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1000 ancient hieroglyphic rock paintings found in east-central China

May 7, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 7 (ANI): Ma Baoguang, a Chinese archaeologist, recently found 1,000 hieroglyphic rock paintings in Yangce Town, Biyang County of east-central China”s Henan province.

Ma and a group of students were there on a dig and found the paintings over an area of 5 square kilometres.

One of the most rare and valuable findings is a Juci Mountain-style rock – a large cambered stone, is 8 meters long and 3.7 meters wide. There are more than 500 small craters of different sizes on the surface of the stone and several relatively larger craters that are 13 to 20 centimeters in diameter and three to seven centimeters in depth. Various lines, forming a very large ancient diagram, connect these craters.

“It is quite incredible that a large stone goat carries ”Hetu and Luoshu” (map of the Yellow River and the book of the Luo River) on its back,” People’s Daily Online quoted Ma as saying. (ANI)

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Forest union expects FEA jobs to stay

April 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Unionists are confident there will not be any job losses at the troubled Tasmanian forest company, Forest Enterprises Australia.

The Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union met the company’s receivers today to discuss the fate of 120 workers at the Bell Bay sawmill.

The sawmill and other parts of FEA were placed in receivership yesterday.

FEA’s plantations are under the control of administrators.

The Union’s Acting Secretary Martin Clifford says it is business as usual at the sawmill and workers should retain their jobs even if it is sold.

“We understand from what we’ve been told that it is a profitable business but we’ll be sitting down with the receivers in the coming weeks to go through some further paper work and map out a future strategy for the sawmill,” he said.

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Forest union expects FEA jobs to stay

April 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Unionists are confident there will not be any job losses at the troubled Tasmanian forest company, Forest Enterprises Australia.

The Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union met the company’s receivers today to discuss the fate of 120 workers at the Bell Bay sawmill.

The sawmill and other parts of FEA were placed in receivership yesterday.

FEA’s plantations are under the control of administrators.

The Union’s Acting Secretary Martin Clifford says it is business as usual at the sawmill and workers should retain their jobs even if it is sold.

Forums to help map out council plans

April 8, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Armidale-Dumaresq Shire Council is calling for public feedback on a plan to determine the council’s direction over the next 10 years.

The Community Strategic Plan will map out the council’s continued sustainability and will identify priorities for services and revenue.

Four community forums will be held next weekend, two on Saturday and two on Sunday.

Mayor Peter Ducat says it is important the community has their say in what the council’s priorities should be.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 10 years, Armidale Dumaresq, Community Forums, direction, Ducat, map, priorities, Public Feedback, Shire Council, Strategic Plan, sustainability

Kimberley heritage bid covers 20 million hectares

March 27, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Australian Heritage Council has revealed the area of the Kimberley, in northern Western Australia, it is proposing for national heritage listing.

Two years ago, the federal Environment Minister and the WA Government requested the Kimberley be reviewed for possible heritage listing.

It could stop projects deemed to interfere with the heritage values of a site.

The council has released a map of the proposed boundaries.

Council chairman Tom Harley says it covers 20 million hectares, stretching from the Dampier Peninsula to the Cambridge Gulf.

“That doesn’t mean that that’ll be the final boundary we recommend, and the consultation process is incredibly important,” he said.

Premier Colin Barnett is worried about the impact it will have on mining.

“It limits what can be done, so it’s not positive and it’s not proactive,” Mr Barnett said.

The council’s assessment is now open for public comment for 50 days.

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European company develops mobile robots that are autonomous and multi-tasking

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Madrid (Spain), September 19 (ANI): An European company has developed innovative robots which are mobile, multifunctional, collaborative, autonomous and polyvalent, suitable for a wide range of work from street cleaning and rubbish collection to accompanying elderly people.

According to a report carried out in www.basqueresearch.com, this new generation of robots have been developed by TECNALIA Technological Corporation, and are a part of the European DUSTBOT research project under the remit of the VI European Framework Programme and in which TECNALIA is participating.

These latest generation robots are suitable for the monitoring of large spaces (open and closed), as guides for persons in large shopping areas (indicating to them where a particular shop or product is within a shopping centre), for accompanying elderly people or those with certain disabilities (both at home and outside), thanks to their functions of orientation, navigation, communications with others or tele-assistance centres.

They can also be used as guides in teaching spaces (museums, visitor centres), and for transport, storage and transport and goods deliveries, besides the cleaning of both open and closed surfaces, which have either difficult or easy access.

DUSTBOT has collaborative, multifunctional and autonomous robots that are capable of operating in partially destructured environments/situations based on information provided by a map.

The robots can also facilitate working in large areas, stations, airports and other types of public buildings, without being any obstacle for the activity of these places, given its reduced size, and without being a danger for members of the public, thanks to the novel system for the detection and avoidance of obstacles.

The rail station of the Euskotren company in the Bilbao neighbourhood of Atxuri in Spain was chosen for the public presentation of these devices.

The demonstration of two robot models was undertaken: the DustCart and the DustClean.

The DustCart robot, measuring 1.45 metres high and 70 Kg in weight, has a humanoid form and is designed to interact with the user and for the collection of low demand waste.

The DustClean robot, in the form of a small vehicle and measuring 96 cm high and 250 Kg in weight, cleans streets of dirt and dust. Moreover, both control the quality of air in real time.

“These robots are the solution for cleaning areas of difficult access and for the collection of rubbish at the very front door of, above all, persons who have mobility problems when moving the rubbish to the communal waste containers,” said Inaki Inzunza, Director of the Business Unit at the Tecnalia Technological Corporation. (ANI)

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Planck spacecraft obtains first peek of big bang’s ‘afterglow’

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 18 (ANI): European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Planck spacecraft has obtained its first peek at the afterglow of the big bang, revealing it in unprecedented detail.

The ESA spacecraft was launched into space on May 14 this year. It is observing the glow of hot gas from just 380,000 years after the big bang, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

According to a report in New Scientist, the detailed properties of this background may contain hints of hidden extra dimensions or multiple universes, as well as providing clues to what caused a brief, early period of incredibly rapid cosmic expansion.

Planck began surveying the microwave background on August 13, a few weeks after reaching its planned perch 1.5 million kilometres from Earth at a point called L2 and cooling its detectors to within 0.1 degrees Celsius above absolute zero.

Now, the Planck team has released the probe’s first image, an observational strip covering about 5 per cent of the sky.

Slight variations in temperature from place to place in the early universe give the image its mottled appearance.

“With a few per cent of the data in, you can see it’s working well and delivering good stuff,” said team member George Efstathiou of the University of Cambridge.

Planck is expected to provide the most detailed all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background yet, improving on the best current map, obtained by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which launched in 2001.

Planck’s detectors have more than 10 times the sensitivity of WMAP’s, and about 2.5 times the angular resolution.

“Every strip that Planck scans, we’re getting data that is many, many times more sensitive than WMAP,” Efstathiou told New Scientist.

Although Planck was only designed to observe the sky for 15 months, the team believes it could last for more than 30 months, based on new estimates of how long its coolant will last.

The extra time will allow Planck to measure the radiation with even greater precision, since it will scan the entire sky four times – two more than originally planned. (ANI)

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Action plan to phase out consumption of HCFC is on track: Ramesh

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 16 (ANI): Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday that India has developed a comprehensive Road Map and Action Plan to phase-out of production and consumption of Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) in various sectors.

Addressing the gathering during the 15th International Ozone Day here Ramesh said: “The Government of India has taken a number of policy measures, fiscal and regulatory, to encourage the early adoption of alternative technologies in this area by existing and new enterprises.”

Ramesh hailed the Montreal Protocol as the most successful international treaty to ever achieve universal participation.

“At a time when the world is trying to solve the problem of climate change, the International Ozone Day provided a timely reminder of how international cooperation can help to solve major global environmental problems,” Ramesh added.

India is one of the first developing countries to join the Montreal Protocol and pledge its commitment to protect the Ozone Layer.

As a part of the accelerated phase-out of CFCs, India has completely phased out the production and consumption of CFCs as on 1 August 2008, 17 months prior to the agreed schedule.

Ramesh informed that over 97percent of controlled Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) have been phased out by the Montreal Protocol.

“The end of 2009 will mark another significant milestone in the history of its implementation, with the use of potent ODSs -CFCs, Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC) and Halons, except pharmaceutical-grade CFCs used in the manufacture of Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) – being ceased completely,” he said

The CFCs required for manufacturing for MDIs used by Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients are still available in India, a national transition strategy to phase them out by 2013 is currently under implementation.

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Bank recently also launched the India: Chiller Energy Efficiency Project to accelerate the conversion of CFC-based chillers using new, more energy efficient technologies,” Ramesh said.

This year’s theme for the ozone day was ‘Universal participation – Ozone protection unifies the World.’ (ANI)

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Early man used crude version of ‘sat nav’ system to navigate across England

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 15 (ANI): In a new research, a scientist has found that prehistoric man navigated his way across England using a crude version of a satellite navigation system, which was based on stone circle markers.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the research, by historian and writer Tom Brooks, shows that Britain’s Stone Age ancestors were “‘sophisticated engineers” and far from a barbaric race.

Brooks studied all known prehistoric sites as part of his research.

He found that the prehistoric man was able to travel between settlements in England with pinpoint accuracy, thanks to a complex network of hilltop monuments.

These covered much of southern England and Wales and included now famous landmarks such as Stonehenge and The Mount.

New research suggests that they were built on a connecting grid of isosceles triangles that ‘point’ to the next site.

Many are 100 miles or more away, but GPS co-ordinates show all are accurate to within 100 metres.

This provided a simple way for ancient Britons to navigate successfully from point A to B without the need for maps.

“To create these triangles with such accuracy would have required a complex understanding of geometry,” said Brooks.

“The sides of some of the triangles are over 100 miles across on each side and yet the distances are accurate to within 100 metres. You cannot do that by chance,” he added.

“So advanced, sophisticated and accurate is the geometrical surveying now discovered, that we must review fundamentally the perception of our Stone Age forebears as primitive, or conclude that they received some form of external guidance,” he further added.

Brooks analyzed 1,500 sites stretching from Norfolk to north Wales. These included standing stones, hilltop forts, stone circles and hill camps.

Each was built within eyeshot of the next.

Using GPS co-ordinates, he plotted a course between the monuments and noted their positions to each other.

He found that they all lie on a vast geometric grid made up of isosceles ‘triangles’. Each triangle has two sides of the same length and ‘point’ to the next settlement.

Thus, anyone standing on the site of Stonehenge in Wiltshire could have navigated their way to Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall without a map.

According to Brooks, many of the Stone Age sites were created 5,000 years ago by an expanding population recovering from the trauma of the Ice Age.

“The triangle navigation system may have been used for trading routes among the expanding population and also been used by workers to create social paths back to their families while they were working on these new sites,” he said. (ANI)

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Antarctica’s secret water network far more dynamic than believed

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 15 (ANI): The first complete map of the lakes beneath Antarctica’s ice sheets reveals the continent’s secret water network is far more dynamic than we thought, and could be acting as a powerful lubricant beneath glaciers, contributing to sea level rise.

According to a report in New Scientist, Ian Joughin at the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues developed the map.

Unlike previous lake maps, which are confined to small regions, Joughin and colleagues mapped 124 subglacial lakes across Antarctica using lasers on NASA’s ICESat satellite.

The team also observed the lakes draining and filling.

While interior lakes tended to be static, many coastal lakes changed significantly. Some even appear to be connected by channels under the ice hundreds of kilometres long.

For instance, when upstream lakes under the Recovery glacier drained 3 cubic kilometres of water, lakes downstream gained a similar amount.

Water flowing under glaciers can act as a lubricant, causing land ice to accelerate into the sea and add to rising sea levels.

“The implications for the flow of ice are potentially quite significant,” said Andy Smith of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK.

“Those lakes with no clear drainage channels are of particular interest because they could be spreading a thin film of lubricating water under glaciers,” he added. (ANI)

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Moonbell – the way to make sweet music from Moon!

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 2 (ANI): Food for thought: What would music made on the moon sound like? Stop scratching your head, for JAXA, Japan’s space exploration agency, has come up with the answer.

JAXA has created a strange little applet on its Web site called “Moonbell”, which is free to use.

It takes topographic data gathered by the agency’s Kaguya orbiter, and translates them into patterns of ascending and descending musical notes, reports The Telegraph.

Users can either play a full orbit or select the “free scratch” mode, which allows them to map their own routes across the Moon’s surface.

Like a record player, Moonbell translates the bumps and ridges it detects into musical notes.

The resulting compositions can be interpreted by any combination of more than 138 instruments. (ANI)

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Photo exhibition showcasing 128-year-old past of heritage railway in Darjeeling

August 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Siliguri, Aug 26 (ANI): To create awareness regarding the history and evolution of the heritage railway especially amongst schoolchildren, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) in collaboration with the Siliguri Science Centre has organised a week-long photo exhibition showcasing its glorious past of 128 years, in Siliguri.

The exhibition, which will conclude on August 30, depicts the evolution of the DHR from its inception to the modern times.

The DHR is an important landmark on the Indian tourism map especially after UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1999.

The DHR’s 82 kilometres of journey from Siliguri junction to Darjeeling is an enchanting journey offering a majestic view of the Darjeeling Himalayas.

The organisers believe that the exhibition will make young generation aware of the history of the DHR, an important part of their heritage.

“We have tried to display through photographs, through charts and through maps, the evolution of the DHR and also the different milestones and important events of the DHR. For example, when the Tindharia workshop (the workshop that undertakes major servicing of steam locomotives and coaches of DHR) was formed, how the monsoon disaster took place, and even the cyclone AILA has been put in,” said Subrata Nath, Director, Darjeeling Himalayan Railways.

Children, from various schools of the region, are thronging the exhibition and have been enthusiastic about it.

“It is an awesome feeling, because I have never experienced such a thing .I came here and saw the railways and the natural beauty of Darjeeling Himalayas. It was a fantastic experience,” said Rahul Sharma, a student.

The DHR toy train was the brainchild of Franklin Prestage, an agent of the then Eastern Bengal Railway, who foresaw the utility of a rail link between the hills of Darjeeling and the plains.

It was started in 1896 by the then British Lieutenant Governor Ashley Eden, offering riders an opportunity to enjoy the majestic beauty of nature along the Darjeeling hills. At the beginning, this railway was named as the Darjeeling steam Tramway Co. Later when India gained independence in 1947, the railway was renamed as the DHR.

The DHR was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO on December 5 at its 23rd session. By Taruk Sarkar (ANI)

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Sarabjit Singh’s family to take Vastu Shastra’s help for his release

August 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bhikhiwind (Punjab). Aug. 22 (ANI): The family of Sarabjit Singh, the Indian citizen on death row for last 19 years in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts incidents, had an unusual visitor on Saturday who suggested he could be released if certain corrective measures were undertaken in his native house’s basic design.

Andhra Pradesh-based renowned Vastu consultant, Sri Gouru Tirupai Reddy visited Sarabjit Singh’s house at Bhikhiwind and suggested the family to undertake some measures under Vastu Shastra, a traditional Hindu system of design based on directional alignments.

According to Sri Gouru Tirupai Reddy, if certain corrective measures were undertaken as per Vastu Shastra to improve the faults in design or construction of the house, it would have its influence on the victim’s release from Pakistani jail.

Reddy while talking to media said he inspected the house of Sarabjit and found major Vastu faults. “If these faults are removed, Sarabjit will surely return home safely, this is our opinion,” said Reddy.

Reddy claimed that he had already set the nationwide movement for raising funds for correcting the house faults so that Sarabjit could return home.

“The plot where Sarabjit’s house has been constructed is not rectangular and its north-east corner was cut off. Besides it had a toilet west of the south-west, which was at extending position and not accurate, as it should have been at 90 degree. South West of the house was down and open. The main gate of the house was in south of south-west and was wrongly placed, said Reddy.

“These are some of the major Vastu faults and need to be immediately corrected,” Reddy suggested.

The designer accompanying Reddy would design a new house map and would also suggest the estimated cost.

Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh, said that after having seen news on Sarabjit on TV channel, Reddy approached her to undertake Vastu Shastra’s corrective measures.

“We are knocking at every door for the release of Sarabjit and will undertake the corrective measures suggested by Reddy. We hope it may help Sarabjit’s return,” said Kaur.

However she said that since they don’t have enough fund to reconstruct the house as per Reddy’s recommendation so she urges the Punjab Government to provide financial help.

Sarabjit Singh is an Indian citizen and convicted for his alleged involvement in 1990 serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 people.

Though his family in Indian Punjab contends that it’s a case of sheer mistaken identity, as he is just a poor farmer, who strayed into Pakistan from his village located on the border in an inebriated state.

He has been awarded death sentence by the Anti-Terrorist Court in 1991, but his hanging has repeatedly postponed. He is imprisoned in the Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)

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Rajnath stays mum on Jaswant, says Advani will continue to lead BJP

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Shimla, Aug 21 (ANI ) : Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) President Rajnath Singh, on Friday refused to take any questions from the media on the issue of expulsion of former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh from the party and said L.K Advani will continue to lead the party “forever.”

” Advaniji will lead the party for longer time.”

Addressing the media at the end of the three-day Chintan Baithak here, Singh said “Don’t bring up the old issues again, and I told whatever I can on day one.”

Singh said the members attending the Chintan Baithak had decided to be tough on the ideological and individual discipline of party leaders and workers.

He urged party leaders and workers to adopt a model life style in their public as well as personal life.

Singh also said the BJP has decided to stick to its core ideology of cultural nationalism as said in the ideological draft of “Integral Humanism.”

Integral Humanism is a draft of five speeches made by Jan Sangh President Din Dayal Upadhyaya. The BJP adopted Integral Humanism as its philosophy in place of Gandhian Socialism at Party’s National Executive of 1984 held at Kolkata.

The analysis of party’s performance on all the fronts made at the Chintan Baithak would be discussed at a general secretaries meeting soon.

He also said that the party would constitute a committee to draft the “road ahead” map for the party, which would be placed before party’s National Executive in September – October.

” I will call a meeting of senior leaders and all general secretaries to discuss the analysation made here, and a committee will be formed to prepare a road map draft for the party, which will be placed before the national executive,” Singh said.

Singh also rebuffed allegations of any leakage of the draft of the party’s performance.

“Both Bal Apte and Ram Lal were assigned to analyse the party performance based on the reports given by various state units, and accordingly they put their views before the meeting. And they brought all the points in their diary and no draft was prepared, “Singh explained.

Considering RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s suggestion to give preference to youngsters, Singh said : ” The meeting considered the sarsnghchalkji’s statement and decided to give preference for youngsters from Mandal level to the Central level.”

Rajnath read out the points of the resolutions adopted by the meet, which states, (1) The BJP will be committed to the ideology of cultural nationalism and Integral Humanism, (2)Stress on expansion of party’s geological and social base, (3) Preference to women, youths, farmers in party leadership (4) Strengthening NDA, (5) No compromise on discipline (6) Role model administration by the party’s governments at the state level, (7)Constructive and aggressive opposition at the centre and (8) Leading model life by leaders and workers of the party.

Singh said no one is responsible for party’s debacle, ” No one is responsible for election debacle. If at all any one is responsible, its Rajnath Singh, I owe my responsibility being party chief.” (ANI)

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Web tool to ensure “free and fair” elections in Afghanistan

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 20 (ANI): Thanks to a web tool, citizens of Afghanistan would be able to record incidents of rigging in the country’s electoral process by recording the episodes via text messages.

The second democratic presidential election in Afghanistan under the present constitution of the country is scheduled to be held today.

According to a report by BBC News, Afghanistan’s denizens can report disturbances, defamation and vote tampering, or incidents where everything went reportedly well, through the ‘Alive in Afghanistan’ project, which plots the SMS reports on an online map.

Their reports feature alongside those of full-time Afghan journalists to ensure the election and reporting of it is as “free and fair” as possible.

“We hope to enable people to report on what is going on in the country,” explained Brian Conley, who helped set up the project.

“In the rural areas, there are not going to be monitors, and it is questionable how much international media coverage there will be in these areas,” he said.

“Additional text and video reports will be added by a network of 80 reporters from the Afghan Pajhwok news agency,” he added.

Conley said that he hoped the results would be used by national and international media along with members of the international community.

In addition, they may also be sent to the Electoral Commission if there are reports of tampering or rigging, he said.

The system relies on two established open-source technologies to gather the election reports.

The text messages are collected via a free-platform known as FrontlineSMS, developed by UK programmer Ken Banks.

The system was originally developed for conservationists to keep in touch with communities in national parks in South Africa and allows users to send messages to a central hub.

It has previously been used to monitor elections in Nigeria, and has now been combined with a “crowd-sourced, crisis-mapping” tool known as Ushahidi, which plots the reports on a freely accessible map.

The system was developed in Kenya when violence erupted following the disputed presidential elections between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.

Since then, the platform has also been used to document anti-emigrant violence in South Africa and problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Conley hopes “hundreds of thousands of people” will use the system, which has been promoted by distributing “thousands of leaflets” and radio reports.

“I am confident that because of Pajhwok’s support we will see a good amount of content coming in,” he said. (ANI)

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Global 3D map indicates presence of water in certain areas of Earth’s mantle

August 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 20 (ANI): Scientists from Oregon State University in the US have created the first global three-dimensional map of electrical conductivity in the Earth’s mantle, which suggests that that enhanced conductivity in certain areas of the mantle may signal the presence of water.

According to scientists, those areas of high conductivity coincide with subduction zones – where tectonic plates are being subducted beneath the Earth’s crust.

Subducting plates are comparatively colder than surrounding mantle materials and thus should be less conductive.

The answer, the researchers suggest, may be that conductivity in those areas is enhanced by water drawn downward during the subduction process.

“Many earth scientists have thought that tectonic plates are not likely to carry much if any water deep into the Earth’s mantle when they are being subducted,” said Adam Schultz, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State.

“Most evidence suggests that subducting rocks initially hold water within their minerals, but that water is released as the rocks heat up,” he added.

“There may be other explanations, but the model clearly shows a close association between subduction zones and high conductivity and the simplest explanation is water,” he explained.

The scientists conducted their study using electromagnetic induction sounding of the Earth’s mantle.

This electromagnetic imaging method is very sensitive to interconnecting pockets of fluid that may be found within rocks and minerals that enhance conductivity.

Using magnetic observations from more than 100 observatories dating back to the 1980s, they were able to create a global three-dimensional map of mantle conductivity.

The study is important because it provides new insights into the fundamental ways in which the planet works.

The implications are myriad.

Water interacts with minerals differently at different depths, and small amounts of water can change the physical properties of rocks, alter the viscosity of materials in the mantle, assist in the formation of rising plumes of melted rock and ultimately affect what comes out on the surface.

“In fact, we don’t really know how much water there is on Earth,” said Gary Egbert, also a professor of oceanography at OSU and co-author on the study.

“There is some evidence that there is many times more water below the ocean floor than there is in all the oceans of the world combined. Our results may shed some light on this question,” he added. (ANI)

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PM to address National Conference of Ministers of Environment and Forests today

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 18 (ANI): For a comprehensive stock taking of the implementation of policies and programmes concerning protection of environment, forests and wildlife, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has convened a National Conference of the Ministers of Environment and Forests of all the States and Union Territories here today.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will deliver the inaugural address.

Union Minister of state (Independent charge) Jairam Ramesh, Secretaries of Environment and Forests from all states, Chairman of Central Pollution Control board, Chairman of State Pollution Control Board, Principal Chief Conservators of Forests, Chief Wildlife Wardens, Members, Planning Commission, Chief Ministers, Secretaries, Government of India, Dr R K Pachauri, Director General, TERI, India, NGOs will participate in the conference.

The conference assumes significance in the context of the emerging and continuing challenges in respect of protection of environment, forests and wildlife.

The conference seeks to forge enhanced synergies between the efforts of the Central and State Governments for effective implementation of policies and programmes in this regard.

The conference will deliberate on several items.

They are i. Monitoring compliance with environmental and forestry related laws and regulations and road map for institution building;

ii.River cleaning – innovative models and enhanced co-ordination among the centre, states and local bodies;

iii. Strategies for increasing forest cover and enhancing synergies between Green India Mission, National Afforestation Programme and CAMPA Funds;

iv. Strengthening of State Forest Departments and Capacity Building of Forest Officials;

v. Protection of forests in the context of the implementation of Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forests Rights) Act, 2006;

vi. Wildlife management including Tiger Conservation and issues related to Man-Animal conflict. (ANI)

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Depicting Arunachal’s areas in China was a mistake: Google

August 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug.8 (ANI): Google, the popular search engine, on Saturday conceded to have erroneously depicted some areas of Arunachal Pradesh as being parts of China following a processing of routine update of new map data on the Google Earth. It stated the mistake would be rectified soon.

“Earlier, this week, as part of routine update to Google Earth, we published new data for the Arunachal Pradesh region that changed the depiction of certain place names in the product. The change was a result of a mistake in our processing of new map data,” a Google spokesperson said in an official statement.

“We are in the process of reverting the data to its previous state and expect the change to be visible in the product shortly. We would like to clarify that this issue did not impact our depiction of international borders,” the statement said.

The spokesperson was reacting after a media report, which highlighted that Google map showed certain areas of Arunachal Pradesh as being parts of China.

The media report had raised suspicion about the search engine being hacked by Chinese considering that Beijing has been laying claim over entire Arunachal Pradesh, which India rejects. (ANI)

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3-D mapping breakthrough helps docs remove fist-sized tumour from a woman’s brain

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): Experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have successfully removed a fist-sized tumour from the brain of an Indiana woman, using a technology that involves the fusion of four different types of images into a 3-D map of a patient’s brain.

An eight-member team from the Brain Tumor Center at the UC Neuroscience Institute carried out the operation at University Hospital.

“This marks the culmination of one of the most important developments in brain tumor surgery in the last 100 years,” says Dr. John Tew, a neurosurgeon with the Mayfield Clinic, professor of neurosurgery and clinical director of the UC Neuroscience Institute.

For the surgery, Tew and his team fused and installed the multiple brain scans into a surgical guidance computer, whose function is similar to a global positioning system.

They say that the technology revealed the tumour’s relationship to all of the functional centres, electrical pathways and arteries and veins in the patient’s brain, which is why they were able to map out a safe pathway to the tumour.

“This fusion of images is exciting in that it allows us to maximize resection (removal) of the tumour while preserving function for the patient,” says Dr. James Leach, an associate professor of neuroradiology at UC who performed the processing and fusion of images.

Since early 2007, specialists have used the fusion of three types of imaging as a guide to stereotactic surgery-Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that creates detailed pictures of the body by detecting differences in magnetic signals between different types of tissues; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that creates a series of images that capture blood oxygen levels in parts of the brain that are responsible for movement, perception and cognition; and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) that provides a map of critical white-matter tracts, which facilitate electrical connections between different parts of the brain.

Leach revealed that the latest work added the fusion of computed tomography angiography (CTA), which provides a map of blood vessels-arteries and veins.

“The 3T system allows us to image the functional areas of the brain using various language, motor and vision tasks with the patient in the MRI scanner. The addition of the DTI sequence allows the connections between these areas and other parts of the nervous system to be identified at the same time,” Leach says.

Tew said that the three-dimensional brain-mapping enabled his team to navigate a trajectory through the patient’s brain, and to remove 90 percent of the malignant tumour, an anaplastic astrocytoma, without harming the healthy brain tissue-including the deep nerve-fibre tracts-that surrounded it.

According to the researcher, the patient was talking normally right after surgery, and she was walking the halls and able to take a shower without assistance one day after surgery. he team sought to eradicate the remaining tumour by applying a course of 33 computer-guided, fractionated radiotherapy treatments as a first approach. (ANI)

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Mukherjee to address RBI Directors today

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 11(ANI): Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will address the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India, this morning.

This is the post budget customary meeting of the Central Board of Directors with the Finance Minister.

Mukherjee is likely to discuss macro economic picture as well as the interest rates with the Board Of Directors.

The directors are expected to discuss ways and means of facilitating the government’s large borrowing programme.

In the recent budget, Mukherjee announced the borrowing of four lakh crore, from different financial institutions.

Officials of the Finance Ministry and the RBI are scheduled to meet on July 17 to draw the road map for Government’s borrowing.

The RBI sources said it would ensure that the needs of productive credit would be met. And the RBI is reviewing the situation and would use available instruments to conduct the borrowing programme in a non-disruptive manner.

Corporate world has expressed its fear about the large scale borrowing of the Government form the financial institutions within the country. (ANI)

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