India developing $100 laptop

Students across the country will be able to buy specially designed laptops at affordable prices with the Government planning to provide them the gadget at around Rs 4,000.

Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and IIT-Madras to develop a special laptop at a cost of $100 for students to help them excel in studies.

"The government aims to provide 100-dollar laptops to students and research in this direction is on," said D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

The initiative has been taken by government to enable students to make the most out of Information Technology, which is emerging as a catalyst for the country's socio-economic development, she said.

Her announcement came at the inaugural session of 'e-India 2008,' an international conference of IT solution providers and government agencies to facilitate practices of e-governance and digital learning in the country.

Holding that the Information and Communication Technology will play a key role in the country's education system, the minister said: "in the coming years, thrust will be on using ICT to strengthen various mode of learning both in school and at higher education levels.

"To deliver the benefits of ICT in the learning process, a new scheme namely 'National Mission in Education through ICT' will be launched, with the objective of providing connectivity to the learners to the 'Knowledge World' in cyberspace," she said.

The Chinese will be hard to beat

Worthy successors to legends ready to provide the thrills

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China owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles

In the women’s section, the U.S. looks set to emerge team champion

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Always one of the most popular disciplines in the Olympic roster, gymnastics, which has seen some colourful personalities, has provided memorable moments ever since the sport was included into the Games at St. Louis in 1904.

Even as one looks forward to the August 9-19 competitions at the Beijing National indoor stadium, it is hard to resist the temptation to look backwards because the inspiring images of the likes of Larisa Latynina, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Viktor Chukarin, Boris Shaklin, Sawao Kato, Nikolai Andrianov and Vitaly Scherbo simply fail to fade away.

All legendary figures provided gymnastics and the Olympic Games with glitz and glamour during their time; creating new benchmarks with difficult and gutsy routines in this sport of tumbles, vaults and falls.

Worthy successors

Fortunately enough, we do have worthy successors to these ever-green superstars, even as the fall in the standards of such powerhouses like Russia and Romania is quite hard to digest. In Beijing, it would be the Chinese, particularly their men gymnasts, who would be hard to beat, given the vast advantage they hold while competing at their own backyard.

Led by the three-time World all-around champion, Yang Wei, the Chinese are the firm favourites for the team gold, having shown their capability at last year’s World championships in Stuttgart winning the title by an astonishing five points.

A huge margin by any account considering the fact that the total team score was made up of only 18 routines.

The fact that China now owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles indicates the depth of the Chinese squad, which besides Wei comprises Xiao Qin, Zou Kai, Huang Xi, Liang Fuliang and Chen Yibing.

True, the Chinese have a tendency to falter under Olympic pressure, but it is hard to visualise such a surprise in Beijing as they battle it out with Japan, Germany, the United States and South Korea for the top honours.

In the all-around competition, though the defending champion, Paul Hamm (United States) is back after an injury, it could be Wei all the way should he repeat the same form that he displayed in Germany last year.

The Chinese are also likely to pick a lot of medals in the finals of the various apparatuses, though they could face stiff challenge from the likes of Brazil’s Diego Hypolito (floor), Hungary’s Krisztian (pommel horse), Holland’s Yuri van Gelder (rings), Poland’s Leszek Blanik (vault), Slovakia’s Mitja Petkovsek (parallel bars) and Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen (horizontal bars) besides their arch rivals from Japan and the United States and veterans like Jordan Jovtchev.

U.S. women formidable

In the women’s section, it is the United States which looks set to emerge as the team champion though the Chinese have in them the capability to turn things around.

The Americans, having won the title in Stuttgart, would be looking forward to their first Olympic triumph on foreign soil in Beijing. In Shawn Johnson, the U.S., has a popular all-around World champion.

The 16-year-old, having added quite a few nuances to her regular routine, could be a runaway winner of her section against her own teammate Anastasia Liukin, Romania’s Stevlana Nistor, Brazil’s Jade Barbosa and the Chinese duo of Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha.

Though the Americans are capable of winning a medal in each of the apparatuses finals it could well be a touch-and-go affair considering the fact that the Chinese represented by Cheng Fi, He Ning, Jiang Yuyan and Li Shanshan can prove to be quite a handful before an adoring home audience.

With the scoring system having been changed in 2005, Beijing is also set to see the new accumulative points scoring system, which lays emphasis on content and execution rather than daring, in operation.

In essence, you could hardly witness the perfect 10.00 being awarded in Beijing, but the third Olympics in Asia could still have its thrills and frills if the gymnasts get going.

Digital camera resolution reaches a new high

The Swedish company Hasselblad's announcement of the launch of Hasselblad H3DII-50, featuring a new Kodak 50-megapixel sensor, has pushed the available resolution in digital cameras to a new high.

Such high resolution goes beyond the needs of most consumers but professional photographers would appreciate the unprecedented level of detail provided by it.

"The H3DII-50 has been designed to meet the challenging demands of high-end photographers who require the best in image quality, performance and creative freedom," said Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen in a press release.

The camera, which would be available from October 2008, would also prove useful for applications such as aerial photography as the availability of higher resolution allows the plane to fly higher and the number of pictures necessary for covering a given area is also reduced.

The new Kodak image sensor, which produces an array of 8,176-by-6,132 pixels, would be implemented in the same size housing as Hasselblad's existing 39-megapixel H3DII-39 camera.

Kodak has also added a set of new features on the sensor, such as new dyes, that would result in richer colours. It also includes quick flush technology that enables faster image capture and lower power consumption, resulting in longer battery life.

Watch out for brightest Jupiter on July 9

Keep your telescopes handy for a wonderful celestial activity - Jupiter will shine at its brightest when it aligns directly with the Sun and Earth on Wednesday.

“It is an interesting phenomenon as Jupiter and Earth would be in a straight line. Both the planets come closest at this time of the year and Jupiter, in turn, shines at its brightest,” said Nehru Planetarium director N. Ratnashree.

Ratnashree said if we could see Earth from Jupiter then it would be passing in front of the Sun.

The planetarium will put out a telescope for people interested in watching the planets from the Nehru Memorial.

“We want people to come and watch the event. If the weather is clear, we could have the clearest view of Jupiter and its moons from Earth,” Rathnashree said.

This celestial event will be followed by a solar eclipse on Aug 1.

“The solar eclipse will be seen partially in India, but there is likely to be considerable excitement arising from the fact that a large fraction of the eclipse would be seen from the northern parts of the country,” Ratnashree said.

New navigation system to help motorists avoid jams

A new car navigation system is being developed to help motorists negotiate rush hour jams by advising them about the best possible routes.

The 'Congestion Avoidance Dynamic Routing Engine' (CADRE) uses “artificial intelligence”, or AI, to interpret live traffic information shared among vehicles fitted with a special GPS, or Global Positioning System.

CADRE can sense traffic slowing down and building up into jams and works by “monitoring” other vehicles, informing motorists eight to 16 kilometres ahead of a situation as it is happening and recommends steps to avoid it while they can.

The software is built around “fuzzy logic” that mimics human reasoning.

The capability comes from the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) that specialises in using AI techniques for industrial applications.

David Brown, who heads IIR, said: “The system interprets live data from current traffic conditions so the motorist receives up-to-the-minute advice and can make an informed choice.”

The system takes into account of how traffic speeds vary by day of the week and time of day and even on individual roads.

It means that journey times are predicted more accurately and better routes are calculated that take into account typical traffic conditions for the time of travel.

“At present, routing can be carried out for minimum time or distance, but this can easily be extended to other criteria such as minimum cost or minimum carbon dioxide emissions,” said Brown.

Future plans for the system would extend it to ferries, trains and even planes allowing travellers to examine different departure times to estimate the best time and route to travel. CADRE could be in the shops in as little as 18 months.

Greater emission cuts needed to prevent irreversible damage

Much greater cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases are required to prevent the global average surface temperature from increasing by more than two to three degrees above pre-industrial levels, a scientist has warned.

Failure to incorporate this information into policy processes now could close off options to avoid dangerous climate change in the future.

Policy makers have been urged to incorporate critical climate-carbon cycle feedback information into the decision making process to prevent irreversible climate changes.

Climate-carbon cycle feedback reflect the interaction between temperature change, atmospheric carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle - the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between land, ocean and atmosphere.

Global warming could significantly reduce the uptake and storage of carbon by land and ocean sinks.

This risk has profound implications for climate policy. If the uptake and storage of carbon by natural sinks declines, a greater proportion of carbon emissions will remain in the atmosphere.

As a result, meeting climate targets based on atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide will be more difficult, requiring a greater reduction in emissions than would otherwise be necessary.