The New Dawn
Hi Friends,
Day and Night, Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Good and Bad, Positive and Negative…our World is made of these two opposites. Yet when it comes to News-the daily happenings around us, the ones that most attract our attention, unfortunately, are the Negative News..bomb blasts, deaths, war pictures, celebrity fights, political feuds or so. In this largely available negative news, we seldom notice or remember Positive News..a new innovation large or small scale, how beneficial a govt scheme has been, change in attitude towards life of someone who has escaped a big accident or disease and so on. The duty of our GoodNess Apple is to bring such Positive News to your doorstep..err..computer window 🙂
We ask for your support in carrying out this noble duty. Lets be Positive!!
Quantum computing device hints at powerful future
By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas
One of the most complex efforts toward a quantum computer has been shown off at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas in the US.
It uses the strange “quantum states” of matter to perform calculations in a way that, if scaled up, could vastly outperform conventional computers.
The 6cm-by-6cm chip holds nine quantum devices, among them four “quantum bits” that do the calculations.
The team said further scaling up to 10 qubits should be possible this year.
Rather than the ones and zeroes of digital computing, quantum computers deal in what are known as superpositions – states of matter that can be thought of as both one and zero at once.
In a sense, quantum computing’s one trick is to perform calculations on all superposition states at once. With one quantum bit, or qubit, the difference is not great, but the effect scales rapidly as the number of qubits rises.
The figure often touted as the number of qubits that would bring quantum computing into a competitive regime is about 100, so each jump in the race is a significant one.
The team’s key innovation was to find a way to completely disconnect – or “decouple” – interactions between the elements of their quantum circuit.
The delicate quantum states that they create must be manipulated, moved, and stored without destroying them.
“It’s a problem I’ve been thinking about for three or four years now, how to turn off the interactions,” UCSB’s John Martinis, who led the research,” told BBC News.
“Now we’ve solved it, and that’s great – but there’s many other things we have to do.”
Qubits and pieces
The solution came in the form of what the team has termed the RezQu architecture. It is basically a blueprint for a quantum computer, and several presentations at the conference focused on how to make use of it.
“For me this is kind of nice, I know how I’m going to put them together,” said Professor Martinis.
“I now know how to design it globally and I can go back and try to optimise all the parts.”
RezQu seems to have an edge in one crucial arena – scalability – that makes it a good candidate for the far more complex circuits that would constitute a quantum computer proper.
“There are competing architectures, like ion traps – trapping ions with lasers, but the complexity there is that you have to have a huge room full of PhDs just to run your lasers,” Mr Lucero told BBC News.
“There’s already promise to show how this architecture could scale, and we’ve created custom electronics based on cellphone technology which has driven the cost down a lot.
“We’re right at the bleeding edge of actually having a quantum processor,” he said. “It’s been years that a whole community has blossomed just looking at the idea of, once we have a quantum computer, what are we going to do with it?”
Britton Plourde, a quantum computing researcher from the University of Syracuse, said that the field has progressed markedly in recent years.
The metric of interest to quantum computing is how long the delicate quantum states can be preserved, and Dr Plourde noted that time had increased a thousand fold since the field’s inception.
“The world of superconducting quantum bits didn’t even exist 10 years ago, and now they can control [these states] to almost arbitrary precision,” he told BBC News.
“We’re still a long way from a large-scale quantum computer but it’s really in my eyes rapid progress.”
Reference Link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811199
Courtesy : BBC News
Crowd-sourcing aids Japan crisis
People living close to the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan are collaborating to plot local radiation levels.
The RDTN.org website allows people to submit their own radiation readings and maps them alongside official data.
Users wishing to contribute to the site will need to buy radiation detection equipment
It is one of several so-called crowd-sourcing initiatives set up in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Another website, JapanStatus.org, also offers similar information.
To contribute to the RDTN site people will have to purchase a radiation detection device and the site directs people to four sources of such equipment.
Readings submitted to the site suggest that radiation levels of between 0.178 – 0.678 microsieverts per hour can be detected in and around Onuma Hitachi City that lies south of Fukushima.
Progress appears to be being made to restore power to the Fukushima Daiichi plant although, according to official sources, the situation remains very serious.
Villagers living nearby have been told not to drink tap water due to higher levels of radioactive iodine.
Other efforts to pool advice on how to cope with the disaster include new pages on The Global Innovations Commons, a site which compiles out-of-date patents.
It includes dozens of patents related to cooling down reactors from companies such as Hitachi and Siemens.
There is also information which could help with the rebuilding efforts, including water filtration technologies, shelter and building techniques and tsunami warning systems.
Reference Link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12803643
Courtesy : BBC News
India’s Saina Nehwal wins Swiss Open title
Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal has won the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title with a victory over the Korean player Ji Hyun Sung in Switzerland.
Nehwal, who was ranked second in the tournament, won 21-13, 21-14 in 43 minutes in the women’s singles final.
Saina Nehwal is ranked fourth in the world
The world number 4 player defeated Ji Hyun, ranked number 19.
Nehwal, the first Indian to win a Super series tournament, won a gold at the Commonwealth Games and the India Grand Prix gold last month.
Last year Nehwal also won three Super Series titles – Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong Open.
The 21-year-old shuttler, from the northern state of Haryana, was the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarter-finals at the Olympics.
Nehwal is also the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships.
Last year she was awarded the country’s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
Reference Link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12802326
Courtesy : BBC News
Brotherly Bond
19 March 2011 Last updated at 01:20 GMT
// Teenage carer bullied over having ‘small’ family
Fourteen-year-old Ethan has a tough time helping care for his younger brother and his mother who have a form of dwarfism called skeletal dysplasia.
“The best thing about being smaller than everyone else is that you can fit down the back of the sofa, and it’s handy for when you’re playing hide and seek and things, because you can hide where everyone else can’t,” said 10-year-old Aidan.
Ethan’s little brother Aidan has a genetic condition which means his bones did not develop properly, affecting his height and movement. He inherited it from his mother, Michelle, and it means Aidan often has to use a wheelchair.
Michelle said: “It affects all our joints and it’s a curvature of the spine, which Aidan has had corrected, and also all the long bones are curved as well.”
Aidan and Ethan, who are from Cambridge, have a unique relationship.
While their father Lee, who is a support worker for adults with disabilities, is at work, Ethan helps get Aidan dressed and takes him to school, as well as help his mother cook dinner and with housework.
Ethan said: “Sometimes I get annoyed, but that’s life and you just have to get on with it.”
But sometimes helping his brother can cause friction between the pair.
Aidan said: “It can be a bit frustrating when I want to do something myself and Ethan comes in and helps.
“(But) Sometimes it can be good because you don’t have to do everything when you can’t sort of do it yourself.”
Ethan has found that the toughest thing to cope with was bullying, which has been so bad he has been forced to move schools.
“People at my old school used to take the Mick – like calling my mum a midget and oompa loompa,” he said.
“I’ve found not to tell anyone at school. Over the years I’ve had quite a bit of bullying.
“In my old school, how it started was they’d ask why my mum was small and I’d tell them that she was born with a bone condition and they just thought it was funny.”
At the height of the bullying, Ethan was walking home from a party with his mother when he was attacked in the street by a stranger.
“A boy just walked up to us and started shouting he then pushed me off my bike, and I hurt my knee and my hand, and he started hitting me and kicking me, asking me who I was.
“I didn’t reply and he retaliated more. I managed to get away on my bike and he threw a glass bottle at me and it hit me in the back.”
He reported the assault to the police, and his attacker was sentenced to 80 hours of community service.
He said: “The advice I’d give someone who’s getting bullied is to tell someone and not suffer in silence.”
Living with limited movement also means Aidan has to face daily challenges.
He was desperate to regain his independence and walk up stairs by himself, and after an operation to straighten his legs, he underwent intensive therapy to build up his strength.
The 10-year-old needed hydrotherapy treatment, but feared water, as earlier in life he had had a breathing tube.
But after some initial fears, he embraced the pool.
“When I got in the pool for the first time, I was very wobbly. But then afterwards I didn’t want to get out again,” Aidan said.
But he already has set himself a new challenge: “I’d like to play football next.”
Ethan has also set himself a challenge, to become a DJ. After studying the craft in music lessons with his friends, he played in front of his school friends at a school disco for the first time.
He wanted Aidan to share the experience, and got him on stage with him. And that brotherly support meant he had the confidence to perform.
“It’s quite scary but once Aidan came on I really enjoyed it. It really helped when I was helping him.”
Reference Link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12758501
Courtesy : BBC News
Go Easy on Yourself, a New Wave of Research Urges
Do you treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and family?
That simple question is the basis for a burgeoning new area of psychological research called self-compassion — how kindly people view themselves. People who find it easy to be supportive and understanding to others, it turns out, often score surprisingly low on self-compassion tests, berating themselves for perceived failures like being overweight or not exercising.
The research suggests that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step toward better health. People who score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. Preliminary data suggest that self-compassion can even influence how much we eat and may help some people lose weight.
This idea does seem at odds with the advice dispensed by many doctors and self-help books, which suggest that willpower and self-discipline are the keys to better health. But Kristin Neff, a pioneer in the field, says self-compassion is not to be confused with self-indulgence or lower standards.
“I found in my research that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent,” said Dr. Neff, an associate professor of human development at the University of Texas at Austin. “They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. Most people have gotten it wrong because our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.”
Imagine your reaction to a child struggling in school or eating too much junk food. Many parents would offer support, like tutoring or making an effort to find healthful foods the child will enjoy. But when adults find themselves in a similar situation — struggling at work, or overeating and gaining weight — many fall into a cycle of self-criticism and negativity. That leaves them feeling even less motivated to change.
“Self-compassion is really conducive to motivation,” Dr. Neff said. “The reason you don’t let your children eat five big tubs of ice cream is because you care about them. With self-compassion, if you care about yourself, you do what’s healthy for you rather than what’s harmful to you.”
Dr. Neff, whose book, “Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind,” is being published next month by William Morrow, has developed a self-compassion scale: 26 statements meant to determine how often people are kind to themselves, and whether they recognize that ups and downs are simply part of life.
A positive response to the statement “I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies,” for example, suggests lack of self-compassion. “When I feel inadequate in some way, I try to remind myself that feelings of inadequacy are shared by most people” suggests the opposite.
For those low on the scale, Dr. Neff suggests a set of exercises — like writing yourself a letter of support, just as you might to a friend you are concerned about. Listing your best and worst traits, reminding yourself that nobody is perfect and thinking of steps you might take to help you feel better about yourself are also recommended.
Other exercises include meditation and “compassion breaks,” which involve repeating mantras like “I’m going to be kind to myself in this moment.”
If this all sounds a bit too warm and fuzzy, like the Al Franken character Stuart Smalley (“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me”), there is science to back it up. A 2007 study by researchers at Wake Forest University suggested that even a minor self-compassion intervention could influence eating habits. As part of the study, 84 female college students were asked to take part in what they thought was a food-tasting experiment. At the beginning of the study, the women were asked to eat doughnuts.
One group, however, was given a lesson in self-compassion with the food. “I hope you won’t be hard on yourself,” the instructor said. “Everyone in the study eats this stuff, so I don’t think there’s any reason to feel real bad about it.”
Later the women were asked to taste-test candies from large bowls. The researchers found that women who were regular dieters or had guilt feelings about forbidden foods ate less after hearing the instructor’s reassurance. Those not given that message ate more.
The hypothesis is that the women who felt bad about the doughnuts ended up engaging in “emotional” eating. The women who gave themselves permission to enjoy the sweets didn’t overeat.
“Self-compassion is the missing ingredient in every diet and weight-loss plan,” said Jean Fain, a psychotherapist and teaching associate at Harvard Medical School who wrote the new book “The Self-Compassion Diet” (Sounds True publishing). “Most plans revolve around self-discipline, deprivation and neglect.”
Dr. Neff says that the field is still new and that she is just starting a controlled study to determine whether teaching self-compassion actually leads to lower stress, depression and anxiety and more happiness and life satisfaction.
“The problem is that it’s hard to unlearn habits of a lifetime,” she said. “People have to actively and consciously develop the habit of self-compassion.”
Reference Link
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/go-easy-on-yourself-a-new-wave-of-research-urges/?ref=health
Courtesy
The New York Times Company
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