water on moon

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are greater than predicted, but still relatively small. Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, also was found in the lunar soil. The findings were published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA's Epoxi spacecraft contributed to confirmation of the finding. The spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than ever before.

The confirmation of elevated water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon's polar regions raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon. Answers to these questions will be studied and debated for years to come.

"Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organization."

From its perch in lunar orbit, M3's state-of-the-art spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in surface composition. When the M3 science team analyzed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.

"For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials," said Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "When we say 'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimeters of the moon's surface.

The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon's surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon's higher latitudes. Water molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the findings were not published until now.

"The data from Cassini's VIMS instrument and M3 closely agree," said Roger Clark, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Denver and member of both the VIMS and M3 teams. "We see both water and hydroxyl. While the abundances are not precisely known, as much as 1,000 water molecule parts-per-million could be in the lunar soil. To put that into perspective, if you harvested one ton of the top layer of the moon's surface, you could get as much as 32 ounces of water."

For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the Epoxi mission while it was flying past the moon in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them.

"With our extended spectral range and views over the north pole, we were able to explore the distribution of both water and hydroxyl as a function of temperature, latitude, composition, and time of day," said Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. Sunshine is Epoxi's deputy principal investigator and a scientist on the M3 team. "Our analysis unequivocally confirms the presence of these molecules on the moon's surface and reveals that the entire surface appears to be hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the M3 instrument, Cassini mission and Epoxi spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Indian Space Research Organization built, launched and operated the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft (a articl from nasa)

Keep your wedding from turning into a financial funeral

The average wedding now costs the bride, groom and their families a stonking £25,000 – that’s more than many of us earn in a year. But declaring your love needn’t mean financial ruin if you use a little invention and imagination.

The venue
A fairy-tale castle or Jane Austen style country house might be every bride’s dream wedding venue but consider your personalities and shared passions.
Perhaps you’ve always loved your parent’s garden or your husband-to-be is mad on motors. ‘Wedding venue’ doesn’t have to mean a glittering lake dotted with pure white swans and often brides forget their priorities when arranging the perfect wedding. Think carefully and you may realise that you’d be just as happy with bangers and mash in the local like Kate Winslet who enjoyed just that at her first wedding.
Don’t write off that Caribbean beach wedding either. When the guests are whittled down from 100 to 10 and the grand reception becomes a beach BBQ, savings of thousands can be made as the bride and groom relax in the sun.

The dress
For most brides their wedding is the one and only time a single item will set them back more than £1000 – ridiculous when you consider that a wedding dress is worn only once.
Many high street retailers, most famously Monsoon, offer affordable wedding dress alternatives while websites such as www.thedressmarket.net sell second hand and sample dresses at incredible prices – no-one will ever know that you’re not wearing new.
However, if you’ve always dreamed of a handmade dress consider taking your honeymoon BEFORE your wedding. The cost of having a dress handmade in Thailand or Hong Kong can be as little as £200 including materials. Likewise suits and bridesmaids dresses can be created from measurements provided by your wedding party.

The food & drink
In an ideal world your guests will feast on caviar and sup champagne. In reality food and drink bills make up one of the biggest expenses of any wedding.
Swap champagne for sparkling wine, cava or prosecco – few guests will know the difference – and introduce a pay bar, standard at most weddings nowadays.
Hog roasts, BBQs, picnics and buffets meanwhile are a relaxed and cheap alternative to a sit-down meal and presented upon tables decorated with posies of wild flowers (cheaper than roses and orchids) make for a sweet and stylish look.

The cake
If you can’t rope a willing auntie in to baking and icing the cake of your dreams avoid marzipan bankruptcy by simply buying three plain iced fruit cakes of increasing size from your local bakery or supermarket, adding pillars and decorating with flowers matching the bride’s bouquet. Pure class for just a few pounds.

The photographs
Who needs a pricey photographer taking over your day when everyone you know will be feeling pretty snap happy? Provide a couple of easy-to-use digital cameras for guests to make use of or offer each a CD to download their photos on to before sending to you. It’s the candid shots that will tell the story of your day better than any posed portraits.

Starving to be cool

If you only had enough money left at the end of the month to buy either your groceries for the week or the latest pair of designer shoes, which would you go for? If this seems a difficult question to answer then chances are you could have “fashiorexia”.
Almost a third of UK women would starve for their fashion, while half of them are spending more on clothes and accessories each month than they are on food. These shocking findings are from a survey conducted by celebrity fashion website Mycelebrityfashion.co.uk – prompting the new diet phrase “fashiorexia”.
So far this summer, British women have been gorging themselves on fashion not food, with nearly half admitting to spending more on looking good than eating. 18 per cent said that they spent more than half of their wages each month on clothes and accessories.
Despite the credit crunch and reports that the public are now spending less on non-essential items, 49 per cent of fashion hungry shoppers are spending more on their appearance on a monthly basis than they are on food, according to the study of 4,315 women by the celebrity style website.
For most of us, if it came down to a choice of whether to buy food for the week or whether to buy a new top, you’d like to think the vast majority would be sensible and buy food. However, 32 per cent of women said that they would actually prefer to go without food if it meant making a fashion purchase and they even went so far as to confess to being “fashiorexic”.
Even more worryingly, 28 per cent of women see nothing wrong with this lifestyle and even say their fashion “diet” keeps their weight in check. Unfortunately, they are not alone in their view as 52 per cent of 18-25 year-olds also agree that spending their money on the latest trends instead of food is a good way of watching their weight.
With endless images of stick-thin celebrities in newspapers and magazines it seems the younger generation have also been influenced to put their looks before their health. More than 70 per cent of women aged 18-25 spend £150 or more, per month on clothing and accessories, while 16 per cent spend more than half their wages on looking good.
However, it’s not just the young that have these reckless attitude towards their health as 21 per cent of women in their 30s spend more than half of their wages on fashion purchases too, and more than half of these women admit to spending more on fashion than eating.
Speaking about the results, celebrity fashion website MyCelebrityFashion.co.uk Head Fashionista, Jill Tovey, says: “Fashion is clearly still a thriving industry, despite the economy. More people search for the best deals and bargains online rather than traipse the high streets and clearly are enjoying themselves whilst doing it. With regards to ‘fashiorexia’ I and MyCelebrityFashion would never advocate eating unhealthily for the sake of fashion and believe in balance.”
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good but not at the expense of your health, after all what good will a wardrobe of nice clothes be when you’re too sick to wear them?

Picture caption: So that’s where this week’s food budget went.

Know your online rights

With no queues, no crowds and no closing time, its easy to see whey so many of us choose to shop online, but while most of us know the high street procedure for faulty goods, refunds and other customer issues, knowing where you legally stand online can be confusing at best.
If you have ever felt that twinge of anxiety as you hit the OK tab to complete your online transaction, then this guide is for you. Consumer watchdog Which? has come up with the following guide to help you navigate and negotiate your way round the legal parameters of the internet high street.
Changing your mind - once an order is placed online, there is a cooling-off period starting the minute you place the order and ending seven working days from the day after receiving the goods, during which time you are legally free to cancel. If you are buying a service, the seven working days starts the day after you place the order and if you agree that a service will start straight away you give up your right to cancel. Items which can’t be returned include: CDs, DVDs or software if the seal on the wrapping is broken; perishable items; and tailor-made or personable goods.
Online protection - the retailer must give both a geographical and an email contact address. If you receive an email confirming your order, you have a legally binding contract, but if it’s just an acknowledgment, then you don’t.
Faulty goods - whether purchased online or on the high street, the seller is still responsible for the condition of the goods on delivery and its also worth noting that the seller must also bear the cost of returning them if they are problematic.
Special offers – always check the terms and conditions, as some companies only accept the order when the goods are removed from the shelves and this may be after the offer expires. If you are charged full price, you don’t have to pay – you can simply send the goods back with the delivery driver.
Auction sites – when buying goods privately there is little legal protection. The law on auction sites is unclear, but there is an argument that if you buy the goods from a trader it’s not a true auction, so you have protection under the Sale of Goods Act. To date, the law has not been tested enough for any hard and fast rules to have been set.
Senior lawyer at Which? Legal Service, Peter McCarthy, says: “It’s a great time to buy online, especially with the new ruling on protection for credit card purchases abroad. But it’s also important to know exactly what your rights are before surfing the net for bargains.”

According to McCarthy, shopping from home can be extremely problematic if you are not familiar with internet etiquette. “Online shopping isn’t always a case of ‘what you see is what you get’. It can be difficult when all you have to go on is a photo. As well as your statutory rights, it’s worth checking returns policies, as these do vary. For example, online electronics supplier Dabs gives 10 days to return unwanted goods, whereas Amazon is much more generous, with 30 days,” he says.

Software piracy drops 1%, but value of losses rises: Study

The monetary value of "losses" to the industry (due to piracy) showed a record level of $53 billion, up by 11%.

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L.N. Revathy Coimbatore, May 22 The Sixth Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study findings reveal a one per cent drop in the software piracy levels to 68 per cent in India in 2008 and a rise in the monetary value of piracy loss to $2.7 billion compared to $2 billion in 2007. The study was conducted by market research and forecasting firm IDC and released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The study covers piracy of all packaged software that run on personal computers including desktops, laptops and ultra-portables, but does not include server- or mainframe-based software. The study shows that in 2008, the rate of software piracy dropped in 57 of the 110 countries studied, remained the same in 36 and rose in 16 countries. The worldwide software piracy rate though has risen for the second year in a row from 38 per cent to 41 per cent. And, this has been attributed to the fast growth in PC shipments in high-piracy countries such as China and India. In another sign of the scale of the problem, the monetary value of "losses" to the software industry (due to software piracy) showed a record level of $53 billion, up by 11 per cent. Industry sources say half of this increase was due to the falling dollar, excluding of course the effect of exchange rates. "We are continuing to make significant progress against software piracy, but it (software piracy) is widely prevalent giving illegal software users an unfair advantage in business and spreading security risk," the President and Chief Executive Officer of BSA, Mr Robert Holleyman, said. Mr Jeffrey J. Hardee, BSA's Vice-President and Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, observed that the average software piracy rate in the APAC region rose by two per cent to 61 in 12 months with losses reaching over $15 billion. "Even if such illegal activities were to go down in high-piracy countries, their growing market share for PCs could drive the regional average up," he said. China is moving in the right direction in bringing down PC software piracy levels, and many governments across the region have pledged their support through awareness campaigns, enterprise software legalisation initiatives, enforcement actions and stronger legal remedies. Nevertheless, challenges remain, Mr Hardee said and pointed out that it was due to the rising demand for assembled PCs in emerging markets. "The availability of pirated software on the Internet is facilitated by increasing broadband penetration in the region. This is another major concern," added Mr Hardee. IDC has predicted that lowering PC software piracy by 10 points over four years would create six lakh additional jobs worldwide. `This projection has been confirmed by actual experience in China and Russia', states the new study. Gradual decline in India Mr Keshav Dhakad, Chair of the BSA India Committee, noted that the software piracy levels were witnessing a gradual decline in India. "This could be attributed to the intellectual property (IP) awareness efforts being driven by governments, industry and the judiciary. While the domestic software industry has potential for tremendous growth, it continues to be challenged by high software piracy rates. We are hopeful that the new government, together with the state governments, will take positive steps in driving anti-piracy initiatives, such as the formation of a national anti-piracy taskforce, the setting up of special IP courts, the promotion of IP rights and the training of enforcement officials," added Mr Dhakad. "At a time when the Indian IT industry is moving towards product development, protection of IPR and reduction of software piracy should be taken seriously by all stakeholders. The findings of this study reinforces the need for collaborative effort between the government and industry to tackle piracy through stronger policy, awareness and enforcement initiatives to help enhance India's economic and IT competitiveness," said Mr Som Mittal, President, Nasscom. The findings showed that the global economic recession was having a mixed impact on software piracy. The piracy level was found to be less than 20 per cent in the US, Japan, New Zealand and Luxembourg and over 90 per cent in Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Zimbabwe.

Slowdown or recession? -S. Hamsini Amritha

“The world is likely headed for a deep recession” says Paul Krugman 2008 Nobel Prize Laureate for Economics. But what is recession? Many mistake economic slowdown for recession. Textbooks define recession as a period of two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a country’s GDP and is expected to last anywhere between six and 18 months. Slowdown, on the other hand, is just a slower growth in economic activities. While a slowdown is industry specific, a recession results in a wide ranging impact.

How did this happen?

Trouble started with the sub-prime crisis in the US. Lending against homes to borrowers of doubtful quality resulted in debt defaults. to collapse. The defaults led to a fall in property prices as home loans were foreclosed and the property was put on sale. This set off a chain reaction. Securities that were based on repackaged loans and held by a wide range of financial institutions lost value, triggering massive losses and finally bankruptcies. The final blow came in the form of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy. These apart, since the beginning of 2008, Dow Jones and Nasdaq have seen a 29 per cent fall in their respective values.

Falling property prices and a sudden squeeze on liquidity and credit have set off fears about job losses and its subsequent impact on consumer spending in the US. For example, Pepsi, a consumer company, has in this quarter, reported a loss for its US operations, indicating a dip in consumer spending. A vicious cycle of fall in sales, fall in profits and decline in economic growth, ultimately results in unemployment and lower consumer spending, the key reflector of recession.

Not just the US

If you thought that the US alone is vulnerable to recession, think again. Global economies today are interdependent. If America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. America is the largest producer of natural resources. So when prices of oil and gas increase, there is a global impactMany Asian countries such as Taiwan, China and South Korea are major exporters of consumer goods to the US. Similarly, a good proportion of global consumption for goods and services is accounted for by the country.

India’s position

Is India vulnerable to a recession too? As of now, evidence points only to a slowdown in growth and not to recession. Though India is not an export-reliant economy, the impact of inflation and global recession is being felt here too. Inflation is now hovering at over 11 per cent. There are concerns that infrastructure spending may see delays. Worries about earnings have seen the Sensex plunging to new lows in this period. But it is early days yet to call it a recession in India, because companies still boast of decent profit growth.

Every economy is sure to go through repetitive cycles of boom, slowdown and recession. Maybe its just time to redo some economics lessons!

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	Intel® Software Development Products announces the launch of Intel® Parallel Studio and its Technology Club that brings comprehensive parallelism knowhow to C/C++ Microsoft Visual Studio* application developers. Created in direct response to the concerns of software industry leaders and developers, Intel® Parallel Studio makes parallelism easier and more viable than ever before. Right from the way the products work together to support the development lifecycle, to their unique feature sets. The tools are designed, so those new to parallelism, can learn as they go; and experienced parallel programmers can work more efficiently, and with more confidence. Now you have the opportunity to experience the advantages of this phenomenon, first hand! Through the Intel® Parallel Programming and Multi-Core Club you will get access to technical information, tools, product information, conversations, and support from industry experts along with all the exciting updates about parallelism in India. The benefits of joining the Intel&reg Parallel Program and Multi-Core Club will be unparalleled. You will get a chance to: Enjoy free access to Intel® sponsored and hosted webinars, Online TechSeminars Have free access to Intel® hosted LIVE events like multi-city Intel® Software Seminars, Intel® Parallel Tech workshops, hands on labs etc Have free access to evaluation software, trial versions of upcoming products Participate in threading champion challenges, coder idol contests and win fantastic prizes by participating in various exciting programs like best code question, software developer of the month, best blog on parallelism etc. The next time you're looking for a website or program to access the latest and greatest on the tools for parallelizing your code or a way to best develop parallel programs and multi-threaded applications on Multi-Core and Multi-Processor platforms, look no further! We're waiting to welcome you to the Parallel universe. What are you waiting for? Sign Up Now

Michael Jackson lived like king but died awash in $400 mn debt

LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson the singer was also Michael Jackson the billion-dollar business.

Yet after selling more than 61 million albums in the US and having a decade-long attraction open at Disney theme parks, the ``King of Pop'' died on Thursday at age 50 reportedly awash in about $400 million in debt, on the cusp of a final comeback after well over a decade of scandal.

The moonwalking pop star drove the growth of music videos, vaulting cable channel MTV into the popular mainstream after its launch in 1981. His 1982 hit ``Thriller,'' still the second best-selling US album of all time, spawned a John Landis-directed music video that MTV played every hour on the hour.

"The ratings were three or four times what they were normally every time the video came on," said Judy McGrath, the chairman and CEO of Viacom Inc's MTV Networks. ``He was inextricably tied to the so-called MTV generation."
Five years later, "Bad" sold 22 million copies. In 1991, he signed a $65 million recording deal with Sony.

Jackson was so popular that The Walt Disney Co hitched its wagon to his star in 1986, opening a 3-D movie at its parks called ``Captain EO,'' executive produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The last attraction in Paris closed 12 years later.

One of Jackson's shrewdest deals at the height of his fame in 1985 was the $47.5 million acquisition of ATV Music, which owned the copyright to songs written by the Beatles' John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The catalog provided Jackson a steady stream of income and the ability to afford a lavish lifestyle.

He bought the sprawling Neverland ranch in 1988 for $14.6 million, a fantasy-like 2,500-acre property nestled in the hills of Santa Barbara County's wine country. But the bombshell hit in 1993 when he was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy.

``That kind of represents the beginning of the walk down a tragic path, financially, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, legally,'' said Michael Levine, his publicist at the time. He settled with the boy's family, but other accounts of his alleged pedophilia began to emerge.

When he ran into further financial problems, he agreed to a deal with Sony in 1995 to merge ATV with Sony's library of songs and sold Sony music publishing rights for $95 million. Then in 2001, he used his half of the ATV assets as collateral to secure $200 million in loans from Bank of America.

As his financial problems continued, Jackson began to borrow large sums of money, according to a 2002 lawsuit by Union Finance & Investment Corp that sought $12 million in unpaid fees and expenses.

In 2003, Jackson was arrested on charges that he molested another 13-year-old boy. The 2005 trial, which ultimately ended in an acquittal, brought to light more details of Jackson's strained finances.
One forensic accountant testified that the singer had an ``ongoing cash crisis'' and was spending $20 million to $30 million more per year than he earned.
In March of last year, the singer faced foreclosure on Neverland. He also repeatedly failed to make mortgage payments on a house in Los Angeles that had been used for years by his family.

In addition, Jackson was forced to defend himself against a slew of lawsuits in recent years, including a $7 million claim from Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain.

Memorabilia auctions were frequently announced but became the subject of legal wrangling and were often canceled.

Time and again, however, Jackson found a way to wring cash out of high-value assets, borrowing tens of millions at a time or leaning on wealthy friends for advice, if not for money. Al Khalifa, 33, took Jackson under his wing after his acquittal, moving him to the small Gulf estate and showering him with money.

In his lawsuit, Al Khalifa claimed he gave Jackson millions of dollars to help shore up his finances, cut an album, write an autobiography and subsidize his lifestyle, including more than $300,000 for a ``motivational guru.'' The lawsuit was settled last year for an undisclosed amount. Neither the album nor book was ever produced.

Another wealthy benefactor came to Jackson's aid last year as he faced the prospect of losing Neverland in a public auction.

Billionaire Thomas Barrack, chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm Colony Capital LLC, agreed to bail out the singer and set up a joint venture with Jackson that took ownership of the vast estate. Barrack was unavailable for comment Thursday, but referred to the singer in a statement as a ``gentle, talented and compassionate man.''

A final piece of the financial jigsaw puzzle fell into place in March, when billionaire Philip Anschutz' concert promotion company AEG Live announced it would promote 50 shows in London's O2 arena. Tickets sold out, and the first show of the ``This is It'' tour was set for July 8.

Jackson, who has won 13 Grammys, hadn't toured since 1997. His last studio album, ``Invincible,'' was released in 2001. But the opening date was later postponed to July 13 and some shows moved back to March 2010, fueling speculation that Jackson was suffering from health ailments that could curtail his comeback bid.

His death, caused by cardiac arrest according to his brother Jermaine, raised the question whether an insurer would refund money to ticketholders. AEG Live did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jackson was practicing for the concert in Los Angeles at the Staples Center with Kenny Ortega, a choreographer and director of the ``High School Musical'' movies, who has worked on previous Jackson videos like ``Dangerous'' in 1993. ``We had a 25-year friendship. This is all too much to comprehend,'' Ortega said in a statement. ``This was the world's greatest performer and the world will miss him.''

Importance of Games in Life ?

Games have been a part of everyone’s life, be it children, adults or even the senior citizens. There is a growing trend of electronic games amongst people. With the growth of technology, new games have come in the market and also available at affordable prices. R4 DS and R4 Dsi are the innovative and thrilling cartridges for the video games which are offered by the reputed company. The latest is the R4 DS. It is with the introduction of the flash cartridge technology which is very to use and is handled with the Nintendo Dsi games. The R4 series has not a member like the R4i adapter.

The R4i which is the latest invention holds the topmost place. The R4i is a component of the R4 range and it is the handheld device which is used with the recent edition of the Nintendo Dsi games. The R4i Dsi offers good memory SDHC and has better functions and benefits than the previous versions of the R4 range adaptors. The various benefits provided by the R4i cards is that you can watch pictures, listen to music, play any specific composition, browse pictures, read e-books etc. There are other notable features of the R4i adaptor.

Knowing and using R4 or R4i cards though seems to look easy, it is necessary to have thorough information about it as most of the companies or online stores don’t give any trial period and the R4i Dsi cannot be returned back for a full refund unless it is checked by the R4 technician and found to have faults. You can buy the DS R4 or Dsi R4 cartridges from a nearby electronic store or simply log on to a website and purchase it online. Buying these R4 cards online is very easy. You might even get good discounts and buy it at a much lesser price then it is available on the market.

The Acme of Engineering

Engineering started thousands of years ago when human beings found better ways of living through the use of contemporary technologies. Life as we know started billions of years ago. Life is the most advanced piece of machinery. Maintaining life is the acme of engineering. The most sophisticated engineering involves curing diseases with precision.

Engineering is based on mathematical models capable of creating machines, devices, bridges, processes, and infrastructures that can stand predictable, and sometimes unpredictable calamities. A car designed for safety, virtually guarantees the protection of the driver, and the passengers in case of a crash. Engineering design of the car also helps restore it back to shape, if recoverable, after the crash. Engineering is not fire fighting after the fire starts and rages its powers. Engineering starts quite early in predicting the conditions under which a fire can start. It also provides the specific procedures required to contain the fire based on its course.

In the absence of engineering, everything becomes a trial and error process. Thousands of years back, Roman civilization showed the first evidence of engineering when it could create plumbing based water channels to supply its cities with fresh water and to dispose the sewage. It was a paragon in civil engineering without the use of electricity.

Human cell are the most sophisticated and complicated machines. Billion of years ago a single cell reproduced and mutated into complex life forms. The most important terrestrial life form – the human beings, is also the most advanced and complex machine. The Human body comprises of electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering. Billions of cells communicate with each other to maintain thousands of biochemical processes.

In recent days, engineers have decided to model the human body and approach curing of disease with mathematical modeling. It is the process of predicting a disease before it happens. Also, when it happens, engineers are able to pin point the drug delivery systems to cure the disease and bring comfort to the patient. In the absence of engineering, the medical doctors do exactly what primitive human beings used to do; thousands of years back to make both ends meet – the process of trial and error. With the help of engineering, drugs are designed for optimal efficacy. They are targeted to the right cells at the right time. Even stem cells from ones bone marrow can be used to create healthy cells for a specific part of the body. The results are astounding.

An ideal example is breast cancer. It takes one cell to go wrong to start the cancer process. Unfortunately, it takes seven years before the cancerous growth is detected. After that it is just fire fighting with a water hose. Engineers are now able to model human bodies mathematically to predict breast cancer in an individual. Contemporary technologies will soon allow delivery of preventive drugs targeted to certain specific cells before cancer can go into metastases, which is equivalent to the wild fires. If cancer cells can be neutralized at their inception than million of lives can be saved.

Targeted drug delivery, mathematical modeling of biochemical pathways in human bodies, and analysis of cell dynamics are the basis of biomedical engineering. It is helping in providing defense against diabetes, multiple scoliosis, Alzheimer disease, and more. The bioengineering principles model human bodies with the precision of mathematics, predict abnormal behaviors, and provide cures. Medical doctors now use bioengineering techniques to cure patients and provide fast relief to them.

Interestingly, many medical schools have decided that from year 2012, they will admit primarily biomedical engineering undergraduates in their MD program. That manifests the success of bioengineering in curing diseases. Still the technology is in its infancy, but better days are ahead of us when we can maintain our bodies with precision, and sophistication of engineering. Perhaps, engineering is aiming the acme of its accomplishments.

When there are no more IP addresses

CHENNAI: The ‘dotcom’ industry, which has evolved gracefully into an indispensable business channel in emerging economies after its boom and bust
phase, may be at yet another cross roads at the start of this decade. The reason is that the unique IP addresses allotted to websites are peaking at a number of 4 billion globally, and at just 3 million in India. The IPV4 standard of addressing can accommodate only a finite number of IP addresse, which are estimated to be exhausted by 2011-12.

An IP (internet protocol) address, otherwise known as web address, is the unique identification number given to each web space allocated to a particular individual or corporation. The international standard of addressing for this is IPV4 (internet protocol version 4), which allows a finite number of addresses only.

Taking stock of the situation, an alternate system of addressing named IPV6 has been under development for over a decade now. This system is structured in such a way that it allows infinite number of URLs to be allocated. However, despite a clear indication of exhaustion of IP addresses under IPV4, IPV6 deployment remains below 1% globally and near zero in India.

In fact, Sify is the only web service provider which has converted to IPV6 in India, apart from research networks. “Web clients, servers and internet service providers (ISPs) will much rather look at deployment of alternate technologies to circumvent the addressing problem than attempt a complete overhaul of standards,” said Verisign India vice president Shekhar Kirani. “IPV6 deployment stands at a mere 0.45% in the US and 0.24% in China.”

Incidentally, China beat the United States in the amount of web traffic it attracts in Q1 of 2009-10, at 27.59% of global traffic, compared to US’ 22.15%. The growth in traffic YoY has been at 43% from 19.3% last year, whereas US’ has fallen by a marginal 7% from 22.85%.

“It is clear that it is in emerging economies that the IP address crunch will be felt direly,” said Sify Technologies global infrastructure operations VP P K Saji. “67% of the world’s IP addresses have been allocated to the US, 17% to the US and only 9% to Asia. But, it is in Asia that the demand for IP addresses has grown rapidly in the past year.”

The Indian government’s outlay on e-governance alone is estimated to be Rs.23000 crore till 2011. “According to data from banks, 20% of financial transactions done in this country are done online, and this number is expected to hit 30% by the end of this year,” Mr.Saji said. “But, India has just 0.0006 addresses per person, while the US has 9 addresses per person.”

At a recent forum on IPV6 held by the government of India’s telecom engineering centre, it was concluded that all e-governance projects will have to be IPV6 enabled. Mr.Kirani considers IPV6 penetration highly unlikely as it involves a change in ISP infrastructure, network architecture and web design on a concerted effort. “If it doesn’t happen simultaneously there will be issues with interoperability,” he said.
But, Mr.Saji suggests a solution – a dual stack adapter fit to the web server. “Our site uses that adapter and so, can communicate with IPV4 as
well as IPV6 infrastructure. For every enterprise to do that, it means a mere 20-25% increase in their network infrastructure cost, which is only 10% of their IT costs,” he said.

US-based Akamai Technologies director David Belson said, “As a nation with a developing telecommunications infrastructure, there is enormous potential for IPv6 in India. Because of the vast number of IP addresses available with IPv6, it is possible to assign IP addresses to nearly any device and connect them to the Internet. This can have a significant impact in areas such as agriculture, shipping, retail, entertainment, communications, and utilities.”

Presently, there are said to be 10^36 IP addresses available under IPV6, of which Sify has managed to obtain 0.7 trillion from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the international body for IP address allocation. “There are 6.1 billion people in the world. IPV4 falls short of them by 2 billion, while IPV6 exceeds them exponentially!” Mr.Saji said.

Ironically, the operating system which was supposed to put a computer on every desk at every home – Windows, is one of the challenges for IPV6 deployment. “While Mac is 2.4% compatible to IPV6, Windows is only 0.32% compatible,” Mr.Kirani said.

In this state of affairs, it is inevitable that markets would arise for IPv4 addresses that have become a scarcer resource, Mr.Belson feels. Mr.Saji said, “Instead of enterprises squeezing whatever efficiency is possible from IPV4 through LAN networks, it makes sense to shift to shift to IPV6, for by April 2012, when there are no more IPV4 addresses to be allotted, it will be inevitable.”

Refund Rs 600 cr: Maytas to Satyam

HYDERABAD: Is a battle brewing between the B Teja Rajupromoted Maytas Infra, the Rama Raju Jr-promoted Maytas Properties and the now
Newly appointed additional directors O P Vaish and Ved Jain
Mahindra-controlled Satyam?

In a surefire indicator that Maytas and Satyam are headed on a collision course, the government-controlled Maytas Infra board has declared that Rs 380 crore worth of inter-corporate deposits (ICDs) had found their way to Satyam accounts. ( Watch )

What’s more, another Rs 220 crore is learnt to have wound its way into Satyam accounts from Maytas Properties. Now both these companies are seeking a refund from Satyam, in which Tech Mahindra has recently upped its stake to 42.7%.

Divulging this on Saturday after the Matyas Infra board meeting here, Ved Jain, government-appointed director on board of both Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, said: “We have found that the entire ICDs of Rs 380 crore have gone out of Maytas Infra to 14 or 15 Maytas Infra-controlled private companies and from there to Satyam bank accounts. Another Rs 220 crore from Maytas Properties has gone into Satyam accounts.”

While the government-controlled Maytas board had recently declared its intention to resort to legal action, if need be, to recover these ICDs, Jain said they had the documentary evidence to support their claims. “We are now asking for a refund. We have evidence to prove the money ended up in Satyam bank accounts as the payments were made through account payee cheques. We are sending the proof to Satyam. Legal opinion says the money is recoverable,” said Jain.

In what can be best described as half-a-press conference, even as government-appointed directors K Ramalingam, Anil Agarwal and Ved Jain made announcements and fielded questions, Maytas Infra promoter and vice-chairman B Teja Raju and other directors were conspicuous by their absence.

Skirting the issue of registrar of companies (RoC)’s allegations that the company’s figures were fudged, the directors said they were not privy to the report as the matter was between RoC and MCA.

Meanwhile, government-appointed Maytas Infra chairman K Ramalingam claimed the company had raked in Rs 224 crore in revenues during the April-June period. “After the Satyam fiasco, the company had no revenues for three months. It is now in the revival mode with an order book of over Rs 7,500 crore,” he said.

Recession-hit Bangalore techies settle for low-paying jobs

BANGALORE: Till a few months ago, IT professional T V George was earning Rs 70,000 per month, plus perks. But after losing his high-paying job,Jobs Coming to terms with lay-off |Crisis time: Keep staff motivated |Pink slip blues |Job-cuts: A blessing in disguise |Cope with recession and being unemployed for three months, George, 31, has started giving tuitions in mathematics and physics to aspiring engineering students in his neighbourhood.

"Now, I am earning Rs 15,000 per month. It's been hard. I got married only a few months before losing my job. So, when I lost my job, I was in a difficult position. Thankfully, I had some savings. With the savings, I am paying my rent and for a few other necessities," George, who was employed with a top US IT company, said.

"After losing my job, I tried my best to get a new job. But I remained unlucky. So to help run my home, I decided to give coaching classes to aspiring engineering students."

George is not alone. Recession has hit the IT sector in Bangalore, with scores of techies losing their jobs. Some have been forced to take up low-paying jobs as they wait to bounce back when the recession ends.

Dipankar Dutta, 27, working with an Indian IT company as software engineer
, lost his job almost eight months ago.

Today he has a job, but as a content writer in a tech firm.
"Thankfully, writing has been my forte. So, I landed this job of a content writer. Otherwise I would have been in a soup. Since I cannot afford to stay in Bangalore without a job, I compromised and settled for the new job with a much lower pay package," said Dutta.

Scores of IT and ITES professionals in Bangalore have lost their jobs in recent times, an effect of the global economic meltdown. But there is no precise count of the numbers.

According to the latest employment and business outlook report by Bangalore-based staffing firm Teamlease, at 23 percent the attrition rate in this city is higher than in any other city in India.

The report was based on interviews with HR heads, CEOs and senior executives of 495 companies in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

Gauging elevation -Anna Armstrong

A new study verifies the merit of using Global Positioning System (GPS) data to reduce uncertainty in measuring sea level rise. Most estimates of sea level rise over the past century are based on long tide-gauge records, which must be corrected for the vertical displacement of land from sedimentation and other causes. In the past, a variety of correction methods have been tried, yielding estimates with a range of one to three millimetres per year.

Guy Wöppelmann of the University of La Rochelle, France, and colleagues previously proposed that GPS data could potentially be used as a universal correction method for tide-gauge data. Now they have used GPS data collected from 227 global stations over a ten-year period to adjust global estimates of sea level rise. Their modified estimate of global mean sea level rise over the last century — 1.61 millimetres per year — is in good agreement with the most recent estimates made from altimetry and gravity observations. The scatter associated with regionally averaged trends is significantly reduced, however, when changes in land elevation are taken into account.

The authors say that their geodetic approach can be used to considerably improve estimates of sea level rise.

Nature Reports Climate Change
Published online: 16 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/climate.2009.68

The incredible shrinking venture capital--John Browning

Venture funding is declining quickly and is unlikely to bounce back. But less money means lower expectations — good news for smaller science start-ups, says John Browning.
The days when stock options put Ferraris into the car parks of start-ups are over, and venture capital is drying up. In the first quarter of 2009, US venture-capital investments in the life sciences fell 40% from the fourth quarter of 2008, in biotechnology they fell 46%, and in software 42%. Even investment in green technologies — such as those designed to improve energy efficiency — was down 84%, more than wiping out the 54% increase from 2007 to 2008.

This isn't necessarily all bad news. The venture-capital boom of the 1990s created expectations that many companies cannot meet. As the amount of venture capital shrinks, both venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are rethinking some of their basic assumptions. Having less money might make companies healthier, given the reduced pressure to be a skyrocketing success and the increased flexibility for business strategy and growth. Although the conventional venture-capital model has best suited fast-growing IT or biotech companies, it could begin to suit science and technology start-ups aimed at smaller markets.

Venture capitalists usually look for companies that will grow quickly — as a rule of thumb, with sales of at least US$50 million within six years — and that can then be sold, either to a larger firm or on to the stock market. Without a sale, venture capitalists can't return profits to those who invested the money in the first place. The microelectronics and Internet booms of the 1990s and early 2000s provided both fast growth and sales; the lure of a Google-like financial cornucopia inspired a fivefold increase in the amount of capital in venture funds between 1996 and 2001. But more and bigger sales were needed to keep investors happy.
Risky business

This style of investing can build great companies. Think of Google, Intel, Apple, Cisco Systems and Genentech. Mercenary though it may be, the focus of creating a sellable company forces managers to make the most of their opportunities. Venture capitalists are also tolerant of risk: a typical fund would expect about a third of its investments to fail outright. But what venture capitalists can't tolerate is the merely average. They have a term for companies that reach, say, $10 million in sales and neither lose so much money that they go out of business, nor grab the markets to continue growing and fetch a high sale price. They call them the 'living dead'. Where many might see a nice little company — including biotech ventures whose names would be familiar to many — a venture capitalist sees mostly frustration. Today, with capital markets crunched and sales slow, more and more investments look as though they fall into this category.

Returns on venture-capital investments have sagged steadily since the Internet boom years. Now both venture capitalists and their investors are losing patience. After a 7% decline in 2007, the collective assets of US venture capitalists shrank by 24% in 2008, to $197 billion. The result was fewer investments, falling from $8 billion across 1,058 deals in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $3 billion for 549 deals in the first quarter of 2009 — the lowest amount of investment since 1997. Paul Kedrosky, a former venture capitalist turned industry commentator, predicts the money isn't coming back. He estimates that the venture-capital industry will settle down to about half the size it was in the early 2000s, or about the same as it was in the late 1990s.

In the face of such declines, some are eschewing outside investment altogether and financing companies with their own resources. In IT, the cost of starting a business has fallen dramatically; one US entrepreneur, Paula Conway, recently financed her travel website by selling cupcakes.

Others have been looking harder at 'angel financing', in which wealthy individuals put their own money into deals. These individuals still want a return on their investment, but they are more willing to take it as a stream of dividends from a company that has found a valuable niche, rather than as profit from the sale of the company. Although the amount of angel financing in the United States shrank by about 26% from 2007 to 2008, it was still about $19 billion for 2008, not far below traditional venture capital, according to a study by the Center for Venture Research, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. What is more promising is that the money was spread across roughly the same number of deals in 2008 as in 2007: about 55,000.

Given the lacklustre returns of traditional investment strategies, venture capitalists are also looking to do more with less. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications and a pillar of the Silicon Valley establishment, recently co-launched a venture firm that plans to invest as little as $50,000 per start-up — far less than the $3 million considered to be a minimum by many venture capitalists. Although it is early days, efforts such as this might reshape venture capitalism. Without the weight of Googlesque expectations on their shoulders, companies that might have joined the ranks of the living dead could start to look lively. A start-up focused on a non-blockbuster drug or diagnostic test might now find itself with an attractive niche market, garnering the attention of venture capitalists who would usually have avoided this type of limited-growth company.

Smaller investments will force entrepreneurs to work harder — no more plush offices or fridges stocked with designer fruit juice. But, because the returns demanded by investors are proportional to the amounts put in, smaller investments also reduce the pressure on companies and allow them to become more flexible in their business strategies. And that is what entrepreneurship needs most.
Source www.nature.com

The Descent of Finance -by Niall Ferguson

When today’s great crisis ends, the U.S. financial system will be a shadow of its former self, but America will be stronger than ever. History shows that money and power don’t always go hand in hand.

--
If the ascent of modern finance began in the 1980s, with “liar’s poker” on Wall Street and the City of London’s Big Bang, it ended on September 15, 2008—the day Lehman Brothers Holdings went bankrupt. Seven years on, 9/15 supplanted 9/11 as the costliest day in Wall Street’s history.

Lehman Brothers’ demise was one of seven events that, in the space of just 19 days, signaled the end of an epoch. The first, on September 7, was the nationalization of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). On September 14 Bank of America announced that it would buy Merrill Lynch. On September 16 a money market fund, Reserve Primary, broke the buck—that is, its net asset value dropped below $1 per share—because of losses on the unsecured commercial paper it had bought from Lehman. That same day the Federal Reserve agreed to give AIG $85 billion to avoid a lethal chain reaction if the insurance giant couldn’t meet its obligations on the credit default swaps it had sold to banks. Nationalization in this case took the form of a warrant to the Federal Reserve for 79.9% of the company’s equity. On September 22 the investment bank became an extinct species when Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley converted themselves into bank holding companies. Finally, on September 25, Washington Mutual Bank was seized by the Office of Thrift Supervision and placed into the receivership of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation—marking the biggest bank failure in America’s history.

Although the crisis began nearly two years ago, September 2008 was the month American finance fell off a cliff. What will be the long-term impact on the U.S. economy and the global financial system?
From Crisis to Breakdown

Imagine the worst-case scenario: The current recession turns out to be another great depression. The one that began in August 1929 lasted 43 months, according to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research. However, the first great depression, which only historians now remember, began with the Panic of 1873 and lingered for 65 months. If the U.S. economy keeps shrinking that long, there won’t be a sustained recovery until after May 2013.

Fast-forward to 2013. The government-owned Citibank of America, formed by the forced merger and nationalization of the United States’ two biggest banks, now dominates retail banking. The number of U.S. banks has fallen by half, from 8,534 in 2007. There are just 3,000 hedge funds all over the world—less than a third of the precrisis total. The regulatory framework that was imposed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the previous four years has completely changed the financial landscape. With new restrictions on executive compensation, bank capitalization, and derivatives trading, retail banking has become more like a public utility. Even nonbank entities like hedge funds and insurance companies have to operate under the unsleeping eye of the new Financial Authority for the Regulation of Systemic Institutions (FARSI).

Despite FARSI’s extensive powers, the U.S. government is still grappling with the fiscal legacy of the crisis. The federal debt is now around $20 trillion—$3 trillion higher than the Obama administration forecast in its 2009 budget. The top income tax rate is 45%. The S&P 500 is down to 418, where it was in December 1991—a decline comparable to that between 1929 and 1934. The United States, it appears, is stuck in the middle of its own lost decade, with real GDP having grown by barely 1% per annum since 2010.

We started out calling it the Subprime Crisis. It quickly became the Credit Crunch and then the Global Financial Crisis. By 2013 a new name has stuck: the Breakdown.

Copyright © 2009 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

SMB’s Needs to concentratre on SEO too…Written by Samir kamble

Your customers are looking for you. Can they find you?

When potential customers have a problem and need somewhere to go, they search for it. They head to their favorite search engine, type what they want and are presented with a list of results Google promises can help them. If you don’t appear in those results, you don’t exist. You miss out on the sale, the branding opportunity and the ability to convert that targeted searcher into a lifelong customer. And that’s the value that search engine optimization (SEO) brings to small businesses. It puts you in your customers’ line of sight and establishes you as an expert.

A lot of small businesses don’t fully understand SEO. They think it’s dirty, that SEOs are snake oil salesmen, that it’s out of their budget, or that it’s something they don’t need to worry about because they’re not a major brand. The truth is, the Internet has changed the face of business and leveled the playing field for everyone. By investing in SEO, you allow your company to show up for those targeted local searches, while also putting yourself in the position to compete with the big dogs.

Here’s what a lot of small businesses don’t realize about SEO.

It’s affordable: Whether you’re doing it yourself or paying someone to help you, SEO doesn’t have to break your budget. Most of your attention will go towards ensuring that your site is set up correctly, that you’re listed in all the appropriate local indexes (which is free and something you can do on your own), and helping to target your site for very specific, locally-based terms. For most businesses, you’re going to find that this process probably isn’t anywhere near as expensive or difficult as you’d imagine. It’s also one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies out there as you’ll continue to benefit from good optimization for years to come. Quite simply, a site that is properly constructed will rank better than a site that is not. And you don’t have to drain your budget in order to pay attention to fundamental SEO.

It means being creative: Small businesses have a huge leg up over larger brands when it comes to their SEO and marketing campaigns. Unlike them, you have a license to be creative. You can take more chances, try things faster and engage easier. Use all of this to your advantage. Launch that Twitter campaign now, experiment with on-page SEO strategies, test different Title tags to see which convert better, do interesting things for links and to create buzz, etc. One of the great advantages to being a small business is that there’s no legal or PR red tape to step though. It makes you more agile and gives you a lot more freedom to do great things and to quickly test what works and what works even better.

It’s effective: You will make back what you invest in SEO. If you can get your local business to show up in Google’s 10-pack, you’re going to greatly increase the exposure, branding and profitability of your Web site. All of the little things that go into local SEO are designed to attract people who are naturally looking for you, to let them know you exist and to make it easy for them to find you. Launching a Web site without worrying about the fundamentals of SEO is like writing a great novel only to hide it on a shelf in your basement. There’s no sense being great if no one knows it. Search engine optimization puts your Web site in front of your customer base.

It’s creates better Web sites: There’s no black magic here. The core of SEO is simply creating great Web sites. It’s about making them content-rich and useful for searchers, while also taking the time to make them accessible and easy to understand to the search engines. That’s the goal of being on the Web and SEO helps you accomplish that. It ensures that your Web site is set up correctly from the very beginning so that it’s naturally a hit to both users and the search engines. It’s about make usable sites. And that’s something absolutely every business can benefit from.

Your competition already is: More and more small businesses are realizing the impact search engine optimization can have on the success of their company. And they’re investing in it. The longer you wait to make that same investment, the harder it’s going to be for you to match their efforts and stay ahead of the pack. When someone in your area heads to Google because a pipe just burst in their home and it’s now flooding with water, they’re going to grab the name of that plumber listed first in Google Local. They’re going to perform a second search or waste time weighing their options. They have a flood and you need to be there immediately.