High definition images of the Codex be available online by the British Library
July 21, 2008
The Codex Sinaiticus, a complete transcription of Christian scriptures written by scribes around 350AD, is in Greek. Along with the Codex Vaticanus, it is believed to be the oldest known Bible version in the world.
High definition images of the Codex are going to be available online from July 24 to all as the first part of a web-based project initiated by the British Library. According to the British Library, the Codex is undoubtedly ‘a treasure beyond price’.
It adds: “The earliest surviving copy of the complete New Testament as well as the earliest and best copies of some of the Jewish scriptures is there within its beautifully handwritten Greek text.”
Within a year more pages will be added on to the Codex website. This will become possible as digitisers are able to scan more of its very intricately inscribed vellum sheets. St Catherine’s monastery in Sinai, Egypt holds the remainder of it.
Now, according to Leipzig’s library curator, Ulrich Johannes Schneider “67 from the British Library and well over 100 pages, those from Leipzig are going to be available online at www.codex-sinaiticus.net.”
A broad, global online charter in London for children and internet usage
July 18, 2008
Children from all over the world are going to meet in London for discussing how they can safeguard themselves from the ‘unsafe’ use of the internet. The conference aims at working out a broad, global online charter that is to be presented to the UN.
Well over 150 teenagers from close to 20 different nations are participating in the five-day conference.
Jim Gamble, the chief executive of Ceop, stated: “We will not be patronising them (the children). They will (on their own) engage law enforcement, industry, government and others; they will ask the questions themselves and deliver the challenges.”
The conference comes as a new survey indicates that most of the parents polled as part of it had not bothered to check their child’s online history, but 26 per cent of those who had done so had indeed found something they were not happy with.
Dr Tanya Byron, the TV psychologist, who contributed to the report, stated: “I think the key is for (new-age) parents to treat the issue in the same way that they would approach other potential concerns!”
A microchip helps the Dog reunite with owner after three years
June 22, 2008
It was in September 2005, when Brambles was taken away from the garden in Dorchester, resulting in painful separation from his loving master. RSPA on receiving a tip of about a dog being mistreated by some boys near Cribbs Causeway, acted promptly and rushed to rescue the dog.
RSPA inspector, while scanning the ill-treated dog’s fur for the possible microchip, found in the database that the dog was stolen three years ago. Brambles was lucky to be reunited with Thornewill who lives with her boy friend Richard Sherive in Blandford, Dorset.
An Overjoyed owner said: “It is brilliant to have Brambles back. When we saw him again, Richard had a tear in his eye .Brambles looked at Richard and could tell she knew it was him. It was an emotional moment all around We feared the worst by passage of time Thanks to the worthy chip, the slim chance of locating the pet yielded result.”
Imagine just a cup of water sufficient to wash your linen
June 14, 2008
Salute the British Scientists, who have developed a new technology, which uses merely a cup of water to wash clothes in a washing machine. The day is not far off, when you will own a washing machine that washes clothes almost without water; certainly a kind of green revolution as water is and will certainly be a precious commodity in times to come.
The new system developed by the British Scientists at Leeds University, uses less than 2% of the water and less energy than a conventional washing machine. The new method washing machine was patented and developed at Leeds. Almost 35kg of water and considerable amount of energy is consumed to wash about a kg of clothes.
The new developed system will reduce the amount of water and energy consumption by as much as 98 per cent. This is great news as EPCs, or energy performance certificates, are beginning to become stricter and have a greater effect on property sales. Having a good energy performance rating should make selling the property much easier.
Plastic granule usage process removes most of the stains and leaves clothes as fresh as normal wash. Besides, the clothes emerge almost dry there by reducing tumble-drier operations. Stephen Burkinshaw, Leeds professor and an international acclaimed expert in the science of textiles and dyeing, said: “The performance of the Xerox process in cleaning clothes has been quite astonishing. We have shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick whilst using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional washing machines.” Mr. Stephen is founder director of Xerox. Xerox, is commercialising the technology, and the wander invented machine is to hit the UK markets as early as 2009. It will be affordable in comparison to conventional washing machines.
Dr Rob Rule, MD of Techtran Ltd, IP Group’s Leeds business as well as director of Xerox, commented: “This is one of the most surprising and remarkable technologies I have encountered in recent years.”
Spreading awareness and ensuring security of the new faster payments system
May 29, 2008
Currently, phone and Internet payments make up just about 2 per cent of all payments in the UK banking system; standing orders make up another 9 per cent. The new Faster Payments Service will change the scenario, and will ultimately ensure cash transfers happen within a single day. Only 5 per cent of transactions will be processed as ‘faster’ payments, to begin with.
The new system was proposed nearly three years ago. The plan came into being after an agreement between the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Banking industry body Apacs in 2005 to agree that the existing procedures need to be improved.
The latest figures indicated that online banking was becoming more popular than telephone banking. However, a recent survey of 3,000 people showed 70 per cent of people in the UK hardly knew about the faster payments system.
Apart from spreading awareness about the system, the banks want to make sure that it is reliable and secure. Apacs chief executive Paul Smee, stated: “The challenge of achieving this certainly cannot be underestimated. There is no room for error since it will become an integral part of the UK’s economic infrastructure.”
A new £50m plan for giving 10,000 hand-held computers to police forces
May 26, 2008
Details of a new £50m plan for giving 10,000 hand-held computers to police forces have been unveiled. Around 27 forces in England & Scotland would gain from the handheld devices. Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, stated the move would turn crime fighting more effective and also save officers’ time. He mentioned of the initiative: “It is just one of many improvements that we are delivering to exploit new technologies, cut unnecessary bureaucracy, and enable police officers to devote more time to frontline policing.”
However, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) there were not enough devices for meeting demand. Ailsa Beaton from Acpo stated demand from forces indicated the ‘appetite for mobile communications within the police service in support of frontline officers, and added demand has clearly outstripped supply and consequently some forces were disappointed.
The National Policing Improvement Agency’s Richard Earland stated: “Officers who have access to databases like the Police National Computer, command & control as well as intelligence systems (while out on patrol) will spend less time returning to the station and more on the frontline.”
Strategies including Green IT for reducing the UK’s CO2 emissions
May 14, 2008
The government of UK will show the path in Green IT by launching a national strategy with the aim of cutting computer-related carbon emissions. John Suffolk, the authority concerned, has unveiled the Green IT Strategy. He stressed upon the significance of the role that IT will play in reducing the UK’s CO2 emissions.
The strategy will basically provide recommendation and tips on how to reduce IT power demands and also the emissions. It will become critical for CIOs to start mastering the fundamentals of cutting carbon, and boost the climate protection efforts through things like using DC power along with fresh air cooling in data centers, switching off the PCs when not in use, reducing the ratio between employee and printers and increasing home working capabilities. The development of new greener technologies such as replacing printer cartridges with organic products instead of ink. A printer that uses coffee dregs instead of printer cartridges is even being developed. The strategy will basically highlight such environmentally friendly practices.
Since people are not aware of what exactly is the best design for Green IT, they have to reorient themselves again and again. If there is a role model, then they can simply copy from it. IT will play a very important role in the endeavour.
You can be a owner of a transistor measuring little bigger than a molecule.
April 30, 2008
A Manchester University team led by Prof Andre Geim has developed a transistor of the size of ten atoms, possibly the first true electronic Nan component. The transistor created by the researchers can be con the world’s smallest one invented.
Graphene, word’s thinnest material, consisting of carbon atoms single layer thick, is used by the team of scientists in the making of the transistor. Graphene which has unique electrical properties behaves as if the electric current is not carried by normal electrons but by charged mass less particles
Ballistic transistors, which are ultimately faster than any current technology, may soon be created by the scientists. They will be fastest because electrons shoot through them without colliding with component atoms.
“It is too early to promise grapheme super computers. In our work, we relied on chance when making such small transistors. Unfortunately, no existing technology allows the cutting of materials with true nanomentre precision. But this is an exactly the same challenge that all post-silicon electronics has to face,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.
Professor Geim expects the graphene -based circuits to come of age by 2025.
An exclusive Earth Day look at the cleaner cars of the future
April 22, 2008
This Tuesday night the PBS science show NOVA features an exclusive Earth Day look at ‘the Car of the Future’. The Earth Day special is a good primer on the various technologies, which are being worked on – comprising cellulosic biofuels, plug-in hybrids, batteries, weight reduction and so on. The show will feature experts Andrew Frank, Amory Lovins, Martin Eberhard, and plenty of other experts.
While there are those who believe that more efficient vehicles should be mandated and produced unilaterally by automakers, Amory Lovins quips: “Ultimately, as citizens and as consumers we are actually responsible for the world we create. If we do not like the way it is turning out, let us change it.” Only when the masses decide that they are willing to pay for different vehicles will the manufacturers follow suit. Looking at the car market today, it is starting to change. But the alternatives need to be affordable to the masses to really make a difference.
PBS also has an Open Content section of the Car of the Future site where much of the raw footage employed in the production of the show has been posted. Users can download it, re-mix it and produce their own version of the show.
Ever wondered why birds sing in spring?
March 27, 2008
A team of international researchers succeeded in tracing the changes in the bird’s brain. They believe it is “because of hormonal changes”, during the longer days, birds know to sing during spring.
Prof. Peter Sharp, lead researcher, of the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom said, “While we knew what area of the brain was affected by seasonal change, until now we did not know the exact mechanism involved. Now we have identified a key element in the process of brain’s activity when spring arrives.”
But for advances in technology this break through would have remained a far cry, as the new technology enabled researchers to scan thousands of genes so to work out, which ones are affected by seasonal changes.
