Now you can enjoy a ride on new air-conditioned Tube trains in London
September 30, 2008
Millions of commuters experience hot and sweaty tube journey while ridding the London Underground- The-Tube. To provide succour, London Mayor Johnson unveiled the first air-conditioned London Underground trains thereby bringing an end to the commuters’ torrid journey woes.
“I can assure passengers who will use them that we hope, rather than arriving at their destinations drenched in perspiration, they will emerge cool as cucumbers and ready to enjoy all that the capital offers,” London Mayor Boris Johnson said. This will ensure that the hot and sweaty journey on the Tube will be relegated to history and be a memory of the past.
The air-conditioned trains will serve the 150 year old Underground’s Metropolitan line beginning in 2010 and additional lines later. By 2015, they are all expected to be up and running. Underground’s 40 % of net the network will be covered where the trains will operate.
The new trains that will be added to the oldest parts of the railway will have nearly 20% more space. They are part of a ₤3 billion ambitious upgrade project. In the meantime, London, Underground is scouting for finding untapped water sources to cool the hottest stations. Presently, water from the river Tyburn is used to drive cool air through Victoria station. Even a alternative solution is considered of putting of ice underneath train seats that will release chilled air into carriages. Forty industrial fans will be installed this summer. It’s a cool beginning for a cooler journey.
Play C-shock to acquaint with British way of life
September 29, 2008
To cope with their culture shock, international students arriving in Britain are playing an innovative new computer game developed at the University of Portsmouth. The online game C-Shock helps students from overseas adjust in the UK and prepare them for the culture changes they are likely to encounter like availability of alcohol and seeing people engaged in kissing in public.
Hundreds of students arrive in the UK to take up their university place in an unfamiliar surroundings and culture. Already 16, 000 hits are already recorded by the site proving its utility as a guide to overcome culture shock.
The computer game having separate sets of questions for men and women guides them in adapting to various options of how to behave in a particular situation. Maniar said: “When I arrived in Britain I found some aspects of British culture very different to what I was used to in India and it was hard to know how to react or behave appropriately. When I became a student ambassador I noticed overseas students struggling with the same concepts I had grappled with myself and as a member of staff I decided to use technology to help.”
Bleaching hair does wonders for blondes
September 28, 2008
A scientific study reveals that blondes don’t merely have more fun, but now they are thought to be more confident and amorous too. They feel more attractive, and are more likely to ask someone out on a date and become more adventurous in the bedroom. Contrary to blondes, brunettes are more likely to marry a millionaire and they are believed to have the best sex lives.
Lighter hair is said to boost confidence. This increased confidence apart from looks has a positive effect on a woman’s love life, too. Such women find it easier to summon the required courage to approach their boss and ask for a pay rise after colouring their hair blonde.
Yet according to other research, while blondes may have more fun, they are less successful than brunettes in work. Lighter haired actress Scarlet Johansson and Girls Aloud’s Sarah Harding are sited as examples of boosted confidence
Big Bang machine shut down until April`09
September 27, 2008
According to the officials at the European Centre for Nuclear Research, the world’s largest and newest Hardon Collider, a particle accelerator, will not begin operations again until April. Only two weeks ago, the centre for nuclear research sent the first beams of protons around the machine’s 17 mile-long under ground race track. LHC is built to speed the subatomic particles called protons to nearly the speed of light and then smash them together in search of new forms of matter and energy. This state cannot be produced in smaller machines.
Last Friday, liquid helium, which is used to cool the magnets to superconducting temperatures of only about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit about absolute zero, leaked into the ‘collider tunnel’ due to a faulty electrical connection between two of the superconducting electromagnets.
For repairs, it will be necessary to warm the magnets up and then cool them back down again which will take at least two months. Scientists say this means scant time is available to run the Collider before it has to shut down for the winter in early December considering saving money on electricity.
Polygraph tests to be made compulsory for sex offenders
September 26, 2008
In an attempt to make the streets a safer place, the Ministry of Justice is planning on implementing a series of tests which will determine whether sex offenders with previous records are still a threat to the community. The tests, which will last for approximately 90 minutes, will monitor the heart rate, sweat levels, blood pressure and brain activity of the subject. These polygraph tests will be made compulsory in some areas of England and Wales, and although they will help monitor these offenders, they will not be used as courtroom evidence.
These tests may very well be useful in keeping track of offenders with former records, as previous attempts showed that almost 80% of the test prompted admissions from the offenders. The locations for the pilot which is said to be a three year long process, have not yet been decided, but sources say that they will be around the areas which lie east of England and West Midlands. If the pilot proves to be a success, it will be implemented all over the country.
This in turn, could also be helpful to previous sex offenders hoping to wipe their slate clean, as it will prove their innocence and will expose attempts by them to mislead probation officers. All in all, the implementation of these tests will make for safer streets and hopefully lower cases of molestation and other sex related crimes.
UK firms lead bidding shortlist for building Galileo satellite system
September 25, 2008
UK companies are leading the shortlist of firms, which bid for the contract to build the Galileo Satellite System for Europe. The list of bidders, made public by the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Commission, has 11 contenders. According to the Commission, bidders were short listed based on pre-defined exclusion and selection criteria. It reported the exclusion of 10 applications for construction of Galileo satellite system.
The UK company Logica is pitted against Thales Alenia Space of France for the ground mission system contract. The ground-control system contract would see competition between two UK firms, G-Nav grouping and Astrium represented by IS&S and Lockheed Martin respectively. Germany’s DLR and Italy’s Telespazo are pitted against G-Nav group for the right to run operations.
According to Logica’s director of space and satellite communications Stuart Martin, Logica has the unique advantage of bringing together experts from different disciplines to assist private and public sectors in fulfilling business and technical requirements of building Galileo system. He claimed that Logica’s pan-European space team had rendered its expertise to the industry and European Commission in defining and developing Galileo and its applications. Galileo’s construction has already commenced with the initial investment of 1.3bn out of total budget of 4bn for the entire system.
Rise in bedbug infestations in UK
September 25, 2008
Recently, a rise in bedbug infestations is being reported from various airlines, trains and bus companies. Cimex lectularious, the bedbug, has mushroomed in the UK. The rise in bedbug’s population is attributed to increased foreign travel and also to the lack of awareness about it.
According to Malcon Padley, spokesman for pest control company Rentokil, “there has been a 40 % rise in the number of calls outs over the past 12 months. Britain is now struggling to cope with infestations not seen in half a century. We think that some of the problems result from changing lifestyles. The increasing amount of foreign travellers returning home with second-hand clothes and furniture is a major source of the problem.”
Common hiding places for the bedbugs are under the carpets, in headboards or skirting boards. The 5mm long red or brown nocturnal creature, Cimex lecturious, can lay up to 500 eggs in the space of two months and mostly feeds on human blood. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, certain chemicals were banned across the European Union, which has also contributed to the menacing bedbugs rise in the UK.
There has been an increase in demand for office, home and carpet cleaners in London and similar large cities but the infestation is still on the rise.
If you are prone to regular nightmares, have flowers in your bedroom
September 25, 2008
A new German study suggests that fresh flowers with sweet scents in the bed room not only add romance and brighten your day, but they are reasonably responsible for sweet dreams at night. Boris Stuck and his team from the University Hospital Mannheim studied the sleep pattern of 15 women for a period of almost 30 nights.
The study revealed that smell of roses in the bedroom encourages pleasant dreams where as the smell of rotten eggs provoked bad feelings in their dream.The REM- Rapid Eye Movement – phase of sleep results in dream occurrence. Researchers pumped certain smells (rotten eggs, roses or no scent) under their noses for 10 seconds before waking them up after an interval of one minute. The awakened women’s record of their dreams was different. The ones exposed to fragrance of rose had ‘pleasant emotions’ while those females exposed to smell of rotten eggs or no smell, at all had ‘negative emotions.’
Irshaad Ebrahim of the London Sleep Centre said, “This initial research is a step in the right direction towards clarifying these questions and may well lead to their apeutic benefits.” During an individual’s lifetime, dreaming by an adult adds up to almost six years. Just imagine one facing nightmare for almost six years of one’s life. Women are believed to have far more terrifying and scary dreams than men.
Nine universities to promote bright students from poor backgrounds
September 24, 2008
Who says education is not for everyone? Nine universities in the UK stand united and support the cause that will allow bright students from less well-off backgrounds to get an education. Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester, King’s College London, Leeds, Warwick, Newcastle, Southampton and Exeter universities are getting together for this noble cause, and will allow students to start applying for degrees in the year 2010.
A change in the attitude of students over the last ten years from not wanting to go to university to wanting to pursue a higher education has prompted some of the top level institutions to adopt this policy, making it a brilliant move to promote higher education in the UK.
What these institutes are basically trying to do is recognise each other’s compact schemes and working together to provide opportunities to students with lack of funds. Compact schemes are plans that universities use to work with schools to issue summer schooling, master classes and visits for students.
There are far too many higher end universities that students from poorer backgrounds will refrain from applying to. This new scheme will ensure that everyone gets an equal chance to prove his or her skills in good universities. In reality, the A-level examinations are not sole indicators of a students performance, as a student with lower A-level grades might perform better in a university.
EDF and British Energy seal the deal at £12.5bn
September 24, 2008
After a failed attempt to buy out British Energy in July this year, French conglomerate EDF has finally agreed to buy out the former at a price of £12.5bn. The previous attempt to buy British Energy was foiled by shareholders who protested that it was being sold at too low a price.
British energy operates eight nuclear power plants in the UK which generate approximately 14% of the country’s energy supply, but many of the plants are due to close in the next fifteen years. EDF currently supplies gas and electricity to over five million customers in the UK, values British Energy at 774 pence per share, which is 9 pence more than the previously rejected bid.
The French energy company also stated that it would maintain British Energy’s headquarters in East Kilbride and that the staff in all other locations would benefit from the sale. British Energy’s largest shareholder, Invesco played an important role in the deal. Even the British government, which own 36% of British energy was happy about the takeover.
A lot of critics view the whole deal as controversial, as a UK company is now being transferred into the hands of the French state, but visionaries think otherwise, and say that it would be a mistake to see the deal as a French takeover, as the deal could be vital to the UK minimising its need for imported gas.
