Microsoft Releases Tools to Boost Web Accessibility

Microsoft makes its accessibility model freely available to help improve access to technology for people with disabilities. Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality. For example, when a site is coded with semantically meaningful HTML, with textual equivalents provided for images and with links named meaningfully, this helps blind users using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware.

From the press release:

Microsoft Corp. committed to contribute its UI Automation specification to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), a new engineering working group dedicated to making it easier for developers to create software, hardware and Web-based products that are accessible to people with disabilities. The UI Automation specification describes Microsoft’s latest accessibility framework technology, and will help developers include advanced accessibility functionality into implementations designed for use on any operating system.

=> Read more: Microsoft Provides Accessibility Programming Model to Industry Group Devoted to Interoperability and Accessibility

Human Animal Embryo Research Legal in UK

Two research facilities have been given the green light to create part human, part animal embryos.

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo known as a blastocyst. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50-150 cells. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they are able to grow (i.e. differentiate) into all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm.

British authorities in the UK have given scientists the green light to create human-animal embryos for research (use of animal eggs to create human stem cells, a ruling that will boost the supply of stem cells for research).

The decision means that researchers will be able to refine their techniques for producing human stem cells by practicing first on animal eggs, of which there is a steady supply. Similar work involving human-animal stem cells is also under way in China and the United States.

Hybrids are made using an animal egg mixed with human genes. However according to this article:

The experiments involves transferring nuclei containing DNA from human cells, such as skin cells, into animal eggs that have had almost all of their genetic information removed.

The resulting cytoplasmic embryos are more than 99% human, with a small animal component, making up around 0.1%.

The embryo would be grown in the lab for a few days, then harvested for stem cells – immature cells that can become many types of tissue.

=> More info at : UK OKs human-animal embryo research

Top 10 Wealthiest States in America

Top 10 wealthiest states in America – Here’s where the median household income is highest in U.S.

Maryland is now the wealthiest state in the union, as measured by median household income, according to the latest stats from the Census Bureau.

Top 10 wealthiest states in U.S.
StateHouse Hold Income
Maryland$65,144
New Jersey$64,470
Connecticut$63,422
Hawaii$61,160
Massachusetts$59,963
New Hampshire$59,683
Alaska$59,393
California$56,645
Virginia$56,277
Minnesota $54,023

#1 Maryland

Maryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east.

#2 New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania. Parts of New Jersey lie within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York and Philadelphia.

#3 Connecticut

Connecticut is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state borders New York to the west and south (Long Island by sea), Massachusetts to the north, and Rhode Island to the east. Portions of southwestern Connecticut are considered part of the New York metropolitan area. Connecticut is the 29th most populous state with 3.4 million residents and ranked 48th in size by area, making it the 4th most densely populated state. Called the “Constitution State,” Connecticut has a long history dating from the early colonial times, and was influential in the development of early American government.

#4 Hawaii

The State of Hawaii is a state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia.

#5 Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north. Most of its population of 6.4 million live in the Boston metropolitan area. The eastern half of this relatively small state is mostly urban and suburban, while Western Massachusetts is mostly rural. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states. It ranks third among U.S. states in overall population density and fourth in GDP per capita.

#6 New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. New Hampshire ranks 44th in land area, 46th in total area of the 50 states, and 41st in population. It became the first post-colonial sovereign nation in the Americas when it broke off from Great Britain in January 1776, and was one of the original thirteen states that founded the United States of America six months later. It was the ninth state to ratify the United States Constitution, bringing that document into effect. New Hampshire was the first U.S. state to have its own state constitution, and is the only state with neither a general sales tax nor a personal income tax at either the state or local level. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state.

#7 Alaska

Alaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. As of 2007, the population was 683,478 with approximately 50% residing along the Anchorage metropolitan areas.

#8 California

California is a state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexican state of Baja California. California is the most populous U.S. state. Its four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. It is known for its varied climate and geography as well as its diverse population.

#9 Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an American state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. The state was named Virginia after Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the “Virgin Queen” because she never married. The state is also known as the “Old Dominion” and sometimes “Mother of Presidents”, because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The state is geographically shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, home to much of the state’s flora and fauna. The capital of the commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The state population is over seven million.

#10 Minnesota

Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. The state is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. Those lakes and rivers that gave the state its name, and its forests, parks, and wilderness areas offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

How Thick Is The Ice At The North Pole

Interesting facts on the north pole – there is no land beneath the ice of the North Pole – only thick layer of ice.

how thick is the ice at the north pole
I was just wondering about the thicknees of the ice at the north pole. The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 metres (13,980 ft). The nearest land is usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast of Greenland about 440 miles (c. 700 km) away. The north pole is often credited as having snow but it is factually snowless.

The sea ice at the North Pole is typically around two or three meters thick, though there is considerable variation and occasionally the movement of floes exposes clear water. Studies have suggested that the average ice thickness has decreased in recent years due to global warming.

The Arctic ice cap is a shifting pack of sea ice some 6.5 to 10 feet i.e. 2 to 3 meters thick – floating above the 13,000-foot-deep (4,000-meter-deep) Arctic Ocean. During the winter the Arctic ice pack grows to the size of the United States. In the summer half of the ice disappears.

Terminal Services Error 1075 – the dependency does not exist or has been marked for deletion

Explains how to fix terminal services error 1075 – the dependency does not exist or has been marked for deletion.

One one of Windows box I got the following error:

1075 – the dependency does not exist or has been marked for deletion

So how do You fix this error? The solution is simple, but you need to reboot the box:

To fix the 1075 error

Login to your windows box.

Open the control panel

Install MS Terminal Services and reboot the server. This make sure that all the systems files got installed and working fine.

After reboot, again open the control panel

Uninstall MS Terminal Services. For Windows Server 2003, the MS Terminal Services option is not required for remote administration.

Open up regedit and verify that the entries for “\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService” has the following entry:

DependOnService               REG_MULTI_SZ         RPCSS

If you found another “Depend” entry, just delete it.

Finally, reboot the server.

Insect Attack May Have Killed Dinosaurs

Insect are the most diverse group of animals on the Earth, with over a million described species— more than half of all known living organism. Insects may be found in nearly all environments on the planet, although only a small number of species occur in the oceans. Now there is a new theory that suggests that insect attack may have finished off dinosaurs. An important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs, experts say, could have been the rise and evolution of insects, especially the slow-but-overwhelming threat posed by new disease carriers.

Insect Attack May Have Killed Dinosaurs

From the article:

Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new arguemet is that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force — biting, disease-carrying insects.

=> Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs

Proof: Practice makes a man perfect

This article explains why repetitive studying and training is effective. It makes you perfect. Based upon my personal experience, it is true. Now scientist got proof that backups the claim.

Practice makes perfect — or at least that’s what we’re told as we struggle through endless rounds of multiplication tables, goal kicks and piano scales — and it seems, based on the personal experience of many, to be true. That’s why neuroscientists have been perplexed by data showing that at the level of individual synapses, or connections between neurons, increased, repetitive stimulation might actually reverse early gains in synaptic strength. Now, neuroscientists from Carnegie Mellon University and the Max Planck Institute have discovered the mechanism that resolves this apparent paradox. The findings are published in the Jan. 4 issue of Science.

=> Novel mechanism for long-term learning identified by Carnegie Mellon researchers