December 2006 – TheOS.IN

100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year

The BBC news magazine has published list of 100 things we didn’t know last year.

Each week, the Magazine chronicles interesting and sometimes downright unexpected facts from the news, through its strand 10 things we didn’t know last week. Here, to round off the year, are some of the best from the past 12 months.

1. Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like “baby-talk in Portuguese”.

2. There are 200 million blogs which are no longer being updated, say technology analysts.

3. Urban birds have developed a short, fast “rap style” of singing, different from their rural counterparts.

4. Bristol is the least anti-social place in England, says the National Audit Office.

5. Standard-sized condoms are too big for most Indian men.

6. The late Alan “Fluff” Freeman, famous as a DJ, had trained as an opera singer.

7. The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.

8. There are 6.5 million sets of fingerprints on file in the UK.

9. Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.

10. Panspermia is the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet.

Read the rest of list…

On which of these days in the month of Chaitra is Lord Rama’s birthday celebrated?

On which of these days in the month of Chaitra is Lord Rama’s birthday celebrated?
1. Purnima

2. Navami

3. Ashtami

4. Ekadashi

The correct answer is no # 2 Navmi

More information
=> Purnima – The Full Moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon lies on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. The older method of assigning names is based on seasons and quarters of the year. For example Buddha Purnima comes in May or Narali Purnima, comes in August.

=> Navami – This day is the birthday of Rama. Rama Navami falls on the ninth day i.e. Chaitra Masa Suklapaksha Navami

=> Ashtami – This is victory date for Durga killing Mahishasura.

=> Ekadashi – Ekadashi is fasting day. Ekadashi itself is a combination of ‘Eka’ (One) and ‘Dashi’ (Ten), meaning the eleventh day after the full or new moon.

This is a question # 8 (episode #8) of KBC3.

Environment & Nature – See live breathing earth

Breathing earth was created by David.

If earth had lungs, an x-ray of them would resemble that of a chronic smoker. Using data from the World Factbook and the United Nations, this site by designer David Bleja elegantly contrasts the globe’s real-time dioxide emission levels with each country’s birth and death rates. A deep red color lights up to show countries currently emitting 1,000 tones of C02.

All the usual industrial nations are there, such as the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, India, and much of Western Europe. Small golden suns highlight a recent birth, while brown circles note a death. In the left corner, you’ll see a tally of how many humans have come into the world and how many have left it since you’ve been watching, as well as how much C02 has escaped into the atmosphere. The data may not be pretty, but the presentation is stylish and smart. And it may make you think before you take another puff from that tailpipe

See live breathing earth (Source yahoo directory)

The Best Question and Answer (Q & A) Site / Service

Q & A, generally meaning Questions & Answers.

The concept is very simple everyone knows about something. There are also lots of people without any knowledge. So both type of people comes together for knowledge sharing for fun and education.

This article puts Yahoo Answers, Amazon’s Askville, and rival question-and-answer services to the test.

From the article:
That’s one lesson I took away from my recent survey of the growing collection of social question-and-answer websites, where members can post questions, answer other members’ questions, and rate other members’ answers to their questions–all for free.

But it takes a lot of sifting to get truly useful information from these sites. Each boasts a core of devoted members who leave thorough and well-documented answers to the questions they deem worthy. And most of the sites have systems for rating the performance or experience of answerers, which makes it easier to assess their reliability, while also inspiring members to compete with one another to give the best answers. But not all of the Q&A sites do this equally well; after all, the companies that run these sites are selling advertising space, not information.

Final Result
1. AnswerBag
2. Askville
3. Live QnA
4. Wondir
5. Yahoo Answers
6. Yedda

Read more at What’s the Best Q&A Site?

Good moods may prevent Common colds

According to new study positive mood guards against getting colds.

Common cold is a mild viral infectious disease of the nose and throat. Symptoms include sneezing, sniffling, runny nose, coughing; headache etc.

Now new study suggest that:
People with generally positive outlooks show greater resistance to developing colds than do individuals who rarely revel in upbeat feelings, a new investigation finds.

From the article:
‘We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk,’ Cohen says.
Although a positive emotional style bore no relation to whether participants became infected, it protected against the emergence of cold symptoms. For instance, among people infected by the influenza virus. 28 percent who often reported positive emotions developed coughs, congestion, and other cold symptoms, as compared with…. 41 percent who rarely reported positive emotions.

Cartoon creator Joe Barbera dies

Joe Barbera was an American animator, cartoon artist, storyboard artist director, producer and co-founder, together with William Hanna, of Hanna-Barbera. The studio produced well-known cartoons such as
=> Tom and Jerry (my favorite cartoon show)
=> The Flintstones
=> Scooby-Doo etc

From the article:
Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.

Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

This is sad news. I grew up watching all these wonderful cartoons. Rest in peace, we will miss you.

Diabetes breakthrough – cure for disease coming soon?

This is amazing news for diabetic patients. This is unique discovery for sure.

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of people worldwild.

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder, specifically affecting carbohydrate metabolism. It is a disease characterized by persistent hyperglycemia (high glucose blood sugar). It is a metabolic disease that requires medical diagnosis, treatment and lifestyle changes.

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”

“It will no doubt cause a great deal of consternation,” said Dr. Salter about his paper.

The researchers are now setting out to confirm that the connection between sensory nerves and diabetes holds true in humans. If it does, they will see if their treatments have the same effects on people as they did on mice.

Nothing is for sure, but “there is a great deal of promise,” Dr. Salter said.

Download robocopy.exe For Windows 2003 Server / XP / 7

Robocopy (Robust File Copy) is a command-line file copying tool included with the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, free to licensed users of Windows. The tool, as with much of the resource kit, works under Windows XP as well as under the Windows Server platform.

15 Best Cool Places on Internet (www sites)

They call it as ‘Complete List of the 15 Best Places to Waste Time’ :D

It’s first thing in the morning and you’re at the office. You’re sipping your coffee and sifting through e-mail, but you’re not quite ready to delve into the real work of the day. So what are you gonna do? Fire up your Web browser and distract yourself by wasting time on the Internet.

=> YouTube.com
=> Craigslist.org
=> Fark.com
=> The Internet Movie Database
=> Flickr.com
=> Reddit.com
=> Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D Beta
=> Triplets and Us
=> RuneScape
=> Rotten Tomatoes
=> Moola.com
=> AOL In2TV
=> HOT or NOT
=> Pogo.com
=> What Would Tyler Durden Do?

Source pcworld.com