Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (The father of the India Nation)

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi in his childhood

Mahatma Gandhi in the dandi salt march 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence. Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma (or "Great Soul," an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore). In India, he is also called Bapu (or "Father") and officially honoured as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj -the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km  Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on many occasions, in both South Africa and India.

Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

For more information about Mahatma Gandhi visit the following links:

http://www.mkgandhi.org/biography/index.htm

http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/mahatma-gandhi/index.html

http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/gandhi.htm

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003987/bio

http://www.indianchild.com/mahatma_gandhi.htm

The neural process behind reaction time uncovered

Human beings who react to a stimulus with movement (say, react to a hot stove by moving their hand) can’t do so instantaneously. Some neural processing must occur beforehand, accounting for the gap between the moment when a racecar driver hears “GO!” and the moment when his foot hits the gas pedal (the gap between “planning” and “execution” of movement). Historically, scientists who have theorized about what that neural processing looks like have come up with something resembling the current “rise-to-threshold” hypothesis:

1.     Person anticipates “go” signal. The anticipation (“planning”) causes neurons to begin firing–not enough to cause movement, but enough to prep for it.

2.     Person receives “go” signal (pain from hot stove, gunshot signifying beginning of race). Neurons fire like crazy, initiating motion (“execution”).

By this commonsensical reasoning, the more anticipatory neuron action goes on before the “go” signal, the quicker a person will move in response to that signal.

Stanford researchers led by Krishna Shenoy, PhD, and Maneesh Sahani, PhD, however, have now successfully used a new technology to monitor individual neurons’ activity in real-time, allowing them to take a much more in-depth look at reaction times. Their findings, which appear in Neuron, contradict the “rise-to-threshold” hypothesis, offering for the first time a look into why individuals’ reaction times vary.

According to the release, reaction time has little to do with how long the “planning” period lasts, and a lot to do with the trajectory of the neural activity in the brain. The concept is fairly simple: the closer the neurons that fire during planning are to the neurons that must fire to initiate execution, the shorter the reaction time. The Stanford team was able to create a highly accurate model of what the reaction of any arm motion would be based on the accompanying neural activity.

Shenoy and Sahani hope their findings will help improve existing “neural prostheses” – that is, moving pieces such as artificial limbs or computer cursors that could be manipulated by the brain. These devices would be extremely useful for amputees and paralytics.

For more story visit the link below:

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_how-the-brain-plans-executes-movement-to-a-go-signal_1575416

Anonymous vows to kill facebook on November 5

Citing privacy concern and security violation of user information, hacker group 'Anonymous' has vowed to kill the social networking site (Facebook).

Anonymous claimed the social network provides information to 'government agencies' so they can 'spy on people.

Anonymous has set November 5th, 2011 as the date to destroy Facebook, which in Britain is celebrated as Guy Fawkes Day, a commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot in which Fawkes placed explosives in  the House of Lords in 1605.

Below is the video released by anonymous putting forward the reasons why they want to kill Facebook

"If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy.”

“You are not safe. Facebook knows you more than your family.”

 "Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from around the world. Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your 'privacy' settings, and deleting your account is impossible. Even if you "delete" your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time.” Those were the words from anonymous. 

Anonymous has claimed responsibility for every notable hacking attack this year, including the hacking into 70 law enforcement websites and took down the Syrian Ministry of Defense website.

For more story visit the following links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2024449/Anonymous-threaten-close-Facebook-November-5.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hwoPBTyZS6FuQVQQegsHCp3pdFRg?docId=CNG.8c552b16960439c4d35947018cdb7b48.c71

http://hottipscentral.com/anonymous-vows-to-kill-facebook-november-5-2011/

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Kanye West says "people look at me like I'm Hitler"

Kanye West

Kanye West said he feels like people look at him like Hitler, which brings him a great deal of discomfort and uneasiness, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old Chicago rapper was the headline act Saturday at England's Big Chill music festival, where he ranted in the middle of his set about being misunderstood and underappreciated.

Started his set roughly 30 minutes late, he apologized to the crowd for his tardiness, saying he needed to make sure his performance was great. West received light boos from the crowd as a result.

"I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I'm completely insane, like I'm Hitler," he said. "One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did."

The performer also defended the video for his song "Monster", which features cannibalism and girls hanging from their necks.

"Who saw the video before it got banned, before they took it down and before women's groups starting saying that a person that lost the most important woman in his life is now against women in some way?" asked West, referring to the 2007 death of his mother, Donda West.

The multiplatinum-seller is known for his outspokenness, most notably his dis toward Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where he grabbed the microphone from her as she accepted a prize to say Beyonce should have won it.

NASA: More evidence which suggests flow of water in Mars

Scientists have found evidence of flowing salt water on steep Martian slopes, which if confirmed would be the first discovery of active liquid water on the red planet, NASA has said.

The data gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given new focus to the hunt for life forms and scientists hope that in the coming years lab experiments and new space missions may shed more light on what they have seen.

The US space agency said the orbiter circling Mars since 2006 had monitored numerous instances of what appeared to be water flows occurring in several locations during the Martian spring and summer.

"We have found repeated and predictable evidence suggesting water flowing on Mars," Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration program, said

Time-sequence imagery of the Newton crater in the southern mid-latitude region showed finger-like markings spreading along several steep slopes and then fading again once colder temperatures move in.

"The best explanation we have for these observations so far is flow of briny water, although this study does not prove that," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

No liquid water has been found on Mars, though ice has been discovered at the poles. All life forms need water to survive, so the existence of a water source could point to a haven for primitive life

Frozen water has been detected in some of Mars's higher latitudes, and other evidence has suggested that water interacted with the Martian surface throughout the planet's history.

Visit the following link for more information:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro20110804.html