Two Indian Institute of Science scientists crack mystery of black holes

Theoretical physicists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore have unraveled new facts about black holes that are expected to have significant impact on understanding these cosmic bodies better. A black hole is a region of space-time from which gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping.

Banibrata Mukhopadhyay and Indrani Banerjee

IISc researchers, Banibrata Mukhopadhyay and Indrani Banerjee for the first time established a correlation between two fundamental and important facets of black holes (BHs) — their mass and their spin.

 Black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. By absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, super-massive black holes of millions of solar masses may form. There is general consensus that super-massive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies. The hole is called “black” because it absorbs all the light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics.

Despite its invisible interior, the presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as light. Matter falling onto a black hole can form an accretion disk heated by friction, forming some of the brightest objects in the universe. Astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems, and established that the core of our Milky Way galaxy contains a super-massive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses.

Until the last decade, while the masses of several BHs had been determined independently through observation, there was no estimate of their spin. The IISc team has found that for a fixed accretion rate, the mass of Black Holes increases with the increasing spin, thus establishing a correlation between the two parameters for the first time.

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Microsoft buys Nokia mobile unit to fight Apple, Google

Microsoft buys Nokia mobile unit to fight Apple, Google

HELSINKI — Mobile phone pioneer Nokia on Tuesday announced the sale of its sinking handset business to software giant Microsoft, which is fighting to catch up with rivals Apple and Google in the fierce smartphone market.

Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker until last year, will now focus on network infrastructure and mapping services, which it called "the best path forward for Nokia and its shareholders."

The sale for 5.44 billion euros ($7.17 billion) was cheered by Nokia investors, pushing the Finnish company's share up more than 40 percent in late afternoon deals, but Microsoft shares fell 4.5 percent in early trading to $31.90.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said the Nokia acquisition -- the second-biggest in its history after Skype -- was a "signature event in our transformation" and one that "will accelerate our success in smartphones."

Nokia pioneered the mobile phone and dominated the market for 14 years, until it was overtaken by Samsung in 2012 as the top-selling brand.

The company, long the pride of Finland, was blindsided by the shift to smartphones and struggled to fight off increasing competition from Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy and rumours of a sale have swirled for months.

Microsoft and Nokia have been partnered since 2011, co-creating Nokia's Lumia line of smartphones using Microsoft's Windows Phone software.

-- Microsoft attempting 'to stem the decline in global product sales' --

And with Tuesday's deal, Microsoft is following in the footsteps of rival Google, which created the Android smartphone operating system and then branched into hardware when it bought phone-maker Motorola.

"The trigger behind this is without a doubt the current restructuring of business at Microsoft in which the tech giant attempts to stem the decline in global product sales," ETX Capital analyst Ishaq Siddiqi said in a comment.

Microsoft "is still behind Apple and Android based handset devices in the global mobile phones market share but under this deal, Microsoft can start to take control of the operation and turn Nokia's declining handset business into a formidable competitor in a competitive market," he said.

Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive who was hired from Microsoft in 2010, will transfer back to his original employer, becoming a rumoured replacement for Ballmer whose retirement was announced this summer.

Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia's chairman of the board, will be Elop's interim replacement.

In 2011, Elop spearheaded dramatic change at Nokia as he warned the company was "standing on a burning platform" and needed to shift course.

The shake-up involved rubbishing Nokia's Symbian platform in favour of the partnership with Microsoft, and the launch of the Lumia smartphones.

-- Sale provides 'solid basis' for Nokia's future --

But Tuesday's announcement marks the end of Nokia's days as a phone manufacturer.

"Nokia alone does not have the resources to fund the required acceleration ... especially as we have great opportunities in our other businesses as well," Siilasmaa told reporters.

Some 32,000 Nokia employees are expected to transfer to Microsoft, including some 4,700 people in Finland, the company said.

The phone operations affected by the transfer generated approximately 14.9 billion euros in 2012, or almost 50 percent of Nokia's net sales.

Nokia will book a gain on the sale of some 3.2 billion euros, which will "clearly strengthen our financial position and it will provide a solid basis for future investment in Nokia's continuing businesses," Siilasmaa said.

Last month, Nokia finalised the purchase of German engineering giant Siemens' 50-percent stake in Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for 1.7 billion euros.

NSN, which is specialised in high-speed mobile broadband, had posted stronger earnings than Nokia's mobile phone business, booking a net profit of 8.0 million euros in the second quarter of this year, compared to Nokia's net loss of 227 million euros.

Going forward, Nokia's main rivals will be Sweden's Ericsson and Huawei of China, according to Danske Bank Markets analyst Ilkka Rauvola.

"Huawei's market share is growing and Ericsson's is stagnating. That's Nokia's real challenge," Rauvola told Finnish broadcaster YLE.

Tuesday's announcement is likely to spark speculation about the future of another big yet struggling phone maker, BlackBerry of Canada.

And the deal comes a day after US telecoms giant Verizon and Vodafone of Britain agreed that the British company would sell its 45-percent stake in their joint venture Verizon Wireless for $130 billion.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Richard Hunter said US groups were eager to snap up assets.

"The European stage is seen as one with growth potential for the big US companies," he said.

"It is often forgotten that, as a whole, the eurozone is the world's second-largest economy.

Microsoft's acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014.

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Teenage Behavior Influenced By Images Of Friends Drinking, Smoking Online

Teenage Behavior Influenced By Images Of Friends Drinking, Smoking Online

Teenage Behavior Influenced By Images Of Friends Drinking, Smoking Online

A study from the University of Southern California (USC) claims teens are so impressionable that they can be influenced by what they see their friends doing online. Specifically, those teens who see their friends drinking and smoking in Facebook and Myspace pictures were more likely to do the same thing themselves.
The study was carried out between 2010 and 2011, accounting for the inclusion of Myspace. According to their numbers, 30 percent of the teens they surveyed had smoked while nearly 50 percent had tried alcohol. Most of these teens — four out of five — used social networks to communicate with their friends. The USC researchers have their results published in the online edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“Our study shows that adolescents can be influenced by their friends’ online pictures to smoke or drink alcohol,” explained Thomas W. Valente, PhD, professor of preventative medicine and the Keck School of Medicine at USC. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply social network analysis methods to examine how teenagers’ activities on online social networking sites influence their smoking and alcohol use.”
Dr. Valente and Grace C. Huang, PhD, MPH, a graduate of the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Health Behavior Research program, surveyed a group of 1,563 tenth grade teens from the El Monte Union High School in California from October 2010 to April 2011. Though Myspace popularity was already waning at this time (only 13 percent of the teens interviewed said they checked it regularly) it was still listed as a frequent online spot for students.
After asking the teenagers how they spent their time online and what they liked to do after school, the USC researchers concluded that the size of a teen’s network of friends online wasn’t directly associated with use of alcohol and smoking. Rather, it was how many of these friends bragged about their risky behavior which most influenced the teens to do the same.
According to Dr. Huang, this is an important distinction given how many teens spend their time on social networks like Facebook.
“The evidence suggests that friends’ online behaviors are a viable source of peer influence,” said Dr. Huang in a statement. “This is important to know, given that 95 percent of 12 to 17 year olds in the United States access the Internet every day, and 80 percent of those youth use online social networking sites to communicate.”
At the time the students were being interviewed, nearly a third said they had tried smoking. Another third of the teenage respondents said they had friends who drank and or smoked. The USC report claims almost half of the students they interviewed were on Facebook or Myspace. The most popular option was Facebook, scoring 75 percent of the teens who reported being a frequent visitor to social networking sites. Fewer teens said they used Myspace, accounting for only 13 percent of online teens.
Though the study categorizes how many teens are involved in risky behaviors and how many are online, this study fails to draw a direct association between seeing a picture online and having a drink or smoking. Instead the study claims many teens are on social networks, twenty percent of them say they have friends who post party pictures online, and thirty to fifty percent of them have engaged in one or both of these illegal activities.
As a counterpoint, a 2012 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found social networks could actually be helpful to teens, giving them an opportunity to expand their social connections and academic opportunities. This study did point out two potential pitfalls for teens who use social networks; an increase in cyber bullying and sex-ting.
Nonetheless, Dr. Huang believes these basic stats should act as a warning to teachers and parents.
“Our study suggests that it may be beneficial to teach teens about the harmful effects of posting risky behaviors online and how those displays can hurt their friends,” said Dr. Huang.

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Jawl Phoring (Hemlock Society)by Koushik Basu @Sampriti 2013

Sampriti(সম্প্রীতি) Fresher's 2013: Give me chance to perform solo on the stage, for the first time. Thanks Sampriti

Jawl Phoring by Koushik Basu: It is a journey from a Bathroom singer to a on stage performer...



Koushik Basu performed the song Jawl Phoring from the film Hemlock Society sung by Silajit Majumder @Sampriti 2013, Pondicherry University Bengali's Freshers.

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USB Gets A Speed Boost With 3.1 Release

USB Gets A Speed Boost With 3.1 Release:

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has completed its USB 3.1 Specification, which will enable the SuperSpeed USB, offering speeds up to 10 Gbps.

To get the 10 Gbps rate of the SuperSpeed USB, the standard uses more efficient data encoding. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group says it will deliver more than twice the effective data throughput performance. This is possible by using enhanced USB connectors and cables.

“The USB 3.1 specification primarily extends existing 3.0 protocol and hub operation for speed scaling along with defining the next higher physical layer speed as 10 Gbps,” said Brad Saunders, USB 3.0 Promoter Group chairman, in a statement from the organization. “The specification team worked hard to make sure that the changes made to support higher speeds were limited and remained consistent with existing USB 3.0 architecture to ease product development.”

Developers will be able to upgrade existing USB protocols, and use the faster speeds on new devices and applications.

“We recognize this advancement in USB technology is an important development for our customers,” said Tom Bonola, chief technology officer, Business PC Solutions at HP. “The USB 3.1 Specification enables us to meet the growing needs of our customers for faster data transfer while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing devices.”

While the USB 3.0 Promoter Group plans to continue advancements on the standard, the new update comes from industry demand as much as from the initiatives of the group.

“The industry has affirmed the strong demand for higher throughput, for user-connected peripherals and docks, by coming together to produce a quality SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps specification,” said Alex Peleg, Vice President, Intel Architecture Group. “Intel is fully committed to deliver on this request.”

The .1 release, USB 3.1, is backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0, The Register reports. “The new speed will only be achievable with a kit using USB 3.1, but such products will work just fine in older USB ports,” the article explained.

“While maintaining backward compatibility, USB continues to advance to meet customer’s growing need for higher speed data,” said Roland Sperlich, TI Consumer and Computing Interface Product Line Manager. “The 10 Gbps data rate allows designers across many industries to do more with a universal standard.”

“In this multi-device world, the USB 3.1 updates will enable end-users to move content across devices quickly, conveniently and without worrying about compatibility,” said Emile Ianni, corporate vice president of Platform Solutions Engineering at AMD. “AMD thanks our engineers as well as the other technology contributors for bringing to market robust innovation that is designed to work seamlessly with new and existing solutions.”

USB 3.1 competes with the Thunderbolt I/O standard, which promises data transmission throughput speeds up to 20 Gbps. Performance on the competing platform has not proven to be as promised. The 20 Gbps speeds have been demonstrated in the lab, but are yet to be fulfilled in commercial applications.

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