Steve Job has resigned as CEO of Apple

Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple)

Tim Cook & Steve Jobs

Timothy D.Cook (the new CEO of Apple)

Mr. Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant following pancreatic cancer, said he could no longer meet his chief executive's duties and expectations.The Silicon Valley legend will become chairman of the firm.The 56-year-old has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since 17 January.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come," he said in a brief letter announcing his resignation.

I will say to investors: don't panic and remain calm, it's the right thing to do. Steve will be chairman and Cook is CEO," said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.

"Investors are very comfortable with Tim Cook even though Jobs has been a driver of innovation and clearly an Apple success. Tim has shown Apple can still outperform extremely well when he's been acting as CEO," said Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross.

"I don't know if it's a health issue. I don't know if it is a shock. Most likely it was going to happen at some point. Why today versus another day? I don't know."

For more story go to the following links;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK2AArI4vh0&feature=relmfu

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-shares-pressure-Jobs-reuters-2020692681.html?x=0&.v=1

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Investors-undaunted-Apple-reuters-302541474.html?x=0&.v=1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14659127

Russians to open space hotel

Russians plan to open a space hotel in 5years to come. This will be the first space hotel in history. This space hotel is expected to be launched in 2016.

The hotel will float 250 miles above the earth and will be able to accommodate a maximum of seven people at a time. Tourists who want to check in will have to undergo special training that can take up to three months, depending on the type of spacecraft they fly to the hotel. The firm says that stays can range from three days to six months.

There is no much to do up there apart from watching TV and using the internet to communicate with the people on ground. I guess most of the tourists who will benefit more are those who will be going there for the sake of doing research.

Menus will be chosen before the clients are launched. Food is prepared on the ground and shipped to space, dehydrated." No impulsive late-night snacking then. There will be no shower, but you can clean yourself with wet wipes. Fun! You can't seek solace in alcohol either, because it’s banned on board.

There is no doubt that spending vacation on space will inspire travel stories like no other. This will be a new experience that most of the people would which it to happen to them. But the question is, will it be affordable? Russia's space hotel, or “Commercial Space Station” as it’s officially called, will be aimed at crazy-rich space tourists, as well as corporate and industrial researchers. In other words, not you.  

For more information visit the links below:

http://orbitaltechnologies.ru/

http://mashable.com/2011/08/18/commercial-space-station/

August 15, the Independence Day of India

Today India is celebrating its Independence Day. It was August 15 1947 when India got her Independence from the British. This was after the struggling for Independence for several years. The struggling for Independence was led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who is the father of India.

Visit the following links to see what is happening today in India:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/as-nation-celebrates-64-yrs-of-freedom-pm-vows-to-end-corruption/832115/

http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/cricket/3388-manmohan-singh-talks-economy-on-64th-independence-day.html

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article570829.ece

http://www.microfinancemonitor.com/2011/08/15/corruption-stalks-indias-65th-independence-day/

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C08%5C15%5Cstory_15-8-2011_pg7_18

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