New Russian anti-flu vaccine differ from existing ones

According to news sources, Russian technology will soon permit the creation of a new anti-flu vaccine that will suit both children and adults. It will differ from existing domestic anti-flu vaccines, which are prepared with egg proteins and sometimes cause allergic complications. This is sometimes the case with children who often exhibit intolerance to such proteins.

How common are egg allergies?


Although food allergies are more prevalent in adults than in children, the prevalence of egg allergy exists in 1.6% of children in the general population. It is more common in children who also have other allergies. An allergist can quickly determine the presence of egg allergens through an understanding of a patient's clinical history and via a skin prick or blood test.


What are some of the challenges facing new vaccines?


Producing a new vaccine is always a difficult endeavor because the flu virus is known to mutate. Cell culture production, one of the technologies utilized in creating a vaccine, allows a virus to grow and multiply in living animal cells rather than eggs. Cell-based vaccines represent an important innovation because they could help meet the need to make a lot of vaccine in a short period of time in the event of a shortage or a pandemic.

With cell culture production technology, cells can be frozen and stored and then thawed out, like vegetables for an imminent dinner, to produce more vaccine if it is needed. Acquiring millions of fertilized eggs is a much slower process and one of the few that scientists could count on in the past.

Via Inventorspot

Georgia Tech engineers have successfully created artificial bones that can blend into tissues like tendons or ligaments, just as natural bones do.

The researchers have revealed that they used skin cells for the purpose.

Writing about their advancement in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers have revealed that the artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, providing better integration with the body and allowing them to handle weight more successfully.

"One of the biggest challenges in regenerative medicine is to have a graded continuous interface, because anatomically that's how the majority of tissues appear and there are studies that strongly suggest that the graded interface provides better integration and load transfer," said Andres Garcia, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The researchers were not only able to create artificial bone that melds into softer tissues, but also to implant the technology in vivo for several weeks.

They created the tissue by coating a three-dimensional polymer scaffold with a gene delivery vehicle that encodes a transcription factor known as Runx2.

The team generated a high concentration of Runx2 at one end of the scaffold, and decreased that amount until they ended up with no transcription factor on the other end, resulting in a precisely controlled spatial gradient of Runx2.

Thereafter, the researchers seeded skin fibroblasts uniformly onto the scaffold.

The researchers said that the skin cells on the parts of the scaffold containing a high concentration of Runx2 turned into bone, while those on the scaffold end with no Runx2 turned into soft tissue.

This resulted in an artificial bone that gradually turned into soft tissue, such as tendons or ligaments, the researchers added.

According to them, if the technology passes further testing, it should find an application in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery that often fails at the point where the ligament meets the bone.

The researchers believe that an artificial bone or ligament made by such types of graded transitions might lead to more successful outcomes for patients.

"Every organ in our body is made up of complex, heterogeneous structures, so the ability to engineer tissues that more closely mimic these natural architectures is a critical challenge for the next wave of tissue engineering," said Phillips, who is now working at Emory University as a postdoctoral research fellow in developmental biology.

The researchers say that their next step is to see whether the tissue can handle weight for an even longer period of time.

Via Medinda

VW Group will present the Caddy Topos Sail design concept at its stand which features a wooden boat deck on its roof.

Next week the Dusseldorf Caravan Salon, Europe's largest recreational vehicles show will commence, we have already heard of one completely pointless design study set to be shown from Fiat, now comes Volkswagen's waste of space. The commercial vehicles sector of the VW Group will present the Caddy Topos Sail design concept at its stand which features a wooden boat deck on its roof.

It is based on the Volkswagen California camper van, the boot door sports a set of four wooden and aluminium steps leading up to the top of the vehicle where we find the decking area surrounded by aluminium roof racks preventing users from falling off the edge.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles created the design study as part of the celebrations of 20 years of the California camper.

Via World Car Fans

Mazda has dropped a Russian tuned Kesselman CX-7 in Moscow

Mazda has dropped a Russian tuned Kesselman CX-7 in Moscow and the definitive details are nowhere to be found - in English atleast. All we know is that the car, which looks like the Matrix, is unworthy of model accompaniments. They do have a young lad for good measure. I guess that’s how they roll in Russia - sans Dimitrova and avec Vlad. Aside from the Fast & Furious styling, the Kesselman Mazda CX-7 gets an upgraded intercooler, ultra-low stance suspension, jagged body kit, and a stripped interior with a six-point roll-cage. I’ll post the details when a translated version hits the web.

Via Japan Car Blog

The Grand Canyon Skywalk along the Colorado River in he U.S. state of Arizona.

The grand canyon skywalk


People see the nature from The grand canyon skywalk



took 9 000 000 pounds of steel to be strong enough to hold people

The Glass Bridge Construction of the Skywalk began March of 2004 .
Upon completion, the Glass Bridge will be suspended 4,000 feet above the Colorado River on the very edge of the Grand Canyon. On May 2005, the final test was conducted and the stucture passed engineering requirements by 400 percent, enabling it to withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes (more that 71 million pounds). The bridge will be able to sustain winds in excess of 100 miles per hour from 8 different directions, as well as an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles. More than one million pounds of steel will go into the construction of the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

Design-tested by a world-renowned team involved in such projects as:

Taipei 101
Mandalay Bay Resort
The Palms Hotel Casino
Wynn Resort Las Vegas
Hoover Dam

The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a tourist attraction along the Colorado River on the edge of the Grand Canyon (Grand Canyon West) in the U.S. state of Arizona.

Commissioned by the Hualapai Indian tribe, it was unveiled March 20, 2007, and opened to the general public on March 28, 2007. It is accessed via the Grand Canyon West terminal or a 120 miles (190 km) drive from Las Vegas, which includes an unpaved and bumpy 18 miles (29 km) stretch. A walk on the skywalk is available for a $29.95 admission fee plus tax, which is paid to the Hualapai Indian tribe at the Skywalk itself. That is in addition to the short 7- to 10-minute coach ride for which the Hualapai Tribe charges $29.95 ($59.90 per person, $20 to park a car, plus tax).

The horseshoe-shaped glass walkway, at a 1,200-meter (4,000-feet) height above the floor of the canyon exceeds those of the world's largest skyscrapers.[1] The Skywalk is not directly above the main canyon, Granite Gorge, which contains the Colorado River. Instead it extends over a side canyon and affords a view into the main canyon.[2] USGS topographic maps[1] show the elevation at the Skywalk's location as 1,454 m (4,770 ft) and the elevation of the Colorado River in the base of the canyon as 354 m (1,161 ft).

According to Hualapai officials, the cost of the Skywalk was $31 million. Future plans for the Grand Canyon Skywalk complex include a museum, movie theater, VIP lounge, gift shop, and several restaurants including a high-end restaurant called The Skywalk Café where visitors will be able to dine outdoors at the canyon's rim. The Skywalk is the cornerstone of a larger plan by the Hualapai tribe, which it hopes will be the catalyst for a 9,000-acre (36-km²) development to be called Grand Canyon West; it would open up a 100 miles (160 km) stretch along the canyon's South Rim and include hotels, restaurants, a golf course, and a cable car to ferry visitors from the canyon rim to the Colorado River, which has been previously inaccessible.

The tribe partnered with businessman David Jin to raise the money for the project.

The planning and construction of the Skywalk has caused controversy within the Hualapai tribe as well as between the tribe and outside groups

Opponents within the tribe view the project as disturbing sacred ground. Supporters within the tribe counter that it is an opportunity to generate much-needed cash to combat serious problems that plague the small 2,000-resident reservation, including a 50% unemployment rate, widespread alcoholism, and poverty. Other tribal members are happy with the Skywalk, but they have expressed concern over future over-development. They are also concerned about the potential lack of sustainability because the water used in both the development and the neighboring Grand Canyon National Park is not taken from the Colorado River but piped or trucked in from elsewhere.

People outside of the tribe, including Arizona environmental groups and former National Park officials, have expressed concern about the project's obtrusiveness in the natural environment, considering it a defacement of a national treasure. Some have suggested it is ironic that the Hualapai had argued they were the best caregivers and stewards of the Grand Canyon, and yet decided to exploit it in this way. Tribal leaders counter that the 4.5 million people a year who visit the National Park portion are already overburdening an area and, further, that the tribe needs financial income. The tribe's 1 million-acre (4,000 km²) reservation attracts approximately 200,000 visitors a year and charges for rim-side weddings and stunt jumps, including one by Robbie Knievel. The tribe made a foray into opening a casino but it has not been able to generate sufficient income.

Many visitors have complained about the unusual rule that no cameras are permitted on the skywalk. The tribe claims that this is to protect the glass from being scratched, while critics believe that this is more to preserve their ability to sell postcards and other stock images.

A walk on the skywalk is available for a $29.95 admission fee plus tax, which is paid to the Hualapai Indian tribe at the Skywalk itself. That is in addition to the short 7- to 10-minute coach ride for which the Hualapai Tribe charges $59.90 ($29.95 per person, $20 to park a car, plus tax).

In actuality The Price is 67.20 $ + additonal fees of 20$ per vehicle. The base for Skywalk operations is at the Grand Canyon West Airport, where transportation by bus must be obtained. The Hualapai operated bus service requires a ticket to travel the final section of approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km).

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Unique Technology Illuminates Microscopic Activity In Body's Chemical Messenger System Using Laser

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have developed a unique technology that will allow scientists to look at microscopic activity within the body's chemical messenger system for the very first time, live as it happens.

The cutting edge laser technology has helped to attract £1.3 million from the MRC (Medical Research Council) for a five-year project that will offer a new insight into the tiny world of activity taking place within single cells and could contribute to the design of new drugs to treat human diseases such as asthma and arthritis with fewer side effects.

The team, involving scientists from the University's Schools of Biomedical Science (Professor Steve Hill and Dr Steve Briddon) and Pharmacy (Dr Barrie Kellam), is concentrating on a type of specialised docking site (receptor) on the surface of a cell that recognises and responds to a natural chemical within the body called adenosine.

These A3-adenosine receptors work within the body by binding with proteins to cause a response within cells and are found in very tiny and highly specialised area of a cell membrane called microdomains. Microdomains contain a collection of different molecules that are involved in telling the cell how to respond to drugs or hormones.

It is believed that these receptors play an important role in inflammation within the body and knowing more about how they operate could inform the future development of anti-inflammatory drugs that target just those receptors in the relevant microdomain of the cell, without influencing the same receptors in other areas of the cell. However, scientists have never before been able to look in detail at their activity within these tiny microscopic regions of a living cell.

The Nottingham researchers have solved this problem by creating novel drug molecules which have fluorescent labels attached. Using a cutting edge laser technology called fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, the fluorescent drug molecules can be detected as they glow under the laser beam of a highly sensitive microscope. This allows their binding to the receptor to be followed for the first time in real time at the single molecule level.

Leading the project, Professor Steve Hill in the School of Biomedical Sciences said: "These microdomains are so tiny you could fit five million on them on a full stop. There are 10,000 receptors on each cell, and we are able to follow how single drug molecules bind to individual receptors in these specialised microdomains.

"What makes this single molecule laser technique unique is that we are looking at them in real time on a living cell. Other techniques that investigate how drugs bind to their receptors require many millions of cells to get a big enough signal and this normally involves destroying the cells in the process"

The researchers will be using donated blood as a source of A3-receptors in specialised human blood cells (neutrophils) that have important roles during inflammation.

Different types of adenosine receptors are found all over the body and can exist in different areas of the cell membrane and have different properties. Scientists hope that eventually the new technology could also be used to unlock the secrets of the role they play in a whole host of human diseases.

The fluorescent molecules developed as part of the research project will also be useful in drug screening programmes and The University of Nottingham will be making these fluorescent drugs available to the wider scientific community through its links with its spin-out company CellAura Technologies Ltd.

Via Science Daily

The secret of Butterflies Eye Spots

Some moths and butterflies bear circular, high-contrast marks on their wings that have long been thought to scare off predators by mimicking the eyes of the predators' own enemies.

Not so, say Martin Stevens and two colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England, who argue the marks work simply because they are conspicuous. (Predators are wary of prey with striking patterns, as those patterns often warn of toxic substances.)

To test their claim, the team created artificial prey using pieces of gray paper marked with black-on-white spots in various shapes, sizes, and numbers; they attached the paper "wings" to dead mealworms, pinned the worms to trees, and waited.

Two days later, they found that the worms affixed to "moths" with eye-mimicking pairs of spots had been devoured by wild birds in numbers equal to those associated with eye-catching shapes: rectangles, single large spots, and trios of small spots. It was conspicuousness that was doing the trick.

Why, then, do wing marks look so much like eyes? The answer may lie in the process of wing formation. During moth development, molecules that cause wing cells to produce pigment can easily radiate from a central point, resulting in circular designs.

Eye-like marks in the animal kingdom are often called "eyespots." Now, Stevens recommends that the words "wing spots," "tail spots," or "fin spots" be used to designate them instead.

Via Live Science

Our Mental Skills And The Age?

When it comes to getting older, is there a certain point when our mental skills start to fade? If this is true, is there anything we can do about it?

To test this theory, researchers gathered 288 people, 126 men and 162 women, from one community in Sweden to get the answers. When this study first began, none of the participants had any form of dementia. The participants were test approximately 12 times from the age of 70 until the day of their death and researchers gauged how well they did in three particular categories.

They were measured in the following three areas:

• Perceptual Speed: This is how fast they were able to match certain figures that were in a line of other figures.
• Verbal Ability: This tested how well they were able to understand ideas expressed in words with synonyms.
• Spatial Ability: This was tested by using two-colored blocks to build a replica of a model design that they were shown.

The results of these test when those three skills started to decline are as follows:

• Perceptual Speed: The difference was seen almost 15 years before their death.
• Verbal Ability: The participants showed a "change point" for a decline almost 7 years before their death.
• Spatial Ability: This ability changed approximately 8 years before their death.

The studies lead author, Valgeir Throvaldsson of Gotenberg University in Sweden, said, "These changes are different and separate from the changes in thinking skills that occur as people get older. We found that accelerated changes in people's mental skills that indicated a terminal decline phase years before death."

Is there anything that we can do about this? Are there any particular reasons why this may be happening to us?

Thorvaldsson stated that our health conditions could contribute to this decline. He also said that cardiovascular conditions like dementia or heart disease that is too early for detections could also be factors.

He claims that "increased health problems and frailty in old age often lead to inactivity, and this lack of exercise and mental stimulation could accelerate mental decline." He also speculates that doctors may want to watch for the changes in verbal ability, like being able to stay sharp at recognizing ideas expressed by words, as a warning sign of a decline in health since the study found that the verbal skills took a sharper fall in the years before death.

Via Healthnews

Study of over 47,000 men: eating foods such as nuts, popcorn, seeds and corn does not increase the risk of diverticulosis.

For those people with a common digestive disorder known as diverticular disease, avoiding foods such as nuts, popcorn, seeds and corn has long been hailed as a preventative measure against painful attacks. However, new information is giving pause to the reliability of such wisdom. In a study of over 47,000 men, it has been found that eating such foods apparently does not increase the risk of diverticulosis or other diverticular complications.

Diverticular disease is a condition affecting the section of the large intestine known as the colon, which discards body waste. When pouches called diverticula form in the colon and then stool or bacteria to get lodged within the pouches, this is known as diverticulosis. When these pouches get inflamed, diverticulitis occurs causing symptoms such as intense pain in the lower left side of the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, cramping, bleeding, infection, or blockage of the digestive system.

According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately one-third of adults in the U.S. have diverticulosis by the age of 60 and the total affected population grows to two thirds by the age of 85, with as many as one in four developing diverticulitis.

Although the exact cause of the condition is not known, many experts believe it is due to a low-fiber diet and that muscle strain during defecation causes pouches to form. Since nuts, popcorn, seeds and corn are believed to be more likely to lodge in the pouches, patients are always advised to avoid them. However, there is no supporting evidence of such a link between these foods and the condition itself.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Lisa Strate, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle said, "We found, contrary to current recommendations, that actually, consumption of these foods did not increase the risk of diverticulitis or diverticular bleeding and didn't appear to increase the risk of developing diverticulosis or its complications."

Data was evaluated from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, in which a group of 47,228 men, ages 40 to 75, were studied from 1986 to 2004. Strate and her colleagues reviewed medical records at two-year intervals and dietary information four-year intervals. None of the participants in the study suffered from diverticulosis at the study's inception. Eighteen years later, 801 had experienced diverticulitis, and 383 had diverticular bleeding.

An analysis of those study participants with the highest intake of the suspect foods compared with those with the lowest intake of them had very interesting results. Those who ate the most nuts were actually 20 percent less likely to get diverticulitis than those who ate the least. In addition, those men who ate the most popcorn were 28 percent less likely to get diverticulitis than those eating the least. These findings are believed to be applicable to women also. No association was found for corn.

Some experts believe that even though the study numbers were large, the results may not apply to everyone. There are people with diverticular disease who do benefit from a more restrictive diet and some people experience distress when they eat the suspect foods. These patients should probably continue to avoid them.

Via Healthnews

Some Newer Blood Pressure Drug Are Better for Some Heart Patients, Diabetics

A new study offers a possible alternative to heart patients and diabetics who need to keep their blood pressure under control but who cannot tolerate the standard treatment of ACE inhibitors.

Reporting at the European Society of Cardiology in Munich on Sunday, Canadian researchers said they found that the angiogenesis-receptor blocker (ARB) known as telmisartan worked well for the 20 percent of patients with vascular disease and high-risk diabetes who can't take ACE inhibitors. The study was released in the Aug. 31 online issue of The Lancet to coincide with the meeting presentation.

In the randomized, controlled trial, almost 6,000 patients with vascular disease or high-risk diabetes took either telmisartan or a placebo, and were followed for almost five years. Rates of death, heart attack, stroke or hospitalization for heart failure were tracked as primary outcome measures during the study period.

Mean blood pressure was lower in the telmisartan group by 4.0/2.2 mm/Hg, and there was a relative risk reduction of 13.3 percent for those taking telmisartan. Fewer patients on the medication wound up in the hospital for cardiovascular problems (30.3 percent), compared to those on placebo (33 percent).

"These data suggest that telmisartan confers a modest benefit when added to other proven therapies," the researchers wrote in a news release from the journal. "In view of the drug's tolerability and effect on cardiovascular endpoints, telmisartan could be regarded as a potential treatment for patients with vascular disease or high-risk diabetes, if they are unable to tolerate an ACE inhibitor."

However, an accompanying commentary from U.S. experts dampened the significance of the finding.

"ARBs that have been studied in coronary disease are safe, but possibly less effective alternatives in patients with intolerance to ACE inhibitors. Although data are too limited to reach definitive conclusions, the clinical effect of ARBs seems less robust than that of ACE inhibitors," wrote Dr. Toni Ripley and Dr. Donald Harrison, from the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy.

And U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday that telmisartan does not lower the rate of stroke, cardiovascular events or diabetes better than a placebo in patients who have had a stroke.

Via Yahoo Health News

Daily supplements of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids -- the kind found in fish oil -- reduce heart failure

Daily supplements of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids -- the kind found in fish oil -- reduced deaths and hospitalizations of people with heart failure, an Italian study found.

But a cholesterol-lowering statin drug had no beneficial effect in a parallel heart failure trial.

"This confirms what we've been seeing for a couple of decades in observational studies," Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, said of the fish oil trial. "There is a benefit of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for heart failure patients."

Both findings were published online Aug. 31 in the journal The Lancet and presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, in Munich, Germany.

The omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) study, done by a consortium of 357 Italian cardiology centers, enlisted more than 7,000 people diagnosed with heart failure, which is the progressive loss of the heart's ability to pump blood. Half took a daily capsule containing omega-3 PUFA, the other half took a capsule with a placebo. The death rate in the PUFA group was 27 percent, compared to 29 percent in the placebo group.

That reduction might not seem like much, but it impressed Mozaffarian, who has done his own PUFA studies.

"There are few treatments we have in medicine that affect total mortality in patients," he said. "Just a handful of treatments affect total mortality. Even a small move percentage-wise is a very important effect."

In absolute terms, the Italian researchers reported that 56 people with heart failure would have to take PUFA supplements for about four years to avoid one death. The supplements also reduced hospitalizations, with one less hospitalization or death for every 44 people taking the supplements for four years.

Similar results have been reported in two earlier trials, Mozaffarian said. But they did not have the strict conditions of the Italian study, which were placebo-controlled and "double-blind," meaning that neither the physicians nor the participants knew who was getting the active substance rather than the placebo.

"You always like to have a placebo-controlled trial," he said.

But the positive trial results don't mean that anyone with heart failure can start taking fish oil supplements on their own, said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wrote an editorial accompanying the journal report.

"They used a specific formulation, a prescription formulation," Fonarow said. "Heart failure is a very high-risk condition. It is absolutely critical for patients, whether it is a prescription medicine or modification of diet or a supplement, that they consult their physician."

The negative results of the statin trial were a surprise, Fonarow said. It included more than 4,500 people with heart failure, half of whom took the statin rosuvastatin (Crestor), while the other half took a placebo. The death rate was 29 percent in the statin group, 28 percent in the placebo group.

The result doesn't mean that a statin should not be prescribed for someone with heart failure and high cholesterol, Fonarow said. "There were no safety concerns," he said. "The drug was well tolerated. It indicates that heart failure, in and of itself, should not be reason to start a patient on a statin."

The study "doesn't shut the door" on the use of statins for heart failure, Mozaffarian said, "but it closes it partly. Maybe another statin would have a benefit. It definitely makes us question the benefit of statins in heart failure, but it doesn't close the door completely."

Another report in the same issue of the journal that was led by British cardiologists described a trial of the drug ivabradine, which reduces the heart rate, in people with coronary artery disease and an unusually fast heart rate. The drug reduced deaths and hospitalizations significantly, the researchers said.

Via Yahoo Health

List Of The Top Ten Fighters + Pictures

No. 1: P-51D Mustang Manufacturer: North American Aviation Power Plant: 1600 hp Packard-built Merlin 61 piston engine Top Speed: 437 mph Armament: Six wing-mounted .50-caliber machine guns

Fitted with external drop-tanks the Mustang's range was extended to almost 2,000 miles, making it the only Allied fighter capable of protecting the Allied bombers on long-range, deep-penetration raids.

The Mustang performed its job so well that after its introduction in 1944, casualty rates for bomber crews were reduced by 75 percent. In fact, American P51s destroyed almost 5,000 enemy aircraft in Europe - making it the highest scoring U. S. fighter in the European theater of operations.

No. 2: F-15C Eagle Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney F-100-PW-100 afterburning turbofans Top Speed: Mach 2.5 Armament: One 20-mm cannon, four AIM-7F Sparrow and four AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles

No other fighter in the history of aerial combat has a record that even comes close to the Eagle's. The F-15 is far superior to most of its brethren - way better than the F-4 - accelerating better, turning better, handling better.

In fact, such is the reputation of the F-15 that during the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam Hussein's air force simply refused to get in the air. They knew the F-15 would just knock them out of the sky.

No. 3: F-4 Phantom Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass Power Plant: Two J79 Spey turbojet afterburning engines Top Speed: 1,485 mph Armament: Four AIM 7 Sparrow and four AIM 9 Sidewinder missiles.

Produced in large numbers the F-4 Phantom has an unrivaled service history. But the aircraft really earns its third place ranking for being fast, durable and deadly.

Phantoms were the test bed for missile technology - and the aircraft held five speed records for an impressive 13 years before being beaten by the aircraft featured in the No. 2 spot on our list of the top 10 fighters of all time.

No. 4 - A Tie!
MiG 15
Manufacturer: Mikoyan Gurevich Design Bureau
Power Plant: Klimov VK-1 turbojet
Top Speed: 668 mph
Armament: One 37mm N-37 cannon and two 23mm NR-23 cannon

AND

F-86 Sabre
Manufacturer: North American
Power Plant: General Electric J47 engine
Top Speed: 685 mph
Armament: Six .50-caliber machine guns and eight 5-inch rockets

Compared to today's fighters both these jets are underpowered and primitive but few aircraft have done so well at the job they were designed to do. Both the F-86 Sabre and MiG 15 were the right aircraft at the right time and each richly deserve a prominent place in aviation history.

Both designs relied heavily on captured German swept-wing technology and British engine design, so for innovation the MiG and Sabre are equally matched. Both fighters were produced in large numbers, but the MiG edges in front of the Sabre in the production category because of its renowned simplicity. Both jets have similar service records. The result? They are inseparable in the rankings: the MiG 15 and F-86 Sabre tie for fourth place.

No. 6: Supermarine Spitfire Manufacturer: Supermarine Aviation Works Power Plant: Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 piston engine Top Speed: 369 mph Armament: Eight Browning .303 machine guns; later version, four 20mm cannon

Used in all British theaters of conflict throughout the Second World War the Spitfire remains the unrivaled symbol of victory and Britain's finest hour. But the Spitfire is also famous for giving Field Marshall Erwin Rommel the scare of his life.

On July 17, 1944, in the north of France, a Canadian pilot named Charlie Fox shot at the car carrying the German military mastermind and knocked it off the road, putting Germany's "Desert Fox" out of commission.

No. 7: Me 262 Schwalbe Manufacturer: Messerschmitt Power Plant: Two Junkers Juno 004s Top Speed: 540 mph Armament: Four 30mm MK-108 cannons
For innovation the "Swallow" scores maximum points. As the first of its kind, the Me 262 inspired equal measures of fear and admiration, so it also scores at the top of the scales in the fear factor category.

However, because the aircraft was difficult to build and it had notoriously unreliable engines, the aircraft's production rating is low - so too is its service record, having only been active for a little over two years. Nevertheless, the Me 262 will forever be in the record books as being the world's first fully operational jet fighter - a legend of the skies and the seventh greatest fighter of all time.

No. 8: Sopwith Camel Manufacturer: Sopwith Aviation Company Power Plant: Clerget rotary engine Top Speed: 112 mph Armament: Two Vickers .303 machine guns

Credited with destroying at least 1,200 enemy aircraft, the Sopwith Camel rightly deserves to be called one of the best fighters of all time. Its solid, if unspectacular, scoring across the board ensures its standing in eighth place on the list of the greatest fighters of all time.

No. 9: Sea Harrier FA2 Manufacturer: British Aerospace Power Plant: Rolls Royce Pegasus mk 104 or 106 turbofan Top Speed: 736 mph Armament: Two 30-mm Aden cannon, plus two AMRAAM and four Sidewinder missiles, two Harpoon or Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles

With its unrivaled ability to maneuver, hover and pop up from unexpected places, the Sea Harrier earns a solid fear factor rating. Its unique design and simple-to-produce airframe score well. Despite achieving a high kill ratio in the Falklands, the "jump jet's" slow speed makes it vulnerable to ground fire, which reduces its overall score. Though the aircraft is being phased out of frontline operations it still earns a respectable ninth place in our top 10 league.

No. 10: F/A-22 Raptor
Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin
Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney F-119 PW-100
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20mm cannon, six AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles

Because it is almost invisible to radar and carries an awesome array of weaponry the F-22 Raptor, America's fourth-generation fighter, gets superb innovation and fear factor ratings. However, the aircraft's prowess is compromised by its astronomical production costs and the fact it has some way to go to match the combat records of the F-15 and F-16. Therefore, in the kill ratio, production and service length categories, the Raptor scores zip, placing it firmly in 10th place on our list.

The first flights have been conducted of an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to monitor UK farmland.

The robot plane flew over fields in England and Wales to map the nitrogen levels in soil, to determine whether fertiliser applications were needed.

The UAV missions were part of a joint research project between tech firm Qinetiq and Aberystwyth University.

Pilotless vehicles are likely to become an increasingly common sight if the airspace can be freed up.

"You don't need to put pilots in a vehicle where you are only collecting data, providing you can do it safely," said Jonathan Webber, the programme leader of Qinetiq UAV Services.

"That's going to drive savings in weight, which will drive savings in fuel costs. So where you see normal routine data-gathering operations by manned aviation today, I would see that gradually being transferred over to UAVs in the next 20 years."

'Green' map

British skies, though, are notoriously congested and the Civil Aviation Authority has yet to agree how everyday, autonomous, unmanned flights can be fitted in among the busy air corridors.

Nonetheless, the Qinetiq-Aberystwyth project gives a glimpse of the UAV future.

It used a small plane - with a wingspan of 2.5m and weighing less than 7kg - to make field maps near Hereford and Aberporth.

Battery-powered and carrying an optics and downlink pod under each wing, the vehicle swept back and forth across farmland on missions that could last just over the hour.

"Control of the vehicle is completely autonomous, pre-programmed," said Mr Webber. "It has a back-up so we can take control of the vehicle if we need to and fly it manually."

The data sent down from the UAV was used to build up a Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the surveyed land.

"It tells you the difference between 'green crops' that are photosynthesising and bare ground," explained Alan Gay, a senior research scientist at Aberystwyth University

"The more dense the crop, the less fertiliser you need to apply."

The information is useful because over-application of a fertiliser can result in pollution when it runs off into water courses; and, of course, under-application will result in lower than anticipated yields.

"We know you can get good maps of this sort from manned aircraft but it's so difficult to get an aircraft to the field you need it in, at the time you need it there; and it's also very expensive," said Mr Gay.

"UAVs can operate much more flexibly."

Data-driven

Robot planes are becoming well established above the battlefield, monitoring enemy positions and even firing on enemy targets; but their civil and commercial applications are also on the rise.

US meteorologists are flying them into storm clouds; and Italian volcanologists are studying active volcanoes from the safety of their aerial robots.

Mr Gay said the UK team would like next to use remote sensing to gather vegetation information on upland farms, to advise livestock-holders where best to graze their sheep.

"We can see UAVs extending a long way because we know that it's useful for monitoring forestry and detecting disease in crops," he said.

"We can see quite a sea-change in farming, to it being based on real measurements rather than being based on some guesswork."

Via BBCNews

BMW Motorrad becomes the first motorcycle manufacturer to launch a range of models with lowered suspension

BMW Motorrad has good news for riders who prefer a lower seat height, but do not want to compromise on model choice. BMW Motorrad has once again led the way by becoming the first motorcycle manufacturer to launch a range of models that can be ordered with lowered suspension – to provide customers with lower seat height options.

Feedback from female, novice and shorter riders confirmed that controlling a machine can be difficult at slow speeds, especially when riding motorcycles with a higher seat height. BMW Motorrad already offers a lower seat as a factory-fit option for most of its models (at no extra charge), but some riders require their seat to be lower still. Motorcyclists feel more secure when they are able to place their feet firmly on the ground, especially under stop-start conditions. BMW's new lower suspension bikes will ensure that more riders are able to do this - naturally, comfortably and safely.

As an example, the lowered suspension option currently available on the F 800 S and ST bikes, reduces the seat height from the standard 840mm to 760mm. This option was launched in 2007 and a staggering 45% of BMW customers have since taken advantage of this opportunity when ordering their new machine.
The six models that can be ordered with lowered suspension are: the sporty F 800 S, its sports touring derivative the F 800 ST, the ‘naked’ R 1200 R roadster, the top selling R 1200 RT touring machine and the new F 650 GS and R 1200 GS enduros.

The iconic R 1200 GS was often associated with taller or more confident riders due to its ‘long-travel suspension’ enduro style and generous ergonomics. The bike’s adjustable standard seat offers a seat height of either 855mm or 875mm. However, with the introduction of the new lowered suspension option this model can now be ordered with a seat height of just 790mm, making this popular all-rounder available to a much wider spectrum of riders.

All of the BMW factory-engineered lowered suspension bikes come with a low seat, but the actual lowering modification from the standard machine varies from model to model. Bikes such as the F 800 ST come with a shorter rear shock absorber and front forks which have been lowered through the yokes. Boxer engined models, such as the R 1200 RT and R 1200 GS, achieve the lower positioning by adding a shorter strut to the front and rear shock absorbers. The Telelever settings have been changed.

The factory fitting of lowered suspension costs an additional £90 on the purchase price of each model.

Tony Jakeman, Marketing Manager of BMW Motorrad UK said: “BMW Motorrad focuses on engineering that offers the ultimate in motorcycle design. Models and options that continue to improve rider safety and enjoyment are a paramount consideration. Launching our extensive range of lowered suspension models continues our strategy of offering bespoke motorcycling to riders, whilst also making our models more attractive to a wider range of customers.”

Via Autoarabia

Sony Show Bravia ZX1 The Tinniest LCD TV In The World "See The Video"

The Bravia ZX1 measuring 9.9 millimetres deep is one example of the evolution of flat panel TVs being revealed at the Berlin IFA trade fair.

TV technology is proving to be one of the main themes at the fair, with Philips and LG also highlighting advances in the viewer experience.

Via Reuters

In Online Ayeurvedic Supplements The Toxic Metals Pop Up

Loosely translated as "wisdom for living," Ayurveda is an Indian tradition dating back 3,000-5,000 years using spirituality as a backdrop for healing the body from the inside out. Mainly used in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, Ayurveda has long been celebrated as the most continually practiced system of medicine throughout the globe. Focusing on a balance between a person's mind and body as well as striking harmony with the nature around the body, Ayurveda strengthens life's energies instead of tackling symptoms individually like western medicine tends to perform. Like western medicine, however, Ayurveda is practiced with subsets specific to different functions of the mind and body. There are two types of Ayurveda that are usually performed, that of using just herbs to cure the body and one using herbs in conjunction with gems, minerals, and metals, known as rasa shastra.

In August-October of 2005, the Boston University School of Medicine ordered 193 randomly purchased online supplements from five different search engines, 60 percent from American companies and the rest from Indian retailers to test their levels of toxicity for lead, mercury, and arsenic. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association where the study was published, over 20 percent of the herbal remedies tested held high levels of toxins.

The authors note, "Metals may be present due to the practice of rasa shastra." The herbs for rasa shastra were more inclined to have lead and mercury in them than those that were designated for the strictly herbal form of Ayurvedic medicine. Dr. Robert B. Saper, who led the study at Boston University, wasn't surprised that over 41 percent of the herbs containing dangerous levels of metals were intended for rasa shastra purposes. Saper and his team wrote, "Several Indian-manufactured rasa shastra medicines could result in lead and/or mercury ingestions 100 to 10,000 times greater than acceptable limits."

One in five of all U.S. and Indian manufactured supplements contained metals. Of the U.S. originated brands, 95 percent contained an above-average level of metal that exceeds daily intake values approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of these, 75 percent were purported to have Good Manufacturing Practices, an FDA safety regulation. Since 1978 there have been more than 80 documented cases of lead poisoning across the globe, and more cases of nervous disorders, brain and blood diseases as a result from exposure to lead. Even though most herbal remedies are intended for adult use, 4 percent of the 193 tested were marketed for children and that's hard to swallow.

The good news is that most of the manufacturers under the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) had less supplements with a risk of containing metals. The president of the AHPA, Michael McGuffin, is confident that his company lets their members know that there are high levels of metals in plants and within the soil that shouldn't be ignored by the manufacturer.

So how do you trust the internet to give you safe, effective, healthy alternatives to drug stores and pharmacies? Check out the FDA's Online Consumer Guide to acquiring safe online medications, only use approved AHPA www.apha.org sites with regularly updated health information, and contact your local online distributor. McGuffin suggests that buyers call their manufacturers, "Ask tough questions. If you call a company and ask what their limits are for lead, and the representative says they don't know, that's a red flag." The FDA may have to look into a better way to regulate their Good Manufacturing Processes and should be stricter in approving businesses, especially those with an internet base. If consumers aren't careful, they could be swallowing mercury with their morning orange juice or serving arsenic up with dinner.

Via Health news

Link Between Benign Skin Cancer And The increase Risk for More Serious Cancers

Non-melanoma skin cancer, formally known as basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma, is the most commonly developed skin cancer affecting 1 million people in the United States each year. It is often easily detected and, when treated properly, has a cure rate of 95 percent, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. This type of cancer rarely spreads to other parts of the body, but it can extend below the skin to the bone and cause considerable local damage. Doctors already know that non-melanoma skin cancer places people at high risk for developing additional skin cancers, but new research indicates it may also increase the risk of developing other malignancies in the body.

A team of researchers led by Jiping Chen, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute and Anthony Alberg, Ph.D., MPH, associate director for cancer prevention and control at the Hollings Cancer Center of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston looked at the data from a 16-year study involving 19,174 residents in Washington County, Maryland; 769 with non-melanoma skin cancer and 18,405 who were cancer free. After measuring and comparing the cancer risk of the participants, they found that individuals aged 25 to 44 who suffered from non-melanoma skin cancer were 2.6 times more likely to develop other types of cancer later in life, compared to those who never experienced the disease. In addition, the younger a person developed non-melanoma skin cancer, the higher their risk of developing other cancers.

Among the cancers likely to be contracted, melanoma was the most common, with eight times the risk, but there was also an increased risk of developing lung, colorectal and breast cancers. Prostate cancer was also linked but the association was not statistically significant. "It seems like non-melanoma skin cancer, even though it is a non-fatal disease, may be a warning sign for increased risk of other, more serious cancers," Dr. Alberg said.

Researchers speculate that part of the reason for the increased risk is that some people have difficulty repairing DNA damage, which make them more susceptible to environmental irritants and more likely to develop cancer. Furthermore, patients who have survived non-melanoma skin cancer are visiting their doctors regularly for follow-ups and are therefore more likely to be diagnosed with other cancers. "A personal history of non-melanoma skin cancer may be more a part of personal health history than we thought before," said Dr. Alberg.

Margaret Karagas, associate director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School, told ABC News that this study could provide a "useful model" for future cancer research, listing radiation and arsenic among the cancer-causing agents that were initially discovered because they caused skin cancers. "It is also important because in many parts of the world it appears to be one of the most rapidly increasing cancers," she said.

Another study led by Jennifer Christian from the VA Medical Center and Brown University found that patients taking blood pressure-lowering drugs called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) had a 39 percent lower risk of developing basal cell skin cancer and a 33 percent lower risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer. The researchers say it is unclear why these drugs lower the risk of skin cancer.

Non-melanoma skin cancer is commonly caused by excessive exposure to the sun's UV rays. It starts in the top layer of skin and usually appears as a small, shiny bump or module on the skin, mainly on the areas exposed to the sun, such as the head, neck, arms, hands, and face. You can reduce your risk of developing skin cancer by applying a water-resistant sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher, one that protects against both UVA and UVB rays, 20 to 30 minutes before going out into the sun, and reapplying it every hour or two. You should also avoid prolonged exposure to the sun's rays, especially between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., which is the hottest part of the day. And remember that early detection is of the utmost importance, so if you notice any signs of skin cancer, notify your health care provider right away.

Both studies mentioned above were published in the August 26 online version of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Via Health News

First Steps For DLNA

The promise of DLNA is to let users view and listen to content (including music, photos and movies) stored on any certified device on any certified product. If you have a Blu-ray player in the living room, you will be able to watch a movie in the bedroom and so on, and do it without having to deal with the hassle of configuring it all. But we aren't there yet.

Sony's upcoming TV lineup includes models that have been DLNA certified, for example the W4500, letting users view JPEG photos and listen to MP3 music stored on, for example, a Vaio laptop. Sony demonstrated that set up at IFA.

"Still it's kind of a primitive version of DLNA," said Hiroshi Sakamoto, vice president of TV marketing at Sony Europe.

Sony doesn't have support for video streaming, which will come in 2009, according to Sakamoto. Another missing piece of the puzzle is built-in support for wireless networking in TVs. Today, wired Ethernet is the name of the game. Users can add an adapter to get wireless access, but it's only a question of time before Wi-Fi shows up in TV's.

"We are discussing that, I can't make a clear comment," said Sakamoto. Why it hasn't happened yet comes down to both cost and quality, according to Sakamoto.

Getting all of the pieces together doesn't guarantee that anyone will use DLNA systems. Few consumers know what DLNA is and what it can and can't do, and the industry still has a lot of work to do when it comes to convincing users of the benefits. When Sony's DLNA TVs show up in shops the company will also add promotional material on its Web page, which at this stage is a better advertising method than, for example, large campaigns, according to Sakamoto.

DLNA won't connect the mass market anytime soon, Christmas 2009 at the earliest, according to Sakamoto.

Via Pc World

Advanced Image Detection Prototypes Developed By Toshiba

Toshiba is using this week's IFA electronics show in Berlin to show off some of its latest image detection technology currently being worked on at its laboratories in Cambridge in the U.K.

One example is a gesture control system that allows for interaction with a TVs interface through hand movements.

It watches for a person to come into its field of view and, once recognized, looks for their hand. Once the hand is identified, the user just makes a fist and can then wave it around in the air as if controlling a mouse. A cursor on the TV interface moves across the screen mirroring the user's fist movements.

The gesture control prototype is being shown a few steps away from a display showcasing Toshiba's new Qosmio laptops that are the first products to include some of the same technology. The laptops feature an earlier version of the system that allows for limited interaction through hand gestures but works in much the same way. Users make a fist to move a cursor on the screen and then raise their thumb to perform a mouse click.

"The major difference with the Qosmio is that it's just smoother and more advanced tracking technology," said Kate Knill, manager of interaction technology at the laboratory, speaking of the research prototype on show. It is also much better at picking out a single user from a crowd and keeping locked on them rather than getting confused by the hands of other people in its picture, she said.

Having developed the prototype to this stage, Toshiba is working on ensuring it will function in real-world situations and sees one possible use for the technology as a secondary interface to a TV in addition to the conventional remote control.

A second video-based system is a pattern recognition system that has a video camera mounted above a TV screen watching for a card -- in this case a German or British flag -- as a cue to change the language on a video that's playing on the TV.

Toshiba sees several possible applications for the technology in the future, including, for example, a children's learning game where kids have to find the correct card in response to a question or instruction on-screen.

The same system could be used to recognize TV viewers and present them with personalized information or switch to their favorite channel when they walk in the room, said Knill.

Via Pc World

Li-ion Residential PV Energy Storage Project is Launched By Saft, Conergy and Tenesol

Click To Enlarge

Saft, Conergy and Tenesol have launched SOLION, a Franco-German project to develop an integrated energy storage system able to be produced on an industrial scale for decentralized on-grid, residential PV systems. This project will introduce large lithium-ion batteries into PV systems on the largest scale yet tested in Europe.


Saft is responsible for the design and the manufacturing of the storage system. The storage function (battery) design will be based on Li-ion battery modules which will be connected in series to obtain the energy and voltage required by the application.

Each module will include an electronic board for data acquisition (voltage, temperature, ..) and cell balancing in order to optimize the battery life time and to allow charge/discharge control, state of charge measurement, etc.

This electronic board will be connected to the system management which will pilot the battery. The interfaces will be developed both with Tenesol and Conergy. Saft will deliver the batteries both to Conergy and to Tenesol, who will produce the other components and will assembly the SOLION product (battery + inverter + system management).

The role of energy storage in an on-grid application—such as that of a residence with solar panels connected to the grid—is to store excess PV energy until it is needed. Effectively, energy storage will 'time-shift' PV energy produced during the day, peaking at noon, to make it available on demand. This will both maximize local consumption and enhance the efficiency of the PV system. Surplus energy can also be fed back into the grid, for which the owner of the PV system would be remunerated at a higher tariff.

Energy storage will also increase security of supply while making individual consumers less dependant on the grid and help to boost the development of energy self-sufficient houses and buildings and contribute to the continuous growth of PV as part of the global energy mix, according to the partners.

The main benefit of on-grid energy storage for utilities is that it will reduce the peak load on their grid while at the same time making PV a source of predictable, dispatchable power that they can call on when needed. Reduced grid losses ie the energy lost by transporting power from a centralized generator to the point of use will result in some energy savings. Savings due to reduced consumption in PV powered households are anticipated to be 10 to 20%.

Seventy-five systems will be deployed—25 in Germany and 50 in France. These trials will validate the performance of the system, its economic viability, the added value of energy storage in an on-grid PV system and the benefits for stakeholders.

Conergy AG is a leading solar enterprise in Europe and with over 70,000 solar systems installed also a global market leader in the field of solar system integration. Tenesol, created in 1983 is one of the first PV system manufacturer and integrator in France. The company, today a joint-venture (50/50) of EDF and Total, is addressing markets worldwide mainly in grid connected applications but also for off-grid in developing countries regarding professional applications and rural electrification.

SOLION has been recognized by the Eureka/Eurogia and Tenerrdis programs, and is supported by the French Ministry of Economy Finance and Employment (DGE) and the German Ministry of Environment (BMU). A German utility (E-ON), three German research institutes (ISEA, ISET & ZSW) and one French research institute (INES-CEA) are associated with this project.
Via Greencarcongress

Mini Projector For IPhone "iPhone Dock"

This docking station has a built in mini projector that will beam out an enlarged screen of the iPhone or iPod on any surface!

The dock is capable of a projection of up to 15″-37″ at a resolution of 640×480 pixels with a contrast ratio of 200:1.

Besides the built-in projector, the dock comes with standard docking features such as the standard iPod connector and speakers.

the Sound Lives Earphones is the solution for noise pollution

Now you can service your crazy USB device fetish and ignore the haters at the same time using Thanko's new Sound Lives Stereo Earphones. The USB-powered earphones feature a small external microphone designed to pick up and cancel ambient noise, thus allowing you to rock out in peace. The earphones can last up to fifteen hours on a single USB charge and only cost $18, meaning these are better suited to noise pollution plagued gadget fiends rather than true audiophiles.

Via dvice

First Carbon Fiber Wheels

In the world of racing, weight is the enemy of acceleration. For that reason, anything that can be done to reduce the total weight of the vehicle by a reasonable amount usually is. Wheels are often the starting point when it comes to weight reduction and since every pound counts why not make them as light as possible? If you are in the market for extremely lightweight wheels, Weds Sports may have just the thing to satisfy you craving.

Weds is an aftermarket company based out of Japan and he recently developed a set of wheels made completely out of carbon fiber. The total weight of a single wheel comes out to about 6.1lbs. Which means a full set will only weight in at 24.4lbs.

To bring that into perspective, the average 15in steel wheel weights about 16lbs, adding up to 64lbs for a full set. A set of full carbon fiber wheels will save you 39.6lbs. I should also add that the wheels seen in the pictures are most likely larger than 15in. I would guess in the 17in or 18in range.

If you think a set of these are in your future, you should also take into consideration that they cost between $10,000 and $12,000. I guess the cost of winning can get pretty high.

Via Inventorspot

DriveSavers Stays True to Data-recovery Roots

DriveSavers takes data recovery seriously. So seriously, in fact, that the company recently installed a $2 million cleanroom complex in its Novato, Calif., headquarters. In this 2,000 square foot facility, DriveSavers can unseal and open up hard drives for diagnosis and repair without dust-borne contamination assaulting the now-naked spinning platters and swiftly seeking head assemblies.

Hard drives are delicate machines-even the tiniest speck of dust can render them inoperable. Destructive dust, however, has been effectively banished from the new Class 100 cleanroom, allowing DriveSavers engineers to open, repair, and begin data recovery of ailing hard drives without fear of damaging them further.

As impressive as the new facility is, the value of its specialized equipment and precision tools pales in comparison to the most critical element in DriveSavers' data-recovery arsenal-its experienced and tenacious engineers.

Engineering as a healing art

Like medicine, the healing of a sick storage system is as much an art as it is a science. And like doctors, the DriveSavers engineers consult with one another, confer on courses of treatment, and take their work very seriously. They even have their own version of the Hippocratic oath's central tenet, "Do no harm." As cleanroom manager and 12-year DriveSavers veteran Ed Sit put it, "If it's not broke, don't break it more."

In DriveSavers Class 100 cleanroom, hard drives can be operated with their cases open without fear of being contaminated by drive-destroying dust.

"Do no harm" is more than a slogan at DriveSavers; it's the basis of the company's workflow. When a sick storage system is brought into the company's hardware hospital, it's given a preliminary examination in what Sit refers to as the "triage area." After diagnosis, 95 percent of ailing drives are sent into the cleanroom for disassembly, repair, and preliminary data recovery. There, a team of seven veteran engineers transfers the drive's data onto another drive after repairing the malfunctioning drive using parts from an on-site, 20,000-drive inventory. After the sickly drive has yielded its raw data, it's no longer part of the workflow-it's laid aside, and all further recovery work is done on the data now moved to its clone.

The recovered data is then transferred from the clone to DriveSavers' immense and highly secure storage network, which includes 65TB of 24/7 online storage, with another 100TB of near-line backup. Due to the sensitivity of much of the data that DriveSavers saves-clients include major financial services, Hollywood filmmakers, and the U.S. Government-the company has deployed a Cisco Self-Defending Network architecture to keep even the most resourceful hackers from snooping.

Reassembling files

Electrically grounded coveralls, hood and mask, safety glasses, and latex gloves: the all-day uniform of a cleanroom engineer.

After the physical repair and data-collection has been performed by the cleanroom team, the recovered raw data is reassembled into files by what DriveSavers refers to as its "logical group." Here the often-tedious detective work of file identification transforms what director of Mac/Unix engineering, Mike Cobb, describes as "just ones and zeros" into its anxious owner's customer records, financial data, or digital media.

Cobb, who will celebrate his 15th anniversary with DriveSavers next Valentine's Day ("This was my new girlfriend and we haven't broken up yet," he says), is a file-recovery fanatic. "It may take a couple of months. It may take a year. But I'm going to get it," Cobb says about reconstructing a drive's contents. When asked what percentage of file recovery was luck, he responds, "Is it luck? No. It's the knowledge that I'm not going to give up."

Luckily, most data-recovery operations take only days and not the worst-case year to which Cobb referred. But recovery is getting more difficult.

Take the sheer number of files on a typical hard drive, for example. "Here's a fun stat," Cobb says. "Back in 1994-95, the total number of files on a hard drive with the System on it was around 48,000-if that. Leopard starts with 540,000 files before you even enter your name."

Today's files aren't always straightforward data buckets, either: Enterprise IT systems often encrypt sensitive files, so DriveSavers trains and certifies its engineers in common encryption technologies.

Also, hard-drive engineering has progressed over the years. While this has made life better for hard-drive owners-higher capacities, faster performance, longer drive life-steadily increasing complexities and closer tolerances have made drive repair dicier. "Back in 1994 when I started, most things were corruption, or electronic, or slight mechanical problems," Cobb recalls. "Hardly anything had to go into a clean room in that year."

Complexities are increasing

Times have changed in other ways, as well. Today the new cleanroom hosts more than simple, straightforward hard drives. Into it now come RAID arrays, NAS (network-attached storage) and SAN (storage-area network) devices, tape drives-even such solid-state devices as USB drives, Memory Sticks, and digital-camera cards. PC and storage system manufacturers are also making life more difficult for the cleanroom engineers by subtly modifying the firmware in the hard drives they install in their products-the exact same Seagate hard drive, for example, may have different firmware in a Dell system than it does in one from HP.

But Sit, DriveSavers' cleanroom manager, takes the increasing challenges in stride. If fact, he seems to relish them, and credits his team-oriented approach for keeping DriveSavers on top of the changing landscape. "Some of the guys are better at firmware, some of the guys are better at component repair-and then there's my solid-state guy, who rocks," Sit says. They're also productive: "Each guy may touch ten recoveries a day; I've got seven guys in here; 70 a day; I can do 1,400 a month."

Sit also cites the culture of continuing improvement among his team. "In earlier years different symptoms were impossible, but now we've resolved them. What was once impossible is now an easy fix." For example, he says, "I used to think platter swaps were impossible, and now my guys do them routinely."

Even when Sit thinks a drive is too far gone for repair, "These younger guys just say, 'Let me have at it.'" Like doctors, they're curing ills that were incurable just years ago.

A legacy of Macs

DriveSavers engineers repair clients' ailing drives by cannibalizing parts from the cleanroom complex's inventory of 20,000 healthy drives.

DriveSavers traces its history back to 1985, when co-founders Scott Guidano and Jay Hagan were working at the Mac-focused hard-drive vendor Jasmine. When Jasmine went under, Guidano and Hagen (now DriveSavers' president and CEO, respectively) took over its tech-support line, and began repairing Jasmine drives. Simple drive repairs such as replacing power supplies grew into data recovery, and soon the team was working on drives from other vendors, from PCs, Unix boxes, and more.

But Macs were central to the data-recovery effort then, and remain so today. Cobb recalls that when he was hired, Hagan told him to spend as much money as needed to get the best computers for data recovery. So he bought six Mac SE/30s-at more than $4,000 each. Today, the hallway outside the logical lab at DriveSavers is full of Mac Pro boxes-the company just added 40 new Mac Pros to the mix-and the lab itself had a broad array of Power Macs, Mac minis, and more. Why use Macs as the main tool, even for PC and Unix jobs? "Because I love Mac," Cobb says.

Macs promise to be the backbone of DriveSavers' data-recovery efforts well into the future-and as file sizes grow, as professional content creators continue to migrate to digital media, and as enterprise-level IT departments and data centers offer more and better customer-targeted digital services, that future promises to be increasingly lucrative for DriveSavers.

The key word there is "lucrative." DriveSavers' services aren't cheap-and they aren't for the everyday user, seeing as how the average price for a typical data recovery is about $1,500. Prices vary based on how quickly a client needs their data to be recovered, the operating system that created and managed the files, and the capacity of the affected system-if it's a complex RAID 5 or Xsan setup, the fee may run to many thousands of dollars. However, if a company's data is irreplaceable, if its business would be dealt a devastating blow by the loss of its records, or even if an average-if deep-pockets-user can't bear the loss of that digital video of their child's first steps, DriveSavers might be a life saver.

So backup your files-and DriveSavers can help you with that chore, as well. As Lynda Martel, DriveSavers' director of marketing pointed out, "Every drive that goes back after recovery goes with tips on how to backup your data and protect it from data loss," despite the fact that if everyone kept current, off-site backups of all their important files, DriveSavers would have little reason to exist.

With most users being dangerously cavalier about backups, however-and with the probability that anything that can go wrong, usually will-it's safe to assume that DriveSavers' future is assured.

[Rik Myslewski has been writing about the Mac since 1989. He has been editor in chief of MacAddict (now Mac|Life), executive editor of MacUser and director of MacUser Labs, and executive producer of Macworld Live. His blog can be found on Myslewski.com.]

Via Pcworld

Grow your own home: Malleable roots are shaped into useful objects for both indoors and out

Tolkien's hobbits would feel right at home in new dwellings made out of living tree roots and designed to protect inhabitants from earthquakes. The homegrown architecture is just one of many eco-structures a new company hopes to roll out worldwide.

The concept of coaxing living trees into useful objects, sometimes called tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or eco-architecture, isn't new. But now engineers and plant scientists from Tel Aviv University have taken their leafy designs to the next, and more practical and playful, level.

Pilot projects under way in the United States, Australia and Israel include streetlamps, gates and playground structures made entirely from trees, as well as hospital park benches that grow their own foliage for shade.

A home built from trees, the researchers said, would be a natural storm protector. "After earthquakes and after tsunamis the only structures that still survive are trees," said Yaniv Naftaly, director of operations at Plantware, a company founded in 2002. Naftaly told LiveScience the same sturdiness should apply to tree-made homes.

Eshel and TAU colleague Yoav Waisel are working with Plantware to commercialize the leafy designs. The team found that certain tree species grown aeroponically (in air instead of soil and water) have roots that don't harden. Once the malleable, so-called soft roots grow long enough in the lab, they are molded around metal frames in the shape of a playground or park bench.

Then the root tips get tucked into the ground, a process that triggers so-called lignification in which the roots start to harden and grow thicker and thicker. The leafy buds supported by the roots begin to grow taller and bushier.

In the near future, they say, entire homes will be constructed with the eco-friendly technology. An engineer by trade, Plantware's CEO Gordon Glazer hopes the first home prototype will be ready in about a decade. The first playground could take root as early as next year.

Via Msnbc

Researchers: Why it's so hard to swat a fly?

The brains of flies are wired to avoid the swatter, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

At the mere hint of a threat, the insects adjust their preflight stance to flee in the opposite direction, ensuring a clean getaway, they said in a finding that helps explain why flies so easily evade swipes from their human foes.

"These movements are made very rapidly, within about 200 milliseconds, but within that time the animal determines where the threat is coming from and activates an appropriate set of movements to position its legs and wings," Michael Dickinson of the California Institute of Technology said in a statement.

"This illustrates how rapidly the fly's brain can process sensory information into an appropriate motor response," said Dickinson, whose research appears in the journal Current Biology.

Dickinson's team studied this process in fruit flies using high-speed digital imaging equipment and a fancy fly swatter.

In response to a threat from the front, the fly moves its middle legs forward, leans back and raises its back legs for a backward takeoff. If the threat is from the side, the fly leans the other way before takeoff.

The findings offer new insight into the fly nervous system, and lends a few clues on how to outsmart a fly.

"It is best not to swat at the fly's starting position," Dickinson said. Instead, aim for the escape route.

Dickinson, a bioengineer, has devoted his life's work to the study of insect flight. He has built a tiny robotic fly called Robofly and a 3-D visual flight simulator called Fly-O-Vision.

Via reuters

To protect them Canada wants more study polar bear

Knut Picture

Canada, criticized by environmentalists for not adequately protecting polar bears from the effects of climate change, said on Thursday it will take more time study its next step.

A scientific panel on Thursday released detailed findings of an April review that classified the bear population as a "special concern," but not endangered or threatened with extinction.

The government has created a national round table to consult with a variety of groups, including residents of the Arctic, on how best to protect the bears, Environment Minister John Baird said.

"Protecting the polar bears is something we are committed to, but we going to base it on science and with input and collaboration with Inuit and northern people," Baird told reporters in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

Canada is home to about two-thirds of the world's 25,000 polar bears.

The animal is the symbol of the country's vast northern region, with the metal of Northwest Territories' license plates even stamped in its silhouette.

The United States said in May it was listing polar bears as a threatened species. Baird said Canada was cooperating with U.S. officials on studying how best to protect the animals.

Some green groups say Canada falls short by not matching the U.S. declaration, which was prompted by fears that global warming was destroying the ice needed by the bears to survive.

But Canada's Arctic Inuit people say the bear population is not in as much trouble as some fear, with the most serious problems more localized in nature, and they complain further restrictions on hunting will hurt their communities.

Designating the polar bears as threatened would require prohibitions like bans on hunting and destruction of habitat.

The U.S. Geological Survey said last September that two thirds of the world's polar bears could be gone by mid-century if predictions of melting sea ice in the Arctic hold true.

Via Reuters

Cuba: Gustav hurricane becomes Category 3

Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a major Category 3 storm on Saturday as it moved over warm Caribbean waters toward western Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Just before 6 a.m., the storm had maximum sustained winds near 115 mph (185 kph), making it a Category 3 storm on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

Any storm packing winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph) is ranked "major" by the Miami-based hurricane center.

The storm, which killed up to 77 people in the Caribbean, is still on track to strike the heavy concentration of U.S. oil and natural gas platforms off Louisiana. The most likely track has it going ashore west of New Orleans on Tuesday.

While long-range storm forecasts are prone to errors, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said late Friday that Gustav could become a Category 4 storm within 48 hours.

In the hurricane center's latest advisory, it said six to 12 inches of rain could fall across the Cayman Islands and central and western Cuba, where flash flooding and mudslides were possible.

One to three inches of rain could fall over the Florida Keys and the southernmost parts of Florida by Sunday morning, it said.

U.S. emergency officials, mindful of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, warned that Gustav was expected to be accompanied by a 15- to 30-foot (5-to-9 meter) storm surge along the Gulf Coast, and said four states in its potential path were expected to begin large-scale evacuations on Saturday.

"This storm has the potential for being a very dangerous storm," said Bill Irwin, a program director with the U.S. Army Corps

Oil prices slipped on Friday after a week of volatile trading due to Gustav's threat to the 4,000 Gulf platforms that produce a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.

Energy companies evacuated offshore workers and shut production in preparation for the most serious Gulf storm since the devastating 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

Katrina was a monstrous Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before coming ashore near New Orleans as a Category 3 on August 29, 2005, breaching protective levees and flooding the city famed as the birthplace of jazz.

The devastation exposed deep poverty, racial tensions and federal incompetence as thousands of people were left stranded without aid. About 1,500 people were killed on the U.S. Gulf Coast and $80 billion in damages made Katrina the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed it, also wrecked more than 100 oil rigs.

In New Orleans on Friday, officials paused their Gustav preparations to mark the Katrina anniversary with a symbolic burial for more than 80 victims still unidentified three years later.

Louisiana authorities warned residents to prepare to evacuate and laid on transportation for those who do not have cars. Federal officials say the levees are stronger but gaps still exist that make vulnerable some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Katrina's floods.

In the British territory of the Cayman Islands, which has not completely recovered from a near-direct hit by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, residents scurried to make last-minute purchases but only a few gas stations remained open as Gustav's rains began on Friday afternoon.

The streets of the capital, George Town, were mostly deserted, a stark contrast to the traditional weekday bustle of the financial services industry hub.

Energy traders also watched Tropical Storm Hanna, 240 miles

north of Puerto Rico. The storm was moving west-northwest with maximum sustained winds at 50 mph (85 kph) and it could be near hurricane strength by Sunday.

Via Reuters

The first time lasers used in keyhole surgery for brain cancer

Professor Alexandre Carpentier speaks during a press conference at the Pitie-Salpetriere
hospital in Paris. In a ground-breaking advance, French neurosurgeons on Friday said
they had successfully treated brain tumours through ultra-keyhole surgery,
using a tiny fibre-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.

In a ground-breaking advance, French neurosurgeons on Friday said they had successfully treated brain tumours through ultra-keyhole surgery, using a tiny fibre-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.

Alexandre Carpentier of the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris said the exploit was "a world-first" in its use of multiple advanced techniques and of local anaesthesia rather than general sedation.

So far, eight volunteers have been treated in the pilot programme, launched December 2006, Carpentier told AFP.

"They were suffering from metastasing brain tumours caused by various cancers, mainly lung and breast cancer that failed to respond to conventional treatment and were otherwise inoperable," he said.

Doctors had given the volunteers only three months left to live, on average.

Under the pioneering technique, a minute hole three millimetres (0.12 of an inch) wide was drilled into the skull, allowing the surgeon to introduce a water-cooled fibre-optic laser into the brain.

The device was gently guided towards the tumour area with the help of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.

Every three seconds, a computer workstation calculated the temperature at the area being burned by the laser to ensure that there was no dangerous overheating and to confirm that only tumorous cells were being destroyed.

The patient received only a local anaesthetic, remaining conscious in order to be able to speak to the medical team to help verify that cerebral functions were not being harmed.

However, "the patients feels nothing during the operation and generally can leave hospital 14 hours later, the evening or the morning after the operation," the surgeon said.

The results are "conclusive," said Carpentier.

Treating the patients completely requires two or more bouts of surgery, and there had been no cases of cerebral bruising or epilepsy.

So far, six of the eight have completed the full programme. Of the six, five have not had a relapse -- a return of cancerous cells to the brain -- at a nine-month monitoring point.

"This is the first time that laser technology has been used intracranially, meaning inside an enclosed skull, using MRI in real time to avoid collateral damage," said Carpentier.

"This is the forerunner of future techniques in which MRI will play a core intervention role in neurosurgery."

The pilot trial, reported in the latest issue of the US journal Neurosurgery, was carried out under the supervision of the French Health Products Safety Agency (Afssaps).

It drew on advanced technology supplied by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and a Texan company, BioTex Inc., which specialises in the use of lasers for medical therapy.

Via france24

A participating car in the eco-friendly "Grease to Greece" rally makes its way to central Athens. Fuelled only by used cooking fat

Fuelled only by used cooking fat, eight teams completed a 2,500-mile car rally from London to Athens on Wednesday in a bid to promote awareness of cheap and environmentally-friendly bio-fuels.

The "Grease to Greece" race, the brainchild of 34-year-old Londoner Andy Pag, took the teams on a 10-day mission across Europe in which they begged oil to fuel their cars from restaurants, motorway cafes and fast-food joints along the way.

"There is no reason why Joe Public cannot do this, save themselves a bit of money and help the environment because they are not using fossil fuels," Pag said.

The race ended on Wednesday with a ceremony at the British Embassy in Athens where Ambassador Simon Gass presented a Golden Lard award to the team which had earned the most "Grease Marks" for collecting fuel.

Unlike expensive conventional rallies such as the Paris-Dakar, Pag paid only 500 British pounds ($900) for his second-hand Peugeot 405 and spent nothing on fuel since leaving London -- saving the equivalent of what he paid for the car.

An experienced eco-traveler, Pag drove to the desert town of Timbuktu in Mali last year using a truck powered by waste chocolate. His next scheme is a round-the-world trip next year using aviation fuel made from recycled plastic bags.

Racers received a warm welcome from most restauranteurs.

"Whenever people have had oil they have been really, really willing to give it. It's a waste product for them so we are taking away their rubbish," Pag told Reuters.

The competitors in the race included a policeman, several engineers, farmers, a film editor, and an accountant.

Farmers Coleen and Mario Chadwick drove to Athens in their unconverted Range Rover, using used cooking oil sieved through kitchen equipment. They plan to keep driving on cooking oil from their local primary school once they return to England.

Pag's red Peugeot was converted to run on cooking oil using an kit produced by Britain's Regenatec.

"Demand for this technology is rocketing," said Adrian Hensen, whose company sells bio-fuel equipment. "With petrol prices so high, lots of people are looking for ways to reduce their fuel bills and this is a fantastic way to do it."

Via Msnbc

2009 BMW 3-Series The car that defines its category gets a facelift, and so everyone pays attention.

Powerful and aggressive, compact sports sedans offer all the car you need if the focus is on the driving experience instead of pampering passengers. And since the segment's ancient progenitor, the 2002, BMW's small sedans have virtually defined the genre. Today's 3-series is still the car that everyone else tries to emulate, but facing an onslaught of competition from a sportier Mercedes C-class, a more Germanic Lexus IS, and a strongly improved Audi A4, the BMW 3-series actually needs to fight to retain its position.

A Significant Face Lift

This mid-term face lift comes a bit early, and it is fairly extensive by BMW's standards. Clearly visible changes include a new front bumper with friendlier-looking lower air intakes. The front grille loses its effeminate eyebrows, and the hood gains two pronounced creases, similar to those on the now-departed Z4 M versions. The front lighting units are accentuated with LED turn signals encased in a cool-looking grid. The taillights offer a similar effect, and their outer shape has been altered to match those of the 3-series coupe. The headlights regrettably keep their odd shape, despite the M3 sedan having demonstrated that the coupe's simpler headlights work perfectly with the four-door body. Wider aluminum wheels accentuate the car's width, and a new side-view mirror design apes the two creases on the front hood.

Inside the 3-series, shapes and controls are mostly carried over, but materials are upgraded to alleviate the somewhat stark overall appearance. The iDrive system has gone through another round of simplifications. The navigation menu looks suspiciously similar to Audi's MMI system; a few useful buttons let you bypass the system. We don't exactly love it now, but it's user-friendly enough not to make you run anymore. You can still skip iDrive altogether by not ordering a factory-installed navigation system.

New-for-U.S. Monster Diesel, Other U.S. Engines Unchanged

Engines remain unchanged, with the exception of the second most powerful diesel, the 330d. We tested this formidable, 242-hp powerplant coupled with a six-speed manual. The 330d performed extremely well, pulling strongly enough—even above 130 mph—to make sports-car drivers weep. Unfortunately, it won't come to the U.S., but that's okay: we'll get the 335d instead, positioned one notch above the 330d. It has an identical 3.0-liter displacement, but adds two turbochargers and produces 265 horsepower and a fearsome 425 lb-ft of torque, the latter available as low as 1750 rpm. Compare that with the M3's 295 lb-ft of torque, and you get a clue as to this diesel's attraction. Just keep the windows closed: the interior is well-isolated, but outside, you still get treated to a distant, unsexy memento of your father's diesel-powered Oldsmobile.

On the other hand, you'll want to roll the windows down as often as possible in the other twin-turbocharged 3-series – the 300-hp, 300-lb-ft 335i, powered by a 3.0-liter gasoline inline-six. We drove the 335i before the facelift many, many times and are happy to report that the car remains just as delightful in this newest iteration. This unchanged powertrain is exceedingly capable, with instant power on tap up to its 155-mph cutoff.

Via Car and driver

Seat is to launch its hot-hatch Ibiza Cupra at the Paris Motor Show in October.

It'll get the VW Group's 1.4 TSI engine, complete with twin turbos to give 180bhp, and the new seven-speed DSG sequential-shift gearbox with steering wheel-mounted paddle-shifts.

Styling touches include larger 17" wheels, bigger bumpers, a centrally-mounted trapezoidal exhaust tailpipe and larger air vents plus Cupra badging and bespoke interior detailing with bucket-style seats and aluminium pedals.

The suspension has been stiffened and lowered, and stability control is standard-fit. Prices will be announced nearer to the on-sale date, towards the end of the year.

At the other end of the Ibiza scale, Seat will also launch a new-generation low-emissions, high-economy Ibiza Ecomotive in Paris. This will come with the 80bhp 1.4 TDI diesel engine and particulate filter, bringing carbon dioxide emissions down to below the 100g/km mark, say sources.

As with the previous Ibiza Ecomotive, this - and a near-75mpg fuel consumption figure - has been achieved through modifications to gear ratios, aerodynamics, engine management and the fitment of low rolling-resistance tyres.

Via channel4

BlackBerry Wins Versus Windows Mobile For Google Apps Mail

After a flawed experience with one of the first Windows Mobile-based Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q's, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) outfitted me with a Samsung SCH-i760 smartphone which, from an industrial design perspective, is one of the best designs for a smartphone I've ever experienced (more on that in a second). Unfortunately, integrating WinMobile 6.0's version of Outlook with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Apps-based Gmail was so problematic that I gave up in favor of a company-furnished BlackBerry. BlackBerrys are rumored to work well with Gmail. But is that really the case and why doesn't stuff like this just work? It's an interop nightmare.

Ideally, when you integrate your mobile device with your e-mail, it shouldn't be too much to ask to keep your folders in sync between the two. The same goes for the "state" of each e-mail item. For example, if I open an e-mail with my mobile device without deleting it, it should appear as though it we're opened when I look at it on my PC (and vice versa).

Likewise, I should be able to delete a mail on the e-mail client of my choice (Mobile Outlook or otherwise) using the client's method for deleting mail and everything should behave predictably. With Mobile Outlook and Gmail using the IMAP protocol (the only of the mail access protocols that supports folder synchronization), I can't use Mobile Outlook's delete command because that moves it to a folder called "Deleted Items." IMAP-based synchronization then forces the replication of that folder over on the Gmail side of things and unfortunately, Gmail's deleted mail folder is named something completely different: "Trash".

To me, interoperability problems like these are tolerable. I just worked around them. But most people would never put up with this sort of crap. It should just work (and work well for both e-mail and calendaring). But, what really got under my skin was the parade of error messages from Mobile Outlook that synchronization had failed and that I should check the settings to make sure I have them set correctly. Sometimes, it worked famously well. Other times, it would fail miserably, leaving a dialog box on the screen that would lock Mobile Outlook up until I manually cleared it (it should clear itself after some amount of time and simply retry).

I gave up. Windows Mobile, it was good to know ya.

Though it's the best thing going and Gmail is one of the few online e-mail services that supports it, IMAP is, for all intents and purposes, a busted protocol and there isn't much that Google or the various e-mail client providers (mobile or desktop) have done to overcome its weaknesses. Maybe the new version of Mobile Outlook on the newer smartphones (like the new Treo) works better. I kind of doubt it since the latest version of Windows Mobile isn't Windows Mobile 7 (due in 2009).

My sense now is that nothing mobile (BlackBerry included) will ever work as well with a Google Apps-based Gmail account as Google's forthcoming Android mobile OS probably will. Yes, I've heard the iPhone is worth looking into. If only AT&T offered a consistently good signal in my house. It doesn't. One important sidebar: when certain mobile devices work better with certain back-end services (e.g.: Windows Mobile with Exchange, Android with Gmail, iPhones with iTunes, etc.) and some of those choices end up aligned with specific mobile operators the way the iPhone is aligned with AT&T, it's a very bad sign that silos and walled gardens are forming. I'm praying the economic forces of openness will reign supreme. But it's not looking good.

All this said, I do have one thing to say about Samsung's SCH-i760 smartphone. With a regular phone keypad on top and a slide-away QWERTY keyboard underneath, the numeric keypad stays active when going into QWERTY mode so that I don't have to engage any FN or modifier keys to type numbers. I just move my fingers from the QWERTY keyboard to the numeric keyboard and back again. The design is brilliant and I'll be sorry to see that go.

BlackBerrys -- even the ones with the full QWERTY keyboard -- require you to press a key modifier button to switch certain buttons from letter to number mode. Thankfully, the BlackBerry often (not all times) intuits when it should automatically modify those keys (like when entering a phone number). Windows Mobile rarely did this (actually, this sort of keyboard intuition has always been one of the BlackBerry's most endearing features to me).

When my company-furnished BlackBerry 8700c arrived, the first thing I did was load it with a Gmail client that Google makes especially for the BlackBerry. I was very excited and looking forward to perfect interoperability. But I was crushed to find out that it only works with standard Gmail accounts and not Google Apps-based Gmail accounts. For Google Apps-based Gmail accounts, Google recommends using the mobile Web interface which isn't (and may never be) nearly as robust what an actual e-mail client can do (especially in a mobile browsing situation).

Unfortunately (because of the signal issues), all company-furnished phones are provisioned by AT&T (NYSE: T) (*sigh*). But fortunately, AT&T runs what I'm guessing is the equivalent of a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and it can be pointed at any online e-mail service, including the Google Apps version of Gmail.

A BES server is what many companies use to keep their users' BlackBerrys perfectly in synch with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes e-mail and calendaring servers. For mobile operators, their BES (or BES-equivalent) does the same with the popular e-mail services like Yahoo and Gmail. In fact, whereas Gmail is very picky about how it is accessed by e-mail clients, requiring manual resetting of ports and such, I was simply amazed at how AT&T's Web site asked for nothing more than the address of the inbox I wanted to keep in sync and the password for the inbox. AT&T took care of the rest.

Well, almost.

Copies of certain e-mails that I draft are unpredictably replicated to my BlackBerry as though some of the contents (not all) in Gmail's Sent Mail folder belong in the Inbox on the BlackBerry side of things. At first, this was happening with all sent mail until I configured the BlackBerry to not include Sent Mail. But some of my Sent Mail still squeaks through and I haven't figured out why. Also, the "Opened" and "Unopened" states of my e-mail aren't correctly synced and I'm not sure why that is, either. But, overall, the situation is significantly better than it was on Windows Mobile 6.

If you've had a nightmare or total success being your own personal mobile integrator (or, you think I overlooked something in my criticisms), then please share your story with me and other InformationWeek readers by using the comments section below.

Via Informationweek

Toshiba launch a TV based on the powerful Cell processor in the second half of 2009

Toshiba is planning to bring the powerful Cell processor into consumer electronics and launch a TV based on the chip in the second half of 2009, it said Friday at the IFA electronics show in Berlin.

The Cell chip sits at the heart of the PlayStation 3 games console and was developed by Toshiba, Sony and IBM to handle multimedia tasks that required plenty of processing. Each chip contains a single Power PC core and eight co-processors.

Toshiba and Sony have talked about putting the processor into consumer electronics devices for several years. Toshiba demonstrated a Cell-based TV at the CES show in Las Vegas in January but IFA marks the first time that the company has provided a time frame for launch.

"The Cell TV will be released to the Japanese market in autumn 2009," said Nobuhiro Kato, manager of Toshiba's embedded system core technology development department. "For the European market we will release it as soon as possible after Japan. We are planning it for the U.S. but the launch timing is not decided."

During a demonstration at IFA Kato showed how the TV is able to take a single high-definition TV program and analyze the content to create chapters then display several of the chapters simultaneously in windows on the screen for easy navigation.

In four small windows at the bottom of the screen, down-converted high-def streams of four chapters play while in the background filling the screen the selected high-definition video plays. The function requires the Cell chip to simultaneously decode five high-def TV streams -- something that is beyond the capability of many other chips.

In other demonstrations, the Cell chip was put to use handling real-time upconverting of a standard-definition video signal to high-definition and zooming in on a high-definition video. It was also shown streaming 48 standard-definition chapters from a video program for navigation.

Whether the demonstrations at IFA make it in to the first Cell TV set remain to be seen, but if they are anything to go by, the TV should be capable of some quite complex multimedia tasks.

"In the future we would like to create new applications using this feature," said Kato.

Via Pcworld

Samsung Aims at Apple With Its Lightweight X360 Laptop

Samsung came out all-guns-blazing at this week's IFA electronics show in Berlin with its lightweight X360 laptop that appears targeted at Apple's Macbook Air.

The X360 has a 13.3-inch screen like the Macbook Air and was unveiled at a news conference entitled "Lighter than Air." And according to specifications it meets that claim. The X360 weighs 1.27 kilograms, which is 90 grams lighter than the Apple machine. That difference is about the weight of a standard cell phone.

It doesn't appear as thin as Apple's machine although Samsung didn't provide external measurements. But given the competitive nature of the X360 launch, the specifications would likely have been disclosed had they been a level beyond the Macbook Air.

But that's about where the comparisons should end because Apple's machine is based on its own Mac OS and the X360 will run Windows Vista. There are few buyers who would likely consider them both and go on to make a buying decision based on physical specifications.

The X360 is based on Intel's Core 2 Duo processor and there's a 128G-byte SSD (solid-state drive). SSDs are based on flash memory and should allow PCs to start and shutdown faster than laptops with hard-disk drives. The screen offers 1,280 pixels by 800 pixels resolution. Other features include a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11n wireless LAN, 3 USB ports, HDMI (high definition multimedia interface) connector and Express Card slot.

Battery life on the X360 is between 6 hours and 10 hours depending on usage, according to Samsung.

It will be launched in September in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia and Hong Kong. Pricing and launch details for other markets were not announced.

Therapy curbs insomnia in dialysis patients

A type of psychotherapy called cognitive-behavior therapy, or CBT, seems to reduce insomnia and fatigue and improve the overall quality of sleep in patients undergoing dialysis treatment, a study shows. CBT can be an effective non-drug therapy for dialysis patients with sleep problems, the investigators say.

Dialysis is a procedure that people with failing kidneys must undergo in order to remove toxins from the bloodstream. More than half of people with advanced kidney disease receiving dialysis treatment suffer from insomnia and other sleep disturbances.

Sleep disturbance in dialysis patients is a "puzzling and prevalent complaint," study chief Dr. Hung-Yuan Chen from National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, told Reuters Health. "However, only hypnotics are available for clinicians to solve this problem at present."

Given that CBT has been proven effective for chronic insomnia in the elderly and in patients with cancer or chronic pain, Chen's team investigated the effect of CBT on sleep disturbance in patients with insomnia who were on dialysis for longer than 90 days.

All 24 study patients received "sleep hygiene" education before the 4-week study, and 13 of them were randomized to an intervention group that also received four 1-hour-weekly psychiatrist-led CBT treatment sessions. Participants who were on low-dose hypnotics long-term before entering the study were maintained at the same dose during the study.

After 4 weeks, there was an "impressive" trend toward improvement in sleep based on standard tests, although the results were not statistically significant, the team reports in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Nearly 80 percent of patients in the CBT group experienced favorable changes in their sleep habits. Fatigue was also less of a problem for the CBT patients.

The CBT group but not the control group also saw declines in levels of a blood protein linked to inflammation called interleukin-1-beta.

The current study, Chen and colleagues say, provides "novel evidence" that treating dialysis patients with insomnia with CBT, in addition to an extreme low dose of hypnotics, "may not only improve sleep quality and daytime fatigue, but also alter levels of circulating biomarkers of inflammation in this population."

SOURCE: American Journal of Kidney Diseases, August 2008

The New IMPRINT RLS at the British Motor Show

The one-off concept car features an Alpine sound system fine-tuned by the inventor of THX - Star Wars creator George Lucas' ground-breaking sound system.

The IMPRINT RLS is a heavily modified Mercedes Benz R500, stripped down and rebuilt into a futuristic body shape.

The sound system features four ten-inch subwoofers and six amplifiers in a custom motorised rack which rotates out of the back of the vehicle.

Other modifications to the car include accelerator and brake pedal relocation to allow the car to be driven from either front seat, motorised front seats and a unique rotating assembly which allows the rear 'suicide' doors to swing into the vehicle with the rear seat attached.

The interior of the car has been designed to give the best possible sound conditions for Alpine's IMPRINT sound technology, which analyses the car's acoustic properties and automatically tunes the system for optimal sound processing.

Talkaudio.co.uk online editor Adam Rayner said: "It's bonkers. The Americans really have raised the bar in terms of car audio with this one. Normally, the audio system is tuned to suit the car, but this is the other way round – the car has been built around the sound system."

Via autotrader

The all-new Lotus Evora has been unveiled to the world at the 2008 British Motor Show.

Initially codenamed 'Project Eagle' the Lotus Evora is the first all-new model from the Norfolk car maker for 13 years and took just 21 months to develop.

Powered by a mid-mounted 3.5-litre Toyota-sourced V6 engine, the Lotus Evora produces a 276bhp.

While Lotus hasn't revealed performance figures, it's anticipated the Evora will accelerate from 0-62mph in less than five seconds and be capable of a top speed in excess of 150mph.

Lotus claims the Evora is a "real character in a faceless society", and launched the car to a soundtrack of haunting music, and a host of characters with their faces removed. Proton - who owns the British company - have described the Evora as 'the greatest ever Lotus'.

As with all Lotuses, a lot of effort is focussed on the car's handling, so weight is kept down with an all-aluminium body, while a rear spoiler and splitter are designed to increase downforce and make the car more stable at speed.

The Lotus Evora is known as a 2+2 so it does have rear seats. However, it seems there is very little room in the rear for a child let alone adult.

Lotuses have been renowned for having basic interiors which serve as little purpose as possible in order to keep weight down. But the Evora's inside has a far higher level of quality and is a big step forward for the Norfolk company.

With a new level of comfort offered, Lotus is hoping to take customers from the likes of Porsche.

The Lotus Evora is the first car to be produced as part of the British car maker's six year business programme which will see the launches of two more new cars - including a new Esprit.

When it goes on sale towards the end of 2008, the Lotus Evora is expected to cost around £50,000.

Via Autotrader

Microsoft buys the owner of popular European price comparison website ciao.com.

Microsoft has agreed to buy Greenfield Online, owner of popular European price comparison website ciao.com, for about $486 million to boost its Internet search and e-commerce business in Europe.

Microsoft, whose $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo earlier this year failed after a long battle, said on Friday the acquisition -- the latest in a series -- should help it build a more consumer-friendly, results-oriented search engine.

"We call it 'instant answers'," said John Mangelaars, head of Microsoft's consumer and online business in Europe. "I hope it's getting very clear that we've very serious about EMEA," he added, speaking to Reuters by telephone.

Internet search is dominated by Google, which has 62 percent of the global search market and 79 percent in Europe, according to Web usage tracker ComScore.

Microsoft has a 2 percent market share in Europe and 9 percent worldwide, behind both Google and Yahoo. In Europe, Microsoft is also outranked by online auction site eBay and Russia's Yandex.

But Mangelaars said buying ciao.com was an important step in Microsoft's attempt to distinguish itself by providing search results more useful to consumers, particularly shoppers, than those thrown up by a Google search.

For example, results of a Microsoft search for a particular camera model could include which prices were available from which retailers, and maps of where those retailers were, rather than just links to the manufacturer's and retailers' websites.

The acquisition follows those of Norwegian enterprise search company Fast for about $1.2 billion early this year and shopping-and-auction site jellyfish.com for an undisclosed sum last year.

Caio.com is active in seven European countries and attracts 19.6 million unique visitors per month in Europe, more than twice as many as rival kelkoo.com, according to ComScore, thanks to its large network of members who contribute product reviews.

To attract more users, Microsoft also plans to reward consumers who buy products through its shopping sites by giving them cash back, extending a trial started in the United States a few months ago.

"Google's trying to do all your search needs. What Microsoft is doing with this kind of acquisition is saying: 'We're going to be very good at the commercial side of search, the shopping'," said Forrester principal analyst Rebecca Jennings.

Herve le Jouan, ComScore's managing director, Europe, agreed. "Doing this shopping thing, I think, is a good move," he said, but cautioned that acquisitions alone would never bring Microsoft close to Google's market share in search.

"Nobody is able to compete right now with Google so there is nobody to buy to compete with Google," he said.

Microsoft's Mangelaars acknowledged the distance Microsoft had to cover, especially given the commercial edifice rapidly being built by online advertisers whose models depend on Google's particular view of the Web.

"It's a race," he said, "but we also believe it's very early days in search technology."

Microsoft's offer of $17.50 per share betters an earlier proposal by media-focused U.S. buyout firm Quadrangle Group to acquire the company for $15.50 a share, and represents a slight premium to Greenfield's closing price of $17.25 on Thursday.

On August 26, Greenfield had said it had received a $17.50 per share offer but did not reveal from whom. The latest offer represents a premium of about 10 percent over Greenfield's closing share price on August 25.

Microsoft said it had agreed to sell Greenfield's main business, which surveys consumer opinion online and sells the results to market researchers, to an unnamed financial buyer.

The companies expect both deals to close during the fourth quarter of 2008. Completion of the Greenfield sale to Microsoft does not depend on Microsoft's disposal of the online survey business, the two companies said.

Via Reuters

China advertising firm is offering people across the country up to 1 million free bicycle rides a day

China advertising firm is offering people across the country up to 1 million free bicycle rides a day, as part of a scheme that will run until 2010. After registering their ID cards, cyclists can pick up and drop off their Ibike Media bikes at any of the firm's service stations.

People can rent the bikes for up to four hours at a time, Li Yi, a press officer with the company, said. The company has 110,000 bicycles, which are available to borrow in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Jinan, Changzhou and Changsha, he said.

Each bicycle could be used by 10 people a day, which makes up the 1 million rides, Li said.

Most of the service stations are located in local communities, and near metro stations and universities.

Via Greencarcongress

2008 Nissan Cube e-4WD The Squarest Car On The Planet

It's 65.8 inches wide and 65.0 inches tall. The boxy second generation of this little economy car was introduced in Nissan's home market in 2004, but like Admiral Yamamoto's fleet, it never made it to U.S. shores. A new third-generation Cube, however, is headed here in 2009. To check out the shape of this particular thing to come, we ran the current Japanese-market Cube through the C/D meat grinder.

As you'd expect, it's adorably cubelike. But along with the dimensional symmetry comes a distinct asymmetry in the design. For one, there's no glass on the driver's-side D-pillar, and for two, the passenger-side glass wraps around to the tailgate.

The Cube is small. Its 146.9-inch length is only 0.7 inch longer than that of a Mini Cooper S and more than 20 inches shorter than the length of that other automotive box, the Scion xB. But being nearly 10 inches taller than the Mini and using all of its width, the Cube is more spacious inside. Passengers sit upright, like in a chair. In the rearmost position, the back seats offer comfortable accommodations, and they also slide forward to make more cargo space. The seats are covered in a rattan-like fabric that feels more suited to an apartment than a car.

It's appropriate, then, that the Cube converts into a makeshift living space. The front seats—a two-person bench—fully recline and meet up with the rear seats (which partially recline) to create a giant chaise lounge perfect for hormone-crazed teenagers (as long as they're not yours) to get their swerve on or for an out-of-work mortgage banker to use as a temporary domicile.

Whether or not you need to hide the shame of living in your car, the Cube has plenty of bins to hide your stuff. We noticed two glove boxes with a shelf in between, two bins in the center of the front seat (one in the armrest and one in the seat bottom), a small shelf under the steering wheel, and a tray next to the steering wheel. The emergency jack and inflation kit are stashed under the floor of the rear-seat footwells.

Our Japanese Cube is powered by a 95-hp, 1.4-liter inline four-cylinder driving the front wheels. Supplemental traction is provided by an electric motor on the rear wheels (called e-4WD by Nissan) that's powered by an engine-driven generator. Since the device sucks power from the engine, it doesn't help acceleration. There's an optional 107-hp, 1.5-liter engine, but we doubt the extra 12 horses would do much to rejuvenate the lethargic Cube. Around town, the Cube can keep up with the flow of traffic, but to get up to highway speeds it's almost Smart-like in its torpor, although the Cube's extra size makes overtaking howling semis less nerve-racking.

Unlike the Smart, the Cube is a fully usable car underneath its toylike appearance. And unlike the Americanized Scion xB, the Cube has the oddball, whimsical sense of design found in cars available in the Japanese domestic market but mostly absent from cars sold here in the U.S.

If the current version is any indication, the upcoming Cube should start below $15,000 and deliver more than 35 mpg during highway driving (our observed figure of 22 mpg reflects the fact that we had to drive flat-out to keep up with traffic). All the U.S.-bound version needs is a bump in power over that of the current Cube and an extra gear or two in its transmission. Any other changes might dilute the inherent charm that comes from the Cube's combination of delightful eccentricity and high usability.

Via caranddriver

Ford Redesign 2010 Ford Mustang Pony Badge

Ford's iconic Mustang is due for a significant update for 2010, and while Ford is still holding back images of the freshened pony car itself, it has revealed an official image of the studly steed that will grace its grille.

Compared with the outgoing badge, the new pony has been working out: it's more angular and defined, its head has been raised a bit and its neck tilted into the wind "to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance." Proportions are also more realistic, Ford says. Base Mustangs will wear badges with a tinted chrome finish, while GT models will be available with a black chrome finish. "It's just a faster-looking steed," said George Saridakis, design manager for the 2010 Mustang.

This is the fifth iteration of the pony badge that has been leading Mustangs down the road since 1964, although it disappeared from the Mustang's exterior between the years of 1979 and 1994.

"Like the upcoming restyled Mustang, the new pony is more defined, more muscular and sure to catch the eye of Mustang enthusiasts," Ford said in its official release.

Let's just hope they put this much attention into the car itself.

Via Caranddriver

Male fertility could be damaged by heated seats

Men pondering prospective fatherhood should switch off their car's heated seats according to new research that suggests using warmed-up seats can seriously affect male fertility.

Previous studies have suggested that male fertility may be affected by long-term wearing of tight underpants and trousers, and use of laptop computers, because of raised temperatures in the scrotum.

Raising scrotal temperature beyond the natural 35.5 degrees (slightly below body temperature for the rest of a man's body) affects sperm production, and can damage the quality of the sperm and its swimming ability. Heated car seats typically raise scrotal temperatures to 37.3 degrees, researchers found, with one subject heated to 39.7 degrees.

Hyundai is to show a petrol-electric Sonata saloon at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

This will have new-generation lithium-ion batteries, and be based on the facelifted-for-2009 version of the Sonata. However, it will not reach production until 2010.

Hyundai is not importing the facelifted Sonata to the UK, where it has sold only in small numbers. Instead, it is waiting for its all-new large family-sized model, to be called i40. This comes to Europe in late 2010, and will be completely different to the US-market Sonata.

Hyundai is planning a Mondeo/Vectra-type range and, though a saloon will still be offered, the company expects the best-seller in the line-up to be an estate.

Via Channel4

Vauxhall has launched a version of the Astra that qualifies for tax band B (£35 a year).

The 1.7 CDTi Ecoflex emits just 119g/km and returns 62.8mpg, thanks to revised gear ratios, tweaks to its engine management and a lowered idle speed.

Weight has been reduced by 30kg, and aerodynamics improved by lowering the suspension and modifying the front air intakes and engine compartment panel. Low rolling-resistance tyres have been fitted. It produces 110bhp, and can still do 117mph.

Offered in three-door, five-door hatch and estate forms, the Astra 1.6 CDTi Ecoflex starts from £16,340. Low-emissions, low-tax Ecoflex versions of the Corsa 1.3 CDTi and the Insignia will follow next year.

Via Channel4

According to PEGI Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings has been approved for Nintendo DS and PSP

According to PEGI, which classifies all European video games, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings has been approved... for Nintendo DS and PSP. There is no sign of Xbox 360 or PS3 versions, however, the next-gen platforms the obscure game was announced for back in 2005.

It's been reported that Indiana Jones took a back seat to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, another game made by Lucas Arts, which will release for all major platforms later this month. Development of the former began earlier this year and is expected in 2009, suggests Eurogamer, but the official Indiana Jones website says its release on Xbox 360 and PS3 is "to be determined."

Via Game Pro

Take Some Risks In Gears 2 Story

Talking as part of an upcoming in-depth Gamasutra interview, Epic's Rod Fergusson, has been discussing the story evolution for Gears Of War 2, suggesting "we weren't as confident as we should've been" for the first game's story, and revealing the game will be taking "some risks, story-wise" for the sequel.

Fergusson, who is the senior producer for the Gears of War franchise explained his role alongside Cliff Bleszinski helping with Gears Of War canon as follows:

"I'm kind of the continuity guy; I'm the one reviewing the book, and reviewing different aspects to make sure it makes sense in our universe; and we have a story team on the game... to make sure that it works within the game."

As he notes: "Because the franchise has gotten so big that when you're worrying about comic books, and novels, and movies, and just continuity of the story bible; there's a lot more to worry about in Gears Of War 2 than Gears Of War 1, where we were just focused on gameplay."

So how do you keep everything together when your franchise backstory and story is rapidly expanding?

Fergusson suggests: "It's a matter of having that balance of keeping the world open enough for choice and growth and whatever direction you want to take it, but at the same time it needs to have enough information to feed all the different mediums who request something from you."

Most interestingly, the Epic team now seems comfortable enough with the franchise scenario and storytelling methods to get more sophisticated with how the game's narrative is told.

The producer notes: "In [the first] Gears Of War, it's been a long time since Epic did a story-driven game, and so we weren't as confident as we should have been in telling the Gears 1 story, and there were certain choices that we didn't take, because we just weren't confident that we could pull it off, or that people would believe it, so we backed off of that.

He concludes: "And now, with Gears Of War 2, and the success we had with Gears 1, we feel a little bit more confident about that. One of the things that I think people are going to take away... [is that] people are going to walk away from the game, at the end of this experience, and go: 'They took some risks, story-wise, and I'm really surprised in that.'"

The full interview with Epic's Fergusson on Gear Of War 2 and the expansion of the franchise will be published on Gamasutra in the near future.

Via Gamasuta