Arguing may be good for your health

(ANI) Arguing now and then for the right reasons may be good for your health, a new study suggests.

Study researcher Kira Birditt, of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and colleagues found that when people experience tension with someone else, whether their boss, spouse, or child, sidestepping confrontation could be bad for their health.

Avoiding conflict was associated with more symptoms of physical problems the next day than was actually engaging in an argument, they found.

The results of the study also showed that bypassing bickering was also associated with abnormal rises and falls of the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day.

Arguing may be good for your health

Won't be Threatened by Pentagon: Wikileaks

(Associated Press)WikiLeaks will publish its remaining 15,000 Afghan war documents within a month, despite warnings from the U.S. government, the organization's founder said on Saturday.

The Pentagon has said that secret information will be even more damaging to security and risk more lives than WikiLeaks' initial release of some 76,000 war documents.

"This organization will not be threatened by the Pentagon or any other group," Julian Assange told reporters in Stockholm. "We proceed cautiously and safely with this material."

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that if U.S. defense officials want to be seen as promoting democracy then they "must protect what the United States' founders considered to be their central value, which is freedom of the press."

Won't be Threatened by Pentagon: Wikileaks

US teenagers get 12,000 botox jabs in a year .

(PTI)Injection of botox, a muscle-relaxing toxin used to treat wrinkles in adults, is becoming more popular among US teenagers seeking to enhance their looks.

Botulinum toxin, which is sold under the brand names Botox and Dysport, was injected 12,000 times into Americans aged 13 to 19 last year. And some of them even got multiple doses, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has said. The number represented a 2 percent increase from 2008.

Before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Botox for cosmetic use in 2002, it was used in the treatments of neuromuscular and eye disorders. But today, nobody knows how many teenagers are using them for medical rather than aesthetic purposes, according to The New York Times.

US teenagers get 12,000 botox jabs in a year .

Walking to school cuts risk of heart attack later

(IANS) Walking to one's school could reduce the risk of heart attack later in life.

Children who walk down to school have lower stress levels and even smaller rises in blood pressure and heart rate while taking an exam than children who are driven to school.

Changes in heart rate and blood pressure due to stress are linked to heart disease in children and the dangerous build-up of cholesterol, calcium, fat and other substances in artery walls among adults, reports the Daily Express.

Prof. James Roemmich of the University at Buffalo, US, who led the study, said: "If children walked or biked, it would put them in a protective state against causes of stress they face during the school day."

Walking to school cuts risk of heart attack later

Ex UN Chief Contender Shashi Tharoor to marry on Aug. 22

(IANS) It's finally official. Shashi Tharoor is marrying Sunanda Pushkar on August 22 in a "quiet family affair" to be held at his "crumbling 200-year-old ancestral home" in Kerala.

In a letter to close friends, the former minister, who had to step down because of his links with the Dubai-based Pushkar and her stake in the Kochi IPL team, said the wedding would be followed by a "modest reception" on August 23 in his constituency Thiruvananthapuram and a "final reception" in Delhi September 3.

"I am writing to convey to you with joy — while I realise you may perhaps have learned this already from our intrusive media, though I have not confirmed it publicly — that I will soon be marrying Ms Sunanda Pushkar," Mr Tharoor wrote.

Ex UN Chief Contender Shashi Tharoor to marry on Aug. 22

More US War secrets to be out, Wikileaks is all set to release 15,000 files.

(IANS)Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks is preparing to release 15,000 more secret intelligence documents about the Afghan war, leading the Pentagon to warn that it has "already put far too many lives at risk".

An estimated 92,000 secret US military records about the war in Afghanistan were leaked to the media by Wikileaks in July. Countries across the world are now pouring over the documents.

"We are about halfway through them," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was quoted as saying by the CNN. "This is a very expensive process."

The Pentagon warned WikiLeaks Thursday against releasing more documents.

More US War secrets to be out, Wikileaks is all set to release 15,000 files.

1/12 babies born to illegal immigrants in US

(IANS) One of about every 12 babies born in the United States in 2008 was the offspring of illegal immigrants, says a new study sharpening a debate over a law that automatically makes them US citizens.

An estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the US in 2008 had parents who were in the country without legal documentation, a Pew Hispanic Centre study released on Wednesday concluded.

The study did not give a country-wise break up, but according to official figures there are some 200,000 Indians among over 11 million illegal foreign residents in the US, making them the sixth largest source for unauthorised immigrants with Mexico with 6.7 million (62 per cent) at the top.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides for citizenship by birth but some members of Congress are pushing to change that provision. That effort-rooted in the debate over illegal immigration, particularly of people from Mexico-has created some controversy.

1/12 babies born to illegal immigrants in US

Bug named Salmonella can help fight cancer

(PTI) Scientists have discovered a new weapon in their fight against cancer — salmonella, a bacteria found in all cold- and warm-blooded animals including humans.

Researchers at the University of Milan found that treating tumours with the bacteria can induce an immune response that effectively kills cancerous cells and also vaccinates against their further growth.

Cancer cells are especially dangerous because they evade the body's immune system that usually tracks down and kills any abnormalities.

Treating these cells with salmonella, the researchers said, effectively makes them "visible" to the body's immune cells and therefore open to attack, the Telegraph reported.

Bug named Salmonella can help fight cancer

Falling Perseids meteor shower will be observed today.

(PTI) Perseids, a prolific meteor shower is associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, said Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) Director C B Devgun.

"Around 11.30 PM to 2 AM one can expect a Zenithal Hour Rate (ZHR) of about 100-120 meteor per hour," said N Sri Raghunandan Kumar from Planetary Society of India.

Thus, one can expect one meteor in every two minute, he added.

To watch the meteor shower, one should concentrate towards the northeastern sky as the shooting stars, as they are also called, will be more visible in the direction, Kumar said.

Falling Perseids meteor shower will be observed today.

Mobile number portability from October 31

(IANS) The telecom regulator said on Thursday that mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented nationwide from October 31, ruling out any further delay.

The MNP is a service that allows a mobile user to change his operator while retaining the number.

"There will be no further delay in the implementation of MNP," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman JS Sarma said in New Delhi.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) had said on Wednesday that the operators must ensure that all inter-operator tests for porting the numbers from one service provider to another are completed before September 1, 2010.

Mobile number portability from October 31

Satellite-based navigation system, GAGAN to be launch in India.

(IBNLIVE) India is set to launch its own satellite-based navigation system - GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GAGAN.

In the next five years the Indian airspace will get more crowded and the chances of accidents may increase. To reduce the chances of future air disasters, India has endeavoured on the GAGAN project for traffic and directional guidance from outer space.

"The scope for GAGAN extends far beyond Indian borders. It reaches up to Africa and south East Asia. It is a huge airspace that we can monitor with this technology," says Praful Patel, minister of state for civil aviation.

The GAGAN project receives GPS signals from international satellites, but it boosts their accuracy, locking a plane's position anywhere in India to within three meters.

Satellite-based navigation system, GAGAN to be launch in India.

Man bikes across US to raise funds for Indian kids

(PTI) 67-year-old American, who worked as a teacher in India for a couple of years, from undertaking a 3,831- mile bicycle tour across America to raise $ 14,500 for the education of children in India's rural areas.

Lauren Brown, who was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, taught Chemistry at the Methodist Rural School in Zahirabad in Andhra Pradesh's Medak district from 1964 to 1967 while serving in the Peace Corps in India.

Brown began his bicycle journey on April 26 from California and travelled 3,831 miles to reach Washington on August 9, during which he raised USD 14,500 (around Rs 6.67 lakh).

During his journey, Brown organised church programmes and charity functions as part of his efforts to raise funds for poor village children so that they can attend Methodist Schools in India.

Man bikes across US to raise funds for Indian kids

Indian origin American claims to solved one of the toughest Mathematics problem.

An Indian origin man living in United States has solved one of the most difficult mathematics problems in the world. Vinay Deolalikar, a HP employee in US has told that he has solved the world’s most difficult problem “P versus NP”

This P vs. NP problem has been considered as most difficult mathematical problems to solve. The well known mathematical institute, Massachusetts based Clay Mathematical institute has categorized this P vs. NP in the seven world’s difficult math problems.

Vinay Deolalikar claimed that he has solved this math puzzle. If Vinay Deolalikar claim is proved, he will get $1 million as cash award.

Indian origin American claims to solved one of the toughest Mathematics problem.

New Method to treat lung cancer

(Deccan Chronicle) That lung cancer is potentially fatal if left untreated is a well known fact. But the major problem in treating it through radiation is the constant movement of the organ as it is difficult to target the tumour. There are chances of healthy parts being hit by the radiation.

Thus far in India, the best procedure to treat lung cancer has been surgery. But, as we all know any surgical intervention is not without complications and suffering. With advancement in technology, lung cancer patients in India can have access to what is called 4D-Gated Stereotactic Body Radiosurgery.

Recently, using this technology we have treated a 65-year-old man with inoperable lung cancer. He is the first in India to receive 4-Dimensional Gated Stereotactic Body Radiosurgery using RapidArc technology.

New Method to treat lung cancer

According to WHO, swine flu pandemic is over.

(Associated Press) The World Health Organisation (WHO) HAS declared the swine flu pandemic officially over, months after many national authorities started cancelling vaccine orders and shutting down hot lines as the disease ebbed from the headlines.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the organisation's emergency committee of top flu experts advised her that the pandemic had "largely run its course" and the world is no longer in phase six, the highest influenza alert level.

"I fully agree with the committee's advice," Chan told reporters in a telephone briefing from her native Hong Kong.

According to WHO, swine flu pandemic is over.

Wipro recognised as first Bluetooth test facility in India

(PTI) Global software major Wipro Technologies has been recognised as India's first Bluetooth qualification test facility by the Bluetooth trade association, the IT bellwether said late Tuesday.

Bluetooth is an open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short length radio waves) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security.

The recognition makes Wipro competent to perform Bluetooth qualification conformance or compliance tests, the company said in a statement here.

"We will test products submitted by members of the Bluetooth special interest group at our test lab in the electronics city campus. The tests will also include Bluetooth protocol conformance," said Wipro vice-president C.P. Gangadharaiah.

Wipro recognised as first Bluetooth test facility in India

Competing for Co-partner may reduce your lifespan.

A new study shows that ratios between males and females affect human longevity. Men who reach sexual maturity in a context in which they far outnumber women live, on average, three months less than men whose competition for a mate isn't as stiff. The steeper the gender ratio (also known as the operational sex ratio), the sharper the decline in lifespan.

"At first blush, a quarter of a year may not seem like much, but it is comparable to the effects of, say, taking a daily aspirin, or engaging in moderate exercise," says Nicholas Christakis, senior author on the study and professor of medicine and medical sociology at Harvard Medical School as well as professor of sociology at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "A 65-year-old man is typically expected to live another 15.4 years. Removing three months from this block of time is significant."

These results are published in the August issue of the journal Demography.

Competing for Co-partner may reduce your lifespan.

Praying to God helps to de-stress but only for those who belive in it.

"Eighty-five percent of the world has some sort of religious beliefs," says Michael Inzlicht, who cowrote the study with Alexa Tullett, both at the University of Toronto Scarborough. "I think it behooves us as psychologists to study why people have these beliefs; exploring what functions, if any, they may serve."

With two experiments, the researchers showed that when people think about religion and God, their brains respond differently—in a way that lets them take setbacks in stride and react with less distress to anxiety-provoking mistakes. Participants either wrote about religion or did a scrambled word task that included religion and God-related words. Then the researchers recorded their brain activity as they completed a computerized task—one that was chosen because it has a high rate of errors. The results showed that when people were primed to think about religion and God, either consciously or unconsciously, brain activity decreases in areas consistent with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area associated with a number of things, including regulating bodily states of arousal and serving an alerting function when things are going wrong, including when we make mistakes.

Praying to God helps to de-stress but only for those who belive in it.

Mankind must abandon earth or face extinction: Stephen Hawking

"The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet," the renowned astrophysicist told the website Big Think, a forum which airs ideas on many subjects from experts.

"Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space," he added.

He warned that the human race was likely to face an increased number of events that threaten its very existence, as the Cuban missile crisis did in 1962.

The Cold War showdown saw the United States and Soviet Union in a confrontation over Soviet missiles deployed in Cuba, near US shores, and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Mankind must abandon earth or face extinction: Stephen Hawking

Nerve connections regenerated after spinal cord injury.

(IANS) In a breakthrough study, scientists have successfully achieved regeneration of nerve connections after a spinal cord injury.

UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Harvard University team conducted the study on rodents.
They did this by deleting an enzyme called PTEN (a phosphatase and tensin homolog). PTEN activity is low early during development, allowing cell proliferation.

It then turns on when growth is completed, inhibiting mTOR and precluding any ability to regenerate.

Even a small spinal cord injury can cause paralysis of arms and legs, loss of ability to feel below the shoulders, inability to control the bladder and bowel, loss of sexual function, and secondary health risks including susceptibility to urinary tract infections, pressure sores and blood clots due to an inability to move the legs.

Nerve connections regenerated after spinal cord injury.