Study finds iPads cost most in Europe and UK, cheapest in U.S.

(Reuters) - Britain and Europe are the world's costliest places to buy Apple Inc's new iPad computer, with prices around a quarter higher than in the United States, a new study has found.

"In the UK, Germany, France and Italy an iPad costs 20-25 per cent more than in the U.S.," said Craig James, chief economist at the CommSec share trading division of Australia's Commonwealth Bank.

"The question is whether Apple has priced its product too high for the European market, or whether the UK pound and euro need to depreciate further to bring global pricing into line."

CommSec's index is a modern variation on the long-running Big Mac index compiled by The Economist magazine and compares the price of iPads in 10 countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Britain, Japan, Australia and Canada.

Study finds iPads cost most in Europe and UK, cheapest in U.S.

Secret, sorry no more secret door to inside earth is open !!!!

Sorry, i was just kiddin !!! This might be looking a Digital photo effect but its true, nature formation at Ciudad de Guatemala.

This sinkhole appeared yesterday, May 30, in a street intersection located in Zone 2 of Ciudad de Guatemala.

These happen from time to time during major storms in part because of unstable geology.

A sinkhole is a natural depression caused by the removal of underground soil by water. This process can happen slowly, but sometimes the land just cracks open. In this case, it happened suddenly. The cause: Massive underground water torrents created by tropical storm Agatha.

Secret, sorry no more secret door to inside earth is open !!!!

Why teenagers can't concentrate: too much grey matter.

UK research into teenagers' brains shows their mental processes are like those of younger children.

New research has found that teenagers' brains continue developing far longer into adulthood than previously thought. Adolescents may look like young adults but their brain structure resembles that of much younger children, according to the study to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience on Wednesday.

"It is not always easy for adolescents to pay attention in class without letting their minds wander, or to ignore distractions from their younger sibling when trying to solve a maths problem," said Dr Iroise Dumontheil of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, one of the authors of the research. "But it's not the fault of teenagers that they can't concentrate and are easily distracted. It's to do with the structure of their brains. Adolescents simply don't have the same mental capacities as an adult."

Using MRI scans, the brain activity of adolescents were monitored as they tried to solve a problem in their heads while ignoring environmental distractions.

Why teenagers can't concentrate: too much grey matter.

China develops fastest super computer.

China has developed a super computer that runs at more than one quadrillion (one thousand million million) calculations per second, making it the fastest one in the country, experts have said.

The super computer named "Xingyun", has been developed in Tianjin, and works at double the speed of "Tianhe-1", the previous fastest machine in China.

The Tianhe-1 was developed by the National University of Defence Technology in October 2009, Li Jun, president of the Dawning Information Industry Co. Ltd., was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

"Its peak performance reaches nearly three quadrillion calculations per second, three times the peak speed of Tianhe-1," Li said.

Experts say one second of its work may take a whole day for a dual-core personal computer.

China develops fastest super computer.

Are 5,001 Facebook friends one too many?

The British anthropologist and Oxford professor Robin Dunbar has posed a theory that the number of individuals with whom a stable interpersonal relationship can be maintained (read: friends) is limited by the size of the human brain, specifically the neocortex. "Dunbar's number," as this hypothesis has become known, is 150.

Facebook begs to differ.

What would be an impressive, even exhaustive, number of friends in real life is bush league for Facebook's high rollers, who have thousands. Other social networks use less-intimate terminology to portray contacts (LinkedIn has "connections," Twitter has "followers"), but Facebook famously co-opted the word "friend" and created a new verb.

Friending "sustains an illusion of closeness in a complex world of continuous partial attention," said Roger Fransecky, a clinical psychologist and executive coach in New York (2,894 friends). "We get captured by Facebook's algorithms. Every day 25 new people can march into your living room. I come from a failed Presbyterian youth, and there was a part of me that first thought it was impolite not to respond. Then I realized I couldn't put them all in a living room -- I needed an amphitheater."

Are 5,001 Facebook friends one too many?

Asus joins tablet race, launches app store.

Netbook PC pioneer Asustek Computer Inc has become the latest technology company to jump on the tablet PC bandwagon on Monday.

The tablet PC, to be called the Eee Pad, will run on Intel Corp or ARM Holdings chips, and use Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, Chairman Jonney Shih said ahead of the Computex fair, the world's second-largest PC exhibition.

"The Eee Pad can display Adobe flash for the full web experience, has a USB port and a camera," Shih said. "We looked at how we could best address the needs of users from all walks of life, and I believe this is the product."

Asus joins tablet race, launches app store.

Anil Ambani to launch entertainment TV channels.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Media World will form an equal joint venture with iconic American media company CBS Corporation to launch a potentially disruptive network of television channels under the brand BIG CBS, a report in Economic Times said. The companies have reached an agreement on the JV and an announcement is expected to be made this week.

The joint venture will start operations from January next year and will launch a slew of channels, starting with those featuring syndicated content from CBS, which owns several hit shows such as NCIS, The Young and the Restless, CSI and America's Top Model, as well as sitcoms such as Two and a Half Men.

Anil Ambani to launch entertainment TV channels.

Spice Girls for second comeback?

London (PTI) The Spice Girls are hoping to regroup for another comeback tour but the bandmembers are struggling to convince Victoria Beckham. The ''Wannabe'' hitmakers thrilled fans when they returned for a sold-out world trek in 2007 and 2008, the first time the original line-up had performed together since Geri Halliwell quit to go solo in 1998, Daily Mirror online reported.

Following the jaunt, Beckham vowed to hang up her microphone to concentrate on her fashion ventures. The girl group is now reportedly eager to get back on stage - but singers Halliwell, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton and Melanie Chisholm are struggling to persuade Beckham to join them.

"The girls are so excited. They are buzzing about getting back together and each have so many new ideas and so much to bring to the table.

Spice Girls for second comeback?

'How to fake six pack' - Youtube sensation

A university student has become one of the most viewed people in the world on YouTube after her 'How to fake a six-pack' video gathered over 20 million hits.

Natalie Tran entered the list of the 20 most-watched videos of all time on YouTube with the parody of an ad that showed how women could achieve the look of a six-pack under the guise of make-up products.

Her site, Community Channel, was said to be the most-subscribed YouTube site in Australia with more than 600,000 viewers, News.com.au reported.

'How to fake six pack' - Youtube sensation

Near-death experiences 'explained': Scientists believe it's the last gasp of a dying brain.

A study of the brains of critically ill men and women revealed a brief burst of activity moments before death.

Researcher Lakhmir Chawla, an intensive care doctor, said: 'We think that near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy as the brain runs out of oxygen.

As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse.

'It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.'

Dr Chawla, of the George Washington University medical centre in Washington DC, monitored the brain activity of seven terminally-ill people to ensure the painkillers they were being given were working.

In each case, the gradual tailing off of brain activity in the hour or so before death was interrupted by a brief spurt of action, lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes.

Near-death experiences 'explained': Scientists believe it's the last gasp of a dying brain.

Mobile TV becoming fastly popular.

In South Korea, free-to-air mobile TV is a five-year-old fact of life. According to the country’s broadcasters, 27 million people — 56 percent of the population — watch regularly.

While South Koreans are the world leaders in mobile TV viewing, the technology is also catching on in China, southeast Asia, India, Africa and Latin America, where 80 million people now have cellphones that can receive free, live TV broadcasts.

“There have been a lot of hype cycles with mobile TV technology,” said Anna Maxbauer, an analyst at IMS Research in Austin, Texas. “But with recent advances in battery life, and consumer acceptance, there is real potential for widespread viewing.”

Mobile TV becoming fastly popular.

Acupuncture does work as it stimulates a natural pain killer, scientists find.

Acupuncture works by stimulating a natural painkiller in the body that swells arteries and allows more blood to flow through, scientists have discovered.

Scientists were able to triple the beneficial effects of simply sticking needles in mice by adding a leukaemia medication that increased their amounts of the molecule.

Dr Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester, New York, said: "Acupuncture has been a mainstay of medical treatment in certain parts of the world for 4,000 years, but because it has not been understood completely, many people have remained sceptical.

Acupuncture does work as it stimulates a natural pain killer, scientists find.

Kingfisher, Finnair voted among best airlines.

Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines has been voted the best Indian carrier and Finnair the best in north Europe in a global survey by an independent research agency - often called the Oscars of airline industry.

Kingfisher got the honours under three categories - best airline in India and Central Asia, best economy class seats and excellent staff service, while the Nordic carrier was awarded for its overall performance as a "four-star" airline.

London-based Skytrax announced the results after a survey among 18 million air passengers from some 100 different countries that was carried out between July 2009 and April 2010.

"Being recognised by Skytrax is an honour and we would like to thank our valued guests who chose to fly Kingfisher Airlines," said Mallya, whose business interests span airlines and Formula 1 racing to spirits and beer.

Kingfisher Airlines is one of just six airlines worldwide that currently meet the rigorous quality criteria which Skytrax set for this prestigious, top tier 5-Star airline ranking.

"The greatest attribute behind five-star status is an airline's ability to deliver the combination of product and service," said Skytrax chief executive Edward Plaisted.

"The renewal of the five-star ranking to Kingfisher Airlines reaffirms its standing as the only airline in India and one of only six airlines in the world which has been awarded this status."

Kingfisher, Finnair voted among best airlines.

Now its Bangladesh turn to ban facebook.

After banning popular social networking sites like twitter and facebook and partial ban on video sharing site Youtube by pakistan over religious sentiments, now its turn of the brother country to ban the social networking facebook.

No official announcement was made yet on the decision but the Daily Star newspaper quoted an unnamed Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission official as saying that "part of the reason (of blocking the network) is the posting of some anti-religious and porn links by users across the globe".

"We have blocked all access to Facebook temporarily... It was done in line with a decision of government high-ups," the official said, adding some users had posted anti-Islamic content about Prophet Mohammad, which the government took seriously.

Now its Bangladesh turn to ban facebook.

Queen to miss Commonwealth Games in India.

The Queen will not attend the Commonwealth Games in India in October, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

It will be the first time in decades she will not be at the sporting event - previously she has attended at some point during the games, either for the opening or closing ceremony.

Prince Charles will represent the Royal Family instead.

Buckingham Palace said the Queen would not be able to attend because of the volume of her engagements this autumn.

The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth, which marked its 60th anniversary in 2009.

Queen to miss Commonwealth Games in India.

New material for higher storage for the disk found by japanese team.

A Japanese research team has found a material that could be used to make a low-price super disc with data storage capacity thousands of times greater than a DVD, the lead scientist has said.

The material transforms from a black-colour metal state that conducts electricity into a brown semiconductor when hit by light, according to Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo.

The material, a new crystal form of titanium oxide, can switch back and forth between the metal and semiconductor states at room temperature when exposed to light, creating an effective on-off function for data storage.

New material for higher storage for the disk found by japanese team.

World's smallest transistor built with just 7 atoms.

Scientists have literally taken a leap into a new era of computing power by making the world's smallest precision-built transistor - a "quantum dot" of just seven atoms in a single silicon crystal. Despite its incredibly tiny size - a mere four billionths of a metre long - the quantum dot is a functioning electronic device, the world's first created deliberately by placing individual atoms.

It can be used to regulate and control electrical current flow like a commercial transistor but it represents a key step into a new age of atomic-scale miniaturisation and super-fast, super-powerful computers.

The discovery is reported today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology by a team from the UNSW Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"The Australian team has been able to fabricate an electronic device entirely out of crystalline silicon where we have replaced just seven individual silicon atoms with phosphorus atoms.

World's smallest transistor built with just 7 atoms.

Scientists prove even the thought of money spoils enjoyment.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The idea that money does not buy happiness has been around for centuries, but now scientists have proven for the first time that even the thought of money reduces satisfaction in the simple pleasures of life.

In the study led by Jordi Quoidbach of the University of Liege in Belgium, over 350 adult volunteers were recruited. The subjects were university workers with jobs ranging from cleaners to senior positions. They were given questionnaires asking them about how much they earned, how much they saved, their attitudes to money, and measuring their savoring ability. Savoring is feeling positive emotions such as contentment, gratitude, joy, awe or excitement during an experience.

The results showed that the subjects who were wealthier had a self-assessed lower level of savoring ability, and this undermined the positive effects of money on their happiness, although they were overall slightly happier than the less well-off subjects.

Scientists prove even the thought of money spoils enjoyment.

Could Student's Facebook Page Topple a Towing Company?

Power of social networking see it here. A Michigan business is learning the hard way that one simple Facebook page can pack a whole lot of punch.

Since January, a Facebook page created by a Western Michigan University student for Kalamazoo residents to complain about a local towing company has swelled to more than 12,000 members. Now, the company, T & J Towing, is suing the student for $750,000, saying the "libelous and slanderous" site is causing it to lose income. Justin Kurtz, the 21-year-old student who launched the site, said it all started back in January, when T & J Towing hauled away his car from his apartment building's parking lot, claiming that he didn't have a parking permit.

Could Student's Facebook Page Topple a Towing Company?

Facebook launches Q&A feature.

The social-networking giant is asking members to sign up as "experts" for a real-time response feature called Facebook Questions, which it rolled out in beta format Thursday.

A page on the site is asking prospective experts to ask three questions, answer them themselves and submit them.

"Your expert writing will be seen by tens of millions of people -- including job recruiters," Facebook wrote. "And we'll bring our best beta testers out to California to tour Facebook headquarters and meet the team."

Some of the sample questions Facebook proposed:

• How can I get over my fear of flying?
• What are women looking for in a relationship?
• How did the Beatles find success?

The crowd-sourcing move will once again put Facebook head-to-head with some other titans of the Internet. A user-based, question-and-answer service would trod turf similar to well-established Yahoo Answers and Aardvark, which Google purchased in February.

Facebook launches Q&A feature.