Approaching comet may outshine the moon

REUTERS - A comet blazing toward Earth could outshine the full moon when it passes by at the end of next year - if it survives its close encounter with the sun.

The recently discovered object, known as comet ISON, is due to fly within 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) from the center of the sun on November 28, 2013 said astronomer Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

As the comet approaches, heat from the sun will vaporize ices in its body, creating what could be a spectacular tail that is visible in Earth's night sky without telescopes or even binoculars from about October 2013 through January 2014.

If the comet survives, that is.

Comet ISON could break apart as it nears the sun, or it could fail to produce a tail of ice particles visible from Earth.

Celestial visitors like Comet ISON hail from the Oort Cloud, a cluster of frozen rocks and ices that circle the sun about 50,000 times farther away than Earth's orbit. Every so often, one will be gravitationally bumped out from the cloud and begin a long solo orbit around the sun.

On September 21, two amateur astronomers from Russia spotted what appeared to be a comet in images taken by a 16-inch (0.4-meter) telescope that is part of the worldwide International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON, from which the object draws its name.

"The object was slow and had a unique movement. But we could not be certain that it was a comet because the scale of our images are quite small and the object was very compact," astronomer Artyom Novichonok, one of the discoverers, wrote in a comets email list hosted by Yahoo.
Novichonok and co-discoverer Vitali Nevski followed up the next night with a bigger telescope at the Maidanak Observatory in Uzbekistan. Other astronomers did likewise, confirming the object, located beyond Jupiter's orbit in the constellation Cancer, was indeed a comet.
"It's really rare, exciting," Novichonok wrote.

Comet ISON's path is very similar to a comet that passed by Earth in 1680, one which was so bright its tail reportedly could be seen in daylight.
The projected orbit of comet ISON is so similar to the 1680 comet that some scientists are wondering if they are fragments from a common parent body.

"Comet ISON�could be the brightest comet seen in many generations - brighter even than the full moon," wrote British astronomer David Whitehouse in The Independent.

In 2013, Earth has two shots at a comet show. Comet Pan-STARRS is due to pass by the planet in March, eight months before ISON's arrival.

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover may be able to provide a preview.
Comet ISON is due to pass by the red planet in September and could be a target for the rover from its vantage point inside Gale Crater.

The last comet to dazzle Earth's night-time skies was Comet Hale-Bopp, which visited in 1997. Comet 17P/Holmes made a brief appearance in 2007.

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‘Hang us’, plead Delhi gang rape accused - News

New Delhi: Few days of police custody and the public outrage over their brutal act of gang rape on a 23-year-old have sent shivers down the spines of the accused.
Gang rape victim critical but stable

 

Two of the six accused who committed the horrendous crime on December 16 have pleaded for death penalty before a Delhi court on Sunday. However, they also denied undergoing the identification exercise.
“We have committed a sinful crime and must be hang till death,” accused Pawan Kumar and Binay pleaded before the court.

Three of the six accused including driver Ram Singh have denied undergoing identification exercise, however, Akshay Thakur who was recently arrested from Bihar, has given his consent to undergo test identification parade (TIP) by the male friend of the gang-rape victim.

The three accused told the court that they do not want to undergo the TIP as they have committed a shameful crime and must not be pardoned for their acts.
All the three accused have been sent to 14-day judicial custody till January 6.
The rape and torture occurred when the victim, 23-year-old para-medical student, along with her male companion boarded a private bus in south Delhi after watching a movie.

The woman, who hails from Uttarakhand and was in Delhi to undergo her internship, is in critical condition and battling for life at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi.
Standing united against the grisliest incident, the lawyers of Saket Court have passed a proposal that asks the lawyers to not take cases of accused as they have committed rarest of the rare crime which is not pardonable.

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UK tops global benefits league in terms of social welfare- News

London, Dec. 26 : The scandal of Britain's out-of-control benefits system has been dramatically exposed after a report showed that it doles out more in a key welfare payment than almost any other country.

Britain spends proportionally more in disability handouts than the US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan.

The report details how bills for disability welfare are growing in all major economies, despite the defeat of many disabling illnesses, express.co.uk reports.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Britain's expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product soared by a third between 2005 and 2009, when the average for OECD and EU countries was more or less flat, the report said.

According to the report, Britain spends 2.4 percent of its GDP on disability benefits compared with only one percent in the USA and Germany and 0.4 percent in Japan.

A record 3.2 million Britons claim some form of disability benefit. Taxpayers shell out about 13 billion pounds a year even though three quarters of new incapacity benefits claimants can work, the report said.

New checks found that 55 percent were no longer eligible and 20 percent could carry out some form of paid job with the right support

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Rapists to face murder charge - News

New Delhi, Dec 29 (IANS) The six males whose gang-rape and torture of a young woman caused her death in Singapore Saturday will now charged with murder, police sources said.

Delhi Police had charged the six accused, including a suspected juvenile, with rape. They later added the charge of attempt to murder.

This will now be converted into murder charge under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, a police source told IANS.

All six are presently in Delhi's Tihar Central Jail. Police have said they were conducting tests to determine the age of one of the accused who claims he was not an adult.

The rapists hail mainly from a slum area in south Delhi. They coaxed the 23-year-old woman and her male friend to board the bus in Munirka in south Delhi Dec 16 night saying they were headed to Dwarka in west Delhi.

Once the bus began moving, they pounced on the woman and gang-raped her for some 40 minutes before dumping her on the roadside. She was also tortured with an iron rod when she put up stiff resistance.
Her friend was also thrown out of the bus and thrown out.
The bus passed through several key roads, even past Police Control Room vans. But since the bus windows were tinted and had their curtains drawn, no one could spot what was going on inside.

The two were discovered shivering and bleeding by a patrol of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) who alerted the police.

While the friend was discharged soon after, the young woman remained in critical condition in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital.

She was moved Thursday to Singapore where she passed away early Saturday at 2.15 a.m. IST.

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Rich UK couples 'increasingly' seeking 'wombs for hire' in India - News

London, Dec 29 (ANI): Wealthy couples in Britain, who cannot have their own children, are increasingly seeking 'wombs for hire' from women overseas, specially from countries such as India, a report has claimed.

The number of couples formally registering children born to foreign surrogates has nearly trebled in five years.

This has raising concerns that poor women in developing countries are being exploited by rich Westerners, the Independent reports.

"Parental orders" granted following surrogacy, to transfer the child from the surrogate mother to the commissioning parents, have risen from 47 in 2007 to 133 in 2011.

According to the paper, the true scale of the trade is driven by agencies operating in developing countries like India.

Commercial surrogacy is permitted in the US and in many other countries including India, where it was legalised in 2002.

But it is banned in Britain and only expenses may be paid, making it difficult for UK couples where neither partner is able to bear children to find women prepared to volunteer for the role, the paper said.

Marilyn Crawshaw, who published the figures on parental orders in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, said that the number of children born in India to commissioning parents from the UK was 'well in excess' of the cases known to official sources, making monitoring very difficult. (ANI)

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Only Obama is yet to call me: Alex Ferguson- News

Only Obama is yet to call me: Alex Ferguson on hype after ref controversy

The volatile Manchester United manager hasn't been short of influential critics following his latest outburst at a referee.

London:  Facing criticism once again from media and fellow Premier League managers, Alex Ferguson was half-expecting a reaction from the President of the United States, too.

The volatile Manchester United manager hasn't been short of influential critics following his latest outburst at a referee.

This time, he wouldn't have been surprised if it had even reached the ears of the White House.

"The press have had a field day out of it," Ferguson said of the discussion about his behavior. "They have addressed every possible avenue. The only one they have left out is Barack Obama. He is too busy."

It's hardly comparable to the "fiscal cliff" deadline currently occupying President Obama, but the Premier League's main talking point over the festive period has been the outspokenness of English football's longest-serving manager.

Days after claiming one of his players could have been "killed" by an opponent, the 70-year-old Ferguson delivered another rant Friday while defending himself for approaching match officials during a league match against Newcastle.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said on Thursday that he was surprised to see Ferguson escape punishment for confronting referee Mike Dean, a linesman and the fourth official during United's 4-3 win at Old Trafford, after the visitors had been awarded a dubious goal.

It prompted an angry response.

"I carry that because I am the manager of the most famous club in the world," Ferguson said. "I am not like Newcastle, a wee club in the north east."

Ferguson claims he was "demonstrative but ... not out of order" and accused Pardew of hypocrisy, with the Newcastle manager having served a two-match touchline ban this season for pushing an assistant referee during a league match.

"Alan Pardew is the worst at haranguing referees," Ferguson said. "His whole staff, every game. He was at it the whole game on Wednesday.

"He shoves the referee and makes a joke of it and has the cheek to criticize me. It is unbelievable."

Some believe Ferguson — one of the most powerful voices in football — benefits from favorable treatment from authorities, yet the United manager did serve a five-match touchline ban following criticism of referee Martin Atkinson after a league match against Chelsea last season. He also was handed a suspended two-match ban that season for accusing another referee — Alan Wiley — of being physically unfit to referee a Premier League game.

In this latest incident, Ferguson was furious that Dean overruled a linesman's decision and awarded a goal to Newcastle when United defender Jonny Evans turned the ball into his own net as he attempted to clear a shot. Newcastle striker Papiss Demba Cisse was standing in an offside position when the shot was struck and was close to Evans when the ball was deflected in, but wasn't seen to be interfering with play according to Dean.

Dean decided not to mention his confrontation with Ferguson in his referee's match report.

"I think Mike Dean might feel slightly disappointed he didn't do something about it," Pardew said.

However, Ferguson said: "It has been overplayed. I was not on the pitch for more than three or four yards and then we came off together. There was no ranting or raving from me. I was demonstrative. I am always demonstrative. Everyone knows that. I am an emotional guy. That doesn't mean to say I was abusive."

Arsenal manager Arsene shared Pardew's view of the incident, however.

"Should you behave like that? No ... when you go overboard, you have to be punished," said Wenger.

The Frenchman's relationship with Ferguson has improved over recent seasons, compared to the days when Arsenal and United were going head-to-head for English titles, but Wenger had little sympathy for his old adversary.

"Whether it's me or Fergie or anyone else in the world, the rules are the rules," Wenger said. "It is not rules for one person and rules for another. It's the same for everybody.

"We love the Premier League. It is watched all over the world so we want it to be respected by fans for its behavior."

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Bugatti Veyron -The Worlds Fastest Car : Auto

The Bugatti Veyron is an 8-litre, mid engine grand touring car. The Super Sport version is the fastest road-legal production car in the world with a top speed of 267mph and was designed and developed by the Volkswagen Group. It was launched internationally in 2005.

 

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

As most of you started suspecting by now, the first place is reserved for the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. It is currently the fastest car in the world, with a top speed of 268 mph (431 km/h). It can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.4 seconds, and from 0 to 100 mph in 5 seconds. 

Its 8.0-liter, W16-cylinder, DOHC quad-turbocharger engine can develop 1,200 HP, and a torque of 1105 lb-ft. The mechanical marvel can be yours for as little as $2.4 million (1.83 million euros).

So, there you have it, the best machines we could pit against each other in a relatively-fair combat. Most of these cars are simply overkill, designed solely to see whether they can be done or not. Many thanks to The Super Cars for compiling the guidelines to this top. 

It seems that there is no hope after all for Bugatti. They will remain mad. Not content with just the regular Veyron, Bugatti would be launching a new 1600bhp Bugatti Veyron. The supercar will be launched internationally next year and when introduced, will be the world’s fastest car. Images have already been released of the Veyron and believe it or not, the new Veyron will be capable of accelerating to 100kmph in just 1.8seconds. Bugatti chief vehicle engineer Jens Schulenburg said, “We are working on the next super sports car.” “The big challenge will be reducing weight. We are looking at some incredible technologies, such as wheels made entirely from carbon fibre. We’re considering hybrids, too.”

The top speed is expected at 464kmph. The increase in power and acceleration is significant to the Grandsport which has a top speed of 407kmph, reaches 100kmph in 2.46seconds from its 1001PS and 1250 Nm of torque. The next Super Veyron will be shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show next year and will be powered by the same a 4 turbo, W16 engine. The engine capacity will be increased from 8 to 9.6-litres.The aerodynamics have been improved but the Veyron will use the same distinctive grille and ‘odd’ proportions.

The Veyron which defied the laws of physics when it was launched, will launch only 350 versions of the new Veyron. The new car will use more carbon fibre and at a time when most manufacturers are busy decreasing the engine capacity to increase the fuel efficiency, Bugatti is definitely an exception.

The Bugatti Veyron is officially bought in India if you have got the money and we expect the next Super Veyron to make it into India as well. This supercar was voted at the Top Gear magazine’s 2000-2009 Car of the Decade and is based on the Bentley Hunaudieres concept. The car was launched internationally in 2005.

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Yuvraj-Dhoni stand was the turning point-Sports

Mohammad Hafeez,

  the Pakistan Twenty20 captain, has said the 97-run partnership between Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni was turning point of the match, but also pointed to other significant moments where the visitors came out second best. "Although they went off to a promising start, we were hopeful of restricting them to 160-170… But Yuvraj was exceptional today.

 The way he batted was outstanding. He also struck a good partnership with Dhoni. We were not expecting the partnership to go that further," Hafeez said.

Yuvraj and Dhoni added 97 in just 44 balls to propel India to 192. Pakistan began promisingly in the chase but an 18-ball spell from India's spinners between overs seven and 10, during which only 16 runs were scored, increased the required-rate significantly. "It was a very small period in the match where we got stuck… Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina didn't give the batsmen any space to hit. It really did affect our run chase later in the match." 

Ashok Dinda bowled an excellent second spell towards the death, picking up three wickets and containing Pakistan at a time when they had wickets in hand and were pushing for a win. "Their bowlers didn't perform well in the last couple of matches. But they did the basics right and were on target today," Hafeez said. "Dinda was good in the last two overs… He bowled perfect yorkers and it was difficult to hit him. In the penultimate over of our innings, he got the vital wickets of Kamran and mine. If either of us had scored a boundary, then it would have eased the pressure. Unfortunately, it didn't happen."

Yuvraj smashed seven sixes in his 72 off 36 balls. "It is just that in T20, you get less time to get set and you have straightaway start hitting the balls," Yuvraj said. "That is why batting averages aren't high and you don't get time to set in and hit those balls. But today, I got to bat in seventh over and got three to four overs to get set and that really made the difference."

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World's longest high-speed rail route begins in China

The making cost has not been revealed, but it was built in a fraction of the time it has taken to build the Crossrail system in London

Beijing: The world's longest high speed rail route has opened in China, covering a distance of 2,298 kilometers between Beijing in the north and Guangzhou on the country's southern coast.
The line will carry new bullet-style trains at speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour and reduce the travel time from 22 hours to just eight hours. According to Sky News, there are 35 stops along the route in major cities spanning the length of the country.
The making cost has not been revealed, but it was built in a fraction of the time it has taken to build the Crossrail system in London. The train is seen by many as a more reliable and cheaper alternative.
In a statement, China's ministry of railways said that the service marks a significant milestone of high-speed rail construction in the country, the report said.
The new line will compete with the first domestic route used by the Airbus superjumbo, the A380.

 

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Proposed law would stop broadband data caps that 'undermine innovation'

U.S. Senator's proposed Data Cap Integrity Act would empower FCC to ensure that data caps serve only to address network congestion

                

n the name of promoting online innovation and protecting consumers, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) this week introduced a law that would restrict ISPs' use of data caps -- limits on how much customers can upload and download on their smartphones and computers -- solely to addressing network congestion. The proposed legislation, called "The Data Cap Integrity Act," comes in the wake of a study from non-profit group The New America Foundation, which concluded that data caps on broadband usage serve only to bilk customers and stifle online innovation, rather than ensuring that Internet data travels the network lines unfettered.

"This bill is intended to help consumers manage their data more effectively and ensure that data caps are used only to serve the legitimate purpose of addressing congestion," Wyden said in a statement, adding that "data caps should not impede this innovation and the jobs it creates."
Through the Data Cap Integrity Act, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) would establish industrywide data measurement accuracy standards as to how ISPs measure data usage; the law would also give the FCC the power to ensure that data caps are designed to manage network congestion, "rather than [to] monetize data in ways that undermine online innovation," according to Wyden.
The law would require ISPs to provide consumers with tools for managing their data consumption, and it would prevent ISPs from discriminating against any content; that is, giving favored treatment to their own services over similar services from competitors. "Data caps ... run the risk of undermining innovation in the digital economy if they are imposed bluntly and not designed to truly manage network congestion," Wyden said.
According to The New American Foundation's study, data caps don't address network congestion as ISPs have claimed. That sort of congestion stems from high levels of traffic on networks during peak hours; the critical factor is the time of day when a person uses data, not how much data a person consumes over the course of a month. Even Comcast admitted to the FCC in a disclosure document that data caps "do not address the issue of network congestion, which results from traffic levels that vary from minute to minute."
Rather, the study found that data caps serve to potentially undermine competition: They serve to protect carriers' legacy services by discouraging consumers from accessing content online that they traditionally consumed offline. For example, customers are turning to services like Netflix, Hulu, and Crackle to watch movies and shows, rather than turning to standard cable.
"[O]ver the longer term, consumption-based billing could reduce the attractiveness of over the top video options (e.g., Netflix and Hulu), as the economic attractiveness of such over-the-top options could be partially offset by a [broadband] bill that is higher, due to [broadband] overage charges that would be driven by large amounts of data being streamed via a customer's [broadband] connection," cautioned a 2011 presentation from Credit Suisse.
In challenging the law, expect ISPs to point to a report (PDF) out of Michigan State University, funded by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. According to the report, written by Steven Wildman, a professor of information studies, "the effects of well-designed [usage-based pricing] plans on consumers are likely to be beneficial, as are the effects of UBP on investments in the broadband infrastructure."
Funded by The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the paper -- titled "The Economics of Usage-Based Pricing in Local Broadband Markets" -- also argues that the revenue ISPs garner from data plans "will likely contribute to better cash flows and stronger incentives to invest in broadband plant, both to improve the quality of service for current customers and to extend networks into unserved and underserved territories."

 

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