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New Indoor Electric Grill!

Priyanka — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:43:38 +0000

This Grill by All-Clad, is made of stainless steel offering a precision temperature setting of 180Â°F to 480Â°F. The grilling surfaces of cast aluminum ensure unrivaled heat transfer! The two different grilling pads of 20″ by 13″ each which are controlled separately see that your steak and bread are grilled at the same time.
As any Williams-Sonoma exclusive product it is dishwasher and cleaning friendly for a price of $299.95.

Oldest Parrot Fossil Found

Priyanka — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:07:18 +0000

News about the fossil of an unknown parrot found on Denmark’s Island. It was named Danish Blue.

CAPS: A '4D' Model of our Ionosphere

Priyanka — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:32:49 +0000

NASA-funded researchers have just released CAPS, which is short for Communication Alert and Prediction System.
This system enables that anyone with internet access can get a model of the Earth’s Ionosphere live!!

The display on Google Earth is as seen below,

The Ionosphere is the gas body that surrounds our planet from 50 miles onwards, protecting us from the harsh environs of space and the Solar Wind.

The solar wind mainly comprises of ions, electrons, UV rays and X-rays which ionise gas molecules into a haze of electrons and ions. Strong solar winds lead to a greater ionisation of our upper atmospheric gases which wreak havoc to many of our systems including communications.
Thus the ionospheric climate plays a huge role in radio transmission, flight systems, scientific experiments, satellite communications etc..

Now this information is so easily available that you can check it out by following the simple steps given below,

Download and install Google Earth

Go here and click ‘Total Electron Content’

This data can be especially helpful for pilots flying across the pole, because the plane cannot contact most geosynchronous satellites in this area so it relies solely on radio transmission for communications.

In this 4D model, the fourth dimension is time since the information is real-time i.e. it is information updated every 10 minutes. This system also enables forecasting, thus making it unique and extremely useful.

The 4D model can be fun and even a little addictive, warns W. Kent Tobiska, president of Space Environment Technologies, who likes to use it to pilot an imaginary plane over the Arctic.

The main contributing partners to this system have been Space Environment Technologies Inc., California, Space Environment Corp., Utah and US Air Force.

Source : Nasa

Sand Santa at Puri Beach

Priyanka — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 00:40:37 +0000

Internationally renowned sand sculptor, winner of the 1st prize at the 3rd Berlin International Sand Sculpture Competition, 2005, Sudarshan Pattnaik has made a Christmas sculpture at Puri Beach in Orissa on Christmas Eve.

This is a 100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 15 feet high sculpture of Santa Claus on the beach.

The reason for choosing Santa as his model was simply due to the large tourist influx at the beach. And indeed it was a very pleasant surprise for the foreigners in the city.

100 labourers and 17 budding artists worked 40 non-stop hours with 1,000 tonnes of sand in order to complete this sculpture. It is one of its kind in the world and hopefully will claim a place in the Limca Book of World Records.

Sudarshan said

“I am sure that this must be the longest sand sculpture to have been made in India”

This sand Santa will be at the Puri beach for people to see until New Years.

Via: The Hindu, NDTV

Kabir Khan's "Kabul Express":Releasing this Friday

Priyanka — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:30:05 +0000

Kabir Khan’s directorial debut “Kabul Express” is all set to release this Friday.
This is a story about five people brought together and enmeshed in life threatening situations in war-torn Afghanistan.
John Abraham and Arshad Warsi are playing the role of two Indian journalists who are looking to interview a taliban leader. However due to the American attack the taliban are busy fleeing the country.
After having many adventures with their guide, this trio find themselves kidnapped by a Pakistani soldier who had aided the taliban. Soon an American photojournalist acted by Linda Arsenio also finds herself at the hands of the Pakistani kidnapper.
Thus on their way to the Pakistani border, this group of five face many situations which changes their sentiments towards each other to the extent that the journalists help the Pakistani to get to the border.
The end however has a surprise for all of them and also for us.
This movie is mainly about the 48-hour journey of the five towards the Pakistani border on a Toyota Jeep called ‘Kabul Express’.
Kabir Khan has shot many documentaries. This movie is scripted from his experiences in post 9/11 Afghanistan.
It is a Yash Raj Film.

Ref: Rediff

Source: India Buzz

Elusive Particle Discovered

Priyanka — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:49:33 +0000

Piyare Jain, a University of Buffalo physicist and Gurmukh Singh a fellow researcher succeeded in finding the controversial no-charge particle ‘axion’.
Its existence was first suggested by Prof. Jain in a paper in 1974. It was a widely accepted theory in the 1970’s however, after a long and fruitless search for this elusive particle, theorists started doubting its existence and it was labeled as ‘phantom’.
This axion has a mass of 6-20 MeV and a life span of about 10^(-13) seconds. According to Jain the axion was undetected even at the CERES experiment at CERN, Geneva - the world’s largest particle physics laboratory - because of its very short life span.
He then used a visual detector, which would act as the target and the detector in the experiment. At very high temperature and pressure using a lead beam at 160 A GeV, axion particles were finally detected.
These particles are crucial to Quantum Chromodynamics and recently are considered to be leading constituents of dark matter.

Ref: PhysOrg, Axion and Dark Matter, Official paper

Source: Slashdot

Beer to Art

Priyanka — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:34:25 +0000

So what do you do after you finish a cool can of beer? Probably crumple up the can with out paying a thought to it, but there are many that have come up with some really innovative uses for beer cans.
John Milkovisch transformed his suburban Houstan home to what is now termed as the beer can house.

Below are other pictures of Art items made by using beer cans.

In fact there is even a Beer Can Museum in East Taunton, Massachusetts.

Ref: Beer Can Museum-Wikipedia
Beer Can House

Source: Nonk

Gibson's "Apocalypto" To Bring Mayan Civilization to Cinema

Priyanka — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:34:27 +0000

Mel Gibson’s latest movie - “Apocalypto” - is all set to introduce a hitherto unseen world to the cinema audiences. It is an epic on the decline of the Ancient Mayan Civilization.
Spending months in the rainforests of Mexico, a spectacular set of this great culture has been created with the signature Mayan pyramids and temples.
Reviews of this movie have been very good. Rolling Stone magazine described Apocalypto as “breathtaking to watch”.
Considering the Mayan tradition of human sacrifices shown in the movie, blood and gore is very much a part of it.
The story is actually about Jaguar Paw, whose village of traditional hunters is brutally invaded by the Mayans and he is captured by them to be sacrificed to appease the gods. Strengthened by everything he cherished, he then makes a run, and his greatest enemy is not any Mayan but his own fear.
As in Gibson’s last film “The Passion of Christ” characters are speaking an unknown language, this time Yucatec.
Jaguar Paw is being played by debutant Rudy Youndblood.
Definitely a movie to look forward to, not for the blood shy.

Ref: Apocalypto

Source: BBC News

'Flytech Dragonfly' On the Way

Priyanka — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:05:05 +0000

Wowwee makers of the award winning tech toy RoboSapien, are now venturing into a ‘Flytech Dragonfly’.
Wowwee claims it to be the world’s first radio-controlled flying insect.

Like a dragonfly the toy flaps its wings to fly. It also has a rear propeller like in helicopters.
The power is provided by an internal battery, which must be recharged after every 10 minutes of flying.

The flight controls include a beginner and an expert level.

Over all the gadget is pretty crash proof due to its ‘high flex’ design.
Since it is right now just an application to the FCC, price and availability details are not out.

Ref: Engadget.com, Wowwee, Robocommunity

Source: Crave

The Next Great Pyramid Intrusion

Priyanka — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 01:32:52 +0000

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Pyramid of Cheops is also the largest pyramid of Egypt. This pyramid has been the cause of great controversy and curiosity.
The investigation of this pyramid began with robbers looking for treasure, sophisticated scientific means were used only around the 1700’s. After all these decades, much is yet to be learned about this massive monument to death.
One of the chambers of the pyramid, where Cheops empty sarcophagus was found - The Kings Chamber - has 4 shafts built in. This was very intriguing since none of the other pyramids had any shafts like this nor can any specific purpose be assigned to these shafts as yet.
Many years ago a robot was sent in the two lower shafts, after about 65 meters it was blocked by a stonewall in both the shafts. Also this stonewall was of very good limestone and intricately carved, with 2 copper rings jutting out from it. In 2003 a second robot was sent in, now even a small hole was drilled through the door and a camera sent in through this hole and another door was found to be situated 21 cms later.
Now there are plans for another robot from National University of Singapore, which will take up this mystery. This robot is going to be equipped to penetrate the second door and hopefully throw light on the purpose of these shafts.
Scientists also hope that this may lead to the actual finding of Cheops mummy.

Ref: The UPUAUT Project

Pyramid History
Guardian.net

Source: Physorg.com