Taking a Spin in an Electric BMW

FALLING trees may not make a sound when nobody is there to hear — but the sound not coming from the BMW ActiveE poses an equally profound riddle. Even in full sprint, the rear-drive coupe has absolutely no exhaust note.

That’s because the car doesn’t have a tailpipe — or an engine, for that matter. It’s the first 100 percent electric Bimmer, offered to 700 Americans who will help BMW evaluate its electric technology.       

Bucket Brigade Gives a Lift So Salamanders Can Live to Mate

Salamander people are special people. Consider Tom and Debora Mann, biologists in their early 60s who live in a little town near Jackson, Miss.
When it rains hard at night, they rush to a dark stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway and start scooping salamanders into quart-size freezer containers.

Then (and this is not the premise for a joke), they help them cross the road.

Most rainy nights during the late winter and early spring, dozens — sometimes even hundreds — of salamanders, generally three to nine inches long, try to get from their burrows on one side of the road to seasonal ponds on the other to mate. The salamanders, some of which can live up to 30 years, procreate only once a year. The compulsion to get across that road is unyielding.

Unfortunately, so is the traffic. So the Manns, along with a handful of volunteers, have made it their scientific and personal mission to help. They are out there for hours in the rain at night, cajoling the slimy-skinned amphibians across the wet pavement. The nocturnal animals need moisture to travel and spend most of their days safely tucked in their forest habitat.

http://latestbollywoodshits.blogspot.com/

This amazing system features an exclusive age maintenance formulation created by Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh. The secret ingredient in this extract is a super rare melon found in remote region of France. This melon has a super antioxidant property that makes it stay fresh much more longer than any other ordinary melons. This patented melon extract was previously only available to Dr. Sebagh's exclusive list of patients who pays thousands of dollars for every visit. But now Cindy Crawford has brought this amazing solution to everyone with the Meaningful Beauty line.
http://salmankhanthekingofbollywood.blogspot.com/

Obama Offers to Cut Corporate Tax Rate to 28%

WASHINGTON — President Obama will ask Congress to scrub the corporate tax code of dozens of loopholes and subsidies to reduce the top rate to 28 percent, down from 35 percent, while giving preferences to manufacturers that would set their maximum effective rate at 25 percent, a senior administration official said on Tuesday
Mr. Obama also would establish a minimum tax on multinational corporations’ foreign earnings, the official said, to discourage “accounting games to shift profits abroad” or actual relocation of production overseas.

With the framework for changes that the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, will outline on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will enter an election-year debate with Republicans in Congress and in the presidential race who seek even lower taxes for businesses. But an overhaul of the corporate code is unlikely this year, given that political backdrop and the complexity of an undertaking that would generate a lobbying frenzy as businesses vie to defend old tax breaks or win new ones.

The announcement comes two days before Mitt Romney, a Republican candidate for president, is expected to expand on his economic platform in Detroit.

The administration plan to revamp a corporate code that is widely derided as inefficient and anticompetitive has been in the works at Treasury for two years, and is a priority of Mr. Geithner. Yet he has been preoccupied with crisis management, and is unlikely to see the project through since he plans to leave office after this year.

http://salmankhanthekingofbollywood.blogspot.com/

How Exercise Fuels the Brain

Moving the body demands a lot from the brain. Exercise activates countless neurons, which generate, receive and interpret repeated, rapid-fire messages from the nervous system, coordinating muscle contractions, vision, balance, organ function and all of the complex interactions of bodily systems that allow you to take one step, then another.
This increase in brain activity naturally increases the brain’s need for nutrients, but until recently, scientists hadn’t fully understood how neurons fuel themselves during exercise. Now a series of animal studies from Japan suggest that the exercising brain has unique methods of keeping itself fueled. What’s more, the finely honed energy balance that occurs in the brain appears to have implications not only for how well the brain functions during exercise, but also for how well our thinking and memory work the rest of the time.
For many years, scientists had believed that the brain, which is a very hungry organ, subsisted only on glucose, or blood sugar, which it absorbed from the passing bloodstream. But about 10 years ago, some neuroscientists found that specialized cells in the brain, known as astrocytes, that act as support cells for neurons actually contained small stores of glycogen, or stored carbohydrates. And glycogen, as it turns out, is critical for the health of cells throughout the brain.

Related

• More Phys Ed columns
• Faster, Higher, Stronger
• Fitness and Nutrition News

In petri dishes, when neurons, which do not have energy stores of their own, are starved of blood sugar, their neighboring astrocytes undergo a complex physiological process that results in those cells’ stores of glycogen being broken down into a form easily burned by neurons. This substance is released into the space between the cells and the neurons swallow it, maintaining their energy levels.

Eurozone ministers back 130bn-euro bailout for Greece

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed a second bailout for Greece after marathon talks in Brussels.Greece is to receive loans worth more than 130bn euros (£110bn; $170bn).

In return, Greece will undertake to slash its debt from 160% to 120.5% of GDP within eight years and accept a permanent EU economic monitoring mission.
The country needs the funds to avoid bankruptcy on 20 March, when maturing loans must be repaid.

The euro immediately rose on reports of the deal, which was announced early on Tuesday, after 13 hours of talks.
But a report by international experts obtained by Reuters news agency warned Greece would need more help if it was to meet its debt reduction target.

Yemen violence mars poll to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh

Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi will inherit a country in deep crisis on many fronts

Continue reading the main story

Yemen uprising

• Yemen eyes future without Saleh
• Q&A: Country in turmoil
• Deadly game of elite brinkmanship
• Key players

Violence in southern Yemen has marred an election to replace veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. At least six people have been killed in incidents at southern polling stations despite a large army presence, after separatists called for a voter boycott.

But voting in the capital Sanaa was peaceful as people formed orderly queues from the early morning.Voters are expected to rubber-stamp Vice-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi - the only candidate in Tuesday's poll.

Officials told BBC Arabic that gunmen killed four soldiers in an attack on a polling station in Hadramawt province.
Two soldiers were also killed in an attack in the al-Hawta district, and there was violence reported in Aden, the main city in the south.
The separatist Southern Movement has called for a day of "civil disobedience" to mark the vote.

http://salmankhanthekingofbollywood.blogspot.com/

thanks for watching my blog

Experts delay call on releasing controversial H5N1 work

Experts have delayed a decision on whether controversial research into the H5N1 bird flu virus should be released.

It had been looking at how the work could be released while guarding against its abuse by bioterrorists.
But talks at the World Health Organization in Geneva decided more discussions were needed to see if it could be possible to publish in full.
One of the two journals which want to publish has already agreed to wait for talks to be complete.

Mutation fears

The controversy is centred on two research papers - one of which was submitted to Science, the other to another leading journal, Nature, last year.

They showed that the H5N1 virus could relatively easily mutate into a form that could spread rapidly among the human population.

Senegal apology amid protests against Abdoulaye Wade

Senegal's government has apologised for a "police blunder" after tear gas was fired near a mosque amid protests against President Abdoulaye Wade's re-election bid.

One person reportedly died on Sunday after a demonstration to condemn Friday's tear-gas incident in Dakar.

Click Here!

My System Is One of the Cheapest You'll Find - Yet the MOST Effective

Click Here!
http://salmankhanthekingofbollywood.blogspot.com/

http://latestbollywoodshits.blogspot.com/

please view my blog

Too early for comfort

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation dropped to 6.55 per cent last month from 7.47 per cent in December last year. The decline in the headline inflation rate to its lowest level in 26 months in January has evoked a wide range of reactions.

At one extreme, it seems to heightened the already buoyant mood in the stock markets. The two benchmark indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, have recently been climbing to levels not seen in a long time.

After being in the doldrums for most of 2011 — Indian stock markets were among the worst performers last year — they have, since the beginning of the New Year, been right at the top of foreign institutional investors' preference lists.

Like many things connected with the stock markets, there is no rhyme or reason to explain, leave alone rationalise the behaviour of large investors. Apart from the news on inflation, there is very little in recent macroeconomic data that could spur stock markets at least to the extent seen last week.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for December, 2011, released soon after, does not by any means indicate an industrial recovery. (year-on-year growth in industrial production slumped to just 1.8 per cent).

Although the IIP series are known to be volatile, the December figures reinforce the perception of an industrial slowdown. Certainly that is not something for the stock markets to cheer about.

As far as Indian stock prices are concerned, the possibility of capital flows reversing is real. That should normally suppress any uncalled-for optimism. Moreover, the Union Budget is less than a month away. The pre-budget sentiment in the markets has traditionally been far less upbeat than what it is now. Punters usually hedge their bets ahead of the most important economic news.

The government has been more circumspect in reacting to the inflation data. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was confident that the inflation rate would moderate further in the coming months. He, however, expected the prices of manufactured goods to be more gradual compared with the fall in food prices.

Will the lower inflation figures prompt the RBI to commence the long awaited phase of interest rate reductions? A monetary policy review is due in March and on the face of it, the January inflation figures do improve the odds for a round of monetary easing.

http://salmankhanthekingofbollywood.blogspot.com/

Diplomatic Bubbles: Balochistan becoming next Achilles’’Heel

Islamabad: It does not matter how bad is the situation in Balochistan and how inconsiderately we have neglected Baloch lands and people over the past half a century or so, but the moment US congress bill makes the headlines, the entire Pakistan seems to have erupted in unison to condemn Washington for stretching its police-man’s role over Pakistan’s internal affairs.

On one side, there is feeling inside the Pakistan’s uniformed establishment that this is yet another joint venture of the Obama-administration and Pentagon to further pressurize Pakistan Army while on the other side even the political forces which till now were considering that Obamities are favoring them for the love of democracy have also felt ditched. Since both are having a pitched battle of nerves between themselves since OBL strike, both are condemning the US for their own ends.

With the missing persons case and finding the mutilated bodies on roadsides in Balochistan and other parts of the country resonating (or may be languishing) in the corridors of the superior judiciary of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani also offering the political dispensation of the country to come forward and sort out this mess instead of making the Army a punching bag, the onus has squarely and fairly rests on political actors now.

Pak-India border saw Rs 14 mn trade on single day

: Goods worth more than $154,000 (Rs.14 million) were traded through the Pakistan-India border in Rawalakot on a single day Thursday, officials said.

About 25 trucks carrying chillies, onion, coriander, herbs and tamarind from India crossed into Pakistan through the Taitrinote-Chakan-Da-Bagh point.

In addition, 10 trucks loaded with almonds, dry dates, oranges, embroidery items and Peshawari sandals from Pakistan crossed into India.

Trade facilitation officials on both sides monitored the transportation of goods twice during the day, Geo TV reported Saturday.

http://latestbollywoodshits.blogspot.com/
View my blog

After Bailout of Auto Industry, Detroit Fallout Trails Romney

As Congress and the White House scrambled in the fall of 2008 to confront the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, Mitt Romney felt compelled to say what many in his native Michigan would consider heresy: Do not bail out the troubled American automakers.
Government checks would not solve the car companies’ long-term problems, Mr. Romney wrote in an opinion article that he asked The New York Times to publish. The better path, he suggested, was a court-administered restructuring that would leave the companies with costs more in line with the global competition. The article carried the headline “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” which critics continue to use against him.

Physicists Create a Working Transistor From a Single Atom

Australian and American physicists have built a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.



The group of physicists, based at the University of New South Wales and Purdue University, said they had laid the groundwork for a futuristic quantum computer that might one day function in a nanoscale world and would be orders of magnitude smaller and quicker than today’s silicon-based machines.

In contrast to conventional computers that are based on transistors with distinct “on” and “off” or “1” and “0” states, quantum computers are built from devices called qubits that exploit the quirky properties of quantum mechanics. Unlike a transistor, a qubit can represent a multiplicity of values simultaneously.

That might make it possible to factor large numbers more quickly than with conventional machines, thereby undermining modern data-scrambling systems that are the basis of electronic commerce and data privacy. Quantum computers might also make it possible to simulate molecular structures with great speed, an advance that holds promise for designing new drugs and other materials.       


http://salmankhanthekingofbollywood.blogspot.com/

http://latestbollywoodshits.blogspot.com/