Astronomy: Century's second Venus transit on June 6

KOLKATA: In a rare celestial occurrence, Venus - the second planet from the Sun and the Earth's neighbour - will transit across the solar disc early June 6.


The transits of Venus occur in pairs (within eight years) with more than a century separating each pair, according to an M.P. Birla Planetarium official here. The last transit of the planet was seen on June 8, 2004.

The celestial event, lasting for about five hours 40 minutes, will start around 3:40 a.m. at locations in and around Kolkata. Hence, the beginning of the celestial happening will not be visible until the sunrise, said Debiprosad Duari, the planetarium's director (research and academic).

The occurrence will be visible from anywhere in India. The greatest transit, when the black dot of venus can be observed at the innermost point of the solar disc, will occur around 7:02 a.m., Duari said. The transit will end (called egress) around 10:20 a.m.

The small disc of Venus will touch the Sun's disc internally at 10:04 a.m., and by 10:21 a.m. will be completely out of it. The transit can be viewed properly only after half an hour post sunrise, Duari added.

The entire event (i.e., the four contacts) of the transit, will be visible from eastern Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, the Philippines, north Asia, eastern China, Korea, Japan, islands in the western Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, Russia, Alaska and north-west Canada.

Only the first part of the transit will be visible before the sunset from eastern Canada, the US, Central America, the Caribbean and northwest South America. The last part of the transit will be visible in western Asia, India, Europe, the Middle East and eastern Africa.

Throughout the world, tremendous amount of interest has been generated for this event, as the next transit will occur in 2117.

"One needs to be extremely cautious while observing this event, as Venus will only cover 1/32 of the sun's disc, and looking at the Sun with the naked eye should be completely avoided.

"One should look at this event through scientifically-tested aluminised Mylar filter (also called solar goggles) or, No.14 Welder's glass. Under no circumstances one should use exposed x-ray plate or smoked glass to look directly at the transit of Venus," Duari said.

Historically, the discovery of the transit of Venus not only started a new era of scientific experimentation through international collaborations, but also gave us the first concrete concept of the structure of the solar system.

From ESCIENCENEWS.com

May 22, 2012, 2:40 AM

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techBoy: Say "No" to Cheating

Okay, so before we get started, I must confess, I'm a cheater myself, I have gone through many cheats, as an example: From using cheat engine to hack my everyday games to the big cheats to try and upgrade Windows 7 to Ultimate, but one thing's for sure, one way or another, may it be faith or may it be rural, you will get caught in anyway, may it just be faith, for example you downloaded this really awesome OS, put a hack into it and then everything was running smoothly until the developers updated the OS firmware and your OS suddenly got detected, or may it be rural, for example, you cheated an online game and suddenly you got blocked because the developers got you.

Either way, those are still cheating, remember, cheating won't deal you any good, you may be smooth sailing for a little while, but, one way or another, justice will catch up to you.
Just think about it, people working their asses off to make Windows 7 but then you just put a registry code to jam Windows Genuine software, it makes those people who worked their butts off have less respect etc. Dont be a cheater, and who knows, maybe for example the thing you cheated on lets say had a contageous virus and you suddenly got infected, same as an ordinary student cheating off somebody else's work but then, his/her work was wrong.

Think about it... I have gone through so much stuff such as those online gaming cheats, the Windows 7 Patcher, Youtube many viewer cheats, yet you wont feel content, you would somehow want more... well I myself still do a little in retrospect but dont do it, it will always backfire on you.

By GINO ARAULLO, Writer- Technology 

May 22, 2012, 2:40 AM

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Morals: In Every Closed Door Opens a New Window

Many say that when you lost into something, a contest or a game, it is over. When you are out of the spotlight, it is the end. It is always that when we put out something, we thought that it was end, but take off that fear  because it is not true. We receive events that happen after the loss itself, and the world is still not stopping, that means that in every closed door, there is an open window.

In these situations, we really need to strengthen out ourselves because we have two options in life, thinking positive and starting positive, and thinking negative and act negative, too.

Remember that when we lose, this is not the end, rather it is the start of a new event that will blow our lives again, and we should not think bad about it. Let us go with the wind, because as the wind goes, we let go of what will happen to us. We will realize in that way, the good and the bad things life is offering us, so we should not be stereotypical, rather, let life judge your ways. We cannot force everything under our control, because in the end, the real destiny will occur.

Don't cry, be cheerful. Every end is a new beginning. Whether it may be good or bad, this is life. This is what life is to offer, and now summer has to end, starting a new year to study, recall and ponder lessons again, we should now prepare for this loss. Let us study right away and adjust because that is how life goes on. There are transitions in this life that we should be letting go.

Good Day!

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Cars 101: Japan Grows Back

Last March 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm, an earthquake struck Japan. The earthquake damaged several buildings, even the R&D facilities of Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, and Toyota. The following month, Toyota's production lowered from 254,000 to 49,000. The loss of supplies on car-building, like electronic chips, sensors, and many forms of plastics and rubbers for building tires.

Honda Cars Phils. Inc.(HCPI) had not affected yet because it sourced most of its parts, including the complete CR-V, Jazz, Civic, Accord, and City models- from Thailand. HCPI president Hiroshi Shimizu said,"Some parts we do get from Japan but Honda's production facilities in the region are prepared to take up the slack.

In Japan itself, Honda is the unluckiest of all carmakers. Its Tochigi engine plant and multi-model Sayama assembly complex are in the quake zone and severly damaged. Nissan, too, had a big hit. It has only two engine plants in Japan, and one, at the Iwaki district, was so badly damaged and there is a rumor that it will be abandoned, because it is 56 km(34 mi) from Fukushima.

The carmakers donated vehicles: Toyota sent vans and Prii(plural of Prius), Nissan gave 65 Leafs to medical emergency workers, and Mitsubishi gave 30 i-MiEVs. Why electric cars? It is because the shortage of fuel and gas leaks.


NUMBERS THAT PROVE THE AUTOMOTIVE OF JAPAN

685,655 cars produced in February 2011
99,507 trucks produced in the same date
249,772 cars produced in April 2011
40,305 trucks produced in the same date
60% is the amount of decrease in vehicle production in Japan
756,615 cars produced in September 2011
115,846 trucks produced in the same date
818,817 cars produced last February
123,803 trucks produced last February

NUMBER OF UNITS PRODUCED LAST APRIL 2011

Suzuki: 58,398
Toyota: 53,823
Nissan: 44,193
Mazda: 35,313
Mitsubishi: 27,481
Subaru: 25,391
Daihatsu: 25,391
Honda: 14,168
Isuzu: 4,794

NUMBER OF UNITS PRODUCED LAST FEBRUARY

Suzuki: 86,584
Toyota: 346,215
Nissan: 111,786
Mazda: 70,279
Mitsubishi: 52,205
Subaru: 49,495
Daihatsu: 74,189
Honda: 115,920
Isuzu: 22,666

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Genetics: Gene study links stronger memories, PTSD

A certain genetic signature gives some people the ability to form stronger memories. But that edge also has a dark side: increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Although the genetic effect is small, the results help scientists better understand the link between especially powerful memories and sensitivity to past trauma.

Scientists led by neuroscientist Dominique de Quervain of the University of Basel in Switzerland looked at how genetic differences related to a memory task. A population of 723 healthy young Swiss adults viewed 72 photographs. After a 10-minute wait, the volunteers were asked to remember as many images as possible.

Volunteers who could remember more pictures carried a particular DNA signature in at least one copy of a gene that encodes protein kinase C alpha. In animal studies, this protein has been shown to play a role in the formation of emotional memories. The volunteers’ heightened recall was true for disturbing, pleasant and neutral pictures.

Further evidence came from brain scans performed in a different group of Swiss people. While viewing the pictures, people with the genetic signature had stronger brain activation in parts of the prefrontal cortex compared with those who lacked the genetic feature, the researchers report online the week of May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Because memory is known to be an important part of PTSD, de Quervain and his team wanted to see if their results might have importance beyond the laboratory. The researchers looked at the genes of 347 people who had survived the brutal 1994 Rwandan genocide and now live in a refugee camp in Uganda. The genocide was marked by extreme violence and war rape. About a third of those studied met the clinical criteria for PTSD.

Among the Rwandan refugees, having the strong-memory signature was linked to a doubled risk of PTSD compared with the rate among those without the genetic signature. The signature was relatively rare in the Rwandan population, even though it was almost universal among the Swiss.

“I think this work is of great theoretical interest,” says PTSD researcher Roger Pitman of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The study supports the idea that stronger memories are linked to a heightened risk of PTSD, a theory that’s been discussed but hasn’t had much evidence, he says. “This is another piece of the puzzle.”

The results explain only a small sliver of memory formation and PTSD. “But that doesn’t mean this gene isn’t important,” de Quervain says. The results give a deeper understanding of the link between strong memories and diseases such as PTSD, he says. Studying the role of protein kinase C alpha may reveal more about how memories form and perhaps even why some prove so troubling.

D. de Quervain et al. PKCα is genetically linked to memory capacity in healthy subjects and to risk for posttraumatic stress disorder in genocide survivors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By LAURA SANDERS, Sciencenews.org**

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Cars 101: CRDI (Common Rail Direct Injection)

Overview

CRDI stands for Common Rail Direct Fuel Injection used in diesel cars, and originated from Japan, Another Definition for CRDI is Diesel Direct Fuel injection, fuel injection is found on most modern cars these days it helps cars to be a lot faster and more realiable and it's another way to make cars cheaper by using direct fuel injection rather than those big expensive unreliable carburetor, CRDI can be found on some of Hyundai's cars such as the Hyundai Accent, Hyundai SantaFe, Hyundai Tucson, Hyundai Starex and a few other of Hyundai's vehicles (Philippines) it is also found on Toyota's vehicles although toyata renamed it to D4-D, It can be found on most toyota SUV's such as the Innova, the Fortuner, and the Toyota Avanza

So what are the advantages of CRDI compared to gasoline engines and Diesel carbeurators?
For One an advantage of CRDI is it burns less fuel and delivers more mechanical energy to the vehicle compared to a normal gasoline engine, CRDI is also cheaper and more reliable than a carburetor because normal carburetors are more prone to damage than Direct Fuel Injection, but the main reason of consumers buying Diesel engines is because of the price, diesel is averagely about 5-10% or maybe even more cheaper than gasoline, they are also better at saving gas.

Disadvantages of CRDI

Some of the common disadvantages of CRDI are high maintenance, compared to gas, diesel engines tend to get very dirty overtime compared to gas, Diesel is also noisier and less environmentally friendly compared to gas, the disadvantage of CRDI compared to carburetor is, Direct fuel injection relies on clean gas without contaminants because Direct Fuel Injection uses a small sort of hole where the gas goes out to the spark plugs which make it more prone to drainage, so tip when using CRDI is gas up at a gas station that doesn't easily get flooded or else your vehicle's engine may get clogged up.

Conclusion

So now we know the advantages and disadvantages of CRDI, so I'm not going to tell you any tip of which you should invest in, gas or diesel or CRDI, the choice is up to you, but just another quick tip: If you wanna save the environment gas is obviously your choice, want a car that's easy on gas, choose CRDI or diesel, just pick wisely, but hey, technology is advancing, engineers are thinking of alternateive ways of saving gas, in the future who knows, diesel may be environmentally friendly, maybe gas would be less consumative, etc. Me and my family own a Hyundai SantaFe CRDI, its quite silent compared to toyota's fortuner you know, these are the hints technology is advancing, humanity is going forward, so choose wisely, and if there's one emotion of human i love, well its wisdom...

By EUGENIO ARAULLO, Writer- Technology **

May 15, 2012, 1:51 PM

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