New Obama in Town

Fortune teller.... previously a parrot, now a "ROBOT"

As the time passes on and technology improves, we begin to feel it's impact on our routine lives. In Allahbad India forutune tellers have taken one step ahead by using a "ROBOT" instead of a parrot to tell future

"Sasha Fierce" Or Beyonce

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Just like the "Seinfeld" episode where George wanted everyone to call him "T-Bone," Beyonce Knowles would like to be known by a bold new name.
The R&B singer has christened herself "Sasha Fierce" for her new double album, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," due in U.S. stores on November 18, and has released a lengthy justification for the comical moniker.
"I have someone else that takes over when it's time for me to work and when I'm on stage, this alter ego that I've created that kind of protects me and who I really am," the former Destiny's Child frontwoman said in a statement.
"Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I'm working and when I'm on the stage."
Additionally, she has set up a cryptic MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/sashafierce) that gives a "lucky person" the opportunity to receive a personal message and a gift bag valued at $500.
As George found out, nicknames usually do not work when they are self-bestowed. His colleagues thought he should be called Koko the monkey. In real life, rapper Eminem had better luck with his alter ego "Slim Shady," which he said came to him while he was on the toilet.
Beyonce released her previous solo album, "B'Day," to coincide with her 25th birthday in September 2006. It debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart and yielded the No. 1 single "Irreplaceable."
"I Am ... Sasha Fierce" will be distributed by Columbia Records.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Official Gmail Blog: Watch videos right in Gmail chat

My friends always hate it when I multi-task in other tabs while chatting with them (they can tell because of my obviously delayed reactions...). But sometimes it's not my fault: if they send me a link to a YouTube video, I have to open another tab in order to watch it. To help with this, we've just added a new feature to Gmail chat: YouTube and Google Video previews. If you receive (or send) a link to a video in a chat message, you'll see a preview of the video right in your chat window.Click the preview, and the video will play right there. Just remember to say something every once in a while or your friends will probably catch on that you're enjoying the dramatic chipmunk more than their conversation...
Official Gmail Blog: Watch videos right in Gmail chat

Ahmad Hasan Dani Legendary Archeologist, Historian Dies

Legendary archeologist, historian and linguist, Dr. Ahmad Hasan Dani has passed away in Islamabad today at age 89; born on June 20, 1920.
Among Pakistan’s most noted authority on South Asian History and Archeology, Dr. Dani was author of several books and received national and international recognition for his remarkable work. He was under treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad where he died today.Dani has left behind his wife, three sons Dr Anis Ahmad Dani (World Bank), Navaid Ahmad Dani (PTV), Junaid Ahmad Dani (Action Aid), daughter Fauzia Iqbal Butt, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
An erudite writer of history and an evergreen tree of knowledge, Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani spent his entire life to establish a better world by providing his study of history, an attribute which made him an extraordinary scholar, at home and abroad.
Ahmad Hasan Dani was a key figure in setting up of several museums in Pakistan and his vast publications have set the pace for future course of action in this vital field in the country. Late Dr. Dani had been extensively engaged in excavation works on the pre-Indus Civilization site of Rehman Dheri. He also made a number of discoveries of Gandhara sites in Peshawar and Swat Valleys, and worked on Indo-Greek sites in Dir.
From 1985, he was involved in research focusing on the documentation of the rock carvings and inscriptions on ancient remains from the Neolithic age in the high mountain region of Northern Pakistan along with Harald Hauptmann of Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, University of Heidelberg. In 1990–91, he led the UNESCO international scientific teams for the Desert Route Expedition of the Silk Road in China and the Steppe Route Expedition of the Silk Road in the Soviet Union.
He was Emeritus Professor at the Quaid-e-Azam University and the director of Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations. Throughout his career, Dani held various academic positions and international fellowships, apart from conducting archaeological excavations and research. As a prolific linguist, he spoke more than 14 local and international languages and dialects (French, Turkish, Persian, Bangla, Pushto, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Tamil, Punjabi, Sindhi, Seraiki, Broshiski and Karoshti - apart from English and Urdu).

Reinstatement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan?

by Gul Bukhari —
‘The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind’. Like a storm the lawyers’ movement swept Pakistan in 07 uniting the country like never before. During the year it achieved remarkable successes, sending waves of euphoria through the country when finally the Chief Justice was re-instated in July. But it was not to last: with a terrible blow at the hands of a military dictator, the movement, together with the Constitution itself was struck down, chained and cuffed – Martial Law was imposed and the entire superior judiciary was sacked and imprisoned.
In February 08 the manacles’ keys were transferred to the newly elected democratic government. Then tragedy struck: the democrats threw away the keys. The Quran and Hadith had only enjoined upon them to make promises, not to keep them. The movement failed – it was only a storm pitted against a larger force no less formidable or evil than Tsunami itself. In another country on January 20th, 2009 the formidable Tsunami transformed itself from the God of Destruction to the God of Change and fresh winds started to blow. In Pakistan, the struggle for justice revived - but in 09 not to fail. It is no longer pitted against the Tsunami.

Urijah Faber defeats Jens Pulver in 1st round

After their classic fight at WEC 34 last June Jens Pulver and Urijah Faber went at it one more time. Faber (22-2) proved the first win wasn’t a fluke as he rocked Pulver (22-11-1) with some big shots and sank in a guillotine until the ref stepped in early in the first round.
Faber appears to be on the doorstep of a rematch with Mike Brown should he retain his title in March when he faces Leonard Garcia. After the fight Faber said to Brown after the fight “I want my belt, give me my belt”.
Pulver has now lost three straight fights in the WEC and you have to wonder what’s next for him. He was tearful in the post fight interview and wondered out loud if he was still relevant in the WEC but said “Fuck that. I’m not done”.

All Survive Jet's Splashdown in Hudson River

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 -- Darren Beck, a 37-year-old marketing executive, had just settled into Seat 3A of a Charlotte-bound passenger jet Thursday afternoon when he heard a sickening thump.
"We were gaining altitude, everything seemed normal, and there was a very, very loud bang on the left-hand side," he said in a telephone interview, hours later, from the unexpected venue of Manhattan's Pier 79. Beck watched aghast from his window seat as the spinning jet turbine began to kick and slow down, "almost like something was stuck in a washing machine."
"You'd hear thump-thump-thump-thump, and then the pilot came on, and all he said was, 'This is the captain speaking. Brace for impact,' " Beck recalled. The flight attendants, still strapped in for the initial ascent, "kept saying, 'Keep your head down -- brace for impact.' They said it over and over, chanting it."
Thus began the drama of US Airways Flight 1549, which was apparently crippled by a midair encounter with geese and ditched into the Hudson River within minutes of takeoff from La Guardia Airport. Facing life-and-death choices, the pilot steered away from a catastrophic crash in the Bronx or in northern Manhattan, but the 155 passengers and crew soon faced new peril as their 80-ton aircraft began to sink in the river's frigid gray current.
Scrambling for the exits and carrying the helpless, they perched ankle- and then knee-deep atop the wings as an improvised armada of tour boats and ferries streamed to their rescue. It was a race to escape before the listing Airbus A320, submerged already on the starboard side, disappeared.
Most of the passengers stood in shirtsleeves, fleeing without their life jackets, and a few fell into 36-degree water on a day when the air temperature barely reached 20 degrees. Some passengers began to wail, but witnesses described a scene of level-headed teamwork to evacuate the weak and infirm, including an infant and an elderly woman in a wheelchair.
Pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, who steered the aircraft to a skittering splashdown that left the fuselage intact, was hailed as a hero by aviation experts and political leaders including Gov. David A. Paterson, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and President Bush. The mayor said Sullenberger, as befits a captain, twice walked the length of the sinking plane to make sure he was the last to depart.
Molly Schugel, 32, who sat in a mid-cabin exit row, said screams were audible and that there was "definitely fear in the plane." But she and her seatmates used their last airborne moments to scan the emergency diagrams on the exit hatch.
"We're all studying the door, what to do," she said. "Every plane you fly has different handles. The guy next to me, soon as we hit the water, he opened the door within seconds, and we got out."
Schugel, a Bank of America executive, came to regret her choice of three-inch heels.
"They were very cute," she said, but they offered little purchase atop a wing slick with jet fuel and water. "We had to go out to the very narrow part to let more people out on the wing. I was trying to take them off, holding onto the lady next to me, and then I'm barefoot on the wing. I don't know if it was a wave or what, but I slid right off the wing into the water
Submerged to her shoulders and gasping, Schugel said she knew she would not last long in the cold. A stranger from the row in front of her, risking his own footing, reached to fish her out. Someone inflated the emergency ramp, but in the chaos, it overturned, and no one could clamber aboard.
Before police and Coast Guard vessels could respond, the Hudson's commercial flotilla converged on the scene. Ferry, tour boat and tugboat crews tossed life vests to the stranded passengers and began hoisting them up ladders. Soaked and shivering, Schugel had to plunge back into the river and swim a few feet to reach the first arriving boat. On deck, she then turned her attention to a fellow passenger who had suffered a deep gash in her leg and was bleeding heavily.
Grabbing a belt from one of the men, she recalled: "I tied it as tightly as I could, and we elevated her leg to stop the bleeding. The most amazing part was, I saw no pushing, no shoving. I saw nothing but help and compassion."
Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on West 46th Street, watched the events unfold a few hundred yards offshore from the deck of the decommissioned aircraft carrier. He said, "When you would think there would be profound chaos, there was profound calm."
Witnesses reported one engine in flames as the pilot banked south at the George Washington Bridge, lining up for a high-risk landing he could attempt only once. Moments before, he had reported a double bird strike in which geese clogged and snuffed out both his engines.
Sullenberger, the pilot, has an extensive background in aviation safety, according to his online résumé, with 40 years of aviation experience and about 20,000 flight hours in jets, propeller planes and gliders. He flew F-4 jets in the Air Force before beginning his civilian career, and now gives speeches on aviation safety, the résumé indicates
Safety experts expressed surprise that a commercial jet with modern engines could be brought down by a flock of birds. Bird strikes are common and cause tens of millions of dollars in damage to commercial aircraft but rarely lead to crashes nowadays.
Al Haynes, the pilot of a United Airlines DC-10 hailed as a hero for helping guide the stricken plane to a crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989, said Sullenberger and his co-pilot did a fantastic job keeping the plane away from populated areas. He said the crew was also lucky because the crash occurred during daylight and good weather.
"The water was the only choice he could make," Haynes said. "He had to make a quick decision, and I give him and his crew a lot of credit. The guy just did a tremendous job getting it onto the water."
By some amalgam of skill and providence, Flight 1549 came to rest smack in the center of converging ferry lines run by New York Waterway and Circle Line. "I could not believe what I saw -- 20 yards to the left or right, and it could have hit a pier or a building," White said.
Within minutes, White's telephone began to ring. The security staff at Bank of America, one of the Intrepid's biggest funders, said 22 of their employees -- Schugel among them -- were aboard the flight and asked for urgent help in caring for them.
Capt. Ed Weber of Circle Line tours said firefighters ordered him to steer his nearest boat, the Circle Line Manhattan, toward the sinking plane.
"They shot onto this boat really fast and said, 'Get out,' " he said.
Divers plunged bareheaded into the water. They searched inside and beneath the plane, then called the all-clear.
"It's a miracle," Weber said. "It's cold. I was freezing to death. I don't know how they survived."
Beck, the Lending Tree executive, said he had flown all over the world on business but never bothered to read the seat-pocket emergency cards. "I wasn't sure what to do" as the plane fell from the air, he said later. "I tried a few different positions. I ended up putting my arms on the chair in front of me and covering my head and face. All I could think about was that movie 'Airplane' where they say, 'Assume crash positions,' and everybody lays on the ground."
Shaking as he held his mobile phone, he summed up his afternoon: "Not that I'm an expert in plane crashes, it being my first one, but it went fairly smoothly."
Staff writers Heather Landy in New York and Del Quentin Wilber and Spencer S. Hsu in Washington and staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

Costa Rica rocked by earthquake

Residents of San Jose, Costa Rica, took to the streets today just after lunch as an earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter scale shook the capital city. Windows broke, walls cracked and landslides were triggered in the countryside but so far no casualties have been reported. 

The epicenter of the quake at 1:21 local time was just 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of the capital, the U.S. Geological Survey reports, and originated 8.6 miles (14 km) beneath the Earth's surface. Aftershocks have been reported throughout the afternoon.

Costa Rica is located in the middle of Central America and makes up part of the "Ring of Fire" circling the Pacific Ocean; it is home to several active volcanoes, including Poas, which erupted just last year and Arenal, which erupted in 2007. A similar strength quake in 1910 killed at least 700 people in the city of Cartago; more recently a temblor measuring 6.4 shook the capital in November 2004, killing eight. 

For more on such earthquakes and the surprising places they occur, see ScientificAmerican.com's guide to earthquakes.

Credit: USGS

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

We're Apple fans, but this is too funnnnnny.

Pink Panthers' trail glitters with jewels

Their timing was as impeccable as a tourbillon watch, a luxury timepiece whose name means whirlwind.

And after the diamond thieves disguised in women's wigs and flowing foulards had vanished, police detectives on several continents pondered a trail of more than €100 million in jewelry heists over the last four years and wondered whether the so-called Pink Panthers had struck again.

The whirlwind started near closing time, a favorite moment for diamond thieves to strike. As the second hand ticked, four men - three dressed as women with long blonde tresses, sunglasses and winter scarves - stood in front of an intercom and demurely requested to enter the deluxe Harry Winston jewelry store on Avenue Montaigne. It was a chilly evening within the golden triangle of boutiques that includes Dior, Chanel and Gucci, the ornate facades and trees resplendent with Christmas lights.

Buzzed in, the men rolled a small valise on wheels into the hushed inner refuge. Then they pulled out a hand grenade and a .357 Magnum. As Parisians strolled unawares past the store's wrought-iron gates, the robbers smashed display cases and barked out orders - and the names of some of the Harry Winston employees. They spoke French with strong Slavic accents.

Will Earth pass through the galactic plane in 2012?

Will Earth pass through the Milky Way’s galactic plane in 2012? And if so, what could that mean to Earth?

Much ado has been made of the winter solstice sun aligning with the galactic plane on December 21, 2012. But according to the computational wizard Jean Meeus (page 302 ofMathematical Astronomy Morsels), the solstice points were alignment with the galactic equator as recently as the year 1998.

In other words, the 2012 alignment isn’t unique. Consider the view from our local star, the sun. As seen from the sun, Earth crosses the Milky Way’s galactic plane (also called the galactic equator) twice a year, every year.

Or consider the view from Earth. As seen from Earth, the sun crosses the galactic plane – also called the galactic equatoron our sky – twice a year, every year. All of this is just part of Earth’s normal motion, as projected on our sky’s dome, as we travel around the sun and through the galaxy. Quite by coincidence, the ecliptic – the projection of the Earth’s orbital plane onto the stellar sphere – intersects the galactic plane near the solstice points. That’s why these points are so near each on our sky’s dome.

However, it’s true that the sun on the December solstice doesn’t return to the same exact spot in front of the backdrop stars every year. The solstice point slowly but surely moves westward through the stars at about one degree per every 72 years. (For reference, the sun’s diameter equals about 1/2 degree.)

Nine wins rights to Nigel Lythgoe show Superstars of Dance

AFTER a wild bidding war So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe has sold the rights to his latest TV venture to Channel 9.

The British personality was in Australia to film a segment for Channel 10’s So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) and pitch the format for new program Superstars Of Dance to commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten last month, settling on Nine’s offer. 

While Lythgoe and his professional partner Simon Fuller have harvested a strong working relationship with Ten through the Idol and SYTYCD franchises, in the end it was a case of money talks. 

“Despite very competitive bidding from all the local commercial networks, we are thrilled to have added this exciting new series to Nine’s slate for 2009,” said Nine’s head of acquisitions Les Sampson.