues," located on two loops of the protein and creating a literal chemical "clamp" to nano sized particles of calcium carbonate.

While clamped in this way, the OC-17 encourages the nanoparticles of calcium carbonate to transform into "calcite crystallites" that form the tiny of nucleus of crystals that can continue to grow on their own. But they also noticed that sometimes this chemical clamp didn't work. The OC-17 just seemed to detatch from the nanoparticle or "be desorbed."

Professor Mark Rodger from Department of Chemistry and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, said "With the larger nanoparticles we examined we found that the binding sites for this chemical clamp were the same as the smaller nanoparticles but the binding was much weaker. In the simulations we performed, the protein never desorbed from the smaller nanoparticle, but always fell off or desorbed from the larger one. However In each case, desorption occurred at or after nucleation of calcite."

The researchers had therefore uncovered an incredibly elegant process allowing highly efficient recycling of the OC-17 protein. Effectively it acts as a catalyst, clamping on to calcium carbonate particles to kickstart crystal formation and then dropping off when the crystal nucleus is sufficiently large to grow under its own steam. This frees up the OC-17 to promote more yet more crystallisation, facilitating the speedy, literally overnight creation of an egg shell.

The researchers believe that this new insight into the elegant and highly efficient methods of promoting and controlling crystallisation in nature will be of great benefit to anyone exploring how to promote and control artificial forms of crystallisation.

Bangalore: Nokia has unveiled its latest handset, Nokia C5, for the Indian market. It comes with the price tag of Rs. 7999. The C5 comes with features like a 3.15 MP camera, 3G connectivity and a 2.2 inch wide color display screen. The phone has an expandable memory up to 16GB . It operates on Symbian S60v3 and also supports OVI map, which is huge navigation application for the mobile devices. For connectivity purposes, Nokia C5 supports USB, Wi-Fi Bluetooth, onboard FM Radio and pre-installed Java. The new phone's vital feature entails Nokia Messaging and undemanding renovation of silhouette on Facebook.
Along with the Nokia Messaging attributes, addicts can approach mails from Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail on the new mobile.
Also users can get the access of mail version from Ovi mail for entree' mails on this new handset. C5 clientele can also update their contour on the social networking site Facebook effortlessly and can check position of the profile of their colleagues and friends on this handset. Further the additional feature in this phone is that it crafts chatting swifter and simple as the Nokia C5 has entrenched Google Talk and Windows Messenger. It remains to be seen how well the consumer takes to the product considering the pricing and features the C5 has to offer.

New Delhi: Even as the World Cup held people in thrall, an 18-year-old Delhi boy is hoping his home-built robots would be able to show off their football skills at a world championship called Robosoccer to be held September 15 to 19 in Bangalore.

Diwaker Vaish is busy fine-tuning his three humanoid robots that will participate in the event to be hosted by the Federation of International Robosoccer Association (FIRA) from Sep 15-19 in Bangalore.
He is now programming the three soccer robots -- a goalkeeper, a defender and an attacker -- for the robot soccer tournament.

A Class 12 pass out, Diwaker said: "For the first time, the event will be held in India. I hope my three specially designed soccer robots will play in the tournament. I have finished the physical structure of one robot, I will finish the other two in another week, while programming for all the three would be done simultaneously. I hope my robots will win the world cup as they have unique features." For this, Diwaker has already built a prototype - Isotope.

With an Atmel processor as brain, 25 brackets forming the skeleton and 16 servos in place of muscles, Isotope can walk, dance and stand on one leg and even dance to bhangra beats!

"With additional high-power servos (they are muscle-like parts that help a robot move like a human being), the newly-developed soccer robots are more stable. They won't fall even if you push them with force."

Diwaker, who has taken a break from his studies to follow his passion, say Isotope took seven months to create.

Now, he is confident that he can finish work on the soccer robots by August as he already knows the nuances of robot-making.

Talking about Isotope, he said, "With advanced artificial intelligence techniques, Isotope will be able to take instructions in both Hindi and English."

But will these skill sets be enough for a robot to take on its rivals on the mini-soccer field?

"No, competing with robotic experts from Korea, Japan, Czech Republic etc is not a joke. My soccer robots are much more advanced and efficient than my first humanoid robot."

Diwaker is being sponsored by A-Set (Advanced School of Engineering and Technology), a private computer institution in Delhi.

A gadget freak, Diwaker got interested in robotics after his first creation, a racing boat, won the first prize in Quanta in Lucknow in November 2009.

His boat finished the race in 18 seconds and won the competition in which students from 40 countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Russia and the Czech Republic, participated.

Speaking about her son's skills, Maya Vaish said, "We have spent around Rs.4 lakh for procuring tools and material to build the robot. Initially, his father (Uday Kumar Vaish) who is into computer networking business, was apprehensive. But later we considered it as an investment in our child's development."

"Right from childhood, Diwaker has been very creative. When he was in Class 6, he burnt down our refrigerator as he wanted to check how long a candle will remain lit inside the freezer," she said.

Diwaker studied in Bal Bharati Public school in Rajendra Nagar and scored 72 percent in Class 12. But he feels that the education system in India offers little scope for robotics.

"I learned the basics of robotics from the Internet. In counties like Japan, Korea and the United States, a school student coming up with a robot is very common. But in India only IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) students take up projects on robotics. Awareness on robotics and its possibilities are very few here," Diwaker said.

New Delhi: Transcend Information, a manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, has come up with a new e-commerce initiative, launching its Indian online shop in association with Supertron Electronics, its India distributor. Transcend's portal www.transcend.co.in will lead the customers to www.supertrontranscend.com, which will provide customers specifications of the products, along with the price.


The company has already established its presence on social networking platforms like Facebook in order to connect with its Indian customers better.

Austin Huang, Director - Sales, Transcend Asia, said, "Customers can take a look at the exhaustive range of Transcend products available in varying capacities, colors and form factors; study the specifications in order to compare; order and pay for selected products online; track their orders; download drivers etc., on this shopping portal."

The products made available in the portal include Transcend's MP3 players, USB flash drives, digital photo frames, USB external hard drives, solid state drives and peripherals like CD/DVD burners and card readers. For shopping worth Rs. 5000 or more, the shipping is offered free of cost to the customers, said Huang.

Transcend wishes to connect with its customers especially in the younger age group who are generally very net savvy. Along with the launch, the company has also announced an online event, a Speeding Racing game, offering prizes for those who take an attempt at the game till July 30, 2010.

Transcend has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan and China, and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China.

ScienceDaily — An international team of geoscientists has uncovered geological differences between two segments of an earthquake fault that may explain why the 2004 Sumatra Boxing Day Tsunami was so much more devastating than a second earthquake generated tsunami three months later. This could help solve what was a lingering mystery for earthquake researchers. The quakes were caused by ruptures on adjacent segments of the same fault. One key difference was that the southern part of the fault that ruptured in 2004, producing the larger quake and tsunami, appears bright on subsurface seismic images possibly explained by a lower density fault zone than the surrounding sediments. In the 2005 segment of the fault, there was no evidence for such a low-density fault zone. This and several other differences resulted in the fault slipping over a much longer segment and reaching much closer to the seafloor in the first quake. Because tsunami waves are generated by the motion of the seafloor, a quake that moves more seafloor creates larger tsunamis.

Early in the morning of Dec. 26, 2004 a powerful undersea earthquake started off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia and extended about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) to the north. The resulting tsunami caused devastation along the coastlines bordering the Indian Ocean, with tsunami waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high inundating coastal communities. With very little warning of impending disaster, more than 230,000 people died and millions were made homeless. Three months later in 2005, another strong earthquake (although significantly smaller than in 2004) occurred immediately to the south, but triggered only a relatively small tsunami that claimed far fewer lives.

A team of researchers from The University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, The University of Texas at Austin, The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology in Indonesia and The Indonesia Institute for Sciences has discovered one clue as to why the two earthquakes were so different. Working aboard the research vessel Sonne, the scientists used seismic instruments to probe layers of sediment beneath the seafloor with sound waves. They discovered a number of unusual features at the rupture zone of the 2004 earthquake such as the seabed topography, how the sediments are deformed and the locations of small earthquakes (aftershocks) following the main earthquake.

They found the southern end of the 2004 rupture zone was unique in one other key way. To understand that requires a little background on how and why earthquakes happen there at all. The largest undersea earthquakes occur at subduction zones, such as the one west of Indonesia, where one tectonic plate is forced (or subducts) under another. This subduction doesn't happen smoothly however, but sticks and then slips or ruptures with the release of vast amounts of stored energy as an earthquake. The plate boundary between the overriding Sumatran and Andaman islands and the subducting Indian Ocean sticks and slips in segments. This kind of plate boundary is called a décollement and is a very shallow fault running from beneath the trench to under the islands.

The researchers found that the décollement surface has different properties in the two earthquake rupture regions. In the 2004 area, the décollement was seismically imaged from the ship as a bright reflection whose specifics suggest lower density materials that would affect friction. In the 2005 area the décollement does not show these particular characteristics and thus would behave differently in an earthquake. This and several other differences resulted in the fault slipping over a much longer segment in 2004 and reaching much closer to the seafloor, potentially causing a larger tsunami. The results of their study appear in the July 9 edition of the journal Science. The paper's lead author is Simon Dean, of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science, which is based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOC).

"Both earthquakes occurred on the same fault system, initiating 30-40 kilometers below the seabed," said Dean. "Our results will help us understand why different parts of the fault behave differently during earthquake slip which then influences tsunami generation. This is critical for adequate hazard assessment and mitigation."By comparing these results with other subduction zones around the world, the research team believes the region of the 2004 Sumatra earthquake is very unusual, suggesting that tsunami hazards may be particularly high in this region.

"By understanding parameters that make a particular region more hazardous in terms of earthquakes and tsunami we can speak to potential hazards of other margins," said Sean Gulick, a research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics. "We need to examine what limits the size of earthquakes and what properties contribute to tsunami formation." The fact that the 2004 and 2005 source areas were different is good news. Had the two fault segments ruptured together, the resulting earthquake would have been about a magnitude 9.3 instead of 9.2. Because the earthquake magnitude scale is logarithmic, an increase in 0.1 translates to about a third more energy released. To put that in perspective, the first event had the explosive force of 1.8 trillion kilograms of TNT. Adding the second segment, the resulting earthquake would equal 2.4 trillion kilograms of TNT.

Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council. The researchers are Dean, Lisa McNeill, Timothy Henstock and Jonathan Bull (University of Southampton, NOC), Gulick, James Austin Jr. and Nathan Bangs (University of Texas at Austin), Yusuf Djajadihardja (Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, Indonesia), and Haryadi Permana (Indonesia Institute for Sciences).

WASHINGTON: US National Security Adviser Gen (Retd) James Jones will travel to India next week to lay the groundwork for President Barack Obama's successful visit in November, the White House has said. During his three-day trip following the invitation of his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon, Jones will have discussions on a full range of strategic partnership being developed between the two countries. Jones will be visiting New Delhi from July 14 to 16 after travelling to Paris and Brussels during his trip that begins tomorrow.

"During his visit to New Delhi, the General will meet with National Security Adviser Menon and other senior Indian officials to discuss a full range of subjects key to the strategic partnership we are developing with India, including counter-terrorism cooperation, regional security, defence cooperation and export controls," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said. "General Jones will also have an opportunity begin laying the groundwork for a successful visit by President Obama to India in November," Hammer said in a statement issued yesterday.

Obama is scheduled to visit India from November 7 to 10, a senior US administration official said, adding that the First Lady would also travel with the President to New Delhi. "I look forward to advancing our partnership, to experiencing all that India and its people and its incredible ancient culture have to offer," Obama had said on June 3 at a reception hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in honour of India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. In an interview, General Jones had said the Indo-US strategic dialogue is taking the relationship to unprecedented levels of cooperation between the two countries.

"India is on a path of ascendancy. It is destined to be a nation of global influence. It is extremely important that in the globe that countries like India and United States when they can have a national affinity for one another as expressed by the strong friendship that exists between in respect that exists between the two heads of State that this relationship can grow," Jones had said. Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have laid out a strategic approach that is based on long term commitment and not just short term self-interest, in America's case the presence in the region, he had said.

"We have worked very hard to be mutually transparent in how we see things and there is a certain honesty and vibrancy about the relationship - it is frankly very pleasurable, it is open, it is honest, we have tried very hard to keep our Indian colleagues fully appraised of our strategy in Afghanistan, why we are there, what we hope to achieve, how we achieve," the senior official had said.

NEW DELHI: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is just a step away from realising her goal of becoming the world's numero uno player as she jumped one place to a career-best second in the latest international rankings.

"I am very happy to achieve the world number two so soon in my career. The last three wins have really helped me. It is a great feeling but I feel my priority still will be to win more tournaments for India rather than focussing on ranking," Saina said.

"It will be difficult to hold on to the ranking but I hope to continue my hard work and win more titles and become the number one player soon," said the Hyderabadi shuttler, who is down with fever and cold.

The 20-year-old Saina made a meteoric rise following her back-to-back title triumphs at the India Open Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Super Series, reaching the world number three last month.

And after the Indian defended her Indonesian Open Super Series crown to complete her hat-trick of titles, it was just a matter of time that she jumped to the second place.

By virtue of the consecutive title wins, Saina now has 64791.2637 points and is just behind Chinese Yihan Wang, while Xin Wang of China is in the third place.

Saina's father Harvir Singh also expressed happiness and hoped her daughter can continue her good work for the country.

"God has been kind. It is a marvellous achievement. I hope she can continue to work hard and win more laurels for the country," Harvir Singh said.

In March, Saina had attained the fifth position after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the prestigious All England Super Series Championships.

However, she dropped to the sixth position in the subsequent weeks.

Saina's next engagement will be in the World badminton Championship in Paris next month, before playing the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

In the men's ranking, the Indian trio of Chetan Anand, P Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt were at 15th, 25th and 27th spot respectively, while mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju were static at the seventh place.

NEW DELHI: The Indian rupee will have its own symbol, a mix of the Devanagri 'Ra' and Roman 'R', to become the fifth currency in the world to have a distinct identity.

The new symbol, designed by IIT post-graduate D Uday Kumar was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday.

The rupee will join the elite club of US dollar, British pound-sterling, Euro and Japanese yen to have its own symbol.

The symbol will be printed or embossed on currency notes or coins, information and broadcasting minister told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Kumar's entry was chosen from among 3,000 designs competing for the currency symbol. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakhs.

Soni said the government will try that the symbol is adopted within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months.

The symbol will feature on computer key boards and softwares so that it can be printed and displayed in electronic and print, she said.

Soni said it would also help in distinguishing the Indian currency from rupee or rupiah of countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The decision to have a symbol for the Indian rupee was taken by the government last year. The finance ministry wanted the symbol to represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country and called for entries from the public.

Mumbai: Dr. Tathagat Avatar Tulsi, a Patna-born child prodigy, becomes the youngest professor at Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay at the age of 22. He is set to join as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics from next week.

He had completed his high school at the age of nine, earned his BSc degree at 10 and M.Sc at the age of 12. At the age of 21, Tulsi completed his doctorate in Quantum Computing from Indian Institute of Science.
The young professor, who has never studied in a classroom, plans to ask his students how they would want to be taught. "I have never taught in a class. But I believe I can come down to the level of a student and help them understand the subject," he said. When asked about his future plans, he said "I want to pursue my research and at IIT-B, I will have the leisure to continue my research and one day set up a lab focused on quantum computation in our country."

Dr. Tulsi had to turn down offers from Waterloo University in Canada and the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Bhopal to come and teach at IIT-B.

In 2003, the prestigious Time magazine named him among the world's seven most gifted youngsters, though he went into a shell after an international delegation called him a fake prodigy in 2001. Tulsi said he is going to write to the Limca Book of Records to include him as the youngest faculty member in the country

Reuters - India's wholesale price inflation could come down to 5 percent to 6 percent by December, but price pressures in the economy may prompt the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to resort to tightening through unpredictable moves, a top government official said on Tuesday.

"By November, if market arrivals are significantly larger than last year, you should see a dampening of the rate of inflation," Chief Statistician T.C.A. Anant told Reuters in an interview.

He also said latest headline inflation numbers suggest that "slight dampening" was taking place.

June inflation data is due on Wednesday.

According to a Reuters' poll, headline inflation in June probably rose 10.8 percent from a year earlier, faster than a 10.16 percent rise in May.

Anant also said that monetary policy works best through an element of unpredictability and he would not be surprised if there is no rate hike in the scheduled July 27 monetary policy review

WASHINGTON: Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the record of the longest spaceflight (195 days) for female space travellers, will head for the stars once again in June 2012.

Williams, 44, would take over as station commander at the International Space Station that was her home in the sky from Dec 9, 2006 to June 22, 2007.


She will be joined on the Soyuz 31 flight to the space station by flight engineers Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, the space agencies of the three nations announced Friday.

Daughter of Gujarat born neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya and Slovak mother Bonnie Pandya, Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, but considers Needham, Massachusetts where her parents live as her hometown.

After launching aboard Discovery, Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. Fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham cut her hair aboard the International Space Station and the Discovery crew brought the ponytail back to earth.

Among the personal items Williams took with her on her last trip were a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a small figurine of Ganesha and some samosas. The question is what would she carry this time around.

Mumbai: The boards of two energy firms belonging to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) -- one in the business of generating power and the other that trades and transports oil and gas -- Sunday approved their merger in a $11-billion all-stock deal.


"The board of directors of Reliance Power and Reliance Natural Resources today approved a scheme of amalgamation of the two companies in an over Rs.50,000 crore ($11 billion) all stock deal," said an ADAG statement.


The board also approved the conversion rate of four shares of Reliance Natural for every Reliance Power share. The exchange ratio was based on the valuation by global consultancy firm KPMG.

The proposed scheme is subject to approvals of the shareholders of the the two companies, the stock exchanges and the Bombay High Court, among other statutory requisites and permissions.


The group said the deal would bring "substantial benefits" to the shareholders of both the companies, as it would expedite a gas supply agreement with Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries.


The merger, thereby, will accelerate Reliance Power's plans to set up gas based power plants of over 8,000 mw capacity. Also, shareholders will gain from four coal bed methane blocks of Reliance Natural Resources and a 10 percent share in an oil and gas block in Mizoram.

Among other benefits that will accrue to the shareholders of the companies, the statement said, the merged entity will see cost efficiency for fuel supplies through Reliance Natural's coal supply logistics and shipping business.


Post the approval of the merger, Reliance Power's net worth will swell to over Rs.16,000 crore, having added around net worth of around Rs.1,900 crore o Reliance Natural.


The two companies had a market capitalisation of Rs.10,394 crore and Rs.41,979 crore respectively at closing bell Friday.

In fact, according to the statement, 80 percent of the shareholder of Reliance Natural Resources shareholders, also hold equity in Reliance Power, and had got their stake free of cost when the original Reliance empire was split.


"Reliance Natural Resources shareholders will benefit from the proposed amalgamation by participating in future growth prospects of Reliance Power's diversified generation portfolio of 37,000 mw," said the statement.


The group also has substantial coal reserves in India and abroad. Among Reliance Power projects are three ultra-mega power plants at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Tilaiya in Jharkhand and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

"Reliance Power will have over 6 million shareholders, the world's largest shareholding family, upon completion of the deal."

Mumbai: Indian drug maker Lupin has become one of the top five generic drug companies operating in the U.S. market in terms of number of prescriptions. This is a first among Indian generic companies selling drugs in the US, the largest market in the world, writes P B Jayakumar of Business Standard.

Lupin is now behind Teva Pharma of Israel, Mylan Labs, Novartis and Watson Pharma. It had an average of a little over 8.4 million prescriptions a month in year between May 2009 and April 2010, said IMS, a global market research agency that tracks drug prescription sales in the US market.


In the previous year, Lupin had moved into the top 10 rankings at eighth position. Three Indian companies - Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Zydus Cadila and Aurobindo - are among the top 15 companies in the U.S. market, at 11, 12 and 13th positions, respectively. Glenmark (rank 18), Ranbaxy Laboratories (20), Sun Pharma (25) and Torrent (26) are the other Indian drug makers among the top 30 players in the U.S. generic business, said the data.

However, the journey further up the ladder will be tough for Lupin, as Watson Pharma, ranked fourth in the list, generates more than double the number of prescriptions for Lupin. Lupin's largest market, the U.S., had grown by about 38 percent in 2009-10 to Rs. 1,789 crore, of a total revenue of Rs. 4,740.5 crore. In March and April this year, Lupin had over a million prescriptions in the U.S. market.

"We are happy that we could achieve our target of breaking into the top five position a few years before we targeted to reach that milestone. We could achieve it in just five years, in a market dominated by players like Teva and Mylan which are there for the last two decades," Nilesh Gupta, executive director of Lupin, told Business Standard.

Lupin had filed a record 37 product registration filings and 19 bulk drug or raw material registration filings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during 2009-10.