45 killed as bus goes up in flames on Hyderabad-Bangalore highway

Eyewitnesses say passengers were trapped at the rear with glass doors locked

In one of the worst-ever road accidents in the recent past in Andhra Pradesh, 45 people, including an infant, were burnt to death when a luxury bus run by a private travel agency caught fire after hitting a culvert on the Bangalore-Hyderabad national highway here at 4.55 a.m. on Wednesday.

The accident took place when the bus hit the edge of the culvert in the middle of the road while overtaking a car about 135 km from Hyderabad. The force of the collision was such that a railing on the culvert pierced the bus where the diesel tank was fitted, sparking off the fire. Feroze, the driver, stopped the bus ten metres down the road after noticing the vehicle was on fire.

Eyewitnesses said the fire spread toward the cabin while the passengers huddled at the rear with the glass doors locked.

Feroze and the bus cleaner reportedly tried to unlock the doors but in vain. Both of them and five other passengers escaped through the exit near the driver’s seat. Other passengers had no escape route and they were engulfed in flames within minutes.

Except for the frame and seats, the bus was reduced to ashes amidas a huge ball of fire rose to the sky. A small group of villagers tried to douse the flames with buckets of water from a nearby tanker, but to no avail. The victims’ cries had died down by the time.

The vehicle was already destroyed by the time a fire tender from Wanaparthy, 20 km away, reached the spot an hour later.

G. Butchanna, one of the two operators at an adjacent electric sub-station, told The Hindu that no one could approach the bus because of the intense heat. He said there were frequent explosions within the bus throughout the 25 minutes of it burned.

The Volvo bus had left the Majestic bus terminus in Bangalore around 10.30 p.m. with 49 passengers and two crew members. The seats were reserved for only 42 passengers but seven others purchased tickets on the spot.

The bus was scheduled to reach Hyderabad around 7 a.m.

As the passengers boarded the bus after dinner, they slept immediately and did not call up their relatives over cell phones later. The relatives reached the site after the news was broken by TV channels and their calls went unanswered.

Helpline opened for Andhra bus fire

The Mahabubnagar district police in Andhra Pradesh have opened a helpline to provide information about the mishap.

Following are the helpline numbers: 9494600100, 08542-245927, 245930, 245932.

The universe and you

Astrological predictions are meant to push you to be creative and productive, says Susan Miller in this talk.

She is one with a great web presence and not surprisingly, because statistics says 40 to 45 per cent of her readers are American while the rest are scattered all over the globe, 15 per cent being in India. She is none other than Susan Miller, the astrologer, who reaches over 6 million readers with at least 150,000 followers on Twitter through her predictions.

“I studied astrology in my teenage years, between 14 and 17, when I was going through a very difficult period. I was born with a birth defect and it was so complicated that I could not walk or leave the bed and I had braces up to my hip…I never went to High School because I had to go to hospital every day. When I was 14 I asked my mother to teach me astrology. But she said no. Then I asked again and she told me that I would have to study it for 12 years, not tell a soul I am doing it and not read a chart without her supervision…I never told any one…it was a secret.”

Like all secrets, this one too spilled, but not before Miller went to the business school in NYU and opened her own business by becoming the agent for commercial photographers.

“One day,” says Miller she was reading the charts of her creative director and creative writing director, “…creative people love astrology…it shows them what they can aim for, it is not a destination…the creative director wanted me to meet his wife, Jackie…she was the fairy godmother in my life…she quietly re arranged all the furniture in my life…,” says Miller.

It was Jackie who called her one day, “… when I was stirring sphagetti sauce to tell me, ‘I got you the book…it is a little book…you’re going to work with me and an illustrator…you only have 4 months to write it.’ …It did so well…in the spring of 1995 Jackie got me an appointment with a web master…” says Miller showing us the beginning of her site, www.astrologyzone.com.

Miller advises that you read not just your moon sign but also the predictions for your rising sign. “The moon sign is your emotional state…it would be presumptuous for me to tell you your emotional state…the month is like a beautiful piece of silk…you have to decide what to do with it…I am just showing you the possibilities and the good and bad days,” says Miller, adding that possibilities have to be actualised with your attitude. “We should be open and loving to the people who cross our path…everybody has a gift to give us…you learn something from everyone you meet…”

As for predictions, you can use, “…this month, October, is tough,” she says, “Uranus and Pluto clashing…shows us gaps in judgement…things come to the surface when they clash, we learn from them…Jupiter is in cancer, that is good…October 18 new moon is not so friendly…November new moon is tough but friendly…Saturn has its finger prints all over the month, so there are certain realities we have to face in the month…from Dec 21 to new year…violent storms coming through…emotional or physical I do not know…”

Miller says she is pointing out the not-so-good dates so that you can plan whatever is possible away from these dates.

One interesting tip Miller gives is to tell you that Saturn takes about 28-29 years to go around all the houses of your chart. This means it has taught you all the lessons that have to be learnt in the different aspects of life. So at that age, you generally make some decisions that stay with you and which move you up a scale. Maybe you get married, buy a house or take up a job…something defining. Then again at 58, the defining moment happens again. This time Saturn has decided to make you wiser…

Says Miller, “The more I study astrology, the more I realise the universe is on your side…pushing you to be creative, to be productive…it shows you, gives you a chance to fix that which is holding you from moving forward. We all are challenged to outwit something at some time…whatever we believe in at some point we will be challenged…we have to prove ourselves. But you can outwit the problem and you have to do it your own way…life is unpredictable,” says the queen of predictions, “…and we have to stand on our toes…we are learning from each other…”

Web link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pialouise/2013/06/03/susan-miller-of-astrology-zone

NASA begins deepest ever probe of the universe

NASA’s Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes are teaming up to look deeper into the universe than ever before and search for the most distant and faint galaxies that can possibly be seen.

With a boost from natural “zoom lenses” found in space, they should be able to uncover galaxies that are as much as 100 times fainter than what these three great observatories typically can see, NASA said.

In a collaborative programme called The Frontier Fields, astronomers will make observations over the next three years of six massive galaxy clusters, exploiting a natural phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

The clusters are among the most massive assemblages of matter known, and their gravitational fields can be used to brighten and magnify more distant galaxies so they can be observed.

“The Frontier Fields programme is exactly what NASA’s great observatories were designed to do; working together to unravel the mysteries of the Universe,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

“Each observatory collects images using different wavelengths of light with the result that we get a much deeper understanding of the underlying physics of these celestial objects,” Grunsfeld said in a statement.

The first object they will view is Abell 2744, commonly known as Pandora’s Cluster. The galaxy cluster is the result of a simultaneous pile-up of four separate, smaller galaxy clusters that took place over a span of 350 million years.

Astronomers anticipate the observations will reveal populations of galaxies that existed when the universe was only a few hundred million years old.

“The idea is to use nature’s natural telescopes in combination with the great observatories to look much deeper than before and find the most distant and faint galaxies we can possibly see,” said Jennifer Lotz, a principal investigator with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Data from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will be combined to measure the galaxies’ distances and masses more accurately than either observatory could measure alone, demonstrating their synergy for such studies.

“We want to understand when and how the first stars and galaxies formed in the universe, and each great observatory gives us a different piece of the puzzle,” said Peter Capak, the Spitzer principal investigator for the Frontier Fields programme.

“Hubble tells you which galaxies to look at and how many stars are being born in those systems. Spitzer tells you how old the galaxy is and how many stars have formed,” Capak said.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory also will peer deep into the star fields. It will image the clusters at X-ray wavelengths to help determine their mass and measure their gravitational lensing power, and identify background galaxies hosting super massive black holes.

Google serves users from 700 p.c. more locations: Study

Google sign at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California. File photo

Google search has expanded its network, serving its users from 700 per cent more locations than a year ago, a new study, including an Indian-origin scientist, has found.

Over the past 10 months, Google search has dramatically increased the number of sites around the world from which it serves client queries, repurposing existing infrastructure to change the physical way that Google processes web searches, according to researchers from University of Southern California (USC).

From October 2012 to late July 2013, the number of locations serving Google’s search infrastructure increased from a little less than 200 to a little more than 1,400, and the number of ISPs grew from just over 100 to more than 850, according to the study.

Most of this expansion reflects Google utilising client networks that it already relied on for hosting content like videos on YouTube, and reusing them to relay -- and speed up -- user requests and responses for search and ads, researchers said.

“Google already delivered YouTube videos from within these client networks,” said Matt Calder, lead author of the study.

“But they’ve abruptly expanded the way they use the networks, turning their content-hosting infrastructure into a search infrastructure as well,” said Calder.

Previously, if you submitted a search request to Google, your request would go directly to a Google data centre.

Now, your search request will first go to the regional network, which relays it to the Google data center. While this might seem like it would make the search take longer by adding in another step, the process actually speeds up searches.

Data connections typically need to “warm up” to get to their top speed -- the continuous connection between the client network and the Google data center eliminates some of that warming up lag time.

In addition, content is split up into tiny packets to be sent over the Internet -- and some of the delay that users may experience is due to the occasional loss of some of those packets, researchers said.

By designating the client network as a middleman, lost packets can be spotted and replaced much more quickly.

Calder worked with Ramesh Govindan and Ethan Katz-Bassett of USC Viterbi, as well as John Heidemann, Xun Fan, and Zi Hu of USC Vierbi’s Information Sciences Institute.

The team developed a new method of tracking down and mapping servers, identifying both when they are in the same data centre and estimating where that data centre is.

They also identify the relationships between servers and clients.

New technique lets you feel textures on touchscreen

A flat touchscreen can now atler friction and make fingers feel textures of objects on screen. File photo.

Smartphone users can now ‘feel’ images and objects seen on their touchscreen!

In a game-changing invention, engineers at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, have developed a new technique that allows you to feel the texture of objects seen on a flat touchscreen.

The novel algorithm enables a person sliding a finger across a topographic map displayed on a touchscreen to feel the bumps and curves of hills and valleys, despite the screen’s smooth surface.

The technique is based on the fact that when a person slides a finger over a real physical bump, he perceives the bump largely because lateral friction forces stretch and compress skin on the sliding finger.

By altering the friction encountered as a person’s fingertip glides across a surface, the Disney algorithm can create a perception of a 3D bump on a touch surface.

The method can be used to simulate the feel of a wide variety of objects and textures.

“Our brain perceives the 3D bump on a surface mostly from information that it receives via skin stretching,” said Ivan Poupyrev, who directs Disney Research, Pittsburgh’s Interaction Group.

“Therefore, if we can artificially stretch skin on a finger as it slides on the touchscreen, the brain will be fooled into thinking an actual physical bump is on a touchscreen even though the touch surface is completely smooth,” Poupyrev said in a statement.

In experiments, researchers used electrovibration to modulate the friction between the sliding finger and the touch surface with electrostatic forces.

Researchers created and validated a psychophysical model that closely simulates friction forces perceived by the human finger when it slides over a real bump.

The model was then incorporated into an algorithm that dynamically modulates the frictional forces on a sliding finger so that they match the tactile properties of the visual content displayed on the touchscreen along the finger’s path.

A broad variety of visual artifacts thus can be dynamically enhanced with tactile feedback that adjusts as the visual display.

“The traditional approach to tactile feedback is to have a library of canned effects that are played back whenever a particular interaction occurs,” said Ali Israr, a Disney Research, Pittsburgh research engineer who was the lead on the project.

“This makes it difficult to create a tactile feedback for dynamic visual content, where the sizes and orientation of features constantly change. With our algorithm we do not have one or two effects, but a set of controls that make it possible to tune tactile effects to a specific visual artifact on the fly,” Israr said.

The new research will be presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in St Andrews, Scotland.

Nokia joins tablet war, shrugs off market doubts

The new Lumia 1520, which comes with a six inch screen and a 20 megapixel camera, will cost $749 before taxes and subsidies

The smartphone maker also expanded its Lumia and Asha product range

Finnish handset maker Nokia, on Tuesday, looked to shrug off doubts regarding its impending acquisition by U.S software giant Microsoft with the launch of a new tablet and flagship Lumia smartphone aimed at shoring up its slipping market share and placating its disillusioned traditional user base.

The company, which unveiled the Lumia 2520 tablet, the Lumia 1520 smartphone and four other products at its Nokia World event here on Tuesday, showcased a new timeline and direction for its smartphone devices. 

This new strategy and roll-out, however, may not come to complete fruition as Microsoft's upcoming purchase of the company's device and services division is not yet complete.

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who is currently the Executive Vice President, Devices and Services however, dispelled rumours that the company's merging with Microsoft would affect future strategy.

"As our transaction with Microsoft goes ahead, the new products that we have showcased today will continue to shine. While much will change as we become one company, some things will not. The team at Nokia will always remain passionate about connecting people," Mr. Elop said.

The other devices unveiled include the Lumia 1320 and an expansion of the company's Asha range-- the Asha 500, 502 and 503.

The new Nokia tablet will come with a 10 inch screen, a 6.7 megapixel camera and will cost $499. 

The Lumia 1520, which comes with a six inch screen and a 20 megapixel camera, will cost $749 before taxes and subsidies.

The new Asha devices will cost between $69 and $99.

Apple unveils ‘screaming fast’ iPad Air

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday in San Francisco.

iPad Air weighs just 0.45 kg, compared with 0.64 kg for the previous version; introduces thinner and lighter 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

Apple unveiled a new, thinner, lighter tablet called the “iPad Air” along with a slew of new Macs ahead of the holiday shopping season as it faces growing competition from rival gadget makers.

The Cupertino, California-based company made the announcements on Tuesday at an event in San Francisco. The iPad Air weighs just 0.45 kg, compared with 0.64 kg for the previous version. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller called the tablet a “screaming fast iPad.” He said it is eight times faster than the original iPad that came out in 2010.

The iPad Air will go on sale November 1 and start at $499 for a model with 16 GB of memory, while the iPad 2 will continue selling at $399. A new iPad Mini, meanwhile, will be available later in November starting at $399 for a 16 GB model.

The iPad’s market share has been eroding compared with cheaper rivals running Google’s Android operating system. Research firm Gartner estimates that Android tablets will end 2013 with a 50 per cent share of the worldwide market versus 49 per cent for the iPad. Just two years ago, the iPad commanded a 65 per cent market share compared to 30 per cent for Android tablets.

Apple sold 14.6 million iPads in the June quarter, down 14 per cent from the same time last year. It was the first year-over-year decline in iPad sales. Nonetheless, Apple CEO Tim Cook touted that Apple has sold 170 million iPads since the tablets launched three years ago.

Apple also refreshed its computer lineup. A new, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is thinner and lighter, Mr. Schiller said, adding that the laptop has up to 9 hours of battery life, enough to “watch the entire trilogy of ‘The Black Knight’ on one charge.” The notebook’s new price is lower — $1,299, compared with $1,499 for the previous version.

A larger MacBook Pro, with a 15-inch monitor and 256 GB of storage starts at $1,999, compared with $2,199 for the previous version.

The Mac Pro, a high-end desktop computer aimed at what Apple calls “power users,” will be available in December for $2,999.

The company also said that its latest computer operating system, Mavericks, is available free of charge.

Apple also says nearly two-thirds of its mobile devices are running iOS7, the revised operating system it released in September. Twenty million people have listened to iTunes Radio about a month after its release.

News an incidental part of Facebook, study finds

One-third of Facebook users said they have news organisations or individual journalists as part of their information feed.

Most people don’t log on to Facebook to find out the news. But it’s an important news source anyway, even if incidentally, a study released on Thursday indicated.

The Pew Research Center found that 47 per cent of adults who use Facebook say they get news there, either through links posted by friends or news sources they follow.

Only 4 per cent of Facebook users described it as the most important way that they get news.

One-third of Facebook news consumers are adults under 30, or just the type of people less likely to turn to more traditional news sources, the study found.

Pew director Amy Mitchell said that Facebook represents a different way of consuming news. As one of the 5,173 adults who responded to Pew’s survey said, “Facebook is a good way to find out news without actually looking for it.”

Mitchell said there was no indication that Facebook users were spending less time seeking out news elsewhere. One-third of Facebook users said they have news organisations or individual journalists as part of their information feed.

Entertainment news is the most popular, with 73 per cent of Facebook users saying they get news on that topic. Two-thirds of people said they get news from their community.

Facebook said that it has worked with several news organisations within the past year to drive more readers to their own sites. The company found that news organisations that began posting stories more regularly on Facebook saw a significant increase in traffic to their own websites, according to Justin Osofsky, a vice-president for media partnerships at Facebook.

“People were sort of mixed in their response to whether they wanted news in the mix,” Mitchell said. “But people weren’t very bothered by it.”

The survey was conducted online between August 21 and September 2, with a research panel representative of the US population. Pew said the sampling error was plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.

Why dinosaurs grew so large decoded

This April 28, 2011 photo shows a Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur replica at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

The largest dinosaurs were able to grow to a gigantic size because they had softer, squishy joints than land mammals, a new study suggests.

Large, plant-eating dinosaurs, including sauropods, were much more common than giant land-based mammals, which were also herbivores.

The largest sauropods frequently weighed more than 30 tonnes and included massive species.

The study suggests that one reason for this disparity may lie between their bones, ISNS reported.

Researcher Matthew Bonnan from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and his colleagues measured the width of the ends of thigh and arm bones in mammals, dinosaurs and their descendants — modern day reptiles and birds — to see how joints changed as the animals’ size increased.

Mr. Bonnan likens cartilage to sheets of rubber stretched across the hard ends of bones to cushion them. As mammalian bones grow rounder at the edges, cartilage stretches thin and tight across their surfaces.

The close-fitted, stretchy material transfers weight evenly across the bone surfaces.

Dinosaur joints, however, appear to pack in more layers of cartilage as the animals size up, researchers said.

“More than just evenly distributing the pressure, the joint itself may be deforming a little - it’s actually squishier, increasing the force it can sustain,” said Mr. Bonnan.

Researchers said predicting the structure of dinosaur cartilage based on the bones on either side is difficult.

Many modern-day reptiles and birds have held on to these squishy joints, which lends some weight to the idea.

Astronomers’ team in US discovers most distant galaxy

In this January 12, 2005 image released by NASA, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope uncovered a population of embryonic stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy of our Milky Way.

A team of astronomers, including an Indian-origin scientist, has discovered the most distant galaxy in the universe ever found which is said to be 13 billion light years away from the Earth.

“Because of its extremely large distance of 13 billion light years, we are seeing this galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago. In other words, we are exploring the universe when it was only 700 million years old — the current age of the universe is about 13.7 billion years,” Dr. Vithal Tilvi, who is currently at the Texas A&M University and a co-author of the research paper, said.

“This finding is a great deal in astronomy not only because it is the most distant galaxy ever found but also because it gives us clues about the young universe,” Mr. Tilvi told PTI.

Born in Goa and having attended Goa University, Mr. Tilvi has also worked at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, and National Antarctic Research Centre, Vasco.

The results of the latest findings have been published in the most prestigious international journal ‘the Nature’

This work was led by Dr. Steve Finkelstein at University of Texas with many other astronomers including Dr. Casey Papovich in the U.S.

“While we are thrilled about this discovery, we were more surprised to find only a single galaxy at such large distances because we were expecting to find more. This is telling us something that the Universe was fundamentally different when it was young,” Mr. Tilvi said.

“Another surprise came to us when we discovered that this galaxy is forming stars tremendously, roughly about 300 Sun-like stars every year, compared to only about one Sun-like star produced in our own Milkyway galaxy. It is possible that when the Universe was young, galaxies were more active then they are now,” he said.

“We are very fortunate to be born now, because after a few billion years the size of the universe will be so large that the light from such galaxies would never reach us and thus we won’t see these galaxies,” he pointed out.

“It is really exciting time to be in astronomy as new large telescopes like Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope are being built now. India is also a partner in the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope. When completed, this will be the largest telescope in the world,” Mr. Tilvi added.

Ninja grows stronger

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R continues to impress, proving a good option for those looking for a capable sports-touring bike

Bike maker Kawasaki has just brought to India its famous Ninja ZX-14R motorbike, reputed for its brilliant straight-line acceleration. Despite all its success, Kawasaki has still worked to further improve the bike. The current ZX-14R was launched in 2012 with aesthetic, engine and chassis upgrades over and above other minor tweaks.

The ZX-14R is a bulky motorcycle, its enormous nose housing intimidating headlights that feature dual projectors. Kawasaki’s ram-air system is standard, as is a massive visor, for excellent wind protection. The ZX-14R uses an old-school, analogue speedometer and tachometer coupled with a digital display that shows fuel capacity, remaining range, external temperature and time. The ZX-14R is flanked by elongated heat dissipation vents finished in black. At the rear, there’s a glazed LED tail-light. The ZX-14R gets Kawasaki’s golden blazed green paint scheme that contrasts with its blackened 10-spoke alloy wheels and engine.

In 2012, Kawasaki bumped up this displacement, giving the 14R a 1441cc, liquid-cooled, four-stroke and in-line four-cylinder engine. Maximum power output is 210bhp at 10000rpm, and you get a chain wrenching peak torque figure of 16.57kgm at 7500rpm. The ram-air system feeds air into the engine as speeds increase to generate extra power. And Kawasaki has gone the whole nine yards, ensuring this performance-ready engine includes a race-spec head, chromed bores, surface milled chambers, polished ports and an enhanced cooling system with under-piston oil jets, apart from a secondary cooling fan.

The ZX-14R comes equipped with Kawasaki Traction Control (KTRC), and a selection of three riding modes – mode 1 to optimise acceleration, mode 2 for acceleration and wheelie control and mode 3 for wet riding. The rider can also select full or low power modes, low being 25 per cent less power, after 6500rpm. Kawasaki is using a tall geared, six-speed transmission, that shifts in a one-down, five-up pattern, and a slipper clutch is standard.

The ZX-14R’s aluminium monocoque frame comes with a stiffer steering head. There’s inverted telescopic forks, and Kawasaki’s Uni-Trak shock absorbing at the rear, bolted onto a gusseted, now 10mm longer, swingarm. The Ninja ZX-14R comes with a less aggressive riding position relative to the more track focussed ZX-10R.

There’s generous rubber, a 120/70 section unit in front and 190/50 tyre at the rear, running on lightened 17-inch wheels. Kawasaki has upgraded brakes as well, the 14R using twin 310mm discs in front and a single 250mm rear disc, both ABS enabled. The radial-mounted callipers get individual brake pads for each piston, for good heat management.

The 2013 Ninja ZX-14R continues to impress, proving a strong option for enthusiasts looking for a capable sports-touring bike. Kawasaki has ticked all the right boxes, save for offering the bike only in Pune, to start with, and the CBU import route making this a premium priced bike, at Rs. 16.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune).

Dawood offered cars to Indian cricketers in 1986: Vengsarkar

Former Indian cricket team captain Dilip Vengsarkar on Monday made a startling revelation that in 1986 underworld don Dawood Ibrahim had walked into the team’s dressing room and offered the players gifts of cars if they beat Pakistan in the final of the Sharjah tournament the next day.

‘Big businessman’

Mr. Vengsarkar claimed that Dawood, introduced to the players as a big businessman by actor Mehmood, offered each player a Toyota car if they won the Austral-Asia Cup.

Kapil shunted him out However, Dawood was turned away by then India skipper Kapil Dev.

“Mehmood was in our dressing room. Kapil Dev was not in the dressing room at that time because he had gone out to address the press conference,” Mr. Vengsarkar said at a function in Jalgaon.

“No one recognised him but I had seen his photographs.

Mehmood said he [the businessman] wants to announce a prize for us. He said, ‘If you beat Pakistan tomorrow, everyone will get a car.’ Jayawant Lele was our manager then,” Mr. Vengsarkar said.

The Miandad six

The match will be best remembered for the last-ball six hit by Javed Miandad off Chetan Sharma that helped Pakistan win the trophy.

Ready for questioning by CBI, says Manmohan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses a press conference on board his special flight on Thursday after his visit to Russia and China.

“I am not above the law of the land. If there is anything that the CBI, or for that matter anybody wants to ask me, I have nothing to hide”

In his first public remarks since he came out earlier this week defending the controversial Hindalco coal block allocation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday suggested he was willing to be questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has launched a probe into the matter.

Appearing upbeat on the way home from trips to Russia and China, which he described as “satisfying,” Dr. Singh expressed the confidence that the Congress would stage a comeback in the 2014 general election.

The Prime Minister also did not mince words expressing disappointment that his talks with his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif had not led to reduction of tensions on the Line of Control.

In an interaction with journalists on his plane, Dr. Singh asserted he had nothing to hide on the coal block allocation to Hindalco, a company owned by Kumar Mangalam Birla. Asked if he was ready to be questioned by the CBI, he said: “I am not above the law of the land. If there is anything that the CBI, or for that matter anybody wants to ask me, I have nothing to hide.”

What is the correct manner of shaking hands? Please describe in light of Hadith.

Question:     What is the correct manner of shaking hands?  Please describe in light of Hadith. ............................................................................

Answer:     Shaking hands with both the hands is a Sunnah.  There is a Hadith in Sahih Bukhari about handshakes: Translation: Hadhrat ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud (May Allah be well pleased with him) says that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) taught me the Tashahud and my palm was between both His blessed palms.  (Sahih Bukhari, Babul Musafaha) Imam Bukhari (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) has related this verse in the Chapter of Handshakes (Baabul Musafaha), which shows that when a handshake is performed while meeting people, it should be performed with both hands. Also, Imam Bukhari (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) has also composed another chapter alongside this chapter that a handshake should be performed with both hands.  Imam Bukhari (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) relates that Hadhrat Hammad bin Zaid used both his hands when shaking hands with Hadhrat ‘Abdullah bin Mubarak (May Allah shower His Mercy on them).  (Sahih Bukhari, Baabul Akhaza Bil Yadain) And Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) knows best.

Radiation, microwaves and cancer

This page tells you about microwave ovens and different types of radiation. There is information about

• Microwave ovens
• What radiation is and the different types
• Research into microwave ovens and cancer
• More information

Microwave ovens

Microwave ovens don’t make foods radioactive. They just heat them. Microwave ovens heat food by producing radiation which is absorbed by water molecules in the food. This makes the water molecules vibrate and produce heat, which cooks the food.

Any modern day microwave oven in good condition is perfectly safe as long as you follow the instructions for use. If you use a microwave oven in the correct way there is no known harmful effect on humans. But people still tend to worry. Understanding the different types of radiation may help to reassure you that cooking in a microwave is not dangerous and won’t cause cancer.

Although microwaves are safe to use it is important to point out that cooking in them can affect the nutritional value of some foods - for example, fruit and vegetables. But nutrients are lost when heating foods in any way - boiling, grilling, frying or even steaming. As long as you don't overcook foods, microwaving can actually be quite a healthy way to cook, as it uses only a little water. The best way to keep as many nutrients as possible in fruit and vegetables is to use as little water as you can and not overcook them.

What radiation is and the different types

Radiation is the release of energy from any source. There are many different sources of energy around us. For example, our bodies give off heat, which is a form of energy. Energy is also released from everyday things such as

• Household electrical appliances
• Heaters
• The sun
• X-ray machines

Not all radiation is harmful. It depends on the type of radiation and how much exposure to it you have. There are several types of radiation. All of which can be grouped under either

• Ionising radiation
• Non ionising radiation

Ionising radiation

Ionising radiation is what most people mean when they talk about radiation. This type of radiation is made of high energy waves. It is quite a complicated process. But the end result is the energy can get into cells and chemically change the way the cell works. This is called ionisation. As we know from medical tests, very small amounts of ionising radiation don’t do us too much harm. But too much can cause burns, radiation sickness, and cancer.

The genetic material of a cell (known as DNA) is very sensitive to ionising radiation. DNA is a code for all the genes that carry the instructions for how our body works and its characteristics. For example, there are genes to tell the body to have brown hair or blue eyes.

Ionising radiation can change a cell’s DNA. If this happens, then the cell’s in built instructions about how to live and grow are jumbled around. It is then possible for the cell to do something very different from what it is supposed to do. For example, it may become cancerous and keep reproducing in an uncontrolled way. This could take years to happen but it still means that a cancer may eventually develop.

There is more information about the cancer cell in the about cancer section.

Ionising radiation can damage any cell in the body. But it all depends on how much radiation the cell gets. There are 3 main types of ionising radiation that you may be exposed to. Too much of any of them can harm the body. They are

• Natural background radiation
• Medical radiation
• Non medical radiation

Natural background radiation

We are constantly being exposed to ionising radiation from natural sources. It comes from

• Radioactive substances in the soil
• Radioactive gases given off from the earth, such as radon
• Very small amounts of radioactivity in the body
• Cosmic rays from the solar system (the sun, stars and outer space)

Medical radiation

The use of radiation in medicine includes

• Diagnostic radiology, which includes using X-ray machines to get pictures of the inside of the body
• Nuclear medicine, which involves drinking a radioactive substance or injecting it into the body to help with diagnosing or treating diseases and
• Radiotherapy, which uses high energy rays to kill cancer cells

Non medical radiation

This includes nuclear radiation that comes from previous nuclear weapon explosions or accidents throughout the world, such as that at Chernobyl.

Non ionising radiation

Non ionising radiation has enough energy to move things around inside a cell but not enough to change cells chemically. The radiation from a microwave oven is non ionising. Other examples include

• Ultraviolet rays from the sun or sunbeds
• Electromagnetic fields
• Radio waves
• Radiation waves given off from household electrical appliances, heaters, mobile phones with or without headsets, and computers and their screens

The only type of non ionising radiation that we know can cause cancer is over exposure to ultraviolet rays, which causes skin cancer.

Research is going on into other types of non ionising radiation and any possible link to cancer. We have information about the investigation of cancer risk and electromagnetic fields, mobile phones andcomputer screens.

Research into microwave ovens and cancer

Studies have looked at the possible link between microwave ovens and cancer. Some results suggest there may be a link but other studies haven’t been able to prove this at all. Microwaves do produce a magnetic field while they are in use. This drops sharply the further you are from the oven and doesn't last long, as you tend to cook in microwaves for very short periods. Most experts say that microwave ovens don’t give off enough energy to damage the genetic material (DNA) in cells so they can’t cause cancer. Microwaves heat food, but do not make any changes to it that aren't made in any other cooking method. So they do not make food any more likely to cause cancer. 

More information

The Health Protection Agency Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards is an independent body that advises the Government about health risks associated with radiation. They also have information for the public. Their website has a section about radiation.