Computers boost, not suppress, literacy

October 5th, 2009 LONDON - If the results of a new research are anything to go by, carbon nanotubes are able fertilizers that can boost germination in plants. According to a report in New Scientist, the research was carried out by plant biologist Mariya Khodakovskaya and nanotechnologist Alexandru Biris, both at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, US.

September 22nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Technology experts worldwide are finding it "almost impossible" to defeat the Conficker worm, which has infected more than 5 million computers and could even knock down the internet in all countries. The worm, which was first detected in November last year, spreads rapidly to computers through a flaw in the Windows operating system.

September 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - More and more discarded US computers are enjoying a lease of life in developing countries, says a comprehensive study. The findings may heighten growing concerns about environmental pollution with toxic metals that can result from dismantling and recycling computer components in developing countries.

July 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Fake Internet postcards circulated through electronic mails worldwide carry links to a deadly virus known as Zeus Bot, according to a new study. Gary Warner, computer forensics director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), who led the study, said, Zeus Bot has been named America's most pervasive computer virus, reportedly affecting some 3.6 million computers in the US.

July 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - What is being expected to prove the most powerful computer of its kind in the world became operational at the University of Florida this week. The supercomputer has been named by its designers 'Novo-G'.

July 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The world's fastest and most powerful supercomputer, named Novo-G, has become operational at the University of Florida. Novo-G gets the first part of its name from the Latin term for make anew, change, alter and the second from G for genesis.

July 23rd, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - By opting for the free and open software platform (FOSS) for the state-sponsored IT@School project, Kerala's General Education Department has saved Rs.11 crore. The project's Executive Director K.

July 9th, 2009 Diplomats still struggling with laptop lapsesWASHINGTON — Nearly a decade after a State Department laptop containing highly classified information disappeared in an embarrassing security lapse, the agency is still unable to account for all of its portable computers, a government report said Wednesday. The State Department's inspector general said Wednesday that a review of a sample of 334 laptops belonging to four departmental bureaus found that 27 were missing at the time of the audit and that 172, including nine of 14 classified laptops labeled "secret," were not protected with encryption software, potentially risking sensitive information.

June 19th, 2009 PENANG - Can the cellphone replace the blackboard? Not quite, but it is finding new uses in the classroom in pockets of Asia, says a new report. The latest and seventh volume of the "Digital Review of Asia Pacific', released at a function here, highlights the power of new communication technologies in the field of education.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has suggested that clearing the Amazon rainforest increases Brazilian communities' wealth and quality of life, but these improvements are short-lived, and the situation results to square one, in a 'boom and bust' situation. The study, by an international team including researchers at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, shows that levels of development revert back to well below national average levels when the loggers and land clearers move on.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Elderly people who exercise at least once a week, have at least a high school education and a ninth grade literacy level, are not smokers and are more socially active are more likely to maintain their cognitive skills through their 70s and 80s, according to a study. Alexandra Fiocco, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues followed 2,500 people age 70 to 79 for eight years, testing their cognitive skills several times over the years.

May 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Curcumin, the major ingredient in turmeric, appears to curb weight gain in mice and suppress the growth of fat tissue in mice and cell models. Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA-HNRCA) at Tufts University studied mice fed high fat diets supplemented with curcumin and cell cultures incubated with curcumin.

May 14th, 2009 Former agent gets probation for Hollywood wiretapsWASHINGTON — A former FBI agent has been sentenced to one year of probation for using the bureau's computers to dig up information on Hollywood executives involved in a prominent wiretapping case. The former agent, Mark Rossini, was not working on the wiretapping case against Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and was not authorized to look up the files.

May 9th, 2009 Obama won't harpoon whaling educationWASHINGTON — Is President Barack Obama afraid of facing down Moby Dick? In his budget proposal for 2010, Obama seeks several education cuts but spares a $9 million program to promote the history of whaling and trade in Massachusetts, which Captain Ahab departed from in search of the great white whale in Herman Melville's acclaimed novel. Museums in Alaska and Hawaii get some of the money, too, because of trading relationships that developed over two centuries of trade linking natives with coastal towns of Massachusetts.

May 8th, 2009 Whaling education spared budget harpoonWASHINGTON — Is President Barack Obama afraid of facing down Moby Dick? In his budget proposal for 2010, Obama seeks several education cuts but spares a $9 million program to promote the history of whaling and trade in Massachusetts, which Captain Ahab departed from in search of the great white whale in Herman Melville's acclaimed novel. Museums in Alaska and Hawaii get some of the money, too, because of trading relationships that developed over two centuries of trade linking natives with coastal towns of Massachusetts.