TB smoking toll 'could reach 40m'

Forty million smokers could die from TB by 2050, research suggests.

Smokers are about twice as likely to get the lung infection and die from it, compared with non-smokers.

Many of the new TB cases will be in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asian regions, according to projections published in the BMJ.

A lung charity said global efforts to fight TB are being undermined by the tobacco industry's "aggressive promotion" of smoking in some places.

Dr John Moore-Gillon is a TB specialist and honorary medical advisor for the British Lung Foundation.

He said: "It is nearly 20 years since the World Health Organization declared tuberculosis to be a 'global health emergency'.

"Since that time rates have risen rather than fallen, and smoking increases the risk of getting - and dying from - TB.

"Concerted international efforts are now under way to try and turn the tide of TB, but this important research shows that all these efforts may be undermined by the tobacco industry's continuing aggressive promotion of smoking in many parts of the world."

UNESCO puts controversial Obiang prize on hold, again

A research prize named after Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo — and funded by him to the tune of US$3 million — will remain suspended, following the latest decision in a saga, made at a UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) board meeting in France yesterday (4 October).

"The UNESCO board decided to put together a working group that will continue to consult on the prize, with a view to getting a final decision by April next year," a source at the organisation told SciDev.Net.

The UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences was agreed by the organisation's member states in November 2008 "in recognition of scientific achievements that improve the quality of human life".

The prize was first suspended in January 2010, just a few weeks before its inaugural winner was to be announced, following concerns over the human rights record of Obiang's regime. The African Union (AU) considered taking over the prize in August 2010, and UNESCO put it on hold indefinitely in October 2010.

The prize has been backed by African and Arab representatives at UNESCO, and Obiang secured a resolution in favour of the prize at an AU summit in June, which he hosted in in Equatorial Guinea, which currently holds the rotating AU chair.

A Paris-based diplomat said that by April, Obiang will no longer hold the AU chair, which will make it easier to break down the Africa consensus and reject the prize. Had the vote been taken this week, its proponents might have won, UNESCO diplomats said.

A number of African delegates said they were only supporting the prize because they did not want to be seen to be bullied by the UN system and Western states.

In her address to the board last week (30 September), UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova called on Equatorial Guinea to withdraw the prize as a way of protecting and preserving the organisation's reputation and its good relations with the scientific community, which does not support the prize.

But Kenneth Hurwitz, a senior legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, in New York, which organised a signatory campaign of eminent writers and activists against the prize, including many from Africa, described the deferment as "timid".

"UNESCO continues to drag its feet when it comes to taking a principled stance against creating a prize that honours a dictator," Hurwitz told SciDev.Net.

"The proper response to Obiang's shameless attempt at self-glorification is to abolish the prize once and for all, with the money to be used for high quality, affordable hospitals and schools for Equatorial Guinea's people."

Tutu Alicante, exiled from Equatorial Guinea and executive director of EG Justice, a non-governmental organisation, said "the UNESCO board needs to end this debate once and for all by rejecting this prize outright".

Mokhlesur Rahman's solo art exhibition in Rome

Mokhlesur Rahman's solo art exhibition, titled “Beautiful Bengal”, will open on October 8 at the Culture Association Utopia, Via degli Zingari in Rome. The Bangladeshi Ambassador to Italy, Masud Bin Momen, will inaugurate the exhibition, says a press release.

Rahman is one of the very few artists in Bangladesh, who are working on woodcut prints. He has been working in the medium for a while.

Rahman's preferred themes are romanticism and rural Bengal landscapes. Greenery, flora, fauna, mustard fields, moonlit nights, the unique hues nature takes on throughout the six seasons and the unparalleled beauty of rural Bengal appear in his works intimately and vibrantly.

Bangladesh slips in IT competitiveness global ranking

Bangladesh is losing ground compared to other countries in information technology, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) reported in its publication of 2011 edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit's IT Industry Competitiveness index.

Updated for the fourth time since 2007, the Index benchmarks 66 countries on a series of indicators covering the critical foundation areas for IT innovation: overall business environment, IT infrastructure, human capital, research and development (R&D), legal environment, and public support for industry development.

Topping the overall rankings for 2011 are the United States, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Bangladesh slipped 1 spot, ranking 63rd in the worldwide rankings due to a poor showing on indicators of overall business environment, the report said.

This year's Index finds that countries traditionally strong in IT are maintaining their positions of leadership in part because 'advantage begets advantage' they have built up solid foundations for technology innovation through years of investment and they are continuing to reap the benefits. But the global field of competition is becoming more crowded as new challengers, especially in developing economies, raise their games to meet the standards the leaders have set.

“It is abundantly clear from this year's IT Industry Competitiveness Index that investing in the fundamentals of technology innovation will pay huge dividends over the long term,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

“Bangladesh has slipped in this year's rankings because of its performance in the overall business environment,” said Roger Somerville, BSA senior director - Policy, Asia-Pacific. “In the years ahead, policymakers in Bangladesh have an opportunity to improve in that area. We know from global experience it will be worth the effort.”
"FROM www.thedailystar.net"

We will miss you Steve

This is not the story we had in mind to publish today. In fact last night I was writing a piece on Apple's latest iPhone that debuted on October 4. Little did I know that the man who co-founded that company and changed the world with the touch of technology just passed away. We'll probably run that story next week.

I received an SMS early morning from my colleague saying, “Steve Jobs no more.” Like many others, I was very shocked.

We all knew that Jobs had been battling an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and had received a liver transplant in 2009, but never thought he would leave us so early at the age of 56.

When Jobs stepped down as the CEO of Apple in August, he wrote in his letter of resignation: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

We knew he was ill, maybe he knew he wasn't going to live long, so he decided to put the company in the safer hands of Tim Cook, the present CEO of Apple.

Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene, and four children.

On October 4, CNN aired a documentary on Jobs; I learnt a lot from that show.

Jobs, one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley, who grew up there with his foster parents had founded Apple with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak. The two marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.

He left the company in 1985 and went on to buy Pixar, the company behind some of the biggest animated hits in cinema history including Toy Story, Cars and Finding Nemo.

He returned to Apple 11 years later -- at a time when it was being written off by rivals. What followed was one of the most remarkable comebacks in business history.

Starting off with the colourful iMacs, Jobs transformed the personal computing experience. Then came the iPod, which revolutionised the music industry. Not to mention the iPhone that changed the way we think about phones and of course, last but not the least, the iPad.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives … The world is immeasurably better because of Steve," a statement paying tribute to Jobs from Apple said.

Industry leaders also echoed the same, not to forget the tsunami of tweets and facebook statuses.

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, tweeted, “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely.”

In a statement Gates also said, "The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.”

US President Barak Obama said, Jobs was “brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world... talented enough to do it.”

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said, “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend … for showing that what you build can change the world.”

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop tweeted, “Steve's passion for simplicity and elegance leaves a legacy that will endure.”

Millions of Apple fans around the globe are also paying tribute to Jobs. Some are posting Facebook status with his quotes, some posting his photos on iPhones or iPads with candles.

From a company going bankrupt, Jobs brought Apple where it stands today. Apple was briefly the most valuable company in the world earlier this year. The company produces $65.2 billion a year in revenue, compared to $7.1 billion in its business year ending September 1997.

According to Guardian, Jobs leaves an estimated $8.3 billion, but he often dismissed others' interest in his wealth. "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful … that's what matters to me."

Steve Jobs revolutionsed computing and changed the world, there aren't many who can do that. The world will miss him a lot.

Engineers Build Smart Petri Dish: Device Can Be Used for Medical Diagnostics, Imaging Cell Growth Continuously

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2011) — The cameras in our cell phones have dramatically changed the way we share the special moments in our lives, making photographs instantly available to friends and family. Now, the imaging sensor chips that form the heart of these built-in cameras are helping engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) transform the way cell cultures are imaged by serving as the platform for a "smart" petri dish.Dubbed ePetri, the device is described in a paper that appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

First Images from ALMA Telescope: Hidden Star-Formation in Antennae Galaxies Revealed

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2011) — In celebration of the start of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array's (ALMA) Early Science observations, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has released an image of a merging pair of galaxies as seen by the growing ALMA telescope. The detailed views of star-formation in the Antennae Galaxies confirm that this new telescope, while far from completed, and with only a fraction of its ultimate imaging capability, will surpass all others of its kind.The image gives but a hint of ALMA's promise to make unprecedented contributions to understanding the once-hidden activities of the early Universe."We chose the impressive interacting system called the Antennae galaxies as a test subject," said Dr. Alison Peck, an astronomer from the NRAO who is serving in Chile as ALMA Deputy Project Scientist during its years of careful construction and rigorous testing, "because it is in the process of undergoing the type of spectacular, violent merger that many galaxies may have undergone since their formation, but that we can rarely catch in action."

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Samsung reveals Series 4 400B2B Samsung has recently reveal their latest Series 4 400B2B. This little notebook is aimed at the ultra mobile user who needs something compact and easy to take with them on the road, but with enough power to actually run business class apps. The operating system is Windows 7 Pro, and the not

Samsung reveals Series 4 400B2B
Samsung has recently reveal their latest Series 4 400B2B. This little notebook is aimed at the ultra mobile user who needs something compact and easy to take with them on the road, but with enough power to actually run business class apps. The operating system is Windows 7 Pro, and the not

Varied uses of a flute The innovative Rethey Tudu

Rethey Tudu, an octogenarian Santal of Dinajpur, has developed a new technique to put his six-holed bamboo stick to good use. The invention is now an inseparable part of his life -- as a flute, a walking stick and more.

“Sometime I use the stick for hunting too,” asserts the elderly man who lives in Maniyabhita Adibashipara of Biral upazila, Dinajpur. His tiny hut is his only worldly possession.

“I used to earn Tk 70-100 a day about a few years back by playing the flute, but now I'm at the end of my tether since my earnings have reduced to a trickle as more modern instruments have taken over,” says Tudu.

Locals who have heard the melodious tunes of his flute told The Daily Star that his flute used to touch the hearts of people even in distant villages. However, now he cannot make a living out of playing the flute because of his age, say the locals.

“My four-foot long flute now helps me to walk as well,” says Tudu, who at one time used to walk 10-15 km everyday to make a living.

“It's not an ordinary bamboo stick,” adds Tudu with pride, pointing out that it is also a means of self-defence at night.

At the age of 80 he still plays the flute twice a day to secure two square meals. “Please arrange an old age allowance card for me,” he appeals.