Facebook nixes rumours on copyright shift

Facebook is telling its users to ignore rumors spreading on the social network that they need to post a statement to protect their copyrights of their comments and other materials.
"There is a rumor circulating that Facebook is making a change related to ownership of users' information or the content they post to the site," Facebook said in a "fact check" notice on its website Monday.
"This is false. Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been."
The notice came after the copyright notice went viral -- suggesting that a posted statement was needed to protect copyrights on Facebook. The hoax had been around in the past but resurfaced after Facebook announced changes to its privacy policies last week.
Users began repeating these posts, which stated, "In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my
copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings,
professional photos and videos, etc...
This will place them under protection of copyright laws."
Warnings about the so-called "chain letter hoax" were issued as far back as June from the security firm Sophos and others.
And noted technology blogger Robert Scoble poured scorn Monday on those falling for the trick, saying on his Facebook page: "If you are posting about copyright on Facebook and you haven't done your research you are an idiot."

Neutrino - gate keeper of the Universe

Out of the hundreds of elementary particles floating around in the Universe, surprisingly the elusive neutrino holds clues to some of the most profound questions in astronomy. These chargeless, near-massless, structureless particles zipping around at nearly the speed of light have lately been in the headlines for violating the cosmic speed limit of 300,000 kilometers per second. Neutrinos (Italian for “little neutral ones”) come in three “flavors”: electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino.
The number of neutrinos moving freely throughout the Universe since the Big Bang is staggering, about 300 million in every cubic meter. The Sun and supernovae (exploding stars that have reached the end of their life) are the primary sources of neutrinos reaching us. Every second over 500 trillion solar neutrinos enter every square meter of the Earth's surface exposed to the Sun. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, about trillion neutrinos will pass through your body. But don't panic, they are inert and harmless; just “little bits of spin-energy that have got detached,” according to astrophysicist Arthur Eddington.
Why should we care about these furtive particles? Strange as it may seem, the intrinsic properties of neutrinos make them an influential player in the field of cosmology. They carry a wealth of information of great cosmic significance, about the high-energy events that produced them, deep secrets of the cosmos from distant galaxies and the remote past. They are essential in understanding what happened in the briefest moments after the Big Bang. They can tell us why the Universe contains more matter than antimatter. If they have mass, even if it is miniscule, it will be the dominant form of matter in the Universe.
Neutrinos act as telescopes and allow us to take a peek into the interior of the Sun. They are critical in understanding stellar evolution and dynamics of supernovae where heavy elements are produced. They are living witnesses of star birth and their violent death. Just like red shift and cosmic microwave background radiation, neutrinos have a tale to tell about the Universe of which they are part. Detection of neutrinos, therefore, is crucial if we want to have a handle on all of these and other aspects of cosmology.
It is notoriously difficult to detect these snippets; it is like looking for a needle in a giant haystack. Absence of charge makes them unresponsive to electromagnetic interaction. Lack of internal structure (no quarks) prohibits them from taking part in strong interaction. They cut through the Earth unhindered and move off to outer space. Only a slab of lead several light years thick will be able to stop these ephemeral particles. They announce their presence only through weak interaction associated with the radioactive break-up of a nucleus.
Occasionally neutrinos do interact with matter making it possible to capture a few of them if the detectors are large enough. Also known as “neutrino telescope,” the detector is a huge tank filled with large amount of liquid such as chlorine-rich cleaning fluid or heavy water. The liquid increases the chances for particle interaction. The detectors must be placed deep underground, beneath a mountain or inside a mine, so that only neutrinos can reach them. All other particles coming from outer space that could befuddle the detectors are blocked by the thick layers of overlying rocks.
The earliest detector built in 1967 is buried nearly a mile deep in a gold mine at Homestake, South Dakota. It was expected that out of the trillions of neutrinos that will reach the detector, the capture rate would be at least one per day. After more than two decades, it was found that on the average it trapped only one neutrino every three days. A more recent detector buried in a nickel mine in Sudbury, Canada revealed that the neutrinos on their way to the Earth can change flavor. The Homestake detector was tuned for only one flavor, the electron neutrino; hence the low count rate.
Clearly, the problem of detecting neutrinos is of immense proportions. We still have “miles to go” before we can say we are on the verge of solving the neutrino puzzle. However, the detection in 1987 of more than the expected number of neutrinos from a supernova explosion 168,000 light years away by underground telescopes in Japan and Ohio has infused new life into neutrino physics. Physicists are now more than ever inspired to build some of the most sophisticated detectors to find and unmask the guise of this gate keeper of the Universe.

The mobile computer boom

Analysts and industry pundits forecast that the notebook market, which has been growing faster than the desktop market for the past three years, is expected to overtake the desktop market by Q4 FY2011-12. A fall in prices, large deals from governments and institutions, and demand from consumers and sectors such as education are expected to help the notebook numbers.
According to both IDC and Gartner, Q3 FY2010-11 saw notebook volumes rise, and for the first time a million-plus notebooks were sold in India in a single quarter. The research agencies put the notebook numbers at around 1.11 million. As per Gartner, desktops grew by 5 percent in Q3 FY2010-11 whereas notebooks grew by 41 percent as compared to the same quarter last year.
“The last quarter has been historic in many ways,” states Gopal Swaminathan, Director, Sales and Marketing, Intel India. “I remember in 2006 we were striving hard to do a million mobile processors in India for the entire year. The market has grown nearly four times for notebooks. The demand is driven by all sectors and a very buoyant consumer market, which is preferring mobile computers.”
Enterprises in India, both small and big, are in the midst of a technology refresh cycle. “Notebook numbers are helped by the fact that many SMB and enterprise entities are replacing their desktops with notebooks,” says Rajeev Mehta, MD, Zest Systems, Delhi.

Entry-level notebook prices have dropped below the Rs. 25,000 mark; this has helped break the ice with new customers. Acer, which has driven new price-points in notebooks for nearly a decade, created a new price bracket of Rs. 20,000 with its e-machines brand. Explains S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, “For every thousand-rupee bracket in the sub-Rs. 25,000 market, you are creating a new set of aspirants who want to buy a computer, or who are willing to buy a notebook instead of a desktop.”
The drop in notebook prices has been helped by the drop in the prices of the building blocks that make a notebook. According to Display Research, which tracks key components such as LCD screens, the average price difference between mobile and desktop TFT screens was down to 2 percent in Q2 FY2010-11 from around 16 percent in 2008. Even in hard disk drives and memory, the price difference is less than 20 percent now—three years ago it used to be nearly double. “It’s simple. With notebook volumes growing, the prices of the components are also bound to come down,” points out Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager, India and Saarc, Seagate.
All this has resulted in a noticeable change in a number of large government tenders; these were traditionally for desktops, or notebooks plus desktops, but now they are mostly for notebooks. For example, the Kerala IT Schools tender, which was originally drafted for 20,000 notebooks and 50,000 desktops, was changed to an all-notebook order. The first tender for 15,000 netbooks and 12,000 notebooks was opened in early November. The next round is for 50,000 notebooks, and is expected to be completed around early February 2011.
Similarly, 17 states have earmarked purchases that will end up in the sale of almost 6,00,000 notebooks to the government and education sectors over the next nine months.
Credit needs to be given to the PC vendors who tried to grow the market by introducing niche products and models targeting specific user communities. In addition, vendors have been positioning notebooks as a fashion accessory, and investing in promotional campaigns with fashion brands and events. HP was a sponsor of Miss India 2010, and Dell launched a series of notebooks with shades matching the colors of nail-polish maker OPI.
“The launch of multi-color models complemented by aggressive promotions and discounted bundling schemes augmented consumer PC spend, especially in the portables segment,” comments Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead PC Analyst, IDC India. “Vendors have been quick to introduce new models that appeal to a young generation of PC buyers who are purchasing notebooks.”
Despite the home desktop market getting a new lease of life with the introduction of all-in-one PCs a year back, the volumes are said to be far from inspiring. Vendors have noted that notebooks are being purchased in place of the traditional multimedia home desktop. “Many first-time buyers are comfortable buying notebooks, especially young urban couples who are sharing a notebook at home,” says Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India.
Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner India, predicts that in the second half of 2011 the Indian PC market will witness more notebooks being shipped than desktops. “In 2010, the ratio between notebooks and desktops for the first two quarters was 34:66; by Q3 FY2010-11 it had become 40:60. In India many first-time buyers are buying a notebook as their first PC. With value products and competitive prices, vendors are able to meet the expectations of price-sensitive buyers, and this is accelerating the growth of notebooks.”

Arafat's remains exhumed

The remains of Yasser Arafat have been exhumed, Palestinian officials say, as part of an investigation into how the Palestinian leader died.
Swiss, French and Russian experts will take samples to establish whether his death, at a military hospital in Paris in 2004, was the result of poisoning.
France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts found radioactive polonium-210 on his personal effects.
Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.
His widow, Suha, objected to a post-mortem at the time, but asked the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation "to reveal the truth".
Sealed tomb
Arafat's body lay in a stone-clad mausoleum inside the Muqataa presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The mausoleum was sealed off earlier this month.
Palestinian officials told the Associated Press that the remains were taken from the mausoleum to a nearby mosque, so that Palestinian doctors could take samples from the bones.
With the body removed from the tomb, the scientists will each take samples and then go to their respective countries to carry out tests for polonium-210 and possibly other lethal substances.
It is believed that the investigation could take several months.
Before the exhumation, the head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, Tawfik al-Tirawi, said no journalists would be allowed to observe the exhumation.
"Because [of the] sanctity of the symbol and the sanctity of this event, [the exhumation] should not be permitted to be in front of the media," the former Palestinian intelligence chief said.
A reburial ceremony, with full military honours, is expected to take place later on Tuesday.
Many Palestinians continue to believe Arafat was poisoned by Israel, which saw Arafat as an obstacle to peace and had put him under house arrest. Israel has strongly denied any involvement.
TV documentary
Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 inside the Muqataa.
Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.
In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat's medical records, which it said showed he died of a massive haemorrhagic stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection.
Independent experts who reviewed the records told the paper that it was highly unlikely that he had been poisoned.
A murder inquiry was launched by French prosecutors in August after an investigation by al-Jazeera TV, working with scientists at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, found "significant" traces of polonium-210 present in samples taken from Arafat's personal effects, including his trademark keffiyeh headdress.
In some cases, the elevated levels were 10 times higher than those on control subjects, and most of the polonium could not have come from natural sources, the scientists said.
But the institute also said that Arafat's symptoms - as described in his medical records - were not consistent with polonium poisoning.
The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died of exposure to polonium-210 in London in 2006. The UK authorities have accused Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, of poisoning his tea.

Zia Trust Graft Case: Lawyer warned over time petition

A Dhaka court on Tuesday warned BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s lawyer saying that they would not be given any more time in Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
Judge Md Zahirul Haque of Senior Special Judge's Court warned lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder as he came up with time petition for eighth time.
Earlier, Khaleda also the opposition leader in Parliament, skipped the court for seventh times showing different reasons.
The court also fixed January 1 for the next hearing of the case as the lawyer told the court that they would not file any more time petition in future.
Today the court was scheduled to decide whether the charges against Khaleda and three others will be taken into congnisance in the case.
The other accused are Harris Chowdhury, former political secretary of Khaleda; Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary (APS) of Harris; and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.
Earlier on October 1, another court fixed the date for passing an order on whether it will accept charges against Khaleda Zia and three others in the case.
On August 8, 2011, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station, accusing four people including Khaleda, for abusing power in raising funds from unknown sources for the trust.
Among the accused, Harris is on the run.

Aggrieved workers block highway for 30 minutes

The readymade garment workers who lost 111 colleagues and relatives during Saturday's fire, blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway for half an hour since Tuesday morning.
The workers have been demanding the punishment of the owners of Tazreen Fashion Ltd, the garment factory, where the tragedy occurred Saturday evening.
Over 1,000 workers carrying black flags under the banner of 'Ghoshbag Garment Workers' sat on the highway around 11:00am when police barred them from going towards the fire-devastated building.
Police resisted the agitating workers at Nishchintapur as Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir was visiting Tazreen Fashion Ltd, the scene of the occurrence, where 111 workers died during Saturday's fire.
A heavy traffic jam was instantly created as the demonstration halted traffic movement on the highway, witnesses said.
Traffic movement resumed around 11:30am when police opened the road for the workers after the home minister left the place.
Earlier around 9:45am, the aggrieved workers staged demonstration and brought out processions on Ashulia-Jamgarah road.
At least 57 bodies were charred beyond recognition as the fire raged through the eight-storey factory on Saturday evening.
The 18 units of fire service toiled more than 11 hours to put out the blaze.
The charred bodies were kept at Dhaka Medical College morgue and samples were collected from the bodies for DNA test on Monday.
The unidentified bodies will be buried today at the Jurain graveyard in the capital.

Ensure workers safety, PM tells businessmen

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged the businessmen to ensure the safety of workers while setting up industries and factories.
"When you set up buildings, do not block any waterbody," the PM said adding "The fire that raged though the Ashulia garment factory Saturday evening could not be doused immediately due to absence of any water source near the factory."
She was inaugurating the fifth textile fair 'Texbangla 2012' at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.
Bangladesh Textile Mills Association organised the three-day fair.
A number of committees have been formed to investigate the Ashulia garment fire incident that killed 111 workers and the committees were asked to submit their reports immediately, the prime minister said.
"Action will be taken on the basis of those reports," she said.
In her speech, the prime minister said special economic zones will be launched at the seven divisions gradually so that the foreign investors can invest more.
About maritime boundary with Myanmar, she said the government will invite tenders to explore oil and gas in Bay of Bengal soon.
She also hoped that the maritime boundary issue with India will be resolved by 2014.
Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith and outgoing president of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries Abul Kalam Azad were, among others, present on the occasion.

Suranjit's APS gets temporary bail

A Dhaka court on Tuesday granted bail to Omar Faruque Talukdar, the sacked assistant private secretary (APS) of former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta till the first day of a vacation court.
The court will go on annual vacation from November 29 till December 31.
Judge Mohammad Zahirul Haque of the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka passed the order after Faruque surrendered before the court seeking bail in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
On April 15, Faruq was sacked and Railway General Manager (East) Yusuf Ali Mridha and Dhaka Division Security Commandant Enamul Huq were suspended in connection with the railwaygate scandal.
Former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta announced this at a press conference five days after the seizure of Tk 70 lakh from the microbus of his APS by BGB members on April 9.
The vehicle was on its way to Suranjit's Jigatola residence in the capital with Faruq, Mridha and Enamul on board, and the amount was reportedly part of the bribe money collected from the prospective job seekers.
Sources had earlier told The Daily Star that the driver, Ali Azam Khan, drove the vehicle into the BGB Pilkhana headquarters having been refused Tk 5 lakh as share of the amount.
The minister's press conference also came hours after Mridha told a two-member probe body in a written statement that he along with Faruq and Enamul was going to Suranjit's house that night.
Earlier on April 11, Faruq deposited Tk 70 lakh in his account with Mercantile Bank's Dhanmondi branch.
Suranjit, who became minister of the newly-formed railway ministry in December last year, has been facing serious criticism over the scam.

Court orders confiscation of Destiny properties

A Dhaka Court on Tuesday ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission to confiscate all the movable and immovable properties of Destiny Group.
Destiny Group Chairman Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, his wife Farah Diba, Destiny 2000 Limited Chairman Mohammad Hossain and all the associate organisation of group including its Tree Plantation Project will come under the order.
Judge Mohammad Zahirul Haque of the Senior Special Judges' Court of Dhaka passed the order after the anti-graft body filed two separate petitions before the court seeking its permission in this regard.
ACC Deputy Director Mozahar Ali Sarder and its Assistant Director Toufiqul Islam filed the petitions.

Food stamp menu ideas for Newark Mayor Cory Booker Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/11/21/food-stamp-menu-ideas/#ixzz2DFSJ4xi8

Newark Mayor Cory Booker says he plans on living on food stamps for at least a week after receiving a challenge on Twitter.
Booker is a vegetarian, yet creating a meal on food stamps will still require that he make some lifestyle adjustments--while adding in a dash of creativity.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average monthly food stamp benefit was $133.26 per person in New Jersey in fiscal year 2011. While he won't have the more expensive meat products to buy, the busy mayor won't be able to purchase convenience foods either.  When you're on food stamps you're not allowed to buy prepared items: no fast food, deli sandwiches, for example.
Based on that, Booker will have have to focus on making meals at home with a pretty limited shopping list. Here are a couple of menu ideas for Newark's mayor as he prepares for his challenge.
Burritos
Burritos are easy to prepare, and stuffed with healthy items like fresh vegetables, beans and rice, they offer a high-protein meal at a minimum cost.   You can add sauteed vegetables, like carrots, onion or bell peppers --or when time permits cook up a little tofu or add in roasted vegetables.
Recipe: Avocado and Bean Burrito
Casseroles
Casseroles are a great way to prepare a balanced meal ahead of time from items that are relatively inexpensive, such as soups, pastas and frozen vegetables.  Best of all, it's one of those meals that keep in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat it again. Be creative and use all major food groups.
Recipe: Cauliflower Casserole
Soup
Soups go a long way on a limited budget. Not only does it warm the body on chilly days, it's another great meal that can be made ahead of time, frozen, and then pulled out again when you're ready to eat it. Add ingredients you purchased for other dishes, like carrots and onions.  Fresh greens, such as kale and spinach can be added during reheating to add a healthy kick.
Recipe: Kale and White Bean Soup
Recipe: Vegetable Bean Soup
French Toast
Being on food stamps doesn't mean denying yourself a treat.  French toast is best made with stale bread, which is always a bargain at the store.  It can be dressed, like our recipe below that calls for Mascarpone cheese, but that can be substituted for cheaper cream cheese or honey-sweetened yogurt.  Don't have maple syrup?  Try sprinkling sugar on fruit slices to add sweetness some sweetness.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/11/21/food-stamp-menu-ideas/#ixzz2DFSJ4xi8